"Good day to you, Issei-senpai."
"Yo, four eyes!"
"Good day to you too, Sakura-san." The boy in question politely returned her greeting with a nod before glaring at her idiotic sibling. "Shinji, how many times do I have to remind you to stop calling me that?"
"As enough times to get a reaction out of you."
"Arrogant jerk."
"Straight-laced pansy!"
"You little—!"
"Yo! Issei," Before another argument could break out, Shirou quickly stepped in between them while Sakura quickly pinched her brother's cheek. That shut Shinji up long enough for the redhead to follow up. "Another heater, right? Was it the one for the teacher's office?"
"Yeah," Issei spared Sakura a thankful nod for reigning in her sibling before sliding the room door open for them. "Kuzuki-sensei brought it up a while ago. I tried checking if it was a faulty socket to blame, but it failed to work here too."
Within a minute of being seated, he soon got down to his 'handyman' role. Sat on the council room floor next to dismantled machinery, Shirou quietly worked the time away. Shinji bored out his mind that it wasn't the karaoke-mixer date he was planning, and decided poking Issei for small talk was the best entertainment. All the while, Sakura quietly observed Shirou work nearby.
"God, why have a student do all the work? Here I thought the school would have such mundane expenses covered when they hired the janitor and mechanic…"
"They're currently busy elsewhere." Issei was quick to defend the school staff. "Some blockhead had decided to smoke near the computer rooms' AC unit and decided to hide his infraction by tossing a still-lit butt into the back of the machine. Fortunately, a fire didn't break out and said blockhead has been given detention until summer break. Unfortunately, the machine broke and the staff are currently going through the protocol to repair it."
"Gee. Quite the ordeal for the adults, isn't it?" Shinji snidely remarked.
"Of course it is! Breaking the rules is one thing. But damaging school property is a whole other issue!" The point flew by Issei's head as he chided to no one. "The school's budget is already tight as it is. That idiot was lucky he wasn't expelled on the spot!"
"Done." Before Shinji could prod the president, Shirou showed his handiwork. Having fixed this particular machine a couple of times in the past, he knew well enough where the problem was and quickly sorted it out with just some soldering and elbow grease. The issue now was a simple fix.
He need not use nor expose his magecraft for this, thankfully. Descendants of mystics and magi aside, would they even look at him the same way. No, of course, they wouldn't.
"Okay." Shirou ignored that thought and plugged the machine in, the room temperature gradually started rising. It was warm enough that Sakura's cheeks seemed to flush. Shirou had to stop eyeing the girl's adorable expression and move to admire his handiwork instead before turning to his friend. "It's patched up and good to go."
"Thanks a bunch, Emiya." With a complementary tap on the shoulder, Issei nodded in gratitude. "I don't know how you manage to do it so fast, but thanks. I owe you one."
"Rather than owe him, why not pay the guy? Sheesh…"
"A couple of wires had burnt off. Just wear and tear that comes with age." Shinji's mumbling was left ignored as Shirou pulled Issei away before he could retort. He led with some words of advice. "It's fine and working for now, but I think it may be high time to look for a replacement. It was failing now, but sooner or later, it could break in other ways."
"A possible fire hazard too, huh…" Issei nodded along, mentally taking notes to report to the teachers. Yet, the student council president was soon sighing, sounding really tired. "I had brought it up with academy staff to replace a number of things apart from several of the heaters, but our budget isn't unlimited. Kuzuki-sensei informed me about their last meeting with the Principal and the other top brass. According to him, the bigwigs say we can't waste what's left on something too trivial. Hmph. Stiffs."
The guy's face looked composed, yet he couldn't hide his peeved frustrations. Sakura then chimed in.
"They can't be replaced? Despite them already allocating a budget for replacements?"
"Not until the next school year, I'm afraid. A couple of other machines had broken down over the months due to being old or, like the smoker from earlier, being maltreated and damaged. The best compromise I was told was that we replace them out of pocket and just bill the school next year with the receipts." Issei scoffed lightly. "Not that I or my father would be willing to do so with our meagre savings. One can only do so much as a family of shrine keepers."
"Oh, it can't be that bad, can it?" Shinji cut in again. "I mean, didn't your family get offered a ton of money to sell off the shrine?"
Shirou's ears perked up at that one. Issei too made an expression as though to subtly ask where the hell Shinji heard it from. Alas, he didn't refute it. Merely sighed with clenched fists.
"You didn't hear this from me," After a pause, he responded. "But my father had no choice but to take the deal. That damned old man said it was to finally be able to pay for my college tuition fund without resorting to extreme means, but… Dammit… it's not like I would insist he pay for it all at once!" The normally calm son of a monk took a deep breath before continuing. "Justifications aside, I had no say after it all. I even tried to dispute it, telling him that it was a dumb idea. That it was unethical. That the city council would never approve of privately selling away sacred ground. But…"
The look on his face spelt the worst. "But… they did?"
"Yeah…" Issei's knit brow showed how he, akin to them, was just as if not more confused. "I don't know how, I don't know why, but when I asked for proof, I saw the documents and they were all signed off on by someone high up the political chain. It seems someone on the top ladder is trying to curry favour with the Sumeragi."
Shirou didn't know what to think of this. For one, he wasn't exactly sure how the legalities came into play. What he did know was that for his stickler-for-the-rules friend to be making such a face, something very off had gone down. Yet there was nothing any of them could do to change or undo things as Issei explained the deed was done. Yet…
"Feh, if the local administration is that willing to bend over backwards just because Sumeragi Industries is responsible for a little welfare project in Fuyuki, then they can all go to hell!" The rare cussing from Issei caught all three of them off guard. "They even went so far as to offer us a new home as compensation… or maybe as hush money. Curs. Lowlifes." He clicked his tongue in annoyance. "I read a little bit about them and it seems that Sumeragi Industries has been doing the same thing in a few other cities apart from ours. With other shrines as well."
"Going so far as to buy out religious sites? Isn't that suspicious?" Sakura asked, gaze sharply narrowing.
"It is. But the paper trail is pretty clear. They're being authorized to do it all. Some news outlets had brought it up for scrutiny, but small-time journalists dropped it completely and asking the bigger media led to nowhere. No one wants to bring it up. I asked a friend who worked with the papers and as far as he was able to ask his superiors, it just wasn't a good enough story. I'd call bull on it had he also not been told to stop asking! Something fishy is going on, but I can't make heads or tails of it!"
None of them did, in all likelihood. They were mere high school students. Well, one of them. But it still begged a question. One even someone as simpleminded as Shirou had to ask.
'Why buy a shrine when you can easily afford anything else?'
Why bother asking? It wasn't his business. There was no point in asking…
Shirou suppressed that thought.
There was no one to save when no one was in danger…
Shirou suppressed that one harder. As far as he understood the real estate market, a shrine was of little use economically. Culturally, it may have been a big deal, but there was no one getting hurt selling off land.
Yet… why was a business conglomerate going all in for such places? Even now, as his head resisted dwelling on such things, his curiosity was piqued. "Did they mention what they would do with the land? You guys were evicted, right? Does that mean they plan to build something on top of your old place?"
"No, or at least not yet. They closed off entry to the general public and, from the looks of it, turned what currently stands on the land as a private residence on paper. No idea for whom as the people I asked kicked me out of the public office before I could get answers. I… may have lost my head a bit at the receptionist. But still, making something as sacred as a Buddhist shrine into a mere house… I don't know who the damn prick is, but for a rich pig, it's beyond preposterous!"
"Well, what can you do?" Even Shinji, the one most likely to poke fun at Issei, toned down his teasing. Not that it stopped him entirely though. "Short of setting yourself on fire before the stairs in protest, I don't think anything's repealing the papers your pops signed. Truly, winning against one of, if not the, biggest corporation in Japan is beyond a mere monk—GEHEH!"
He was silenced by a sharp elbow to his sides but that only earned both Sakura and her brother a tired chuckle from the school's greatest student president in recent years.
"Heh… Yeah, you're right. That may be the case right now." Issei's tone shifted. "But I swear on my name, I will get back my family property one day! Maybe not next year, or the one after! But I promise I will use the money Sumeragi threw at my face to become powerful enough that I'll rip the rug from under them! The student now will be their worst enemy of a lawyer come a decade or so in the future!"
The guy had a fire in his eyes. It reminded Shirou of his impactful speech when running for student council president elections, bringing a smile to all their faces.
"Heh, imagining you as a lawyer with your temper, that should be something. If anything, you'd at least stand your ground then, huh."
"Granted, it's not the hill I dreamed I would die on, but I never had much of an ambition until today. Now, I can't wait for the day I get to sue that damned business—No, not the business, the damned system itself for bending the rules for selfish favours so blatantly!"
Shirou saw the image of Issei in a blue tuxedo standing in the court and shouting objections whenever he could. It was somehow fitting for his president, more so when he often did it during student-teacher meetings to call out lazy or incompetent staff members. Perhaps Shirou would also be standing by to hand over to the guy the evidence Issei collected himself as he always had.
Yeah. After all, it was a good fight if it was to help save his friends… right?
Playing goody-two-shoes as always. Not out of obligation, or duty. But… if it was for those he cared about… He wasn't wrong to do so. He couldn't be…
"Ha! I'd place bets if I wasn't rooting for your grand goal, four eyes! Maybe you can use what monk tenets you have to wade out of the legal storm in the following decades. That or maybe use your mystic powers to talk to the dead and gather dirt on their company."
"Don't be ridiculous, you fool! If I'm winning a legal battle, all I'll ever need is the law and my wits about me! Only a cult would resort to such tomfoolery. Also, only a fanatic would resort to self-immolation. Still, I may not be a zealot, but I am pissed they'd abuse their power so!"
Slowly the conversation turned from a serious topic to more light-hearted as Shinji and Issei continued their banter away from the issue to more pressing matters like how Shinji tried to use 'tricks and magic' to get out of detention. Sakura even took part, reminding her brother that such a thing was stupid and he should just stay out of trouble and follow the rules. Lest he be disciplined on the spot with a fist to the face, but she didn't bother saying so aloud. She didn't need to when she gave him that look. Shirou had to bail Shinji out by chiming in the banter here and there.
He couldn't help but feel at peace, commenting with whatever worked to be funny at the time. Whenever he watched the three of them be like this, he couldn't help but wish that all other problems would just fade away.
Not that all problems would. So long as he stayed…
He stilled at the thought, resolutely keeping face while subconsciously muzzling the self-doubt.
The voice had come often and would recently just push itself to the forefront of his thoughts, beating down whatever positivity he was enjoying at the moment. He'd grown accustomed to it, silencing it away in the back of his mind.
'Maybe I shouldn't be here. But as long as I can guarantee their safety and happiness… things should be fine… Shouldn't it—?'
No, it said. There's no way a liar like you, a lone survivor like you, can ever keep anyone safe. Not when all had to die… just so you could live…
Outwardly, Emiya Shirou merely smiled and retorted to Shinji and Issei's banter, earning a chuckle from Sakura and his pals. All the while, he tried to ignore the voices inside his head.