The wind blew over the rooftop, carrying with it the soft sound of munching food and a slow intake of air.
"Artoria..." Shirou started, "do you think you may have been a bit too harsh on them?" he paused, trying to think of the words to say as Artoria gave him an odd look, continuing to enjoy the food he had made. "I know what they were doing was terrible. Hell, it disgusted me. All the changes they were making to the human soul. Changing it, corrupting it. It may be even worse than becoming an apostle. But... they were going extinct. Any race would have done the same if forced to."
Artoria looked at him pensively before giving him a small smile as she answered, "I understand, Shirou, but their motives are clear. Her claim of not being able to help him is completely invalid because you apparently entered the 'bounded field' right before Issei died. Add in the fact that they are capable of teleportation; they could have easily saved him, yet they decided to let him die. In my mind, that means only one thing: she wanted his gratitude. That voice in the back of your head that always tells you, 'You would be dead if it weren't for the person who saved you.' The king of knights paused before her voice hardened, "It is rather simple, truly. She wanted his devout following, or she simply believes herself capable of convincing people to join her peerage."
Shirou looked at his beloved in complete understanding, "Ah, I thought something was wrong. I really am not suited for politics of any kind, am I... Then again, now that I really think about it, no, remember it, you were never really suited for picking up the sword, or being a king. Deep down, you were, no, still are just a girl who wants to be happy..." The bearer of Avalon said to his sword.
The sword looked embarrassed, her face reddening in reaction to the unexpected words. Before she regained her composure, her face no longer had a surprised expression, but a loving smile. "I could say the same for you, my sheath. Deep down, you yearn for happiness, whether it be through helping people or being by my side. Either way, nothing could change these feelings I harbor for you, Shirou. I love you." She said, moving in for a kiss.
"Saber..." Her beloved responded, meeting her midway to kiss each other.
It was this scene that Koneko Toujou walked into from the staircase. Her face, normally stoic, was chock full of absolute surprise. She was used to their affection towards each other but never had she seen them act so romantically. Calming herself, she spotted her lunch some ways in front of the door, presumably there for her, and so she calmly took the bento prepared for her and dug in. She stifled a light moan; no matter how many times she ate his food, she would never get over its taste. It was incredibly good, even making the food she had once had under the house of Gremory while in the underworld taste terrible in comparison.
Alas she did not stifle the moan as much as she thought as both Artoria and Shirou both stopped in their loving act looking to where the noise was coming from with embarassed expressions on their face before they both noticed who it was, "Oh Koneko, its only you," The older blond said looking at the younger white haired girl with some embarrassment on her and her beloved's face.
"Hm, sorry I'm late, I was preoccupied with a club meeting that had to do with your interaction with buchou."
"Its fine truly," Shirou said while Artoria nodded.
Koneko's face returned to its usual blank look, as she finished the food, "Oh I forgot to mention Buchou wishes to meet you two tomorow after classes to discuss matters with your stay here," Koneko said blandly before muttering a quick 'Arigato' and leaving the rooftop.
"Honestly when will that girl show more of her feelings like when she was eating..." Artoria said with a small pout clearly a bit angry that she couldnt see more of the cute young girls reactions.
In response to this Shirou only chuckled, causing the king of knights reborn to give him a questionning look, "Why are you chuckling Shirou?" She questioned.
"Oh its nothing it just reminded me of when we were still in the grail war and you always remained stoic unless food was involved, I am honestly glad to see that that has changed your reactions somehow make you even more beautiful," the hero of justice said wistfully.
"S-Shirou..." Artoria said in embarrassment at the sudden compliment.
Shirou only chuckled once more.
Once school finished and Shirou and Artoria spent time together it was now night time and Shirou was going to investigate once more to try and find out where Issei's killer was and so he departed.
At the same time his mother passed by his room and felt the breeze from the window, he still has it opened? She thought to herself, why? We have the air conditioning unit active.
It was the day that he and Artoria would have their meeting with Rias and her peerage, for them to find out why they are staying in kuoh of all places, though truthfully both he and Artoria knew why Rias wanted to have this meeting and it was rather simple really she wanted to find out more about them. She had no right to kick him and his beloved out.
She may own the city but she couldn't just snap her fingers and make residents dissapear, no she was only the owner of the city when it came to the mystical events, the regular every day events she had no control over. So that left only two reasons why Rias wanted to have a meeting with them.
One she wanted to have more information on them that wasn't public.
Or two she wanted to know what they would be planning to do when it came to the mystical side of the town and if they would be a threat to her and or her peerage.
Actually now that he thought about it there was a third as well, she could also want to try and fix their image of her after their... well not the greatest first impression.
But that was neither here nor there truly at the moment they had to focus on their class and then they could go to the meeting.
The time had come, they would meet Rias and her peerage once again, they were walking through the forest that hid the building from the rest of the population. As they entered the building they settled where they would be having a meeting. Once they sat down they noticed the lack of the figure who had caused all of this to happen.
"Where's Issei?" Shirou questioned.
"Issei is currently taking care of some contracts. Which before you ask do not! Involve souls the entirety of the underworld has stopped using the human soul as a means to pay for a contract," Rias responded.
Shirou nodded his head and so the meeting commenced, he didn't do the talking that honor fell on Artoria, she was the more politically inclined of the two after all.
By the time the meeting was ending it was already nightime and it would have continued for a bit longer if Rias and the rest of their peerage didn't have to leave. Which was not at all suspicious, really it wasn't suspicious, not. In response to their sudden dissapearance he and his beloved only sighed before they both took their leave and went to their house. The meeting had gone well in his mind at least they had now learned more of the devils and how they worked and what race were the people who had killed Issei. While Artoria did her best to not give even a slight amout of information to them. It was already night fall once he returned Artoria had went to her house and he went back to his own only to be met with his mother with a rather irritated look on her face.
"You missed supper," she said simply her voice calm but her face was anything but as she had an ugly frown on her face, "You returned past sundown as well, your in big trouble mister."
He should have known he would be the moment he got back home he must have worried his mother sick, he felt a knot tie itself in his stomach.
He was a terrible son wasn't he?
"And thats not forgetting the fact that you leave the window open while your sleeping even though the air conditioning is on! Do you know how much thats going to cost!?"
Leaving the window open while he was asleep? Had she been awake the two times he went to investigate the city for any trace of the fallen angels who had killed his friend?
"I'll make sure to close it next time I go to bed..." He said.
"You better! Cause I swear if I so much as feel a breeze from your room I will enter it and close the window!"
That... made his life way harder, he didnt want her to get involved into it all, if she did and she got hurt... He wouldnt know what he wouldnt do to whoever hurt her and his familly, though now he couldnt investigate tonight and his track would get even muddier, he wont know what they did and more importantly however is he wont know how by the time he will arrive tomorrow they could have already covered their tracks better than they ever could have in one day. But... he would have to relent if he didnt want his mother finding out about the supernatural, he had already lost a friend he had made in this timeline to his own hubris, he wouldnt lose his new familly.
Authors note.
I know that this chapter is a little shorter than my previous chapters and has a length that ressembles closer to that of my first two chapters (just checked before publishing but I lied to myself...)... yeah kinda a lack luster update I know but I really just wanted to get this chapter out for Shirou day (this is not a little update jesus this is more than last chapter...). Which is coincidally when I am finishing this chapter. And I know that I could have 'finished this chapter earlier and publish it last weekend as I had four days to do it then, but I will be completely honest with you I had no Idea on how to write this chapter and I only just started to get ideas three days ago, my birthday, but well it was my birthday and no offence even though I like writing I do not like it enough to write on a day I am supposed to be spending with friends and familly.
now onto the chapter itself, yes I removed the political discussion that would have been between rias and artoria, that is partially the reason why this chapter is so short if I had written that it probably would have been the biggest chapter I have ever written and I will be completely honest I lacked the 'insperation' to write that and make it entertaining it would have been a ginormous exposition dumb in the middle of the chapter when I could instead shorten it down and have the chapter out sooner with some character devellopement for shirou's mother, trust me it will probably be important if I decide to introduce the berseker variant of shirou in the main story rather than the omakes. And yes there will be one.
Moving onto the user reviews
Archangel Xireon Chaos God: Honestly yeah... if rias actually worked she probably would have won on her own but no she has to sit on her ass and complain about how life is unfair to her while having basically everything handed to her on a silver platter, meanwhile her peerage members are suffering to such an extent that because she coddles them so much they cant grow, and I made a reference to her owning the land by basically saying it only has to do with the supernatural part of the world she doesnt even get so much as a bit of actual power over the inhabitants of kuoh.
pedrocalvalcante19630: thanks!
Hatred and Love: Completely agree, and I can tell that you are dissapointed that you I didnt make the discussion between artoria and rias, though I assure you Artoria absolutely dominated rias and got all the information she could.
Keybladelight: I actually did say in the chapter that she recognizes their scents after all she eats with them I actually even gave some hints to her knowing about them. And as for other fate characters, Caren will probably show up, depends on how I feel while making the chapter. Yes the dragons will blame merlin like everybody else.
Guest: I will admit I am not good at keeping promises when it cames to things like this and you should make that list three times in a months.
and that is all the reviews now going into the omake!
Omake start!
Assassin
Da vinci had told the fujimara siblings that there would be a singularity not a very big one, not a very small one but a singularity none the less, and so they prepared to go into it but before they do that they wanted to summon a servant because well why not they were planning on summoning one earlier after all. So they go to the summoning chamber and throw in 30 saint quartz only to get absolutely nothing until the eleventh roll and by that point they had already lost hope so imagine their surprise when they see a gray card with yellow sparkles on the side, they get excited only to notice that it was an assassin and instantly not care, after all they had already summoned most assassin servants. So imagine their suprise when the ritual finishes and they see a man wearing a dull brown cloak that was covering his entire body.
"Servant assassin," the voice spoke as a flash of amber showed itself from inside the cloak, "I ask of you are you my master?"
"I guess that would be me," Gudako said being the one who threw the saint quartz, "Though I will admit it is rare to see an assassin servant hide themselves completely..."
"My apologies master I will change my look instantly," The servant said as they changed their apparence to forgo the cloak and instead done a futuristic looking vest with silver highlights where the muscles would be while having a red squarf.
"What is your name?" Gudao asked curiously.
The man smiled, "Shirou, Shirou Emiya," his red hair was swaying in the breeze.
And that is the omake as you can see it followed up on last chapters omake, I hope you enjoyed that and with all that oh wait this just in I have decided to make another omake after being inspired by my scrolling of reddit this faithful day, without further ado here it is..
The birthday cake
"Are you sure this is a good idea Ilya?" Artoria Pendragon questionned her adopted younger sister.
"Of course Artoria, there is nobody who can stop us from making Shirou a birthday cake!" She exclaimed happily.
"What about Sella knowing how protective of the kitchen she is the only person matching being shirou himself I know that you know that she wouldnt approve of this..."
"Sella wont be a problem I knocked her out with a hit from a shovel to the head," Ilya said with a proud grin on her face as if she just hasn't done an action that will lead to her beign grounded for a couple of days by said maid.
"YOU WHAT!?" Artoria exclaimed in surprise.
"I hit Sella over the head with a shovel right after I learned you invited shirou over to celebrate his birthday."
"YOU... you do not realise how bad is the action you have done?"
"No its no big deal I assure you."
"Then what of Liz?"
"Liz wont do anything as long as she gets to eat."
"Irisviel?"
"Mom is completely supportive of this course of action."
"Kiritsugu?" Artoria questioned starting to get a little desparate.
"I did what I did to Sella on him," Ilya stated completely seriously, "Now can we get to baking please!"
"I... Fine lets just get it over with."
When shirou heard that Artoria wanted to have his birthday at her house he was happy, of course he had to convince his parents to let him go to his girlfriend's house for her birthday in which they sulked a bit saying stuff like, 'My baby boy is starting to ignore his family!' Although eventually they did relent.
And so he was permitted to go.
Though when he entered he didnt expect to see Ilya huddled in a corner as if she was traumatized and Artoria fighting a fire that was growing from the oven with a panicked expression on her face, he only had two words to say.
"What happened!?"
I know that technically this is mostly the same chapter I publiched before but with an extra omake, but I hope you guys enjoy it and either way
HAPPY SHIROU DAY!!!!!
made a small change to the title I forgot a space at the beginning.