Hello everyone.

This chapter is a little shorter than normal, mainly because I felt I had hit the right place to end it.

Anyway...

I have a pa treon set up at.

www. pa treon. _com_/thedistortedshadow (remove the spaces and underlines)

XXX Chapter Start XXX

Shirou couldn't stop himself from frowning as he walked down the street, Rin and Saber walking alongside him.

"Are you sure we should wait?" he asked the most experienced magus in the group.

"Shirou, right now the cause of death is unknown; it's possible that they'll identify something after a closer inspection," she told him but he felt himself remaining uneasy.

He could understand her decision; they were a pair of magi and a servant, they weren't needed for mundane investigations.

But he had come to learn that the Tohsaka and the Mages Association as a whole had contacts within government agencies specifically for the purpose of determining whether anything supernatural was involved so they could cover up any evidence of the supernatural.

But Inaba was too small a town for the association to pay any mind to.

Meaning the police force had no plants that they could use to find out the information without arousing suspicion.

The closest thing they had was Dojima and they would need to hypnotise him if they wanted to obtain any information from the man.

And Shirou really didn't want to hypnotise his uncle.

But in the end, if hypnotising Dojima was necessary then they would do it.

"I know… but it doesn't feel right doing this," he said, knowing Rin would already expect that sentiment from him.

She nodded.

"I know," she agreed, "but we can't investigate every single death that happens."

He nodded.

As much as he wanted to, he already knew that he couldn't save everyone and that sometimes, someone had to die so others could survive.

It didn't make it any easier for him.

Silence fell upon them as they continued down the street, eventually reaching the edge of the forest that their property was located within.

Hopefully a night of work by the police would allow them to identify the cause of death and set him at ease.

XXX Fate/Clouded Psyche XXX

The following morning felt like it passed by slowly for Shirou.

Waking up had been relatively normal, however he had decided against his morning sparring with Saber in exchange for watching the News channel to see if any new information had come to light concerning the death.

Eventually they mentioned the case.

And nothing new concerning the cause of death.

It was still unknown.

That made him clench his fists.

If it was still unknown then that probably meant that determining the cause of death was proving difficult.

Meaning it was either natural causes that were hard to identify or a method that didn't leave a regular mark on the victim.

Aka, magecraft.

And from the fact that the body was found on top of an antenna on a roof, the likelihood of it being natural causes was slim to none.

If a cause of death hadn't been found by the end of the day he would have to get the body checked out by Rin.

She was better at diagnostics than he was after all.

"Shirou, are you all right?" Saber asked him and he took a deep breath.

"Yeah; it's just that it's looking more and more suspicious," he admitted, earning a nod from the ancient king.

"Am I correct in assuming that you will wish to have the body examined by Rin?" the blonde asked him and he nodded.

"If they can't determine a cause of death by the end of the day then I'm not going to accept no for an answer," he declared.

Saber simply nodded.

She knew there was no point in trying to persuade him otherwise.

Once he had set his mind on a course of action there were very few ways to make him change it and all of them were extreme.

"There won't be time to spar this morning," she said, clearly trying to steer the conversation to an easier subject.

"Sorry," he said, "I just needed to know if they had discovered anything."

"I understand," Saber said, "however, you would do well to not make a habit of this."

He nodded.

If he did make a habit of skipping training then he would quickly lose his body's conditioning and the skills he had inherited from Archer.

But a single day wouldn't be too damaging.

"I guess I'll go and make breakfast before Rin wakes up," he said, earning a nod off of Saber before he proceeded to make his way to the kitchen.

XXX Fate/Clouded Psyche XXX

The walk to school was awkward as Shirou found himself constantly distracted by the thought of the death that had happened the previous day.

Rin for her part was following him in near silence.

There was no way she didn't know where his mind was going.

Rin just knew him too well to not anticipate it.

"Tonight," she said.

He nodded.

There was no need to say anything else.

After all, there was only one thing she could be talking about.

"Thank you Rin," he replied, causing her to release a sigh.

"And to think… this was supposed to be relaxing," she said with a wry smile.

"Yeah," he acknowledged.

To think that even a simple trip to meet his only remaining relative could potentially turn into a magical murder investigation.

Perhaps tragedy followed him?

After all, first was the fire, then there was the Grail War and now that he moved, a woman was murdered and thrown over an antennae.

Perhaps the people who turned on Archer had been right?

Maybe death followed him.

No.

He couldn't let himself think like that.

He was going to save everyone he could.

That was the dream he inherited from Kiritsugu.

He had already faced the flaws with that goal, had already faced the inevitable outcome of it.

But even with all of that he would not regret his decision to save people.

Eventually they reached the highschool and made their way through the crowd that was starting to congeal around the entrance as they made their way to their classroom.

Shirou just hoped the day went well.

XXX Fate/Clouded Psyche XXX

The day was practically hellish as class passed by so slowly he found himself wondering if there was some sort of bounded field on the classroom that altered his perception of time.

He pushed that thought out of his head. That was clearly just paranoia talking.

Not that paranoia was inherently bad… it was certainly useful when there was something like the Grail War occurring.

Though the fact the Grail War had ended meant that his paranoia was probably mostly unfounded.

At most it would probably only be a small group with no servants to worry about.

Saber would be more than capable of dealing with such things even with the strain she would inevitably cause on Rin.

Rin too had at least some combat ability; what with how she had managed to temporarily overwhelm Caster during the Grail War.

As for him… well, he had Noble Phantasms in his arsenal; that alone was enough to make him a legitimate danger to most people.

So if he got into a fight, he would probably be capable of taking care of himself.

Against a Servant he wouldn't stand a chance, same with a fighter being enhanced by a Servant.

But a normal magus would be a different matter entirely.

Had they attempted to fight him before his epiphany concerning the nature of his magecraft, then they would stand a much better chance against him than they did now.

But with his current understanding of his reality marble he wasn't simply projecting a blueprint of a blade… he was outright extracting the already formed blades from his marble.

The end result of that was that the blades were both significantly stronger and cost less magical energy to manifest.

Which meant that he wouldn't run out of magical energy that quickly even with his terrible reserves.

So it would take a lot to bring all three of them down.

Eventually the bell rang and he felt relief flood him at the school day ending.

It wouldn't be long before they could investigate the death now.

Releasing a breath, he stood from his seat and packed his things before looking over at Rin to see her doing the same.

The other students looked far less eager to get out; not that he could blame them; unlike himself and Rin they were relatively carefree and more focused on their groups of friends.

But as magi, he and Rin had other priorities.

Including making sure the town was actually safe for people to walk the streets.

Not that simply being indoors was a guarantee of safety.

Clearing his mind of those thoughts, he walked to the door, reaching it almost at the same time as Rin.

"So… what are we going to do now?" he asked her.

"I was thinking we should probably head to Junes and make sure we have enough food for dinner," she responded.

He nodded.

It was probably an honest response and he found himself unsurprised.

After all, there was only so much they could do during the day.

So they would just have to wait until the sun had set before they truly started on their investigation.

"Okay then," he replied.

As they left the room, he noticed Rin frown.

"What's wrong?"

She simply released a sigh.

"Sorry, it is simply that I'm not really getting the chance to work on my studies right now," she said and he blinked.

That wasn't really surprising.

They were regularly going to the Dojima residence to make sure Nanako was safe but that meant they didn't really get a lot of time after school to actually practise their magecraft in the basement.

"What do you want to do about it?" he asked her, causing her to release a sigh.

"I don't know," she admitted, "until this murder case is over, I don't think it would be a good idea to leave Nanako-chan alone for too long."

He nodded.

If it wasn't for the whole murder case then they could easily just leave earlier and spend the night working on their magecraft.

But now... now there was just too much danger leaving Nanako and Narukami alone.

"I guess… we'll just have to do the bare minimum to keep our skills up," he said.

He saw Rin cringe before nodding.

Unlike him, she was from a long line of magi, so the idea of not working on her magecraft probably felt like she was spitting on the graves of her predecessors.

"Sorry," he said as he glanced away from her.

"Eh?" Rin sounded surprised, "what are you apologising for?"

"For getting in the way of your studies because of my family issues," he said.

The way she looked at him with her right eye and her mouth going lazy made it clear what she thought.

"Shirou… stop being an idiot," she declared as they finally reached the exit of the school, "I was the one who brought up this family issue we're dealing with."

He glanced away.

"Y-yeah… but it's my family," he said.

"Our family," she declared, causing him to blink and stare at her, "they might not be related to me and Saber but you're our family, so your family is our family too."

He felt his jaw go slack.

He wanted to respond but wasn't sure what he could say.

She was making it very clear what her stance on the matter was after all.

"Besides, if that murder didn't happen then there wouldn't be an issue anyway," she said.

He released a sigh.

"Yeah… I guess you're right," he acknowledged.

"Of course I am," she responded with a smug smile, "when am I ever wrong?"

Shirou looked at her blankly.

"Where do you want me to start?" he asked, causing her to flinch.

"H-how about you don't," she said, causing him to smile.

"Do you have your money on you?" he asked.

"Of course," Rin replied, "we have to feed Saber, not having it on me would be stupid."

XXX Fate/Clouded Psyche XXX

Yu couldn't stop himself from releasing a sigh as he opened the door to the Dojima residence.

His day had proven at least somewhat eventful courtesy of Yosuke and Chie basically dragging him to the Junes food court for steak.

There were also naturally the rumours about the so-called 'midnight channel' that he'd heard.

But he doubted Shirou, Rin and Saber would be interested in nonsense like that.

The only reason he was going to bother with it was because there wasn't much else to do and he had promised to check it out with Yosuke and Chie.

Opening the door he found himself greeted by the smell of something being cooked.

Given the previous night, he found himself unsurprised by that.

He was a pretty good cook thanks to having to make his own meals regularly and not wanting to spend all of his money on takeouts.

The odd one every now and then was fine, so were the odd ready meals, but cooking from scratch meant he could just use whatever his parents dumped in the fridge.

It also meant he had pretty low standards for what counted as edible.

But tasting the food Shirou had cooked the previous night reminded him of the few times he had been taken to a restaurant for a birthday.

Of course, that was so rare that he wasn't sure if he was actually remembering the taste of restaurant food properly but he was sure that Shirou's cooking was probably good enough for at least a lower end restaurant.

Walking into the living room, he saw Nanako and Saber sitting at the dining table, with Nanako watching the TV intently.

Rin was sitting on the sofa, her posture relaxed as she rested a book on her knee and jotted down notes.

Shirou was the last person in the room and was practically gliding through the tiny kitchen, masterfully juggling the different dishes with an ease he couldn't match.

"Welcome back Narukami-san," Shirou said, his tone polite even as he kept his eyes on the kitchen, "you're home a little late."

Yu grit his teeth.

"I was with friends," he said. Sure Yosuke and Chie were closer to being acquaintances than friends but the thought of having his time dictated by Shirou irked him.

His parents didn't bother with it and even if they did, Dojima-san was his guardian, not them.

"That's a relief," Shirou responded and Yu blinked, "given the lack of information concerning the murder, walking around alone is dangerous."

Suddenly Yu felt like an ass.

He hadn't really thought about that, instead jumping to the conclusion that Shirou was trying to control his life.

"So they still haven't found a suspect?" he asked, trying to move the conversation away from what he had been doing.

"They still haven't even figured out the cause of death," Rin said, not even looking up from what she was doing, "let alone find a suspect."

Yu swallowed nervously at that.

"They've taken in some politician's wife for questioning," Shirou said, "something about an affair."

Yu almost snorted.

Of course an affair would be what they'd focus on when trying to identify a suspect.

"So it was a marital dispute," he muttered as he shook his head.

Of course it would be that.

"Who knows," Rin replied, "it's too obvious… surely she would have considered it if such a thing happened."

He froze.

Shaking his head he released a sigh.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he admitted, "still, it's probably safe to walk around, it's not like the killer will be going after random people."

He was met with silence.

Looking at Rin, he noted that her face looked tense, so did Saber's and when he looked over at him, he noticed that even Shirou looked melancholy.

"Let's hope so," Rin finally said.

All the while Nanako sat, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation going on around her.

"Uh… so where's Dojima-san?" he decided to try and change the subject before wincing as he remembered what Dojima-san worked as.

"Probably still in the process of interviewing potential witnesses and suspects," Shirou responded, "he'll probably be back late again."

Yu nodded.

"So… who did you spend time with today?" Rin asked.

The look on her face was sly but when she noticed him looking at her, she simply glanced at Nanako, letting him know that she was simply doing what he had tried to do.

Unlike him however, she had a better subject to focus on.

"A pair of classmates," he admitted.

"The Amagi girl and Satonaka-san by any chance?" she asked him, a hint of amusement clear in her tone.

"Actually… it was a boy named Yosuke and Satonaka tagged along for a free meal," he admitted.

"Is that all?" she responded, "and there I thought womanising might have run in the family."

He almost choked at that statement.

"Rin, me and Yu-san don't share any blood," Shirou pointed out and he felt a sense of relief at Shirou backing him up before realising something.

"Wait… Shirou-san is a womaniser?" he asked in surprise.

Rin smirked and hid her mouth behind her hand, Saber's face started to flush and Shirou…

"What are you talking about Rin?" sounded genuinely confused.

"Oh nothing," she dismissed his question with practised ease.

Yu however couldn't stop himself from wondering exactly what Rin was talking about.

But then again… Shirou and Rin were apparently in a pretty serious relationship and she didn't sound at all angry with him, more amused…

Meaning she was probably just teasing him for some of his old friends or something.

Yeah… that seemed like the most likely situation given what she had implied about him and the two girls he had walked home with the previous day.

He would definitely have to be careful around her. She was slowly but surely giving off the impression of someone who was more than happy to make a fool out of him.

Though at least she didn't seem malicious in her intent.

"... you just like messin with people don't you?" he asked.

"Yeah, she does," Shirou responded.

She simply smiled before returning to her book.

"So… what's Rin-san doing anyway?" he decided to ask.

"Reading up on inheritance law," she replied, causing him to blink, "I have a lawyer working on a case for me but I want at least a passable foundation on the subject so I can actually understand what he's telling me."

He nodded.

That made sense.

Though the mere fact she was apparently having issues with inheritance was concerning.

"Is it anything big?" he asked.

"The man who was put in charge of my family's estate after my father died has caused a massive amount of damage to it," she declared, "I'm trying to salvage as much as I can."

He nodded.

The idea of losing most of your inheritance because of poor decisions on a legal guardians part was probably not pleasant.

"If you don't mind me asking, how much are we talking about you losing?"

"A little under five billion yen worth of assets and business income."

He stalled.

"Y-you're joking aren't you?" he muttered, causing her to look at him, her eyes lacking any sense of humour.

"There is a reason I'm trying to reclaim as much of it as I can," was all she said.

D-damn...

Tohsaka-san was legitimately rich.

Or at least, she was rich.

Though he doubted she was truly lacking in money even now.

"I guess your guardian didn't know what they were doing," he muttered.

"Kotomine knew exactly what he was doing," she said without hesitation, causing him to blink in surprise, "the man actively wanted to cause as much suffering as he could."

Yu did not know how to respond to that statement.

"Was he arrested?" he asked.

"No, one of the people he tried to kill killed him first," she replied evenly.

He was about to nod before realising exactly what she had just said.

"... remind me never to ask you about your history again," he said, earning a snort from the girl.

"Yeah… I guess you could say that all three of us have our issues," Shirou said and he glanced at Saber, seeing her own eyes fall.

Now Yu knew he would just have to avoid talking about their pasts.

Full stop.

There was only so much he could deal with after all.

It did however make him even more suspicious of them.

Shaking his head, he took a seat at the table closest to the kitchen.

Now it was perfectly clear to him why Shirou and Rin had moved to their own property, there was simply no room in Dojima-san's house for an extra two people.

XXX Fate/Clouded Psyche XXX

Time passed by slowly for Shirou as he waited for Dojima to return.

Even cooking dinner for everyone had proven somewhat slow; after all he was used to cooking for Fuji-nee, so there was nothing particularly challenging about what he had been doing.

Which meant his mind was more than capable of focusing on the information about the murder.

He heard the door open and felt his tension rise.

"Oh! Dad's home!" Nanako said as he looked to the entrance.

"I'm back," Dojima sounded tired as he said that, "is everything okay?"

"Yes Dojima-san," Saber spoke up, her tone as calm and collected as normal, "we have even left some food for you."

Dojima-san let out a small chuckle.

"Thanks… but I had takeout before I got back," he responded, "not used to having someone cook for me anymore."

There was a melancholy he was obviously trying to hide but the man was clearly failing.

"If that is the case, then I shall finish it for you," Saber declared and Shirou had to resist the urge to laugh.

Of course Saber would finish it off.

"Go right ahead," Dojima sounded amused.

Then he looked at the sofa and released a sigh.

"Sorry Rin, but-" the man didn't even get the chance to finish what he was saying before she interrupted him.

"Of course Dojima-san," and without further prompting she gathered up the books and notes she had littered across the sofa and put them to the side before standing up and moving to sit beside Shirou.

"You didn't have to get up," Dojima-san said weakly.

"I know," she said easily, "but I needed to stretch my legs a little before they died on me."

Dojima chuckled in response.

"All right then," and with that, he made his way to the sofa and took a seat, "could one of you put the news on for me?"

Shirou nodded before picking up the remote and changing the channel.

The news report was just the same as before.

And then a new segment came on.

"In addition, we now bring you an exclusive interview with the local student who found Ms. Yamano's body."

Shirou found himself snapping to attention.

"An interview with the kid?" Dojima said with a sigh, "where the hell did they find her?"

Shirou could understand the sentiment.

He doubted most students would be comfortable giving an interview under normal circumstances… let alone when they had found a corpse.

The student shown on the TV had their face blurred out and a filter clearly placed over her voice but Shirou could sense a pang of familiarity with the visage.

"Hey Rin, isn't that Konishi-san?" he asked, causing Dojima to look at him.

"You know her?" the detective asked.

"She's in our class," Rin supplied.

Dojima just let out a tired sigh.

"I should have guessed," the man muttered while shaking his head.

Shirou watched the so-called 'interview' and quickly came to a simple conclusion.

It was bad TV.

Konishi's responses were stifled and awkward, making her appear even less informed than the news crews reporting on the incident, while the presenter was going out of their way to try and hook something worthwhile from her.

"I want to punch that presenter," he muttered after watching the awkward byplay going on for several minutes.

"If you did that, I'd let you off with a warning," Dojima said with a mirthless chuckle, "guy really needs to think about the people he's harassing."

Shirou nodded in agreement.

Dojima started to yawn and then Shirou felt it.

A small spike in magical energy coming from Rin's direction.

Looking at her, he saw her mutter something near silently before the energy was released.

"So exactly what is known about the incident, Dojima-san?" she asked, her tone curious.

Shirou had to stop himself from narrowing his eyes.

"Just that the corpse was found hanging from an antennae in the shopping district," the man responded, "the coroner can't even find anything wrong with the body… it's as if she just dropped dead; there aren't even any signs of a heart attack or anything like that."

The man was certainly being loose-lipped and Shirou found himself growing suspicious.

Had Rin just hypnotised Dojima-san without anyone noticing?

She looked at him, her expression grim.

It was looking more and more like magecraft was involved.

"How can a person just die like that?" Yu asked, a frown marring his face.

Shirou kept quiet.

He was certain there were many ways for a person to die suddenly.

But he wasn't planning on listing them off for the boy.

"We don't know," Dojima responded, "if it wasn't for where the body was found, we wouldn't even consider it a murder yet."

Shirou could understand that.

The detective soon shook his head.

"I probably said too much already," the man muttered, "you kids don't go spreading that around."

Shirou nodded without reservation, something both Rin and Saber did as well.

Yu looked unsure of whether to agree but nodded anyway.

Lastly there was Nanako, who simply nodded despite looking confused by everything.

"Anyway… Shirou, Rin, Saber-san… you three should probably head home now," the detective finally said.

"Of course Dojima-san," Rin acknowledged as she rose from her current seat, "we'll visit tomorrow as well. Try not to work yourself to death."

The man sighed in response.

"I'll try… but I don't get much of a choice with this job," the man said even as Shirou and Saber rose from their seats.

"Goodnight Nanako-chan, Dojima-san, Narukami-san," Shirou said as he stretched and started to mentally prepare himself for their next course of action.

"Goodnight Emiya-san, Tohsaka-san, Saber-san," the boy responded.

They all nodded in response as they made their way to the front door.

Once they had left the house, Shirou faced Rin.

"Did you hypnotise Dojima-san?" he asked.

"Only a little," she replied, "just made him more likely to answer us… nothing that can't be put down to tiredness."

Shirou nodded.

He may not have liked it but in the end it was only a minor use of it and Dojima-san didn't have his awareness suppressed.

"So… are you ready to visit the police station?" she asked, "we'll almost certainly need to hypnotise people properly there."

"I know," he admitted he may have preferred to not have to hypnotise anyone but it would be necessary without the proper credentials.

Rin nodded and they started on their way to the Police Station.

XXX Fate/Clouded Psyche XXX

"Here you go."

Shirou nodded to the hypnotised policeman as they were led to the autopsy room.

They would have to have the video feeds of them being escorted inside deleted but that would come after performing their own analysis of the corpse.

The door was soon closed and Shirou found himself looking at the room.

The cadaver had clearly been stored away while the mortician was gone, leaving the operating table clear.

"Okay, so we're just looking for the first filled unit?" Shirou asked.

"Yes," Rin replied.

The officer that had led them there had already confirmed that the presenter was the only person currently being stored in the precinct.

Walking over to the storage units, he quickly found the correct unit and opened it before unzipping the cadaver.

"Rin, do you need her moved to the operating table?" he asked.

"No, I can analyse her there," she replied as she moved to the other side of the drawer and started reciting her aria.

Time seemed to pass by at a snail's pace as he watched her working, seeing her face slowly but surely morphing into a frown before she started to bite her lip.

When she finally looked at him, her expression was grave.

"... I don't know what did this."

Shirou's throat went dry.

Rin couldn't figure out what had happened to the body?

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"It's… it's as if her brain just shut itself down for no reason," she declared, "all I can tell is that there isn't the usual damage to the brain from oxygen deprivation, meaning it shut down… it shut down and the signals that made the body function just stopped."

Shirou swallowed nervously at that.

"So there is someone capable of shutting down people's brains?" he asked.

"I don't know, there isn't any trace of magical energy that would indicate magecraft was involved," she said with a grimace, "this is… this just makes no sense."

Shirou nodded.

The idea of someone's brain just shutting down and taking their body with it was not something he had ever heard of.

Even when someone was shot in the head their brainstem still functioned to keep automatic functions going… but this… this was just unheard of.

"So… what can we do?" he asked.

"... I don't know," Rin admitted, "all we can do is wait and see if it happens again and hope we can find something from that."

Shirou nodded.

As much as he hated it, there was simply nothing they could do.

"I guess… all we can do is go home," Rin continued and he nodded.

He just hoped that this didn't happen again.

XXX Fate/Clouded Psyche XXX

Yu breathed heavily as he lay on his bedroom floor.

What had just happened?

Why had his hand gone through the Television screen?

Who was that girl who had appeared on the Midnight Channel?

What was the Midnight Channel?

He had so many questions.

He just hoped Chie and Yosuke believed him.

It was their fault he was in this position after all.

XXX Chapter End XXX

Anyway... that's all for today.

Shadow Out.