"Um..."
He scratched his head, struggling to find the words. "Your Servant... is that red-haired lady, right?"
The girl did not answer, which amounted to an admission.
Shirou kept trying to make awkward conversation. "Um, what's her name?"
The moment he asked, Shirou regretted it. He remembered the old man saying that a Servant's true name could not be revealed lightly. Asking outright for the name of someone else's Servant was far too rude...
While Shirou was regretting it, the girl answered him. "Messmer... Big Sister..."
Shirou looked at her, suddenly at a loss for words. Had the old man been wrong? Did a Servant's true name not matter? Or did the girl before him not care about that?
Still, the conversation had to continue. Shirou tried to bring up Messmer, but swallowed his words as soon as he began.
He thought of Cú Chulainn. The old man was his teacher, his guardian, and also a Servant. And to the girl before him, what was Messmer to her?
Putting himself in her shoes, if someone asked him to fight Cú Chulainn now...
He could not do it. He absolutely could not.
Then what right did he have to ask this girl to do the same thing?
"I..."
He lowered his head, his voice growing very quiet. "I don't know what to do."
The girl was utterly confused. What was this boy her age babbling about?
Shirou continued, "An old man told me to come find you. He said you could help. But I... I don't know how to say it to you."
He raised his head and looked into the girl's eyes. "Your Servant... that big sister Messmer, she's become like that now. If this keeps going, what will happen to her? Will everyone disappear in six days?"
At that