Cross Effects > Areas
The Slums
SINIB:
Rin
Rin stayed silent. Painfully so, as if what she was about to ask was difficult to force out of her mouth. She bit her lip, biting down so hard that blood began trickling down her chin. She felt a soft tingling as the swords inside her body knitted the wound back together.
"The second choice isn't enough to guarentee safety. We've been hunted for more than eight years. Her life has been a living hell. I can't risk letting you know our location.
Rin hated that she could hear Sakura softly crying inside of her. It made her heart sieze up. She wanted to do something else, anything else, but this was the most secure way, other than killing him.
She didn't think she could bring herself to do that, though.
Cherry Lover:
Shirou
Shirou sighed. He could see the distress that the girl was in. She was clearly uncomfortable with this decision. As was he, due to the danger that it put both her and his wife in.
"Tohsaka, if you erase my memory, then I cannot explain what happened to Sakura. I have no idea how she will react, or even how I will react to the news that I was kidnapped and had my memory erased. She might consider you a threat, or she might assume that you have done something horrific to me and erased my memory to hide it. She might attack you, and one of you could get hurt. I won't be able to defend you, I might not even want to defend you", he said, clearly concerned about the possible consequences of her choice.
"And, if I do keep my memory, do you really think I would put your life and Sakura's at risk by telling her your location? Besides, even if I wanted to tell her, I couldn't. Sakura brought me here via her shadow, and I was unconscious at the time. All I know of your house is what it looks like from the inside, I don't know where it is located or how to get here."
"Please, Tohsaka, just let me go. Transport me to somewhere safe through your shadow if you must. But don't erase my memory, there's no need for you to do so and it will just put you and my wife in more danger", he finished.
As he waited for her response, Shirou began to notice something. Rin had been talking about a "host", "her" and "we". Did she just mean Sakura, or was there someone else she was referring to?
SINIB:
Rin and Sakura
3:15
The girls listened to his tirade patiently. It was only fair. What they were asking as completely unfair.
Sakura looked down, and tears began to well up in her eyes. She bit her lower lip and began to tremble. Her pulse skyrocketed and she shook her head. "N-Nee-san..." Sakura began, but stopped.
She knew Rin was right. What good would an oath do? Even with a geas, revealing information could still be compelled.
She gulped. "And how would that guard us against someone reading your mind, or hypnotizing you? What could you do if I forced you into a contract?"
She projected a sword to accentuate her point. "Or, someone could just kill you and rip the memories out of your brain. Or..."
Rin went on and on for five minutes, in a manner Shirou found very nostalgic.
Cherry Lover:
Shirou
Sakura's tears and desperate pleas to her sister tugged at Shirou's heartstrings. He hated seeing people cry, and that applied doubly to his beloved wife. Before he could attempt to comfort her, though, Rin took back control and began to give him one of her patented lectures about all the ways that he could be forced to disclose their location against his will, some of them rather gruesome. Finally, after a good five minutes, she stopped, allowing him the chance to reply.
"Tohsaka", he began with a sigh, clearly upset by the situation that they were all in, "whilst it's not impossible that people could do those things to me, you're hugely exaggerating the danger. For a start, who exactly is going to come after me for that information? The only person who even knows that I'm here is my wife, along with anyone she's told, and I doubt she's going to ask for help from the sort of person who would do those things to me. But, even if someone did try, you're missing something more important. I don't actually know where you live. All I've seen is the inside of this house, I have no idea where it is or how to get here. Even if I wanted to direct people here, I couldn't."
"Sakura", he continued, feeling rather guilty at addressing the clearly-upset girl directly, "you know that you can trust me. I would never allow you to come to harm. You also know that, if I return to my wife without any memory of what happened, she will be angry and distrustful, and may decide to come after you to seek answers. If you wish to be safe, then let me go and I will tell my wife to leave you alone."
After speaking, Shirou frowned. He hated that he'd been forced to address the other Sakura directly and potentially inflame her trauma, but he felt that it was necessary, not only for his and Sakura's sake, but also for hers.
SINIB:
Sakura
"STOP IT!"
Sakura screamed at him, holding her head and crying out in pain. Pain wracked her body, the pain of loss, the agony of knowing that it was all her fault. The girl began shaking uncontrolably, spasming for several seconds.
Then, she stopped, and Rin's blue eye shone at Shirou. "Emiya-Kun, please give her some space. We've been on the run, hunted ceaselessly for almost a decade. I'm sorry, but assurances and promises don't mean much to me anymore. I've been through too much to feel safe with something as simple as a verbal agreement."
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