"No kidding." I muttered as I shook my head a little while blindly grabbing for a towel when it was thrust into my hand. "Thank you."
"No problem."
Well, she was certainly being thoughtful today. Guess being hurt got its merits.
...
"In any case, at least this crap is over, now all we need to worry is when that meeting is coming, that is if the meeting actually comes about in the first place." I dried my face off as I thought about the conversation with Sona and Rias during my stay at the hospital. "From what little I gathered, it seems the higher-ups from each faction are playing hot potato regarding who takes the blame. We would need to prepare ourselves for that."
"Understood. There is one question that needs answering."
"Oh, what would that be?" I asked as I made to hang the towel by the hook.
"What would you like first? Dinner, a bath, or me?"
My hand jerked just short of the hook, the towel slipping from my grasp and hitting the floor with a soft sound. I paid little heed to that as my brain had locked up hearing those words.
"C~ come again?" I stammered the question while my eye twitched lightly.
"What would you like first? Dinner, a bath, or me?"
'What?!' I was about to say something when my brain finally caught up with the situation and started to process the conversation we had from the moment I entered the front door, and it dawned on me that the person who took my coat, handed me my towel and asked that question was not Mitelt; rather it seemed there was at least one or two other persons in the apartment with us, and I recognized that voice.
But it couldn't be them, right?
I slowly turned around to find myself facing a serious Xenovia, a smiling Irina and a blonde fallen angel who had given up on containing her mirth and was currently on her knees losing control of her rather loud laughter. Who knew such volumes came from such a small body?
"Why are you two here?" I blinked before twisting my entire body to face the wall, my face burning at what I have seen. "And what in Root's name are you two wearing?!"
"Hmm, is this not the clothes women wear to greet the man of the house when he returns?" Xenovia looked at her attire that basically consisted only of a naked apron costume that barely covered her admittedly hot body and emphasizing all the right curves and seemingly having a hard time containing her assets. "Irina said this is what is done in Japan." She pulled at the string on her shoulder that showed off her smooth skin and the curve of her…
Whoa, do not go there! Think Good thoughts Emiya! Bad thoughts be gone!
"Yes, it has been a few years since I have been here, but I remembered reading from a book this is how you greet a man coming home after work." Irina enthusiastically waved her arms in a similar attire of only an apron, with the unintended action making a couple of very nice assets bouncing.
No! Think unsexy thoughts! Think swords! Spears! Avalon! Servants who tried to kill you like Gilgamesh, Herakles, Ride… NO! Unsexy thoughts!
"Though that said, it is a little embarrassing." Xenovia started to turn her body and I shut my eyes tight and kept my head facing the wall to avoid seeing her rear. After a moment of silence I slowly turned my head and opened my eyes to find that she was not totally naked, and that she and Irina at least had a two-piece swimsuit underneath. "So forgive me if I break any customs by putting this on."
Phew~ that was close.
…. Yet why did I feel a part of me die while another part was swooning in joy at the sight?
"Enjoying the view?" Mitelt asked with an expression that seemed to resemble Zelretch's expression of absolute glee and trolling when the joke was on me.
GAH! My mind was being poisoned by Ise! I must cleansed myself the next time I see him by using Gae Bolg on his ass!
"Okay, there are so many things wrong with what you two just said there, but I am going to ignore that for now and repeat my first question." I closed my eyes and massaged my head. "Why are the both of you here?"
"… You might want to sit down for this, Mr Emiya." Xenovia motioned to the table I have in the apartment. With a sigh, I sat down by the table and readied my mind for the conversation to come. This was going to be serious and despite my desire to sleep, I would need a mind of steel for this. After a quick breath, I calmed myself and looked at the exorcists dead in the eye, with the now silent Mielt by my side.
"After the battle at the academy, we had a talk with Griselda regarding the situation that we were in." Xenovia began talking with a serious tone that at least was able to detract her current image. "As you can imagine, we were devastated in learning about the Death of God, and we had started questioning what we believed and everything we thought of our missions."
"We were taught to fight those against our teachings, we forfeited our childhoods for the training of becoming exorcists and we were told that we would be rewarded in the halls of heaven when we die." Irina seemingly choked on her words as she struggled to control her emotions. "And yet…"
"It would seemed that we were deceived." A tone of despair and self-loathing was evident in Xenovia's tone as she took over. "We now find ourselves questioning the authenticity of certain missions where we were ordered to execute certain devils, sinners and heretics? Were they really sinners, or were they those that the church did not want in their ranks for being too open-minded about their thoughts? Did we take the blood of those who may have learned too much like us?" She forced out a laugh that sounded so broken that it made my heart ache a little. "The irony is that now we would likely be hunted down by our ex-partners from the church."
"It was in light of this that Griselda had suggested we held back on returning to the Vatican to avoid the possibility of us getting persecuted. Griselda had to return to the Vatican to submit her report but she does have some leeway with the Pope being in the higher ranks. For us though, we were at a crossroads of sorts."
"Either to be executed as traitors or to pledge our allegiance to the devils or the Grigori." Irina put in her word after seemingly containing her grief. "As you can imagine, it was a tough decision. I guess it was lucky that we had Griselda around for some minor counselling as she advised us to cool our heads before thinking. For all I know, we could have taken up any of the Devil's offers to join their Peerages immediately."
Well then, I tipped my hat off to the elder exorcist. At least Griselda had a cool head to think it through, I had no doubt that the Gremory girl would love to have these two in her group. Sona may consider it, but I was not set on Gremory just yet.
"It was during our discussion that we bumped into the Fallen~" Xenovia paused as she looked at Mitelt. "No, Lady Mitelt in the corridor, and we remembered that she was currently under your care. With that in mind, Griselda went to ask her regarding you, how you were able to handle her under your custody."
"Much of it went over our heads, but the short end of it, Griselda asked us to wait for you with her." Irina came in to substitute while Xenovia took a sip of water. "What we did not expect was you being stuck in the hospital for so long. We could not really approach the devils given the odd relations you and young Mitelt have with them, and we don't have much funds." I could tell what she was about to say and turned my attention to the fallen angel in question.
"I did not want to be anywhere near the two princesses for too long, so I suggested to them they could hunker down with me for the time being." Mitelt motioned to the apartment that was next to ours, the one that had the lights on. "Considering the owner does not come to this building that often, I let them in that other apartment for them to wait. It was meant to be a day or two, but" she moved her hand to Xenovia. "She was really insistent on meeting you. She wanted to ask you something."
'Me?' I turned to face the blue-haired exorcist who seemed to be struggling with something in her mind before she closed her eyes and let out a sigh.
"Shirou Emiya, you said earlier you were an atheist?" Xenovia started off the conversation with that question.
"That is only my cover." I waved my hand to emphasize the explanation. "Perhaps I had started out as such, but even after the time I learned about the existence of the gods, a part of me still wanted to defy that bit. I did not want to place so much faith in higher beings who have a habit of making everyone suffer for their own petty reasons. It is one thing to punish criminals and those who harmed others without remorse, it is another thing to curse someone who was either a victim of a god's adultery or to disfigure a person's visage because they were acknowledged more than them."
Case in point, the Servant 'Rider' from my world. I only caught glimpses through the chains, but my travels through dimensions helped to fill in the blanks of her history, and I found myself sympathizing with her greatly. She did not need to suffer that much.
"… That may be the case, but perhaps you would be the one I can ask." Xenovia looked at me in the eye. "Tell me, what should we do?"
I had to admit, that was not quite what I had in mind.
"As we have said earlier, we had undergo the training to become exorcists our entire lives, we never questioned our superiors or our teachings, and we were willing to fall in our mission to retrieve the shards." Xenovia paused for a moment when Irina lent a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We had basically gone through our lives believing in a lie, and now we do not have a purpose."
"We were wondering what to do when we recalled your declaration to Kokabiel that mankind was better off without the gods. How we could go against the odds and achieve miracles through hard work and science." Xenovia paused as she contemplated on her next set of words. "You seemed to have travelled a lot to gain both experience and understanding of the world, and the fact that you have the trust of the Excalibur Shards is proof that you are someone we can look to for guidance."
"So please." She looked at me right in the eye. "Tell us what to do."
… Okay, this was so not my area of expertise. I would need to tread carefully.
"Before that, ask yourself this." I clasped my hands together and look back in the eye. "Despite your knowledge of the Death of the Christian God, do you still wish to follow his teachings and protect the innocent?"
That seemed to have perked the interest of all the girls as they looked at one another, before the exorcists looked at me. "We may continue having doubts about his teachings, but as for saving innocents…"
"We will definitely continue to do so, it is after all a fundamental thing." Irina held her hands together as she looked at me thoughtfully. "There is nothing wrong in wanting to help another, religion or not."
"There you have it. Your first decision after finding out the Death of God." I motioned with my arms out wide, a part of me noting with the voice of Archer that I was almost imitating Kirei's movements. "Well maybe your second decision? The face you decided to wait around to ask me was something of your own violation as well."
"What? But that was just our thoughts on that manner, what does that have to do with asking for guidance?" Xenovia asked with a perplexed face.
"It doesn't. It is something you do on your own." I looked at her right in the eye. "I can help with advice and perhaps do some minor guidance, but whatever actions you take will be yours alone. I can't babysit you all the way, you must choose yourself. You already done that a few times before, you should be able to decide that even without your God."
"…" The two exorcist apprentices looked at each other, clearly not expecting my reply. I merely stayed quiet as I watched them, knowing what the likely outcome was from this conversation.
"… It would seemed that we may have gotten an answer and more questions in the process." Xenovia directed a wry smile at me, and I was thankful for my mind of steel as that smile combined with her current attire was quite suggestive. "You seemed to be shrewder about this than you let on, magician."
"Not magician, just a third rate magus who has travelled a lot in my time." I replied while mentally grimacing the way I said it. Damn it sound like I was getting old. No doubt the magus from Chicago would make some joke about it, with that skull poltergeist shortly after.
"Well in any case, you now have your answer." I looked in the direction of the room they were using. "I guess you would be leaving in the morning."
"Actually, no. We are staying put."
… Okay, so it was possible for the brain to suddenly stop with the sound of a needle running off a turn-table. But disregarding that…
'What?'
"You see, with the current situation as it is, we can't exactly leave town without gaining suspicion." Xenovia started to explain. "Not to mention we are low on funds."
'What?'
"Also, we still have a bit of issues with the Devils, so we can't exactly go to them now, not to mention it is a little weird after our fight." Irina chipped in as she gestured to the apartment next to mine. "So we moved our equipment and belongings here, and we will be staying here for the next few days at least."
'What?!'
"You don't need to worry, from what we gathered, the owner of the building does not come around that often, so we are safe for the time being." Xenovia waved her hand carelessly. "We will of course be working to cover any of the expanses that come with the stay. Besides you said you are still willing to give advice, and right now we need some guidance since Griselda had to return to the Vatican. You seemed to have some independence from the devils and so we will hang on until we are able to go on our own."
'WHAT?!'
"Don't worry about the expenses, we will make sure to not of inconvenience to you. We will use our bodies, blood and sweat to get the money." Irina said that with such a happy expression without realizing the manner she was moving her body in that outfit and her choice of words could be interpreted in that other area of thought.
'…What?'
"So please look after us." Xenovia and Irina bowed their heads at me, their bodies somewhat emphasizing the hidden valleys in between their arms, while the blond fallen girl beside me stuffed her fist to her mouth in a futile effort to stifle her laughter.
As for me…
"What in the name of Blue Tits is going on here?!"
"Hey, keep it down over there! Some of us are trying to sleep here!"
...
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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