I'd honestly been expecting Shirou to go the old but gold, 'I'll protect everyone' route where he declared his resolve with a clenched fist and all… but no, the ginger youth went beyond expectations. He got up, walked into another room, then came back a good ten minutes later and… told me he was calling on that favour.
That was the only way he'd let me go.
I was more than happy to oblige of course. I admired his dedication to not having someone do anything for his sake, even, knowing that I would never have felt that same way in his place. I was more than happy to ask for favours, and dole them out as well.
Admittedly, however, my aid this time did not come from wanting to help him out for no particular reason, or a desire to help that girl either, no, going with Rin meant a chance to fight with the greatest demigod. That alone was all the reason I would ever need.
So, as the chill of the night crept in with a thick fog that made it nigh-impossible to see more than a few metres ahead, I bid the Emiya household goodbye and set out for his meet-up with Rin. Coincidentally, she'd asked him to find her at the park under the great metal bridge connecting either side of Fuyuki. The walk there was brief and entirely uninteresting.
The silence was deafening, the shadows long, and the street lights flickered within the fog. Surrounded by closed-commercial buildings on either side, there was no chittering of small animals either. It really felt like I was headed into some great boss fight… or, it would have, if not for the zombified white-collar workers I'd pass from time to time.
I sort of understood why we picked this city for the Holy Grail War.
Anyone awake in these hours was headed home after unhealthy amounts of over-time work, dead-inside, and not at all interested in anyone that passed them by or what happened around them. They were more interested in sleeping.
"Heya Master." Nobunaga slapped my shoulder.
"Geh. I thought I left you at home."
"You wish. Master, you've been straying lately-" She made a show of clutching her heart, eyes wavering, "-You traitor. I thought we were supposed to be having fun together! You just want to monopolise all the fights."
I pursed my lips, considering her words.
…She was right.
"Ehehe~"
"Don't you 'ehehe' me!" She waved around a clenched fist. "If you were a retainer-"
"But I'm not."
She'd been mentioning that retainer bit a lot recently, more and more after every delivery of modern tech made to our house to placate her interests. If I recalled correctly, the latest one had been a shipment of AR-15s, procured through dubious means.
"If you were in my time, you surely would have been. As I was one of the only lords willing to sponsor and respect talent for talent alone, not blood, not connection."
"Woah. You had basic human decency."
"I feel your understanding of my age is severely flawed."
I stopped walking, and turned to her with a deadpan.
"I barely know my own history. This is an island country half-way across the world."
Suddenly, her lips parted in a massive grin. I realized what I'd just walked into, but it was too late.
"I thought you'd be familiar with the country that ended your naval supremacy as well as the image of an untouchable colonial empire."
Okay… she'd not taken the chance and pulled out history I was wholly unfamiliar with instead. If I didn't know what she meant, her words could not hurt me. She instantly noted by confusion.
"The HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse? The greatest naval loss of the second world war?"
Oh, so she was talking about World War Two.
Oh.
I grinned.
"M-Master… what is that disturbing expression?"
My grin stretched further.
I was part-American too.
"Remind me what happened to Japan during that war?"
She froze when I put a hand on her shoulder.
"N…No."
"Yeah, know your place. I'll drop another Sun. The last two made you start producing messed up hentai, you don't want to risk a third."
A moment passed in silence.
"Gah! I shall remember this loss!"
I cackled, driving away the dead of the night.
-
"W-What are you doing here?"
"You have to stop putting your feet in my hands. I might start getting the wrong idea."
I gently held Rin's heel, having blocked it before it made sweet love to my cheek for startling her. Apparently, her trying to kick me was my fault for tapping her shoulder out of nowhere.
Okay… maybe it was.
But, in my defense, she'd just been standing there so innocently, just peering into the Mion River with her hands on the railings. There was no other choice but to try to scare her.
"I'm kinky, but I'm not kinky enough to be engaging in this kind of play with someone I'm not in bed with. Especially not in public."
Somehow, that drained all the adorable embarrassment from her face. She stared at me listlessly, pulling back her foot. Then, her gaze fell on the black-haired girl standing beside me. Nobunaga had a hand on her chin, eyes narrowed in thought.
"Who's she?"
"…"
I took another look at Nobunaga. Granted, she was just wearing an over-sized red t-shirt and a pair of tight jeans in place of her military uniform but… Nobunaga was not the sort of person you 'forgot'. Her face burned itself into memory, mostly because she was always losing her marbles on first meetings.
Maybe it'd take a bit?
"Master, I'm beginning to notice a trend. Do you like feisty women?"
I raised my hands in surrender. "Fair, guilty as charged. That contrast between immediate violence and genuine concern is just… muah."
Rin reddened again, only slightly.
"But she doesn't count. She's more troglodyte than feisty."
Nobunaga nodded, "I can see it."
"I third that. Have you seen this princess with a TV?"
Archer formed behind us, arms crossed and one eye closed. Then, the three of us nodded at the same time once again.
"…"
Rin facepalmed. "You, Archer, shut up. What are you even doing here, really?"
"Shirou sent me here, Miss Tohsaka." I saluted her, "He's guarding your..."
At that moment, I suddenly remembered just what relation the two girls bore. Sakura Matou, Rider's master, was formerly Sakura Tohsaka. She was Rin's little sister. When she told me, I didn't think much of it and promptly discarded the information but now... Sakura was Rin's sister.
The same girl Shinji...
I pursed my lips.
"My?" Rin tilted her head with innocent curiosity in her eyes.
Once more, I regretted understanding the complete nature of the Matou family magecraft. Zouken had used those disgusting worms of his mould Sakura into an heir. That meant those things had been all up inside...
Bile rose to my throat. I was forced to put a hand over my mouth.
Magi.
God, so many of those fuckers were so casually horrible, so vile and utterly abhorrent. Small wonder why I could not respect them, and why they were so incredibly suspicious of one another.
A thief expected others to steal.
A liar expected others to lie like them.
A magus expected others to do as they did.
I... did not want to tell Rin.
My gaze wandered, desperately searching for a distraction, an excuse to avoid the dreadful direction this conversation was headed in. Nobunaga lowered her head. Somehow, the warlord was able to understand my mind from my face alone. With a sigh, she walked away to sit down in the grass behind us, far enough that no casual conversation would reach any human's ears.
Archer shook his head, and dissipated, gone as easily as he'd come.
"I should've just insisted on guard duty." I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck.
Rin tilted her again, still curious but confused too.
"Henry, what's wrong?"
"Rin, I destroyed the Matou Residence." I decided to start there, "Shinji's dead. Zouken ran away."
"Sakura...?"
"She's with Shirou, in his home. Rider's there too, and Saber, so they should be safe unless Berserker heads over for some god-forsaken reason."
She processed the information in silence, her confusion palpable. I could understand. This was akin to telling someone like my Professor that one of the Twelve Lords was dead at my hands. The Matou were a significant household within Fuyuki.
Then, after an awkwardly long silence, she uttered a simple word.
"Why?"
"Shinji, because he was forcing himself on..." I stopped.
The words were too difficult to utter. I really wasn't good at this kind of stuff. Something like this, I couldn't just attack it, or even run away. No matter how much strength I was capable of casually mustering, it mattered little.
Of course, I could... just not care.
But, that was impossible.
I accepted that too.
"On who, Henry?"
I averted my gaze.
"Rin..."
Her bright blue eyes dimmed. She grabbed me by the collar of my shirt.
"Who?"
"..."
She knew.
Of course, she knew. There was no way for her to not know.
Rin's eyes glazed over, "And Zouken just let it happen?"
I breathed deeply. "...He may have been worse."
Her lips trembled, as if they did not know what they do, and her fierce self-assured gaze began to waver. I was familiar with that frustration, but I wasn't about to delude myself by thinking I could understand even a bit of what she was feeling right now.
I didn't even want to imagine it.
"I-"
Her knees lost their strength. I was quick to grab her, holding her up with my hands.
"I... knew. I didn't want to-... Of course I fucking knew what kind of-... Why didn't I-"
"Rin."
"She looked so-"
"She's still alive. Shinji died like a dog."
"While I enjoyed-..." Her breath hitched, "She-"
"Rin. You didn't know-"
"I did! I'm not blind! I saw how she looked! I couldn't... I didn't want to accept..."
God... this was so difficult. I wasn't strong enough to bear that look of hers, the teary eyes... Why did I have to even tell her? What was even I supposed to say to make her feel better? No words would ever possibly be enough.
Rin Tohsaka sputtered and mumbled impotent words that she did not believe amidst silent sobs and hitched breaths, shivering against my hands. I... tried to think of something to do or say. I pulled her in, and hugged her tight. That was what you were supposed to do when someone was sad, right?
"Oh God, how does she fee-... Henry, d-do you know how Sakura-?"
I shook my head atop hers. She was really small.
"I'll kill him. I'll fucking kill Zouken."
To her hate-filled declaration, I closed my eyes, feeling the wind brush against my face. The mist had begun to clear. When I opened them, I noticed something... someone.
"I'll help you."
She could take it slow, rip him piece to piece, and I would be happy to help, for once, I would be happy to help with even that kind of brutality.
"Then, I'll make it up to Sakura... s-somehow. I... I'll try."
"Mm. I'll help you then too. For now, do you need a punching bag?"
"What?"
"Would you like to punch something? I know I would."
She pushed me away, both hands against my chest. "What are you...?"
With another sigh, I raised a finger to point at the bridge beside us. There, atop the railing, sat a certain hound, a crimson spear slung over his shoulder. His blood-red eyes shimmered in the darkness.
"If you want... I can hold him off while you go to Emiya's."
She stared up at me. "I'm... I'm not going to ignore anything like this ever again."
...What?
"Thank you, Henry."
"For what?"
"For being here."
-
Thanks for reading.
I hope this chapter reads as well for you as it did for me. Please, do tell me your thoughts. And despite this, if it's not up to par, tell me that too. I'm more than willing to rewrite.