Finding himself surrounded by a dozen armed men, pointing their rifles at him, was not Shirou's idea of a good time.
Then again, it was him who had gone looking for trouble, as such he could hardly blame his luck because he had found it. Then again...
"Shirou, Shirou, Shirou," purred Karasuba. "Meeting again so soon. Did you already miss me?"
"There's nothing in this world that would make me miss you, Karasuba-san," he replied, while Akitsu beside him lowered the surrounding temperature to a bone-chilling degree.
Whether it was luck or just his own predisposition, things had a tendency to take a spin for the worse all on their own.
[br]
Previously, that same day.
An ordinary man would have found the reality living with an extraterrestrial alien quite surreal for a stretch of time better measured in months, if not years.
For the man who had entertained a passionate romantic relationship, however brief, with a time-traveling female King Arthur and helped her kill Herakles among other things, it only ranked a seven out of ten on the weirdness scale and it was slowly dropping.
The weirdest thing about Akitsu was her mannerism. Well, that and the fact that an alien looked like a stunningly beautiful human woman. He knew that anthropomorphism wasn't a rule when it came to aliens, if what he heard about Type Mars was anything to go by.
Then again, Types were not just mere aliens as much as the avatars of the Astral body they hailed from. In any event, the existence of the Sekirei species was a source of many questions for Emiya Shirou, spanning from biological to esoterical and everything in between.
Of course, all of that paled in comparison to what he wanted to know about MBI, which was a much more immediate concern. On that front, Akitsu was woefully useless.
The Sekirei of Ice knew very little about herself and her kind beyond what she overheard from others and figured out through experimentation. Spontaneous or otherwise.
Her knowledge of MBI, their means, reach and objectives were totally unknown to her, nor she seemed to care about finding out more beyond being able to answer Shirou's questions on the topic.
In fact, all that Akitsu ever did even when Shirou was home was hover silently behind his shoulder, waiting for him to give her an order. No, that wasn't correct either. She appeared to be plenty satisfied just being close to him
He understood that some of that was a Sekirei's nature, but most of it was Akitsu's own personality and the result of her own disability.
However, it was also frustrating.
The hidden surveillance from MBI, who surely had his eyes on him all the time, was bad enough without having someone watching his every move under his own roof. It crippled Shirou's ability to operate as he wished.
He couldn't set up his Workshop and he couldn't fiddle with the Boundary Field either.
He honestly wanted to help Akitsu, but he could not trust her with the knowledge of Magecraft, even if she herself was something that the Clock Tower would classify as under their jurisdiction.
Indeed, he wasn't as worried that the Sekirei or MBI found out about Magecraft since the power of the Sekirei already uncovered the supernatural to them.
He was afraid that the Clock Tower would find out. Such a wide breach in secrecy would have them up in arms in the blink of an eye and there was no telling how far they would go to seal it back up.
The body count would rank in the thousands, at best. Everyone even remotely tied to MBI would be purged. The Sekirei would be captured and experiment upon until they were all dead, either because they perished during experimentation or because they outlived their usefulness and became therefore a liability.
It was a catastrophe in the making no matter how he looked at it. Hence his first priority was preventing MBI from finding out that there were other parties in the world that could do similar feats to the Sekirei lest they went looking for them and, God forbid, found them.
And despite all this, he still had a mission to carry out.
The only silver lining was that money was no longer a primary concern. With the credit card given by MBI he didn't have to provide for himself or Akitsu. Of course he would still have to work. His job was his cover to move around undisturbed, if not totally unsupervised.
Therein laid another problem. He could no longer go wherever he pleased. There was no chance that MBI would let him out of the area under their absolute control. They said that he wasn't allowed out of the city, but Shin-Teito was part of an uninterrupted urban area of over three thousand square kilometers.
How much of it could they really control? Beyond which point he wouldn't be allowed to go? He'd rather not have to figure out the moment he actually needed to cross that bridge, physical or metaphorical as it may be.
Hence, he had a new objective. Finding out how long it was the leash that MBI had put around his neck. Therefore, around midnight, he prepared for a trip.
"Akitsu, I'm going out. Do you want to come along?"
"Of course, Shirou-sama," the Sekirei replied.
He didn't expect any different, but without knowing where the nature of a Sekirei ended and the personality of Akitsu began, Shirou decided to word his wishes as questions every time, if the situation allowed for it.
Also, it was the polite thing to do. Sekirei did not necessarily share human courtesy, but that did not exempt him from it as well.
They both climbed in his banged-up van and left that warehouse that served as their living place. At that hour of the night, car traffic was almost non-existent, which suited Shirou just fine. Less people would get caught into any trouble that might arise.
"You don't want to know where we are going?" he asked, after they had been traveling for some time.
"Only if you wish me to know. I will follow you anywhere."
Yes, that was what Shirou feared she would say.
"I'm trying to figure out how far from MBI's headquarter we can go before they start thinking we're trying to run away. If anything happens, please follow my lead."
"Yes, Shirou-sama," Akitsu agreed and they both fell into silence. It wasn't of the uncomfortable sort, however. Shirou didn't really feel like talking most of the time, so he was glad that Akitsu did not ask questions, even though that meant he needed to take a more active role to teach her about anything.
Well, one problem at a time.
They traveled undisturbed for a couple of hours, but Shirou knew that he was treading upon forbidden grounds when he started hearing the distant sounds of choppers flying overhead. He started hearing them long before he nearly lost his sight to the blinding searchlights that were turned on in his face from on top the black humvees that blocked the street.
Shirou stomped on the brakes hard enough to make the rear tires of his van briefly lift from the asphalt, which them slammed back down with a crash of loose metals. More repairs to be made, no doubt, but certainly less than what would have been necessary if he had hit the blockade.
The men for MBI security forces stepped out from both sides of the road and surrounded his vehicle, cutting off all paths of retreat.
"Shirou-sama, what do you wish me to do?" asked Akitsu. The air around her was already freezing.
"There's nothing to be worried about," he said. "This is pretty much what I expected would happen. Still, be ready to fight when I tell you and only when I tell you."
"Come out of the car! Hands in the air," a rough male voice said from the loudspeakers.
"For now, let's just do as we are told."
They got off the van, holding their hands well above their heads. He wasn't afraid of these people. From what he had seen of her powers, Akitsu could snap-freeze all of them at the same time before they could even think of pulling the trigger.
What worried him was the bloodied presence hanging out next to the humvees hidden by the intense lights. However, he didn't have to wait long before she made herself known.
"Shirou, Shirou, Shirou," purred Karasuba as she stepped into view. "Meeting again so soon. Did you already miss me?"
Shirou smiled. "There's nothing in this world that would make me miss you, Karasuba-san," he replied, while Akitsu beside him lowered the surrounding temperature to a bone-chilling degree. The men around them clutched their weapons a little tighter. They knew what they were up against.
"Akitsu," he warned. "Remember what I said."
"Yes, Master," she replied, letting go of the energy she was gathering.
Karasuba's grin soured, however slightly. Clearly she was hoping they would put up a fight.
"I thought you understood you aren't allowed to leave the city," she told him.
"Good thing I wasn't, then."
"Oh? You could have fooled me there," she said, not at all convinced. "Where were you lovebirds going at this hour of the night, hm?"
"We were poking at your perimeter, of course," he admitted.
"It's the same thing running away, and I will take that statement as an admission of guilt," she told him, pushing out with her thumb the sword that hung at her waist.
"I don't see why you should," he told her, unimpressed with her blatant threat.
"Why else would you want to know our perimeter if you didn't intend to breach it at some point?"
"Well, for one thing. I wouldn't want to accidentally cross it. Also I could use MBI's response to a breach to kill an enemy party on my behalf."
Karasuba scoffed. "How would you even do something like that?"
"It's rather easy. I just need to hire someone unscrupulous enough to kidnap a loved one of any enemy Ashikabi and force them go to their rescue with their Sekirei. That would force you to intervene, wouldn't it?"
"It's convoluted. If you took an hostage, you could simply ask for their surrender."
"That could put me in a tight spot with the other teams. Instead, if MBI did the dirty work it would be difficult to prove my part in it. Besides, there is the added benefit that they might take you down with them, however improbable."
"You are a devious little bastard, aren't you?" she asked rhetorically.
"I'm just a weak human that has to survive somehow, caught in a fight between superhuman aliens and under the watch of a financial and technological superpower. Plus I'll take any chance I can get to weaken your position and strengthen my own, since you have wanted to kill me from the moment we've met. "
"Oh? Does it show?"
"It's all over your face," he told her bluntly. "You are just hoping for me to give you an excuse."
"Who says you don't already have?"
"Because we are still talking while your hand is itching."
Karasuba looked down, at the hand resting on her sword. It was perfectly relaxed, but she shouldn't have needed to look to know. Her reaction proved his statement and when she looked back up at him, her smile was a lot more strained.
"You fancy yourself to be quite clever, don't you?"
"I can't take credit for how easy to read you are, Karasuba-san. If you want to manipulate other people into walking into a trap, you should just stop being that obvious about it."
Around them, the men from MBI private security looked at each other in what could be best described as disbelief mixed with horror. No doubt, they all thought Shirou was crazy.
Shirou himself wondered if he was. He was taking a huge gambit here, but he had not expected for Karasuba to show up in person. She wasn't just out for blood in general terms. She wanted his blood specifically and Shirou couldn't figure out a single reason why she would.
There was more going on about his newfound position as Akitsu's Master that he knew about so he poked at Karasuba to gather a few hints. She had made a mistake bringing her sword where he could see it. He had assimilated its history at a glance and knew precisely what he could expect from the Black Sekirei.
She was a fearsome creature in both power and skills, but Shirou was confident that he could dodge her first strike, even at point-blank, if only because he knew where it would come from.
Besides, he didn't think he could do or say something that would make Karasuba want to kill him more than she already did. He didn't know what he had done to warrant this amount of enmity from the alien, but it was obvious that she was holding herself back, and not because she wanted to.
All he had managed to achieve by aggravating her so, was to make her crack open her sharp eyes, and examine him with a gaze that was both searching and murderous. It was a different experience even for the likes of him.
"Well, if that will be all, I got what I came here for, so I'll be taking my leave. I got to work in the morning. Akitsu, let's go back."
"Yes, Master!"
He turned his back to Karasuba. He was not afraid she would strike him in the back. This was a creature that wanted to see the light fade from the eyes of her victims, so he didn't flinch even when she provoked him with the sound of her sword inching out of its sheath a little more.
"Bring my regards to Sahashi-san," he told her as he climbed back into his van.
Karasuba did not answer. She just looked at him like she was clearly picturing in her mind the many ways in which she could dismember him. However, she didn't do anything and neither did her subordinates. Not even when he turned on the engine and slowly backed away, turning around and driving back to whence he came, proving even more that they hadn't been sent to kill them, but just push them back.
When he was far enough from the scene, Shirou allowed himself to let out a tense breath.
He knew that there was a component of risk to this plan, but he had clearly underestimated how much. This wasn't MBI's ordinary response to a perimeter breach from what he could gather. No doubt, if a Sekirei was trying to leave, they would send another one to stop them, but unless he had a stroke of extremely bad luck, which was not unheard of, running into Karasuba was no coincidence at all.
She was out to get him, which was a terrifying notion in and of itself, but that wasn't anything new for him. He had other, insanely powerful entities wanting him dead in the past, but to all of those, he could assign a motive which in turn made him able to predict them to a degree.
Not here and not now.
What was he missing? How did he step on Karasuba's toes? Was it even something he had done, or was just the result of his admittance to the MBI's Game despite not meeting the criteria of being an Ashikabi?
For one question he had managed to answer, he had dozen more crop up in turn. Even he wouldn't call that a success by any stretch of the imagination.
[br]
They made it back to the warehouse without trouble. Shirou understood that there was no need to follow them, specifically. In a country like Japan, surveillance could be done strictly remotely. Modern cameras were small enough that they could be easily hidden and nearly impossible to find.
Shirou was confident that his place was clean, because he had warded it as soon as he moved in and long before he met Akitsu and thus painted a target on his back. However, he still made a point to check thoroughly for bugs whenever he left the building unattended.
Maybe the Sekirei couldn't detect his Boundary Field and circumvent it, or maybe they could. Shirou was no longer the type to take chances when he could afford not to. However, even with Akitsu's help, when they were done inspecting the place it was already time for Shirou to head to work.
Sleep was overrated, anyway, although the bags under his eyes might have told a different story.
"I'm going to work, Akitsu," he told her. "Wait for me here and give me a call if anything happens."
"Yes, Shirou-sama," Akitsu replied.
That was almost the only thing she ever said. If Shirou didn't know any better, he would have thought those were the only words she knew.
He would have liked to know what was going on in that pretty head of hers all the time, but he felt like asking would be rude. Also, he wouldn't want to answer any personal question she might have had in turn, therefore it was better leaving the topic alone altogether.
He left the building and headed to the construction site, where he joined his coworkers.
Most of the morning went by as usual until lunch break rolled in.
Alone in a corner of the scaffolding, high above the ground, Shirou sat with his legs dangling out into the void. He quietly ate his store-bought meal while he looked over the waste expanse of Shin-Teito.
Somewhere, out there, over a hundred Sekirei were out looking for their Ashikabi to participate in a battle royale with a dubious prize at stake. The knowledge that he could do nothing to prevent this soured the taste of his lunch. Actually that might have been an improvement since it tasted fairly bland.
'Either that or I'm losing my sense of taste.'
It was something he had to keep in mind. The darkening of his skin and the premature whitening of his hair were the most evident result of his abuse of Magecraft, but there were certainly others far harder to spot
It was hard to tell with any certainty. He felt numb to most thing and he didn't know how much of the issue was physical and how much it was psychological. That he did not really care to find out hinted towards the latter, but it was an hollow bit of self-acknowledgment, almost as if it was someone else's problem.
Actually, if that had been the case he might have actually cared.
As it were, he couldn't be bothered thinking about it too much. He finished his meal even though he was no longer hungry, simply because he rationally knew that his body needed the energy to function.
He was standing up when something slammed against his back and nearly sent him flying over the edge.
"Yo, Rookie!"
"Wha-! Seo-san! Be careful!" he shouted. If he hadn't grabbed the scaffolding, he might have fallen to his death.
"Hahaha! Sorry about that, squirt. My hand slipped."
Squirt. No one had ever called Shirou something remotely close to that. Especially not in recent years. After high school, he had hit a growth spurt and he started filling out more and now stood literally heads and shoulders above the average person.
However, Seo was a little bit taller than him and he didn't cut any less of an imposing figure, although he had a cheerful personality that made him appear a lot more approachable than Shirou.
"Are you well?" he asked after he recomposed himself
"Hm? Oh, yeah. It was... just... some dehydration, yes. Gotta stop chugging beers before coming in for work. Hahaha!"
"Drinking in the morning? That can't be good for your health."
"Ah. Not you too. My S… my girlfriend gives me a hard time about that already. I'm fine."
"You would know better than I do. Just be careful alright, alright? If you get dizzy on the site you might end up hurting yourself and others. … What? Is there something on my face?" he asked, seeing a weird expression on Seo's face.
"Uh? No, just… I heard that you only moved recently in town, but I could swear I met you somewhere before."
"I've never been in Shin-Teito before I moved, but I did travel the world quite a bit so anything's possible. I don't think so though. I would remember you."
"Yeah… I guess I stand out a little bit."
"That you do," he agreed, though probably not for the reason the Seo was thinking. Such a boisterous man wouldn't go unnoticed. Plus, Shirou had no sense of familiarity whatsoever with him.
"So, anyway. Me and the rest of the crew are going out drinking after our shift. Come along."
"Ah… I'm afraid I'll have to refuse. There's someone waiting for me. Sorry."
"Oh, you have a pretty missus waiting for you at home, eh?" Seo asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
"That's… that's way to put it, I guess."
"HA! Well, I can't blame you, then. Still, consider yourself booked tomorrow night. I don't want to hear any excuses."
Shirou snorted. Going out drinking wasn't anywhere close to being a priority. However, if he wanted to create himself a cover, he needed to blend in. There was no reason for him to stand out more than he already did.
"Sure. As long as I don't have to carry you back home once we're done."
"That a challenge, squirt? I can drink you under the table any day of the week."
"I believe you and I don't intend to compete, but you strike me as the kind of person who drinks until he's got to ask directions to his own place. No offense."
"That's… Yeah, you got me," Seo admitted with a nod, though he didn't look ashamed about it in the least. "What can I say? I love my booze."
"SEO! EMIYA! LUNCH BREAK'S OVER. DRAG YOUR ASSES BACK TO WORK!"
"I believe that's our cue," said Shirou.
"That guy is such a hardass," lamented Seo.
"Come on. Let's go back to work before he starts shouting at us again."
With that, they both went back to their own tasks.
[br]
When he arrived home later that evening, Akitsu was waiting for him, standing in the same spot where he had left her that morning.
He was almost afraid to ask.
"Akitsu did you… did you not move at all from that spot the entire day?"
"Yes," she replied, seemingly proud, an expression that quickly changed in one of dismay as she saw the look on Shirou's one face.
Shirou sighed and rubbed his face.
"Alright. My bad. When I said to wait here, I didn't mean in that literally spot. Actually, let's do it this way. Unless I expressly tell you that it's an order, consider anything I say as more of a suggestion which you are free to follow or not as you prefer. Is that,?"
"Yes, Shirou-sama."
"Good. Now, I'm getting some rest. I want to go out and see if we can run across any other Sekirei. If there's any fighting going on, it probably going to happen at night. Do you also need to sleep, or staying awake two days in a row doesn't tire you like it does for humans?"
"Ah. I would like to sleep as well," she confirmed, and at the same time her stomach let out a loud groan.
"And I suppose you didn't eat anything either, so let's put something in your stomach while we're at it. Please take care of yourself, Akitsu. If we're going to be partners, I need to know that you can do at least that much."
"I… I will, Shirou-sama," she replied, looking embarrassed for being chastised.
Shirou shook his head. Raising Akitsu to be a self-reliant person would probably be an ordeal in and of itself.
If anyone ever told him that one day he'd have to teach an alien the basis of caring for oneself, he'd have taken them forcibly to a hospital to have their brains checked. It just went to show that there were still many things in the world that would leave him grasping at straws.
He was more than willing to bet it wasn't a good thing.
He would be right.
[XXX]