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Messages - Kaze

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1
EMIYA SHIROU

Wait… did Engetsu expect him to hop on his back like a piggyback ride? Shirou’s face tightened, looking uncomfortable. The man was certainly very fast, but still.

However, Engetsu was offering free room and board, and Shirou’s years as a vagabond taught him the value of a warm bed and a good meal. With a chagrined sigh, the freelancer straddled Blue’s back, oddly reminded of how he had carried Illya like this before she died.

“I assume this is your intention,” Shirou said, feeling rather embarrassed.

2
EMIYA SHIROU

When Engetsu made an offer to stay at his inn, Shirou’s first reflex was to refuse. However, it was starting to get late. Perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea.

“It’s kind of you to offer, but I have no means with which to pay you,” Shirou said, meeting Blue’s regal smile with a self-mocking sneer. He may be used to not having any money, but that didn’t mean it didn’t still suck.

3
EMIYA SHIROU

Shirou gave Engetsu a small but genuine smile. A smile that quickly faded when the man asked what brought him to Chinatown. Honestly, he didn’t really want to get into it. Plus, it was always possible that Blue had connections to Shendu.

“Chinatown feels most like home to me,” Shirou said, banking on his asian heritage to sell the fib. “I don’t come often anymore though. The Dragon Lord and I… do not get along well.”

4
EMIYA SHIROU

Shirou leaned against the sterile white walls of the hospital’s hallway, relieved that they seemed to have made it in time to keep the injured man from bleeding out. The elf-like man was quite fast, and it had required the magus to reinforce his legs for all he was worth to be able to keep up. He wiped some sweat off his forehead. He was gonna need a shower when he got back to the little house Sakura had insisted he stay at for the time being.

Blue Hair walked out of a nearby door and gave the Emiya magus a troubled glance. Shirou pushed off the wall and turned to face him, hiding his trepidation with a carefully manufactured blank look.

Blue muttered something Shirou didn’t quite catch, and then bowed in apology. Shirou blinked, caught off guard. Considering the position he had been caught in earlier, he had been expecting the worst.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. I know how it must have looked to you,” Shirou said, bowing in return. He realized he rather liked this man and his quiet confidence, how he came to help when he thought it was needed. Such traits weren’t very common in Shirou’s experience. “My name is Emiya Shirou. May I ask yours?”

5
EMIYA SHIROU

Shirou was relieved when the strange man let go of his weapon and moved to help the bleeding mugger. The archer snapped his (rather outdated) phone shut and put it away as the blue haired elf person worked to stop the bleeding and reassure the overwhelmed woman. At least they would be okay.

Shirou pressed his lips together in grim acceptance when the swordsman leveled him with a cold stare and demanded he follow along.

“That won’t be necessary,” Shirou said, keeping his hands visible as to appear less threatening. “I will follow.”

6
EMIYA SHIROU

Shit. This wouldn’t be the first time Shirou had appeared to be the bad guy to bystanders, but it was the first time said bystander could reach supersonic speeds and was armed with a sword.

No… no, he wasn’t armed with a sword. Shirou’s ability to innately grasp a weapon’s structure at a glance told him there was far more to the newcomer than that. Almost like the sword was actually part of him.

“He was holding that gun to her,” Shirou said, jerking his head at the gun - still in the severed hand - lying on the ground. “I dealt with it, but now he needs help.”

He didn’t take his eyes off the newcomer. Blue hair and eyes, pointed ears, just enough to tell the casual observer that he wasn’t human. None of that interested the freelancer. Everything in him was screaming that this man was wrong… but he was also so right. The closest thing he could compare it to had been Mia’s sword, which he hadn’t been able to properly identify.

The man on the ground behind him moaned pitifully. Shirou wanted to help, but he wasn’t willing to take his eyes off the person before him. If things got violent, he couldn’t afford to be caught off guard.

7
EMIYA SHIROU
It was risky, he knew, moving about Chinatown while keeping a discreet eye on the movements of Shendu’s dragons. Perhaps even pointless, since it didn’t look like they were going out of their way to antagonize anyone. Shirou pursed his lips as he watched a patrol fly overhead with his enhanced vision. Even so, after what happened with Mia, he didn’t think he’d ever quite forgive him. With a sigh, the freelance magus moved out of the shadows and began making his way through the less populated alleys back to the main street.

He had narrowly avoided being incinerated after his ill-planned stint in Shendu’s palace, thanks to Sakura’s timely intervention. It still felt a little unreal, that she had been the one to save him, after all the time he spent back home trying to keep her separate from the darker side of his life. It chafed bitterly, that he hadn’t been able to help the little girl the massive lizard had taken. The only one who had been saved was himself. He had visited Sakura on occasion after that, at her request, even though that irritating younger version of him was there. He owed her that much, at least. She was doing well for herself, but there was something decidedly off about her. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any idea how to help her with that. He hoped Rin had better luck.

A sound off to the side caught Shirou’s attention. A muffled voice and a scuffling noise, coming from somewhere behind a small noodle shop that had gone out of business just a week ago. He did a quick 360, nobody else was close by.

Moving as quietly as he could - which was pretty quiet, if he said so himself - Shirou moved around the building to discover a rather average looking man holding a woman up against the wall at gunpoint, his hand over her mouth. Several scenarios ran through his mind at once. Rape, mugging, murder, it didn’t much matter. The important, and most dangerous part was removing the pistol. The man could then be dealt with without risking the weapon discharging.

Walking up slowly, the magus focused his prana into his arms and legs, increasing the power in his muscles. Fortunately, neither the man nor woman heard or saw him approach, so focused on each other. Once he was within arms reach, Shirou reached out, grabbed the man’s wrist, and pulled it, along with the gun, away from the woman. At the same time, he brought his free hand up and then back down. Except the hand wasn’t free anymore, but filled with a black and red sword.

Shirou dropped the pistol, severed hand still attached, and smashed his forehead into the man’s face. Shirou saw stars, but the man, caught entirely off guard, fell back and hit ground hard. All this took place in the span of a second.

Shaking off the painful light behind his eyes, the freelancer took stock of the situation. The woman - he now noticed she was older, perhaps in her 50s - was unharmed, and the man was prone, stunned and bleeding profusely from his arm. Letting Bakuya fade into nonexistence, Shirou pulled out his phone and started calling emergency services. He didn’t have anything on hand to stop the bleeding.

8
EMIYA SHIROU

Shirou touched down on the floor behind the window, suddenly aware that the floor had the sparkling sheen of one that was recently clean. Indeed, a janitor was pushing a cleaning cart down the corridor to his left, back turned and staring straight ahead. In the other direction to the right, a rotating camera was, for the moment, turning away from his position, and in the wall directly in front of him was a pair of elevators.

The freelance magus couldn’t believe his luck. It was an ideal time to go to the elevators and get in… until thundering footsteps approached from behind, back outside the window.

In a moment of panic, Shirou shifted to the right, pressing his back against the wall right next to the open window, ready to ambush anyone who entered if necessary. Nothing came through, however, except a deep, terrifying voice seething with rage, tearing verbal strips out of the cleaners for having left a window open. The janitor down the hall visibly startled at the admonishment.

This was bad. The camera was rotating back toward him, the cleaner may turn around to try to see who was yelling at him, and there was nowhere to hide. Praying that whatever dragon that was outside the window wouldn’t take notice, Shirou squared his shoulders, turned his back to the janitor, and walked down the hall while moving to the other side, positioning himself directly beneath the camera and out of its field of view. He kept walking, to give the appearance of someone who knew where they were going, but very slowly, waiting to hear those rumbling footsteps again before heading back to the elevators.

9
LANCELOT

                                            “Forgive me, you simply resemble someone I once had the opportunity to meet a very long time ago.”
Why do you allow this? Because it’s friends with Saber? Disgusting creature, remember the penalties. Life penalty, body penalty, freedom penalty, fame penalty, fortune penalty.

The former knight of the lake blinked, trying to cut through the haze and keep with the conversation, lest he make even more of an ass of himself.

                                                               “Maybe I should be asking you that question, Lancelot. You okay?”
Why care what Saber would wish? Selfish ⎕⎕⎕, you paid her penalty, and she violates you. Violation for benefit, violation for respect.

“I, ah, yes. As I said, distracted,” Lancelot said. He looked at Forest and Gadreel, both of them looking somewhere between concerned and wary. Perhaps his affliction was more visible than he thought.

⎕⎕⎕FOR SELF ⎕⎕⎕FOR SELF ⎕⎕⎕FOR SELF ⎕⎕⎕FOR SELF ⎕⎕⎕FOR SELF ⎕⎕⎕FOR SELF ⎕⎕⎕FOR SELF ⎕⎕⎕FOR SELF ⎕⎕⎕FOR SELF

Lancelot grit his teeth at the sudden onslaught. His vision seemed to shake, and he could almost feel the shelves about to topple on him. He looked down at his feet, trying to maintain some semblance of control. He couldn’t stay here, Forest’s presence was driving him mad.

“I… I need to go,” he said softly, afraid of what he would hear if he raised his voice above a whisper. He sped off in a rush, almost jogging through the store in his haste to pay for the items and take his leave of this place.

10
LANCELOT

“Um, no, I came here of my own volition…” Lancelot said distractedly, trailing off at the end. Saber hadn’t ordered him to go shopping for her, but it was an unspoken expectation that he make sure her place remain well supplied. He supposed it was fair, since he was living off of her, much as it rankled what pride he still had.

Forest rubbed her forehead and introduced him to the handsome man accompanying her, Gadreel. The redhead was staring, seemingly shocked to see the former knight of the lake.

“Are you well?” Lancelot asked the other man, more out of habit than actual concern. Truth be told he wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation anymore, he was so distracted. He may not be feeling too well himself.

11
LANCELOT

Lancelot strode into the cosmetics store, several bags of groceries in one hand and a scowl planted firmly on his face. It turned out Saber was almost out of the shampoo she had taken a liking to in this new world, and so it fell on him to obtain more before it became an issue.

The former Servant restrained the urge to click his tongue in annoyance. He understood hygiene and had quickly become accustomed to frequent bathing - showering, it was called here - but the incredible multitude of body care and scent products ingrained into the culture defied understanding. None of the admittedly cute women around would tolerate even being near him if he didn’t at least have some of that “deodorant” stuff on.

Modern life was complicated.

He was so consumed with his own thoughts that when he turned a corner past some shelves, he very nearly bowled over a pair of hapless shoppers. He was halfway through a muttered apology when he actually noticed who he had just run into.

Kill her! Pay the penalty for her sins, for your sins! Pay the penalty of life! “Torture and sadism on the body through digestion!”

Damn. He’d been so enjoying not having to listen to that insidious voice.

“Ah. Good day, Forest, and company,” he said, his frown tightening as he tried to ignore the whispers coming out of the walls. He still had the presence of mind to back up and restore personal space, at least. “Forgive my rudeness, I’ve been quite distracted of late.”

12
EMIYA SHIROU

Bingo, there was his opening. Among all the windows sealed with glass, Shirou found one that was open. Hoping for all he was worth that there wasn’t a dragon on the other side of that window, but preparing a projection of Gram in case there was, the magus carefully appraised his surroundings one last time. The orange dragon at the gate was still distracted with Darcy, and there wasn’t a patrol flying above at the moment. It was now or never, before another flying patrol came around.

Shirou dashed out from behind his cover, dispensing with stealth in exchange for speed. “Please don’t notice me please don’t notice me please don’t notice me,” was the only thought in his mind as he covered the distance in a few excruciatingly long seconds, and cleared the jump to the windowsill on his reinforced legs. Hopefully Darcy would be able to make his own way in.

13
EMIYA SHIROU

Shirou had initially intended to find a good spot on a tall building and observe Darcy from afar, but the discovery of flying dragon patrols around Shendu’s headquarters forced them to find a new strategy. So here he was, in a hoodie, following Darcy as covertly as he could from a distance. He wished once again that he had Saber’s support available should a physical confrontation arise, but the blond priest had been right: she was ill-suited for this sort of task.

The freelancer did his best to maintain his composed demeanor, but it was difficult. In close quarters like this, he was out of his element. A pit of worry was gradually digging itself in his gut. He could not afford to be caught, for Mia’s sake. Darcy, on the other hand, seemed perfectly at ease. If the man was as terrified as Shirou was, he hid it exceptionally well.

There were a lot of men and women in suits who Shirou suspected were agents of some kind or another, but they all appeared to be keeping tabs on the dragons and the palace, rather than protecting it from intruders. Perhaps there were other organizations in the Nexus that were wary of Shendu. Still, he did his best to avoid them. Better safe than sorry.

Darcy, fearless fool that he apparently was, strolled right up to the massive dragon guarding the entrance and cheerfully got his attention with a discussion about Jesus. Shirou nearly sighed in relief when the scaly orange beast didn’t vaporize him on the spot. For a brief moment, the archer debated shooting the dragon with Gram, but decided against it. Even if he could kill the dragon with one shot, the body would be discovered quickly.

Shirou carefully circled around the outer edge of the courtyard, doing his best to keep something between him and line of sight with the guard. With the orange dragon distracted, he could probably sneak in through a window, if he was careful.

14
EMIYA SHIROU

“What is it you need?” Shirou asked, starting to wonder if the priest was more trouble than he was worth.

15
EMIYA SHIROU

Shirou glared at Darcy, feeling cheated. After all that talk about not giving a “stupid” answer like shooting well, and this guy only had a few mundane skills to offer? Him laughing at his own lame joke only annoyed the freelance magus more.

“I avoid fights when I can. I just like to be prepared in case a fight comes to me,” Shirou grated out.

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