The sound of running water was heard as Shirou's hands splashed against them, washing his hands in the sink with a distinct frown in his boyish face.
He glanced down slight at where there should have been a stab wound. He had changed clothes of course, that wasn't the abnormal part.
Somehow, someway, that wound had just magically vanished, not even a scar had been left behind.
Speaking of Magic...it exists!
Well, he already knew that, he and his old man had been Magi, after all, though not good ones.
But this...this War that he was apparently in?
Heroic Spirits, Noble Phantasms, the Throne of Heroes, the Holy Grail...
It all just felt so confusing.
"At least, I'm not that clueless anymore..." The teenaged muttered to himself as he stole a few glances toward the living room.
Saber...his so-called 'Servant' was a strange and dangerous guy.
Were it not for Shirou's shouting skills, that man would have already atomized Tohsaka with his sword.
It's a good thing Shirou was his 'Master', whatever the fuck that actually meant.
And Tohsaka was one to, both a Magus and a Master!
Well, all the Masters were probably Magi considering the context of this...Holy Grail War.
There were 7 of them, 7 Masters each paired up with a Heroic Spirit summoned to become their Servant, with the Servants all being assigned one of the 7 Classes, his own Servant being the Saber and Tohsaka's Servant being the Archer.
Shirou still couldn't believe that they were actually summoning the ghosts of dead heroes from the past to kill eachother over some golden cup...it...it felt like a damn shonen anime plot.
He absolutely did not want to take part in it, who in their right mind would? It's basically a death game and realistically, he'd probably be one of the first lose!
But it's not like he can just ask Saber to kill himself, right...?
No way!
The teenage Master gazed down at his hand with a blank expression, carved into his flesh was a crimson red tattoo depicting the head of some howling dog or wolf being constricted by three horned snakes.
Although, one of the snakes lacked the distinct crimson glow shared by its siblings, being completely gray in colour.
These were his Command Seals, something that apparently every Master got after summoning their Servant. He had to admit, it looked rather cool.
A Master had only three Command Seals to use throughout the Holy Grail War, and their purpose was rather obvious considering the name.
With them, he could command his Servant to do anything and their body would be literally be forced to obey.
It took great effort not to make Saber shit himself severe diarrhoea for almost killing Tohsaka, but Shirou still had some bit of composure left.
But he had already used one, anyway. The one that had prevented Saber from releasing the full might of his Noble Phantasm on Rin and her Servant...
So that meant, Shirou only had two now.
With a sigh, he dried his hands using a nearby towel before he left the kitchen and walked toward the living room.
"No, Luke...I am your father." A raspy and deep voice said.
Shirou paused as he witnessed the frankly ridiculous scene.
Saber was sitting cross-legged on the living room sofa, in his left hand was a slice of Domino's Pizza and in his right hand were McDonald french fries. There were also a lot more snacks placed on his lap, with many haphazardly placed junk food on the table.
Despite having such modern foods around him, the archaic man chose to stay shirtless for some reason but abandoned the meagre cloth that he previously wore, now wearing black denim pants of which he of course stole from Shirou's wardrobe...
In front of the Saber Servant, was the Emiya household's television, and on the screen, was a recorded tape of fucking Star Wars.
Shirou glanced at the blade that had recklessly been dropped on the floor by his Servant earlier, it was Saber's 'Noble Phantasm' and after seeing what it could do, the teenage Master was understandably a little on edge when seeing that damn thing.
He paused as Saber accidentally knocked over a small bucket of popcorn, the pieces of popcorn raining down on the blade like pebbles.
"What the hell...?" He quietly muttered as a chill went down his spine, a natural reaction when seeing a huge sword suddenly split open a teeth-filled mouth to eat popcorn as if it were an excited dog that just saw its owner drop a piece of meat.
"Emiya..." The recognizable voice of a certain black-haired, blue-eyed girl brought the red-headed Master out of his brief stupor.
"...Saber's from the Bible, I found him here." She continued, holding an opened copy of the Bible in her hands as she pointed a particular passage with one of her dainty fingers.
Shirou looked up at the girl's face in silent thought, making eye contact with her ocean blue-eyes.
There was a slight disruption in her serene blue eyes, understandable since she just nearly died, but Shirou still found them quite pretty nonetheless.
Shirou, much to the amused snort of his Servant, had chosen to share Saber's true identity with the girl.
Being the Master that she was, Rin immediately tried to search for the Saber's name, recognizing it somewhere in the Bible.
He was rather grateful that he had someone to explain things to him, being a dumb ass was very hard.
Glancing at the Saber, who was eating pizza while watching Star Wars like a little kid watching his first movie...that guy could probably explain it to him as well.
He looked back at Rin, who was still akwardly waiting for his response, though his face was still deep in thought.
Then again, Saber's information would be more limited, considering he's from ancient history and probably wouldn't be all to caught up with recent events...
Yeah, that's most likely also why he was so interested in the TV, Shirou would also gawk if he got to watch a great movie from a Sci-fi future.
Damn, movies didn't even exist back then, so it wouldn't be a futursitic film, but a whole new medium of entertainment!
Hopefully, his Servant wouldn't discover manga, that would be...
"Uh, hey, could you stop staring at my face so intensely!?" She asked with an annoyed frown and a slight hue of red to her cheeks, waking Shirou out of his contemplative stupor.
"...Oh, uh, sorry, sorry..." Shirou akwardly muttered with a soft chuckle as he rubbed the back of his red-haired head.
"...I was lost in thought." He answered honestly.
Rin didn't respond, but her disgruntled expression showed what she felt as she looked away slightly, muttering something terrible under her breath.
Regardless—
"Cain and Abel...?" The teenage Master muttered as he read the passage depicting Saber's origin story.
He had heard of the tale before, it didn't take a devout christian to recognize the story of humanity's first murder, it was one of the more popular stories in the Bible, after all.
Written in the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve had several sons, the ones relevant to the story being Cain, Abel, and Seth.
Cain was the oldest, becoming a farmer that worked the lands much like his father, while Abel was the middle child, sheparding humanity's first herd of sheep and cattle.
As proof of their hard work, the pair of brothers presented various offerings to the Lord.
Cain had brought fresh fruits from his farm, whereas Abel presented the finest youngling of his herd, the firstborn, in fact.
God chose Abel's offering, and due to jealousy, Cain killed his brother with a piece of rock.
And of course, Cain was punished with eternal life, Shirou was already acquainted with this classical story.
But glancing back at Abel...
"How'd he get his sword...?" The young Master mutter incredulously.
"And those tattoos for that matter...Adam and Eve wouldn't paint their kids like that, right?" He quietly whispered to the twin-tailed girl who was busy rereading the passage on Abel's story.
"Don't ask me!" She said back, her eyes still scanning the words.
"I'll have to check the Quran later...he's probably in the Torah to..." Rin muttered in a low voice as she closed the Bible and glanced at the red-headed boy before her, also glancing slightly at his Servant.
"Hey, Emiya-kun. Don't tell anyone else about Saber's real identity, it's dangerous." She informed him with a serious expression as Shirou nodded in agreement at her words.
That made sense, the enemy Servants would probably be able to figure out Saber's strengths and weaknesses if they knew who he really was...
In this case, was Saber's kryptonite pieces of particularly sharp rocks...? Probably not, but the thought was kind of funny in a grim way.
Hey, didn't that blue-haired guy who tried to kill him recognized Saber? Huh, how did that even happen...
Was he also from the Bible? Shirou knew for certain he had to watch out for that one.
Speaking of Servant, "Where's Archer?" He asked out loud, noticing the distinct lacked of his fellow Master's own Servant.
"He's...somewhere, in his spirit form." She replied, brushing a few strands of her jet-black hair out of the way.
"Your Saber did a lot of damage to him, so he's recovering in his spirit form since that state conserves energy." She clarified but frowned as she noticed that Shirou seemed to be completely stumped due to the various terms she had used.
With a sigh, "Servants are Heroic Spirits, remember? They have a Material and a Spirit form, the latter conserves more energy but they can't fight in it." She explained further.
"Ah, got it, got it." Shirou nodded with a curious expression, "And they can regenerate with Magic? Or is it because they're ghosts?"
"It's Magecraft, not Magic." She insisted with furrowed eyebrows.
"But yeah, pretty much. Servants don't need any Healing Magecraft since they're...ghosts." She said with an amused chuckle at that last part.
She paused as she glanced around the living room, focusing slightly on a photo of Shirou and his adoptive father before she looked back at him.
"So you're father really left you in the dark, huh?" She said, a hand on her hips as she waited for an answer with pursed lips.
Shirou looked rather offended, but didn't respond as he realized that Rin was probably correct.
"He told me a little, about the Mage Association, and other things like that..." Shirou muttered, defending his deceased old man.
"Did he even show you his workshop, at least...?" Rin asked with a tilted head.
"Uh, I don't think he had one. Not in this house, I think..." Shirou said with an uncertain expression.
"Oh, god. You really are a clueless amateur..." The Tohsaka girl harshly lampooned as she placed a hand on her face.
"I, uh, shit..." He wanted to refute her insulting words, but found that he actually couldn't.
Because frankly, Shirou Emiya was truly a bum when it came to Magi.
"You know what...? Come with me, Emiya." She requested as she turned her head to the door.
"Wait, where to...?" Emiya asked as he rushed to her side, walking by her as he glanced back at his Servant.
To his surprise, Saber was just right behind him, a bucket of popcorn in his hand and the black blade resting on his back.
It wasn't tied to him or sheated, but somehow, it stuck to him as if glued. Shirou didn't really want to know the specifics.
Saber just nodded but didn't say anything as his mouth was too busy with the popcorn.
"We're going to the church, I know a guy who can...help, I guess? Not really..." She said, eliciting a curious reaction from the red-headed Emiya.
A reaction that made her smile when he wasn't looking.