Taiga Finds Out

Note: In Chapter Six of Effecting Fate, I made reference to Taiga Fujimura and how she found out about Shirou being a magus, and the moonlit world in general. Several people have asked me how that came about exactly, so here is my answer. I hope that you all enjoy it!

“… And I want to reach out to the various groups in that area - if Shirou hasn’t been caught by the authorities, that means he must have some sort of connections.”

“We’ll do our best, but most of our allies were killed after he blew up-“

The man was cut off by the growl of a tiger, the normally cheerful woman in front of him glaring at him darkly as she clenched the shinai in her hand.

He quickly backtracked.

“Uhm, that is, after somebody blew the reactor up.” He quickly appended, his criminal instincts warning him of incoming danger.

Her glare never let up, but the mysterious growl seemed to vanish so he took that as a win.

“Do what you can and get back to me.” She ordered tersely, and he hastily complied, leaving the room as fast as decorum would allow.

Taiga Fujimura growled in annoyance as she stalked back to her desk, well aware of what everybody was thinking.

Well too bad. She didn’t care what anybody else thought!

She opened her browser once more and glared at yet another emergency news broadcast that popped up. Every news station was covering it, even several days after the fact, and the news kept getting more horrific as time went on.

A nuclear reactor had been sabotaged, causing it to blow up, leaving half a million people dead, with the official number still climbing. A horrific act of terrorism that shook the entire world, the aftereffects still shaking it.

That, in and of itself, isn’t what angered Taiga.

It was the picture of the man that everybody was saying was the mastermind.

Shirou Emiya.

HER Shirou.

She narrowed her eyes at the report, clenching her beloved shinai even tighter, wishing she could beat up the stupid newscasters that had no idea what they were talking about.

And what was worse was that they were getting interviews from people that he had known, students that went to school with him and should have known him!

Shirou was the most selfless person that she had ever met, to the detriment of his own health even. He would help ANYBODY, and she would wager that in the entirety of the time he’d gone to school here he’d been asked for assistance by at least three quarters of the school.

Including the teachers.

Heck, had a stranger come and asked him for help, he would have provided it without question!

(Seriously. Most kids got the ‘don’t take candy from strangers’ talk. She had to give Shirou the ‘don’t help creepy strangers who ask for help without telling Taiga first’ talk. It was the best compromise she could manage.)

But now those very same students that took advantage of his help back then were telling the press that ‘oh, they always knew that there was something off about him,’ and other variations… She couldn’t help but scoff in disgust. Her students said that! The traitors!

The news had reported that Shirou was sentenced to die, and Taiga had been an absolute wreck, begging her grandfather to help him somehow. Unfortunately, despite being the head of the Fujimura Group, a Yakuza group of some renown, they were truly limited in what they could do. Airports had been shut down in the wake of the travesty, and despite how much Taiga might wish otherwise they simply weren’t equipped to break somebody with that high a profile out of jail, and outside of their own territory no less.

Thankfully, despite the extremely rushed trial, the day of the execution Shirou had been reported as having escaped, resulting in a nationwide manhunt.

That had been several days ago, and there was still no word on Shirou, and Taiga was getting more testy as time went on, and the news reports were getting worse.

She turned away from her monitor with a huff, going over to the couch in her office to sit down and rub her temples for a bit. Thinking about what was happening was too stressful, especially since she couldn’t actually do anything to fix it.

As such, her thoughts drifted to the past.

Most people didn’t understand the dynamics between her and Shirou, and she certainly never felt the urge to explain it to them. When she had first met Shirou, he had been so… Empty. Hollow. He was so quiet, in a way that she had never truly seen in a child before, and the sight of it made her sad.

Taiga had always been a cheerful person, but when she was around Shirou she made sure to bring it out more in an attempt to make him smile. Later on, when Kiritsuga died, she became his guardian and big sister figure, doing her best to bring a bit of brightness to his life, and as time went on that just became their dynamic. When Sakura came, she saw in her the same thing that Shirou needed, and kept it up for her as well.

She wasn’t blind. She knew very well that something rotten was going on in the Matou Mansion based on Sakura’s behavior. She had actually gone to her grandfather and attempted to have something done about it.

To her surprise and disappointment, in one of the few actual orders that Raiga had given her, he had told her not to do anything to disturb the Matou's, and to especially never go in that mansion on her own.

She didn’t like it. She hated it, in fact. But she trusted that her grandfather knew what he was doing.

If she couldn’t do anything about that creepy old man that called himself Sakura’s grandfather, then she would do her best to give her a reprieve, a place that she could relax. Much like with Shirou, she did the best that she could to become the quirky and caring big sister figure.

They became family. While many called her unreliable (and maybe she was) those two were her family. They might have their secrets, but she knew them.

And she knew that Shirou would never do something like this.

But given his general disposition, she could absolutely see somebody taking advantage of him to pin the job on him. The only question was how he managed to get in that position to begin with.

Not that it mattered all that much to her.

Shirou was family. He was her younger brother. She knew that he often thought himself alone, but Taiga would do everything she could to protect that which was hers. And if she had to fight against the world, then so be it!

She was brought out of her thoughts by an insistent knocking on her door, and she growled in annoyance. She was absolutely done with the day. But, as much as she wanted to ignore it… it might be somebody with news.

She hated being responsible.

She pushed herself up from the chair and stalked towards the door, flinging it open.

“What is -“ Her mind went completely blank, all frustration and irritation vanishing suddenly in shock.

“Hey Fuji-nee…”

That was as much as Shirou made out before she grabbed him by his hand and yanked him into her office and into a chair, Tora-Shinai pointing straight at his chest.

“Alright Shirou. What’s going on?” She demanded.

The tearful reunion and hugging could happen later. If she was going to be fighting against the world for him, then she needed to know what was going on.

After all the stress that he put her through the last several days, he owed her that and a lot of cooking.

---------------------------

Several minutes prior

Shirou breathed a sigh of relief as he snuck by the guy coming out of Fuji-nee’s office. He had to use Carnwennan to get so far into the Fujimura estate, but his knowledge of the layout and of the people inside definitely helped him once inside.

Which was good, as he still hadn’t fully recovered from prior events.

He gave a shuddering breath as his mind flashed back to the last several weeks. A Dead Apostle had managed to make a small army of ghouls and had let it loose on the populace. A distraction for some plan or other, he never found out.

It was… very effective, as horrible as that was. By the time he had arrived to help contain the situation he had heard that there were upwards of several thousand ghouls. The following days resulted in him being in constant combat, rarely able to find time to eat or rest.

Though in the end, it did absolutely nothing. 

It had been too much apparently, the breach in secrecy. He had found out later that the Church had declared the place a lost cause. Far too many ghouls to contain, and too many witnesses that saw things that they shouldn’t. To them, the only solution was to purge everything.

A clean slate. 

It was a miracle that Shirou had managed to survive the resulting destruction. Or perhaps it was intentional - after all, when he was discovered he had been taken into custody, and everybody was accusing him of blowing up a nuclear reactor that killed everybody.

It wasn't difficult to figure out. The Church wanted him to be a scapegoat.

Perhaps if he had nothing to live for that would have broken him. He wished to save as many people as he could, and yet in that city, despite all his efforts, he had been unable to save a single soul. Not only that, but he was being blamed for the entire catastrophe. Perhaps that is what he deserved for being unable to save them?

And yet…

Memories of her came to mind. Her rare smile and laughter, her expression as they sparred, the knowledge of what she fought for…

The knowledge that she was waiting for him.

He wouldn’t give up. He COULDN’T give up.

She had taught him more than just how to fight. There was no dishonor in retreating if that was the right choice, if it meant the war could still be won later. His purpose remained the same - he WOULD become worthy to see her once more.

The Dead Apostle… He had been the one that released the ghouls that caused the church to purge the city. He was still at large, and Shirou didn’t know what his purpose was.

Unfortunately, he could no longer depend on the Church, nor the bulk of their enforcers. That didn’t give him very many options to work with.

Which is what led him here, back to Taiga.

He had kept in touch ever since he, Rin, and Sakura had left for the Clocktower, but he had never told her the truth of everything. How could he? It was for her own safety that she remain ignorant. Now, he might not have a choice. Would she believe? Would she even give him the chance to explain?

As much as he hated having to involve her in stuff like this, Taiga could help get him different credentials and ID’s, stuff that he would need in order to hunt down the Dead Apostle. With the church hunting him down, he didn't have many people he could trust to help him in this matter. 

And to be honest… He always did hate having to lie to her about magic, even knowing that it was for her own good.

He took another deep breath and readied himself, walking up to her office and quickly knocking on her door while the hallway was clear.

It took several moments but soon the door was wrenched open and he was face to face with his guardian and big sister. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Shirou couldn’t help a warm feeling at the sight of her.

“What is -“ She stopped as soon as she registered who he was, her eyes growing wide as  he gave her a sheepish smile.

“Hey Fuji-nee…” He began, but that was as far as he made it before she recovered from her shock and grabbed onto his arm and yanked him into her office and onto a chair, Tora-Shinai pointed at his throat and a rarely seen serious Taiga glaring at him.

“Alright Shirou, what’s going on?”

Well... It looked like she would give him the chance to explain himself at least, so that was good, right?