The next day was another good one - the skill of the Archery club members was increasing day by day. It warmed the cockles of Ayako's heart, though most of the credit had to go to Shirou.

"Centering yourself is critical to maintaining good posture," the redhead was demonstrating to the rest of the club.

Ayako walked over to Miya-chan and whispered, "your supposed to be copying Emiya-san, not staring at his biceps."

The younger girl jerked into motion, raising her bow, as blood flooded to her cheeks.

Ayako smirked as she strode down the line of archers, though she did pause to *ahem* inspect Shirou's posture. She glanced guiltily away, checking to see if Sakura had noticed. 'Actually, where is Sakura?'

"Emiya, did Sakura come to school with you?"

"No, she said that she would be in a little late - she had something she needed to do."

Ayako nodded. She was always bemused with how oblivious Shirou was to Sakura's feeling despite the amount of time the two of them seemed to spend together. From what Sakura had let slip over the past semester, Sakura even cooked him breakfast, and he still hadn't figured it out. 'I just hope he's not gay or something.' She didn't think so, but maybe she should chat with him after school, just to make sure.

The rest of the day passed quickly as she breezed through the classes. Her academics were good - maybe her GPA wasn't on the same level as Rin, but that was because she skipped the honors levels and stuck mostly to the college prep classes. She could sleep through those and still get an A. All of which gave her more time to think about her real passion. Archery.

As soon as school let out she texted Shirou, 'Hey, we should have a captains meeting, to go over the schedule of competitions, and if we want to have a club outing to go to Toshiya.' She waited outside her homeroom, waiting to see if he would answer.

'Sorry, I got a shift at the Copenhagen for the dinner rush. But I'll be free after 8,' came the reply.

Ayako was just about to respond when she was interrupted. "Hey, captain, how's it hanging?" It was Shinji, leaning insouciantly against the wall right by her shoulder.

The smile slid off of Ayako's face. She quickly took a step away from Shinji, surprised that she hadn't heard him approaching. "I was just looking for you - you ditched on cleaning up the dojo on Monday!"

"Hey, don't be like that, Mitsuzuri. I was going to invite you to go to a karaoke with me and some friends this evening."

"Sorry, I'm busy," Ayako replied brusquely. Shinji's playboy attitude pissed her off. "You need to take your responsibilities more seriously," She began when Shinji interrupted, his expression darkened from the cold response.

"What, you think you're too good to hang out? All you talk about is archery this, archery that. You sound like a 10 year old boy. You need to act more like a woman!" He stormed off.

Ayako's hands clenched so tight that she couldn't move for a moment. 'That bastard.' Just like that, her good mood was gone, and she forgot all about replying to Shirou.

She took a deep breath, like she did before shooting, and headed for the lockers. She tried to ignore what Shinji had said - he was clearly being petty and spiteful for getting turned down. 'The little prick doesn't know how to handle rejection,' but it still preyed on her mind all the way home.

She threw herself into her work as soon as she got home, making her way through the Japanese Literature reading and even taking a first pass at the English paper. But as it started to get dark the quiet of the empty apartment worked its insidious effects on her. She hadn't seen her parents since Sunday - her mother was working late (again) and her father was on a business trip (Such was the price of success), and the emptiness gave her too much time to angst. 'How does Rin handle it?'

She threw her text book onto her bed after she finished the math problems. 'There is nothing wrong with being active. It's healthier, and it doesn't make me any less feminine or something.' Except none of the popular girls were athletic. Not at her level, at least. 'Rin is athletic, and she's super popular.' Except Rin took her martial arts classes in private, so nobody knew that she was a black belt and could destroy boys with her bare hands (though everybody knew that she could destroy them with a look). "Arg! I don't even want a boyfriend!"

(Mostly).

Ayako pulled out her phone and texted Rin to distract herself from her spiral of angsty doom as she microwaved dinner. But there was no reply. Whatsapp claimed that Rin hadn't been online since yesterday. 'That girl needs to get more tech savvy - she's as bad as my grandmother!'

Ayako paced the kitchen as she waited for the microwave to ding. She didn't want to sit at home by herself all night, stewing about Shinji.

But she had homework, and her parents would be very disappointed if she let her grades slip. With a sigh she pulled out her History book and skimmed over the reading as she ate dinner, but the apartment still felt like a mausoleum. The dining room was just too big for one person, and her schoolwork wasn't distracting her enough to ignore that fact. Ayako was an extrovert, and she didn't do well when she was forced to spend too much time alone. Especially when she needed to stop thinking about some stupid thing that some stupid person had said.

She glanced at her watch. 'Emiya should be getting off at the Copenhagen soon.' Her face immediately brightened, 'I'll meet him at the bar!'

She was about to head out the door when she paused. Maybe Shinji wasn't completely wrong. A little makeup couldn't hurt.

No Hero

Or maybe it could.

Ten minutes later, and she was staring blankly at her makeup box. Her mother had gotten it for her on her sixteenth birthday and she hadn't looked into it since. 'Which of these do I put on first?' She held up the little containers of mysterious powders and gels. 'AARG! I need to ask Rin.' Except there was no way she would be able to explain WHY she was torturing herself like this. She finally settled on a lipstick that didn't make her look like a clown and figured that would have to be good enough. 'If I take any longer, I'll end up missing Emiya and the whole thing will be moot.' Not that she was getting dolled herself up for him or anything. That would be weird.

She thought about grabbing her pocketbook as well – the other girls were always going on about how stylish theirs were - but at the last moment tossed it back on her bed – It was bulky and got in her way. She hated that thing. It was why she bought pants with pockets.

She slammed out of her apartment and power walked to the elevator. According to her phone, the Copenhagen was a good half hour walk away - it was almost to the docks. She had a moments trepidation as she considered that - it wasn't in a bad part of town per se, but it wasn't a neighborhood she had ever gone to before either.

"Eh, Emiya goes there a couple of times a week, so it must be safe." Of course, Ayako didn't know Shirou as well as she thought she did, or she would never have made such a silly assumption.

No Hero

"Go home kid. You need to do your homework!" Otoko Hotaruzuka was the daughter of the owner of the Copenhagen, as well as the manager. She was also a high school friend of Taiga Fujimura, and when her friend has asked her for a job for Shirou she had (reluctantly) agreed.

That reluctance was long gone. Shirou was her best worker, to the point that he covered shifts for some of her more deadbeat waitstaff. While she appreciated his work ethic (he had even covered for her once when she was down with the flu) he was a high school kid, and and he needed to prioritize his education. Or Taigia would whack her with that shinai of hers.

"Ok, ok." Shirou smiled placatingly. They had had this argument several times before, so he knew he wasn't going to win. He put the dish towel in the laundry bin and left the rest of the dishes for Otoko to do.

Besides, he could take a circuit of the warehouses on his way home - there had been several attacks in that neighborhood in the last couple of days. He glanced at his watch. He'd give it an hour. That would still give him plenty of time to practice a little mage-craft after he got home (and maybe do the homework, but that wasn't a priority).

As he headed up the hill he made sure that his duffel bag was unzipped so that he could quickly pull out the boken that was hiding inside.

This neighborhood had once consisted of warehouses and industrial building, which would all be empty at this time of night, but not anymore: in the past few years there had been a tide of gentrification (which the Copenhagen was part of) as bars and discos crept in along the edges, and some of the other unused buildings were converted to inexpensive apartments for young adults.

Shirou was just turning down a street to head in to the more residential part of Fuyuki when he heard a noise from the alley he was passing - there was a shout and the clang of trashcans being knocked over.

He turned and ran, pulling the boken from his bag. He poured mana in to reinforce it.

In the alley, a woman with long purple hair and wearing fetishistic clothing was choking another girl.

"Hey, let go of her!" Shirou wasn't certain what was going on, but it didn't look consensual.

The purple haired woman threw something at him one handed, which he deflected as he kept running. The attacker dropped her victim and leapt at him, swinging a chain.

He barely ducked under it. As he turned to counter attack, his opponent was gone.

Shirou cautiously looked around.

A spiked chain flew at his head.

As he deflected that, it pulled back and another chain came at him from a different angle. Shirou staggered back, barely avoiding getting hit. Another spiked chain followed that. The attacks came so fast he could barely react to them. The only reason he was able to keep up was that somehow, his brain had analyzed the chain, and could predict what sort of attacks its wielder was likely to make. It was as if a trigger was pulled back in his head. There was a 'click' and energy flowed through him.

Yes, it made no sense. No, Shirou wasn't going to question it.

As he was driven back, he was glad to see that at least the victim appeared to be alive - she was sitting up, coughing.

Suddenly, something almost subliminal sounded from the docks. The purple haired woman paused on the fire escape that she was crouching on before turning and leaping up on to the roof and heading for where the sound had come from.

Shirou wanted to just collapse to the ground - fighting was exhausting, and his legs felt like jello, barely able to support him. Instead, he pushed himself, staggering towards the girl. "Are you ok, miss?"

He kneeled down next to her. "Mitsuzuri?"

"Uh, hi," Ayako replied. She was still slightly dazed. She wasn't certain who (or WHAT) had attacked her, and then there had been yelling and banging and some sort of fight. But Shirou was here now, so it must be ok.

"Come on, I'll walk you home," he helped steady Ayako as she stood up.

"You're making a habit out of this." She didn't want to, but she ended up leaning on Shirou as she walked - she was still a little bit dizzy, and her head hurt like a sonovabitch.

Shirou just nodded. "At least I know where you live, this time."

Shirou walked her all the way to her building, smiling and nodding to the security guard half-dozing inside as Ayako keyed them in. As they waited for the elevator, her pride pushed her to tell him that she could make it the rest of the way on her own, but..

"I'll make you some tea once you're settled in" Shirou interrupted her before she could even say anything.

"Tea sounds good."

Once Ayako was safely ensconced on the couch in the living room with the quilt pulled up around her and a pair of Advil inside, her dizziness finally started to abate. She finally was able to think strait. "Ugh. We should have called the cops."

Shirou handed her the tea, "I don't know if that would have helped. Whatever attacked you - it was almost like something out of a horror movie. I don't think the cops are really set up to deal with fantasy monsters." Actually, it was EXACTLY like something out of a horror movie, but Shirou didn't want to scare Ayako.

Ayako took a sip of her tea as Shirou perched on the chair opposite her. "So what do you think that was? I couldn't see it.. her? Clearly, but you're right. Whatever that was, wasn't human." Ayako might have been an archer, but she had been to the school kendo competitions, and her best friend was a martial artist. She knew how people moved when they fought. And nothing human could move that fast or leap that far. "And you managed to block it," she added. That wasn't normal either.

None of this made any sense.

Shirou sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, the way he did when he was uncomfortable. He knew he should just leave it be. Let Ayako think whatever she wanted, and by morning it would seem so outlandish that she wouldn't know what to believe.

But Shirou hated keeping secrets, especially from his friends.

"My dad said I shouldn't talk about this sort of stuff – that I could get into big trouble for it." But getting into big trouble didn't bother Shirou. "Honestly, I don't know what it was that I fought, but it was some sort of magical creature. Maybe a vampire or something? It's probably the one that has been attacking people in that area for the past week. I've smelled traces of it before."

Ayako nodded. 'A magical creature.' She wasn't certain what was more absurd: the fact that she had been assaulted by some sort of yokai, or the idea that whatever attacked her wasn't a yokai.

The whole situation was surreal. She was sitting in her apartment with a guy. Alone. Her mother wouldn't be home until tomorrow. And he was telling her about about something straight out of a movie. "So are you a wizard or something?" She had to ask, though Shirou was about as un-magical as you could imagine. He was just Shirou.

"Um, no. My dad was though. But he didn't want me to follow in his footsteps – he said that being a magus sucked up all you time and attention, so you didn't have anything left over for family or just enjoying life." Shirou shrugged. He wasn't certain if believed that. But maybe in his particular case, Kiritsugo knew what he was talking about - Shirou always had been obsessive. If he tried to be a magus, he would have no time for being a Hero of Justice. "He also said that mages don't like other people to know about magic, and that I shouldn't talk about it."

"And yet here you are, telling me about it. Without any prompting." Ayako smirked. Whatever he was, Shirou was dependably transparent. A warm sensation passed through her as she considered the lovable blockhead.

"Uh, yeah," the redhead replied sheepishly, "But you're a friend," Shirou paused for a moment to find the right words before continuing, "I figured that you needed to know what was going on – it did attack you after all. And I want you to stay safe."

"It's not like I would go chasing after it if you didn't warn me off." Ayako giggled at the absurdity of it. Or maybe it was hysterics. She finally managed to get her giggles under control and took a sip of her tea, "But thanks anyways." She took a deep breath as she considered what she wanted to say (and to keep from giggling again – that was just weird and embarrassing). She wanted to say SOMETHING intelligent – she didn't want to end this evening with her acting like some sort of airhead. It was more than that: it had turned into an overwhelming need to not be an airhead in front of Shirou.

Shirou shrugged awkwardly and the two teens sat in silence for a few minutes. Shirou started to look uncomfortable, as he realized that he was siting with a girl alone, in her apartment. He shifted, preparing to stand up, "I should.."

"Have you met any other mages?" Ayako interrupted quickly, before Shirou had a chance to leave. She was far too pragmatic to believe in that sort of fantasy, but Shirou was as dull and prosaic as they came. If he was talking about it, it somehow made magic seem normal. Or maybe it just went to show how shell shocked Ayako was that she was taking all this talk of magic in stride.

"No, I don't think think there any in Fuyuki city – we're kind of in the middle of nowhere as far as mages are concerned."

"Not just mages," Ayako giggled before regaining her composure. "Um. yeah. Do you think it will try to come after me again? Like do we have a connection now or anything?"

"I don't know. Do you want me to stay over?"

"No!" Ayako stood up quickly. "Arg! Sorry. I didn't mean to yell, I just hate feeling helpless." She took a deep breath. "I'm ok. Really. But I should go to bed. To get some rest, I mean."

"Ok.. I'll see you tomorrow." Shirou walked into the kitchen to put his cup in the sink before turning to go.

"See you." Ayako gave an awkward wave as Shirou walked to the door.

Shirou turned back in the doorway. "Keep the door locked."

"'Kay." They stood like that, facing each other, for several seconds before Shirou finally stepped out and Ayako rushed to the door, throwing the dead bolt closed.

It was only after Shirou had left that Ayako started to think about what he had said. As she lay in bed. 'He is not supposed to let anybody know about magic stuff, but he trusted me enough to tell me about it.' The warm sensation from before permeated her, driving out the sense of horror, before settling in below her stomach. She hugged the pillow to her, inadvertently smudging lipstick onto it.

No Hero

Epilogue

Illya walked along the dock area, towards the bar where her Oni-chan was working. She had warned him. Now it was time for him to pay for stealing away otosan.

She was so distracted that she didn't notice the Arabic look man dressed in blue jeans and a beat up sweater standing by a shed on the marina as she walked by. But a moment later, Berserker materialized to block an attack as a sword wielding man appeared from nowhere.

"That was a nice try, but you are no match for my Berserker," Ilya pronounced as her Servant squared off against the hatchet faced man wearing leather trousers and nothing else. He had no hands – the stamps of his arms were dripping blood onto the short swords that were strapped to his arms.

He attacked with a ferocity that matched that of her Berserker, but he lacked the raw power. Ilya watched in amusement as Hercules pushed the inferior Servant back. It was clearly one of the knight classes – probably Saber – but it was no match for the greatest hero.

Ilya looked around for the master, pulling a hair from her head to transform into a fire bird. The only candidate was the sailor watching from the shadows of a storage shed.

But before her blue familiar could close with him, the Arabic man shot a flare into Berserker's face. Saber used the opportunity to demonstrate that he wasn't just a knock off Berserker with swords – he moved with such blinding speed that he disappeared from view as Hercules swung his slab-sword through where he had been a moment before to appear in front of Ilya.

The blond girl almost 'eeped' but she had the presence of mind to send two of her birds down to burn the Saber. Or she tried to. Instead, she found herself falling to the ground.

She looked down. 'That's odd.'

The Servant's sword was already in her stomach.

No Hero

Kirei Kotomine, overseer of the Fifth Holy Grail war, looked down at the mangled body. "Tsk. What were the von Einzberns thinking?" He inspected the lesser grail. It may still suffice for his needs. He tossed it into his car and covered it with a rug, to avoid unwanted attention.

N.B:

Saber (Galvarino) used his Noble Phantasm, Millarapue. When in battle, it allows him to bypass the foot soldiers to attack the commanding officer directly.