Fate: Hammer Time

by TedTheRabbit

Shirou Emiya wanted to become a hero. That was clear to all who truly know him. For a long time though, he lacked the power to actually achieve that goal. No longer. No longer will he lack the power, now that the Hammer of the Odinson has chosen him as new wielder. Prepare for Thunder. ShirouxMultiple, Thor-Shirou.

46. Returning Home

Returning Home

---

It was the morning of Shirou's last day in the Clocktower, with only several hours until his flight to Fuyuki. Things in the Clocktower were finally quieting down completely. The tension between the Factions was slowly lowering to normal levels, independent Magi were returning from where they'd fled to, and more and more people dared to pick up their normal lives again.

This was in large part caused by the fact that the trials had ended the day before, at long last. After two full weeks of tedious procedures, every criminal had now been punished, and justice had thus been fully served.

With that point of instability gone, it wouldn't be long now until things would continue like they had before the Purge.

Of course, many things were now different than before. That was only logical with how much had happened.

The Meluastea for instance had been reduced to a mere four members, instead of the dozens they'd had before, and had been gutted in terms of wealth and influence as well.

Most of their money and resources had been taken as reparations, to recompense those who had suffered under their family's actions, and to top it all off, they had lost their department, Archaeology, and were no longer the leaders of the Neutral Faction. In fact, they weren't even members of that faction anymore, as the other families had thrown them out.

Fortunately for them however, Lady Montmorency had allowed them to keep a few of their possessions and some funds, enough to rebuild their family from scratch, if they were smart about it. Unlike the Archibald however, they would likely never regain their department, and would instead become a minor family within it, serving under the new owners, who had not been selected yet.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the surviving Meluastea were all siblings. One brother and three sisters, who had cooperated with Lady Barthomeloi during the Purge and had proven later on not to be too involved with the crimes that their family had committed.

Of course, in a normal situation, they would still have been punished somehow, as they had still gone along with their family's treacheries, but Lady Montmorency had decided that it would be prudent not to wipe out the Meluastea completely. That family had existed since the founding of the Magus Association, and removing it fully might have nasty, unforeseen consequences down the line. Magecraft functioned through patterns, traditions, and rules after all, and suddenly throwing a massive wrench in the system by removing a key family was a massive risk at the best of times.

Or something like that, Shirou hadn't completely understood the explanation.

Most of the other families from Archaeology however, alongside about one-third of the families from Mineralogy and a quarter of those from Botany, had been eradicated completely. They were not potentially important to the continued existence of Magecraft in its current form, so Lady Montmorency had thrown the book at them and wiped them out.

It meant that the Clocktower now had significantly fewer members than before, but since all those members had been actively undermining the Magus Association, almost no one could bring themselves to feel bad about it. Shirou certainly didn't.

In other news, Waver was now the head of Modern Magical Theories, Mineralogy, and Botany. He'd essentially gone from a somewhat respected lord of the smallest department to a lord whom everyone had to take seriously. His nickname, 'the Big Ben London Star', was no longer something to joke and laugh about, but a genuinely respected title that inspired fear and awe.

Flat, the one who'd come up with the nickname in the first place, had gotten a big laugh out of that, and eventually, Waver himself had seen the humour of it too.

What was not humorous at all though was the titanic amount of work that came with being the boss of three departments. Fortunately for Waver, he had been able to arrange things so that he would lead Modern Magical Theories himself, that Reines would lead Mineralogy, and that Marianne would lead Botany, saving himself from being worked to death in short order, but even with that structure in place, he was busier than ever before.

He'd already told Shirou though that it was likely only temporary, caused by the sudden changing of owners, and that the amount of work should lessen soon. It would probably never entirely dry up, but Waver had known that when he'd accepted the position of lord no less than three times. He knew what he was getting into.

The fact that Waver now led Modern Magical Theories, Mineralogy, and Botany did not just impact the man himself though. Most of the other lords and ladies were now watching him with cautious eyes, wondering if he held any further ambitions.

There had been mutterings about using Waver's debts to blackmail him into submission, but whenever Shirou heard that, he had to suppress an amused smile. Yes, Waver had considerable debts at the moment, but he was now a billionaire, more than capable of paying it all off right this instant. The only reason he hadn't done so yet was because he was waiting for the right moment, and he had confided in Shirou that said moment was not far away now.

Judging from his sparkling eyes when he said that, 'the right moment' would be when he had Melvin and Reines in one room with him while they were eating or drinking something, to maximise the shock-value and get as much satisfaction as possible from springing the surprise on them.

Shirou almost regretted not being able to be present for the occasion, as it was sure to be hilarious.

He didn't regret it enough though to delay his departure even more. It was a shame he would miss the moment when Waver could finally shake himself free from the chains Melvin and Reines had put around him a decade ago, but going home was more important to him.

Before he left however, Shirou wanted to visit everyone he'd met and got along with in Europe, to say his proper goodbyes to them. It would be rude after all to leave without saying anything, and Shirou, having been raised properly by his father and elder sister, did not want to be rude.

To that end, he'd spent an hour or so last night on making a list of people he wanted to say goodbye to in person, and now that the sun had risen and it was eight o'clock in morning, most of those people were probably awake now.

As Waver, Grey, and Bazett would be giving him a lift to the airport later, they were the last on the list. Other than that, the order didn't really matter.

As such, he would get the hardest and most likely longest part over with first, that being Lady Barthomeloi.

---

Having been to the Vice-Director's office plenty of times, Shirou made his way over there in no time. Once again, he was visiting her without an appointment, but since saying goodbye shouldn't take too long, he was confident that she would be able to spare a few minutes at least.

He'd been planning to visit Lady Montmorency afterwards, as he would be inside the Department of Policies anyway, but once he entered the hallway in which Lady Barthomeloi's office was located, he found that Lady Montmorency was also present in that office, alongside her boss.

It happened so often, finding the elderly lady in that office, that Shirou was honestly starting to believe she lived there or something, at least during times of crises. He wasn't going to complain about it though, as it would save him the time of having to find the elderly lady later on.

"Mister Fujimaru, what brings you here?" Lady Montmorency asked curiously once Shirou had knocked on the door and had been allowed entrance into the office. "I heard you would be leaving today."

"That is exactly why I am here." Shirou answered, stepping forward to give them a bow. "I have come to say my goodbyes and wish you the best for the future before I depart from London and return home."

"How formal!" Lady Montmorency laughed in response. "And how convenient. We were hoping we would be able to intercept you at some point before you left."

"Your arrival here was timed perfectly." Lady Barthomeloi nodded in agreement with her second in command, and she pointed at a chair standing in front of her desk. "Please sit down, mister Fujimaru. There are several matters we need to discuss."

Yeah, Shirou had expected as much. That's why he came to her first. By now, he'd learned that every time he came to her office, there were always 'several matters to discuss'.

He didn't protest though, and sat down in the chair she had motioned to. At the same time, Lady Barthomeloi retrieved something from under her chair, before placing it on her desk. It was a long parcel, wrapped in colourful paper, which she then pushed towards him.

"Lady Barthomeloi, what is this?" He asked curiously, studying the parcel for a bit.

"This is a gift." Lady Barthomeloi responded, gesturing at him. "For you."

"For-For me?" Shirou spluttered, suddenly feeling quite embarrassed, as he'd come to her office empty-handed. "But I don't have anything for you."

"That is fine." Lady Barthomeloi dismissed his concerns, idly waving a hand. "This gift is to thank you, not just for your services during the Purge, but also for remaining at the Clocktower for as long as you have after it."

"I know these past two weeks haven't been easy, and that you have been wanting to go home for a while now." Lady Montmorency added, giving him a good-natured grin. "So yes, as Lorelei said, this is to thank you for delaying your departure for our sake."

"Oh, well, uhm, I… I appreciate it." Shirou fumbled, not sure what to say or do. He hadn't expected to be given a gift by anyone in the Clocktower, least of all Lady Barthomeloi, and it left him at a bit of a loss. "But you already agreed to sponsor my friend, so you didn't need to-"

"Of course, the sponsorship-arrangement still stands. This gift is separate from that matter." The brunette assured him, paying no heed to his stuttering. "As we agreed, I will still take your friend on as my apprentice. Speaking of which, you told me you would arrange a method of communication between me and her?"

"Ah, yes, here." Shirou nodded, pretending to take a folding mirror out of his inner pocket while actually taking it straight from the Vault. "This mirror has been Enchanted by me. When I am back home, I will establish a link between it and a mirror in possession of my friend. This will allow you to talk both through written messages and by speaking with each other directly."

"Hm." Lady Barthomeloi gave a hum of acceptance, and he handed the mirror over to her, after which she placed it on a corner of her desk. "I look forward to her call."

"Once more, I thank you for doing this for her." Shirou bowed slightly.

"It is a payment for services rendered. No expressions of gratitude are required." She said, sounding slightly robot-like, before she placed a hand on the parcel, which was still lying on the desk. "If you wish to thank me for something, thank me for this, should it be to your liking."

"We tried to select something you would be sure to appreciate." Lady Montmorency added. "Though we could have been wrong of course, in which case you can select something else."

"Let me see what it is first." Shirou huffed, before, with a last look at Lady Barthomeloi for permission, he took the parcel and placed it on his lap, where he could easily open it.

He carefully unwrapped the gift, making sure not to tear the paper, before he was left holding a long, thin box, the kind you used to pack weapons in.

"We heard about your recent visit to old man Eckhard, to see his collection of blade-shaped Mystic Codes." Lady Barthomeloi began, piquing Shirou's interest, as this was beginning to sound like… "So I decided to give you a blade-shaped Mystic Code from my family's vaults."

Shirou's heart began beating faster at the news, and without another second of delay, he opened the box, allowing him to see…

A nodachi. A very long nodachi of about 150 centimetres, with a blue handle and a blue sheath. It was quite well made, though the decorations were nothing special, and Shirou noticed, to his mild surprise, that it had been an ordinary katana at the moment of its making, but had become a Mystic Code over time, mainly because of its third wielder, whose skill had been so incredible as to defy common sense.

"You may unsheathe it." Lady Barthomeloi gave him permission to bare a weapon in her presence, something that was normally very illegal, and Shirou promptly did so, freeing the nodachi from its sheath, seeing that the words 'Bitchu Aoe', or 'the blue river of Bitchu' had been engraved into one side.

Inside his soul, Unlimited Blade Works did its thing, and Shirou learned the name of the sword and that of its third and most famous wielder.

This sword was Monohoshi Zao, the sword that had once belonged to Sasaki Kojirou, the mythical rival of Miyamoto Mushashi.

Except, that wasn't quite true. The story went deeper than that. It was… as if the third wielder had been nameless and had only been given the name Sasaki Kojirou much later, to fulfil some kind of role.

Yes, Shirou could see it now. The third wielder had been a farmer's son, never given a name by his parents, who'd come across an old samurai, had taken his weapon, and had trained by himself until he'd become a person who had been judged worthy of taking the name of Kojirou by the Throne of Heroes itself. Essentially, the name and legend of Kojirou had been there first, and the Heroic Spirit, the third wielder, had followed later.

Regardless of the order of events however, the fact remained that the third wielder had been so skilled it seemed almost unreal. When the nodachi had come into his possession, it had been an ordinary sword. When it had left his hands, it was a Mystic Code.

How?

Two words; Tsubame Gaeshi.

A technique without Magic, without Divinity, without any kind of Mystery whatsoever, that nevertheless slipped right past the edges of reality to become something that approached the Second True Magic through nothing but its wielder's unparalleled skill. One strike that became three, the impossible made possible by a mundane hand.

It was marvellous to see, and Shirou could have spent hours admiring the blade, just looking at the tales stored within, when-

"Is it to your liking?"

Lady Montmorency's question brought him back to the present, and he looked up to find that both ladies were looking at him in curiosity, though Lady Barthomeloi hid it much better.

"This sword is amazing!" Shirou said the first thing that came to mind, and he rose to bow to the Vice-Director in gratitude, barely able to suppress a wide grin. "Thank you very much for giving this to me."

"I am pleased it is to your liking." Lady Barthomeloi smiled ever so slightly. "The Barthomeloi have never been able to figure out how it functions or even what it does, but I am confident you will discover its true nature in time."

Shirou barely heard her though, too preoccupied with observing the third wielder's feats, wondering if he could possibly replicate them to some extent. Being able to do something like Tsubame Gaeshi, or even just a mere offshoot, would be incredible.

Lady Montmorency laughed at the sight of the young man obsessing over a cool blade, while Lady Barthomeloi sat up a bit straighter, happy that her gift had been so well received.

Eventually though, they had to get back to business. As Lady Barthomeloi had said, there were multiple matters to discuss.

As usual, it was Lady Montmorency who spoke up first.

"Grover Meluastea's remains have not been found, despite the best efforts of our trackers." The elderly lady told him gravely, her expression darkening considerably. "We hope that his body was destroyed or used in someone's research, but we cannot discount the possibility that something much darker happened to it."

"I know what happened to Grover. He didn't die." Shirou said confidently, having received the necessary information from Ayako to form a definite conclusion. "Grover Meluastea was nothing more than a body possessed by a Wraith, and although he was decapitated, it wasn't enough to kill him. He is still out there, plotting his revenge."

"A Wraith?" Lady Montmorency blinked in surprise, her expression one of confusion.

"That is not possible." Lady Barthomeloi protested, her brow furrowed a bit in bemusement. "Wraiths aren't as sophisticated and patient as Grover Meluastea used to be. If he had been possessed, he would have been a raving monster."

"This one is different." Shirou insisted, belatedly realising he didn't have any proof of his claim. "I don't know how, but this Wraith is different from the rest of its kind."

Both ladies gave him uncertain looks. They didn't know him to be a liar or someone who drew conclusions without due consideration, but the idea that a Wraith could destabilise the Magus Association as much as Grover was so counter-intuitive that they almost couldn't believe him.

"We shall continue looking for him then." Lady Montmorency eventually began, carefully choosing her words. "Whether we are looking for his remains or for the man himself matters little in the end. However, since it has been almost two weeks now since the disappearance took place, the search is no longer a priority."

Lady Montmorency sounded apologetic, but Shirou understood where she was coming from. They couldn't chase after every enemy they had, especially not during such tumultuous times. They didn't have unlimited manpower available after all.

Otherwise, they'd be constantly hunting the Dead Apostle Ancestors as well.

"Should he be sighted, we will of course respond in force, but we can no longer justify spending time and effort on hunting him down when he is believed by most of the public to be dead." Lady Barthomeloi took over from her underling. "I am sorry, mister Fujimaru, but that is the extent of what we can currently do."

"I understand." Shirou nodded, aware that they were already showing immense faith in him by even just half-believing what he said. "I will keep an eye out for him as well. Should I find him, I will try and dispose of him, and otherwise contact you."

"Then there is another matter to address now, something that concerns you more directly, boy." Lady Montmorency changed the subject, giving him an apologetic look as she did so. "Although no one has yet acknowledged it in public, rumours that you are a Sorcerer have become wide-spread and impossible to suppress anymore."

"Your true nature appears to have become common knowledge among the residents of the Clocktower, and I feel it will not take much longer before the entirety of the Moonlit World becomes aware." Lady Barthomeloi agreed, studying him closely for his reaction. "What is your opinion on this?"

"I don't really mind." Shirou rubbed the back of his head, not sure what was expected of him now. How were Sorcerers supposed to react when it became publicly known that they were Sorcerers? "I mean, I never bothered denying it when asked, so I cannot complain now that people know about it."

"I see. That is a relief." Lady Barthomeloi nodded, crossing her arms. "Then we do not need to initiate suppression-protocols."

"…Suppression-protocols?" That sounded very scary, and Shirou was suddenly very grateful he'd chosen not to make a problem out of things.

"You do not need to know about them." Lady Barthomeloi's answer did not make it any less scary. "Instead, I would like to hear from you when you will be returning to the Clocktower."

"Huh? Oh, yes, right." Shirou snapped his fingers in realisation. "I promised to return, didn't I?"

"You did." Lady Barthomeloi nodded, arching an eyebrow.

When Shirou had turned Marie Alva back into a human in full view of Lady Barthomeloi, he had, surprisingly, managed to escape a Sealing Designation, but only if he promised to return to the Clocktower frequently so that 'limited experimentation' could be performed on him.

He still didn't know exactly what that entailed, but since Lady Barthomeloi had promised he would experience no discomfort during this experimentation, he was willing to chance it, maybe. He'd have to see though what he would do to fudge the results, because there was no way he was going to let anyone except his loved ones know about his alien nature.

But those were concerns for a later date.

"The earliest time-period I have available is the beginning of winter." Shirou said after a moment of thought. He would have a two-week holiday then, which he might be able to extend by another week or so by claiming a family-emergency, giving him three weeks in total to spend in London. "I will have three weeks."

"That will do for now." Lady Barthomeloi inclined her head. "I know not what you will be doing in the meantime, but I trust it is important."

"…Yes, quite." Shirou nodded, realising they had no idea he was attending high school, as normal Magi tended not to bother with such trivialities. They either home-schooled their children themselves, hired tutors to do so, or sent them to special Magus classes.

Rin was of course an exception, but she was the only one he knew of, aside from himself.

He better never let anyone at the Clocktower find out either, especially not the ladies in front of him, or they would definitely try to persuade him he didn't need it. Technically, they would be right, but since he had promised both his father and Fuji-nee to finish school, there was no way he could skip out on class.

"That was everything we wanted to discuss with you." Lady Barthomeloi informed him, giving him a look Shirou did not quite understand. "I suppose this is goodbye then, until the start of winter."

"Yes, I'll see you then." Shirou nodded, rising from his chair. "I wish you much luck in the coming months."

"Thank you, mister Fujimaru." Lady Montmorency nodded. "I have a feeling we shall need it."

"If you urgently need to contact me, please ask Lord El-Melloi to relay a message for you. He has my contact details."

"Lord El-Melloi does?" That seemed to surprise Lady Barthomeloi, and she frowned in what seemed to be displeasure. "You gave him your contact details?"

"Well, yes. I needed a liaison at the Clocktower, so I asked him." Shirou nodded after a moment, wondering if he'd said something wrong. "He has proven to be most trustworthy."

"Just him?" The brunette's tone was much sharper than before.

"Yes, I don't see why anyone else needs to know."

That last remark seemed to only increase Lady Barthomeloi's displeasure, and Shirou, who by now was getting very confused by her behaviour, decided it was time to leave.

"I wish you the best." He repeated, before bowing one last time and rushing out of the office.

The last thing he heard was Lady Montmorency's attempt to calm her superior down, and he wondered what he'd done wrong this time.

---

"So your meeting with the families of Astromancy went well?" Shirou asked, walking through the halls of the Clocktower's main area alongside Mary Lil Fargo and Claire the maid. He'd bumped into them on his way to the cafeteria, and since they were among the people he wanted to say goodbye to, he'd struck up a conversation, asking about the meeting Mary had had to attend recently.

"The meeting went very well." Mary nodded, looking quite proud of herself. "There were barely any problems to begin with, and the few that cropped up were easy to resolve."

"My lady did not need to mention your name even once, mister Fujimaru." Claire added, gazing at her mistress with a loving smile. "She stood strong against everyone who assailed her."

"No one assailed me, Claire." Mary huffed, reaching out to give her maid a small shove. "At most, some people wondered if I was capable enough to lead the Fargo-family, which is a valid concern."

"It was none of their business." Claire refuted, paying her mistress back for the shove by pinching her butt, eliciting a small squeak from the noble girl. "They never would have accepted such invasive questioning themselves if they had been in your stead."

"Hypocrisy is common among Magi." Shirou nodded, more than aware of that fact. "That said, I am glad the meeting went well, aside from those few hypocrites."

"There is one issue though that might be problematic." Mary frowned, trying to clandestinely rub her butt. "Lord Marisbury Animusphere asked about you. He knows that we are acquainted, and he requested that I introduce him to you, as he has an important matter that he wishes to discuss with you."

"Is that so?" Shirou asked, feeling a bit curious, as there were few Magi bold enough to outright request a meeting with him. "Who is Marisbury Animusphere?"

"The lord of the Animusphere-family, the Ruling Family that presides over the Department of Astromancy." Mary replied. "Although the Animusphere-family is not very rich or influential, they are incredibly skilled at their craft, and widely respected in the Moonlit World. I don't think there's anyone who can come even close to their expertise in the readings of times through the motion of stars in the past and the future."

"I see. What did you tell lord Animusphere?"

"I told him that you would be leaving soon, and that you are too busy right now to meet with him, and he responded that he was fine with waiting a while. Apparently, there are some years left before the issue he wishes to discuss becomes relevant." Mary answered slowly, giving him a cautious look. "Was… that an alright reply?"

"It was." Shirou nodded, giving her a reassuring smile. "Please inform him when you see him again that the next time I'm here, I'll try to get a hold of him. You've made me rather curious."

"I'll let him know then."

"Please do not tell anyone that my lady managed to persuade you to meet with lord Animusphere." Claire suddenly requested, politely yet urgently. "I do not want her to become known as the person who can arrange meetings with the new Sorcerer."

"Claire…" Mary seemed touched by her maid's concern, and Shirou got the idea that Claire was going to be rewarded quite handsomely once the two were in private again.

"I'll keep her involvement quiet of course." He promised.

"Much obliged." Claire nodded.

---

"Mister Fujimaru, having you at the Clocktower was… well, I won't say it was a pleasure, but it was certainly productive." Gideon the Enforcer laughed as he shook Shirou's hand. "My team and I have earned more money over the past two months than we normally do in two or even three years, mostly because of you and the trouble you caused."

"You're welcome, I guess." Shirou said slowly, not sure if he should take the remark as an insult or a compliment.

"That said, maybe it's for the best you leave now." Rit took over from her boyfriend, giving Shirou a pat on the head. "Too much excitement is a bad thing, especially in a place like the Clocktower."

"I'll say." Gideon huffed, crossing his arms. "A few more months of you running amok, and we'll only have two Ruling Families left; the Barthomeloi in charge of Policies, and the Archibald, or rather Lord El-Melloi, in charge of all the rest."

"Lord El-Melloi did have a meteoric rise over the past month." Rit nodded. "I wonder if he has his eyes on any other departments."

As the two began discussing the recent developments, basically forgetting about Shirou, the redhead decided to sneak off to say goodbye to the rest of the Enforcer-team. Not that he really knew them all that well, but it was still the polite thing to do.

To most of them, he didn't say much, but there was one person among their ranks whom he still had to thank properly.

That person was Khamul, the one who had taught Shirou the technique to break Bounded Fields. That technique had been invaluable to him, not only to save Illya from the Einzbern-castle, but also to save a massive number of innocents from the Department of Archaeology in less than a day's time.

Khamul had never asked for compensation or acknowledgement and had in fact congratulated Shirou for perfecting the technique, but Shirou still wanted to repay the man somehow.

Fortunately, a Bounded Field expert like Khamul was always in need of money for materials, and if there was one thing in the world Shirou had plenty of now, it was money. Not that Khamul would easily accept it, but Shirou would just have to play it smart and give the hooded man no opportunity to refuse.

So he casually handed over a check worth two hundred million pounds to Khamul, before leaving quickly, so the man couldn't try to return it upon realising what it was.

The wordless cry of surprise from Angy did make him crack a smile though, and he quickened his pace, disappearing into the maze of hallways before they could call him back.

---

"I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours, mister Fujimaru." Marianne smiled kindly at him, her soft, gentle features uniquely suited for such a smile. "And may your time be nothing but productive."

"Though not as productive as they were here, I should hope." Adashino smiled languidly, a faint trace of mockery present in her expression, as always. "I fear the Moonlit World would not survive it if your days were always as action-filled as they have been over the past weeks."

"Hishiri." Marianne frowned at her, lightly swatting her arm in reproach for her rude remark.

"Just telling it as it is." Adashino's lazy smile widened a bit, and even more when she saw Marianne pout.

Shirou wasn't entirely sure why he had made the detour to the Department of Botany to say his goodbyes to lady Marianne, considering he barely knew her, nor did he know why Adashino was hanging around in the blonde's office as well, but now that he was here, he might as well make the most of it.

"I wish you the best of luck too." He nodded at them, before narrowing his eyes, applying a bit of pressure to the room. "And I sincerely hope you'll be kind to Waver, and that you will not betray him."

The 'or else' wasn't spoken out loud, but it was heard very clearly nonetheless.

"Oh, 'Waver', is it?" Adashino asked, having noticed he referred to the lord with his first name, the smile on her face still mocking, though there was a hint of nervousness too now.

"Yes." Shirou confirmed, giving no further explanation.

"We are on Waver's side." Marianne promised him sincerely, her words ringing true. "We shall support him to the best of our ability."

"That is good to hear." Shirou nodded at her, easing up on the intimidation again. "In that case, I wish you nothing but fortune over the months to come, both in business and in personal matters."

"Do attend the upcoming wedding, if you can spare the time." Adashino requested kindly, making Marianne blush slightly. "Not just for any political statements, but also because Lord El-Melloi would really appreciate you being there."

"I will try my hardest to be there." Shirou promised. He'd never had a friend get married before, so he did not know what to do in such an event, but he figured that attending the wedding was the least he could do. "Please let me know when it takes place."

"We will."

---

"I've come to say my goodbyes." Shirou said as he walked into Lord El-Melloi's classroom, which was empty aside from the three people he'd come to see. "I will be leaving today."

"Yeah, we heard." Svin nodded, getting up from his chair and holding out his hand for Shirou to shake, looking as serious as the day he'd first introduced himself to the redhead. "Mister Fujimaru, it has been an absolute pleasure having you here."

The blonde boy wasn't entirely truthful there, which was logical, considering Shirou's presence at the Clocktower certainly hadn't always been a pleasure, especially not to Svin, who was the most level-headed and 'normal' of Waver's students, but as it was a lie for politeness' sake, Shirou didn't bring it up.

"It was an absolute pleasure being here." Shirou responded to Svin's small white lie with a small white lie of his own. "I feel almost sorry to be leaving the Clocktower, but my home calls me, and I do not want to ignore it anymore."

"I understand completely." Svin nodded, before opening his mouth to continue. Unfortunately for him, he was pushed aside before he could say anything else.

"It was great to have you here!" Flat cried as he vigorously shook Shirou's hand with both of his own, and unlike Svin, he was telling nothing but the truth. "Please tell me you'll come back soon."

"I will." Shirou nodded, his smile turning a tad awkward. "I made a deal with Lady Barthomeloi to return as often as I can, and the next time I'll have a significant amount of free time is around Christmas, meaning that I'll be back here at the start of winter."

"So around five months from now." Lehrman, who was also present, deduced, giving him a grin. "That should be just enough time for the Magus Association to have settled down completely from the Purge. Makes it all the more fun for you to turn everything on its head again."

"That is not my intention." Shirou sighed deeply, anticipating another round of teasing.

"But it is certainly the outcome of your actions." Lehrman giggled demurely, before smiling coquettishly. "Not that I mind it. In fact, I find everything that has happened so far delightful, and it has helped my darling Waver obtain a much higher level of respect inside the Association. If you are going to make more chaos of this kind, I would welcome it."

"Hopefully, I will not." Shirou tried to smother that thought in the cradle, but failed, judging from Lehrman's sparkling eyes.

"Say, Shirou, where is your home anyway?" Flat suddenly asked. "You never told us where you live."

"Nor will I ever, as I'm sure you're well-aware." Shirou gave the frail boy a wry grin, getting a shameless smirk in return.

"Is there any way we can contact you in the time before you return?" Svin found himself a way back into the conversation after being so rudely pushed aside by Flat. "In case of emergencies?"

"Waver has my contact details." Shirou replied. "Should you have a pressing matter, you can tell him and he'll let me know. If you really need me, I'm only one flight away. Please don't abuse it, but also don't hesitate to use it should you really have an emergency."

"Does that also go for me?" Lehrman asked curiously. "I mean, we're not exactly close."

"…It does go for you, to an extent." Shirou allowed after a moment of thought. "Your loyalties are too divided for me or for Waver to really trust you, but I suppose you are a friendly acquaintance at least. If you are in danger and need help, I will at least hear what you have to say."

"I'll take what I can get!"

---

So far, Shirou had mostly visited people he was friendly with, or at the very least, that he had worked together with in a friendly kind of capacity. Now though, he was making an exception.

After all, neither Melvin nor Reines were in any way his friends or even friendly acquaintances. They were Waver's 'friend' and pseudo little sister respectively, meaning that Shirou had to tolerate them, but he would never have interacted with them on his own initiative.

Nevertheless, he did come to see them in Reines' office, as there were a few things he needed to do, things that involved them.

Normally, he would still have been polite about it, but as he was starting to grow short on time –he had more acquaintances at the Clocktower than he'd thought at first, and time was passing by quickly as he sped from one person to the next– he decided speed was of the essence.

His entrance into Reines' office took the girl, as well as Melvin, by surprise, as he'd hoped, and before they could regain their bearings, he began talking quickly, wanting to keep the initiative.

First, Reines.

"Here are guidelines on elemental spells, as well as Enchantments of various kinds." Shirou said as he handed Reines a map filled with instruction manuals on various kinds of Magecraft. "I have also added homework for you, consisting of both open questions and multiple-choice questions. I will return to the Clocktower in around five months, I expect you to have finished it all by then."

"I-I see." It was clearly not what Reines had expected, but she did obediently accept the map from him. "What if I don't understand something though?"

"Either do your best to figure it out, ask for help, or mark the part you don't understand so we can go over it when I return."

"I understand." Reines nodded, placing the map on her desk.

Waver had asked Shirou several weeks ago, which honestly felt like an eternity now, to tutor Reines on various kinds of Magecraft that she was struggling with. Shirou had accepted, more for Waver's sake than for Reines', and given her several lessons, before a lack of time had forcibly put an end to their teacher-student relationship.

Breaking it off so abruptly didn't sit right with Shirou though, so he'd decided to give her some homework and hopefully pick up the lessons again when he returned to the Clocktower.

With that done, he turned to Melvin next.

"That's a very scary look in your eyes." The frail man noted as Shirou stalked closer, and he started stumbling backwards, a note of panic entering his eyes. "Please don't tell me you're going to kill me to release Waver from his debt?!"

"Of course not. Don't be ridiculous." Shirou scoffed, before stepping into reach and pressing his hand to Melvin's chest. "I'm just going to try and Heal you."

"Really?! Oh man, it would be really cool if you could manage that-"

Then Shirou pushed his Healing Power into Melvin's frail body, interrupting his sentence and making him light up with golden rays.

To Shirou's satisfaction, his Healing Power was successful at fixing the many, many issues inside Melvin's body, from the decalcified bones to the permanently inflamed lungs, and after twenty seconds or so, he pulled his hand back again.

"Was that it?" Was the first thing Melvin asked after the glow died down, patting himself all over with an incredulous expression. "I don't feel very different yet."

"I fixed all diseases, complexes, and syndromes that caused your permanent frailty." Shirou explained hastily, painfully aware of the minutes going by as he stood there. "Growing more muscle mass however is your own responsibility, though at least now, your own body won't work against you anymore."

Still looking incredulous, Melvin began jumping in place, before dropping down on the floor and doing some push-ups, followed by several jumping jacks and some shadow-boxing. These were exercises that would surely have made him spit blood from his mouth like a geyser in the past, but now, he did them with relative ease, without a single sign his body was protesting in a way that it shouldn't.

Having ascertained that, Shirou left again, leaving Melvin to his private celebrations and Reines to her homework.

He still had a few more people to visit, and time was running out. His plane wasn't going to wait for him after all.

---

"Mister Fujimaru, we didn't expect you to come by." Fiore said as she opened the door of her room to find Shirou standing there. "We heard that you would be leaving today."

"You heard correctly." Shirou nodded, looking over the brunette's head at the clock that she had hanging on her wall. "I still have forty minutes though, and I wished to speak with you again."

"Are there any problems?" The wheelchair-bound girl asked, a trace of nervousness entering her voice. "Has something happened?"

"No, nothing has happened, don't worry." Shirou promptly shook his head, giving her his best reassuring smile. "I merely wanted to make sure you were all okay. I haven't been able to visit you before now, and I was wondering how you have been doing since the Purge. How is Marie?"

He was pretty sure he'd been able to change the girl back into a human and remove all traces of the Moon's curse on her, but it was always good to double-check.

"Marie is doing fine." Fiore smiled, before she started, her mouth forming a very cute 'o'-shape. "But I am being terribly rude, letting you stand outside! Please, mister Fujimaru, come in."

"Thank you for your hospitality." Shirou entered the room, after which the brunette closed the door behind him, and he saw Rosaly and Marie sitting at the table, both looking at him with curious gazes. "Miss Von Stahlen-Frobrecht, miss Al- miss Marie."

"Mister Fujimaru." Rosaly greeted him back, while Marie gave him a small nod. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for a quick check-up." He replied, before holding out a hand towards Marie. "May I?"

"Please." She nodded, and Shirou placed his hand on her forehead, before sending out a pulse of Healing Power. If there was any trace left of the Moon's Curse, he would know in an instant.

But the scans came back fully negative, and Shirou took a step back again.

"Nothing. You are fully human again." He told Marie, and the blonde let out a sigh of relief.

"We never properly thanked you for what you did for Marie, did we?" Fiore then asked, rolling herself closer to him. "At least, not officially, to say nothing about compensation."

"Nor do you have to." Shirou assured them. "It was a duty and an honour to help you. I do not need compensation of any kind."

"Even so, if you ever need help, please do not hesitate to tell us." Rosaly piped up, placing a hand on her heart. "We may not be very powerful, but we will apply ourselves fully to any task you need our aid with."

"I will keep it in mind." Shirou promised, though privately, he didn't think he'd ever need their aid. Still, it was good to have more allies. "Then there is only one thing left I need to do."

"Oh? What is that?" Fiore asked curiously.

"To try to restore your legs' functionality." He responded bluntly, turning fully towards her.

"H-Huh?" Fiore froze for a fraction of a second, before she shook her head. "No, wait a moment, mister Fujimaru. There is no 'restoring' their functionality. My legs don't work because-"

"They contain an overabundance of Magic Circuits, which paralyses the nerves." Shirou finished for her, having already established that from the first time he saw her.

"…Yes." Fiore muttered after a few moments, looking rather shocked at his knowledge. "But then you know there is nothing to heal."

"I'm not limited to just Healing." Shirou huffed, crossing his arms. "I can also do other things."

He hadn't directly been referring to Marie when he said that, but from the way Fiore's eyes flickered to the blonde-haired girl for a split second, Shirou deduced she was remembering how he changed Marie back into a human.

Irrefutable proof that he was not limited to physical healing only.

"…Please be careful with me." She eventually accepted, holding out a hand to him, doing her best to not have it shake too much in a mixture of eagerness and fear.

Shirou took her hand as gently as he could, privately marvelling at how soft and delicate it was, and began channelling his Healing Power, though in this case, not directly to Heal.

After all, what Fiore said was true. The reason she couldn't walk wasn't because of an injury or a disease, but because of a defect she had been born with. As such, directly applying Healing Power alone would not make her legs functional again, as her body would not recognise that there was anything to heal.

So Shirou needed to be a little more creative, and he knew perfectly well where to start; Fiore's Magic Circuits. The things that kept her legs paralysed.

Normally, Magic Circuits did not affect the body itself. They were channels in the Soul, and thus should not interact with veins or nerves unless the Magus did something foolish, like critically overheating the Circuits for instance, or improperly casting a spell, which would cause the Magical Energy to explode.

Rin had a lot of Magic Circuits in her right arm, but that did not mean that the limb was less functional. Her arm worked perfectly, not at all hampered by the presence of the Circuits.

An even better example was Illya. She was filled to the brim with Magic Circuits, to the point where one needed three digits to display the correct number, yet she didn't suffer from any kind of paralysis either. Her Magic Circuits did not influence her physical body in the slightest, aside from causing it to break down faster due to their artificial nature, but that was a wholly different matter.

But with Fiore, it was different. Somehow, her Magic Circuits 'leaked' Magical Energy, like rusty pipes leaked water, which hampered her nerves' natural functions. The electric signals that were supposed to travel to and from the brain, giving feedback and relaying orders to the muscles, were massively disturbed by this leaking Magical Energy, resulting in a complete paralysis of all voluntary muscles.

It wasn't enough power to influence the blood vessels or other automatic processes, which was why her legs hadn't withered away yet, but Fiore had zero control over what happened below her waist.

An easy solution for this would be to shut down the Magic Circuits and let them atrophy over time –rusty pipes couldn't leak if there was no water flowing through them– but just like a house couldn't go without water, a Magus couldn't go without Magical Energy.

It was a question of what mattered more to Fiore, her identity as a Magus or the functionality of her legs. Since she was still at the Clocktower, calling herself a Magus, her choice had clearly been made.

Fortunately for her though, there was now a third option. Shirou could just fix her Circuits, which would not only let her nerves function properly again, but would also increase her power ever so slightly, as there would be no more Magical Energy leaking away.

"I'll be making some adjustments now." Shirou told the brunette, who gulped nervously, but nodded nevertheless, putting on her brave face. "Please bear with me."

As he was still holding her hand, Shirou immediately started pushing Healing Power into Fiore's body, and the girl promptly lit up with the familiar golden glow that Shirou had seen countless times before.

It took him about six minutes to finish the job, and after he let up and the glow subsided, Fiore came into sight again, fully 'healed'. Shirou had even included the muscle atrophy caused by years of inaction in his healing, as well as several other complications. Just like with Melvin however, he couldn't add any muscle mass, nor could he give Fiore the walking-coordination she'd never needed and thus never developed before. She would have to take care of that herself, ideally with professional help.

"I'm done." Shirou said curtly, before motioning to her legs. "I strongly advise you not to strain them too much though, so don't try to get up yet. If you haven't ever used your legs, there is no way they can support your weight. Please go and see a specialist as soon as you can."

Fiore stared at him for a few seconds, not moving a muscle. Then, she looked down at her feet, which were clad in white socks. She frowned in concentration, as if trying to do something strenuous, clenching her fists as she concentrated.

Then the big toe on her right foot moved, by itself.

Shirou heard two simultaneous gasps coming from behind him, and then Rosaly and Marie rose from their seats to rush towards their friend, their expressions beaming and enthusiastic.

Not as enthusiastic as Fiore herself though, who, after two seconds of wiggling her toe, decided to throw Shirou's advice to the wind and push herself out of her wheelchair and onto her legs, her smile so big as to be outright manic.

Predictably, that didn't go well. She collapsed immediately and would have smacked hard onto the ground if her friends hadn't arrived to catch her in time.

Still, despite the failure, everyone in the room had noticed that Fiore's legs did move, even if they weren't so effective yet.

"Woah there, Fiore." Rosaly laughed, throwing the brunette's left arm over her shoulder to prop her up. "No need to be so hasty."

"You need to practise first." Marie agreed, taking her friend's right arm.

"I can move my legs!" Fiore wasn't listening to either of them though, her face set in an expression of delirious happiness as she experienced feeling something below her waist for the first time in her life, clumsily moving her legs around a bit. "Oh my God! I can move my legs! Rosaly! Marie! Can you see it?! I can move my legs!"

"We can." Rosaly laughed, her eyes glimmering with happiness, showing how glad she was for her friend. "But don't overdo it!"

"I am so happy for you, Fiore!" Marie gushed, taking her friend into a hug. "Now nothing can stop you anymore!"

Shirou watched the merry chaos for a moment, smiling happily at having been able to help someone, before he threw another look at the clock on the wall and decided it was high time for him to leave.

He said goodbye to the girls, and when they didn't react, turned around and left the room again.

He had a plane to catch, but even before that, he needed to be at the garage in time. Waver was waiting for him there.

---

"You made it just in time, Shirou." Waver said as Shirou came running into the Clocktower's garage, with barely ten seconds left on the clock before their arranged meeting time. "Cutting it close, are we?"

"I'm sorry, Waver." Shirou panted as he came to a stop next to the lord's car. "I wanted to say goodbye to everyone, and that turned out to take a lot longer than anticipated."

"It always does." Waver nodded, his reproachful expression turning into a sympathetic one. "Did you manage to visit them all?"

"I did." Shirou nodded, before looking at Bazett and Grey, who were standing next to the car as well. "Except for the three of you, that is."

"There will be plenty of time for heartfelt goodbyes once we are on our way." Bazett huffed, before opening the door of the car. "Ladies first."

"O-Oh, I see." Grey muttered, before indeed entering the car first.

"Lords next." Bazett continued, though this time, she held open the door of the passenger's seat.

"Much obliged."

"Sorcerers last." The redheaded woman finished, and when Shirou was also in the car, she took her place behind the wheel and drove off, towards the airport.

"I hope traffic won't be too bad." She grumbled, before falling silent, paying attention to the road to avoid hitting anyone in the swarm of pedestrians crossing the street without regard for their own safety.

"This will be goodbye for now." Shirou said, turning towards Grey and Waver. "I have agreed with Lady Barthomeloi to return at the start of winter though, so it isn't farewell."

"I am glad to hear that." Grey's eyes livened up at the news, and Waver, who'd already known that Shirou would be returning at some point, nodded in acceptance. "I'll look forward to seeing you again, mister Fujimaru."

"As will I look forward to seeing you again, miss Grey, and you as well, Waver." Shirou replied, giving them both a smile. "Hopefully, by that time, things will have quieted down a bit."

"So you can blow it up again, you mean?" Waver huffed, though the smile removed the sting from his words. "That said, I also hope the Clocktower will return to normal soon, bar of course my own rise in rank."

"And the fact that you are rich now." Shirou reminded him. "Have you paid your debts already?"

"No, not yet." Waver shook his head, his smile turning a tad vicious. "I haven't had an opportunity yet. Melvin and Reines are very unpredictable. It's hard to get them in my office at the same time, especially now, in these hectic times."

"When I went to say goodbye to them, they were both in Reines' office." Shirou supplied.

"Really?" Waver frowned for a moment. "Now that is interesting."

"Why did you visit them?" Grey asked, looking a bit confused. "Are they your friends too?"

"Hardly." Shirou scoffed. "I went there to give Reines some homework for the coming months and to Heal Melvin."

"Heal Melvin?" Waver parroted, his eyes going wide. "Did you succeed?"

"I did." Shirou nodded. "He'll still need some physical therapy and plenty of exercise before he can be called anything close to healthy, but at least he is not ill anymore."

"How fortunate for him." Waver smiled at the good news, showing that, despite his general distaste for the man, he did see Melvin as a friend of sorts. "Can I ask what ailed him exactly? No healer has ever managed to figure out why he has been ill all his life."

"It was not one disease, but a whole host of them, which is perhaps why no one managed to figure it all out before." Shirou answered, scratching the top of his head in thought. "I thought at first it might have been a Curse, but there was no evidence of that, so I would personally just put it down to bad luck at birth."

"I see." Waver's eyes turned a bit absent for a moment as he absorbed the information, before he focused on Shirou again. "Well, perhaps being healthy will have a positive influence on his character."

"I doubt it." Shirou replied swiftly.

"There is little chance of that, Sir." Grey agreed.

"He is a natural born pest." Even Bazett supported them.

"Right." Waver sighed, letting his head hang in disappointment.

They continued talking for the rest of the journey towards the airport, a stark contrast to the way to the Clocktower, all those weeks ago. Back then, Grey hadn't been present, and the rest of them, Bazett, Waver, and Shirou, had sat in silence. They hadn't known each other at all, and hadn't at all felt inclined to talk.

It showed how much could change in a single summer.

"Are you sure you don't want us to accompany you?" Bazett asked once they were inside Heathrow's parking garage.

"There is no need." Shirou shook his head, taking his suitcase out of the trunk. "I can handle things just fine from here."

"Then I wish you the best in the months to come." Bazett nodded, giving him a slightly awkward pat on the shoulder.

"As do I." Waver nodded, giving him a much more confident pat on the back. "Good luck."

"Bye bye, mister Fujimaru." Grey waved at him from a small distance.

"Goodbye, you three." Shirou laughed, turning around to walk away, though not before he gave them a last wave. "Until we meet again."

Then he walked away for real, and Bazett, Grey, and Waver got back into the car, to return to the Clocktower.

And with that, Shirou's summer at the Clocktower came to an end. All that was left now was the journey home.

By plane…

And with that realisation, that he had to get back into a metal death trap, Shirou's good mood was gone again.

---

"Just one more night, and Shirou will be back." Ayako said enthusiastically, just before she and Sakura entered their shared bedroom in the Emiya-estate to go to bed for the night. "I can't believe it's almost time!"

"You better believe it." Sakura huffed playfully, giving her girlfriend a shove in the back to push her through the door and into the bedroom proper. "I don't want to wait any longer than this before I can hug him again."

"Right, you are right of course." Ayako nodded heavily, lying down on their extra-large futon. "If his return was delayed any more, I'd go crazy."

"If his return is delayed any more, we shall take a plane to London ourselves." Sakura promised her, also lying down. "We still have a week before school starts after all, so we have the time."

"That sounds like a plan." Ayako grinned widely. "I hear London's nice this time of year."

"Very nice." Sakura nodded, and both girls giggled conspiratorially together.

Of course, they knew that such a thing was never going to happen. Rin wouldn't stand for it, nor would Taiga, let alone Ayako's parents. Even Shirou himself would not want them to do something so ill-advised and impulsive.

But it was nice to fantasise, so they indulged a bit in imaginations that they'd sneak into the Clocktower together, clad in black ninja-suits, to see Shirou again. A secret rendezvous, the kind that appeared all the time in old romance novels.

"Do we have everything prepared for tomorrow?" Sakura then asked in a more business-like tone, propping herself up on her elbow.

"I think we have." Ayako nodded, remaining on her back, though she did turn her head sideways to look Sakura in the eyes. "Three maid outfits, the kitchen is stocked with supplies for the dinner of a lifetime, the table is polished, as are the chairs, we have informed Issei about Shirou's return so he can accompany us tomorrow to pick Shirou up, and Fujimura-Sensei and her grandfather have arranged a car to drive us all to the airport and back. We even fully prepared that 'special surprise' at my house."

"Then we are ready." Sakura nodded, before leaning down and claiming Ayako's lips in a kiss. Then she laid down fully on the futon, leaving some space between Ayako and herself, just enough for an additional person to fit into. "Just one more night, and Senpai will be here again."

"Just one more night." Ayako nodded, giving her a loving smile. "In fact, if everything is still on schedule, Shirou should be boarding his plane right about now."

"I hope he has a good flight." Sakura's words were sweet, but her expression turned rather pained, something Ayako mimicked a moment later.

They both knew very well after all that Shirou did not like flying in planes at all. He had told them that, in no uncertain terms, after his flight to London.

"Maybe he'll get lucky and someone nice will sit next to him again." Ayako ventured hopefully, remembering that Shirou had also told them that the friendly doctor sitting next to him on the plane to London had made the experience much more bearable.

"Yeah, maybe." Sakura also really hoped so. "A-And maybe it's not so bad the second time."

"You know what, I'm sure you're right." Ayako nodded, turning on her side to better face Sakura, making her tone as strong and convinced as she could. "The second time will be fine. In fact, Shirou will probably step out of the plane tomorrow, remarking how he doesn't understand why it was so bad the first time."

"Yes, and that he doesn't hate planes anymore." Sakura beamed, reaching out and grasping Ayako's hand, intertwining their fingers. "That is definitely what will happen."

"I'm sure of it!"

---

In the meantime, not far away from the Emiya-estate, Rin was also trying to sleep, not on a futon, but in a nice, European-style bed. Sleep wouldn't come easy to her however, and she had been lying awake for several hours already, her mind endlessly grinding away as numerous trains of thought kept assailing her.

Tomorrow, at around one o'clock in the afternoon, Emiya-kun would return home to Fuyuki. Rin had known that the day would come, it had in fact been scheduled for quite a while already, but now that it was almost upon her, she found herself feeling rather nervous.

Not because of Emiya-kun himself of course, he was nothing to get nervous about, but because she had been roped into wearing an incredibly embarrassing maid outfit in front of the redheaded boy, for an entire evening, while serving him dinner and pretending to be an actual lewd maid.

It was partially her fault for coming up with the damn outfit in the first place, not to mention she had walked into Sakura's trap with open eyes, but still, Rin couldn't help but feel tense at the prospect of being ogled by Emiya-kun.

The fact that it was only 'tense' and not 'repulsed', 'horrified', or 'outraged' was another thing keeping Rin awake, and she really didn't know what to feel about the fact that the prospect of having his hungry gaze fixed upon her made her feel not just nervous, but also strangely hot under the collar.

She had known for a while now that she was attracted to the redhead. To continue denying it would be ridiculous at this point. Try as she might to suppress it, the fact of the matter was that his presence, even over the phone, made her heart beat faster, made her blood run swifter, and made her both giddy and embarrassed, like some silly schoolgirl.

Frankly, it was nothing to be embarrassed about. She was still a teenage girl after all, and it wasn't at all strange for her to be attracted to a strong, handsome, caring man, with immensely kind eyes, and large, strong hands she wouldn't mind having on-

However, despite her physical attraction to him, she did not plan on getting into a relationship with Emiya-kun.

Sakura might be steering towards it for some inane, undoubtedly perverted reason, and the normal girl inside Rin might rejoice at the possibility, but she was a Magus first and foremost, and that meant she had responsibilities she couldn't shirk from. She owed that to her father, to her Magecraft, and to her family's legacy.

Yes, the image she'd had of her father had taken a severe beating over the past months, and frankly, now that Sakura was safe and well in a non-Magus family, Rin was able to take it much easier with her own Magecraft as well, but that didn't mean she had abandoned the family's ideals.

For her family's sake, for the sake of the Tohsaka, it was Rin's responsibility to find a good, proper husband with whom she would be able to bear and raise the best children possible.

As such, there were certain qualifications her future husband needed to possess.

For instance, he needed to be at least moderately strong in Magecraft. Marrying a mundane person carried an immense risk of getting a child with fewer Magic Circuits than yourself after all, so it was commonly accepted that Magi should only mate with other Magi, the stronger the better.

In other words, the stronger Rin's husband was, the better it was for the Magical potential of her future children, so powerful men had a leg up as far as she was concerned.

Second, it was vital that Rin could at least be cordial with her future husband. She didn't need him to be in love with her, or even for them to be good friends, but she didn't want to spend any time on fighting or arguing with him either, at least not over irrelevant matters. Unnecessary friction was a thing she hated with a passion.

Third, he should not have too many ambitions of his own, at least not when it came to the family. While she would not care if her husband became an engineer, professor, prime minister of Japan, or a lord in the Clocktower, she did not want to compete with him over her position as head of the Tohsaka. She did not want to end up like Marianne Archelot, a figurehead in her own family while her husband held the actual power.

She didn't want a grasping coward looking for easy ways to obtain power, and naturally, any men prone to backstabbing those around them for short-term gain would not even be considered.

Fourth, her future husband needed to accept that their children would carry the name of Tohsaka and would be educated in her family's crafts, not his. If she'd bear children, she'd only do so for her own family, not for someone else's.

Of course, if her husband did want children that would continue his legacy, he was free to take a mistress on the side or something, as long as he was subtle about it and didn't rub it in her face.

It would also be advantageous if her husband would be someone with plenty of resources at his disposal, both monetary and otherwise. Rin was aware that marrying for money could be considered tacky, but her family was impoverished, and despite her best efforts, she'd been unable to find a way out, so marrying a rich man was very much necessary.

Lastly, he needed to have a good character. Rin didn't want to live in the same house as an immoral monster, much less bear his children, so she expected some decency at the very least.

It was a list of qualifications she'd made long ago, when she realised that she would have to marry someone in order to bear an heir for the family, and though she'd slightly adjusted the list at times when she learned new things as she grew up, the basics had stayed the same.

It wasn't love that mattered to her, it was practicality. In the end, Rin was a Magus, and that meant she wasn't free to act as she pleased, not when it concerned such vital matters. Her marriage had to benefit her family, and in the absence of her father, it fell to Rin to marry herself off properly.

The thought made Rin let out an involuntary sigh, and she turned on her side, for the nth time that night, her mouth twisting in distaste, both at the medieval practice she was thinking about and at the difficulty of her self-appointed task.

It certainly wouldn't be easy to find a man conforming to all her wishes. She was being rather picky, and there were probably only very few Magi around who could tick all her boxes.

Added to that was the sad reality that Rin only knew a grand total of one male Magus, that being Emiya-kun, and he certainly didn't tick all the boxes.

Well, except for the one about good character. Emiya-kun easily ticked that one.

Oh, and he was also rich, both in money and in resources, and he'd already shown he was more than willing to share it with her, so that was another box.

He was also exceedingly unlikely to protest against their hypothetical children following the Tohsaka-craft. He'd already indicated multiple times he had no interest in passing on his own legacy or Magecraft, and even if he did, he had Sakura and Ayako for that.

Similarly, he would never try to take the position of family-head from her. He was already more important in the Moonlit World and in the Magus Association than Rin would ever be, and considering how much he disliked that, Rin would say with certainty that he would never stab her in the back for power.

Or for any other reason for that matter. As she'd said before, he was a man of splendid character.

He was also very easy to get along with, to the point where he'd managed to capture even her heart, so that was the fifth box ticked as well.

And lastly, power. That was a tick if there ever was one. Emiya-kun was by far the most powerful Magus Rin had ever seen, and she had no doubt that their hypothetical children would be more powerful than she was too.

Well, it seemed she'd been wrong before. Emiya-kun did tick all boxes on her list, rather easily even.

Yes, he ticked all boxes…

All… boxes…

…

…!?

…Oh Root.

…Oh hell!

Oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell!

Rin promptly sat up in bed, flipped herself around, and smashed her face into her pillow, before she screamed as loudly and shrilly as she possibly could.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The scream was barely muffled by the pillow, and if Sakura and Ayako had been inside her house, they would have undoubtedly come to check on her, spooked by the racket she was producing, reminiscent of a young woman finding a serial killer in her bathroom.

Those two weren't here though, and Rin was indescribably grateful for that, as she continued screaming in frustration and embarrassment, letting it all come out as she pounded her fists into the mattress over and over again.

How had she not seen this before?! Why hadn't she realised sooner he ticked all her boxes?! Has she been blind?! Had she deliberately ignored it?! Had she seen a man whom she was attracted to and just automatically assumed he couldn't live up to her professional wishes?!

Rin screamed, and she continued screaming until her throat started to ache. Only then did she stop, before sitting up again, lifting her face away from her pillow, panting hard as black spots danced in front of her eyes from the lack of breath.

Despite the lack of oxygen though, her mind was racing at full tilt.

Emiya-kun ticked all boxes on her list. Not only that, but he'd also managed to completely capture her heart, with his kindness, his willingness to let her do as she wanted, his generosity, basically his everything.

He was, by all means, the best husband imaginable, at least to her.

"…"

Well, fine then.

If that was how things were, then she would accept it.

Rin took a deep breath, calming herself down again. She liked to think she was a practical woman, so it was high time she stopped wasting time on denying the obvious, on twisting herself in circles to escape the inevitable.

She liked Emiya-kun, that was beyond doubt. He was a good match, according to both her heart and her brain, Sakura and Ayako also seemed fine with her joining the relationship, and she was fairly confident that she could persuade Emiya-kun to accept her as well without too much effort.

Alright, then it was hereby decided. Emiya-kun would be her husband. He was the one she was going to marry, and the one whose children she would bear.

Her decision made, Rin lied down on her bed again, her mind once more abuzz with thoughts, this time about the near future of her romantic life, though she strangely felt much calmer than before her realisation.

It seemed the matter of her marriage had been pressing harder on her than she'd thought, and having made a decision now had greatly eased her heart.

It wasn't what she had envisioned for herself, joining a harem, and it would probably take some getting used to, but Rin was sure she'd be able to fit right in eventually. In fact, with some effort, she may be able to change it into her harem.

It was a thought that appealed to her very much indeed.

Doing such a thing would require a serious change in attitude though. So far, she'd allowed herself to be knocked off-balance far too easily, by Emiya-kun, by Sakura, and by Ayako, and that would not be advantageous for her new goal.

Enough with the blushing and enough with the stuttering. From here on, she was going to recapture her image of a cool, controlled beauty, and through this image, she would establish her dominance over the other three.

No matter what it took, she was going to make sure it was Emiya-kun who would blush this time.

---

It was official, Shirou absolutely hated planes.

He had hoped that he might have gotten used to it, since it was his second flight at all, but no, it was even worse than the first time. Being cooped up in a metal tube in the sky still made his skin crawl and made him sick to the stomach, as his entire being insisted he immediately leave the plane to fly by himself, where he had perfect control over where he would be going and how fast he would be going.

It literally felt as if his insides were trying to escape his body, and since that wasn't actually possible, it resulted in a constant sensation as if he was about to throw up, even though he hadn't eaten anything.

In short, it was a nightmare. It was so bad that he would have to give some serious consideration in the future to never flying in a plane again. Better to just fly himself, even if it was from Japan to London.

It would be exhausting to fly that far by himself, not to mention difficult and quite a gamble, but at this point, everything was better than ever stepping onto a plane again.

What he said before, about this flight being worse than the one to Heathrow several weeks ago, was entirely true. At least during that flight, he'd had a distraction from the bad feelings and negative emotions in the form of a kind doctor, Donald Mallard, who had spent the entire trip talking to Shirou about an immense variety of subjects.

It seemed Shirou's Asgardian side considered some discomfort from sitting in a flying metal box worth it in order to listen to a wise elder with a great deal of knowledge, and thus, it hadn't protested very hard, stoically bearing the discomfort for a day.

Now however, on the flight back to Japan, Shirou didn't have a wise elder sitting next to him, who could regale him with countless tales and stories containing an immense amount of knowledge and wisdom.

The person who was seated beside him this time around wasn't old, didn't look very smart or wise, and, perhaps most importantly, did not seem at all like someone who made pleasant conversation unprompted. In fact, if Shirou was totally honest, he had to say that his current neighbour did not look like a pleasant person at all.

It was an unkept, slovenly man, with dirty clothes and a sickly pallor, whose bodily odour was astounding in its intensity and repulsiveness. It was a miracle he'd been let on board with that smell hanging over him, rather than being told to go home and take a shower first.

The man wasn't poor though. His clothes, though filthy, were of good quality, his wallet was well-filled, and his considerable gut showed he lacked no nourishment. It wasn't a lack of ability to clean himself that caused him to be so filthy, but a complete disregard for personal hygiene and the comfort of the people in his vicinity.

So instead of making the flight better, like Doctor Mallard had, this man only made it worse.

He was far from the only problem-factor in the plane though. He was the most noticeable, as he was seated right next to Shirou, but there were many others who also showed an astounding disregard for their fellow travellers.

The seats in front of Shirou for instance were occupied by an amorous couple, two women, who thought the plane was the perfect place for them to make out and grope each other, covered only by a thin blanket which hid them from view but didn't block out the sounds at all.

The seat behind him on the other hand held a child of perhaps nine years of age, who seemed to consider the back of Shirou's chair particularly offensive to him, as he hadn't stopped kicking it since the journey began.

And then there was the noise. Dispersed throughout the plane were three screaming toddlers, two arguing couples, one of which seemed to be making divorce plans on the spot, a gaggle of friends who loudly discussed the private matters of a friend who wasn't present, a snoring woman, and a man who ate so loudly and messily it was a miracle his food wasn't falling out of his mouth.

Shirou couldn't even blame the dozen people who were blasting music as loud as their phones could manage. Anything was better than snoring, sex-noises, screaming toddlers, and gossiping teenagers after all.

Unfortunately for the redhead however, the music did nothing for him except add to the ruckus. His greatly enhanced hearing ensured he picked up on all the sounds in the plane despite the loud singing voices and bombastic music, and he had to fight the urge to press his hands over his ears in desperation.

It was so bad he seriously contemplated creating a massive storm around the plane, which would hopefully scare most of the people around him into silence. In the end though, he didn't do it. It would only make the journey take longer, and it wouldn't do anything about either the odious man next to him or the child behind him anyway.

So, left without any other option, Shirou tried to meditate, to sink into a peaceful trance. Neko, the daughter of the owner of the place where Shirou worked, swore by it, and although Shirou had never really listened to her rants about inner peace before, he now decided to try his hand at meditating a bit.

It was advertised as a way to let go of earthly discomforts, and right now, that sounded incredibly appealing to Shirou. He had no idea if it would work, but it was worth a try at least, if only to have something else to focus on than his suffering.

A master of meditation would have been able to turn his mind off in an instant, to clear away all distractions and useless thoughts, leaving only focus and discipline.

Amateurs though were better off trying to think of something that would completely occupy their minds, if Neko was to be believed. Instead of letting your thoughts run in all directions, you had to channel and focus them into one stream. If you could manage that, you could bring yourself into a trance-like state.

And Shirou knew precisely what to think about.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then imagined he was sitting on a couch with Sakura and Ayako on either side of him. They were seated in his living room, back home in Fuyuki. It was evening, they had just finished a long day of work, and they were now relaxing a bit before they'd go to bed. Of course, Shirou had his arms around his girls, hugging them into his sides. Their bodies were incomprehensibly soft to the touch, they both smelled wonderful, and their hair felt like the finest of silk whenever they pressed their heads against him.

Within seconds, his frustration with the plane and its occupants ebbed away, leaving only a content feeling and a deep warmth.

For several minutes, Shirou enjoyed the sensation, and then, prompted by teenage hormones, his mind automatically altered the image to something much more... stimulating.

Where before they'd worn their pyjamas, Sakura and Ayako were now very scantily clad, and they pressed their almost nude bodies against him as they gave him sultry smiles. Faced with a sight like that, and imagining the softness of their bodies, made even his Asgardian side cease its complaining about the plane in an instant.

That his imagination also included Rin, just as scantily clad as the other two, sitting on his lap, facing him with a smile every bit as sultry as Sakura's and Ayako's, was something no one else ever needed to know about, as that was the providence of private fantasies.

Of course, he'd never actually had Rin sit on his lap before, let alone when she was dressed in nothing but lingerie, so he didn't know how that would feel. However, Sakura had sat on his lap several times, often clad in nothing but underwear, allowing him to feel her butt and thighs, and he imagined Rin's butt and thighs would feel much the same. Soft and pliable when she relaxed, but taut and strong when she tensed.

The fantasy was running away from him, developing beyond his control, but rather than putting an end to it, Shirou relaxed even more, deciding to let his mind take him wherever it wanted to go.

Sakura and Ayako both leaned in to kiss his bare shoulders –apparently he was topless as well– making sure to press their breasts into his arms as they did so. It felt, of course, wonderful, and Shirou noticed once more that Sakura was significantly more endowed than Ayako, though Ayako's pair was amazing nonetheless.

In the meantime, Rin leaned in towards him and playfully kissed first his left cheek and then his right cheek, before moving on to his forehead and then his nose. She gave him a sultry smirk again, and then teasingly kissed the corners of his mouth, before moving back to his cheeks.

She showered his whole face in kisses, though she carefully avoided kissing him directly on the lips, trying to drive him mad.

She was succeeding. Feeling her soft lips on his face time and again, while also feeling Ayako's and Sakura's ministrations to his shoulders, made him itch for more.

So when Sakura kissed his neck, quickly copied by Ayako, Shirou instantly lost all patience, and his hands shot upwards and grabbed the sides of Rin's head, effectively locking it in place, before he kissed her directly on the lips.

He could feel her smile in satisfaction, before she reciprocated, eagerly pressing back against his lips.

They continued for a while, before she pulled back, her cheeks red and her eyes dazed, and smirked at him yet again.

Then she reached behind her back for the clasp of her bra.

Shirou involuntarily froze at the action, and he could feel Sakura and Ayako do the same. If Rin was really going to do what he thought she'd do…

He had seen bare breasts before of course. While Sakura, Ayako, and he had agreed that they would wait with actual sex until they were at least sixteen, the girls had never been particularly shy about being topless while in his sight. He'd gotten several eyefuls from them already, as they proudly presented their bosoms to him.

The current situation was different however. With the sensuality that had already been created, the prospect of seeing Rin's breasts was extremely tantalising, and Shirou found he couldn't turn away even if he'd wanted to.

Rin slowly undid the clasp, and before the eyes of Shirou and the girls, lowered her bra until-

"ACHOO!"

The overly loud, overly wet sneeze of the odious man sitting next to him brutally shocked Shirou out of his daydream. In an instant, the mood was ruined, and the images of the girls disappeared into nothingness.

Cruelly torn away from his fantasies, Shirou had to tightly clench the armrests of his chair to prevent himself from physically throwing his neighbour to the other side of the plane, struggling to keep his calm.

That became significantly harder though when the child behind him gave a particularly nasty kick to the back of Shirou's chair, and again even harder when the couple in front of him began panting loudly as they almost broke their chairs from the force of their tryst.

It was with titanic effort that Shirou prevented himself from engaging in a spot of people-throwing right this instant, but with his mood having worsened so much, there was no chance of him slipping back into his daydreams.

He tried. He tried so very hard to recapture the amazing sight he'd just lost, but he failed every time. He was too agitated, and unable to calm down again.

With the option of closing himself off from the outside world gone, the temptation to use mass-Hypnosis on all the troublemakers rose significantly, but there was no way Shirou could justify such a blatant abuse of power to his conscience. Taking over people's minds was something only to be done when it would save other people in some way, not to spare himself discomfort.

As such, there was nothing he could do but wait until the troublemakers had exhausted themselves. They always did, sooner or later, though Shirou furiously hoped it would be sooner rather than later this time around.

In the end however, it took six long, long, long hours for the racket to die down. The chair-kicking child finally seemed to tire of kicking and instead pulled his legs up on his own chair to take a nap. The crying toddlers had settled down some time ago, exhausted from making all that noise, and both of the arguing couples had made up, with the pair that had been talking about divorce tearfully kissing each other to celebrate their reconciliation.

The music that had been blaring all across the passenger area had been turned off, and the man who had been eating so messily had run out of food. Someone had probably given the snoring woman a prod too, for she made no more noise now. The couple in front of Shirou had tired themselves out as well, and had fallen asleep.

In other words, the only thing left to annoy him was the stench of the man next to him and the general discomfort of flying, but compared to the nightmare from before, that was almost bearable.

Shirou then took his puzzle book from his bag. With the ruckus gone, he could try his hand at solving a few of them. It might even provide him the distraction he craved so he could forget about the fact he was sitting in a plane.

He wasn't even halfway into the first puzzle however when he felt an annoyed glare being aimed at him from beside. It was like two pins pricking into the left side of his face, and Shirou did not have to turn his head to know it was the odious man who was glaring at him with barely hidden frustration.

Shirou had noticed that the man had been frustrated for a while now, but he'd chalked it up to the screaming toddlers or the arguing couples. That it was him who was apparently annoying the man was a surprise, and frankly, also irritated Shirou in turn. He wasn't the one smelling like a public toilet after all. In fact, he was pretty sure he'd been a model-neighbour so far.

He wasn't making any noise, he wasn't taking more space than he should, he wasn't shaking the chair, he didn't stink or eat any stinking food. Basically, he was doing nothing wrong.

Yet that didn't stop his neighbour from glaring at him anyway.

"Is there something wrong?" Shirou ultimately asked after close to ten minutes, during which the man had kept glaring the entire time.

His question took the man by surprise, as he gaped in shock for a moment, before the angry expression quickly disappeared and a fake smile took its place.

It was a rather smarmy thing, that smile.

"No, no, nothing's wrong." The man said in a conciliatory tone, and Shirou went from mildly annoyed to outright suspicious at the blatant lie. "I was merely curious. You are not going to sleep?"

"I don't sleep in planes." Shirou replied firmly, trying to make it clear that was not up for debate. He hadn't been planning on doing so earlier, and he especially wasn't going to do it now.

"A-Ah, I understand of course." The man shrunk on himself as if Shirou had shouted him down, and the redhead felt a bit of guilt for his hard tone for the shortest of moments, before that guilt made place for further annoyance when the man continued. "But wouldn't staying awake for the entire flight be boring for you? I mean, there's only so many puzzles you can do."

"You are awake too." Shirou pointed out, making his tone even harder, really hoping the man would take the hint already. Not to be mean, but the man's breath smelled even worse than his body, so Shirou wanted him to stop talking as soon as possible.

"I-I will go to sleep soon." Now the man became outright evasive, and Shirou's suspicion grew strongly. "I-I just need to finish some… work."

Shirou wouldn't have believed a word of it even if he hadn't been able to sense the lie. The man hadn't done any work whatsoever since he'd gotten onto the plane, preferring to play on his game-thingie, and now even that game-thingie was lying unused in the man's bag.

So the redhead took a long look at the man, trying to perceive his motives, and he received his answer when the man's eyes flitted for the shortest of moments towards the chairs in front of them.

The chairs where the amorous lesbian couple was lying, asleep and half-naked under the blanket they used to cover themselves.

It seemed the man was not only a slob, but also a garden-variety pervert.

Shirou wasted no more words on him. With a quick application of Hypnosis, he shut off the man's conscious mind, immediately rendering him unconscious.

Using Hypnosis to spare himself discomfort was an abuse of power, yes, but using it to prevent a creep from peeping on a naked couple was entirely justified.

It might, just might, also be wonderfully cathartic, but that was hardly relevant.

Unfortunately though, being unconscious didn't stop the man from smelling like a public toilet, and Shirou resigned himself to the smell for at least twelve more hours, knowing there was nothing he could do.

Except…

After looking around to verify everyone around them was either asleep or engrossed in whatever they were doing, Shirou quickly threw a bit of the Cleansing Power at the man, and he breathed a sigh in relief when the smell was promptly eliminated.

Magecraft was such a convenient tool sometimes.

With silence restored and his nose no longer bothered, Shirou shifted around a bit to find the most comfortable position possible, and then got back to his puzzle book.

Only around twelve more hours to go, and then he'd be back home.

Mental note, he should either become much more proficient at flying, or get the Bifrost to teleport him to places other than his Vault.

He was never entering another plane again in his life.

---

"Can you see him yet?" Fujimura-Sensei asked eagerly, and Sakura had to suppress a fond sigh of exasperation as the woman began standing on her toes to try and look over the crowd that surrounded them.

Not just because looking over the crowd was a lost effort –this crowd consisted mainly of Europeans, and no matter how much effort Fujimura-Sensei put in, she would never be able to look over their tall forms– but also because the one who she was looking for could simply not be present yet.

"Why is he taking so long?" Fujimura-Sensei continued, now outright jumping in an effort to get above the happy family standing in front of her.

"His plane only landed five minutes ago, Sensei." Ayako replied, placing her hands on the exuberant woman's shoulders to keep her still. "There's no way he could have gotten out of the plane and all the way here yet. We'll simply have to be patient."

"Any idea how long Emiya-kun will take to get here?" Rin asked, a bit absentmindedly, as she was still looking with wide eyes at the billboard displaying the departure- and arrival times of the planes. "And would he have to go through security again? He had to when he left, right?"

"I think you only have to go through security when you board the plane, except if you behave criminally or really suspiciously during the flight." Ayako explained, still holding on to the English-teacher to prevent her from running off. "But I'm not an expert on those things, so I could be wrong."

"If you already went through security to board the plane, it seems superfluous to do it again when you depart from it." Issei said, adjusting his glasses calmly. "There shouldn't be any opportunities to obtain illegal wares while flying through the sky at a height of at least ten kilometres. Then again, international flights do have to display passports when arriving and departing."

"That makes sense." Rin nodded cordially. "Thank you, Ryuudou-kun."

"No problem, vix-, that is, Tohsaka-san." Issei replied, also making an effort to remain perfectly cordial and pleasant. They weren't at the airport to squabble after all, and neither wanted to inconvenience the people around them with an argument.

They all fell silent again, focusing on the terminal from which would emerge the passengers of the plane from Heathrow. Not that they could see much, with all the people in the way, but with some luck, the crowd would thin soon.

Sakura tightly clasped her hands together under her chin, barely blinking as she stared forward, and with every second that ticked by, she became more impatient.

On the outside, she might seem calm and collected while waiting for her man, the epitome of a controlled woman who had a firm grip on her feelings, but on the inside, she could barely wait for him to arrive. She wanted to jump into his arms, kiss him silly, hug him to near-death, to have him squeeze her butt, and generally do everything they hadn't been able to do for the past two months.

Ayako fully understood, feeling exactly the same way, and Sakura liked to think Rin was beginning to feel like that too. Fujimura-Sensei was of course eager to see her little brother again, and Issei had missed his best friend very much over the past two months.

In other words, they were all keen to see him, and Sakura didn't doubt he was just as keen to see them again. His regular phone calls had made that crystal clear.

So when Shirou appeared in the main hall a few minutes later, emerging from the terminal, the five of them wasted not a second in making their way towards him. At the same time, Shirou made his way to them, having spotted them as well, a massive grin on his face that made Sakura's heart flutter.

Closer and closer they came, until only a few metres separated Sakura from her Senpai, and she could almost hear romantic music playing in the background as she held her arms out for a hug and-

"Shirou!"

Was promptly pushed aside by Fujimura-Sensei, who overtook her in an instant and jumped at Shirou with the ferocity of a large cat.

Shirou managed to safely catch her, but it forced him to a halt, and with his arms full of over-excited big sister, he couldn't hug anyone else, forcing his girlfriends to stand back and wait.

"Shirouuuuuu!" The brunette teacher shouted at the top of her lungs, actually drawing some looks from the crowd. "Waaaaaaah! You were gone for so looooooooong! Don't ever leave me agaiiiiiiin!"

"Fuji-nee." With a patience that frankly bordered on saintly, Shirou smiled kindly at her, shifting her weight to one arm so he could pat her head with the other. "I'm back."

"Waaaaaaaaah!" Fujimura-Sensei cried again, though this time out of happiness.

"Oh dear." Shirou sighed, before setting her down on the ground. "What am I going to do with you?"

Then, in a brave attempt to recapture the romantic atmosphere, he turned towards Ayako and Sakura, before holding out his arms again for a big hug.

"Sakura! Ayako!" He phased through the crowd like he was a ghost, and before Sakura could blink twice, he'd swept her and their brunette girlfriend up in a tight hug, embracing them with such strength that the air was almost crushed out of her.

Almost, but not quite.

"Shirou!" Ayako cried happily, though as she was being hugged strongly right now, it was more of a happy wheeze, but the brunette didn't let that stop her from pressing her cheek against his. "I'm so happy you are back!"

"I am happy too." Shirou laughed, and the hug got even tighter. "I missed you so much."

Not able to speak anymore from the lack of air, Sakura settled for smiling happily, and nodded to show she had missed him very much as well.

Just when the lack of air began to get problematic, he let them down again, only to first pull Ayako and then Sakura into searing kisses, the kind that made a girl's head spin and made butterflies take flight in her stomach.

Sakura liked it. She liked it very much. He still tasted like iron and smoke, and his kiss held a power and ferocity to it that Ayako, as much as Sakura loved kissing her too, just couldn't match.

"I love you." He whispered, to both of them, and Sakura felt a very pleasant heat rise in her cheeks.

"I love you too, Senpai." She muttered in return.

"I love with all my heart and then some." Ayako sounded vaguely boastful of how much she loved him, and Shirou repaid her by pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"There he goes again." Sakura vaguely heard Rin grumble behind her, followed by an understanding hum from Issei. She didn't pay much attention to it though, as Senpai had drawn her and Ayako into a hug again, though this one was much gentler, much more loving.

"Rin, Issei!" The fact that he was hugging them did not stop the redhead from addressing the last two of their little group though. "It's great to see you again."

"Indeed, Emiya-kun." Issei agreed with his typical bombastic tone, and even though Sakura's face was currently pressed into Shirou's chest, she could easily picture him adjusting his glasses again. "I too am happy that you have returned. Fuyuki wasn't the same without you."

"I hope you had a safe journey, Emiya-kun." Rin said in as pleasant a tone as she could manage, though no one missed the slight shaking in her voice that indicated she actually wanted to do some shouting herself. "How long are you going to continue hugging them?"

"Just give me a few more moments." He replied, and it indeed remained quiet for a few moments, before he let them go again. Sakura felt a bit disappointed, or rather very disappointed, but Rin was right, they shouldn't spend all their time hugging. They had more to do today.

"Say, Shirou." Ayako said after taking a small step back, looking him over with a critical eye. "Did you become taller?"

"It had occurred to me as well." Issei agreed, coming to stand right in front of Shirou. "Not by very much, but you have definitely added a centimetre or two to your height."

"Have I?" Shirou blinked, apparently not having noticed any difference himself.

"Also, your cheek is a bit prickly." Ayako remarked, rubbing her own cheek with a hand.

"A beard!?" That was Fujimura-Sensei again, who immediately brought her face very close to Shirou's to study his chin. "Shirou, are you growing a beard?!"

"I'd rather not." Shirou said immediately, rubbing his own cheek with a frown, before pulling his hand back with a huff. "But I see what you mean, Ayako, I feel the stubble too. I'll have to shave before it becomes too noticeable."

"Shave?" Sakura muttered, as an idea suddenly popped up in her head, one she'd have to discuss with Ayako as soon as possible. "I suppose so."

"Might it be an idea to continue the discussion elsewhere?" Issei then proposed, noticing they were not only standing in the way, but also distracting other people in their vicinity from their own heartfelt goodbyes and greetings. "Say, at one of our houses?"

"We can do it at my house." Ayako proposed after a moment. "I need to pick some stuff up from there anyway, and my parents will be happy to see you too, Shirou."

"Excellent idea!" Fujimura-Sensei immediately agreed, and she promptly began pulling Shirou along. "Come on, gramps arranged a car and a driver for us."

"Did he? That is nice of him." Shirou smiled. "I'll have to greet him as well. Maybe we can stop by your house on the way so I can visit him, Fuji-nee?"

"Visiting gramps can come later." Fujimura-Sensei said sternly. "For now, we go to Ayako's place first."

"As you say, Fuji-nee." Shirou nodded, letting himself be pulled along.

Sakura quickly followed, unable to even slightly suppress her huge smile, as wave after wave of delight poured forth from her heart and made her feel like she was walking on air.

Her Senpai truly was home at last.

---

Once the small group reached the Mitsuzuri-estate, Ayako made sure to enter the house before Shirou did, followed quickly behind by Sakura, Rin, and Issei, while Fujimura-Sensei did her best to keep the redhead distracted.

Inside the house, it was dark, as the lights were off and the curtains closed. Ayako didn't doubt though that Shirou could see perfectly well in the dark, so she closed the door as much as she could without seeming suspicious.

Then, she and the others took up their positions.

"Say, Fuji-nee, is something going on here?" She then heard Shirou's voice coming from just outside, indicating that he was standing in front of the door.

"Hm? Well, perhaps you should go inside and find out?" Fujimura-Sensei proposed.

Following her advice, Shirou pushed open the door, and-

""SURPRISE!""

Ayako hit the light switch while Rin pulled open the curtains, bathing the house in light and revealing what had been hidden inside the home of the Mitsuzuri-family.

Multi-coloured garlands and other decorations were hanging from the ceiling, beverages and snacks were standing on every flat surface available, ribbons in all colours of the rainbow had been draped over doors, walls, tables, and chairs, and many tasteful decorations had been placed at strategic locations.

At the front of the living room, numerous people had assembled to surprise Shirou, including but not limited to Issei, Rin, Ayako and her family, old man Raiga and a few of his most trusted underlings, Neko and her father, and of course Sakura, all having beaming smiles on their faces.

The adults had wine glasses raised in a toast to his return, while the children had popped confetti cannons, sending the multi-coloured flecks in all directions, though mainly at Shirou, who became covered in them.

At the centre of it all though, was a massive banner, coloured red and gold, proudly displaying the words 'Welcome Home, Shirou!'

It was a welcoming party, a surprise welcoming party.

"Wow!" Shirou's eyes flew open wide, staring at them all with unhidden shock, and Ayako mentally fist-pumped at having been able to surprise him despite his inhuman senses. "W-What is this?"

"What do you think it is, boy?" Old man Raiga laughed, stepping forward to pat him on the back. "This is a party of course, to welcome you back."

"Welcome me back?" Shirou still looked astounded, his eyes roaming over the entire house, taking in everything there was to see. "B-But who organised it?"

"That should be obvious. Your girls of course."

Shirou's gaze snapped towards Ayako and Sakura, and the brunette nodded, giving him her most loving and audacious grin.

She was repaid by one of the happiest smiles she had ever seen on Shirou's face, and she knew that if they'd been alone, he would have swept them off their feet to kiss them silly.

Alas, they weren't alone, so being kissed silly by their boyfriend was something to look forward to tonight, when they were back at the Emiya-estate. For the duration of the party, verbal expressions of gratitude would have to do.

Before he came to talk to them though, Shirou first made the rounds through the party, to thank everyone attending for their presence, from Ayako's family to old man Raiga and his stooges. While he was doing that, Ayako and Sakura decided to stand near the kitchen, where they were quickly joined by Rin.

In the end, they didn't have to wait long for Shirou to join them as well.

"You did all this for me?!" Was the first thing he asked once he was within hearing distance.

"Of course." Sakura nodded happily. "We weren't the only ones who missed you after all, so we thought we'd bring everyone together to welcome you back."

"That is- This is awesome." Shirou laughed, his cheeks flushed from happiness and the brightest of grins on his face. "You are awesome."

"Yes, we know." Ayako nodded proudly. "Did you only figure that out just now, you silly man?"

"We actually wanted to do it at your house, but the Bounded Fields would have told you there were many people inside, which would have spoiled the surprise." Sakura confessed quietly, rubbing the back of the head. "So we had to do it here."

"Fortunately, no one asked too many questions about why it had to be here." Ayako continued, looking around at the people present. "I think they all have their own theories about it, one even more sad than the other, but I don't think Magic is at the top of anyone's list, except maybe Fujimura-Sensei's."

"Let them think what they want." Rin spoke up for the first time, before turning her nose up at Shirou. "Well then, here's a party. I hope you enjoy it."

"I am enjoying it very much." Shirou gave her a bright, sincere grin, which visibly impacted her, as she hastily looked away.

"Nee-san helped us a lot with preparing it." Sakura revealed, pouring even more oil onto the fire that was Rin's embarrassment. "She missed you a lot as well."

"For other reasons than these two!" Rin was prompt to say, snapping her gaze back at Shirou, forgetting that she was trying to hide a blush. "Very different reasons."

"Most of the people at the party have other reasons to be here than Sakura and Ayako, so it isn't strange if you have one too." Shirou said kindly, resisting the urge to tease her himself. "Though I would like to think we are friends."

"…Maybe, sort of." Rin muttered after a moment, looking away from him again.

"What other motives do the people here have?" Sakura decided to take pity on her sister and changed the subject.

"Neko and her father want me to get back to work as soon as I can." Shirou's eyes sparkled in mirth, and Ayako herself couldn't suppress an amused huff either. "Apparently, the café has been having some troubled times without me."

"Indeed." Sakura nodded seriously. "I have been working as hard as I could there over the summer, but it isn't the same without you."

"Minori-kun is here because Sakura is." Shirou went on, and the plum-haired girl frowned a bit, before sighing.

"I was afraid he'd say that." She muttered.

"Old man Raiga wants to know when I'll be available for car-repairs, and he wants me to reign Fuji-nee in again."

"We just couldn't manage her." Ayako confessed, rubbing the back of her head as well. "She's like a force of nature. I don't know how you keep her under control."

"Experience." Shirou responded in a tone that was so ambiguous Ayako couldn't tell if he was sheepish, happy, or depressed.

"It sounds like there are indeed as many motives as people here. Still, they all came when we asked, and that is what counts in the end." Sakura said, before placing a hand on Shirou's shoulder. "On that note, you shouldn't spend all your time here with us, Senpai. These people came for you, so you should pay some attention to them as well."

"Yes, of course." Shirou nodded, looking back at the party. "I'm being quite rude, am I not?"

"A little." Sakura nodded.

"Then I better change my ways. I'll speak to you later, girls."

"We have a dinner planned just for us tonight!" Ayako called after him, just before he left. "So don't eat too much here!"

"I won't." Shirou called back, and then he mingled with the other partygoers.

As for the three girls, they decided to party as well, celebrating the return of their boyfriend.

---

"You are no doubt wondering why I have called you here." Waver said, folding his hands together as he leaned back into his chair, looking at Reines and Melvin, who were seated in front of his desk. Grey was there too, but she was standing in a dark corner, trying to remain as unobtrusive as possible.

"Is it because Reines and I have been having secret meetings together?" Melvin suggested innocently, throwing one leg over the other, looking entirely relaxed and much healthier than ever before. "Because we weren't discussing anything nebulous or shady, I assure you."

"I was merely making sure Melvin wouldn't use your debt to him to blackmail or influence you now that you have become such an important figure." Reines told him, throwing a glare at the white-haired man. "I happen to know that there were some people who were quite eager for mister Weins here to use his leverage over you on their behalf."

"I would never do that, Waver, I swear it." Melvin immediately vowed, holding up a hand. "I already promised you that you could pay that debt back whenever you want. I'm not going back on my word."

"That's not what you told me." Reines' glare became more intense at the frail man's words. "You said you weren't sure, and that you would have to spend some serious thought about what you would do with Waver's debt."

"Because it was delightful to see you squirm." Melvin admitted frankly, grinning without an ounce of shame. "I had never seen you do that before, so I couldn't resist."

"Don't strangle him, Reines." Waver said sharply when his little sister clenched her fists. "Those secret meetings of yours were one thing I wanted to talk about, but there's another."

"Oh, what would that be?" Melvin asked curiously, while Reines suppressed her anger with what was clearly considerable effort.

"Something rather momentous, at least for me." Waver replied, before waving to Grey, who quickly poured two cups of tea and brought them to the guests. "Have a drink first."

"Oh my, this must be something indeed." Melvin seemed very interested now, accepting the cup of tea, just like Reines. "Did you manage to gather enough to pay your debts or something, Waver?"

Waver only just suppressed a smile when Melvin handed him the perfect opening, and when both he and Reines took a sip of their tea at the same time, he sprung the surprise.

"Yes, I have enough money to pay off all my debts."

Their reactions didn't disappoint.

Melvin spat out his tea, almost doubling over in shock, and Waver glad he'd had the foresight to put a fluid-repelling Bounded Fields over his desk, bouncing the tea right back at Melvin, who spluttered even more when it hit him in the face.

Reines on the other hand didn't do anything as boorish as spitting out her tea. No, she swallowed it, though through the wrong pipe, and spent the next ten seconds choking as she clawed at her throat. It might have been more if Grey hadn't given her a strong pat on the back, dislodging the fluid again.

""YOU WHAT?!""

They gave voice to their shock at exactly the same time, their eyes so wide it seemed as if Waver could pluck them right out of their sockets, flying from their chairs to throw themselves across his desk.

"I have enough money to pay off all my debts." Waver replied, before looking at the clock. "Right about now, the correct sums will have been paid to the bank, to mother, to you, Melvin, and to the Archibald, Reines."

"B-But, how?" Melvin asked, utterly confused by the sudden turn of events. "How did you suddenly get the money together?"

"A fortunate business deal." Waver replied with a great amount of satisfaction. "I didn't expect to get much out of it, but it worked out extremely well in the end. My partner was willing to part with more than I had expected."

"…That sounds really suspicious. Does that mean your partner is now at the bottom of the Thames?" Reines asked slowly, giving him a wary look.

"No." Waver replied, giving her a deadpan look in return. "What kind of opinion do you have of me? I did not kill them. Frankly, I couldn't have even if I tried."

"Was it Shirou?" Melvin guessed, showing some surprising insight.

"Yes." Waver nodded, not surprised his friend had connected the dots. He had always been smarter than most gave him credit for.

"Did you earn the money with the items that you sold?" Melvin continued.

"Correct again."

"I see." Melvin crossed his arms with a thoughtful look, apparently thinking it over, before he shrugged, putting the smile back on his face, and Waver was only half-surprised that it was a sincere one. "That's great, Waver! Not being in debt is an excellent thing."

"And there you go being strangely kind again." Waver huffed, though without any heat. He'd already seen Melvin spit out his tea in shock, so even if the white-haired man was going to be composed about it from now on, Waver had gotten his satisfaction.

"Uhm, Waver?" Reines also seemed to have processed it by now, and she gave him a vaguely concerned look. "You paid off all your debts?"

"I did." Waver nodded. "And I have plenty of funds left over."

"Oh." Reines did not look nearly as happy at the news as Melvin, in fact, she looked rather concerned.

Waver knew why of course. Back when she'd 'recruited' him as the lord of the Archibald, she'd asked four things of him. One, to pay off all their debts. Two, to regain the Department of Mineralogy. Three, to restore their Crest somehow. Four, to lead the family until Reines came of age.

The Department of Mineralogy had been regained, the debts had all been paid, and Reines was getting very close to being of age –it could even be argued she already was– so the only thing binding him to the Archibald was the fact he'd not yet restored their Crest. Should he manage to restore or replace it, then he had fulfilled all his promises to the family, and he would be a free man again.

Undoubtedly, she feared he'd immediately walk out on them, that he'd break with the Archibald and cast them down into the bottom rungs once more, from where he'd picked them up eight years before.

Unfortunately for him though, things weren't that easy anymore.

"I will of course remain the lord of the Archibald." He informed her curtly, and she perked up, her eyes shining in hope. "The Department of Modern Magical Theories is now fully connected to the family, meaning I cannot leave if I want to keep it. Also, Mineralogy is somehow mine alone though it should be yours, not to mention that the Archibald-Crest has not been restored yet, and that I owe it to Kayneth to guide his family in his stead. No need to worry, Reines, I'm not going anywhere."

At times, Waver wished he could have been a little less dutiful, that he could cast off his responsibilities without feeling guilty and ashamed, but both his inner conscience and the memory of his king drove him forth.

"Waver, you're the best!"

That did not mean though he had to accept a hug from Reines, and he promptly did his best to hold her off, while Melvin laughed in the background.

It seemed the white-haired man had gotten the last laugh after all.

---

Caren Ortensia was of course a loyal servant of God, that was beyond any doubt. She was devout, dedicated, ever faithful, and always strived to live her life in His name.

In His service, she had braved countless dangers without batting an eye, she had worked together with the scariest monsters imaginable, she had boldly gone where no faithful had ever gone before on several occasions, and she had done so with nothing but prayer on her lips.

No danger was too great, no sacrifice too much. That was how she strived to be.

However, on this occasion, Caren feared the Lord might be asking a bit too much of her.

"You want to infiltrate the Clocktower… looking like that?" She asked, struggling to keep her smile on her face even as a bead of sweat made its way down her temple. "And you want my help?"

"Yes." Jonah, a Church Executor whom she had met several times in the past, nodded without hesitation. "It is of utmost importance that you help us meet with Lord El-Melloi soon. Our mission depends on it."

Jonah and his team, whom Caren recognised as Kayla, Lily, Mira, and Sidonus, were standing before her at Heathrow Airport, having sent her a message earlier to meet them there.

Caren had already been surprised that a team of Executors would come to London, the seat of the Magus Association, without first asking for the Clocktower's permission, but now, she had moved past surprise and gone straight into baffled.

Because these Executors looked nothing like they were supposed to. Instead of suits or robes or other kinds of practical clothing, they were wearing what looked like holiday-clothes.

Kayla was wearing short trousers and a polo shirt, while Lily wore a yellow sundress, and Sidonus had on a Hawaiian shirt of all things, coupled with long trousers that seemed fit to climb mountains. Meanwhile, Mira was wearing a blue overall, and Jonah was wearing a set of trousers and a shirt that were obviously meant for women.

It was as if they'd tried to look into holiday-clothes for a bit, and had then selected whatever they liked best, without any regard for what the different combinations would look like together. If a random passer-by were to look at them, they would at best conclude that this was a gathering of friends who were about to head off to completely different destinations, and at worst assume that they were a group of crazy people.

Yes, Caren knew that she dressed in Church robes, which was decidedly not normal either, but at least she was consistent. They, as said before, looked like they had just thrown some stuff together.

Fortunately, this was London, so there was no shortage of badly dressed people around, but this would not go over well in the Clocktower, no more than it would have in the Vatican.

"We shall visit a clothing store first." Caren dictated to them, fully aware the Clocktower's guards would evict them the second they tried to enter if they went in looking like that. "Then we shall go to Lord El-Melloi's favourite café, and I will fetch him for you."

"You mean we don't have to enter the Witches' nest ourselves?" Jonah seemed to like that idea very much. "What a splendid idea, sister."

"Won't that cause undue trouble for you though, sister?" Lily asked with some worry, her pretty features marked by the concern she was feeling. "If you try and summon a lord?"

"Not at all." Caren's smile became a little wider at the topic, already imagining the lord's immensely put-upon expression. "I think he'll be quite eager to stay on top of a situation as delicate as this one."

"Heh, I guess." Jonah huffed with a smile of his own. "If he wasn't a Witch, I'd feel bad for him. This sure is a difficult matter."

"You seem awfully confident he will help you?" Caren worded it as a question. "Why is that, if you already know you will cause so much trouble for him?"

"We don't intend to cause trouble." Kayla hissed, glaring at Jonah. "Bishop Dilo said that Lord El-Melloi would be likely to help us if we were to explain our motives for coming to London."

"What motives would that be?"

"Identifying and eliminating the Magi who are supporting the Dead Apostle Ancestors from inside the Clocktower." Sidonus answered gruffly, before huffing when Caren gave him a shocked look. "Don't look so surprised. You must have known that this recent chaos didn't come about by chance."

"Shirou did hint at a nebulous culprit hiding in the shadows." Caren admitted, referring to what little she'd picked up from the conversations between the redhead and Lord El-Melloi that she'd managed to overhear. "But I had no idea the Ancestors were involved."

"Truth be told, we are not entirely certain that they are." Mira admitted, rubbing her neck. "That is why we have initiated this mission. We must gather evidence, and should any of the Magi be in league with the Ancestors, we must eliminate them, or at the very least, have the other Magi eliminate them."

"You are aware I hope of the recent Purge that already took place at the Clocktower?" Caren asked with some urgency.

"We are." Kayla nodded, her mouth twisting in distaste. "And yes, we did account for the possibility that all evidence to support our theory might have gone up in flames. Nevertheless, we decided to brave the odds anyway."

"That is not what I meant." Caren shook her head slowly. "What I mean is, even if you discover evidence that a few Magi are in league with the Ancestors, the other Magi might not be so eager to kill them and cause even more destabilisation. From what I have seen, most of them are rather tired at the moment and just want to recover."

After such a hectic month, even the most cutthroat and ambitious of Magi had lost some of their motivation. They would be back of course, but it would be a while before they'd recovered fully. For the foreseeable future, most would want to strengthen their own positions again before taking further action.

"Then we must kill the Witches in league with the Bloodsucker Lords ourselves." Jonah said, bringing a fist down on an open hand.

"…" Caren wondered for a moment whether she should say something, to tell them what a stupid idea that was, before she decided to let Lord El-Melloi handle it. He would probably make more of an impression on these Executors than she would, and he could explain it all much better than she too.

It totally wasn't that she was trying to dodge responsibility for her fellow Church-servants, no sir.

"Before you start speaking of killing Magi, do keep in mind we must not make things too hard for Lord El-Melloi." Sidonus suddenly rumbled. "We are counting on him to keep us hidden in the Clocktower after all."

"You're actually going to infiltrate the Clocktower yourselves?!" Caren had only just decided to wash her hands of the matter when Sidonus said something so shocking she couldn't possibly overlook it.

"Well, yes, what did you think we were going to do?" Sidonus asked, looking puzzled by Caren's outburst.

"Set up a post in London and try to recruit spies from among the Magi." Caren responded, a voice that was perhaps a bit louder than usual. "That is the normal procedure."

"The normal procedure won't do anymore." Sidonus stated with certainty. "We did plan at first to pretend to be tourists and work from there, but after some consideration, we changed the plan. It is imperative that we enter the Clocktower ourselves to perform our investigation. We will disguise ourselves as Magi and mingle among our enemies to obtain intel."

"Executors posing as Magi?" It frankly sounded ludicrous to Caren's ears, and not in a good way. She might enjoy seeing people squirm a bit, but this sounded like they were about to cause the biggest diplomatic incident of the century.

"With the recent chaos, caused by that Purge you mentioned, and with Lord El-Melloi's help, it should be possible to pass ourselves off as Magi from Southern-Europe." Sidonus replied, thoughtfully rubbing his chin. "We are all capable of at least some Mysteries. Besides, new Magi arrive at the Clocktower all the time. We'll just mingle with them."

"…Maybe." Caren admitted, as it indeed wasn't unusual for new, unknown Magi to appear in the Clocktower every month. "But it is still a massive risk to take."

"Wars are not won by the cautious." Kayla responded curtly, before placing her hands on her hips. "Now, I don't mean to be rude, but were we not going to visit a clothing store?"

"Ah, yes." Caren nodded, grateful for the reminder, as the group really needed better clothes, especially if they were going to try and infiltrate the Clocktower themselves. "Please follow me."

"You have lived among the Magi for some time now, haven't you?" Lily asked as they walked over the street, and Caren found herself both surprised and immensely grateful that not a single passer-by bothered to give them a second look. Truly, Londoners had a high resistance to strange things. "Do you know what they usually wear?"

"I do." Caren nodded.

"Ah, that's good." Lily nodded with a relieved expression. "I mean, we have fought a lot of Magi over the course of our careers, but we didn't pay much attention to what they were wearing. We know our current outfits leave much to be desired, but we didn't know what would be better."

"Hm." Caren made a noise of understanding, though privately, she thought that they were making things far more complicated than they needed to be. Magi didn't really have a special way of dressing. They had to be formal of course, but other than that, there weren't many requirements.

If they'd just worn suits, or regal dresses, or neat shirts tucked into long pants, no one would have looked twice at them, even at the Clocktower.

However, just as Caren was about to tell them this, a spark of inspiration snapped to life in her brain, and her mouth snapped shut again.

She realised, right at that moment, that she had just been presented with the opportunity of a lifetime, and that she would be an absolute fool to let it go!

Caren had known both Kayla and Lily for quite some time now, and for almost all that time, she'd always wanted to dress them up.

Lily possessed an ethereal beauty, with incredibly soft features, curves to die for, and legs that seemed to go on forever. Her hair was like spun glass, her eyes like bottomless pools, and her skin was so fair she would easily disappear into a white background.

She always wore practical clothes however, of the incredibly unflattering kind, which was an absolute waste of her potential. The summer dress she was currently wearing was much better, but even that dress was obviously something she'd randomly selected and thrown on.

Kayla on the other hand was much less beautiful than Lily. It was a mean thing to say, but it was true. Her features were rough, her body was heavy-set, and her skin was scarred and patched.

Furthermore, her outfits seemed almost made to hide every pretty feature while worsening the bad. Kayla probably didn't do it on purpose, but to Caren, it was a thorn in her eye.

If the white-haired nun could have her way, she would make Lily wear dresses that actually fit her, shirts that coloured well with her hair and skin, skirts that showed off her legs, pantyhose that teased any onlookers, or even stockings that would accentuate her thighs.

Kayla on the other hand needed more colourful clothes. She could keep her neat shirts, jackets, and trousers, as long as they weren't that eternal grey the woman seemed to prefer. Also, Caren would add ribbons wherever she could, in an attempt to capture the small bit of cuteness that the rough woman possessed.

So far though, there had never been a chance to make them wear the clothes Caren preferred. They had no reason to listen to her after all, and could easily refuse any possible request she made of them.

But now, things were different. Now, Caren had a very valid excuse to make them wear what she wanted them to wear. This was the ideal moment to express all of her fantasies, and to create memories she'd keep for a lifetime.

"I am not sure whether mundane clothing shops sell the clothes that you will need." Caren said, putting on her best ponderous look. "It might take a while before we find what we are looking for."

"We don't have anything else to do today." Lily shrugged elegantly.

That was exactly what Caren wanted to hear.

"In that case, follow me." She beamed at the small group, before turning around and leading them straight into her web.

---

In the Emiya-estate, Shirou was sitting at his own dining table for the first time in months. Naturally, it was an experience he was savouring, leaning back in his seat to look around the dining room, smiling at how familiar everything looked. It was clear not much had changed in the time he'd been away, and that was comforting to know.

The fact that he was sitting on a chair instead of on a mat on the ground though did mean something unusual was going to happen, and Shirou had a pretty decent idea what that was. He only ever sat on a chair at the 'high' table when it was time to break out the maid outfits after all, and his girls had hinted multiple times over the course of the party that they had a surprise in store for him.

He, as well as Sakura, Ayako, and Rin, had just come back from the Mitsuzuri-estate. The surprise-party had ended a while ago, and everyone had gone back home.

Shirou had had a great time at the party, greeting everyone again after not seeing them for quite a while. Frankly, he wouldn't have minded it if it had continued for a bit longer, but the Mitsuzuri-family needed their house back in time for dinner, so they had wrapped it up before the sun started setting.

The redhead had heartedly thanked all the guests for coming, and after he'd assured Neko that he would be returning to work that same week and promised Issei to visit the temple again the next day, everyone had parted ways again.

That Ayako and Sakura had come with him to the Emiya-estate was not a surprise, but Shirou had been a little taken aback when Rin had accompanied them too. Asking her why she was coming along yielded him nothing though, as she steadfastly ignored him until he changed the subject.

It almost made him suspect that she was involved with the surprise he was about to get, but surely, that couldn't be so? Try as he might, he couldn't for the life of him imagine a scenario in which Rin would wear a maid outfit.

There had to be another reason why she was at his house this evening, and while he would love to know what that reason was, he had already promised the girls not to peek into the kitchen while waiting for them, so he had no way to find out.

As such, he just waited, pretty sure that everything would become clear in due time.

He did not have to wait long. Barely fifteen minutes after he'd sat down, he heard footsteps approaching the dining room, and squabbling voices became audible not long after. Unsurprisingly, they belonged to Rin and Ayako, with Sakura sometimes making a remark in between.

It was good to know the girls hadn't changed much either while he'd been away.

"Apologies for our tardiness, master." Sakura said just before the girls rounded the corner and entered his sight. "There were many preparations to make, and it took longer than we expected."

"No problem at all." Shirou assured them, leaning forward, as he was quite eager to see his girls in their maid outfits again. He did spare a thought though on wondering what Rin would be doing. "I'm just happy you are doing this for meeeEEEH?!"

Shirou would like to think he wasn't easily surprised anymore, but the double whammy of seeing Sakura and Ayako in maid outfits that were certainly much, much lewder than he remembered and seeing Rin of all people standing next to them while wearing exactly the same outfit still shocked him sufficiently to have sent him flat on his back if he'd been standing.

As he was sitting though, he ended up falling against the backrest of his chair, gaping at the incredibly sexy trio as his cheeks started burning.

"And?" Ayako grinned widely, flaunting the loose bodice and the ridiculously short skirt, which didn't even reach the top of her stockings. "Do you like it?"

"Judging from Senpai's face, he does." Sakura giggled demurely, locking her hands behind her back and leaning forward in a move that was normally meant to enhance a girl's cuteness and innocence, but only really achieved the former, as the ridiculous level of cleavage and the collars around her wrists and neck quickly killed any semblance of innocence she might have had.

"He better." Rin huffed, not bothering to make any sexy or cute poses, yet appearing no less sensual because of it. Her maid outfit was clearly excellently made, and fit snugly onto her form, accentuating her curves in the most marvellous of ways, with the red collars being the tantalising and suggestive icing on the cake. She was also the only one not wearing stockings, leaving her legs bare, which was rather unusual for her. "Are you going to say something, Emiya-kun? Or are you going to sit there looking stupid all evening?"

"Wha…? Those… outfits…?" Shirou spluttered, lifting a shaking hand to point at them.

"Nee-san designed them." Sakura told him proudly, taking Rin by her elbow and pulling her along until the three of them were standing right in front of him, with Rin in the middle. "Isn't she an absolute genius?"

"Yes!" Shirou said empathically, taking even himself aback by how quickly and clearly he answered. "Even more so than I thought!"

"What a shameless answer." Rin huffed, planting her hands into her sides and spreading her legs slightly, striking a pose that might have been meant to look confident but instead came off as immensely sexy. "But then again, I probably shouldn't have expected anything else from you, you greedy man."

"You probably shouldn't have." Shirou agreed, giving her a lop-sided smile, slowly letting his eyes roam over her form.

Until she suddenly lifted a leg and set her foot down on his chair, right between his legs, practically shoving her knee into his face. Shirou was a bit taken aback by it, but since it provided him a first-rate view of Rin's thigh and panties –very sexy ones– he couldn't complain much.

"Kiss my knee." Rin ordered him, and Shirou, who was still rather confused but understood that Rin was trying to set the tone for the upcoming conversation, slowly obeyed, leaning forward to brush his lips against her knee, before reaching up to trace the tip of his index-finger over the inside of her thigh.

Rin had looked satisfied when he followed her order, but his ministrations of her leg had clearly not been anticipated, for she tensed for a second, before relaxing again, letting out a soft sigh, though Shirou couldn't tell if it was of pleasure, annoyance, or both.

For a while, she remained in that position, silently accepting his tender stroking, before Ayako suddenly cleared her throat and Rin, as if spooked by the noise, hastily retracted her leg.

"Not to interrupt your fun or anything, but I thought you had a plan, Rin?" Ayako said, trying to hide an amused smirk without much success. "Weren't you going to join our relationship before you started doing lewd things with Shirou?"

"Work first, and then pleasure." Sakura agreed, smiling impishly at them. "And Senpai, please kiss my knees as well later. It looked like Nee-san enjoyed that very much."

So Rin wanted to join their relationship. Shirou had already expected as much. There weren't really any other explanations for why his girlfriends would suddenly present him with a third girl who immediately demanded he did lewd things to her.

"Yes." Rin nodded stiffly, before turning around to give Shirou a disapproving look. "Emiya-kun, you truly are shameless and greedy. Having three beautiful girls all to yourself."

"Well, I-"

"To think you would even try to seduce me." Rin interrupted him, sitting down on his lap without as much as a by your leave, facing him directly. "Well, fine, you succeeded. Aren't you happy now?"

So she was skipping straight past the asking and right into the relationship itself? That was… rather like her, now that he thought about it. No way that Rin was going to give him a loving confession, that was not her style at all.

Still, she clearly did leave some room for him to refuse, should he be opposed to her joining the relationship.

The proposal had now been made. Rin had essentially offered herself to him, and it was up to him to reply.

Shirou promptly used his Reinforced and enhanced brain to quickly make an overview of the situation in the split second he had available.

The most important question here was of course whether he loved Rin, a question to which he couldn't give a straight reply. He certainly liked her, he was physically attracted to her, and she had been an amazing friend so far, but he couldn't say for sure whether he romantically loved her.

He was, however, more than willing to give it a try. He hadn't been sure about his love for Ayako and Sakura either when he became their boyfriend, but that had worked out wonderfully. There was no reason it couldn't be the same for Rin.

Shirou's eyes then flitted lightning fast to Ayako and Sakura, studying their faces and body-language to see what they thought about Rin joining the relationship, and when he found nothing but happy acceptance, with Ayako even giving him a quick thumbs-up, he made up his mind.

"I am indeed greedy." He replied to Rin's earlier remark, placing his hands on her hips to pull her closer to him, which she replied to by putting her hands on his shoulders, a glint of anticipation entering her eyes. "So yes, Rin, I am indeed very happy to have succeeded at seducing you."

"As you should be." She huffed, before throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him into a searing kiss.

Shirou was hardly surprised anymore by her forwardness, and eagerly responded. He noted that she tasted just like she smelled, like an autumn storm and bittersweet tea, and he could even taste some similarities with Sakura, which was an interesting way to once more confirm that they were related.

Despite this being what he assumed to be Rin's first kiss, the black-haired girl lasted for a surprising amount of time, only pulling back after a solid twenty seconds, lightly panting as she did so.

Then she gave him a teasing smile.

"Is that all you have, Emiya-kun?" She tittered, acting wholly unimpressed despite the fact Shirou could hear her heart beating a mile a minute. "I'll give that kiss a six out of ten."

"As if you have anything to compare it with." Ayako scoffed, having looked on with great interest during the kiss. "And don't think I didn't see your toes curling in pleasure, Rin."

"Now now, Ayako." Shirou quickly held up a hand to calm the brunette down, giving her an easy smile. "If that is Rin's opinion, we must accept it."

"Oh?" Rin seemed slightly surprised by his words, and then she squeaked when he rose from the chair, still holding on to her, so that she ended up being carried by him, with her legs around his waist and her arms still around his neck. "What are you doing?!"

"If that kiss was a six out of ten, I'll just have to apply myself a bit more." Shirou kept his smile as peaceful as he could, before shifting one of his hands under Rin's butt to keep her steady and taking hold of the back of the collar around her neck with the other. "Let's improve that score!"

Then he kissed her again, and this time, he didn't hold anything back, doing his very best to suck her soul of her mouth, applying sufficient pressure to the back of her head to prevent it from moving an inch.

"Ohohohoho!" Sakura made a very interested noise, clapping her hands in enthusiasm, while Ayako let out an impressed whistle. "That's it, Senpai! Show Nee-san no quarter!"

He didn't. He showed her neither quarter nor mercy, and by the end, Rin was hanging limp in his arms, with a blush finally gracing her cheeks, looking utterly blissful and content.

"Judging by the look in your eyes, I'd say this one was better than a six out of ten." He teased her, and she responded by burying her face into his chest, letting out a string of inaudible grumblings. "That doesn't mean I'm going to stop practicing though."

"Now, don't forget that this is a polyamorous relationship." Sakura then piped up again, stepping closer to the duo, holding out her arms for a hug. "Ayako and I want some attention as well."

"I'll take Rin, and you can take Shirou." Ayako quickly proposed, before grabbing Rin out of Shirou's arms without waiting for a reply. "I hope you still got some energy left in you, Rin, because now that you have given your first kiss to Shirou, it's my turn."

"How shameless." Rin muttered again, before she was cut off when Ayako claimed her lips.

In the meantime, Sakura had practically thrown herself onto Shirou, and was eagerly making out with him, something the redhead happily responded to.

In the end, nothing came of the fancy dinner that the girls had planned for the evening, and Shirou ended up quickly throwing together some rice with vegetables before they all went to bed. That was not to say the evening had been a failure though. To the contrary, it had been a complete success for everyone involved.

It took some puzzling to get them together on the futon, but in the end, Ayako happily lied down on top of Shirou while Rin and Sakura took the sides.

Rin did have a point though when she muttered that futons were not nearly as fit for sleeping together as a bed.

Shirou would have to see about arranging a large bed sometime soon. It would be much more comfortable for the four of them.

---

And hereby, it is finished. For the record, they did not have sex. Kissing and groping was the limit of it. Sex is still some time away.

Shirou is back home, and the first Clocktower-arc is finished. I realise that Shirou's goodbye-scenes were a bit rushed, and that Melvin and Fiore being healed within a thousand words of each other might have felt a bit sudden, but it was Shirou's last chance, so he took it.

I hope you enjoyed the last few parts of the Clocktower. The second arc there will not begin for some time.

Other than Shirou saying goodbye, we also get Sakura and Ayako preparing a welcoming party, while Rin has a long overdue epiphany about her future husband. That girl can be surprisingly thick sometimes, though it's mostly because she tends to fool even herself with her denials.

Once more, Shirou learns that he hates planes, and this particular flight is particularly bad. What a nightmare! Even his attempt to think about lewd things didn't work, at least not for long.

Then, Shirou arrives in Fuyuki, while his girls, Taiga, and Issei are waiting for him. They take him to his surprise welcome party, and after that, Rin, Sakura, and Ayako have a special surprise for him.

Rin has now fully joined the relationship, in exactly the way she wanted. No fuss, no big deals, just a quiet and efficient acceptance, followed by immediate sexy times. Rin is pretty much permanently horny, that's canon. In other words, Ayako's harem has grown a bit (oh, you didn't see how she's manipulating things behind the scenes? Sorry guys, but that brunette has the other three dancing in the palm of her hand).

In the following chapters, you readers will get a small Fuyuki-arc. Illya needs to get settled in, Rin's mom needs healing, Kirei needs to be confronted, school life at Homurahara will begin soon, and countless other matters also need to be addressed.

This will likely take several chapters. After that, I might start a small Tsukihime-arc, if enough people want it and time allows it.

After that, there is possibly an arc with Caren and the Church, followed by the second (much shorter) Clocktower arc.

After that, there should be a timeskip towards the early beginnings of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Most of the Dead Apostle stuff (with the Aylesbury Ritual and such), should happen once the Grail War has started.

Ted climbs the Stairway to Heaven.