5th Day – Part 2 – Poisoning

Matou Shinji was impatiently waiting in front of his house. It was almost five, but nothing seemed to be ready, neither the main actor, nor the stage. "Damn, that Assassin, things should have been ready by now, hopefully nothing has gone wrong." He kept clicking his tongue in anticipation.

"Do not worry, master, everything is as the plan requires. As I told you, I doesn't matter how cunning a person may be, so long as you can push the right buttons, they will act exactly as you please." Although he spoke almost tonelessly, Shinji could detect pride in Assassin's voice. Well, what they just pulled was worthy of any and all pride.

It was worth it talking with his Servant about each other's lives. Just like he read, they soon started "dreaming" about each other's lives, which was quite useful, since Assassin was really good at grasping the details that affected each person.

It was quite uncommon for Zouken to send Sakura to the worm room in consecutive days, but Assassin saw a common theme between all of the times that it happened: He was annoyed at something, irritated by little things like sounds that pile up one by one, until he takes it out on the girl who cannot ever oppose him. In addition to that, he always left her alone so long as he had something important to reflect about.

As things seemed to be sliding into place, Shinji started to find it was hard to hold his laughter. "Hehe, you're right Assassin, that crappy old man is quite the simpleton once you stop irrationally fearing him, not only that he's too arrogant and cannot imagine that someone might outsmart him. Not only that, he isn't as focused on his goal as he'd like us to think."

So he could prepare the situation, he held out information on Lancer and Archer for a few days. Well, he might also have embellished their abilities a little since he wanted to make sure Zouken was going to want to think about it, so he could be forgiven, right? When he realized what he just thought, Shinji's smile turned to a frown. Screw it. I don't need to be forgiven by anyone, least of all that sadistic old bag of crap. He won't know what's coming, well at least not until it is impossible for him to dodge it.

For now, he had to concentrate on Emiya. He should be getting here soon, and then, Shinji's revenge would be put in beautiful motion.

Who was the Servant's Master? The most obvious answer would have been Matou Shinji, but it couldn't be. Shirou reminded himself that Rin said that the Matou bloodline as Magi had died, they did not have Magic Circuits, but who else would have wanted him to go to the Matou household? It was all the more suspicious considering that Shinji was absent, wouldn't he have just went to Shirou if he wanted to talk? Maybe the Master was threatening the Matous for some reason? If it was so, Shirou wouldn't forgive him, whoever he was if he did something to Sakura. The girl was unrelated to the War.

Rin told him that generally, only the oldest child learned magic, in order to keep the knowledge concentrated, and that the younger children were either raised as normal people or put up for adoption. Shirou hoped that Sakura was raised to have a normal life. It's no use worrying about that, I have a feeling that I will have an answer when I get there.

He arrived at the Matou household a few minutes late, he hoped that wasn't a problem. There to welcome him was Matou Shinji, grinning like he had just seen something good. Despite that, he looked pale, was he okay?

"Yo, Emiya, it's good that you made the time to come up here and visit us, it really gladdens my heart. No, really, I wouldn't have known what to do if you hadn't shown up." There was something profoundly suspicious about him. Shirou couldn't really remember when was the last time that his "friend" treated him with such friendliness.

"Shinji! So you're that Servant's Master after all, what are you planning?" He felt that he should be careful, even if Assassin had already let pass a chance to kill him, it didn't mean that he, or his Master, wouldn't change his mind.

Shinji threw his hands up in the air as if mocking fear. "Whoa, Emiya, temper that look of yours, trying to test if you can kill me with it?" That mocking tone was more like it.

"I still don't quite trust you, Shinji. Why did make your Servant do that? What are you trying to pull?" Shirou had decided not to stop home to pick up wooden swords, but he still found a couple sticks that he could strengthen if need be. He moved his hands to his bag, where they were stashed.

"Huh? That's strange, because you came alone just like I asked you to, isn't it too late for misgivings now? Even if you try to use your Command Spell, my Assassin is fast enough to stop and kill you before you activate it." He sighed and turned his back. "Well it hurts me, but if you can't trust me, I'll have you leave then. Don't worry, I won't send Assassin after you, just go." He started to walk towards the house.

"Wait!" Shinji stopped. "I can't give unreserved trust, but as you've said, me coming here alone is a show of goodwill, is it not? Why did you call me here? And why did you go as far as making your Servant exclude Tohsaka from the conversation?" He wanted to listen to what Shinji had to say after all.

Shinji looked at him for a few moments before answering. "Fine, that sign of goodwill will have to do then. As for not having Tohsaka come here, it's the issue of trust. Just as you don't trust me too much, I don't trust the perfect Magus that Tohsaka is too much. Understand? What is soon going to transpire inside the walls of the Matou household is something that I'd rather keep between the family and intimate friends." It was all said in such a serious tone that Shirou felt awkward.

That still did not change the way that he was called. "Why didn't you call me yourself? Why have your Servant do it?"

"Hey I'm sick, even someone as dense as you can tell, right? I'm not really healthy enough to go walking around right now, you see. Which is why I don't think I have a very good prospect of winning this War. I thought that maybe, I would at least have the power to do something important, but it turns out I was wrong; hence why I am having you come here. I need your help. No, Sakura needs your help." Each line was delivered with just the needed amount of dramatic tone. However, it was all unneeded as there was only phrase that really caught Shirou's attention.

"Sakura, needs help?" He felt as if there was a lump in his throat, that couldn't be, only a couple of days ago she seemed like there was nothing wrong. Wait, is Shinji is a Master, then maybe she was attacked? Panic flooded Shirou. "What do you mean? What happened? Tell me, Shinji!" He gripped Shinji and started to shake him.

"Calm down Emiya, if you're unable to keep your cool, then this can only end in tragedy. First of all, promise me this, no matter what, you won't lose your cool, can you do that?" Shinji put his hands firmly on Shirou's shoulder, as if to give him confidence.

"I…" Shinji shouldn't even need to ask him that. Shirou knew he needed to keep his cool if he wanted to save people. "Of course I can. I'm sorry, Shinji, I shouldn't have made you ask this of me."

Shinji smiled. "That's good. That's why I chose to ask this of you, Emiya. You're such a good guy. This had to result in something good for us Matou." He turned around again, but this time made a signal for Shirou to follow him. "Let's start, I still have to prepare a few things, come on in, I'm going to explain the situation to you before we get to the action."

"I'm listening."

As always, the inside of the Matou Household was quite dark, so much that if Shinji didn't keep talking, Shirou felt that he might lose him. "Tohsaka probably told you about the thing with Magi families and heirs right? So I can skip that part, no?"

"Yeah, and since you're the Master from Matou that means that you are a Magus and Sakura is just a normal girl right?" He could barely see it but it seemed that Shinji shook his head.

"Unfortunately, the reality of the Matou house is much more complex than that, Emiya." They had gotten to Shinji's room. "You see, when Tohsaka told you that the Matou house had dried up, she wasn't lying. I was born without a single Magic Circuit." He seemed to be searching for something in his room.

"What? How does that make sense? After…" Shinji emerged from a wardrobe long enough to put a palm up to interrupt Shirou.

"As it is not pertinent to the situation at hand, I'd prefer if you refrained from asking about how I got functional Magic Circuits. However, when I say that in my generation the Matou line had completely dried up, even someone as dense as you realizes what it means if I tell you that Sakura has many Magic Circuits, right? Oh, there it was."

The answer was so obvious that Shirou almost thought he'd get it wrong. "She's adopted."

Shinji emerged from the wardrobe again, this time with a portable CD player in his hand and pointed at Shirou. "Exactly. Not too bad, Emiya, it seems like you're following me." Shirou decided to ignore the subtle shot at him.

"I see, what does this mean, though? Being adopted is hardly the end of the world." He could personally testify to that.

A sarcastic smile appeared in Shinji's face. "Well, you don't think that because your name isn't Matou Shirou. I'm pretty sure the Sakura would be much happier if her family name was Emiya." Then he added in a murmur. "In more ways than one."

Shirou's face darkened, it didn't seem like Shinji was lying. "What's wrong with being a Matou Magus?"

"Well, the training to become one, for example, but later there will be plenty of time for a demonstration. Come, we might still make it." Shinji left his room, Shirou followed him. "You see, I was the one that was to be raised without knowing anything. But it was not to be, I found out about magic on my own, you see. I constantly read my grandfather's books without permission, despite not having a single speck of talent as a Magus. I nurtured dreams of actually reviving the Matou line."

Suddenly something clicked inside Shirou, he realized something that he would have never had realized if he didn't have this conversation with Shinji. "That's why you started to mistreat Sakura for no reason! You discovered that she had been adopted to learn magic as the Matou heir."

A bitter laugh came from ahead of Shirou. "I admit that I haven't been a very good older brother at times because of this. But it is all in the past now, you see. I finally realized that this isn't something to agonize over. This is one of the reasons that I have you here, Emiya."

They were in a part of the house that Shirou didn't remember having ever seen, it was somewhere on the second level. Shinji pressed something and a passage appeared that seemed to lead down deeper than the first level. Shirou looked at Shinji with anticipation. "Is it here?" He wasn't sure himself what he meant by "it", but Shirou felt that "it" wasn't something good.

Shinji nodded. "You ready for the truth, Emiya?" Shirou nodded. "Alright, let's go."