Chapter Five

Vergil woke up with a headache and sore muscles from head to toe. He had forgotten how badly an prepared body could handle the rigors of his distinctly more than human combat abilities. Even if the boy whose body he was borrowing was a sorcerer, he was decidedly not ready to handle Vergil's demonic fighting style quite yet. He winced as he sat up and very slowly stretched, testing how badly he'd overworked himself the night before. His muscles protested, but not so badly that he couldn't stand up after a few moments of dedicated stretching. Perhaps a hot bath would help. It did nothing to settle the throbbing behind his eyes though. Hopefully it was merely exhaustion and not some side-effect of being stuck in a body not his own. He had slept a bit… restlessly. Though the contents of his dreams eluded him now that the sun had risen.

"Saber, are you there?" he asked aloud. He didn't have the energy to try to communicate with her mentally at the moment.

The blonde faded into existence, already dressed in the casual outfit they had picked up the previous day. "Yo, I'm up." She paused and looked over him. "You look like shit."

"Yes, I feel like 'shit' too," he grumbled. Ugh, why did his Servant have to sound more like his brother than him? He was not awake enough to deal with this. "I believe I'm going to take a bath. Keep an eye on the house while I'm occupied."

"Yeah, yeah… fucking glorified guard dog…" Saber grumbled a little bit as she disappeared again, fading into her ethereal form while Vergil reluctantly climbed out of his futon. He was actually somewhat looking forward to having a nice relaxing bath. Hell had a distinct lack of bathing facilities or even time to safely rest. It was a luxury he had not been able to enjoy in quite some time. Or at least not in a little while. His sense of time was a bit off after spending months in near constant battle in hell.

He made his way down the hall to the modest but comfortable bathroom and closed the door behind him. He had a bit of respect for the young man he was inhabiting. Despite the size of his home and a decent inheritance, he had kept to modest adornments in most of the rooms. He paused to look at himself in the mirror above the sink as he stepped into the middle of the room and tugged his shirt off over his head. He had also kept himself quite fit. Shirou's muscles weren't quite the rippling physique of a hardened combatant, but he was certainly fit and trim beyond what he would expect from a high schooler with no parental oversight. Which was probably why he was 'sore' rather than 'wishing for death' right about now. He could vaguely recall some sort of magical technique that could theoretically strengthen his body further, but he didn't actually know how to use this world's magical abilities. So he was going to have to deal with the repeated soreness until he got into even better shape. Perhaps he should make a relaxing morning bath a routine. That was certainly nothing to complain about.

The water took far longer than his body wanted to heat up and fill the tub, but the sensation of relaxing into the warm water made it more than worthwhile. He groaned and rested his head back against the edge of the tub, closing his eyes and letting the warmth soak into his tired body. "Ugh, I'm not built for this kind of nonsense."

He lost track of time as he reclined in the tub, letting the steaming water soothe away his muscle pain until a tug at the back of his head caught his attention. "Hey, Master. That girl friend of yours is here. She let herself in. Figured she probably wasn't who I was guarding the place from so I let her be."

"That would be correct. Thank you." Vergil sat up and stretched, feeling the water drip down his arms and letting his back pop once. For all of her irreverence, at least Mordred was not as thick as her attitude could imply.

"Looks like she's making breakfast for you." There was a pause that was practically tangible. "It smells pretty good too." The was a second even longer pause that made Vergil nervous for some undefinable reason. "Sitting around in spirit form is boring. And that shit looks like she actually knows how to cook. I'm gonna say hi. Don't take too long or I'll steal your portion too."

Vergil nearly lost his balance and fell back into the tub with a small splash. "You're what? Saber, wait!" The lack of any sort of response was telling. Alright, so maybe Mordred was still a bit thick. Cursing under his breath, the much younger than usual half-demon forced himself out of the lukewarm water and nearly stumbling over the edge of the tub in haste as he hurried to get out. "Why is my life full of reckless idiots?" He scowled as she toweled off as quickly as he could manage and struggled back into his clothes. His usual grace abandoned him in his hurry to make himself at least moderately presentable before Saber caused some kind of catastrophe.

His shirt was only halfway on over his head as he staggered out of the room and he hastily yanked it down. Vergil took a deep breath and straightened his shirt properly, smoothing down the front and pulling on the collar to center it before he headed down the hall at a reasonable pace. He was not going to panic over this. He had much more decorum than that. He let out a long slow breath to calm himself as he rounded the corner to the dining room.

Vergil was both less and more concerned by the scene that greeted him. Fortunately, it seemed that Saber had not caused a scene by being rude or scaring Sakura half to death showing up out of nowhere. If anything, Sakura looked like she was annoyed rather than anything else, though the expression quickly vanished when she saw him entering the room. "Good morning, senpai," the younger girl said with a slightly dishonest smile. "I wasn't expecting you to have company over. Miss… Saber was just introducing herself to me."

Vergil sighed and gave his Servant a flat look. "Yes, my apologies. She showed up unexpectedly last night, but she's a… family acquaintance. It seems that her father knew mine and she came to Japan looking for him."

"Yeah, that," Saber said quickly. It also seemed that she hadn't actually come up with a good reason why a foreign teenager would be lounging around his house first thing in the morning. He really didn't know what he had been expecting. "Father always said he was a reliable asshole."

Vergil really was cursed with nothing but crude morons in his life. Thank the gods for sane people like Sakura. "I offered to help her since Kiritsugu passed away. It was the least I could do for an old family friend."

"Yeah, that." Vergil felt his eye twitch ever so slightly. "I'm just trying to meet up with a couple of people in town. I was hoping that Shirou could help me get some stuff done before I have to go home."

Sakura gave Saber and narrow look before she sighed. "That's just like you, senpai. You're really kind to everyone, aren't you?" She fell silent for a moment and turned back to the kitchen to check on the rice cooker. "You should be careful though. People might try to take advantage of you…"

Vergil had to acknowledge the point, but he had a feeling that Shirou would be less inclined to agree. "Perhaps, but I cannot just turn her away." Ugh, now he was imitating Dante again. He really was letting himself be influenced. Though as long as he wasn't developing an unhealthy desire for pizza and strawberry ice cream, it was probably good influence. "She's just staying over until her business in the city is done. Maybe only a few days if things go well." That was perhaps a bit optimistic, especially considering the Berserker they still had no method of dealing with conclusively, but he allowed himself a little bit of hope.

Sakura sighed again. "Alright. Just don't get involved when you're still recovering."

It took Vergil a second to remember what she was talking about. "Oh, I'll be fine. I'm already feeling much better. I think I might have just bought some bad fish or something." He smiled as best he could manage on short notice. "Don't worry about me."

The purple haired girl nodded after a moment. "Would you like anything special for breakfast then? I have on some miso since I thought it would be easy on your stomach."

"Something traditional is more than fine," Vergil said, glad that it seemed like she had at least accepted his bullshit excuse. Or at least had decided that attempting to argue wasn't going to actually get her anywhere. Either way, it was sufficient. "I can put on some eggs if you'd like. A little extra protein seems good this morning."

"I'll take care of it," Sakura said quickly. "Breakfast is my responsibility." She said that in the firm way of someone who was going to broke no argument. Vergil was starting to revise his first impression of the girl. She had more confidence than he had first assumed. At least when she was in her element. From his borrowed memories, he recalled that Shirou had helped her learn how to cook. Clearly she was proud of having mastered the skills he had shared with her. Yet somehow there was no indication that Shirou had ever seen any kind of romantic attachment to her. Considering they seemed to be trading off the duty of housewife every other meal, he wasn't quite sure how the red-head had ever come to that conclusion. Maybe he was one of those oblivious types. "You're going to have to explain to Miss Fujimura though."

Vergil blinked. "Oh, right. I'll have to do that." And wasn't that going to be a fun conversation. He did not handle energetic types well at all. Still, there was no possible way she was as annoying as Jester, so he could manage. "Wish me luck at least. I might need it." Sakura giggled and nodded before she went back to the kitchen and started looking through the fridge for something. Presumably eggs. Vergil sighed and took a seat at the table directly across from his Servant. Mordred just looked at him and grinned. Vergil shot back a much less impressed look, but it did little to actually phase the blonde. He was going to have to deal with this until the Holy Grail War was over, wasn't he?

Mordred was saved from a mental chewing out by the sound of an engine out front and footsteps at the front door. "Shirooouu~ I came for breakfast!"

Vergil was starting to understand why Dante wanted to be paid to deal with other people's shit. "Good morning, Fuji-nee."

"Goood morning!" Taiga hopped around the corner with a smile that was far to energetic for seven o'clock in the morning. Then she paused when she realized there was an unfamiliar figure in the room. "Huh? Who's this?"

Vergil sighed. Perhaps he should have stalled Sakura until Fujimura had shown up just so he didn't have to explain this twice. "Her father was a friend of my father. She came looking for some help."

Taiga's eyes narrowed a little. "One of Kiritsugu's friends? I didn't know he had any foreign friends who might come looking for him."

Mordred's own eyes narrowed and she scowled. "So what? It's not like you knew everything about him. It's not my fault he didn't tell you about my family. I never met the guy either you know. I just have shit to take care of."

"And you're gonna take care of my Shirou's hospitality to do it, huh?" Taiga slapped her hands down on the table and stared Saber directly in the eye.

Mordred half rose out of her seat and met her eyes with a steely gaze. "He invited me to stay here. You got a problem with how he runs his house, huh?"

Vergil rubbed his temples. This looked a great deal more like two thugs trying to prove who was tougher than his 'guardian' being worried about his safety. Taiga's protective instincts were strange and incomprehensible things to ordinary mortals, mages, and demons alike. Shirou's memories were infinitely fond and a bit exasperated. But at least she seemed to mean well, even if she was… eccentric. "Fuji-nee," he sighed in an exasperated tone that he was sure he and Shirou shared almost perfectly. "She's telling the truth. Some of father's things out in the shed confirmed it. I couldn't just leave her with nowhere to go, could I?"

Taiga shifted from her stare down with Saber to an almost comical pout. "But Shirou, this kind of person is definitely going to be a bad influence. You should be more worried about spending time with your reliable friends like Sakura!" Sakura stiffened for a moment and Vergil was sure that she was blushing.

"Fuji-nee…" he sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I'm a bit old for you to be worried about things like that." His actual age was a fair bit higher than Shirou's actual age and he had lived an… adventurous life on top of that. He had already more than embraced and then unlearned plenty of bad influences in his life. He was pretty sure that Mordred couldn't possibly make him a worse person than he'd been on several past occasions. If anything, she might help him learn how to deal with Dante without having to walk on egg shells because of his still… complicated relationship with his brother.

Taiga kept pouting for several more moments before she slumped back onto her seat and crossed her arms petulantly. Shirou definitely had memories of her being more mature than this. Why was she being childish now? "Fiiiiine."

"Why don't we all eat breakfast?" Sakura said gently, carrying a tray with her as she walked over to the table.

"Agreed," Vergil said quickly, hopping to his feet. "We can eat and get to know each other a little better." He hurried over to help her carry the meals back to the table. Sakura smiled gratefully at him and took another while he balanced one on either hand and the took a moment to set the table.

"Damn, this looks good." Mordred and Taiga's stomachs both growled almost simultaneously as the steamy trays were set down in front of them. The blonde Saber glared at the teacher for a moment before they both clapped their hands together. "Thanks for the food!"