Hey, buddies! I'm back! Not DEAD! But... Well... You'll see below that the writing actually degraded in comparison to previous chapters. I explain in the Author Notes below...

But, at least the story didn't get any worse, right? Oh yeah, this chapter wasn't proof read all that well. I only skimmed it... But who likes to read their own trash, am I right?.. No?.. Are you CONCEITED?.. Hehe, just kidding. Anyway, at least try to enjoy this chapter, I'll be impressed if you do.

It was cold.

The kind of cold that was only felt through weakness.

Withholding nourishment from a person for a prolonged period of time caused their bodies to lose energy. When that energy was lost, they would lose the strength to keep warm, the strength to move and most importantly, the strength to stay focused.

Paired with a cold room, heavy chains and ear-ringing silence gave way to the perfect conditions to break a man twice over.

However...

In complete contrast to even the most hardened minds, Emiya Shirou remained unbroken. For he was already broken. The shattered pieces of his empty soul were gathered up by the remnant of a legend, heated and reforged into a sword... no, countless swords capable of cutting through even the most certain of roadblocks.

No matter what happened from now, he would pursue his dream with everlasting fervor. Even if his body broke, he would stitch it back together and continue to walk the path to his ideal future.

Even now, that remained true.

Down in the depths of the dungeon, Shirou remained chained to the wall, his eyes closed as he kept his body from shivering in order to conserve his precious energy. Once the cold spell passed by and he adjusted to the temperature, he would dedicate his thought process on finding a way to escape from this messed up ordeal.

He couldn't very well just escape his chains and flee from the tower. Any sudden action and the hooded woman return to the orphanage and slaughter all of the children.

As much as he'd regret doing it, killing them wasn't an option either. There were far too many in her guild by the sound of it, there were most likely people watching his close friends and waiting to strike should he try anything.

Even if all of his enemies were gathered in the tower, he couldn't just blow it up with Caladbolg II. There were most definitely innocent people here. Even if there weren't, the explosion would be unpredictable due to the overwhelming amount of mana from both the tower and the spiral sword turned arrow. It could take Shirou himself out it the blast, or worse, any nearby civilization. That wasn't to say that this tower wasn't somewhere far off, but the magic power he detected could potentially become a magic nuke should it violently lash out.

Ruling out the option of massacre for now, Shirou allowed a sigh of relief to escape his breath.

Clearing his thoughts for now, the sword magus regained his focus.

Or he at least tried to.

The energy he had left diverted itself to his ears, the echoing of footsteps sounded throughout the dungeon halls ahead, eventually traveling to the open room where it lingered for a few seconds before dispersing into silence. Every time the sound of a footfall began to end, a new one took its place. The steps were too light to be Jellal or the hooded woman, which meant that he most likely didn't know whoever it was.

Once the distance between Shirou and the owner of the footsteps was reduced to a meter, he looked up from the ground and attempted to identify the person.

Oddly enough, it was only then that the smell hit him.

The pleasant aroma of freshly baked bread and heated beef overlapped the scent of a light and fragrant perfume.

Completely disregarding the food that rested upon a tray, Shirou stared at the brown haired girl with an analyzing gaze. After checking her eyes and expression, he scanned her figure for any weapons or concealed tools. Despite the oddities on her form, such as cat ears, a tail and some whisker-like face paint, Shirou's reaction remained neutral. He was used to over the top gimmicks by now. Finding no sign of hostility, Shirou glanced at the food tray and took a wild guess at why she was here. Before he could ask, however, she spoke to him.

"Here you go, Mr. Sword Guy." She said, placing the tray in front of Shirou.

Sparing a glance at the girl, Shirou did the only thing he could do in this situation. "Why?" He asked.

The girl tilted her head as she racked her brain for a proper answer. "You looked hungry."

Looking at the food, Shirou shuffled back before returning his focus to the girl in front of him.

"You're not gonna eat?" She questioned, her head tilting for a second time.

Shirou narrowed his eyes at the girl before speaking, his tone firm and serious. "What did you put in it?"

The girl flinched at Shirou's demanding voice. "It's just food..." She spoke quietly. "I didn't spit in it if that's what you thought."

Her tone seemed innocent, but he knew better than to trust someone based off of the tone of their voice. Killers could be incredibly deceptive when they wanted to. Instead, he chose to remain silent. If he could, he would structurally analyze the food. However, at the moment, he couldn't make use of his magecraft.

"I know!" The feline stranger announced. "I'll eat half of it. That way, you'll know it's fine."

As promised, she broke the baked good in half and retracted her share. She consumed it rather slowly, pinching quarter sized pieces off at a time until there was nothing left. Once she had finished her half, she stared at the captive sword user, who had opted to keep his eyes closed as he relaxed. "I know I said I'd eat half, but I'm not really hungry. And I don't think it would be right to eat a starving person's food."

'Yet kidnapping them was alright?' Shirou thought.

The two remained in silence for a few long seconds before something struck Shirou by surprise. The familiar sound of the ruffling of clothing, the smell of her perfume, her presence, all of it drawing closer to him. batting open an eye, he spared the girl a glance. After a few odd seconds, he had to open the other eye to fully process the situation before him.

The cat-eared girl was now only several inches from him. Crouched low to the ground as she stared up at him, her eyes wide and watery with tears left unshed. Held in her hands was the other half of the bread that she wanted him to consume.

Sighing, the captive Shirou decided to acknowledge her. Which after all, was better than ignoring her and waiting for another awkward scenario to ensue. "Listen now. Even if you give me puppy dog eyes, I'm not going to eat potentially poi-"

"I'm not a dog, I'm a cat!" She shouted.

The sword magus glanced at the object residing in her hands, taking note of the now flattened bread she held in a death grip, crumbs escaping to the floor.

Following redhead's gaze, the suddenly irritated visitor shot up once she saw what she had done to the food. "Whoops!" Shuffling back on her knees, she place the bread back on the tray. "It can't be helped, so just eat the apple and the steak instead."

Shirou shifted his attention to the plastic tray that the whisker endowed girl was pointing to. In addition to the oddly chosen apple, there was a thankfully tall glass of water sitting to the side of the food.

'Well, there's no way they'd try to kill me at the moment, but...' Shirou sighed once more. There could very well be other types of drugs in the food and water. Back on earth, there were drugs that could make people more cooperative. Whether or not they existed here, he simply didn't have the time resources to find out at the moment. If he rejected this meal, there would be no way of knowing when the next would come. He would merely lose strength and waste precious time and energy.

"Alright, then." Even with the weird combination of foods, Shirou wasn't one to complain. "Thank you for taking care of me." He said, taking note of how her mood brightened once he reached for an apple slice.

"Order up!" Levy announced from the kitchen.

"On it!" Jet grasped the plate with both hands, getting ready to dash out of the new kitchen.

From the other side of the kitchen, Droy began furiously waving his gloved hands in the air to catch the speedster's attention. "Hey, Jet! Don't use your magic this time, you keep spilling the food!" As his hands waved furiously, the force of the motion combined with the lack of friction from the water that soaked the dish, caused the plate he had been scrubbing up until now to slip from his hands and fly off to the side.

A trickle of despair had slipped into the hearts of everyone who witnessed the unfortunate incident as it took place. Despite the fact that it was only a mere plate at risk, it was normal for everyone to, for only a brief moment, feel a sense of loss should it break.

So it was a good thing that it didn't.

"Knock it off. You two are driving away the customers." Cana scolded the two male members of team Shadow Gear, the porcelain saucer sandwiched between her palms by the outer edges.

From the sidelines, various guild members began to shuffle in their seats nervously, silently hoping that there wasn't any sort of poison brewing in the kitchen.

"This isn't good." Levy stated, removing Shirou's apron as she found her way to the large island in the rebuilt kitchen center. "We're doing alright, but orders are coming in too fast for us to keep up. If I had to guess, it has to do with some guild members probably thinking Emiya's still around."

On cue, everyone else had been drawn to the island, with Jet and Droy placing themselves closer to Levy, which elicited a quiet groan from Cana as she rolled her eyes. Soon enough, they were taking part in some kind of a secret kitchen meeting.

"Yeah, and everyone keeps lounging too long before turning their dishes back in." Droy groaned. "Does anyone have any idea how hard it is scrubbing hardened cheese off of a plate is?!" He shouted, raising his hands in the air before dropping them abruptly to emphasize his point.

"Just use a knife to scrape it off, man." Jet advised.

Droy stared at Fairy Tail's speedster with unspoken fury in his eyes. His mouth opened to reply only to close seconds later. His voice was caught in his throat as he wordlessly calculated all of the time he would have saved had he thought of such a simple technique. As an added bonus, he probably wouldn't have dragged Levy down as much as he did.

Ignoring the plant wizard who was now sulking in the corner, Cana sighed, running a hand through her hair as she rested her tired eyes, she decided that it was her turn to complain. "That's nothing. Just being stupid is bad enough, but try having to memorize several orders at a time with indecisive customers who take fifteen minutes to decide what they want... How did Emiya and Mirajane deal with this on their own?" She questioned with a hint of tired amazement in her tone.

"Experience and teamwork, I guess." Levy answered.

Cana clicked her tongue. None of that had anything to do with difficult customers. It would be exhausting and boring regardless of such traits.

"Wait, Cana!" Droy shouted, shooting up and dashing to the counter, leaning on the edge as he raised a finger to point at the scantily clad alcoholic. "What are you complaining about?! You were drinking most of the time!" He accused.

The alcoholic in question huffed, raising a hand to brush her hair over her shoulder as she stared back at the accuser. "They should know better than to put the wine right next to the service counter."

"Why are you even working at the counter?" Jet asked, ignoring the frustrated screaming of the dish scrubbing wizard to his left.

"Do you wanna do it?" Cana answered with a question.

Rather than replying, Jet craned his neck and shot Levy an inquisitive glance.

"Can you cook?" Levy asked, her sudden question giving the illusion that she read his mind.

The speedster merely sighed in response, raising a hand and grasping the nape of his sore neck before giving it a tired squeeze.

A glance to the right spared Levy the sight of a few people waiting patiently at the counter. After a second and a half of staring, everyone else followed her gaze soon after and spotted the same image.

"I guess it's back to work." Cana sighed.

Droy shot up from the countertop he had face planted in earlier. "You haven't done much of anything!"

Cana glanced at him momentarily before closing her eyes. Folding her arms, she shrugged, seemingly unable to deny Droy's statement. "And scrubbing a single plate off for an hour is what you consider work? If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were slacking off back there."

The human dishwasher sighed as he contemplated the one hour of his life that he would never get back.

"Regardless, Cana is right." Said Levy.

"Levy?!" Droy collapsed to his knees as he stared at the heavens through the kitchen's ceiling, his eyes glossy from the tears he refused to let fall.

"No, not about that." She said, grabbing Shirou's dark blue apron from its resting place. "I meant that we have to get back to work."

Everybody lingered for a few more moments save for Droy, who wanted to get the drop on the dishes, yet was also dragging his feet.

And a few moments was all it took.

Just before they decided to get back to work, they heard it. The soft and angelic voice seemed to be some sort of godsend for them.

Turning to the counter, they saw the familiar sleeveless red dress with the occasional pink, frilled accents. Soon after, they shifted their attention to the semi-curled curtain of snowy white hair that covered most of her back.

Without even a word to each of them, she had begun to take everyone's orders, a small notepad in hand and a pen in the other. Once she finished taking orders, she lowered the notepad and pocketed the pen before turning around and making her way to the kitchen.

As much as Jet and Droy wanted to get on their knees and thank the white haired angel for her much needed assistance, they were both far too mentally exhausted from working and for one part, bickering with Cana.

Reaching out to Mirajane, Levy took the few sheets of paper that she tore out of the notepad. "Thanks for the help, Mira." Turning on her heel, she made her way to the back and hung it on a rack above the stove.

Pushing off the island countertop he had been leaning against, Jet turned to the kitchen's new - old addition, who was just about to make her way back to the counter. "Ah, I forgot to ask, but where's the master? I've been serving customers all day and I haven't seen him."

Mirajane's face flashed a confused expression before it was replaced with a kind smile. "The master had business on the other side of town."

Jet quirked a brow. He'd be away at such a crucial moment? "That's weird... did he say when he'd return?"

She shook her head in response. "It's important business, so he probably can't place a proper time on it."

The speedster cupped his chin, quietly making several guesses as to what said business could be. He held back the urge to click his tongue when he couldn't come up with anything. Heavy thinking was more of Levy's thing.

"Order up!"

Glancing back, he saw full plate of food waiting on the island. "That's my cue!"

As they all fell into the motions of orderly teamwork, each of them silently wished for Shirou's safe return.

It had been hours since the girl he had met earlier left him alone in the cold, spacious room. His chains had become damp and frosty since then and his breath was visible. If he had to guess, he would say that it was already nighttime by now.

Freezing felt like the worst part of the whole setting at the moment, but Shirou knew that it wasn't even close to being the most disastrous consequence of his failure.

'Honestly... I really am bored right now, aren't I?' He punctuated his thought with a sigh and a facepalm.

Shuffling back, Shirou let his back rest against the solid, stone wall, suppressing a shiver that the sudden change in temperature had urged. Folding his arms against his core, he let his tired eyes fall closed and relished the feeling of relief that washed over them.

"I was hoping you'd die from starvation, but it would seem that Milianna had other plans."

Shirou kept his eyes closed as he responded. "Are you surprised to find kindhearted people in a place like this?"

The hooded woman giggled before maintaining a devious smile. "Kindhearted? You're mistaken, sword mage. The term, 'ignorant' is the most accurate word I can use to describe those pawns."

"You say that, yet you're the one who can't even understand them." Shirou pointed out her irony before opening his eyes to look at the shade underneath her hood, his determined, golden glare almost seemed to pierce through the darkness.

The mysterious woman's smile disappeared as quickly as it had came. "I suppose you're correct, sword mage. However, it's pointless to try to grasp things that aren't going to be here for long."

Shirou narrowed his eyes, his posture becoming more alert as he analyzed the only part of her face he could see. "What are you planning?"

To Shirou, it looked as if the woman had wanted to smile. To revel in her short victory, only to stop herself as soon as something came to the forefront of her mind. If something caused a woman as insane as this one to suppress a smile, then just how bad could it be?

"Wouldn't you like to know?" She taunted, stepping closer to Shirou before lowering herself to the ground.

Shirou adjusted his focus, keeping it on the hooded woman who was now closer than he would have liked. "Why are you doing this?" He asked. His expression changed. His eyes were as determined as before, yet there was a sadness in them. The face he wore when he spoke with her was a face of pity, one that he hadn't shown her before.

The woman's breath hitched, her lips parted as she sat motionless and breathless. A slight, yet visible shiver escaped her form before she recomposed herself. She forced whatever emotion she felt at that moment to out of her heart. Her surprised expression vanished, a frown taking its place. This frown, however, seemed different than the others in the sense that it made them all feel fake up until now. But that most certainly was not the case.

Breaking eye contact, she fell to her knees and looked to the ceiling.

or rather, she was looking through it.

Before long, her hand reached into her robe, shuffling slightly for a few moments. Extracting her hand from the hidden compartment, something peculiar became visible. Time seemed to stop once he spotted it. It was only a small part of the object that was visible, but as soon as his gaze landed on it, he knew exactly what it was.

It was a dagger.

Even without the use of structural grasp, he was far too connected with weapons at this point to not recognize it.

It wasn't any fancy ornamental dagger, nor was there even a shred of decoration on the weapon. It was a simple, double edged steel dagger. Something such as that blade was designed with one clear purpose in mind.

"It's only appropriate that I'm the one to do it..." She half-whispered.

She raised the knife above her head, but Shirou did not panic. He had heard it in her voice, the slight shakiness in her breath as she hesitated to even speak such words. The tip of the blade was rocking back and forth slightly as her hand began to tremble.

Her actions did not speak of a murderer, but rather a person who was hesitant to even consider harming him. It was as if she hadn't even taken a life up until... well... until several seconds from now. It was either that, or there was something peculiar about this particular instance. But what sort of circumstance would lead a cold-blooded murderer to hesitate to take another life? The odds of that weren't very high, especially if that person was Emiya Shirou.

If she truly wasn't a killer, then was she bluffing all this time about murdering the orphans if he didn't comply? Or was she willing to become one when the time called for it? The thought of the latter being the case disgusted Shirou.

Could there ever truly be a chance of redeeming someone like that?

It didn't matter.

He wasn't even going to think about it. Emiya Shirou would save such a person, that was all he could ever do.

"It's not." Shirou pushed off the ground, opting to brace himself on his knees rather than his backside. "Whatever it is you're trying to do, it shouldn't be done this way."

The woman's lips quivered ever so slightly before her frown deepened even more. "That's where you're wrong, sword mage..." Raising the knife further, she prepared to thrust it downward. "As long as you're still here..."

Staring at the shadow beneath her hood, Shirou spotted something. Something that glistened before trickling down her cheek.

"My wish won't come true."

A hand abruptly grasped the blade from behind. In a show of strength, the woman was tossed aside and forced away from the dagger and Shirou himself.

The woman raised a hand to her face, wiping away the tear that had escaped. "You're going to just let your guard down like that, Mystogan?" She taunted, her tone attempting to revive her previous fervor.

With a flick of his wrist, Mystogan tossed the dagger to the other side of the room before crouching down next to Shirou. "Yes." He spoke calmly. Touching the floor where the magic circle was placed, he poured his magic power into it. Soon enough, after a bit of exploring and tinkering, the circle shattered away like glass before becoming translucent and fading away. "You're in no position to retaliate." He added.

The woman scowled. "And what makes you think that?"

"You're afraid."

Mystogan's statement was followed by dead silence, one that was only interrupted by the sound of his work as he attempted to free Shirou.

"Shirou, these chains use a special kind of key. The lock is shaped odd as well, the only way to free you is to break them. Stay still." Standing up, Mystogan pulled out one of his staves from its sheathe on his back before striking each chain in one clean sweep. The moment he sheathed the stave, both chains shattered at the links he struck. "Can you stand?" He questioned, offering the magus his hand.

Shirou nodded, grasping the offered hand and standing with Mystogan's assistance. He had made sure to move and lightly exercise his limbs often during the few days he had been here lest he forget how to use them. Still, standing was oddly foreign, yet familiar in an indescribably strange way. "Thanks." He said. But something still bothered him. Something important. "What about the orphanage? They're being watched right now." He questioned.

Mystogan nodded, releasing his hold on his ally before stepping back. "The orphanage is under the protection of Fairy Tail- No, it would be more accurate to say that the entire town is under the protection of Fairy Tail. A dark guild such as this will harm no one."

A shuffling from his left drew Shirou's focus back to the woman who had previously attempted to murder him. She had the appearance of someone who had suffered a crushing defeat as she sat in silence. Before long, she stood up, moving over to the dagger she had lost.

Now that he had regained his magecraft, Shirou was able to structurally analyzed the blade to find... nothing. The history of the weapon contained absolutely nothing of importance. It was made recently and offered to the woman by her request, specifically to kill him while he was in captivity.

Neither Shirou or Mystogan moved to stop her as she made her way to the long hall.

However, before beginning the journey down said hall, she turned to look at her former prisoner, completely ignoring the presence of one of Fairy Tail's strongest wizards. A sneer found its way on her face, but...

It almost seemed forced.

Then, she turned back and began walking away.

"Shirou." Mystogan uttered, breaking the strange silence.

The sword magus turned to the wizard, urging him to continue.

"Erza's here."

Shirou's eyes widened. Pivoting his body, he was able to fully focus on the Fairy Tail wizard in front of him. "What is she doing here?!"

"Calm down." Mystogan's eyes, which were trained on the hall until now, turned to Shirou. "Jellal had sent a squad of wizards after her. Erza was captured and the rest of Team Natsu was defeated in battle. The history Erza shares with this place isn't mine to tell, but... she's probably suffering right now."

Shirou grit his teeth. "Where are they holding her?"

Mystogan's neck craned to look at the ceiling. "She most likely escaped by now. Erza should be above ground, fighting. If you continue up the stairs and make your way up the tower, you will eventually cross paths."

Shirou recomposed himself before nodding. "We're going to need all the help we can get."

The wizard shook his head. "I've overstayed my welcome."

"What are you talking about?"

A few seconds were spent in silence. The few seconds he spent sorting out the words he was going to say only increased the tension in the room. Before Shirou could say anything else, Mystogan spoke up to reply. "I can't afford to be here... there's something I have to do. I need you to trust me."

Shirou stared at his rescuer for a few moments. Analyzing his expression, he came to a conclusion.

"Alright. I'll go find Erza." Turning to the hall, he began walking to its entrance.

"Shirou, every single wizard here is dangerous."

Stopping in place, the magus half-turned to glance at his ally.

"Don't hold back."

Shirou nodded. Lowering himself to the ground, he shifted his stance into a running form.

All twenty-seven circuits flared to life. Through practice and experience, he was able to pour mana into the gaps within his body and strengthen it beyond its limits. Self reinforcement, while considered a dangerous and near suicidal technique, was one of the techniques Shirou excelled at. A basic magecraft practice written off as useless was taken to its utmost highest limits and used to further his purpose.

Then, after becoming a heroic spirit, he had inadvertently passed such a skill set to his younger self, allowing the Shirou of now to skip decades of hard training and soon, even surpass Archer.

Shirou vanished into the dark hall and soon after, the ground he had stood at cracked in several places from the force of his launch. Keeping his sights straight ahead, his golden eyes pierced the darkness as he glided through the long pathway, the chains on his wrists whistling as he sailed.

No matter the similarities, there were many differences between Shirou and his heroic spirit counterpart. While Archer's eyes remained apathetic and cold, Shirou's was a complete contrast. His eyes spoke of unbreakable determination, the will to keep going for the sake of others burned brightly in his golden orbs.

As he sped through the tower, keeping his gaze straight ahead, the mental image of Erza appeared in his mind. He wouldn't allow her to suffer here. The desire to see her smile became his determination.

'Are you alright?'

Spotting the spiraled stairs ahead, Shirou launched off the ground and adjusted his body mid-air. Maintaining his speed, he ran across the walls of the stairs without losing much momentum and soon found himself on the next floor.

'You probably still don't have anywhere to go. So, come with me. I'll help you out.'

"It's the sword mage!" A voice shouted.

Soon all of the guards on that floor were on alert, forming several blockades in attempt to stop Shirou.

"Trace..." The crackling of lightning over his head lit up the hall. "On!" Several bolts of light shaped into the form of large and unwieldy buster swords before they were launched at the ground in front of the first blockade, the speed at which they soared left no room for them to react.

It wouldn't be a lie to say the ground had exploded. The swords had fulfilled their purpose, the first formation was now resting on the dungeon floor he had came from.

The second and final formation stood across the hole in the ground, blocking off the entrance to a larger open room. they were all armed with different forms of magic weapons, but it didn't matter. They might as well have been paper.

'Emiya! Your magic is amazing!'

Body still reinforced, Shirou launched himself at the wall to his left. Taking a few steps, he soon found a foothold on the wall and utterly destroyed it in a single step. The step was more emphasized and threw his body at the ceiling. Turning in the air, Shirou held out his arm, his hand wrapped around the handle of a blade before it even existed.

Calling upon the desired blade, Shirou loaded it into his projection and willed it into reality.

Berserker's sword more so smashed through the ceiling rather than it did cleave through it.

Slipping through the cracks of the heavy stone ceiling, Shirou twisted his core and buried the blade of the heavy sword into the wall. Following through with his forward momentum, he flipped in the air and landed on the handle before looking below.

What remained of the floor landed right on the formation and broke the floor underneath them. Luckily, he had the foresight to make sure the debris would be small enough that it wouldn't kill them when it made impact. If they were normal people, however, they would have died. But Shirou was thankful that wizards had an unnatural resilience, otherwise he would have massacred many of them just now.

"Over there!" Another voice shouted.

'Thank you, Emiya.'

The heads that had turned to spot the sword magus were abruptly turned back in other directions, the blunted arrows were launched in rapid succession, each of them soaring through the air at impossible speeds and hitting their targets with unparalleled accuracy.

The sword he was perched on dispelled into motes of blue light, but not before he jumped off of it and landed on the ground away from the opening.

Looking to another open gateway ahead, Shirou sprinted toward it at full speed. His reinforced hearing alerted him to something he had already suspected. Pushing off the ground, he dived headfirst through the opening and spun to the left with his bow ready.

The guard standing by to ambush him had been intercepted by a blunted arrow and was swiftly put to sleep. But that wasn't all.

Twisting further, Shirou flipped his entire body upside down and faced the opening he had recently dived through. Quickly tracing another arrow, the guard on the other side was met with the same treatment. The actions he performed took less than two seconds, making him look like some sort of clairvoyant superhuman.

Following through with his momentum, he flipped once more and landed into a roll before continuing his sprint through the tower.

He was above ground now. That knowledge only fueled him as he ran.

'Until you find your way back, you can count Fairy Tail as your second home.'

Skidding to a halt, he found himself in another hopelessly large, open room. Inside the room, Shirou found a miniature battalion of the hooded woman's guards waiting for him. Each and every one of them had some kind of spell ready or near completely cast. The formation they held was seemingly unbreakable.

A quick analysis of the weapons they held told the sword magus that they were all the highest ranking guards that were deployed into the tower. Many of them wore confident or smug grins as they surrounded him.

Anyone would have buckled underneath these numbers. But not Shirou. Shirou wasn't just anyone. Even if it wasn't official, Emiya Shirou was, and always will be...

A Fairy Tail wizard.

"Out of my way." His words echoed throughout the room. It was only after such words escaped him that he had a sudden, strange thought. Natsu's blunt and direct personality was definitely rubbing off on him. The thought of his friends nearly made him smile, but he didn't forget his current circumstance.

The opposition either didn't listen or didn't care. But that was only going to make things more difficult for them.

"Trace..." The image of something he had become familiar with over time had entered his mind. Something that he had quickly come to view as overwhelmingly strong. That image would soon become reality as he summoned it from his very soul. A sword, or rather, many swords that he would treasure within Unlimited Blade Works for as long as it resided within him. For now, however, he only needed two of them. A rather specific pair of long swords that were of the same design.

"On!" His hands rested comfortably underneath the wing-shaped steel hand guards. They were simple, yet elegant and carefully designed blades.

One might laugh at the idea of taking on a small army with only two swords, but that would only prove them to be a fool. These weren't just any long swords. There was important history behind them. The history of someone who fought vigorously and even suffered greatly to protect her dearest friends, her family.

And through that history, the swords felt heavy within his hands.

Dashing forward, he injected himself into the crowd before they could even react. Drawing upon the history of the blades, Shirou fought with the strength of the scarlet knight, executing maneuvers and techniques that sent groups of wizards flying into the air, one after another. Every so often, a few copies of the same winged blades would soar through groups and lessen his fighting burden.

Shirou fell into a trance as he deflected, dodged, slashed and glided his way through the crowd. He would most definitely reunite with her in this tower. No amount of opposition would stop him from finding his friend.

His grip on the swords tightened. The history of these blades, combined with the desire to see their wielder again caused some odd feeling to stir within Shirou. At the moment, it felt as if Erza herself was here, fighting alongside him.

"Hang in there, Erza." He whispered. Somewhere on the higher floors, he knew she was giving it her all.

And so, Shirou would do the same. Even if it meant that he had to spend the entire night fighting.

A/N: Boy, that was quite a long and poorly written chapter... Actually, it was pretty short... WHOOPS! Oh well, what can I say? Hm? Your gal forgot how to write. My PC was busted for about three straight months, during which, I basically slacked off and lazed around. I didn't even rewrite any of the story outlines except for this one's.

Also, this chapter would have been much more meaningful if had Dal written the previous ones with decent pacing and er... if they made any sense, I guess. I think most of you know that Dal basically wrote this story as it went, which caused it to suffer greatly.

But just to give to all of you an idea of how bad Dal's writing was, he actually had a small outline for this chapter and- Eh, maybe I shouldn't, that's just too cruel.

I already wrote an outline of the entire story's plot, but I won't implement heavily it or rewrite any of the previous chapters until this arc is over. I'll also use that time to teach myself how to write again since my noodle-brain forgot.

I'm also going to have to watch Fairy Tail again, since It's been so long and it has important information I'll need for this story. Also, some people keep getting mad that "Oh no! Shirou's OP and Fairy Tail is weak!" If anything, Dal nerfed Shirou in certain aspects and un-nerfed him in others. Over all he was too weak and the only reason Fairy Tail looked as such is because none of them had the spotlight yet.

Some guy Private Messaged me last chapter asking why Shirou was OP and FT was weak as frick. However, all I could think of was, "Did anyone fight anything last chapter? Wait, Shirou got captured, actually... by a cast member of Fairy Tail... a baddy, but still..." So, yeah, I'm being watched closely by people who are just waiting to call me out on Shirou worshiping and they're going to do it this chapter. That guy specifically might.

As for any honest readers who want do see FT cast members in the spotlight, don't worry, it happens in this arc rather soon. It's pretty awesome.

Anyway, I have to write the next chapter of that weird Batman fic Dal started ages ago.

See ya.