The Clock Tower Guild: Reunited

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Disclaimer: I do not make any monetary gain from this.

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I was surrounded by miasma, dark and murky. By all rights it should have been liquid, but it clung to my ankles and wrapped around like a heavy gas.

"Turn around, Emiya."

Every nerve in my body told me to run, to not look back. Still I agreed with my foolish instincts this time and I did. The voice, deep and mellow, seemed to know me.

A youth with red eyes and a cruel smile leered at me, his form covered in the black liquid-gas. Beside him was an older man, with red eyes and a wrinkled face, he was grinning as well.

"Find the others, boy." The old man had a smirk on his face. "My bets a bit too high for me to let this go to chance."

…

My roommate opened the blinds with stunning finality, her auburn hair rolling in waves. By the smell and slight steam wafting from the bathroom, I knew that all the hot water was gone once more.

"I told you to wake me up." I groaned, and stood up from the two beds in the room. We'd been traveling since we met, searching for 'London'. A few odd jobs and we were guaranteed a stay within the taverns in the towns.

"I attempted." The towel fell and I averted my eyes immediately, only catching the tattoo on the small of her back that was mirrored on my shoulder. Something deep within me told me not to stare at her body and I agreed with it. I wished my roommate had the same decency, but she did as she wished. If said action got a reaction from me? All the better. "You were in deep sleep, have a nice dream?"

"You ask that after showing off what you did to that mountain beast?" I snorted, the memory of the lucid dream coming to the forefront of my mind. It came along with the sight of a giant one horned charging beast the size of a house being splattered against a mountain. Needless to say, the grimace that formed on my face from both answered her question.

My partner began to attend to her clothing, a simple blouse, maroon ribbon and a skirt. My mind always balked at the skirt part for some reason. She wore them for mobility and practicality, of course, but my mind didn't seem too take that statement as a decent excuse. It always calmed when I noted the boots that ran almost to her thigh, along with the heavy coat covered most of her features though. It was as though I was expecting her to wear loose pants or something, which was definitely nowhere to be seen given the outfits preferred in this continent.

I went to attend my own bodily functions within the small room. The amount of liquid everywhere told me that she actually used the tub instead of a shower like I asked. There would have been enough hot water if we both took a shower, but it seemed I wasn't about to get my way, as per usual.

The mirror caught my eye again and I couldn't help but grimace.

I wasn't bad looking, or overweight, like a few that I've regarded as such in the streets. What bothered me wasn't, in fact, anything to do with my body.

It was what was on it, though not the black circle with two hands pointing to midnight.

Scars, there were more of them than actual skin I was sure. Tiny, ragged cuts were all across the skin, I recognized them as claw marks and from different sets. I was more than a tad frightened that I both recognized them as claws, yet knew they came from hands likes my own. Lorelei always expressed a rage she couldn't quite explain the first time we bathed together in the many communal baths, that compounded with my own instincts to make it the last.

A large horizontal scar went across my abdomen, a line against forms of muscle. The first time I took note of it, a sword appeared from nowhere, and I knew exactly how I had been scarred. The weapon, be all rights, should've caused all my blood to eject from my body. I didn't know how I survived. Still at the very least that one seemed to be just like all the other scars, a tad paler strip of skin than the rest. That wasn't the case with the scar that bothered me the most.

An angry welt above my heart exited through the back, it didn't take a full set of memories to know that something terrible passed right through my heart. I questioned how I was alive sometimes, but more recently I questioned if I could die.

I didn't want to test that particular fact out, but if I talked about the dream to Lorelei and what I thought we should do I hoped that I couldn't.

That thought in mind I went to take my cold shower.

…for reasons unknown to myself, I was depressed that I was taking it to get clean.

...

There was rather painful bump on the back of my head, and my partner wasn't all that intent on speaking to me. Still the negotiations on finding others instead of looking for our home proved less terminal than I thought. Getting the silent treatment, and a large bruise in the back of my head proved was frankly pocket change compare to what I was prepared for.

The door to the train opened, and a winged, blue cat pocked his head into the room. My instincts told me that wasn't normal, but it also considered the numerous herd of animals not normal. I took my instincts word on friendly animals with a grain of salt, though it recommended that itself for recipes in cooking said animals most of the time.

"Aye." The cat pronounced, gaining a raised brown from myself and my companion. "My friend and I (Aye?) have tickets for here, aye."

"Help yourself." I found myself saying immediately, drawing an odd look from my companion. Apparently she wasn't even interested in me hearing her voice. I was more than used to her 'complete' behavior, than I wished to be. "Ah, may I have your name?"

"Happy." The blue cat began to fly, and then subsequently dragged a very sick person onto the booth, and proceeded to sit upon the unconscious man's stomach. "This is my friend, he is Natsu. He has motion sickness, aye."

"Ah good to know." I gave a nod to the blue, talking, flying cat and winced when another elbow dug into my sides. I glared at my colleague, who merely out-glared me into submission. Damn you instincts! I know you merely want me to stay alive, but bending over isn't going to help us in the long run! "E-er… so where did you come from?"

"An egg, aye!" Happy proclaimed happily and I blocked the incoming strike. Let her own actions keep her from the answers she sought! Irony smiles upon me this day! "Natsu raised me my entire life!"

"You don't know you parents?" I inquired thoughtfully, mussing about the plethora of topics that I can make small talk with whilst annoying my companion. The elbow strike was harsher this time, and I had to Reinforce my hand to catch it.

"Natsu's my dad, aye!" The cat creature proclaimed happily, producing a can filled with fish from the pack the pink haired man was carrying. Suddenly his ears drooped, and the attacks my partner was throwing began to slow. "Mom died a while ago though, a-aye."

I truly felt for the little creature, I really did. I didn't offer my sympathies merely because of the fact that the word 'Mom' didn't ring any bells. I was sure I must have had one, given the fact I was sure that was how humans worked, but nothing came up. Father elicited a great deal of fondness though, and I just accepted the fact that my father must have raised me alone.

"Do you two usually do that, aye?" The cat creature suddenly questioned, steadily munching through the fish in his can. "That doesn't seem to comfortable, aye."

I wondered at what he was addressing when I realized that Lorelei's strikes were coming rapidly, and I was using my left arm to block the perilous strikes. The angle of my arm made sure to deflect the force of her blows each time, even though I could have easily blocked it with the flat side. Another thing my body seemed to have ingrained, hand-to-hand combat it seemed to be this time.

Well that didn't seem to be the case on my partners side though, and it was suitably infuriating her. In hindsight though, having expertise in hand-to-hand combat should've been expected on my part. I did fight totally depending on having swords drop from the sky, I probably trained in unarmed to compensate if a sword never popped up.

I supposed she might as well train herself on me.

"We're just training." I offered to the cat, smiling a soft smile. I was used to giving them to children when I wanted to be alone, or didn't want them to annoy Lorelei. It was mostly used for the latter since I was actually quite good with children, in sharp contrast to my companion of course. "Ah, I forgot I didn't introduce myself."

"Cards never stack themselves up!" The cat creature shamelessly stated a quote that was somewhat relevant to what I just said. I took the statement as offered and introduced myself.

"I'm Shirou Emiya and this is Lorelei-."

"Emiya!" The cat happily pronounced my last name. "I know how married things go!"

The surprise at the statement made my defense fail. I was lucky to survive as my companion seemed too surprised to actually mold energy into her strike.

"We're not married." I held my broken nose, bringing out a handkerchief to stem the blood flow from my damaged feature. If my encounter with the troll a few weeks ago rang any truth, it would be done healing in moments. "Her last name is Barthomeloi."

"Fiancés, aye?" The cat questioned and an idle glance on my companion made me decide to save the cats life.

"Why don't you tell us about… Natsu here." I asked hoping against all hope that the rapidly angering features of my companion would clear up. She was getting redder with anger by the second! "And we're not promised to one another either."

"Lover-?"

"Your father, Happy!" I exclaimed. "I'd like to know about Natsu a bit, eh?"

"Aye." The cat agreed shortly and I knew that my ply worked. The strange being would live to see another day, thankfully.

…

Initially I had been quite underwhelmed with the society of the continent, but I learned shortly that the villages I traversed were lacking in the magic that was heaped throughout older settlements. Light posts, clean streets, impeccable houses without a hint of rot in the centuries old wood they were made out of. Of course my ability to discern the composition of most things were useful in that regard, so my companion naturally didn't care one bit.

As per usual we were milling about the tavern, questioning the many comers and goers about the goings on of the world. Truth be told 'we' was technically me since 'questioning' was in the same line as 'threaten with great bodily harm' for my companion. I was more than happy to keep people alive, and Lorelei relatively uncovered in blood.

"You might want to check with the Salamander that's come by." The grizzled merchant scratched his chin. "The guilds travel all around the place, so as I hear. He'll most certainly notice if people are clothed the same as you."

"Well that's our only lead." I thanked the man as I spoke to my still silent companion. She was really taking this the extreme… I didn't even get a word in response as she pointed at the massive crowd toting a banner with 'Salamander' scrawled messily upon it, and summarily walking towards it.

What did I ever do to earn such a companion?

"Oi, Laddie." The gruff man that owned the tavern put his massive hand on my shoulder. The man was a mountain, I stood at his chest in my height. The man was also three times thicker than I was, with a well-kept mustache and a shining bald head. "You're going to pay for everything your girlfriend ate aren't you?"

"My girlfriend?" I questioned and he jabbed a thumb behind his back. The digit was about the size of cucumber and it pointed right at the stack of plates where Lorelei had decided to sit. "Gods dammit… she didn't even-."

"Oh she did," A paper bag was thrust into my hands, and within it was a few cans of sardines of all things. She probably thought that she was getting a hand over me, but I was used to eating mediocre amounts with the diet she managed to keep up. "Time to pay up, laddie."

I handed him the amount he sought, it was equivalent to half a job and I didn't wish to part with it. Even my instincts agreed that money should be scavenged for all it was worth, and a nice healthy stack of cash would prove useful in emergencies. Still that conflicted with its absolute no-aggression belief when it came to my partner, and our combined efforts never amounted to anything.

The tavern man counted the money and crushed my hand in the handshake I accepted. I should've really thought better of it, since he could probably snap me in half without my magic. Then the man pulled me in and I stiffened, had Lorelei pissed him off? That was quite likely to happen.

"Don't worry about your girlie friend, boya." There was a large smile on his face, dazzilingly white as he whispered to me. "My wife ate me out of house and home, but she took me in hers." The man waggled his eye brows and released me with a non-to-gentle pat on the back.

It was a ridiculous notion that she was attracted to me! There was no way-.

My instincts were suspiciously quiet for some reason, and promptly left when I put any further thought in the matter. I had the feeling that my life was more ridiculous that I probably wanted it to be.

"Aye, Shirou!" A speeding cat impacted with the back of my head. "I managed to get Natsu off the moving train, aye!"

"Hello, Happy." I greeted the blue cat, allowing the furry creature to turn my head towards his father figure. "Same to you Natsu."

The young man had wide, curious eyes and defined features. Along with his pink hair it would have been difficult to confuse him with anyone else, though the large grin on his face made sure that was an impossibility rather than a challenge. The young man seemed to be on an active sugar-high that just emanated from him and towards others.

"Hey there!" The man seemed to cross the distance between the two of us in a heartbeat and began to summarily attempt to destroy my back with a rapid amount of swats of goodwill. This guy was strong! Ridiculously so even! The massive blow of the tavern attendant had nothing on him! "Thanks for watching Happy and letting me sleep, you're a good guy Shirou!"

"Yeah, well…" I started feeling embarrassed at the praise, my body responding to it by beginning to scratch the back of my head. "I didn't want to make it any harder by making the situation difficult."

"He's a great guy, aye!" Happy declared flying around my head in a small circle, I almost felt dizzy by the rapidity of the small creature in fact. Quite nimble, but what can one exactly expect form a flying cat? I was sure that I had no sort of experience in the matter whatsoever. "Humble, aye!"

There was a massive grumbling that suddenly frightened me enough to provoke a sudden sword summoning. My two compatriots, and many passerby took a few steps back.

"Ah, sorry." I apologized, it was so embarrassing for that to happen. Nothing is quite as embarrassing as summoning a blade when just surprised by the fact an ice cube was put down your shirt. My partner liked putting me in that situation, the number of times I've had to apologize for suddenly destroying a table was too high for me to be any happy about it. "I got surprised."

I searched for my bond with the blade, the same one that I read its history through with a single glance and how I knew where my blades always were. It was a simple matter of cutting that connection to the blade that makes it disappear.

Happy seemed to revel in the hundreds of miniscule fragments the sword disintegrated into, flying about them in wonderment. My companion, and the source of the massive growl whistled at the sigh.

"That's nice looking." The pink-haired boy commented. "Bit flashy for Re-Quip though, don't ya think?"

"It's not Re-Quip." I sighed as that version was stated, as far as I knew the swords that came to me didn't come from some pocket dimension. "Swords just… show up whenever I'm in a fight."

I waited for the apprehension, the raised brow, or the contempt at being thought a liar. That was usually the reaction of all the mages that inquired of my power, quickly followed by a subsequent trashing by Lorelei. I didn't really know what drove her to demand respect from anyone who crossed us, but her retribution was intense enough to not warrant investigation on my part.

"That's amazing!" The young man suddenly declared, making me blink owlishly and wince as he began to quiz me on my powers, before being shortly overcome with hunger pangs.

"How about we treat you to some lunch?" I questioned, taking the cans of sardines and handing to happy and gesturing to the tavern I just exited. "I was planning to get something to eat anyway."

The pink haired man sniffled suddenly, tears welling up in his eyes, making me take a step back. The sound was mirrored by the Happy, apple didn't fall far from the tree I supposed.

"You're such a nice person!" Natsu bawled catching me in a hug that threatened my spine. Happy didn't help matters by suddenly starting to know upon my hood. "Even though you look evil you really are nice!"

"Don't –urk- try me." I joked and thankfully the scarf-wearing boy decided he couldn't attempt to introduce my stomach to my spine and laugh at the same time.

"Hey so we're eating here right?" I blinked as I was catching my breath, Natsu was already halfway through the door. Happy decided to start eating his requisitioned cans of tuna atop my had.

"Yeah, go ahead." I waved him on. "I'll go in once I've caught my breath from all this excitement."

"Hah! I don't see a single white hair one you, you wuss!" The pink haired mage guffawed at my reasoning and I straightened up with a sigh. For some reason my instinct told me to buy Natsu as much food as he wanted, as though he was nice to me in a way in that odd sentence.

I supposed I might as well treat him to as much as he wanted, with that much strength he's unconsciously using, I can only imagine how much he need to be kept at top form.

"Hey where's your Lady friend, aye?" Happy questioned a tad muffled.

"Don't speak with your mouth full." I found myself admonishing the cats bad behavior, as I did when Lorelei spoke with her mouth occupied with food. I was glad I didn't receive a threatening glare in return this time, rather a simple 'Aye'. "Lorelei went to check on a person called Salamander that was in town." I pointed off in the distance, the congregation of peoples there. "They say he's in a guild and traveled around a lot so we hoped he might have found the rest of our guild."

"We're looking for the same guy too, aye!" The blue cat cheered tossing an empty tin to the sidewalk. I immediately picked it up, cursing my good naturalness as I did. It was as though I had no choice in the matter of choosing between right and wrong. "But is he really in a guild, aye?"

"Yeah." I clarified, inordinately happy to help the duo. From what I gathered most guilds acted to keep people safe, so the Salamander was in trouble at best or the trouble at worst. "The tavern keeper told me the guy's quite famous."

"Well that guys an imposter then, aye!" Happy happily announced. "Maybe Natsu will beat him up later!"

I blinked at that, taking the seat next to the one enjoying my hospitality at the moment.

"Wh-o –chomp- am –gulp- beating?" Natsu asked through the smorgasbord of items he had been.

Happy was probably about to explain when the door burst off its hinges, much to the weeping cry of the massive tavern owner. I didn't know which drew my attention more, the door or the cries of the heavy-set man-

"My dooooorrr! Why must this happen every month! It is like clockwork!" The large man wailed, vacating the room with tears in his eyes.

Yeah my attention was on that guy, much more interesting than a broken door.

What bothered me was Natsu didn't stop eating, as did happy at the sights. They acted as though they were perfectly used to such an environment. I could only hope that they weren't raised in it of course, but when they turned back to eating seconds after, I knew my answer to that question.

Diverting my eyes to the door, I was surprised to see the form of my partner hanging off the shoulder of a girl clad mainly blue in white. She seemed familiar, for some reason, until my eyes registered her… tracts of land, and decided she wasn't at all. A chill went up my spine when I noted that though, as though someone had walked on my grave.

Still I approached the newcomer, who was panting from carrying my partner and kicking open the door.

"What happened?" I demanded as the panting girl laid my partner onto a booth. I grabbed the water I had been served and handed it to the panting gril as she didn't speak for a moment. She was far more drained than I thought.

"Salamander –huff-." The blonde panted, nodding gratefully for the water she was give, "He was using –huff- illegal charm magic, I had to knock your friend out after she took it for me."

"…you probably didn't need to do that." I pulled out a vial of smelling salts and waved it about my partners nose. She stood ramrod straight, locked on to the blonde girl and was very ready to send said girl through the wall. "And we're not doing that either."

Need knock out.

The Lotus blade appeared, dropped onto my hand and I hit her neatly across the forehead, making the blonde shriek until she noticed no blood. The effects of the weapon not even harming my heavily empowered partner, but knocking her out all the same.

"Reversed-edge." I explained and drafted the salts underneath my partner's nose again. Once more she attacked, merely going for me this time. My technique known to her, she batted aside my blade.

Need a knoc-

Another Lotus blade fell out thin air, right onto my friend's head. The weight of the blade alone would've knocked a person out cold, combined with the effect it was rather effective. My monstrous partner went down for the count and I put away the smelling salts.

"Well that's three." I announced my intentions to the stupefied watchers. "I won't be waking her up for a while, so you can all eat peacefully."

I noticed the terrified gaze being given to me by my recently-met pink-haired associate.

"You're exactly like her…" He whispered sounding more than slightly terrified as I set Lorelei on the stool next to me. She hung like a wet noodle. The blond decided to sit next to Natsu, probably greatly frightened of me. I was more than slightly miffed.

"Well, miss." I addressed the blonde who was kind enough to carry my companion back. "Would you mind elaborating on the events that caused you to anger my partner so much."

"That Salamander guy." The girl wasn't making eye contact with me, and was doing a horrible job of not showing it. The young woman's poker face was absolutely terrible. "I called him out when I noticed him casting his illegal charm, but then he pointed it at me. When he cast it, your… err… partner blocked it."

"And you immediately knocked her out and escaped towards the town tavern?" I questioned bemusedly. That small joke seemed to snap Natsu out of his funk, and he gave a snort before resuming his meal with added gusto. "You didn't think that something used to get the attention of normal folk wouldn't work on a highly trained mage?"

"That –chomp- was pretty –chew- dumb." My conscious compatriot stated, making the girl huff and take offense. Her arms crossing under rather large… tracts of land "Hey don't be like that, we just met!" That particular fact suddenly set in and my new companion's eyes gleamed at the prospect of possibly introducing himself. "The name's Natsu, I was here to find my dad, but now I'm going to go beat up that guy who's using his name."

"Aye!" The cat atop my head declared, tossing away a can of tin to hit a man focusing on his meal. I was tempted to order one at this point, in fact. This little lunch break was going nowhere I wanted it to. "My name is Happy!"

"Lucy." The girl acknowledged, calming somewhat in the oddity that was the flying blue cat that came from eggs.

There was silence for a few moments, as I pondered what I would order from the tavern keeper if he ever returned. Everything seemed exotic to my eyes, given the fact there was numerous quotations of: actual fire! Real thunder bugs! I didn't actually know what to eat.

There was a slight coughing sound and I looked to my right if Natsu had managed to choke in his exuberant consumption. If lives depended on it, I was best prepared for the occasion to quickly act! I may compromise strategy, or forethought in the long run, but I'm sure my instincts have that all under control.

"Are you going to introduce yourself?" Lucy the blond girl questioned, as I realized that they were both staring at me.

"I'm not that important." I waved off her inquiry and they practically let their faces fall straight onto the oak bar. "What?"

"You just perform all your magic and don't decide to declare yourself?" Natsu stated in shock, as thought that particular thing was a crime or something.

"Well I'm not exactly looking out for attention…" I trailed off, habits once more deciding that what Natsu stated could be counted as praise and having my hand scratch the back of head. It was somewhat close to a nervous tick, the more I pondered on the situation of its occurrence. I essentially found myself doing it when in the attention of a others.

"Wouldn't that make finding your friends easier, aye?" The flight-capable feline atop my head questioned. "If you're famous everyone knows who you are! Just like Fairy Tail, aye!"

"Yup!" Natsu took off his coat and opened up to an open vest that revealed musculature not very far off from my own. The two-footed feline left my head and rested on the right shoulder of my companion, where an inked tattoo of some sort of bird was pressed against. "Fairy Tail!"

"So you know Salamander and you're going to bring him back with you?" Questioned the blonde. To that Natsu grinned and nodded his head, though he seemed to be in a hurry to say something until the girl interrupted him. "He has a ship, and an entire crew of mages and gunmen with him! You can't just head in and-."

"He won't," I placed down the menu, obviously the tavern keeper wasn't coming back from his crying fit anytime soon. "I'll go with him."

"Heck yes!" Natsu cheered, obviously ready to fight. I doubted someone of his strength actually needed help, but the girl looked more than slightly apprehensive about the entire prospect still. "I get to fight with a new friend."

I wanted to point out the fact that I hadn't exactly agreed to any friendships of any sort, but the look on the young man's face was just to ecstatic to deny.

"The two of you will be outnumbered ten-to-one!" The girl seemed to lose her cool, letting her tempter run lose at the thought of our incompetence getting us killed.

"Well then you should come and we can be ten to two in odds!" Natsu proclaimed with a gleaming smile, Happy deciding to fly about his saying 'Aye' again and again.

"That's not how numbers work!" Lucy yelled, and I made sure Lorelei would wake up more comfortably by shoving her into a booth. My instincts told me she wasn't going to be happy when she woke up, but I really could've cared less with the satisfaction the little vengeance gave me.

"I'm not going to wait around all day, waiting for you two." I snapped and Natsu and Happy simultaneously shivered for reasons unknown to myself. "What is it?" They were staring at my hair of all things it seemed.

"Exactly alike." The cat and young man agreed, before following me out.

Pushing that tidbit away for questioning later, I wondered how a fight without Lorelei would go.

At the very least I might just manage to actually fight this time.

…