Homecoming 3

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'M LATE ABOUT A HALF-HOUR CUZ I'M STILL FIGURING TF THIS ACCOUNT PASSWORD WAS LOL.

-Emiya- 

"Ohhhh! I see, so she isn't your daughter! Why didn't you say so from the start!" Taiga laughed.

Emiya's face twitched at that answer and shouted inside his mind. 'That's literally what I did! But you won't believe me!'

It took him a lot of explanation and stubbornness to make her believe that Ymir isn't my daughter with Arturia!

It took literal hours for that to happen, and sometimes he almost loses his patience, but he preserved anyway.

Then Taiga suddenly became serious and asked. "So, where were you all this time for the past 10 years? Even with my grandfather's connection I couldn't find you anywhere."

Emiya honestly doesn't have any answer to that, after all he almost doesn't remember anything back when he started to pursue his ideals.

Most things he remembers was being deployed by Alaya to take care of some problems.

He could only remember bits of his memories back when he was still alive, since he couldn't remember, he decided to answer differently. "I was pursuing my dream to become a hero of justice."

Honestly, the word 'hero of justice' tasted like ash in his mouth. 

While it may not be the answer she wanted, it certainly made her understand why he left.

Taiga's eyes widened and exclaimed. "Wait! You're meaning to tell me that you still haven't gotten over that childhood dream?!"

Emiya let out a scoff. "It wasn't a childhood dream Taiga, but I wish it was but sadly it wasn't that case."

Taiga frowned at his reply, he can't blame her for reacting that way, but suddenly she said. "Hey, stop calling me 'Taiga'! It feels weird to be called that by you of all people! Call me Fuji-nee like you used to."

From all of the things to complain about, this one bothered her the most? Emiya couldn't help but roll his eyes, then thought with a slight smile. 'But that's Taiga for you, she's still the same as I remember.'

"Alright, Fuji-nee if that's what you want." He's fine with calling her that way, in fact this was way better than calling her outright by name, as in his eyes calling her this way is more meaningful, not to mention nostalgic.

Taiga looked satisfied, then back to their previous conversation. "What do you mean by 'not being a childhood dream' exactly?"

"Like I said, it isn't a childhood dream to me, but an unhealthy obsession of an empty husk of a human being trying to fill something inside him." Emiya couldn't help but think of how stupid his past-self was, trying to save everyone was impossible to begin with.

Then he begins his policy of killing one to save ten, kill ten to save hundreds and kill hundreds to save thousands.

A disgusting policy, exactly like his father's.

"What do you mean…?" Taiga looked even more confused by his explanation.

Emiya expected her not to understand what he's trying to say, that's why he clarified exactly what the problem was.

After he's done with his explanation, his former guardian couldn't be more horrified by this revelation to the point she shed tears. "So all the time you were suffering from survivor's guilt…? And you think that only way for you to be happy is by saving someone..?"

In a simple manner, yes but it's way more complicated than that, but either way she gets to the point of his psychological issue.

"Oh Shirou…if you only told me about this earlier I could have brought you to a psychologist to help you deal with it!"

Emiya shook his head at that, if it was only that simple. "I don't think it would help at all, it's an issue that wouldn't be solved by a simple therapy session."

Regardless of anything, the damage was already done, he's already utterly broken and frankly his ideal and dream has already been achieved technically, but the result is something horrible enough that no words could describe it.

"Either way, what is done is done. There's no changing the past, I'm already tired of all things I did for my ideals, so please I'd appreciate it if we stop talking about it, I'd hate to be reminded of my idiocy." Emiya didn't really want to continue talking about his horrible past that he recently only escaped to.

Now that he's finally a free man, he wanted to do things that he couldn't after being in a contract with that bitch Alaya.

For this is his redemption, his second chance in life and be really doesn't want to fuck it up.

Taiga was reluctant, but regardless she respected his wishes, despite knowing that he isn't okay. "Alright…if that's what you want."

Emiya was glad that she accepted, he's very aware that she's far from being completely satisfied knowing that he has a lot of issues that need to be fixed, but right now it is enough, if only to gain a semblance of peace.

His issues are, after all, a very touchy subject. "Enough about me, what about you? I'm sure a lot of things have happened after a decade of my absence, are there any major things that happened while I'm gone?"

Taiga made a thoughtful look on her face, thinking what to say first. "Well, there's indeed a lot of things that happened in your absence."

"Oh? For example?" He asked with interest.

"Like me being a wife to someone and a mother to a child." Taiga said with a smile.

Hearing that from her mouth, honestly shocked him, as this was completely out of his expectations.

"What?! You're married?! How?! And who would dare to marry someone like you?!" Now that he thought about it, he did see a ring on her ring finger, he thought of it as a means of fashion rather than an actual engagement ring.

Taiga's face twitched at his words, and a dark aura covered her entire body and menacingly said. "...what exactly do you mean by that…?"

Quickly realizing his mistake, unlike his past-self who was dense as a black hole, he was way better in reading the room compared to his younger counterpart and immediately made a recovery answer. "I mean, who wouldn't you're a beautiful woman after all. It's just surprising to me that the person who married you isn't intimidated by your 'background' if you know what I mean."

Thanks to his quick thinking, he managed to avoid the wrath of the tiger. 

"O-oh, that's what you meant, hehe.." Taiga's menacing aura completely disappeared as she scratched the back of her head, he noted that she was doing exactly what his younger counterpart would do if they didn't know what to feel about that particular issue.

"Anyway, who is this guy you married to? And how did you two exactly meet?" Emiya couldn't help but ask.

Taiga made a nostalgic look (?) on her face, as if remembering something precious and answered. "For your information, his name is Waver."

'Hm..?' He thought, as he felt like he knew this guy, but he wasn't sure. But the name is seriously familiar to him.

Taiga continued her story of how she met her husband. "After you left without a warning, I was really depressed, crying and drinking alcohol to ease the pain."

She gave him a particular stink eye for that, which made him really guilty.

"However, after a while I realized that the alcohol I bought from the market wasn't enough, that's why I decided to go to a bar nearby and that's where I met him." She had a fond smile hanging on her face.

"Our first encounter might not be romantic or fated like in those cheesy TV dramas, but it was enough for me to cherish it, though it almost ended up as a disaster, but it was something precious in my memory." 

Taiga paused for a bit before continuing. "Since that encounter, I've met him regularly in the bar, talk with him with random topics, and making me forget the pain of loss, funny thing that we actually met each other several years ago from the past, we only realized it after meeting each other a few times."

"Then things lead one to another, and we started going on dates, eventually dating each other and after a few years of dating he suddenly proposed to me to which I happily accepted." Taiga chuckled as if relenting a particular funny memory.

"We got married, had a boy who was named Alexander, honoring my husband's idol who is apparently 'Alexander The Great' even now I don't get his obsession with that historical figure." 

Emiya finally realized who this mysterious husband was (funny coincidence that this boy also has the same name as his boss), but for further verification, he asked. "So, what is this guy's last name?"

Taiga raised a brow at the weirdly specific question, but regardless she didn't really think much of it and answered. "Velvet, his full name is Waver Velvet. As his wife I'm Velvet Taiga or Taiga Velvet in western arrangement."

Oh, if this one of the major incident after he left, then what the fuck are the rest?

—

-Present Day-

-Emiya-

"...and that's what happened before I got here." Emiya explained.

Rin was speechless and answered. "....i think you skip a few chapters ahead with your explanation because it's missing a lot of context mister!"

Emiya looks at her with confusion. "What the hell are you talking about Rin?"

"Nevermind Emiya-kun, nevermind…"

—

A/N: As much as I would like to add more context, I did say that this would be the last chapter from Emiya's perspective. Maybe in the future but for now we'll be back with the MC's PoV.