Silence, accompanied by the sound of running water.
“…What?”
“S-Senpai?!” Sakura’s shocked voice echoed from the kitchen. “Th-that’s…”
Fuji-nee let out a booming laughter and slapped the table. “About time you manned up! I knew I didn’t teach you wrong!”
“…Anyway, is there anything interesting in the news?” Shirou walked over to the table and sat down.
Fuji-nee frowned. “Shouldn’t you be helping Sakura out in the kitchen?”
“It’s fine, Fuji-nee!” Sakura said. “I’m almost done.”
Maybe it was Shirou’s declaration or something else, but Sakura’s voice was bright as she spoke.
Fuji-nee sighed and ruffled her newspaper again. “Well, if she says so I guess it can’t be helped. As for anything interesting… there’s been a string of murders happening recently.”
“Murders, huh?”
Shirou glanced towards the television. On screen was a broadcast about the latest incidents in Fuyuki. The current story was about a family of three being killed by someone wielding a bladed weapon.
Fuji-nee nodded. “That’s right. It’s been dangerous recently. I’m thinking about postponing afternoon practices for the archery club. It isn’t safe to stay too late after school.”
“Hm.”
Shirou let out a non-commital response and then watched the news.
Was it because he knew more than ‘Emiya Shirou’ or something else? Either way, he could judge the attacker from the wounds described by the newscaster.
Lancer, huh?
They thought it might be a sword, but from the sweeping slashes, Shirou knew that it couldn’t be.
“Here, Senpai. Fuji-nee.”
Sakura placed some dishes on the table. “Breakfast is ready.”
Fuji-nee turned to stare at Shirou.
Under the pressure, he got up. “Let me help you with that, Sakura.”
The violet haired young woman shook her head. “It’s fine, Senpai-“
“I insist.”
After a silent moment, Sakura blushed and nodded.
===
Breakfast was the usual affair in the Emiya household. The only difference was that Fuji-nee dashed off in a rush since she was running late.
After helping Sakura clean up the dishes, Shirou and Sakura left for school.
An awkward silence followed the two as they walked, born from Sakura’s nerves and Shirou’s comfort with the peaceful morning tranquility.
Sakura walked to the left of Shirou. She held her bag by its handles, carrying it with both hands.
Shirou walked with his bag slung over his right shoulder, holding it by its handle with one hand.
Like that, the pair walked along the mountain path towards Fuyuki high school.
Shirou was lost in thought, pondering the upcoming events. On one hand, he wasn’t required to fight in the grail war, and he definitely didn’t relish getting stabbed to death by Lancer. On the other, if he didn’t follow through with how he remembered events would unfold, everything would take an unpredictable turn.
If he had a better handle on his magecraft, things could be different, but he needed time for that. Time he didn’t really have… not yet.
“Um… Senpai?”
“Hm?” Shirou looked up at Sakura. “Is something the matter?”
“This morning… did you really mean that?”
Shirou blinked and wracked his mind for what he said. “Ah, you mean being part of the Emiya household?”
Sakura gave a meek nod. “Yes.”
“Well, you are, aren’t you?” Shirou smiled and scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know what I would have done without you all these years. You’re already family to me, and if it was just a few years later…”
“Senpai?”
Shirou shook his head. “…It’s nothing. But I really care about you Sakura. You’re one of the most important people in my life. Don’t ever doubt that.”
The words were a mix of Shirou and the man who had become Shirou. The sentiments of both tangled as one.
After a few steps, Shirou realized that Sakura had stopped walking. He turned his head back and said, “Sakura?”
The violet-haired young woman looked up at him. A complicated look was on her face. She bit her lips and stared at Shirou as if debating whether or not to speak. Eventually, her eyes took on a look of resolution and she said, “Senpai.”
“Yes?”
Sakura took a deep breath and then said, “Please go home early tonight.”
“Well, of course I will. It’s not like I have anything better to do at school.”
Hearing Shirou’s response, Sakura let out a sigh of relief and smiled. “That’s all I wanted to say, Senpai.” After that, she ran up ahead of Shirou, twirling around to look back at him. “Come on, Senpai! We don’t want to be late!” With a bright laugh, Sakura started jogging.
Shirou smiled and sped up his pace to follow her.
Peaceful and innocent times, free of combat or worry… if only he could keep it like that forever.
===
Class was surprisingly simple. The combination of Shirou’s accumulated experiences and the diligence of ‘Emiya Shirou’ led him to breeze through the lectures without needing to pay attention. Instead of listening to the teacher, sitting at his desk, Shirou started writing notes about how he was going to prepare for the upcoming battle.
Unlimited Blade Works… was probably unusable for him. Avalon was a no go. To begin with, he didn’t even know how to sense it. If it existed, he couldn’t use it. That might change when Saber was summoned, but until then it was a lost cause.
No, Shirou had to stick with what he knew and could use. The first among that was projection, reinforcement, and structural analysis.
Emiya Shirou was a person who made blades. However, the one who had become Emiya Shirou was a person who used blades and created stories. Together, there should be a way out of this mess, one where he could save everyone around.
But how…
“Emiya-kun.” A straight-laced male voice called out to him. “Do you have any plans for lunch?”
Shirou looked up to see a young man with glasses and blue hair. It took a moment for him to register, but habits made him speak up ahead of time. “Issei. Did you need me to fix something again?”
Issei coughed. “It’s not like I only come to you to fix things, Emiya-kun.”
“…But this time you are, right?”
Issei flushed. “…Yes. In compensation, I brought you lunch. I hope it’s enough.”
Shirou leaned back and stretched before gathering his belongings. “Alright. Lead the way, Issei.”
===
Issei led Shirou to the student council room. There, a heater was sprawled out along the side with a toolbox seated next to it.
“So this is what you need fixed, huh?”
“Yes, Emiya-kun. It would save us a lot of expenses if you could be so kind as to repair it.”
“Hm.”
Shirou walked over to take a look at the heater. At the same time, Issei walked over to the meeting table and began laying out food.
“Would you like some tea, Emiya-kun?”
“That’d be great, Issei.”
Issei nodded and poured out a cup of tea from a thermos while setting up everything else.
In the meantime, Shirou unscrewed the heater’s panels to take a look inside. A single glance wasn’t enough to determine the problem, since he wasn’t a mechanic. However, he had his trump card.
“Let’s see if this works…” Shirou muttered.
Shirou grabbed a flashlight and made a show of peering inside the heater. At the same time, his free hand grabbed the heater’s side and he closed his eyes.
“Trace, on.”
Was it because Shirou was more familiar with the process than ‘Emiya Shirou’ or because he was personally more suited towards analysis? Either way, not only did the structural analysis start without a hitch, but he got a much more detailed report out of it. An image like a cad diagram overlayed the heater, and comments marking out flawed sections appeared in his field of view like a useful GUI.
“Huh.”
“Did you figure it out, Emiya-kun?”
Shirou leaned back and nodded. Despite breaking contact with the heater, the image was still in his field of vision, along with the report. “It looks like the wire is loose and some parts got a bit rusty.”
“Is it bad?”
Shirou shook his head. “Not really. It’ll just be a bit.”
After saying that, Shirou rummaged in the toolbox for some spare parts. Wires, solder, the works.
Although he said it was simple to Issei, it would take a while to fix it the ordinary way with the tools provided. However, Shirou had his ways.
This time, he didn’t need to say the aria to use his magecraft. All Shirou had to do was place the parts where he wanted to alter them and then envision the change. The useful display in his field of view automated the process for him, and in a few minutes everything was fixed.
Shirou leaned back and closed up the heater, screwing its panels back in.
“Hm?” Issei said. “Finished so soon?”
“It was an easy fix.”