Day 1 – Chapter 7
“Wait!” Zouken called out without thinking.
The silver-haired girl stopped. She did not expect her brother to call out to her. Luckily for Zouken, it was still fairly bright outside and the girl had left her Servant at the castle. The girl couldn’t hide her surprise. She had never actually talked with the boy before, so she had to admit that she was curious as to why he stopped her.
The girl turned around slowly and regained her composure. She slyly looked at the orange-haired boy and asked, “What is it, onii-chan?”
“You know, it’s rude to start a conversation and then just walk off, young lady.”
The girl’s eyes widened. She didn’t think there was a person in the world who would take what she said to him earlier as a conversation opener. She was going to tell that to him and walk off, but something the boy said annoyed the girl. She felt the need to correct him before anything else. “I’ll have you know that I’m older than you, onii-chan!” she pouted.
Hmm, so her personality is nothing like Justica’s… But it’s not like I can move ahead with my plan right now in any case. I might as well spend my time with her then.“Hoh~ Well, you sure don’t look like it, missy,” teased Zouken. This was the first time in 200 years when he had light-heartedly done so. In the past, he had also tried to poke fun at Justica, but due to her aloof personality, it never gave him satisfying results. But it was different with this new homunculus.
The girl waved her hands up and down in dismay. “LIKE-I-SAID, I am! So you’ll just have to believe me! …And don’t call me ‘missy’, my name is Ilyasviel von Einzbern,” she said while curtsying. “Well, if that’s too hard for you to understand, just call me Ilya.”
“Alright, alright, Ilya. My name is… Shirou, Emiya Shirou, but long ago my friends used to call me Makki.”
“Makki?” asked the girl with a puzzled look while putting a finger near her mouth, then started walking somewhere with a smile, “Yeah, Makki is Makki.”
Zouken followed the girl, not noticing himself wearing a gentle smile.
~~~~~
His battle had ended. The knight had accepted his fate, held out long enough to help his younger self and parted from the mortal world; the smile of the girl he always admired being the final thing he saw.
That’s what the records he just finished reading told him. It was a story that contained both sadness and happiness. But finishing that, he felt strangely happy. The knight no longer possessed a burning desire to hunt down his younger self. The man closed his eyes and waited for his next summoning; his next job as a cleaner of the world.
He didn’t know if it was after an instant or an eternity, but finally the call came. Strangely enough, it wasn’t a call from the World. The knight knew where it was calling him to. A voice was asking him to become a Servant in the Holy Grail War once more. But it was odd since the voice did not sound anything like that girl’s voice.
And there should not have been anyone else who could have summoned him to that War. No one, besides for one boy… But he knew that even that should have been impossible due to him having Avalon inside of his body. And that oddity raised his curiosity.
The knight in red smirked and accepted his fate as a Servant once more.
~~~~~
The two figures arrived at their destination – the park. Neither of them had said a word while they walked there. The young girl led the way and the old magus simply followed her. Ilya sat on a bench and expectedly stared at Zouken’s face, waiting for him to say something.
“You know, Ilya, you shouldn’t speak so lightly of killing people,” Zouken said with a strict voice. While he was aware of the hypocrisy of what he just said, he just blurted that sentence out. He didn’t know why, but he simply didn’t want a girl who looked just like Justica to act like that. The person who he remembered, the person very dear to his heart, was a pure woman who would never speak of such things.
Ilya looked like a child who was looking for an excuse after doing something bad and said, “I-It’s not like I’m going to kill you right away… I planned to let you-----“
She could not finish her sentence, Zouken managed to cut her off before that by grabbing her shoulders and looking her directly in the eyes. “Ilya, you would be much cuter if you would not talk about killing other people.”
“…Eh?” was the only thing the silver-haired girl managed to say after hearing that. Her mind went blank; she needed some time to process what had just happened. She shook herself free of his arms and hopped a few steps backwards. Ilya turned her back to the orange-haired boy and said, “W-Well… it seems like Berserker has woken up… So I need to hurry back to the castle.”
Zouken saw the girl start running with light steps, only to stop and turn around after a short while. “Berserker’s a heavy sleeper, so if I feel like it, I might be here tomorrow morning.” Leaving with those words, the silver-haired girl soon disappeared from his sight.
The magus sighed when he realized that it was already dark outside. He knew that he should hurry to the Emiya residence in order to avoid appearing suspicious.
That Einzbern girl sure was soft… Wait, what the hell am I thinking? I’m in an excellent position for activating… it. I shouldn’t concern myself with other things.~~~~~
There was a loud bang, followed by a trail of smoke. One additional person now resided in a room where there were just two people a short while ago.
“So that’s how a Servant looks like, huh?” mumbled an old wrinkly man in bafflement.
Ignoring him, a girl with twin-tails walked towards the newly summoned Servant in red and said, “My name is Kotomine Kirei. The one over there, Emiya Shirou, is your Master.”
Hearing that, the knight narrowed his eyes and asked, “Before I acknowledge you as my Master, I’d like to know for what purpose did you summon me. Why do you desire the Holy Grail?”
“I require the help of the Holy Grail to return to my original body. What about you? Kotomine told me that the Servants seek the Grail as well.”
“Me? I don’t seek that thing. I simply answered your summon as a whim.” The knight in red sighed. “That’ll do. I acknowledge you as my Master. But, Kotomine, it’s not like I don’t appreciate your help, but I’d like to hold a certain meeting with my Master right now. You understand that I don’t want any outsiders to know my identity, right?”
The priest closed his eyes and replied, “Of course. Then I shall take my leave.”
Was it just my imagination, or did he emit enmity towards Kotomine?“Now then, Master, you may call me Archer. As for my identity… I’d rather keep that a secret. The only thing you need to know is that I’m quite capable,” said Archer with a grin.
Hmph, somehow I get the feeling that I will not be able to work well with this guy.“What will our course of action for tonight be?”
[ ] Patrol Shinto.
[ ] Patrol Miyama.
[ ] What do you mean he’s not going to reveal his identity? Use a Command Spell to force him to spill his beans.[X] Stay home and bake him a cake to gain his trust.~~~~~
Zouken finally arrived ‘home’. During his way there, he had become quite irritated. He couldn’t figure out why he had acted so differently when he was around the girl. Why he had had a
fun time. He didn’t want to admit it himself, but being around her had made him forget all of his evil schemes.
And that was exactly why he was annoyed. He could almost taste immortality, but…
Why did I want to become immortal in the first place?He took off his shoes while gritting his teeth. He did not remember the reason for having that as his goal. In any case, it was irrelevant. He had to become immortal, just because. That’s what he convinced himself in his mind to make the uneasiness go away.
He heard footsteps coming towards him.
Damn it, I really don’t want to deal with her right now…The magus’ eyes went wide when owner of the footsteps appeared before him. It was not due to seeing her identity; she was indeed the person who he thought it would be – Sakura. The thing that surprised him was how he had thought of her. He had never thought of Sakura as a person before.
Tch, it must have been a slip of my tongue… er, mind.“Senpai, we were waiting for you to get here. The dinner is still warm, so join us,” said the purple-haired girl gently.
Surprisingly enough, no sounds of protest came from the mouth of Fujimura Taiga. Apparently, she still felt a bit weird about what he had done earlier that day. That should have brought pleasure to the old magus, but it didn’t.
He looked gloomily at the girl and said, “Sorry, Sakura, I’m not feeling well. I think I’ll go to my room and skip dinner.”
“W-What happened? You look pale, Senpai.”
Ignoring the worried voice of his granddaughter, Zouken trotted towards ‘his’ room.
~~~~~
The sounds of dishwashing echoed throughout the residence, so the magus assumed that the dinner had come to an end. He had been musing over the happenings of his weird day, and while doing so, he had managed to compose himself. He was still feeling a bit annoyed, but that was now a minor thing. He looked at one of his hands and grinned while staring at the blood-red mark that had appeared on it.
[ ] Wait for the girls to leave and summon your Servant.
[ ] Continue your plan with Fujimura after seeing Sakura leave.[X] Walk Sakura home in an attempt to get closer to her.Chapter 7 – End
