The barrel pressed against her temple, cold steel on warm flesh. The hand holding it didn't as much as quiver even once.
"You're making a big mistake."
She tried to make herself cool and collected. It didn't work.
And only in part because she was being kept at gunpoint. She wondered, for a moment, if she could ever bring up the sort of resolve that kept her 'patient' ... or should that be 'kidnapper' ... from doing more than gritting his teeth as she methodically worked to tear something that was literally and metaphorically a piece of his Self away from his Magic Circuits and Spiritual Gestalt.
"So people keep telling me, right before I shoot them," was the half-grunted reply. The gun remained steady.
She really wasn't cut out for this. The sort of finesse the procedure required was something that only came with practice, and outside of combat magicks she really hadn't delved into many topics before ...
... and even that was something she was beginning to have second thoughts about, seeing as she'd been caught off-guard as easily as she had.
Sweat beaded on her forehead, plastering bangs to skin, and her breathing quickened with the effort as the final connections were nudged away from the mass of condensed, contained mana ...
"Almost, almost ..." she worded as she breathed out, her Circuits flaring in concert with those of the man as they worked to _keep_ that mass from solidifying into the Material.
What followed was a frenzied scramble, streams of energy flashing out from the tightly constrained core as it was moved, searing the room's wall and ceiling before the Circuits of the third person in the room stretched out, unfolding to make room for the mass with almost ridiculous ease.
She couldn't help but admire it, even knowing the price of that ...
... something they were attempting to recitify with this 'infusion'.
The energy-state Artifact and Magic Circuit mana-flare interfaced, and then there was only light.
***
His head ... ached.
"... ou! Shirou!"
No, his whole body ached, in a way that reminded him uncomfortably of heartburn ...
"Onii-chan! Wake up! Onegai!"
What? Was somebody calling him? Why? The last thing he remembered was ...
"Don't leave me alone! Please! I don't want to be alone again!"
And then the sensations crested, his body was filled not with a dull, enduring ache, but with enough pain to make him believe, for a moment, that he'd been set on fire.
Eyes slammed open, then slammed shut as the intense, almost blinding light assaulted his optic nerves, while at the same time his body's reaction was to bolt upwards ...
... then collapse, shouting out in agony, to curl himself into a ball and try not to puke while every single muscle felt as if it had been stuffed full of glass shards.
Moving hurt, hell, breathing hurt.
It was as if every single nerve in his body had been turned into ...
... he froze, clarity piercing through the veil of suffering, bringing momentary tranquility as he centered, and violently purged the mana overload from his Circuits.
There was a dull *thump* as the charge was dumped into the air, and a burning in his hands ...
... and then, blessed salvation.
Something wet went *splat* against his cheek, which he realized was moist, and he opened his eyes ... carefully.
A crying, puffy-eyed, dishevelled Illyasviel was kneeling next to where he was curled on the tattered rug.
"Oni ... onii-chan?"
And relief flooded him, seeing that she wasn't hurt. Upset, maybe ...
"Ouch," he mumbled, getting used to moving his jaw again, and noting that his throat was hoarse, like he'd been screaming for a long while. "Never doing that again ... um, what the hell did I do, anyway?"
"Onii-chan!"
"Owowowowowcareful!" he hissed out, though mostly needlessly. The glomp wasn't nearly up to her usual standards.
Finally, he managed to assure her that, no, he wasn't going to be dying anytime soon. In fact, he didn't seem to be hurting very much at all, and could she please get out of his shirt because it was getting embarassing?
Then the state of the room registered, and he cast a furtive look around, slowly piecing together what had happend as one hand furtively, though blindly, searching around for his gun.
"Looking for this?"
Oh. Yes, he was. Not only look for, but also apparently staring into the barrel of. And past that, into a pair of angrily sparkling eyes.
Meanwhile, his hands were slowly becoming sticky with blood, since most of the mana overload had been shunted through his most often used route - the palms thereof.
Now, how to avoid having Tohsaka scion clobber him to death when she notices the mystical safety on the sidearm made it useless for anyone but himself, and maybe get some bandages in the process?
Nope, he was coming up blank. Having had a near-death experience sometime in the last half-hour, or so he reckoned, could maybe excuse that ... but it wasn't really helping at the moment. Nosiree.
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm