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Emiya could sense he was being followed.
He kept pace with the crowd of people moving through the city as he tried to discern with just his peripheral senses who was following him. A member of a rival organization? Possibly. There were rumors of a spy within the group Emiya was a part of. Maybe this person wanted to take out Emiya so the latest plan, a raid on the warehouses wouldn’t be completed.
He stuffed his hands in his pockets and kept up his even pace to show nothing was amiss. Whoever it was, was still following him. He turned a corner and found what he was looking for. An alleyway, the foot traffic nonexistent. It was quiet and dirty, and he blatantly did not look too close at the ground or the piles of garbage. Not a great smell either. No surprise since the government officials of the city spent more time lining their pockets that caring for the city they were elected to help.
He ducked behind some garbage and peered out as a woman entered the alleyway. She was on the shorter side, her features nondescript. Everything, from the wavy brown hair to the dress she wore was plain. This was the type of person his eyes would gloss over in a crowd.
Of course right now, he had his eyes directly on her. What did she want? What was her purpose? To attempt to scare him off? To kill him? To seduce him? He smirked. He always had bad luck when it came to women. Now the question was, what should he do? Announce his presence and surprise her? Attack first? Of course there was also the possibility she was just a civilian. The day dress she wore didn’t appear to have pockets and her hands were empty and she wasn’t wearing any jewelry. However women could hide things in their cleavage.
There was no more time to contemplate, she was almost upon his hiding spot. With a sigh, he stood, a hand behind his back to hide the summoned Kanshou blade. “Now why is a pretty thing like you following me?” he asked with a small smirk.
The women’s dark brown eyes widen in surprise, the color sparkling as she ran towards him.
A forward attack huh? Not a very good assassin then. He swung the hand holding Kanshou out, ready to maim her in the shoulder when she suddenly stopped, the light in her eyes going dull as her body crumpled to the ground like a marionette losing its strings.
Emiya stared down at the fallen woman in confusion. He hadn’t done anything to her and there were no traces of injuries so that ruled out a sniper. He kneeled and glanced at her face, noting her eyes were still open and stared at nothing.
Wait a moment.
Squinting, Emiya leaned closer. There was nothing wrong with her eyes, the way the light bounced off them was odd. A moment later, he recoiled back in shock when he realized they were android eyes. This woman was an android. It was his first time seeing one up close and for a moment he had impressed by how human she had looked coming into the alley. If she hadn’t turned off or whatever happened then he would have been for a rude surprise when his Kanshou hit her shoulder. The question was, who sent her? Androids weren’t even on the market for general purchase and he didn’t know the technology had gotten far enough to replicate humans this well.
Emiya knew he had to make a call. He had to call the Organization and tell them what happened. They were the ones who could look into it. They could figure out where she came from. Heck, they could probably hack her database or whatever and figure out what her purpose was.
However as he took out his phone to do just that, his attention was drawn to her. The woman, lying still in the filth of the alleyway. Her dress was getting dirty and so was her hair, he realized. He shook his head. Where were these kinds of thoughts coming from? He wasn’t the type to care about a would-be assassin. Before he could press ‘send’ on his phone to complete the call, his attention again drifted to her still form. He didn’t know why but his gut said he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t let her get taken away to be dissected and taken apart.
The question was, what was he supposed to do with her?
***
Emiya couldn’t believe he did this.
He glanced at the couch of his apartment where the android currently lay. Since he didn’t want to call the Organization, he took her to the only other place he could think of. His apartment. Probably a horrible idea to be honest but he didn’t know what else to do. And weirdly enough, it felt right to bring her here.
It was probably his horrible luck with women acting up again. Besides, he was no engineer, he had no idea why she shut down and how to get her working again. And even then, would it be a good idea? She had been trying to kill him after all.
“I’m just doing my own investigation,” he told himself. Yes, that was a good reason. He was doing it himself because he didn’t want to bother the Organization if he didn’t have to. That was all there was to it.
He walked over and kneeled in front of the couch so he was eye-level with her face. It was alarming how human she looked. She even felt like a human when he carried her here. Soft, the curves in all the right places. Even her hair felt like a human’s should and wore a perfume that reminded Emiya of the sea. Her weight was also a normal human girl’s weight.
“What in the world are you?” he murmured. Maybe there was a way to charge her? He hadn’t looked but there had to be a charge port right? He glanced down at what was covered by the dress. Since he couldn’t see it, it probably had to be something there right?
Before he could touch her, the eyes began glowing with life and she sat up slowly. For a moment she appeared confused by her surroundings and then her attention focused on him, her hands reaching towards him.
Emiya batted her away and jumped back, summoning his blades. She had probably been trying to strangle him. “Who sent you?” he snapped. He pointed Kanshou at her. “I don’t know if androids can feel pain but my Organization have enough hackers that we pull out any information from you.” Why is it when he threatened her, he felt a pain in his chest? Like he wasn’t supposed to say things like that to her? Damn, what if the android did something to him? Maybe she could release an odorless gas and that’s what was making his thoughts so strange?
Her brown eyes filled with surprise, her hands falling to her lap. “I….” She paused, as if that one word took so much out of her. “Please…listen…” She tried to get up, but her legs failed her as she got halfway up, and she fell to the ground and looked up at him with wide, desperate eyes.
Familiar desperate eyes.
For a moment Emiya saw the woman wearing something else. A brown school uniform.
Memories flooded his mind. Of a time in another life. When he was a servant, she his master. The girl he protected at first for duty and then for love. The girl that fought and faced her challenges head on. The girl that cried in his arms and then teased him. The girl he met on the moon.
“Hakuno….” he whispered softly.
Realizing she was still on the ground, he hurried to her side and helped her sit up. “Hakuno, what, how?”
She looked at him with a small smile before she hugged him, his head resting against her shoulder. That’s what she had been trying to do the whole time he realized. Every time she tried to touch him, he took it as a threat when she just wanted to be close. That was the type of person she was. “I don’t have much time, listen please,” she began, her arms tightening before he could pull away and ask her what was going on. “I know it is selfish of me to do this but I wanted to let you know that your Organization will betray you, you are going to be framed for something you didn’t do. I just wanted you to know that, you can do whatever you want with that information.”
“But how are you here?” he asked, his voice muffled by her shoulder. The scent on her wasn’t the sea he realized but the scent of the waters of the moon cell.
“Being the moon cell admin has its perks. Although I think I pushed it a little too much this time. It was nice to see you before you became a servant although I think I can only think of you as my Archer.”
He felt the strength of her arms give away and he pulled back to see the eyes of the android had gone dull. “Hakuno?” No response.
“You are always the type of person who looks after everyone else before your own.” Emiya took a shaky breathe and put an arm under her knees and the other against her back as he carried her back to the couch and settled her so it looked like she was sleeping. Unlike last time, her mouth was curled into a soft smile.
“It’s not fair for you to do that you know. Giving me these memories of you and then going back to your timeline or whatever.”
Emiya smiled sadly as she didn’t respond. Well, for now he needed to figure out what exactly to do with that information. She had come from a different timeline after all to tell him, there was no way he was going to let it go to waste. And besides, there was chance Hakuno existed in this world after all. He needed to live to find her.