[EMIYA SHIROU]
[THE GAMER]
[LV 46 -13000/45.000]
[HP: 3800][MP: 35][MC: 27][ST: 920][SP: 5]
[STR: 50][DEX: 50][INT: 50][WIS: 50][CHR: 102]
[ATK: 100] [DEF:100]

The saltiness of the ocean air lashed at Shirou's face as he stared at the approaching island of Megijima vaguely visible at the horizon.

Among the dozen passengers of the ferry, Shirou was one of the few children, which was hardly surprising considering that school was in session. Very few parents would pull their kids out of school for a few days, just for the sake of watching the cherry tree blossom on a distant island.

Some did, of course, therefore Mikado Ryouko and himself traveling together on a week day didn't really stand out too much. The older Magus had discarded her usual lab coat in favor of more casual clothes and a pair of sunglasses, and she was currently reading a book while sitting on one of the many benches the lined the deck of the boat.

Even to someone like Shirou, who didn't hold onto grudges, travelling with someone who had previously tried to kidnap him and took his girlfriend as a veritable hostage, gave him a weird feeling.

He was glad for that, though. He feared losing touch with reality as a human being. Being a Magus already separated him from the majority of the human population and the Gamer Eyes only drove that further. Also, the multiple girlfriends angle didn't help things either.

As long as there still were things to weird him out, he knew he wasn't too far gone yet.

As he thought this, Mikado closed her book and put it back in her purse. She then stood up and approached him next to the railings.

"We should be there in a little over half an hour," she told him. "Although there isn't much I can do without my equipment. Are you sure it will be delivered on time?"

"Trust me, everything will be there when we arrive," he replied. "I used a very reliable shipping method."

That is to say, he had put everything inside of his Inventory. Everything would definitely get to the island the moment they got there. Of course, Mikado herself didn't know that. Shirou had not explained her anything about the range of his abilities.

She only knew because she had figured it herself that he owned some variant of Mystic Eyes, which was more than what his girlfriends knew. Furthermore, although Shirou did not bear a grudge, that didn't mean he trusted her in the least. She might have put herself in a subordinate position, but that was just so that she could use him for her own purposes. That he was fine with it did not change that her intentions for him were not pleasant in the least. Her geas was that she could not act against him or his people unless in self defence, directly or indirectly, but there were always loopholes.

He wouldn't be lowering his guard around her anytime soon.

He might have been able to overlook her transgression if she had only targeted him, but she had dragged Saeko in the crossfire as well and that wasn't something Shirou was willing to forget.

But that something to worry about in the future. He was safe as long as she had a use for him, that much was certain. After that, everything would be up in the air.

Mikado knew better than to inquire as well. She knew him to be reliable and that was it. He had shown himself to be resourceful beyond her wildest expectations, and that was what she had bet on. If something as trivial as having sensitive material delivered punctually stumped him she would have had him strapped to a table weeks ago.

Satisfied with his answer, she leaned over the railing to stare at the ocean as well, which gave Shirou the opportunity to look at her figure from the corner of his eyes.

Mikado was a pretty woman by all accounts, with a very nice figure. However she seemed constantly tense and quite standoffish. That was par for the course for a Magus, but Shirou had the impression that trying and failing for months to heal her friend had also taken its toll on her.

That was her saving grace in Shirou's eyes. Fundamentally, someone who cared so deeply about someone else couldn't be a bad person, which was why he was going easy on her despite endangering Saeko's life.

Perhaps sensing his gaze, she turned her eyes to him, which made him instinctively look away. And so he caught a glimpse of something familiar on the opposite end of the boat.

"Something wrong?" Mikado asked, following his gaze.

"No… I don't think so," he replied, but still narrowed his eyes. Could it be that…? No, that was just ridiculous. He shrugged and returned his eyes to the horizon. They would be there soon.

[br]

Of course, travelling without luggage whatsoever would have looked even more suspicious, so the duo had their bags with them, with a week's worth of clothing. They arrived shortly after noon, which was way too early to set up their operation. Daytime was never a good moment to do Magecraft after all, for obvious reasons.

"I'm going for a stroll," Shirou decided. "Let's meet back here after sunset."

"Alright. I assume my equipment will be delivered by then," agreed Mikado.

"It will. Don't fret," he told her, before leaving the room they had rented into the only ryokan of the island. Megijima was a tourist spot, but since it was just a twenty minutes ride from the closest urban center, people hardly stayed overnight.

As it was high season, there were a couple thousand people on the island, as opposed to the couple hundred that inhabited it regularly. Lots of people came from all over Japan to watch the blossoming cherry trees. Some foreign tourists as well.

The island was awash in mid-spring warmth and light. There was a cheerful atmosphere all around with all the visitors busying themselves around stands that had the sole purpose of siphoning their money in exchange of a bit of old-fashioned entertainment.

The locals were dressed in traditional clothes, something that wouldn't have looked out of place a few hundred years back, giving the town the feel of a fishing village from a distant past.

Shirou had never cared much for such things, but now that he was there he found himself liking it quite a bit. He would have loved to take Taiga and Saeko along, but he knew that if they came to the island, they would follow all the way to the Mirror Side.

He couldn't have that.

Saeko was strong and Taiga was getting there too. However, Shirou was in a different league. Between his raw stats and bullshit hax he could punch way above his weight and therefore take on challenges that were beyond anything they could currently achieve.

He hoped to change all that with exceptional equipment of his making, which was the whole point of this expedition. If he succeeded, they would all fare much better, but until that time, he was on his own.

However, those thoughts aside, his reason for exploring the town was much simpler: looking for the owner of the cup Lilith had given him.

Not that he had any clue who the owner was, but Lilith had implied that one way or another, the cup would find its way into its true owner's hands. He had no idea how that was even possible, but for all their usefulness, the Gamer Eyes did not see the strings of fate, if they even existed, so he had to take Lilith's words at face value.

In any event, he believed that aimlessly wandering around town could help fate do its job a little bit faster. He didn't keep in his Inventory in case it somehow interfered with the whole thing, and stored into his backpack instead. The sightseeing was just a pleasant bonus.

At least, that's what he told himself. Even though between his high mind-related stats and his real life experience Shirou was very mature, he was still a kid who had seen very little of the world yet.

Coming to Megijima had been worth the trip in and of itself.

As he walked through the crowd, Shirou did not pay too much attention to the labels above people's head. He was so used to seeing them that he just filtered them out. Otherwise he would have noticed a couple of people standing out from the rest.

Unfortunately, they weren't actively hiding from him, so his Presence Detection skill didn't go off in the least.

[br]

For weeks, Waver had been stumped. He was supposed to hunt down the last Emiya, but it was far from a simple task. Firstly, the diminutive Magus was a veritable killing machine. Secondly, he was still just a kid.

Waver was a Magus, and to be a Magus was to walk with death. Still, killing children wasn't something he was willing to do.

He followed Emiya around hoping that he would get himself killed on his own, but no matter how deep in the Mirror World the child ventured, he always came back unschated.

There were rumors that he had a high-tier regeneration factor that bordered on immortality. Waver didn't know how much stock he could put on those, but he acknowledged there could be some truth to them. It explained why someone so young could survive on his own in such a dangerous world.

But that didn't really help Waver. He could not go back as long as the kid lived. He wasn't oath bound or any such thing, and if the kid had kept himself under the radar, Waver could have pretended not to see him. However, the last Emiya appeared dead set in making bigger and bigger waves.

At this point, even if Waver didn't do it himself someone else would. Emiya Kiritsugu had stepped on far too many toes for his adopted child to live in the limelight without people trying to get a piece of him and Waver was probably the only one who wouldn't draw the entire thing out for sadistic reasons.

Since it would only end badly, Waver might as well stomach his disgust and do the deed himself. Easier said than done. Did he already mention that the the kid was a killing machine?

Waver was a Magus, and a good one at that. They all had methods to killing people but they were mostly byproducts of other things. Conversely Emiya Shirou, much like his father, specialized in killing stuff.

Waver didn't like the odds of a direct confrontation and a surprise attack had been entirely impossible until now. He couldn't attack in broad daylight, and during nighttime Emiya was either barricaded behind his impressive Boundary Fields or in the Mirror World, where he would be on his guard at all times.

Fortunately for him, Waver was a patient man. He was willing to wait for an opportunity to present itself and he believed that this trip, the purpose of which he didn't yet know, could prove to be it.

Of course, there was that other woman to keep in mind as well. Clearly, she was a Magus too and it seemed like they were cooperating. Waver didn't fancy taking on a Magus of unknown abilities on top of his primary target, so he first needed to know what they came to this island for to plan his course of action.

That meant doing a lot of spying, stalking and eavesdropping. Which was all he had been doing for the past few weeks anyway.

Apparently, against all odds, boredom was also on the table as a way for a Magus to die.

Joy.

[br]

Shirou's stroll eventually took him all the way down to the beach. It was a bit too early for anyone to be swimming in the ocean, yet, but there were a few people walking barefoot on the cool sand.

Mostly they were relatively young couples but there was also a blonde woman in a sundress all on her own far in the distance. Shirou thought there was something familiar about her. Not so much her hair color, but rather her body proportions.

No, that wasn't possible was it

And yet… how many blonde women in Japan with a rack that size were there?

He approached her from the side, and as he got close enough to read the name above her head he knew that he was right.

"Matsumoto-san," he called out.

The woman, who was wearing a yellow sundress, whirled around with a surprised look on her face. She blinked several times before she recognized him.

"Shirou? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"That would be my question. Did you follow me? I thought I made it pretty clear what my stance about things like this was."

"What? No. I visit Megijima every year at this time. I didn't expect you to be here as well. I swear it's true."

Shirou stared at her almost as if he could see right through her, but sadly he had no Gamer-enforced skill to tell whether one was telling the truth or not.

Ultimately, he decided, it was quite possible that her presence there was merely a coincidence, even though there was no way to know for sure.

"I see. Well, never mind then. Please continue with your visit and forget ever seeing me, alright?"

"Of course," he quickly agreed. "I'll keep my distance. Don't worry about it."

He nodded and turned to leave. Matsumoto made no attempts at stopping or following him.

Shirou didn't like the situation at all. He chose to drop the subject but the possibility still existed that she was there because of him. It was yet another thing he had to keep an eye out for, as if they weren't enough yet.

Since things were this way, he might as well get a head start on his project.

Looking for the owner of the cup was something that could wait for when his expedition was over.

He quickly returned to the Ryokan, only to find that Mikado had gone out as well. That suited him just fine. He left his backpack inside the room and went up to the mountain, where their mission was set to take place later that night.

It was still early, but he had to set up a Boundary Field anyway. He'd scout the area and locate the best spot to begin their supernatural mining mission. He would feel more at ease with more precautions in place. As he went up the mountain trail, he still did not notice the foreign gentleman walking behind him among the ordinary tourists.

[br]

Ryouko returned to the hotel room she shared with Shirou a little before sunset, and noticed his backpack laying there. So he had already come back and left again. That was fine for her, as it was still a bit early anyway.

Still, innate curiosity of a Magus taking over, Ryouko couldn't help but wanting to see what he had brought with himself other than clothing. After making sure he wasn't around, she opened his backpack and started looking through its contents.

There was nothing worth mentioning inside, except for an object wrapped in paper. She delicately unwrapped it and discovered it was an old-looking sake cup.

That was odd, both for a child to have, however a peculiar one he was, and to take along in an expedition such as this. Perhaps, she thought, it was an object of sentimental value. Maybe a good luck charm of some sort.

In any event, it was nothing that she cared about.

"Welcome back, young man," said the owner of the hotel further down the hallway. Had Shirou returned already? If he found her with her hands through her things it could lead to complications. Wrapping the cup inside its paper would take too much time, so she just stuffed it into her purse before hastily closing the backpack.

She would put it back later, and even if he looked for it and found it gone, she could pretend she didn't know anything, while if it looked like she had touched it, it would be much more difficult pleading ignorance.

"Ah, Mikado-san. You're here," he said upon walking into the room and finding her there. "Good. I found a good spot as a location for the ritual.

"And what of my equipment?"

"Don't worry. It's already up there under a Boundary Field. As soon as it gets dark we can go over there and get started."

"That's good," she nodded. "We should probably have a meal before going up, though."

"Yes, that's probably a good idea. I saw a few places where they seemed to serve good food in town. Shall we go?"

"Of course," Mikado agreed, clutching her purse and the involuntarily stolen item inside of it.

[Br]

Together they went to a place that served okonomiyaki. "Served" was a bit of a stretch, seeing how everyone cooked their own meal. They sat at a table in a corner of the crowded restaurant. Even thought it was a temporary construction on the shore built to accommodate the extraordinary influx of tourists, it had its own homely feel nonetheless.

The owner, an old woman who probably had as many years as she had wrinkles, was being helped by a couple of teenage girls that looked like they came from the city.

There was something sad in knowing that most of the people living on the island were older folks. The younger generations liked the thriving city life better, and progressively abandoned rural places like Megijima in droves, even though the island was just a twenty minutes ride from the closest city.

At this rate, it wouldn't be long before Gaia completely took over the island in the Reverse Side. It had been a good call, coming at this time of the year. Shirou didn't dare to think what he would find if he came at any other time.

He had already plenty of things to worry about. Lilith's so called blessing was in full effect, and therefore his consumption of mana was doubled. He could make up for it simply by eating food so, while it basically halved his stamina, he knew how to handle it.

The thing he didn't know how to handle was the pressure in his lower abdomen.

Lilith's blessing increased the production of semen by five times its original amount, but it didn't offer any increase in tolerance to make up for it. So, Shirou's poor testicles were close to bursting.

Horny didn't begin to describe how he felt.

Again, physical discomfort was the least of his issues. It was the acute awareness of everything female in the range of his senses that annoyed him.

As he sat with Mikado, eating dinner, he was absolutely captivated by her lips, as they parted to take in a bit of okonomiyaki, as well as the hint of her tongue darting out to lick them clean.

"Is something the matter," she asked, finding him staring at her.

"Ah? Oh, no. No. I'm just thinking about later," he lied. He thanked every deity that came to mind that there was a table between them, otherwise his erection would have been all too evident.

That was yet another problem. Did his penis get bigger? He couldn't be sure, but the tightness in his pants seemed to suggest so. Perhaps it was just the consequence of being unbearably aroused. Either way, he knew he couldn't conceal it easily. He succeeded, only because he wore his shirt outside, and it was long enough to hide his crotch, but the situation was untenable.

Jerking off would provide fleeting relief, and it still wouldn't solve the stamina issue.

No, the only solution, however temporarily, was to have sex with someone. However, Taiga and Saeko were several hours of travel away and unable to provide any help.

Shirou wasn't the vengeful sort, but he had a few choice of words to tell Lilith once he saw her again.

However, it turned out that thinking about her caused him to recall their kiss, and its consequences.

That blissful chain of consecutive orgasm was the most intense experience of his young life, brought forth only by the touch of silk-like lips.

Just the memory of her scent was almost enough to make him-

"Uh," he said, feeling a sudden wetness in his pants.

"What's wrong?" asked Mikado, seeing his flushed face. "Are you alright? If you are feeling unwell, we can postpone."

"No, no, no," he said hurriedly, waving his hands in front of him. "I just need to go to the bathroom for a minute. Please excuse me."

He jumped off the chair and left the table as fast as he could without making it look like he was running. He wasn't sure he had succeeded in that endeavor.

[br]

Ryouko looked at Shirou leaving with a frown on her face. Did he eat something wrong? It sounded almost absurd that someone that could act with his body turned into a pincushion from the inside out could be weak in the stomach.

His flustered face also didn't fit someone who was sick.

Was he hiding something from her? What though?

Just a moment before, he was staring at her with great intensity. Even if he said that he was thinking about their mission later on, Ryouko could tell the difference between someone staring into nothing and staring at her.

Honestly, if he had been any older she would have thought he was-

"How in hell are you possibly cool with someone who tried to kill you and your girlfriend?"

-checking her out.

At the time, she assumed that Yoruichi was being cute, but what if she was being literal? Was Emiya Shirou premature even in that field? Did he and Busujima have a relationship like that?

… was he checking her out, after all?

No, no. That was preposterous. However, now that she had put that thought inside her head, she could no longer dismiss it completely. Weirder things happened in the Moonlit World.

If he was like that, and if he asked that of her…. she couldn't really refuse. She had geassed herself in his service. The thought that she could be taken advantage of in that way hadn't crossed her mind, seeing how young he was.

He might be an atypical Magus and not really that interested in Magecraft, but he was still a guy, wasn't he?

A sense of dread crept up her spine. If he asked that of her, what would she do?

'Comply,' said the rational mind of a Magus, but the heart of a woman wasn't so easily calmed down. Maybe he hadn't done anything until now out of consideration for his girlfriend, but Busujima Saeko was far away now. If he told her not to speak of it, again she would be forced to follow his order to the letter.

What was he waiting for, then? An opportunity? An excuse?

She still had his cup in her purse. If he found out would he… discipline her?

The thought gave her the creeps. Even putting aside his age and her circumstances… she was in love with Tearju. True, she would do anything to save her but…

No, she was working herself into a panic for nothing. There was no actual proof that anything she just thought had any ground in reality. There had been plenty of chances already for him to take advantage of her.

She lived under the same roof as him and there wasn't always someone around. Furthermore, he had been nothing but polite and courteous to her, even though she had, in fact, tried to kidnap him and put his girlfriend's life in jeopardy.

If he wanted excuses and opportunities, he had them in droves.

Realizing that, she calmed down some. Yes, Emiya Shirou wasn't just an ordinary Magus, but he also wasn't a guy like that. She didn't have absolute certainty, but it was probable enough to regain control of her nerves.

If she kept her cool, things would work out for the best, at least on this front.

[br]

Meanwhile, Shirou locked himself in the restroom and was desperately beating his meat.

He couldn't believe that he had ejaculated a little by fantasizing about Lilith. Yet the sticky proof was right there, inside his underwear. This was getting out of hand and he had to retake control of the situation as soon as possible, at least for a while. He was sure that being in a very dangerous area of the Reverse Side, later, would prove enough of a distraction.

However, right here and now, he had to lower the pressure and blow some steam. He closed his eyes and thought of his girlfriends, but the image that came up was that of Lilith once more.

Shirou growled in frustration. He would not give Lilith that satisfaction. She was the reason he was in this mess. He'll be damned if he thought of her while jerking off.

However, thinking about Saeko and Taiga while doing something so… so indecent like masturbating in a public restroom made him feel like he was dirtying their image.

Who else could he think of? Yoruichi, the Goddess of Flash.

Oh yes, he knew every curve of her body all too well. He had seen them plenty of times, from many angles. In fact, he had seen her naked more than his two girlfriends combined. After all, she went around the house in her birthday suit for the express purpose of embarrassing him.

'You… you damn tease. I ought to… I ought to… Hmmm.'

No, he couldn't go there. That was a line that he wasn't sure he could come back from if he crossed it. Living with Yoruichi was hard enough as it was.

He pushed her image away, and it sank in the back of his mind, her teasing smile disappearing last, like the Cheshire cat she was probably related to.

Matsumoto came up next. Her long flowing hair of gold framed a visage with full lips and pair of eyes as blue and as deep as the sea.

But not as deep as her cleavage.

Those juggs… oh, those juggs…

Shirou could lie to himself all he wanted, but he knew he had wanted to feel them up the moment he saw her in that black dress the first time he met her. It was probably a common impulse, which was why she had a side gig as a prostitute.

Right, he almost forgot she did that.

How many man had the chance to feel those melons between their fingers? How many had wrapped them around their cocks while she sucked them with those hungry lips of hers?

… no! He wouldn't think of her like that. He had no right! No right at all. He wouldn't become a person like that.

His hand froze. This was starting to get old. He was so close, but he just lacked that final something. There was still Mikado he could think of, even though until moments before he never entertained thoughts of her.

Yet, she too didn't deserve to be the object of these twisted desires.

There was only one person who did, which was the one who caused them in the first place.

'Damn you, Lilith,' he swore, inwardly. The image of Lilith in his mind smiled, leaning forward to kiss him like she had done just the previous day.

That was all he needed to unload a powerful stream of cum right into the toilet with a barely contained grunt. It splurt violently several times inside the ceramic bowl, until the pressure waned and his ejaculation slowed down to a manageable trickle.

The Lilith in his mind pulled away and sank in the darkness of his thoughts where she seemed to have taken residence, but before she disappeared fully, Shirou had the impression of a taller figure standing behind her.

A shadow darker than the darkness itself.

Truly, his imagination could be more vivid than he ever thought possible.

It was, in equal amounts, a blessing and a curse.

[XXX]