Fate Coiling Sword

Beta read by Shigiya and Paragon of Awesomeness

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-Fuyuki, Shipyard-

Was he capable?

The sound of waves in the distant sea reached his ears, accompanying his thoughts while moving to reload his last magazine. The repeating motion whilst sitting on top of the crane with the whole city coming to view leaving the boy with his thoughts to surge on the surface. 

What did it mean to be powerful? 

The weight of the weapon within his hands that the redhead grew familiar with. A tool he considered to further his very goal, one he picked up from his father before his death. 

Click!

Even whilst pushing in the cartridge inside the gun, Shirou couldn't help but feel a growing sense of helplessness and loss. Unable to identify the source nor the reason for this sensation to creep within his mind and acting as a slow acting poison breaking his concentration. Yet even with these firearms in his hands, they didn't feel any different than if he was defenseless. 

Would these hands ever save anyone? 

To hold one's body close to his, giving them a sense of relief and happiness that came from escaping suffering. To follow the footsteps of the old man who hugged the broken boy under a bloodthirsty black moon that threatened to swallow all in a sea of cursed fire, as he smiled down on him with a relieved and truly happy smile. He wanted that, Shirou worked hard to one day reach that point for someone else… multiple people in fact. Yet he couldn't even guarantee the safety of one single person and failed others before. 

What did it mean to protect someone?

She was scared, that much was obvious. Shaken, confused, horrified, worried and secretive — those were the emotions he saw within Sakura's eyes after bringing her back to the house. She smiled, but it was fake, so much so that even he could see it. 

'Still, I won't come over to take Sakura away from you or anything else, so you can rest easy. Rather, you will be the one who will escort her straight back to our doorstep, that I can guarantee you. For now, take great care of her, she'll need it.' 

Those words played in his mind again and again like a broken record, fueling the fire that he had barely managed to extinguish a few hours ago. That voice was that of a man confident in his victory, one where losing was an impossible notion and all of this turned out to be nothing more than an amusing play. 

His body felt heavy, the weight of his responsibilities bearing down on his shoulders. His thoughts got cloudier by the second as the static noise grew louder and louder. The purpose of pushing both his body and magecraft forward when he held no desire for the Root, the will to face hardships while simultaneously rejecting the notion to let others go through it and finally the longing of warmth chilling his heart. 

To succeed, he needed to be cold… to live, he had to build an unbending will… to fight, his resolve was going to be straight and unchanging. Steeling his heart, letting the fire grow within his mind, trying again and again over a thousand times, whether there was hope or nothing else — his decision did not need a deep meaning. 

Sakura was going to be saved. 

"... I can kill hi—!?" Shirou's body shook as those words came out of his mouth, his hands clutching his drumming heart as a cold feeling washed over him as sweat rolled down his forehead. "W-What am I thinking!? He's still Sakura's grandfather and if I do that then she might…" he tried his best to clear his muddled and dark thoughts and focused on the area below. 

"She's not here today as well." This was his third night, hidden in his spot while waiting for her arrival. Having already scoured the place, Shirou found little clue of there being any Chimera monsters roaming the place, but then again, he could have been missing something. Meanwhile, he used his last remaining reserves of C4s and planted them all around the area along with taking notes of multiple exits he could use in case spotted and a stash of guns hidden in locations only he could find. "..."

Shirou continued to wait, having left the snakehead he grew used to fiddling at home, the boy's hands now held a single bullet which he kept tossing in the air over and over again.

A bullet he Projected. 

"It's getting easier I think? At least now I don't have to concentrate as much." The ammo functioned just like a normal cartridge, with the same weight, firepower and power packed inside the case. Though structurally, it held a couple of flaws. Seven times out of ten, the bullet would immediately disintegrate into tiny fragments the moment it was fired. The metal shell disappeared shortly after before it could even hit a target or cause any sort of damage. 

Not losing hope, he continued practicing, projecting bullet after bullet. All because he was curious on what the end results would be and also due to the fact his reserves of ammunition were severely depleted and he was getting desperate. A teenage boy like him spending his free time creating the same bullet a thousand times and barely seeing any progress if any at all, that would certainly classify him as an insane person. 

Oh well, not like anyone would know. 

"Oh right, Mitsuzuri and Sakura…" Shit, how could he have overlooked that part? The former was by accident and for his childhood friend, the boy didn't really have a choice back then. 

No, he had a choice. 

To overlook the details and trust her words without any doubt. 

"Humph, I can't do that." If that were to happen, if he had taken the other path that evening in front of the gates of her school — then that wouldn't have been something Emiya Shirou would have done. 

"Hugh, look at me, thinking about myself in the third person like some weirdo. Fuji-nee will die laughing if she hears my inner monologue." He said while scratching the back of his head. "Maybe all the wounds lately are starting to affect my mind." 

His bones had healed mostly aside from feeling a sense of discomfort when exerting too much force. The bruise along the body vanished and aside a few scars from small cuts he suffered that would disappear in a few weeks. 

"Ah," deep in his thoughts, Shirou accidentally failed to catch the bullet and it fell towards the ground, the sound of metal hitting metal spreading around the area breaking the previously silent atmosphere. "Damn it!" With a quick mental command, the object dematerialised before it reached the cement floor. Shirou hastily gathered his gear and hid behind a metal wall, ensuring his body was hidden from anyone and anything. 

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Step.

Step.

Step 

His heart skipped a beat, hearing the approaching footsteps faint enough that he could have missed them if not for his blunder. There, at the entrance of the shipyard, a single shadow emerged walking with confidence and awareness as she adjusted her gloves. Curiously, unlike last time, she carried a large cylindrical case behind her back — the content of which he could not see. Her brown eyes scanned the area, both in front of her and above. 

"..." 

His back pushed against metal hard enough that Shirou felt the material would get bent. He stopped breathing, staying completely still and experienced as the seconds felt like hours. 

She was watching, he felt it. 

The phantom pain to his guts returning ten folds, the feeling of his bones snapping replaying in his mind as that woman's punch carried enough force to break through stone like it wasn't even there. His imagination ran wildly, picturing Bazett running up to the crane and destroying the machine with a single hit.  

Haha, what was he thinking… she couldn't do that… right?

The sound of his own heartbeat, the pulsing veins around his temples, the small static sound that was ever present in such a quiet atmosphere continued to loom over his head. 

Step

Step

Step

A great sense of relief washed over him as he heard her walking away. He was not here to fight her, just to make sure that whatever was behind these sudden surges of Chimera in Fuyuki to be gone for good. 

Bazett walked away, Shirou closed his eyes, emptying his mind till all the bad thoughts trickled away. Grabbing a pair of binoculars with an anti-reflective coating, he observed Bazett's movement, making sure to not get spotted. She walked around the east side of the area with a few containers stacked on top of each other and even an office made out of those metal boxes. 

'I searched that area before, there's nothing there, let alone a monster.' No claw marks, fur or even a single stain of blood. He asked himself if they weren't already too late and the beast hid in another location. 'She won't spot the explosives, I made sure to hide them carefully so that not even someone like you can spot it.' 

Seconds turned into minutes, Bazett continued to look around while Shirou never stopped observing her from afar. Did that make him a stalker? Probably… both Fuji-nee and Sakura would never approve of this. 

"Hm?" A change occurred, the suited woman stopped in front of another red color shipping container, an old box left there at the edge of the shipyard for years. Rusted and dented in every corner, vegetations having taken over the item in question. "It can't be there… The inside is only filled with rotten cardboard boxes and a vile stench coming from the various bodies of rodents and insects that had decomposed through the passage of time."

Much to his confusion, Bazett walked inside, at the angle he was sitting, Shirou was losing sight of her. So he carefully treaded upon the crane's arm and wished her good luck. 

Kneeling on one leg, the fingers of her gloved hand sliding through the grimy surface of both dirt and dirty rain water. Yet she did not show an ounce of disgust and continued to concentrate on her task while he did the same. It wasn't long before she went still, taking a deep breath as she clenched her fists. 

"Don't tell me…" Shirou watched with incredulity as she tensed, winding up in a similar stance she had back then at the hotel.  It all happened in an instant, her arm rose and blurred before striking the ground. 

Crash!

The ground exploded, debris and smoke spreading everywhere. Shirou gulped, having his throat turn dry as he watched the aftermath of the attack.

'An underground passage!?' The container vanished from sight and left behind a large hole. This… how did she even find it in the first place? "I don't know if I should approach the hole or wait outside." From his bag he took out his sniper rifle, the very same one he used on Bazett and waited with a growing sense of unease. 

"..."

He couldn't hear anything, no sound of fighting or even a roar of a monster. Did she not find anything down there? Or maybe… she got ambushed!

Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long before getting his answer.

Crack!

"—!" 

The ground began to shake, the crane held strong despite swaying from left and right. Shirou kept his feat stable, gritting his teeth as he watched through the scope what the hell was going on!

And then it emerged…

"Rrrooooooaaarrrr!" 

A growl like he never heard before, a roar so powerful and guttural that he felt it in his chest. The fissures continued to spread as a large amount of smoke started to emerge from the hole caused by that woman's punch. Shirou confirmed the weight of the switch in his pocket, a single flick to detonate all of the bombs he strategically placed around. 

A loud bang followed, as the concrete started to bulge, the rocks glowing red hot showing signs of liquefying the floor itself. 

Bang!

"Ahhh!" 

With another sound as loud as an explosion, the ground broke apart with an enormous shadow of a beast emerging to the sky with a scaly body fat bigger than the chimeras he faced before. With a serpentine body, sharp claws and a jaw filled with sharp teeths trying to bite onto Bazett. 

"A dragon!?" Shirou, unable to stay calm anymore, shouted in surprise while nearly falling from his spot. The wind pushed his body backwards, as he covered his face and watched the woman inside the monster's jaw using her to keep it open. She was struggling, the dragon-like monster using more and more force to close it down. 

He couldn't allow that. 

"Hang on!" He aimed with the sniper and fired! 

"Rrraargh!" The bullet hit the monster's eye, making it roar in pain as it momentarily lost focus on Bazett who managed to pry its jaw open long enough to get out. 

"Hah!" Her foot slammed against the creature's head, the impact strong enough to cause a mini shockwave. It fell to the ground, its large serpentine body wriggling around chaotically, destroying any and all obstacles in its way. The Irish woman landed neatly, actually sporting some bruises and cuts over her body, a scene which caught Shirou off-guard. "Hn!" She winced in pain, having certainly sustained some kind of internal injuries from fighting the thing underground. 

"You…" she looked at him, a heavy frown on her face, not looking the least bit happy that he saved her life. "You're coming with me." 

Shirou didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he clearly just helped her so why couldn't she look over the past incident! "Look, I told you before that I'm not your enem — careful!"

At the corner of his eyes, the monster stopped wriggling around and became still, looking like a snake coiling around and having its red beady eyes glare at Bazett. Now that he looked closely, that thing was not a dragon by any means. Aside from its jaws and scales, Shirou noticed multiple animal parts that made it more of a Chimera. Lion mane around its neck, wings too small for its size and back legs that resembled that of a goat. Regardless, the monster was looking straight at her and prepared to strike once again. 

Woosh! 

It moved as fast as a snake, reaching Bazett's location with its jaws opened to consume her in one bite. Though she reacted just in time, jumping over its head at the last possible second, missing its sharp teeth by a hairsbreadth. Doing the same thing as before, she struck the beast with a punch strong enough that it would have killed him if it landed. The scales were not able to hold on, shattering like glass, "A second layer!" Both of the Magecraft users noticed this detail, giving the struggling monster a chance to get back up again and attempt to attack again. 

Bang!

Unfortunately for it, another shot struck its eye with pinpoint accuracy, once again catching forcing the monster's attention on Shirou. Crimson slitted eyes glaring at him with endless bloodlust, a predator intending to rip his flesh apart devour him in a single bite. 

"... Sorry?" 

Shirou had no idea why he said that. 

"Raaaaaah!" 

The monster lurched forward, biting onto the metal pillar with great force and slowly bringing the structure down. With all his weapons strapped to his body, Shirou jumped whilst holding a remote within his hands.

With a single click, a series of beeping followed by a ball of fire consuming both the crane and the monster. "Argh!" The heat of the fire liked his skin, the shockwave pushing both him and Bazett a few meters away. "Kgh!" His back impacted a metal container, the bag he carried acting as a cushion to save him from further pain. 

"That… that should have killed it." That area had the majority of his explosives gathered with a few left around the shipyard. Shirou didn't detonate all of them at once as the damage would be too big and unnecessary and it wasn't like blowing everything up would help with killing the monster anymore than the explosives around the crane did. 

"Oi." 

"Ah," his lips thinned, looking above he found the woman standing with her arms crossed, clothes a bit dirty and scuffed up, but overall she looked fine. But she didn't look pleased in the slightest if the annoyed glare she was giving him was any indication. "Nice… to meet you again…" his smile greeted her blank eyes, not bringing any change to her face as he hoped to. 

"You're not going to escape again, boy." 

"I've just helped you take out that… thing. Can't you give me some slack and not treat me like an enemy." He said, hoping she would listen to him and drop the hostility. A part of him knew that the woman would have found a way to not only survive but also kill the monster by herself. "You owe me that much at least."

Bazett raised her eyebrows, "I don't owe you anything. For all I know, this could be all a ruse on your end to gain my trust and backstab me when I least expect it.* 

"... That sounds like far too much work to set up such a scheme for an Enforcer." His tone couldn't be any more drier, even if he had such intentions, there were other far more effective ways to do so if he wanted to. Not that he ever considered killing an actual Enforcer in the first place. 

"But a possibility nonetheless, I can't ignore your involvement without proper investigation and until that isn't resolved…" she grabbed his collar, lifting him up to her eye level. "If you refuse to comply, then I'll break your bones and that's a promise." 

Scary!

She was more dangerous than Fuji-nee! 

"Hm?" Before he could give an answer, Bazett dropped him and turned around to glare at the burning wreckage, bringing up her guard with a heavy frown on her face. "Kid, it's dangerous here, go away." 

From the flames the giant body of the monster emerged in pristine condition, its smooth black scales contrasting against the brightness of the fire. A dark figure that devoured all sources of light, its claws effortlessly pushing away the steel pillar that fell on its body. The beast growling loudly, droplets of black blood seeping through its jaws before evaporating in a matter of seconds. 

A scene that made goosebumps appear all over Shirou's body. 

"That monster survived such an explosion!?" Even the Chimera he fought in the past wouldn't have been able to survive such an attack… "Just how durable are those scales?" He gripped his sniper rifle, preparing to fire another shot to catch its attention — only for Bazett to grip the barrel and push him away. 

"What the hell are you doing!? I told you to leave! You'll get killed at this rate!" 

"And leave you to take on this monster by yourself? Never!" 

Despite the little help he could offer, Shirou refused to back away and leave her to potentially die against this beast. She made him suffer for many days with excruciating pain but that didn't mean he would abandon her! "I can help, with the two of us, we can take that thing down quicker!"

As Bazett said, she couldn't help but want to bang her head against a wall! "Help me? With what!? Guns barely work on that thing and you can barely defend yourself!" Their previous encounter told her everything she needed to know about the boy and his capabilities. A somewhat competent fighter who was resourceful enough to get out of sticky situations through ridiculous means — but that would not help him against this monster. 

Despite her desire to bring him back for further questioning, a large part of Bazett already acknowledged that this kid was most definitely innocent and unrelated to the appearance of these creatures. Most likely a hidden local mage who was trying to keep his town safe from such threats. 

She gritted her teeth, "How about this, I'll stop looking for you and forget everything that happened between us. So no one will know about your decision and I won't bother you anymore."

"That deal won't hold if you die." 

This stubborn brat! 

"Rrraargh!" 

She couldn't even make any sort of remark or cuss the boy before the monster moved. Striking like a snake with its fangs on full display. 

Both of them jumped out of the way, the attack destroying the ground where they stood before. Magical Energy poured inside her legs as she delivered a flurry of kicks to its face. 

'Just how strong are these scales!?' She complained, getting the sensation of kicking a tank with barely any results. 'They must be a form of reinforcement used by the beast, I was able to injure it with a punch yet can't even cause a crack with my kicks… this is going to be troublesome.'

"Hn!" A low ground escaped her lips, having her arms block a large claw that nearly tore her head right off. The monster was fast despite its unusually large size, she couldn't imagine what kind of twisted experimentation and magecraft the idiot behind this ordeal bust had used to create such a monstrosity. 

"Ha!" She delivered a few more punches, her gloves unable to stop the heat from the blistering hot scales to reach her skin. Retreating a few steps when it swiped those deadly claws that tore through the containers like wet paper and dashing forward to apply as much damage as she could. "Ah!" 

Even with her reaction speed, not every attack was blocked successfully without her suffering some minor injuries which started to accumulate. Her suit, which had been reinforced with Mystic Codes to make it tougher than the toughest fabric, was cut through with a single slash. This occurred over and over again until her entire sleeves were long gone and one of her arms was injured. 

'I can't keep up like this for long!' She hoped the boy saw the reason and ran away in time. He was a talented marksman and his placement of those bombs was clever, but this situation was not ideal for him. 

She started to suspect that the monster was adapting with each passing second. The attacks got more and more focused on her blindspots that she had to start fighting defensively — leaving behind any attempts at a counter attack. The force behind the claws grew by the second, where she could not even afford to get hit by one even if her suit tanked most of it. 'I should have brought Kirei along, those black keys and his expertise could have been my best chance at killing this chimera.'

She was too hasty and confident, after killing the first few creatures she found along town, the woman expected the same result as before. Who would have expected that she would have been forced to go against a greater danger than anything else she faced in this town with minimal preparation. 

'Shit!' At the corner of her eyes, the shadow of the beast's tail approached like a blur. Her mind registered the incoming attack but her injured arm could not move in time to block it. It was going to hit her and she couldn't do anything to dodge or stop it in time. 

It was like watching a movie in slow motion, thousands of thoughts ran across her mind within a split second. Her other hand went for the case behind her back but stopped midway. "No, it won't work!" She said with frustration. She wouldn't have enough time to use it.

Left with no option, she closed her eyes and prepared herself for a hit strong enough to break a few of her bones. 

Bang!

But what came was rather a loud gunshot noise, Bazett opened her eyes with shock as she witnessed the tail missing her completely and hitting the ground next to her. Noticing a crumpled piece of bullet on the scale, it wasn't hard for her to figure out what had happened. 

And now, the beast's attention turned towards the coward who sneaked and attacked it from behind.

"You idiot! Why didn't you run!?"

{Break}

When the creature first lunged forward after coming out of the fire, Shirou jumped out of the way, his back twisting from the heavy weight of the bag, holding his gun with his eyes drawn to the crack on the back of the Chimera monster. Bazett was its primary focus, having even stopped attacking him as it actively tried to kill the woman. 

He watched in amazement how she moved around each claw swipe, dodging and attacking at her own pace. 

A sight that he could only describe as beautiful, powerful, it was at that moment where he saw what she was truly capable of and made him learn that their fight back then was just her holding back by quite a bit... or else he would have been a meat paste in the walls back then. Though her attacks were infrequent and came after the creature after it traded a few dozen blows, they each carried tremendous force. Yet even he could see that something was wrong, her blows did not have the same impact on the monster as before and the more she fought… the more apparent it got.

She was struggling, and if he didn't do anything soon then Bazett's life was in serious danger. 

"The tail…" he realized that the thing was preparing for a surprise attack with its tail, Bazett was already too focused on the claws and jaw to notice the sneaky movement. "Not on my watch." His gun couldn't pierce the monster, that much he knew, but it could at least do the bare minimum.

Bang!

Smoke and fire came out of the muzzle, the shot aimed right at the moment the tail was about to impact her, deflecting the attack just in time with enough power to make it miss its intended target.  

"You idiot!" 

Well, that was something he expected to hear a lot in his life, Luvia already liked to chew him up for basic mistakes he made when practicing his magecraft and he himself sometimes questioned his own actions. 

"Why didn't you run!?" 

Nope, he already gave her his answer so there was no need to repeat himself.

Having positioned himself a few distance away from the monster, Shirou fired in quick succession with everything he had. 'The cracks where she hit it last time are still there, even if there is a second layer of scales, it's most likely not going to be as hard.' To test his point, he fired a couple of shots in that area, the first bullet didn't do much, the second caused some dents, the third created cracks, and finally — the fourth drew blood. 

The beast howled, throwing one last attack at Bazett to throw her off and beelined towards his location. 

"No, you're not." With the same remoter held within his hands, he pressed the button again. The surrounding containers burst into another ball of fire before falling straight over its head, smashing it to the ground and leaving it in a daze. Trying to get back up, it found itself getting smashed by Bazett's foot again, her hands grabbing on the horns and using as much force to break its neck with a hard twist. 

But with its size, she was struggling and couldn't keep it in place for long. Shirou couldn't just sit back and let her do all the work herself. "What can I do…" he hastily tried to think of an idea, perhaps to convince Bazett to lure the monster to another area where he still had some explosives left? "That won't work, it might fail and there is no guarantee she'll be able to take hold of it again." 

Sweat poured down his forehead as he continued to brainstorm for an idea. Aside from the crack that had yet to heal, shooting anywhere else proved to be useless. Even the parts that looked like they didn't have any scales covering them would resist. 

Until… a single thought appeared in his mind. Shirou's hand covered his face, "Maybe she was right calling me an idiot, but I have no choice." Left with barely a few seconds to react with how quickly Bazett was losing control, he discarded both his bag of ammunition, rifle and with only Kiritsugu's Calico strapped to his belt. He ran, reinforcing both his legs before taking a giant leap!

"Waahh!" His eyes focused on the beast's back, hoping that he put enough force in his jump to land up there. 

Bazett who caught a glimpse of his action couldn't help but should with great frustration, "You idiot!" 

Yup, he knew that was going to happen, and he even agreed with her on this case. 

Regardless, he had to do it.

"Trace… on!" He shouted, holding nothing back as all of his concentration gathered around the image of a single sword. Visualizing its form, recreating the exact same sensation from the past, the fear he felt which pushed both his mind and body to use his magecraft at another level. He imagined tracing the blade from its form, details and to the smallest imperfections on a piece of paper. 

Judging the concept of creation.

Hypothesizing the basic structure.

Duplicating the composition material.

Imitating the skill of its making.

Sympathizing with the experience of its growth.

Reproducing the accumulated years.

Excelling every manufacturing process.

Blue motes of light gathered around his palm, molding itself to the shape of a familiar katana. From the gleaming blade to the handle, everything was copied as close to the original as possible. 

Schrk!

He stabbed it right into the opened wound on its back.

"RAAAAAARGH!!!" The monster shrieked with pain, the serpentine body spasming as it now tried its best to shake off Shirou who held onto the now stuck sword's handle. Bazett wanted to scream at the boy for his recklessness, but decided to teach him a lesson next time if he managed to stay alive. 

"It's not enough!" It felt like trying to push his blade inside a boulder, even though he managed to pierce the entire blade inside, the monster did not seem to weaken one bit — growing more and more violent and furious. "Then how about another one!" 

With his left hand holding onto the blade to keep himself from getting thrown off, Shirou grabbed his gun and fired dozens of rounds along the cracks. They spread further with some of the scales chipping, breaking away completely and revealing the second layer. "Hah!" Calling forth another blade, he plunged again with great inside the monster's flesh. Black blood sprayed on his face as he didn't stop and repeated his attack by Projecting as many swords he could and jamming them inside. 

Starting from its back, all the way to the neck.

The boy had honestly lost count on the number of blades he Projected. All he cared about was to kill the damn thing once and for all!

Click!

Click!

"Empty?" The sound of his gun's empty chamber woke the redhead up from his daze. He had fired the last round on the head of the beast, the scales having been barely broken enough for him to thrust a sword in. "Aaaarrgh!" 

He didn't care anymore, with a loud cry, he dropped the blade in with all his weight, the metal bending but managed to not snap in half. 

"What's the hold up!?" Bazett shouted, losing strength with how long her hold on the beast's head lasted. 

"The head is too hard! I can't pierce it!" If the previous time was like forcing a sword through stone, then this time it was no different than trying to pierce pure diamonds. 

"Move!" 

To his surprise, Bazett let go of the horns she was pinning so far and jumped right above him and the sword. Her palm opened with a stance he'd seen many times and one that made his eyes open with fear. "You're going to break the blade, woman!" 

She didn't listen and was going for it. 

Cursing loudly, Shirou sent a stream of Magical Energy inside the blade. Reinforcing it to his best ability so it wouldn't shatter into millions of pieces with a single attack from this bull-like woman. 

It was no different than a gunshot, her palm impacted the butt of the blade with enough force that it nearly broke the weapon with Shirou struggling to keep it intact. 

"..."

The beast stopped, its body going limp and the light within its eyes dimming. 

"Hah…hah…hah…" With barely enough strength to stay conscious, Shirou jumped off the body while panting hard. His heart drumming frantically, the boy honestly didn't know how he managed to not only stay alive the whole time… but actually come out without any serious injuries. 

"Hahaha…hahaha!" This development was so absurd that he couldn't help but laugh a bit. Who would have thought that his day was going to end like this, certainly not him… not even him. The scenario in his mind was going to be merely observing Bazett from afar and watching her as she took out the chimera monster — staying on standby just in case she needed help or if the monster tried to escape. Well, the former happened, but elevated to a degree he wasn't ready for. 

"The whole thing is funny to you?" He turned around, finding Bazett leaning against the wall lighting up a cigarette. 

So she was a smoker…

"Just so you know, I don't smoke normally, this is only reserved for cases that give me a lot of headaches. Or in this case, you." 

Shirou chuckled awkwardly, wondering if she was a mind reader on top of that.

"I could have handled the monstrosity on my own. There was no need for you to intervene in any way." 

"I know," he admitted, already knowing that this woman was beyond his level. "You're scary strong, easily the most frightening Magus I've seen so far. I'm still suffering from the injuries you've given me from that night." Even if he hadn't met that many, he had to admit that he was having a hard time imagining someone even more powerful. It gave him a clear view of what an Enforcer truly was and the sheer overbearing weight of the Clocktower as a whole. 

"Then you're a greenhorn, kid. You're lucky you survived this day. Though one could argue that you were unlucky for facing that thing with me." 

"Yeah… I tend to have below average luck in general." Both shared a short laugh, though that was more him doing it with Bazett showing a small smirk. "Why did you do it?" 

"I… I don't know." 

"You don't know or you don't want to tell me?" 

How could he explain it to her? He scratched his nose, thinking of a way he could express his words. "Erm… I guess I didn't want to run away and see you get hurt." 

His statement was shocking enough that Bazett nearly dropped her cigarette. "Pardon?" Maybe she heard it wrong, the kid couldn't be that stupid, right?

"I mean it, even if we fought before and you dealt me a lot of physical pain, I still don't hate you. I'm… I'm even thankful, you did nothing but help this town from taking out a danger like that. One could even argue that you're a hero to the locals here, and also because I refuse to turn my back on anyone in a dire situatio — ouch!" He got interrupted midspeech with a light punch to his head. He glared at the woman beside him for her action. 

"Hurgh, you're as stupid as I thought. Hero? Save? Gosh, this couldn't be anymore twisted. I was only supposed to find the one behind these creations and bring them back as a sealing designation and nothing else. How are you even alive with that kind of thinking, kid?" 

"Oi, it's not wrong to help people!" Shirou muttered out, feeling like he said this a thousand times already.

"It is when that person didn't even need your help and was worrying about your life more than anything else, idiot!" She hit again, causing a bump to form on his head. "Do you have ANY idea what kind of guilt I would have had if a kid died because he wanted to 'help me'?" She was certain by now, no way this boy had any hand in the creation of these things… she just couldn't see it being the case with that kind of thinking of his. 

In the end, she just sighed. 

"Just why… why?" She asked again, not expecting an answer but Shirou gave her one anyway.

"Because I want to be a Hero of Justice! Also, don't call me a kid, I'm nearly 17." 

"..." 

.

.

.

"Bazett-san?" 

"Just kill me now." The woman groaned, for the first time in her life, taking a second cigarette to calm her nerves. Was this kid perhaps a patient from a mental asylum that managed to escape somehow? Possibly. The chances of a regular person, let alone a Magus of all things, to be alive with that kind of mentality was so abysmal that she wanted to scoff. 

"Hey! Don't give me that! I'll show you how I'll accomplish my dreams!" 

"Whatever." She said while rolling her eyes. "By the way, you never told me your name. If you don't want me to keep calling you kid, then tell me already."

This woman… the redhead knew he could trust her. 

"Emiya… Emiya Shirou." 

Emiya? Bazett frowned a bit, that name sounded familiar but for the life of hers she couldn't remember what it was. Most likely a descendant from a minor Magi family she must have heard in the passing.

"Nice to meet you." Now it was her turn to look around awkwardly, she hesitated for a second before sighing again. "Thanks for helping me out… Shirou." 

Her words unconsciously made the boy smile. 

"Don't mention it, Bazett-san!" 

Perhaps this lady wasn't as scary as he first thought her to be. 

.

.

.

Still scary strong though.

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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.