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."

[Cherry Lover]

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."

Shirou

Shirou was filled with sadness and guilt as he watched the girl break down in front of him. He hated to see Sakura so upset, especially when he was the cause.

"I'm sorry", he said after Rin had finished speaking. "I didn't mean to upset Sakura like that."

Then, he addressed her statement.

"I understand your concern, but wiping my memory won't make you safe either. I am not sure how my wife will react to finding me without any memory of what you did, but I doubt she will just forget about it. I suspect she will come after you, looking for answers, and there's a good chance one of you will get hurt. Rin, you know that I would never willingly hurt Sakura, and even if I wanted to, I don't know where you live. How can I give people information I do not have?", he added.

[SINIB]

Rin

Rin sighed. "I don't know what I'm going to do, but you just don't seem to understand what we've gone through. Who has been chasing us. Have you ever been targeted for a sealing designation? Have you ever been chased by executors from the church, and assassins from the magus association, daily. For almost a decade, desperately trying to survive. You just need to back off and accept that you're in over your head."

Rin sounded pretty agitated and upset. She was shaking a little bit, and he could feel a bit of vitriol in her words.

[Cherry Lover]

Shirou

Shirou sighed, a sad look on his face at the girl's apparent suffering.

"I don't know what happened to you in the past, but I am truly sorry that you went through all that", Shirou said, his words entirely genuine. "I would be happy to help you or just leave you alone if that is what you want. And, I am aware that I clearly am in over my head here. But, you kidnapped me, and my wife is almost certainly putting together a party to hunt you down and rescue me. So, just backing off is not an option I have, unfortunately. We have to come to a resolution before my wife finds you and someone actually gets hurt", he said.

[SINIB]

Rin

"I didn't kidnap you, Emiya-Kun." Rin quipped sarcastically. Crossed her arms, cursing how much bigger Sakura's breasts were than hers. "We're at an impasse. I can't risk letting you out without any guarentees. How can I trust your Sakura, even? The only thing I have to go off is your word, which is hardly enough."

The girl sighed. "Emiya-Kun, listen. What would you be okay with? A geass to aid me if you're wrong about her and whomever she's hired, as well as one to keep silent forevermore about this?"

Her lone aquamarine eye shined with fierce and pained determination.

"I am quite capable of forcing a resolution, Emiya-kun." She sounded hesitant and sad to even be saying this. "I'd much rather you come to an agreement with me, but if negotiations fail, I'll be left with no recourse. It's your choice, not mine."

[Cherry Lover]

Shirou

Shirou sighed. He could tell that the girl did genuinely want a solution, and he was willing to accept most of what she wanted.

"I would be perfectly willing to agree to a geas to aid you if my wife does attack, provided you agree not to harm her under any circumstances. As for keeping silent, what exactly do you mean? I am willing to refrain from disclosing the location of your house to anyone, but I need to be able to explain enough to my wife to convince her not to attack", he said.

"I am aware that, given your strength, you could forcibly wipe my memory, but that would not solve anything. I am sure that, if I show up at home with no memory of what occurred, my wife will not react well, and likely nor will I."

[SINIB]

Rin

"I can't sign something like that, what if she attacks me!" Rin protested. She ignored the fact he didn't seem to get she could force him into a blood contract as well.

"You can't speak a word of any of this to anyone, as long as you live. All you can say is that I've treated you humanely and that there's no reason to go after me."

She wanted him to say yes.

[Cherry Lover]

Shirou

Shirou sighed again, and frowned. He could completely understand her concerns, but what she was demanding was completely unreasonable. She was expecting him to assist her in murdering his wife, and not to even be able to explain why. So, he thought for a few moments, before giving his response.

"I do understand that you need to be able to defend yourself, but I am not willing to allow you to murder my wife without even being able to help defend her. But, I will agree to a compromise. If you agree not to attack my wife unless she directly attacks you, and to avoid killing or permanently maiming her, then I will agree to aid you", he said.

"As for what I can say, I understand your concern, but I would prefer a little more freedom to explain things. If all I can say is that I was humanely treated, that sounds extremely suspicious, she might think I'm being forced to lie, or controlled. At minimum, I would like to be able to explain why I cannot tell her any more information."

[SINIB]

Rin

Rin simply raised an eyebrow. "And being able to tell her I made you sign a geas contract is better how, exactly?"

She wasn't really sure about that. Her experience with Sakura was as a volatile, unpredictable woman who jumped from being a calm, grieving widow to a brutal, violent fury seemingly at the drop of a hat.

[Cherry Lover]

Shirou

Shirou sighed again.

"If I can explain what I signed and why, I'm sure she'll be fine with it. Sakura doesn't have any reason to want to hurt you as long as you're no threat to us, she just wants to make sure I'm safe", he said.

[SINIB]

Rin

"I kidnapped you. That's reason enough for her. The Sakura you're describing is moat certainly not the Sakura I know." She answered curtly. "I'll draft up a geas for you to sign. We don't have time for this kind of prolonged debate."