Chapter Two

Rin nodded and continued with her explanation. "Here and now almost all over the modern world, people see features they like in someone and just want them for themselves. So they go through dating and all these little things."

Arthur tried to understand but he could not wrap his mind around the new concept before him. But once they entered the kendo dojo, he did.

The guy Arthur was looking at spoke to him, "Were you the one that wanted to join kendo?" A tall guy with red hair in a kendo-gi called out from the middle of the dojo. He was walking towards them piercing Arthur with his golden brown eyes. He had the kindest look on his face, which made him seem really cute.

Arthur was a bit startled by the forward question. "Y-yes. Are you the president?"

"Sure am. Name is Emiya Shirou, and you are?" He extended his hand to him.

Arthur looked at it hesitantly but accepted it. "Pendragon Arthur." They held a firm handshake. It wasn't overbearing as some other guys would try to show their strength, it was fair.

"Oh! The new kid, right?" Arthur nodded in response. "Well nice to meet you. But stop taking all the girls!" Shirou laughed jokingly but did not receive the intended response from Arthur. He simply blushed in response. Suddenly they heard a cough from behind Arthur. Both of them looked behind him and took notice of Rin. "Tohsaka Rin." Shirou said in acknowledgement.

She stared him down with her aqua eyes. In the back of her mind, she was wondering how she wanted this to pan out. "Know of me?" She knew the answer but she thought it would be impolite to assume so. But she knew the possible answers but knew which would win all the time.

Shirou blushed a bit not wanting to seem like a stalker, but who didn't know of her. "Of course! What brings you to the kendo club?" He asked in a cheerful tone, hoping it was something that would make her visit last longer than just a brief hello.

"Arthur-san, of course." As if the answer wasn't obvious.

Shirou was slightly taken aback by how Rin referred to Arthur. 'Arthur-san?' They're on a first name basis? Shirou couldn't believe that the new guy was able to befriend Rin after two days of coming to school. Rin was never the type to talk to anyone who talked to her, nor was she really a friendly type. That's what made her the idol of the school—the mystery that caught every boys', except Issei's, hearts. But Shirou wasn't the only one puzzled by what Rin had said.

Arthur was struggling to remember if calling someone by their first name had to be asked permission to or if they call them their first name because they have established that they are friends or familiars of some sorts.

As he was busy trying to remember, Shirou cleared his mind to the situation at hand. "Issei told me you weren't a beginner, right?" Arthur nodded his head in agreement. "Alright, just show me what you got and if you meet my expectations, we'll let you in. So protective gear is in the back, so you can go change and we'll wait for you here." Shirou pointed to the only door in the back of the dojo.

"I will not need any guards," Arthur curtly replied.

Shirou looked at him in suspicion. Is this guy serious or is he just trying to impress Rin? "Alright." Shirou eagerly grabbed two swords from the nearest wall rack. He tossed one over to Arthur. "Then let's go." I'll show him.

Issei heard Shirou call out so he came out of his combat and walked over to the group. Arthur and Shirou walked to the middle of the dojo as other people cleared as well. "Shirou, don't forget your protective gear!" Issei reminded him.

Shirou turned over to him and replied, "I don't think it'll be necessary!" He gave him a reassuring smile.

"Oh? I didn't take Emiya as a big talker." Rin commented to Issei as she observed the two.

"Normally Shirou wears his stuff, no matter if his opponent is wearing his or not. This is pretty odd of him." Issei worried.

Arthur overheard Issei and questioned Shirou, "Why aren't you wearing your gear?"

"Because you're not. It wouldn't be fair if I did." Shirou had his combative smile on. Plus it would seem weak if I did that in front of Rin.

Issei came to the middle with the two other boys as he was preparing to referee the match. "Ready?" The contestants both nodded as both readied their stances. "Go!"

Better finish this fast. Shirou went for the kill with one strike. He put all of his strength into the swing. But when he finished his swing, his sword was no longer in his hands. He slightly gripped where his sword should have been to make sure it wasn't his eyes playing games with him, but it really wasn't there. He quickly turned around and saw Arthur with both of the swords in his hands. Shirou looked at him in utter disbelief. Not only for the fact that Arthur was able to steal his sword from him in mid attack, but at how much he's making a fool out of himself in front of Rin.

"T-That's not allowed! Come at me with your sword! Let's go again." Shirou gestured for him to toss over his sword.

"As you wish, but I will warn you. Without your guards, it will hurt." Arthur tossed him one.

Once Shirou grabbed it, he raced to attack Arthur. But instead of taking the sword this time, he slightly dodged it by a mere hair and quickly countered it with a swing to the shoulder. The force in it was heavy, so heavy that it caused Shirou to pause all his actions and stair aimlessly in pain as he went down to his own instincts failed to let him do so. His instincts felt the strength in Shirou's swings, so it told him to do the same. He almost felt guilty, if he had not warned him.

Shirou came to his senses before everyone else came rushing to his side. "Yes I am," he looked up and Arthur was offering his hand to get up. Shirou smiled and took it with his other arm that wasn't hurt. "Thanks and I guess I'll be seeing you more often." Arthur looked at him questioningly. "Welcome to the club!"

Arthur gave him a small smile and bowed, "Thank you."

"Eh it's alright. Please get up; it's kind of embarrassing for me." He said with a small laugh.

Arthur did as he was advised by his new president while the others arrived. "So he's in?" Issei asked Shirou.

"Yup!" Shirou confirmed. "I guess you can start tomorrow, bring stuff if you have some, but if not, we'll just do fittings and order stuff if you want." With that they agreed for Arthur to come back after school and was received by the entire club well.

As they walked out of the dojo, Rin did not look at Arthur as she asked him, "You went easy on him, didn't you?"

He looked up at her. Their height wasn't that different compared to Arthur and Shirou. There was no point in hiding the fact if she was able to notice. There was no point in hiding that at all, he concluded to himself. "Yes I did. But … may I call you Rin-san since you referred to me as Arthur-san earlier?" He asked politely.

"Of course."

"Thank you. As I was saying, but how were you able to tell, Rin-san?"

"You didn't even break a sweat. It was pretty obvious that Emiya wasn't a match." She said as she stopped in front of the school.

Arthur looked at their surroundings and noticed the same thing—they had to part ways now. "Well I'll-" He started but stopped because he realized Rin was trying to say something at the same time he was.

"I was considering on taking up your offer. Would that be alright?"

Arthur looked at her without any specific expression. He was just a little knocked off his balance from the suddenness of it. But after he rethought everything, it wasn't all that sudden. He was only able to hold a decent conversation with her. "Of course." He said with a smile. "Would you like to come over today?"

Rin knew she wanted to visit him or he visit her. But she didn't want to seem too forward. They haven't even hung out outside of school. In her mind she made that the prerequisite before they visited each other's' houses. "Not today, but first I would like to hang out with you outside of school before going to your house, or you go to mine. Is that alright?"

"'Hang out?'" He was puzzled by the colloquialism.

Rin almost wanted to smack her own head for forgetting that he does not really understand the current terms for things. "To hang out is to meet with friends to do fun things."

Arthur understood what she meant and where she was coming from. He did not want to leave a bad impression on her parents if they knew that a boy that she had only known for two days was coming over. "Of course. Then would you like to 'hang out' tomorrow afterschool?"

Rin wanted to laugh at him but he knew he wouldn't understand the reason why she found it funny, again. Tomorrow was going to be Friday, and them hanging out, alone, seems more like a date. But she didn't want to waste her energy in explaining something that wasn't important. "Yes, that would be great. But don't you have kendo now?" She asked with a wink.

Arthur was shocked at himself. It seems like he forgot. "You're right. Would it be alright if we meet up afterwards then?" He did not want to let his first friend in his new country down.

It seems like it officially would look like we were on a date now. Rin laughed to herself in her imagination. "Yeah, that's fine. I'll text you an address we can go to tomorrow, okay?" Arthur agreed that they would meet each other at the address.

As Rin was walking home, she thought to herself: Wow. Arthur-san really has no clue. Well I guess that gives him the 'cute' look.

The next day went by fast. It seemed like a regular day for Tohsaka Rin. She went to all her classes, had alone time on top of the roof, talked to Arthur and walked him to his new club, and walked back home. But this part of the day was new, and she did not really mentally prepare herself for it. She thought it would be a piece of cake and that she had nothing to worry about. "Seriously, who am I trying to impress here?" She said to no one in particular as she looked at her closet in just her black bra and matching underwear.

She had been standing there for the last thirty minutes. She needed to get ready if she was going to make their reservation. She threw her hands up in the air and grunted in frustration. She quickly grabbed something, put it on, and rushed out.

As she got off the bus, she saw her reflection in the window pane of a store. She managed to settle for knee black high boots, a burgundy sweater cowl neck dress tightly hugging her curved figure, and a light khaki trench coat. She sped walked to the location. She was slightly early by a few minutes. As she was walking, a motorcycle flew by her and the wind from it threatened to lift her dress. She instinctively patted her dress down, but forgot that the dress hugged her body, so it was not affected. But she still glared at the motorcyclist. The nerve. She always hated people who did that. Was it really necessary to drive that fast in the city? No! No excuse whatsoever.

When she got to the restaurant, she saw the same motorcyclist that attempted to lift her dress. He did manage her trench coat though. It seemed like the rider just arrived as well and was dressed in a black suit with a grey button up and black tie.

I should give him a piece of my mind.

She walked up to him, but as soon as he took off his helmet, Rin was at lost for words.