Shirou checked over all of his gear within the privacy and security of his dorm one last time. The teen nodded to himself before stepping towards his door and opening it.
"Ah?" Shirou paused mid-step, blinking owlishly at the sight that he saw outside of his dorm.
"Shirou. You've finally got everything prepared…?" Gray asked, standing about half a meter from the door with her cloak fully drawn and hood up.
"I do. Why are you fully cloaked?" Shirou asked, before blinking again "Actually, why are you here?"
"I'm here to say goodbye." She mumbled "And also to give you something."
"Give me something?" He cocked his head to the side.
"That's right. You're my friend. And what you're about to go into is apparently very dangerous. We don't know what that Mystic Code you have actually does but it seems to partially activate whenever a part of me is around so…P-Please take this." Gray bowed her head so that he couldn't see her face and held out one arm.
Grasped loosely in her fingers was a glass vial, corked at the top, full of a thick red liquid.
"Is this?..."
"Y-Yeah." She admitted shyly "H-Having my blood is even less effective than having me around but it still activates it so. J-Just in case…"
"We don't even know what that Mystic Code does, Gray." Shirou rebutted, even while grabbing the vial from her and looking it over.
"That may be true but…B-Better to have it than to not." She mumbled, pouting at the small chuckle Shirou let out.
"Yeah, that's true. Thank you Gray." He smiled at her, and she shyly smiled back, stiffening up as he reached a hand under her hood.
Feeling his hand place itself firmly on her head, she turned her gaze slowly upwards towards his face, yelping rather cutely as he began to ruffle her hair. As he did so, her hand twitched and raised itself to about level with her elbow in the blink of an eye before pausing. The rapid movement catching Shirou's attention from the periphery of his vision and causing him to pull his hand back.
"Ah. Sorry." He said simply, blinking when her hand snapped up to grab his wrist.
Her hold wasn't rough, her hand was actually quite smooth considering how much practice he knew she did with her scythe, but it was certainly firm. Turning his attention away from her hold on his wrist and towards her face, only to see the top of her hood as she tugged it down with her other hand.
"I…I liked it. My body just reacted." She admitted shyly, getting a stupefied series of blinks and parting of Shirou's lips before he smiled and rubbed her head again.
"Ma Ma." He spoke, slipping into his natural dialect for the briefest of moments "I'll keep that in mind. Alright, I'm off now." He smiled down at her, despite knowing she couldn't see it through her hood and began to walk away.
Unknowing of the soft smile Gray had as she watched him walk down the hallway, quickly shaking her head and beginning to make her way down another hallway, heading towards her first class of the day.
XXXxxxXXX
Thirty minutes later, meeting place
Shirou approached the group of Enforcers, knowing it was them immediately, both because it was a group of clearly trained fighters all congregated in the correct area at the correct time, but also because of some of the looks they were getting from the surrounding Magi. The looks alone would have been enough to persuade most Magi to at least reconsider approaching the group of Enforcers.
So, it was a good thing that Shirou wasn't most Magi.
"Hello!" He greeted jovially, smiling politely as he was met with a series of half-surprised, half-annoyed looks.
"Huh. You're that Muramasa kid, right? The one that got some strings pulled to join this hunt" One of the Enforcers commented, getting a nod from Shirou as he looked over all of them.
While Shirou could have lied to himself and said that he was looking over them purely to gauge their skill and/or what they thought of him. He didn't have enough pride to bother. He was looking at them purely to see what sort of weaponry they had, letting his mind wander as he answered absentmindedly.
"That's right. Nice to meet you." He greeted with a nod, his eyes flicking down to the suitcase by the man's side and structurally grasping it to see if he had any weapons stashed inside.
His usage of Magecraft, however, was cut off as someone stepped in front of him, cutting off his vision of the suitcase and causing him to look up at their face. Amber eyes met red as a young woman dressed in a sharp looking suit and a neutral expression stared down at him. Shirou couldn't really tell if she was sizing him up or not, since she had remarkable control over her facial expression, but he could definitely tell that she had wanted to get his attention in some way.
"Hello?" He greeted politely, albeit confused.
All he got in response was a nod from the woman, who waited another few moments before speaking.
"Shirou Muramasa. Welcome to the Enforcer team. The Edelfelt had great things to say about you." The young woman began getting a concise nod from the red-haired teen.
"That's good. I work with them, so I'd hate for them to say bad things about me." He responded simply, getting a minute raising of the woman's eyebrow at his rather simple response compared to the Magi she was used to dealing with.
"Sounds sensible. I'm Bazett Fraga McRemitz," She said, noting how his eyes seemed to light up "And I'll be leading the Enforcers taking up this hunt, which includes you."
"Got it. Can I see your Noble Phantasm?"
"E-Excuse me?" For the first time most of the Enforcers had seen, Bazett's cool demeanor cracked due to the sheer incredulity of Shirou's request.
"Can I see it? I want to see what your Noble Phantasm is like." He took a step towards her in excitement.
"I'm not going to activate my weapon for you." She responded, reforming her serious expression and smoothing out the waver in her voice.
"No no. You don't need to activate it. I just want to see it." Shirou assured her, not that it did, of course.
"No."
"Just one quick look I don't even have to touch it-"
"No means no, kid. Why are you so determined to see my weapon?" She asked tersely, squinting her eyes at him suspiciously.
"I'm a swordsmith. I make weapons. I want to see yours." He responded without missing a beat, beginning to look around her towards the pile of luggage to see if he could find where her Noble Phantasm was within the pile.
'Unless it's not in the pile and has to be summoned by her? But that means that Noble Phantasms can have a spiritual tie to their owner which means I need to look into that as well if that's the truth.' He thought to himself, having gone silent and now tapping his index finger on the handle of his sheathed blade while the pommel rested in the middle of his palm.
Meanwhile Bazett just gave a very confused look as Shirou went from excited and curious to pensive and speculating, his eyes unfocused and staring at nothing in particular as he seemed to rest a hand on his blade by reflex alone. Turning back towards the other Enforcer's, who looked far too amused by the scene they were watching, she gave them all a confused expression. Getting a couple snickers and a thumbs up in return and shooting them a rather deadpan look in response.
Turning back to Shirou when he made a small noise, she saw him blinking. The pre-teen looking back up at her and smiling somewhat sheepishly.
"Sorry, I zoned out. I tend to do that while thinking about swords."
"Right. I hope you won't do that while on the hunt?"
"Nah there's nothing to worry about when it comes to that." He responded simply, walking past her and placing his suitcase next to the already formed pile.
As he did, he missed the unblinking stare she drilled into his back. One of her fingers twitching for only a moment.
'Somehow I doubt that.' She thought dryly to herself.
"Alright. Now that Muramasa is here. Everybody grab your things. I'll go over it since we have someone inexperienced to the Enforcer rules here. We'll be taking a private aircraft this time since there's so many of us." She announced, getting a round of acknowledgements as all of the Enforcers got up to grab their gear, including Shirou who had just put his down.
And looking around, Shirou could see what she meant. He had no idea what the usual for a Dead Apostle hunt was, but just from a cursory glance he could see that there were easily around 10 Enforcers. And based on the Magi that stopped to stare at the group, or looked at them as they walked past them, such a large gathering of Enforcer's must have been a rare occurrence. But he didn't really care about, instead he was looking at all of Bazett's gear, trying to figure out if any of them was or housed her Noble Phantasm.
He'd bet it was that cylinder with straps that had inbuilt anti-detection runes and a tiny, bounded field to aid in the anti-detection attempts. He knew it was holding something. It had to be her Noble Phantasm, so much secrecy and fail safes? There was no other choice.
He just hoped he got to see it during this hunt.
XXXxxxXXX
7 Hours later, Northern Poland
Shirou looked around at what basically amounted to a small-scale siege operation. People wandering around from the Clock Tower, the Catholic Church, and even independent contractors and mercenaries. The knowledge that such an event was rare in and of itself was lost on Shirou with his utter lack of care for the politics of the Moonlit world. The fear that said knowledge should have lodged deep in his gut was also similarly missing, almost completely incapable of even taking a grip in him even if he had the knowledge of how rare such a collaboration was.
So instead of growing more and more fearful and anxious, Shirou instead grew curious, walking around and simply watching the people from the three 'factions', if the mercenaries and hired hands could even be called that. His presence went widely unnoticed even when people almost ran into him, his focus on people watching, as he and Sakura called it, distracting him from anything that would have brought attention sooner.
He noticed at least three members of the church fumbled with small, strange red cylindrical T-shaped items while stuffing them into their robes, one quick Structural Grasp later had the name 'Black Key' ringing in his mind. Though the name confused him he didn't let it distract him, instead wondering what, exactly, it was that had them so stressed or anxious that they'd fumble with their main form of weaponry.
The fact that they were mass-produced obviously angered him but the idea of creating a weapon from a scripture of all things was inspiring.
Looking around further, he saw a girl bump into one of the many hired hands, dropping a roll of gauze she had. Almost immediately the man began to yell and throw his hands around, acting as if her bumping into him was the most grievous insult known to mankind.
Seeing as the girl was a bit tied up, being screamed at, Shirou had no problems with walking over to grab her roll of gauze and try to dust it off as best as possible. Stepping forward he held up the roll of gauze, blinking when he saw a girl that appeared to be around his age, with light grey hair and golden eyes, staring up at the man with an almost peaceful grin.
"Pardon me sir, I'll be sure to apologize to God for ruining your day but if my bumping into you has ruined your day so drastically should you not pray to God yourself to find salvation of some kind? I can not imagine the mental toll being so consistently miserable has had on you. And judging from those rather deep wrinkles and perpetual scowl this curse must have been afflicted upon you at quite a young age, possibly even a cursed birth." The girl spoke in a somewhat monotone but nonetheless scathing tone, almost seeming to delight in the way that the man's face began to heat up further.
As the man launched into another tirade of screaming and throwing his hands around wildly, the grey-haired girl looked over and saw Shirou, who merely smiled somewhat sheepishly and offered the gauze to her.
"Here you are, I thought I'd help a little."
"How kind. See sir, when one is inconvenienced God teaches us to aid them in their plight. If you wish to be rid of your curse these are the kinds of lessons, you need to learn. And you, such kindness is a virtue, you seem to be the sort to help out often?" The girl gave him an inquisitive gaze and Shirou smiled a bit more proper.
"That's right! I like to help out with small things like this, it's the right thing to do." He said, nodding resolutely.
"Marvelous, with a conviction like that someone is bound to abuse your generosity." Shirou faltered at her blunt words, blinking once "But I suppose that to become cynical and pessimistic of people is to break the lesson of God I lectured the cursed one on, and thus to Sin. So, you will either suffer or Sin, which would you rather, Bronze-eyed gifter?"
"Uh, I don't know? I like to forge swords." Shirou lamely replied, holding his hands up in uneasy surrender.
"How fascinating. Not only are you incapable of basic decision making, or rather to afraid to do so, but also offer up knowledge of a hobby when not prompted to do so. Are you aware that's a sign of cripplingly low self-esteem? With such worrying issues I pray for the fools that used a blade crafted by you."
A golden-bronze eye twitched, a hand wrapping around the hilt of the blade on his hip. Except before he could pull the blade on her, a gloved hand landed on the pommel of his blade, stopping him from moving it.
"It's rude to interrupt a conversation you know?" Caren spoke to the figure besides him, a quick look showing that it was Bazett who was besides him and stopping him from drawing his blade.
"Getting the Clock Tower and Church to work together was a herculean task in and of itself. If your antagonizing of allies is what causes it to fall apart, I can assure you there wouldn't be a person here who would protect you from the wrath of both factions." Bazett spoke, narrowing her eyes a little at the rather nonplussed look on the younger girl's face.
"I see. Then let God forgive me for my antagonistic sins. And may he forgive the both of you Magus." She spoke, clearly saying the words as some kind of unwritten script rather than with any true intent.
Silently, they watched Caren walk away, getting a tired exhale from Shirou as he took his hand off the hilt of his blade. Waiting for a moment, watching him from the corner of her eye, Bazett finally took her hand off of his blade and spun to properly face him.
"She may have been the instigating factor but as a member of the Clock Tower you still have a responsibility to act according to your station." She admonished him, placing both of her hands on her hips.
"I'm just a swordsmith?" Shirou attempted to sway her, since he would really rather not sit through a lecture right here and now.
"One that has caught the attention of the Barthomeloi Clan Head." At his mostly clueless look she sighed and put her face in her palm for a moment "Which means, that any bad reputation you gain reflects back onto them. And with how much the family holds themselves to perfection, that won't end well for you."
"That's dumb." Bazett looked like she'd sucked on a lemon, her right eye twitching for a moment.
"It's not for me to say whether or not their ideology is correct or flawed. Rather I'm informing you that, that is their ideology. And if you have favor or a connection with them it's best to keep it proper and unstrained, for your own health."
"Right, I get it." Shirou sighed, nodding his head to emphasize his words.
Bazett watched the pre-teen with a narrowed eyed look before exhaling and putting both of her hands back on her hips.
"I knew you'd be trouble, kid. Regardless, so long as you don't die or get in the other Enforcers ways, then I don't have the time to keep lecturing you. Follow me, I've been informed of where something the Barthomeloi head organized for you is located."
"Oh cool. Lead the way." Shirou commented with an excited grin, following behind Bazett as she wordlessly turned around and gestured for him to follow her.
Eventually they were lead to a metallic box on the edge of the 'camp' that the three factions were using. Seeing the box, Shirou Structurally Grasped it on instinct, mostly to satiate his own curiosity. However the moment the information flowed into his mind, his eyes widened. Bazett, meanwhile, swept an arm through the air, gesturing to the box.
"Here it is. I wasn't made aware of what it was by the Executor who brought it here. Just that you'd know what to do with it." Bazett said, turning back to Shirou and narrowing her eyes a little at his shocked expression, though the indicators were deceptively small.
"I…Yeah I believe I do. Thank you." Shirou said, his shock fading away as thoughts began to flit in and out of his mind.
"You believe you do?" Bazett asked with an unamused expression.
"I know I do. Just have different ideas." Shirou was forced to clarify, proceeding to zone Bazett out even as she frowned and looked between him and the metallic container.
After all, Shirou had to figure out how best to use a container filled with cow's blood to keep his materials safe and intact.
XXXxxxXXX
50 Minutes later, outside the camp
Shirou sighed as he finally found a good resting place for the metallic blood container. Moving some rubble and debris to make sure that the wheels that were attached to the bottom of the container didn't cause it to slide around or move where he didn't want it to move.
Stepping out onto the open street, Shirou looked around at where the Enforcers, Executors and Mercenaries had chosen to lure the small horde of Dead Apostles to. A town that the horde had reportedly come through about two days earlier and was left in shambles as a result. Luckily it was so far removed and so isolated that keeping the truth of the event covered up had been child's play for the combined might of the Clock Tower and Church, but they couldn't let the Dead Apostles stay alive any longer. According to one of the Enforcers that had run past a moment later, the scouts sent to lead the horde back towards the town had been sighted and the Dead Apostles would be running through the streets in a few moments.
Unlike the Enforcers and Executors, he could see around him he really didn't need to calm himself down. His heartbeat was steady, the weather was nice enough that he wasn't even sweating yet, and his mind was ready for the attack to begin at a moment's notice. He understood that he was different from normal people, Rin alone had commented on it enough that the fact was burned into his mind, yet even with that knowledge he couldn't understand where the nerves suddenly came from.
'I shouldn't say suddenly, they seemed anxious back in the camp after all. But why? Didn't they know what they were getting into?' He thought, only to shake his head and focus on the direction of the street closest to where the horde would be coming in.
And it seemed he did so at a good time, as the sight of the horde stumble-dashing through the streets caused the tension in the air to skyrocket. And with a single curse fired at a Dead Apostle, and a screech of anger, the fight started.
As those with more ranged attacks or weaponry picked off the horde leading the charge, Shirou just placed a hand on the hilt at his side, staring impassively at the dead running towards the humans, and by proxy himself.
'What were these things called again? That's right, Ghouls. Stage two of a Dead Apostles evolution.' Shirou thought to himself, shifting his foot as one got past the hail of attacks.
The Ghoul ran towards him, screeching and flailing its arms wildly as it did so, making Shirou narrow his eyes at the completely alien body language of the Dead running towards him. For all that it looked human, albeit covered in blood, missing chunks of flesh and sagging in places it probably shouldn't, it wasn't a human. It had stopped being human by this point.
And with that final thought, Shirou stepped forward while simultaneously drawing his sheathed blade. The finely sharpened edge meeting the outstretched forearm of the flailing Ghoul, cleaving straight through it and continuing to the side of the Ghouls neck and clean out the opposing side.
The hand of the Ghoul flew between Shirou's head and shoulder as he tilted his body just enough to allow the now stumbling body to go straight past him and land on the ground with a painful thump. Shirou smiled at the physical proof that all of his combat training, both willing and forced, wasn't for naught.
And then proceeded to frown as he watched the body of the Ghoul fully finish decomposing and waft away in a soft breeze as barely perceptible flakes of ash.
"Right. I don't have much time after they die to collect their parts." Shirou reminded himself with an annoyed expression, turning back towards the horde of Ghouls.
'They're weak but even they have supernatural abilities that could be useful in a blade. I can't waste those parts.'
As the Ghouls began to push closer and closer to the human combatants, Shirou readied himself once more, knowing that eventually they'd get into melee range, and when they did, he'd have to work overtime to get his materials.
In the brief period of waiting he had, he idly fiddled with opening the latch on the container with his foot. Continuing the action even as he kept his eyes on the horde, ready to act whenever needed. His thoughts oddly calm despite the chaos around him, a side effect of his single-minded focus of making sure he got as many materials as possible to make sure he could create a proper blade.
'Lorelei is a fairly short woman. So, I can't make the blade too long. Also, since she's a Magus she'll probably want a European type of blade. Which means I'll need to do some experimentation before I start making this one.' Shirou thought to himself, hearing a screech and snapping into attention at just the right time to lean back, avoiding the swipe at his eyes by just a hair's breadth.
Though the only reaction the Dead got for its attempt was a widening of Shirou's eyes in excitement, not fear, as his foot snapped up behind him to flick the latch up. Doing so with enough speed that the lid for the container actually swung up as well with a loud bang that jostled the container ever so slightly.
The rapid movement and loud bang caught the Dead's attention, making it look over. Only once it realized it was blood that was inside the now open container, it forgot Shirou entirely and tried to rush around him to reach it. A choice that proved to be costly, as within a single moment, both of its outstretched arms were cleaved at the elbow. The Dead's lower arms flipping through the air, splatting against the bottom of the containers lid and plopping into the thick blood contained within. The Dead rearing back on instinct from the upwards slash that had taken its arms off, which allowed Shirou to get between it and the container.
Bringing his blade back down, the specially crafted and enchanted edge of the blade cleaved clean through the chest of the Dead. The wound beginning to heal right as he re-adjusted his blade for a third strike, similar to its lost arms. However, it wasn't to be, as in a single strike both the Dead's head and arm were severed from its body. The arm getting picked up and flung at the container, only to dissolve into dust moments before it hit the blood. The timing of its disintegration getting an annoyed sigh from Shirou as he shut the container and banged his head lightly on a nearby brick wall.
"Timing. Timing. Timing." He repeated to himself, pausing halfway to another bang when he heard the sound of multiple screeches nearby.
Tilting his head to look to the side, the pre-teen clicked his tongue in annoyance at the five Dead running towards him. Recognizing that even if one Dead was an absolute joke to him, more than three was pushing what he could efficiently deal with. He'd be losing valuable materials having to split his focus so far.
Lowering his left arm by his side, a blueprint was pushed to the forefront of his mind. A particular type of blade, seen very recently. One that's very nature fascinated Shirou due to how unique he found it compared to majority of other weaponry he'd been exposed to.
Flicking his arm up, a memory not his own directed his limb, releasing three blurred projectiles that lodged themselves firmly into the ribs of three of the five Dead, causing them to pause and stumble at the unfamiliar burn in their chests. A burn caused by an injury that wouldn't heal, even ignoring the fact that the blades were still lodged inside their chests.
Placing his now empty left hand on the pommel of his katana, Shirou leveraged his blade as he swung forward. Turning the blade into an almost untraceable metallic blur as he cut clean through the knee of the Dead, forcing it to topple over when it tried to put weight on the leg that temporarily wasn't there. The movement of his slash moving him out of the swipe from the second Dead, but only for a moment as it came after him almost immediately after its miss.
Cli-Clunk!
With a flick of his foot the lid of the container was once again thrown open with far too much force, the scent of the blood catching the Dead's attention. Once again allowing Shirou to get a free attack in. His blade carving from the bottom rib of the Dead's torso to the opposing shoulder.
Briefly, as the top half of its abdomen began to topple forward, Shirou considered a Black Key in its head as it fell past him. However, that thought was quickly discarded, the pre-teen having enough knowledge in his own abilities to know that even with guidance from the history of his blueprints he'd never be able to accurately make such a precise attack.
An attack he could make however…
A blur of Shirou's left arm once again and a Black Key was now buried in the head of the second Dead. The weapon disintegrating into motes of light as the creature's head broke down into dust, a Reinforced grip grabbing the disintegrating Dead's arm and pulling it into the blood, the lid being closed before any of the thick red liquid could spill over.
"Now. How to deal with you three?" Shirou wondered aloud to himself, staring at the first of said three who was winding up its arm to strike.
"RRoooaaaaa-AGHGH!"
XXXxxxXXX
Meanwhile, elsewhere nearby the village
A small girl stood atop a firmly buried and rooted boulder. Her hair black as the night sky, framing her face with two bangs on either side of her face, the rest of it pulled back into a long, loose, ponytail which somehow fit her more than a more tightly pulled, professional ponytail. Her eyes, red as blood, locked on the abandoned town that had become a battle ground.
Despite her own appearance at the location, The Dead and Dead Apostles in this location were pathetically low compared to the territory of an Ancestor. Already having all of them within the town's limits, as opposed to the territory of herself which would still be flooding Dead in. The two Nightkin of the horde had entered the town and engaged some of the Executors and Enforcers already, and she could sense that the leader of the horde, an inferior Dead Apostle, was about to begin combat himself.
However, what caught her attention wasn't the Enforcers and Executor's, nor the mercenaries, nor even the Nightkin or Inferior Dead Apostle. But rather it was the pulsing of something from within the town, from specifically a singular person within the town. A pulsation that was weak, so much so that a human, hell even majority of Heroic Spirits or Dead Apostles wouldn't have been able to pick up on. Unless of course they were like herself and knew what to look for, a sensitivity built up from her very soul and spread throughout her body intrinsically.
"Can you feel it Cath? There's a partially conceptualized Reality Marble in there." A soft growl from the large, horned canine-looking creature beside her just got a soft giggle.
"Silly question, now, isn't it? I'll let you kill some of them maybe. I'd rather not have to deal with the annoyances if it can be avoided, don't you think?" She got another growl that just made her scoff and run her fingers through his thick, matted fur, the dried blood parting around her fingers as if it had never been there.
Drawing her fingers out of the matted and thick fur of her companion, the girl focused her attention a fraction more intensely on the town, searching for where the signal was coming from. Whoever they were, they were being smart with their usage of their Reality Marble. It was used incredibly sparingly and in the heat of the moment it was likely that none of the other humans nearby even saw anything suspicious about the abilities, if they even noticed at all.
"Alright Cath. We're going in, I need you to go into your cute and adorable form, ok? You'll distract everyone else otherwise." With a small growl, the form of the girl's pet began to shift with sickening cracks and the sound of flesh tearing.
Until eventually, what had once been a monster of a beast taller than even the girl; with horns, thick matted fur and obsidian sharp claws and teeth, was soon a small squirrel-like creature with large fluffy ears and tail, and purple eyes.
"You know I can never tell if I enjoy this form or your other form more." The girl giggled with a sly smirk, raising a finger up to her bottom lip and adopting a faux-thinking stance.
"Fou!"
"Oh hush Cath. You know you're my little murderer. What form you take won't change that at all. Now, hop up!" She made a quick raising gesture with her hand, getting Cath to jump up.
His feet momentarily landed on her arm before kicking off once more and landing on her shoulder. The creature settling comfortably on her shoulder as the girl smiled down at the town being sieged, her blood red eyes beginning to glow ever so slightly and her smile stretching just a smidgen past the point of innocence.
XXXxxxXXX
Side Story: Meanwhile in London
Gray looked over with a curious expression as she saw Luviagelita Edelfelt sit at the same table as her within the Clock Tower library. Now the girls had met beforehand, but mainly through Shirou and they had never interacted unless prompted by him.
"Um, hi?" Gray attempted with a nervous expression and a small wave.
"Hello, Gray. Fancy seeing you here." Luvia spoke pristinely, her posture perfect and her expression polite and cheerful yet controlled.
'Oh, great. Politics. Just what I love about the Clock Tower…' She thought to herself, having to fight to keep the perfectly neutral look on her face from crumbling into a heavy deadpan.
"Yes. I, uh, I suppose it is?" She answered with a cautious expression.
"I see you agree." Luvia's smile grew a little "Say, you're a good friend of Sherou's aren't you?"
Gray, unbidden to her conscious mind, felt her posture loosen up and her expression change ever so slightly. A multitude of small adjustments that unknown to her made it near impossible for Luvia to read her. A change brought around by a streak of fierce loyalty and a protective urge regarding Shirou now that he'd been brought up in, what one could easily see as, a rather suspicious situation.
"I am very close to Shirou, yes." She chose her words carefully but the tone they came out in was formal and clipped, the sudden change in both body language and tone jolting Luvia out of her own perfect posture for a moment.
"I….see. Then I suppose you've heard stories of his life back in Japan?" Luvia inquired with a slight tilt of her head and her continued polite smile.
"I have." She revealed, her fingers fiddling with one of the pages of her book nervously.
"I see, I see." Luvia nodded, her head slowly turning away from Gray as she nodded before it ceased the movement and returned back to her "And has he brought up a certain someone before? Last name Tohsaka?"
Everything about Luvia looked and seemed innocent in her query, except the gleam of something dark that shone in both of her eyes. A gleam that, when mixed with her question, shocked Gray out of her instinctive posture and mindset and back to normal.
"E-eh?" She blinked at Luvia a couple times, stupefied by the question.
"Has he mentioned a Tohsaka at all? I believe her first name was Ren? Rian?"
"R-Rin?"
"That's the one. He has spoken of her? What has he said?" Instantly all pretenses of decorum and professionalism was shattered by Luvia placing her hands on the table and leaning so close to Gray that the poor girl had to start leaning back.
'This….This was just about her rivalry with Tohsaka? A girl she's never met?' Gray mumbled internally, beginning to sweat at the excited smile and wide, focused eyes of Luvia as she continued to try and invade her personal space.
'I should have known…'
XXXxxxXXX
Hello all! I've returned from the depths of burn out hell to bring you another (short) chapter of this wonderful story of mine. And while its only about 1500 words shorter than my usual average I do apologise. I tried to get it to 7K like usual but nothing really fit with how I'd structured the chapter and I didn't feel like restructuring the entire thing to fit in like one more scene I can easily add to chapter 11 so meh.
So, how'd you enjoy the chap? Dead Apostles of varying strengths and even someone special has appeared. Boy Shirou really is just competing with himself for having the worst luck in the series huh?
Anyways! Here's to the REVIEW REPLIES BABY!
Aaronintha: That's all I can hope for out of my omakes my dude/dudette.
DaDragon562: So am I. eventually XD
Mundatorem: I'm so sad I have so much to set up before the grail war. Cause I have a lot planned for that xP
Raventus Dracoria: Oh absolutely Luvia is going to do that. Which means she's likely going to hold onto that favour for a loooooong time. And yes. That meeting will be utter chaos.
Zelenin-02: Yeah had to wait two months instead of 1 this time. Sorry? XD And yeah, that comment from Gil was straight from me personally. Shirou is absolutely in over his head and about to start drowning. And yes, the Avenger and Iri conversation was something I'm rather proud of for thinking up due to how many things it accomplishes in one scene.
ShadoWARmadaN: Honestly it was just a reference to a meme but now I genuinely want to expand the idea more in some other omakes XD
Raging Drake: I'm glad you're enjoying the chapter but unfortunately Archer hasn't actually appeared. Basically how it works is "Omake" is a non-canon story, and "Side Story" is a canon story but something small that may not have necessarily fit in the grand scheme of the chapter itself.
SentinalSlice: So, sorry, but your comment is a little too long to comment on everything in it. Don't get me wrong I adore the comment itself I'm just trying to save some space XD I loved all your ideas and it definitely got the creative juices flowing so you'll just have to see what's developed.
Salvie: That is the meme its referencing, so that might be why x3
RinboHengoku: Do not worry. I'm back on schedule! Just with a slightly short chapter than usual xP
Madstack: Yeah that's a little brain-hiccup moment on my end but at least he knows what they are now so alls well that ends well.
Razigibran: That's something you'll find out later on but until then I'll let you come to your own conclusions xP
AND THAT'S IT FOR THE REVIEW REPLIES
Thank you all so much for all the reviews and all wishing me a happy birthday! It really made me feel great and I was smiling like an idiot with every one that I got.
And finally, shilling out my discord.
HEY COME JOIN THIS DISCORD GUYS, HERES THE CODE: ctMzhq3