"Hey, Mister Shirou. Hello~?"
Shirou was brought back from his reminiscing, damn he was doing a lot of that today, by the sound of clicking fingers and the pilot's voice.
"Huh? What?"
"Hey, Mister Shirou, we landed a while ago. You kinda just stared into space. Are you alright?"
Remembering that, yes, he was on a helicopter after beating a Vajra and a Kongou, and not in the hospital after beating a Sariel two years ago, Shirou stood up, and began to apologize.
"Oh! Sorry to bother you, I was just remembering some stuff."
"Hey, hey, it's alright. But you might wanna go soon, Miss Hibari said that some people you know were waiting for you and seemed rather mad."
Shivering, Shirou muttered a thank you and one last apology, before standing from his seat, stretching his legs, and entering the elevator on the roof.
Standing in the elevator, and pressing the button corresponding to the God Arc Vault, Shirou leaned against the wall as Wolf's Howl played in the background.
He worried over what the girls would do to him, before deciding to cross that bridge when he gets to it.
With the elevator arriving, he entered the God Arc Vault.
With sweet silence greeting him, as the God Arc Vault was the only place in the Den that didn't have music playing, he moved to put his God Arcs away, before deciding to do some maintenance.
Entering the adjacent Engineering room, Shirou grabbed a whet-stone, took a seat, and began to sharpen his God Arcs.
"Lower, is that it? Alright, lower it is."
Bringing his whet-stone to the bottom of Kanshou, he began to rub hard, before stopping, saying,
"Softer? If that's what you want."
Easing up on the pressure, Shirou began to gently rub Kanshou.
Finishing up, he turned to Bakuya, before sighing,
"You're so dirty, you know that?"
Moving to grab, then grabbing, a wet rag, Shirou began to scrub Bakuya's petals. Pausing, he sighed again,
"Harder, really? I'm already going as hard as I can."
Finishing with Bakuya, Shirou then brought his God Arcs together, and changed them into Bow mode.
Leaning it against the wall, Shirou attempted a casual pull on the bowstring before grunting.
"Damn, you're so tight!"
Reaching for the parts of the bow that were still blades, Shirou attempted to loosen the Oracle string, before hearing a gasp and a crash behind him.
He turned quickly, cautious against whoever snuck up on him, but also worried, before seeing...
"Ah... ah... Shirou... was doing... with who...?"
A girl, looking around 15 in appearance, with blonde hair tied in a bun and emerald green eyes. Her face was red, and if one looked closely, it seemed as if her eyes had turned into spirals.
"Saber? What are you doing here? Were you going on a mission?"
Seeming to break out of her trance, Saber stood up, dusted off her blue combat outfit, and coughed into her fist, before, with a still red face, responded,
"O-Oh, nothing much... I was just... Looking for you as Sakura and Illya had requested for me to get you... Out of curiosity... What were you doing in here?"
Blinking, confused at the statement, Shirou responded, pointing at his God Arc, still in Bow form,
"I was just doing maintenance on Unlimited Blade Works."
What Shirou said seemed to just cause an atomic reaction in her mind, as she looked dumbfounded, then her entire face went red, and she started saying,
"Wait. That was... What you said... you were just... maintaining your God Arc?"
Nodding, with a persistently confused expression, Shirou watched as Saber seemed to have a mental breakdown, before she recomposed herself and, with a blank expression on her face, just told Shirou to follow her.
Shirou, scratching his head, grabbed his God Arc, turned it back into blades, then put them in their terminal.
Surely it won't be that bad right?
*Page Break - Right After*
It was bad. First, Sakura scolded him and gave him one of her scarier glares. Taiga, who was just there because she was following Sakura, mockingly laughed at Shirou's suffering. Hibari was shaking her head, having seen this scenario too many times before. Saber was just blankly staring into space, occasionally muttering something that sounded vaguely like maintenance.
Shirou was, meanwhile, just sitting in the seiza position, shame-faced. When Sakura, who was in her 'Absolute Ruler' mode, ordered Shirou to come have breakfast, he told her he would eat after seeing Illya (and Sakaki, though he didn't say that).
This also did not go well, but after plenty of begging (read: looking her in the eyes and asking softly), Sakura let Shirou go.
Smiling, Shirou left, heading for the elevator.
Once in, yet again listening to Wolf's Howl, Shirou pressed on the Laboratory floor button, and waited, thinking on what he would talk to Illya about.
Arriving, Shirou entered Sakaki's laboratory, and greeted him.
"Hello, Doctor Sakaki. I'm back."
Sakaki, on his terminal, looked up to Shirou, then stood smiling.
"Ah, Shirou! Welcome back! How was the mission?"
"It was good. A nice workout. Did you get any good data?"
Nodding enthusiastically, Sakaki moved back to his terminal, before replying,
"Yes, yes! Quite good indeed! But I noticed that you didn't use any of your abilities. Any reason?"
Putting his hands on his waist, Shirou responded,
"Well, it was just a warm up. Did you need me to use my abilities?"
Holding his chin, Sakaki thought on it, before responding,
"Not necessarily, but it would've helped. Maybe I should send you and Saber on a mission together. I know you seem to resonate stronger with her than the others."
Interrupting Sakaki before he could go on a mumbling rant, Shirou cleared his throat and said,
"Sorry Doctor, but I'm here to see Illya. Do you mind?"
Stopping, Sakaki looked at Shirou before looking back to his terminal and saying,
"Ah, of course. She's in the back, as she usually is."
Thanking him, Shirou moved to the door in the back right of the room. Saying a silent apology for intruding, Shirou pushed the door open.
Of the various objects within, Shirou's attention was drawn to the bed in the corner. Or more specifically, the occupant within.
With her hair spread everywhere, the snow fairy, Illya, Shirou's pseudo-little sister, slept peacefully.
Taking a seat at the chair next to her bed, Shirou reached out to gently nudge her awake.
"Hey, Illya. Illya, come on. I know you were awake like 10 minutes ago."
Groaning, Illya rolled to-and-fro, before opening her eyes and looking at Shirou.
"Onii-chan. It's nice to see you."
She said this pleasantly, with a smile on her face, before she began to pout, and asked, with an annoyed tone of voice,
"Why didn't you visit me earlier? Sakura came and told me you passed by Sakaki's office. Not just that, what did I hear about you skipping breakfast to go on a mission?"
Looking away from Illya's heated look, Shirou tried to come up with an excuse.
But, before he could begin to make an excuse...
"Fuhuhu..."
He was interrupted by the sound of laughter.
"Fuhahahahahaha! Oh, Onii-chan, you should see the look on your face!"
Illya was laughing so hard that she felt she was on the cusp of death.
Shirou, meanwhile, was looking away, embarrassed.
After Illya calmed down, the two began to talk. Mostly about what Shirou did today. It was a familiar scenario, one they repeated several times a day, but not one they got bored of.
As their conversation tapers off into comfortable silence, Shirou thought more on what Illya was.
She may have been his pseudo-little sister, but she was also...
"Hey, Onii-chan... Can you tell me about Daddy?"
Shocked, Shirou looked to Illya. Her expression was serious, if a little melancholy. Shirou wondered, why now? They had been together for two years, but why was she only asking about Kiritsugu now?
For in reality, Illya was the biological daughter of Kiritsugu Emiya, born before Shirou, making her Shirou's adoptive-big sister.
Shaking the thoughts away, Shirou decided to just tell her. He should be happy that she was curious.
"Okay Illya. Okay. But where to begin?"
And so, as Shirou described Kiritsugu, as his saviour, and as his father that was awful at cooking, Illya and Shirou were both slightly smiling, from the good emotions of the memories.
Maybe everything would be alright.
*Page Break*
Thank you for reading. This is Cee and, yes, I did just make one big phrasing joke. Have y'all ever watched a bad ecchi anime, and there was that one scene where the girls are listening to the protag and someone else make noises out of context and they think they're having sex? Yeah, this was that, but from the protag's perspective.
Second, one of my reviewers, not gonna say who, has been saying that they're confused whether a chapter is in the past or present, until they read the AN. So, if you haven't noticed from the one page break this chapter, I've decided to add how long from the previous moment we've gone. But I just wanna know, is anyone else confused by the timeline?
Third, Absolute Ruler is just what I call Sakura's "Ohoho" mode. I think she has one. It was somewhere.
Fourth, alright, so Illya's room is where Shio used to stay. But I couldn't remember what it really looked like, so I stayed vague.
Thank you to amegaalfa, and WooHyeon for following or favouriting, and thank you to 98kazer again, and Kayen1024 again for reviewing.
Goodbye.