The sun was shining just above the horizon, the birds were chirping, and the air was nice and brisk.
A perfectly good day for being outside.
Naturally, despite the good weather, the only one awake at Rin's house was the guy who didn't need to sleep.
Shirou Lily quietly wrapped some electrical tape around some wiring.
If he woke Rin up…
Well, the chances of joining Kirei in his 'voluntary participation' in Rin's 'experiments' rose drastically. But unlike the priest, Shirou wasn't a masochist so he'd just suffer as Rin tried to find a way around their pain tolerances.
As for why he was fixing the Tohsaka home up, Shirou hated doing nothing. He couldn't just sit in place and wait for no reason. And as a Servant, exercise or training wouldn't do anything. He could do some sleeping, but…
To say it bluntly, Rin's mansion was old and some things were in need of repair in places and Rin was too cheapskate to hire people to do them until they started falling apart.
Put a guy who didn't like being idle and had home-repair skills into such a place and give him several hours as his Master slept, and let nature take its role.
Besides, Archer Lily could always do the sleeping later in the war when Rin's energy was exhausted from the hard battles ahead.
As Shirou cut the tape, he heard the doorbell ring.
Shirou put down the tools and headed to the door.
Who would show up here? Shirou wondered. Anyone who knew Rin would know that she isn't a morning person and anyone who didn't know Rin wouldn't come.
As the doorbell rang again, Archer pulled the door open.
Outside was a golden-haired boy in brown shorts and a white coat over a purple shirt.
"Hello," Gilgamesh Lily said smilingly. "Beautiful day for doing some early spring cleaning. I hope your Master is in a better mood?"
"We're not even out of winter yet, so just call it late winter cleaning," Archer Lily pointed out as he stepped out, closing the door behind him. "Also, she's asleep. Won't be up for a couple more hours. Sunday, you know."
"Sleeping in? On a day like this?" Gilgamesh gestured to the beautiful weather before clucking his tongue and shaking his head. "Teenagers."
"Not sure if I am supposed to say anything, being a teen right now and all," Shirou Lily replied. "I think it might just be a certain Master staying up past 3."
"Ah, burning the midnight oil," Gilgamesh nodded. "Should have guessed. Magi seem to love the nighttime rather than doing work during the day. But then again, they don't really want to comply with the natural way of things."
"It would prevent them from doing experiments through magecraft at midnight," Shirou agreed. "Almost as if they were doing experiments against nature."
"So what brings you out here?" Shirou asked, getting around to what he was curious about.
"Well, I had hoped to drop in on the Second Owner and ask her about how she would feel about me cleaning up her town for the Grail War. I'm the Overseer for the Grail War," Gilgamesh said, his face turning serious as he pulled up his light coat sleeve to show the mass of Command Seals there.
"Huh, that's a new role for you," Shirou Lily commented as he eyed the tattoo-like mysteries with interest. "Makes sense for you though. Hard to find someone more qualified to preside over a Grail War than someone whose title is literally the King of Heroes."
"Yeah, my thought exactly," Gilgamesh Lily agreed with a pleased smile. "As the King of Heroes, it is my duty to preside over wars between Heroic Spirits."
"I think your older self would complain about having to give away his treasure though," Shirou commented.
"Why would he do that?" Gilgamesh tilted his head curiously. "The contents of the Grail aren't mine and that is what the Grail War is about for us Heroic Spirits. And while obtaining the Grail would be a nice addition for my treasury, it is the joint property of the Matou, Einzbern, and Tohsaka. I would need to buy it from them first or wait for them to gift it to me."
"Which reminds me, I wanted to clean up the being called Zouken Matou." Gilgamesh frowned in distaste.
"Ah, him," Servant Shirou grimaced at the memory. "Going to kill him?"
"Yes," Gilgamesh Lily said firmly. "There are some things which shouldn't be tolerated and what Makiri is doing is one of them. But given he has been here for a few centuries and the Tohsaka haven't done anything about him and his depravations, I was just going to offer my help."
"Rather kind of you," the red-head teen snarked. "I would have expected you to acted without asking. Actually, come to think of it, I'm surprised your older self would have lived in the same town as Zouken for so long without killing him."
"He didn't act out or draw my older self's attention and to be fair, my older Archer self is an idiot. It's like puberty took out over half of his brain cells," Gilgamesh shuddered. "I wished I wouldn't have to go through that."
"I don't think he ever matured as Archer," Shirou commented with a thoughtful look. "He acts like a teen in the middle of teenage rebellion and never stopped. And if wasn't actually a king, he would fit in at a Chunibuyou convention."
"Hey!" Gilgamesh Lily protested. "I'm not that bad! I'm actually all that I say I am!"
"Sorry," Shirou smirked. "But if you weren't actually a hero out of legend, how would you have treated someone who made the same claims as he did?"
Gilgamesh Lily twitched into a pout. "He did have some people who treated him like that…"
"Huh," Archer said. "I'm surprised I hadn't heard of him then. He seems like someone that Taiga would have mentioned."
"Who?" Gilgamesh Lily asked curiously. "Is Taiga a pet? Seems like a good name for a tiger but most modern tigers don't talk."
"Sure, let's call her that," Shirou barely suppressed his smile at the memories of a Taiga crying over being compared to a pet tiger. Yet she still wore clothes that brought to mind the image of a tiger. "But why are you asking the Second Owner? Couldn't you act on your own now that your Master is -ah, occupied?"
"Kirei would have encouraged me, he hates Zouken. I have no idea why he didn't propose disposing of that worm. I think my older self would have done it in a heartbeat," Gilgamesh replied before shuffling his feet. "As for asking, it would be rude of me to act as a judge in someone else's territory without getting the ruler's permission."
"Ah, I keep on forgetting that you are polite now," Shirou realized. "But I think there might be some sort of agreement between the Tohsaka and Matou. Rin might not be able to give permission to kill him."
"Oh," Gilgamesh frowned. "That's bad. Nothing good comes out of agreements to let something like him live in your backyard."
"Yeah," the teenaged Archer agreed before smiling. "But Archers are notorious for their Independent Action skill."
Gilgamesh tilted his head before the lightbulb went off and he started to match Shirou's grin.
"As a class, we are noted for our initiative and the ability to act without bothering our Masters with the tiny details," the child Archer grinned.
* * *
As they walked up to the door, the two Lily Archer Servants were relaxed and stress free. Like they had just shown up to play some video games with Shinji.
Except you know, Shinji was a stone statue on some street in Fuyuki.
Ah well, they could just borrow his PS2. He certainly didn't need it.
As they climbed the few steps to the door, Shirou commented. "You know, the house is worse than I remember."
"Yeah," Gilgamesh frowned as he looked around. "The fact that my older self didn't try to remove this is a major indication of something being wrong with him. You don't leave environments like this around."
Emiya nodded as he pressed the doorbell.
At Gilgamesh's curious look, he commented. "It's good to be polite."
"True," Gilgamesh agreed before rocking back onto his heels to wait. "But the appeal of kicking the door open is rather tempting right now."
The two waited in the dead still silence.
There was no sound of birds here. Not even the hum of insect wings. It was like all life knew that battle was about to be joined and that someone would not survive.
That was to be expected. Zouken already knew they were here. And was probably prepared to receive them. And not in a welcoming reception with cookies and brownies either.
Several seconds later, the door opened.
* * *