Another chapter, another Sherlock carry-job.
Thank you to everyone on pa treon who voted for the chapter's illustration as well as the chapter itself: patrons can now vote for 1 guaranteed update per month for any story in my catalogue. I hope this allows y'all to see more of my fics that don't get taken out of the garage as often. Or just more HHEX chapters I guess lmao.
Anyway, thanks to you all for reading as always. Hop onto the discord.
X
"I'm getting married."
Chifuyu could hear her brother's confused, incoherent babbles on the other end of the line as he tried to gather his thoughts.
She understood his position: it wasn't one that she envied. This must have been pretty sudden for him; even she wouldn't have been able to believe it, not so long ago.
She stared out the monorail window as she waited for Ichika to get ahold of himself.
"I—wha—huh?"
He wouldn't be getting ahold of himself any time soon, it would seem.
"I'm getting married," she repeated, remaining patient despite her brother's chimp-brained behaviour.
"... It doesn't sound like a joke," he finally remarked.
"It isn't."
"... Oh."
He hushed up again. Chifuyu was content to let the sound of the train gliding across the track fill the silence, though it started to get awkward, even for her.
"So, uh, just so we're on the same page…" he hesitated, "who are you marrying?"
A warm smile crossed her face.
After everything, this was the one thing she was sure she wouldn't regret, even as she looked back at everything that had brought them to this point.
"Shirou, of course."
Again, it took her brother a moment to think of the right thing to say.
"... Right. Congratulations, Chifuyu-nee."
Her smile dropped. He sounded… off. Like his mind was elsewhere.
Ah. Right.
The woman closed her eyes.
"I'm sorry. I know this must seem weird."
"... Yeah. It kind of is."
…That was unusually direct.
But she supposed having his sibling slash lone parental figure getting hitched all of a sudden must feel odd, so she did not press the issue.
"Chifuyu-nee, I gotta ask, just to be clear, don't get mad, but–"
"What?"
Silence.
"... Is it like… a real wedding?"
She frowned.
"... Well, strictly speaking, not really." Chifuyu admitted.
It was just the signing of papers at the local government office, after all. To the both of them, the bells and whistles that came with a wedding were unnecessary.
"Oh. I see."
Chifuyu blinked. She had expected disappointment at the lack of fanfare, but was confused to hear relief in her brother's voice.
"You see what, exactly?"
"Nothing, nothing!" He panicked. "I'm just glad it's not as weird as I thought and um… that you're still… I'm just… processing."
Chifuyu sighed. It seemed this situation was still throwing him for a loop.
She tried to think of the best way to phrase the next part.
They only needed two witnesses for the paper signing. And with her brother being underage, his presence wasn't legally necessary.
"You don't have to come for the wedding," she said, trying to assuage him, "if you don't want to."
"Oh! All right, then." Ichika perked up immediately.
…
He wasn't that busy with school, was he?
"I-It's not that I don't want to come!" Perhaps sensing how his words were being taken, he hurriedly added. "I just… I mean, I'd love to… if it was the real thing."
"Yeah…" Chifuyu murmured, "I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon."
There wasn't going to be a ceremony. No, there wouldn't even be a reception. They had plans to find a new home together, to start afresh, so there were expenses to be paid, and a pricey wedding felt ephemeral in comparison.
Besides, it wasn't as though the two of them had enough close friends and relatives between them for a ceremony to feel worth it.
"Don't say that, Chifuyu-nee." Ichika sounded inexplicably sad, all of a sudden.
"It's not a big deal, Ichika." She murmured.
"Of course it is." He assured her. "And you will have one, one day. A real one. I know you will."
She scoffed. Leave it to her brother to focus on the trivial stuff.
The train was slowing down; she was arriving back on the mainland.
Chifuyu looked pensive.
"If we do decide to go through with the fanfare one day, will you…?"
"Come? Of course, Chifuyu-nee."
She was glad.
"I have to go. We'll talk again soon."
The doors opened the moment she hung up the phone.
Briskly, Chifuyu made her way out of the empty train, descending the elevator in unhurried steps, half-heartedly flashing her security card to the attendant as the automatic gates opened, her shoes click-clacking rhythmically across the marble floors: floors that gave way to gravel as she exited the station and started making her way towards the security gate some hundred metres away.
She presented her card again to the bored guard, exchanging perfunctory greetings before she was waved through, and stepped out to a quiet street by the bay.
The nature of the station as well as the high military presence around usually made the area deserted, save for the occasional tourist that wanted to have a look for themselves at the famous IS Academy, armed with binoculars that were about as useful as a squirt gun in the ocean. Curiously enough, today there was a lone woman staring at her phone on a nearby bench.
She offered a passing nod before pulling her phone out again. She should tell Shirou that she was almost—
"Orimura-san, right?"
She froze.
Chifuyu about-faced and stared at the woman on the bench who was now smiling up at her brightly. It wasn't anyone she recognized; she looked like a city girl with long, flowing brown locks draping over her shoulders.
"That's me," Chifuyu answered cautiously. "Can I help you?"
If this woman turned out to be another fan of hers, Chifuyu wondered if she would be able to remain polite.
The woman on the bench hummed in acknowledgement before putting her phone away and standing up.
"I believe so. My name is Tohsaka Rin. Would you mind if we spoke for a moment? About Emiya-kun."
Chifuyu's scrutinising stare turned blank as she processed her words.
Oh.
Shit.
X
X
"Alcott and Huang are fine, Ma'am. They're conscious and responding well to treatment, and will be cleared for regular activities within the week. Unfortunately, they're going to have to miss the tournament the following day."
Orimura-sensei hummed. Maya took it as a sign to continue.
"There was a bit of a hullabaloo when Ichika visited them… you know what they're like around him."
Orimura-sensei barely acknowledged Maya as she spoke. The woman was seated at her desk in the teacher's office with her head half-buried in paperwork, half somewhere else.
Something that Maya noticed. The demure young lady placed a gentle hand on her co-worker's shoulder.
"Orimura-sensei?"
The woman in question jolted to attention.
"I'm fine. Thanks for letting me know. Was there anything else?"
Maya frowned. As aloof as Orimura-sensei tended to be, she wasn't one to be lost in thought. They didn't exactly share every little secret with each other, but she liked to think that she knew her colleague enough to be sure of at least that much.
"Is everything okay?" Maya tried, not really expecting Orimura-san to be forthcoming about her personal life. It was worth a shot, though; she rolled her own chair forward and took a seat across from her.
She watched as the other teacher aimlessly fiddled with her pen.
After a short silence, Orimura-sensei sighed.
"It's Shirou. I—"
She didn't even have the chance to finish her sentence before Maya gasped.
"What's wrong? Did you two get into a fight?"
Orimura-sensei scoffed.
"A fight I can handle just fine. Besides, we haven't had a fight in…" she took a moment to give it some thought, then smiled wistfully. "Since the day we met, I suppose. But that's neither here nor there."
Maya pouted. What was there to complain about, then? Yamada Maya considered herself to be a nice person, but even she would be annoyed hearing Orimura-san tenderly humblebrag about her engaging love life.
She waited for Orimura-sensei to continue.
"... I know I'm a private person." She eventually stated the obvious. "My husband is too, in his own way. The circumstances surrounding our first meeting made it such that eventually we both had to share more than what either of us would have liked to share with anyone. And really, to the both of us, that felt like most of the hurdles had been cleared at once. It was… easy to be comfortable with each other after that."
Chifuyu sighed.
"But despite this, now I'm pointlessly hiding something important from him," Orimura-sensei revealed. "and I hate it."
Maya choked on her own spit.
"You— Are you having an affair?!"
"Moron." She glared at her. "I spend the greater part of the day on an island full of girls. Setting aside the ridiculousness of such an idea, do I look like I even have the time or opportunity for that?"
She shook her head tiredly. "No, I'm talking about all of…" Orimura-sensei gestured to the incident reports on her desk. "This. There's something going on, Yamada; something serious. And yet I can't bring myself to mention it to him."
Maya blinked.
Did Orimura really think this was something that had to be shared?
If that was all, she felt curiously disappointed.
"Well, it's not like we've confirmed the existence of an actual threat," she mused, "so if it's a matter of security clearances, I don't think that really applies to what is, after all, just speculation–"
"That's not it."
"Then what's the problem?" she asked, pulling herself closer.
Orimura-sensei took a deep sigh and bowed her head. Such a defeated look didn't fit her at all.
"The problem is, he would find a way to get himself involved… no. Maybe it's better to say that he'd want to help."
That threw Maya for a loop. 'Get involved'? Was that even possible when IS units were the point of contention?
"Talking to him about it is ultimately pointless since he can't do anything about it and he'd end up feeling guilty. Or worse, he'd end up trying and doing something stupid. At the same time, this is something that he would want to know… and I don't know whether to respect his wishes or spare his feelings."
Orimura-sensei silently drained her mug of coffee.
"I've done it before," she muttered, staring at the dregs in her cup, "but that was a trivial matter by comparison."
Now that Maya thought about it… She didn't know much about Orimura-sensei's husband, did she? No one from the faculty had ever met him.
"... You know," she fidgeted nervously, "I've never actually asked, but what's he like? Shirou, I mean."
Orimura-sensei straightened up and smirked.
"He's a total softie." she revealed fondly. "A pushover, really. You wouldn't think so since he was partly raised by Gokudo—"
"He was raised by what?!"
"Gangsters. Pay attention," Orimura-sensei snapped dryly.
Maya started babbling incoherently. Wasn't that a big deal?
Should Orimura-sensei talk about stuff like that so openly?
"He's also a bit of an idiot." Chifuyu went on, rubbing her temple. "Stubborn in all the wrong ways. I was furious when I figured out why we were fighting in the first place."
A Himbo!
Orimura-sensei was married to a Himbo yakuza?
She couldn't help but imagine a scary-looking truck of a man tattooed from head to toe. Somehow, imagining someone like that side-by-side with Chifuyu was difficult—
Wait, no, it was in fact incredibly easy to imagine.
"He must be a pretty tough guy if you think he would butt into something like this," Maya remarked. "Is he strong?"
Orimura-sensei gave a non-committal shrug.
"I just don't want him to feel powerless, I suppose," Orimura-sensei remarked after a few seconds, not quite answering her question. "Is it wrong of me to worry for my husband's feelings if I know he won't do as much for himself?"
"Well, he married you, didn't he?" Maya asked rhetorically, crossing her arms in a rare display of push-back on her part. "Marriage is stronger than that! All that stuff about being together in sickness and in health, I think you should give him a little more credit."
Orimura-san snorted as if Maya had told a joke.
"What?"
"Nothing. It's just… you giving me advice…" Orimura smirked, "have you even held hands with a boy before?"
Maya recoiled.
"Well—uh—"
"The most action you ever got was accidentally reaching second base with my idiot brother. What would you know about marriage?"
The poor teacher was babbling again, beet-red.
Scoffing, Orimura-sensei patted her on the head as she rose from her chair and started gathering her things.
"Well, this has been unproductive. Thank you for lending me an ear, Yamada, but the next time we do this I'd rather be drinking. I'm going to call it a day."
"Oh! Right." She bowed awkwardly from a seated position. "I'll see you tomorrow, then. I'll be here for a little longer… I think."
"Mm."
Orimura-sensei stretched in place, arms taut, before she gathered her briefcase and made her way out of the room—
"Wait!"
Orimura-sensei paused with a foot out the door. She looked over her shoulder expectantly.
"What now?"
Maya stared back at her seriously.
"You're right," the green-haired girl admitted softly. "I don't know anything about marriage—or relationships!— and I know it's difficult. But what's the point of going through all of that hardship—of getting married in the first place—if you can't talk about stuff like this with the one you love?"
Orimura-san did nothing but stare at her for several seconds before visibly deflating.
"... You talk too much."
And with that pithy remark, Chifuyu Orimura left.
Alone, Yamada Maya went back to her desk and began sorting her papers, a tiny smile plastered to her face. It wasn't every day her colleague opened up to her, after all.
And perhaps she was being too optimistic, but it felt like she got through to her too.
X
X
Tohsaka Rin was a very attractive woman.
Red coat. White jumper. Black miniskirt and leather boots. A smile that was the epitome of politeness, even as her piercing blue eyes betrayed an intelligence Chifuyu Orimura immediately felt wary of. Tohsaka sat across from Chifuyu in a little diner that just so happened to be open at this time of night, al fresco with views of the darkening skies above the roiling sea. A pleasant sea breeze lifted her wavy brown locks from time to time. Despite their environment, the woman still managed to maintain an aura of dignity, sitting tall with a pleasant smile on her face.
Chifuyu felt a little self-conscious despite everything; she wasn't one to compare herself to others, but somehow it didn't feel right presenting herself in such a comparatively dishevelled fashion after a long day at work.
Especially to someone that was ostensibly her fiancé's ex.
Shirou had mentioned her before, as a former classmate and a friend he'd lived with back in London. He didn't elaborate, but he didn't need to. Chifuyu could read between the lines. It was history. It wasn't too important in the grand scheme of things.
And yet, sitting across from one another, she half-wished she had the gumption to ask Shirou for more information about this person he knew so well, having been caught on the back foot, as it were.
Christ alive, even meeting her in-law for the first time wasn't as uncomfortable as this.
Neither spoke for a moment: an awkward affair since the diner was dead silent aside from the waitress scurrying over to their table.
"Can I get you two anything to start?" the waitress asked casually.
Tohsaka's smile didn't budge.
"Darjeeling, second flush, if you have it?"
"... We have Earl Grey and green tea."
"Then let's not complicate matters further. Coffee, black, thank you."
Both Chifuyu and the waitress gave her a look.
"Uh," the waitress shifted her weight onto her back foot. "Decaf?"
"No."
"Oh. Okay. And for you?"
Chifuyu wasn't one to muster such an easygoing expression under these circumstances.
"A Guinness, thanks."
She'd be damned if she was going to suffer this conversation sober.
The waitress could sense that something was off.
"I'll be back with your drinks shortly. Um… just call out to me when you're ready to order?" she offered unsurely before fully stepping away. No further parting words were offered.
Left to their own devices, Chifuyu spoke first.
"Well?"
Tohsaka hummed, a hand on her cheek. "You know, I did my due diligence and looked you up before coming here." She gave Chifuyu a once-over. "I must say, the articles don't quite do you justice. Emiya-kun's clearly landed himself a very… illustrious woman."
Chifuyu's fists clenched against her lap, but otherwise did not rise to the bait.
Tohsaka smiled disarmingly. "There's no need to look so scary. I was being quite earnest."
"I don't think you came all the way here from London just to sing my praises." Chifuyu muttered.
Tohsaka blinked. "Did I mention London?"
"You didn't."
"Then what— oh. Right."
For a brief moment, Tohsaka had looked stumped, before that polite smile returned.
"It's strange. I'd be lying if I said I'd never pictured him as a househusband," she mused, looking thoughtful, "he always had a knack for it. I just never imagined him… settling."
And there it was.
"Tohsaka," Chifuyu narrowed her eyes, "I work for a living. I am very tired. I want to go home. I agreed to meet you because you've clearly come a long way to be here and because Shirou seems to think highly of you. If this is going to degenerate into a pity party or shitflinging, I'm going to leave."
Tohsaka's face went blank.
"Here you are." Just then, the waitress returned with their drinks, settling hers down on a paper coaster in place of a saucer before glancing between the two. "Have you two decided on your mains?"
"That will not be necessary." Chifuyu handed the menus back authoritatively. "We won't be here long."
"Right…" the waitress looked uncomfortable, "I'll just be there if you change your mind…"
"I won't."
She could see she was not welcome. The waitress hurried away.
Scowling, Chifuyu took a long sip of Irish stout.
"... Pardon me." Tohsaka finally said, still impassive, "One rarely gets the chance to be candid and blunt in my profession."
"I'm not asking for you to be blunt." Chifuyu refuted. "I'm asking you to get to the point of this visit. Please."
"The point–" Tohsaka laughed. "Orimura. Surely you realise I can't justify a meeting built entirely on presumptions and imaginings? My friend is getting married. I want to get to know who he's marrying. It's not as if I'm planning on putting some nefarious plan to action just by coming here, you don't have to be so on edge."
Chifuyu considered this.
"But that's not all, is it?"
"No." Tohsaka readily admitted. "But we'll handle it one at a time."
The air of perfection that surrounded the woman didn't quite collapse, but it was certainly being tested. Enough for it to be noticeable, at least.
With a sigh, Tohsaka flicked away the complimentary biscotto onto the table, lifting her saucer – duck-egg blue with white rims – and cooly bringing the gilt rim of her coffee cup to her lips.
"In the spirit of being forthright, I'll just come out and say it. Emiya-kun invited me to be a witness to the paper signing."
Whatever Chifuyu expected her to say, it wasn't that. Her mouth opened and closed a few times as she tried to figure out what to say.
"I—"
"I declined, of course," Tohsaka was more than happy to continue, setting the saucer down with a clatter. "I understand that he doesn't have many friends, and his options were limited, but honestly! To think of me! The nerve of him. He was always a little dense, a brute in more ways than one. That's still the case, it would seem."
Chifuyu smirked. "He is, yeah."
Tohsaka did a curious thing of smiling wider before catching herself.
"I'm curious." She went on. "I know one of them is presumably Fujimura-sensei. Who's the other witness?"
Chifuyu shrugged. "I haven't met them yet, but apparently it's some monk—"
"Seriously? Issei?!"
Chifuyu's eyes widened by the slightest margins at her sudden display of sheer disdain.
"... Is something wrong?"
Tohsaka closed her eyes, slowly unclenching her fist.
"Emiya-kun must really be out of options." She eventually huffed, before she turned back towards a bemused Chifuyu. "Don't mind me. Issei's not a bad person. Far from it. By most standards, he's a model citizen. He's just," she paused, tapping a finger on the table, "well, misogynistic is too strong of a descriptor… he's sanctimonious. That's it."
"A monk being sanctimonious." Chifuyu muttered sardonically. "Hard to imagine."
"You joke, but you wouldn't like him either." She had since recovered, darky gazing into her coffee cup. "Meet him on the day itself and you'll see."
"Hm." Chifuyu acknowledged nonverbally, then paused in thought. "And yet here you are."
"Here I am." Tohsaka said easily. "I told you. I wanted to get to know who he's marrying."
"And you think you can accomplish this over the course of a drink."
She shrugged. "I'll get close enough."
There was a question that had nagged at the back of Chifuyu's mind from the moment they'd sat down. She was a woman who liked to get to the point, but this was a difficult question to ask, difficult in that asking it felt beneath her, but it wasn't like there was any other way to cut to the crux of the matter.
To hell with it.
"Why do you care?" She muttered, forcing herself not to look away. "Do you… are you still…"
The words caught themselves in her throat, unwilling to be voiced.
Tohsaka watched her struggle blankly for a moment before she sighed.
"I don't quite have a grasp on how I'm feeling, being honest." She admitted. "I don't actually spend every waking hour just thinking of halcyon days, you know. I'm busy enough as is, going about my business as usual, and then Emiya-kun would cross my mind for ten seconds that feel like ten minutes. Then I'm needed elsewhere again and I don't think about him for the rest of the day."
Tohsaka rested her cheek on her palm, watching the waves break against the harbour.
"When he called to tell me about the news of his engagement," she murmured, "I was happy for him. And there was no small amount of relief I felt knowing that he had stopped his pointless crusade. And yet, despite the years that passed, and me making my own peace with it, I must confess," and here the woman looked forlorn, "I was surprised Shirou could still inadvertently hurt me."
Tohsaka gave her an amused smile. "I think I'll always have the capacity to feel hurt by him. That's the best answer I can give, at this point."
Chifuyu mulled over her words. It wasn't a straight answer, but it was good enough for her.
On one front, at least.
"But that's enough from me. Let's talk about your engagement!" The perfect composure was back, and here Tohsaka rested her chin against her steepled fingers, leaning forward with interest. "Did Emiya-kun actually propose?""
Ah.
A blank look wiped Chifuyu's tight expression away.
"Technically, he didn't." She admitted.
Tohsaka blinked. "So you asked him—"
"No. I didn't."
Poor Tohsaka looked confused, but Chifuyu wasn't really in any mood to make herself clear. Let her figure it out, if she was so smart.
"Well, I know you two didn't just wake up married." She pouted. "Details. Please."
Chifuyu looked away, feeling her cheeks burn slightly.
"I don't think what he said that day can be strictly construed as a proposal." She eventually said.
"But he did initiate it." Tohsaka confirmed.
Chifuyu nodded.
"I'm surprised." Tohsaka mused absentmindedly. "Really… for Emiya-kun to resort to marriage… and for someone like you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Chifuyu demanded, leaning forward aggressively.
But Tohsaka stood her ground, staring into her eyes unflinchingly.
"You don't seem like someone who needs to be saved, Orimura."
Chifuyu didn't react openly. Not a word left her mouth and her muscles didn't so much as twitch. Yet, it was precisely the lack of any visible reaction that gave away just how annoyed she was.
Two things were clear to her by this point.
One, Tohsaka Rin definitely understood her fiancé well.
Two, Chifuyu Orimura did not like this woman.
"I don't like what you're insinuating." She muttered.
Tohsaka squinted apologetically.
"I suppose saying such a thing was a little uncouth," she realised before laughing quietly at her own blunder, waving her hands placatingly. "There are more roundabout ways to ask a couple why they're married, wouldn't you say? You just struck me as someone who'd appreciate a direct approach."
"There's only one reason for anyone to get married," was Chifuyu's simple answer, her delivery flat.
Tohsaka raised a brow, before she chuckled, her features eventually settling into something akin to the amused look a parent bestows on a child trying to simplify something too complex for them to understand.
"If love was enough of a reason, Orimura, we would not be having this conversation."
Chifuyu scoffed.
Enough of this. There wasn't actually any point to this conversation, was there? She wasn't going to waste time allowing herself to be subjected to the bitterness of some random lady she didn't even know.
"I told you I wasn't going to entertain any shit-flinging." She muttered, beginning to get up–
"That wasn't directed towards you, Orimura, sit down." Tohsaka chided her. "I was being serious. Love's not enough."
Tohsaka dropped her eyes to her lap.
"I liked him, despite the warning signs. We understood each other, after Fuyuki. I thought bringing him with me to London would curb some of his worse tendencies. Show him that there's a world out there where he can put his talents to good use. I offered him a future to settle for instead of his dream. And for a while, I thought I was making good progress."
Her face darkened. "And then came the White Knight."
Chifuyu did not move a muscle.
"It was as if the years we spent together didn't matter at all. All that progress, gone in an instant. How could it not, when all those missiles and all those lives they saved reminded him that he had a dream to follow? A promise to keep? Here was someone that showed him up."
TohsakaShe looked away, where the bright orange sun was beginning to dip into the horizon. "I thought he would come back, you know? That he'd realise what was difficult before was now pointless, what with all the new IS that he couldn't really stand up to. Maybe I could have done more for him, and supported him on his journey but…" Tohsaka sighed, "he had a dream; I had a duty."
Chifuyu didn't look impressed. "And then you broke up."
Tohsaka nodded. "Though in hindsight, perhaps he was always looking for an out." She mused. "The White Knight was just the excuse he needed."
"... maybe he wasn't happy." Chifuyu remarked.
"Of course he was happy." For the first time that evening, Tohsaka looked truly annoyed at her. "You know Emiya-kun, does he seem like a complicated man? It's so easy to make him happy. I know how to make him happy. I did make him happy. The difficult part is making him not feel guilty about it."
"Guilt?"
"Oh yes." Tohsaka smirked. "As the saying goes, one must imagine Emiya Shirou happy. Do you think he'd be happy at all, following his dream?"
Chifuyu Orimura thought back to their first meeting, in the hangar.
"Not really, no." She confessed.
"I thought so as well. But he'd do it all the same. Emiya-kun has a terrible habit of denying himself happiness, even when it demands to be felt." Tohsaka lifted the cup to her lips. "Sometimes I feel like Emiya-kun can't be happy and a hero of justice at the same time. He's been chasing one particular form of happiness his entire life to no avail, and in that journey, there's only so much I could do without… compromising."
Chifuyu had no answer to that.
Instead, she settled for picking up her pint glass and knocking it back.
Tohsaka Rin checked her expensive-looking watch.
"I've said too much." She muttered, before standing up. "It's time for me to be off.""
"You're leaving?" Chifuyu blinked.
"What, you want me to stay? Chat a little longer?" Tohsaka smiled. "You've been waiting for the opportune moment to leave since we sat down, here's your chance."
"That's not what I meant." Chifuyu shook her head. "You came all the way here from London. You might as well stop by and say hello."
Tohsaka was visibly thrown for a loop, blinking in rapid succession before she collected herself.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea." She smiled politely, though it came off a little strained. "You don't need to force yourself—"
"I'm not." Chifuyu denied it. "I know Shirou would be happy to see you."
Tohsaka Rin went blank. She opened her mouth, considered what she wanted to say, and closed it.
"... That's very kind of you," she eventually said, "but it's best to let sleeping dogs lie. Let's not complicate things any further before your wedding."
She smiled, and Chifuyu paused.
It wasn't the one she wore in her perfect guise of politeness.
This was… sweet.
And for a moment, Chifuyu Orimura began to have an inkling of an idea of how her fiance had fallen in love with this mercurial woman.
…
But Tohsaka wasn't the sort of person that she would get along with, Chifuyu decided.
"Do whatever you want, then." Chifuyu was tired and had no more business here. Draining her glass, she stood from her chair, leaving a few bills on the table before turning around and walking away—
"Wait."
Chifuyu resisted the urge to groan, before she turned back to face her.
"What is it?"
Tohsaka looked unusually serious as she stepped closer.
"... I don't know how you've done it, but you've managed to get Shirou to want to be happy, and put his dream to rest."
And then, because her words weren't enough, she bowed.
"Thank you." She said simply. "I wish both of you happiness."
Chifuyu swallowed.
She honestly would have preferred the pointed barbs.
Mercifully, Tohsaka quickly straightened, and smiled brightly.
"If you manage to ruin it, though, I'll never forgive you."
Chifuyu barely had the time to register her words before Tohsaka turned tail and left, raising an arm in farewell.
"Bye-bye!"
She watched as the woman stalked away, boots clicking on gravel as she ducked into a nearby alley.
Was that a threat? It was something, at least.
Sighing, Chifuyu pushed her chair back in, giving the waitress a small nod as she exited the diner as well.
It was high time she went home.
X
X
The TV wasn't loud, but it was up high enough for the both of them to hear comfortably through the evening silence. Chifuyu was curled up against Shirou on the couch, eyes half-closed, as she struggled to stay awake. There were only so many hours in a day that they got to relax together, so she wanted to make the most of them.
"Maybe I'm looking for a way out. You ever think of that?
"Anthony. You'll never leave your wife."
"Bullshit. There's a limit to how much—"
"She might leave you, but you'll never leave her. Despite your mothering, you've made one good decision in your life vis a vis women. You're not going to throw that away. Your own selfishness is too strong to let that happen."
Chifuyu took her gaze away from Tony Soprano's latest therapy session and looked up at her husband.
Shirou's eyes were planted firmly on the screen in front of them; his lips were set in the ever present smile of contentment that he seemed to have whenever he was with her.
He wasn't selfish at all, she mused.
"...Shirou?"
His eyes broke away from the television.
"Hm?"
She hated how uncertain she felt.
"... Are you happy?"
He blinked, visibly caught off guard by the question.
She saw his mouth open—
Chifuyu's eyes fluttered as she woke up alone in an empty bed.
She didn't make any move to get up right away, allowing herself a moment to feel annoyed at the dream that she had been subjected to against her will.
She sighed.
Time to get up, then.
The walk from her bed to the coffee maker in her private dorm felt like a trek to hell and back, but she pressed on all the same.
Coffee. Black as sin. Then it was straight to Arena A to prepare for the student tournament..
She prayed to whatever deity she didn't believe in for the infinitesimal chance that this whole thing would pass uneventfully before her husband came home.
X
X
On the streets of Ludwigshafen, Chifuyu Orimura was trying to end a call.
"Good to hear. I'm glad you're all right, Tabane… no. I'm hanging up now."
Chifuyu pocketed her phone before Tabane could find a reason to extend their lengthy conversation beyond what it had already been. Somehow. Give that woman an inch and she'd take a mile.
Still, it was a good idea to ring up Shinonono. After what had happened last week… she didn't know what to believe.
A man was able to keep up with her, using technology that looked to be taken right out of the Infinite Stratos system, and yet, that was definitely impossible.
For anyone not named Shinonono Tabane, at least.
Chifuyu was sure that there were only two possible explanations: either Tabane was up to something, or something happened to her.
She'd accused as much, swinging that huge blade, only for him to react with open disgust at the mention of her friend.
And then it turned out, he had broken into the military base to search for evidence of child soldiers, liberating them if necessary.
…
This man had been about to spark an international incident and ruin everything she'd accomplished over a rumour Germany had been training child soldiers.
…
Child. Fucking. Soldiers.
It was all she could do to get him out of there before her rage overcame her, and she'd spent the rest of the night cleaning up the mess, attributing the damaged swords to a late-night training session that earned her no small amount of praise and admiration.
And so here she was, taking the evening off, venturing into the city and making a call towards her friend.
Trust, but verify, after all.
Her friend was alright, delighted she called, but Chifuyu had heard enough and didn't seek to burden her with this matter further.
No. She'd settle this mystery herself.
In the meantime, the young woman marched along the path beyond the military base with purpose as she entertained the seemingly impossible quest of finding a decent place to eat nearby. She'd probably keep it up for another half hour before taking a tram into Ludwigshafen proper, but she wouldn't give up hope just yet.
She stopped once she noticed an unusual sight.
There was a lineup outside of the local Japanese restaurant.
It was a shit restaurant. She could say that much with absolute certainty. There was rarely anyone here, let alone a lineup.
Curiosity got the better of her; she got closer to see if there was a crime scene or something equally eventful to warrant such a gathering.
Peeking her head over someone's shoulder to catch a look through the door, she froze.
There was a new chef working here: a man who looked Japanese enough, though his tall and noticeably muscular frame might have given some a different impression. Fiery red hair poked out from under a blue chef's bandana, framing intense ochre eyes.
She wasn't the only one eyeing him: the patrons watched him with fascination as he worked three different woks with expert hands.
His eyes quickly flicked her way in passing before bringing his focus back to the work before him. After a second or two, they snapped right back to her in alarm.
Motherfucker.
Chifuyu gnashed her teeth together as she stalked past the waiting guests, opening the door with a clatter as she stepped inside, stopping in front of that bastard with crossed arms.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
And then, scratching his cheek, he smiled.
"Irasshai," he smiled as he greeted her warmly. "Table for one, I presume?"