"Ah man... Where is he?"

"I do not know, Captain, but we are likely on the correct path."

"I agree. If the people's reports are accurate, then Emiya was jumping from roof to roof, carrying his God Arcs."

On a road parallel to the Emiya household, three figures were standing around, looking fairly confused. These three were Shirou's teammates, Kota Fujiki, Rin Tohsaka, and Saber.

They had been sent after Shirou by Doctor Sakaki after seeing Shirou storm out of the Den, being told he would likely need backup, and that they should bring their God Arcs.

Now here they were, in the emptier streets of town, lost without eyewitnesses to point them in the right direction.

Their collective pondering was disrupted by a loud proclamation from a weird woman with brown hair and eyes.

"Hey, you three! Do I know some of you!?"

Running towards the trio, the woman, who exuded an almost childlike aura, began looking closely at them, mumbling lightly before clicking her fingers with an 'Aha!'

"I know you!" she yelled, pointing at Kota.

"You're one of Shirou's God Eater friends! You visited him when he was hospitalized!"

Blinking, Kota pointed at himself, silently asking if she meant him, before taking on a look of deep concentration. Snapping his fingers, he responds,

"Oh yeah, you were that crazy lady that smothered Shirou. Taiga, right?"

Smiling and nodding, Taiga responded,

"Uhuh. Yep, that's right. Wait..."

Suddenly, an aura of death surrounded her.

"Don't call me Taiga!!!"

*Page Break - After Beating Kota Up*

"Man... She's like a beast."

"Don't worry Captain. It was at least funny."

"... That doesn't make me feel better."

After Taiga had destroyed Kota, she and the two girls had a conversation about Shirou's whereabouts, where they learned where Shirou's house was.

Turned out, Taiga was also heading to find Shirou. When they arrived at his house, they discovered it was empty.

Taiga asked if Shirou said anything that stood out to them, that might indicate where he could have gone.

The three, two really since Kota was still out of it, racked their brains. It was Rin that answered, saying,

"I remember him saying a name. Something-ji. It ended with a -ji."

Tilting her head, Taiga thought on it before supplying,

"Shinji?"

"Yeah, Shinji. That's it."

"Shinji, huh? That's Shirou's best friend. His house is down the road that way. The two story one with the gate out front."

So there they were, moving down the road to the Matou residence. There was no one around, and it was deathly quiet. The only thing Kota could do was chat to fill the empty air.

As they walked, and he talked, they all began to really worry about Shirou. It wasn't normal for Shirou to ignore people, it wasn't normal for Shirou to be angry, and it certainly wasn't normal for Shirou to act needlessly aggressive to others.

Not only that, but he ran out of the Den carrying his God Arcs, which is automatically a call for alarm.

Reaching the Matou residence, they all stopped worrying, instead deciding to just find Shirou.

At the gate, they wondered if they should knock or open it, until Rin just hopped over it, prompting the others to do the same.

Reaching the door, Kota went to knock only to see it open. With slightly more concern, Kota walked into the building, before calling out,

"Shirou!? Mr. Matou!? Shinji!? Anyone home!?"

Waiting for a moment, and hearing no response, Kota gestured for the other two to enter with him. Beyond the door, the path immediately split in two directions, and a stairwell.

Peeking down all three paths, Kota decided to split the party, with him taking upstairs, Rin taking the left path, and Saber taking the right.

It wasn't long before Rin came across the trapdoor, and gathered the others. Looking into the depths, they all took a deep breath, before taking the stairs down.

They walked for a while.

*Page Break - Continuing from last chapter*

Gasping from the pain, Shirou stuttered out,

"S-Sakura..."

With a giggle, Sakura responded.

"Now, now, Senpai. You should just be quiet and rest. After all, aren't you tired from fighting Shinji?"

Groaning, Shirou tried to raise his arm, only to slump back down. Looking to Zouken, he began to cough, until he was able to cough out a question.

"W-Wha *cough* What did you *cough* do to her!?"

With a chuckle, Zouken answered,

"Oh, nothing much. Just infected her with some Oracle Cells taken from a Humanoid Aragami, modified from the ones Shinji was infected with."

Spitting out some blood, Shirou responded,

"You... bastard... Change her back..."

Raising a brow, Zouken mockingly said,

"Oh? Why should I change her back? Why don't you just kill her, like you did Shinji?"

Grunting again, Shirou tried to raise his arm again, this time being able to bring it to the tendrils impaling him, but lacked the strength to sever it.

"Hahahahahaha! How pathetic! Where is your fire, boy? Weren't you going to save her? Well, too bad! She will be like this as long as our Oracle Cells are linked!"

Suddenly, Shirou stopped moving, before turning his head from Sakura's slightly psychotic smile, to Zouken's degrading face.

"So, Sakura's like this, because you're here?"

Chuckling lightly, Shirou slowly raised his right arm, before elaborating,

"So if you die, I can save Sakura?"

He then threw Bakuya at Zouken with all his might. Some black tendrils spread from Sakura to intercept Bakuya, but were only able to slightly alter its trajectory. It struck Zouken in the chest and... flew straight through. No traction. No blood.

Dumbstruck, Shirou just watched as Zouken's body separated into smaller parts, listening to his chuckling.

"What? Did you really think it would be that easy? Of course I wouldn't come here without some way to protect myself! This has all been for my goal to reach immortality! And I am finally on the cusp! But, I am missing something. Something... unique. A natural mix between human and Oracle. Do you know something like that, Emiya?"

Shirou kept silent, instead just glaring at Zouken, who had reformed, and trying to subtly retrieve Bakuya, only to silently curse at his lacking amount of energy.

"Oh? You won't talk? That's fine. I'll just make you. Sakura! Hold him up."

"Yes Grandfather."

Besides the tendril impaled through Shirou's midsection, Sakura rose more black tendrils to wrap around his arms, legs, and neck, to keep him standing straight mid-air.

"Now then, where to begin? Ah, I know."

Walking forward, Zouken raised his arm, and had it separate and reform into a giant claw, similar to an ant's mandible.

Being close enough to Shirou, he then thrust his claw into Shirou's left leg, just above the knee, and dragged downward, making sure to avoid the bone.

Shirou recoiled with a muffled cry, before shaking his head and ignoring the pain.

"Oh? Not enough? Then how about..."

Walking behind him, Zouken separated and reformed his back into wings reminiscent of an insect's, before taking flight, and lightly drawing his blade across Shirou's back.

He then pierced the skin, slowly, until he reached the spine. He then, slowly again, dragged the claw downwards, until he reached Shirou's tailbone.

This time, Shirou had to bite his lip hard enough to draw blood to prevent outright screaming.

"Just a little more I think."

Floating so he was facing Shirou, Zouken moved his claw over to Shirou's left arm, before just ripping into it.

Muscles, ligaments, bones, he just kept slicing and slicing, wanting to make Shirou feel pain.

"Ah!"

Finally unable to contain it, Shirou cried out in pain, and dropped Kanshou as his arm could barely twitch anymore.

"Ah, there we go. Now, tell me what I want to know, or I'll rip apart this next."

Zouken then gestured to Shirou's Armlet. This action made Shirou run cold. If his Armlet was broken, then he would become an Aragami. That means he would hurt people. Kill people. He doesn't want that. He only wants to help. He would rather die.

But...

But he didn't...

He didn't want... To betray someone he swore to protect...

Whether he should fight for his dream, and live, or keep his promise, and become an Aragami, was a decision he was at war with himself over.

"Hmph. No answer? Then this is the end."

Raising his claw, Zouken prepared to rip apart Shirou's Armlet, until...

"Shirou!!!"

"Gandr!"

Two attacks made if Oracle all aimed at Zouken appeared from the entry door. And while he had gotten away unscathed, he was no longer close enough to cut him down.

Instead, Shirou was now being held by...

"Thanks... Saber..."

"Do not worry. You fool."

After cutting him free of the tendrils that still held oon and weren't destroyed by the Iracle shots, Saber dragged him back with her and landed near Rin and Kota, who now stood protectively around Shirou.

"Ah. It seems we have more guests. Sakura, would you mind entertaining them while I have a talk with Emiya?"

"Yes Grandfather."

With that, the greater part of the Operation, dubbed "The Madman's Desire; Black Petals", had begun.

*Page Break*

Thank you for reading. This is Cee and, oh God, if I felt the last one was bad, then this one felt worse. It doesn't help that I was distracted while writing most of it, as I was watching a 5 hour critique of Persona 5. Anywho, I'm glad to see a lot of people were feeling sympathetic for Shinji. Just goes to show, you can make any character sympathetic when you make them make good choices in life, but still fuck them over.

Second, hey look, Taiga. She's here. She's gone Tiger mode. And she's gone. Buh-bye!

Third, trying to differentiate between Rin speaking politely and Saber's normal speech is a bit difficult, but I like to think that Saber doesn't speak in contractions. So instead of saying it's or can't, she'd say it is and can not.

Thank you to Glory over a new dawn, JawsOnYou67, and ljohnkelmer for favouriting or following, and thank you to mauraman3000 again, Glory over a new dawn, ptl again, and XenoVise for reviewing.

Goodbye.

Word Count: 1535