Half-brother? From an alternate reality?
Kiyoshi’s head swirled as he thought of it. Was this obstructive man truly Shirou’s son?
So many questions came to mind. Who was Satoshi’s mother, if not Sakura? Was his mother happy? And, how had his parents, whose love seemed so strong and enduring, not ended up together in Satoshi’s universe? To him, they seemed perfect for each other. They had arguments, of course, everyone did, but they never held grudges or let issues fester for long, and their love for one another was still clear for all to see, even after 30 years. They both cared for each other more than anything, supporting and protecting each other no matter what.
Unfortunately, though, now was not the time to ask them. The way Satoshi had spoken reminded him of how his father would act when danger loomed. Simply translated, it meant “I’m going to stay here and risk my life so you can escape”. And, he knew that, when his father spoke like that, the only sensible options were to run or prepare to fight alongside him.
The possibility that Satoshi was somehow tricking him could not be entirely discounted, of course, but Kiyoshi felt it unlikely. He did at least know Shirou, and seemingly Sakura too, and well enough to be able to recognise him as their child. Further, he had no real reason to lie about their relationship. Plus, he was trusting Kiyoshi with his sister, which suggested that his intentions were genuine.
And, whilst he had previously been somewhat unhelpful and evasive, Kiyoshi doubted that his intentions were bad. After all, he was almost certainly Shirou’s son, and he knew that his father would never allow his child to act in such a way. Further, Satoshi also seemed to know his mother, who was too kind-hearted and caring to associate with someone evil, especially someone whose evil intentions were aimed at a child like him.
So, there was no reason not to follow his instructions. Still, Kiyoshi hesitated momentarily. Every instinct he had said to stay and fight alongside his new-found brother, against whatever monstrosity was approaching. That was what real heroes did.
Ultimately, though, all it took to make his mind up was the voice of the young girl – his half-sister – who was now sliding into her wheelchair.
"let's go Kiyoshi"
I can’t abandon her.
As much as Kiyoshi wanted to fight alongside Satoshi, his wheelchair-bound half-sister was a sitting duck. As far as he knew, she was not magically-capable, if she was even aware of it, and she couldn’t see any incoming danger, or run away from it even if she did detect it. Even if he didn’t know her very well, she was still family, in a sense, and his father had always said that family comes first. The thought of his helpless little sister being torn to pieces by werewolves or similar before he even had the chance to truly get to know her horrified him. In fact, even if she hadn’t been his sister, just the fact that she was so helpless made him determined to protect her from harm. After all, heroes should always protect those who cannot protect theirselves.
Accepting their words, he walked towards the door, addressing Satoshi as he did so.
“I wish I could stay and help you fight, but real heroes also protect those who cannot protect theirselves, and Taiga needs that protection. So, you stay here and defeat whatever it is that is coming, I promise I’ll keep our little sister safe from harm.”
Then, he turned to Taiga.
“OK, let’s get going, little sister”, he said with a smile.
As he walked, though, he began to think more about what Satoshi had just said. He wondered who their mother could be.
But, something was nagging at him.
Why didn’t I notice the relationship before?
He had, after all, asked Taiga her name.
Hang on, she called herself “Taiga Pendragon”
Suddenly, things started to drop into place. Taiga had said that her father was not Cornish. She’d never said anything about her mother. And, whilst she had, technically, been telling the truth about her father being adopted and forgetting his name, he realised now that that had had no connection to her surname. The
name she had given when question was not her father’s name.
It was her mother’s.
There was only one reasonable conclusion he could come to, given what he knew of his father’s past. Their mother was none other than Arturia Pendragon.
King Arthur.
Suddenly, a lot more things made sense. Whilst Satoshi and Taiga seemed to be generally good people, as would be expected from the children of Shirou and King Arthur, they had seemingly picked up some of their mother’s more irritating traits, like her adherence to arbitrary and nonsensical rules, and a lack of openness or willingness to trust others with the truth. That was something that was alien to Kiyoshi, growing up as he had around people who put protecting their family and doing the right thing first and who paid at most only limited attention to rules that got in the way of that.
Of course, this did raise other questions. Whilst the way that he and his family treated Rider ensured that he had no issues with the concept of his father falling in love with a servant, at least beyond the general disbelief he felt towards the idea of his father loving anyone aside from his mother in that way, he also knew from Rider that, as spiritual entities, a heroic spirit could not conceive or give birth to a child. He did consider the possibility that they were adopted, but the girl's hair was exactly like his own, and the boy looked a lot like what he'd imagine the son of Shirou and Saber (who he had heard some basic descriptions of) would look like. If they were adopted, then their appearance was highly co-incidental. But, if not, then how did they exist?
As he walked out of the room with Taiga, questions rushed through Kiyoshi's head. The biggest one of them all, though, was about his mother. Was she happy in this world, without the guy she loved more than anything?
Oh.
Suddenly, he realised what he'd said before, about Saber's death. Previously it hadn't really meant much, but he now knew that it was her mother he was talking about. And, if she were anything like him, to know that her mother had died would hurt, even if it was only in an alternate dimension.
"Oh, Taiga, I'm sorry about what happened to your mother in my universe. I didn't realise you were related when I said it...", he said, sadly.
Then, he brightened up somewhat.
"So, what is your universe like? Is my mother, Sakura, happy?" he asked, cheerfully, wanting to learn more about his newly-discovered sister.
Oh, and, if you don't mind me asking, how was your mother able to have children, if she's a Heroic Spirit?" he added, curiosity getting the better of him.
