[Chapter 8] — Love and War

My mind was racing at light speed but it still found no way to get me out of this one. I would prefer fighting both Cu and “Myself” at the same time before having to repeat this scenario again. Right now, I am sitting in seiza while listening to Taiga’s lecture with Artoria next to me now wearing a blue yukata.

“SO? Do you have anything to say for yourself? And it better be something very convincing or else”

OK, you can do this, you’ve fought millions of monsters, you’ve fought gods too, this is nothing compared to that.

“Well…. This…. *clear throat* this is Artoria, my…. Fiancee?” I said while tilting my head to the side, I think my thoughts were racing just a bit too fast. They froze, maybe they it’s not the best way to put it since all four of us froze when those words left my mouth.

“YOUR WHAT?” 2x

Well shit, yeah Shirou keep digging deeper, that’s the best you can do.

“You see, her father and Kiritsugu were very good friends and one thing let too another when we were on a little family trip and things ended up like this. I know arranged marriage it’s not a common thing now a days but we didn’t really have a problem with it, or more like we also agree with it after growing and knowing each other more”

I knew the story was bullshit, Artoria knew the story was bullshit, and I am sure as hell Taiga and Sakura would have realized the story was bullshit if I hadn’t put a little something on my voice. It’s one of the many things I learned when studying souls on my last life, I use my soul and mix simple suggestions within my voice, something like calm down, believe it, trust me, it’s like a tone down version of brainwashing and it was working.

“ I see…. So that happen and you had not even thought of mention it to me OR to Sakura?”

“Well, the thing is that Artoria was not sure if she was going through with the plan so I was waiting for her decision, the reason she came here was to let me know that she agrees with the marriage and so she will be living with me now and we’ll be getting married after we graduate from school.”

“I see, since you are engaged then there is no problem, but refrain from doing …. Things you shouldn’t do until you get married. Now let’s get ready, go make breakfast or we are going to be late for school.”

See, problem solved, you are the best indeed brain. I looked at Artoria and gave her a thumbs up but it looks like she was still trying to process all the information going into her at once, I am sure that I am the only one who has met this kind of situation in the middle of the grail war. I then looked towards Sakura and smiled at her, the smile she gave back told me everything I needed to know, I made it through the storm. Or so I thought.

--- A couple of minutes after the storm ---

“Eh, Sa-Sakura, what’s this?”

“huh? What do you mean Senpai?”

“We-well, this bread, you know what? forget it.”

After the greetings and the getting to know each other, we were all together at the table about to eat breakfast. Sakura prefers to cook western food, so the breakfast that found itself on top of the table was scrambled eggs with sausage and toast. It looked like today she decided to keep it on the simple side but I am sure it would have tasted good anyways. The thing is, the tasty looking breakfast was on the plate of the three women on the table, while my plate had only bread on it, no butter, or even toasted, just plain bread. I knew Sakura was resistant to my soul related abilities but I didn’t expect it to have no effect at all, furthermore I didn’t expect this outcome. Now there is nothing for me to do but to eat the plain bread and push it down with the tea next to it.

*Ugh*

“Bitter” I said while my tongue hanged out.

“Did you say something, Senpai?” Said Sakura with her head tilted to the side.

“N-no”

OK, there is no other option, I looked towards Taiga to see if I could take some of hers but she knew what I was thinking and was shielding her food as if trying to prevent the wind to put out a weak fire. With no other choice I can only get help from Artoria, or, so I thought until I saw that she was almost done with hers.

“By the gods, how did you?” how did she eat it so fast at that pace.

It wasn’t a fast pace, it wasn’t rushed at all, it was a normal speed, but the food was disappearing into her as if she was just breathing.

“huh?” she looked at me in wonder.

“Nothing … keep enjoying your food” after I said this, her eyes opened in wonder and she looked at my plate and saw the half eaten bread and the bitter tea, she blushed and then started separating her food to give me half of the things she had left.

“Oh, no need to worry miss Artoria, he doesn’t eat much in the morning so you don’t have to worry about him, on the contrary, I am glad that you are enjoying the food I made, if we weren’t rushed for time then I would have prepared something better.”

“no, this is indeed something simple but it’s way more than just acceptable, it has a wonderful taste”

“hehe, I am glad you liked it.”

Tick Tock Tick Tock, minutes went by and it was time for us to leave for school, we all finished getting ready to leave when Artoria approached me in silence,

“Shirou, don’t you have something else for me to change into? I don’t think I should be going out dressed like this”

“huh, we got to buy some clothes for you since all you have is your dress. For now, let me see what I can find”

I made my way back to my room and looked for anything that could work, but I didn’t find anything. Until an idea popped into my head.

“Oh, that could work”

After a couple of minutes of waiting for Artoria to change clothes, the door to my room opened and now Artoria stood in front of me newly dressed. Her top was covered by one of my white shirts and her bottom was cover by one of my jeans, I also gave her a pair of white shoes to match it. Her hair was down from sleeping so it was a completely different feeling from before. Of course, there is no way my clothes would fit her so I used a little magic. After she changed into them, I used Alteration magic which is a step between Reinforcement and projection on the clothes and changed it so that it was as if it was specifically made for her.

https://typemoon.fandom.com/wiki/Saber_(Fate/stay_night)?file=Saber_new_casual.png#Casual

“I see” I said with a thoughtful voice as I rubbed my chin with one hand and supported that arm with another.

“What is it Shirou?” she asked me and still drowned in thought I answered.

“Oh, I was thinking ‘so you are that type of woman’"

Her expression changed into a troubled one, I’m guessing it’s because I called her a woman even though she wants me not to think of her as one.

“What type?” she asked while being half trouble and half curious.

“The type of woman who looks beautiful no matter what she wears, those clothes are just regular every day clothes but you still look outstanding. However… let’s make a little change.”

I grabbed her hand and pulled her inside of the room, sat her in a chair and start it doing her hair, she doesn’t look bad with her hair down. But I bet she will look twice as beautiful with the hair style she had before. It looked kind of difficult to replicate but when you have to help more than 20 of your wives and all of your daughters to fix their hair, you can end up being at least half a professional. Like that I ran my hands through her hair, it was as soft as it looked, as for the smell, it was unfortunately the shampoo I usually use. Doing this reminded me of the feeling I got when feeling her soul, On the surface she is a king without a doubt, but in the deepest place where no one can she hides a simple girl who wants to be happy.

“Done” I said while being satisfied at my job and pulled her in front of a full length mirror in the room. It wasn’t any different from what she was wearing when I summoned her, her blonde hair tied in a bun with a blue ribbon to keep it together.

“Like I said before …. Beautiful” I said while standing behind her, I saw her mouth open to say something but it was interrupted before anything came out.

“Shirou, hurry up or Sakura will be late to the club” yelled Taiga.

“Alright, I’m done” I yelled back.

Artoria walked to the door next to me in silence, I don’t know if she was just lost in thought or if she just didn’t have anything to say. When we reached the outside door, I looked at Artoria and asked her where she was headed to, she remembers the last time she was summoned here which was only 10 years ago so she probably is going to one of the places she visited before.

“What do you mean Shirou? I’m going to school with you of course.”

#

Amazing! Only a bit, only a bit more and I would have let her come to school with me. Her sulking face almost made me fall to my knees.

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“Senpai”

“What happened Sakura?”

“We-Well, was it ok to leave her like that? she seemed upset.”

Her mentioning it again just triggered my memories. When I asked Artoria where was she headed to, she answered with “eh? I am going to school with you Shirou” as if it was the most natural thing in the world. After I told her I couldn’t bring her to school with me she insisted but backed down after some time of discussion and after I told her that she can go with me from tomorrow on, reason for this being that I need to do a couple of stuff first, like casually brainwashing the principal to get her to transfer from whatever made up school in England.

“It’s alright, she knows that she has to wait until tomorrow since her transfer papers say she starts school tomorrow.”

“What? So Artoria is going to transfer to our school?”

“yeah she is, even if she ends up married, she still has to keep up with her education since she is still young” well not really, she is probably older than you by a lot.

“Married” I heard Sakura said under her breath but it still managed to reach my ears.

“It’s alright Sakura, nothing will change between us even if I get married. Plus, maybe with an example in front of you, you might be able to advance your own relationship with your boyfriend” after I said this, I expected the usual denial saying that she doesn’t have a boyfriend she has repeated time and time again but it never came. I looked back and saw that she stopped walking and was looking straight at me.

“Yes, but… Senpai… if … if I didn’t have a boyfriend would anything be different between us? What could have been different?” she said as she looked into my eyes waiting for my answer. I didn’t answer, or more like I couldn’t since she caught me by surprise but that didn’t stop me from walking back to her. When I reached the space in front of her, I raised my hands and cupped her cheeks in both my hands. She was still looking into my eyes while I was brushing her soft cheeks with my thumb. I thought twice about doing what I was thinking of doing but both times resulted in the same desire and the same answer once again, I lowered my head until my lips were almost brushing with hers but stopped at the end.

Yeah, I like her, there is no denying that. But what about her? She has a partner already and me trying to take her for me could end up being more negative than positive. She gave him her first time, and I know that she is not the type to do something like that without feeling, if she gave him her first then he must be important. Yeah, she wavers from time to time, like now she is not pushing me back, but if I selfishly go through with it and she ends up regretting it later then it going to be hard for us to keep a normal friendship. I just have to make sure that I don’t meet the guy since I might actually end up killing him by accident. Hehe! These thoughts raced in my head when I decided to retreat not out of fear or cowardice, but from wanting the best for Sakura.

“Sor-“ I was apologizing while bringing my head back up but the complete words were not able to leave my mouth. My head was pulled back down forcefully and my lips were sealed, my eyes went wide as my mind managed to catch up with what was happening. Sakura pulled me back down and kissed me herself, it was a sloppy kiss from a beginner, it feels as if she is still not use to it but It was soft and sweet. The hands that I brought down to the side found their way to Sakura’s waist as I couldn’t control myself and made the kiss deeper than it needed to be. Every time my tongue moved and brushed against hers, I felt her shiver as light moans were escaping through the gaps.

“Sen-Senpai” as she was grasping for air, I regain my senses when I had to support her since her knees were about to give out.

“Sakura, are you ok? Sorry I didn’t mean to-”

“It-It’s ok Senpai, Just- Just give me a second to breathe” Lucky for me the streets were still empty since it was early in the morning. After confirming this, my gaze return to Sakura which caused my breathing to stop, her usual well-kept hair was a mess, her cheeks were flushed red, her lips moist from the mixed saliva, and her eyes were misty. I would have taken her somewhere ‘indoors’ right now to keep going, no questions ask and it would not be for her to catch her breathe but for her to lose it. But what stopped me was a single tear going down her face, I felt my heart going down to my feet and then coming right back up.

*By the gods, what the hell did I just do*

“Sa-Sakura Sorry I didn’t mean to”

*Shake Shake*

She stopped me from apologizing by shaking her head.

“It’s alright Senpai, It’s nothing”

“It couldn’t have been nothing, you’re crying!”

“It-It’s really nothing”

----Sakura’s Point of view----

I’ve been with Senpai for more than a year now, I thought I knew almost everything about him since I am with him almost every day but who would have thought that one of the things that I didn’t know was that he had a fiancee. Now that they are going to live together, I will have to stop going to his house, I will have to stop waking him up every morning, I will have to stop making him breakfast, I will have to stop what I feel for him.

“It’s alright Sakura” Senpai said while looking at me. “Nothing will change between us”

I know he meant it to be good, that’s how he has always been, a kind Senpai who always worries about me. But I don’t want to stay the way we are now.

““Yes, but… Senpai… if … if I didn’t have a boyfriend would anything be different? What could have been different?” Those words escaped my mouth without my permission, but I still want to know the answer even if it’s not the answer I want, so I’ll face him and accept it.

He looked at me in the eyes without looking away for a second even as he walked towards me, his hands cupped my face and his face approached mine all within a single smooth action, but he stopped before his lips met mine and then start to back up.

*No-NO, don’t leave me Senpai, I need you with me or I’ll brake, or he’ll brake me*

I pulled him towards me and kissed him, it was my first kiss. Even if I let ‘him’ do all that to me, I have never let him kiss me. I thought it was going to be scary like what ‘he’ does to me but it’s not, I like it, I am so happy that tears are running down my face.

“Sorry” oh, he thinks I am crying because of him.

“It’s not your fault Senpai”

After I managed to fix my breathing and regained the strength on my legs, senpai let go of me and turned around to keep walking, but not before I managed to catch a glance at his expression. He still thinks that I was crying because of him, I don’t know what to do, He doesn’t look like he will believe me even if I tell him it wasn’t his fault again.

*Grab*

I ran to him and held his hand, he looked surprise and tried to take his hand away but I didn’t let him. He doesn’t know but I can be surprisingly stubborn if I put my mind to it. When he realized I wouldn’t let go he stopped pulling his hand and held mine too, like that we kept walking towards the school in silence, when I looked at his face again, I managed to see that his expression was better than before, I kept stealing glances at him but my eyes kept focusing on his lips. I felt my cheeks heat up from one second to another and it looks like senpai realized it because he had a goofy grin in his face, I know I shouldn’t feel the way I do with him now having a fiancé. But he thinks I have a boyfriend so as long as I don’t tell him the truth then there should be no problem.

We entered the school and Senpai dropped me off in front of the Archery club, I didn’t want to let go of him but I had to but right after I let go, he pulled me back and hugged me from behind, he gave me a light kiss on the cheek and then left towards the school building.

“I don’t think I want us to stay the same Senpai” I didn’t have the courage to say to his face so these words just banished with no prove of them.

---Shirou’s PV---

School went by just like any other day. Classes were just as boring as before, being alive for more than 10 thousand years and having reading as a hobby it’s going to be a problem when you go to classes that are meant for a teenager. With nothing else to do I just let my thoughts drift to and from every place my mind finds, Thoughts about the war, about the future me, about Artoria, about Sakura, and about my wives and children. I didn’t even notice that it was time for lunch until I hear a voice directed at me.

“Hey Emiya”

“….” Someone called out to me but when I saw where the voice came from, I lost all interest.

“Come on, don’t be like that. I just wanted to speak to you about Sakura”

“What do you want Shinji!”

“Nothing really, The Archery club is not going to meet for a while and Sakura is going straight home after school. You should do the same to since we wouldn’t want something bad to happen to you, things are dangerous at night now a days.”

That’s all he said and then left. I can’t understand how such a cute little girl can have such a garbage of a brother.

“Let me go meet the principal for a minute”

-Some time later in the day-

“Well, thank you very much mister principal, I trust that everything will be ready for her to start attending school tomorrow.”

“Yes of course, there is no problem” if anybody else was in the room they would have known that the principal was not in his right mind, first of all he is following the orders of a student as if he was his boss, and second is that his eyes are strangely foggy and lightless as he spoke. It was as if he was sleep talking.

I went out of the office and after closing the door I snapped my fingers, from that point on he was going to start working on making up every document needed. I could have also just modified his memories but then I would have to modify the memories of the other staff and if someone from the outside notices something then things would be annoying to deal with. After Walking for a bit, I started noticing that there was something weird, something fell out of place or more like there was something missing. There is something that you will always be able to find in a school, that’s the people there whether they are the students or the staff but there was no sign of anyone close to me, when I used my soul to feel the location of the people there just a couple near while the rest were leaving.

“So? Do you have anything to do with this, Rin?” Besides the Principal and a couple of other people in the school, the closest soul I felt near me was Rin’s.

“Didn’t I tell you that the next time we saw each other we were going to be enemies and that the best place for you would be the church?”

“Yes, you did”

“So?”

“So….what?”

“So why are you here acting like it has nothing to do with you?”

“Well, to be fair I never agreed to it, plus the chances of something happening at school are pretty low, right?”

“Normally yes, if it were not for the fact that there is a master about to blow your brains to bits right now” she said as she rolled her sleeves up.

“and who would that master be?”

“Me” She activated her magic crest and a blue pattern started glowing on her arm, she then pointed at me with her arm and asked me

“Will you surrender and give up your command seals?”

“What are you going to do if I don’t? Shoot me?” I said with a smile on my face which could be translated to me no taking any of the current situation serious which might have not been the best option to take when dealing with Rin Tohsaka.

“Yes” she said and without any further warning,

*BANG*

A black beam of light shot straight through the concrete wall behind me.

“You-you really shot at me?”

“I said I would, right?” she answered while preparing another which I dodge by tilting my upper body to the left.

“So? Where it’s your servant?”

“Not here, but you don’t have to worry. I am more than enough to deal with you!”

She ran down the stairs she was on and kept shooting the black beam to me, but she was still acting as a tsundere even now. All of her shoots were aimed towards nonlethal places, mostly my arms, shoulders, and legs to keep me from moving, but things were not working for her. I kept dodging all of her shots, the next shot was aimed at my left shoulder so I tilted my body to the right as I moved backwards to keep the same starting distance we had at the start. Then the target was my right leg which I dodge by jumping lightly so that the shot would pass under me. I tried to make the ‘game’ more interesting and reinforced my body bit by bit, until she was not able to even grace me with the beams.

“How about this!” I said while increasing my speed from 25 to 75 in less than a second, she was still not used to the speed so by the time she managed to blink I already had both her arms in my hands, her feet stopped touching the ground because I had my knee between her tights and her back against the wall as a support. It might be because of what happened with Sakura before but I wasn’t satisfied at all, so I replaced my target and now Rin was receiving a kiss from me. It was just what I imagined, after you had a taste of it you wouldn’t get enough no matter how much you had. Just like with Sakura, from one second to another the kiss got deeper and deeper. I saw her cheeks tinted red so I thought things would have gone the same as with Sakura but I couldn’t have been more mistaken.

*Flinch*

She bit on my lower lip softly, I thought she was starting to get into it but the strength she used to bite me was increasing by the second, I pulled back and she released me to allow me to back up but just before I was going to complain about her getting to into it I felt something struck the side of my face with a force that could be said to be three or four times more than that of a grown man. It was Rin’s elbow that hit with that strength which caused me to be surprise for a couple of seconds as I rolled on the ground.

“Oh, my oh my, if you are that forceful with girls then you will be hated Shirou. And also, you don’t think you are the only one capable of strengthening his body, right?”

I felt something hot going down my mouth and when I touched it to see what it was, I realized that she bit me strong enough to cut my lip so deep that blood was basically dripping down my chin.

“Wow, who would have thought that the famous Rin Tohsaka was into rough play. Well, I won’t mind it if that’s what you like” I said while wiping the blood off.

“Well, if you are down for it then that means I can be as rough as I want right?” she said while pulling something out of the pocket in her skirt.

“A jewel?” Right then and there my instinct told me something that could be described in a single word. RUN!

“Oh shit!” I said with a smile that became stiff, it looks like she really does like to play rough.

“Wh- You’re running!?”

“Hell yeah I’m running” I ran down the hall and jumped down the stairs making sure to keep my attention on Rin who was following close behind. I never seen something like that but the amount of mana inside of that gem would be enough to blow two or three classrooms no problem.

“Aren’t you taking this a bit too serious?” I asked her.

“Aren’t you playing around too much?” she answered.

It became a game of search and destroy. Actually, it already was, but now that she started using reinforcement the level went up by 1 or 2 levels. She began shooting at me again which caused me to turn a couple of corners I wasn’t planning on but then I realized what was happening when I saw the dead end in front of me.

“Smart, she led me to a place with nowhere to go”

I looked back when I had no more hallway to run to and saw her make the turn and reach the place I was.

“Let’s see where you plan to run next” she said as she was readying herself to throw her gem at me and she did. There were many things that could get me out of this situation in a heart bit, the main one being getting serious. But I wanted to play for a bit and now that she pulled this gem out, I will be able to test something I wanted to try from before.

“I AM THE BONE OF MY SWORD

THEIR BLOOD MAKES MY BODY, AND THEIR SPIRIT MAKES MY SOUL”

With these two verses, two of the locks that I placed on my soul and magic were released.

*Boom*

The gem exploded and blue light covered my field of vision almost just as fast as I managed to project a shield, I saw it in the dream I had of future me.

“RHO AIAS” as I yelled that, a 2 petal flower bloomed in front of me and two shield layers appeared in front of it.

*huh? Wasn’t it supposed to be a seven petal flower with seven shield layers?”

As I thought of that, my od was draining fast and the explosion reached the shield, since the floor didn’t crack, I think Rin might have reinforce it. It was an incomplete Projection, it was draining too much magical energy, there were only 2 of the seven petals, and the shield layers were way weaker than what they should be. The result of this experiment led me to a mistake that I am sure I will not repeat again; do not try to use something you’ve never projected before in the middle of battle or you will regret it.

*Crack*

Good, even though the projection was bad, it still managed to hold enough to take that explosion. It wasn’t as bad as I though.

“Guha”

*SPURT Splat*

Right as the shield broke, I felt an unimaginable pain going through my body and fell to my knees, not only that but I felt that something broke, I don’t know what it was but the amount of blood coming out of me is telling me is something important.

“Do you finally surrender?” asked Rin as she came out of the corner she hid in from the explosion.

I was going to answer her right away but I was still grimacing from the pain. Which also didn’t last long, once again just like the time I impaled my hand with a knife the thing inside of me was doing its job. The pain was leaving just as fast as the injuries were, on the outside I looked the same as I did before we even started the ‘fight’, but my insides were a mess that is in the middle of healing itself and changing more of me from human flesh to swords.

“Great, become more of a monster than you already are” I whispered to myself. “ And no, I have no reason to surrender when there is no threat to me here.” I said while rising to my feet again and getting ready for whatever she was going to throw at me next.

*Sigh*

Rin sighed and raised her hand arm to shoot at me with the black beam again.

“Don’t say I never gave you a warning” she was ready to shoot when,

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”