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Assistant: Title: Reading In Flight
        Author: Dimensionador Dimensionador 
        Chapter: 1/20 
        Summary: When Minato got the cure for Chiho's illness and managed to escape from the crazy Minaka (seriously, the one who blows up a building worth hundreds of millions of yen just because he lost a game), I expect a lot of things to happen.Certainly being trapped in a movie theater with his family and sekirei reading about an alternate reality where he was strangely competent in secret wars, and magic wasn't one of them.Original author: Gabriel BlessingOriginal story: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/6556187/1/In-Flight
        Contents: Chapter 1: Reading: First Wing
    

    


  

  
  
    
    
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  Minato wasn't sure what was going on when he woke up this...morning?I couldn't really tell what time it was in this place, there was plenty of lighting, but it seemed somewhat artificial as if it was coming from some light bulb so it might as well still be the middle of the night outside wherever they were.Yes, they are, in plural.Looking around what he could only call a home theater room with several extremely comfortable couches (he could witness that, when he woke up on one of them he thought someone had replaced his futon with a cloud) he could easily spot his family (father? what's that?) his sekireis, uzume and chiho, miya, shi...Uzume!?He wasn't the only one who noticed her, in fact he wasn't even the first to react, that credit goes to the adorable (and frankly silly) musubi who didn't hold anything back hugging the veiled sekirei with teary eyes while saying how much he had missed her, and although he would like to join the celebration he was still too nervous looking around for a way out of that strangely white room and seeing the analytical looks of both his mother and homura he wasn't the only oneI just hoped this wasn't some kind of revenge from Minaka for what happened to his tower (although well, he was the one who activated the self-destruct, but who knew what was going through that madman's head)Still, seeing how his mother, who seemed to be very important in all this, was here, he doubted that was it.Or maybe yes, again I couldn't emphasize it enough Minaka was unhinged.Any further thought or idea I might have had was interrupted by a loud CLAP that made everyone turn their gaze to the movie screen in front of which a stranger in a black yukata and curiously bandaged on the face was standing.Unconsciously, Minato stood a step behind Homura, seeking protection.It might not have been very manly of him, but considering that the weakest woman in his group could create a forest with her tears, he wasn't ashamed to do so."Good" said the stranger "Now that everyone is here I have two announcements" he informed ignoring the clear signs of aggression shown by the sekirei presentMostly uzume with the fabrics coming out of their sleeves slithering in the air like snakes as they stood protectively in front of chiho and the water b@lls floating around tsukiumi (which minato was surprised hadn't called its unusual host an ape yet)"The first is the reason why you're here" that caught the attention mainly of Homura and Takami who also seemed to have approached Homura for protection "The short version, some jerk up there thought it was funny" he answered to everyone's bewilderment"And the long one?" Takami finally asked impatiently.The stranger responded by looking at her with tirednessIt seemed they weren't the only ones who didn't want to be here.The samurai as Minato mentally began to call him grimaced and grunted something as if he were talking to someone before sighing "You were brought here by a higher power, call it god, alien, third dimensional being or whatever you want but the point is that this being decided that you should see one of the many alternate worlds that occur parallel to yours, a chance to see how a small action, an insignificant event will change everyone's lives warping them to the point where some of you won't recognize yourselves, happy" he explained looking at Takami with a face that screamed 'please say yes'"Wait!" Matsu exclaimed, drawing the samurai's attention. The samurai sighed, but looked at her anyway. It seemed like he was already expecting something like this to happen. "Are you serious? Alternate realities? That's a cheap trick used by science fiction writers. There's no proof-""I'll stop you right there and point out that you're an alien who uses some sort of psychic sixth sense to find a mate among a species completely different from yours." Matsu quickly closed his mouth at that.Minato himself had to admit that after the aliens, alternative realities no longer seemed so fantastical."And could you tell me what the second strange announcement is-san?" Miya asked, as calm as ever."Oh, right," he muttered before snapping his fingers, causing a door to open in the blank space.It could very well be a door and mean that there was a wall there or just a portalIf there were aliens and alternate realities, why not teleportation?"This rule will be made known to you but there will be no violence in this room," he replied as a familiar taciturn woman came out of the door.Unfortunately not a relative in a good way"YOU!" Homura exclaimed, preparing his fire and looking upset for the first time in the time they had been in the room.Only for their flames to go out the next moment"WHAT DOES THIS MEAN!?" Tsukiumi exclaimed as her water spheres fell to the ground in puddles and she couldn't pick them up again or produce more.And even though he didn't say anything, Minato noticed out of the corner of his eye that Uzume's sheets still fell inertly and the Sekirei herself moved her arms up and down in an attempt to lift them while her Ashikabi looked at her worriedly."What did you do to them?" Naturally, as the friendly protector and the only one who didn't rely on an external element to fight (although he doubted she would consider that before jumping in), Musubi jumped in front of her companions in a battle pose."As I said," he replied, walking in front of Musubi, raising his hand and lightly hitting the bear Sekirei on the forehead. "There is no violence here.""OUCH! That hurt!" she exclaimed, holding her slightly red forehead with tears in her eyes.Those who realized what happened couldn't help but look at Musubi in disbelief.As a musubi combat type he should be able to take a punch from a man twice his size without so much as a minor sting.That a simple tap on the forehead could do that..."From this moment on, all of your powers are sealed, and if that includes super strength, you are currently no different than normal humans and will remain that way until you finish the book and get out of here.""Something like this shouldn't be possible" Miya muttered, astonished, clenching her fist, checking her lack of strength "not without the adjustments of the" she stopped suddenly, looking at the man with narrowed eyes and emitting a dangerous auraStill the samurai just shook his head and ignored her.The taciturn woman did not react to the sudden lack of her powers.She didn't even seem interested in what was going on around her."The only one who currently retains any strength is Miya, and that's more due to her abilities than her actual power, but I trust that she's sensible enough not to do anything drastic.""Actually, I'd rather this situation not degrade any further and we can end this quickly." She didn't like being away from her inn for long periods of time, but she was aware that whoever brought them here had to be as strong as her to catch her so off guard.At no point do I consider that there was anyone stronger than her.She was a goddess after all."Okay, whether everyone agrees or not, you'll be able to leave this place after completing the book. It's only 44 chapters so do it quickly and when you do, the time between leaving and returning will only be a matter of tenths of a second, so good luck." After saying that, the samurai walked away waving his hand."Wait!" Yukari exclaimed. "You kidnap us like this and just leave? Aren't you at least going to accompany us?" She asked furiously."First of all, I'm just a messenger, I didn't kidnap you, second, well, I tried once but many things happened, in the end it was decided that I would only take away your powers and leave the most mature in charge, so goodbye, maybe I'll come back if problems occur, please don't cause problems" with those words he retreated again towards the infinite whiteness until he disappeared ignoring Yukari's furious screamsSo it wasn't the first time he did this, Minato didn't know if that was good or bad"That guy, you'll see!" The university student exclaimed furiously, starting to run towards the whiteness, being immediately grabbed by the collar of her shirt by her mother."You're not going anywhere, young lady. We don't know what's in there or where it leads," Takami scolded his daughter, seeing the white infinity in front of her. Something about him simply baffled her."So...we just read?" Mínanos spoke for the first time since they entered, although it was more of a question."I guess we have no other choice," Miya replied, sighing in resignation."Yo! Yo, I'll start!" To no one's surprise, it was Yukari who, a moment ago, angrily ran towards the book in front of the huge screen and began to read.Without a word the groups began to settle on the sofas which seemed to fit perfectly with the number of people in the room.Minato was dragged to the large central sofa by his harem who huddled around him with Ku sitting on his lapWhile Takami and curiously Homura settled on a double sofa at a distance that seemed very small for just two strangers but still close enough to denote too much familiaritySomething similar happened with Yukari and Shiina as Uzume sat on a single sofa before dragging an embarrassed Chiho onto her lap and hugging her from behind.Finally both Miya and the Snow Lady took individual sofas to the strangers in the roomWithout waiting any longer, Yukari opened the book excitedly.It was like I was starring in a soap opera!Although curiously the first thing I noticed was the coverA strange black curved sword with the yin-yang symbol on the guard next to a white feather, both crossed forming an X with the title written on them"In flight" Yakari murmured, curious about the phrase."Matsu believes it has something to do with the sekirei's ability to fly," the technopath sekirei pointed out."Great, even in my kidnapping I can't get out of work," Takami muttered.His hands moved to go for a cigarette to calm himself but he abstained when he saw Ku-chan, he didn't know the ventilation capacity of the room but he didn't want to risk it with children around.Ignoring everything and with a little more calm, the young woman began to read while curiously the screen turned on even though there was no sound.
  I woke up with a start when the plane landed at Shinjuku Airport. The first thing that crossed my mind as I went from sleep to wakefulness was where the nearest sword was.
"Whoever it is would get along well with Karasuba," Takami muttered, making Miya tense briefly at the mention of that girl.
  The nearest sword was almost in my hand when the passenger sitting next to me spoke up, reminding me that airplanes are rarely a good idea for spontaneously conjuring up four feet of sharp steel if you want to keep a low profile while traveling. These days, after all the terrorist threats and highly publicized security breaches, sometimes even having a pair of nail clippers or a bottle of shampoo wasn't the smartest thing to have at an airport.
"Conjure?" Matsu asked curiously.Maybe he had some sword hidden and it was just his way of saying he would get it out of hiding?
  "Easy, son," the passenger next to me warned when he saw me looking around with wide eyes. "It's just the plane landing," he assured me. He'd been in the chair next to me for almost 16 hours at this point, having boarded the plane at the same time as me at Belfast International. When our plane made a brief stop in Bangladesh to refuel and load and unload passengers, he was one of the other passengers who didn't leave. So far, he'd spent at least 12 of those 16 hours trying to talk to me. I'm not sure if he'd spent the last four trying too, since I'd been sleeping for them, but it seemed like a definite possibility. "First time flying?" he asked me with an easy smile, speaking in English.

  "Second," I admitted in the same language, returning the best smile I could muster under the circumstances. My traveling companion was a well-dressed gentleman with a very professional-looking briefcase hidden under his chair and a tendency to ramble on about anything and everything. For the first twelve hours of the flight, he covered everything from his children to his job, and managed to somehow touch on spiritualism, the obscure cultural practices of New Zealand's indigenous tribes, and the current state of the economy now that Mid Bio Informatics was releasing its latest series of astonishingly complex and groundbreaking inventions. I'd heard stories in the past about having neighbors like that during flights, and only two things kept me from being bothered by how annoying it was. The first was the fact that it was naturally against my nature to let things like that get to me so easily. If I could put up with Shinji's self-absorbed antics during high school, I could certainly put up with a man who was simply trying to carry on a conversation.

  The second thing that kept me from getting upset was that the distraction helped me avoid thinking about how close I was to leaving Britain safely. And I really didn't want to think too much about how close I'd been.
"And now why are you in such a hurry to leave?" Takami asked with narrowed eyes.Some kind of criminal on the run from the authorities? Normally he wouldn't care, but he had a strong suspicion as to where he'd landed and that would make him his problem.
  "Well, don't worry," the gentleman next to me assured me. "It gets easier after the first few times."

  "Thanks," I said in return, giving him a weak smile at his clumsy but well-intentioned attempt to reassure me. "I don't think I'll fly much, but I'll keep it in mind."

  The man nodded and then spoke, sounding a little apologetic. "I'm sorry if I wasn't the best person to sit next to. I know it tends to annoy people when I talk like this, but honestly," and here he paused to give me an embarrassed look, "I have to admit that flying makes me a little nervous. I apologize if I was a little talkative..."

  When he trailed off, looking a little embarrassed by his admission of using me as a way to keep his mind off any personal fears an airplane represented for him, I gave him another smile, and this one managed to be stronger than the last. "Don't worry about it," I assured him. "I was just happy to help."

  Since he took my reassurance as a reason to start another conversation, I let my mind wander as the plane headed to the gate. The main focus of what I was thinking was exactly what I was going to do next. I might have managed to get out of Britain, but that didn't change the fact that they were going to be after me. Yes, the Clock Tower wasn't likely to have many resources now that I was back in Japan, but that didn't change the fact that I was still a target in their eyes. The fact that the stronghold of their power was now half a world away and that most of those in charge there tended to think of Japanese mages as backwards, semi-literate hedge mages were huge advantages for me. The lack of Asian members, combined with their tendency to prefer overly elaborate or completely outdated clothing, also meant that, even if they did chase me, I would be able to spot them long before they spotted me. But that didn't change the fact that if they managed to find me and decided to send the Enforcers after me, then I'd be up against some serious power when they did.
"What? Magicians?" Yukari stopped reading, bewildered."Don't think about it too much, it's normal for certain security agencies to have code names like that, most likely it's just some kind of mercenary group that operates around the world or something like that" Takami pointed out with disdain.As if something as illogical as magic could existMusubi and Ku seemed very disappointed by the lack of real magic and it honestly made Takami feel like he had just kicked a puppy.Still, what worried him was less these magicians and more what that guy did to make them chase him.
  Well, whatever the case, it didn't change the fact that it wasn't very likely they could ambush me at the airport, given how public it would be. They'd wait until I was somewhere a little more private before doing anything like that.

  That meant I probably wouldn't have to fight my way out of the terminal in some kind of rapid-fire battle that would devastate the surrounding area until I managed to defeat my enemies or escape into the general population. Which was kind of a shame, I guess. If that had happened, I would have been able to avoid the inevitably long and crowded lines for immigration.
"He talks like he can fight multiple people at once and escape easily," Miya pointed out with a small frown.He had mentioned a sword earlier so I was wondering how good he was with it.
  It must be some kind of unwritten law of the universe that if technology managed to advance to a level that provided some new form of privacy-invading technology, it would inevitably find itself in an airport. I had little doubt that somewhere out there was some kind of secret organization of old sadists rubbing their hands together in glee and plotting to find new ways to make the process of boarding and deboarding a plane as painful and embarrassing as possible. As I stood as patiently as I could in the immigration line, trying not to impatiently tap my foot while paranoidly scanning the world around me, I contemplated the newest way to make flying a pain in the ass.

  It might have seemed like a coincidence that the source of the current delay in my travel plans had been a topic of discussion between the man I'd sat next to on the flight and me, but it really wasn't. Mid Bio Informatics, or MBI as it was colloquially known, was the leading developer of all manner of medical and medical-related technology. Given that the multinational supercorporation had its roots here in Shin Tokyo, it was no surprise that you would often find some of the company's newest technology here first. The one currently preventing me from claiming my luggage and finding a cheap hotel for the night while I contemplated my next move was the latest piece of outrage-inspiring security the airport had obtained straight from the company's vaults. I don't know what its real name was, but it was supposed to be some kind of DNA analyzer. It seemed a little surreal to be looking at one myself, even if it was from the end of a line that would probably take at least another hour to figure out. Whenever I thought about DNA analysis, it was always related to crime dramas and usually involved needles and a strange machine that spun in circles for a few hours. I had no idea how accurate those preconceptions were, as I rarely watched TV for anything other than the news, but it was probably a testament to MBI's genius that the analyzer was no bigger than a suitcase and required nothing more than the breath of a small screen to start running its tests.
"So if she's here, then it's my problem." Takami grunted a little at that. At least it consoled her that it was someone else who would suffer this.
  There was a lot of public outcry when the installation of DNA at airports was announced, but as usual, the airline industry was able to get away with technology far more invasive than almost any other industry when it came to the name of security. It took months of overly apologetic, respected scientists and industry figures explaining on news broadcasts and talk shows that no, they weren't going to use the machines to start collecting huge banks of data on travelers and that the machines themselves would only be for identification purposes before the public complained enough before they finally gave in to the inevitable. Apparently, the machines would be listed against an established database of individuals, criminals, terrorists, and the like, and the machines would only be able to determine if the person being tested was on INTERPOL's most wanted list and would not be able to store any information about the person being tested. The idea was that if a person being screened appeared, the responsible official could double-check the identified person's passport and see if it was fake or not.
"Do we have that?" Minato asked his mother."Of course, we've been testing it for almost a year at this point," Takami replied.
  It may sound like a good idea on paper, but in practice, all it was serving to do at this point was make me more and more nervous as the line trudged on. Shin Tokyo was the first city to install the machine, and it was serving more as a beta test of the technology than an actual safety measure. The machine was sometimes buggy, and from what I could tell, there were frequent false alarms and malfunctions as the line shrank. More often than not, if it was triggered, the attendant would simply wave the would-be violator through. Other times, the individual would be escorted to a small side door and emerge a few minutes later looking irritated at having been further delayed by the wretched machine.

  When it was finally my turn to try the new machine, I handed my passport to the employee behind the desk, breathed into the machine, and then spoke my name.

  "Shirou Emiya," I announced, doing my best to speak clearly so the machine and attendant would hurry and wave me through.
Takami raised an eyebrow at that.He didn't seem worried about being recognized so either he didn't think the machine would work or he wasn't in the database.
  Naturally, considering how my last week had been, instead of the machine emitting a soft 'beep' that would indicate I could proceed, it began to emit a series of shrill squeals. The man behind the desk looked at me, then at my passport, then at the machine's screen. He looked at it closely and then sighed, the sigh of a man who has been forced to endure one too many shrill squeals.

  "Please excuse me, Emiya-san," he announced, leaning forward in his chair as he did so. I could barely make out his wince as he did so, and I got the impression he'd been leaning forward a lot since his shift started. "The analyzer is experiencing some technical difficulties. While I'm sure it's nothing major, I'm afraid new airport policy requires I ask you to shadow one of our security staff members while our technical support team analyzes the problem."

  I couldn't suppress a sigh, but I gave the man a sympathetic smile and a small bow. "I understand," I assured him pleasantly. He seemed relieved that he wasn't going to repeat some of the previous outbursts similarly delayed travelers had erupted upon being held up once again. "I'll be happy to." The man bowed again, and when a security agent approached, he bowed as well. The security personnel looked almost as annoyed as the employee and not much more so than I was. As he led me to the door through which I'd seen so many other passengers pass over the past half hour, I could just make out the faces of the family who'd been standing behind me. A young man and what I assumed was his wife and child seemed very grateful that I had at least been prompt about my inconvenience.

  When I finally got a precise look at what was behind the mysterious door, I found myself being led to a small service corridor with several doors lining one side. Security led me to one seemingly at random and opened the door. "This way, please," he intoned, bowing again as he did so. With a slight bow in response, I entered the room. "I apologize for the delay. One of our service representatives will arrive in a few minutes to discuss the situation. Until then, please help yourself to the provided refreshments." With another quick bow, the man left the room. My eyes strayed toward the aforementioned soft drinks. There was a small refrigerator with a carafe of what looked like cheap coffee on top. When I opened the refrigerator, I found a severely depleted stock of juice boxes and cans of tea waiting inside. Deciding on a small can of oolong tea, I noticed a small basket near the coffeemaker containing a few packages of crackers, the kind usually served during flights between meals. With a sigh I grabbed one and sat down at the table in the middle of the room to wait.

  It took almost twenty more minutes, but finally, just as I was finishing my tea, the door to my small room opened and a very annoyed-looking middle-aged man walked in. Before I had a chance to speak, he bowed and introduced me. "Good afternoon, sir. My name is <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON>. On behalf of Asian Air, I apologize for the delay. If you cooperate, we can quickly determine the nature of the error that caused the delay and allow you to complete your trip."

  The speech sounded mechanical and well-rehearsed, and it was easy for me to believe he'd probably had to give it several times already, and it probably hadn't been well-received when he did. Standing, I bowed as well. "I understand, and I hope we can quickly discover the source of the problem so we can both be on our way," I replied politely. When we both raised our heads, I saw what was definitely relief in the poor man's eyes. I gave him a reassuring smile, and he had to stop himself from breaking his professional demeanor by returning it. When he fully entered the room, I saw he had three more men behind him, all dressed in security uniforms. When Suzuki entered, he was followed by only one of the security personnel, a different man than the one who had led me here, and he was pushing a squeaky cart into the room. On the cart was what appeared to be a portable version of the same machine that had gotten me into this mess in the first place. I had to stop myself from looking at him. I was trying to be polite to the staff who were obviously as put off by the whole procedure as I was, but that didn't mean I had to extend this contraption with the same respect.

  "Due to the newness of the technology, I'm afraid several errors have yet to be corrected," Suzuki continued, once again sounding as if he were reciting a well-rehearsed speech. "Fortunately, most of those errors have already been documented. If you will please breathe once more into the device," he indicated the small screen that was the machine's receptacle, "then we will most likely be able to determine precisely what error has occurred. Once this is done, we will be able to quickly finish processing it. Asian Air will be happy to assist you in any way necessary to make up for this delay." He had little doubt that Asian Air was receiving a large number of complaints and had found the quickest way to deal with them was to throw money at whoever was complaining.

  "I understand," I assured Suzuki. "Should I do it now?" I indicated the small screen as I asked if we could hurry up and get this over with.

  "Yes," Suzuki nodded, pointing at the machine. "Please."

  Without wasting any more time, I leaned over and once again breathed into the receptacle so it could retrieve my information. Once again, the machine began to chirp. No one in the room seemed surprised by this, and Suzuki immediately began reading the small screen displaying the results, looking bored as he did so. For the first few seconds, it was. Then his eyebrows narrowed, and he leaned over to read the screen more closely.
"So it's not as clean as I thought," Takami muttered, already knowing that she was possibly the one who was going to be called to fix this.Read how to release Karasuba from the poor guy
  That was as good an indication as any that this wouldn't be as simple as we both hoped it would be.

  My own eyebrows narrowed, and I began to worry. If this wasn't a simple new-tech glitch, then maybe it was something more serious. I suppressed a gulp of nervousness. There was no way. The Clock Tower wasn't exactly famous for being incredibly tech-savvy, nor were they likely to have the connections with a relatively new company like MBI to put my name in the data banks—not so quickly anyway. But then again, they might have the resources, too...
"A group of mercenaries who don't use technology? What are they doing? Shooting their targets with slingshots?" Uzume snorted in amusement at the image of a bunch of soldiers using slingshots and stones against a bunch of men with machine guns.
  "Is there a problem?" I asked, keeping my voice carefully gentle as I did so. Beneath the table, in my lap, my right hand opened slightly, ready to wield a sword that wasn't there yet.
The people in the room couldn't help but tense up at the thought of a fight at the airport that would most likely lead to many civilians being injured."Where does he keep his sword?" Matsu asked confused.On the screen you could see the young but tall redhead sitting in the living room looking at the machine, but near him there was no suitcase where he could quickly pull out a blade nor did his clothes seem loose enough to hide anything other than a small butter knife.
  After all, I might get my battle on the run...

  "I'm not sure," Suzuki admitted, his previously routine tone disappearing as he began pressing various buttons on the contraption that was causing me so much trouble. "I've never seen a response like this…" he trailed off, his fingers continuing to tap and press while his eyes darted up and down as the screen presented the data I was having trouble understanding. I leaned across the table to see what was distracting him so much. The anxiety in my stomach didn't exactly grow as I did so, but it didn't disappear by much. It was incredibly unlikely that the Clock Tower had managed to fix this, yes, but it was still a possibility. But then again, there was a very good chance that this was all just a huge fluke caused by an airport being used to test out a new technology.

  Suzuki didn't even seem to notice me trying to look over his shoulder, too absorbed in trying to make sense of whatever was on the screen. One minute turned into two, then three, then five. From what I could see, the screen, a small, high-definition flat panel, displayed nothing but random numbers, Roman characters, and random symbols. Finally, starting to sweat, Suzuki managed to tear his eyes away, only seeming to notice that I was leaning across the table to see what he was seeing. When his head snapped to the side, I realized that at some point the only guard present had also leaned over his shoulder. It seems this really was some kind of random event. If the machine had been announcing me as a terrorist or criminal like the one it was supposed to detect, I think Suzuki probably would have said some kind of safe word and run like hell while the guard tried to take me down. If it had been a simple mistake, he most likely would have told me to get out of here by now.

  I stifled a sigh. It seems the computer was really malfunctioning in an unexpected way. It's probably not good for my schedule.

  "Emiya-san," Suzuki finally spoke, rubbing his forehead as he did so, "I'm afraid this problem is a bit more serious than I had originally anticipated." When he quickly stood up, I couldn't help but flinch back, falling back into the chair I had been sitting in earlier. This time, when he bowed to me, it was much deeper than before. It seems that since I had officially departed from the normal routine, I no longer deserved a merely routine bow. "Given the nature of technology, I must report this error directly to MBI. Since this machine will become one of the security measures at this airport, any potential errors must be addressed immediately to ensure the safety of our customers."
"So he wasn't in the database while being chased by a supposed mercenary group from Great Britain? That kid has bad luck," Uzume pointed out, more amused than anything else.She didn't really know how she 'revived' or what she was doing here, but if she was going to be deactivated again when she left, she would enjoy every second with her chiho.
  I stifled a sigh and wondered if it was too late to stop acting so polite. Maybe if I threw a tantrum like some of the other travelers earlier, I could get through this.

  "I understand," I found myself replying, and cursed myself for being so helpful. "Do you have any idea how long this will take?"

  "I apologize again for the delays you'll be experiencing," Suzuki replied, still bowing. "Please rest assured that both MBI and Asian Air will be willing to compensate you for any inconvenience this situation may cause."

  Which meant this would probably take a while, but at least I'd get paid for it.

  I stifled another sigh. "I understand. Would it be possible for you to retrieve my luggage for me?" I asked, not wanting my belongings to be bouncing around on the luggage carousel for the hours this was going to take without supervision. Or that I could arrange for more refreshments to be brought to me?

  "I'll have one of the assistants take care of it right away," Suzuki promised me.

  *Scene break*

  Ten minutes after he left, Suzuki kept his promise. An employee appeared with my luggage in tow and a stack of menus for me to choose a meal, free of charge for my inconvenience. Fifteen minutes later, I had a slightly overcooked steak along with some nicely steamed asparagus and some truly first-class fries.

  Unfortunately, that seemed to be the end of my prompt attention, because it wasn't until two hours later that anything happened related to my delay.

  And when he did, he almost killed them.

  I was flipping through a small collection of magazines I'd been provided to kill time when my nose was suddenly assaulted by an almost overwhelming smell. If it were a normal scent, I would have been able to gradually begin to detect it, or at least I would have been more likely to be able to identify it before it overwhelmed me. Instead, one second I was looking at a four-month-old copy of Shonen Jump, and the next I was trying to suppress my killing intent when my nostrils were invaded by two overwhelming smells.
"Smells? Does that guy think he's a bloodhound or something?" Uzume asked, puzzled by the exaggerated reaction.
  The first smell was sweaty, almost cloying. It was like honey, but more overwhelming. I would have described it as almost rotten, but it was as if something had managed to put a plate of something sweet out in the sun, something that should have begun to decompose and turn foul, but somehow managed to combine the overwhelming stench of decay with the original sweetness of its fresh scent.

  The second smell was equally overwhelming, but much more obvious and much more sinister: blood.
"I don't know the first one but at least I have an idea of ​​who the second one is" Takami said discreetly smelling his lab coat
  For a second, as I fought the sudden sensation, I had trouble identifying what was causing it. Sadly, that confusion didn't last long. Rin had always been surprised by my sensitivity when it came to magic. She'd never forgotten how easily I'd sought out the sigils Rider had placed over our school when she sought to activate her Noble Phantasm. When I officially became her apprentice, she made it one of the points on which she assessed me. All mages had some sensitivity to other magic cast nearby, though the sensitivity manifested itself in different ways. Some mages might experience it as a sound, a taste, or even a physical sensation. For me, it was always smell, and after some experimentation, Rin finally had to shake her head in disbelief and announce in that mocking tone of hers that I was probably half bloodhound. The range and accuracy with which I could pick up nearby magic bordered on the unreal, according to my diminutive mage friend.
"So it's real magic?" Musubi asked excitedly."Magic!" Naturally Ku followed with that"Magic?" Takami repeated incredulously."They can't be talking about real magic, it has to be some code word for something else," Matsu pointed out stubbornly.He refused to believe that something so fantastical existed!The rest of the room seemed equally divided between the more logical who dismissed the ramblings as just code words for other things and those who were inclined to believe in the possibility that magic was real.After all, they already had aliens, alternate realities, and teleportation.Why not magic?
  After a second, I managed to control myself, and so the strength of the smell diminished. But it was still there, and even though my mind had managed to adjust enough to not be overwhelmed, it was still getting stronger.

  I set the magazines aside and gathered my only piece of luggage until it was on the table leg next to my chair, within easy reach, I placed my hands on the table in a way that made it look like I was simply sitting but actually allowed me to trace a sword in them in a heartbeat ready to strike, and then I tried not to tense up too much.
"Sword magic?" Homura asked, as one of those inclined to believe.He was always fascinated by these topics."It's not magic!" Matsu exclaimed angrily.
  I could have been wrong about the Clock Tower being unable to locate me so quickly, because at this moment something was looming. Whatever it was, it was magical. Judging by the strength of the scent, it was probably also powerful. And judging by the iron scent of spilled blood lingering on it, it was dangerous.
"So this clock tower is some kind of magical organization" Homura began to jump to conclusions ignoring Matsu's pout and Takami's skeptical look.
  When the door to my small room opened, I was somehow not surprised when it was revealed that I was also a woman.
No one was surprised by the sheer disgust that Miya generated towards the woman now on screen.
  She was tall, for a Japanese woman. I was still taller than her, but I was already growing to a height where I would likely be taller than a large number of my countrymen. However, her hair, though long and tied back in a ponytail, was not the typical shade one would find in Japan. It was light, but not shaded. It looked more like it was turning gray prematurely. If I hadn't known she wasn't human, I would have suspected it was dyed. She wore what looked like an extremely short kimono, reaching only to her upper thighs and bordering on the indecently high. She wore long black socks that closed almost to the hem of the rest of her outfit, but also left a rather attractive absolute area. Resting on her shoulders was a long gray coat, though it hadn't.

  However, her most defining feature, at least in my eyes, was the fact that she carried a longsword, almost a meter and a half long, in a sheath at her side, and she was smiling as she did so. It wasn't a particularly threatening smile. Instead, it seemed benevolent, almost cheerful. The smile crinkled her eyes until they were mere slits, and she smiled at me as she entered the room.

  With the smell of blood hanging in the air so thick I was surprised the walls hadn't started to bleed, my eyes followed her as she moved to the corner to perch idly.

  Whatever she was, she wasn't human. And despite all her smiles, she definitely wasn't friendly either. My mind raced as I tried to figure out the best way to defend myself against her if she decided to attack, as well as the best way to kill her while she was at it.
"Please do it if you can oh mr. magician" Miya was also very skeptical about the idea of ​​magic but honestly if that self-proclaimed magician could get rid of that d@mn woman she could give him some concessionsTakami thought about pointing out that if Karasuba died she would probably be next, but Miya's aberration towards MBI in general was well known, to the point where she didn't even acknowledge Takami's existence out of the corner of her eye, so she preferred not to step on the tiger's tail.Or hannya in this case
  I almost didn't notice the second figure following the inhuman thing toward my small room. She was also female, and whoever she was, she was at least human. A bit shorter than the first woman to enter, this woman had a lab coat that was properly fitted, not like the lab coat of whatever was standing in the corner. Underneath was a slacks, button-down shirt, and tie combination that could be found on any office worker in the city. She looked like any other middle-aged professional woman you might find in any Shin Tokyo office. Most notable was the fact that around her neck was a lanyard with an MBI ID card on it and the fact that her hair was as white as snow.
"Mom?" Yukari looked at her mother nervously, the stranger they knew nothing about seemed more than willing to kill and she feared what he was going to do to her mother."Magician or not, he's still human, there's no way he'll get past Karasuba and reach me." Takami dismissed Yukari's concerns easily. Even if those thoughts were real, he seriously doubted there was any earthly being who could do anything to him.
  Like the woman who'd walked in before her, if the situation had been different, I would have suspected the hair was dyed, but instead, it looked natural on her. I couldn't discern any color shift toward the roots, and I doubted someone as professionally dressed as the woman casually looking at the clipboard in her hand would go out and dye her hair for fun.
"D@mn Minaka" was pure stress, no one dealt with that madman for so long without going gray
  Oddly enough, it was the identification of MBI that made him let out the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. He was almost certain the Clock Tower didn't have a finger in MBI, at least not yet. For the most part, the Clock Tower was old money, and rather stuck to its aristocratic image. It didn't seem likely they'd have the foresight to try to break into what they would consider an upstart organization like MBI. Old money always looked down on new money. It would probably take a generation or two before aspiring aristocrats would deign to even talk to an organization that developed in just a period of two decades, regardless of how profitable the organization was.
"So they're too good for us?" Takami asked, more amused than anything else.
  “Are you the ones here to diagnose the mechanical error?” I spoke, keeping my voice polite as I did so and trying very hard not to sweat. Regardless of whether or not they were associated with the Clock Tower, whatever was standing in the corner was definitely not human and certainly not benign, not with my magical sensibilities reeking of blood anyway. The only other creature I’d come across that smelled so strongly of the life fluid had been the Rider from the Fifth Grail War, and she hadn’t exactly been a shining example of benevolence and compassion.
"War?" That caught the attention of the oldest sekireis present, Miya still remembered what she lived and didn't want to repeat it.
  "Cut the cr@p," the white-haired woman said, snorting as she did so. "Who are you, and what were you trying to accomplish with this little trick?" She pushed the chair across from me from the table and plopped down without hesitation and began inspecting the machine without giving me a second glance.

  I could only blink in surprise at the abrupt tone. You'd think a company whose faulty machine was delaying innocent travelers for hours would be more polite. After so many apologies from airport officials, I was expecting a more formal meeting. Well, I had been until I heard about the gray-haired thing in the corner.
"Mom isn't the one you'd send to be a diplomat," Minato whispered, hoping he hadn't been heard.
  "Excuse me?" I managed to get out, puzzled by her directness. She snorted in response, still typing. I could make out her looking at the same data Suzuki had earlier, though she seemed to be getting more out of it than the airport official.

  "I said, 'Cut the cr@p,'" the white-haired woman repeated, her tone dry and disdainful. "I want to know who you are, who you work for, and what the hell you thought would have gotten you this little trick. Now," she looked up to give me a look that would have been terrifying if my friends hadn't both been much better than her, "are you going to cooperate or not?"

  I stared at her for a moment, trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about, before tilting my head to the side. Fine, if that's the way she wants it. She seemed more annoyed at having to waste her time going out of her way for me than anything else. Well, if she wanted to be mad at me for wasting her time, she wasn't the one who'd spent almost four hours stuck in an airport because of a mechanical error.

  "My name is Shirou Emiya," I said in a flat tone. "I'm currently unemployed. And so far, all this hack has gotten me is a headache, a second-rate steak, and major inconvenience due to the fact that your little machine is a piece of junk. What I want now is for you to hurry up and figure out what the heck is wrong with it so I can get on with the rest of my day before it's completely wasted."
"Someone is brave, isn't he?" Miya decided that she liked the young man.Anyone who gave MBI a middle finger did so."Oh stupid," Takami growled.The boy seemed to know how dangerous Karasuba was and still decided to be confrontational. I am perfectly unaware that she started the hostilities.
  The thing in the corner snorted, and seemed genuinely amused by my response if the smile was anything to go by. The white-haired woman snorted as well, though her humor seemed laced with a lot more cynicism. "Correct," she drawled, still typing away at the computer, before pausing and narrowing her eyes at whatever she'd managed to uncover. The glare she sent me a second later lacked its previous almost sardonic tone. "I don't know who you are, or how you managed to find this flaw, but I'm going to enjoy Karasuba prying those answers out of you," she snarled at me. The thing in the corner, whose name I now assumed to be Karasuba, widened her smile and placed her hands on the hilt of the sword she carried.
"Would you really do it?" Yukari asked, not liking this particular side of her mother."I just want to scare him a little, even we would have trouble getting rid of a body in a place as populated as an airport" Takami wasn't even lyingIf it were in a more private place perhaps but there were already many witnesses
  "And I'm sure I'll enjoy having them, Vice-Principal Takami," the gray-haired woman said, her voice jovial and pleasant to listen to. Well, it would have been pleasant if it weren't punctuated by the soft whisper of unsheathed steel. I only had a moment to focus my attention on her before she moved. With a motion that would have made Saber raise an eyebrow at its speed, the sword in her hand flashed, and a split second later I felt the kiss of steel on my throat.
"Now that's an exaggeration" Miya didn't know who this knowledge was but that speed should be too much for any human beingThe majority present thought exactly the same thing.
  For a moment I stood still, my eyes flickering toward the black thing as it casually strolled behind me, holding the blade steady as it did so. When the thing, Karasuba, finally left my field of vision, I returned my attention to the white-haired lady in front of me and sighed. The movement caused the flesh of my throat to move against the blade I held there, and I suddenly understood why so many people around the world preferred straight razors. That part of my skin had probably just received the smoothest shave it had ever had. I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms with another sigh.

  "Did you just pull a sword on me in a public place because your stupid machine isn't working properly?" I asked, though the question was mostly rhetorical. The blade at my throat followed my movement as the thing behind me held it against me despite my movement. The white-haired woman in front of me raised an eyebrow, her expression still angry but seemingly taking into account my indifference to the situation as well.

  "If you're still trying to convince me that you're some kind of innocent bystander and not an attempted infiltration plot by a foreign country or one of our competitors, then ignoring death threats isn't the smartest way to go about it," he informed me with a frown.

  "It's not the first time I've had a sword pulled on me," I informed her, "I even have a few scars from some of them. The legacy of a misspent youth, I suppose." Despite the levity she was displaying, it was taking everything I had not to break a sweat. Given the position of the woman behind me, it was unlikely she had the twist or angle to land a decapitating blow, and if she tried to slit my throat, well, she'd be surprised at how strong I could be. Even before Rin had seriously trained me on how to develop my art of magic, I'd been far more rugged than I had any right to be. Even if the blade managed to slice open a vein, I had ways around that. The problem was exactly what was behind me. I knew it wasn't human and was likely stronger than a normal woman her size, but the question was how much stronger? "Hurry up and start your interrogation so I can prove my innocence and then collect a nice fat hush money check from you."
"Fufufu, if you do, you can come to my inn. I'll even give you a discount for the first few months." Miya was immensely enjoying this slight against that thing."Not bad," Kazehana murmured, "not as good as my love, but anyone who gives that woman a hard time deserves praise."
  The thing behind me snorted in amusement. "Well, well," it drawled. "Looks like someone's pretty sure of themselves." Judging by the tone of its words, it sounded like it was genuinely enjoying watching someone with a sword held against their back talk. Given how strong the bl@@dy sensation was in it, I got the impression it was more used to people begging or screaming.

  The white-haired woman didn't seem all that amused by my confidence. "Name?" she snapped, pulling out a small, compact laptop from somewhere underneath her lab coat. It was a slim-looking piece of electronics, one of the newer ones that had started to become more and more available as technology advanced. It seemed to consist of nothing more than a touchscreen. Judging by the speed of the white-haired woman's fingers as they moved, the woman was well-versed in its use.

  "Shirou Emiya," I replied without elaborating.

  "Purpose of visiting Japan?" she continued, dropping her question the moment I finished speaking. It seemed she was going to try to keep me answering quickly, an interrogation technique designed to help the person being questioned make mistakes.

  "I'm back. I'm a resident, not a visitor," I replied just as quickly.

  "The original purpose of leaving Japan?" she replied sharply, without missing a beat.

  "Going to school in London with my girlfriends."
"And quite a Casanova!" Kazehana exclaimed amusedly.
  "Reason to return?"

  "My girlfriends broke up with me after I got kicked out of school." I suppressed a grimace. It was still a rather painful memory, since it only happened a week ago and most of the last week had involved me running and fighting for my life as I desperately tried to escape the country.
"Ah, don't worry, I'm sure you'll find a good sekirei or two now that you're here," Kazehana added without missing a beat."Why do you think that?" Matsu asked curiously."Well, the story is called In Flight, and obviously this mysterious boy is our protagonist, so..."
  "Oh, you poor thing," the thing behind me interrupted, its voice still sounding more amused than its words would indicate. Both I and my white-haired interrogator ignored it.

  "Parents' names?" the woman said instead, surprising me. I thought she would have focused more on the circumstances I just described. Far from what I understood, she thought I was some kind of government infiltrator or espionage agent or something who was targeting her company. If she was trying to get me expelled for something like this, wouldn't it have been easier if she had focused on things as notable as me getting kicked out of school, or even the fact that every time I mentioned my girlfriends I was using plurals?

  "Adopted or biological?" I answered her question, trying not to let my confusion pass into the questioning. The white-haired woman's eyes narrowed further as she continued typing on her laptop.

  "Adopted," he informed me.

  "Kiritsugu Emiya," I replied. He paused, looking up to give me a hard stare.

  "So Emiya is an assumed surname?" It seemed like an obvious question to me, so I gave him a blank stare as I answered.

  "Yes it is."

  "Biological last name?" Without a second thought, he returned to his previous line of questioning.

  Here I could do nothing but shrug. "I don't remember."

  For the first time since the interrogation began, he seemed to be at a loss for words.

  "Do you expect us to believe you don't remember your own name?" the thing behind me asked, sounding as if it found the idea of ​​being believed even more incredulous than my own answer.

  For the first time since she held a knife to my throat, I turned to look at her. I could feel my flesh graze the edge of her blade lightly as I stared at the grinning face behind me. "I was five when they died in a fire. I was in the hospital for my own injuries for weeks afterward, and I was lucky enough to be adopted immediately afterward. I don't remember anything about the time before that; the therapists at the hospital assured me it was pretty normal after that level of trauma. Is it so hard to believe I'd forget?"
Yukari stopped abruptly at the revelation."A fire" homura couldn't help but feel uncomfortable at the idea"A trauma like that would drive anyone a little crazy," Takami pointed out, unmoved and trying to find an explanation for her magician's delusions.
  I'd intended the words to be a punishment, but instead, the smiling face remained unchanged. "Hmmm," she drawled. "I guess if you put it that way," she admitted as if I were a queen granting me a pardon for some misdemeanor that would have otherwise resulted in my decapitation. From the way she held the sword against my neck, the comparison might not have been so bad. I frowned at her before sitting back in my seat to look at the white-haired woman again.

  The frown the woman had been wearing since she first read my reading on the stupid machine that had gotten me into this mess was still there, but it was much smaller now. Instead of staring at me, she seemed to be studying me intensely.

  "Where was the location of the fire?" he asked, speaking much slower than he had before as he focused on my face.

  "Fuyuki City," I said, preparing for a more invasive interrogation.

  "What was your address during the incident?" she dug deeper, her fingers scanning the board in front of her even faster now, though her eyes barely moved toward it as if she could just bring herself to stop studying my face.

  "I don't remember," I admitted honestly. "I know it was just a block from ground zero where the fire started." His eyes flicked to the screen, and he typed furiously for a few moments. He finally seemed to find exactly what he was looking for, and his face unexpectedly began to pale as he froze in his seat.
"What the hell did I find?" She was usually pretty good at keeping a poker face, and even if she sounded insensitive, she really wouldn't have any sympathy for the traumas of a complete stranger.
  I waited for her next question. And waited. And waited. Finally, the thing holding a sword to my throat spoke. "Takami?" she asked, sounding curious rather than amused.

  The white-haired woman, I assume Takami, seemed to wake up and looked at the thing, Karasuba, in response to her question. Takami's eyes seemed to widen as they took in the blade still resting at my throat. "Enough, Karasuba," she said suddenly, and I felt the sword strike me as the thing behind me shifted in what I assumed was surprise at the tone of its superior.
"What happened?" Minato asked, lost.His mother was not the docile type, even if she discovered that it was some mistake she would not give any answer and would only leave after making some money in the subject's direction.And judging by her sister's expression she thought the same thing.
  "Oh? So I won't kill him after all?" Karasuba asked, sounding disappointed at the idea of ​​not being able to open my throat.

  "It seems that way," I said, my voice a little too smug. "Since it seems this whole little mistake has finally been revealed to not be my fault, when they start talking about my hush money to keep me from mentioning how a corporation threatened to kill an innocent man due to the failure of their own equipment, part of the compensation I'm going to demand is that you apologize and ask for forgiveness while sitting in seiza." A little vindictive of me, I'm sure, but you don't make it through a two-year relationship with Rin Touhsaka without learning a little from that.
Both Miya and Kazehana couldn't have been more pleased with the request.
  The sword at my throat paused for a moment, and then the thing behind me began to laugh as the blade was finally withdrawn from my neck. "Well," Karasuba muttered as she entered my line of vision, rubbing her chin thoughtfully as she smiled at me. "Aren't you brave?"

  "So I've been told," I replied. Actually, I think the phrase 'suicidal' is often used when describing my willingness to face danger, but I don't think it's appropriate to bring it up in the company. "So, have you figured out what's wrong with the machine? I'd like to be able to get a hotel and get some sleep, preferably before tomorrow morning." Aside from all this drama, I still had to figure out what I was going to do to stay one step ahead of the Clock Tower.

  "Could you breathe into the device one more time to confirm?" Takamai said instead, still looking at me with a pale expression on her face. With a sigh, I bowed and did so. Once again, just like before, I was greeted with the squealing sound the machine emitted. The white-haired woman let out another shaky breath as she did so.

  "Can I go now?" I asked, tired of all this running around and eager to get on with my life.

  "No..." the woman began, and then stopped, swallowing as she continued to stare at me, her face now almost as pale as her hair. "Not exactly. Shirou, right?" she began, sounding hesitant.
All the sekireis present were beginning to look bewildered, they had been adjusted by that same woman and knew her well enough to know that this was not normal.Her children were the most confused, not even they had seen her hesitate like that.Takami herself couldn't remember any occasion when she acted like that!
  I frowned at the casual way she addressed me. If she were about to apologize and try to bribe me, I'd expect her to be a little more polite. "Yes, that's my name," I replied, studying her carefully in return.

  "Well, Shirou," he began, licking his lips as if his mouth were dry. "We've never encountered a bug like this before, which was part of the reason I was called here. You see, this machine analyzes microscopic traces of dead cells or exhaled saliva to analyze the tester's DNA and compare it to an established database," he began, speaking slowly and carefully as he did so.

  "That's what I'm told. So why exactly was it beeping? Was it just a false reading?" I asked. I didn't really care about the details, but if they thought I was some kind of international criminal, then I guess it would make sense that the lady in front of me had brought along some muscle like the one who'd once again resumed her post in the corner. Though it did make me wonder how a company like MBI had gotten something inhuman like that Karasuba to work for them.

  "Not exactly," Takami hesitated, sounding nervous. "You see, when you were tested, you ended up reading as a partial match for two different people in the database."
"So he's the son of two wanted people?" Takami asked, not seeing what part of that affected her.Although in the first few months it wasn't just criminals who...Takami narrowed his eyes slightly.Was he perhaps the son of one of her employees? If it were only that, there wouldn't be such a problem. Perhaps he met an employee and a criminal? That would be a possible very serious escape, but it still wouldn't explain why she reacted that way.
  "Partial coincidence?" I asked, now feeling confused. I guess something like that would be strange enough for the airline to warrant calling tech support.

  "Yes," Takami admitted, looking at the results screen on the machine that was quickly becoming the bane of my existence. "It seems you read close enough to two people that it couldn't properly determine if you were one of them."

  "My DNA was close enough to..." I snapped, before distant memories of biology class in middle school suddenly came flooding back. I nearly jumped out of my seat, my hands hitting the table with a loud noise. Takami flinched at the sudden sound, and Karasuba's hand slipped to the hilt of her sword once more as she looked at me speculatively. "Wait," I managed to say in a strangled tone. "Wait. Partial matches? You mean...?"
"Well anyone would be surprised" said Minato having come to a similar conclusion to his motherEven without the DNA data of the employees, he only believed that he was unknowingly the son of two criminals.
  "Yes," Takami admitted, sounding a little embarrassed. "It seems as if the machine just performed a paternity/maternity test without realizing it."

  I gaped at her. No way. That was impossible. My parents—my biological parents and also my adoptive father—were dead. They died in a fire years ago, during the horrific final moments of the Fourth Grail War, and a few years later from injuries received in the same war, respectively. I didn't remember my biological family. Honestly, I didn't care to remember them for that matter. I'm an Emiya; the only father I need is Kiritsugu, who taught me more about how to live my life than I could honestly believe anyone else in the world could, regardless of whether or not they were partial donors of my genetic code.
This new information caught the attention of more than oneThere had been five of those wars and apparently that boy, Shirou, lost his family in the fourth.And yet I'm still participating in the fifth...
  Wait a second. The database they were comparing me to...

  I groaned, sinking into my seat. "So what, both of my biological parents were international criminals?" I managed to get out, rubbing my forehead as I did so. That's great. That's great. Karasuba seemed to think the situation was as funny as it was ridiculous. She had one hand up to cover her mouth as her body trembled slightly with suppressed laughter.

  "That's it," Takami began, swallowing hard, still looking at me, "that's not entirely accurate." I looked at her, studying her carefully. She seemed hesitant, as if she knew something else and was too nervous to come right out and say it. I said nothing and simply braced myself for whatever shocks I was about to receive. "You see," the white-haired woman continued, "since unofficially this was merely a testing ground for the machine's viability as a future security device, the database for international criminals wasn't the only one in its memory. The machine was originally developed at MBI, and many of the scientists there were used as test subjects while it was being developed. Since the machine is still in the experimental phase during this testing period,"
"Her parents work for that company," Miya looked less pleased with the revelation.So good boy and his parents abandoned him to work in that place
  For a long second, I was simply unable to accurately process what that tiny bit of information really meant. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, and if I hadn't been sitting down, I would have been by then as I felt the strength drain from my legs in shock.

  "What?" was all I could say, gaping at Takami and feeling the blood drain from my face. I must have been as pale as she was at this point.

  "Your parents are alive," the white-haired woman said carefully. "And they're working for MBI."
"This is a soap opera," Matsu muttered.Even though knowing this was real took some of the fun out of it.
  Despite the clarity of the words, I still couldn't bring myself to fully understand them. My biological parents, the man and woman responsible for conceiving and giving birth to me, the long-forgotten entities from my past who were somehow responsible for me being alive, were also alive.

  "Who are they?" I heard myself ask, struggling to keep the world from spinning around me. This—this was unreal. Whoever heard of anything as crazy as this? Learning that something I'd accepted as fact my entire life wasn't? That thanks to a computer glitch at an airport and an unlikely, not unbelievable, series of coincidences, I was suddenly faced with the fact that I wasn't actually an orphan? It was like one of those crazy rumors someone might read in a newspaper about a child given up for adoption finding their real parents in line at a coffee shop, or two babies accidentally switched in their cribs at a hospital ending up next-door neighbors.

  Takami took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and then closed it with a loud swallow. He tried again, but still couldn't get anything out. Finally, he simply took out his cell phone, pressed a button, looked at the screen, and then handed it to me.
"Do I have a picture?" she asked curiously, she didn't remember taking a picture of any employee.I didn't remember being close to anyone in particular enough to have a picture of them.I didn't even have any pictures of Minaka!
  It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing. The woman in the photo was likely Takami, though apparently at a much younger age. In the picture, her hair was still mostly black but abundantly streaked with white. It looked like she had some kind of condition that resulted in early gray hair or something. There were two children snuggled in little Takami's arms. One was a baby, presumably a girl from the pink blanket covered with a cute little princess print. The other was a very young boy, about four or five years old, with light brown hair. He was smiling at the camera, snuggled up against Takami, probably his son...
...SilenceYukari fell and couldn't continue."Do I have a/another brother?" The two Asahashi children asked at the same time, looking at their mother, who was pale as a sheet."Impossible! I never had another child, not even another pregnancy or abortion!" The woman quickly explained, now understanding her other self's shock."Well, it's an alternate universe where the condom is only 99% effective," Matsu said, calmer than the rest.If there really were infinite alternate realities and in 99 Takami used a condom or other type of contraceptive then with 99% protection then in reality 100 it might not workHell, it could even be that in another world Takami just decided he wanted three children instead of two.Takami took a deep breath as he came to the same conclusions as Matsu.But was she really in a fire and abandoned her son? Never, she would die first."Keep reading," she urged her younger daughter who seemed more excited by the idea of ​​another sibling.
  Wait.

  Wait wait wait.

  Wait.

  "You don't mean..." I gaped at the pale woman who suddenly looked much less intimidating and genuinely scared.

  "You had chickenpox," the woman said, her voice soft and on the verge of bursting into tears at the sound of it. "I was worried that Yukari was too young to catch them, so you were going to stay with your grandmother for a week or two while you recovered while I kept an eye on Yukari. Then," she broke off, her voice catching, and she paused, seemingly getting a hold of herself, "then I got word from the city officials about the fire. I had every hospital within a two-hundred-mile radius search for your name, but there was nothing. And my mother's house was so close to the center of the fire that I—I thought…" She stopped, taking a drink and closing her eyes as painful memories she'd probably long thought were over and gone no doubt once again became fresh in her mind.
"Well that explains things better" he felt a little bad for his mother but they really weren't particularly closeBut... why do I only mention Yukari and not Minato?
  "But," I managed to say, "if they were looking for me, why didn't they find me? I gave my name; shouldn't they have found me?"

  In the corner, Karasaba was alternating between looking back and forth between the white-haired woman and me—my mother, I thought in disbelief—looking like she was one step away from bursting out laughing. She had both arms wrapped around her stomach and was trembling as she tried to keep from bursting out laughing. I was suddenly inexplicably angry at the thing in the corner. Here I was, with one of the biggest foundations of my life ripped out from under me, and she was treating it like a joke. Takami didn't seem to notice and shook her head, her eyes still closed.

  "Shirou isn't your name," she told me, and I gasped again. What? "That was back when my hair was just starting to turn white," she held up a strand of her hair as if in explanation, and I looked once more at the image where she still had almost all black hair. "I used to spend hours in front of the mirror trying to find any new white hairs, and you used to think it was a game. You'd help out, and every time you found a new hair you'd start yelling, 'White! White! ' You had so much fun, I started calling you 'Shiro-chan.'"
"Oh" you didn't have to be a genius to connect the dots but it seemed that only Takami, Homura and Matsu had put the pieces together
  "But I don't write my name with the character for 'blank,'" I pointed out, though it was a futile attempt to defend my apparently fake name. "I use the characters for 'professional' and 'department.'"

  Takami shook her head in response. "You were five back then. You were still learning hiragana and katakana, much less kanji. When they found you, they probably asked you your name, and you told them your nickname instead." She closed her eyes again and began breathing deeply, no doubt thinking about the insanity of the situation. How many years must my death have haunted her? And now to find out I was alive and the only reason she hadn't found me was because of a nickname?

  In the corner, it seemed this latest revelation was driving Karabasa even further into the depths of hilarity, and that overwhelming surge of anger only inflamed her further. Nearby were the remnants of the steak dinner I'd been served, and without realizing what I was doing, I found the steak knife in my hand. With a trace of magic, I used Alteration on it—the step between Gradation Air and Reinforcement on the sorcerous transformation scale. Using Alteration allowed mages to add a property or effect to an item it wouldn't normally have. With the small spell, the otherwise unremarkable cutlery in my hand gained a new degree of sharpness that I likely never would have been able to obtain through any amount of sharpening.

  And then I threw it away.

  Takami didn't notice my action, her eyes still closed as she no doubt remembered what it was like when she thought I'd died, and Karasaba was apparently so focused on finding the humor in the previous scene that she almost missed it, but the female thing in the corner caught my movement midstream. She tensed, her eyes wide in sudden concentration, but she didn't move when the knife I'd thrown at the wall next to her head struck the bricks there. If it had been a normal knife, it probably would have bounced off, but with her unnatural sharpness, my improvised projectile sank in all the way to the hilt.
The previous commotion left those present without enough spirit to comment on the apparent use of magic in front of them.Well, the magic was real apparently.Yey
  It certainly stopped her from laughing. Instead, she now turned to study me, her normally narrowed eyes wide open and her hand resting on the hilt of her sword. Throughout the meeting, she had been regarding me as nothing more than an interesting specimen, one she might have to kill, but I was no real threat to her despite the apparent lightness with which I treated her and her sword even when it had been at my throat. Now it seemed as if she realized that perhaps my confidence had been more than simple arrogance.

  It probably wasn't the smartest thing I could have done, but at least it shut her up so I could focus on the fact that my entire life had apparently been upended by the fact that I got chickenpox in the wrong place and told a paramedic my childhood nickname instead of my real name.

  As Karasuba lifted one hand from her blade to slowly pull the knife I had thrown at her from the concrete, I realized something.

  "So what was my real name?" I asked, looking at the woman who was apparently my mother as she opened her eyes to look at me again.
Both Yukari and Minato leaned forward, interested in their possible brother.Takami seemed to have suspicions about his identity... even though several things didn't fit.
  "Minato Sahashi," he said to me. My eyes narrowed. Minato Sahashi. It didn't sound familiar, but it wasn't a completely foreign set of syllables. Instead, it seemed to buzz familiarly in my head, like a secret I'd long forgotten—which wasn't far from the truth considering it was a secret I'd long forgotten.
Yukari had to reread that line two more times just to make sure she got it right."What the hell?" Minato wasn't one for swearing, but what the hell was that?"So that's why they only mentioned washboard-chan," Kazehana muttered, more curious than puzzled."Is that guy supposed to be me!?" Minato finally exclaimed."Yes, Minato-san is more of a coward!" Naturally, Musubi's support proved more hurtful than any insult.But no one could deny it.Minato wasn't exactly a warrior, much less one to throw a knife at Karasuba herself."Well I can imagine how being away from those two would do him good" said Kazehana to the annoyance of the aforementioned family"So onii-chan in that world is a criminal magician swordsman?" Yukari asked, increasingly excited by the prospect.That sounded like something out of one of his sleeves!"Miss," Shiina muttered with a slight scolding, trying to avoid badly influencing Kuu.I hadn't had time to meet with her with all the commotion and wanted to finish at least this chapter quickly so I could see her."Right, I need to keep reading about the Onii-Chan wizard!""My son is a magician," Takami murmured, words he never thought he would say.How different would it be? How would he have grown without her?Only until now he seemed to show more vertebral Columba than his own son, Minato had his moments of bravery but compared to this...Was it his fault?
  "This," I finally managed to say after a long moment of silence. "This is unreal." Across from me, Takami could do nothing but nod as the two of us stared at each other uncomfortably. As the silence grew longer and more awkward, I had to stop myself from moving. What the heck are you supposed to do after discovering that everything you thought you knew about yourself was wrong and suddenly faced with a mother you'd always believed to be long dead? Takami seemed to be facing a similar dilemma.

  Finally, I broke the silence. "So," I began awkwardly. "Do I have a sister?"
"One too enthusiastic for her own good" said Minato still unable to reconcile that he and that lunatic were the same personAnd he was obviously a lunatic, how else would you even think of throwing a knife at MBI's dog?
  "Yes," the white-haired woman nodded, seemingly pleased that I'd taken the initiative. "Yukari. She's eighteen now. And you're about twenty, right?"

  "Yes," I nodded, scratching my head awkwardly. "Yes, that would be the right age."

  Relaxing a little as she grew more comfortable with the idea that the person sitting across from her was indeed her long-lost son, her expression turned suspicious in the same way it had when she'd first seen the results of her machine's test and thought I'd been some kind of saboteur. "What was that you mentioned about being expelled from school? Or about your girlfriends?" and here she drew out and emphasized the plural form of the word as her eyes narrowed.
"I'll assume the school is a way to cover up the magical organization, but girlfriends?" Homura looked vaguely amused, as a host he had heard of that sort of thing but usually the men who did that sort of thing had a very specific profile.And no offense but Minato definitely didn't fit in.His relationship with his sekirei was one in a million exceptions."Quite a stud, isn't he, brother?" Uzume said, amused by the situation.Chiho scolding her so adorably was a bonus
. I gulped, suddenly much more worried than I'd been even with Karasuba's sword against my throat earlier. This, this can't be a good way to start getting to know your long-lost mother."You can say that," Takami put a hand to his forehead, trying to process everything he had just discovered.Your son disappeared 15 years ago?Was he some kind of magician?What did he do to be persecuted like this?How the hell did he get two girlfriends!?"But...?" Musubi asked, drawing attention with a finger on her chin and a concentrated expression, "Why does she have red hair?"For some reason everyone turned to look at TakamiThe woman decided to just shrug off her previous crisis, she would overcome it later."Well, my mother once said that her grandfather, her great-grandfather, was an Irish immigrant," he said after thinking about it for a moment."Did she ever say that?" Minato asked as his sister seemed ecstatic to be one-eighth Irish.Takami shrugged."He died before I was born so I never met him, and I never really cared enough to try to trace our family tree, let alone do any DNA testing, although I think I'll do one when we get back" at least to clear the doubt."What would I look like as a redhead?" Yukari wondered, imagining herself with the deep red hair that Minato had on screen."I want to go home" was just chapter 1 and Minato was already tired







  NDT: So here with my new reading

  There were many problems in the previous one so I decided to eliminate the heiwa problem instead of fixing it.

  And the Irish blood thing, nothing canon of course, just something I decided to explain Shirou's hair color when both of his parents are dark-haired (at least before the gray hair)

  What did you think? Did you like it? Should I follow it?

  It's in your hands

  Bye-bye

  
    14235 words'
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