Although his right arm was injured, it was still within Shirou's acceptable range.
After all, the aches and pains his body suffered long ago had been much worse than this, and he had endured those too.
Before leaving the office, Shirou used up all of his remaining magical energy to conduct a structural analysis, just to be safe.
He did not discover anything overly dangerous.
As for whether there were any additional clues, that would be left to the professional investigators from the Guard Department. He had already done everything he could.
After finishing all of that, Shirou finally rode the building elevator down to the first floor in a proper and unusually normal manner.
"Shirou! Are you okay?"
The moment the elevator doors opened, Shirou saw Exusiai staring at him with a rather strange expression while speaking in an unusually gentle and caring tone.
"...You cannot use it, so give up already."
Seeing Exusiai acting like this, Shirou immediately guessed what she was thinking.
Most likely she either wanted to learn it herself or personally experience it once.
The first option was impossible because she lacked the ability to draw the bow and fire arrows with enough force, so there was no point discussing it.
The second option, however, was more realistic.
But even with Shirou fully protected and taking every precaution possible, his arm still ended up injured.
If Exusiai tried it...
She would probably end up becoming "Exusia-out-of-commission."
So Shirou decisively shattered her fantasy on the spot.
"Eh... I was sincerely concerned about your condition! I have no idea what you are talking about."
Seeing her thoughts exposed, Exusiai immediately started pretending to be clueless.
In truth, she had not held much hope anyway.
She had seen very clearly how Shirou shot into the sky alongside that spiral sword in a single instant.
The speed back then had been incredibly fast.
And when Shirou wore that strange outfit, he resembled someone clad in heavy armor. Without that level of defensive capability, it was probably very easy to get injured.
Still, it felt somewhat disappointing.
That had been an opportunity to fly through the sky!
"Heh."
Seeing her reaction, Shirou could not even be bothered exposing her lies.
The situation at the scene had already stabilized, and he had been ordered to rest afterward anyway, so indulging Exusiai and the others a little was not a problem.
"Stop fooling around."
Texas directly grabbed her teammate and pulled her back before she could embarrass herself further.
Even Texas herself could not bear watching acting that bad.
"Shirou, is your right arm really okay?"
After Exusiai got dragged away by Texas, Sora stepped forward to check on him.
Mainly because ever since earlier, Shirou's right arm had been hanging motionlessly at his side in a way that looked rather unnatural.
And she had overheard Chen arranging medical staff for him earlier, specifically mentioning that they needed to examine his arm.
Combined with the dangerous stunt he just performed...
She was still a little worried.
"It is fine. The arm is just strained."
To prove he was okay, Shirou even moved his right arm slightly.
Though the corner of his eye twitched immediately afterward.
He had forgotten that besides the pain in his arm, he was also suffering from the aftereffects of exhausting his magical energy.
"That definitely does not look fine."
Seeing Shirou's reaction, Croissant immediately complained.
After all, even when Shirou accidentally got poked by the horns on her head before, he had never reacted like that.
From that alone, one could roughly imagine how bad his current injury actually was.
As for why she ended up poking him...
Well, the answer was simply that Shirou was too tall. One time she walked past him without paying attention and her horn stabbed straight into his shoulder.
At the time, it felt less like she had poked Shirou's shoulder and more like she had rammed her horn into her massive shield.
It felt as though her horn was about to break, yet Shirou did not react at all. He merely shifted slightly to the side to let her pass before continuing on with his work.
And now what was she seeing?
Shirou's face was twisted in pain!
Not because he got blown up by explosives, nor because he was injured fighting an enemy.
But because he launched himself into the sky and hurt himself doing it!
Who would have thought? The only person capable of injuring Shirou was Shirou himself!
Although the result was so funny she wanted to laugh...
Wait, she had already laughed out loud?
Then never mind.
Even though she was laughing happily, it did not mean she was taking pleasure in Shirou getting hurt. Quite the opposite, she was genuinely worried about him.
After all, looking at the state of his right arm...
Today's feast was definitely—
The moment Croissant thought of that possibility, tears nearly welled up in her eyes.
She had been looking forward to this for so long! The refrigerator was packed full too, all waiting for today.
Shirou: "..."
"It is just... a small accident. Other than some numbness, it does not really hurt much. A day or two of rest and I will be fine. Seriously, it is nothing."
After getting called out by Croissant, Shirou simply gave an honest explanation of his condition.
There was no helping it. If he had acted convincingly enough, maybe he could have fooled them, but since he failed at acting, he could only confess honestly.
"What the hell are you talking about? Go see a doctor!"
While Shirou was still trying to convince the Penguin Logistics group that he was perfectly fine, Chen marched over, grabbed him by the collar, and prepared to drag him away.
Originally she had planned to politely persuade Shirou into receiving treatment.
Then she walked over and saw him waving his injured right hand around while repeatedly insisting that he was fine.
The good mood she had from solving a major case instantly dropped by more than half.
With a stern expression, she directly hauled Shirou off to see a doctor.
"Hey! Chen, wait for us!"
Seeing Shirou get dragged away, the Penguin Logistics crew froze for a moment before immediately following after them.
Not to rescue Shirou, but instead to cooperate and help lift him up together, carrying him all the way to the medical staff.
Shirou himself, being carried by a crowd of people: "..."
They were actually quite professional at carrying someone.
The only problem was that being paraded around like this in broad daylight was incredibly embarrassing.
Shirou reluctantly raised his right hand to cover his face, deciding that as long as he could not see it, then shame could not find him, and therefore he would not feel awkward.
A bit self-deceptive, perhaps, but he would get used to it.
"It is a fairly serious muscle strain. Fortunately, the patient is physically sturdy, so there are no major issues. A few days of rest should be enough."
Looking at the Shirou who had been carried in front of him, the doctor looked somewhat puzzled but still began the examination under everyone's watchful eyes.
The results came quickly.
Exactly as Shirou himself had judged, it was simply a strain.
"See? I told you."
Now that the doctor's diagnosis backed him up, Shirou spoke with much greater confidence.
Everything he had said was true, okay? Why did nobody believe him?
"Yeah, yeah, we know."
Looking at Shirou's proud expression, Texas, Sora, and Chen all vaguely saw the shadows of two certain troublemakers in him and could only respond helplessly.
At the same time, they silently lamented how Shirou had been led astray.
And of all people to learn from, he had picked the absolute worst examples possible.
In the end, the doctor merely applied some medicine to Shirou's right arm and wrapped it in bandages without doing anything excessive.
After confirming that Shirou was safe and stable, Chen left once more. There was still a mountain of work waiting for her at the scene.
At the same time, Shirou received information from Yith regarding the true purpose behind everything Ironbull Logistics had done.
Aside from the personal grudge between Ironbull and a certain someone that ended up involving him, their main goal had actually been to transform Reunion into nothing more than a violent infected terrorist organization in the eyes of the public.
And Lungmen, being both nearby and relatively tolerant toward the infected, became the perfect stage for that plan.
However, their operations had repeatedly been ruined by Shirou, causing them to eventually set their sights on him.
It was only then that Ironbull began seriously investigating Shirou as a person.
The deeper he investigated, the more shocked he became.
Through Originium Arts, he became absolutely convinced that Shirou was connected to Archer somehow.
He even believed Archer existed within Shirou himself.
From that moment onward, Shirou was officially placed onto Ironbull's list of targets that required special methods to eliminate.
After learning how terrifying Archer was, Ironbull developed an instinctive fear toward Shirou, constantly worried that the man would suddenly pull out some golden sword and kill him on the spot.
That fear was precisely why he gathered information on Shirou and designed an entire battle plan specifically around him.
In simple terms, the strategy was to exploit Shirou's personality and force him into repeatedly exhausting his stamina in combat, before finally "sending him to the sky" on the Night of Remembrance.
And technically, Shirou did get sent flying into the sky.
The only difference was that he launched himself there and also wiped out all of them in the process.
All of this information was extracted by Yith from one of Ironbull's trusted subordinates.
After squeezing out every bit of useful intelligence, he simply handed the man and all the evidence over to the Guard Department.
Naturally, some unnecessary information had been withheld.
But the copy sent to Shirou was definitely complete.
After all, Shirou himself had been the target, so for safety reasons Yith wanted him to review everything personally and remain cautious about any future grudges or vendettas coming from Ursus.
There was no guarantee such problems would appear, but...
Better safe than sorry.
Out of all the intelligence gathered, the topic that interested Yith the most was probably the matter of "Archer" and the so-called two souls residing within Shirou.
It felt extremely interesting to him, as though a claw-beast were constantly scratching at his heart.
Unfortunately, he still had overtime work to make up for all the progress he lost while dealing with the Guard Department situation earlier.
Otherwise, he probably would have already driven over and kidnapped Shirou himself by now.
"Tch... I really got dragged into this unfairly."
After reading through all the information Yith sent, Shirou felt utterly innocent, even though he had already accepted the fact that he was taking the blame.
Still, clashing with that man had probably been inevitable.
After all, eliminating Shirou had apparently been even more important to Ironbull than framing Reunion itself.
The whole thing was honestly bizarre.
Still, Shirou was grateful the man had not targeted him through other means and had instead arrogantly assumed explosives alone would be enough to kill him.
Otherwise, the Fuyuki Shop might have been in danger.
"I think so too. But Shirou, do you not have anything to say? Like your relationship with this Mr. Archer?"
Sora, who had been standing behind Shirou and reading through all the intelligence with him, nodded in agreement before grabbing both of his shoulders and questioning him.
The reason she held onto his shoulders was simply to prevent him from escaping.
Seeing Sora act like this, the other three immediately became interested and crowded over to watch the drama unfold.
"I already said it. We are enemies. The kind that want to rip each other's hearts out."
Without any hesitation, Shirou answered decisively.
It was not that he truly wanted to hide the truth.
The problem was simply that explaining everything involved far too many complications, and he could not be bothered dealing with them.
First, he would need to explain that the Throne of Heroes existed outside of time, which was why a future version of himself could appear during the Holy Grail War and try to kill him.
Second, he worried that if the others learned the truth, they would connect Nameless's situation to him and start imposing even stricter verbal restrictions than before.
After all, he previously suffered because of the crystalized mana left behind by that person. The others would definitely make the connection.
And Nameless's history was not exactly hard to investigate either. Any veteran operator from Rhodes Island probably knew about it.
If they dug too deeply into everything, the whole situation would become incredibly complicated, which was exactly why Shirou did not want to bring it up.
"Whoa... seriously?"
Seeing Shirou's unusually sincere expression, the group became slightly more convinced.
Mainly because his explanation sounded a bit exaggerated and unlike how Shirou normally behaved.
Still, considering how ruthlessly he had complained about Archer earlier without showing the slightest mercy, maybe the two really did hate each other.
Even so, something still felt off.
Too many details did not line up properly.
"And what about that thing he said about there being two souls inside you? Shirou, do not tell me you turned yourself into some kind of soul-sealing artifact?"
Exusiai finally asked the question she had desperately wanted answered ever since hearing it earlier.
The idea of souls sounded exactly like something straight out of novels, anime, or movies.
It was the kind of fantastical concept that felt unbelievably cool.
Honestly, if circumstances allowed it, she really wanted to ask Shirou what it felt like to have two people living inside him.
"I do not know either. I do not feel anything special. Maybe he just saw wrong?"
Even Shirou himself had no idea how to explain that one.
Who would know why that kind of thing ended up inside him!?
The most suspicious explanation Shirou could think of was that during the Holy Grail War he had come into contact with Archer's magical energy, and recently he also came into contact with Nameless's mana through that black crystal.
Since all three of them were fundamentally Emiya Shirou, perhaps part of that essence flowed into him and remained preserved there.
It felt strange, yet oddly magecraft-like...
He just had no idea what the actual mechanism behind it was.
"Exactly. Being able to see souls and stuff really is weird. Maybe he spent so much time obsessing over strange things that he drove himself insane."
Faced with Shirou's weak excuse, Croissant was the first to jump out and support his explanation.
Mainly because the other man had been a Forte, and his company logo was also based on a Forte symbol.
To avoid Shirou developing unnecessary misunderstandings about Forte people in general, Croissant felt she needed to properly explain and prove that Forte were normally very reasonable people.
Not that it really helped much.
After all, the single biggest source of Shirou's misunderstandings about Forte was standing right in front of him.
If Croissant ever found that out, she would probably lower her head and charge straight into Shirou, carrying him away on her horns.
Unfortunately, she remained completely unaware of this fact and was instead proudly congratulating herself for defending the reputation of Forte people.