(A/N) Aaaaaand I apologize for the delay. Wow. I'm sure no one wants to see a shorter chapter after a month or so away, but yikes I've been busy. A great part of that has to do with the webtoon I've started. Huge credit to all graphic novelists, btw. In case it hasn't sunk in, most of them have to publish weekly, where each individual panel is a full-blown artwork that they have to draw and (in the case of webtoons) colour. Them be many hours.

That said, that's not the only reason this bad boy *slaps webpage* got cut short. We're moving into a biggie, and I don't want to start or end the next bit awkwardly.

Now since it's been a minute, I'll address some interesting points brought up in the reviews. Will this work of fiction be entirely dedicated to a seven-year-old Shirou? No, is the short answer. We've got a bit to go until the "prologue" of the story is finished though, so no time skips yet.

Yes. The prologue. Kind of.

Aaaanyway.

We haven't seen the last of Zouken, before anyone gets any funny ideas. Just because we don't see him, doesn't mean that nothing's happening. No Schrodinger's worm here, fellas.

Actually, that's a fair point that I might as well cement in black and white right now. This story is written from Shirou's perspective, so we only know what he knows. Shit could be falling from the sky, and we wouldn't know that unless Shirou decides to look up. In fact, expect some proverbial "shit" by the end of the chapter.

I'm positive that I've forgotten to mention something, but oh well.

Please enjoy!

X

They didn't move, so neither did I. I met their blank stares with my own nervous one, though I tried my best to mask my distress.

It was less than a glimpse, but I knew without a doubt what I saw. That the Einzbern family had a presence here –a base of operations of such a Lord– was a bad omen, to say the least.

Not because he was morally bankrupt –he wasn't more so than any other magus– but because he was stupid enough to think that he could get away with apostle research. Stupid meant the Einzbern were using him to certain lengths.

I would have to find out what those lengths were if I have had any intention of keeping us out of trouble.

"You may not advance past this point. It has been restricted by the Lord Meluastea," droned one of the maids.

…I was in luck, and not just because they had unknowingly told me that I'd found the workshop.

I had been intercepted, but not for the reason I had originally surmised. They weren't interested in the explosion that had gone off in front of the estate– if they were, they've set aside that interest to stop an intruder from entering the workshop.

Homunculi were close to humans, but some were further along than others. The fact that I wasn't being attacked immediately enforced my current theory that these two weren't as autonomous as some of their brethren.

These two could be more closely compared to machines. In the current instance, they're confronted with two issues: there has been an attack, and someone is trying to force entry into the house master's magical lair. It was probable that they didn't have the faculties to relate the two issues, and so they moved to act on the matter deemed the most critical.

As any good magus would agree, the invasion of a workshop was leagues more severe than the destruction and assault of a home residence.

Still, that raised issues onto its own. If these homunculi were little better than sophisticated puppets, then there was little chance that they were the ones in charge of manipulating the Lord. It was much more likely that they were some sort of gift in exchange for a higher favour.

I would have to think about the matter later, though. For now, I had to unentangle myself.

"I'm looking for the entrance," I told them.

"We heard an explosion, so I was sent to investigate… I got lost," I quickly added for good measure.

They nodded along easily enough.

"Follow," ordered the one on the left. My muscled tightened as they walked towards me, and loosened once they continued walking right past. They would lead the way, then.

My muscles tensed once more.

The familiar "squelch" of pierced innards sounded behind me.

Calmly, I turned around. The two homunculi dropped to the ground, dead, with a pair of identical swords lodged in their backs. The weapons were large things, and cleaved through their spines easily.

They didn't even survive long enough to bleed out. If nothing else, they didn't suffer for long.

I spared them little more than a second glance as I pushed forward once more. It was regretful that I had to do that, but time was of the essence.

Meluastea wasn't getting out of this scot-free one way or another, so the Einzbern family would be alerted whether I disposed of their present forces or not. Discretion didn't matter anymore.

…I could smell it.

There was a bounded field nearby. It was stronger than any other ward in the estate. If Meluastea put half as much effort into protecting the home itself, maybe we wouldn't have been able to shut him down so easily.

Found it.

A series of small runes were etched into a pattern on the wood at the foot of a doorway. It would be easily missed by most people.

I didn't know what it did, nor did I care. With the right tools, something like this wouldn't impede me at all.

I traced a strange dagger. While the drain it placed on my reserves to do so was entirely disproportionate to its size and general utility as an actual dagger, its magical properties more or less made up for it.

Rulebreaker was a very useful Noble Phantasm.

All it took was a small scratch, and the runes became little more than property damage on a doorframe. Not sensing any other active magecraft, I entered the once-protected room.

It was empty, save for a conspicuous staircase in the middle of the space. It led straight down.

I rubbed the back of my neck. I would suppose that Meluastea was a fan of underground lairs.

It was a long way down, to my surprise. Same as the limousine, the house itself went deeper into the ground than any regular basement would.

Once I finally made it to the bottom, I heard my teeth clack shut more than I felt it.

I couldn't call this a torture chamber, because a torture chamber would never look so sickeningly clinical.

There was the odd human, but the vast majority of the victims here were the same brand of homunculus at the ones that I had dealt with a moment earlier. Most were dead –all the humans were– but some were still alive, staring at me despite wounds that should have been lethal thrice over.

Their gazes looked more curious than agonized. As if I had encountered them at a supermarket rather than in a basement with their limbs removed from their bodies.

A second glance told me that wasn't entirely true.

All their stares felt different. Some were empty, some were uncaring, and some despaired. Their builds were contrasting in much the same way, resembling anything between a cheaply-made doll to a perfect replica of a human being, be it a woman, man, elder, or child. Surely, things invisible to the naked eye such as magical capacity was also a variable of interest.

Fitting. "Variety" was the first word that came to mind.

It was clear to me now that the Einzbern family had provided resources of their own.

I ignored the captives for the time being and began to search for any kind of notes or physical document that we could bring back to the Clock Tower with us. It took little time or effort, thankfully, as there were papers strewn about carelessly in every which way.

Truthfully, I was a little disappointed that an established organization such as the Clock Tower would give such a disorderly individual a position of power. Family ties and old blood went a long way, I could only suppose.

One document, in particular, caught my eye more than the others. It was a letter addressed to the Einzbern family, though evidently he had yet to find time to send it.

I read it.

"…"

I left the workshop without sparing those trapped here another look.

X

"What is the situation, boy?" Meluastea demanded the moment I stepped into his line of sight. He tried to sound imposing, but worry was thick in his voice.

"Intruders," I answered. "They've been dealt with and left in the–"

The Lord's head popped like a watermelon and he fell dead at my feet. I had to take a quick step to the side to avoid getting sprayed by his life fluids.

The fallen frame revealed Kiritsugu standing with the smoking barrel of a gun pointed forwards.

"I'm running out of those," he muttered more to himself than anyone else in the room.

I nudged the deceased man with my foot, idly taking not of the runes flickering on his vest before they died out. If the vest was supposed to act as a defensive Mystic Code, it didn't matter now. He was as dead as a doorknob.

I'd say the whole ordeal was anticlimactic, but "climactic" didn't really seem to be the old man's style.

When you return, you'll announce what you supposedly discovered. Keep two phrases in mind. "Invaders" will mean that you couldn't find anything incriminating beyond all reasonable doubt, and so we'll have to restrain Meluastea to bring him in for questioning. "Intruders" will mean that we have irrefutable evidence, and we shouldn't bother trying to keep him alive.

It was a simple step to a greater plan, but obviously it worked. There was little that one needed to account for when magic-killing bullets were readily available.

"What did you find, Shirou?"

Instead of answering him verbally, I handed him the letter I had found.

As he read it, his brow tightened.

He came to the same conclusion I had.

"Kischur's Jewel has nothing to do with apostle research," Kiritsugu offered in summary. "He was going to give it to the Einzbern family in exchange for living resources."

I nodded. "Archis had the right idea taking the jewel from him, but he hadn't figured out the right reason."

"Is the workshop intact?" asked Kiritsugu.

"Yeah. Didn't touch it."

"Good. Leave it as-is. Let the Enforcers find it."

I had a thought. "Say… if the Einzbern want this thing so badly, wouldn't they set their sights on whoever has it now, the moment they realize that their "delivery boy" lost it?"

Though the letter would serve its part to keep us out of trouble, the courts of the supernatural side of things could do little to pin anything substantial on the family itself. They were loosely affiliated with the Association at best, and if a single document was all we had, then no-one would be dispatched to discipline them.

What that also meant was–

"I believe that's a fair assumption," he agreed. "I would go as far as to say that miss Red would need to find a helping hand willing to keep her would-be aggressors at bay."

"Considering that we have our own misgivings with their lot, it'd be economical of us to do her a "favour", right?"

Kiritsugu patted me on the back– something that I'd realized he hadn't done in a while. He made his way out the door, and I pulled along a neutral-faced Sakura along to follow.

"Of course," he replied.

X

Our last detour before we could catch a flight to London was a necessary one. As Aozaki was the one who asked us to do this in the first place, it was only right that we inform her of the standing circumstances.

So that she knew to get a second body ready, of course.

The moment we stepped foot in the woman's current place of business, I felt a pair of fingers pinch my cheek.

"Back so soon? Oh, I'm so glad Shirou-kun!" she chirped in a baby voice. "Mister jewelry thief won't bother us anymore, right?"

You're the thief here, and you're an all-round terrible person to boot.

"He won't be bothering anyone," I corrected. "With what we found in his closet, the Mage's Association will probably thank us for offing him so they don't have to."

She was ignoring me. Aozaki was crouched on the balls of her feet, running her hands through Sakura's hair.

"How pretty! Make sure to brush this properly, okay?"

"Yes," answered the girl easily.

Well, I guess it's as good a time as ever to have her know exactly what she's going to be dealing with.

"Her name is Sakura. She's the one who'll require your services."

"Is that so?"

Aozaki made no visible indication of having paid attention to what I said; she didn't turn away from the girl's hair, nor did she stop playing with it. If I hadn't caught the way her eyes softened, I could have wagered that she didn't care.

"There's one more thing."

This time, she did look my way.

"Meluastea had no intention of using Kischur's Jewel," I informed her. "He was going to give it to the Einzbern family."

She stiffened. "To what means?"

"We don't know," spoke Kiritsugu, "but you should know what that means for you."

She hummed. "They'll want to collect their repossessed property."

I went for it. "Which means it would be in your best interest to have someone take care of those loose ends before they have the chance to come back and do you harm."

She stepped away from Sakura as her lips quirked in amusement. "I suppose I would owe this 'someone' a reward for such a task, right?"

I met her with a smirk of my own. "I'd say–"

"If the Einzbern really are involved–"

"They are!" I shouted, wide-eyed. It would seem that we weren't on the same page after all.

"–then I would just have to tough it out. I'm sure little old me can handle it."

I was at a loss. She had us kill the Clocktower Lord, but she didn't care to have a family of magi pulled off her trail?

"Be careful not to overestimate yourself, and definitely not to underestimate them," Kiritsugu chastised.

She smiled innocently. "I'll manage! I promise."

A cold sweat ran down the length of my back. It was things like this…

Things like this that reminded me that Aozaki Touko couldn't be held to the same standards –the same logic– as any other regular human being.

It isn't possible to predict what she's thinking, and I shouldn't have bothered to try in the first place.

"In your mind, what is a second body worth?"

It was better to ask her outright. I realized now that our first deal was little more than luck.

She pouted with a scrunched brow, and rubbed her chin with a finger. She was making a show of thinking about it, which told me she already had something in mind. If she didn't, she would have given me a straight "No".

Probably.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I know!"

I leaned in. Kiritsugu did nothing so obvious, but I knew she had his attention as well.

"If you can convince the bigwigs to drop my sealing designation, then I could probably work something out."

I tisked and tore my gaze away.

"There's no way that I can promise something like that."

I knew full well what that would entail. A plea to revoke a sealing designation would have to be taken up with Policies, who in turn would discuss with the Observatory, which would effectively have me take the issue to the faculty's director. It just so happened that the faculty director was also the vice director of the whole damn Clocktower.

"Then there's no way that I can promise you'll find a second body alongside the first, right?"

My glowering just seemed to liven her spirits, so I tried my best to keep my expression neutral.

Kiritsugu stepped forward. "We'll see what we can do."

I stared at him, trying to figure out if he had a plan or if he well and truly lost what little sanity he had left.

I couldn't discount the second possibility.

Aozaki looked frustratingly pleased with herself. She tapped her palm with her opposite fist. "One last thing. Feel free to blame Edor and his friend for the mysterious disappearance of the jewel, m'kay?"

I blinked. Come to think of it… "Where are they?"

I couldn't think of a reason for this woman to so willingly place blame on someone who was supposedly her friend.

Her smile widened, and I felt my stomach knot when it did.

It wasn't a pleasant smile.

"They're permanently indisposed. I wouldn't wish for you to worry yourself over it."

I took this as a cold yet much-needed reminder. For all that I had been making my frustrations with Aozaki known, I had allowed myself to relax in her presence.

I shouldn't ever forget the monster she truly is.

Something had happened between her and the two magi during the time that we were gone, but I would not allow myself to dwell on it lest I find her ire. She had either killed them or done something similar.

"Let's go," I told the old man. I turned away knowing that damnable smile was at my back.

Her hand grabbed my shoulder to stop my advance, and I just about sent a dozen or so blades barrelling into her. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to stay my hand.

"I almost forgot," she muttered. The cheery inflections were gone. "Take this."

It was a business card with a phone number and address penned onto the front.

"After today, I'll be packing my bags and heading out. If you have any plans of cashing in on your 'reward', contact me here."

I took a good look at the address.

"You'll be in Japan," I remarked.

"Mhm. Mifune City. Not too far, I hope?"

I wouldn't shoot myself in the foot by revealing how close or far our home is from her new base of operations.

"We'll manage."

She was all smiles again. "Good, good!"

She took out a cigarette, and I took that as my cue to usher us out the door.

X

The three of us were quiet on the plane, from the moment we took off up until we landed in England. Not out of any sort of discomfort, necessarily, but simply of a lack of conversational material.

Though I guess there was one thing I was curious about.

"Old man."

He didn't look at me. He didn't even vocalize any sign of having heard me other than a suggestive hum.

"Do you have a plan?" It was a vague question, so I explained, "To have the sealing designation removed, I mean."

I found it odd that he told the woman that we would give it a shot. For all of his grand dreams of saving every single person on this god-forsaken earth, he was undoubtedly practical to a fault.

He had gone over some of his old plans for the sake of example, a little while ago. The bastard once shot a seven-year-old girl taken hostage through the neck to kill her captor, only because there was a chance that the said captor would detonate a bomb in a hospital before the hostage could be saved.

He didn't explore odds. He dealt only with certainties. Whether it was a learned behaviour from a previous disaster or simply how he came out of the womb, I didn't know, nor did I care to find out.

"It won't happen, but we can give it a go" didn't sound like him, even if his own daughter was involved.

Especially since his daughter was involved.

Kiritsugu thought before answering. "I'm fairly well… acquainted with the vice director."

I blinked.

"I've taken in some requests from him in the past, so I like to think that I have a good grasp of his character. I phoned in ahead with this situation concerning the late Lord of Kischur, and our cooperation here just might be enough to have us heard out. Actually–"

He scanned the crowd on the other side of the customs area.

"–He mentioned that he sent his assistant to escort us to him directly. His granddaughter, if I recall."

Hold on. Hold on for just a moment. Granddaughter? What do you mean he? Isn't the vice director–

A particularly well-dressed brunette marched up to us the moment we collected our baggage. She was tall, though it could just be the fashion she squared her shoulders.

She was young though, wasn't she? Familiar too, but that couldn't be right. A teenager– twenty at the very most.

"Emiya," she nodded to the old man, ignoring both Sakura and myself in a manner that was becoming a recurring theme amongst these types. I should buckle up and get used to it, I'm sure.

Surprising me greatly, she bowed. To be fair, it was a little more than a twitch of the neck, but it was infinitely more than what could be expected of quite literally anyone at the Clocktower– doubly so since we were of Asian descent.

"My name is Lorelei Barthomeloi, assisting faculty representative of the Policies department. The vice-director –Lord of Policies– would have you escorted to his office posthaste."

Ah.

That's why she seemed familiar, then.

…

What year was it, again?