Chapter 46:Yorokobe

"I will see if I can do anything. Anyways shirou I have to go now." shirou and kiritsugu accompanied Rin to the supposedly haunted tohsaka mansion. Shirou`s time was spent deep in practice as he saw progress daily and hence jumped into it with more passion.

After about a week from the spar rin called him to the rooftop by deliberately setting up a crude bounded field on the rooftop. Shirou met her and both of them had lunch there after eating the food Rin said 

"Here take this."

As she threw a pouch to shirou who reflexively caught it. Instead of opening it looked at the girl beside him with eyebrows slightly raised. Rin perhaps embarrassed by the clueless look of the boy said in a slightly higher voice.

"How can you be so clueless shirou? At least open the pouch you idiot."

After saying this she snatched the bag from Shirou's hands and roughly opened it revealing a dull red ruby connected to a fist-sized silver base on which shirou saw various small inscriptions making him conclude that it was enchanted. She describes 

"This is a mystic code that absorbs mana from a person and stores it inside the specially processed gem. You can use it to store the mana that you want to empty without wasting it."

Even in his ignorance shirou recognised the value of this artifact and felt that this was too costly for Rin to just give away, when he told her she looked at him with a pinning look and turned her head to the side with a humph. Looking pointedly at shirou she said 

"Think of it as me replaying Mr.Emiya for teaching me during and after our spars, his methods of breaking bounded fields and avoiding detection are very effective and he is teaching me for free so think of it as a form of repayment."

Saying her piece she stomped away and shirou caught the pouch she threw towards him. Both of them were unaware of the smile that had crept up both their face spontaneously. Pocketing the pouch shirou spent the rest of the day uneventfully.

Walking home he was lost in thoughts about the sporadic appearance of his visions about that boy from the stable and his daily life. Shirou reached home and had training with taiga and then his partially regenerated mana capacity was spent on studying the structures of the swords while in meditation.

Shirou checked the forge and cleaned it till it was crystal clear. After all this time shirou finally had something that could be called a blade but it was deformed, uneven and warped still it was a small dagger that was apparent.

Placing his 1st successful blade shape shirou went to prepare the steel and other tools for the lesson tomorrow and then went back into the emiya residence to mess around with the mystic code that Rin had given him.

After dinner, he fell asleep and the swirl of colours pulled him from the familiar void but instead of the expected fields what greeted his vision was the corridor of the emiya residence, immediately understanding that this was the vision of his demise he started taking in minute details.

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In front of him stood Saber with a blush on her face and Rin who was sighing. The image of the adult Rin sighing coincided with the sigh of the current Rin and made shirou feel a sense of amusement as he thought 

<some things never change I guess>

Rin said 

"But about what you two were talking about… I agree that we should cooperate with Lancer. If that goldie is Gilgamesh, we would need to do that to even have a chance of beating him."

This information was like a bombshell for shirou as he immediately made the connection that the only servant who seemed to love golden colour was the mysterious archer that killed him in one of the visions. Rin continued with a small but bright smile on her face 

"So, I'll go home for a while. I need to get a weapon, get ready to lure Lancer out, and prepare some medicine for Ilya."

"Medicine for Ilya…?Tohsaka, is something wrong with Ilya…!?" asked shirou with concern visible in his voice 

"Nothing. Her condition hasn't changed since yesterday. Her breathing is stable, and her fever is down. She just doesn't have any energy right now.

"Well, she should wake up and wander in when she gets hungry, so cook her something good when she does," replied Rin in the lecturing tone that she used when she taught shirou magecraft and putting down the bowl she was eating from she said while leaving 

"I would be back by night so don't do anything until then. Goodbye"

Shirou and Saber sat in an awkward atmosphere and the weird taking was stopped by the ringing of the bell. Shirou said while standing up 

"A guest…? At a time like this…?"

"Shirou." warned Saber in a cautious tone and Shirou's body replied 

"That doorbell. It is emitting a strong murderous intent."

"…Yeah. Come with me, Saber If something happens, I'll let you deal with it." said shirou as he was getting used to the pickling sensation on his nape and pylori erection all across his body.

"Yes. I shall protect you no matter what." nodding at each other the master and servant pair moved towards the door and shirou asked who was at the door. A deep voice replied 

"I am from the church. I have come to inform you of the investigation you requested."

Shirou felt his body unusually tensed up when he heard this voice and he felt uncomfortable as if the voice was herald of something ominous. Looking at Saber he said who had asked about his restless condition

"No, I'm fine. Can I open the door, Saber? If you don't want him to come in, I'll send him away."

Getting a positive response from the woman he opened the door and it revealed Kotomine Kirei the master of the assassin and latter archer in the 4th Grail war and the last enemy of his father who had been shot dead by the magus killer. The priest said 

"You took quite some time. Are you for some reason unwilling to see me, Emiya Shirou?"

"…No. I was just surprised since I didn't think you would come to see me. …You have something to talk about, right? Come in." said shirou but then Saber was ready to attack and after repeated back and forth between the priest and the servant who still saw him as an enemy and at last he persuaded shirou to go into the lawn to talk with him.

The line that was struck in Shirou's mind was the answer the priest gave when Saber asked what a supposedly dead master from a previous war was doing there to which the priest said in a flat tone 

"Certainly. When I abandoned my rights as a Master and raised my hands, Kiritsugu Emiya shot me from the back. If I did not have God's divine protection, I would have died then."

"But what of it? It must be like yesterday for you, but it happened ten years ago for me. Are you going to bring up a fight that has already ended?"

Shirou disregarding Sabre`s opposition went along with the suspicious priest and in the garden, they started talking. The priest said softly 

"Hmm, this place is good. I can see the mansion too." Shirou's body took a distance of about two meters away and stood while tensing his leg muscles as if on defence and then asked

"So. What did you find out, Kotomine?"

"Hn? Oh, I would like to confirm one thing with you before that." said the priest in a softer voice with a big smile full of compassion and slowly took a step towards shirou.

"I am sorry I was away this morning so when you went to the church you left behind this." 

then he threw something onto the grass with a thump.

At this moment a piercing sound echoed in Shirou`s mind and the jingling of the bells was clearly audible. Sirou exclaimed 

"…!! The sound of the boundary field…!?". Shirou immediately understood that this was the bounded field kiritsugu had set up at 1st. Its only function was to detect when someone with hostile intentions intruded on the emiya residence.

Shirou clearly saw the priest show a small smile and that made alarm bells go off in his head. The most stereotypical church priest said 

"Lancer is the cause of the disturbance. He must have entered this place with some reason in mind."

Shirou wanted to focus on the priest and his words but his body obsessively focused on the thing that the priest threw at his feet. It was a small reddish-black object and Shirou`s focus revealed it to be the corpse of a child.

Ignoring the shocked shirou the priest mumbled 

"…So Saber went to meet the enemy. He cannot fight with full power inside the building. The enemy would need one more move to kidnap Ilyasviel."

(A/N: the stereotypically evil church priest is here and he is here for blood. Anyways yorokobe readers.

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THANKS FOR READING:)