Chapter 07: Butterfly Effect Pt 02

A footnote at the end. That child who had survived, but wished he had not.

Bathed in curses, his life was forfeited, in return he gave up his humanity.

I will be a hero of justice!

An empty ideal, taken from another, forced to be fulfilled for one's own sake. The only way for him to atone for the guilt buried deep in his heart.

As well as to honor the one who was his hero.

I will be a hero of justice!

The song of a fool who still believes that by himself he can save them all. The desire of the one who is sick of living in darkness, the one who at last wants to see the light of dawn.

May the light of the righteous guide his path.

Even if it only leads him to despair.

I am the bone of my sword!

The choked cry of a selfish hypocrite whose hands are stained with blood. Someone who betrayed himself, deceived himself and in the end lost everything. Is it even worth listening to?

In the end.

His only destiny is and always will be this one.

Because a sword will never be far from conflict.

Steel is my body and fire my blood!

Death. A lonely death in a lifeless wasteland, his body completely covered with swords of every possible size and shape.

Corpses and blood on rusted steel.

He will never have rest.

After all...

His body was made of swords.

...

Rin's eyes opened, her day started as usual.

It really was hard to wake up without setting more than three alarm clocks. It was times like these that she noticed that coffee was truly a godsend.

Pushing his body up, he barely managed to get out of the futon. If he remembered correctly, Emiya was an exaggeratedly early riser so it was very likely that breakfast had already been made.

The breakfast was certainly delicious, but there were some complications that made it a bit problematic...

A somewhat bitter expression appeared on his face. Fujimura Taiga had not been easy to deal with at Homurahara, and at the Emiya residence she was much worse.

Especially considering that she thought she wanted to play with Emiya. Did she really seem like someone so evil as to steal her younger sister's love interest?

Did she really seem so untrustworthy?

- You used a command seal to bind me to your will. You treated me as if I were a normal servant and even gave me a somewhat violent treatment, so yes, I consider you to be a Master not as trustworthy as I would like - Archer spoke while looking at her with an unperturbed expression from the kitchen.

Rin really wondered what he was doing with an apron, but chose not to ask the question, it really mattered little.

Besides she feared the answer would bring down the seriousness of the situation.

-... Am I that easy to read? - She asked with a sigh, it could have been the fact that she was still drowsy, but she really wasn't in the mood to fight with Archer.

- No, you were just talking out loud - I answered without even looking at her. It's not like he really needed to in order to know that she was embarrassed and possibly furious with him.

...For the rest of the morning Rin refused to even speak to Archer.

Absorbed in their own affairs no one besides Sakura and Saber noticed Shirou's absence for most of the morning.

...

- Ugh - An annoyed groan escaped his mouth, a yawn followed. Her hands gently rested on the floor.

A relaxing sleep was truly the cure to any ailment. Now he could understand why people liked to sleep so much.

I'm sorry Tohsaka. I misunderstood you all this time.

The sight of a silent Tiger-dojo greeted him, beside him he could see a strange, ancient-looking (and somewhat exhibitionist) Japanese outfit along with a note on it. On a separate note, black light armor and a pair of shrouds lay next to the folded clothing.

[𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘢 𝘰𝘳 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳? 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦?

𝘜𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘦. 𝘋𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘴.

𝘖𝘩 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨... 𝘊𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩!

𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘒.𝘚.𝘡.

𝘗𝘚: 𝘈𝘯 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥!]

- Huh? - The red-haired man wondered before seeing an object heading dangerously fast at his face.

Feeling sweat running down his back he made the most sensible move he could have come up with in the short span of time he had before the object hit his forehead hard.

[𝙇𝙤𝙖𝙙]

It wasn't cowardly to run away when you knew you couldn't avoid something, it was just a natural reaction.

Thought the boy justifying himself as he vanished from the Tiger-dojo with both suits in his arms. Dealing with Zelretch was never easy, you ran away at the first opportunity or stayed to face the consequences.

It was no secret that only a few, like Lorelei Barthomeloi, were able to do the latter.

After his departure a loud laugh echoed through the place before fading away, in the space where Shirou had been stood a black colored bracelet covered in a colorful glow.

It was a pity he hadn't gotten to see it.

But Zelretch knew, eventually he would return. It was Emiya Shirou, no matter how much common sense you tried to put into his hard head, you would never take the suicidal out of him.

He knew that from experience.

...

Repeating his actions, this time Shirou didn't even take out Ebony and Ivory.

Who knows if the shit that happened last time will happen again?

...

It was a complete relief that things could go better than in the past.

So... a Master at Ryuudo Temple?

He would have to take care of that later, as well as try to calm down an annoying Saber.

At least Shinji wasn't going to be her enemy right away. That could be considered a small momentary victory.

An alliance with him was not as viable in the long run as with Rin, if for nothing else the few memories he had of the other wars. Shinji was an extremely unstable person, someone like that could only help so much before becoming a nuisance.

With Rider demonstrating overwhelming speed, his previous plan to destroy the Matou's book wasn't very wise either... Unless he wanted to try and maybe die a couple more times.

- Aaghh - With his hands over his head, Shirou let out an annoyed groan.

Why was trying to ensure happiness for everyone so damn troublesome? The worst part was that the biggest complication was the people themselves.

Whatever.

Since he was aware of certain things, it was best to be a bit more proactive from now on.

He just hoped his next course of action would help give him the desired effect.

...

Was it really bad to wish for things to go one's way?

Finally after a heated discussion with Saber, he decided to head for the Ryuudo temple.

It was time to implement the only plan she could think of.

Mix routes and wait for the turning point to be affected.

He had managed to get Sakura and Tohsaka to stay at his home, he had increased his closeness to Saber enough to become a stable trust between them.

For now everything seemed to be going well, except for one thing....

- You're a trouble magnet, Emiya Shirou - Said an annoying voice.

- Tch. - Shirou couldn't help but click his tongue, Archer was too annoying.

Omake: I am the Rule Breaker!

The long awaited confrontation had begun, in front of Shirou the Masters of Chaldea looked at him with bloodshot eyes.

Almost like angry beasts.

- YOU! - shouted Gudako as she was grabbed by her brother to prevent her from jumping on him.

- Me?" He said pointing at himself, completely ignoring the girl's murderous aura.

- YOU! - she shouted for the second time.

- Me - He said as he nodded with a smile in her direction. Which only seemed to increase her anger.

- Attack! - He shouted as he seemed to be foaming with rage.

Archer EMIYA grinned like a filthy rich kid at Christmas, completely ignoring the blow that Arturia, who had been forced to transform into her Lily form, was delivering to his stomach.

Could they believe it? He was allowed to kill Emiya Shirou.

The black bow appeared in his hands, his ecstatic mind scanning through the myriad of weapon blueprints for one that would be suitable to quickly and painfully kill his target.

- Rule Breaker! - Shirou shouted, and EMIYA could feel his hopes and dreams disappear as the love in a guy's life turned otaku.

- No, it's mine! - Gudako shouted even more wildly than before as she saw a dead-eyed Archer EMIYA stand next to Shirou. - You can't steal it! Who'll cook my dinner, tuck me in at night and make sure to stop Kiyohime?! -

In response to her shout Shirou just looked at her with an unperturbed expression.

- I don't care -

Both Masters unleashed their rage in the form of their Servants' NPs. But the result was the same.

...

- Even you, Mash?! - Gudao shouted as he saw an embarrassed Mash follow Emiya.

The girl in question averted her gaze in embarrassment from her Senpais.

- Heartless monster! - They both shouted with tears in their eyes. But Emiya paid no attention to them.

- Should she make Archer wear a Maid outfit? Or make Saber Lily wear the Lion Suit? - The boy's thoughts had already strayed into a dangerous area. Archer's eyes were losing even more luster as Saber Lily blushed.

Rin, Sakura, Illya and Saber could only stare with their mouths open. Rin in particular was looking at her Servant, who had silently placed an arrow in her bow.

In her own words she had said "I will free the oppressed".

Sadly even that would remain so.

Emiya Shirou had lost control.... And quite a bit of money as well since he had to pay Caster royalties every time he used the damn dagger.

Life was truly unfair in many ways.