Texas and Croissant paused their actions at the same time.
First, the two of them looked around, and then simultaneously turned their gazes toward Shirou's bedroom door.
"Did you hear that?"
Texas asked her teammate.
"Yeah, sounds like some kind of shouting? Shirou is gaming so early in the morning. That can't be good for his health."
Listening to the faint, gasping sounds coming from inside Shirou's room, Croissant assumed he was doing some kind of workout.
After all, he was a growing young man, so having such issues was normal.
It was just really awkward to overhear, and Croissant wondered if she should knock on the door right now to get back at him.
"Gaming? That's the sound of pain. What kind of game makes him hurt enough to cry out?"
Texas failed to follow her teammate's train of thought at all; to her ears, every single gasp sounded utterly repressed and agonizing. She had heard those kinds of sounds often enough before to remember them clearly.
"What?"
Croissant lost all mood for joking and brought her ear directly against the door.
Pressing flat against it was out of the question, but getting closer allowed her to hear the sounds inside a little more clearly.
"Gkh—"
Without hesitation, Croissant turned the doorknob, only to find the door locked.
"Shirou, are you okay? Open the door if you're awake!"
Seeing that the door wouldn't open, Croissant began pounding on it, no longer caring about the noise level.
Exusiai and Sora in the kitchen were also drawn out by Croissant's racket.
"Move."
Texas made Croissant step aside and kicked the door right open.
"Longmen Curses, are you guys trying to turn a surprise into a fright?"
Seeing Texas's door-kicking stunt, Exusiai felt her whole head ache.
"What's wrong with Shirou?"
After Texas kicked the door open, Sora vaguely heard the sound Shirou had made earlier. Combined with the actions of the other two, something must have gone wrong on Shirou's end.
Croissant and Texas both stared blankly at Shirou inside the room.
They saw Shirou sitting upright on the bed, clutching his right arm, and panting heavily.
If that were all, it would be one thing, but both of them could clearly see strange, glowing patterns running from Shirou's right hand all the way up to his neck.
"Are you alright?"
Texas stopped Croissant, who wanted to barge right in, and asked from the doorway.
"Hah... I'm fine, just had a bit of a nightmare."
Catching his breath, Shirou realized that Texas and Croissant were standing outside his bedroom door, and that his front door had been kicked in.
22 Check-up
In the living room, Exusiai, Texas, and Sora sat in a row.
Shirou had changed into a fresh set of clothes and sat across from the three of them.
"You're really okay?"
Texas asked, looking at the somewhat exhausted Shirou.
It wasn't that she was making a fuss over nothing, but small tells told her Shirou's current condition was abysmal.
Just when he picked up a glass of water, Shirou's right hand had trembled continuously, almost causing him to drop it.
Sitting there now, he was noticeably trying to use only his left hand, which was different from usual.
"It's fine, it'll clear up in a couple of days."
Shirou waved a hand to indicate he had no problems.
"Really? You're sure you don't need to see a doctor?"
Sora wore a worried expression. She had caught a glimpse of that scene in the room earlier, and seeing those unknown patterns on Shirou's arm made her somewhat anxious about his state.
"If you're worried about your Infected status being exposed, just find a doctor the boss knows."
Exusiai turned it over in her mind and finally concluded that Shirou must have hidden his identity as one of the Infected, and that what had just happened was an Oripathy flare-up.
After all, when Oripathy flared up, it brought a certain degree of pain to the Infected, and as the infection progressed, the agony would only grow more intense.
"Infected? Ah, you don't need to worry about that."
Shirou thought for a moment before he understood what they were worrying about. Around here, being one of the Infected was indeed a sensitive matter.
Yet Shirou could say with certainty that he was not Infected; if there were any abnormalities inside his body, he definitely would have noticed them immediately.
Magecraft wasn't for show, after all; examining his own body was well within his capabilities.
"We don't have any prejudice against the Infected. But if you refuse follow-up treatment, you're going to die, you know?"
As she said the final sentence, Texas savagely bit through the Pocky stick in her mouth.
It was very common for the Infected to hide their conditions for the sake of work, and countless people died because they delayed medical attention for that very reason.
Their line of work frequently brought them into contact with the Infected, so they naturally weren't very afraid; as long as protective measures were in place, they could get along just fine.
Regardless, Shirou was someone they had brought back, and he had taken care of them for quite a long time. Texas felt she ought to remind him of this fact.
She had already sent Croissant to fetch the Oripathy testing equipment from another safehouse. If it turned out later that Shirou was indeed infected, she would make him go and accept proper treatment no matter what.
Naturally, they would go through the boss's channels; the boss definitely knew doctors who could keep their mouths shut.
As long as there were no obvious Oripathy crystals on his body, hiding it would still be quite easy.
"Like I said, it really isn't that. How should I put it... it's just the side effect of a family-inherited technique."
To keep the girls from worrying, yet not knowing how to describe magecraft to them, Shirou ended up using the side effect of some miraculous technique as an excuse.
He wasn't even lying; it genuinely was the side effect of a miraculous technique.
As for why his Magic Circuits had gone haywire just now, it was related to the things he had seen in his memories. Shirou himself hadn't expected his own Magic Circuits to resonate along with them; the version of him in his memories had been imperceptibly assimilated, while he himself had gone all the way in a single night.
Even if he possessed a bit of a foundation, Archer was still that version of himself standing at the end of his ideals, and his intensity completely crushed Shirou into the dirt.
Hearing Shirou's reply, Texas and Exusiai grew even more restless, but once Croissant returned with the equipment, all problems would be solved.
"A technical side effect? What kind of technique?"
Seeing the atmosphere among them gradually freeze, Sora jumped in to question Shirou, breaking the deadlock.
"Well..."
Shirou mused for a moment, deciding to demonstrate with Reinforcement Magic.
Mainly because his Magic Circuits had just suffered a runaway surge, and using Projection right now would place too heavy a burden on him.
As long as the direction was correct, casting Reinforcement Magic actually consumed very little.
"Trace on."
Shirou picked up a piece of tissue paper from the side, rolling it into a thin, slender shape.
The girls watched as the patterns on Shirou's hand surfaced once more, and this time, identical patterns appeared on the tissue paper itself.
"Basic structure, comprehended.
Constituent materials, comprehended.
Reinforcement complete."
As the chant ended, Shirou held the rolled-up tissue paper up in front of the three of them.
"What's this supposed to mean?"
Exusiai looked puzzled by Shirou's actions.
"The tissue paper got hard?"
Texas sensed that the tissue paper seemed a bit strange, so she reached out and pinched it.
"For real!"
Seeing that Texas had already touched it and voiced her impression, Sora reached out and touched it too.
The tactile sensation under her fingers lacked the softness of tissue paper, feeling considerably harder instead.
The actual material was difficult to determine since it just looked like tissue paper from the outside.
Exusiai also reached out to poke it, confirming that Texas and Sora weren't trying to trick her.
"Originium Arts?"
Exusiai pondered for a moment before offering her view. When in doubt, quantum mecha—ah, no, when in doubt, Originium Arts.
"True, this doesn't prove you aren't Infected. If anything, it makes you even more suspicious."
Texas withdrew her hand.
"Ah, this..."
Hearing Texas's words, Shirou felt his whole world darken.
"I'm back!"
Right at that moment, Croissant shoved the front door open, holding a machine in her hands.
"You're finally here! We've been waiting forever!"
Exusiai stepped forward to help Croissant place the machine on the table, plugging it in by the way.
"This is?"
Shirou looked at the device before him. Though he didn't know its function, it was definitely brought here for him to use.
"A portable Oripathy detector. It only takes a tiny drop of blood—if you're an Oripathy patient, it lights up red; if not, it lights up green."
Sora briefly introduced the machine's function.
"Let me draw a little blood."
Texas pulled out a small needle and spoke to Shirou.
Shirou extended his left arm to let Texas draw blood. Since the equipment was right here, he didn't need to explain much else.
After all, no amount of explanation could beat a professional certification.
Texas drew just a tiny drop of blood and handed it over to Croissant.
"Here it comes, here it comes, time for the big reveal!"
Croissant dropped the blood into the test tube and placed it into the machine.
Then she received a triple-stacked chop to the head from the three of them.
"Ow-wah."
Croissant let out a wail.
"Hurry up and operate it, you bread man."
Exusiai grabbed Croissant's horns and shook her, while Texas grabbed the other side and shook her too.
"Alright, alright, let go first."
Croissant was shaken until her head spun.
Only after the two of them released her horns did Croissant resume operating the machine.
The group stared at the light on top of the machine, watching it for close to two minutes.
Ding!
Before you continue