EMIYA SHIROU]
[THE GAMER]
[LV 25 - 7800/25000]
[HP: 2500][MP: 35][MC: 27][ST: 810 ][SP: 10]
[STR: 41][DEX: 42][INT: 22][WIS: 33][CHR: 77]
After successfully completing the Quest to retrieve ten Mana Cores, Matsumoto decided to show Shirou around their base. This was both to introduce him to his new coworkers and at the same time to show him the facilities available to the members of Soul Society.
Most people found the idea of a ten-years-old having passed the admittance test intriguing, but not overly much. After all, they lived in a world of supernatural beings and weird occurrences that most of humanity considered fictitious. In a way, they were themselves peculiar existences and they had long since left behind concepts such as normality.
That is not to say that everyone welcomed him with open arms. Capable or not, his age meant that his experience was limited, even if his individual ability was abnormal. In short, being admitted to the group and gaining their individual trust were two separate matters altogether.
That was fine though. Shirou had not gone through the trouble of joining this group to win anyone's recognition. As long as he could help he was fine with mostly everything.
Matsumoto seemed to find this utter disregard somewhat amusing but didn't comment on it.
The Mirror Red Light district had been completely taken over by Soul Society. There were shops of all kinds, ranging from trivial things like restaurants to shops that catered to the supernatural. There was also a hotel that rented rooms on monthly basis and an Exchange Office, where one could change their Mana Cores into regular currency.
As she showed him this, Matsumoto returned the Mana Cores that Shirou had gathered.
"I thought you would have kept these," he told her.
"You got them, they are yours. I just had to make sure you have the chops. Go ahead and exchange them."
"Thank you," he nodded, approaching the office, where a girl in glasses manned the counter. He exchanged eight Mana Cores for 100,000 yen each, for a grand total of 800,000 yen.
Shirou balked at entirely excessive sum of money. His initial estimate of their worth was off by a wide margin.
"This is crazy," he told Matsumoto after they left the office. "To be able to gain this much just from a little work is insane."
"It is a very dangerous line of work, Shirou-kun and Mana Cores are in high demand outside. By the way, I saw that you didn't sell all of them."
"Yes, well. I am a Magus after all. There's all sort of stuff I can do with these."
"Oh. Do you have some other skills you haven't told me about, Shirou-kun? How mean," she teased good-naturedly.
"Like I said, I am a Magus. Of course I have secrets I keep to myself."
"You don't strike me as the type to do research for the sake of it. So, I'll look forward to see anything you'll come up with around here. By the way, if you create something useful not for your exclusive use, you can probably sell it here," she said, pointing at the next shop on their tour
"Urahara Shōten?" he asked, looking at the unassuming building. "What kind of shop is it?"
"See for yourself," she replied, motioning for him to go inside. Shrugging he opened the door and did exactly that.
The inside of the shop was dimly lit and it had a shady atmosphere. It was the kind of place you'd expect from one dealing in suspicious stuff.
"Yo! Welcome, brat," the shopkeeper greeted cheerfully.
"... Yoruichi-san?" he asked bewildered. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, what does it look like I'm doing?" she asked back.
She was laying on her side upon the counter as if it was a couch. Fortunately, she was entirely clothed.
She wore a skintight black bodysuit with a green, jacket-like indument on her torso. All in all, it was something you'd expect a fictional ninja would wear in their time off.
"I'd say you're lazing about as usual," he deadpanned.
"Wow, he really got you figured out," Matsumoto agreed from behind him.
"I don't want to hear that from a drunkard like you," she snapped at the blonde bombshell, although one could tell there was no bite in it.
"Is this your shop?" he asked.
"Not really. I'm just looking over it for a friend who had to leave for a while," she replied.
"I see," he nodded. "The same friend you told me about that time?"
"Yep. Dumbass got himself into more trouble than he could deal with and had to pack in a hurry. He even left me his shop to run in his place."
"At least you finally got back and opened it," Matsumoto complained. "What have you been doing these past few weeks?"
"Oh. A bit of this and a bit of that. You know how it is."
"I see." She didn't. "And how did you come by Shirou-kun?"
"He didn't tell you?" she asked, glancing at him.
"He's got his lips welded shut on the topic."
"Then, there you have it," Yoruichi replied, matter-of-factly.
"Spoilsport," Matsumoto pouted. "Anyway, Shirou, this place trades in special equipment you can't buy elsewhere. Also, if come across anything that you don't need, you can sell it here."
"I got it. Is there anything in here that would fit me, by the way?"
"Nope, don't think so. We don't get much request for midget-size apparel."
"So. I guess I'm on my own when it comes down to protection, then. What about weaponry?"
"Ah. I think I can help you some there," Yoruichi swiftly threw her legs down the counter and disappeared behind it. She came back up with some kind of leather wrap, that she quickly unrolled over the counter.
It contained a dozen, sleek-looking throwing knives in pitch black color
[Black Sparrow]
[DMG + 100]
[Description: Once belonging to a famous assassin, this throwing knife is hard to detect and intercept. Being infused with high spiritual power, they are suitable to kill supernatural entities.
[Returns to the user after use, whether it hits or misses. Requires: Master Throwing - Small Projectiles.]
They appeared to be excellent weapons. However, that's not what interested him.
[As a result of a special action you have learned Basic Throwing - Small Projectiles]
[Basic Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 2]
[Basic Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 3]
[Basic Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 4]
[Basic Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 5]
[Basic Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 6]
[Basic Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 7]
[Basic Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 8]
[Basic Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 9]
[Basic Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 10]
[...][...][...][...][...][...][...][...][...][...][...][...]
[Basic Throwin has reached Lv. 100]
[Basic Throwing - Small Projectiles has changed in Intermediate Throwing - Small Projectiles]
[Intermediate Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 2]
[Intermediate Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 3]
[Intermediate Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 4]
[Intermediate Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 5]
[Intermediate Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 6]
[Intermediate Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 7]
[Intermediate Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 8]
[Intermediate Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 9]
[Intermediate Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 10]
[...][...][...][...][...][...][...][...][...][...][...][...]
[Intermediate Throwin has reached Lv. 100]
[Intermediate Throwing - Small Projectiles has changed in Master Throwing - Small Projectiles]
[Master Throwing - Small Projectiles has reached Lv. 2]
Even with just a glance at them, he got a new skill that skyrocketed to Master level in the blink of an eye. Of course, it was because they were technically blades that had been used by a Master assassin.
Still, the skill was [Throwing] as opposed to something more specific like Knife Throwing, or Stone Throwing. He supposed it was because there was little difference in how one threw a knife or a pebble. At least, not enough to warrant a separate skill for each.
'Hold on.'
'Hold on a fucking minute.'
He felt his throat turn suddenly dry.
"Shirou?" Yoruichi asked. "Are you alright?" Both she and Matsumoto were looking at him oddly.
"What? Oh, yes. Sorry, I just had a small realization right there. H-how much for the whole set?"
"The whole set, Shirou? Each knife is 200,000 Yen, you know."
"Two hundred... Alright. I'll take four then. Don't sell the rest. I'll come buy them in the next few days."
"It doesn't really work that way, but since I owe you, I'll do that. I'll keep them in the back until you come get them. You really do like them."
"Oh yes," Shirou nodded firmly. "I really do."
Shirou couldn't get home faster if he tried. There were a lot of things on his mind. Soul Society, the Reverse Side… he would have to think a lot about everything that transpired, but right there and then he had more pressing things to worry about.
It was well past midnight when he finally got back home.
He didn't even remove his shoes as he went to get a knife in the kitchen, before making a run for the toolshed, hastily locking himself inside.
[You have entered a special area]
[Workshop]
[While in this area, all of your spells cost half]
He sat cross-legged and immediately fired up his Circuits.
"Trace On."
[Nerve Circuit Creation: Success]
"Structural Analysis," he invoked upon the knife.
[Structural Analysis: Success]
[Kitchen Knife]
[DMG +10]
[Description: an ordinary kitchen knife]
Basic information about the knife flooded his mind at the same time as the prompt appeared. However, once again that wasn't what interested him
[Structural Analysis has reached Lv. 76 - 95%]
Just now, his Structural Analysis had very nearly leveled up twice.
"I'm such a jackass," he whispered to himself. "Status! Skill List!" he called in rapid succession. He didn't really need to in order to interact with his Gamer Ability, but at that moment he just felt like he had.
With a mental command, the skill list browsed all the way down to what he was looking for.
[ELEMENT/SWORD]: You are naturally in tune with all things bladed. + 500% gains/success to all blade-related activities.
[ORIGIN/SWORD]: You are naturally in tune with all things bladed. + 500% gains/success to all blade related-activities.
[SWORD INCARNATION] Because of your aligned Origin and Element you are yourself a living sword. A further +1000% gains/success to all blade related activities is granted but a -90% penalty gain/success to all non-blade related Magecrafts is applied. Weapons' and armors' structure are permanently memorized with just a glance even without Structural Analysis. Mana cost for all Magecrafts is 1MP for blade and 4MP for all shields and armors regardless of item or spell level. All activities involving blades cost only 1ST.
It was right there in front of his dumb eyes. A 2000% boost to all activities related to blades at the cost of a minus 90% penalty to every all non-blade related Magecraft.
He had understood correctly that his Magecraft skill would advance at only 10% of an unknown growth factor, but he failed to realize that both the bonus and the penalty would apply at the same time, if only he used blades as the focus.
Under that logic, if he used any Magecraft skill on a blade, the 90% penalty would be applied not on the unknown average factor as he had erroneously thought, but to the result of the application of his 2000% bonus.
Quickly doing the math, it mean that he actually had a 200% growth bonus when practicing Magecraft on a blade. And he only just noticed.
In the otherwise silent Workshop, the sound of the palm of his hand meeting his face echoed heard only by him. Just how many hours had he wasted practicing Magecraft only of it to advance of a single point percentile to the next level?
No wonder the [Cooking] skill leveled so erratically. It fluctuated depending on how often he used a knife in the process.
Having realized this, Shirou spent a few minutes collecting his mind.
"This is an exploit. A cheat," he concluded. "As long as I manage to involve a blade in an activity, the related skills can advance up to twenty times faster, though only twice as normal in regards to Magecraft."
[+1 INT for thinking things through]
Somehow, this latest bonus sounded somewhat mocking, even to himself.
He also needed to take into account his very limited MP. With 35 points to his name, the best he could do was an equal amount of spells before he had to sleep and recover. However, he had just discovered a method to replenish his MP without wasting hours sleeping.
Starting the next day he would farm Mana Cores down in Mirror Fuyuki. That would solve both the problem of money and that of leveling Magecraft.
Soon enough, the monsters down there wouldn't even know what hit them anymore.
However, it still remained the fact that Shirou had grossly misunderstood his own ability. Eager to go out there and help people, he hadn't cared much for details. However, that made him waste a lot of valuable time.
Still, he wasn't one to cry over spilt milk. Before going to bed, he would exhaust his current MP and the next morning he would review his skills from scratch.
Elsewhere
In the darkness of a certain room, the only thing that could be heard was the sound of ragged breathing and a soft buzzing noise.
"Hm. Ah!"
A pile of clothes laid discarded on the floor. Abandoned right where they had been removed.
"Ooh!"
On a bed nearby, the figure of a woman could be seen moving above the sheets.
"Ahhh!"
Pale legs twitched in the faint light coming through from the blinds, while slender fingers danced across the surface of her body.
"Ah! Ah!"
The smell of womanly arousal mixed with that of slight sweat filled the air.
"Yes! Hmmmm!"
Small yet supple breast jiggled as the body trembled in release. Legs tensed while her back arched sensually.
Finally, her body relaxed and Fujimura Taiga slumped on her bed bonelessly, breath still coming in sharp intakes.
Weakly she flipped a switch and the rotor which she had been pressing between her legs ceased to vibrate.
While she laid there, catching her breath, she wondered how in hell did she manage to get herself in such a situation.
The matter was simple, yet complex. Fujimura Taiga had reached recently the age at which she could be called a Christmas Cake. She was a twenty-five-year-old single lady
As a result of her family background and her explosive character, the otherwise attractive girl had grown into a lonely woman before she even noticed. By the standards of Japanese men, she was too old to be the object of any romantic interest.
Usually, she paid little mind to it, but recently the matter of her own age had become an annoying topic.
Why was that? Because there was finally someone who made her heart throb, a guy who was fifteen years younger than her.
To say that Taiga was ashamed of her own feelings would be an understatement, but as much as she suppressed them they were still present.
She had tried to get her mind off him by dating here and there, but the few times she managed to get past the hurdle of her old age, she found herself dealing with thoroughly boring men.
Perhaps they weren't exactly boring, per se, but at the very least they were completely unremarkable, while Taiga herself was an untamable spitfire. It was another strike against her in a society that preferred its women to be meek and humble.
It caused her to compare the few men she had dated, both recently and in the past, with Shirou. How could it be that a mere ten-year-old was more interesting than all the adults she knew? Rather than just letting the day-to-day routine drag him about like every salaryman was wont to do, he firmly seized his own purpose and chased after it with his head held high.
Taiga could not imagine what kind of future Shirou would build for himself, but certainly he would not just be swallowed by the masses.
In truth, Taiga had considered waiting for him to grow a few more years and then confessing her feelings for him, if she still had them by that point. However, when that time came she would be well over her thirties.
Besides, she didn't expect him to be single much longer.
Just not too long before, he had received a slew of love letters from his female classmates. Sure enough he turned them all down since he had no feelings for them, but that just went to show the kind of pull he had on the fairer sex.
Once he finally grew enough to care about girls, why would he even consider a spinster like her? Of course he wouldn't. She was an unrefined woman whose defining trait was her endless appetite. He'd never find her attractive. Never. Just like every other man.
Hence, she had to take care of the needs of her body on her own.
That wasn't the problem though. What tormented her was inability to escape her own twisted desires. To be honest, there were men she was physically attracted to, of course. From movie actors to underwear models and even people she knew in real life, there was an abundance of men she could and did fantasise about.
However, when she was there, right on the cusp of climaxing, the image that burst through her mind was not that of any of them, but rather of that one person closest to her that she she couldn't have not matter what.
Maybe… maybe as long as it was just in the realm of fantasy she could indulge herself without guilt.
At least, that's what she told herself.
[You have slept in a bed. HP, MP and ST are fully restored]
Shirou woke up to the prompt hovering in front of his vision as usual. Once he acknowledged it, it collapsed upon itself freeing his vision.
He smoothly got up from his futon and changed into his clothes for the day. It was four-thirty in the morning and he had ample time before Taiga would come for breakfast. Enough time to get said breakfast going and examine the power from his Gamer Eyes from scratch.
He got himself a notepad and a pencil to write down anything that could come up that would require experimentation at a later time. Since his INT was very high for his age, he was unlikely to forget stuff, but why take chances?
As he worked on breakfast, a task that no longer required him to put any attention in it at this level of difficulty, he eyed the Main Menu provided by his Gamer Eyes
[STATUS]
[INVENTORY]
[EQUIPMENT]
[SKILL LIST]
[QUESTS]
[REPUTATION]
For the longest time he hadn't used most of it. In fact he rarely called it out at all. Save for the couple of instances when he had to allocate the PTs he got from leveling up he basically forgot about it entirely. Strictly speaking, other than the STATUS submenu he never needed it.
He didn't care much about his reputation and with the exception of Saeko's Quest it had never been relevant at all. He always finished the Quest he started, so he had no need of the submenu that listed them.
He thought he recalled his Skill and Titles perfectly so he never went looking for them after he first acquired them, so that too had been neglected.
He never needed the Equipment submenu much, since until recently equipment hadn't been a factor at all. Only with Saeko's gifting of her family's sword and his introduction to the Reverse Side the subject had started to become something to pay attention to.
However, the most mysterious of all the submenus was without a doubt the Inventory. As far as Shirou could tell, it did absolutely nothing. At first he thought it would list the things he had on his person, as useless as that sounded, however it didn't even do that. He tried to put things in his pocket to see whether or not they would show up in it, but they didn't. Even his clothes didn't show in there, though they did in the Equipment menu.
It was just as series of lines that he supposed would have to list stuff, but he had no clue how to add them to it. As he didn't know what it did, he couldn't command it mentally as he could for the other aspects of his power. Therefore he tried to fiddle it using his hands.
Nothing he did seemed to cause a reaction, at least not until he used the hand which held the ladle he was using to prepare breakfast. Once it touched the menu window there was a flash of light and his hand was suddenly empty.
"What the hell?" he asked. "Where has it gone? … Are you kidding me?"
There it was, sure enough, listed as part of his Inventory
[Common ladle (well used)] [x001]
Shirou blinked several times as he let what transpired sink in. After checking himself to make sure the ladle wasn't anywhere on his person, he accepted the situation for what it was.
He tapped on the ladle's line in the menu and a smaller window popped up.
[Examine]
[Take out]
[Equip]
He chose [Take out] and the ladle dropped out from the menu clattering on the kitchen countertop.
Shirou couldn't say anything. There wasn't anything he could say that would match the sheer bullshit of the situation. He just figure he had a pocket space as his own personal storage room. The implications were astounding. He needed to figure out what were the limits of this ability in detail, because it was a game changer (pun intended) even more so than his Blade Boost.
However, there was nowhere enough time to try it out to its fullest before that evening, after he was done with his daily Quests. Even if the face of these recent developments, helping people still took precedence.
Late afternoon
Recently a heat wave swept across the city, even though it was only spring. Fuyuki city was generally warmer than average year-round on account of it being by the sea and because of the numerous leylines that run under the city.
Most people didn't know about the latter, of course, but they felt the heat all the same.
Fujimura Taiga was no exception.
"Fuaah!" she sighed, throwing her arms up and dropping on the tatami floor of her room. "What's with this damn heat? It's not even May yet."
Of course, that outburst did little to help her feeling any less hot. The fan that was spinning at full power by her side did not help much in that regard either, even though she was already wearing shorts and a strap shirt. The downside of living in a traditional Japanese building meant that modern air conditioning wasn't really a working solution.
Thus, Taiga was forced to suffer the heat without possibility of escape. To make things worse, she was bored out of her skull and there was nothing to take her mind off the heat. When she dropped by Shirou's place earlier she found that he wasn't home. He was probably off to help people around town as he was wont to do.
Seriously, how in hell he could even more around in this heat was a mystery in and of itself.
Ah, well. She could still mooch off him even if he wasn't home.
With that decision made she left her house and made her way to his place. As his legal guardian, she had the key of his house so she could come and go as she pleased. Dropping her sandals at the entrance as custom dictated, she made her way barefooted to his living room. He still hadn't returned, so she helped herself to the content of his fridge.
It was his fault for leaving it unguarded after all.
Shirou's afternoon had been very dull. With the sudden heat, there were very few people around and by extension few quests for him to complete. It was barely mid-afternoon and he was already returning home.
Much to his surprise, he found the door unlocked. Since he didn't expect a thief to break into his house during the day and that Yoruichi probably didn't use the door anyway, the unexpected guest could only be Taiga. He knew he was correct when he saw her sandals at the entrance. Removing his shoes, he made his way to the living room and surely there she was, waiting for him.
"Sllrrp... Ohayou, Shirou," she greeted him as laid on her stomach watching TV with the stick of a popsicle between her teeth.
"Hey, Taiga. I see you made yourself at home."
"Yup," she agreed shamelessly. "How was your afternoon?"
"There's very few people around town with this heat. Other than that, everything's normal."
"I don't know how you can go around without feeling it."
Shirou shrugged. Perks of the Gamer Body, but of course he couldn't say that. He still felt the heat, but it didn't wear him down like it did for everyone else and he had learned to trudge through much worse in his erroneous practice of Magecraft.
"You're weird," she declared, shaking her head. "I need another popsicle."
"I'll have one too," he told as he took a seat on the other side of the table while Taiga got up and walked to the fridge. Shirou followed her with his eyes and almost swallowed his tongue when she bent over to rummage through the freezer.
The movement caused her shorts to inevitably hike up her legs, exposing the lower curves of her butt and the lower edge of her panties. Striped, of course.
"... do you want it?" she asked.
"W-what?" he stuttered, red-faced.
"I said, what flavor do you want it?" she repeated turning her head to him.
"Anything's fine," he said, hastily averting his gaze.
Taiga looked at him quizzically, not understanding his sudden behavior. Then it dawned on her and she quickly stood up straight, pulling at her shorts to cover her butt.
She stood there for a moment, heart pounding and face flushed.
'It's nothing,' she told herself. 'He's just precocious. That's all. It doesn't mean he likes you that way.'
For once, Taiga was right. Shirou did not like her that way. In truth, he hadn't even considered Taiga as a female until that moment, not really. However, that had just abruptly changed.
Because of a certain duo of stunning women who teased and tormented him with their beauty at every twist and turn, Shirou was very sexually aware and Taiga's unintentional show had just sent his mind reeling.
'That's Taiga, you idiot. Taiga!' he scolded himself. 'You shouldn't think about her that way.'
He had only just managed to control his emotions that Taiga returned to the table, handing over a popsicle while she sat back down.
"Thanks," he said, firmly keeping his eyes on the TV, until he heard the wrapping being torn off from her popsicle. With food in front of her, Shirou knew she wouldn't be paying him any attention to him looking at her. He was right about that, Taiga was focused entirely on the popsicle, but it was nonetheless the worst possible moment for him to do that.
Right then, Taiga brushed a lock of hair behind her ears. At the same time her mouth opened to grant access to the cylindrical piece of ice. Shirou watched in slow motion as her lips wrapped around the cold snack and her face changed to one of slight satisfaction.
"Grk!" a strangled noise escaped his throat despite his best attempts at choking it down. He quickly averted his eyes, just in time for Taiga to turn her gaze on him.
She didn't catch the motion, but she wasn't stupid. Shirou's face was very flustered, even though when he came in earlier he looked unfazed by the searing heat.
'W-what did I do this time?' she wondered. Was it even her doing at all? 'I'm just sitting there, doing nothing but sucking on... Oh! Oohhh!'
Her own face blossomed into a violent red that couldn't possibly be healthy.
There were many reasons for the intensity of her reaction. Shame that she had unwittingly done something sensual in front of Shirou, embarrassment over his own reaction, but above all else an almost primal sense of satisfaction.
The awareness that he was susceptible to her charms made her heart race and a faint warmth spread through her body. Not at all unpleasant, even on top of the uncomfortable temperature.
At the same time, Shirou cursed that he couldn't just slam his head against something hard and knock himself out without giving Taiga's reason to worry.
He couldn't even get up and leave without giving away the boner he was trying to conceal. He was trapped there without a way out.
He unwrapped his own popsicle and bit into it ferociously, hoping that the sudden chill would give him a headache that would distract him from the stupid thoughts he was having.
Of course, something that didn't even take a single HP off him was unlikely to distract someone who had [Pain Tolerance].
Who would have thought that being unable to feel low-end pain could be such a drawback?
"Ne, Shirou, are you well?" Taiga asked, forcing him to look at her. "Your face is all red."
Before he could say anything, she leaned over across the table and put the back of her hand against his forehead. That wouldn't have upset Shirou much if that position hadn't caused him to see right into her shirt.
"I'm-m-m-m fine," he stuttered. Outwardly he sounded much more in control that inwardly.
'Why the hell aren't you wearing a braaaaa?'
He didn't ask that, of course.
"You are not fine," she objected. "You are burning. It must be a heatstroke. Your face is all red."
"Huh," was the only thing that came out of his mouth. He couldn't just mention that she was flashing him her boobs and how it affected him. More importantly, she was offering him a convenient excuse and he had no intention of denying it. "Y-yeah. That must be it. I'll be fine soon."
"I'm getting some wet towel from the bathroom. Don't go anywhere."
"Alright," he quickly agreed. Taiga stood up and left the living room. A few moments later, Shirou run into the kitchen and put his head into the sink, turning the water to cold and blasting it full-stream. Regardless of the cause, he needed to cool down fast.
Taiga closed the bathroom door behind her and slid down against it until she was sitting on the ground, resting her face in her hands.
"I can't believe I did that," she said flatly. The first two instances had been accidents, but the third had been on purpose. Spurred by the excitement of knowing that Shirou saw her as a woman, even if only just subconsciously, she teased him by letting him look down her shirt.
Even though she felt guilty about it, his flustered face was so funny. No, funny wasn't the right word. Adorable, that was it. Usually he was so cool and composed, but he didn't know what to do with himself when he saw her bra.
"By the way, what bra did I put on today?" she wondered and then took a peek inside her shirt. A second later her face went bright-red, realizing she had just fully flashed him with her bare tits.
'He saw them! He saw them! He saw theeeem!' she cried inwardly, clutching her head in dismay. She had completely forgot that she hadn't put a new one on when she had changed after returning from work.
She had never intended for Shirou to see that much. It was supposed to be just light teasing, not a flashing-fest. Instead he had seen it all, the breasts that no man had seen before.
At this point it wasn't just teasing anymore, but all out molestation. Poor Shirou was probably completely traumatized.
Because of her he'd probably end up growing a loner, a man unable to relate to ordinary people, who cannot to stay with a single woman for a prolonged period of time. He'd probably end up having several lovers but fail to put down roots with anyone of them.
Taiga's wildest tangents were on the money more often than what she usually tried to pass for rational thought-process.
'It's all my fault. I ruined his life. It's all my faaaaault!'
Clutching her head, she rolled on the floor with tears pooling at the corner of her eyes.
'I must take responsibility. Responsibility? But! But! But! Age difference! Siblings! Just a kid! Waaah!'
It continued like that for a very long time, her thought becoming more and more confused as she came up with increasingly outrageous solutions to increasingly outrageous scenarios.
When Taiga didn't come back after more than ten minutes Shirou was starting to get worried.
His concern worked as arousal-suppressor better than anything else he had come up with in the meantime, such as trying to drown himself with cold water in the kitchen sink and chanting buddhist mantras. At the same time.
Deciding to check up on her, he made to leave the living room and stumbled on her just as he was about to step out.
"Taiga, you're back. I was wondering… Taiga?"
"S-Shirou," she stuttered breathlessly. Her clothes were disheveled and her hair were a mess. Her hand reached out and grasped his shoulder firmly. "I'll take… I'll take…."
Whatever she wanted to say died on her lips, as her legs gave in and she crumbled down.
"Wha! Shirou shouted moving to catch her before she could hit the ground. "Taiga?"
"Weee," she moaned, red faced and eyes swirling. "Resp… responsibility…"
At last, even her head went limp and she passed out completely.
Shirou quickly checked her condition. Her breathing and her pulse was steady, but her temperature was high. Almost certainly a heatstroke.
"Damnit. Hold on, Taiga. I'll take you somewhere comfortable."
Shifting her body gently, he daintily picked her up bridal style and made for his room, which while spartan, was also actually the best place in the house, temperature wise. Cooler during summers and warmer during winters. A small luxury that he conceded himself as the only permanent inhabitant of the house.
He tried to get there as fast as he could but still trying to keep Taiga steady in his arms. Her body weight wasn't great, not for someone with his STR, but her height compared to his made her a little unwieldy to him. He needed to use great care.
Taiga woke slowly shortly after she passed out to a wonderful sensation. A soft cocoon of safety. A part of her recognised it for what it was even though she had never experienced it before.
The embrace of a man.
She didn't know how she knew this. She just did.
Slowly she opened one eye, to secretly gaze at the one who had finally come for her. Her heart nearly stilled as she recognized him, and with that recognition came memories of how she had come to be in the arms of one Emiya Shirou.
She had spent several minutes over thinking things in the bathroom until she made herself feverish and lost of reason, thus deciding to skip all steps and just seal the deal with Shirou.
Fortunately, she passed out before she could do anything she'd regret and that's how she ended up being carried bridal style by her ten-years-old surrogate brother.
'So strong,' she thought. Shirou trained diligently every day, so of course he was stronger than the average kid, however lifting a full-grown adult was downright incredible. Then again, being incredible seemed to be the norm for him these days.
She didn't mind it. In fact she relished the sense of safety being held by him gave her.
'As I thought I really am…'
She didn't finish that sentence, not even in her mind. If she did, she wouldn't be able to take it back again.
Instead, she allowed herself to just enjoy this fleeting moment, promising herself it would be the first and the last time.
After laying down Taiga in his room and lowering her temperature with a wet towel on her forehead, Shirou let her sleep on his futon and he went back to his toolshed to test the limits of his Inventory ability. There was plenty of junk in there that he could use to fill it up and see just how far it went.
Slowly, he started throwing everything he could get his hands on, from things as small as a nail to broken electric appliances to old furniture.
He went on and on until he had picked the entire toolshed clean.
"This is complete bullshit," he decided as he looked at the list of items inside his Inventory. Now, Shirou had always been unfailingly polite, but in this case his outburst was warranted.
The ability to move around seemingly unlimited quantities of stuff with no cost beyond that of hauling himself around was reality-breaking. Wars could be fought and won over chains of supply. Entire countries economies hinged on the flow of merchandise. Strictly speaking, with this kind of ability he could get rich as a smuggler with zero chances of ever being apprehended.
Not to mention the way he could use it in junction to the rest of his powers.
When going into a battlefield, having the right type of equipment is fundamental. However the amount and variety was limited to what one could carry. Needless to say, that didn't apply to him any longer.
Currently he had little in the way of weapons and body armors, but once he procured himself some, he could easily switch to whatever suited the situation best with merely a mental command. He tried, and he switched back and forth between his regular clothes and his pajama several times in the blink of an eye.
As long as he had the procured himself the suitable equipment beforehand, there simply would be no scenario he would be ill-prepared for.
If anyone got wind he could do something like that, he would have just about any and every organization after his sorry ass, starting from the Clock Tower, passing through more mundane things like intelligence agencies right down to the family-owned bakery at the end of the street.
Calling it bullshit was being absolutely tame. There was no way in hell he'd tell anyone about it. Ever.
But once that had been established and the panic subsided such an ability would definitely come in handy.
The problem was that there just wasn't any equipment of his size that he could use. He tried to put some of Kiritsugu's clothing inside the Inventory and tried to equip them from there to see what would happen and the end result was that he was wearing an extremely loose fitting suit. No auto-fitting function included. That would have been sweet.
Thus the only two options available were having equipment custom made… or making it himself. Since he had a convenient cheat available, he should just go ahead and exploit it shamelessly.
He spent the rest of the afternoon making a list of things to try in the following days.
Outside, too distant from the Emiya household for anyone to detect anything, a set of sharp-looking eyes stared down at the property.
It had taken Wei Kang a lot of time to track down the little shit that stole his prey, but finally he had found him. Now, he only had to wait for the right moment to make his move.
The days of Shihōin Yoruichi and those of anyone who had taken her side were numbered.
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Oct 8, 2017Report
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