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Panting from her knees as the Saber and her Master walked past her, the latter flashing an unnoticed smirk, Mizuri thought in stunned terror, <span class="mu-i"> “It’s going to happen again. I get one uneventful afternoon with them, then they get killed by a monster while I’m powerless to help. Am I a damn jinx?!” </span>
Inside, past a path of displaced clothing racks and through a hole in the wall to the supply-room, Ogawara found his Servant crumpled on the floor, half-buried in broken cardboard boxes. Pushing the debris off, he started asking the half-conscious Berserker in desperation, “Y-you’re okay, right Kiyo? Just a flesh wound? C-can I help you with anything?”
Struggling to sit herself up, the dragon-girl involuntarily coughed up a mouthful of blood before answering, “I’m sorry… Master, please don’t… worry about me. I can still show you -!” Coughing again, she didn’t finish what she wanted to say as Ogawara suddenly clasped his arms around her.
Gently rubbing her back as he eased her into a seated position, he asked, “I-is this more comfortable? M-maybe you need a second to catch your breath?” Suddenly, a chill ran up his spine as he heard the wall behind him get struck by something several times before a pair of footsteps sounded.
“Human. Move aside or be cut down along with your Servant.” A cold voice commanded from behind him. He didn’t need to turn around to know that it was the enemy Saber.
“I… can’t.” Yatsuhide answered in a choking voice without turning around. Not even sure himself where he was getting the resolve to do this, he shuffled his knees and moved so that his silhouette completely obscured his Servant’s body from the Saber, before continuing while staring directly into Kiyohime’s eyes, “I can’t… let it end like that.”
“M-master, don’t…” Kiyohime pleaded with tears starting to well up in her eyes.
“Futile.” The Saber responded, but she was interrupted by a girl’s earnestly-inquiring voice before she could run them through.
“Wait a second, Saber.” The voice requested, before asserting in a tone that held a modicum of frustrated confusion, “Aren’t you just scared stiff? What do you mean you ‘can’t let it end like that’? You’re going to die if you don’t move, you know.”
Resigned to his fate, Ogawara recognized the voice as belonging to the Saber’s Master and answered without turning around, keeping his eyes fixed on his Servant’s face, “I guess you’re right. But at least this way, I only die once.”
“W-what does that even mean?! And look at me when you’re talking!” The Master said, her frustration audibly increasing.
