Sakura Matou fidgeted as she approached the rooftop like she'd been asked hours ago. What did her senpai want? How would he react to what was obviously the most abnormal girl in their school? Did he hate her for what she did?

When Sakura opened the door and stepped onto the school rooftop, Shirou Emiya's back was to her. He was looking over to the horizon and for a brief moment, Sakura was struck at how wide his shoulders seemed.

Then Shirou turned to look at her and smiled, albeit sheepishly.

'It doesn't look like Senpai hates me.' It's that thought that finally allowed Sakura to relax a more as she approached him. "You were looking for me, senpai?"

"Yeah." Shirou nodded before tugging the inside of his jacket. "Come out."

Of all things Sakura could've expected, she certainly didn't know how to react to what looked like a child's toy floating out of Shirou's clothes.

Except for the alarming amounts of prana she could feel wafting off it.

"S-S-Senpai, this is-?!"

"Ah, Emerald did say you'd realize better if you saw her directly." Shirou nodded in sympathy. "Sakura, this is Magical Emerald, a Kaleidostick. Emerald, this is Sakura Matou. Just so I'm clear, I consider my kouhai a higher priority than you."

"Mean, but fair." Emerald hummed. "Hello, Sakura! I am-"

"One of Zelretch's Kaleidosticks..." Sakura breathed out. "I thought Grandfather had been making you up... Ah, I mean...!" Sakura flinched, suddenly remembering Shirou's presence. "I-"

"Emerald told me last night you were a magus, right?" Shirou cut her off. "That you knew what was happening to my body and you saved me? Thank you for that."

Sakura's cheeks heated as she remembered the taste of his lips on her tongue. "I-It's fine, senpai. I'm not really a magus, per say. I just... I'm descended from them."

"That's still better off than me in this scenario." Shirou sighed. "I'm not really sure what to do now..."

"...you don't really have to do anything." At Shirou's inquiring look, Sakura spoke further. "There's nothing more you have to do even if you open your Magic Circuits, senpai. Just keep living your life as you want. Ah, of course, you have to keep your abilities secret."

"I could figure that out on my own, Sakura." Shirou chuckled in relief. "Thank you anyways, Sakura. This is the second time you've helped me out on this."

Emerald flew around in a teasing manner. "You could always show her a good time~"

"Huh?!" "Eh?!"

Both Sakura and Shirou reddened at the Kaleidostick's suggestion, the latter swiping his arm at it.

"Don't just say stuff like that!" Shirou snarled as he tried to swat Emerald out of the air. "How could I do something like that to her?!"

"Eh?" Emerald made a show of slowly rolling through the air. "But didn't you have a reaaaaaaaaalllly good dream about her last night?"

"GAAAH!" Shirou's arms swiped faster, but Sakura's mind was already lost.

'Senpai dreamed of me like... that? If so, was it because of the prana transfer...?' Sakura idly traced her lips, her thoughts flashing through her dream in which Shirou had taken her so vigorously. 'If senpai's prana in me somehow connected our dreams, then... And it doesn't sound like senpai disliked it...'

"U-Um..." Sakura suddenly spoke up, gaining their attention. "If senpai is serious about p-paying me back, c-can you... walkmehomeafterschool?"

Sakura finished breathlessly as she shut her eyes, unwilling to look him in the eyes if he reject-

"Sure, I can do that." Shirou easily replied. "However, my little sister might join us on her way home."

"I-I'm okay with that!" Sakura hastily agreed. She wasn't that ready to be totally alone with senpai yet.

"Onii-chan!"

Shirou turned at the expected sound of his little sister, who seemed more excited than usual. "Oh, are you following us home today, Illya?"

"Yeah! Let's go back together, Onii-chan!" Illyasviel von Einzbern-Emiya happily replied, until she regarded the girl next to her brother. "Who?"

"This is Sakura." Shirou patted Sakura on her shoulder. "I'm walking her home today."

"Nice to meet you." Sakura bowed a bit. "I'm Sakura Matou."

"...Illyasviel von Einzbern-Emiya." Illya curtsied back, although she still pouted a bit. "Well, if Onii-chan is accompanying you home, I can't race him as usual. Bye-Bye, then."

Waving goodbye, Illya burst into a sprint and soon disappeared from their sights.

"So fast..."

"Illya's her school's fastest sprinter." Shirou explained for Sakura's benefit. "More often than not, she usually even races me on my bicycle."

"She sounds amazing." Sakura was properly awed by his little sister. "But are you two related? She looks foreign..."

"Ah? Oh, no." Shirou explained. "You see, my father rescued me from a horrible disaster years ago, and when there was nobody around to claim me, Mama instantly pushed for adoption."

"I'm so sorry, senpai!" Sakura winced. "I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."

"It's okay, Sakura. I have nothing but good memories of my family." Shirou assured Sakura. "I mean, the trauma was bad enough to make me lose almost all memories of mine other than my name."

Apparently, that had been a horrible thing to add, because Sakura wilted even further. Now there was an awkward air. Now Sakura was looking too hesitant to even speak up as he walked her home.

Shirou needed something, anything to deal with this awkward silence.

"So, um, how exactly do prana transfers work?" Shirou asked. "That thing you did to save me."

Ah. Now her face was red instead. "A-Ah, well. I-It usually works well with... fluid transfer..."

"So that was why you kissed me." Shirou mused as his own cheeks heated up. So it was like a blood transfusion? If one was too low (or too high), a trusted or compatible companion would be needed to fix that problem. "Are there any other ways to do so?"

"Not that I know of..." Sakura shook her head. "It would usually take any of our fluids being taken into the other's body for the prana to follow. Saliva, blood, se-"

Sakura cut off, her entire face red now.

It didn't matter because Shirou himself could see what she'd meant. If his dream before had been caused a lingering trace of her prana mixed with his, was it that it'd been an instinctual guide on how to get the best possible treatment?

Sex with your attractive schoolmate will save your life, raise a flag and give you power!

That sounded like it belonged in the wildest example of an eroge-

Wait.

"Sakura, did you have a dream about me last night?"

She may have stumbled, but Shirou instantly saw how the first emotion to pop up in her eyes were neither shock nor indignance, but panic.

"You did..." Now it was Shirou's turn to feel horribly embarrassed. "Then, you must have... gone through everything... I did..."

"...y-yes, senpai." Sakura meekly admitted before grabbing his hand. "D-D-Don't worry, though! Like Emerald-san said, i-it was a p-pretty good dream."

"I-I see... That's good, then." Shirou coughed into his fist, the silence a bit more comfortable this time until they reached her house. "So this is it."

"Yes, I'll see you tomorrow, senpai." Bowing goodbye, Sakura practically skipped all the way to her door.

"Finally!" Emerald groaned as she floated out from his clothes. "Do you know how restraint I had to use to not burst into your conversation?! I deserve a medal from fighting my instinctual duty to meddle, you know!"

"Instinctual duty?" Shirou deadpanned. "Are you making that up?"

"Anyways, enough of that." Emerald waved him off before zooming up to his face. "I sensed a spatial aberration just a while back. It looks like a Class Card got manifested around here~"

"Class Cards? What do you mean by that?" Shirou raised a brow. "Is it related to you being a Kaleidostick?"

"Allow me to explain, my dear apprentice." Emerald dramatically coughed. "Class Cards, which are technically Servant Cards, are small artifacts capable of drawing on the power of random Heroic Spirits. They just popped up one day and after weeks of study, could barely figure out anything from them. I'd put a bit more thought into why they came here of all places but I don't really care. What's really important is that they're causing mana distortions around in order to manifest sooner or later."

"...what happens if they manifest?" Shirou warily asked.

"I don't know what the Servant themselves would do, but if the mana distortions get too high, it'll cause a natural disaster." Emerald revealed with the same factual air of a newscaster reporting a category 4 hurricane. "Earthquakes, tornadoes, whichever form the disaster will take doesn't matter. What matters is that the disaster will happen. Isn't that great?!"

"How is that great?!" Shirou shot back. "Lots of people are gonna die if something like that happens!"

"Well, because I get to fight a Servant through you and you have a way to stop the disasters from happening!" Emerald suavely replied. "Does that not tickle your fancy? To be able to prevent the disasters that hurt you from hurting others? Like your family? Like your friends?"

Shirou swallowed as he thought seriously on this. He felt like he was being suckered into a bad deal, but it didn't feel like Emerald was lying at all. Just because she was taking advantage of a bad situation didn't change the fact that the bad situation was still there. "...how would we deal with these... Servants?"

"It's simple, Shirou." Emerald twirled in place before extending her handle to be held in Shirou's hand. "As a Kaleidostick specializing in combat, I can actually boost your physical abilities to match an average Servant, although there's really no such thing as an average Servant."

"How strong would you estimate a Servant to be?" Shirou carefully asked.

"It varies..." Emerald hummed as she thought it over. "Just imagine that you'll be fighting Spider-Man. Only with less webslinging, but more stabbing."

"Isn't that already crazy strong?!" Shirou freaked out. "Spider-Man can toss cars!"

"Yeah, but so can you when you're transformed!" Emerald giddily cheered. "Now let's go!"

"F-Fine, then." Shirou breathed heavily and ran his hand through his hair. "Where are the Cards exactly and how can we get to them?"

"The Cards are most likely in the Mirror World and are absorbing mana from within there." Emerald explained. "This is actually a good thing. In there, I don't have to worry about any collateral damage!"

"Are you sure this is the place?" Shirou asked almost an hour later. Following Emerald's lead, Shirou had soon ended up before the woods.

"Yes. The distortion here is pretty heavy." Emerald confirmed as she led the trek inwards. "Normally we would need to wait till midnight to retrieve this, but I've got enough built up energy to brute force past Gaia's interference just for today."

'She's that excited, huh...' Shirou raised a brow as Emerald kept humming as they walked. 'What does she mean by Gaia's interference, anyways?'

"And... we're here." That was Emerald's only warning before Shirou found himself transformed into his Debonair outfit.

"[Adding Imaginary Axis to the Fifth Instrument Variable.]"

Shirou twitched in shock as a large golden circle appeared beneath his feet, humming with power as it casted a glow that refracted off all the trees and grass around him.

"[Beginning Inversion Preparations.]"

Energy began to flood his being as his own Circuits thrummed in response to Emerald's magic, though it was running much more smoothly compared to earlier.

"[Confirming the existence of Complex Spaces.]"

The world began to... dissociate, for lack of a better word, and Shirou could have sworn he was starting to see double.

"[Central Coordinates Established.]"

A small pool of light coalesced beneath his feet, and then branched out as thick green lines, forming a magic circle with various runes and magical letters he couldn't identify, with a four-pointed star filling it in.

"[Establishing Mirror Pathway with a Radius of 2 meters.]"

The glyph began to glow brightly and turn as it started to activate, while Shirou stumbled about, suddenly struck by a strong bout of vertigo.

"[Beginning Partial Inversion of Mirror World Circuits.]"

And suddenly, it was clear to Shirou.

As if seeing the infinite reflections between two opposing mirrors.

It was the most captivating phenomenon he'd ever seen.

"[Coordinates Stabilized.]"

The circle beneath his feet faded as its job was completed.

"[Dimensional Transport Complete.]"

"Wow." Shirou breathed , taking his first glance at the Mirror World.

Initially, it seemed like he hadn't changed location at all from where he had been standing earlier, but the dome-like structure in the sky, composed of many different polygons resembling glass, that enclosed the woods separately from the rest of the world, was the main difference that stood out.

Everything else, from the trees to the smell of the forest, remained the same, but at the same time, there was this disconcerting feeling that Shirou couldn't quite identify.

"Pretty cool, right?" Emerald boasted, now in her scepter form. "Now, let's get started. Thanks to my Radar mode, which my sisters probably don't have, we can find our enemy with little hassle! Just so it's clear, here are the color codes. Green is for you, red and blue are my sisters if they ever pop up, yellow are for friendlies and purple is our enemy!"

Emerald shivered before a screen slid over her star, showing what looked like a classic radar screen. Unbelievably, Shirou instantly found a problem. "...Emerald, am I wrong to believe that there aren't mana distortions with more than one Servant in them?"

"No, not really. It would be really abnormal if this space had more than a single Servant in it. Why do you ask?"

"So what does it mean for so many purple dots to be converging on me?!"

"...fuck! You should- DODGE!"

Shirou startled in confusion and then looked up just in time to see the blade of a thrown dagger inches from his face.

It was only when she'd finished dinner with Uncle Kariya and had laid down to sleep that she remembered when she saw it right on her desk. "I forgot to give senpai that book... If senpai doesn't know a few harmless spells to stave off the excess if he builds up again..."

'He might come for me again.' Sakura's cheeks flushed as that traitorous thought chased her well into her dreams.

KingVessel: First Servant, Assassin! Leave a review!