AN: Just one more chapter after this.

Fate/Far Side: Synchronized Body

Epilogue

Far Side

"Seconds, please!"

I was not aware that people such as Taiga Fujimura-sama truly existed. Television would have one believe it so, though I understood that television was a warped and inaccurate source to form an opinion. Still, what Fujimura-sama called "seconds" was actually her third bowl, and it did not appear as if she would be finished in the near future. The side plates she had still bore food to flavor her rice.

Nee-san did not seem to notice, however, and simply formed another mountain of white grains, handing it to the high school instructor. "Taiga-san really must be famished?" she asked, rhetorically. Fujimura-sama was always famished except for those few moments directly after a meal.

"You have no idea what today was like, Kohaku-chan" the striped woman replied, launching into her daily story of woe.

It was a routine, now, one that still took getting accustomed to.

Six months had passed since the fight that had destroyed the Tohno mansion. Though it was a certainty that Kouma Kishima still lived—Akiha-sama said that she had methods to detect whether he had perished on the grounds, and he had not—the overt destruction had caused enough of a problem that the local townsfolk had taken notice. Akiha-sama used the attention to thwart direct intervention from the Touzaki and slip into the public eye just enough that further action would have to be of a mundane source. At least for the time being. With the place so thoroughly wrecked, however, it was a matter as to where Akiha-sama would be staying until repairs could be handled.

"Fortunately," the Tohno heir had said to police, "I have recently come into contact with the head of the Fujimura group. They have agreed to loan me a place they have been looking over for a while."

All of the police officers investigating the disturbance had not inquired further, considering the Yakuza association that came with the Fujimura family. Though the Fujimuragumi influence had not reached into Misaki City, the name was synonymous with Fuyuki and its surrounding communities. Too, the fact that Akiha-sama was powerful and influential herself implied that even the mention of such a name was a suggestion to stay out of the detail work.

The place, of course, was the house once owned by Kiritsugu Emiya.

Though old and traditional, it was certainly a large enough house for a business heiress to be comfortable in. The current owner had left it in the care of the Fujimura family, who in turn had left it in the hands of leader Raiga Fujimura's daughter, Taiga. Though, as Taiga Fujimura herself was incapable of maintaining the grounds, the schoolteacher had been allowing one other person to live there part-time, a tenant named Rin Tohsaka.

"Kohaku!"

Nee-san jumped in her own skin, an action between a full-body shiver and the start she gave on the occasion we watched a horror film.

Akiha-sama stormed into the room. With school over and her transition into the adult world complete, she had taken to wearing outfits that were more formal in nature—though it seemed some of the influence came from another source as well. The blouse and skirt she wore were elegant and conservative, lending her a few years of maturity in appearance. The only problem with that was the pair of slippers she had chosen to use: the fuzzy pink clashed with the darker reds and blacks of her outfit. It was not as if she needed to wear those slippers either—many other pairs had since been bought for the house, but she always insisted.

"Eheh, Akiha-sama, I thought you would take a lot longer," Nee-san said.

Arms crossed, Akiha-sama said, "I told you we would be back regardless to what the others decided on."

"But Taiga-san was in desperate need of sustenance and the food was already ready," Nee-san said. She was wilting into the opposite direction, however, like Akiha-sama's gaze pierced her body and then magnetically pulled her further down as it did.

"Ugh, just forget it," said the woman that followed Akiha-sama in. "I can't believe you actually have energy to complain. Those old men could suck the life out of the potted plants in the board room if they weren't so busy trying to glare you down."

Rin Tohsaka was strangely someone that seemed to be both older and younger than Akiha-sama at the exact same time. She was older, and it showed in her general sense of confidence and energy, as well as the fact that what Akiha-sama wore had been taken from Tohsaka-sama's closet; Tohsaka-sama herself wore something that was similar in cut and style. Yet she sometimes also seemed more petty than Akiha-sama, complaining about this or that in a way that Akiha-sama never did unless it had to do with Shiki-sama. Whereas Akiha-sama seemed to be stubborn over maintaining the Tohno family's image even privately, Tohsaka-sama would drop pretenses within this house and—

"You're both silly, just sit down and eat," Fujimura-sama said, swiping some more of the meat off the serving plate. "Or I will eat everything before you can get started and you'll just have to suffer." She smacked her lips. "Or you should just bury your pride and start bringing home takeout if you keep getting held up."

For some reason, both Akiha-sama and Tohsaka-sama's pride would not allow them to bring ready-made food home when there was a capable cook in their place of residence whose job was to prepare meals. Still, it was technically Fujimura-sama's place to begin with, and the high school teacher would not suffer meals to be late.

At that, neither continued complaining and instead settled down to their places at the table.

A matter of pride kept them from bringing food home, but a matter entirely different kept them from the simple truth: neither one of them had to stay here.

Though unfinished, the Tohno mansion repairs had long since started. If Akiha-sama arranged for it, it would be move-in ready within days. However, she stalled on hiring further work to be done on it, citing that the Touzaki family was just waiting for her to make a move back into a vulnerable state—this house, on the other hand, was in a location unknown to the Touzaki and had some kind of magician's spell on it to detect intrusion or outside observation. Yet for all that was true, with the attention that had come from the mansion's destruction earlier meant that the Touzaki were not as willing to openly oppose Akiha-sama. Additionally, from the little bits of information Akiha-sama had let slip, it appeared as if Kouma Kishima was unwilling to incite another battle.

Tohsaka-sama apparently had her own functional house, even, but had somehow established this location as her home-away-from-home. When pressed on the matter, she had said something about preserving memories from this place and the serious look she had when saying so kept me from inquiring further.

They ate in silence for a short while, making appreciative noises and a few bites later they had apparently both decided to silently forgive the perceived early start of dinner. They then apparently picked up from a conversation they were having when they had initially detected the smell of food from the entryway.

"Regarding that, no, there are more efficient ways of dealing with the situation. You make sure the help arrives after-the-fact, not because they need to be there for actual work, but to confirm that work has occurred to begin with." As was becoming something of a habit and despite complaining about the meal starting without them, Akiha-sama still seemed more focused on work than on the food before her. "It gives you witnesses and allows them to come up with their own interpretations that you can still predict."

Despite the age difference, Tohsaka-sama was the one nodding like an attentive student. The nature of business was not something Tohsaka-sama was entirely familiar with despite her own family ties to Fuyuki's economic history. In this one area, the elder woman listened carefully to the financial and professional advice Akiha-sama gave. In turn, Tohsaka-sama had given official support to the Tohno family in some kind of business venture with details that were far above my knowledge. It worked out such that Tohsaka-sama had begun to attend board meetings with Akiha-sama.

Fujimura-sama shook her head at all the talk of finer business practice. "Sometimes I can't tell who the senpai and who the kohai are in this situation," she said to me, though in a stage whisper that seemed to be partially mocking.

"Ah, enough then," Tohsaka-sama said. "It's not like I don't have time for the lessons. After all, I'm still only twenty. It'll be another whole decade before I have to worry about feeling old, isn't that right, Fujimura-sensei?"

Nee-san started to raise her hands and keep a fight from breaking out, but a call from elsewhere in the house, "I'm home!" decided for her that she was better off scuttling away from the promised violence. So instead she said, "Hisui-chan, look after this for me?" before she was padding out of the living room.

Thank you, Nee-san. I will not forget this, Nee-san.

Fujimura-sama had celebrated her thirtieth birthday recently, you see, and was still sore on the subject. The explosion of energy always required either a placating statement from Nee-san or for me to physically restrain the teacher before it could be contained. I sighed.

Shirou Emiya-sama settled into the last position at the table about the time Fujimura-sama had decided to fume in silence rather than struggle against my hold to clobber a girl ten years her junior.

"I brought a cake home, they were having a special nearby," he said to Nee-san. "If that helps?"

If Fujimura-sama continued eating as she did, it certainly would.

He did not appear as the same person that we met months ago. White had shot through his hair and looked like it would only continue at a rapid pace, while his skin had darkened somewhat. The invasion of his magical system into his body had ruined much of the original physical structure according to Tohsaka-sama. The last attack he had generated, the one that had blinded everyone and destroyed the house, it burned out the non-physical structure, though what that meant I did not quite understand.

What had happened still dumbfounded the magus. He had explained a little before the fight and expanded upon it afterward that due to a certain spirit and contract, he had what amounted to unlimited reserves of energy. So long as he set aside a small amount of his own personal store, his source was comparatively endless. When Kishima had struck him in the chest the first time, that source had been destroyed.

However, it was also something he had not thought of. The source of power cycled through him as a medium first, and occasionally he had in times past needed to purge that energy from his system or risk overload. That time, the remaining power of the spirit had gone into him at the last moment and lay dormant beneath his own energy, waiting for a similar purge. He had thought it would have gone away, dissipated itself even before that, but…

Nee-san was a Synchronizer.

When it had occurred to him what had happened, he had blurted it out in the open. Akiha-sama being Akiha-sama did not fail to place the pieces together. Being a Synchronizer myself—even if I had never used the power—was enough for me as well. We both then looked to Nee-san for confirmation.

For the first time in a long time, I think I saw Nee-san look truly embarrassed.

Still, it was enough. The attack supposedly gave Kishima a deep wound and the destruction of the house around him had been enough to knock him out for a few minutes. We were worried when he came to that he would resume the attack, despite police rushing to the scene, but he had calmly made his way out, spoke quietly to Akiha-sama for a moment, glared at Nee-san and me, then stared at Emiya-sama for a long while, passed out on the ground. At first Nee-san seemed convinced that Kishima would smash Emiya-sama's head in when nobody was looking, but the man simply glared when Nee-san tried to make a "take my life instead" gesture and walked off.

In fact, from what Akiha-sama said, Kishima seemed content that the Tohno family would continue on safely under someone else's protection.

"They were just complaining about dinner always starting without them," Nee-san was saying, settling down onto the cushion kitty-corner to him. "Like they're afraid we'll somehow run out. Or that we still begin an hour later than usual due to their recent work schedule. And despite the fact that Akiha-sama never seems to eat a healthy portion." Nee-san seemed put out by the last one.

Though, I doubt that it was anything personal against Nee-san anymore. For a while, Akiha-sama seemed resistant to doing things to Nee-san's satisfaction, as if simply making Nee-san just a tad bit miffed was her form of punishment. Despite the fact that it did honestly seem to annoy Nee-san to some degree, I was actually very happy to go along with it. Seeing Nee-san look genuinely irritable and a little hurt was…well, hard to explain. I do not like seeing Nee-san suffer negatively, yet…

"Well," Emiya-sama said, "the portions really should work out fine." Though he glanced to Fujimura-sama with a long-suffering expression. He had apparently long ago given up on trying to curb her excesses. "But I do agree, Tohno-san, you look like you could eat a bit more, and Tohsaka, you could stand to eat a bit less nowadays, since—"

That was not the correct statement to make. Two shouts seemed to blend into one another.

"Are you saying I'm fat?!"

"Are you saying I'm fla—agggghhhh!"

Fujimura-sama stole another share of yakiniku at that when she thought nobody was looking.

"Geez, there's plenty here for everyone and if we look like we're running low, I still have some more meat just in case," Nee-san said, ignoring or ignorant of the violence emanating from one side of the table. Nobody seemed to be paying attention to her, attention only on the food or on Emiya-sama attempting to remove his foot from his mouth. In that moment, briefly, she let slip moments that I watched everyone carefully for, moments like true irritability or hurt.

They were small, hardly noticeable, and nearly everyone in this room only did it when they did not think anyone was looking and their masks could be dropped. It felt now like a mission to notice them, though, to pick out what generated them and try to have that happen more often.

For Rin Tohsaka, in Shirou's words, it was little things that reminded her of her sister, things that were yet separate from the victimized girl and instead evoked the kohai they had at school. The taste of foods she had known Sakura had been fond of. Mention of the Archery Club. The occasional moment that her scheming with Akiha-sama might pass from some kind of pseudo-professional level into something closer to friends or siblings might have.

I had the feeling it might even be the same the other way around, too, as Akiha-sama seemed more lively now. Perhaps it was a simple case of viewing her through a different perspective, in a strange and unfamiliar setting, but I had a feeling it was at least a slight more than that. Being as she was, a young master with social pressure must have been difficult on her daily life, even at school amidst peers. Tohsaka-sama, though, seemed to be in the same general mindset, so their interactions were like that, even above that. Tohsaka-sama was, after all, older and more experienced with matters of the world.

However…

Every time they seemed happiest always seemed to be shortly before a terrible event occurring to Emiya-sama. At one point, he had said aloud that he regretted that they met, that they were demons cut from the same cloth. Of course, somehow, he spent the next three days sick as if suffering alternatively from a stomach ache and a fever, groaning in bed or shivering like it was December.

But I noticed. More and more, I was getting attuned to what to pay attention for, when it was likely to occur.

Nee-san's were even harder to pick up on. Partially because they were often not something the average person would classify as "happy." They were often bitter, or had a sense of irony, or sad, like when Akiha-sama refused to listen to her for the first few weeks after moving here. Every once in a while they might have something resembling actual amusement or satisfaction, though they were few and far between.

When the so-called devil twins that Emiya-sama muttered under his breath about deemed his apologies acceptable, he quietly turned to Nee-san and spoke in low tones to her. Over the others talking business and the television that Fujimura-sama turned on for the news, I could still make out what he and Nee-san were saying, though.

"It's some kind of creature in North America. Something big and red…well, that could be anything I guess. Do you know where the heck Montreal is? I had to look it up."

"I hope you've brushed up on your French."

Emiya-sama looked horrified. Though I suppose I had seen him look like that enough now that it was almost his default expression. "Wait, they speak French there? Maybe I'll cancel after all."

"And give France a proxy-victory-by-way-of-language-in-a-country-that-isn't-theirs?" Nee-san stopped, looked like she was mentally going over what she just said to test its palpability, then nodded as if satisfied.

"I have no idea what you just said." He glanced to Tohsaka-sama and Akiha-sama about as surreptitiously as he could. "You'll be okay?"

Nee-san almost hid it. Almost. But I caught it, and the quick way that Emiya-sama's eyes darted back to her suggested he did too.

He once confided that in me, the story of how they met. How he didn't even remember Nee-san at first when they met again because of the disparity between his memory and the now. There was one thing, though, that he now picked up on that was similar, one thing I had noticed not too long ago that also spoke more than Nee-san would ever voice aloud.

A strange look of bewilderment, of wonderment.

It was far from true happiness. I am not even certain such a thing exists for Nee-san anymore. Emiya-sama himself is far, far from perfect. I am not even certain that what they have for one another would be called "love" or "romance" by others, so the notion that such a positive thing existed between them and feinted off all the negativity would be wrong as well. It was, however, an expression that made sense to me. For all of the bad that had happened in her life and all of the bad she tried to sew into the lives of everyone else, Nee-san seemed at a loss whenever a little uncalled for consideration was granted to her.

Why a boy she did not know would give her his umbrella.

Why a young man she hardly knew would say he wanted to save her, even if she was the villain.

Why, even now, the same person would even still be in her life when they did not have to be.

The strange look gave way to a slight smile. Again, not a truly happy smile, but something that seemed a little uncertain. It is not hard to assume that the same could even be said for Akiha-sama, Tohsaka-sama, and Emiya-sama when it came to it. They all occasionally appeared to be surprised that they could enjoy each other's company. However, if one were to call it grief and the stages associated with it, this was also on the far side of the journey, past the truly difficult parts and onward to the stage of recovery.

If they could continue to keep each other company, that would be something I could be happy over.

The young man was aware, too, every day, of the faint and broken smiles around him, of the slow recovery they signified.

Once again, others saved my life.

But maybe…

There was one who had been cast away and had to have wondered whether anyone even wanted her. But she had done everything she could to save one life.

There was one who had been created for a single, selfish purpose. She gave up on even that purpose to save one life.

There was one who had endured much to risk everything on a chance to make the world she knew better. That chance was lost to save one life.

There was even one who had fought to the end of despair in hopes of finding justice. In the end, he could only save one life…

Maybe, if it meant they could smile, even if those smiles became more than to curse my existence, I could be a little content with being saved.

Synchronized Body, Fin