Alright ladies and gentlemen, I have returned from writer's block to continue my quest of writing probably my best work yet. A shorter chapter than the last few, but this one is big. Big plot movement and setup for the next chapter. I've finally realized how difficult it will be handling two different major arcs at the same time, and I really need to work on Akiha's character in the future. Oh, and Kohaku's plot is starting to take effect. Anyway, like, comment and subscribe… wait, wrong platform. Well, you can technically do the same thing here so… Constructive criticism is welcome!

Sword of the Moon Princess

"Can you tell me about Shiki Tohno?" If Akiha was ever more shocked, terrified or confused than she was now, Shirou couldn't recall it. Akiha looked like she was going to go into shock, and Shirou was mere seconds away from calling the maids to come check on her when she responded.

"Where did you hear that name?" Her voice was barely above a whisper. Her eyes twitched around as if she was looking for a way to escape the conversation.

"Akiha? Are you okay? Did this Shiki do something to…"

"He's not important," Akiha shouted, cutting him off. "He's dead by now and he's just a bad memory, so he's not important!" The fear and anger in her eyes said otherwise.

Shirou knew that was a lie. Nothing he had done so far had made Akiha break down like this. She looked as if the world was crumbling around her and she was desperately trying to hold it together.

"Akiha… we should get ready for dinner. If you say he's not important then I'll trust you." It was a lie. Both he and Akiha knew it, but they also knew that Shirou wouldn't be swayed from what he was likely planning to do.

Akiha was sweating bullets by this point. She nodded her head, the movement noticeably stiff despite her natural grace. The siblings walked downstairs to wait for dinner, and as soon as they arrived the twin maids immediately knew that something was up. Shirou wouldn't have been surprised to learn that they heard the argument upstairs.

What unnerved him, however, was how they responded to it. Hisui had had the expected nervous glances as she tried not to make it obvious she was worried and listening in on their conversation. Kohaku, on the other hand, subtly smirked. When Akiha looked at the sister's with warning glares Kohaku merely turned her back to the lady of the house and continued making dinner.

Dinner was awkward as usual. Akiha still maintained the image of a noblewoman and Shirou still kept himself calm and collected. But the atmosphere was anything but peaceful. Akiha's posture was tense and anyone who knew her could tell that her muscles were constantly clenching and shifting as if she was preparing for a fight. Shirou had prana running through his body and was periodically pulsing structural analysis throughout his surroundings, just in case his secretive sister had something up her sleeves. Hisui was shifting uncomfortably, trying her hardest to appear as irrelevant as possible while looking at what might as well have been two monsters sizing each other up.

Kohaku was the one that was most excited about all this. Most of the time she looked away from the brewing storm. But once in a while, when she made eye contact with Shirou while Akiha wasn't looking, she smirked and winked at Shirou. The redhead knew that she was signaling toi him and it took all of his willpower not to immediately start interrogating her.

After the usual dinner routine Akiha dismissed herself. Shirou would have gone to meet with her after dinner if Akiha wasn't looming over them all like a hawk. Shirou knew that he would have to bide his time.

Late into the evening Shirou was practicing his magecraft. He had a handful of glass cups that Akiha said he could use to practice his reinforcement. When he got to his room he immediately began strengthening the glasses, using structural analysis to see where he had gone wrong in reinforcement and testing their reinforced hardness with projected blades. He corrected any mistakes he made with his next glass.

He was halfway through the glasses when a knock sounded from his door. "Come in." The door opened and footsteps sounded inside. "What is it, Hisui," he asked.

"Already thinking about another girl? I'm hurt." Shirou knew he shouldn't have been surprised, but he still wasn't used to Kohaku actively seeking him out to talk to him. Despite that he knew that Kohaku was always cheery and always a tease.

"I'm going to assume this is about the argument from earlier," he asked, looking up from his current glass cup. The glass was scratched in several places and looked like it was cracking from the amount of magical energy in it.

Kohaku shook, sadness seeming to leak into her eyes. "What do you mean, Shirou? I am merely a maid, I can't go against the wishes of lady Akiha." She said this, yet her devious smirk and wink gave away her true intentions.

Shirou sighed, but on the inside he was growing excited and anxious. "Well, if that is the case what do you need," he asked.

"I simply wish to spend time with you. It's not fair that my sister gets all your attention." The look Kohaku gave him combined with her words and tone brought a slight blush to Shirou's cheeks.

"You play a dangerous game Kohaku," he warned jokingly. He still followed the crimson haired maid downstairs. Both of them knew that Akiha would likely be keeping a closer eye on Shirou, but they were willing to take that risk. Shirou had no idea what Kohaku was planning or what her motivation was to help him against Akiha's wishes, but he wasn't going to pass up this opportunity.

The pair made their way down to the backyard of the mansion. The backyard had a large clearing with trees and bushes neatly maintained along the edges. The moon in the sky, slowly approaching a full moon with each night, illuminated the grass with a silver sheen and left pitch shadows beneath each tree. Yet when Shirou saw this place it was basking in broad daylight. He could see everything even without having to reinforce his eyes, for even eight years later very little had changed. He could even see himself bleeding out…

"Urgh!" He clutched his head as painful memories began to race through his mind. He fell to his knees as phantom pain began to burn in his chest. "Shirou, are you alright?" Kohaku placed a hand on his shoulder, genuine worry etched onto her face as she helped him to his feet. "Tell me, what can you remember?" She seemed to have an idea of what Shirou was going through, but she refrained from spilling too much.

"I… I remember playing. I remember when I was a child. I always played with my sister and three others." Shirou paused at that. "Wait, three? There was Akiha and… Kohaku? No, that doesn't seem right. She wore the headband, not the flower. But it couldn't have been Hisui, could it? She doesn't act like that, she's the quiet sister. Maybe she changed over the years. But what are the odds of Hisui and Kohaku completely switching personalities like that?"

"Who was with you," Kohaku asked. Despite her worried expression the glint in her eyes was still there. "Can you tell me who all was there? What they looked like?"

Shirou struggled to pull his thoughts together. "I remember Akiha was always there. Then there was… you?" He only got a shrug in response, and as a result almost forced a hypnosis spell on Kohaku. He barely managed to pull himself together and merely fixed her with a glare instead. "I'm not here to play games Kohaku. Tell me what you know about my past," he all but ordered.

"Oh, but I don't want to give you the wrong idea about what happened." When Shirou gave her a confused look she continued. "If I start telling you what happened from my perspective then it could fill in the gaps in your memory with the wrong information. It's best if I help you trigger those memories yourself," she explained.

Shirou sighed in acceptance and nodded at her explanation. "Still, why are you helping me? Won't you get in trouble with Akiha?"

"No need to worry about her right now." The edge her voice gained set off alarm bells but were drowned out by the memories lurking in the back of Shirou's head. "Tell me, what do your friends look like?"

Shirou closed his eyes and let his mind drift back into his past. "One of them was Akiha. Another one was either you or your sister. The last one was…" He stopped. This was where his memories hit a roadblock. The last person he was close to in his childhood. The largest blank spot in his memories. He tried his hardest to bring up something, a face, a name, references from other people, something, yet he continuously came up blank. Blank except for the burning feeling in his chest. "I'm sorry, I can't remember anything about them. All I know is that they were there."

Kohaku eyes him suspiciously. "What about your accident? What can you remember about that?" It seemed she was growing inpatient.

At that a memory flushed through his mind. A memory of lying on the ground bleeding. Someone was crying on top of him. There was screaming and crying, and though it all, a blank spot seemed to emerge from those memories. Countless blank spots. It was too much, Shirou knew that no matter what those memories were ingrained into his psyche, almost as much as the fire.

Shirou opened his eyes. "Was thugs person connected to the accident?"

Kohaku smirked evilly at his words. "I cannot tell you what is true or false. You discovered this all on your own. I just conveniently brought you out here and accidentally triggered your memories."

They both knew who was more likely to be punished by Akiha if they were caught. The only problem was that Shirou didn't know what Akiha could do if she were to become angry. "Let's keep searching. There has to be something out here." Kohaku merely nodded, her smirk ever present on her face.

As they walked around the backyard, eventually making their way to the sides and front of the house, Shirou was constantly being reminded of long repressed memories. He could remember the times he played with his sister and the maid, the toys they shared, the games they played, yet almost all of them shared one thing in common. There was a feeling of someone else there, someone who should have been present in all of those memories. Whenever he tried to recall any event where this person was present his mind drew a blank. Shirou knew that something had definitely happened with his mind to have left no mention of that person in his mind.

"Kohaku, can you at least tell me what happened to my memories? I know I have some sort of memory loss, but I would like to know if it's possible to fix it."

At his request Kohaku stood in front of him and placed one of his hands on her head. "Have you ever used structural analysis on a human before," she asked.

Shirou raised an eyebrow as he responded. "Yeah, on myself. What does that have to do with… wait, you know that pushing magical energy into someone's body like that comes with risks, right? It might not even help us." Shirou was just about to pull his hand away when Kohaku held it in place.

There was no hesitation in the young maid. "I know what I'm getting myself into. I trust you to be careful since structural analysis is something that you specialize in. All you need to do is analyze my brain."

Shirou sighed and nodded. There was no turning back, and Kohaku had been instrumental all night. He gently activated his magic circuits and poured a miniscule amount of prana into Kohaku's head. He saw what he expected to find, gaining a mental image of Kohaku's brain and detecting traces of od flowing through her body at a rate that normal humans and even some mages couldn't compete with. Shirou was surprised since it didn't seem like Kohaku practiced magecraft, even lamenting the wasted talent.

"Now try your brain," Kohaku directed. Shirou did as she said and immediately noticed something different. On his brain, specifically in parts responsible for memory, there were traces of a spell placed there. Mind altering spells were common among magi, so when he saw it he tried to remove it manually. All that got him was a sharp stab of pain as his own magical inadequacies showed themselves once again. He grew frustrated, noting how despite the low quality of the spell it was ingrained onto his brain in a way that made it dangerous to tamper with.

The look Kohaku gave him was enough to prove that she had expected this to happen. "Who did this to me," Shirou asked.

They both knew what the answer would be. "I cannot tell you. You simply have to figure it out on your own." She finally decided to head back to the front door of the mansion.

"Wait, Kohaku." The maid stopped right as she was about to open the front door. "Tell me, why did you help me?"

Kohaku took a deep breath, as if she were about to say something controversial. "This world… is a cruel place Shirou. I have experienced some of its darker sides. The people around you are often times not who they appear to be on the surface." She slowly turned around back to Shirou. Tears started to appear in her eyes as her voice cracked. "If you truly want to be a hero, then please… save me." Before Shirou could ask for an explanation she opened the door and walked inside.

Right into an angry girl with brown hair and blue eyes. "That was quite the romantic midnight walk, wasn't it?" For once Kohaku seemed to panic. Even Sirou was terrified of Akiha. Hisui, who was standing silently behind her, trembled with fear as she stood still behind her master. Both of them could feel the ever growing pressure coming off of her, and not just from the fury burning beneath the surface.

For once Shirou could feel her magical energy. The pressure of a typhoon, the scent of burning charcoal and spices, the way it drowned out his sense of smell that he could taste it scorching his mouth. He was terrified of Akiha, and rightfully so. "Listen Akiha, I…"

"Shut up!" The order came with a brief spike in Akiha's energy, silencing him without any difficulty. Shirou could have sworn that Akiha's hair had a bloody red tint to it. "I will deal with you later. As for you Kohaku, you have some explaining to do."

The crimson haired maid didn't respond for a few seconds. "I-I-I… I just wanted to spend some time with Shirou."

"Oh, on a given name basis now, are we?" The way she said those words reeked of jealousy and bloodlust. "You certainly work fast. If you ever put that much effort into your work I would only need to have one maid around here."

Kohaku, for once not having her smile on her face, bowed to Akiha before attempting to squeeze past her. "If that is all, I will take my leave, lady Akiha."

But the master of the house would not let her go that easily. "Oh no no no, you had the spine to disobey my direct orders and now you try to run away unpunished? You really are foolish if you think I'm going to simply let you leave."

Kohaku seemed to shrink underneath Akiha's gaze, but Shirou wouldn't let this continue. Even with this borderline monster in front of him he was still a hero by nature. "Listen Akiha, I know she disobeyed you, but I think I have the right to know about my own past. You wouldn't give me that right, so I'm going to do whatever I can to find out myself." While Hisui's mouth gaped in shock, Koahaku smiled at him, even through her fear. If he weren't distracted by the master of the house he would have seen the sadistic and gleeful joy on Kohaku's place, her mind already coming up with new plans.

Akiha's eyes made him once again feel helpless. "I have been lenient with you Shirou. I let you run off to fight a dead apostle ancestor. I stood by and let you make an alliance with the church and a true ancestor. But this is something that you will not be involved in. I made a promise that I would not lose any more of my family, and I will not make it even harder than it already is."

Shirou wanted to argue, but even he knew that it was pointless. After all, he was the same way, only his protection extended to everyone around him that needed a hero. He was about to retort regardless when he felt it. Something stirred within him. Akiha seemed to notice it too and her aura began to die down. The maids appeared confused until Shirou collapsed in a heap, his world spinning around him as blades slowly manifested from his body. The shouting of the two followed shortly as Akiha collapsed as well. The last thing Shirou saw before passing out, was Akiha's teeth sinking into the base of Hisui's neck, and Kohaku biting her hand before bringing it to Shirou's mouth.

When Shirou awoke the next afternoon he rolled over and looked at the clock in his room. It was almost eleven o'clock, meaning that he was really late to school. He struggled to recall what happened last night, but even as his memories came flooding back he didn't have time to contemplate them with his cell phone ringing. He picked it up and held it to his ear as he got out of bed. "Hello?"

"Tohno, man I'm glad you're still safe! Have you seen Yumizuka?" Inui's panicked voice sounded on the other side.

Shirou recalled last seeing her after they separated yesterday. "Not since yesterday no."

The phone was silent for a few seconds before the voice picked up again. "Dude… her parents called the school. She didn't come home last night. She's gone missing."

"I'm scared, Tohno. I'm afraid I might die soon. So if I'm ever in danger… will you promise to save me?"