The next morning, at the Penguin Logistics dormitory.
After getting a good night of sleep, Shirou felt much more refreshed.
Although his right hand still felt a little numb and sore, it did not really affect his movements.
After getting up on time and washing up, Shirou pushed open his room door, preparing to make breakfast.
The moment he opened the door, he heard the voices of the four members of Penguin Logistics.
And they were coming from the kitchen.
His still-groggy mind instantly cleared up, and he rushed straight toward the kitchen.
After taking a look inside, the thing he had been worried about had not happened, making him finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Eh! Shirou, you are up too? You are up early!"
Hearing movement from the kitchen entrance, Exusiai, who was holding slices of toast and preparing to put them into the toaster, was the first to turn around and greet him.
Beside her, Texas was cutting ingredients, Croissant was busy with a frying pan and some bird eggs, while Sora was staring at the milk and black tea in front of her, thinking about what ratio would make it tasty without being overly sweet.
After hearing Exusiai speak, the busy group all stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Shirou.
"Uh… morning? Need any help?"
Seeing four pairs of eyes fixed on him, Shirou cautiously waved his hand and asked.
He was genuinely afraid that the kitchen he had just cleaned up would once again…
"We have got it covered! Shirou, go sit in the living room!"
Faced with Shirou's goodwill, the group not only refused, they even sent out the comparatively unbusy Sora to suppress him.
After all, aside from Texas, Sora was the one Shirou was most likely to listen to.
"Mm… alright. Call me if you need anything?"
After thinking about how he had apparently promised them yesterday that he would rest for a day or two to recover from his injuries, Shirou did not insist on staying in the kitchen.
Otherwise, if they physically dragged him away later, he would only end up embarrassed.
Early in the morning, Shirou did not feel like reading or doing anything else. He simply sat on the sofa and blanked out.
He had been busy for the past two days. Taking some time to mentally drift off actually felt pretty nice.
With the sounds coming from the kitchen serving as background noise, Shirou felt especially relaxed.
That was, until someone pushed open the guest room door and walked out.
"Morning! Are they making breakfast?"
The moment Nian opened the door, she heard the noises coming from the kitchen and saw Shirou sitting blankly on the sofa.
There was no need to think about who was in the kitchen.
Who would have thought? She had assumed the four of them only knew how to sit around waiting to be fed.
"Yeah. Want to join us?"
Coming back to his senses after seeing Nian, Shirou finally remembered that there was another person staying at the dormitory.
Rubbing his cheeks, he asked her.
After all, making her order delivery for herself would be a little rude.
Fighting really was a bad civilization. One careless clash and someone's house ended up wrecked.
"Then I shall take you up on that. If possible, make it spicy, thanks."
Hearing Shirou's invitation, Nian nodded in agreement. Then she moved to the other end of the sofa and copied the same "pondering life" pose Shirou had been using earlier.
Putting everything else aside, this sofa was quite comfortable.
"No problem. Just sit tight for now."
Although he really wanted to remind her that eating spicy food first thing in the morning could cause problems, after thinking about how the level of spice that could send people to the hospital was only considered half-strength by her standards, the jar of chili sauce in the refrigerator was probably just child's play to her.
Thinking that, Shirou decided not to say anything more.
He respected other people's eating habits. Everyone had their own unique preferences, so there was no need to interfere.
Exusiai's habits, on the other hand, were another matter. Eating too much sugar for too long would affect one's health.
Walking back to the kitchen, Shirou poked his head inside and said:
"Um… we have a guest today. Do we have enough ingredients to make one more serving?"
After organizing his words a little, Shirou spoke.
Based on his memory, there should have been enough ingredients for five people. After all, the original amount had been set aside for breakfast, lunchboxes, and afternoon tea.
Still, he was not the one cooking, and he had no idea what kind of dishes they were making. It was possible they had already thrown in all the ingredients at once.
That was why Shirou specifically asked.
"What? A guest? Is it someone from the Guard Department?"
Clearly, what the group cared about was not whether they could make an extra serving, but who the guest actually was.
Seeing them suddenly put down everything they were holding and rapidly head toward the kitchen entrance, toward Shirou himself—
"It is not. It is Miss Nian."
Before he could even finish speaking, Shirou had already been forced back several steps by the four of them, giving up the doorway so they could see Nian sitting in the living room.
"Hello there."
Noticing the commotion coming from the kitchen, Nian turned her head and greeted them.
Looking at the four girls and Shirou, Nian's inner troublemaker spirit suddenly awakened.
She clapped her hands and said:
"My house ran into a bit of a problem yesterday, and I was worrying about not having anywhere to stay! Then I happened to run into Shirou, who kindly invited me to stay the night, so here I am bothering all of you!"
Shirou: "..."
Even though there was technically nothing wrong with what she said, Shirou somehow felt like there was another meaning hidden inside those words.
Then he noticed the gazes coming from the four girls beside him.
"You were all drunk yesterday, and it did not feel right to leave a woman wandering the streets alone at night, so I brought her back to stay in the guest room."
Shirou gave a brief explanation, only to receive increasingly dangerous looks from the four of them.
"...Yesterday her house got damaged by me accidentally while I was on duty with the Guard Department."
Originally, Shirou had not wanted to mention this at all.
It was just too embarrassing.
But compared to being stared down by the four of them, embarrassment was the lesser evil.
"So that is what happened? That really is such an Shirou thing to do."
After hearing the latter half of his explanation, the group immediately looked enlightened.
"What exactly is supposed to mean 'such an Shirou thing to do'?"
The moment they said that, Shirou immediately delivered a chop to Croissant's head.
Were they saying he was too much of a pushover? Or that his sympathy overflowed too easily?
"Ow, ow! I did not mean anything by it! My stove is still on, I am leaving first!"
After getting smacked like that, Croissant did not dare say anything more and decisively chose to flee the scene.
"As for ingredients, we have extras. There is no work today, so we do not need to prepare lunchboxes or afternoon tea. We can just eat outside later."
Watching Croissant flee at top speed, the others, who were already used to this kind of thing, paid it no mind. Meanwhile, Texas casually explained the situation.
Originally, they had all gotten up early because their hangovers were making them miserable, and they had wanted to find Shirou so he could cook some hot soup for them.
But then they remembered that Shirou's hand seemed injured, and that he had even brought the completely blacked-out four of them home last night, so suddenly none of them dared trouble him anymore.
So under Sora's suggestion, the group rolled up their sleeves and decided to handle breakfast themselves today.
And once they had a goal in mind, the dizziness and headaches from the hangover did not feel nearly as bad.
It had also been a long time since they last got up early to work like this.
Besides, Yith had already sent them a message in the middle of the night saying that today was a day off.
They had originally been scheduled to work today, but something had happened over at Iron Bull Logistics yesterday, so many logistics companies had been temporarily forced to halt operations while investigations were carried out.
That part did not worry them, though.
After all, the people involved had been captured through cooperation between Penguin Logistics and the Guard Department.
And since they were being given a vacation, naturally none of them were going to refuse it.
Especially when it was paid leave.
"Do whatever you want. I am not planning to go out today either."
Hearing Texas speak, Shirou knew she was basically scheduling out his entire day for him.
After thinking about it, aside from maybe checking in at the Guard Department to understand the current situation, neither the office nor the Fuyuki shop would fall apart just because he skipped one day.
As for the Guard Department…
It had not even been half a day yet. He figured he should avoid bothering them for now and let everyone rest and recharge first.
Most of the truth had already been pieced together by Yith.
All that remained now was for him to have a proper talk with the person involved.
What he really wanted to ask was this:
Among the two souls they saw, which two were they exactly?
One was Archer, but what about the other one?
Emiya Kuro? Nameless?
And where had the missing one gone?
Had it disappeared after exhausting all of its magical energy?
The moment those questions surfaced in Shirou's mind, they firmly engraved themselves there.
"Alright, then we will get back to work."
After hearing Shirou agree to it personally, Texas nodded in satisfaction before dragging Exusiai back into the kitchen.
Sora returned as well.
Watching the four of them divide the work and cooperate in the kitchen, Shirou did not disturb them any further. He grabbed a cup, poured a glass of water, and returned to the sofa area.
"Thanks."
After taking the cup, Nian immediately gulped the entire thing down in one go, carrying the same heroic spirit Exusiai had displayed while drinking alcohol at the table last night.
Shirou suddenly realized that after bringing her back last night, he did not think he had told her where the cups were.
He also had not brought her any water…
Now, seeing her drink so hurriedly, Shirou felt that he had not been much of a host.
"Whew… refreshing. It would have been even better if it were cold."
Nian clearly had not thought that deeply about it and was simply making an offhand comment.
Of course, alcohol or some other beverage would have been even better, but since she was staying at someone else's place, she was not going to ask for too much.
"Cough… should I go get some from the fridge?"
The moment he heard that, Shirou immediately wanted to grab a pitcher of ice water from the refrigerator for her.
"No need, no need. If I drink too much and get too full, I will not be able to eat later. There is something I have been curious about though. Mind chatting with me a bit?"
Politely refusing Shirou's offer, Nian immediately brought up the real topic.
She did not like conversations full of twists and turns.
Laying everything out directly was much more her style.
Of course, she still knew how to read the room. No matter how one looked at it, last night had definitely not been an appropriate time for a conversation.
"Of course. What is it about?"
Hearing that Nian wanted to talk to him about something, Shirou did not refuse.
After all, he was the one in the wrong first. As long as her question was not too strange, he would answer as best as he could.
"You agreed that easily? Hold on, let me think for a second."
Originally, Nian had thought she would need to say a few more things to convince him, but Shirou agreed immediately.
It certainly saved her a lot of trouble, but now she had not figured out how exactly to ask.
Should she directly ask about his abilities?
That did not seem very appropriate.
Digging into someone else's abilities was not exactly polite, especially since she still wanted Shirou to make her even spicier food in the future.
Or perhaps she could start with the strange sword from the photo that had climbed onto Lungmen's trending searches yesterday?
After thinking about it, Nian felt that was actually a pretty good opening topic.
She herself was quite curious about the origins of that bizarre sword. After all, forging a blade into a spiral shape was impressive in its own right.
It was not as if she had never seen strangely shaped swords before.
It was just that the aura clinging to the one in Shirou's hand bothered her a little.
And…
At first she thought it had only been her imagination, but after Shirou opened the door earlier, she could clearly feel that something inside was calling out to her.
It felt exactly the same as that strange spiral sword.
After deciding on a direction for the conversation, Nian pulled out her phone, opened a photo, and pointed at it while asking:
"I am a bit interested in this weapon. Would it be convenient for you to let me take a look at it?"
"…Huh? Where did you even get this photo?"
Shirou had mentally prepared himself for many things, even for being criticized over destroying her room.
And the result was this?
Well… alright, this question actually sounded pretty reasonable.
"Lungmen trending searches. A lot of people are talking about you, saying things like how cool this kind of Originium Art that lets you fly into the sky is. As for me, I am just curious about what kind of forging process would turn a weapon into this shape."
As she answered Shirou's question, Nian swiped through several more photos.
From the spiral sword forming in Shirou's hand to the moment he used it to launch himself into the air, everything had been photographed.
Shirou: "..."
He really should have expected this.
With how much Lungmen people loved watching excitement unfold, it was perfectly normal for someone to have taken pictures.
Although the headline really should have been changed.
The way it was written made it sound like he had ascended to heaven.
"Of course you can. I have one in my room, I will go get it."
After thinking for a moment, Shirou decided the question was not all that strange. He stood up and prepared to head back to his room to retrieve one of the stored practice projections.
He had at least left himself some room to maneuver. If he directly projected one out now, it would definitely lead to endless questioning.
Besides, his hand was still numb, so he was not about to do something that would earn him a lecture from the members of Penguin Logistics.
"Oh? You already have one in your room? Would it be alright if I came in to take a look?"
Hearing Shirou say he was going back to his room to get it, Nian felt slightly disappointed.
Originally, she had planned to question him further after he used his ability to summon the sword.
But if he was just going to retrieve it normally, she could not really keep pressing the matter.
Still, that strange feeling coming from his room continued to bother her.
If she could not ask about his ability, then at the very least she wanted to figure out what that peculiar sensation was.
"Mm… sure. The room is a little messy though."
After hesitating briefly, Shirou still agreed to her request.
From the way she asked, she probably just liked bladed weapons in general, right?
If that was the case, then letting her take a look was not really a problem.
Still, after agreeing, Shirou suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of danger creeping over him…
Probably just his imagination.
"I do not mind at all!"
After receiving permission, Nian immediately declared that she did not care in the slightest.
Watching her reaction, Shirou got up, opened his bedroom door, switched on the light, and stepped aside to let Nian enter.
Meanwhile, he himself remained standing outside the doorway, watching her.
"This is pretty tidy though? And these are…?"
After entering Shirou's room, Nian's first thought was that it was actually very neat, nothing like the "slightly messy" room Shirou had described.
But that was not the important part.
Very quickly, her attention was drawn toward the pile of swords on the desk nearby.
"Yanese profanity!"
The moment she got a clear look at the things on the table, Nian could not help but loudly curse while glaring at the owner of those swords.
Shirou: "Danger!"