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Chapter 2: Phases of the Moon
Ms. Smith sighed as she looked down at the paperwork for the liminal she was looking at. One of the more challenging liminals as this one was a unique subspecies of spirit, or ghost as the technical documentation says.
Lunaria was a katana that was estimated to be used during the Edo Period. She somehow began to develop a consciousness and wandered the world looking for a suitable wielder. No one really knew how the spirit came to be, but it's speculated that the extraterrestrial material had a play in it. She then looked back at Shirou's file, which listed his mastery in kendo and a few other sword-based martial arts.
Ms. Smith really wanted to give him an easier case to start, but Lunaria was one of the first liminals to come into the government's care. About a day after the treaty was signed, she personally appeared to volunteer in the cultural exchange program. She had been given to hosts throughout the country only to be returned for various reasons. Although she denies it, apparently she has a curse that lowers the wielder's luck. A lot of families didn't like that. If a family tried to use her as decoration, she would just run away. She was a rather tricky case.
Despite that, she felt that Lunaria might have a shot at Shirou's place. The way Shirou carried himself, his background and expertise, and his warm, kind personality might just be the thing to satisfy her.
After a couple seconds of thought, she grabbed the phone. She had a few arrangements to make.
Shirou was surprised to hear a knock on the door. It had only been six hours since Ms. Smith left. He expected her to take at least a day to assign him a liminal. Sure, she said he could start that day, but Shirou honestly didn't expect for that to happen.
"Coming!" He called over as he made his way to open the door. When he did, he saw Ms. Smith with a bright smile and a case. Judging by the length of it, the case most likely held a katana of sorts.
"Ah, good afternoon, Shirou," Ms. Smith said with a coy smile. "May I come in?"
"Of course," Shirou said politely. "I didn't know you were coming. I apologize for the lack of preparation."
"It's no big deal," Ms. Smith sat down on one of the couches. "I should have let you know sooner. It's my fault."
"No worries," Shirou sat down across from her before eyeing the case. "Is that my liminal?"
"Straight to the point. I like that in a man," Ms. Smith's sunglasses gleamed. Shirou decided not to show a reaction. "Really? You're no fun."
"I apologize, but I am very happily taken," Shirou said as politely as possible. "She's not here at the moment, but I assure you that she would kill me if she saw you flirting with me like that."
"My bad," Ms. Smith's shoulders drooped. She then shook her head before opening the case. As soon as the sword itself was shown, memories flew into Shirou's head.
"Lunaria," Shirou whispered the name as he gazed upon the beautiful meteorite blade.
"Oh? You're familiar?" Ms. Smith raised an eyebrow.
"I do enjoy swords," Shirou answered vaguely. "I understand what I have to do."
"Alright. Everything's in her file here," Ms. Smith gave Shirou a small stack of papers. "Lunaria's a tough one, so I understand if she's a bit too much for you. If that's the case, just give me a call."
"I'll be sure to do that," Shirou said.
"Alright. Now, I've got a bunch of drink— I mean work to do," Ms. Smith stood up. "I'll check in with you tomorrow morning. If you can make something, that would be great."
"If you say so," Shirou felt a nostalgic smile creep up his face as Ms. Smith waltzed out the door. He could tell how tense she was in their first meeting. Not that she's starting to loosen up, she acts a lot like taiga. "Now, shall I show you to your room or would you like some tea?"
"Tea would be excellent," A cloud of mist shimmered around the hilt that slowly materialized into a hand. More of the spirit's body began to form from her arm, to her kimono, to her snow white hair and deep azure eyes. Shirou went to look her down and up before immediately focusing on her eyes. "It's a pleasure to meet you, host."
Dear god, do they have to be so big? Shirou thought to himself. He resigned to only look above eye level whenever she was in the room.
Shirou stood up and bowed respectfully. He knew from seeing the blade that she valued manners and tradition.
"It's a pleasure to meet one such as yourself. My name is Emiya Shirou," The swordsman introduced himself in a polite manner. "I must say you are a beautiful sword."
"Oh? Do you practice?" Lunaria put a hand to her mouth, hiding her smile.
"I dabble," Shirou says vaguely.
"Most interesting," Lunaria said as Shirou made his way to the kitchen and began to boil some water. "If you have green tea, that would be wonderful."
"Let's see," Shirou looked at the assortment of tea that Zelretch had left for him. The image of the aged marshal sorting through the bags of tea almost caused him to cringe. "Yes, we have some."
Lunaria didn't reply. Instead, the soft sound of her steps approached Shirou before stopping before sitting down. The two sat in silence for the water to boil. As soon as the sound of whistling could be heard, Shirou turned off the fire and prepared the teacup. He made his way to the table with the teapot and two cups.
"Thank you for the tea," Lunaria said. "So, tell me about yourself. I want to know more about my host."
"There really isn't that much to know," Shirou poured a cup for both himself and Lunaria before looking her directly in the eye. It was the only place he could think to look. "I've been to a lot of places and have met many people. Although I may not be too familiar with liminals, I'll try my best to accommodate your needs."
"That doesn't answer the question," Lunaria took a sip before leaning forward in her seat. Shirou pointedly looked away. "Oh? You're that kind of man."
"That is correct," Shirou muttered. "Now, would you like me to show you to your room?"
"I haven't finished my tea, though," Lunaria said with big eyes. Shirou just heaved a sigh. This was the life he had to live from now on.
/
Lunaria rather liked her new host. It was obvious that he was a warrior. It was in the way he walked. His callused hands. It was odd that he focused on her sword rather than the spiritual form. At first, she wondered if it wasn't attractive enough, but as she continued to talk to him, she learned that it wasn't the case. He was just interested in swords.
As soon as Shirou left her new room, she placed herself upon her stand and let her spiritual form fade away. Splitting her thoughts between thinking and maintaining her spiritual form was hard. Thankfully, it was a waxing gibbous so she was quite powerful, but that still didn't help the headache.
Now that her headache was subsiding, she could think about her situation a little bit better. Shirou was… different. He was polite and respectful, yet so easy to tease. She could see herself staying here for a while. Whether or not she would would be up to fate.
If she was in her spiritual form, she would smile. Would this be the final stretch of her search for a new wielder? Hope filled the length of the blade, but it faltered momentarily.
The curse… Lunaria didn't want to think about it. Her curse of misfortune. Any who wielded her would be struck with misfortune. It had made many a person toss her aside. She shook her head. Shirou didn't seem like the type to cast her aside. She saw the genuine care in his eyes whenever he did something. She could only hope to treat her the same.
/
Shirou heaved a sigh as he finished washing the teapot. His first day in this world was… eventful. Not only did he get a job, he already had his first assignment. Luckily this liminal was uniquely suited for him, but that didn't make it any easier.
Shirou wasn't dense anymore, or at least he didn't like to think he was. He heard the rumors about Zelretch. How he liked to screw with people. When he met the man, his respectful and stoic attitude almost completely wiped that suspicion, but it seems that he enjoyed the occasional prank.
I just hope there isn't a misunderstanding with Rin, Shirou thought to himself as he made his way to his room on the second floor. He silently passed Lunaria's room, silently hoping that she wouldn't open the door and do something strange. Much to his relief, he made it to his room without incident.
As he lay down on the bed, he looked at Zelretch's note one more time.
"I really have my work cut out for me, huh?" Shirou muttered to himself. He put down the note. He couldn't even be mad at him. Zelretch described exactly what he would be doing. He would be taking care of a group of people who wanted to integrate themselves into society via a cultural exchange program.
"Well, I better get some rest. I have an eventful day tomorrow," Shirou mumbled. He turned off the lights and closed his eyes, preparing for yet another vision of swords.
/
Ms. Smith was a lot more content than she was a few hours ago. It turns out that Shirou would gracefully accept a dangerous liminal. If not one, maybe he'll accept two? God, she loved pushovers like him. It made her life a lot easier.
"Whatcha doin?" Ms. Smith jumped when she heard another voice. She turned around in her chair to see a zombie with crimson hair and wicked smirk.
"Zombina, please. You almost gave me a heart attack," Ms. Smith took a deep breath. "What do you want?"
"Just bored," Zombina shrugged. "The rest of the girls are asleep and I have a feeling I'd be gutted if I headed over to Darling's place."
"Yeah, yeah," Ms. Smith sighed. She absentmindedly wondered how such an unremarkable guy caught the eye of so many liminals.
"So, back to my question," Zombina narrowed her eyes as her smirk widened. "Whatcha doin?"
"Just going over the paperwork on this new host," Ms. Smith eyed the file in question. "Emiya Shirou. Used to be part of some sort of spec ops unit."
"Spec ops? Why the hell would he take a job as a host?" Zombina raised an eyebrow.
"Dunno, but he seems like a nice enough kid," Ms. Smith turned back to the file. "You might like him. Just don't beat him up too much. I have a feeling he's already going to get enough of that."
"No promises," Zombina chuckled. "I'll be sure to tell the others about him. Can you pass me his address?"
"Maybe once he gets used to things around here," Ms. Smith said with a sinister smile. "I wouldn't want him to quit too quickly."
"Roger that," Zombina said with a similar smile plastered on her face. She let out a small laugh one more time before leaving the room. As soon as Zombina left the room, Ms. Smith let out an evil chuckle of her own.
"Oh, Shirou. I hope you survive."
Well here we are, the first liminal. Thank you to my patron ColcytusRising for coming up with Lunaria! I look forward to the other liminals that Shirou will have to put up with. With that being said, please do consider leaving a review! I would love to read and reply to your thoughts. Also please join my Discord! I would love to talk to you all and answer all your questions! I talk a lot about my thought process while writing, so if you're interested in that, do consider joining. The url is discord . gg (forego the spaces) followed by a slash and CpVs7R8KXz. Unfortunately you'll have to type the rest of the url in manually because I'm not allowed to post links. If you want to read chapters as soon as they're finished along with a slew of other benefits, check out my Patron at pat reon dot com slash kfpisnotacult. All Not Cult Priests and Bishops get to input their own liminal for this fic. Thank you for reading and I'll catch you on the flipside.