So after a long period of consideration, I decided to make a drabble thread. Most of my work isn't on Beast's Lair, but I wanted to try to get started here as well. So, I made a snippit along an idea that I introduced in the Fanfic Ideas thread and decided to make it my formal introduction to this community. Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I in no way own any TypeMOON intellectual material. The characters and conventions here are property of TypeMOON and Kinoku Nasu.
Index:
Spoiler:
On a Sunny Day
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Shirou Emiya was a man who lived his life for a dream. He wanted to be a hero. Plain and simple.
It wasn’t like he had no other choice, nor was it some childhood fancy. It was just the reason he had chosen for living life.
When he was young, he spent all of his time trying to help others in whatever way he could. Carrying groceries for people he barely knew, doing chores for neighbors who never even asked, defending other children from bullies years older than him, and never taking any thanks for any of it. To him, it was all its own reward. He was going to be a hero, one step at a time.
One day, that simplicity was shot beyond repair.
He had been stabbed in the heart, saved from death’s door, and eventually cornered by a spear wielding maniac in his own shed, wielding nothing to defend himself but a reinforced poster. It had looked like he was really done for that time.
…Then, out of nowhere, she came.
She had been beautiful, radiant, majestic, noble, strong, glorious, saintlike, he could describe her for hours. She saved him that night, and from there, they embarked on a battle together that few in the history of the world could claim to match.
Together, they struck down monsters and dethroned kings. Together, they saved lives and defended justice. Together, they struggled…and suffered, but overcame.
Together, they shared a love deeper than any ocean and stronger than any army.
Together, they made the choice to part.
It was saddening, heartbreaking even, but they both knew that if they truly loved each other, then they had to let go. She had her duty, and he had his ideal. In this life at least, there would be no idyllic peace for them to share together.
However, he swore never to forget her. He swore that for as long as he had strength, he would pursue her, and if that meant carrying his ideal to the ends of the Earth at the same time, so be it. Her memory would be honored and immortalized through his work, and that would bring him just as much happiness as the ideal itself.
Whatever obstacle stood in his way, whatever hardship was laid upon him, he would not falter or desist. He told himself that he would save all that he could, and believe that he could one day find her again, throughout the rest of his days.
…
If only things were always that straightforward…
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
“No”
Shirou winced at the remark. Not so much for the rejection, but rather because he had been down this road before, and didn’t really like where it was going.
“Are you sure?” he asked insistently, lowering himself a bit so as to not seem so intimidating, “Because I think I can be of help.”
The girl clenched her jaw and puffed up her cheeks as she continued her defiant stance. “No. I’m fine. I don’t need any help” she declared, albeit shakily.
Ok, helpful citizen not working, time to switch to wise adult mode.
“It’s not good to go around without directions if you’re lost, little girl” he said sagely. “I’m pretty familiar with this city so far, so I could help you look for your parents—“
“I’M NOT LOST!” she shouted defiantly, balling her fists. Despite this, her eyes were getting watery. Not good. Little girls crying was never, ever good.
People around them stopped to stare at the proceedings, no doubt already wondering if there was an abduction going on. Shirou did his best to look innocent, and fortunately, they were both speaking Japanese, so people were most likely inferring that they were somehow connected. Probably because Europeans thought all Asians looked the same, the bystanders just shrugged it off and told themselves that it was a parental issue.
Seeing that nobody seemed to be calling the police, Shirou continued on his quest to help the girl. Silently, he pondered the turn of events that led to this situation. Tosaka had dragged him to Paris for some sightseeing once she was free from the work the Clocktower had her doing. He had just gone off for a quick photo excursion through the historic district while she was having a spa treatment when he came across this young Japanese girl on her own, looking rather agitated. Truly there was no rest from the duties of a hero.
Now if only she’d let him help…
“Here, how about this” he said soothingly, “My name is Shirou, what’s yours?”
“…”
“Ok, how about I just call you Ojou—“
“Mana”
“Excuse me?”
“My name is Mana” she said softly, not looking him in the eyes. He suspected she was trying to hide the water from earlier.
“Well then Mana,” he said with a smile, “How about this. I’ll take you to the police station and you can wait for your parents there? How does that sound?”
The glare she gave him said it all. “No. I don’t need the police. I’m not lost!”
Shirou sighed. Well, there went another idea. “Do you live around here Mana?”
She looked away. “No.”
“Do you know where you are?”
“Of course!” she said proudly. “I’m—! I’m…!” she stumbled, her smile fading with each aborted attempt to orient herself.
“You’re where?”
“I…don’t know” she finally admitted after a lengthy pause, dropping her hands to her side and looking down glumly.
“Then—“
“But I still don’t need someone to help me!”
“…Ok.” Thankfully for Mana, Shirou was blessed with patience and was accustomed to dealing with women who were a little on the bratty side. He suddenly slammed his fist into his palm in inception. “How about this? You can continue going wherever you’re going, but I’ll go with you, just for company. It’s got to be lonely going around by yourself in a foreign city, right?”
The girl was taken aback by this offer and stopped to consider it for a few moments. On one hand, she understood that this guy was just using it as an excuse to help her look for her parents, and she really didn’t like having to be saved by some stranger. On the other…she really needed to find her parents. Her own anxiety aside, Mama would probably be close to killing someone right about now.
“Fine,” she accepted, deciding that she could salvage enough of her pride with this excuse, “But you walk behind me.”
Shirou nodded and smiled. “Whatever you say Mana. Lead on.”
“Ok!” she shouted, recovering some enthusiasm now that she actually had a companion. “You better keep up!”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be right behind you” Shirou chuckled.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
They wandered around the city for a while, occasionally stopping to admire a particular sight, try to ask for directions from a local, or even stop for some ice cream. During that time, Mana became very chatty, mostly talking to Shirou about things she liked to do or asking him questions about his own life. He was more than happy to oblige her, telling her funny stories about his friends and family. Of course, some things were kept close abreast, but he could tell that she was the same way, not talking about her family at all, even though they were supposed to be looking for them.
Speaking of which, that little quest wasn’t going very well. Mana vaguely remembered that she was supposed to meet up with her parents somewhere if she got lost, but she didn’t remember where that place was for the life of her. Therefore, they had just meandered about the general district she remembered being in until they could find something that looked halfway familiar to her.
“Hey Shirou?”
“Yes Mana?”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
Shirou nearly choked on his ice cream. Why was it whenever he met a new girl that they always asked that?
“How old are you Mana?” he asked, clearing his throat. Who knew, she might be older than she—
“Me? I just turned ten.”
Nope, never mind.
“Well, um…What brought this up?” he continued lamely. It was probably just a kid thing, but either way, he’d rather not have a girl almost a decade younger than him developing a crush in the space of about an hour.
Mana thought about that for a second. “Hmm, Mama says I’m not allowed to have a boyfriend until I’m old enough to beat them up on my own, but I’ve always wondered what having one would be like” she said absentmindedly.
“Uhunh” murmured Shirou as he debated his response. “I did come here with a female friend of mine, but I wouldn’t say she’s my girlfriend.” He was obviously too dense to catch the billion and one hints that Rin dropped every day, but even then, he didn’t like her that way and would probably have kept the friendly distance between them that he always had. “I did have one though…a long time ago.”
“Really?” asked Mana, “What was she like?”
Shirou didn’t answer right away. Instead, he looked up towards the evening sun and tried to recall every part of her. Even as the years took their toll on memory, she was one thing that he would never forget, not to the end of time. All it took was the right moment, and everything would come rushing back.
“Knightly. Angelic. Radiant. Pure. Proud” he stated, each with a kind of reverence in his voice. “I could go on, but I think you get my drift. She was everything I could have ever asked for and more. Even with all the trials we faced together, the days I spent with her were some of the happiest I’ve ever had.”
Mana made a face. “You sound like Papa whenever he talks about how he and Mama met.”
“Sorry” Shirou apologized sheepishly, realizing how sappy he sounded right now, “but that’s how she really was.”
“Ok, why isn’t she your girlfriend anymore then?”
The memories continued to cloud up Shirou’s mind, making his face grow distant once more. “She…had to go. We still loved each other and all, more than ever even, but we knew…it wasn’t the right time.”
“That’s silly.”
The bluntness of Mana’s statement snapped Shirou out of his memory trip. “Hunh?”
Mana shrugged. “If you liked her, you should have gone with her. That’s what Papa did, and he said that’s what got him and Mama together.”
Shirou was silent for a moment, standing still with a blank look on his face. It took Mana a couple seconds to realize that her companion had stopped moving, and when she did, she ran back and worriedly waved her hand in front of him.
“Mister!” she called out.
He didn’t respond.
“Shirou…?” she tried, a bit softer.
Then, without warning, he started laughing.
“Hahahaha!” he bellowed, ruffling her hair affectionately, “Yes, I should have, shouldn’t I!? I should have just jumped forward, taken her hand, and just let fate throw us to whatever course it would. It would have been so simple…”
Mana was quite honestly confused at this point. This guy had actually been kind of cool up until about a minute ago. Now he was…odd.
“Sometimes, I wish it could have been that simple” Shirou sighed, continuing forward once more. “You’re lucky, Mana. You know that?”
“I am?”
“Everything for you is so simple and easy. No troubles, no worries, no fears, just you, your world, and the smallest, but most precious, things in life.” He looked down at her with a wide grin. “Never pass up these days, ok? They’re the best you can have.”
Mana stuck out her tongue and looked away. “Now you sound like an old man” she complained. “Besides, it’s not as if I don’t have things that I think about all the time. I still have to find a way to beat Mama.”
“That’s certainly an interesting goal” remarked Shirou. He made a mental note about that earlier comment. If some girl he just met was saying that, there was a good chance that Rin was going to be deriding him about it soon enough. “Why would you want to beat your mom though?”
“So I don’t have to share Papa’s time!” she declared like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Shirou, fortunately, was not someone who delved into psychology that often, so his mind didn’t find itself hooked onto Electra complexes and whatnot. He just laughed a bit and patted her on the head. “I’m sure you will someday. Just don’t let it get in the way of having fun with your mom though.”
“Hmpf. Papa’s way better than Mama” she declared confidently
“Really? What’s he like?”
The confidence disappeared pretty quickly. “Uhh…” she deadpanned
Despite being so hooked onto her father, Mana didn’t exactly gush about him that much, so she had trouble putting the exact description of him into words. Deciding to look around for inspiration, she swept the plaza they had walked into, and her eyes eventually fell onto a small scene nearby. As it so happened, a very striking representation of what she was trying to convey happened to be standing in the middle of it.
“He’s kinda like that guy!” Mana shouted, pointing at said individual, who was trying to calm down a woman he was with, who in turn was shouting at a confused French police officer.
Shirou quickly locked onto the subject. At the same time, the man, probably reacting to a sudden outburst in his native language nearby, turned towards them as well. It took about a minute for them to come to the correct conclusion.
Unfortunately, the woman also happened to turn and look…and then came to the absolute worst conclusion.
“Mana!”
“Papa!”
“BASTARD!”
“Sacre Bleu!”
“Hunh…?”
Shirou stood around rather dumbstruck while Mana dashed towards her father, her father dashed towards her, the French policeman tried to figure out what the fuck was going on, and a Japanese woman in a red jacket and a kimono charged towards him. It was through stern self-discipline that he didn’t trace swords in broad daylight, but he did retain enough combat awareness to stop her from jabbing him in the gut with her hand. It probably would have continued from there had two voices suddenly shouted out over the hustle and bustle of the city.
“Shiki!”/“Mama!”
The woman turned toward them, but didn’t drop her stance. The immense amount of bloodlust that Shirou felt emanating from her was chilling. If he had to guess, most of it was from protective instinct, but underneath that was something almost…demonic. Like an insane desire to kill that was contained, but still present.
“What is it Mikiya?” she demanded. “I’m in the middle of killing this child-kidnapping son of a bitch.”
“Let’s all take a step back, Shiki” said the man, Mikiya, soothingly, his arm around his daughter. “I’m sure that this is a big misunderstanding.” He looked down to the girl at his waist. “Did this man hurt you in any way Mana?”
Mana shook her head and smiled at him. “No, Shirou kept me company while I found you! He’s really nice. He even bought me ice cream on the way back.”
The woman, Shiki, snorted and reached one hand behind her threateningly. “Keh. Trying to lure my daughter in with sweets are we? I don’t really feel like handing you over to the police then—“
“He wasn’t luring me in, or helping me, or anything!” protested Mana. “He just gave me someone to talk to while I tried to find this place!”
“That’s what they all say, right before they—Hey!”
Shiki’s response was cut short by Mikiya grabbing her hand away from her concealed knife. “Please act more reasonable, Dear. I’m sure that he meant no harm and just wanted to help.” He looked over at Shirou. “Isn’t that right Mr…”
“—Emiya” Shirou informed him with a sheepish smile. “And yes, I found your daughter wandering near the Seine and decided to accompany her on her search for you.” He looked at where they were. “I must say that we would have been faster if I knew this is where we would be meeting.”
Mikiya blinked. “She didn’t tell you?”
“Her exact words were ‘somewhere over there’ while pointing to this area” Shirou clarified.
The confused father looked down at Mana. “How could you forget the Arc de Triomphe?” he asked.
“…I’m not good with stuffy old buildings” she admitted, embarrassed.
“Mana…” her father sighed.
There was an awkward pause in the proceedings.
“Has the situation been…resolved?” asked the French policeman whom everyone had forgotten about in very accented English.
Mikiya turned and nodded appreciatively. “Yes, thank you for your time” he replied in English. The man nodded back and left, thankful to be free of the tourists screaming in some Asian language. He really needed a coffee break now.
“Hmpf. Guy was completely useless” scoffed Shiki in Japanese once he was a fair distance off. She then jammed her thumb towards Shirou. “Oi, Mikiya, pay this guy already so we can head back to the hotel for dinner.”
Her husband got out his wallet, but Shirou held up his hands defensively. “Oh no, I don’t need money. I’m just happy I was able to help.”
Shiki gave him a glare that pretty much promised pain if he didn’t just accept the damn payment. Hunh. Rage over not taking someone’s money? That was a first. “Hurry up and take it. I can’t stand being in debt to people. You did technically save my daughter.” The last part was said in the same vein as someone else would say ‘saw a UFO.’
“Well, yes, but helping people in need is just something I do” Shirou explained, trying to get through to her. “I really need no payment except for the satisfaction that your daughter is safe now.”
Now she was looking at him like he was some kind of alien lifeform that she couldn’t decide if he was hostile or only weird. In the end, she turned and began walking away, calling back, “Fine, have it your way then! Just try not to kidnap any more children.”
“She still doesn’t believe me entirely then…” Shirou sighed regretfully. He was surprised however, when Mana and her father came up towards him. Mikiya extended a hand and gave him a thankful smile.
“I appreciate you finding my daughter for me. Shiki does too, even if she isn’t good at conveying it. Sorry about that.”
“It’s no problem” said Shirou, shaking his hand. “It was actually a fun experience.”
“I’ll take your word for it” Mikiya laughed before motioning to his daughter. “Say thank you, Mana.”
Mana grabbed Shirou’s hand and shook it enthusiastically. “Thank you Shirou! I hope you find your girlfriend again!”
“Bweh!?” he blubbered, taken aback by the violent jerking of his hand and her statement. Before he could get an answer though, she bounded after her mother, and after bowing in thanks one last time, Mikiya followed her.
He stood there in silence for a few minutes, pondering what just happened. It was certainly a strange experience. Not exactly what he was guessing would be his experience when he came to Paris. Sure, the thought of stopping a street mugging, or helping someone find a particular landmark, or even finding a child normally crossed his mind, but there was something about this meeting that struck him as far different. Was it that feeling he got from the woman? Or how calm the man seemed? Or maybe it was Ma—
*Ring!*
Shirou grabbed at his jacket pocket, fishing for his cell phone in a panic. His subconscious had already figured out what this would be about even if his conscious mind hadn’t. Dreading the inevitable, he lifted the receiver a safe distance from his eardrum and said timidly, “Hello?”
“SHIROU! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO MEET ME HALF AN HOUR AGO!”
He winced as Rin’s screams still managed to terrify, even through a cellular device. “Sorry about that Tosaka” he apologized. “I’ll head over right away. I was just helping someone who was in trouble so—“
“OH SOMEONE’S ALWAYS IN TROUBLE AREN’T THEY!? WE NEARLY MISSED OUR FLIGHT HERE BECAUSE YOU HAD TO HELP SOMEONE CHANGE A TIRE!” she screeched angrily, no doubt angering, or frightening, everyone within a block radius of wherever she was. “IF YOU WANT TO HELP SOMEONE SO BAD, THEN MAKE UP FOR IT BY BOOKING YOUR ASS OVER HERE!!”
“Right, right. I’ll get right on that” Shirou responded, “just wait right there.”
“Fine, but you better hurry” growled Rin’s voice, somewhat calmer. “Our reservations aren’t in danger… yet, but—“
“Yes, I understand Tosaka” Shirou assured her. “See you soon.”
*Beep*
And with that, he ended the call, wished a silent ‘Good Luck’ in the direction that the girl and her family had gone, and headed towards where his seething travelling companion was no doubt preparing to punish him severely for his tardiness…
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
“Hey Papa?”
“Hmm?”
“How do you think Shirou is doing?” asked Mana while her family ate dinner.
“Well, I’m sure he’s fine” he assured her. “He looked like he was not lost in any way.”
“I wasn’t lost!” Mana protested for the umpteenth time that day. She then continued her line of thought. “Do you think we’ll ever see him again?”
Mikiya thought about that for a moment. “Perhaps. It’s not likely, but I wouldn’t rule it out completely. It’s a wide world out there, but sometimes it isn’t as big as we think.”
Mana nodded as she chewed her food. Shiki, however, added her own two cents.
“Just hope we don’t. People like that are just troublesome, always helping others for no reason” she griped. “Eventually, they all end up helping the wrong person and the next day, they’re face up in the gutter.”
“Ahh? But Shirou was a really nice person” said Mana.
“’Nice’ and ‘stupid’ are often used in the same vein.” She pointed her fork towards her daughter. “Listen Mana. That’s the kind of guy you’re never allowed to date. He’ll end up being nothing but trouble, and you’ll always be saving his ass from some kind of danger because he always wants to jump face first into the fire and—“
“Do note, Mana” Mikiya interjected with a sly smile, “that your mother never followed this advice herself.”
Shiki grimaced, defeated, as Mana burst into giggles. “And I’ve been paying for it ever since” Shiki concluded, trying to regain some dignity.
“Well, I’ll keep helping you, for as long as you have to” Mikiya promised her. Shiki blushed and hastily turned back towards her food.
As her parents continued their usual banter, Mana looked out the window and wondered if she would ever meet that strange man again. He seemed like such an interesting person, but she felt that there was far more to him than she could get from their little adventure. She felt something. An attraction, but not in the romantic sense. It was like a sense for a place where something amazing could happen to her if she ever found it again. For now, she would have to put it out of her mind, but someday maybe, she would find that strange man again, and who knew where her life could go from there.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Well, that's pretty much my first drabble here. Kind of a starter story for an idea that might blossom into something more. Tell me what you think. I'm always up for constructive criticism.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by mangafreak7793
