Beta read by Shigiya.
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-Afternoon-
Classes went just about the same routine as he expected, sitting down, listening to the teacher, taking notes, and finishing his homework during his breaks.
The exam season was approaching quickly, students were more focused and kept coming at him and Issei for notes and help. He found it kind of funny how he was the one absent from class for more than a week yet had better notes than most of his peers. Then again, it was all thanks to Issei who lent him his notebooks. Shirou didn't feel the need to study more or stress himself over the exams, he kept a disciplined lifestyle of studying two to three hours every day, even during weekends and holidays. This helped him in the end in keeping his grades and he wasn't planning on changing his schedule.
"The air conditioner's filter is filled with dust and dirt, this usually restricts the flow of cold air, causing it to build up inside the air conditioner and lower the internal temperature. Given enough time, that buildup of cold air can eventually cause ice to form on the coils." Swiping his fingers on the plastic, Shirou showed the small amounts of gray-colored ice, making some of the student council members gag in disgust. "This is the first reason why your room's temperature stayed the same as barely any cold air was being blown in. And some of the wirings have also had their outer rubber case decompose making the copper rust over time, so we also need to change that."
He was called to the student council room after Issei told the president how he could help them out. Not wanting for weeks for the school to respond and having to spend more days under intense heat, they called Shirou.
The latter obviously was happy to help them, he wasn't known as the school janitor for nothing—even though he never chose that nickname in the first place.
"Ooh, so I guess there's no way to have you fix it up then?" Haruto, the club treasurer, said as he began calculating the total cost for a replacement.
Even though they only had a month or two of time before the end of their scholar year, the heat wave was just too intense to ignore. Just by sitting there for an hour, he was already sweating and the high levels of humidity didn't help at all.
"I can clean up the filter, and replace the wiring for a bit, but you'll need to replace the entire thing nonetheless. It's been here for a decade and is barely holding up. While I can fix it today, it'll probably keep running for a week at best."
Truthfully, the thing was already falling to pieces. Just applying some small pressure would break the plastic, but if he applied reinforcement to the air conditioner, then it would last a bit longer. But overall, it was still a temporary fix.
"You're a lifesaver Emiya, as long as it can run for another day or two, we'll have a replacement ready by then."
Their middle school had gone through a recent budget cut for the clubs, so everyone had to rethink their club spending.
"With the soon-to-come exams, many just don't bother stressing over such things and prefer to leave this problem for the next year's students. Kinda lazy and scummy way of thinking, as senpais, we must set up an example for the next students."
"I agree," Shirou said, half paying attention to the man he concentrated on removing some of the screws to extract the filter. His shirt was bound to get dirty with just how much dust had been accumulated inside, Taiga will not like that. "There…"
"You need some help?" One of the other students in the room asked, which he politely declined.
"Say, Emiya, have you decided which high school you'll attend?" Haruto asked, trying to start a conversation.
"Me? Well, I guess it's Homura." Not only was Taiga a teacher there, but the school was also near his house. He would walk there in less than half an hour or ten minutes if he ran.
"Really? So both you and Ryuudou-kun have plans to continue your studies here, I see."
"It sounds like you're going to study somewhere else." Shirou asked absentmindedly, as he pulled out the dirty filter.
"Yeah, somewhere far away from… here." The student council president sighed in melancholy. "Fuyuki is a beautiful place, don't get me wrong, but it's just so boring and stale living here. There isn't much to do aside from taking over my grandfather's fishing career after I graduate in a few years."
Shirou didn't have any comments on that in particular. He never thought about leaving Fuyuki in the past, being content with everything here. Though recently, his desire to travel to London grew slowly every day. Within just seven days of training under Luvia, he managed to gain the equivalent of a few months of the same routine. Not to mention the knowledge he came back with on magecraft in general.
Going to study at the Clocktower wasn't a matter which will take a few days or weeks, but years instead. He would probably not see many of his friends and Taiga for a long time.
'I'll think about this later… I haven't even talked with Luvia yet.'
"Where do you plan to study then?" he asked, doing his final touches to the device.
"Tokyo hopefully, I'll even study hard to get accepted into Tokyo University as well. I heard living there can be a bit expensive, so I asked my uncle if he could find me a part-time job somewhere in the area. I'm 15 and can legally work a few hours a day."
"Sounds like you've planned this for a while."
"I did, ever since my father died during the fire, it made me want to distance myself from this place. I may have been very young back then, but I still remember every moment I spent with him and nearly everything back home reminds me of him."
Shirou's hand stopped, his eyes focused in front of him, getting lost after hearing Haruto's story. That was the real reason why he wanted to leave, it was not about Fuyuki being a boring place — he just wanted to escape.
"I'm sorry." Those words escaped his mouth.
Haruto shook his head, waving at the redhead.
"Don't be, you have no fault in this, Emiya."
Shirou, unfortunately, couldn't share his opinion.
"I heard you nearly got caught in the fire as well. You should count yourself lucky. What happened that day was anything but an accident, the authorities may try to cover it up but one day, the truth will come out."
"..."
The boy didn't give him an answer, the boy was both so very close yet so far from the truth. Yes, there were people trying to cover up the existence of the Grail War and its casualties. Even the government themselves weren't aware of it, they were just as clueless as any other citizen on the happenings of the Moonlight world.
"Oi, president, this is a sensitive topic and you shouldn't talk about it so openly with others." One of the members scolded him, while Shirou continued to fix the machine.
"Ah! Sorry Emiya, that was rude of me."
"No," Shirou shook his head, wiping his hands with a small handkerchief. "I know you didn't mean anything bad by your comment. What happened that day was no different than hell on Earth and I do not wish for it to happen again."
"Agreed, I know it doesn't mean much if I say it—but I'm glad you're with us, dude." Haruto said, giving the school janitor a large grin.
"... thanks," he finished up his work before leaving the classroom, leaving behind an awkward atmosphere.
"You're an idiot, Haruto."
"I was being nice at the end!"
{Break}
The sky dusked and the shadows got longer and bigger. All of the club activities were over as well, and students walked out of the school and returned back to their houses for the day. Shirou walked through the empty halls on his own, checking each classroom he passed by in search of someone.
He walked through the third floor, where the second-year students were located. Even though there was no one in the hallway, a few were left in the classrooms cleaning things up.
"Let's see…"
He went into classroom 3-B.
The red-tinted classroom was quiet and with no sign of life. A drastically different atmosphere compared to the classes next door where he could hear a few of the students talking and laughing while cleaning.
Here, there was no such joyful atmosphere—just empty and quiet.
All the students had to had gone to their respective destinations.
Though as his eyes scanned the red classroom, a lone shadow stood in the corner.
It was there he came to find the familiar blue-haired girl.
"Sakura." he said, stepping inside the red-tinted room where the evening sun's rays flooded the room.
"…Senpai?"
The face, covered by her long hair, looked even more lifeless than this morning. That changed in a split second as her eyes landed on him. They became more vibrant and beautiful, those violet gems mesmerizing him a few times in the past whenever he would get lost in his thoughts.
"What is it? Do you have some business here?"
"No, I have nothing to do here. I just wanted to check up on you, that's all. How's your hand?"
She showed him her right hand, the bruise had completely vanished by now.
"Don't worry about me, I heal fast."
So she did…
He approached the girl who was in the middle of tidying up her books and notes. "You're going back home?"
She nodded her head, "Yes, grandfather needed me around today, so I can't walk with you back to your house. Sorry, I'll be there tomorrow. I'm still waiting for Onii-sama, I haven't seen him all day, so I'm not sure where he is right now."
Shirou's pocket buzzed as he realized that someone sent him a message on his phone. Giving it a quick check, he found that it was Issei who sent him a picture of Shinji walking toward the school's backyard. Along the picture was a message, 'You owe me for this, Shinji won't stay for long, so you better hurry up as well.''
Great, that part of the plan was a success, now it was his turn.
"Shinji is a bit busy today. Some of the girls from the art club asked him and Issei to help out with a few of their projects."
Sakura grew confused, looking a bit lost and caught by surprise by the news.
"But, Nii-san is going to be late if he doesn't return in time. He wouldn't normally try to anger grandfather for such things." she said, sounding worried.
Shirou just couldn't understand Sakura sometimes, she worried about Shinji more than anyone else in school despite how he treated her. He was glad that he agreed with Issei today about their plan for Shinji, he needed to have a talk with that person and make him stop hurting his sister.
He decided to lie a bit, "I know, he told the others how he wouldn't be able to help them for long. It'll just take a few minutes, an hour at most." Enough time for him to get to the bottom of the matter and try to change his friend's attitude.
"Ah, then I can wait for him. It's safer to walk back together."
Hm, she wasn't going to give up so easily.
"How about this, let me drop you off for once at least. I never got the opportunity to do so, and this would be the perfect time for—" he put his hand on her shoulder, not expecting her following reaction.
"Ah!"
A crashing noise spread around the room Sakura almost fell over just from being touched.
"Sakura!"
Fortunately, he reacted quickly and pulled her hand back. Hot, that was his first reaction when touching her skin. Her palms were sweaty as well, and from the sudden fall, he worried that she must have gotten a fever. The body he was holding was surprisingly light. Then again, he did a lot of heavy lifting for his training, so someone like Sakura would be trivial to pick up.
"Y-You surprised me, Sakura, are you really all right?" He asked, genuinely worried about the girl and even considering abandoning his talk with Shinji completely and taking the girl to the hospital.
"I-it's okay!" Sakura said, flustered and slightly panicking for some reason. "You don't need to trouble yourself for such a small thing. I-I'm alright!" Without giving him any time to respond she closed her bag and swiftly walked out of the class—leaving behind a confused Shirou. "See you tomorrow, senpai!"
"Wa-Wait—ring!"
His phone rang again, with another message from Issei telling him to hurry up as Shinji was starting to get impatient and was going to leave if he didn't come in the next few minutes.
Putting his phone back inside his pocket, Shirou walked out of the room, not forgetting to close the door behind him.
"I'll have to check up on her tomorrow."
{Break}
The school playground was empty as well, members of the track and baseball team had already packed everything up.
Shirou walked to the location where Issei sent Shinji, the latter most likely still waiting for that special to show up. She would definitely get mad when the one appearing was none other than himself. It felt wrong to do such a thing, a part of him did feel guilty, but that guilt only lasted a small moment before the image of Sakura's bruised arm returned to his mind.
"In a way, this had to be done one day. I've seen Shinji act so rude to Sakura many times in the past."
Shinji was one of his few friends, while he was probably the boy's only friend. There was a reason why very few could tolerate the eldest Matou sibling. His crass and ill-mannered attitude towards everyone in the school didn't help his case.
When thinking about why they frequented each other, very few reasons came to mind. "I certainly do have an unsavory and inseparable relationship with him."
No, he was lying to himself. Shirou remembered a time when his friend would actually defend him from those who used his willingness to help them a bit too much. He would get defensive and even help him out around school often. Once, Shirou remembered a time when he had to help out the school with the signs late at night. Barely anyone was left in school aside from the janitor and a few teachers. The sun had already settled leaving him all alone in the dark with barely enough light to continue working. Shinji came, but he didn't help but decided to stay by his side till he was done. A small gesture but one Shirou kept very close to his heart till this day.
Yet what changed?
As he reached the end of the building, he peeked at the side to see an empty field with none other than Shinji impatiently walking back and forth. His face told him enough of this current state, the man was reaching the limit of his patience.
Taking a deep breath, Shirou turned around and made his way towards Shinji—the latter taking notice of his arrival.
"Uh, Emiya?" He called out, not expecting to find the redhead at this place. "What are you doing here? Go back home, I'm having a meeting with a secret admirer of mine! So I don't want you to ruin the moment."
"..."
"I'm not sure from which class she's from, but she's awestruck by my natural handsomeness and was even too shy to confess to me. Humph, good thing she got in touch with Ryuudou to pass on the message."
"..."
"Stunned right? Sure you are! You never had a girlfriend in your life so you can't even begin to understand what is about to happen right now. But fear not, I'll keep you in touch and will even help you hook up with one of her friends—if they don't fall for me that is." He said arrogantly, flaunting a relationship he didn't even start with a girl that didn't even exist.
Well, he certainly was excited, that much Shirou could tell. He didn't know what kind of information Issei must have given to Issei, but his eagerness and anticipation for this ghost girl sure did make him feel a bit bad for his following words.
"I'm sorry Shinji, but no one is coming to meet you today."
"Ha? Are you messing with me? Don't try to steal my girl, Emiya!" Shinji shouted out loud, getting irritated by his words. "I know she's gonna come here and I don't you to ruin my momen—"
"—Why did you hit Sakura?" Not wasting any time, Shirou delved into the matter at hand. His question made Shinji stop mid-speech.
"What?"
"Just this morning, Sakura came to help out with breakfast at my house. As she was handling some pans, her sleeves went back enough for me to see a large bruise." Shinji's frown turned worse, he started giving him a harsh glare. "When I tried asking her about it, she mentioned something about falling down a flight of stairs—but one thing you must know about Sakura is that she can be a bad liar at times. And it just took me mentioning your name for her reaction to reveal everything to me."
His phone rang once again, probably Issei, Sakura, or Taiga reaching out to him. But he ignored it, focusing fully on the person in front of him. He wouldn't get distracted over anything, he was going to put an end to it today.
"Oi, since when did you start putting your nose in places where it doesn't belong? Sakura is my sister and I'm her big brother, so I can do whatever the fuck I want! And who are you to interfere in our personal matters?"
Right, he had no business with the Matou siblings. Having no right to snoop around their dynamics… was what a fool would have said. Kiritsugu told him that being stubborn and nosy could bring him more harm than good. But there were moments when these things were necessary, especially when they concerned someone so important to him.
Furthermore, it wasn't like he wasn't allowed to care for Sakura's health and make some inquiries.
"You're wrong, Shinji," he said, calmly. "Whether you like it or not does not matter to me. You may be Sakura's brother, but I'm her friend — just like I am yours. You may not see it, but Sakura hasn't been acting herself lately and that bruise on her hand doesn't help her case. So, I'm going to ask once more, what happened with Sakura? Why did you hit her?"
"And why should I not!? I'm her big brother, so it's my duty to teach her a lesson whenever she's being stupid! And what 'accidentally saw the bruise' nonsense are you spewing!? I bet that lying bitch said it to you so that you can act as her knight in shining armor!" He yelled, pushing Shirou's limit with each of his words.
'Deep breaths.'
He waited a few seconds, closing his eyes while keeping the bad thoughts away. How could a brother utter such words? He couldn't understand, he wouldn't accept it no matter the situation. Their very role was to act as a shield and guide to their younger siblings, not harm them over such little things.
"Sakura cares about you, you know? When I asked her this morning how she got the bruise. Her story was about how she fell down the stairs and happened to injure her wrist then. I nearly believed it at first, but as I told you before, she is a bad liar. She never once brought up your name at ANY point in our conversation, in fact, I was the one who guessed the most likely person to do such a thing."
Shinji just scoffed at his words.
"When I guessed that it was you, she tried to deny it. No matter how much I insisted, she kept on trying to prove your innocence all this time."
The girl was an angel, she was both kind and understanding.
"Shinji, I am your friend, we hung out more times than I can count. We laughed together, ate lunch together, and helped out each other when it counted. That is why I'm asking you as a friend, more than anything, to stop hurting Sakura and apologize to her in front of me." Shirou said with a somber tone, feeling his heart rate quicken with how much he was keeping his anger under control.
Yet to his dismay…
Shinji just laughed.
"Hahahahaha! Are you serious there, Emiya? Did you learn that line from a b-rated shounen anime or something? And stop with that stare of yours, both your expression and voice sound as threatening as a small puppy. So much so that I can't stop laughing at how pathetic you look right now."
"..."
"Knowing you, you're probably only doing this with that huge hero complex you have or you just want to get in her pants. Does the thought of helping every single person you come across get you hard? Of course, it does, mister school janitor! Go bother someone else with your stupid sense of justice or whatever you're trying to do here. Sakura is my little sister and I can do whatever the fuck I want with her! That dumb bitch always keeps saying senpai this, senpai that, to the point that it feels like I'm going to go mad with it! Not to mention how she started going to your house these last few weeks, I bet you just want her for yourself, you're luring her into your own house, you fucking hypocrite."
No, he allowed her to visit his house every day, even going so far as giving Sakura a key to his doors because he enjoyed her presence there. He would never confess to anyone, but a part of him was glad every time Sakura came to wake him up early in the morning. The headache and tiredness from his late-night magecraft training would disappear every time he shared the kitchen with her, spent time with her, and just talked with her.
Even Taiga liked whenever the girl came over, and having them get along was something he sought to keep up.
Shinji's words hurt, it really did. "Is that how you see me? A sort of predator who wants to take advantage of Sakura huh…"
At that point, all he felt was disappointment over Shinji.
"This is your last warning. I'm being serious."
He followed his old man's lessons to the letter, every day. Whenever it was about his magecraft, combat, and even regular, he would rarely, if ever, break one of his teachings. But then again, he wasn't Kiritsugu Emiya, he may have had the same dream, but Shirou Emiya wasn't a copy of the Magus Killer. He had his faults, some of which were beginning to bubble to the surface right this moment.
"Shut up, Emiya! I'm still mad over the fact you and Ryuudou tricked me over such a thing. If I was any pettier, then I would report both of you to the principal. All of this is that bitch's fault! Always indirectly and directly ruining everything for me! I'm going to show her why she shouldn't mess with m—KEURGH!!"
It all happened in a blink of an eye.
Not being able to hold himself back any longer, Shirou lost control of his anger and let it all out in a single punch to Shinji's face. His eyes widened with fury visible in them, his teeth clenched as he didn't bother to hold back his natural strength.
Shirou was a hair's breadth away from using reinforcement on his limbs but held back at the last second.
Shinji's body sailed a few meters backward, and spit flew in the air before the boy crashed onto the ground with a loud bang. His body spasmed for a bit before he put his hand over his cheeks screaming in pain.
"AAAARHHH!! YOU SFON OFH A BIHHFF! YOU BROFE MY TEEF!"
He tried to yell at him with incoherent words, having lost a tooth and a red swelling forming on his cheek, Shinji never felt so much pain in his life.
Step
Step
Step
Shirou approached him, fearing another punch or even a kick to his stomach, Shinji curled himself into a ball, screaming loudly as he called for help in the empty school. The only one able to hear him was Shirou and the shocked Issei who was spectating the entire thing on the rooftop.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" Shirou spoke, crouching near Shinji. "Since you are a fan of teaching lessons to people with physical force, then I just followed your example as well."
The blue-haired boy didn't pay him any attention as he continued to call for help while sobbing that his face hurts.
"You used to be different, Shinji. You were a jerk with a heart of gold—now you're not even half of that."
"G-Geft awfay fron ne!"
Shirou raised his fists again, pushing Shinji to a panicked state as he covered his swollen face with both of his arms. On the inside, he was equally panicking. Who was this? This wasn't the easy-going Shirou Emiya he knew!
Especially his eyes, they looked cold, empty, reminding him of Sakura's. It frightened him, as he couldn't get a read on him. Especially that cold feeling running across his body, giving him goosebumps all over with how dangerous it felt. Like having a sharp knife placed right under his throat.
Shirou followed through with his second punch, not wanting to see his face getting pummeled again, Shinji closed his eyes.
Bam!
Yet what Shirou hit was not his face, but the ground next to his face. The ground dented slightly from the force of his strike.
"You'll stop hurting Sakura. I'm not going to hurt you anymore on the grounds of our past friendship and Sakura's feelings."
He could already imagine the frown on her face and the disappointed look she would give him tomorrow after finding out what happened to Shinji's face. He planned to apologize, of course.
But first…
"I also want you to apologize to her. I'll know if you did it or not." He didn't, aside from asking Sakura, he had no way of knowing whether he apologized or not—but Shinji didn't know that.
"Do you understand?" he asked.
Shinji nodded frantically before the redhead got up and walked away from him.
Scrambling back up, Shinji ran towards the gates.
"Th-Thifs ain't ofer!" he shouted as he already reached the outside of the school and ran away.
The boy sighed, berating himself over having lost control so easily. But he couldn't help it, Shinji was continuing to badmouth his sister and that struck his nerves every time he did it. Especially when he mentioned harming her again.
"I don't know if what I did was the right choice or not, but it was something that I just couldn't ignore."
He looked at his scraped knuckles, some blood was coming out of his injured hands but not a lot, and would heal in a day or two. The ground below was covered in gravel and sharp chopped rocks, Shinji was lucky that he didn't get his face damaged when falling down.
"I'll have to use a bandage and think of a good excuse to give to Fuji-nee. She won't be happy if she's going to find out about this."
He could try and quell her anger with her favorite dish for the next few days. Hopefully, this would work and he didn't have to deal with a moody Taiga.
He walked to his discarded school bag, removing some of the dust and sand on the straps before hanging it around his neck. Though he didn't leave immediately, he waited near the gates for a few minutes before another figure passed near him.
"Never in my life did I ever dream of seeing you actually hit someone like that. You nearly broke the boy's jaw."
Issei came out of the school gates, neither smiling nor angry, just curious. "I guess the talk didn't go so well. I couldn't hear anything from up there."
"Yeah, you can say that," he replied. "Hope he changes after this."
"I doubt it, I'm not that familiar with his character, like you. But I'm a good judge of people, and Shinji is not someone who can be straightened with a single hit to the face. Violence should never be the answer."
"You want me to ask for forgiveness?"
Issei shook his head, "In the temple, I was taught that forgiveness is a practice for removing unhealthy emotions that would otherwise cause harm to our mental well-being. I do believe in their philosophy, but we are humans and not Buddha, so having some flaws is to be expected. All I ask you is to not keep thinking about today's event too much and try to not get in anymore fights. Just make sure Shinji stays in line. It will serve as a good practice as a future member of the Student Council."
He laughed, feeling Issei's words lighten the mood.
"Already planning which club I'll join for high school? Homura does have many other clubs, like kendo, cooking, and the going home club. What makes you think that I wouldn't join one of them instead?"
He saw his friend smirk.
"Because you'll be able to help more people along with getting more free time for yourself, Emiya."
"..."
"Heh, don't underestimate me. I know what kind of person you are. And unless you throw me a curve ball and suddenly join something out of the blue like the drama club or archery club, you'll most likely just help me out."
Hm, who knew what the future had reserved for them? He wasn't going to lie, the idea of helping people and getting more free time to focus on his private matters did attract his attention quite a bit. But he didn't want to make a decision so soon, especially if they hadn't gone through their final exams yet.
Now, he needed to go back home and see if Luvia wrote him a letter or not.
"Alright, thanks again for helping me out, Issei."
"Don't mention it, see you tomorrow, and don't forget to revise for your finals."
"You too."
{Break}
-Matou Mansion-
Crash!
"That fucking bastard!"
At Matou's house, Shinji was having a tantrum as he kept destroying everything inside his room in fury. Breaking vases, chairs, and everything he could get his hands on. His cheeks had swollen up from Shirou's strike, constantly stinging his face, his broken teeths and bleeding gums reminding the boy of the humiliation he went through.
"Who does he think he is!? A fucking hero? I'll fucking show him, he thinks he can't stop me from doing whatever I want!? I'm her brother, he has nothing to do with her life! Fucking janitor!"
Tap
Tap
Tap
Shinji's heart stopped when he heard the sound of a walking cane hitting the wooden floor outside his house. Fear rose in his heart as all traces of his anger vanished.
"What is this fuss all about?" The door opened slowly and Shinji looked at who came through with bated breath. The man that used to be a formidable and respected Magus now turned into a centuries-old demon by his own creation and the passage of time—Matou Zouken.
With a hunched posture, a bald head, and black eyes which zoned on him with those beady red pupils.
"Well? Speak up, child!"
With great effort, he began retelling his talk with Shirou.
"He thinks he can order me around! Me!? I was the only one who bothered to talk to him back when he had no one and this is how he repays me!? You should teach him a lesson!"
To the boy's shock, the man didn't even seem to care or react negatively. Instead, he smiled at Shinji, which made the boy more terrified than ever before.
"I see you're still as compulsive and incompetent as usual. Giving your grandfather orders to kill another kid? Have you finally grown some courage to dictate to me boy?"
Shinji screeched in fright when he saw some disgusting worms crawl up his shoes. He fell to the ground before scurrying away to the corner.
"Finally calmed down?" Zouken asked, Shinji just nodded fearfully while still avoiding eye contact.
"So the Emiya boy has enough guts in him to do such a thing? Impressive, he is that man's son, adopted or not. I wonder how Sakura would react to this… such a shame I couldn't get to him in time."
There was something in the smile on his lips that made Shinji feel uneasy. It was like he was being mocked somehow.
"Well then, if you would excuse me… I have to look after your sister."
The old monster said, his voice cold and emotionless. Before Shinji could ask anything else, the door closed with a click. And without waiting for any response, Shinji crawled under his bed and hid.
There were two things the Matou boy wished he could do right now: run away or cry. Both seemed impossible, however.
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword and To love a sword having 3 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.