Shirou sat as he waited for Waver to finish reading. Considering the pile next to him, he had to guess that the Lord had been here a while. That, or he was even more of a speed reader than Rin. It shouldn't matter. No matter how little or how much Waver read, Shirou figured he would be pissed either way.

"Mister Shirou?" He heard Gray before he saw her come closer. Mentally, Shirou added another tally to her. The girl could be sneaky when she wanted to, and this wasn't the first time that she had accidentally snuck up on him.

"Miss Gray. Is something the matter?" Her face, one that she normally hid underneath her hood, was set in a determined frown. He resisted the urge to look away. Gray didn't deserve to be treated differently because of how she looked, especially from someone like Shirou.

Regardless, the determination he could see was a stark reminder of times past.

"Is it true that you fought a dragon?"

"Um…yes?" He winced at the sound of his own voice. He couldn't help it though. He already knew where Gray was going with this.

"Are you hurt? Did you get burned? What about your Circuits, did you overuse them? Your armor, is it fine? Ah! Your lungs, did you breathe any ash? Actually, do your lungs hurt at all? Do-"

"Please, please, I'm fine." Shirou held up two hands in a placating manner. He gave a wry smile at the decidedly shorter girl. Despite having a head or two on her height, Gray acted more of a mother hen at times.

It wasn't just him as well. Any time that Waver or Lady El-Melloi would get into any dangerous situation, Gray would get very worried. It was a far cry from the shy girl that he had met all those years ago.

Where before, she would do her best to hide behind Waver, nowadays, she had grown up to be her own person. Shirou couldn't help but be proud to be part of the small, tight knit group that was the original class of Waver's.

Speaking of which, he looked around suspiciously, and Reinforced his ears to hear anything off in the distance. With a mildly worried glance, he interrupted Gray's impromptu check up to ask, "Where's Flat?"

"I sent him over to the United States to investigate something else.." It was Waver that answered, eyes still focused on the papers, his cigar dangerously close to the stack beside him. Shirou let out a sigh of relief.

As much as Flat was a good person, he had the very real problem of getting into the weirdest situations, even by magus standards. In fact, it was sometimes so bad that Shirou had genuinely thought that he was cursed.

"Lieutenant General Hazama, can you confirm that these reports are all true?" Waver shifted his gaze towards the man, his expression unreadable. The man looked distinctly annoyed, his answer , somewhat clipped, was in slightly accented English.

"My men confirmed it as such."

"Alright then." With a single breath, Waver somehow burned through the entire cigar. Judging by the (honestly non-threatening) glare that Gray threw at the older man, this was something he did often enough.

"To put it bluntly, Emiya," Pulling out another cigar and lighting it up, Waver stared at Shirou, "You're royally fucked."

"As crass as my brother may be, he is indeed correct." Reines, or rather, Lady El-Melloi, spoke up for the first time. She had taken the title just a few years ago, after some incident that Shirou wasn't privy to. She had still refused to let go of Waver though.

"Tell me, how much do you know of what happened in the Clock Tower, if not the Association as a whole, when everything went down?" The older magus was now staring directly at Shirou, the age lines on his face only seeming to grow.

"Should we be…?" The Enforcer motioned to Hazama, who was not so secretly listening in, a phone that was likely recording in hand. Both Reines and Waver shrugged.

"Cat's out of the bag, and anyone with a working brain would be able to figure it out soon enough. Regardless, your answer?"

"Not much." He admitted truthfully, "I haven't had any real contact other than Zelretch."

"It was a veritable civil war, Emiya." Waver groaned into the palms of his hand, even as Gray went over to pat the man's back, "The Aristocratic Faction wanted to wipe Tokyo off the map, the Neutrals wanted an information blockade before going and erasing the memories of everyone they could, and the Democratic Faction wanted to kill you."

He paused, "Actually, scratch that last one. All of them wanted to kill you. They were just arguing how."

Shirou winced at the chaos that must've been. He was both thankful that he wasn't anywhere near that, and ashamed that he had let his allies, few as they were, deal with that by themselves.

"Well, that was before the Wizard Marshal put his foot down a couple of days ago. Apparently, every one of your associates are now directly under his protection. Including the El-Melloi and Velvet families." Waver blew out smoke as he spoke.

"Since then, the chaos has mostly subsided. Mostly. The Department of Policies still wants your status as an Enforcer revoked, but they couldn't do that without directly going against Zelretch. Of course, that didn't stop them from doing this. Sorry, by the way." He handed Shirou a piece of paper.

The magus recognized the seal as one of the official Policies seals, and opened it without hesitation.

"...I expected worse."

A demotion. For all that he did to undue nearly two thousand years of secrecy, all he had gotten was a slap on the wrist. From Senior Enforcer, to Junior Enforcer. Even then, it wasn't as if that was a punishment, seeing as he mostly worked alone, other than the pay decrease.

"Maybe. That said, I'm pretty sure that some of the Aristocratic Faction still wants you gone, regardless of Zelretch's orders."

Ah. Fair enough. It would cause less official questions if a Junior Enforcer were to die in an 'unforeseen accident' than a Senior Enforcer, after all. That still begged another question.

"Aren't you all part of the Aristocrats?" Shirou was calm. Even if they were here to arrest him, he wouldn't have resisted. If he had, then he would be handing them a reason for violent force. As confident as he was in beating them - Waver wasn't exactly the most combat oriented magus - he still considered them friends.

"Of course." The bespectacled man snorted, "Though we're not here to bring you in. We're here on behalf of Lady Barthomeloi."

Shirou's neck must've whipped towards him with an audible snap with how Hazama looked at him, "What? Why?"

It didn't make sense to Shirou. The Barthomeloi were arguably the most influential magus line within the Clock Tower. Their prowess for magecraft was often thought to be even higher than the oft unseen Director. They were often strong enough to hunt down Dead Apostle Ancestors single handedly.

And that wasn't even mentioning Lorelei Barthomeloi herself. A woman that would hunt down Apostles when they were at their strongest, just to wipe them out with ease. Where the Barthomeloi were arguably the most influential, Lorelei Barthomeloi was definitely the strongest, normal magus in the Clock Tower.

More than that, she was also his boss. The same boss that had just demoted him.

"I can't say I understand for certain," Waver started, "But it likely had to do with the Atlas representatives that came in a couple of days after your little fight was broadcasted."

At that, Shirou's eyes widened. Atlas was usually very isolationist, similar to the Wandering Sea. That they would send someone at all was a bad sign.

"I don't exactly know what they talked about, it was a closed door meeting with Lady Barthomeloi. Before they met, she was, to put it mildly, furious." Shirou nodded, even as he saw Hazama in the background take notes, "After they met though, the Queen did a complete one-eighty, and fought for your side."

He swallowed as the implications sank in. The Queen rarely changed her mind regarding things like this. That she did meant that whatever Atlas told her had something to do with him, this new world, or something close to that.

He didn't like it. He didn't like it one bit.

"What does she need?"

"Reports, status updates, everything in between. These," The Lord held up the files, "Were good starters. I need more though. Everything from your perspective, and then some. Standard after action reports, then any speculations you may have. Literally anything."

Alright, that sounded fine to him. Shirou furrowed his brow, "That still doesn't explain why you specifically are here."

"Isn't it obvious, Emiya?" Waver handed over the files to Gray, who dutifully tucked them in a small bag, "We're the only ones that the Queen trusted enough to not kill you." That part was said with as much humor as everything else had been said. That was to say, there was none.

Waver was dead serious.

However, that wouldn't be the end of it. Magi were more or less always in a state of wanting to kill one another. It was the norm, of trying to one-up each other. Shirou had certainly worked with people who'd rather rip out and eat his entrails more than once. Anyone else could've done the job, especially if the alternative was sending the Lord of Modern Magecraft, the head of the El-Melloi family, and-

Ah.

He caught Waver's eye. The Lord made a discreet glance towards the silent cage held by Gray.

Add. The construct had been quiet this entire time, despite knowing that at this point, he would've been mouthing off. He had certainly done so in most situations. Right now though, the cube was conspicuously still. He could still see the motion of his eyes, but Add was actively trying not to move.

Rhongomyniad. The Lance that Shines to the Ends of the World. A Divine Construct that supposedly held the Textures of the World. Even he didn't know the extent of just what it did, being unable to use his Structural Analysis on it.

He didn't exactly know what the Vice Director told them to do. He had the feeling that he wouldn't like it. He was somewhat calmed by the fact that it likely wasn't going to be nefarious - Gray was the only person capable of using it in the first place, and she would never do something that would cause wholesale death and destruction.

For now, he would have to trust that it wouldn't be too problematic to everyone here.

"That is nice and all," Hazama spoke up for the first time in a while, "But I fail to see just what the JSDF has to do with office politics."

"Simple." It was Reines that replied, a smirk of superiority on her face, "My brother is here as the official liaison between the Mage's Association and Japan. Gray and I are here for a vacation." Needless to say, Hazama looked at her in incredulity, before shaking his head and turning to Shirou with a glare.

"You said that you spoke for your Mage's Association." The tone was not quite accusatory, though the anger in his voice more than made up for it.

"Oh hardly," Reines continued, despite the visible wince from Shirou. If anything, her smirk grew larger at Shirou's discomfort, "Enforcers are perhaps on the level of associated bounty hunters, with no real power within the Clock Tower. In fact, I believe even Gray here has a higher influence than Emiya, and she's not even an official member."

Hazama stood up from his seat, his phone dropping to the table with an audible thud, as he glared viciously at Shirou. To be fair, Shirou himself felt that he deserved that much. He hadn't lied so to say, when he said that he represented the Clock Tower's interests. Just, he failed to mention that the Clock Tower and his common interests stopped at taking down Sealing Designations.

Before either of them could speak, or in Hazama's case yell, there was a knock on the door. Everyone turned towards it, even as Reines looked absolutely disappointed at the interruption. Yanagida poked his head through the door, a grave look on his face.

"Sir, there's a situation that might need your attention. You as well, Emiya."

Hazama practically growled at the magi in the room, before he calmed down to respond with a nod. As soon as the other JSDF personnel was gone, he turned to look at Waver, "We'll talk details after I deal with that. Help yourself to the cafeteria while I'm gone. Yanagida can show you the way." There was a tiredness in his voice, and the people around the room could practically see the understanding that echoed in Waver's eyes.

Kindred spirits, Shirou supposed.

Then, without any warning, Hazama turned to look at him, a furious look in his eye, "We'll talk about your blatant bullshit later." The lack of respect in his tone was unsurprising, and completely warranted.

He quickly left the room, the boiling anger leaving a bitter taste in the Enforcer's mouth.

"Now that was disappointing."

Reines' comment prompted the Lord of Modern Magecraft to groan in his hands.

"Anyway, whatever they were talking about sounded interesting. Trimmau." Almost immediately, a silvery, mercurial liquid spilled from her arms. Quickly, it formed into a humanoid maid, albeit with silver skin, "Shall we?" Reines didn't wait for a response, already making her way out of the door.

"Rei-" The professor couldn't even finish before his 'sister' was gone. Gray gave him a sympathetic smile, one that belied years of familiarity with the act.

"I'm sure she'll be fine, sir. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"

Both the Lord and the Enforcer stared at her in horror. Gray stared in confusion, before a clanking laugh could be heard from the cage she held.

"Brat! 'What's the worst that can happen?' Are you tempting Fate or something?!" Add was laughing hysterically as the gravekeeper recalled her own words, her own face twisting in unbridled terror.

The World enjoyed its coincidences. More than that, it liked proving people wrong. Even more than that, it loved proving particularly unlucky people wrong. People like Shirou and Gray, for example.

The three of them were running out the door soon enough.

A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.

And a special thanks to: Oliver vazquez, brutalcrab, and Tassimo.