Chapter 10 : Rias gives him a smile.

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"Good question, either the cave is recent and the barrier was keeping normal people out," Rias starts to walk towards it, "or it was dug very recently."

Shirou starts to follow but Rias turns around to stop him. "Sorry but this is where we split."

"What? Why?"

"There is a good chance that there is indeed a stray and the other magus had to call for help."

Rias gives him a smile. "While I appreciate the intent, from now on I won't be able to protect you."

"I don't need protection." Shirou didn't feel offended per say but still insulted.

"I don't know how powerful this stray is going to be, but he is skilled." Rias goes back to march to the cave.

"Batchan, keep an eye out. Nobody else goes in." She gives Shirou a last look. "If you want to come I won't stop you but please, be careful and run if I tell you to."

Shirou didn't disagree and they both made their way in the cave. Even if it wasn't a natural one it was still absolutely dark. No lights of any shape or size.

But both explorers had night vision since one of them was from a race inclined to the darkness anyway.

Shirou had reinforcement, the human eyes could adapt to dark environments but not enough to help in such a situation, except that reinforcement allowed him to see to a greater degree, enough to avoid tripping at very least.

...

It was a natural cave, there were no stalagmites or any other sign that time was responsible for it.

In Rias' mind the odds of a stray were rising by the minute, the clues just kept piling up but there were still questions on her mind.

What was a stray doing in a school? Nobody was attacked so it was not hunting humans for food, it was hiding in the woods but those woods were close to a school… too close for comfort even.

Rias had one of her peerage, her Queen, investigate the area and it made no sense so far.

The story of Homurahara was a long one; founded by normal men in the times after the establishment of the Meiji government.

It was once the top school of the city and in the good times was an example of administration.

As far as Rias knew nothing supernatural happened to it, even if Fuyuki itself had its fair share of events.

A normal school, with mostly normal students, falling apart for the times were changing… Why would a stray hide there?

Questions and questions. That was all that Rias had at the moment, just questions. Looking behind her she could see that the magus was still following. That was another question.

It was not like she didn't know that there were others of the moonlit world in the city, that was actually expected because unless someone figured out how to make a city large boundary field there was no way of monitoring all who go in or out, and even then it would be hard for someone to process all that intel.

But the fact that she found a magus without any previous ties to devils or minimal prior knowledge?

That was weird. The way he described his family spoke more of isolation or exile but Emiya Shirou didn't look like a criminal or even the child of one.

But even the most isolated families had more knowledge of devils and the like, sure he knew about them but he was still surprised about what a devil was like.

Oh, she felt his eyes looking at her, there was some desire there but not as much as mostly would have. It was buried beneath caution and confusion, confusion being the key there.

So far Shirou didn't do anything she had heard magus usually did, no aria or words to help him focus or the use of a mystic code, an object imbued with power, or anything that was common.

Rias had met some magus once but that was years ago and they were contracted with her family.

Thanks to them she had a fair understanding of magecraft and what magus could do, that is why she didn't want Shirou with her in a dangerous situation.

It is not that a magus can't fight, they just didn't but there were exceptions. That didn't change the fact that Shirou was an unknown element.

She didn't know his capabilities, even if he could fight and the way he kept a firm grip on the wooden sword spoke of familiarity, he may never have been in a real fight.

But from what she could gather he was a nice guy, if the stray is dangerous she will have to make sure he doesn't get hurt.

Shirou stops out of nowhere making the devil also pause. "What is wrong?" Rias asked, turning towards him and seeing him place a hand on his nose.

"This smell… it is awful."

"Smell?" Rias wasn't smelling anything.

"It is how I detect mana." Shirou started to make a face of disgust. "And the air here… I never smelled something that bad in my life."

"How does that work?" Rias would admit that she was curious if asked.

"Everyone has their own way of using mana, their own smell. But the deeper we go to the cave…" He didn't need to finish.

"Out of curiosity, how do I smell?" That distracted Shirou who suddenly looked nervous.

"I don't know how you smell… I know how your power smells."

"Huh, nice dodge." Then Rias started to exude her energy, enough so that Shirou relaxed.

"I think that my power 'smells' better right?" Even if Shirou couldn't see properly he knew she was smiling cheekily.

Two started walking again and in a few minutes Rias started to detect the energy that Shirou was talking about.

It was from a devil she was sure but it was also corrupted, truly from a stray.

Looking at Shirou, Rias can tell he was having no troubles with her energy… was the corruption the source of the 'bad smell'?

That was interesting. "We are getting closer to the stray, last chance to back out."

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