As Rin ran through the dark streets of Miyama, she asked herself is she should have acepted Shinji's offer for an alliance. True, the Matou was a disgusting individual and probably wouldn't last long in the war, but she was sure she would suffer less headaches that way.
After gathering her Servant and akwardly telling Sakura that something had come up, they had left the Emiya household, following Saber's trail as the Servant clad in blue dashed through the rooftops.
She wondered what had actually happened for the Emiya to end in such a bad situation that his own Servant had sensed it. If she were to guess, he probably had ended up seeing something related with the war and some innocent person and had decided to intervene.
The lovav- err... insufferable idiot.
Said idiot was jumping, running and rolling through rooftops and alleys alike, all the way carrying a near hysterical Ayako Mitsuzuri in his arms.
"D-Do you think we lost them?" she asked.
"I'm no su-"
Suddenly, Shirou's instincts kicked in and he threw himself to the side, narrowly dodging again the Black Servant weapon.
"Moh, this is getting boring Onii-chan! Aren't you gonna fight back?"
He gritted his teeth. Even if he wasn't a crappy magus, fighting Berserker was not something he wanted to do. The Servant raw power and strength was staggering to say the least, and downright terrifying if he was honest with himself. Unfortunately, with Ayako in the equation, he might not have other choice but to face Berserker head on.
And hope to last ten seconds.
"Well then, if you aren't going to fight, then there is no point. I'm very disappointed in you, Onii-chan! Berserker! Finish this, I'm bored."
The redhead's eyes widened as the Mad Giant nearly quadrupled his speed. Pushing his own limbs to the limit, he managed to thrown Ayako out of the way before his left arm exploded under the strain on the insane Servant strength.
Said girl eyes widened as well when she saw Shirou's arm get ripped of him and get utterly destroyed by the monster that had been chasing them. She suddenly felt warm and wetness in her cheeks and realized she was crying. She got up and ran to the redhead side, cradling his head in her lap. She started shouting.
"SHIROU! Please Shirou, answer me! C'mon Shirou! C'mon!"
He was pale, horrifyingly so. The blood loss was quickly getting to him.
"...Ayako."
She was surprised. Not by the fact that he actually answered, but by the calmness in his voice. She hugged him none the less, crying all the while.
"Ayako I need you to listen to me. You need to get out of here."
"W-What? And leave you here? No way in hell-"
"Ayako!" He snapped, silencing her. "Look at me. There is no time for this, get out of here, now."
She looked at him, his face laced with pain, but also with determination. She then looked to the Giant, towering over them. Next, she glanced to the white haired girl who, seeing the brunette gaze on her, smiled pleasantly.
"You should go. I'll give you this one free pass, since you are Onii-chan's girlfriend."
Ayako growled angrily at her. "Why are you doing this?!"
The fairy-like girl smile darkened somewhat. "That is between him and me. I'm sure you understand."
Ayako shook her head. She didn't, she didn't understand anything at all. But there was one thing that was clear to her.
"I'm not going anywhere." She resolutely stated.
"Ayako!"
She ignored his frantic cry, and hugged him tighter, glaring at Illya. "You can do whatever you want, I'm not moving from this spot."
The white-haired girl scowled. "Together until the end, then? Whatever, I'll just kill you both. Berserker!"
With a roar, the Black Giant moved, swinging his massive weapon over them.
Ayako didn't quite understood what happened then. One moment, she was hugging Shirou and glaring at the little girl with the white hair, and the next she was laid out in the floor, with Shirou's body hovering over her. She would have blushed if it weren't for the seriousness of the situation. 'How did he manage to do that with just one arm?'
However, the most intriguing fact was that they were both still alive, despite the fact that they should have been split in two by now.
Then, a strangely familiar voice reached her ears.
"Really, Emiya-kun? Is there a way for you to not get into trouble?"
Ayako sat, dumbfounded, in Shirou's living room, staring at both him and her friend and rival Rin Tohsaka.
"So, what you are saying is that magic is real."
"That is correct. Though the correct term would be Thaumaturgy." Rin supplied, sitting across from her at the table.
"Riiight. And you and Shirou here are magicians."
"We are magus, practitioners of Thaumaturgy. There are only five Magicians in the whole world."
"Is there a difference?"
"Yes, but explaining it is hard if you are unaware of how Thaumaturgy works."
"Okay whatever. And you and Shirou are in the middle of a secret war that is held every sixty years here, in Fuyuki."
"Yes."
Ayako sighed. "Do you guys really expect me to believe this?"
"I know it is hard to believe." Shirou spoke up, for the first time since returning to the estate. "But you have seen it yourself, Ayako. What was chasing us couldn't be human, don't you think?"
Ayako couldn't help but agree. The... thing's sheer presence was enough to instill a primal fear in her very soul. "What was that thing, anyway?"
"That was a Servant." Rin said. "The War we are a part of is set upon a very complex system. Basically the artifact most of us fight for allows for the summoning of a very powerful entity."
Ayako gulped. "What... What kind of entity?"
"Heroic Spirits." Shirou answered with a serious look on his face. "Humanity's greatest legends, people who have transcended the limitations of what we humans can understand."
Ayako looked troubled. "Then... who was that? The one who chased us?"
He looked at her for a few moments. "Heracles, the Hero of Greece. Probably, the strongest Servant."
She suddenly glared at Shirou, causing him to blink. "And you were thinking of facing something like that alone? Just so I could escape?"
He sheepishly scrached the back of his head chuckling akwardly. "Well, to be honest, I wasn't thinking clearly at the moment."
Rin rolled her eyes at that. "Somehow, I'm not even surprised. That's truly depressing, actually."
Ayako softened her gaze, a troubled look in her eyes. "Can I ask one last thing?"
Rin looked at her. "Sure. What is it?"
The brunette looked at Shirou. "You lost an arm trying to protect me, how are you awake and talking to me?"
The redhead looked at his side, where the bandaged stump that used to be his arm was extremely notorious. "Oh, this. Don't worry too much about it. I have a... relic... inside of me. Thanks to it, I heal pretty fast, and my limbs will regenerate over time."
Ayako looked horrified. "Regenerate? Wait, inside... of you?"
He scratched his cheek with his remaining hand. "Well, it's not exactly inside but... well, it's hard to explain."
Ayako looked down, at her lap. "I think I need some time to... digest all this and think for a bit."
Shirou nodded. "It's okay, we understand. However, it would be best if you stayed here, were we can protect you. I have a lot of empty rooms, so you can pick."
She gave him a troubled smile. "Thanks. Um, do you mind if I call my home?"
"Of course not, come with me."
After showing the phone to Ayako, Shirou returned to the living room.
"I hope you know what you are doing, Emiya-kun."
"I hope so too, Tohsaka. I hope so too."
Later that night, Ayako found herself lying in a bed in one of the guest rooms of the Emiya household, an arm draped over her eyes and trying to come to terms with everything that she learnt that day.
'This sounds so unreal, but… I know what I saw. Still, magic? I'm not sure I can believe in all of this."
She needed to get up. Laying around wasn't helping her and she didn't feel really tired, even with the day events.
Quickly standing, she made her way through the Emiya household dark halls. She tried to make as little noise as possible, as it was quite late already and everyone was probably sleeping.
Reaching the living room, she was surprised to find the veranda that led to the yard wide open, and that she wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep.
She walked up to the veranda, sitting next to him.
"Can't sleep?" He asked.
"No, not really. I just can't help but think about everything you and Rin told me, and everything that happened today."
"Hm… you know, I had the exact same reaction when I met Saber."
"What do you mean?"
"I didn't know about this war until a few days ago. I was… very surprised when suddenly, I was a part of a secret confrontation between Magi."
"Then… why do you fight in it?"
He stared at something beyond the boundaries of the house, his gaze unfocused.
"Normal Magi aren't like Tohsaka and I. They don't care about the well-being of the general population as long as their 'research' can be finished. They would kill without hesitation to further their goals. In a secret war were Magi can summon powerful entities from ages past, how bad do you think the situation can get?"
She grimaced at that. "I can picture it getting pretty bad. Still, that doesn't answer my question."
He smiled. It was a joyless smile.
"I fight in this war to end it."
That declaration, for some reason, gave a chilling sensation to Ayako. She stared at him, the determination in his eyes, and blushed a little.
To think, they were in a date just before everything sort of went to hell.
However, that was in the past.
Indeed, the situation couldn't be any more different.
"Shirou?"
"Hm?"
"What's the goal? What is the thing so many people with so many power are fighting for?"
He stared at her for a minute or so. "We call it, the Holy Grail."
"The Holy Grail? As in, the cup that gives immortality? Isn't it a Christian concept?"
"I don't know if the Holy Grail truly existed. What we call the Holy Grail is the artifact that houses the system of the war. It is responsible for the summoning of the Servants, the choosing of Masters and the adjudication of Command Seals. The purpose of the War is to obtain it."
"But, why?"
"According to Tohsaka, the winner of the War will get a single, unlimited wish."
"An unlimited wish. It seems a little farfetched to me, Shirou."
He chuckled. "I think so too." He smiled at her.
She smiled back. "Then, what is your wish?"
Shirou looked at the moon, shining through the clouds in the night sky. "Would you believe me… if I said I have no wish?"
She looked surprised. "You don't wish for anything?"
"I think I have anything I need to accomplish my own wishes myself. I don't want to rely on some all-powerful device to do it."
She pondered on it for a while. "Then, what would you do if you manage to win?"
"I promised to give my wish to Tohsaka."
"Really? You must really like her."
He sputtered at that. "W-What?"
She laughed, an honest, hearty laugh. "Man, you are just too easy to tease, Shirou."
He grunted, but smiled afterwards. "I guess growing up with Fuji-nee might have left with a distorted vision on women."
She laughed harder at that.
After basking in the silence and the calmness, Ayako decided to ask other question. "Tell me Shirou, when you said that you are fighting this war to end it, what did you mean."
"Well, basically, I'm trying to stay alive and help as many innocent as I can, and if I caught notice of a Master doing something dangerous, I'll try to stop him or her."
"So you are fighting to protect people?"
"Hm… yes, you could say that."
She looked at him awkwardly.
"W-What is it?" He asked.
"Um, nothing, just that I didn't really believe you were being serious when you said you wanted to be a Hero."
He blushed and sputtered, while Ayako smiled innocently.
"It was my father wish, you know." Shirou said after a while.
"Hm?"
"The night he died, he told me about his dream. To be an 'Ally of Justice', someone who would save everyone no matter what. He knew it was pointless, such a thing couldn't really exist, but he still sought it with all of his heart."
"Was he a… Magis?"
"Magus, and yes, he was the one who taught me about the existence of Thaumaturgy."
"What happened to him?"
"He died here, in this house, due to a curse imposed on him."
"A curse?"
"He was a Master in the Fourth Grail War. As far as I know, he must have encountered some Servant who used some kind of black magic."
"He was a master like you?"
"Yes."
They stayed in silence for a while, both looking at the moon.
"Hey Shirou?"
"Yes, Ayako?"
"Are we gonna be… you know, okay?"
He looked at her straight in the eyes. She almost lost herself on those golden orbs.
"As long as I'm breathing, I'll protect you, so don't worry."
She blushed and nodded, a smile worming its way to her face.
Later that night, Ayako found herself soundly asleep. Her doubts had been laid to rest by Shirou.
Even if everything she took for real seemed to be false.
Even if she couldn't really feel safe anymore.
Even if she wasn't sure she could believe everything that had been said that night.
There was one thing she knew.
She would believe in Shirou.