Sitting at the kitchen table, Aiko noticed that it was quite late. Shirou would be home quite a long time before dinner most days, and it was getting close to time to eat.
Smelling the tinge of copper in the air getting closer to the manor, Aiko called for Raynell and rushed to the front door in panic. "MEDIC! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE! SHIROU'S BLEEDING!"
“I’m on my way!” A quick stomping from afar heralded the resident healer. “Where is he?!”
Almost ripping the door from the wall, the beast called back. "Follow me! He's this way!"
As she left the house, she ran over a black-haired girl with blue eyes, who happened to be carrying the poor boy.
The girl began to call her out for it, but paled instead, gripping Shirou with frantic strength. "Hey! Watch it… Oh."
Seeing as it was Rin Tohsaka that was carrying Shirou, Aiko picked her up and carried both of them inside to Raynell.
Seeing the sorry state of Shirou, Raynell rushed to the boy. He placed his hands on his head and began to pray. “Oh God, the Eternal Father. I ask thee this day in a plea to heal the ailments of my dear friend, Shirou. Bless him so that he may feel your comfort and love, and that his pain may be eased, his burden light. Yet if it is your will that I should use my own talents to tend for him, bless me with the knowledge to do so with ease. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”
Gabriel burst from the ceiling, pointing an accusatory finger at Raynel. “So that’s how you’ve been stealing the power of the heavens from us!”
Wincing from the phantom pain, Shiro opened his eyes with sluggish confusion. “Wh... What happened?”
Raynell held a hand up to stop the fuming angel. “Respectfully Gabriel. What the hell? I’ve only been praying to our Lord and he has been answering them. Nothing more, nothing less.”
She stopped and sat down to think. “Is this true?”
A nod. His eyes deep with conviction. “Yes. If this is a lie, then I shall allow myself to be smitten by your hand. Let’s talk about this elsewhere.” A nod from the angel and they left the room.
Heading towards the location, Iihito and Illya perked towards the group. “Uhh, guys. What’s going on here?”
Staring at Rin in worry, Aiko began to pry her off of Shirou. "Shirou got stabbed. I think Miss Second Owner saved him, and now she looks like she's dead."
“Well shit.” Looking towards Shirou, Iihito picked him from the ground. “You at least recall what the person looked like?”
“Uhm... Blue... He was wearing all blue with a crimson red spear.” Shirou responded.
As if she had come to a realization, Aiko began to shout at the roof. "Wait. Lancer ISN'T dead yet?!"
A heavy thunk was heard from above the group, followed by faint mumblings.
“Shit, he’s here to finish the job isn’t he?” Iihito mumbled, before materializing a golden staff sword.
Illya narrowed her eyes before glancing toward the ceiling. “Berserker, go find Lancer.”
“5̴̢̫̗̃̌͝2̶̖̖̥̇͋͋́6̴̡̮͙̝̔̈́̕͝f̴̭͉́͗6̴̥̬̇ͅ7̸̥̕6̵̛̼͕̊̀̕5̶͙̻͗̚͝͠7̸̘̹̫͗́̒̔2̶̧͈̓̓͛̈́2̵̗̲̃̋̋̃0̵̠͉̫̗̍7̸̤̣̉̐͐̈́ͅ4̷̖̪͆͌6̷̡͔̩̂8̸̹̰̝̌̇6̵̥̯̈́̄́1̵̧̭̙͉̽́7̴̗͌͐̉͒4̸̫͓̿͛̓” A loud thud echoed from the roof.
“Gae Bolg!” A mysterious voice suddenly cried, followed by more thudding.
Turning towards a loud thud outside, Iihito slid the door to reveal a man in blue spandex. “As much as I hate to admit it, that’s a good call. I’ll be seeing you later, you giant hulk of muscle.”
Jumping back, the man disappeared into the night skies.
Closing the door, Iihito looked at Shirou. “Alright, I think it’s time to summon a servant.”
“Servant?” Shirou raised a brow.
Quickly sliding a door open, a gun-wielding Kiritsugu looked toward Shirou. “I agree, with a grail war so close to starting it would not be safe for him to roam around without protection anymore.”
Thinking about it for a minute, while feeling quite confused, Aiko finally clued in that they weren't talking about the lewd kind at all. "Ah yeah. Right. Protection. Hehe, sorry. My mind immediately went into the gutter there for a moment."
“What? I don’t need a servant. Isn’t a sword enough?” Shirou tilted his head.
“Ok, think of it this way. Would you feel confident dealing with half a dozen berserkers?” Iihito interjected.
Wincing, Shirou looked towards Rin. “Would that even happen?”
Shaking herself from her fearful daze, Rin contemplated the idea carefully. "... It's not likely, but it's possible."
“Right... But that’s not guaranteed to happen right?”
Remembering a certain mobile game, Aiko decided to make a quick joke. "Depends on if we go to France or not."
“I don’t think people would get that reference...” Iihito interjected. “Doesn’t help that most people tend to flat-out skip the cutscenes to get to the Lostbelts.”
Frowning at the thought of skipping the most important part of the game, Aiko shook her head. "Ah. That's just dumb. Why would you skip the fun part? The battle is the part that should be skipped in my opinion."
“Hey, I’m not the one who decided to time gate events with story requirements. Most of the good events require you to beat Goetia at the very least for some reason.” Iihito shrugged.
Taking a brief glance at the two, Kiritsugu walked towards Shirou before dragging him out of the room.
~~Line break~~
Entering the room, Kiritsugu guided Emiya toward the summoning room. Kiritsugu sighed, looking towards the summoning circle. “Shirou, do you recall the chant I told you to remember?”
Shirou nodded.
Kiritsugu hummed. “Good, begin to recite the chant.”
“Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation. Let my great Master Emiya be the ancestor. Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall. Let the four cardinal gates close. Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate.
An oath shall be sworn here! I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven. I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell!
I hereby declare. Your body shall serve under me. My fate shall be your sword. Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail. If you will submit to this will and this reason…Then answer!”
Light shone from the circle, covering their eyes. Shirou looked away from the flash of light before it began to fade revealing a female blonde knight holding an invisible sword.
“Servant, saber. I ask of you. Are you my Master?” The petite woman opened her eyes, staring towards the two.
Shirou stared back, that woman looked awfully familiar. “Smith? What are you doing holding that sword?”
“EMIYA?! Good, we have unfinished business that needs to be addressed since we last met.” Pointing her invisible blade towards Kiritsugu, Saber scowled. “Ignore them at your own peril.”
Leaning towards the entrance, Iihito made sight of the scene. “Hey, what’s going on here?”
Taking a glance at the girl, Saber paused before looking back at Kiritsugu. “So not only did you order me to detonate the grail and destroy downtown Kouh but now I see you corrupting my descendant?”
“Descendant?” Iihito muttered while observing the argument.
“See? She doesn’t even remember that she was a Pendragon!” Saber continued, drawing the blade closer to his neck.
“She was a Pendragon?” Shirou muttered.
“Not now, master. I have business with Kiritsugu. Now, give me one reason as to why I shouldn’t just cut your head off right now!” Saber’s eyes bore toward Kiritsugu’s as her blade grazed against his skin.
“Saber, don’t attack my father.” Feeling unable to strike at Kiritsugu, Saber grunted before taking a step back.
Noticing the flash of red light, Iihito looked toward Shirou’s hand.
Observing a red tattoo with a faded line, Iihito sighed. “Hey Shirou, try not to throw command seals away so willy-nilly. I doubt you’d want to use those to force her to do anything, you could have used it to buff her when you were in a pickle.”
“Sorry, I got worried about pops there.” Shirou rubbed the back of his head.
“Alright, now that is over with. Let’s start talking. Saber right? Do you happen to have a history with Kiritsugu?” Iihito raised her arms in an effort to de-escalate the tension.
Saber sighed before withdrawing her blade. “Yes, he ordered me to detonate the grail and destroy downtown Kouh during the 4th grail war.”
Iihito lowered her arms, allowing one of her hands to rest upon her chin. “I see... And Kiritsugu, anything you want to say to interject?”
“The grail was corrupted and would have destroyed the world if I let it loose,” Kitisugu uttered in the same breath.
Nodding, Iitiho turned towards her older lookalike. “Mhm, I see. Saber?”
Saber’s eyes narrowed for a moment. “You mean to tell me that it would have been worse?”
Kiritsugu rested his eyes. “Indeed, the grail would have worked as an extreme monkey’s paw. It would twist our wishes that would leave the world in peril.”
Shaking her head, Saber looked towards Iihito. “And what of my descendent? What are you doing with her?”
“Actually, I just came to him a few months ago. His son brought me to him because I was looking for a place to stay. Also, descendent?” Iihito raised an arm.
Saber raised a brow. “Why were you not with the rest of the Pendragon family?”
Raising both of her brows, Iihito looked back toward Saber. “Pendragon? Huh... Never knew I was a Pendragon... Guess that makes me Pendragon and not Smith, huh Kiritsugu.”
“Yes, I suppose so.” Kiritsugu nodded.
Saber leaned closer toward Iihito. “Who gave you that name?”
“Kiritsugu, I didn’t have a last name before I met him. He gave me that name because I needed a family name for identification.” Iihito pointed towards the magus killer.
“Where is your family?” Saber approached Iihito.
“I...” Iihito took a moment to look away with a deep sigh. “Didn’t have one...”
Standing back straight, Saber nodded before resting her eyes. “I’m sorry for your situation. If time permits, I will personally head to the Pendragon family to rectify this mistake.”
“Nah, it’s fine. I had a friend to keep me company.” Iihito waved as though family wasn’t that big of a deal.
Saber winced, shaking her head. “That is unacceptable. To not have a single caretaker, especially for a person such as yourself, is a disgrace.”
“How so?” Iihito looked away, pretending she didn’t know why.
Saber’s eyes narrowed. “I can tell that you are suppressing your mana. It is a lot thicker than it’s supposed to be.”
“Ah, busted...” Sighing, Iihito released the mana she was holding in. “I honestly thought I was doing a good job pretending I have about as much mana as a regular magus, to be honest...”
“You have a dragon core. Of course I’ll notice you were suppressing your mana with that in you. Even one torn asunder would generate much more than a regular magus.” Saber rested her eyes before turning towards Shirou.
“Now, master. I believe we have a grail war to prepare for?”
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