EDIT: & is a weird symbol that we've started using. Did you know there are many ways to write "and"? Beyond &, you can also use a three with a small vertical line above and below to indicate the same thing. It's useful to know because drawing the ampersand is a little hard to get right.


SMALL UPDATE: I have a strawpoll that has a few options of ideas which are rolling around in my mind. Would appreciate it if you all went and voted so I could see what the people might want from me.

www .strawpoll .me/18129592


Howdy, everyone! Alright, alright. I know I said writing was coming easier, but it is - trust me. While it might not seem like it with the delay, it was because much of my time was occupied with various such and such. When I could write, I got a lot done!

That was all I had to say. Quick shoutout to RandomCraziness for the500th follow! That's a real milestone in this fic, hope you all can find happiness in other's enjoyment, as I do.

Remember to thank my beta, Talndir! He's been with me through thick and thin across twelve whole chapters now.


Shirou let out a great sigh, pausing to sit on a chair for a brief rest. Letting the mop in his hand rest upon one shoulder, he tried to will away the heat in his core. Before he even noticed another presence nearby, a cup of ice water was thrust into view.

"I appreciate you coming in, Emiyan, but you really shouldn't work so hard." Following the glass back to its holder, he found the warm face of his boss, Neko.

He broke into a smile, accepting the water and taking a sip to calm his warm body. "Don't worry about it. You were short-handed and I was free."

Neko made a noise of astonishment. "Just because I was short and you were open doesn't mean you should leap at the chance to take on the work of five people."

He shrugged. He enjoyed being able to help out wherever he could, so a situation like this was actually welcomed. "Someone had to do it, might as well have been me."

Sighing, Neko took a few steps back to settle against the bar counter. "Well, at least Taiga isn't wearing off on you. Keep away from that woman, Emiyan. She's bad business in all senses of the word. Have I ever told you about the time she was so drunk that she danced on top of the counter?"

Shirou retained his smile, bringing the glass near to his lips. "Only every other time Taiga is brought up."

Neko's lip quivered. "In that case, I must sound like a broken record." Reaching over the counter, the woman picked up a blank white envelope with his name - or rather, his nickname - handwritten on the face. Thrusting it in his direction, Shirou couldn't help but trace the contents. Inside was a hefty sum, sixty thousand yen to be precise. The gesture had come out of nowhere and he couldn't help but stumble over its sporadic nature.

He set his glass on a nearby table, standing only to gently push the envelope back toward the woman. "I appreciate it, but I don't really need the money. I'd prefer if you kept it."

The statement seemed to confuse Neko and her face split to match her emotion. "If you don't need the money, then why do you even come to work?"

Smiling a little wider, he turned and grabbed onto his coat. "It's just something I like doing."

… … …

The winter in Fuyuki that year was uncommonly hellish. It featured record amounts of snow and temperatures that blew historical temperatures out of the water. Shirou had to upgrade his coat twice and even with the heaviest one he could find, he still got a chill walking from work and home.

Yanking the collar around his neck to preserve some warmth, Shirou closed the door to the Copenhagen and turned to face the direction of his home. It was snowing again, and the cold moonless night brought on an icy fog.

The smell of a winter's night was always so inhospitable. With spring, summer and fall, the gentle fresh scents of nature could easily be detected. With winter, the only smell was cold. It was undoubtedly his most disliked season.

Trudging through the freshly laden snow on the sidewalk, he retraced the familiar path back home. He was supposed to make nabemono when he returned and if he kept Illya waiting any longer, he would be tied down to the house and forced into cooking for them more than he already was.

Normally Missy would take after him in the kitchen when he couldn't be there due to work, but lately she had been leaving with Kiritsugu for extended periods of time. Try as he might, the old man wouldn't tell him why. Instead, he merely passed it off as something that needed to be done.

Shirou stuffed both hands into the pockets of his coat, shivering as the outside air got to him. A thought regarding Illya brought a brief laugh to his mouth. No matter how often others around her complained about the weather, she constantly passed it off as "not that cold" and "nowhere near as bad as Germany". It was cute how a girl as white as the snow could find such enjoyment in the stuff.

A gust of wind blew flecks of snow into his face and caught the edges of his scarf, sending the ends flapping behind his back. Ducking his head down to keep the wind off his face, he stumbled over a hard patch of snow.

With his head down, he didn't see the small woman walking toward him and his stumbling gait sent him slamming into her. His weight and size sent her onto her back though she didn't make noise despite the obvious painful motion. Apologizing for his clumsiness, Shirou extended a hand to help her up, lifting the feather-weight girl back onto her feet with ease. She was clad in a large navy blue dress that extended down to her ankles. It was made of heavy material and was accented by something in white beneath. It was vaguely familiar, but it was something he had probably caught on television rather than in person.

She was coated in fresh, wet snow from head to toe and Shirou could only imagine that she was freezing. A beret-like navy hat sat crooked over her light gray hair. Her head was pointed in his direction, but it refused to look upward, leaving her golden eyes staring at his abdomen. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention," she spoke, voice hardly audible over the wind.

"No it's my fault, I should have been watching ahead of myself," Shirou awkwardly laughed, curious as to why the girl neglected to brush herself off. She looked quite young, but after living with a girl who was older than him with the appearance of a thirteen-year-old, his abilities at age estimation were distorted. A quick trace revealed that her appearance didn't lie. She was twelve years old. So then what was she doing all alone in the middle of a snowstorm? The trace also showed that she was in surprisingly good shape but that was hardly the most astounding feature.

The girl was covered in bandages. More than half of her entire body was wrapped tightly in cloth bandages like a mummy. The discovery made his mind stumble, but it hardly mattered because the girl said nothing in response. She remained stock still ahead of him like her body had shut down. He realized it wasn't the case when she shuffled in place and lifted her head partly, revealing a bright red nose and cheeks to match. "Do you know the way back to Fuyuki Church? I think I'm lost."

Shirou gaped. Fuyuki Church was over an hour's walk away. "A little lost" was an understatement, though, with the blizzard-like conditions and her age, it wasn't much of a surprise. Shirou turned his gape to a smile so that the girl wouldn't adopt his concern. "You're pretty far away, in the middle of Miyama actually." The girl's already pale face turned a few shades whiter. "But don't worry, this storm should end soon!" To try and break the tension, he looked toward his right through the window of a nearby shop.

Behind the glass were television screens tuned to the news. It just so happened to be showcasing the weather and near the bottom in bright, flashing red were the words: "Severe storm likely to continue for the next few days".

Turning back to the girl, he watched her turn back as well. So she had seen the exact same thing he did. Deciding not to lie, he told her outright. "I don't think you'll be able to make it back to the church today." The girl shivered, reinforcing his point. "Did you lose your guardian?" The girl shook her head. So she was really alone? All the more reason for him to help out. "I think it might be best if you waited out this storm somewhere warm and tried to make your way back tomorrow morning. Is there anywhere nearby you can stay?"

The girl shook her head, looking up at his eyes with an eerily hollow look. It reminded him of something, but he couldn't quite place it for sure. "My only home is the church."

Shirou squinted as a gust of wind blew snow into his face. So Kiritsugu had really done it then. This was the girl who replaced Risei? Looking behind the girl in the direction of the church, he spotted nothing but thick white fog between steadily falling snow. Suddenly kneeling down to her level, he looked her over for a moment. "I'm Shirou Emiya, what's your name?"

The girl flinched visibly, hesitating for a moment. "Caren Hortensia."

He smiled softly. "I know I'm just a stranger to you and this might sound rude, but would you like to stay at my house? We've got plenty of room and you'll have a warm bed to sleep in for tonight." He omitted the part in his mind that hoped it would actually be over by then.

The girl shook her head. "I couldn't-"

Scowling at her stubbornness, a minor part of his mind told him that she wasn't worth the time. "Well, I don't want you to freeze. If you don't want to stay at my place, I'll follow you to make sure you get somewhere safe, is that alright?"

There was a moment of hesitation from the girl that included a harsh shiver. A trace allowed him to watch her body's temperature decrease by a decimal. Another gust of wind sent her teetering forward, brushing some of the clinging snow from her robes at the very least. Shutting her eyes tight, he watched the girl suck in a deep breath. "Please allow me to stay in your home."

… … …

… … …

The past months had been a whirlwind of events. Two weeks after Shirou's return from the Clock Tower, Bazett had cancelled her contract with Kiritsugu. She never fully explained her reasoning, but Kiritsugu had allowed her to go without worry regardless.

Without his sparring partner, Shirou was on a desperate search for someone near the enforcer's ability, something hard to find in a normal person. Reikan, Issei's older brother, had martial arts experience, but his knowledge was focused on form and tradition, things Shirou cared little about.

According to Issei, the new social studies teacher, Souichirou Kuzuki, had been able to best Reikan with ease, but Shirou had yet to even see the man in person.

Another startling development had to do with Sakura. Shortly after Bazett left, Sakura decided to take her place. It was concerning to Shirou that a girl his age who was unrelated to him was sleeping in the same house, but after considering the fact that it would get her out of the Matou mansion, he felt marginally better.

It had happened with consent, but not Shirou's. Kiritsugu had been the main driving force, practically forcing her to accept his hospitality and going so far as to help her move in. Decisions and actions like that made Shirou wonder how much was going on behind his back. Rin hadn't been happy about the discovery either, but when Sakura mumbled something about a kiss, the Tohsaka clammed up.

At the very least, Sakura hadn't fully moved in. She had moved a considerable amount of personal items into one of the large western-styled rooms but she still had to return to the Matou manor at least twice a week. Today had been one of those days, though if the storm held up throughout tomorrow, it would be unlikely for her to visit.

Stepping inside his home, Caren followed behind and calmly removed her out of place rugged lace-up boots. She was shivering sporadically at this point. The fifteen-minute trek through the snow while wet likely had not done her any favours.

Watching her as he removed his own outdoor clothing, he stepped up from the genkan and motioned further into the house. "Let me show you the bathroom, you can change out of those wet clothes and take a hot bath."

"You have a large house," she stated blandly. It was more an acknowledgement of a fact than something of wonderment. "I like it."

The sound of heavy footsteps at the end of the hall was all the warning he got before a very enraged looking Taiga came into view. "Shirou, where hav-" Her outburst abruptly stopped as her eyes landed on the dripping wet, miniature priestess standing at his side. There was an ominous glint in the teachers' eyes and Shirou could already see what she was thinking. "This is why you're so late?"

"Taiga, it's not what i-"

"The minute Kiritsugu is out on business, you bring irresistible underage girls to the house." Spreading her legs into a wide stance, she flamboyantly pointed an accusing finger in his direction. "Shame on you Shirou! It's a good thing this snowstorm trapped me here otherwise I wouldn't be able to witness your sins!"

Rolling his eyes, he glowered at Taiga with deadly seriousness. "I'm helping her, she got lost in the blizzard."

Before Taiga could open her mouth, the girl stood up for herself. "He's telling the truth. I wasn't paying attention to the weather and got caught in the storm. I hope I won't be a burden on you and your son if I stay overnight." The girl bowed formally, dripping water onto the floor.

Shirou rapidly smacked the top of his head. "Why did you call me her son?" he groaned.

Taiga, on the other hand, had gained a thousand-yard stare, mouth parted and body going partly limp. "If I were Shirou's mother, I'd be Kiritsugu's wife," she murmured dreamily, smiling like a woman possessed.

Looking between Taiga and Shirou, Caren seemed confused. "Have I done something wrong?"

Shirou shook his head. It wasn't her fault that every woman in his life was insane. "No, you haven't, but let's move past while she's distracted."

Striding down the hall, he motioned for her to follow. After leading her to the bathroom, he closed the door and breathed out a sigh. "What's this I hear about an irresistible underage girl?" From his left came the eerily chipper voice of his sister.

He turned to face Illya with a glare. "Don't go making any assumptions. I'm just helping her out, she'll be staying in her own separate bedroom for as long as this storm lasts, nothing more."

Illya blinked before smirking wildly. "I wasn't making any assumptions, you already have girls hanging off you at every moment, why would you need another?"

"That's exactly rig- Hey!"

The girl giggled, span around on her heel and gave the still frozen Taiga an off look before prancing back to the kitchen. "Start dinner soon, everyone is really hungry!"

… … …

After her time in the bathroom, Caren quietly shuffled into the dining room, likely attracted by the enticing scent of Shirou's cooking. Since all of the prep work had been done that morning, it was merely a matter of creating a broth and moving everything to the table. In under an hour, everyone was enjoying the dish and the reserved priestess had come out of her shell, albeit only to devour more food. For a girl that was so small, she ate nearly as much as Taiga, which was a feat to be sure. Just as usual, when the pace of eating slowed, conversation took its place.

Taiga peered down at the priestess with a warm smile. She was wearing one of Illya's yukata, a lavishly decorated bright pink one that fit her surprisingly well. Her pale gray hair had been tied up by Illya to keep the wet ends from landing on the robe. "So what might your name be? Shirou doesn't have the manners to introduce us."

With his mouth full of duck and greens, he wasn't in a place to argue. Taiga had risen a good point at least. In his rush to be accommodating and make dinner, he had forgotten to introduce everyone. The girl introduced herself in the same shy fashion that she had on the street, getting a noise of adoration from the teacher. "What a cute name!" She paused, then pouted like a child. "But I've never heard of it before and I know all the students in Fuyuki."

"I'm not in school," came the girl's simple explanation. "I'm undertaking a homeschooling program."

Taiga's pout grew in intensity. "But that means I won't get to teach you important life skills like-"

"How some sharks die if they stop swimming?" Shirou interrupted dryly.

"Or that it takes twenty-three minutes, forty-nine and a half seconds to get from your house to the school?" Illya continued.

The Emiya snorted, smirking as they made their teacher look worse by the minute. "What about how the vending machine in the school gives you a discount if you use only quarters?"

Looking down, the teacher very quietly claimed that those were all important skills. With a laugh, Shirou finished what remained in his bowl, finishing last as always. He stood slowly and gently began tidying up the table.

For the first time in his entire life, Illya stood beside him and helped. The act was so unnatural that it had caught him entirely by surprise and his brain needed a moment to reboot.

Assuming that she was finally taking on a sense of responsibility, he couldn't help but smile and he lovingly patted the top of her head. "Thanks, Illya. I could use some help washing dishes too."

He had expected a no, but the girl nodded underneath his hand. "Sure thing, thank you for cooking tonight." The girl carried a load of dishes over to the kitchen, leaving behind an astonished Shirou who was contemplating whether he was in the same dimension or not.

… … …

… … …

Staring at the ceiling, the only sound that reached him was the wind battering the house outside and the soft, rhythmic breathing of a sleeping homunculus.

He had woken up in the middle of the night again, something that he had grown used to with how frequently it occurred. He had a dream, but it was another infuriating one where the memories of it and the previous dreams faded away like water down a drain.

Turning his head, Illya's sleeping face came into view. Ever since the night he had come home after fighting the freelancers, she had slept right beside him in his own room. The thought of sleeping with a girl in the same room as him had always been concerning, more so when the beds were tucked together. But Illya was family, so the thought wasn't as disturbing, though there were moments when-

Turning his head to face the ceiling, he took a deep breath. Being a teenager put all sorts of disturbing thoughts in his mind. His mind grossed himself out at times, he could only imagine what others would think if he let those thoughts be known.

Opening his eyes and letting out a sigh, his mind emptied and the gentle breathing from beside him returned to the forefront of his mind. It had been months ago, but the memories of the Clock Tower still came back to haunt him on occasion. Magi looking at him as if he were the Grim Reaper, Kain begging for his life in the tournament and his brutal murder of Kiera.

Maybe he really was a monster.

But at least he would protect the ones close to him.

Sitting upright in bed slowly, he glimpsed inside his own mind for the most familiar part of himself. Whispering "trace on" to the darkness, the hammer of a gun fired off in his mind and he began whispering his full tracing aria. Normally he could forgo the process of chanting all seven lines of his tracing process, but for this projection he needed the longevity, he needed it to last long enough to make a difference.

Within a minute, Shirou opened his eyes to the gently gleaming sheath of Excalibur, Avalon, resting in his hands. Tracing its construction and comparing it to the original embedded within his body, he couldn't find a single difference. Even Gaia seemed to have a hard time differentiating between them.

After watching his projections dematerialize naturally through the force of Gaia, Shirou could accurately determine a "percentage of life remaining" for each of his projections. Normally, something incredibly rare like Avalon began degrading rapidly at the rate of one percent every ten minutes. With his full aria refining the process, it had been extended to one percent every half hour.

The only downside was that it had chewed through a little over half his available mana for a single copy. It was fine, he could regenerate what was lost with time so long as the sheath worked as he wanted it to.

Shuffling beneath the covers of his futon, he faced Illya and gently brought the sheath to her chest. When it did nothing, he tried an application of mana to the craft, marvelling as it seemed to phase inside of her form, becoming undetectable to the eye.

Running a trace of her to make sure it had worked, he found the sheath within immediately. While he wasn't able to tell if it was halting the degradation of her organs yet, he silently hoped that it would.

Shuffling in his futon to lie back down, he returned to staring at the ceiling. He wasn't a complete monster, just a monster to some - just like his old man.

… … …

… … …

In the midst of a yawn, Shirou flipped over the two pieces of bread in his pan, revealing the well-toasted side. Reaching toward a bag on his right, he retrieved a pinch of sugar and sprinkled the revealed sides.

The door behind him slid open and gentle patter of feet on tatami alerted him to someone entering the dining room. Without looking over his shoulder, he assumed it to be Illya. The impact on the floor matched her weight anyway. "Did I wake you, Illya? Sorry if I did, I'll have breakfast ready in a minute alright?"

There was silence, though he hadn't fully expected a response. Illya was like Rin in that they both hated mornings, though the homunculus certainly handled it better than the Tohsaka. Prying up the edge of a piece of toast on his pan to check on its crust, he continued his one-sided conversation. "I decided to make french toast this morning. We had everything we needed and I wanted to make something to thank you for helping out last night."

More silence, though he heard her settle down onto a zabuton at the table so she was definitely listening. Deciding she was just tired, he focused on the task at hand. Plating the toast before sprinkling it with one more pinch of sugar. Using slices of strawberries and bananas for garnish, he delicately applied syrup to the surface and marvelled at his own work.

Turning around, he found a white-haired girl, but not the one he expected. Seated at the table, watching him with golden eyes was the priestess, Caren.

Blinking, he realized his mistake in slow motion."Sorry, I thought you were Illya." Looking down at the plate in his hands, he realized that it would be too rude to keep the food away from her. Besides, he had enough to make another serving anyway. "Were you hungry? You can have this if you'd like," he offered with a smile.

The girl looked at him strangely before hesitantly nodding her head. From their interactions, he could tell that she was a very reserved, quiet girl. Naive and innocent, but what young priestess wouldn't be?

He settled the plate in front of her, supplying a fork and knife as chopsticks wouldn't be appropriate for handling the dish. The girl seemed slow to begin, but after taking her first bite the taste spurred her motions.

It was a little odd that she was maintaining the Church alone though. How could someone that young hold sermons and be expected to-

"Good morning Shirou!"

Turning around with some shock, he met an incredibly chipper Illya who was beaming a smile at him despite the fact that it was eight-thirty in the morning. "Good morning to you, what's got you so energized today?"

The girl shrugged, plodding over until she was seated beside Caren on another zabuton. "I just feel great is all. It must be your cooking, which you make every day."

Scrunching his brow at the strange inflection, he elected to pass it over for now. "If you give me a minute I'll make some french toast of your own." The girl nodded ecstatically, and while Shirou returned to the kitchen, he repeated what he had told Caren - this time to the correct person.

Within ten minutes, he had another serving plated which he quickly deposited in front of the crimson-eyed girl. Unlike Caren, Illya quickly began devouring the food ahead, already aware that it would be delicious. Pausing only to trace the girl, Shirou couldn't help but smirk as the signature of Avalon came to his mind. It was still at eighty percent after a whole night of rest. Now it was only a matter of time to see if the sheath would be enough to keep her organs from failing.

Returning to his stove, Shirou started prep on another serving. Taiga hadn't left last night on account of the weather. Even though she lived less than four blocks away, she claimed that the snow would be too much to handle, so she ended up staying over. His best guess on her true intentions was that she was waiting for Kiritsugu to come home. He and Missy were supposed to be back yesterday, but with the weather as it was, it didn't come as a surprise that they couldn't make it.

If they weren't back by tomorrow he would give the old man a call and find out where they ended up. Depositing an egg-soaked slice of bread in the pan, he wondered what Taiga was up to. She had caught him during his exercises earlier in the morning and had told him school was cancelled and that she was "stranded".

As if beckoned by his thoughts, the optimistic teacher strode into the open dining room, shouting a bright good morning out before anyone could prepare themselves. "Shirou, are you making food for everyone but me again?"

Shirou could only smirk. He knew her too well.

It was shortly after breakfast when the snow finally stopped. There was a little over six inches deposited over the past day, which had effectively stopped all of Fuyuki. Once the snow had stopped, the city began rolling out trucks borrowed from the northern regions to clear the roads. Around lunchtime, traffic was moving again, albeit slowly. Caren decided to take off then, deeming it safe enough to return to the Church. Taiga remained, waiting another three hours before Kiritsugu and Missy finally returned.

Their flight had been delayed on account of the weather but they had skipped the cloud cover entirely by landing at another airport. Then they simply drove to Fuyuki, but even then it had been slow going on account of the snow.

They had made it after all, and Taiga had given Missy an intense glare before stealing Kiritsugu away by chatting his ear off. The soft-spoken woman claimed that she was exhausted from the flight and retired to her bedroom before Shirou could ask a single question.

Her story was convincing enough. She looked pale, her eyes were heavy and half-lidded and her smile seemed much more forced than usual. It would make sense that a trip from wherever the two had been would make her tired, and the strenuous car ride across snowy roads likely hadn't done her any favours.

But the trace amounts of blood staining her hands and the still healing wound in the side of her abdomen spoke of a much darker story.

… … …

… … …

… … …

"I've had you taking down petty criminals on your own outside of Fuyuki for some time now but tonight we're moving up to take on something that could make a difference if it were removed." Tapping the map ahead of him with two fingers, he stared through the night into the cold brown eyes of his apprentice. Around them were the ambient sounds of tropical wildlife and the thick, dense scent of damp nature. They had established a makeshift camp that featured nothing more than a small crate of supplies in the back of well-worn pickup truck and a shabby tent with two bedrolls inside.

"You keep track of current events, so you'll likely know of the Columbian conflict. I'll keep this brief so we can get to the task at hand, but we'll be dealing with paramilitary belligerents known for trafficking drugs." He moved his hand to tap at a specific spot deeper in the forest. "I've asked you to perform reconnaissance on this area, what did you find out?"

Missy stiffened, looking down at his fingers. "There was a small compound fabricated from camo netting and various makeshift structures. There were at least a dozen men with high powered rifles, among them were hired workers moving packages of some sort."

Kiritsugu nodded. "That's good for a cursory scan. Did you notice anything about the soldiers or workers specifically? How can you differentiate between them?"

Missy furrowed her brow. "The guards wear black bands on their left arm and the workers are normally shirtless. There was one man specifically that stood out. He has some sort of ballistic protection and he was directing the others around."

Kiritsugu nodded again. "You've got all the basics you'll need. When you're more experienced, you'll be able to pick out patrolling patterns, environmental advantages and establish your own route to maximize your efficiency." The girl nodded, absorbing his every word. "When it comes down to genuine combat, there are things I can teach you and things I cannot. Group combat is unteachable, the situation changes dynamically according to your moves so you'll have to get experience before you'll be any good."

He inhaled to continue speaking but Missy made a noise that stopped him. "I'm sorry to interrupt, master, but how did you know that my information was correct?"

Kiritsugu was silent before releasing a lengthy sigh. "To explain it to you, I'd need more time than I have available so let's just tackle that at another time, the flight home would be perfect for that."

The girl nodded, apologizing for the interruption once more. "How will eliminating these men help in any way?"

Kiritsugu turned to lean sideways on the tailgate, crossing his arms over his chest. "It will put a hole in the paramilitary drug trade and restore some stability to the country. Since you aren't ready for a full-scale assault of a guerilla headquarters, this is the most influential operation we can conduct."

"I see, so how do we proceed?"

Kiritsugu pushed himself off the truck, reaching into a pocket of his coat to withdraw a permanent marker. With precision, he circled the area they were in and added a line that headed toward the location he had tapped earlier. When it got close, he split the line in two directions and added arrows for indication. "We'll advance on foot and eliminate any patrols we encounter along the way. Once we get within range of the camp, we'll split apart and take it from the sides to keep them pinned."

Missy nodded along, seeming to understand. "And then we detonate the camp with the explosives, yes?"

He nodded, reaching up to pry the cover off the crate. Methodically, he withdrew weapons and magazines for both of them, then struggled to remove a smaller box with explosive warning signs emblazoned on the sides.

Now settled on the tailgate were two identical pistols and PDWs, all of which were equipped with flash hiders. Reaching back into the crate, the Magus Killer withdrew night vision monoculars attached to head harnesses.

"The most important thing you can learn from this is to be aware of your surroundings. Those innocent workers, if given the chance, could easily pick up a nearby weapon or draw a knife. Assuming everyone is a hostile is your safest bet." Pulling the slide back on both pistols, he verified that a bullet was chambered before repeating a different process with a similar goal for the PDWs.

"I thought killing innocent people was a bad thing. Aren't we supposed to protect them?" Missy asked, uncertainty in her voice as she picked up one pistol and stuffed it into a hip holster automatically.

Kiritsugu merely snorted. "Nobody is truly innocent. What we're doing is purely a game of numbers. Kill two dozen, save a town from being pillaged, stop kidnappings, prevent more drug wars."

Throwing equipment into his coat, he picked up a PDW and strapped a small bag filled with explosives onto his back. His black eyes grew darker still, battling the night itself to see who was truly void of light. "Kill ten to save a hundred, it's the only rational conclusion we have left in this world."

… … ...

He had been expecting it, really.

When he had told Missy to watch the "innocent" workers, he meant every word and he had known from the look in her eyes that she wouldn't heed his warning.

After efficiently clearing the paramilitary members from the outpost, four of the five workers had assembled in a hiding place where Kiritsugu couldn't see. Missy was the first to stumble upon them and after showing the cowering, unarmed men mercy, they repaid her by drawing blades and rushing her like caged animals.

Before they could be dealt with, one of the quicker men plunged a blade into Missy's abdomen. From there it was a race to remove the threats and treat the wound given to his assistant. Having to support and assist her in moving, Kiritsugu's plans were delayed. He had intended to take out a smaller area and fully cleanse the area of paramilitaries, but detonating one site had to suffice.

On the plane ride back, he had told Missy everything that had been hidden from her for the past year. The magus world, his true identity, everything that would break the magus code and render her a target to the Mage's Association.

Since she decided to become his apprentice, she had already put a target on her back, but nobody would be able to say that he had forced her into it. She had made the choice on her own power and had forfeited her freedom as a normal person. Before she had ultimately decided, he had made it clear that such a thing would be the outcome. Still, the girl was determined. Her reasoning was that since she had the skills, it would be best to put them to use for something good.

Of all his explanations, he had specifically omitted the Holy Grail War. Learning that magic and wizards were in fact real was jarring enough and at that moment, she didn't need to concern herself with it regardless.

Kiritsugu found the entire situation funny, if only because of his back and forth between being retired and being active. Entering retirement to live within the Einzbern castle, leaving it to find victory in the Fourth Holy Grail War, entering it once more to protect Shirou and Illya and now returning again to train another normal human into his assistant.

She was almost like Ma-

No, he couldn't create similarities. If he did, he'd develop feelings once more and Missy's inevitable death would hurt him, just like hers had.

One thing he had to note regarding his re-entry into his "work", was that moving and holding positions made his back and knees a lot more sore than they used to.

A sign of the times, or rather, its passing, to be sure.

… … …

… … …

"But Senpai said he would watch me in archery club today!" Sakura protested, grabbing onto his arm and tugging it close to her chest. She was glaring daggers at Rin, who had gripped his hand tight in an attempt at leading him away.

With his body acting as the rope in this game of tug of war, he could easily tell which side would win should it truly devolve into a game of brute strength; it wasn't Rin. The blue-eyed girl sent back a glare of equal intensity, squeezing his hand enough to hurt. "I need Shirou for an experiment. You took him two days ago which means you've had him more than enough!"

"You know, when you said you'd share me, this isn't what I expected," Shirou commented offhandedly, to which both girls shouted at him to shut up. Clenching his eyes shut as their voices grated at his ears, he could only sigh. When he found out that he wouldn't have to pick one girl over the other, he was excited. It wasn't for any degenerate reason of course, he was excited because he wouldn't have to let either one down by picking the other.

It was strange and uncomfortable to think about his having two "girlfriends", but so long as they were happy, his feelings didn't matter. He would be able to breathe easy because he could still keep everyone happy while just being himself and loving both girls evenly, as he did normally. What he didn't expect was for fights like these to force him to make those types of decisions anyway.

Scowling, he looked between the girls who were keeping tension on his arms. He could tell it wasn't going to be good if the situation wasn't diffused. "I have a way to please the two of you." Both girls eased back on their tugging, interested in what he had to say. "I will watch your archery meeting and after that, we'll all head back home and I can help Rin with her experiment. Then we can all eat dinner together too." He watched their faces soften as they contemplated the compromise. "There'll be roast duck for dinner," he tempted, a point which was just enough to convince both girls to agee.

He felt his hand being released and without much more warning, he was pulled straight into Sakura's chest. The awkward bump nearly toppled the poor girl over but her iron grip on his arm held her upright. "Fine, but only because I can get two birds killed with one stone by experimenting at your house." The Tohsaka flipped one tail of her hair with one hand, giving him a smirk that reminded him of how beautiful she was. "Just don't be late."

Before he could respond, he was being dragged by the arm across the schoolyard, forced to keep up or else he would be dragged across the partly snow-covered ground instead. Spring had come earlier after such a brutal winter, something Shirou had been thankful for. Those walks from the Copenhagen back home had been a little too chilling for him.

Halfway across the yard, she seemed to realize that she was still dragging him along and she calmly released his arm with a small noise. Now walking at a moderate pace, he felt much more comfortable. "Senpai," the girl began softly, "are you going back to the Clock Tower this year?"

Shirou made a confused "huh" before realizing where her concern was coming from. "I don't think so. When I left, it was a pretty permanent deal. I don't think I'd be able to go back unless I went for real and right now, that's not the best idea."

Shirou watched a cloud of warm air spew from Sakura's mouth in relief. "I'm glad. When you were gone I was worried that you'd get hurt and I-" her voice cut off like she became embarrassed over what her mind had wanted to say.

He smiled as he filled in the blanks. "It's nice to know that I was missed, and you shouldn't worry about me so much. I can handle myself pretty well after all." His smile twitched as memories of his encounter with the executioner, Hansa Cervantes, returned. Had that man been a little crueller, he wouldn't even be having this conversation.

"Every time you fight I'm worried about you, Senpai. Rin and Illya don't say anything, but they worry too," she murmured, keeping her eyes forward.

"I don't think any of you should be worrying about me, but if it eases your mind, I'll try not to put myself in danger alright?" There was the sound of footsteps moving toward him; quickly turning his head, his eyes shot open wide as two women with shinai raced toward him.

With his body acting on instinct, both arms snapped upright into a cross, catching an overhead swing to produce a meaty, painful thwack. Before he could rest, one hand snapped downward to dexterously catch an incoming slash from the side. Twisting the arm holding back the overhead kendo stick, he gripped onto that weapon as well, holding both weapons in place.

With the threat halted, he focused on who was trying to hurt him. His eyes met two familiar faces - Makidera and Mitsuzuri, second and first year respectively. Both of them were staring at him with a mix of confused anger. The former likely came from his easy counter to their combined attack but the latter he couldn't explain.

"Emiya! Why are you sabotaging the kyudo dojo?" Makidera shouted, trying to force the shinai from his hands.

"Today of all days!" Mitsuzuri finished, seeming to understand that she wouldn't be able to overpower him much faster than her accomplice.

Straining to keep both swords in place, nearly losing his grip as the hardwood creaked in exertion. "Now hold on, I haven't sabotaged anything!" Shirou shot back a hasty defence, confused by what the girls meant.

"Our bows have all been unstrung, and everyone says that you were the one who did it." Taking his face of befuddlement as an admission of guilt, Mitsizuri continued. "You know we have our district tournament today, but why did you do it? Is it because you hated Archery Club that much? Is that why you left?"

With a face full of anger, Mitsuzuri glared at him, demanding he answer her bombardment of questions. Before he could, he needed to understand the situation better. "Who's everyone?"

The girl hesitated, glare softening somewhat. "Well, it was only Shinji, but he says he saw you do It!"

Shirou sighed. "Of course it was Shinji," he murmured. "I didn't unstring your bows, what could I possibly gain by doing something like that?" Both girls seemed to relax somewhat as they thought over his response. "I never hated archery club, I left because I got bored. I never missed the bullseye, there just wasn't any challenge."

He felt the tension against his hands fade and he released the kendo sticks hoping that the girls wouldn't hit him as soon as they could. "So Shinji lied?" Makidera asked, looking toward Mitsuzuri.

Shirou shrugged but in his mind, he blatantly shouted "yes". "Maybe he saw someone else and decided that it was me. If you're short on time before the tournament starts, I can help you restring the bows. I'll be going there anyway and I was always the fastest, so it's really no problem."

Makidera pulled back her shinai, placing her face in the palm of her hand. "Only the Homurahara Fake Janitor would offer to help fix something after being accused of breaking it." Turning to Mitsuzuri, she gave the girl a disbelieving glower. "I can't believe we fell for a stupid trick."

Sakura stepped out from behind Shirou, looking at the two girls with a blank face. Simply by knowing her for so long, Shirou could detect some anger in the otherwise unassuming girl. "Senpai has been with me or in class all day, he couldn't have done something like that," she defended, shaking her head and tossing purple hair over her face which she quickly tucked back behind her ear with one hand.

Mitsuzuri and Makidera shared a look, simultaneously facing Shirou and bowing their heads. "We're sorry for trying to hurt you, Emiya," they claimed in unison.

"Could you help us get our bows back in working order? We could use all the help we can find to get it done before the tournament!" Mitsuzuri asked, looking rather hopeful. "We'll deal with Shinji later."

Shirou rolled his eyes. "I said I would already so stop apologizing and lets get going before it's too late!" Before they fully comprehended his words, he already began jogging ahead of Sakura toward the dojo.

… … …

… … …

"Ready, Shirou?" Rin asked, looking toward the roof of the house.

Knocking and drawing an arrow, Shirou nodded and gave a quick vocal agreement just for good measure. Watching forward but keeping the Tohsaka in his peripherals, he saw the girl duck down before launching a brightly coloured gemstone high into the air.

Locking onto the object, his eyes traced its composition, recording the distance and its velocity to help him manually calculate a lead distance. His fingers gently slid beyond the bowstring and the arrow fired, striking the gem as it reached the apex of its throw.

It was difficult to watch due to the speed of the reaction, but the two conflicting magics sent out crackles of plasma before violently erupting in a large explosion. The fireball nearly touched the house and the percussive blast was enough to blow dozens of shingles off the shed roof.

Moving his hand to shield his eyes from the brightness, his mind screamed danger and his body moved to react. Leaping to the side, an ear-bursting crack sounded as lightning fired off horizontally like a projectile, passing right through where he had been standing. It narrowly missed the house, skimming the peak before carrying on to strike the Emiya bounded field. As half of the energy was Shirou's own mana, it dissipated into the field rather than cut straight through.

As the explosion settled, he shakily stood back to his feet and looked down toward Rin, who was carelessly writing in a notebook. "Deterrent for spies, combat tactic and reminder of why not to mix miracles," she mumbled, pausing to look up to him with a smile. "Thanks, Shirou."

Scowling, he placed one fist on his hips. "You nearly blow up my house and shot me with lightning and all I get in return is thanks?" He shook his head. "I really feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick in these deals."

Rin put down her notebook, looking up to him with a coy smile. "Then consider it your payment so we can remain friends." Watching his bland reaction, she stiffened a bit. "I'm kidding, you don't have to look so serious." When he still failed to respond, she cowered further. "Stop looking at me like that, do you want me to say sorry? I'm sorry, okay?"

Shirou smiled, letting his glare fade immediately. After all Rin had put him through, it was nice to get back at her however he could. Making her uncomfortable with his Clock Tower-learned glare was one of the very few ways he could do it effectively.

Leaping down from the roof, he looked over the area to make sure nothing was damaged. Beyond the shingles on the stone shed, nothing was harmed. Before Shirou could explain that he was just joking, Missy and Kiritsugu - followed shortly by Illya and Sakura - sprinted outside, fully prepared for a threat and willing to take it on.

Rin and Shirou worked together to calm everyone down, explaining that it was merely an experiment that exceeded expectations. The Tohsaka also requested Kiritsugu specifically to retrieve a box given to him some time ago. It hardly took more than five minutes for them to be sitting around a particularly ancient-looking ornate box on the cold floor of the stone shed. Once he had delivered the box from his safe, he left on Rin's wishes.

With the crate ahead of him, Shirou could easily see the complexity of its creation. There were several layers of bounded fields surrounding it, each extremely convoluted and made with extreme care to be as perfect as possible.

One of the layers stood out to him, but only because the mana signature was different compared to all of the others. It was the most recent addition but held the same quality as the other layers. To someone who couldn't break the entire creation down as he could, it would be imperceptible.

"What is this?" he asked, extending a hand to touch the box's surface. Rin shouted at him to stop before he could, looking at him with deadly seriousness. Once she was sure that he wouldn't touch it, she calmly and quietly moved to sit opposite of him so they could look at each other from across the crate.

"I'm going to tell you a little story, ok?" she asked, staring intently at the box. "You already know that I'm a magus, and you know what that really means. It feels like so long ago, but when I was young, my father died and left me to take up the Tohsaka family alone with my mother." She laughed hollowly. "I guess you know all that, but it's nice to admit it all. What I'm trying to tell you pretty badly, is that my father planned for his death. He left me so much, explaining everything that I would need to do as if he expected not to be able to teach it to me." She reached out a hand, sliding it along the large brass plate at the top of the box. "A couple of years ago, my mother found this box while cleaning out the house and a message written for me specifically."

There was silence as Shirou digested the story and Rin likely thought of her next words. "Did it tell you what was inside?" he asked softly, watching her toy with one of the many puzzle-like locking mechanisms.

The girl shook her head, throwing her twin tails in both directions. "It told me that his greatest possessions were inside, though it never explained what those might be. To fit in such a small box, I couldn't even begin to guess." On the face of the box was a set of five-digit tumblers, featuring strange foreign symbols rather than numbers or letters. The Tohsaka's delicate fingers rotated each tumbler until there was an audible click and the lock disengaged. "I've been working on cracking the puzzles since I found it, but there are still two puzzles I can't figure out."

Shirou put the pieces together, suddenly understanding why he was the only one who could be near the box. "But you're impatient and you want me to tell you what's inside."

Blood rushed to the Tohsaka's cheeks and she immediately looked flustered. Drawing her hand back, she looked up at him. "Don't put it like that, you big idiot. I just want you to see what I've been trying to hard to get, to know the prize so I can see if figuring out the puzzle is worth it."

"Well," he began, scrunching up his brow as he looked intensely at the box. "I can't see inside without touching it, there are too many bounded fields in the way for my tracing to see through."

Rin calmed down immediately, face softening as he silently agreed without stating it directly. "You can touch the box, but you can't touch the brass plate on top, otherwise it will explode."

Shirou twitched at the "explode" part, hand hesitating to touch its surface. Sucking in a breath, he pressed his fingers to the wooden surface, expecting it to blow up in his face. When it didn't, he let out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding. "Trace on," he spoke, and a very fuzzy wireframe came to mind.

Closing his eyes and scrunching his brow in concentration, he tried to clarify the image by applying more mana to the point of contact, something that worked only partly. With so much mana trapped within the bounded fields affecting the box, his vision of it was blurred like he was trying to see through a glass of water. "I can't see the contents, but I can see the mechanism," he murmured, focusing hard on the brass plate and its complicated workings.

"So you can tell me how to open it?" the girl asked with incredible hope.

Shirou merely nodded. "I can tell you when the pieces line up and the lock disengages, so yeah."

The next few moments were spent with the two calmly working through the puzzles on the box. With his help, Rin effectively cheated her way in, disengaging each and every lock except one, the tumbler style code lock she had demonstrated to him earlier.

"I don't want to open it here," she began, looking at him with desperation. "I know you've helped out and equivalent exchange demands you see inside as much as I do, but I want to keep this private between my father an-"

"Rin," he interjected, smiling before withdrawing his hand from the box. "I understand. You don't have to worry so much."

There was a moment of silence as the two stared at one another before unexpectedly, Rin lunged at him and wrapped both arms around his neck. While light, the speed and shock was enough to send him onto his back. With her head tucked in his shoulder, he held both arms out to the side awkwardly, not wanting to touch her for obvious reasons.

She squeezed him tight and the scent of fine rich wine and cedar struck like a pile of bricks. The normally stoic Rin clinging to him made him feel strange. Would comforting her even do anything? She wasn't the type of girl to really accept help from others, so he had thought at least. Slowly, he moved his arm to pat the girl on the back, feeling her ease the crushing squeeze she was delivering.

In his ear, there was a soft "thank you" which warmed his heart.

Though the warmth was short-lived.

"So this is what you two have been doing," came the voice of a particularly annoyed Sakura. "Behind my back when you're alone, I see."

Rin uncoiled her arms from around Shirou, looking up at her sister with an odd look. It didn't last very long, because Shirou abruptly shot upward and as a consequence, tossed the Tohsaka to the ground. "Sakura it wasn't what it looked like, believe me."

The Matou crossed both arms over her chest, pouting as she looked him over. Gripped in her right hand was a wet wooden spoon, likely a weapon that would be cracked over his head in a moment if he didn't ease her mind. "I can always tell when you're lying, Senpai."

Shirou nodded, she was right. Just like Illya, every lie he told could be picked out. It was a good thing he wasn't lying then. "Rin just got emotional over something and couldn't help herself, it wasn't because of anything like what you're thinking."

She studied his face for a long time, eyes occasionally flickering across his body. After what felt like five entire minutes, she calmly stepped to the side and stated: "dinner is ready."

… … …

… … …

Shirou looked up to take in the fine colonial architecture of Fuyuki Church. He thought back to that cold blizzard night where he saved the priestess. It had been some time ago and he had intended to visit shortly after, but Rin and Sakura had taken up too much of his time. It had taken him a little over an hour to get here walking, and that was considering he knew where he was going. That night, when he found Caren, it had taken them fifteen minutes to get back to his house and they were both frozen.

He had made the right decision.

While she hadn't been direct, she had claimed to be alone. It was bound to be difficult. Being so young and so far away from Fuyuki, she had to be lonely. Taking one last look at the church's architecture, he carried on down the brick pathway, eventually reaching the large entrance doors.

Shoving them open with his shoulder, a wave of heavy incense collided with him like a physical wall. It was sweet and musky, but the concentration was more than overpowering. Shirou nearly felt the scent cling to his clothes and skin.

After closing the door and taking his first few steps inside, he realized that it was entirely empty. While he hadn't come on a Sunday, he had expected at least one devout worshipper to be present during the weekday evening. Looking around once more, he noticed that nobody was there.

"Hello?" he called out, voice echoing back to him three times from the high vaulted ceiling. Besides his voice, nothing replied. At the very front of the church was an altar laden with fine white silk. Atop it were all the instruments required for communion as well as other religious affairs. Facing the door was an average pulpit. It was much wider at the base, but it was a permanent feature and it was elegantly designed to avoid being gaudy. Opened to an unknown page on top was a large gilded book that encompassed the pulpit's entire surface.

Shirou had to admit that it was a beautiful church. After being rebuilt, Fuyuki and the Holy Church itself had put in a lot more money in an attempt at revitalizing the religious community.

With his eyes locked on the pulpit, he was able to watch a small girl poke her head above the top like a gopher from its den. She was admittedly cute, much like Illya, with soft juvenile features holding a refined, almost mature side to them. She had soft golden eyes that reflected the dim light in the church, appearing as if they were illuminating the space themselves. Even in the dim light and from some distance, he could see the bleary, sleepy glaze held within those very same eyes.

As if the eyes weren't a hint, the dishevelled state of her hair was more than enough to convince him that she had been napping on the job. "I apologize, it's not often that I get visito-" she paused, blinking three times before viewing him with renewed attention. "Emiya?" she questioned, turning and stepping down from some sort of stool behind the pulpit. "Shirou Emiya, right?" He nodded while the girl continued her approach. Caren's mouth opened to speak, but there was a moment of hesitation as she reconsidered. "What can I help you with today?"

Shirou couldn't help but laugh through his nose. "I just wanted to see how you were doing." Taking in his surroundings, he was surprised when he discovered that there wasn't a single speck of dust to be found anywhere. Thinking about it more, it made sense. With all the free time on her hands, cleaning was likely all Caren did.

Caren grew confused at the statement, tilting her head and pausing for some time before speaking. "I'm fine, nothing has changed." There was another pause before the girl bowed her head. "I thank you for your hospitality once more. It was fortunate that I found someone as compassionate as you are."

Shirou scratched the back of his neck, the compliment from someone so innocent getting to him. It was ironic, considering he was a monster to the majority of the Clock Tower. Clearing his throat, he tried to move past the awkward conversation about himself. "So you run this whole church by yourself?"

The girl nodded quickly. "My grandfather used to run it before me. When he died, the responsibility would have gone to my father, but he was killed as well, so it fell on me instead." She shrugged her frail shoulders, clasping both hands at her front.

"So you've been here all alone for a year?" Shirou gaped, getting a soft nod from Caren. "Doesn't it get lonely?"

Another nod.

Closing his jaw, he knelt down to her level and broke into a smile. "Well, you're not going to be lonely anymore."

… … …

… … …

… … …

It was a muggy summer afternoon. Why he had decided to pick such a poor weathered day to act was beyond him, but he had been postponing the task ahead of him for some time.

With a jar filled with black sludge in one hand, Shirou strode into the middle of Fuyuki Central Park, keeping an eye on his surroundings to avoid being jumped.

Surrounded by nothing but sickly looking grass and gnarled, half-dead trees, he tried to see if the worm himself was watching.

"I know you can hear me, Zouken." He spat out the name as if it were a piece of rotten meat, though considering who he was referring to, there wasn't much difference. Shirou could have sworn that there was a rustling from behind him but when he turned to look, nothing stood out. Gritting his teeth, he swirled his head around the park, trying to find anything at all. "Come out, we need to talk about Sakura."

"What about her?" came the sickly voice of a dying man from behind. Whipping around to face the worm directly, Shirou took a step back as the repugnant appearance of the small demon filled his view. An inadvertent visual trace nearly made Shirou vomit on the spot. It was impossible, there was no way.

It wasn't human.

That thing, Zouken, was a conglomeration of worms. When Kiritsugu had called him a worm, Shirou had thought it to be a figurative description for his deceptive qualities, not a literal characteristic. As much as it pained him to run the traced details over in his head again, Shirou had to see if there was a single shred of humanity left.

There wasn't.

"Come on boy, what have you got to say for yourself? You call an old man out into the night and gape at me? Not very accommodating you know. Sakura speaks of your hospitality, though from what I've seen it leaves much to be desired." The man chuckled, a sickly sound almost as vile as the person it originated from.

Regaining his composure, Shirou clutched the jar in his hand, blocking the traced image from his mind so he wouldn't violenty eject his lunch. "I've come to fight for Sakura."

The man blinked, moving his cane and weight from one hand to the other. "You'll have to speak up my boy, I'm an old man and my hearing isn't what it used to be." Turning his head to glare at Shirou from the side, Zouken raised one wrinkled hand to an ear. "You want to bite Sakura? Devolved into cannibalism, have we?"

Scowling harshly, Shirou threw the jar directly at the man. While he would never consider himself a violent individual, it hardly mattered. Zouken wasn't human, there was no need to feel emotions for something so reprehensible.

Not even bothering to avoid the jar, Zouken took the glass straight to the face, object shattering into hundreds of pieces and spewing black goo across his face. The creature merely closed his eyes as the fluid was absorbed into his body. "You know what I said, worm."

Grimacing himself, the worm in question bared his teeth. "That wasn't very nice of you," he spoke ominously. "Allow me to show you why I can make fun of your heroic little attempt at rescuing Sakura."

As the old man tapped his cane on the ground, Shirou shouted out his trademark phrase, blades appearing within the air and in both hands. Before any could fire, a droning buzz and the sound of chitinous plating echoed around him. Commanding the projected blades to fire, he panned his head around, realizing he was surrounded by two types of strange bug, both magical in nature.

One variety was a flying insect, a hybrid creation of various types of other insects. Eyes of a spider, a maw of serrated gnashing teeth all above blade-like arm appendages. They each had the papery wings of a dragonfly which shimmered in the waning moonlight, and a long-bladed tail similar to a scorpion's, at least in premise.

The other variety was, rather fittingly, a worm-like insect. Merely five inches long, they weren't as threatening as the winged insects. However, their numbers and jaws packed with teeth were enough to label them a concern.

The first volley of blades had fired and managed to strike their target with ease, with too much ease in fact. Every blade carried through Zouken like he was made of tissue paper, spraying vile black goo across the pre-soiled grass. His body fell, but before his mass could actually strike the ground, what remained of him became a swarming amalgamated mass of insects - simple ones, unlike the magical ones converging on his position.

Cursing, Shirou turned at the sound of fluttering wings. Barely managing to duck in time, a swarm of bladed winged insects dove to attack while the ground-based worms grew close. Thinking on his feet, he projected one of the only weapons in his arsenal that didn't require knowledge of magecraft to operate and could be used to clear an area.

The blades in his hands disappeared, replaced by a long bo staff that was quickly moved to be level with the ground. With a brief application of mana, the weapon extended and was swung in a wide circle, batting away the quickly advancing army of worms.

This fight was similar to a fight he had won in the Clock Tower Tournament, against a magus named Nick Vile. Though, would the same tactics work here? Standing from the ground, Shirou made note of the flying bugs around him on all sides. A visual trace put the number around one thousand, though the reading was inaccurate due to the darkness and the fact that more continued spawning from the very earth.

Surprisingly though, the creatures had stopped to watch at a distance, leaving a cleared ring around him where insects amassed at the imaginary walls. With each passing second, more bugs filled the empty space in the sky, slowly climbing to create a dome. This was a fight he couldn't win; while pitifully weak, he had no weaponry to deal with the sheer numbers.

Projecting and using grenades would run him dry and wouldn't be enough to take on the numbers - he needed something massive, a cleansing flame. "I had honestly expected you to be overwhelmed by the worms alone," came the voice of Zouken, swirling around his head from every direction as if it came from the flying insects themselves. "I underestimated you, much like your father. A foolish mistake, but it won't be made again, that much is certain."

Before Shirou could respond, every insect shot toward him, moving faster than he had expected. In a desperate attempt at saving himself, he projected shields around his own body, creating a small pocket in which none of the creatures could get at him.

In the middle of projecting the last shield to cover the top, his mana reserves expired and the half-formed object dematerialized into blue sparks. Shields weren't swords, he had pushed himself too hard. Gritting his teeth, the droning buzz of insects grew ever closer.

… … …

… … …

Illya settled up in her futon, stretching languidly and producing a great yawn before rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Casting her head to the side, she spotted Shirou's empty futon, something that was normal considering he woke up ungodly early.

Gently squeezing herself from underneath the covers, the girl performed more stretches to ease her body into the morning. She had been waking up surprisingly better over the past few months without any real explanation as to why.

Maybe it was Shirou. Perhaps she had gotten used to him being around again. There wasn't much else that it could have been, maybe it was just a miracle.

Moving through the house back to her own room, she quickly removed her pyjamas and threw on a bright pink summer outfit. Humming a song to herself as she prepared for the day, the girl ambled into the kitchen, where Kiritsugu and Missy were sat across from each other, maintaining a serious look. Sakura was there as well, looking more tired than usual.

As she entered, he turned to look at her, clumsily breaking into a forced smile. "Good morning Illya, is Shirou still asleep?"

The joy of a new morning left her immediately. "He's not here?" she asked, looking out to the hall as if he would appear. Returning to her father, she watched him shake his head.

"I think Senpai left late last night. I heard something in my room but couldn't find anything when I looked," Sakura added.

"The young Emiya hasn't returned, do you remember him leaving or anything of importance?" Missy asked, trying to force a frail smile. Over the past year, the girl had changed significantly. She had always been a calm, smiling woman who spoke few but wise respectful words.

Now she was different. The smile had faded, becoming something akin to a labour to produce. She seemed perpetually exhausted, with her shoulders set forward and dark lines beneath her eyes. At the very least, she retained the wisdom in her conversations.

"I was with Shirou all night, or so I thought," Illya mumbled, raising a hand to her mouth. Why did her brother have to be so stupid? After running out to save Sakura from the freelancers and almost dying alone, she would have thought he would start leaving a note just in case-

Illya blinked, straightened and took off down the hall without speaking a word. Careening into Shirou's room, she looked around to see if he had been smart this time.

Discovering nothing on the surface, she began looking through drawers and underneath various objects. Lifting up her futon, she found a small, blank white card sitting just beneath where her head would be.

"You idiot," she mumbled, picking up the card. "Why do you have to do things alone?" Turning it over, she found a very simple message in Shirou's handwriting.

"Central Park"

… … …

… … ...

He was alive.

Bitten, bleeding, bruised and battered but he was alive.

Left behind like garbage, Illya had found him in the middle of Central Park, unconscious and one foot in the grave. Doing what she could to keep him alive, Kiritsugu and Missy loaded him into the rented car to get him back home.

Illya had worked on healing his wounds along the way but she could only get so far. Chunks of flesh were missing, bitten off and ingested, leaving the skin behind blackened as if it were burnt. These areas were impossible to heal, at least for Illya's magecraft. Whenever she tried, the area reverted itself back to its injured state, almost like he was perpetually being harmed.

After healing him as well as she could, Missy took care of bandaging what remained - admittedly quite a lot.

After getting him home, it still took a few hours for him to wake up, though he refused to tell anyone besides Kiritsugu what had happened to him.

He was bedridden for three days, and on the third day - a Friday - an unexpected visitor arrived.

"I remember you, your name is Caren, right?" Illya asked, beaming at the girl.

The priestess nodded softly, looking down at the small package clasped within her own hands. "I'm sorry to disturb you, but I was worried."

Illya tilted her head, growing confused. "Worried about what?"

Caren didn't even blink, holding a neutral face. "Your brother always visits the church every Wednesday evening." Her bright yellow eyes practically bored holes through Illya's skull. "He did not appear this week," she stated matter-of-factly.

Shrinking under her gaze, Illya mentally stumbled. Shirou was out every week visiting this girl? He always said that he had work! She was about to blurt out that he was hurt, but she had no idea if the girl was a magus or not, or how well she knew Shirou. "He's been sick the poor guy, laid up in bed since Tuesday night."

Caren nodded. "I had suspected such a thing, which is why I brought supplies to help." She lifted the small bag to head level, gesturing to it with the other hand.

Illya blanched. "Planned for that, huh." Giving her head a shake, the homunculus flared both hands and shook them about. "But if you give it to him, you might get sick by being near him!" She hastily made the excuse, and it seemed to work.

Caren hesitated but methodically reached into her robes to withdraw a surgical mask and nitrile gloves.

Illya looked at the priestess with incredulity. "What aren't you prepared for!?" she shouted, gesturing to Caren with open arms.

The priestess blinked, tilted her head and shrugged passively. "I try to be as prepared as possible, why are you shouting?"

Illya growled and facepalmed. She could see that there wasn't any talking the girl out of this, but if she saw Shirou injured it would just make her worry more. All of this hardly mattered because Illya didn't even know if the girl was a magus or not. That begged the question, how were magi supposed to find out if the other person knew or not? Was there some sort of code word that she wasn't aware of?

Maybe Rin would know.

"Caren?" came a voice from behind. Spinning on her heels, Illya spotted her father at the end of the hall, with a face that was far from joyful. "What are you doing here?"

"You know Caren?" Illya asked, watching the old man rather hurriedly come toward the door. Kiritsugu and Missy had both been both away when Shirou brought her in, so how would he have known about her?

"We've met before," came the soft voice of the priestess. "Though you never told me your name." Kiritsugu and the girl stared at one another for some time before he shakily cleared his throat.

"Yes, well it's better to be late than never. My name is Kiritsugu Emiya, you seem to know my daughter, Illyasviel, so introductions there are likely unnecessary." Bowing his head partly, he stepped behind Illya, resting one hand on her shoulder.

"She's here to visit Shirou," she murmured, filling him in before he asked the obvious question.

"Of course, I should have known that Shirou had something to do with this. You're welcome to come see him if that's what you're here for." With one arm, he gestured further into the house, pulling Illya to the side while she looked up at him in surprise. The look she received was enough to tell her not to worry.

The priestess nodded as she was invited in. Stepping in and removing her shoes before moving further, the girl calmly walked down the hall as if she lived in the house herself.

Once out of earshot, Kiritsugu snapped his head down to look at Ilya. "How much does she know?"

Illya grew concerned but diligently relayed information regardless. "She knows of everyone in the house besides Missy I guess," she paused, trying to remember the night. "Oh, and Taiga. I don't think she knows anything more than a normal person would, but Shirou's been visiting her every Wednesday apparently so who knows?"

Kiritsugu made an appreciative hum, patted the top of her head and started walking down the hall. "If she's a genuine priestess, she might be able to help Shirou's condition, maybe it was a good thing she came around."

… … …

"There's no point in killing you, it's much better to continue using you as a tool." Shirou barely suppressed a cry of pain as a worm devoured a chunk of flesh from his arm.

"A tool for what?" the boy growled, swatting away the worms that he could with his rapidly declining energy.

"To break Sakura's mind, of course. Her willpower is quite admirable, but even the most resolute have their weak points." The old worm jabbed the tip of his cane into a bleeding wound, finally forcing a noise from the writhing boy. "My case in point," Zouken snickered...

Shirou's eyes opened to pain. Gritting his teeth and sucking in a deep breath, he tried to will some of it away, something that didn't work in the slightest. Trying to roll onto his side was one of the most challenging efforts in his entire life.

This was more than just a simple injury, this was a continuous debilitating effect, a curse that sapped his energy like a leech. Zouken had done something to him, likely keeping it as a reminder of his failure, or punishment for trying to best the worm.

The door to his room slid open and drew his attention. He had expected Illya but was surprised to see Caren softly plodding toward him. Forgetting the pain, he sat up abruptly, dumbfounded as to why she was here. As she neared, a newfound pain struck him - something much worse than physical: The pain of his broken promise.

He had told Caren that she would never be alone again, but he hadn't been able to visit her that week. The weekly visits had started as a noble effort to watch over a young girl down on her luck but after learning about her history the reason was twisted into something much darker. Caren Hortensia was Kirei Kotomine's daughter and Risei Kotomine's granddaughter, both of which were men that Shirou's own father had slain in cold blood. Because of Kiritsugu's involvement, Shirou couldn't help but feel guilty and to alleviate some of the guilt, he elected himself to be the priestess' friend. "Caren, I'm so sorry that-"

"Quiet," she stated, silencing him immediately with the commanding but calm tone of her voice. "You're injured, you were in no condition to visit, entirely understandable." Methodically, the girl knelt at his side and untied the knot on the bag. With both hands she withdrew a clear container filled with soup and plastic utensils to eat with. "I appreciate the concern for me, but you need to consider yourself."

Shirou grumbled, realizing the irony in that statement as it was spoken. His entire life had been spent devoted to others, what was the point in changing now? "I promised you that I-"

The priestess held up one finger, silencing him wordlessly. With careful precision, the girl opened the container and carefully brought it near his face. "Have some, then I will repair the damage done to your body."

His eyes flickered from the girl's face to the spoon being brought toward his mouth. He wasn't a child, he could feed himself, but Caren seemed insistent. Resigned to his fate, he carefully stretched forward to take on a spoonful, unable to enjoy it properly on account of the awkward situation and the pain returning to his body.

With the spoon now empty, Caren gingerly placed it back into the container and stared into his eyes wordlessly. After what was undoubtedly the most awkward ten seconds of his life, the girl finally spoke. "There is foreign energy constantly affecting your body. It is keeping your wounds open and slowly killing you."

Shirou looked down to the bloody bandages covering his body. "I don't know if they'll be able to kill me, but they're keeping me down for now," he coughed, placing one hand on his stomach and using the other to support his upper body.

Caren shook her head, laying one hand on his chest so she could force him onto his back. "You neglect yourself, taking care of others and placing their emotions above your own life." Placing one hand on his forehead, she hovered the other over his chest and closed her eyes.

Before Shirou could even object, the girl was monotonously murmuring in English. It was difficult to keep track due to the complexity of the words and the speed at which they were being spoken, but Shirou could tell that they were religiously focused.

The blessing she was conjuring was easily longer than a ten-count aria, but without anything to occupy his time he was forced to sit in silence. When she eventually finished, nothing spectacular really happened, though he did feel lighter.

"The foreign energy has been dispersed, your body will now begin healing normally." The girl picked up the container of soup, placing it on his chest before jamming the plastic spoon unceremoniously in his mouth. "Eat your soup."

… … …

"It's nice to see you up and walking again," Kiritsugu noted, taking a sip of coffee from a plain white mug.

"Being injured doesn't suit you, so we can be glad that it is a rare occurrence," Missy added, nodding softly to herself.

Shirou smirked, gently seating himself at the table. He felt much better without the bandages covering his body. "You'll have to thank Caren, she's the one who removed that foreign energy." He was a tad taken aback when the girl in question seated herself beside him, looking up to him with that same flat face.

"I'm the one who patched up the holes afterwards," Illya whined, pouting for extra attention.

"It was a simple fix," the priestess stated, facing forward.

"You still came by and helped, that's all that matters." Lifting his hand, he gave Caren a pat on the top of her head. He didn't even have to look to feel Illya's eyes glaring at him. Catching sight of the nearby clock, Shirou realized that it was lunchtime. It was a fact that made him acutely aware of his growling stomach. While the soup had been enough to get him on his feet, it hadn't been enough to fully sate his appetite.

Using the table to help push himself onto his feet, he panned around the room. "Caren since you're here, would you like to stay for lunch?"

The girl nodded, turned to look at him and smiled. It was the first time he had actually seen her doing so, and it caught him off guard. "Yes please and while I am here, we can converse on how to deal with the Matou clan."

The room went deathly silent and everyone turned to look at the priestess with varied emotions. "You know how Shirou was injured?" Kiritsugu asked.

"I was in the area when it happened," she agreed, looking toward the old man with eyes of equal coldness.

"If you knew where he lived, why did you not get help?"

"While I am a woman of God, that does not mandate that I sacrifice my life trying to save the life of another. The force Shirou opposed was insurmountable with a frontal assault. I took it as a sign of the Lord not to intervene, so I didn't." Caren casually turned from the Magus Killer to look at Shirou. "I'm sorry that I didn't help, you understand don't you?"

Shirou looked at the girl for some time, peering into her eyes to try and determine whether or not she was lying. Eventually, he decided to believe her, if only because he thought she was too naive and innocent to truly have evil intent. "I understand. You were protecting yourself first, right?" He smiled weakly, catching a glimpse of his father's disapproval without even looking at him directly.

"How about I just go start lunch and we can talk about that later, alright?" Shirou tried to deflect, nervously scratching the back of his neck.

… … …

… … …

Dangling his feet over the arch of Fuyuki Bridge, Shirou idly turned a bullet over in his fingers, eyes fixated on it as if it were solid gold. It was certainly iconic, a .30-06 Springfield round but with an off-white bullet instead of the more familiar copper jacket. It was the secret to his father's effectiveness, the foundation of his Magus Killer legend. The boy clenched it tightly, hiding the object from sight in a gloved hand.

It was a testament to how monstrous his father truly was. Casually lifting his hand up, he cast the cartridge out toward the ocean, watching it dematerialize into blue sparks before it could pass the roadway.

"Origin Rounds, of course he would have something this barbaric. Permanent disability of a magus' entire body, inside and out." The wind blew a salted sea breeze onto his face, annoying him enough to make him pull up the scarf that had been hanging around his neck.

"Show me his greatest weapon he said, show me something important to him." Shirou scoffed, scowling beneath his makeshift mask. "What sort of weapon has the sole purpose of making someone live a life of disability?" Squinting his eyes in thought, he watched the ripples of the ocean water, reconsidering his views on his own father for the first time.

"What the hell are you doing up here, Emiya?" came a strained and annoyed question from his right. Turning his head, he spotted a familiar crimson turtleneck and black twin-tails. She was in the midst of pulling herself up to the top level of the bridge, straining quite a bit but managing after a few moments. "You're not planning on jumping, are you? Doesn't sound like something you would do but it's not like you to run away from your father either."

After looking the girl up and down silently with his eyes, he turned to look out toward the ocean again. "How'd you find me?"

Rin huffed, carefully stepping across the steel beams so that she could sit beside him. "Well, you're pretty hard to follow, don't get me wrong. You're stupid fast, you take wild turns along unpredictable paths and you don't produce a signature that I can track like with other magi." She leaned forward, poking her head into his peripherals before smiling. "But I have my ways. It might sound creepy, but I always know where you are."

"You put some sort of tracker in me?" he asked, looking down at himself. Tracing his entire body revealed nothing that he could detect. Though, as the Tohsaka had said: she had her ways.

Rin nodded, leaned back and placed both hands behind to keep herself supported. "After you went off to fight the freelancers, Illya got really scared. If Sakura hadn't been there with you, nobody would have found you and you might have died. She practically begged me to find a way without you knowing. After all the experimentation we've done together, I determined that there was a way to do it without you noticing. It's just enough to know your location so if you ever run off you could still be found."

"Did you do it because of Illya or are you just as scared as she is?" he asked, not caring to look at the girl. He didn't feel like looking at anyone at the moment.

Rin held her silence, eventually taking a shaky breath, though whether it was because of emotions or the chilling wind was up to debate. "Everyone is worried about you. Your father, Sakura, me - and Illya most of all. If someone's life is in danger, we know you'll jump in to protect them without a second thought, no matter what sort of force they're up against." The girl leaned forward, wrapping her hands around the edge of the steel. "It's almost suicidal," she finished.

"So you think it's stupid then," Shirou surmised, clenching his hands into fists.

Rin stared at him in thought for a while, eventually sighing and shaking her head. "Of all the people I know, you're the only one who took on three trained magi alone and survived." He simultaneously blinked and flinched as she gently patted him on the nose with the back of her hand. "That was all to save Sakura. Who knows what might have happened to her if you hadn't been there." Rin turned to look down over the edge, watching her own feet idly kick the air.

His hands unclenched. "So it's not stupid?"

"I didn't say that. It's incredibly stupid. But if all you want in life is to protect people, then what you're doing is the best way to do it."

Shirou snorted, reaching up to pull the scarf down from his face. "You have such a way with words, Tohsaka. Who would have thought that insulting guidance could be so effective?"

"Hey, it got you smiling again," she pointed out, smirking herself. "So you want to tell me what happened? You and your father were alone and he just told me to follow you."

Shirou sighed at great length. "How much do you know about Kiritsugu?" Her mouth opened to respond, but he interrupted her before she could. "How much do you really know?"

Rin stared at him for some time, eyes flickering down to his hands before she shut her eyes tight. "I know he's the Magus Killer and I've known for a while now. When he was first settling down in Fuyuki, he came to me in the dead of night to ask if I could be a mentor for you and Ilya. He also wanted me to keep his living here a secret from the Mage's Association," she admitted, clasping both hands in her lap with a hollow chuckle. "You might wonder why someone like me would put my magus status on the line to protect an absolute stranger, but Kiritsugu had the remnants of my father's crest and had given me information I would have never discovered on my own."

"Sounds like he blackmailed you into getting his way," Shirou pessimistically interrupted.

Rin shook her head. "It was mutual, in fact, I've ended up with way more than I started with." She turned to him and smiled. "I got to meet you and Illya. Without you, I would have never spoken to Sakura and my research would be years behind since I wouldn't have a willing lab rat." She punched his shoulder lightly, drawing a snort of amusement from him. "Even without that, getting my father's crest back was more than worth it."

The Tohsaka carefully pulled the sleeves of her turtleneck back to the elbow. Seamlessly, brilliant cyan lines appeared on her forearms. Complex lines and intricate workings in a design he couldn't entirely place. It was a blend of both germanic and nordic designs, but it was intriguing to look at either way. "So you're saying you'd be even weaker if Kiritsugu hadn't helped?"

The glare she gave him was enough to shatter glass. "You don't have any right to call someone weak, you're the only person alive who's been trained by the Magus Killer himself. Not only that, but you can summon an infinite number of weapons to fight with. Your perspective of strength is a little skewed."

Shirou forced out a cough and simultaneously scratched the back of his neck. "Infinite is a bit of a stretch."

Rolling her eyes in exasperation, the girl carried on. "Either way, Kiritsugu helped out more than I could have imagined. I have no idea where I would be without him in terms of my studies. I'd probably still be struggling to fully comprehend gem magecraft."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Shirou turned his head, looking at the girl with equal parts confusion and intrigue. He would have never expected Rin of all people to make such a long-winded speech.

Rin sighed, donning a face that showed her obvious annoyance for his lack of perception. "You know your father better than anyone, probably the most out of everyone. Whatever he showed you was bad enough to send you running. It's easy for me to see that you're having your doubts about him. My whole story was to show you that your father has done everything to care for and protect you two. I'm certain that what he's done is purely for your benefit."

The Tohsaka laid one hand on top of his, offering a genuine smile that irked at his own lips. Eventually, he acquiesced and let the smile spread across his features. "Thanks, Rin," he sighed, looking up toward the blue sky. "He's just looking out for me, he doesn't want me to-" he paused, realizing that he was a moment away from revealing sensitive information. "Yeah, he just wants the best."

Rin nodded, though her face revealed obvious concern. "That's the end of my motivational speech. It's time for us to get down from here before the police think we're planning a double suicide." The girl stood and Shirou followed, but Rin didn't move to leave. Instead, she gained a rosen blush and looked blatantly at his mouth. "We haven't…" she trailed off, playing with her hands absently. "You know?"

Shirou didn't understand for a moment but he pieced things together quickly and stumbled over the prospect. They were technically dating, and Sakura had agreed to share him, so she shouldn't be upset if he did. The only reason he was even considering it was because if he declined, Rin would be upset. With his precarious position some eighty feet above frigid ocean water, he didn't want to anger her.

He would just have to even things out with Sakura later. Patting himself on the back mentally, he figured that handling two women wasn't as hard as everyone made it seem. Unable to help a small smirk from forming, he moved one hand up to the Tohsaka's cheek and followed what felt natural.

… … …

… … …

… … …

Shirou grit his teeth and rubbed at a heavy bruise on his side. It was already turning a disgusting shade of purple-black not even five minutes after the attack. "Mr. Kuzuki really doesn't hold anything back, does he?"

Issei nodded, pushing up his glasses with two fingers in the next motion. "I have never been a spectator in his sparring matches before, mainly because they were so rare, though after witnessing his effectiveness I can see why."

Shirou grunted, cautiously touching another gnarly bruise on his left shoulder. Souichirou Kuzuki was one of the only people able to get through his suicidal technique and the man had done it easily. "Who would have thought that he would be on another level entirely?" Shirou asked, hinting at something more sinister.

Issei had only been able to watch because Shirou was an outsider to the temple. Aside, the two combatants had agreed to meet outside of the temple walls to avoid prying eyes. Both of them could see that there was more to the other than meets the eye. Each of Kuzuki's strikes were aimed with deadly precision. They were specifically targeted to disable limbs and motion or kill outright.

Shirou, on the other hand, hadn't died - obviously - and he hadn't lost function of his limbs either thanks to some slight reinforcement. The two could sense something different about one another and both were interested to learn more.

"Even though you lost, you held up considerably better than the other martial artists in the temple. Tell me, Emiya, do you have some sort of secret technique?" Issei stared at Shirou as he always did: With a cold empty stare. After being Issei's friend for all this time, Shirou could pick out the subtle nuances of emotion on his otherwise blank face. The boy was concerned, and a little frightened, rightfully.

"Something like that. There's a dojo on our property and I've been doing some private training with various…" he trailed on, memories of Bazett, Taiga and Kiritsugu himself flickering behind his eyes, "...trainers."

Issei narrowed his eyes, handing the Faker a cup of green tea. "You live a mysterious life, Emiya, but who am I to pry." Taking a sip of his own cup, the boy grimaced. "The only one I'm concerned about is Tohsaka. She hasn't sunk her claws of corruption into you yet, has she?"

Shirou laughed abruptly, throwing up his bruised hands in mock defence. "I'm still incorruptible. Don't you remember our agreement? I go out with Tohsaka so that she can't take advantage of someone clueless with her evil intent."

Issei nodded, closing his eyes solemnly. "So long as you're still pure, I believe you."

Shirou winced at the odd wording. "Now you've made it weird."

"On to more important business then," he suddenly snapped upright, edges of his lips cracking into a smile. "I've come to understand that you speak English fluently."

Shirou smirked and in passable English, responded, "Issei those glasses make you look like a nerd."

"That's great. Listen Emiya, the Homurahara student exchange program finally has a student to exchange with. I don't mean to impose on you any more than I do, but I know you well enough to be certain that you would be perfect to introduce a new student. They'll be in your class as well, so you'll have more than enough time to show them around." Issei wrapped both hands around the small cup. "I don't have many details at this moment, but I'm sure they will come soon."

Shirou sighed and scratched the top of his head. On one hand, it was a major commitment that was sure to take up his already limited time. Balancing two women, a part-time job, his studies in school and with his magecraft and physical training was hard enough. On the other hand, he would be helping out someone in need and after his deeds as Blade he could really use the karma. "Alright, but I won't be open every minute of every day, I have a job and other responsibilities."

Issei nodded. "I understand completely. Your personal business will come first, I'm certain I can find someone else to act as a standby for when you're busy." The boy looked toward the sky outside, catching the sun and making a noise of surprise. "It's time for the assembly, I'm sorry but you'll have to leave." Standing abruptly, the man bowed. "Thank you for accepting my request, I'll keep you posted."

Like he was a stray dog, Shirou was shooed from Ryuudou temple and practically thrown down the temple stairs, though it was done in the most polite way possible at the very least.

Tugging his coat around his face, Shirou inadvertently shivered as the nipping fall air struck him harder than it should have. Another year was almost over and to be honest, he hardly felt any different. Rin and Sakura had been getting significantly more aggressive, the past few weeks especially.

"Senpai!"

Speak of the devil.

As fast as he could prepare himself, an unexpectedly heavy payload slammed square into his chest, wrapping both arms around his body and clinging tight. He would have reciprocated, but his arms were trapped in the girl's breath-taking squeeze. "Sakura!" He gasped, managing to pry an arm free to pat her head comfortingly. "Don't you have archery club? How did you find me?"

"Mitsuzuri gave us a break today." Looking up with a soft smile, Sakura removed her arms from him and stood directly ahead with both hands down at her front. "And Illya told me," she explained, casting a glance back to watch the albino girl sprint toward them both.

Shirou hummed, withdrew his phone to check the time and mumbled out a passing, "Four o'clock Wednesday," before looking back up. "That means Caren is somewhere behind you two, isn't she?"

Sakura smirked and tilted her head, using one hand to push back a strand of hair from the side of her face as she always did. "You have a lot of girls wanting your attention, just remember that Rin and I come first."

Shirou opened his mouth in surprise at the comment but Illya interrupted him before he could speak. Sliding across the sidewalk, she caught onto his shirt and leaned down to catch her breath. Resting one hand affectionately on her head, Shirou waited until she recuperated enough to speak. "I was the star sprinter of the track team," she huffed, obviously still winded. "I beat everyone in races, even you and Rin." Standing upright, she peered up at him with a pout. "So am I getting fat or are my legs just too short?"

Shirou laughed, bending down to his sister's level. "You have been eating a few more helpings here and there," he began, watching his life flash behind her demonic crimson eyes. "B-but I think it's because Sakura's also a track star, and she definitely has you beat in terms of leg length."

Illya made a noise of dissatisfaction. "Whatever, we're here now." She turned to Sakura. "I told Sakura where you were and she couldn't wait, I decided to go along with her but when we were leaving we met Caren." The girl raised one hand to act as a visor over her eyes, peering toward their home. "She should be somewhere between here and there but she didn't want to run."

Shirou nodded. "We'll catch her on the way back then, did you want a ride back home?"

Illya's head whipped around to begin nodding before he was fully finished speaking and the girl seamlessly clambered onto his shoulders. With minor difficulty, he stood, wrapping his arms around Illya's legs to keep her stabilized. Starting the walk back, he directed a question toward Sakura. "So did you need me for something?" When she expressed confusion to the question, he clarified, "Why did you run all this way?"

Sakura fell in step beside him, turning her head away partly as she responded with a mumble. "I just wanted to keep you company."

Shirou made a blunt noise of surprise. "Well it's nice to have company on the walk back, it's pretty far." Illya kicked her heel into the side of his chest.

Looking up, he asked what her act was for with some annoyance. The homunculus merely nodded her head in the direction of Sakura, who was silently gazing forward with a sad smile and barren eyes. Catching the meaning, he gently bumped the Matou with his shoulder to get her attention. "We hardly ever have a moment without Rin nearby, so this is nice too."

Sakura cast him with a smile bright enough to compete against the autumn sun. "Rin always seems to get in the way, I think we should spend more time together alone, Senpai."

As Sakura faced forward, Illya patted the top of his head like a horse that had done sufficiently well. While he would have commented on the matter, it would have tipped Sakura off, though besides that - Caren was just ahead.

Moving just in front of the small priestess, Shirou offered a warm smile. "Good afternoon, Caren, did you come by for lunch again?" She nodded meekly, focusing her attention solely on the girl seated atop his shoulders. He wasn't entirely sure, but he could have sworn that Caren's face had flickered with anger for a moment.

"I haven't eaten all day," she stated plainly. To someone who didn't know her, it would have sounded blunt and rudely imposing. Shirou understood it in a more endearing way: She was fasting so that she could eat more of his cooking.

Shirou couldn't stop a smile. "Well then what are we waiting for? Sakura, could you help me out in the kitchen when we get back?"

With an ecstatic nod, the four traversed back to the Emiya house, chatting amongst themselves idly. Something surprising that had developed along the walk back, was Caren holding onto the edge of his shirt, tugging him back when he was moving too fast. Shirou passed it off as a simple reaction due to her loneliness.

Eventually, they returned home and both Sakura and Shirou worked together to host dinner around six. Everyone ate together, including Missy - seeing as how she was now involved in the magus world thanks to Kiritsugu, everyone could speak freely at the table.

The evening followed quickly though it was interrupted by a phone call intended for Sakura. After speaking on the phone, the girl bowed, excused her rudeness and quickly left, presumably back home though she didn't specify why exactly.

After another session in front of the mirror experimenting with his reality marble and nerve circuits, he examined his rapidly changing body in more detail. A year ago, only the roots of his hair were turning ashen. Now, more than half of each strand was a dull gray. It wasn't that his hair was coming in gray as it would with old age, the pigment was being actively altered from orange into gray. After days of pestering by Rin, Sakura and Illya, he had left it short just as Reines had wanted it.

Gray hair was one thing, but his eyes were also taking on the ghastly pigment. No longer were they orange with gray spots, they were now predominantly gray with little strands of orange around the iris. The coloration of his skin had darkened as well. He was now well tanned. Even his body had altered more than normal. He was just a little shy of six foot two inches, weighing one hundred and eighty pounds with defined muscles across his entire figure.

He was significantly more advanced than a normal seventeen-year-old ought to be in terms of puberty, a fact which disturbed him.

Thinking back, these sorts of changes had slowed when he had stopped using his nerves as circuits, and now after he began converting them more frequently, it had greatly accelerated.

Being shirtless on account of his bath, he could easily turn his back to the mirror and examine his magic crest. Flicking the circuits on with his mental imagery, a vast intricate array of lines sprawled across the surface of his back. Each shoulder blade featured a set of strange-looking wings. The thicker main portion tapered off into a dull point and several progressively increasing portions curved up toward his shoulder, the highest of which going so high as to nearly crest his shoulder. Even the central part which had run downward along his spine had expanded, splitting at the bottom to create three ends, like a frayed piece of cording.

Rin's books had told him, the Clock Tower had told him, even common sense had told him that magic crests didn't expand. So why was his?

Grumbling in frustration, he splashed cold water on his face and took a deep breath. He was changing, though he was unsure why. This was more than natural, but could he even stop it? Did he want to stop it?

"I am the bone of my sword, steel is my body and fire is my heart." He stopped, contemplating what to say next. Rin had told him that reality marbles were an outward projection of a magus' inner world, so was it as simple as describing what was inside of himself?

Activating his circuits, he chanted the two lines once more, closing his eyes in the search inward for something to act as the focus of the third line. Only Avalon was there, nothing else. "Within me shines Ava-" before he could even complete the sentence, his body snapped rigidly to attention. It felt as if he was being shocked by a cattle prod and the feeling continued for ten seconds before his circuits flickered off.

Gasping in a breath, he gripped onto the sink and lowered his head as the tingling dissipated. Once he had recovered, he looked up into the mirror and squinted at his reflection ominously. "Not going to be as easy as tracing, I understand," he huffed. "I'll just have to keep trying until I get it right."

Activating his circuits again, he closed his eyes and searched dapper within his mind for something, anything that would relate to his inner world. He found something, though it was small. It was a dark thing, a nagging piece of himself locked away in the farthest corner of his mind, beyond the glow of Avalon.

It was…

A loud knocking sounded from the door. "Shirou, are you coming to bed?" asked an irritated Illya.

In a second, his concentration was broken, his eyes snapped open and his circuits deactivated. Looking toward the door, he opened it casually to peer down at the small girl in pyjamas. "I'm making sure you don't run off again."

He ruffled the hair on top of her hair, messing it up thoroughly until it concealed her eyes. "Acting as a miniature defender I see. It's supposed to be the other way around you know, with me protecting you."

"Yeah well I don't run off and put myself in danger in the middle of the night," she countered, pouted and then readjusted her hair once he was done playing with it. "Without telling anyone nonetheless."

"I made a note this time. It's better than the last time I did it, right?"

Illya grumbled, obviously not thrilled about his answer. "Get in the futon and stay in the futon or so help me I'll stick both Rin and Sakura on you."

Shirou raised both hands, leaning back in submission. "Alright, alright. But if you want me to go to bed right now, you have to promise not to involve those two, ever."

Illya nodded, beaming brightly. "On my honour as an Einzbern, I swear never to reveal your nightly activities to the Tohsaka or Matou families."

Shirou merely scowled. "You lie every other day, I don't know if you have any honour left to bargain with."

The girl defiantly stamped her feet on the ground, placed both hands on her hips and glared up at him with royal intensity. "You've done it now, Emiya," she threatened.

Shirou stretched his arms above his head, relieving the soreness in his joints. "Let's just go to bed okay? You can try to be threatening tomorrow morning."

Illya's cheeks grew red, and anger spread across her features. "Oh yeah? Well I'll, I'll-" her tone grew increasingly frustrated as she looked for a way to get back at him. Her eyes locked onto a target and her hand snapped out to act. Before Shirou could react in time, Illya gripped the edge of the towel wrapped around his waist and pulled.

… … ...

… … …

Rin hauled the dingy wooden crate onto her bed with a huff. "Why did you have to make this darn thing so heavy? What could possibly be so important that it couldn't be left in your study?" Rin asked the spirit of her father, annoyed at the game he was playing with her even after death.

Sighing in exhaustion, the girl threw herself face-first onto the bed, recuperating some strength before sitting cross-legged on the bedding. After moving some hair from her face, she gently ran her fingers along the brass surface. Her eyes flickered to the small piece of paper Shirou had given her. She had been debating using it for the past few months.

She could use the cheat sheet, find out what her father left her but miss out on the satisfaction of solving it herself. Or, she could struggle with incomprehensible puzzles for an indeterminate amount of time, possibly be unable to solve them and end up never knowing the contents.

She groaned loudly, leaning forward to thrust her head into the covers of her bed. "Come on Father, just make it easy and show me what you want me to do."

After a long moment of silence where nothing of note happened, Rin sighed and lifted her head from the covers. "Fine, then I'll decide on my own." She sat motionless for a while, carefully looking between the paper and the box, weighing the options of both. "It's not the magus way, you always told me to be independent," she mumbled, taking the paper in her hand. "But mother says that my friends are important, that I can depend on them to help when I need them."

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. "Alright, I know what I'll do." Carefully, the girl unfolded the piece of paper and read the answers to each puzzle, inputting what was required of her until several clicks unlocked whatever mechanism held down the lid. There was a soft hissing pop as the seal was broken and the bounded fields surrounding the object dissipated.

The girl carefully lifted the lid to reveal a myriad number of items partly hidden by two obviously important pieces. One was a beautiful pendant on a fine silver chain. The pendant itself was a crimson gemstone with a rounded triangular cut. It held incredible depth, darkening toward the center and containing small sparkling filaments. Beyond its aesthetic quality, it also happened to be impossibly powerful. Rin didn't even have to touch it to see that mana was practically radiating from deep within it. It was more powerful than all of her gemstones combined, it would even give a mana battery like Illya a run for capacity. If she had to guess, it would have taken her more than ten years to generate the sort of mana contained within.

The other piece on top appeared to be broken. If she had to guess, it was some sort of reptilian shedding. Instead of being translucent and papery, it was thick, antiquated and leathery, similar to the hide of a boar.

It had been shattered, demolished into hundreds of small fragments, some of which were pulverized into dust. Only three pieces remained that were somewhat intact, though they were hardly the size of a mandarin orange. It boggled her mind as to why her father would put something so useless inside a box that had been such a struggle to get into, placing it right beside a relic of such power no less.

The Tohsaka passed it off as one of his many ploys. "A piece of trash to balance out something rare" or a saying of the same effect. He enjoyed doing things like that. If she really wanted to discover what it was in more detail, she could always bring it to Shirou, but what if it was something of value? Deciding to leave it for another day, she refocused on the pendant.

Rin gently wrapped her hands around the trinket to bring it closer to her face. She didn't recognize it, but it was obviously her father's. Where did he find the time to devote so much mana to charge it? If it was so powerful, why didn't he bring it along into the Grail War to act as a holdout? The trinket brought on more questions than answers and each question was more concerning than the last.

No question was as concerning as a sudden burning on the back of her right hand. Making a noise of alarmed pain, she quickly dropped the pendant onto her bed and turned her hand over to see the cause.

A wild mix of emotions washed over her as three obvious red symbols burned themselves onto the surface of her skin. Two concentric circles with small openings opposite of one another. In the opening of the largest circle, a single line pointed toward her elbow.

It was unmistakable, they were command seals. But the Grail War wasn't supposed to begin for another fifty-one years, how could she possibly be chosen now? Unless…

She needed to go to Fuyuki Church. She needed to speak with the mediator of the Holy Grail War and find out what was going on. Rin couldn't even finish looking through her father's box, this took all priority. If the Grail War was coming sooner than expected, it could start in mere days. The ritual was traditionally held during the winter, specifically January. It was the middle of December, and saying she was unprepared would be a massive understatement.

Leaping from the bed, she paused once her feet hit the ground. If the Grail War was about to begin soon, that changed everything. Everyone she knew was in danger of becoming her enemy. Sakura, Illya, Shirou and even Kiritsugu could all be fighting against her. A chill struck her suddenly. The Magus Killer had came out from the last War alive and it hadn't been on account of cowardice. While he had expressed his distaste for violence, he was also unafraid of getting his hands dirty when required.

If he were to take part in the Fifth War, would she meet the same fate as her father? Purging the thought, Rin elected to get her information confirmed before she flew off the handle.

She would go to the Church, find out what was going on and then struggle with trying to hide her command seals from everyone.


I'm prepared to have my head removed from my shoulders by the Sakura fans, but I assure you things will be balanced, as all things should be.

Short authors notes, I've had some very consistent reviews and I appreciate every single one of you, whether your review is glowing or criticizing.

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