Chapter 5

Shirou found out at his expense that, just like the reward for a work well done is additional work, the best horse is the one that gets whipped most severely.

The punishment for showing up late at work was being given the worst tasks that no one wanted to do. Shirou took it in stride because he was the one at fault for being late. Besides, it wasn't like he could tell his coworkers that he had overslept because the previous night he had run into a gorgeous alien chick and took her to his place.

Even if he did tell them, who in their right mind would believe that? It happened to him, and he was having a hard time believing it himself, now that he was away from his apartment.

Being a Magus didn't necessarily make one impervious to weird things like this.

But, he had little time to think about other things today. Work was picking up and since he had been given the ungrateful tasks it meant that he had four times as much to do than usual.

That was fine though. He didn't quite mind not having the change to indulge in his own thoughts. Hard work was good for the soul.

"Yo, rookie!" one of the older workers called out. "The truck's here. Go help unload it."

"Got it!" Shirou shouted back, dropping the load he was carrying and making its way down to ground level.

"Seo. You too, you lazy ass!" the chief pitched in.

"Who the hell are you calling a lazy ass, you old codger?!" Seo shouted back from another place in the building site.

"I'm calling the lazy ass a lazy ass, you lazy ass. Now get movin'!"

"Yeah, yeah. Calm down! I'm going."

Shirou snorted at the byplay. At first, he felt a bit awkward about it, but since it was a daily occurrence he got used to it. Besides, neither of them meant it. Shirou didn't have a chance to interact with Seo yet, but he saw him talk with the other workers from afar and he seemed to get along with everyone.

Since Shirou had to take a long route around the building to get to the truck, Seo got there sooner. The gruff man had hopped on the truck and was already taking down a crate when Shirou arrived.

He turned to him and handed the crate over.

"About time you got here, rookie. Get a move on and take th-!"

Seo froze in place while Shirou took the crate from his hand with a quizzical look on his face. "Are you alright?"

But Seo did not answer. His eyes were as wide as his face was pale.

"Hey. Do you need me to call a doctor?" Shirou insisted, but Seo didn't even seem to hear him.

"Who… are you?" he asked with a voice that seemed to come from a distant abyss.

"Emiya Shirou. The rookie. I thought you knew me. I mean, we never spoke until now but…"

"Emiya… Shirou? But…" he took a step back and he ended up hitting the truck and falling on his ass.

"Chief! Call a doctor. Seo-san isn't feeling well," Shirou shouted.

"NO!" Seo shouted right after him, holding up his hand. "I'm alright. I'm fine!"

"You sure?" the chief shouted back, while Shirou looked at him with a face that was meant to convey the same question.

"Yeah! I just need to catch my breath."

"Alright, take a break. Don't pass out on me."

Shirou held out his hand to Seo, who looked at it like it was about to claw his face off. Shirou could see the hesitation in his eyes, but he eventually reached out to take it and got back on feet.

"… sorry about that. Dunno what came over me."

"It's alright. Maybe it's a heatstroke. Go sit in the shade for a while and drink some water. I'll take care of things here."

"Much appreciated," Seo said letting go of Shirou's hand and walking away towards the perimeter of the building site. Every few steps he turned around to look at Shirou, who was looking at Seo to make sure he didn't pass out or something. Only when Seo had sat down safely, he felt he could resume working and thus started unloading the truck.

It took him a while on his own, but he eventually finished up. When the last crate was finally unloaded, Seo was nowhere to be seen.

"What happened to Seo-san?" Shirou asked another worker.

"Hm? Oh, he felt worse and he left for the day. The chief wasn't happy, but what can you do? Come on, let's wrap this up before he chews our asses for slacking."

"Wouldn't want that." Shirou agreed and the two of them went back to their respective jobs. Shirou spared one last thought for Seo, but then he had other things to focus on and he put the other man out of his mind.

[br]

Shirou went into the city right after he was done working, well after the sun had set. He had some shopping to do.

Food, for starters.

He had brought enough for himself to last him a few days, but since he had a guest now they would be running through it much faster and he didn't fancy wasting time going to shop several times.

Then, he would have to buy Akitsu some clothes. She couldn't keep wearing his own. He didn't have that much spare clothing, to begin with, and if the shirt he gave her the previous night was any indication he would run out of things to wear sooner rather than later.

Of course, he couldn't afford to go to a brand store. He neither had the money or the face to go into a women-only store, so he bought cheap pants, shirts, and regular underwear at the same mall where he bought several days' worth of premade microwave meals.

He bought a couple of things for himself as well while he was at it. Most of his clothes had seen their fair share of wear and tear over the years, so it was only a matter of time before they would give up on him. He was a bit amused when he saw that they were still making the same shirt he used to wear when he was in high school, but he opted out from buying it. He wasn't a high schooler anymore, and he would rather not think about those days.

He reminisced about them enough at night, which was why he got as little sleep as he did.

Once he was sure he had everything he needed, he paid and left the store. As expected, the clerks at a big chain wouldn't bat an eye at a guy buying women's clothes. They would probably barely notice if he bought tampons and even then they wouldn't say anything.

… speaking of which, did female Sekirei need tampons? He would have to ask Akitsu. He was not looking forward to having that conversation.

He made his way back to his van, waddling through the early evening crowd of salarymen and assorted workers. The sheer number of people on the sidewalks was staggering and it made it hard to breathe. His hometown was minuscule by comparison, and even in the most crowded times and places it never got so bad. His career kept him mostly away from major cities, with the exception of London, and even then he would usually go from the airport to the Clock Tower and back without stops in-between.

He was starting to feel mildly crushed when another type of force started to press down upon him. It was the same kind of feeling that he experienced the previous night when he had run into Akitsu.

A Sekirei was nearby and getting closer.

Judging from what his senses were telling him, he or she was approaching from somewhere to the left, ahead of him. They were headed for the same intersection.

He reached it first and stopped at the red light. As he waited, the presence got closer and closer until it was standing right next to him. Shirou stole a glance at this other creature.

Male. Early twenties. Black suit. Lean body. White hair.

Those were the details Shirou managed to glimpse without being noticed. The Sekirei didn't seem to be aware of him.

And why would he be? He was just another human among a million others. One drop of water into the ocean. Hardly anything worth noting.

But that was just fine for Shirou. Going unnoticed meant that he could sneak up on any of them and easily kill them, supposing they had similar vulnerabilities to humans. He could easily stab them and disappear through the crowd without none being the wiser.

To what kind of poisons were they susceptive to and in what dosages? What kind of trauma could their body withstand? He felt uncomfortable that he didn't know how to kill someone, and then he felt guilty about it. Since when, exactly, did he start trying to figure how to kill everyone he met?

Long, white hair soaked in blood.
A black sword sticking out of her chest.
A sad, yet peaceful smile.
An empty town, covered by shadows.

'Right, that's when.' he sighed, face scrunching to get rid of the unpleasant memory.

At that moment, the light turned green and he was forced to move lest he got trampled by the crowd behind him. The Sekirei was next to him for the first few meters, but then he was swallowed by the sea of people and he lost sight of him, his presence dimming until it was out of reach for Shirou's senses, no matter how hard he tried to hold onto it.

He shook his head and advanced faster. There was no point in trying to follow him specifically. There were a hundred more of the same species in this city and Shirou had no clue, or reason, to do anything about them yet.

Besides there was already one Sekirei waiting for him at home. He had left her alone all day long. Even if there were no alternatives, it wasn't exactly nice of him. Perhaps he should have looked into buying something for her to pass the time while he was away.

Was she taught how to read? What kind of education would an alien that wasn't meant to leave her cage receive?

Yet another thing to look into.

Before learning about the Sekirei species as a whole he probably needed to learn more about the one living under his roof.

There was a lot of ground to cover.

[br]

'This doesn't look good.' Shirou thought as soon as he arrived at his place. On the outer wall of his building, right above the window of the living room, there was a black residue of smoke that wasn't there when he left in the morning.

Something had burned very recently.

He parked the van on the other side of the street and ran inside from the back door, trying to make as little noise as possible. He didn't know what he was expecting, but his primary fear was that MBI had tracked Akitsu to his place and had come to capture her.

The main part of the warehouse seemed to reject that theory. The thin layer of dust didn't look disturbed like it would have been if someone had stormed the place. There also weren't signs of break-ins anywhere to be seen. For all intents and purposes, everything looked quite normal.

He made his way upstairs with measured footsteps. Fortunately the metal staircase was sturdy and did not creak under his weight. Eventually he reached the door to his apartment, which had been left ajar.

He peeked in through the gap. The position of the door was such that the first thing he could see was his couch.

Akitsu was on it, sitting with her legs close to her chest, staring dead in front of her. Seeing how there wasn't any immediate danger, Shirou elected to make his presence known.

"Akitsu-san?" he called out.

Akitsu jumped to her feet. "Master!"

"Akitsu-san, are you alright?" he asked, walking in. "What happened? Why is there…?"

Upon stepping into the room, he found the answer to his most recent questions.

The part of the wall opposite the couch was charred black. The microwave oven, his only kitchen appliance, was a shapeless mass of molten metal and wires.

"… sorry Master," Akitsu apologized, looking down at her feet.

"You didn't know how to use a microwave oven?" he asked rhetorically.

"No, Master," she confirmed.

'Then why didn't you ask?' would have been his next question, but he caught himself before he could word it. Right until this moment, this creature, this woman, had done almost nothing other than what he expressly asked of her.

By her own admission, she wanted to stay by his side and if the previous night events were anything to go by, she was desperate to win his approval.

"Did you think I would have sent you away if I thought you were unable to do something I expected of you?" he settled to ask.

"… yes," Akitsu admitted.

"Well, don't. I promised I wouldn't send you away and I won't. If there something you don't know or don't know how to do, just ask."

Akitsu dared to glance up at him and upon seeing that he wasn't looking angry she straightened herself.

"Yes, Master."

"I thought we had an understanding about my name, already."

"Ah! Yes, Shirou-sama," Akitsu quickly agreed, cheering up immediately.

"Good. Now then… it looks like we'll have to change our plans for dinner. Do you have any preference, Akitsu-san?" he asked, taking out his cellphone.

"… I don't know."

"What did you eat at MBI?" he asked.

She glanced at the remnants of the microwave. "Things like that."

"Prepackaged meals?" he frowned. It probably wasn't the same thing. He was willing to bet that MBI would have specifically made meals optimized for the Sekirei metabolism. Still, that was a travesty if he ever heard one. "Alright then. It's about time we get that lapse in your education covered. Let's start with something simple and let's go for pizza."

Akitsu blinked owlishly at him but said nothing. Her expression made Shirou's mouth quirk into a smile. She was just like an overgrown child.

He would have to take good care of her.

[br]

MBI HEADQUARTERS

"So? Any trace of the missing feather?" Takami asked while she tapped away at her keyboard. On her desk there were several empty cups of coffee, and even more were overflowing from the trash can under her desk.

"Negative, ma'am." a gruff male voice replied into her earpiece. "No sign of her yet."

"Wonderful," she said sarcastically.

"We have the city in complete lockdown. She's not going to set one foot out of Shin Teito."

"I would like to see you try to stop her if she does decide to leave," she grumbled. "Unless she's so unfortunate that she runs into the Disciplinary Team or one of the other single digits I don't think that- wait, what's this?"

A high priority report flashed on her computer screen and her eyes widened as she read through it.

"Captain, recall all teams."

"Ma'am? We still don't..."

"We found her. Recall all teams and get me Karasuba."

"Found her, ma'am? I didn't receive any such report from any of my men."

"Because it wasn't any of them who found her, Captain. It was an agent from the intelligence department that was monitoring a POI. Recall the teams and get me Karasuba. I think I'm due for some fresh air."

"Understood ma'am," the Captain acknowledged. "Recalling all teams now. Karasuba-sama is already en route."

Takami pressed on her earpiece with two fingers, closing the line. She stood up from the chair and walked out of the room, making her way towards the elevator.

There was a troubled frown on her face and it only deepened when the elevator's door slid open on their own and she saw just who was riding it. A man with spiky white hair, wearing a white suit and an outrageous looking white cape.

'Ah, shit,' she swore inwardly.

"Takami-chan!" Minaka Hiroto greeted with open arms and a bright smile. "I was just coming to see you."

"Is that so?" she said, stepping inside the elevator and hitting the button to the ground floor.

Her own lack of amusement was a perfect counter to Minaka's overly-cheerful demeanor. "That's too bad. I'm going out for a walk."

She was always a serious person, but around her employer she became absolutely glacial. It was nothing short of an immune response from someone who had to put up with his character for far too long.

"Really, now. It's so rare to see you outside your office, much less the building. What's the occasion?"

"You know the answer to that question perfectly well," she snorted impatiently.

Just as she was unlikely to be seen out of her office, so was Minaka Hiroto. For him to be seen anywhere outside of his Sancta sanctorum on top of MBI tower, something had to have caught his attention, and the timing was damning.

"Well, it's no fun at all if you don't play along." he pouted.

"That makes it two people not having fun in here, then. What do you want from me? What do you expect me to do about this matter?"

"I want to see where it goes from here, what else? Go ahead and threaten him with Karasuba-chan if you feel like you must, but don't bother bringing Akitsu-chan back."

"You understand this can't possibly be a coincidence, right? The likelihood of them meeting by chance are astronomically low."

"Oh, Takami," Hiroto laughed. "Are you suggesting that there is another group with better resources than us, capable not only of operating on our home ground without our notice but also tracking a missing Sekirei faster than us?"

Takami frown deepened further. There were few organizations in the world capable of matching the current MBI, but none that could do what Hiroto just said.

But if their meeting wasn't the result of intent but rather of chance, wasn't even more ridiculous?

"Are you suggesting that Yume was right?" she asked.

"After everything you've seen, do you really think she was wrong?" he asked back, smiling.

"But he's not -"

"I know, I know," he cut her off with a dismissive wave of his hand. "But isn't it fitting? Of all the Sekirei currently looking for their Ashikabi he could have come in contact with, he met the only one that can never find her own. What do you call that, if not fate?"

Takami had no answer to that and the elevator proceeded in silence until it reached the ground floor and the door opened to reveal a person standing there.

The woman had gray, silk-like hair, cut short except for a think ponytail that reached about her waist. She was dressed in a short, form-fitting black dress, with a grey haori resting on her shoulders, and thigh-high high-heeled boots.

If one had to describe her appearance with a single word, sharp would be it. She was slender, and the lines of her face and eyes seemed to have taken inspiration from the sword resting at her hip.

Dangerous and beautiful.

"Takami. Boss," she greeted with a nod of her head.

"Karasuba-chan! It's been a while. You never come to visit anymore."

"Having little leisure time is the burden of leading the Disciplinary Squad," she replied, still smiling. It did not reach her eyes. "Ready to go, Takami?"

"Of course," she agreed quickly. "If that would be all, Minaka?"

"Wait, take this." He put a hand into his suit and took out a black-colored credit card with the MBI logo on it.

"What's this for? I don't... You want me to invite him to join the Game?"

"As I said, I want to see where it goes from here. Will they fly or will they fall?"

Takami accepted the card with an unconvinced look on her face.

"They would need wings to fly, and they don't have any."

Hiroto laughed. "We shall see about that. Have a good day, Takami-chan. You too Karasuba-chan. Don't be a stranger now."

Karasuba just snorted, but she didn't reply. Her fingers toyed with the hilt of her sword, almost as if she wanted to unsheathe it.

Then the elevator doors closed, separating the man in white from the two displeased women before it took off towards the penthouse where Minaka lived in near seclusion.

"I still can't believe you managed to have two kids with that jackass," Karasuba said off-handedly.

"I can't believe it myself either," Takami agreed. "Let's go. We wasted enough time already."

The two of them headed towards the garage, where a black sedan was already waiting for them. The car immediately left the building and joined the traffic of the city, disappearing in the flow of metal vehicles.

"Have you already read the file?" Takami asked the black-clad woman sitting next to her.

"Haven't had the time yet. Besides, does it really matter who this guy is?"

Takami didn't answer but handed over her tablet. Karasuba perused the contents, her fox-like eyes cracking open a little bit.

"Is this for real?" she asked, returning the device to its owner.

"So it would seem," Takami replied, retrieving her tablet and pretending not to notice the cracks that Karasuba's grip had made on the screen.

"Am I allowed to kill him?"

"Until Minaka dropped by, I would have told you yes, after we were done interrogating him. Now the Jackass-in-Chief wants them into his show, so that's a no unless he gives us a cause."

Karasuba made a displeased noise with her throat.

"Shame. I would have loved carving open that face."

"Do you still hate him that much?"

"Well, of course. Not only did he ruin the senpai I looked up to, but he also went ahead and got himself killed on his own. If he wanted to die that badly he could have had the common decency of letting me do the honors."

"And then Miya would have killed you," Takami observed.

"Still worth it," Karasuba said with a shrug. "After all this time, though, what are the odds?"

"I'm not sure, but I would hazard a guess and say somewhere in the millesimal fraction of point percentile."

"And you don't suspect he's an infiltrator?"

"That would be the most logical assumption, but let's look at the facts. Any organization able to find a missing Sekirei faster than us, on our own territory and without alerting Section Two in the processes would have to be leaps and bounds ahead of us," she explained. "A group like that wouldn't make such a blunder to send this man to make contact. They would know we'd have our eyes on him from the start."

"Unless they didn't know what we know about him." Karasuba objected.

"Yes, but that would be less probable. The truth is that we have two extremely unlikely scenarios to choose from."

"This is Yume's Fatal Attraction all over again," Karasuba said, pushing her lips together as if she had just tasted something particularly bitter.

"Minaka seems to be of the same opinion," Takami sighed.

"No wonder I want to kill him then."

"Karasuba... you want to kill everybody."

"... some people I wish I could kill more than once," she said drily, once again caressing the hilt of her sword.

Takami shook her head resignedly and then turned to look at the world rushing by outside of the window. Although she did not believe it, she really hoped that Yume was right. Otherwise she feared that her Feathers would not be able to soar, to free themselves from the cage made for them by MBI.

She glanced down at the datapad in her lap.

'Perhaps you'll be the one to change this, Emiya Shirou.'

She snorted at her own whimsical thoughts and returned to gaze out of the window. Her heart reached out to all the little Feathers scattered across the city, wondering if they had found the love they wished for and hoping that it would prove strong enough to save them.

[XXX]