Reborn in Type-Moon: Starting by Adopting Sakura - Chapter 23

By the time they made it back to the Akihabara bookshop, the sun was already sinking behind the rows of high-rises, casting long shadows across the street. Yuu looked like a pack mule, weighed down with shopping bags of every size and shape. Irisviel practically bounced along beside him, chattering away like an excited bird.

"Lancer, we're back—" Irisviel stopped mid-sentence when she saw what was waiting for them. "Wait, why are you wearing armor?"

Artoria sat across from Manaka, fully decked out in her battle gear.

Usually, Manaka would have jumped up the second she heard Yuu's voice, practically shouting "Master!" as she rushed to greet him. Today, she just sat there in complete silence.

"You know this place is perfectly safe, right? There's no reason to be on high alert," Irisviel said with a warm smile. She walked over to Artoria and pulled a cute outfit from one of the bags. "I picked this out especially for you. I really hope you'll like it."

The knight glanced at the garment—all flowing, delicate fabric—and shook her head. "I have no need for such things."

Yuu finally managed to set down his mountain of shopping bags with a relieved sigh. "Manaka, I got you something too."

"Really?"

The quiet girl suddenly came alive, her whole face lighting up like someone had flipped a switch. She hurried over to him, took the bag he offered, and pulled out a light green dress. She held it up against herself, already imagining how it would look. "It's gorgeous!"

"There's another one in there as well. Both for you."

Her eyes went wide with pure delight. "Thank you so much, Master!"

Yuu reached over and ruffled her blonde hair affectionately, then turned his attention back to Artoria. "That outfit really was picked out specifically with you in mind, Iri put a lot of thought into it. At least try it on—if you hate it, we can always return it."

Artoria's gaze snapped to him like a sword being drawn. Her expression stayed perfectly neutral, almost robotic, but her eyes clearly said "I don't need you to explain that to me."

"You... you don't like it?" Irisviel's face crumpled into the most heartbreaking pout imaginable, like she was about to burst into tears.

"I'll try it," Artoria said, and without any further ceremony, she started removing her armor right there in the living room.

The evening light streaming through the windows bathed the bookshop in warm orange hues. A brief flash of prana, and Artoria's armor dissolved like it had never been there—revealing what looked like a perfectly tailored black business suit underneath. The jacket hung open, showing off a crisp white dress shirt and tie. The shirt fit so snugly it looked like the buttons were hanging on for dear life.

Her legs looked incredible in those slim black trousers, the kind of perfect proportions that made the whole outfit work. Athletic but elegant, like she could sprint a marathon or attend a board meeting with equal grace.

Yuu had to resist the urge to whistle appreciatively. Instead, he cleared his throat and tried to sound professional. "If you want to change into the new outfit, there's an empty room down the hall—second door on the right."

She took the clothes Irisviel had given her and walked off without a word.

The moment she was out of sight, Irisviel shot him a look and made a tiny victory gesture, clearly pleased with herself.

From that reaction alone, he could tell she'd probably been having way too much fun treating Artoria like her own personal dress-up doll. When the knight returned wearing a flowing dress, her whole presence seemed different. The clothes had changed, but that regal bearing in her eyes remained exactly the same.

"You look absolutely lovely! Now let's try this one too, Lancer!" Irisviel was practically vibrating with excitement as she held up another outfit—a skirt and what looked like thigh-high stockings.

Artoria just stared at her in complete silence.

Eventually, she went back to the black suit, and Irisviel let out the longest, most dramatic sigh Yuu had ever heard.

With the decision made that both guests would be staying at the bookshop for the foreseeable future, Manaka had already gotten their rooms ready.

…

The next morning, a letter arrived from Fuyuki with Tohsaka Tokiomi's seal on it. He was asking Yuu to help select a relic for his apprentice.

"An apprentice?" Yuu muttered, trying to remember. About two years back, Tokiomi had mentioned something about taking on a student from the Church—some Burial Agency executor, if he recalled correctly.

He'd figured it was just casual conversation at the time, but apparently Tokiomi had been serious.

The word "magus" alone wasn't particularly noteworthy. But the Holy Church made it their business to stamp out anything that fell outside their doctrine—any miracle or mystery they deemed heretical had to be destroyed.

A thousand years ago, when magi got tired of being hunted down like criminals, they'd banded together and formed what eventually became the Mage's Association. Safety in numbers, and all that.

These days, both sides mostly kept to themselves and tried not to step on each other's toes.

But a Church priest becoming the student of a magus? That was definitely not something you saw every day.

Then again, organizations were just groups of people when you got down to it. And people could be convinced to do all sorts of things if the circumstances were right. In that regard, Tokiomi's connections really were impressive.

After finishing the letter, Yuu had a pretty good idea why Tokiomi would go to all this trouble to recruit someone from the Church.

He wanted to win the Holy Grail War.

Even with another Master currently sleeping under his own roof, Yuu didn't feel particularly concerned about any of this. He'd gotten used to playing middleman between opposing sides years ago—just another day at the Clock Tower, really.

After all, this was the same guy who'd somehow survived getting caught in the crossfire between the Aozaki sisters and Alice Kuonji without losing any limbs.

"The Servant this relic summons can't be too powerful, or they'll overshadow Tokiomi's position as the teacher. But they can't be too weak either, or there's no point."

Yuu thought it over for a moment, then walked to one of the walls and raised his hand.

Nine layers of bounded fields sparked to life, weaving together to form a rectangular chamber that seemed to cut right through the wall itself. He slid it open like a hidden drawer.

Inside sat a bone-white skull mask, completely motionless in the darkness.

"This should work."

Back in the 11th century, there was an assassination order that operated throughout Persia and Syria. They gave the title "Old Man of the Mountain" to each successive leader of their sect, and those leaders all wore masks just like this one.

What Yuu was holding had actually belonged to one of those Old Men.

He carefully sealed the relic back up and made arrangements for the Clock Tower to ship it down to Fuyuki.

On his way downstairs, he found Irisviel curled up in the lounge with a book.

"Off to work again, Mr. Yuu?" she asked, looking up from her reading.

"No, just sending a relic to a friend. He needs it for summoning a Heroic Spirit."

"Make sure you come back soon, alright? I was hoping we could visit Meiji Shrine this afternoon—wait." She paused, her silver hair sliding over her shoulder as she tilted her head. Her eyes followed him as he headed for the door, and she spoke almost to herself, like she was trying to process what she'd just heard.

"A relic? For summoning?"