Sherlock carry.
Thank you to everyone reading and everyone on p atreon. The vote for this chapter's illustration will be up on p atreon soon.
The year's coming to a close. I was commissioned to bang out the finale for the Luvia p atreon story which should take a little bit then Fear the Superhero will be kicking off its final arc to finish off the year.
X
Ludwigshafen was too lovely a name for the shithole of a town she found herself in, Chifuyu thought.
Dull.
Everything was dull.
Despite her every desire to groan, the young woman did an excellent job of keeping a straight face as she marched down the dreary halls of the military base she'd be stuck in for the next few months.
Right. She hadn't actually been anywhere else in Ludwigshafen, had she?
Well, anyway.
There was nothing to do. The people were too serious. The food was not what she was used to. The scenery left much to be desired.
She was generalising based on nothing more than her own experiences, of course, but her hopes of finding anything of worth beyond those experiences were slim to none.
She flipped her ponytail and adjusted the collar of the god-awful uniform they made her wear. Her own suffering wasn't an excuse to not be presentable, she supposed.
It was all worth it, she reminded herself.
It was.
She made a deal. These people had helped her. It was her turn to help them. Simple as that.
Ichika had been used as a hostage because of her. If her only family had… if anything had happened to him, it would have eaten away at her for the rest of her life. The Germans helped her rescue him, so it was only fair that they asked for something they deemed being of worth in return.
Even if the favour was a year in an army base in the middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, Germany, training prospective super-soldiers in the ways of IS, amongst other things.
It was just another notch on the list of things she had to do as a result of the choice she made that day.
Right. So she had to be a drill sergeant to a bunch of their literal lab-grown children, is all. It wasn't that big of a deal. So what if they imprinted on her like fresh ducklings out of the shell? So what if they were royal pains in her ass on a good day? At least now she knew that a career in education wasn't in her future.
Figuring this stuff out in your youth was just a part of every person's path to adulthood, wasn't it?
Her hand paused as it touched the door handle leading to the command room.
Maybe she should give Ichika a call tonight.
…No. It was a bad idea.
If she started calling him too often then he'd think she was being needy. She was his legal guardian, technically, but she didn't want to be a helicopter parent to her own brother.
Suppressing a sigh that desperately wanted to come out, she opened the door.
"Lieutenant Harfouch," she greeted the German officer. "The day's done. I'll retire for the—what's that?"
The officer in question, a serious-looking woman with short-cut hair and a ridiculous-looking eyepatch, choked on a bitefull of fried pork cutlet upon noticing Chifuyu. She quickly put her fork down next to her meal box.
"Instructor Orimura," Harfouch returned the greeting dutifully, mouth still full, taking a moment to swallow the gigantic chunk of deep-fried pork and fully ready to pretend that didn't just happen. She was clearly willing to ignore the bits of panko stuck to her cheek.
Chifuyu was neither ready nor willing. She stared pointedly at the dish that was oh-so carefully assembled in a stylish lacquered eki-ben container.
"That's a bento," Chifuyu remarked simply.
A very full bento. Grilled mackerel, egg rolls, rice, vegetable tempura, a half-eaten pork cutlet, pickled daikon and a small cup of steaming miso-soup.
The only thing worth a damn around here was the bread and the beer, and only one of those things could be found within a reasonable distance of where she was forced to spend most of her days. Every fucking meal was a miserable one. Since when was anyone getting decent food, let alone Japanese food? Were they keeping her out of the loop on purpose? If this was some new form of hazing then someone was going to get an earful.
"Oh, this?" Harfouch idly straightened the container on her desk as one did when they had nothing better to do with their hands. Or maybe she was just as neurotic as everyone else on this military base. Both options were equally possible. "It's the most peculiar thing, really. We had an interview today for a position in the base's mess hall. A Japanese man. We didn't give him an answer straight away, there's still the matter of security clearances to go over, but he brought this bento as a sort of proof of concept, and I was simply evaluating his efforts. Ah!" The woman's eyes lit up. "You simply must try it and tell me how it compares to your own experiences. This broth: it's what they call, 'miso soup', no? The stock, I hear, is quite the staple in your culture's cuisine! It utilises both 'kombu' and 'katsuobushi', correct? Ah, I hear some even use fish! 'Niboshi', is that right? Why, if I ever—"
Chifuyu tuned out Harfouch as the woman tried her best to enumerate every Japanese term she knew in one go.
This was all incredibly concerning.
A Japanese man? Looking for a job at a down-low military base on the outskirts of some random German city that most people haven't even heard of? Chifuyu smelled a rat.
It must have been because of her, right?
The odds of this guy being some crazy fan were higher than the odds of it being nothing more than a coincidence.
What was even more likely was that it was someone sent by that organisation.
The one that was after her and Ichika.
She had to get to the bottom of this.
"Harfouch." She interrupted. "After they're done with dinner, take over the evening spot check and give out the routine orders for tomorrow. Then it's lights out for the rest of them."
The lieutenant paused mid-rant.
"O-oh! Of course, Ma'am."
She stood, taking a moment to gather her bearings before pausing.
"… Just take it with you."
"Certainly, Ma'am!"
Eagerly, Lieutenant Harfouch seized what was left of the bento box, taking great care in sliding the lid back on, downing the rest of the miso soup in one gulp before hurriedly exiting the office, the tantalising aroma trailing in her wake.
Her stomach grumbled traitorously.
Sighing, she made her way behind the desk, retrieving a thick book from the filing cabinet. Flipping it to the most recent page, she took out her pen and began filing in her personal particulars and the current time.
Irritably, she noted that the office still smelt of fried food.
Once done, she made her way across the room, unlocking the key press and retrieving a set of keys to the armory.
She swung it shut, locking it back up before flicking the light switch off, closing the door with a little more force than necessary.
Chifuyu made her choices. She was prepared for this possibility. This too, was just more shit for her to deal with as a result of those choices.
And yet, as she walked away, a small part of her tiredly wondered whether the consequences of her actions would ever stop coming for her.
X
X
"Shirou~ I'm hungry!"
"It's just about ready!" he called out over his shoulder, ladling the chicken-and-egg stew onto three bowls of steaming rice.
This would be a strange dynamic in most households, he mused: normal people didn't make their guests prepare the meals, right?
He snorted. The mere thought of categorising this household as anything resembling "normal" was pretty comedic.
"Yay! Yay!" a high-pitched voice cheered from the living room. It was followed by an equally-high pitched squeal.
Shirou poked his head out around the corner and smiled at the pair lounging at the kotatsu.
Taiga smiled back kindly. A small child—barely older than a toddler—was tripping over her own two feet, crawling across her mother's lap and flailing a toy sword around in the air.
"I see that's still her favourite toy." Shirou noted with some amusement. "Has she even watched the series it's based on?"
"Yeah! They're airing reruns of Kamen Rider Ryuki ahead of the fifteenth anniversary special!"
Shirou paused.
Fifteen…
That's right. It had been that long since…
Not for the first time, Shirou had the weary realisation that he was getting old.
"Shirou?"
He shook his head. "It's nothing. Does she like it? The show, I mean."
"She does!" Taiga affirmed. "But she doesn't quite understand why everyone calls Ryuki an idiot when he's clearly the hero trying to get everyone to stop killing each other." She scratched her cheek awkwardly. "I don't quite know how to explain it to her."
Shirou had a wry smile. "Maybe… you just tell her that heroes can be idiots too?"
"Come on, she'd never accept it if you phrase it like that!"
The redhead chuckled, even as he finished plating the food and brought three bowls of Oyakodon to the table. Both mother and daughter wore identical expressions of impatience as they glared down at their offerings like a tiger would a deer.
Dinner was as calm of an affair as it could ever be, present company in mind. It wasn't quiet, but it didn't have to be. It was pleasant in a way that could only be attributed to being home.
As he chewed, he sneaked a glance at the woman who as good as raised him, gently wiping a bit of sauce from her daughter's cheeks.
Fujimura Taiga had taken to motherhood well, and with more grace than could be expected from anyone who knew her. That familiar ferocity and energy he was used to was still there, tempered by something more.
And yet, as he surveyed the early stages of laugh lines and crow's feet across her countenance, he felt a budding sense of melancholy creep into his heart.
"Something on your mind?"
Shirou blinked, even as two pairs of ochre eyes turned to look at him.
He swallowed.
"… nothing. Really. I'm sure it's fine."
Taiga's eyes narrowed. "Is it Chifuyu?"
The toddler brightened immediately. "Chifufu?"
"Chifuyu, Alex. Chifuyu." Shirou corrected on reflex, before turning back towards his elder sister. "And I don't know. She's been stressed lately."
Taiga hummed. "I can imagine. Teaching is already stressful enough without adding mechas into the equation. And with her younger brother around, it's only going to get worse. I should know."
"Hm?"
"You know! When you entered high school, I was also teaching." She puffed her chest proudly. "It's not as easy as it looks, maintaining professional distance from family."
Shirou snorted. "I'm sure it was for you."
Taiga hit him with her spoon.
"You know what you should do?" She brightened. "Surprise her at school with flowers for the hell of it!"
"You know as well as I do that access to the island is strictly off limits to the public unless you're a student or staff." Shirou shook his head. "Except on occasions like the school festival."
"Crud. And what if she forgets your lunch?"
"That hasn't happened yet. Besides, even if it does happen, there is a world-class cafeteria there too, you know." Shirou smiled.
"And here I was looking forward to going bar-hopping with her again." Taiga pouted. "If she doesn't come next time, we'll visit her ourselves, won't we, Alex?
Alex laughed in agreement, squealing as her mother ruffled her black hair with a lazy hand.
"While we're on the topic of our spouses, how is he?"
The man's question made Taiga pause with a slice of chicken half-stuffed in her mouth. She quickly swallowed it, somehow not choking on the chunk of solid meat.
"Same old," she mused. "He's still being worked to the bone back in London. He said he'll be able to fly back sometime next month. That sister of his is still having him make up for the time he took off."
Shirou could only laugh at that.
"How on earth did you manage to convince her to give that poor man paternity leave?"
The older brunette stuck her chest out proudly as she tended to do when people sang her praise.
"What can I say? I'm just that good." She dropped her chin into her hand. "But… she isn't that bad, you know? She's a nice girl at heart. Just a little strange."
There were many words Shirou could use to describe Reines El-Melloi Archisorte, but from what he could remember of the woman Rin had described as a model magus, 'nice' was not one of them.
"I'm still trying to wrap my head around how this all happened." He admitted.
"What's so confusing?" Taiga gushed. "It was a classic reunion between two fellow teachers after a meet-cute as teenagers! In a way, I got into teaching because of him, you know!"
He had to admire the way his sister managed to make it all sound so simple.
In reality, it was a strange relationship that he still couldn't quite understand how it had escalated to this extent.
Sure, he could accept that his acerbic, perennially bone-tired college lecturer had been paying visits to Fuyuki, investigating the remnants of the Fuyuki Grail. Sure, he could accept that in a bizarre series of coincidences he met Taiga and they recognized each other even after all those years. And sure, maybe it was plausible he had been the one to tell her that her little brother Shirou was no longer attending his classes in London.
But for the life of him he could not understand how that was enough for one thing to lead to another and his elder sister ending up pregnant.
When the news broke, he seriously considered asking an equally shell-shocked Waver Velvet how this had all happened, but honestly, he didn't want to think about the specifics of how his college lecturer and elder sister had ended up sealing the deal.
Like most people, he didn't even want to entertain the idea of his teachers having a private life on a good day.
"And how about you and Alex?" he asked, trying to move his thoughts along.
"How are we?" She repeated, looking down at Alex. The girl wasn't paying attention whatsoever, seemingly content to put the entirety of her focus on demolishing her meal. "We're doing pretty well. Gramps always sends some people around when I need a few extra hands and some me-time. She's already familiar with the times table, and ooh! Alex is starting kindergarten next week!"
"Don't wanna!" Hearing her mother's words, the young girl shivered and stuck her tongue out as if she bit into something rotten.
"Little lady," Taiga smushed her child's cheeks together, "when you were born, I told you that you will lead millions. Willingly, or as slaves! But you have to go to school first, that's non-negotiable!"
Shirou laughed heartily.
"Mm. Fuji-nee. Do you know where my old randoseru ended up? I can get it looking spick and span; Alex can have it."
His old guardian scoffed.
"As if Grandpa would let you. Buying Alex everything under the sun is his favourite pastime, you know! Keep it for when you and Chifuyu have your own kids, one day."
His mind stilled for a moment.
…His own kids, huh?
A wistful look crossed his face.
"I don't know if that's ever going to happen," he admitted.
The older woman looked concerned.
"Why do you say that?"
"It's…" he sighed. "It's complicated, you know? Chifuyu's been forced into a caretaker's role her entire life. Raising her brother, being an IS instructor… I honestly think having another child to raise is the last thing on her mind. I get the feeling she'd rather have things stay like this for…"
Shirou trailed off.
The right words weren't finding him.
"We're in no rush." He finished lamely.
Taiga's frown deepened.
"Have you ever even talked to her about this? Properly, I mean. You want—"
"I do," he cut her off quickly for one reason or another. "It would be nice. But again, we both have reasons not to, things we need to do, and having a kid is…"
"Scary?" she tried.
His shoulders slumped.
"That's not the word I'd use."
"Too much trouble?" she tried again.
"... Permanent." Shirou finally said. "I think if we do have children we'd have to give up certain things for good."
Children were a bell that couldn't be unrung.
She giggled, then shuffled around so that she could ruffle his hair. His efforts to slap her hand away were much more haphazard now than back when he was a teenager.
"Don't overthink it so much. Lighten up!" she cheered.
"I'm talking about kids, here. Not a job interview," he snapped back dryly.
"Hehe."
Hehe, he parroted her in his head grumpily.
"Don't overthink it," she stressed again, almost standing upright so that she could squish the redhead's cheeks between the palms of her hands. "I'm sure Chifuyu would love to hear from you. Why don't we send her a picture?"
Before he could answer, Alex dropped her utensils onto her polished plate and crawled over to sit on his lap. He chuckled softly while pulling his smartphone out of his pocket,
The picture was a good one, he decided. All three of them were smiling, with Taiga and her progeny putting on a smile that was just that little bit brighter than any normal person could manage.
Shirou gazed at it fondly for a moment before sending it off.
Alex patted him on the shoulder and blinked innocently at him.
"Did we help you put a baby in Chifufu?"
Shirou coughed.
X
Chifuyu dropped her dirty dishes in the sink and opened the faucet.
She could clean everything now, but it would be a pain to scrape off all the dry crud stuck to the plates. Instead, she made the executive decision to let everything soak.
Just like yesterday's dishes still soaking in the corner of the sink.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket; she opened up her recent messages to see whatever it was that her husband had sent to her.
In a moment, her expression softened as her heart continued to fall.
It was adorable. Most people wouldn't reserve such a descriptor for a man of her husband's stature, but to her, the photograph of her goddaughter squeezing him like a teddy bear was exactly that.
It made her own feelings all the more complicated, however.
She had to speak with him honestly. He deserved to know about what happened at school… So why was she still so afraid to speak up?
Chifuyu deflated and beelined toward the fridge. Opening it, she found all the meals her husband made in anticipation of this getaway: macaroni salad, pot roast, lasagna… honestly, it was just too much.
But it was just like him.
Something told her that binge eating wouldn't take her mind off things the way she wanted it to.
With a sigh, she grabbed the tray of Zuppa Inglese. She took out a small plate from the cabinet before she paused for a moment, turning to consider the steadily growing pile of dishes in the sink.
…To hell with it.
She put the plate back, slammed the fridge door shut and got herself a spoon before taking it along with the entire tray back to the couch. If she wasn't supposed to eat it all at once then Shirou should have made a dessert that made that more difficult.
It was that kind of day, and as she did on "that kind of day", she had popped her Sopranos Blu-ray into the DVD player and played it for the nth time.
She tried to make herself comfortable with her unrationed dessert, shuffling back and forth on the cushion, but it was to no avail. There was a distinct lack of a cushion the size, shape and feel of her husband for her to lean on.
She knew it would be like this today. She was a big girl and knew how to take care of herself, but the time she spent alone really reminded her of how valuable her time with him was.
Why would she want it to end?
Her mind was brought back to the television screen. The characters were talking about something or other, but she had watched this season enough times to know which part this was.
"Obviously, I'm prone to depression… A certain bleak attitude about the world, but I know I can handle it. It's in his blood. This… miserable fuckin' existence. My rotten fuckin' putrid genes have infected my kid's soul. That's my gift to my son."
"... I know this is difficult, but I'm very glad we're having this discussion."
"Really? Really, because I gotta be honest, I think it fuckin' sucks!"
"What does?"
"Therap—"
With her posture slouched to allow the dessert to sit on her belly without tipping over, Chifuyu reached for the remote and turned the volume up a little. Season six was always a little too bleak for her, yet Shirou always insisted that it was his favourite. "Is anyone ever actually happy on this show?" he'd always complain, and yet…
"... is this all there is?"
She pursed her lips.
A knock on the door brought her back to reality. Cautiously, she pushed herself upright, balancing the tray with one hand before taking long, silent steps toward the entrance.
The door opened a crack, then all the way.
"Laura?" she addressed the visitor in disbelief. Upon seeing the short, silver-haired girl, the words left her mouth before her thoughts could catch up to her.
The girl was exactly as she remembered, eyepatch and all. Even now, she held the posture of a particularly angry house cat.
"You have been ignoring me, Lehrerin," Laura accused indignantly. "I've come to- to…" her voice trailed off as she registered her instructor's appearance.
Chifuyu Orimura had always taken pride in her bearings, wearing a prim and proper black business overcoat and matching skirt on most days. Unfortunately, Chifuyu was currently stuck wearing one of Shirou's oversized shirts, and combined with the tray of zuppa inglese she was eating by the spoonful she didn't really look the part of the hardass instructor at the moment.
She could hear the sound of the perfect image Laura had in her mind of her dear instructor shattering into a thousand tiny pieces, and decided to nip this awkward situation in the bud.
"What the hell are you doing at my house?"
The younger girl put her hands on her hips.
"I looked through your records to find your current billing address!"
"You—?"
"And here I find you in this state!"
"So what?" Chifuyu snapped, a little stung. "I have a private life too, you know. What I do outside my job is none of your business!"
"This isn't like you at all, mein lehrerin!" Laura cried. "You were strong! Courageous! Indomitable! The perfect soldier! And you left it all behind just to settle down in this backwards country, wearing ill-fitting clothes and eating tiramisu–"
"Zuppa Inglese—"
"Irrelevant!" Laura was just getting warmed up. "You were the ideal! Something for me to chase toward. You are meant for greater things, Lehrerin! You've chosen this life in Japan with your white-collar job, coming home to your white picket fence. And for what? Your brother?! I've had a measure of him today, and he's absolutely useless! Your love for him has turned you weak–"
"Laura." She allowed an edge of steel into her voice. "Shut up."
The girl froze.
There was so, so much wrong with what she said. Not that she cared to set her straight at the moment.
For now, though…
"I'm not avoiding you." Chifuyu went on. "The world doesn't revolve around you. My stint in Germany was a consequence of my own decisions like most other things in my life. Nothing more, nothing less. Don't take everything as a personal attack."
"You can't seriously be happy stuck here like this. Why would you retire when you were at the pinnacle of your own strength?!"
For a moment Chifuyu froze.
Memories of being bed-ridden and bandaged welled up before she angrily stomped it out.
"... Go home, Laura. I don't want to see you here again."
The door was shut in the girl's face. Chifuyu was happy knowing that all further complaints would be muffled enough for her to ignore.
"Ha…" she exhaled listlessly, marching toward the fridge like a zombie and reaching for another beer.
She needed to have a word with the principal as to the sanctity of private information. A full investigation as to how a student managed to find her records. This was intolerable. This place was her stronghold against the bullshit she faced everyday. Were more students able to find out where she lived…
With a grumpy face she would refuse to call a pout, she threw herself back onto the couch and put on something more light-hearted.
She missed her husband more than ever.
"You're not gonna believe this. He killed 16 Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator!"
"... his house looked like shit!"
X
X
His black clothing ate away at what little light remained in the dimly lit halls of this military base. The time of day worked in his favour here: now that everyone had presumably gone to bed, there were only enough lights kept on to allow the area to be navigable in case of emergency.
Shirou did his best to avoid those. The sensors and cameras too. He knew where they were.
Getting that interview wasn't easy; he made sure not to waste the opportunity that it gave him. He mapped out as much of this place as he could.
Or at least, the parts between his point of entry and the hangar bay.
His advance slowed to a crawl. Here it was.
He was face to face with a metal garage door the size of an elephant. Even if he ended up being wrong about what was on the other side of it, he could be sure that they were storing some pretty big things, at least.
Opening this door the normal way would be too conspicuous. In the best case scenario, it would make a decently loud noise. What was more than likely was it sounding some sort of alarm.
He had a workaround.
Trace on.
His magical circuits flared as something formed in his hands. Visually, it looked to be nothing more than a regular knife.
A mystic code.
He touched its tip to a box on the wall that he knew to be the garage's control panel. Slowly, the knife's blade sunk into the box and seemingly shut it down entirely.
Good. That worked.
He stepped away, leaving the knife in place for now.
Three more objects formed: two metal wedges and a jack.
Everything was put into place. Without wasting too much time—or causing too much of a ruckus—he used the jack to crank the unresponsive door up just enough for him to slide underneath.
He would be in and out.
The moment he made it across, however, he knew he had screwed up.
The lights in the pitch-black hangar turned on one by one. Machines of all kinds of makes and sizes lined the walls, but that was not what caught his attention.
Standing in the middle of the room was a woman. A beauty, to be sure, though his focus drew more towards the attire she had on.
She was covered head to toe in an armour-like bodysuit. It covered parts of her head, too, but whatever function that served didn't seem to be related to protection or anonymity as it did little to double as a helmet or a mask.
Certainly not a mask. Her piercing glare was quite evident.
Two swords were traced just as she drew two blades of her own.
Two in her hands and two more strapped to her hips. Four katanas? For what?
"So you did show up," she spoke. Her voice was deep, for a woman. "A shame. I hear your pork cutlet was a hit, Mister Chef."
He had been caught. Figured out, rather.
Damn it. He couldn't really claim that deception was a talent of his.
"I try," he answered weakly.
"I've had a long day, and this sort of terrorist bullshit is the last thing I want to deal with before bed. You have three seconds to surrender yourself if you want all of your appendages to be left intact."
Taking a deep breath, he raised his weapons. He didn't really want to fight his way out, but…
"I'm afraid I can't do that."
"Fine!" The woman's glare curled into a snarl. "Have it your way, you idiot. I'll make this quick!"
She lunged forward, and Shirou followed. Two pairs of blades met each other in a shower of sparks.