"You are so stingy. I am more familiar with you! Going to you is more convenient, is it not?"
Seeing how resistant Shirou looked, Lappland said with a light laugh.
And while visiting Shirou, she might also get a chance to conveniently run into Texas!
She truly was a little genius.
Within all of Penguin Logistics, it seemed only the Shirou in front of her did not reject her that much. Aside from Texas, the other three all seemed highly wary of her.
Then again, that made sense. To most people, she looked exactly like that kind of dangerous person. Even now, only this foolish Shirou would specially take care of her just because she was an acquaintance of Texas.
Should she call him simple-minded or just stupid?
Still, she did not dislike it.
Being taken care of like this actually felt pretty nice.
"You just want to see Texas, do you not?"
Shirou mercilessly exposed Lappland's true intentions.
The talk about bandaging and convenience was all nonsense. She simply wanted an excuse to look for Texas.
He did not know what sort of history existed between the two of them, but it was obvious that the current Texas was somewhat resistant to interacting with Lappland.
Perhaps it was related to the "past" Lappland kept referring to?
Shirou did not know either. He could only wait until the day Texas decided to talk about it herself.
"Tch, when did you suddenly become smarter? Before this, you were really easy to fool!"
Seeing Shirou see through her intentions, Lappland clicked her tongue dramatically.
In return, she received a deadpan stare from Shirou.
This guy somehow felt even harder to deal with than before...
Lappland silently complained to herself.
"Um... Mr. Shirou, your hand seems to be bleeding."
Watching the two bicker back and forth, Jessica timidly pointed toward Shirou's hand and spoke up.
She had actually noticed it quite a while ago, but the two had been talking continuously, so she could never find an opportunity to interrupt. Only after their conversation reached a pause did she finally get the chance to mention it.
"Hm? It was probably scratched by her fingernail or something, just a tiny cut, it is nothing serious."
After taking a quick look, there really was a tiny wound on the index finger of his left hand. It looked as though something sharp had lightly scratched it.
It was so small that if Jessica had not pointed it out, Shirou would never have noticed it himself.
Still, a little blood was seeping out.
"Hah!? When I get injured, you insist on bandaging me, but when you get injured, you can just ignore it?"
Seeing Shirou prepare to leave the wound untreated, Lappland immediately protested.
This was blatant double standards!
She had just been woken up from a perfectly good dream earlier, and Shirou had even deliberately poked her wounds several times while applying medicine. It had hurt!
"Your injuries came from infected creatures. Mine is just a scratch from your fingernail. Those are completely different, alright?"
Watching Lappland react so dramatically, Shirou answered helplessly.
Unfortunately, Lappland had no intention of listening to his explanation at all. She grabbed the medical kit that Shirou had already packed up and returned to Vanilla earlier, clearly intending to let Shirou personally experience what forced bandaging felt like.
She had to hurry!
If she waited any longer, the wound would probably heal on its own.
"Stop messing around..."
Although he said that, Shirou showed no intention of resisting.
Based on his understanding of Lappland, the easiest thing to do right now was simply go along with her. If he opposed her directly...
It would become exhausting.
This time, Shirou had genuinely come with the mindset of taking a vacation, so he could not be bothered fighting over trivial matters like this.
"Let me think... First rinse the wound, dry it, then apply medicine?"
Holding Shirou's hand, Lappland started recalling how wounds were supposed to be treated.
Normally, wounds should first be cleaned, then dried before applying medicine, and finally wrapped properly.
The treatment in the middle depended on the severity of the injury...
Though with a wound as tiny as Shirou's, she could honestly just handle it casually. The only reason she insisted on bandaging him at all was because she thought he was being hypocritical.
In simple terms, this was revenge.
The problem was that there was no water left nearby to clean the wound.
Earlier, Vanilla and Shirou had already used almost all of it while washing off the acid, since dealing with corrosive liquid required large amounts of water.
But that was fine!
The wound was tiny anyway.
She could just use the old-fashioned method.
From thinking about it to actually moving took only a few seconds.
Lappland directly took Shirou's bleeding finger and put it into her mouth.
For wounds like this, saliva was usually good enough. That was how she normally handled such injuries anyway. Shirou was simply more troublesome and insisted on using medicine.
"Whoa, are we really allowed to watch this for free?"
Sitting in the front seat, Franka practically wished she could teleport into Jessica or Vanilla's position and start furiously taking pictures with her phone or terminal.
Unfortunately, she could barely see clearly from her current position, let alone take decent photos. Any pictures she snapped would definitely come out horribly.
Vanilla and Jessica, who were sitting closer, were both stunned.
Vanilla looked completely confused about what had just happened, while Jessica's eyes had widened dramatically.
Shirou: "?"
Meanwhile, Shirou himself silently produced a question mark internally.
What just happened?
Why had Lappland suddenly put his finger into her mouth?
The moment Shirou recovered from the shock, he immediately pulled his hand back, then used his clothes to vigorously wipe his finger with an expression of disgust.
"Did you hit your head too hard during the fight or something? I am definitely reporting your condition to the medical department."
"..."
Being looked at with such disgust by Shirou, Lappland stared blankly ahead.
Or rather... her eyes were no longer focused at all.
"Did your brain seriously break or something?"
Noticing something strange about Lappland, Shirou wiped his finger clean before waving a hand in front of her face, but she still gave absolutely no response.
"Is Miss Lappland alright?"
The others in the front also noticed Lappland's unusual state and immediately voiced their concern.
As for Lappland herself...
The instant she came into contact with Shirou's finger or more accurately his blood she suddenly felt an incredibly warm and comfortable sensation spread throughout her entire body. Then she started seeing all sorts of strange things.
One thing she could say for certain was that she definitely was not inside the vehicle anymore.
It was a warehouse filled with miscellaneous junk. A mat had been spread out in the middle with countless tools placed upon it, while various machines stood nearby.
Looking farther ahead, she saw an upper-body-bloodied Shirou being violently thrown into the room, crashing directly into a wall.
"..."
Wow.
Lappland honestly did not even know what to say.
That Shirou, who always looked so composed and relaxed, actually had moments this miserable?
That felt almost surreal.
Putting aside where this place even was, Lappland found herself extremely interested in what was happening before her eyes.
Whoever could force Shirou into such a pathetic state had to be incredibly strong, right?
Unfortunately, she seemed unable to move around freely here and could only watch helplessly as a blue-haired man picked up a blood-red spear and thrust it toward Shirou, who was sitting against the ground.
Originally, she had expected Shirou to suddenly pull out his signature black-and-white twin swords and counterattack...
But it seemed he said something instead?
Crimson patterns spread across Shirou's hand before taking shape, followed immediately by an enormous burst of light that illuminated the entire warehouse.
The blinding light made Lappland squint, but instead of closing her eyes, she narrowed them and stubbornly continued watching.
When the light finally faded, the blue-haired man had already been forced back.
In his place now stood a golden-haired girl dressed in blue knight armor.
It almost looked as though she held wind itself within her hand. Something definitely existed there, but it was difficult to see clearly.
This was a silent dream.
From the moment Shirou was thrown into the warehouse until now, Lappland had not heard a single sound, nor had she been able to move at all.
Only after the blonde girl appeared did Lappland finally hear something.
The girl spoke:
"I ask of you, are you my Master?"
That was the very first thing Lappland heard after arriving here, and also the only thing she heard at all.
Immediately afterward, massive amounts of black mud surged forward and swallowed everything around her.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself back inside the vehicle.
"Am i back already?"
Returning from that strange place, Lappland oddly felt somewhat nostalgic about it.
At the very least, being able to move her body again was nice, and hearing properly through her ears was also something worth appreciating.
"You are awake? Are you alright?"
The awakened Lappland realized she had been lying directly on Shirou's lap. He even had a hand pressed against her forehead, seemingly checking her temperature.
The shock made her immediately sit upright.
"What happened to me just now?"
Straightening herself up, Lappland asked.
Her memories stopped right after she jokingly said she would bandage Shirou. Did that mean she had been unconscious the entire time?
So that really had been a dream?
But why would she dream about Shirou?
If she was going to dream about someone, should it not at least have been Texas instead?
Lappland felt that her relationship with Shirou currently existed in a strange middle ground where they were somewhat familiar yet not particularly close.
Basically, Texas was the only thing connecting the two of them.
Without Texas acting as the intermediary, Lappland suspected that in Shirou's eyes, she probably ranked around the same level as the children he took in at the Fuyuki store.
Possibly even lower.
After all, those children were obedient, while she knew perfectly well how other people viewed her.
She simply did not care.
To her, the opinions of others were meaningless.
"You suddenly froze completely just now. We called out to you several times and got no response at all. Judging from your reaction, this is the first time it has happened?"
Beside her, Shirou briefly explained what happened earlier.
Lappland's condition had been so severe that she completely stopped responding no matter how much they called her. If she had not still been breathing, Shirou genuinely would have thought she had suddenly died on the spot.
In the end, following Jessica's suggestion, they at least laid her down so she could rest for a while. Only after quite some time did she finally wake up again.
Seeing how energetic she looked now, there probably was not any major issue.
Still, just to be safe, Shirou checked her temperature a little...
Only for her to immediately jump up.
"I saw some strange things just now... I saw you, Shirou, getting beaten into a warehouse by a blue-haired man. You looked incredibly miserable, and then a blonde girl appeared to save you."
Rubbing between her eyebrows, Lappland explained.
Too many things had happened at once, and her head hurt.
At the same time, though, she could clearly feel that her body currently felt extremely relaxed and comfortable.
It had been a very long time since she felt this good.
After all, she had never taken particularly good care of herself. Occasionally, when she remembered, she would use suppressants, and it was only after getting in contact with Rhodes Island that she properly began receiving treatment.
Afterward, her condition really had slowly improved.
But she had never felt this good before.
Right now, she felt unbelievably refreshed.
"Ah... this..."
Listening to Lappland's explanation, Shirou roughly understood what had happened.
She had directly come into contact with his blood, triggering the conditions for mana transfer. During mana transfer, there was occasionally a small chance of seeing fragments of memories, especially particularly unforgettable ones.
For Shirou, although he did not personally possess those memories himself, the night of repeatedly witnessing Emiya Shirou's first encounter with Saber inside the warehouse was undoubtedly one of the hardest memories to forget.
Especially the sentence she spoke that night left an extremely deep impression.
It could be said that on that night, Emiya Shirou's fate reached a turning point.
However...
Did the people of this land possess magic circuits?
Or was it related to Originium?
Archer seemed to have mentioned something about it before, though Shirou only remembered him warning not to get too close to Originium. He had forgotten most of the rest.
At present, he still could not determine whether this was good or bad. He would need to be more careful about situations like this in the future...
If someone accidentally got hurt because of magical energy, he would feel extremely guilty about it.
"Looks like you really do know something."
Seeing Shirou's reaction, Lappland immediately realized he understood what she was talking about.
Which also meant that the Shirou she saw back then really had been completely overwhelmed and beaten down by someone.
He had even needed somebody else to save him.
From appearances alone, he did not seem that different from now, though back then he looked somewhat more foolish and naive.
So what exactly happened for Shirou to transform from someone being utterly crushed into the person he was now within such a short period of time?
Or perhaps...
The enemy Shirou fought back then was simply far beyond anything he could possibly handle?
Lappland did not know.
She possessed far too little information.
"I will explain it later. And next time, stop randomly putting things into your mouth. Be careful you do not accidentally overload yourself to death."
Shirou himself was not sure how many of his memories Lappland had seen. If it was only that segment, then it was probably fine. At least it was not embarrassing enough to qualify as social death.
At the same time, he gave her a warning.
If she had not suddenly shoved his injured finger into her mouth on impulse, none of this would have happened at all.
Of course, he himself also shared part of the blame. He already knew magical energy and Originium could create strange reactions together, yet he had failed to take proper precautions in that area.
"Eh? What a shame! Shirou, your blood actually tastes pretty good!"
Hearing Shirou's warning, Lappland only felt disappointed.
Although she did not understand the mechanism behind it, the warm sensation provided by Shirou's blood genuinely felt wonderful.
Originally, she had even planned to try it once more before sleeping tonight. It felt like it would guarantee an excellent night's sleep.
"Do not say horrifying things like that!"
Hearing Lappland praise the taste of his blood brought Shirou absolutely no happiness whatsoever.
From every possible angle, this topic felt far too advanced for him. He genuinely could not understand how anyone could think blood tasted delicious.
Wait.
Did this land actually have vampire-like beings?
If he remembered correctly, they were called Vampires or Blood Demons.
If Shirou remembered properly, the Doctor named Warfarin, who had previously been hung up on display by Kal'tsit aboard Rhodes Island, seemed to belong to that race.
And the reason she had been hung up there in the first place was because she had been having dangerous thoughts about his blood.
At this moment, Shirou suddenly felt like returning to Lungmen.
He had a growing feeling that this physical examination trip to Rhodes Island was going to become extremely dangerous.