I lightly nodded as I thought about that bit. Apparently, Lyle helped in curing me by handing over his bottle of Phoenix Tears before disappearing to god-knows-where. When they asked for the reason of helping them, he had this to say.
"I have finally found the true user of Excalibur, and I am duty bound to ensure his survival until our next meeting."
...
Not sure how to feel about that, but thanks to him I was able to control my Prana discharge enough to stop thrashing around and getting my body healed by both Avalon and Asia's Sacred Gear. And in an odd way, I was glad that he was still alive. He did not seemed as bad as the others, just a good person in the wrong crowd, even if he was under orders or whatever it was to do so.
"How about that fake priest?" I asked Sona with a slightly irritated tone to indicate my displeasure about that man.
"He is currently in our custody, although I imagine a lot of people from every faction would want him dead for a great number of reasons." Sona replied with a frown that agreed with my thoughts. "One of the conundrums we are facing is the wealth of knowledge he has gained from his research regarding Holy Swords which is what the church wants. At the same time, he has information on other areas of expertise or information regarding certain people the government is seeking out. Much of it is beneficial for each of the factions while also a source of problems. No one would want someone like him alive to give away potential information."
Well, I for one just wanted him to be out of my sight. The way he was looking at me like a fanatic having found his god or a scientist who found the secret to the universe was a little too intense for me, and the manner he kept muttering "Your Lordship" while being led away by the authorities was truly creepy, like he had finally found what he seek in life. And it was a very disturbing look.
"So what's going to happen now?" I shook the disturbing image out of my head and asked Sona.
"For the time being, our faction is demanding answers from both the Heavenly Faction and the Fallen Angels Faction. After all, the Church did not protect the Excalibur Shards as well as they should, and it was one of the Fallen Angels who went rogue and almost declared war on us. We have to be thankful that at least one of the Church's Top Exorcists was around to serve as a witness."
"Well, at least that whole load of crap is over." I said while Ise nodded his head.
"I would not quite put it that way Emiya-kun." Sona dashed our hopes while she adjusted her glasses. "There is a matter of the exorcists' seemingly going rogue during their mission and wrecking the town. There is the bit of Ise apparently threatening the church faction." The boy in question winced at the reminder. "Then we have the matter of you, an unknown magician, possessing the Excalibur Shards and somehow merging them into one sword. Not to mention the fact that it absolutely refused to allow any of the other exorcists from wielding it. And lastly you used said weapon to take on a higher being that belonged from the first generation of Angels and the Genesis. I think a lot of people are going to be directing a few questions to you."
I could only sigh in exasperation as I cupped my face in my hands. It was honestly times like this I wished I had kept my nose out of these type of situations and just laid low, it was honestly too much work to deal with the fallout. Why me?
Oh right, Rin had that part figured out. I was an absolute idiot for heroics.
The door opening and closing interrupted my thoughts and drew my attention to Rias who entered the room.
"Oh, so Emiya-kun is awake now." Rias smiled as she made her way over with a slight limp in her leg. "How do you feel?"
"I would live, with a cocktail of painkillers for a short while." I replied while wincing again at the pain, this time on my legs. "So what's the verdict?"
"It seems that both the Heaven Faction and the Grigori have a lot to answer for this mess. And considering this has happened on our jurisdiction, we have the advantage to demand some answers. Hopefully we can get them."
"What did the exorcists say?" Sona got her reply in the form of Rias pouting.
"I don't know, because they left before I could get a chance to talk with them!" Rias lifted her arms in frustration. "That is so unfair, and I wanted to demand repayment for all the crap they put us through, and I wanted to ask the apprentices if they wish to join my Peerage! It would be nice to at least have one of them as a knight."
"Hmm... Maybe it is a good thing they left." I muttered softly as we watched her throw a small fit.
"You still having issues with people taking contracts to become devils?" Momo asked having heard my comment. "Granted, I can understand your fears about people getting tricked into becoming Devils, but if you are worried about Gremory-Senpai and Kaichou, you don't need to. They are pretty okay, otherwise I would not give mine over."
"For Sona, at least she does things properly. Rias seems more fickle and the type to seize the moment." I quietly gave my answer to her words. "And considering the situation with Ise, I would rather keep her away at a distance." Momo merely shrugged as she continued watching Rias complain about not getting one of the exorcists over. As for me, I was still leery about the devils despite this working relationship we have. Maybe it was just me, but the manner in which the devils bring people to their side reminded me a little of what Archer had to go through when he became a Counter Guardian.
I wonder if the pact could be nullified with Rule Breaker. I should test that theory out the next time we have a hunt.
As I stowed that thought away for future reference, I looked around the room and noted one person was missing.
"Wait, where's Kiba?"
...
It did not take me that long to find the blonde knight sitting outside on a bench at the recovery park, considering how much the nurses were gushing all over him while we were here. Ise for one was fuming at the amount of attention that Kiba got from the younger and more curvy nurses to the point a doctor mistook his red face as getting a high fever.
Oh the absolute mayhem that came about.
"Hey neighbor." I called out to the boy who startled at my voice. He turned to look at me briefly and nodded before looking back at the sunset in the horizon.
Oh boy, this was going to be difficult.
I made my way to the spot next to him and sat down, wincing slightly at my limbs protesting in pain. After a while, I let out a tired sigh and looked at the sunset. "So how are your injuries?"
"They are mostly gone." Kiba replied in a tired tone of his own. "Asia was able to remove the wound on my neck and heal the internal injuries. However Buchou wanted to make sure I am really cured, since I was released from the mind control in a rather rough manner." He raised his hand to show his fingers twitching a few times. "Evidently, my nerves are a little messed up. For a short while I will be hospitalized until Asia has recovered enough strength to do another healing session. Hopefully it would be done in a week's time."
"You are lucky that Asia is around to heal a wound based from electric attacks." I grumbled with a smirk. "When I get electrocuted by an electro-master, I could not go to the bathroom without collapsing halfway for two days straight."
"That must have been a bad time for you." Kiba lightly chuckled at my story.
"Don't I know it?" I rolled my eyes at the memory. Rin occasionally used that story as a means of teasing me whenever I told her about certain injuries being less serious than most.
"What about your head though? From what I gathered that was a seriously messed up procedure."
"… Physically, there should be no injuries, but I am experiencing gaps in my memories." Kiba replied in a pained tone. "Much of it is minor so I'm not too worried about those, but ones involving my past, my teacher and the ORC are a bit fragmented. Asia said she should be able to get them back once she fully healed my head, but I would need to jolt my memories a little."
"Better take it slow, trying to get back memories after a procedure like that sucks a lot." I said with a grimace at my own experience with such problems. Rin and Luvia nearly tore their hair out trying to help me recover from one such incident after a mission knocked my memories out of my head.
"…" Kiba fell silent soon after that, and the air between us became extremely awkward. There was a certain tension in the air that felt like you could snap it with a knife. I was wondering whether I should break the silence, but Kiba decided to broach the subject.
"Shirou Emiya, are you a member of the church?"
"Nope." I immediately answered him while shaking my head, knowing that he wanted answers quickly.
"Then are you a test subject from the Holy Sword Project?" Kiba asked again with even more tension in his voice.
"Again, nope." I shook my head. "I never heard about this project until Ise told me about it." Kiba lightly nodded while having a complicated expression.
"Are you… a true user?" There was a hint of trepidation as he said that, as though the answer I would give may give rise to his fears.
"Personally, I am highly doubtful of that." I replied while maintaining a tone. This was a very fine line to be talking on. "In all aspects, I doubt I should even wield Excalibur at all. This was most likely a one-time usage by the shards to avoid being used by the Fallen Angel."
"Then, how…" Kiba turned to me with an expression that was a mix of frustration, confusion, slight distrust and sadness. "Maybe it is your magic."
"Perhaps it can be my mage-craft, or perhaps I am the only other human around that was not artificially enhanced by some weird experiments, or perhaps the shards figured that with all the individuals in the area, I was the only viable choice at the moment." I rattled a few points out as an example. "I am sure that once the shards find another individual who is more worthy than me, they would jump ship."
At least, that was what I am hoping. But that would be for another time, right now I would have to tackle this problem head on.
"Kiba, take it from someone who has gone down certain paths during certain jobs that cannot be mentioned." I turned to him with a strict expression. "You need to let go of your obsession with destroying Excalibur and possibly avenging your fallen friends."
"What?!" Kiba snapped his head back to me with an angry expression. "You are asking me to give up on my revenge on the holy sword project?! No way, I must avenge my fallen comrades who died for making that damn project work!"
"And in the process of doing so, you got yourself captured and brainwashed by the enemies and forced to fight your own allies." I countered mercilessly while giving him a glare. "You have endangered many of your comrades and possibly the lives of the entire town by engaging in your petty revenge. And have you considered for one bloody minute, that maybe your friends do not want you to do that?"
"But it is all I have!" Kiba clenched his fists tightly. "I am only alive because my friends sacrificed themselves to get me out of the research center! If I don't take revenge, their deaths will have no meaning."
"Pardon me for being blunt, but your comrades are stiffs in the ground, six feet under and rotting." I replied derisively while preparing for a possible confrontation. "And honestly, do you believe for one second, that this is what they want?"
'CRACK!'
Good thing I kept my guard up and placed a few charms around the area to keep our conversation private, because Kiba swung his arm straight for my face. I grabbed his wrist and used the motion to throw him across the yard, sending him crashing across the lawn.
"What would you know?! You know nothing!" Kiba spat out blood as he got up and ran towards me with his fists again.
"Do I now?" I grabbed his head and slammed him into the ground. "Believe me, I do know the feeling of being indebted to people who died when I should be dead in the first place."
"How would you?!"
"I am a lone survivor of a fire that took my family and the townspeople. I am more than qualified to remind you of what your comrades are trying to tell you." I narrowed my eyes as a couple of swords and spears appeared behind me and aimed at Kiba. I know I was about to sound very hypocritical to Rin and the others if they heard me say this. "At least you have the chance to live out a better life when you were resurrected. I believe that your comrades tried to save you so that you can have a chance at something other than those experiments, and certainly more than just revenge. You are not indebted to them just because of survivor guilt."
"But!" Kiba tried to rebut my words. No chance kid.
"Kiba Yuuto, your dead friends knew they would die in that chamber and they knew that you had the best chance to live on. And what little I know, I highly doubt Rias Gremory resurrected you so that you can indulge on your ideas of revenge. She probably tried to stir you away from such thoughts she knew would make you do something very stupid that could potentially drag everyone into the fires of hell. Is that really what you want to do after all they have done?"
"OF COURSE NOT!" Kiba yelled as he finally got free of my grip and kicked me back to get some distance away from me. "I never wanted to get Buchou in trouble! I never wanted the townspeople to get hurt! And I certainly did not want to fight them! But!"
"But what? Do tell me." I took a step forward while hardening my eyes, and it seemed in that moment, Kiba may have caught a glimpse of how terrifying I could be as he took a step back in hesitation. "Let me ask you this. Will you really feel satisfied with your revenge after taking down Galilei? Will you feel less burdened by destroying Excalibur? Will you truly be at peace after taking down anyone with a holy sword?"
His expression gave me the answer I knew would be given.
...
A/N : The Story Needs More Power Stones ;)
PS : if we can reach 400 Stones by the end of the week, I will throw you an extra chapter
...
if you want to read ahead of the public release you can go to my p atreon :
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