Fate Coiling Sword Chapter 14: Won't let go (Patreon)

Beta read by Shigiya and Darklord331.

A bit latter than usual, but next update is Snafu which will be updated on late Friday - early Saturday while Broly will come after that on Sunday. So regardless, 3 updates this week. Then next week should be To Love a Sword.

Edit 1: More Beta reading!
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--Miyama-

Rin was experiencing a terrible day.

Having not slept yesterday and the day before that was taking a toll on her mental health. Just the thought of having an Enforcer prowling Fuyuki was nerve-wracking in itself along with the existence of monsters roaming the streets and killing people… she just couldn't find herself relaxing at all!

'That fake priest told me that he would handle everything but I just don't feel comfortable with that…' At first, Rin planned to speak with the enforcer and extend an open hand so that they may help each other to weed out the monsters throughout Fuyuki. Unfortunately, when Kirei heard her proposal…

'Oh my, now how can a young and inexperienced Magus like you possibly help an Enforcer of all things? Just leave such tasks to the adults and focus on your research, after all, you wouldn't want to tamper with any progress you've made for such silly reasons.' He said it with so much mirth and a twisted sense of mockery that she sensed it from a mile away!

"Bah! Who does that idiot think he is by calling my plans pointless and that wouldn't serve any purpose!?"

Just as he said she fired a Gandr to his face and if only he hadn't moved his head at the last second, it would have hit!

"Arrrgh! He's so freaking annoying!"

On top of that, she was once again forced to slow down any research on her magecraft due to financial troubles she was having lately. Most of the budget was spent on a new batch of jewels she managed to buy at a discount from her vendor. 'Tch, apparently that blonde bitch bought all of the high quality ones the moment they came out!'

From what she understood, the new batch of rubies and emerald should have cost at least two hundred million dollars… and Luvia nearly emptied the entire stock in less than a day! "If I hadn't made a reservation, then there is no way I could have gotten my current batch without going to another seller and being forced to spend nearly twice the amount."

She was sure of it, that Edelfelt heiress was purposefully aiming at her with these strangely timed purchases. Every time she was in need of more gems, Luvia always appeared one way or another before starting to show off her wealth.

"I'll show her when I get to London in a few years, I'll smack her face into the concrete until her face is forever engraved onto the ground!"

All in all, this week wasn't the best for her and she wished to focus on something else that didn't make her desire to destroy everything grow.

As for why she came to Miyama, just to check out some of the local shops. If there was one place that blonde wouldn't be able to access so easily. But if she did, then Rin swore to book a ticket to Finland and fly over there to sucker punch her long time nemesis.

"Hm?" Unconsciously, she ended up walking inside the burned park. The place still was as dead and desolated as before, the source of the fire all those years ago still showing the effects it had on the environment around her. Not a single trace of life or greenery anywhere. "The fourth Holy Grail War…"

From what she understood, the surroundings became like this due to the effects of either a spell used by the Caster of the war or a conflict between multiple Servants whose clash changed the very nature of this area for years to come. At least the city tried to rebuild the park, but without anything growing out here it barely made a difference and people still stayed away due to rumors about a bad omen.

Rin herself felt uncomfortable to some extent when approaching this place, as a practitioner of magecraft, she was more sensitive to such things.

It made her wonder if she'd be forced into the middle of such a battlefield during the Fifth Holy Grail War. To have her Servant alter the terrain to such an extent, but given she was going for a Saber then the fight would possibly end up being cleaner and less impactful. The last thing Rin wanted was to stain Fuyuki with the blood of innocents. She would prefer to keep the death toll to a minimum if possible.

As she walked through the park, Run came to a stop when she came across an unexpected sight.

"Ayako and Emiya-kun?"

Both were sitting on a bench talking with the brunette suspiciously sitting very close to him. Their general atmosphere was weird, talking and laughing with each other, confusing Rin furthermore. She knew Ayako, they were friends and hung out together occasionally, yet she never knew the girl was so close to Emiya outside the archery club.

Shirou meanwhile didn't look like someone capable of dating anyone for that matter. Known as the school janitor for a reason as he preferred helping anyone in any way he could without asking for a cent in return. Many both liked and mocked his actions, especially Shinji with the latter, which surprisingly he stopped doing recently.

In the end, the boy hadn't changed since middle school and still was the same Shirou Emiya. Though they rarely spoke to each other, Rin believed to have a good grasp on his personality as a whole. Given he hung out with Sakura a lot outside school hours from what she knew, it was obvious why she wanted to make sure he wasn't a bad person. Shinji was bad enough, so she didn't want to tolerate having a second one.

Still, why the secrecy? She was kinda peeved that Ayako would hide their relationship like that. Like, what was the harm in letting her know that something was going on between them? Nothing!

"T-Tohsaka," he said with a startled face, like a kid caught with his hand inside the cookie jar. "W-What are you doing here?"

"Oh, am I supposed to stay away from the place, Emiya-kun? Is my presence uninvited by any chance?" She said with a brilliant smile on her face, one that hid her annoyance at the scene in particular. "I'm sorry to have disturbed your little date." What did Ayako see in him? She knew for a fact that the girl had a preference for older men! They talked about it once in the past and in no way was Shirou an old man!

"D-Date? You're mistaken, i-it's nothing like that!"

Huh, it'd be more believable if someone told her that Kotomine was a good person than what Shirou said.

"Yeah, I guess having her around her while you cling onto her shoulders has nothing to do with you being on a date." Her tone couldn't be any drier, "Though I must say choosing such a spot for a date is kinda low, Emiya-kun. You could have brought it somewhere else with a bit more greenery, it's so depressing here."

"No, Mitsuzuri was just accompanying me around town and we just decided to rest here to talk!"

"You're not helping your case, that is basically a date." Granted she herself has never been on a date, pursuing any sort of relationship was pointless with her research taking up so much time along with Rin's goal to bring back her family's name and magic to the limelight of the Magus world after how low it fell. "And here I thought you were quite close with Sakura… you aren't picking up Shinji's habits are you? I hope not, or else I'll be really disappointed."

"I-It's a misunderstanding, Sakura and I are just friends, just like how I'm friends with Mitsuzuri! She's just helping me with my day, I'm not trying to do anything with her." He tried to get up but froze as his body protested against it. A shock ran across his abdomen, nearly making him fall to the ground if He wasn't careful.

"Hm, you're hurt, Emiya-kun?" Now that Rin paid closer attention to his face, she noticed his pale complexion coupled with messy hair, small cuts on his fingers and even a bruise hidden underneath his collar. "My god, did you get in a fight or something?" She walked up closer to them and examined his face much to the redhead's dismay. "You look like you've fallen into an open blender."

Ayako, who was staying quiet so far, looked at both of them with an intrigued face. But she started laughing, "Hehehe, he fell out of a building and went splat on the ground."

"Mitsuzuri!"

"I'm joking, joking… or am I?" She said coyly, making Shirou's heart beat like a drum. Rin was the second owner, if she ever found out about his involvement with the fight with the enforcer and managed to connect the dots then his cover would be blown!

"I just fell down the stairs in my basement!" He tried to cover up only for Rin to give him a strange look.

"And this led to Ayako hanging out with you all the way here because…"

Damnit! He messed up with that, now Rin was looking at him more suspiciously with narrowed eyes. Issei was right, this woman was more intimidating when given the opportunity, he felt like the layers of his secret were slowly getting stripped away in front of her.

Fortunately for him, Ayako came to his rescue, "Alright then, enough of this boring conversation!" Her handclap caught Rin's attention, making the girl look away from him, giving him a major relief. "How about we all go to a nearby cafe and hang out in a more cheerful place than this one?"

"E-Eh, now? I'm not sure… I had some shopping to take care of." muttered out Rin, off put by the sudden invitation.

"Ah come on! When was the last time we hung out for real? I can't even remember myself!"

'That's because we never kept each other company outside school time.' Rin thought, deciding to stay quiet about this matter in the end.

"Yeah, let's go to a great bar I know, the food and drinks there are to die for!"

Shirou's heart sank even further with those words, for some reason Mitsuzuri smirked and gave him an uncomfortable sensation — that smile was just downright evil to his eyes.

"Oh, what's this place called?" Looking at the time, Rin decided that she could spare an hour or two together with Ayako. She also wanted to know more about what happened to Shirou if possible as she knew such a thing would worry Sakura a lot. If he was in trouble with some of the local gangs or thugs then using the limited resources and asking Kotomine nicely, taking care of such matters suited the fake priest.

"Well…"

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Ring~!

The bell over a wooden door chimed as three students entered a half empty liquor store with a familiar woman at the counter wiping some empty whisky glasses. She looked over at the newcomers and nearly dropped the cigarette between her lips.

"Oya, you managed to entangle another innocent maiden between your fingers? How naughty of you, Emiya." Otoko Hotaruzuka said with a hint of surprise as the boy she mostly assumed was a cute little loner with barely any friends whatsoever and a bad habit of overworking, had walked inside the store accompanied by two cute girls — one of them she recognized.

"... You shouldn't be smoking there, Neko-san. The ashes will dirty the dishes and cause particles to fall inside the drinks."

"Tch, buzz off kid. You're my employee, not my dad. I just returned from my break and forgot to throw it."

"..."

Shirou didn't believe that for a bit.

"Heya, Neko-san, I brought my friends over for some shots!" Ayako said cheerfully, taking a seat at the nearest table with Rin walking behind her looking over the area with analytical eyes. While Shirou tried his best to walk normally and not show his limp to his boss. He refused any additional support from either of the girls beforehand.

"No alcohol for minors. Do you want my store to get shut down and for me to potentially end up with a huge fine? Don't make me lose my business, kid." She left the counter and left for the kitchen. "Sit down, I got something for you three."

"She looks like a fun person," said Rin, finding the place to be quite relaxing along with the peaceful ambiance going with the interior design. Dark and classic, the complete opposite of certain popular cafes lately.

"Yup, she is amazing and a joy to talk to."

"Yeah, looks like she's familiar with you two… I hate to be too noisy but if you're really dating then I don't see why you need to hide such detail from me."

Shirou sighed while Ayako started laughing.

"Man, why are you so curious about whether we are dating or not, Rin? Don't tell me you're jealous? Oh my, our school idol is in love with a boy, I can already imagine the carnage you'll face, Emiya." She nudged the boy with her elbow, seeing him blush out of embarrassment was entertaining. "Shinji will most likely go for your head, I heard he's the most obsessed with Rin."

"I-I'm not jealous!" The Tohsaka heir lightly slapped the table. "Is it jealousy if I'm curious? It's just… you two barely talk at school and the only place I saw you interact with each other was in the club. Now I learn that on top of hanging around in the park, you two also frequented this establishment in the past."

Though her mask broke a bit, Rin managed to stay composed and with a calm face. She just wanted to make sure Shirou wasn't going to hurt Sakura in the future and nothing else!

"Hehe, I'm just joking with you." The few customers that were still around had finished their drinks and left by now. Given it was still quite early, most of the clientele must have been busy with work and would come by in an hour or two. So that only left mostly them in the bar. "Well, Emiya and I met not that long ago, barely a month ago I think, right?"

She looked at Shirou for confirmation, the latter nodding his head at her claim. That day was still very fresh in his mind, given it just happened.

"Yeah, so when riding on my bike back home, I fell and injured my knees."

Rin frowned, a fall from a bicycle wasn't that dangerous but if unlucky enough then someone could suffer from broken bones and a nasty wound on rough terrains. It was normal for the girl to worry about her friend.b

"It hurt so bad, I couldn't move but then this knight in shining armor came to my rescue before swooping me up like some kind of bride—"

"I carried her on my back."

"— and brought me to the place he worked part time, here. The owner joked that he must have kidnapped me. Hehehehe, fun times."

Though she was glad that it was nothing major, Rin did pick up something she didn't expect from this conversation.

"Eh, you work here?" She asked the boy next to her.

Before he could reply, the door to the kitchen opened and Otoko came out with three cups filled with black forest cake slices.

"Eh, isn't that what I made two days ago? Why do you still have it?" Given so much time had passed, the cake itself must have been dry by now. "W-Wait, I can make something else—"

"Sit your ass down, boy!" He complied immediately. "I'm not letting your bad working habit ruin such a moment that hundreds of boys your age dream about."

"This isn't a date…" he was feeling a headache coming. First Rin and now his boss, he didn't get his head beaten to a pulp and then forced to jump out of a building for this! And Issei might start having a stroke if he heard such a thing, probably accuse him of getting ensnared by the witch and her fake persona or something.

Both girls laughed at his pouting face, when Rin and Ayako took the first bite… they both froze. Shirou himself took a spoonful and immediately found the treat to be a letdown compared to its taste when he baked it. Yeah, the girls wouldn't like i—

"Delicious!"

"So sweet!"

'I stand corrected.'

Otoko laughed at their reaction, "Right!? The boy baked two cakes and the first one was sold out in less than ten minutes. The second one I cut half of it and kept it for myself."

Shirou's eyes twitched, he remembered her saying that there was none left and that he could go back home… she was planning on eating them all by herself!

The girls continued to talk between them, having completely forgotten about him the entire time. He followed along the conversation from time to time, with Ayako mentioning parts about his skill in archery and how he must have learned to cook.

"I didn't have anyone to teach me, my old man couldn't boil water without setting the house on fire… so I had to learn a lot." Which was true, for all his expertise as an assassin, Kiritsugu barely knew how to do basic house chores. Adding to the fact that his body was growing weaker by the day, simple tasks became a challenge for him.

"You live with your father, Emiya?"

"... Not quite, he died a few years ago."

"..."

The room turned silent, as Ayako looked at him with wide eyes — except for Rin and Otoko as the former probably heard it from a classmate and the latter already knew his past. It wasn't a secret that he was an orphan, just not a piece of knowledge that everyone knew about… just those who were curious enough to ask or hear it by chance. Now that he thought about it, wasn't Rin all by herself as well? Her father was a Master in the 4th Grail War, and given what Kiritsugu mentioned — he apparently died before him.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

He chuckled, waving her worries away. "Don't feel sorry about it, a long time has passed since then and I'm long over it." Sensing the mood, he immediately tried to change the subject. "By the way, I can also make some tiramisu or some cheesecake the next time you both come by. My skills with dessert aren't the best so I do need to practice a bit and you three would make excellent judges."

"That's a great idea!" Otoko said, most likely helping him change the conversation's course. She was a very punctilious woman, so of course, saw right through him.

"I'm in!"

"Really?" Rin said with a bit more enthusiasm than he expected. "I'll be more than happy to oblige with your journey to becoming a better pastry chef. Of course, don't misunderstand my reasoning, I'm only doing this because it's free food and I enjoyed the atmosphere of this establishment."

"Heh, that's kind of you, Tohsaka." He chuckled at her response.

"You didn't listen to what I said." growled out a blushing Rin.

The conversation returned to its previous self with a relaxing undertone. Everyone soon finished the cake and even a few cups of tea in the house.

Though Shirou smiled when he saw all three of them smile and laugh together, Tohsaka as well. Given her shy, nice and sweet exterior was mostly an act with what he learned from Luvia — seeing her genuinely enjoy such a moment with her friend. Looks like Ayako's idea of bringing her along turned out to be better than he expected.

"Ah, it's getting late." Rin exclaimed when checking her watch. It was soon to be sundown and she nearly forgot about the store. It was a crucial component to her research, so she had to go as soon as possible.

"Oh, already? Well it is getting late u suppose. Hah, I also need to check the inventory and update the list. Damn, I'm also out of cigarettes." Otoko whined while checking her pocket. These kids were more fun than she expected. "Shirou…"

"Don't worry, I'll help you clean up. Don't have much to do today anyways." He did plan to visit his supplier for ammunition and guns, but now it looked like waiting for another day would be unavoidable. "Take care, Tohsaka, see you tomorrow at school."

"Hm," as she was about to leave the building, the girl stopped in her tracks and looked behind. "Hey, you two better return to your homes soon as well. Don't stay out for too long as there's been some criminal activities around Fuyuki. Very unlikely for them to come here, but still."

Ayako went still, before nodding.

"... Yeah, don't worry about us. I'll be careful from now on."

{Break}

(Ten minutes later)

"You're still here." Shirou said as he washed the used cups and plates, his boss, having still not finished matters in the storage, entrusted both of them to clean up the place if they were willing to stay behind. The late evening would be around the time this would get busy, so she always made sure to clean the place up one last time.

He, of course, accepted without hesitation.

"Same reason as before, if I leave you to return all by yourself then you'll either really fall down the stairs somewhere around the city or get attacked by a bunch of thieves." Ayako was by his side cleaning the bar's counter as she felt uneasy just sitting without doing anything.

"You know Fuyuki isn't all that dangerous and I've gotten better since this morning."

"And I'm not talking about those things in particular. You know what I mean." Her voice had turned somber, making it obvious for him what she was talking about. The tense posture along with the fearful eyes — she was remembering the Chimera encounter.

True, the chances of there being more in the city were not zero, and having recently faced an Enforcer made him realize that he had another thing to worry about. His wounds still needed time to mend, fighting in his current state would only lead him to a quicker death. His firearms were left in his house, so he stood there without any sort of weapon on him.

'But then again, I can Project that sword…'

Maybe his case wasn't as bad as he believed it to be.

"I know what you're feeling, Mitsuzuri. But trust me when I say that it's very unlikely for me to encounter such creatures today after what happened last time and I'm not the only one hunting for them."

"The Enforcer, the woman who has the strength to break bones with little effort. Yeah, I remember her." Even knowing that someone Shirou claimed to be very powerful and competent at her job, she still couldn't help but feel wary of the outside world at night. Just looking outside the windows Ayako already began to imagine beady yellow eyes watching her from the darkness. Stalking her from the shadows and creeping up to her before catching up. Those terrifying monsters… "Hey, Emiya, why can't we just inform the cops? They can call in militant forces and take out the monsters immediately."

He didn't miss the slight shaking in her voice.

As someone who has just stumbled upon the Supernatural world, he was waiting for such a reaction and question since this morning. A bit surprised how it took her this long to bring it up, but maybe it was because she was keeping a strong front and didn't want to appear afraid.

Shirou thought about it a bit on how to answer this question properly.

"We can't do that for many reasons. I'll start with the simplest; No one will believe us. That's the first issue, then comes the fact that the Magi overlooking Fuyuki will immediately suppress the information and erase the memory of everyone involved. Now for the worst case scenario, if this information leaked and everyone saw proof of the monster's existence… then it's likely that Fuyuki will be wiped away from the face of the world."

Ayako's face turned pale, her shaking getting worse and her knees almost gave out at those words. "You can't be serious… they can just kill us all like that?"

"Unfortunately yes, you must understand, the Clocktower is a real monster in this story, they are brutal, efficient and quick when it comes to keeping the knowledge of the supernatural world kept under wraps. They will stop at nothing to prevent such a reality even if it comes down to killing tens of thousands." Shirou put his hands on her shoulder. "That's why I'm asking you that after today, you go back home and forget about this whole thing. This shouldn't concern you, it should never have. It was nothing but bad timing and location."

Ayako stopped what she was doing before turning around and glaring at him fiercely.

"I-I can't just accept that, Emiya. What will happen to you! You want to go back out there to face those things by yourself while also looking out for a crazy lady who's probably even more dangerous? You can't be serious here, you're putting your life in danger trying to become a her—hmm!" Before she could finish, Shirou put his hands over her mouth and looked outside with a fear stricken face.

Badump!

Her heart froze for a second.

'Is one of those Chimera outside?'

But her shock further increased when he pushed her down to the floor. His weight pushed down on her body with the scenario causing her to react on instinct and punch right in the guts.

"Ugh!" He winced in pain, his old wounds flaring up again. Yet the redhead refused to budge and applied more pressure on her body, "Stop, I saw the Enforcer outside! Just bear with it for a few seconds." He whispered harshly to her ear, feeling his leg was right up her thigh and his breath on both her ear and neck made the poor girl's mind turn even more chaotic and her face to heat up like a furnace.

"Hhmmmn!?"

Still, she heard his words and calmed down immediately.

Ring~!

The doors to the cafe opened, and both heard the sound of footsteps walking inside.

"Hello, Is anyone here?" Bazett's voice came right over the counter and right at that moment, Otoko returned from the storage room.

"Hey, have you two seen…" Her tone died down as she watched both Shirou and Ayako on the floor while the former signaled to stay quiet and pointed at the woman on the other side of the counter. "Damn kids these days." Guessing something else was happening here, she ignored them and greeted Bazette with a regular smile. "Welcome to Copenhagen, what would you like to order?"

"Can I have a cup of black coffee to go? And possibly anything sweet to eat."

"Sure, we got one slice of cake remaining. I'm sure you'll like it."

She didn't forget to lightly kick the body next to her feet for this ridiculous situation.

"By the way, I've come across some news about a strike going on with the people working at the docks. Do you know anything about it." Bazett asked as she waited for her order to be done.

"Hmm, yeah, apparently some workers claim that the place is haunted by some ghost which caused some of their equipment and machine to fail or get damaged. The manager of the harbor said that it was their fault for drinking on the job and being the likely culprit to cause such things. A few people I know claim that the machines there are super old and outdated with the management being stingy bastards not wanting to do any spending." Otoko explained what she heard so far from some of the customers and friends who frequented the store. Funnily enough she had never heard of the event ever making it to the news in the first place, maybe she missed it. "All I'm hearing is one of the local hotels having a major incident with half the floors having collapsed due to a use of cheap material and faulty work practices by the contractor. This along with the recent death of a few people"

"That's unfortunate," the Irish woman said, "such things are easily overlooked very often."

"Tell me about it. I used to work at the docks as an accountant when I was a newly graduated high school student. The pay was good and it was only for two months. I heard they still use the exact same equipment till this day without much maintenance. It's a matter of time before someone dies."

"We can only hope for the best."

Otoko grabbed a small pastry box with her logo and added the cake before closing it. She brought it to the counter where Bazett paid her with cash.

"By the way, you're a foreigner, right? Your Japanese is quite good, you speak like a native."

"Ah, thank you, I need to be good with languages in general with my line of work." She said, thanking her for the coffee and cake. "Stay safe."

"You too."

Shirou was listening to the conversation intently from the beginning, though it sounded like nothing much aside from some random topic to pass the time — it was very possible for Bazett to be eyeing the harbor in particular. Given her purpose coming here was hunting down these chimeras, then it was very likely that something or someone was hiding there.

Now, as much as he wanted, he couldn't participate in a fight with his current condition.

What to do…

"E-Emiya… can you… move aside for a bit? Haa… I'm… It's too hot."

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"You two better not be making out down there or I swear to god… I'll throw both of you down the river to cool off. Oh, and I'll kick your balls, brat, for doing it in my store." Otoko grumbled, annoyed and curious about the whole reaction. "By the way, this woman just now, was she your ex or something? Because if she was, damn kid. You know how to pick them."

"Neko-san!?"

{Break}

(Next day)

Turns out that he was worried for nothing last night. After having Ayako walk him back to his house, Shirou packed up a few guns and his remaining ammunition to the harbor. Taking a vantage point away from any prying eye he carefully waited for a few hours and nothing happened.

Honestly, he was relieved of such an outcome. Even if there was no one there due to the strike, he still had little confidence to kill another monster on his own. Thankfully, his injuries had started to heal after a good night's rest, at this rate it would only take a few days before he was in his top condition.

When he went to school today, he noticed how Ayako was avoiding his gaze — guess she was upset over what happened yesterday. He didn't have a choice, a second too late and Bazett could have easily spotted and possibly turned the entire area into a battlefield… who was he kidding, "She'd easily crush me with a single punch."

Aside from that, his day went just about the same as usual. He hung out with Issei, and helped the student council with their out of date equipment by continuously fixing them every couple of days.

'I'm starting to consider having Fujimura-san donate some of my money to the school and have them replace everything with newer air conditioner models.'

Fixing equipment wasn't a hassle, but there was only so much he could do before the whole thing just degraded far beyond any kind of repair he could do. Even the plastic cover was starting to break down with the slightest pressure!

"Hah, I'm getting too worked up about this." He said to himself while standing in front of his old middle school, watching the student population walk past him. Searching for a particular girl amongst the crow with vibrant violet hair that would easily stand out amongst the crowd. "This might not be the best idea."

But it was the right thing to do in his opinion. This was basically inviting trouble in his life and even more stress than usual — but as long as she kept smiling and away from that… place. Seconds turned into minutes and the amount of students around him lessened as most of them had left by now.

Then he saw her walking out of the school and his thoughts started to accelerate. The last time they saw each other was when he dropped her off. Safe to say… things didn't go as planned.

Kiritsugu hammered in his head the knowledge to always stay away from certain places and people — amongst them, Zouken stood at the top.

'Sorry, old man, I'm about to do something very stupid and you'll probably be disappointed with me.'

He walked towards her, just like last time she didn't notice him immediately. Her gaze, always on the ground as she avoided looking around. The closer she came the stronger his resolve grew, the doubts getting crushed by both his anger and frustration at how helpless he felt a few days ago.

'Never again, I made a promise.'

No matter what challenges he faced, whether it be a bloodthirsty monster, a deadly enforcer or even the future itself. Even if forces hunted him down he could not contest against, go against the wishes of his father for the boy to put his life first before anyone else.

"Senpai?"

The girl was startled at first when she saw Shirou standing in front of her with a lost look on his face.

"Did… did you get hurt?" Whilst close to him, she saw the bandages around his arm, some of the cuts on his neck and faded bruises. "What happened to you?"

"It’s nothing Sakura. Just fell down the stairs."

Even now she was so worried about him, knowing that soon after she would need to go back to that house. Unknown what that old man did to her body, nor willing to even imagine what was going on behind those walls — his hatred only grew the longer he thought about it. The fire within himself grew to a inferno that burned away any and all fear he held.

He took one step towards her, closing the distance between them. The girl blushes at his closeness but he wasn't paying attention to that.

"S-Senpai?"

Shirou had little to no talent with magic, nor was he an expert with magecraft belonging to another family. But he was in contact with someone who would know such a thing. If Sakura truly suffered all this time while he went about his life unknowing of what she was going through… then he just couldn't forgive himself.

"Sakura, you didn't come to my house today." He asked, used to her morning routine. "Were you sick?"

She avoided his stare, refusing to look him in the eyes for a split second. "Y-Yes, I wa-wanted to come but I wasn't feeling well. But don't worry! I should be well right now and will come by tomorrow at the earliest, promise." She smiled brightly, forcing his lips to twitch upwards when looking at her expression.

Yet his fist clenched, clear to him that she was lying for him. That he wouldn't concern himself over her… a lie made just to make him feel good. This wasn't the first time this happened, she fell "sick" a few times in the past. Starting from middle school this kept happening once every few months, back then he just believed her words and assumed she had a weak constitution.

Now he knew…

"S-Senpai!?" Sakura exclaimed in surprise when Shirou grabbed her hands, a tingly sensation spreading across her body as she realized with widened eyes what the boy did. He wasn't even attempting to hide it at this point, his face grew ugly, as if sensing something disturbing. Her body shook when she saw that.

'No, he mustn't!' She tried to pull away her hand but he held on firmly. Normally, having him touch her like this would've made the girl ecstatic with joy and happiness… normally… yet still she felt her core warm up to his touch.

That realization disgusted her. She truly was…

"No need to wait for tomorrow," He said, breaking Sakura from her thoughts.

"I-I mean, I can come by today but Nii-san will—"

"I'm not talking about that, nor do I care what Shinji thinks. If he has a problem with it, then he can come up to me face to face." Never again, he was going to do this despite his rational side begging to stop and think clearly for a second.

Would this count as kidnapping? Perhaps, Neko-san was right about him.

"I don't follow…" something was different with the boy in front of her, he stared at her intensely, she never saw him reacting like this. Was it related to what happened before?

"Sakura, a few days ago I suffered a horrible accident where I fell down the stairs and couldn't even walk properly. I can barely cook, clean or do any kind of chores around my house without ending up in pain in the end. I can't trust Fuji-nee to not burn my house down in less than five minutes, Issei is busy with his duties at the temple, Shinji is a hard pass, I have no one but you."

"S-S-S-Sen…p-p-pai!? C-Context!"

The way he said it sounded so misleading! Yet she couldn't stop her heart from singing wildly!

"I know what I meant, Sakura."

'No you don't!'

"I know it's a brazen thing to ask you, but you're someone I can entrust my life with."

"Wawawa…"

'He did it again! I-I can’t handle this!’

"That's why, Sakura, I want you to stay over for a bit and help me out. Until I get better at least." And given how frequently he got hurt recently coupled with an ongoing Chimera hunt, Shirou was confident that he could extend the time by a lot, or at least until he found a better solution. He patted himself on the back for the perfect temporary excuse.

"..."

Sakura's brain stopped working, she was speechless.