Nasu Kinoko and Type-Moon created and own Fate: Stay Night and all related characters and elements.

Akamatsu Ken, his little-credited (even by me, sorry) creative team and Kodansha created Mahou Sensei Negima! and all related characters and elements.

I make no money from writing any of this.

The situations and events in this chapter include adult material not fit for minors and sexual intercourse. You have been warned.

Heroes of Another Story.

Sakura: Episode 256.

Rin's Return.

The man's hand was large, almost as big as the little girl's head itself, or at least it looked that way to the little girl, through the haze of her memories. It rested on her hair and, after a moment of hesitation, rubbed through and over it almost forcefully, as if wanting to leave an impression on her but also fearful of hurting her. Of course, it was not like he could caress her scalp tenderly, even though he wanted to, and the girl could easily tell. This was the first time ever he had rubbed her scalp, while looking down at her smiling face. The girl smiled brightly because she was fully unaware of what was about to happen, and only felt good because her father was finally paying her the attention she had wanted from him for so long.

And then he spoke. He gave her a book, one that made the girl's smile grow even wider, as she was well aware of how much did that tome mean to him. But just as she reveled in that sudden gift and its meaning, he turned around and walked back towards the large manor, leaving her and her mother standing by the limousine that would take them to Mahora.

The girl hugged the book against her chest and softly said, "Take good care, Father."

And then Tohsaka Rin woke up, as the captain announced his airplane was beginning its descent towards the Neo-Tokyo International Airport. She smacked her lips together, green eyes slowly coming open, and delicately wiped a small portion of drool from a corner of her mouth. "How noisy…" she murmured to herself, only to be further upset by a haughty chuckle coming from a seat at the other side of the aisle, just a few steps of distance from her.

Just as slowly, she stared at the young woman sitting across her, at the smug smile on her perfect lips, coated with a thin layer of pinkish lipstick. Her stare dared her to laugh that hideous laugh in public, where the people sitting around them lacked any context to think of her as anything but a madwoman. Regrettably, the other girl just kept smirking arrogantly as she folded her arms under her large bust, not even bothering to look back at the smaller, brown haired girl with twin side pigtails.

Rin just wished she could have something, anything, at hand to throw at her head. Oh well. There would be plenty of time for that later.

Negi Springfield wandered, amazed, through the Neo-Tokyo International Airport. It was somewhat smaller and less awe inspiring than the London one, from an objective viewpoint, but for a very young foreigner, it held an unmatched sense of wonder and exotic thrill. He was picking up the chattering of the locals in their language rather well, much to his relief, since he knew theory knowledge and basic academic experience on a language didn't translate well into actual communication with the native speakers.

He might have been acting actually a bit too eager and surprised, actually, because he had briefly forgotten, not only Nekane back at home, but the person who was supposed to pick him up there. Instead, he took on the sights while walking all around the Airport, even stopping to buy candy at all the stands he could find, with the true enthusiasm of a child. As he kept on marching with a lollipop stuck in his mouth, his organism well fueled on sugar, he reflected candy in this new country didn't taste as good as that of his homeland, but this was hardly a time to feel chauvinistic. Japan was amazing looking! So full of radiant life, some of which even didn't throw suspicious looks at him!

And then two girls in their late teens, who seemed the radiate the same feeling of his condisciples at home, so unlike that of the locals, passed by next to him, sort of shattering the effect. They smelled good, he faintly noticed as he got a good look at them, although not as good as those most men around him were giving them. Those men, however, just couldn't feel the same unusual (for those particular surroundings) aura of definite magical power both of those young woman possessed. The taller one had hair as blond as Nekane's, although neatly arranged into thick and elegant curls falling around her shoulders, and wore a long blue and white dress. The shorter one had a more discreet and humble figure, although by no means flat or childish, again, not that Negi analyzed that deeply at all. She wore an extremely short black skirt and tight red sweater, with extremely high black stockings, and her dark hair was collected into twin side tails. They carried heavy looking luggage, including bags within which Negi could made the shape of long sticks. That made him feel slightly uneasy for some reason.

"Well, it's as if I had never left at all," the mini skirted girl was musing aloud, in Japanese. "I can't believe they forced me to return after only a year. But I suppose they had to summon the best..."

The blond girl kept doing her best to march faster than her, and their quickly increasing competitive pace was starting to draw more attraction to them than their attractive looks. "Why, yes, but 'the best' is a relative term. Certainly, 'the best' this gloomy crushed country could produce wouldn't possibly amount to anything but you..." she said in English.

Negi, walking behind them with his curiosity piqued, managed to overhear the other girl's cold reply. "I think I'm still reeling from that flight, because my ears are ringing with an ugly sound and my stomach is turning. Oh, no, it's just your presence, Luvia. Can't you take your own way already if you really dislike me so much?" Again, this was said in Japanese.

The answer came in English, naturally. "That's my line! And it's the sick deer who must stray away from the mighty lion's path, not the other way around! Don't feel so overconfident just because you are back amongst people of your low category, Eleven!"

"How did you call me?!" the other girl challenged. "Why don't you say that in Japanese so everyone can understand you, cowardly cow!"

The girl apparently named Luvia stopped to face her. "Cowardly cow?! Why, you wheezing weasel!" And they started to struggle right at the middle of the hall, hand on hand, pushing madly against each other. "Forget the War! I'll save you further humiliation and crush you here and now!"

"You think too highly of yourself! Good for nothing prissy piece of-!"

Negi, alarmed, and seeing how things were really getting out of hand now, tried to rush ahead to stop them, but was stopped himself when he felt a hand on his shoulder, reaching over to him from behind. "Negi Springfield?" a voice asked. "Wow, you sure have grown up a lot."

He turned around, recognizing the voice. "Takamichi!"

That person smiled at him. "That's right. It's been a while, hasn't it? Professor Takamichi T. Takahata, at your service, Negi-sensei."

But while we will see Negi repeatedly through this story, this is not actually his tale, for that story unfolds elsewhere.

"Nee-san," the busty (even bustier than Luvia, which Rin supposed did give her a motive to feel the Tohsakas held yet another one over the Edelfelts—even though she still wished she could have been the one to hold that edge personally herself) and purple-haired, purple eyed beauty standing at the doors of the manor bowed to her, hands folded over her lap. "Welcome back. It's so good to have you here again…!"

"Oi, Sakura, is that any way to greet your Oneechan?" Rin frowned as she stepped towards her and caught the younger girl in a tight hug. She rocked her little sister back and forth, as Sakura smiled sweetly and closed her eyes, enjoying the contact with the other girl. "I've missed you so much, Sakura," Rin confessed. "That was a long, long year…"

As she pulled back, Sakura quickly rubbed a tear off a corner of her right eye. "Same here, Nee-san. Everybody's missed you so much, too. Well, except Ryuudou-sempai," she had to admit with an awkward chuckle, "but I'm sure he'll cope with your return eventually…"

"Really? Well, so much for 'absence makes heart grow fonder'," Rin commented while the sisters walked into the old Tohsaka house, Sakura closing the door behind them. "And how's Kirei?"

Sakura shrugged while Rin set her shoes and luggage aside. "The same as always, why would he ever change? He apologized over not being here to welcome you, but it seems he had a... an assignment to carry out right today."

"Well, that's great to hear," Rin nodded, hanging the jacket she had been wearing over her sweater since leaving the airport. Even though weather in Japan was usually warm and humid ever since the event from fifteen years ago, the last few days had been oddly colder than normal. Rin had her own theories about it. "And yeah, why would he ever change? I trust he hasn't bothered you too much in my absence?"

"No, not at all, why?" Sakura asked, shaking her head.

Rin moved a hand in a circle. "I was sort of afraid he'd move on to annoy you while I was gone, but I suppose even he has standards…"

Sakura just nodded to humor her sister. She didn't really understand exactly what did Rin have against their legal tutor, and whenever asked directly even Rin couldn't explain herself all too well, but she wasn't going to have a discussion with her over it right after her long awaited return from the Clock Tower.

"So, is dinner ready yet?" Rin casually asked as she plopped down on a couch, picking the TV's remote up and starting to switch through channels.

And yes, Sakura had been missing even that off-handed sisterly exploitation. After all, she always had to keep in mind she COULD have left to her own devices with the Matous if not for that twist of fate…

"Tohsaka? Tohsaka Rin?" the girl her own age with short light brown hair asked while slowing down. Rin smiled to her as she stopped at the middle of the sidewalk, facing her. Sakura stopped shortly behind, placing her black schoolbag before herself, almost as if to shield herself. Meanwhile, Rin's posture was a lot more confident, the hand holding her own schoolbag casually hanging aside while the other bunched a fist up on her own hip. "Well, this is quite a surprise!" Rin's classmate grinned, reaching over to pat the older Tohsaka's shoulder. "I thought you'd stay in Europe for another year!"

"Yes, so did I, but I had things to take care of here," Rin nodded. "How have you been, Mitsuzuri-san?"

"I'm the club's president now!" the girl gave Rin a thumbs up, flashing a bright while smirk. "Hadn't Sakura-chan told you?"

Sakura awkwardly looked back in silence. "Good… Good morning, Captain," she finally said.

"Oh, of course she had!" Rin smoothly replied to bail Sakura out. "I'd like to visit and see your training one of these days, after, well… after I sort those matters out."

"No wonder you'd want to!" an annoying, smug voice said from behind the Tohsakas, making Rin's face flinch in disgust for a split moment. It was the only voice Rin disliked more than Luvia's. At least Kirei's had a cultured, refined and rich likable tone to it, for all of the man's flaws. "You came sooner just for me, didn't you, Tohsaka-san?"

Rin put on her best practiced smile before looking back at the young, slim man with dark purple and curly hair who stood smiling with his schoolbag flung over a shoulder, while Sakura discretely edged away from him and flinched. "Good morning, Matou-kun. Isn't a bit early for you to be up, though?"

"I'm up whenever you want me to, Tohsaka-san," Matou Shinji smoothly said, one of his eyebrows quirking up with his smile. "So, have you given thought to what I asked you before—"

"For like my first two minutes in the plane to England, and I haven't changed my mind since," she quickly replied. "Sorry, but my answer is still no. Ara, don't tell me you still were waiting for it? I imagined you'd have gotten tons of girlfriends while I was away…!"

Shinji's face briefly whipped into a grimace of offended pain, but he recovered quickly. "Ah ha ha! Oh, Tohsaka-san, who do you take me for? You should stop listening to ill-intentioned rumors spread about me…" this was said with a subtle look over Rin's shoulder and towards the huffing Ayako.

"I paid little attention to anything ever said about you, Matou-kun," Rin indifferently said, starting to walk away, towards the female wing of the Academy. "Now, I think this is still where we split off, so unless you're willing to enroll with the girls, goodbye…"

Sakura made a short bow towards Shinji before hurrying up to follow her sister and the now chuckling Ayako. The livid boy who had been left behind spent a few moments trying to process the dissing he had just been subjected to, before just exploding, "Dammit, Tohsaka! You're even more arrogant now, aren't you?!"

"Pot, kettle," Ayako said loud enough for him to hear, without deigning to look back. "Can you believe that guy?" she asked Rin as they got away from his hearing range. "And at least you don't have to put up with him in a daily basis…"

Sakura lowered her head and nodded at that, but only because no one could see her doing so while she marched behind the others.

"Ah, you're back, Tohsaka-kun! Have a nice day, Tohsaka-kun!" said the short haired Fujimura Taiga-sensei, as absently cheerful as ever, as the girls went up the stairs and she went down in the opposite direction, not even stopping for a longer greeting before she disappeared down the building, full of her never dropping wasteful energy.

"The same to you, Fujimura-sensei…" Rin calmly said back, while Ayako laughed at it and Sakura just kept on submerged into deep, unfathomable thoughts. Soon the trio reached the building's story where their respective classrooms waited for them; it still was mostly deserted, although it caught Rin's attention there was a boy standing right outside her old classroom. He was rather in the short side and handsome even if mostly unremarkable, with short dark hair and glasses. "And good morning to you, Ryuudo-kun. Isn't this Suzushiro-sempai's side of the Academy to patrol?"

The boy jerked back, his face scrunching into visible dislike. "Tohsaka-san! I thought you'd still be in Europe!"

"Nice to see you as well," Rin sedately nodded at him. "I just arrived yesterday. So what is your excuse to be here, and this early?"

Then another, taller boy the same age walked out of the classroom, wiping his hands clean with a white cloth. "I think I'm done now, Issei. I tested it thrice and… oh! Sakura-chan, and the Club President too! And—" he blinked a few times as soon as he saw the three girls standing at a short distance.

"G-Good morning, Sempai!" Sakura gulped, breaking into a short chain of nervous bows.

"Did you forget my name already, Emiya-kun?" a faintly amused Rin smiled at his half-open mouth expression. "It's me, Tohsaka Rin, Sakura's sister."

The redhaired boy who had just appeared scowled a bit, and Ayako could swear, much to her own amusement, she had seen a shadow of a blush on his cheeks for a moment. "Of course I remember you, Tohsaka-san. It's just… well, I thought you had moved away…"

"It was just a trip," Ryuudou Issei coldly intervened. "Ladies, Shirou and I were checking on the air conditioner, which had been failing over the weekend, as reported by the staff. Well," he admitted, "Shirou was, at least. I have to recognize I'm not good at those things…"

"One would wonder why did you tag along then," Rin quietly wondered.

Issei gave her a highly annoyed glare. Since he couldn't possibly say 'Because I know you women are Shirou's weak point', he just offered a mild, "Because friends are meant to try to support each other even if they aren't sure they will be able to." He considered adding a 'Didn't they teach you anything about that in Europe?', but he thought it would be way over the line.

"Anyway," Emiya Shirou said to try and defuse tensions, "it's great to see you back, Tohsaka-san. But, if you'll excuse us, there are a few other things I'd like to check on before classes…"

"That's right," Issei said while checking on an open notebook. "This wing's library reported one of its coolers has been failing, too. I tried it myself, and I think it's a bust, but maybe you'll be able to operate another miracle…"

"Well, I'm sure that's a passionate topic for you boys, but I have no interest on machines whatsoever," Rin said as she headed into the classroom, "so don't let my presence hold you back any further. Have your fun and thanks for the assist. You also should head to your classes now, Sakura."

"Ah, yes, of course, Nee-san!" Sakura said before bowing to Shirou again. "Sorry I won't be able to visit you tonight, Sempai, but my sister-!"

"Oh, it's alright, I understand," Shirou replied placatingly. "Family should be our top priority, Sakura! You already do too much for me as it is…"

Then Rin's head instantly peeked back out from the classroom, just as Ayako was walking in as well, forcing her to backpedal fast. "Wait, what have you just said? Who is visiting whom?!"

Sakura shrank down with a beet red face as Issei of all people stepped in for a save, even before Emiya could. "Calm down, will you, Tohsaka? Since Shirou lives alone, your sister sometimes visits him to help him with his cooking and housekeeping, that's all…"

Rin leveled a barely controlled glare on Sakura. "Is that true?"

"I'm, I'm sorry I didn't tell you before," her sister stammered, "but I wasn't sure of how—"

"Ohhhh, come on, Tohsaka-san!" Ayako intervened this time, again beating Shirou to it just as the young man opened his mouth in his and Sakura's defense. For a split second after that, Shirou's expression melted into an annoyed frown. He liked to fight his own battles after all. "Emiya-kun is a gentleman! It's not like he'd ever take advantage of Sakura-chan!"

"That's, that's right, Nee-san!" Sakura was fast to confirm. "I do it because I want to, and I offered myself for it! He even tried to reject it, but I insisted!"

"That's… I'm not sure that makes it any better, it just means you are…" Rin murmured before looking up and down at the mildly sweating Shirou. Just as he opened his mouth again to say something, she added, "Now the current head of the family is back, you would better consult her before taking Sakura as your girlfriend, is that understood?"

"Wha?" Shirou babbled, just as Issei choked violently in his saliva and Ayako repressed a wild guffaw.

"NEE-SAN!" Sakura complained.

Rin shrugged stoically. "I'm just following the proper procedure Father would have wanted me to. Have a nice day then, Emiya-kun," she said before retreating back into the classroom.

"She thinks the whole world spins around her, doesn't she?" Issei mumbled bitterly. "'Don't let my presence hold you back any further'. Seriously!"

"I can still hear you from here, Ryuudou-kun," Rin's voice said from inside.

"Good! I like sincerity!" Issei said.

Once again, Sakura just remained in an overwhelmed silence. Shirou's was more of a baffled one.

"Girlfriend?" he weakly repeated to himself.

As was her custom, Tohsaka Rin ate her lunch alone at the rooftop. Girls had been pestering her all day long to eat with them, especially that Honsho Chizuru raging dyke (Rin was extremely unwilling to use insulting slurs, but she had to admit there was no politically correct alternate description for Honsho; she simply was a raging turbo dyke), who was even pushier and scarier now than Rin remembered her. But Rin had to keep herself focused, and that meant she had to take her time to plan and think. Surely Luviagelita, stupid and brash as she was, was doing the same thing right now…

"Oh, you're so beautiful, Luvia-sama!" she heard the adoring female voices from below.

"A true supermodel's presence and body!" another girl gushed.

"Are you a natural blonde?"

"Wow, you're even prettier than Tohsaka Rin-san!" and now this made Rin's skin crawl.

Not as much as the obnoxious laughter that ensued. "Oh ho ho ho! Of course! Do you know Tohsaka Rin? I'd bet you don't know half the truth about her, however! We happened to study together at Britannia, and—"

Rin had carefully chose and lifted a rather big stone from the rooftop and now weighed it in her hand, ready to toss it down on a certain empty blond head, when her carefully planned assault and injury was stopped by another girl's arrival.

"Hey, hey, did you know?" this girl was excitedly asking. "There's a new teacher who is a little boy! Like ten, and from Britannia! And you won't believe how CUTE he is!"

Rin had paid this bit of news no mind, other than being thankful of how it had shifted the girls' focus of attention away from Luvia. She had fleetingly thought it was curious there would be another recent newcomer from the Isles making waves at the school just at the same time of their arrival, but she paid it no further inquire. She only had overheard he had been stuck with the gargantuan task of teaching homeroom to Junior High 2-A, which apparently was the same 1-A Rin had known about before departing, the class with Chao Lingshen the genius and the Headmaster's granddaughter. If true, the little part of Rin that cared really pitied that prodigy child, whoever he was.

But the bulk of Rin's thoughts were on readying herself for the incoming War. Her resources were fairly limited after the clan's fall in disgrace, and she had gotten no catalyst from her research in the Clock Tower, against her expectations. Her only consolation was Luvia hadn't been able to either, despite of her own clan's vaunted economic and magical might (which Rin suspected was greatly exaggerated by now. From the hints Lord El Melloi had dropped, the Edelfelts had never truly recovered after their debacle in the Third Holy Grail War). If things followed the schedule Kirei had sent her before calling her back, she still had a couple of weeks to find a catalyst in Japan before the other Masters began crawling out of the woodwork, but where to start?

Library Island would probably be a good bet, but you couldn't find anything worthwhile in the upper levels, and one had to negotiate with the Library Exploration Club to be granted clearance to the underground chambers. And since the Headmaster had craftily arranged for that Club to be made up of students with no knowledge of magic, a researcher avid for occult knowledge just could not walk up to them and ask them for guidance on finding magical relics. If she wanted to trick them into leading them to a good catalyst, she would have to think of a way to negotiate around them without showing her real intentions.

That was doubly difficult when you had no idea exactly where to start looking in the gigantic island, or exactly who were the current members of the Club.

As if to punctuate Rin's inner turmoil, nature had seen fit to start a heavy rainfall during her long strolling way back home (Rin disliked buses almost as much as each other piece of machinery and preferred to walk no matter the distance. Besides, it was good exercise). Not that Rin cared much; she knew Sakura still was under a safe roof with the rest of her Archery club, and as for herself, she was almost as Crazy Prepared as the fabled American Bat-man himself. Not many other girls would have thought of carrying an umbrella in their schoolbags with them during a bright morning, but now Rin had the figurative last laugh on them as she walked under her yellow umbrella's protection while she saw everyone else rushing wet and cursing around her. She only hoped Luvia was currently undergoing through the same situation, although she suspected she only had called on a chauffeur to pick her up.

Soon, Rin found herself walking all alone down a long, seemingly never ending soaked sidewalk, taking the fork detour that would take her home, past the school dorms and into the residential area that housed the teachers and a few special families with long standing connections to the Mahora staff and founders. Such as the Tohsakas.

It was there she casually looked aside when she heard a shrill female scream, only to witness a younger girl with long light brown hair and glasses being slowly lowered down, like a weightless feather, to safely land into an expecting red haired young boy's open arms. The child in the dark green suit, black shoes and red tie caught her with barely some effort, oddly enough for someone of his size, although the brunt of the catch still put him down on his knees.

That had to be Negi Springfield. With all that had been happening to her lately, Rin had all but forgotten him. But he was the current sensation across campus, the child prodigy brought from Wales to teach one of the school's most unruly and ungrateful classes, 2-A. During the brief time Rin had spent considering him, she had not thought he could be versed in magic, but given the fact the Dean himself had summoned him, in hindsight she should have guessed it from the start; something now confirmed by how he was carrying a bandaged staff proper to old European mages. Still, even if she had known, she most likely would have had no real interest to dwell on the subject. But this changed everything.

The other girl now merely looked at his face with huge, terrified eyes. He smiled awkwardly, his hair a sopping mess, his glasses as fogged up as hers.

"Are... Are you okay, Hasegawa-san?" her teacher asked tentatively.

Hasegawa Chisame only could nod wordlessly, thankfully unable to notice the deep blush running over her cheeks.

She was too stunned to do anything else.

However, the confusion quickly was followed by fear, as the girl jumped up from Negi's arms and backed away stuttering.

"W-w-What was that?" she yelled. "That definitely wasn't a normal fall! What did you do to me?"

The boy trembled, and not only due to the cold, firmly clutching his staff between his shaking hands. "Well, you see... ahh..."

"Don't tell me you're some sort of alien!" Chisame gulped hard.

"Erm, no, not exactly..."

"You're an ESPer, then!" she aimed a finger at him.

"No, not at all!" he protested.

"Or a time traveler!" the virtual idol despaired. "No, wait, you're just a bad dream! I accidentally ate something Hakase cooked and I'm in a delirious comma state! Luckily, in any moment now I'll either wake up or die!"

"He's a mage," the black haired Hakase Satomi, whom Rin recognized from the school newspapers, calmly pointed out from above.

"A mage? That's ridiculous," Chisame blinked several times. "And scientifically impossible. For you of all people to say that..."

"Um, actually, she's right," Negi meekly conceded. "I'm a wizard, or mage. Both definitions are technically correct."

Chisame gave him a blank and huge shocked stare. "No. For real," she eeped out.

"I'm telling you the truth," their new teacher insisted. "That thing yesterday with the eraser? I did it. It was a lesser version of the spell I just used on you."

So, it had already happened to him more than once? Rin felt disappointed on him. For someone bearing the same family name as the fabled Nagi Springfield, and probably actually related to him, she had been expecting for more skill, even at such a young age.

Chisame just kept looking at him, unable to speak.

"However," he pointed out, gulping while spinning his staff around, "I'm afraid I can't let you to keep that knowledge. As a mage, I've sworn to keep my powers as a secret, forever hidden from the mundanes. Any magic user who fails at keeping that promise can be punished strictly, even being transformed into some species of animal, like an ermine, a Peruvian chicken, a lizard or a dung beetle. So I have no choice but to erase your memories of this experience!"

"Okay!" Chisame quickly nodded.

Negi paused, surprised. "Okay?"

"Of course it's okay!" she said. "As if I wanted to remember anything of this! Look, I want nothing more than having a normal life, and that certainly doesn't include anything related to magic of any sorts! So I'll be much happier if I forget everything about this horrible incident!" She spread her arms eagerly. "Zap me up with any mumbo-jumbo you have to make me normal again!"

The boy looked at her with wide, incredulous eyes, before smiling again and nodding. "Very well! I'm so glad you are so understanding, Hasegawa-san! Normally, people always panics and tries to run away when I have to do this..."

Chisame arched her eyebrows. "How many times have you had to do this before?"

Rin, her interest piqued despite herself, kept herself hidden behind a thick tree from a prudent distance as she saw him laughing awkwardly. "Heh, heh, heh... Let's just say I'm still a beginner... I'm not that well used to hide my secret yet..." The child started to spin his staff around once more. "For that very same reason, I must warn you maybe I'll botch this spell up and erase a little more than you probably expect me to..."

Chisame grew worried. "Exactly how much more?"

"Well, the most I've messed up in the past is causing total amnesia, but I'm sure I can fix the worst of it later..." he began to chant a spell under his breath.

"WAIT! NO! NO! NO!" the girl had quickly changed her mind after hearing that. "STOP IT! YOU DON'T NEED TO! DON'T YOU DARE, YOU MINDRAPING WEIRDO!"

"You heard her, Sensei," Hakase's voice rang from above again, quietly, but with a strange new edge to it. Negi stopped his incantation, and he and Chisame looked up to see the genius holding a cellphone in a hand, recording the whole event.

"Hakase-san?" The young teacher had a bad feeling.

"Stop your attempts to disrupt my roommate's memories or I will press this button and send this recording to Chao-san and everyone else at my Club," Satomi warned, not exactly hostile, but neither softly at all. "I disapprove of mages pulling such abusive actions upon those you consider 'mere mortals'. Yes, Sensei, I do know about magic. I have, for rather a long time now."

"You do?" Chisame didn't give credit to her own ears. "But how—?"

"Please, Chisame!" Satomi said. "Even with my highly advanced expertise, you didn't think I was able to develop Chachamaru only through the conventional scientific means, or did you? I only was able to give her life by combining the power of the so-called 'magic' with that of traditional energy sources inside of her robotic body!"

"UWAAA!" Negi screamed, scared out of his mind. "Karakuri Chachamaru-san? Student Number Ten? SHE'S A ROBOT?"

Chisame looked down at him again. "Don't tell me you hadn't noticed it yet!"

"In any case, Negi-sensei, your secret is safe with us," Satomi solemnly promised. "Chisame has absolutely no friends at all to share it with—"

"Thanks for making such a good case for me!" Hasegawa exclaimed.

"And I have sworn secrecy on the whole affairs of the world of magic before," the scientist continued, very seriously. "Mind, I am against the whole notion of magic being kept hidden from mankind," she explained, in a cold, stern tone Hasegawa didn't remember ever hearing from her before. "I believe mankind shouldn't be kept in the dark by elites. As a scientist, I long for the day when all advancements reached upon every field of human development can be shared with people all across the globe. But in the meanwhile, as a favor for a most dear friend, I have promised to keep my silence on it. And I'm willing to extend that to you. But you have to promise to respect my mind, and Chisame's, and place as much trust on us as we'll put on you. That is, after all, a teacher's duty."

Impressed, Negi lowered his staff, looking humble and ashamed of himself. "I'm sorry, Hakase-san. You're right. I apologize over my actions, Hasegawa-san."

Now Chisame breathed easier, even as her heart kept on beating fast. Her mind was still in turmoil, trying to assimilate everything she had just learned.

Satomi smiled, gesturing with her head for them to come back up, with herself. "Now that's better. However, you two should get back home and change your clothing before you acquire a common cold. Possibly, a hot bath would be advised as well..."

Negi cringed. "No way! I already bathed once today!"

"...You little magical pig!" Chisame grabbed him by an ear and began dragging him up the steps with herself. "What kind of upbringing did they give you? If you really hope to be a Gentleman, you shouldn't be a filthy hippy!"

"Whaaa! Let my ear go! If I can't see you naked, then you shouldn't see me naked either!"

"I told you, those are two totally different things! You are nothing but a crybaby, but I'm already pretty much a woman!"

"Look at the positive side," Hakase smiled while her roommates went up onto the vehicle with her. "At least he didn't sneeze on you before the rest of the class."

"I'd have killed him in that case," Chisame deadpanned, firmly grabbing Hakase's waist as she motioned for Negi to do the same. "Sensei, if you value your life, then hold on tightly."

Rin knew the moment to make a stealthy retreat had come, and so she did. They no doubt would detect her presence as soon as they passed by her. Surely even a child and two annoying weird kouhais could not be THAT clueless.

However, Rin was happier now. That could prove useful somehow down the line.

"Huh?" Negi blinked, puzzled by Chisame's words. "But wh-YYYYYYYYYYY!"

He had his answer when Satomi suddenly stepped into the accelerator.

"Okay," Sakura sighed sadly as she closed her umbrella and carefully set it down by the front door, "we'll have to do this quick today, Sempai. With Neesan back, there's no way to know when she'll back…"

"Can't you just give her a call and see where she is right now?" an impatient Shinji asked, taking his soaked jacket off.

Sakura shook her head. "Neesan doesn't have a cellphone. She just hates them…"

Shinji was clearly disturbed, sputtering in disbelief. "A young woman without a phone?! What, what kind of woman is she?!"

"The best kind," Sakura steadily replied. "Much better than I ever could hope to be. That's why Father chose her as the heiress instead of me…"

"I thought it was just because she was the firstborn," Shinji smarmily replied, moving closer to rub on Sakura's shoulders, making her moan softly. "Come on, Sakura-chan. You know we are so alike, both of us cast aside unfairly by our families… so we have to stick together, don't we?"

Then he roughly turned her around and began kissing her mouth, not bothering to be gentle, while his hands rubbed her breasts, struggling to pull her school blouse's buttons out quickly. Sakura shuddered and crossed her legs together, rubbing them against each other. The little squirming things within her grew even more eager, nibbling and prickling as she felt like her insides were in fire. Then Shinji pulled away from her, a line of drool linking their mouths, and he huskily said, "Sakura-chan. I want a Pactio."

Sakura blinked, confused. "What… You do? But, but I thought you had said…"

"I know!" he growled, his frustration as fast to bubble up as ever. "But the deadline for the War is closing in, and I just can't find a way to make it work! At this point I don't even care if I have to be the Minister, as long as I get any magic at all to work with!"

Sakura shuddered as his grip now tightened on her arms, almost hurting her. His eyes were scary and fiery, such a distant cry from Emiya-sempai's ever gentle gaze. "B-But… even if you say so, I'm not sure anything I give you can be enough as to…"

"Sakura!" he said. "You know what Grandfather said! Your magic reserves are gigantic, perhaps greater than Rin's! Why can't you share some of that with me, instead of letting it go to waste?! Why are you so selfish, Sakura?!"

She lowered her head. "I just can't go against my own sister… What, what if you ever had to fight her? I, I just couldn't let you do that…"

"I swear," he said, planting two feral kisses on Sakura's throat, "I won't ever hurt her. I just want to prove myself to Grandfather, that's all. And you'll get to prove yourself to her, too." Now his hands moved over her skirt, squeezing on her buttocks. Sakura breathed quickly, and whimpered like a small hurt animal. "Well? Baby, you know I can't do this without you. You know I'm lost without you, Sakura-chan…"

"Promise…" her voice creaked as one of his fingers teased the line of her buttcrack, up and down, under her skirt and over her panties, "You won't ever go against Neesan…?"

"Promised," he said, gnawing his teeth softly against the back of her neck.

"Then… Then I'll do it, I guess," she answered. "At least that's one Master less Neesan will have to worry about…"

"That's so great to hear!" Shinji instantly stepped away from her, flashing a shit eating grin and pulling a large piece of chalk out of one of his pockets. Sakura was mildly disappointed; she had been thinking he had been able to somehow enhance himself while he was rubbing against her. "So let's do it right now, before your sister comes back! You can draw Pactio circles, can't you, Sakura-chan?"

"You can't draw them, Sempai?" Sakura blinked helplessly.

"Of course I can, you id—Sakura-chan!" he snapped. "I've practiced over and over how to draw them, over all the other studying I've done! But drawing them perfectly and getting them to work are different things for people like me!"

"So you had tried it before with other girls, Sempai?"

"Can you draw them, yes or not?"

Sakura sighed, took the chalk from his hand, and quickly drew an elaborate runic circle on the living hall's floor. As soon as it was done, a massive white light began erupting from it, greatly impressing Shinji. Once, during his research, he had witnessed a Provisional Alliance between two mages, and the light that had resulted from their Pactio circle had been nowhere as intense as that. Truly, Sakura was a scary girl, although…

"Wait," the boy scowled. "Have you done this before?"

"Never," Sakura said with a shrug, "but I've read a lot on it too. As the second daughter, it's my duty to prepare myself in the event anything ever happens to Neesan…"

Shinji's jealousy grew even worse. He had tried his damn best to get one of those to work over years, until his hands bled on the chalk, and this stupid girl got it right in her first attempt ever, going from nothing but theory? What a fucking farce the world was.

He breathed in, smoothed his hair back, and smiled his best comforting smile. "An excellent work all the same, Sakura-chan," he sweetly said. "Now, if you'll please do the honors…?"

"Y-Yes," she gulped, moving over to stand on the circle, then closing her eyes and folding her arms behind her back. She slightly leaned ahead and puffed her lips up.

"Hold that pose," Shinji smirked, touching her cheek with a hand as he walked up close and personal, and then moving ahead to smash his lips against hers.

The light grew even more intense, literally filling the whole room, until it slowly subsided, and Shinji's nervous, shaky hand whipped up to catch a card that had just appeared in midair above them. "Alright," he greedily said, giving the card an eager look. He was somewhat annoyed it was his Pactio card, not Sakura's, but he was not that self-deluded. He had gone into that knowing the overwhelming odds were the system would recognize the girl as the Magistra.

Sakura, curiosity and wonder overwhelming her reluctance, moved closer to look at the card, and Shinji proudly showed it to her. It showed him, standing arrogantly in his school uniform, holding a huge black book open in a hand.

Matou Shinji

Assistant Falsum

Sakura's right eyebrow twitched a wee bit. "Does this mean…" Then she saw Shinji doing a little merry victory dance in place and took pity on him. She wouldn't translate for him as long as he didn't ask her to, and apparently he cared little about the title's meaning as long as he had a title, period. "Ahem. So, Sempai, do you want to see what does it do?"

"There'll be plenty of time for that as I smite my enemies!" Shinji laughed out loud, waving a hand up. "Right now, I want to celebrate! And to repay you for this great help, Sakura!"

The little squirming things within Sakura stirred again in hungry anticipation. "Do you mean…?" she said.

He hugged her tightly and began kissing her mouth again, almost as if he wished to devour her tongue. She closed her eyes as usual and thought of Emiya-sempai while he picked her up in his arms…

And promptly fell flat on his face, mostly landing on top of her.

"… owie," Sakura meekly said. "Ah, Sempai, should I…?"

"To your sister's room," he said, face still planted on the floor, holding a pointer finger up.

"You're so bold, Sempai," the powerful heiress of the arcane clan observed as she easily picked up the scrawny runt of a decaying bloodline in her arms, bridal style, and began going up the stairs with him. "And I'm not that sure that's a good thing."

"Hey, you're going along with it, too!" he protested.

It was true, she had to admit to herself as they rolled across Rin's bed, taking each other's clothes off, until both were as naked as the day of their births and Rin's precious floor was a mess of soaked cloth. As usual, he placed himself on top of her, not bothering with foreplay, a prelude the crest worms would have just found annoying either way. He entered her roughly, grabbing her legs to hold them high, his tongue lolling out to lick on her erect pink nipples. He rammed in and out as strongly as he could, and while he was far from being the best lover Sakura had ever had, he would suffice for now.

"Do you like your reward, huh, Sakura?" he growled between pants and thrusts, chuckling down at her. "You love it, be honest! You love me, you little dirty bitch you!"

"Sempai…!" Sakura moaned, thrusting her chest up to him, as she kept on seeing a different Sempai behind her tightly closed eyelids. "I love you, so much, Sempai…!"

"Of course you do, of course!" Shinji laughed raspily, his hands massaging the smooth legs up and down, as her toes wiggled in pleasure. "My gorgeous fucking whore, my Sakura-chan, mine mine mine all mine mine…! Sakura…!"

"Sakura…!" Rin cried from the front door, after discarding her umbrella, jacket, shoes and schoolbag. "Sakura, are you at home? My dinner better be ready by now!"

There was no answer.

Rin muttered to herself. "Honestly, all I ask for from that girl are three hot meals a day, and yet she… SAKURA! I know you're home, I can see your shoes right next to—to—"

Rin's eyes grew red and began spiraling as her mind fully processed the pair of man's shoes right next to Sakura's. And her memories drifted back to what she had heard about Sakura and—

"EEEEEEEMIIIYYYYYYYAAAAA!" Rin howled viciously.

A couple of blocks away, Emiya Shirou looked up from the dinner table he currently was sharing with Fujimura Taiga. "Was that somebody calling for me?" he asked.

The short haired teacher grunted while pouring more rice and seafood into her bowl. "I didn't hear nuthin'. What's for desserts anyway, Shirou-kun?"

Sakura's eyes widened as she felt Shinji stiffen further within her, and he grunted. "Was that… Neesan?" she gasped.

"Nn," Shinji said, going cross-eyed as Sakura's legs tightened around his waist, and he blew his load into her.

Then they looked aside, at the monstrously enraged Tohsaka Rin at her own bedroom's doorstep, staring unlimited flaming swords at them, a veritable Gate of Babylon of killer glares.

"Neesan," Sakura meekly repeated herself, as if to confirm her earlier question.

Shinji swallowed the huge hard knot in his hard, trembled violently for his dear life, and then asked what he thought would be the wisest thing to say under the circumstances.

"Wanna join in?"

Rin's right fist crushed his nose.

Matou Shinji briefly woke up to feel a pair of steel like hands wrapped around his neck, painfully strangling the life out of him. He thought he could see Tohsaka Rin crouched above him, which was kinky even though she was fully clothed. He also caught a glimpse of the nude Sakura behind her sister, trying to pull her away from him.

"Neesan, no! Please, you'll kill him!"

"THAT'S THE FUCKING IDEA!"

Shinji relapsed into unconsciousness.

Matou Shinji staggered back to his ancient home under a full moon, covered in bruises, both eyes black and swollen. His shirt was on backwards, and he barely could keep himself upright by the time he did it to the front door. He looked for the key in his pants, painfully worked his aching hands into turning the key in the front lock, and stumbled inside, beginning to crawl across the floor on all fours.

An old, hideous, wrinkled and smelling presence sat on a couch of the darkened room, reading a newspaper under the faint light of a tiny oil lamp. "So, when will you be summoning a Servant?"

"GYAHH!" Shinji spun around in place, sitting on the floor as best as his mangled body would allow. "Grandfather! Y-You were here?!"

"This is my house, and while I prefer the worm pit to any other room, I have to keep an eye on each part of it at least once a day," he said, since saying 'Yes, always' in these situations is reserved to cute DEEP LOVE stalkers and Batman. "When will you get the Tohsaka girl to summon a Servant for us?" he repeated his question in a more fitting phrasing.

"H-H-How did you know I—"

Matou Zouken chuckled grim and bitterly, leaving the newspaper aside to rest his hands and chin on his wooden cane. "Foolish lad. You thought having sex with that girl away from this manor would keep me uninformed about your trysts. However, there are still crest worms of mine within her, from the brief time I spent training her. Anything that happens around her, I can see and sense it. You have played straight into my hands, you imbecile… again!"

Shinji quaked in abject primal fear. As Zouken rose from his seat, lurching over him in his dark robed, bald ominous way not unlike that of a vulture, Shinji felt like falling unconscious again. At least he could pin this one on Rin.

So he did.

Zouken scowled over his grandson's fallen form before, undeterred, starting to punt the boy's limp body over and over.

"I can't believe you!" Rin angrily retorted at the sobbing Sakura, now sitting on the bed's edge wearing a robe. "In MY bed of all places, even! What did I ever do to you, Sakura?!"

"It's… It's nothing you have done, Neesan, if for me, I'd never have—"

"Then why do you go along with that sicko's fetishes!?" Rin roared. "Are you in love with him?! For real, Sakura?! I thought you had fallen for Emiya-kun! I wouldn't have minded if you were with Emiya-kun! W-Well, not in my bed, but he's at least a nice idiot, not a creepy idiot! And it's obvious he likes me better anyway!"

Sakura gave her a mildly wounded look.

"Well, it's true!" Rin protested. "Not that I'm proud or it makes me happy, but you saw him flirting with me right before you! How can you have so little dignity, Sakura?!"

Sakura absently rubbed her knees together. "I, I can't help it, Neesan. I'm… a dirty girl with… urges, urges that scare me, but I can't resist them. But Emiya-sempai is too good, he doesn't deserve a whore like me, and, and, and… Matou-sempai needs me."

"How so? Most guys his age can handle themselves just fine with an Internet connection, their right hand and a box of tissues! … Or so I have heard!"

Sakura shook her head sadly. "It's not about that, Neesan. If anything, it's more about the sex for me than it is for him. He has his good points, really… It's just, it's just he feels too insecure about himself, and puts on a brave face…"

Rin snorted. "Oh, sure thing. Please, Sakura! That's the oldest trick men use to fool women! Or so I have heard!"

"Remember the time I spent with the Matous? I got to know him well back then," Sakura reminisced. "I got to see how kind, how easily scared, he was, and he still is. It's not his fault his family has corrupted him… like they did to me…"

"Ah?" Rin lifted an eyebrow.

"N-Nothing!" Sakura quickly waved a hand in front of her perplexed sister. "In part, it's also my fault he's like that now!"

"Come on now?" Rin's eyebrow lifting intensified.

Sakura took a fist to her own heart and grandly looked outside through the bedroom's window. "He couldn't live with failing everyone's expectations! I had to give him some comfort, some relief, some support! Because I could escape that house while he couldn't, and then everything became doubly worse for him!"

"Oh, come on, that's pure bull, nothing of that was your fau—" Rin began.

"I'll guide him towards the light, and then maybe we'll both be able to redeem ourselves!" Sakura proclaimed.

"Well, you can start your redemption by burning my bedsheets and buying me another set of them," Rin deadpanned while sweatdropping. "Wait, this isn't the first time you have done it here, right?"

"Aaaahhhhhh…"

Rin quickly sprang from the bed, rubbing her own behind as if trying to wipe filth out of it. "For the love of God, Sakura! How many times?!"

"Ahhh, let's just say it might be for the best if I bought you a full new set of bedcovers and sheets…"

"GODDAMMNIT, SAKURA!"

"And pillows too, and perhaps you'd like a new carpet as well, and—"

"I should have mindwiped the bastard off! And you'd better have been using protection!"

A few nights after, upon returning home from the dodgeball game between classes 2-A and 2-F that had brought the attentions of most of the student body, Rin decided enough was enough. So what if she didn't have a catalyst. Father had one, a catalyst meant to bring him the best of all Servants, and it did him no good. She would carve her own path by letting the Throne of Heroes send her the most compatible Servant it could provide her with.

That would be her own kind of advantage.

Besides, by now she was kind of sick of looking all around the campus to no avail. She had seriously thought of swiping Negi-sensei's staff to try and summon the Thousand Master himself as her Caster, but she decided that was likely to fail if the man was still alive, and sort of dickish to the poor boy anyway. Besides, she wanted a Saber. Sabers were way cooler than any other Class.

"Neesan, for the last time, please, before you do anything you'll regret! Are you sure about this?"

"The new Grail War is all upon us. The end times are coming, Sakura," the pigtailed young woman in the short black skirt and the tight red sweater spoke sternly, her green eyes shining sharply. "The omens are clear! Twilight had a movie run! Simon Cowell really left American Idol! They finally released that movie based on the 4th Light Novel in that series by Tanigawa Nagaru! There is no escape. When the World of Magic comes crashing down, it'll drag its mortal sibling with itself. The only thing any of us can do is to stand and fight. And for that, I'll need a strong Servant, the best of them all. Only through our victory and mastery over the Holy Grail, will we manage to turn the tides in time."

The younger, bustier girl behind her sighed with resignation. "Whatever you say, Neesan. Though…"

"What now?"

"Do we have to do this in the living room? We might break the TV!"

"Oh, for pity's sake…!"

The next several minutes were spent constructively moving the TV a safe distance away. Their dormitory consisted of a single small building only for the two of them. Such were the advantages of coming from such a prestigious, powerful family. No one would disturb the ritual. Tohsaka Rin took her place in the center of the large circle drawn on the floor and closed her eyes, extending a fist up and holding an open book at her other hand, despite the fact she recited the lines from memory.

"Let thy body rest under my dominion, let my Fate rest in thy blade. If thou submittest to the call of the Holy Grail and if thou wilt obey this mind, this reason, then thou shalt respond.""

Sakura stared, aghast and yet prey to a morbid, wide-eyed fascination, at how the marks appeared on the back of her older sister's closed right fist. Rin's skirt fluttered up as the air around them grew heavier, smelling slightly of gas, and the circle beneath her began to faintly glow in scarlet. She actually was doing it!

"I make my oath here. I am that person who is to become the virtue of all Heavens. I am that person who is covered with the evil of all Hades. Thou seven heavens, clad in a trinity of words, come past thy restraining rings, and be thou the hands that protect the balance-!"

The red haze grew almost blinding as Rin tightened the fist up and squeezing the sharp gem in her palm, a single drop of blood falling from her hand, touching the circle and making it burn to life, its blinding light engulfing Rin for a second, forcing Sakura to step back.

And then their roof exploded with an earth shaking boom.

A few blocks away, Negi woke up, blinked groggily, and looked through the nearest window. "Izzat a sudden magic outburst...?" he mumbled.

Chisame grumbled and pulled him back into the bed. "Shaddap an' sleep. We've a long day ahead tomorrow..."

As Sakura regained her sight, she saw her sister sitting flat on her butt, her hair a mess, a few steps away, staring at the thick column of dark purple smoke right under the hole at their roof, and a small, yet bulky figure rising before them, slowly taking a shape in the middle of said smoke.

"I am the terror that hunts in the night..." a voice called from there.

"An Avenger class!" Rin guessed with a panicked, yes, panicked gulp the likes of which Sakura had never heard from her. "An Avenger class! But... But I wanted a Saber!"

"I am the jackal that gnaws at your bones..." the voice added, a long purple cape flapping around and dissipating the smoke away.

"Avengers are like worst class ever!" Rin further panicked. "They have abyssal stats, they generally screw the system over, and they aren't exactly the best fighters! Not like StrikerS!" she kept on lecturing as if Sakura didn't know any of that already, although it didn't sound like she was exactly talking to her either. If anything, it sounded more like desperate sheer venting out. "And this one's too small!"

Massive shoulderblades armed with tall, sharp spikes. A wide hat obscuring most of its features in a grim, unnerving way. A long black cape trailing behind it.

"… It's a duck," Sakura incredulously stated.

"I am... The Servant Avenger!" the small caped and hatted figure proudly announced, his blue eyes sparkling with arrogance, and he stroke a Grim and Gritty antiheroic pose with his fists perched at his hips. "So, which one of you maggots is my Master?"

The sisters remained perfectly still and silent for a few minutes, until Sakura slowly pointed at Rin, then warily asked her, "By the way, Oneesan... When it's time to recharge his Mana...?"

Rin paled a few shades down, then fainted on place like a choked Victorian damsel.

The mysterious masked figure looked down at her. "... Hey. Child. Are you sure she's up to the task?"

Sakura inhaled as deeply as she could and forced herself to remember things could be worse.

She could have been left living with the Matous, after all. Or heaven forbid, being sent to the Itoshikis!

And at least they moved the TV…

To be Continued Next Chapter.