I yawn while rising up from the table in the Student Body's room. Without even realizing, I'd dozed off immediately after finishing my lunch. I turn to look at my right and see Issei sipping on a cup of tea and reading through our math textbook. "Issei, how long was I out for?"

"Well, we've been in here 20 minutes, it took you three minutes to eat your lunch… I'd say about 17 minutes." He answered me all while keeping his gaze glued to the textbook he was studying. "What's wrong, Emiya? You're a lot of things, but you've never been one to slack off. Are you not getting enough sleep?"

"No Issei, come on. You know I never get enough sleep. No, it's just that this morning was very tiresome. A lot of stuff happened." He closes his book and slides it to the side, finally looking up at me while taking a long sip from his tea.

"Is that right?"

As soon as lunch break was over, Issei and I said our farewells and went to my next class. It indeed was a rough morning. Even after the cry fest at home and the beatdown at Shinji's, the school day has just been seemingly bad. There's nothing necessarily wrong, but it's just the feel in the air; the tension. Or perhaps I'm just on edge and scared of what Shinji or Sakura will say when I see them, or what consequences might still come about for what I did to Shinji.

The last class felt like it dragged on forever, but when the bell finally rang to let us out, I practically jumped from my seat and ran out into the hallway. I'm worried, I'm worried. I haven't seen Shinji or Sakura all day. He might've went up to the house. I swear, if he made a scene in front of Irisviel, I'll rip him a new one. As soon as I make it to the corner connecting to the next hallway, I almost turn and crash into a group of girls. After backpedaling and looking at their faces closely, I realize who they are. "Hey, aren't you girls Shinji's posse? What do you want?" They receded a bit after noticing I didn't intend to be friendly and didn't want to talk, but then the one in the middle stepped up to me.

"Um, we were just wondering… You're Shinji's friend, right? Well, do you know where he is? He hasn't been to school all day and we had plans for afterwards." I shook my head at her and quickly sidestep and begin walking around the little group. Right when I finished passing them up, I hear her softly call out again. "Wait! He… also had to clean the range… today… Ms. Taiga told him to."

"He what?" I recall how I incapacitated him back at his house and mentally face palm myself. Even if he deserved it, it's pretty much my fault that he isn't here today. So, it's my fault he won't be cleaning the range. "Ugh, don't worry about it, I'll clean the range for the idiot. Next time you girls see him, tell him he owes me." After I finish talking, I walk off and hurry to the archery range without waiting for them to reply.

I want to get home- no, I need to get home, but I have to take responsibility for my actions. I'll just wipe up the place as quickly as possible and then rush back home. Once I open up the main door to the archery range, I quickly remove my overcoat and throw my bag onto the floor. I make sure to do one last thing before I get started cleaning up though; I send a text to Irisviel letting her know that I had to stay after to clean and we might have to leave a little late for our road trip. With that, I shut off my phone and crack my knuckles in preparation to begin cleaning.

I drop the dirty rag into the bucket of cleaning supplies and contently nod my head at the job I did. The floor of the place is so clean that it practically shines, and you can easily see your reflection in it. Well, that actually didn't take long at all. What time is it anyway? I glance up at the window in the range to see… it's dark outside. "WHAT?!" I rush out the front doors and surely enough, it's pitch black outside. "Ugh, dammit! I hate my perfectionist nature!" I grab my coat and sling it on before snatching up my bag and shutting the door. I was about to hit the ground running immediately after, but before my foot even touched the ground, I stopped myself. Not just my movement, but my breathing, and even my heartbeat felt like it went dead silent. Then, I heard the clashing of steel against steel, and it felt like the ground beneath my feet was quivering at what was happening nearby. Wait, what is happening nearby? I slowly turn to the sports field to see a giant cloud of dust is being kicked up. Against my better nature, I slowly inch towards the area.

Once I arrive, I feel my hair stand on end at what I see. The giant swirl of dust and the gale of wind coming from the area is being caused by two… men. At least, I think that's what it is; I mostly just see flashes of blue and red. Eventually, the rapid movements cease, and standing in the distance before me is surely two men; one in what looked like a long, red trench coat, holding two swords, and the other in blue tights holding a bright red spear. Who… no, what are they? Some kind of mutant superhumans? While most of my instincts were telling me to slowly inch away and not get involved, a part of me was amazed at what I was seeing and compelling me to step closer.

While caught up in my own thoughts, I see the man with the spear tense up and start shouting at the one in red. Jeez, I can't hear them… what could they be talking about? Suddenly, the man in blue's stance changes and his red spear begins to glow violently. Now, not just most, but everything inside my body was screaming GO. I feel the danger and killing intent emanating from the spear and feel as though if it hits the red guy, he will die. I decide I really should scram before it's too late, but the moment my first step falls to touch the ground behind me, I feel a brief resistance under my shoe and then the sharp crack of a twig snapping. Oh no.

"Who's there?!" The man in blue screamed out loud enough for me to actually hear and not even a second later, he snapped his head to look precisely where I stood. Without hesitating, I turned on my heel and broke into a sprint at 100%. He's going to kill me, he's going to kill me, he's going to kill me! I glance back one last time to see him jump straight up into the sky and vanish and the man in red just stand there and look at me. Further behind him I can see someone else wearing red, but I quickly rip my attention away from that and focus on escaping as far as I can from the open field.

I figured the best option to get away from the man would be to run, but he's probably way faster than me, so I instead opt for hiding in the school. Now that I'm in the school and realize all the classrooms are locked down though, I'm running around the halls like a chicken with its head cut off. After running a while, the hallways all start to look exactly the same and my lungs begin to burn for oxygen, so I pick a spot to finally sit down and take a breather. No sooner after I kneel to the floor, I hear a whispy noise behind me. Immediately followed by something lightly tapping my shoulder. I jerk my head behind my shoulder to look, but nothing's there.

"Boo." As soon as my head was turned, I heard him say it only inches away from my front. Before I could even turn my gaze back to him, I felt pain flood throughout my entire body, flowing from the center of my chest that had just been quickly pierced through by something.

"Agh! Uhh." I painfully twist my head back to look at the man in blue who carelessly had his spear tip lodged into my chest, and beneath it, my heart. I try to reach up to pull the spear out, but he does the favor for me, ripping it out in one swift motion, followed shortly behind by a gout of my blood.

"Sorry kid, but my master's a ruthless bastard. You were just unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." His master? I was unlucky?

"W… What?" At first the pain was unbearable, but now I feel no pain at all. My body feels oddly numb and comfortable; I'm slowly losing the feeling throughout it. My knees that I've been knelt down on are shaking wildly as though they're made of gelatin and I could tell any minute now they'd fail, and I'd fall, never to get up again. I look up at the man in blue, who doesn't say anything, but just looks at me as though I'm a pitiful mess. Then he turns around and begins to walk away while slowly fading to dust. Is this where I die? I'm going to die? AGAIN? No, no, I can't die! I can't waist the life Irisviel saved! The life that Irisviel… Irisviel… "IRISVIEL!"

"What!?" The blue man stops fading away and looks at me in bewilderment from my sudden outburst. I rise up to my weak feet, my vision turning dark in the corners, and my brain turning to radio static, losing its ability to process anything from the loss of oxygen getting delivered. Get him; it's the last thing I want to do. I weakly take one step forward, and with all my strength, clasp my two hands together and swing them into the spearman's face. He doesn't try to block it, and when it hits him, his head doesn't so much as move an inch, but his expression becomes extremely flabbergasted. "How are you-" Before he could finish his sentence, I follow through on my completely ineffective punch by limply draping my arms across his shoulders, moving to his right, and finally letting all my muscles stop, putting my entire deadweight on his right side while leaning forward. "What the hell are you doing kid?!" He doesn't stop himself from falling the direction I'm leaning onto him, whether it be out of pity for my dying wish or if he's still caught up in his own astonishment that I'm trying to fight back.

"Eye… for an… eye." His eyes widen, but by the time he realizes what I'm doing, it's too late. He turns just in time to see one of the glass pane's in the school's hall only inches away from his face. At the very last second, I feel his muscles tense up beneath me, but he's already crashing through the glass at this point. Then, I feel his weight fall away from me and descend to the school yard beneath. My eyes are closed now, but I can tell I didn't fall with him, indicated by the feeling of the jagged edges of glass from the window pane sticking up into my gut. Not… it'd matter… I… die anyways. Right before my thoughts cease, I hear laughter and muster the will to open my eyes. The last thing I see before everything shuts down is the blue man standing on top the shaft of his spear, which he stabbed into the side of the school building, only a few feet beneath me.

"…I can at least stay with you until you die…" What? Am I hearing things? I died, right? "Oh no… Why'd it have to be you!? What were you doing here?" I was… I… I picked archery over Irisviel, again. "Once she finds out… oh no." She? Oh yeah, when Irisviel sees I'm dead… I don't want to think about what would happen then. "It's a shame to see it go, but this one should have enough magical energy stored to be able to do it." … Magic?

My eyes softly flutter open. I sit in a daze for a moment, wherever I am, not sure what blurry picture I'm looking at. I lift my hands up and roughly rub the tired out of my eyes, and when I open them again, I see I'm at school in the middle of the night. I'm sitting on the floor with my back against the door to a classroom. School? Suddenly, the events of what transpired only a little while ago rush back into my head. I look up to see that the window is busted with glass everywhere. I glance down at my shirt to see a bloody slit on the fabric above my chest and a few punctures near the base of the shirt, right above my belt. After checking my chest and abdomen, I affirm that I have no open, bloody wounds. It wasn't a dream… but then how… I look to my right, and on the floor, next to a few pieces of the shattered glass, is a pendant with what looks like a huge ruby. I wobble up to my feet, snatching the ruby up as I go, before making my way down the hallway so I can hurry back home.

Everything was a haze on my way back. Somewhere along the way I realized that I dropped my bag back in the sports field. I wonder what Irisviel said. I hope nothing bad happened. I'm not quite sure why, but after what just happened, I feel like there's a very important reason for this "road trip" that Irisviel failed to mention. That being the case, my walk turns to a jog and, eventually, a sprint to get back home as quickly as possible. Despite my aching chest and abs, I run to the best of my ability down the dark streets.

When I'm finally safely inside the house, I'm gasping for air, completely out of breath, and my sides ache to the point I feel like crying. I shut the front door while wondering why I'm so exhausted. I don't know how I survived, but whatever saved me must've not went into full effect yet. Normally, a run like that would be nothing, but I feel like I just ran kilometer after kilometer nonstop. I suppose I shouldn't complain, considering this is the second time I've practically been brought back to life. I eventually break my worried thoughts when I realize that Irisviel didn't rush to greet me at the door like she usually does.

I begin walking down the hallway to go check her room, but I stop mid-step when I see her passed out in the dining room, her head resting on the table and the tv playing on low volume. I guess Sakura went home… I tiptoe in and walk around the table to look down at Irisviel. In her hand is her cellphone with the screen still shining brightly. I gently reach down and slide it out of her hand, taking extra care to ensure I don't wake her up, before looking at what she had open when she passed out. It's… our text messages. At 4:15, just a bit after I sent that text to her: "WHAT! :O Shirou! I told you we were leaving right after you got out of school. Can't you get someone else to do it?" At 4:30: "Shirou? … Alright! Fine! I'll allow it, but if you get home any later than 5:00 I'm gonna be really, really mad at you!" At 5:00: "SHIROU! WHY AREN'T YOU HOME YET? :(" 6:00: "Shirou… Oh God, please just respond! I'll even stop being mad if you just tell me you're alright…"

After that, there's no more messages. And I didn't get home until an hour or so later… She sat here waiting for me all this time; staring at her phone and hoping I'd respond. "Irisviel… I'm sorry." Even though it wasn't my fault at all that I was so late getting back here, it was my fault for making her worry and not bothering to check for her texts at any point while I was cleaning. I should wake her up. Regardless of how mad she'll be at me, she'll be even more angry if we don't head out on this road trip tonight. I lean down to shake her shoulder, but right before I touch it…

What is this? The horrifying sense of dread whenever I saw that spearman, it's… I step back and fall to crouch on my knees right as the crimson spear jettisons through the space my head occupied a half-second ago and stabs through the dining table. "You! So, you did survive getting pushed out the window…" The spearman forms into his human state before me, his hand clasped tightly around the base of his spear. He looks at me with an agitated expression and grunts while he yanks the spear out from our table. I look down to see Irisviel is now wide awake and looking up at the man in horror while slowly backing away from the table. "Irisviel, run! He's dangerous!" The man yanks his glare away from me and rests it on Irisviel.

"Who's this, boy? Your girl? Whoo, she's a pretty hot number." The man raises his spear up like a javelin and aims it right at her before cocking his arm back. "It's a shame a hot babe like you had to get involved with this too." Wait, what'd he say? His arm, his spear, what he just said; he's going to kill her?!"

"Aghhh!" I scream out and jump up, rushing towards him before I even realize what I'm doing. He looks back at me and the glare he gives me is enough to make it feel like my legs are made of lead. No! Even so, I can't stop! I will protect Irisviel! "Take this!" I continue barreling towards him and when I'm within striking distance, without even thinking, I slug him across the face as hard as I can. As soon as my hand collides with his cheek, I feel the urge to scream in pain rise up as the punch I threw is met with incredible resistance. I look up to see his face didn't budge at all from me hitting him, but he now stared me down with a smile and a glint in his eyes.

"Ohhh, you up for a fist fight, eh? This is actually the second time now that you've hit me. What kind of a maniac tries to punch a Heroic Spirit?" A Heroic Spirit? "Well, whatever. I have no idea how you survived me shish kebabbing you back there kid, but I'm sure glad you did." The blue man releases his hold on his spear and it fades away to dust, leaving him unarmed before me. "It's been far too long since I've been in a good fist fight. Of course, the chances of you winning this are practically zero, but this is the only chance you have. Show me what you got." As soon as he finishes blabbering, he raises up his hands and enters an odd stance that I've never seen before. I look to the side of him and see Irisviel still staring at us in shock.

"Shirou… a Heroic Spirit…" What is she doing?!

"Irisviel, hurry and get out of here! Go while you still can!"

"B-But Shirou you-"

"Irisviel, RUUUN! Can't you see you're in danger?!" Apparently, the man in blue doesn't care much for me having a conversation in the middle of our fight. On pure instinct, and from the brief moment I saw his body tense up in the corner of my vision, I flung myself from him and to the right side of the room, crashing into the wall the tv rested against. I look up just as his punch he threw while I dodged crashes into the wall and blows a hole clean through it, roughly the size of a beachball. I feel my mouth gape open as I stare in shock at how strong he is. I look at Irisviel who seems even more shaken up by the display. "I won't say it again, get out of here NOW!" She looks at me helplessly and finally jumps to her feet, quickly rushing out into the hall while sobbing worse than I've ever seen before.

"You know kid, this isn't gonna be any fun if you're not gonna fight. If that's the case, I'll just-" I cut him off by closing the distance between us with a jump from where I fell against the wall and off the table towards him and, using the momentum, another punch with my right fist to his nose. Ugh! What the hell is this?! Just like before, the resistance against my punches are incredible, and even a square punch to the soft tissue of his nose isn't enough to affect him at all. "Oh, so we are gonna fight huh?"

"Are you kidding me? Did you see what you just did to Irisviel? And you plan on killing her after this to boot? Ha, no we're going to do much more than fight; I'm going to put you down like the dog you are!" I can feel his face bounce slightly beneath my fist as he lets out a soft chuckle at what I said.

"Is that right? No, no, maybe I shouldn't underestimate you at all. I mean, you're challenging me, a Heroic Spirit, to a fist fight. You must have some tricks up your sleeve." Some tricks? Nope, nothing. I pull my fist back and immediately go in for an uppercut with my left hand, but stop halfway and quickly duck, feeling another one of his punches barely whiz past the top of my scalp. "Dang kid, you're really good at dodging my punches. Not only good eyes, but your instincts must be top notch."

"Shut up!" I go in for another wide swing with my right arm, but this time instead of just letting it hit him, the man effortlessly sways to the side, dodging it completely. I don't let it slow me, and I go in for a quick succession of blows. I aim all four of my consecutive punches with my right arm at his face, and just like before, he dodges all of them. However, I trick him on the last one, swiftly swinging my torso to the right and slamming my left elbow into his gut.

"Ugh! What?!" I quickly recoil back onto my tiptoes, ready for a counter attack, but instead the man was bent over, clutching his stomach as though I severely hurt him. What? Could that be his weak point?! "Just kidding!" He immediately regained his composure with his snide comment and, right afterwards, lunged at me with his right arm cocked back. Shit, it didn't affect him. The way his arm's positioned… a right punch? I quickly lean to the side, ready to dodge his swing, but as soon as I do, I see a wide grin spread across his face. No! It's a fake out! I turn on my heel and hoist myself to the opposite direction, just as his left arm swings up for a powerful uppercut.

"Ah!" Even though I managed to barely dodge it, the force behind his swing was so great that I'm being blown back. I brace myself as I crash through the doorway and into the hall. My shoulder crashes against the wall, but I quickly regain my bearings and take the extended distance between us as a chance to make my way outside where it's more open. Dammit! I run as fast as I can down the hallway and contemplate how the hell he could be so powerful. He didn't even make contact with me and yet I was blown that far back. I even felt myself rise up in the air a few inches initially. If he actually landed one of those punches, it'd be game over.

I finally make it to the hallway with the door that leads to our backyard. I notice the door is open, indicating Irisviel must've gotten out. Wait. If she's in the backyard… I can't take him out there! I'll have to- I turn around after hearing the rapid footsteps and the sound of the man jumping up from the wooden floor. A strike from above? I look up to see him with his hands clasped together above his head, falling and getting ready to swing down like a sledgehammer. Shit, I have to take a gambit! I dive straight forward, beneath him midair, and slide across the wooden floor. I hear him fall and slam his hands down to the wooden floor where I just stood. I could feel the shattering of the floor he struck and the vibrations in the surrounding wooden planks from the force. Followed shortly behind, the sound of glass breaking as a few of the windows in the hall gave out from the insane blow.

"Damn kid. You are really good at not getting hit. You're starting to get me determined to land a punch on your annoying little self." I can't compete with this guy… No. I don't know how, but I'll beat him. If punches and blunt attacks won't work, then I'll stab him. But with what? … My lucky arrow! No, I can't do that. Just like my cell phone, the arrow is in my bag, which I left in the sports field. I rise up to my feet and catch my breath in my throat as the man instantly starts launching jab after jab at me. I couldn't sway and duck to dodge them as he could mine because his punches are completely on another level. They just look like blurs as he moves faster than my eyes can keep up with. All I can do is keep back stepping down the hallway and staying just out of his striking range. Eventually, I end up next to the open door leading to the backyard and as I pass it up, the man in blue smiles devilishly at me. "It's over kid, you lose." What?

"What do you-" I know what he means as soon as I step on it. I guessed at what it is before I look at it, and as soon as my eyes land on it, my suspicions are proven. Irisviel's phone. I stepped back on it and now that foot is sliding back, slipping, and my balance is lost. Dammit! She must've dropped it in her rush to get out! When I look back at the man, his grin is gone, and his fist is already flying towards me. No time to dodge. No time to escape. All I can do… Is block! I raise up my right arm just in time for his fist to collide with my forearm. With no effort at all, it snaps in two before my eyes, as though it was made of scrap paper. "Agh! AHHHH!"

"You're through kid!" He turns on his feet and presses forward with his punch, pinning my snapped arm between his fist and my chest, before walloping me to the side and out the door, into the backyard. I fly a few feet in the air before roughly landing on the grass and skidding a few more feet. Whenever I stop sliding, I instantly sit up and look down at my arm. I stare at it in shock while my rapid breathing goes out of control. My… My arm. The arm is snapped; both the radius and ulna bones in my forearm are completely broken and the bend there and at my elbow has my arm looking like a U shape now. This pain… it's unreal, but I have bigger things to worry about now. The blue man is now strolling across the grass towards me. He summons his red spear back into his hand, which glows eerily in the bright moonlight. "Well kid, for a normal guy, you sure as hell can fight."

"Am I… ngh, supposed to take that as a compliment?" The man chuckles and twirls his spear around before jabbing it into the ground next to him.

"You can take it as whatever you want, but yes, I meant it as a compliment. It's a shame too. If only you were a mage or had a magical weapon, a noble phantasm. I'm sure in the hands of you, it'd be frightful; a truly amazing battle." Once he's done with his little speech, the man pulls his spear from the ground and points it at me, closing in the little distance that remained between us. "But… you're not. You, sadly, don't have either of those. You're just a normal, unlucky guy. And with that," He pulls his spear back slightly, getting ready to jab it forward and through my chest once again. "goodbye." I feel an overwhelming fear and dread wash over me. No, not again. I don't want to die a third time. But… it's over. I fought him with everything I had. And it wasn't enough. I lower my head, not feeling confident enough to watch the crimson rod be driven through me again. Just as I feel as though I can come to terms with this, I remember something. A fiery, harsh memory, that turned to a cool, serene one.

"… No!" A memory with a white-haired woman who saved a boy and took him in as her own. "This isn't where I die you bastard!" She always smiles, always laughs, always loves me. "Spear or not, I will beat you regardless!" The man in blue grins once more, but apparently decides to not go easy on me this time. He finishes pulling his arm, readied with his red spear, back and steps forward before jabbing it forward. Irisviel… If I die here, wherever you are, he'll find you, and then it'll be you next. To my last breath, I'll keep fighting for you! I sling my right arm to the side as forcefully as I can muster, snapping my bones to align as straight as they can. "LET'S GO, BASTARD!" I pull up my fists despite the overwhelming pain and ready myself to take the strike from his spear and keep fighting, tooth and nail.

"Sorry kid! No dice!" The spear closes in and as soon as it passes between my two, raised fists, I grab at the shaft in an attempt to stop it. As soon as my fingers wrap around it, I realize how futile it was to try. As if I was attempting to push a moving truck against the direction it's driving, the spear continues forward, propelled by the man's godly strength. I'm… sorry. Irisviel. The very split moment I feel the sharp tip prick the skin where it had pierced earlier, I bite my lip, ready for the coming, familiar surge of pain.

"Hyaghhh!" In the same time the very tip of his spear touched my skin, a shouting figure collided into the side of the man in blue, quicker than I could process, to which he quickly withdrew his spear from me and rose to defend his side, just in time to block the… air? That clanking of steel clashing against steel… Is there a sword beneath that air? I follow the small, swirling vortex of air to the gauntlet-clad arms holding it and then up the arms, to the face of the one who just saved my life. A… young woman with golden hair and crystal blue eyes stood before me, matching this overwhelmingly powerful man with equal strength. "It's time for you to back-" The girl raises the invisible sword she has clasped in her hands up and over her head. "up, Lancer!" Lancer? The girl forcefully swings her blade down and clashes against "Lancer's" spear, but the force proves too great and he gets knocked back, flying a few feet away before swiftly landing in a crouching position on his feet and his free arm.

"Another heroic spirit? Shit, this just got so much more complicated." I look away from Lancer and back up to the new stranger who seems to have just saved my life. Upon noticing my stare, she too breaks her gaze from Lancer and looks down at me. She looks as though she's the same age as me. Just… where did she come from?

"I ask you, young man…" Ask me? What's she going to ask me? I ready myself, just in case this newcomer also wanted to take my life for whatever reason. "I ask you to please clear out the immediate area. A battle between servants is about to go underway. You can go wait with my master, where it's safe." Wait… what? Your… master? Servants?