Shirou Emiya Stands Upon the Continent of Terra

Shirou prepared the food everyone wanted for their safe return that evening.

"Those guys actually ambushed us today! So infuriating."

Exusiai complained while eating the warmed apple pie, barely able to speak clearly.

"Exactly! If they had damaged the vehicle, we wouldn't have been able to return tomorrow, and we would have missed this meal!"

Croissant's chopsticks never stopped moving, devouring the food on the table like a herd of cattle grazing.

Sora and Texas were much more refined, moving their chopsticks and mouths silently.

However, Sora's chopsticks moved more towards the vegetables, while Texas's favored the meat.

Aside from Exusiai, the anomaly who started eating sweets after just a few bites, the others were enjoying themselves normally.

Still, Exusiai was already much better; the piece she had in her hand now was just to satisfy her craving and had been warmed up in advance.

Shirou had prepared a large table of dishes in the style of Longmen. If he had followed his original method, the portions would have been too large for individual small sets, and the table wouldn't have been able to hold them. Shirou was already considering a larger dining table.

While it was still a bit crowded now, they could just about manage by squeezing in.

"Soup's here, be careful, it's hot."

Shirou, wearing heat-resistant gloves, brought out the last dish, the soup, placing it steadily in the center.

"Is that soup made from boiled Winged Beast meat and mushrooms? It smelled so good earlier!"

Sora had been looking forward to it. Her other job required her to maintain a certain figure, and unlike the others, she didn't have a massive amount of exercise, making it difficult for her to eat freely. But with soup, she could indulge a little, just a little!

"Yes, Winged Beasts were on sale today, so I bought extra."

Shirou removed his heat-resistant gloves and, with a large ladle, served a bowl for everyone.

"Wow, you even bought discounted ingredients. Shirou, where did you come from, a super mom from the century?"

Croissant exclaimed as she drank the soup.

After observing for a few days, Shirou's first priority when cooking was never what people wanted to eat, but what was on sale and how to pair it.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Exusiai, drinking her soup, heard Croissant's words and seemed to recall something, almost spitting out the soup.

Seeing Exusiai's reaction, Texas showed a slight smile on her face before gnawing on a bone in the soup.

"Be careful, you might choke."

Shirou, not yet thinking about the "Mama Emiya" incident from a few days prior, handed Exusiai a tissue to wipe herself.

"This feeling like a wave of taking care of a child..."

Croissant muttered softly, earning nods of agreement from Texas and Sora.

Because her voice was quite low, Shirou didn't hear it. If he had, Croissant would likely have only been able to eat supermarket croissants for the next few days.

Although Shirou didn't show it outwardly, he was actually a bit of a grudge-holder.

"Speaking of which, the upstairs is incredibly clean. Shirou, you worked hard today."

After finishing the soup in her hand, Texas decided to change the subject slightly, lest she accidentally call him the wrong thing if she met Shirou again.

She, Texas, would absolutely not make such a mistake!

"I was surprised when I got back too. I never thought I'd see the floor shine like that again."

Sora chimed in, though she was indeed surprised.

"Now I have more space to put my merchandise."

Croissant was already thinking about what to buy for the next batch of goods.

"Stop that train of thought! We cleared out space not for you to pile more things!"

Shirou lightly struck Croissant on the head, stopping her shopping spree.

"Exactly, exactly."

Exusiai, having caught her breath, pointed at Croissant. She had been subtly provoked by Croissant earlier and wanted to regain her standing!

"Boo hoo, Sora, look, they're bullying me."

Croissant turned to Sora for support.

"I also think that now that we've finally cleared the space, it's better not to mess it up again. It would be a burden on Shirou." Sora chose to betray Croissant.

Croissant turned her gaze to Texas, who silently took a sip of the coffee Shirou had made.

"Have you all been bought off?! Are you all lost in the clean environment and delicious food?!"

Seeing that no one was supporting her, Croissant clutched her chest, looking pitiful.

"Then for breakfast tomorrow, I'll prepare croissants from the roadside stall for you."

Shirou pretended to take away the bowl in front of Croissant. Croissant immediately grabbed Shirou's hand and snatched the bowl back.

"No, no, no, Lord Shirou, you are the light of our Penguin Logistics. We can't live without you."

After snatching the bowl back, Croissant served herself another bowl of soup and sat back down on the chair with a look of peace, enjoying it.

Shirou Emiya felt helpless about Croissant's behavior. He had only meant to scare her a little, but she had caved in immediately.

The others strongly condemned Croissant's instant surrender.

After teasing Croissant a bit, Shirou Emiya thought of Texas's headphones.

"Speaking of which, Texas, are you planning to replace those headphones?"

"Yeah, it's a shame, but they're broken."

Mentioning the headphones, Texas looked regretful. They had been with her for a long time, and she couldn't find the exact model anymore. Getting them checked and repaired would be too expensive, and asking Isv for help felt like overkill. It would be easier to find a new pair, but she wasn't satisfied with any of the headphones she'd found in Longmen so far.

"When I was tidying up today, I took a look. It seems to be just a problem with the wire, and it should be repairable."

Shirou Emiya pulled over a chair and sat down, picking up his chopsticks and bowl.

"Really?"

Texas's eyes lit up, and the ears and tail on her head twitched non-stop.

"It should be possible. It's mainly a problem with the wire. We just need to cut out the broken part and solder it back together."

Shirou Emiya briefly explained how to repair the headphones, leaving the final decision to Texas.

"Then I'll trouble you. Do I need to prepare anything?"

After understanding the basics, Texas decided to let Shirou Emiya handle it. In the worst-case scenario, she'd just buy a new pair. She just wasn't sure what was needed to repair headphones.

"I have everything on my end. I'll repair them for you after we finish eating."

"Then I'll go get the headphones."

Seeing Shirou Emiya busy until now before starting to eat, Texas decided not to disturb him and went upstairs to get the headphones.

Seeing Texas's overjoyed expression, Exusiai asked:

"Shirou, you know about this kind of thing?"

When it came to firearms, Exusiai felt confident she could disassemble and repair them, but she wasn't very good with this kind of electronic product.

"It's not too difficult. If something inside the headphones breaks, then I won't be able to do anything."

"That's still very impressive. I find capacitors and wiring really troublesome."

Sora sighed from the side. She knew Texas had been troubled by the headphones, but she hadn't been able to help.

13 Headphones

Shirou Emiya finished his meal. After being dissuaded by Texas and the others, he gave up on washing the dishes and tidying up, picked up the headphones, and headed to his room.

He placed the headphones on the small table and carefully cut open the broken part of the wire.

"Carefully take out the wires inside... then cut off the damaged section."

Shirou Emiya's hands moved with great care. If this step was done improperly, he would only be able to cut off more of the wire.

The people outside the door put down their work and crowded around Shirou Emiya's doorway, peeking inside.

"He's really fixing them?"

Croissant had initially thought Shirou Emiya was just interested in this field and wanted to practice on Texas's headphones.

But seeing how skilled Shirou Emiya was, she realized he actually knew how to repair them.

"Aren't those the things we should be paying attention to? That row of knives on the big table next to him is the real problem, isn't it? Who buys a bunch of identical knives?"

Exusiai criticized Croissant for focusing on the wrong thing.

"Those look like the latest survival short knives released by that survival shop in the Dagu Shopping District. They're quite expensive."

Texas thought the knives looked familiar, so she checked them on her phone and found out they were quite expensive short knives.

"Where did he get all that money?"

Croissant's face changed drastically when she saw the price of the short knives displayed on Texas's phone.

Good grief, the price of one of those short knives is probably enough for her several days' worth of food expenses.

Shirou actually bought a whole bunch of them and put them on the table?

"The problem isn't the money, is it? It's who buys so many identical short knives? They're not specialized staves."

Exusiai once again criticized Croissant for her misplaced focus.

"Shouldn't our focus be on how Shirou is going to repair the headphones?"

Sora's face was filled with confusion. They were clearly curious about how Shirou was going to repair the headphones, but how did the conversation suddenly shift to the knives on the side?

However, she was also quite interested in the cups on the table.

After finishing his work, Shirou Emiya finally noticed the crowd outside the door.

"What are you guys doing?"

Shirou Emiya asked as he slid a heat-shrink tube onto the headphone wire.

"Huh? Ah? Nothing, we're just curious how you're fixing them."

Exusiai felt three hands push her forward. Her mind was in a mess, and after stammering for a while, she suddenly remembered the original purpose of their visit.

"Then you probably won't be able to see it. I'm almost done."

Shirou slightly raised the rather unsightly wires in his hand. He had just checked them with magic, and the headphones were now functional.

"Really?"

Texas sprinted to Shirou's side, looking at her headphones.

Although the wire part was a bit unsightly, it was still acceptable.

"Mhm, you can try listening."

Shirou didn't rush to finish the heat shrink tubing. He let Texas test them first.

Texas carefully inserted the connector into her phone, then put on the headphones. For the first time in a while, she heard music from them.

"I rarely see Texas so happy."

Exusiai watched Texas's tail wagging incessantly, so much so that her eyes were almost dizzy.

"Mhm, indeed."

Sora agreed with Exusiai.

"How is it?"

Shirou asked, looking at Texas who was intently listening to the headphones.

"It's great, just like before."

Texas, satisfied, took off the headphones and handed them back to Shirou for the final finishing touches.

"That's good then. By the way, what color do you like?"

Shirou took the headphones and took out a heat gun to blow on the heat shrink tubing. The tubing quickly shrunk, tightly wrapping around the wires Shirou had just exposed.

"Red?"