Chapter 16: The Carnival
The car sped along the road and left fuyuki. reaching the nearest town the automobile containing the 2 families was guided towards the festival by 2 more cars with one in front and another in back.
The convoy smoothly went off-road and parked in front of a gate made of colourful banners. The festival decorations were striking and colourful attracting Shirou's attention.
The door of the car guiding them opened and 8 men weakening loose yukata with tiger patterns stepped out. They greeted Mr. Raiga and talked about how they had already done 5 registrations for the hunting contest at noon.
Kiritsugu and the other men went to prepare for the competition in an hour while Taiga dragged shirou around to different stalls.
Shirou and Taiga experienced various festival games while having snacks from the stalls. They discovered that Shirou's marksmanship was bad like very bad, through the Pop the Baloon game.
While they were roaming around 3 members of the Fujimura group approached them and asked them to come and watch the henting competition.
When they reached the venue they found Raiga standing at the viewing platform excitedly while the fathers of both Taiga and shirou were wearing hunting equipment.
Some of the group members were helping Mr Fujimura while kiritsugu wore the equipment easily after looking through the manual.
Kiristsugu cleaned and assembled a long-range rifle that looked like a sniper. Seeing his father cleaning the gun with extreme familiarity Shirou's memory of his dreams flashed across his eyes.
He remembered his fathers lying on buildings with a black sniper rifle and observing the people participating in the grail war.
Then the scene of Master of Lancer getting shot by an origin bullet flashed through his mind and he became solemn.
Noticing this kiritsugu came to shirou and rubbed his head and said
"Enjoy the festival shirou. Don't think about unnecessary things."
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Kiristsugu won the whole tournament with a landslide, he had thrice the number of points compared to the runners-up. The reward for the contestwas a cup and a small cash prize.
By the time this all happened everyone was hungry so they went to a food stall. While eating they noticed that it was already 4 pm, and the old Fujimura dragged them to the sumo wrestling ring.
While they waited for the match to start the old man smiled gently which was more scary than gentle due to his facial features, and then passed a pack of cash to Taiga and shirou saying that it was their spending money.
During the matches, the 3 of them participated in betting and Taiga showcased her black luck. She lost all her bets and pulled Shirou's cheeks in frustration.
By the time they all returned from the festival, it was already night and kiritsugu had brought takeout for dinner. Shirou practised magecraft till all his od was consumed and he was not able to pull any more mana from the surroundings.
He fell asleep while the complete structure of a kitchen knife flashed inside his mind and a twisted knife disappeared into mana.
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The week passed with shirou keeping up his routine. Kirtsugu finally started personally sparing with shirou. Without school, shirou spent a lot more time practising mage craft.
His efforts bore fruit and he felt that he had become able to understand the shape of small blade-like objects. He was able to clearly remember the shape of kitchen knives, paper cutters, carving knives, razor blades and nails.
Tiaga`s teachings also intensified as she started training shirou in footwork and muscle moments. Shirou was now regularly thrashed by taiga so much that they were forced to use protective gear.
Shirou has now developed a habit of meditating in the dojo after being taught swordsmanship. He meditates while using structural grasp on his necklace, he gets lost in the structure most of the time and takes around an hour to come back to his senses.
Shirou had also developed his cooking skills to an unprecedented level for kiritsugu who shed tears of joy when shirou made a hamburger from him.
Shirou did that as he remembered kiritsugu mentioned his favourite food was hamburgers during the holy grail wars and also jokingly said it was so because they tasted like slaughter.
The weekend came and so did Kiritsugu`s package of weapons containing various guns and lots of bullets.
After eating their breakfast they went to the mountains. Kiritsugu guided Shirou towards a clearing in the mountain. Shirou asked
"Dad, how did you find this place?"
Kiritsugu replied
"While scouting the place to set bombs in the leylines."
With an understanding look, shirou unloaded the packed arsenal. Kiritsugu pointing his hand towards the handles of guns said
"Pick the one you are most comfortable with"
Shirou picked up a pistol and opened his circuits. Using structural grasp he checked the 6 firearms one by one. He felt most comfortable with a desert eagle with a slightly longer barrel.
Looking at his son`s weapon choice kiritsugu frowned because the recoil would be too much for a child. When kiritsugu gave valid reasons not to choose it, Shirou's mood deflated but he still went with Kiritsugu`s recommendation.
The father and son pair spent the rest of daylight practising shooting and the result showed that shirou had horrendous marksmanship as well as the best performance came from the desert eagle in spite of its high recoil.
Reaching home and cooking dinner shirou went to practise mage craft and knocked himself out holding the mystic code.
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This schedule went on for 2 days and a morning.
It was New Year's Eve hence the lessons of both shirou and taiga were cancelled by their respective teachers. Shirou was dressed in a sky-blue yukata with a blue belt and kiritsugu was dressed in a black yukata with a black belt.
They went to the Ryuudou Temple and met Mr. Ryuudou, who was waiting for them along with his 2 children.
When the adults greeted each other the boy who looked to be of similar age to shirou came forward and said
"Hello, my name is Issei Ryuudou. Nice to meet you."
Nodding at him shirou said
"I am shirou emiya. Nice to meet you too"
The adults talked in the background and the two boys discussed with each other. Shirou learnt that Issei was in the same grade as him but was from a different section. The boys decided that they would meet at school once it opened.
While this was happening the Fujimura family came along and the Raiga and Mr Ryuudou started arguing. Issei`s elder brother went to greet Taiga and shirou learnt that he was called Reikan Ryuudou.
They went to the temple to pray and get blessings. After everyone came out the old mob boss suggested that they wait to view the fireworks.
they declined the mountains and went to a restaurant to have dinner. The market of fuyuki was full due to the influx of people weakening colourful clothes and celebration stalls.
All the restaurants were as full and lively as the streets, so the group went towards a restaurant whose gate was strangely empty.
When they read the sign on the restaurant the emiya family`s faces turned pale. It was the restaurant selling mapo tofu, kiritsugu and shirou quickly guided the group away from the hell they were walking into.
Being saved from having their night ruined by the spices the group went into a restaurant under Fujimura's group and it took 5 mins for Mr.Raiga to book a private room for them.
After the feast, they all walked up to the temple and viewed the whole of fuyuki city`s skies being lit up by fireworks. The beautiful site took everyone`s breath away.
While returning home shirou and kiritsugu walked in comfortable silence. They came across a sparkle of fireflies beside the road above a pond.
Shirou stared at the pond with joy and the pair stood there and watched them fly to the sky and disappear into the moonlight.
After reaching home the father and son pair sat at the engawa and gazed at the moon. Breaking the soothing silence kiritsugu said
"Shurou have you found your answer to the question of does everyone deserve to be saved?"
"You must already have seen what my path led me to by following my answer every life has equal value."
Shirou hesitated but firmly said
"No, Dad I haven't found a answer to this question."
Kiritsugu replied while looking at the moon
"I sincerely hope that you don't walk my path shirou, because once the perfect world of my dream started pouring I asked myself was it worth it? Is this worth what I have lost along the way?"
"Your visions gave me a new perspective of the whole ordeal and I realised a lot of things by listening to you, a neutral observer described my experience."
"So shirou think can you tolerate it when all your rights turn into wrong, determine it before you even think of walking on the path of saving others."