An Unwilling Hero

by Sniperk

What happens when a hero of another story gets mixed up in the shenanigans of a pervert and his crew?

4. An Unwilling Master

A/N: Don't own anything.

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Chapter 4

An Unwilling Master

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"With this our contract is considered finished." Marlianna bowed to me and Rias. We were in the living room of the house that she had lent me. "Name your price over the already agreed amount." It was after midnight already, after the whole day spent in between the Rating Game and the whole fiasco afterward.

I scratched my head. After all this time, I hadn't even thought about the price. I only plowed ahead, trying to figure out what was happening, but in the end the answer ended up falling in my lap. I didn't even need to do much. Before I could even think about the price, Rias was already naming hers.

"First, the Gremory Clan would like to sign an alliance with the Senri Clan, Marlianna-san. I believe you can see that it can be beneficial for both our Clans if we had an alliance formalized. So I would like for you to lobby with your Elders for such. Second, the price we spoke of at the beginning... I'll not use my rights to receive it, as I wasn't the one who solved you case in the first place. I believe that any riches you want to expend in this situation should be better used in maintaining our alliance."

There was a minute widening of the cat-woman's eyes, but she showed no other reaction.

"Third, Shirou was the one who worked your case in full, so I believe any recompense should be directed entirely to him." The redhead was so matter-of-fact with that statement that I couldn't help but gape. She basically just put the whole affair on my back.

"So, Emiya-dono, what is the recompense you seek from us?" Way to put me on the spot, Rias. I grimaced.

"To be honest, I have no idea." I said after a moment. "I know that I said that I needed the money, but the whole affair was practically solved by itself. If it wasn't for me, there would probably be some other way to this issue to be resolved so I have no idea what to ask for."

The woman studied my face for almost a minute after that. She didn't say anything, but her reaction, or lack thereof, was making highly uncomfortable. After another minute passed, with her in silence, I was about to ask if she wanted some tea, just so that I could get out of that situation when she opened her mouth. "You really are a remarkable individual, Emiya Shirou-dono. What you did, don't matter if you downplay your part, was something that I could not hope to resolve on my own." She got up from her place and bowed to me. "I'll speak with the Elders about your situation and we'll make an offer tomorrow. If it's not enough, then you can make your counteroffer then. In the meantime, please continue to make use this house."

I got up too, and Rias beside me. Marlianna turned and was walking in the direction of the master bedroom when I asked. "About the girls..."

She stopped, half turned and asked tilting her head. "Yes?"

"Are they going to be alright? If there's anything that I can do to help..." I said scratching the back of my head.

"Ooh~ Don't worry, Shi-chan~" The airhead was on control again, apparently. "We'll take good care of them~~"

"I see." I smiled at the woman. "That's... good." I breathed out. It was, but I couldn't help but feel that it was my fault that they were in that condition in the first place.

The woman shook her head, amusement in her eyes, but didn't say anything. She walked down the corridor and into the bedroom. A burst of prana later and we were left alone inside the house, except for Asia who was already sleeping blissfully.

I turned to the redhead and asked. "So, in the end what you wanted was an alliance with the Nekomatas?" I wasn't judging her. She was a Devil and finding ways to get advantages through negotiations was one of their M.O.s.

"Yes. It's rare for a Youkai Clan to reach out to a Devil. Even more so nowadays, with the Shinto faith at an all time low, they spend most of their time in their inner cities and don't come out in the open." She sat again by the table. "So I couldn't let this opportunity pass."

"I see. Well, then with this our Pact is over right?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yes. We just need to break the tablet and it will be over officially." She smiled at me a little wistfully. "Hey, tell me something. About that thing you did with me."

"Your Magic Circuits?" I asked her sitting down opposite her.

"Yes. Why did you say that it was strange?"

"Well," I tried to think of a way to explain. "Magic Circuits are like the blood vessels were the Od, the prana inside the body, can circulate and power up our mysteries, but you Devils use a complete different set of rules to cast your spells. You power your spells using mostly mana that is outside, in the ambient, and only use your internal Od for techniques that comes from a lineage or in case of the Reincarnated Devils, the Sacred Gears. With that in mind, is odd that you even have Circuits in the first place. I could understand if you were a Reincarnated Devil and had then before being turned, but you are a Pure-Blood. There would be no need for them to form, but they exist." Then a I shook my head and smiled at her. "Well, it worked for our advantage."

"Yes. It was weird using those techniques of yours, but whatever works, right?"

I only smiled at that. "Well, it was good that you touched this subject. Do you want me to close them again? I have no idea if you'll be okay after the Pact is finalized and my Soul isn't there to stabilize yours."

She grimaced. "Yeah. But can we at least try?"

I shook my head, smiling ruefully. Leave to a Devil to not want to give up power even if it could be dangerous. "Look, I'm not a good Soul Diver. I could only do this so easily for you because you Soul was already open to me. After the Pact is over, I have no idea what will happen. You could have no adverse effects, or it could kill you instantly. My father used to say that to walk the path of a Magus is to walk with death. Everything can and will try to kill you, even your own body. I have no idea what will happen with you. I could try and teach you the techniques I use, but as I am human, they may not work for you."

The knit eyebrows on her face and the pout on her lips was something that I wasn't used to see. This girl didn't let her hair down often, after all. At least not in front of me. "I see. It's a shame, but maybe its better this way."

"Well, if you want I can try to teach you the normal way to open them after the Pact is over, that way you can get acclimatized better to your own Magic Circuits." I offered.

"Really?" Her eyes lit up with excitement. "Can you do that?"

"It wouldn't hurt to try." I shrugged. "But I never taught anyone before so I can't promise anything. In the end, its entirely up to you."

"Okay." She beamed at me. "Let's do this. Can it be here, right?" She said, moving around the table and kneeling beside me.

"Yeah. Physical contact makes easier to trigger it for me." I said then knelt in front of her. "Fix your eyes in a point in space and focus on your Circuits." I ordered her. "Now breath deeply through your nose and let out through the mouth. Again. Relax." Little by little she began to enter the trance state necessary for this.

I put my hands on her shoulders and my forehead to hers, looking directly in her eyes. No need to follow the trail of Od this time, since she was right there. Pulling my consciousness into the Soul Dive, I waded through the murky image that it was still being created by the construct of my own making, just so that my mind could understand better what needed to be done.

After a minute or so, my feet touched solid ground and I walked in the direction of the Circuits. All around me scenes from her life played out, and I did my level best to ignore everything. This was the worst case of invasion of privacy that I could think of. Nothing here could be kept a secret, and everything was open for me to see if I so wanted.

I finally reached the Circuits, and they were all open, all nine of them. In a human, this set would be considered mediocre at best, but she wasn't a human in the end. Pulling the connection from the Circuit, I closed them, but left them connected.

After doing what I needed to do here, I made my way back to entrance, and back into my own consciousnesses, just in time to hear a shriek in the room.

"O-O-Oni-chan?! B-B-Buchou!? E-E-Excuse me!" It took me a moment to understand what made Asia run inside her room and close the door while blushing so much. The position Rias and I were in, was pretty suggestive to anyone who didn't know what we were doing.

I blushed, despite myself. "Asia! It's not what you think..." I extended a hand in the direction of her door, but in the end, didn't move from my position. Rias was still in a trance and if I left her like this she would stay there for who knows how long.

I snapped my fingers in front of the redhead and she blinked several times. "It's done?"

"Yeah, it's done. Also, I think it would be a good idea for you to talk with your Bishop." I said point with thumb to the corridor. "She walked in on us earlier and may have had the wrong idea."

"Wrong idea?" She frowned. "About what?"

"Well..." I began, but then trailed off.

"Shirou?" She asked tilting her head to the side.

I sighed. "Think about the position we were in during the Dive. Think about how close our faces were. Now think about what does that image look from the outside."

The girl started making the connection and her face got increasingly redder and redder. "By the Maous..."

"Yeah... Asia walked in just as I was finishing..." I said.

"I... I'll go talk with her." Rias got up from her place too fast and stumbled, probably because of cramps, and before I knew it she was on top of me, as I laid down on the floor.

What's with this cliched accident?

"Are you okay?" I asked, and I swear that the blush on her face was starting to get almost in the same tone as her hair. To make matters worse, Asia opened her door exactly at this moment.

Seriously, romantic comedy, much?

"O-O-Onii-chan, Buchou, I don't think you should do these things in the living room." The blonde was beginning to make competition for Rias in the blushing department. Considering that I felt my face hot, I imagine that I was in that competition as well.

"It's not what you think, Asia!" We both said at the same time.

The blonde nodded dumbly at our double outburst and I would facepalmed if it wasn't for the fact that despite all that it was happening, the redhead hadn't moved from her position on top of me. And her chest was starting to make things get a little uncomfortable for me in my lower region.

"Asia, think about carefully about what you think you are seeing and what you know is the truth... Actually scratch that." I turned to the girl on top of me. "And how long are we gonna continue in this position?" If this was Himejima, I would say that she was doing on purpose, but Rias, although she wasn't exactly the shy type, wouldn't want to continue doing this. At least, I think.

I hope.

"Oh." She looked down at her body's position. "Oh." Then back at my face. "Oh!" Then scrambled to get out of top of me. "Sorry. My leg cramped up." She said, as she knelt down again.

"Yeah, I figured it." I answered after lifting my upper body and supporting myself on my elbows.

"Hmmm, Onii-chan? What's going on?" The blonde asked after she saw both of us.

"A lot of misunderstandings and a serious case of bad timing." I answered her after letting my body fall down again.

The former Sister tilted her head to the side confused.

---

We were walking to school in the morning after the whole debacle at home. I have no idea what Rias said to Asia, but for some reason the blonde refused to meet me in the eyes. It would be an awkward breakfast this morning if it wasn't for a presence that I was coming to simply take for granted. Koneko appeared on the doorstep just as I was entering the kitchen to prepare breakfast. The difference this time was that she had came with an empty lunchbox as well. If it wasn't for her, I would imagine that Asia would spend the whole time stuttering and stammering. At least she assured me that she understood that what happened yesterday night was really just a misunderstanding.

What didn't help was that she said that she wouldn't judge my choice of partner. I.e. She's still misunderstanding something.

Anyway, after the whole thing was basically swept under the rug, I made a point of not thinking about it anymore. Something was bound to go wrong if I tried to resolve on my own, so I acted like any self serving male with girl problems would. I ignored and hoped that all would blow over sooner or later.

As soon as we made to the gates, Asia and Koneko took off in the direction of the Occult Research Clubroom, saying something about straighten up the place. I suppose that after ten days of no use, the room would have collected dust and would need to be cleaned but was it really necessary to do it right now? Before classes?

In the end I shrugged and walked to the classroom, but before I managed to get there I was accosted by another figure that I have come to see much in the days leading up to the Rating Game. Shitori.

"Emiya-san," Instead of stopping, she fell into step beside me. "I would like to ask a favor of you, if it isn't a problem."

I looked at her, confused for moment but nodded. "Sure, what's up?"

"I would rather not talk about it in the hallway. Could you come to the Student Council Room during lunch break?"

I nodded again. "Sure, no problem. Actually Rias and I need to get the tablet with our Pact to break it anyway."

"Oh. So in the end you were right about the twins?"

"Yes. Not that its any consolation for the other girls with what I put them through." I shook my head, grimacing.

She was about to say something more, but decided against it in the moment we got to the door of my classroom. "We'll talk more about this later."

I looked at her quizzically for a moment, before nodding. "Huh... Sure." What's there to talk about in this situation?

While puzzling out what she meant by that, I greeted the room at large but not anyone specifically and went to my desk. Only when I sat and was pulling my books did I realize that there were some girls whispering while shooting furtive, or so they thought, glances at me.

I made a point of not looking at them, and Reinforced my hearing and focused on a group of girls in the corner just to see what was this all about.

"...yankee. Kaichou was even warning him."

"It was the suspension. He must have done something for being suspended for almost two weeks, right?"

"But it doesn't make sense. He's always helping people around."

"No, it does. Maybe he's trying to curry favor because he did something wrong."

"Or maybe its punishment..."

I sighed, releasing the spell. It seems that gossip mill is going strong. Whatever the truth about my sudden disappearance, the girls were already making their own guesses. Not that it mattered much in the long run, but it's a strange feeling to be compared to a yankee when I tried my best to be anything but.

When lunch break finally came around I picked up my lunchbox and ignored the chatter around, going directly to the rooftop. At least there I would be away from all the gossip and could start planning my next steps without being interrupted by a whisper out of nowhere.

Opening the door to the roof I was greeted by a sight that was so weird that I almost thought that I had forgotten one of the girls during my stunt yesterday, because there was standing in the railing, a girl wearing an honest to god Magical Girl outfit, complete with magic wand with an star at the tip. I must have stood there gaping at the sight for a good thirty seconds before my brain rebooted and I started to ponder if wanting more people to come to the rooftop before came to bite me in the ass finally, until the girl noticed me.

And I froze.

Three reasons for that. First, to put it into three simple words, she was gorgeous. No two ways about it. Not the sultry beauty that Rias or Himejima had, nor the cuteness Asia and Koneko had. The femininity she exuded, magical girl cosplay notwithstanding, was something completely ethereal, and left me transfixed when her blue/purple eyes fixed on me.

Second, for all that today was a cloudy day, in the spot she was standing there were several rays of sunshine bathing her like it was her right to have a spotlight whenever and wherever she went. The world itself would bend itself backwards in order to keep her in the center stage whatever she did.

Third, she was the most powerful creature I had even encountered in my life. Not even Gilgamesh with all his treasury or Caster with all the power she gathered at the Ryuudou Temple, or even the power of the almost completed Grail compared to her. She had her power leashed, but the scent was still overpowering me, and I felt that comparing myself with her would be like comparing an ant with a mountain.

"Oh!" She spun on her heel, jumping down from the railing, then spinning in place one more time. "Miracle Levia-tan is here~!" She said while posing with two fingers in a 'V' sign sideways over her left eye. "You must be Shirou-chan."

I nodded dumbly at the girl, her twin tails floating in a nonexistent breeze. I need to find a way home fast, otherwise I'll end up with white hair before my time. And no, Archer doesn't count when I think about my future self. I was almost at the age he died before coming here and still had all my hair in the natural color, thank you. With all the curveballs this world kept sending my way, I have no idea how much time I still had before I starting going gray.

The girl skipped in my direction, and my eyes couldn't help but trail down her neckline for a second. I mean, she wasn't in either Himejima or Rias' league, but the movement did interesting things for her anatomy, and the cosplay seemed to emphasize that. Immediately I looked up again, making sure to keep my eyes up, trying hard not to imagine the bounce-

No, no, no. Bad Shirou.

The newcomer was all smiles until she stopped in front of me, pulling a coy girlish pose with both hands behind her back while leaning forward from one side to the other while I battled with myself to keep my body upright and staring straight. Then all of sudden my instincts screamed at me. Her whole presence changed, her face closed and turned business-like. "Good morning, Emiya Shirou. I'm Serafall Leviathan, one of the four Maous, and the one responsible for foreign affairs concerning the Devils of the Underworld."

I went into battle mode. No other way for me to speak with her without turning into a gibbering mess. "Good morning, Leviathan-sama." I said bowing to the girl. "May I ask what do I owe the pleasure of a visit from one of the governors of the Underworld?"

"There are some matters that we need to discuss but they'll take time and right now isn't the best time for it. I only came right now to greet you." She curtsied at that. "And please..." Her whole presence changed again. "Call me Levia-tan~ !" She said, while biting her tongue at the side of mouth, smiling brightly and winking at me. It threw me for a loop. She changed personalities way too fast. Not even Rin, who was a Magus her whole life could change gears that fast. "See ya, Shirou-chan!"

I was still reeling from the change, when the girl turned and literally skipped down the stairs.

I have no idea what to make of this situation. After spending almost a minute staring at the stairs where she had disappeared to, I had just turned back to the rooftop, looking at the spot the girl was standing before when I heard a cry of "Oniiii-chan!" before two arms wrapped themselves around my waist from my back making me take two steps with the force of the tackle.

I craned my neck to look at the Sister, when I realized that she wasn't alone. Himejima and Koneko were with her. I nodded at both of them, and the Shrine Maiden smiled slyly at me.

I'm not gonna like this lunch break, am I?

"So here is the ultimate hiding spot of the worst yankee in Kuoh history?" Himejima said.

I gaped at her. "There's so much wrong with that sentence that I don't even know where to begin."

"Hoh, so it's not here then?" The brunette smiled impishly.

I was about to answer her then shook my head, sighing. No point entering a debate with this girl. Whatever I said to her she would twist so much that I wouldn't even recognize how the conversation would even get to that point. So instead I ignored her in favor of asking the blonde. "What's up, Asia? I thought you would be eating with your classmates today."

The girl, that was rubbing her cheek on my back for some reason, finally let me go. "I was going to, but Koneko-chan and Akeno-san wanted to talk with you but didn't know where to find you."

I nodded. "I see." Then breathed out hard. "Well, if you guys don't mind talking while we eat? It seems everyone wants to give me a piece of their minds today. Shitori too wants to talk with me."

"Kaichou-san?" Asia asked, tilting her head after she let go of me.

"Yes, so..." I said, signaling them to go to one of the benches.

Asia was opening her lunchbox on her lap when I noticed that Himejima wasn't carrying one of her own. Koneko too, but with the speed that the Nekomata normally inhaled her food it wouldn't surprise me if she had already ate her own lunch.

"You guys aren't going to eat?" I asked anyway.

"Oh, no. My lunch in back at the clubroom. I only came to warn you that there someone at school who wants to talk with you and for you to be respectful with them. We don't want you to be in trouble so soon after the whole thing with the Phenex Clan." The brunette said.

"That someone wouldn't by chance be a Magical Girl cosplayer? One that apparently is one of the four Maous?" I asked, already knowing the answer. "Oh, and has so much power that I was forcing myself not to tremble just from being near her for two minutes?"

"Oh, so she already introduced herself." The mirth on Himejima's face disappeared for a moment. "If she didn't do anything, then that's good... That's... good." She grimaced and bit her lower lip. "Just a piece of advice. Don't get too close to Kaichou during the time she's here."

It was my turn to be confused. "What does Shitori has to do with her?"

"You'll understand when you visit Kaichou later." Himejima said. "I'll be going now." She bowed to me, and the small smile was back on her face. "See you later, Shirou."

I was still trying to piece together the connection between Shitori and Levia-tan that I didn't even realized that Himejima had bid her farewell and was leaving the rooftop. Did she really came here just to warn me? Weird. Koneko or Asia, heck even Rias, I could understand, but not Himejima. We didn't have that kind of rapport with each other, I think.

Did we?

"Do you know what that was all about, Koneko?" I asked the white haired Nekomata absently, only to realize that she wasn't looking at me. She was looking at something below my line of sight. Following her line of sight I had to force myself to not sigh in exasperation. "Did you already have lunch?"

She nodded. So I was right in thinking that she had already done in the lunchbox I had prepared for her this morning.

"And now you want mine as well, don't you?" She nodded again and I sighed. "Here." I handed the parcel to the girl and got up. "I'll go to the cafeteria and see if I can buy something for me." She didn't even acknowledged me and started to industriously eat the lunch. Asia was about to get up herself, when I waved her down. "I'll be right back."

She nodded and relented. "I'll wait to eat with you, Onii-chan."

I only smiled at the girl. Seems like whatever she was still thinking of this morning was water under the bridge now. Maybe Rias had managed to come through in the end and explained things for the blonde this morning?

Well, at least it was one less thing for me to worry about.

---

It did not compute. I closed the door, took a deep breath and opened again. Still the image was the same, still did not compute. I closed one more time, but before I opened again, someone opened from the other side and I saw the image again.

Shitori, with her hair frazzled, her glasses knocked askew on her face, had a magical girl wrapped around her back like an oversized backpack, while said magical girl rubbed her cheek on the bespectacled girls cheek while crying with delight. "So-tan~ So-tan~" The image was so at odds with the normal image I had of the girl that my brain refused to acknowledge it as real. Kusaka, who had opened the door again, was in between looking at me amused and looking at her King worried, and couldn't decide which would be better at the moment.

"I can come later, Shitori." I said and she only noticed that I was at the door at that moment. Her face lit up like a Christmas Tree. "I can see you're busy with... whatever this is."

"NO!" The girl shouted. "Emiya-san! Come here!" Then she added only mouthing the word, without actually voicing it. "Please."

I looked at her for a second then shrugged. It wouldn't be the first time I entered a minefield knowing that the probability of blowing up in my face was greater than if I simply stepped back. "Sure."

"Ah~ Harou again Shirou-chan~" The cosplayer said.

"Hello, Levia-tan." The moment I said that, the room froze in silence. Even Shitori stopped struggling against the friendly assault. I swear I could hear her heartbeat if I concentrated hard enough, such was the silence.

Then it erupted into an incredulous. "Eeehhh!" From all around the room.

"Oh~ Right~ I forgot to tell you that I ran into him earlier." The twintailed woman bonked her own head with a fist in a cutesy fashion.

Shitori looked at me incredulously. Then she visibly shook it off. "Onee-sama, I have to talk with Emiya-san about some matters of importance. Could you leave us alone for a few minutes?"

Onee-sama, huh?

...

Wait. What?

What's up with that picture? First Rias' brother is one of the Maous and now Shitori's sister is another? I just hope that a Phenex isn't another of the Maous too, otherwise I would have a trifecta.

"Awn~~ But So-tan does not let me be with her near enough~" She put a finger on her cheek, looking up as if thinking hard about something then her eyes lit up. "I know! I know! I'll stay here until you finish your conversation so we can play more."

From the way Shitori's eyes twitched and the veins popped at the side of her head, she really didn't like that suggestion. "Onee-sama. The matter I have with Emiya-san is private. I wouldn't like to talk about it with you in the room."

"A~re~ Arere~" The woman looked between her sister and me several times, before pointing a finger at me and draping the other arm around Shitori's neck. "NOOO! So-tan is mine! I'll not let any brute get her away from me! No! No! No!"

Shitori's blush turned atomic. "NO! That's not it at all!" For all that I was inside the room and they were talking about me, I couldn't look away. It had the same fascination of a train wreck. It was horrible, but you couldn't tear your eyes apart from it.

"But then there's nothing so private that I can't know about, right?" The woman pointed out.

"Yes! There are things I don't want you to know about me!" The girl tried to put her foot down on the matter but the effect was somewhat diminished, what with the cosplayer still wrapped around her.

"But I know everything about my So-tan!" I have no idea how, but she pulled a photo album out of thin air. It didn't have even a burst of prana to go with it, so I'm sure it wasn't magic. How in the world she did that? "Here, when you were two years old-"

It was all she managed to get out before she stopped cold, with the same look a kid who was just caught with his hands in the cookie jar before dinner on her face. "Onee-samaaa. You'll not show the family album to anyone outside the family or my Peerage, and that's final. Do you understand?"

"B-B-But So-tan~" It was weird seen a being so powerful that it could probably destroy the entire country with a snap of her fingers cowed by her stern little sister.

"No buts! Now, leave before I have to make something you'll regret!" The woman was honestly to Akasha frightened by whatever the brunette was threatening her with.

"No. Anything but that. I'll be good. I'll be good." Then she switched gears instantly again and looked directly at me, as if the fear she felt a second before didn't exist in the first place. "So, Shirou-chan, I'll see you later, okay?" Then she spun on place, posing with her wand pointing to the ceiling. "Miracle Levia-tan is going to find bad guys to beat!" And in a burst of prana she disappeared.

I waited ten seconds looking at the point where the woman had evaporated in thin air to ask the question that I'm sure anyone in my position would. "By Zelretch's fake beard. What just happened?"

Ignoring my question completely, Shitori began to compose herself, before coughing on her hand. "Well, now that the distraction is over, maybe we can have a conversation."

I could have let her ignore the question. I could have left it that, because I was honestly afraid of what just had happened. But in the end I just couldn't let it go. "No, no, no. Don't think we can have a decent conversation before you explain what just happened here."

She strained, visibly. "Well, Serafall Leviathan is my sister."

"Yes, we already established that." I nodded at her, signaling for her to continue.

"And she has some... questionable... preferences..." Shitori apparently was trying very hard to find words that didn't offend her absent sister.

"She's a siscon." Shinra chimed in then. "A unrepentant and unrecoverable siscon." Apparently the Vice-President didn't have such compunctions.

"Yeah." Shitori looked down defeated. "There's no other explanation."

I looked at her for a second, forcing myself to believe that what I just witnessed was just a one time thing and wouldn't repeat itself.

Who am I kidding, it was probably a daily occurrence, which brings me to the next point. "And what exactly did you threatened her with to make the Leviathan so scared that she all but fled the place?"

She frowned, blushing to the roots of her hair. "Emiya-san, there are some things that I simply can't say."

Well, if she can't say then I shouldn't pry, after all some private things needed to continue private, but I couldn't help but to needle the usually composed Student President. "So the Sisterly love is something you two share then? What's that called again? Yuri-"

"No!" The way the blood rushed out of her face as she paled made me honestly afraid that she would have a embolism, so fast the color drained from her. "Not that, pervert. I just scared her into thinking that I wouldn't watch her show anymore."

"Oh." I stopped for a second to process that. "Wait. That can't be right. Actually there are several things not right in that sentence. First, show? She has a show?"

"'Miracle Levia-tan!' Is all the rage on the Underworld TV apparently. A show about the Maou who is also a Magical Girl." Saji chimed in. I nodded at him but returned to the once again blushing president. Seriously, those changes in complexion can't be healthy, even if she's a Devil.

"Okay, so I can kinda understand why she was cosplaying. She came here directly from a shoot or an event then?" I asked, then another thing he said come to me as well. "And the Underworld has TV shows specifically for itself?"

"Yes there is an Underworld TV. No one believes until they see." Shitori said with an resigned tone of someone who already explained that hundreds of times. "And no. Unfortunately she didn't came here from a shoot or event."

"But then why was she wearing that outfit?" I was honestly confused. In the Clock Tower, the more powerful the Magus, the more pompous they like to dress. Sometimes you could tell if the Magus in question was a from a good lineage only from the ostentation of his or her clothes and accessories. That woman, more powerful than anything I have ever came across, wore barely enough to keep her modesty in that outfit.

"Don't ask. No one knows exactly why and she doesn't explain either." She said, hanging her head with the despair of a sister who couldn't hope to understand the eccentricities of her older sibling.

"Okay." I waited a few seconds, thinking about asking why the Leviathan would be so scared of Shitori not watching her show, but decided that I wouldn't really like the answer, one way or another. The day already had too many revelations, and it was still noon. "Well, what was that you wanted anyway? If it was something to fix in the school I don't think you would want to meet here instead of telling me earlier this morning."

She composed herself, adjusting her glasses. Then sat straight on her chair, put her elbows on the table and crossed her fingers. "What I want is for you to train us."

"Come again?"

"I know that what you did for Rias was something that you needed to do to fulfill the contract you had with her, but I'm asking you to help us with some kind of training regimen that we could use in order for us to train for the Rating Games." Shitori said, trying to explain her reasoning.

"I see." Then frowned. "But why? Don't tell me you too have an arranged marriage on the line, because if you do, I'll honestly despair about the continued existence of your species."

"What?! No! No, nothing like that." She answered a little louder than I was expecting. "In a few months there'll be a tournament in the Underworld. It's called the Young Devils Gathering. In it, all Young Devils with age between eighteen and twenty five that hadn't debuted yet in an Official Rating Game will need to make their first appearance."

I hummed. Well at least its still months away, so no need for be so frantic as it was in Rias' case.

"And as you can imagine, there's a lot of pressure on me because I'm the sister of one of the Maous." She put a hand on her forehead, then let it down again. "I know that I have no chance of winning the tournament, but I need every edge I can get that would better my chances of doing well and not shame my family."

"Huh, so the Shitori Clan will also be in attendance?" I asked.

"Sitri. Shitori is the name I use in the human world to simplify communication." She corrected me.

"Oh... I see." Then looked at the ceiling for a few moments to gather my thoughts. Shitori was helping me in reading those tomes down at the library, something that I should get back to as soon as possible, and she did came through for me more than once. "Okay, I'll help you, but why are you so certain that you won't win the tournament? Are you afraid you won't be strong enough?"

"No. I have confidence in my Peerage. The only problem is with the competition. There are at least two other Devils in this year's Gathering with the potential for becoming Ultimate-Class Devils. The last time we had a Devil with that potential was before the Evil Pieces System was even established. I'm sure you can understand what that means, right?"

I grimaced. So, even if she fights with all she got, she won't be able to win, huh? That sucks, because if it wasn't this year, she would probably do very well in her fight. I was about to ask her why not delay a year then, so her chances of winning would be better, but then it would be probably a combination of her Pride as Devil, the machinations of her Clan and her own need to test her power against the strongest opponents she could find.

"Very well. When do you want to start?"

"We usually train twice a week, here at school after hours. Usually we start at eight."

I nodded at that. "And when is the next session?"

"Tomorrow."

I nodded again. "Right, but I think its fair for me to warn you. The kind of training I'll put you through will be the worst thing you'll ever face. Rias only went along with me because she had no other choice." I had to warn her. There's no way for her to be so soft.

"Yes. We're prepared to face any adversities." She said.

"Oh, no you aren't." I smiled at her. "If you think that you need my help to have a chance in this tournament, then you haven't seen nothing yet. See you tomorrow then." I said, leaving the room.

Poor bastards. They will think I'm a sadist in short order. I smiled ferociously when I was out of the room.

She just handed me a way to blow off some steam.

---

After school, I was going in the direction of the Occult Research Club in order to break the Pact's tablet with Rias. I have no idea if I need to be present for it or not, and she didn't say anything too, so better safe than sorry. The connection we had already disappeared too. I didn't even realized that it wasn't there anymore until I was in the classroom this morning. I spend so much time with Devils in my vicinity nowadays that when I don't feel the power of one it's noticeable. I only realized that I wasn't feeling Rias' power until after I was already on the middle of the first period.

As soon as I walked inside the room I was greeted by the sight of Kiba disappearing in a teleportation circle in the floor. The boy saw me, and I believe he was about to wave, but didn't quite get the chance. I'm honestly impressed with myself that I don't even find this kind of thing as novel anymore as I had the first time I saw Rias teleport to Ise's side when he was dying.

I looked for the redhead but she wasn't in the room. Actually there wasn't anyone else in the room. That was strange, normally at least Koneko would be here, if Rias wasn't. I went to the little kitchen in the corner to see if anyone was there, but didn't see anyone as well. Sighing, I put water in the kettle and put it on the burner.

After waiting a few minutes for the water to boil, I prepared three cups, just in case, but only poured one for me and directed myself to the couch where I usually sat when I come here. As I was about to sit down, the door opened with the two Great Onee-samas of Kuoh making their appearance.

"Oh, good afternoon, Shirou." Rias greeted me, as she entered the room. "Where's the others?"

"Good afternoon, Shirou." Himejima too greeted and went directly to the kitchen.

"No idea. When I got here, Kiba was teleporting out. He's the only one I saw so far." I shrugged.

Rias bit her lip, then walked to her chair. Then watched quizzically as Himejima came back into the room and put one of the cups I had prepared earlier for her King.

"It seems that we had someone trying to take over our little kitchen." The brunette sent that jab in the air.

The redhead looked her Queen confused for a moment before it dawned on her and she grinned impishly. "I see. Then we'll have to either defend our territory or invade theirs, don't you think?"

"Oh, I wouldn't dare to act in such a way, Buchou." The girl sat in the couch directly across from me. "It's so uncouth from someone to appropriate themselves of things that don't belong to them."

I grimaced. "Okay, okay. Sorry for messing with your kitchen."

"Oh, I have no idea what you are talking about." The girl put a hand on her mouth to hide her smile, but her eyes told the whole story. "Do you, Buchou?"

"Oh, no. I don't." Then she took a sip of the tea and stopped, her features turning from mirth to confusion then to disbelief.

"Buchou?" The girl in front of me asked worried with the reaction coming from the redhead.

"Rias? What's wrong?" I asked. Did she felt something that I didn't? Come to think of it, what's the range a Devil has to feel the supernatural? I know that my range is big, but I never discovered about their range. There was that time outside of the Student Council Room, but that could be because they weren't paying attention? Or maybe that Bounded Field dampened their senses? Or maybe it was something that reacted to the Bounded Fields around the school that she felt?

The girl, lifted her head, looking disbelieving from the cup to me, then to Himejima, then to Himejima's untouched cup, then back to her own. "It's..."

The Shrine Maiden noticed the movement and took a sip of her own tea and reacted much the same, but in her case instead of disbelief in her eyes it was something else. I couldn't quite place what it was, but it was definitely different. After putting the cup back on the saucer she looked at me with that smile that I know hides a million and one things. "Well, it looks like I'll need to brush up on a few things."

Rias for her part continued to look in disbelief of what was happening in front of her. I must have looked confused with their reactions because I honestly have no idea what was going on. The same instinct that said to me when to dodge a strike was screaming at me to change the subject fast, so I only obeyed. I have no idea what was going on with the two of them, but I knew a tripwire when I saw one. "So, about the tablet..." I began.

The girl looked at me, confused then she understood what I was talking about. "Oh, yeah. I went to Sona to get it for us before coming here."

I nodded. "I see. Then what's the procedure? Is there some kind of ritual about it?"

"No. The Pact has already finished after Marlianna went home yesterday." She shook her head. "This is just so that both parts are present when the tablet is destroyed. Our case is a little special in that the Pact was done without the oversight of the Office of Heraldry or the Elders of the Clans of the parts involved, so it just needs to be the two of us. If there was oversight, then we would need to send a message to the Office and it would be a whole lot more complicated."

"I see, then how are we going to destroy it? Just set it on fire or something?"

"Well, it can be with fire, but I think I know a better and cleaner way, if you don't mind." She asked, I only nodded and signaled for her to continue. She took the tablet with both hands and in a burst of prana she tablet disintegrated in her hands, just like the draft of the contract had before.

"Oh. That's... handy..." I said, honestly thinking about it, whatever spell she was using could be fatal when used in battle. "Can't you use it during combat?"

She looked at me confused. "Use what?"

"That disintegration spell."

She continued looking at me until it hit her. "Oh, no it's not a disintegration spell. I don't even think that such a thing exists, to be honest. This is just one of the properties of the tablet. With the right amount of mana sent into it, it will disappear by itself."

"But you used on the draft that time." I argued.

"And from what do you think the paper for that was created from?" She shot back.

"Oh!" I shook my head. "So, does all the wood in this place you get your papers and tablets have the same properties or it comes from manufacturing?"

"I... have no idea." She frowned. "It just works that way, if its from before or after the mana treatment, I have no idea." She shrugged. Well, she is just a high school girl, even if she's a Devil. Can't blame her if she doesn't know everything about her society.

"Hummm..." I thought to myself. "I just thought that maybe that was where Ise created his spell breaker, only taken to the logical extreme. I thought that you had taught him the principles for it."

"No." The redhead shook her head slowly. "Although... Come to think of it, that really what the secondary effect of his spell does... Maybe if he..." At this point she started mumbling by herself and I couldn't hear it anymore.

"So... That's it?" I asked loud enough to get her attention again. I just had to make sure that there were no other problems with the pact.

"Yes. It is." She said bobbing her head, then stopped and looked at me. "About what we talked yesterday, it seems they really are closed. I can't channel Od the way you taught me, but I can use my Power of Destruction normally."

"I expected that." There's no way that she would be able to learn to trigger her Circuits overnight. Since she's a Devil, a being practically made of magic, she shouldn't have a problem with maintaining her Circuits open the entire time, but now that I closed them, she would have trouble with learning how to trigger the Circuits on her own. "At least you'll not be making the same mistake I did when I first began learning about Magecraft."

"Really? And what was that?" Himejima asked.

"Well, there's a way to create an artificial Magic Circuit, but doing so is dangerous. The first time I did I almost became paraplegic." I commented like it didn't matter. For me it didn't, but the girls pulled in sharp breaths.

"What, how? It's in the Soul, right? It's not on the body, so how could this happen?" The redhead asked again, sitting forward on her chair.

"It's actually quite simple. Natural Magic Circuits are on the Soul, connected to the body through the nervous system, so to create an artificial Magic CircuitMagic Circuit you cut off the first part and replace one of the nerves on you body with an inferior copy of a Magic Circuit. At the time, I focused on the longest one I could find with my mind, and that was the one going through my spine, and... well... you can imagine the damage." At the time I didn't know, but if it wasn't for Avalon inside me, I really would be paraplegic, if not dead even before the Grail War began.

"That's... dangerous..." Rias commented cautiously.

"As I said, to walk the path of Magecraft is to walk with death. Of course, the way I was doing was so wrong in the first place, that after I learned the right way, when look back at those times, I shiver with how close I was cutting it." I grimaced remembering those times then shook off.

"And how can I trigger my own Circuits?" Rias asked.

"We can try some meditation or other methods so you can learn your own triggers, but I don't see any advantage in doing. You don't use Magecraft, and my mysteries are so specialized that I would not be able to teach you anything useful." I lifted my hand in the air. "Remember all the problems you had just to create that one blade?" I asked then intoned. "Trace on." I formed Llofrudd in my hand instantly. "I do this instinctively because I trained so wrong for such a long time that I effectively created a whole new branch of Magecraft."

She looked crestfallen, if by my words or by the easiness I formed the sword I don't know. I dismissed it and Himejima chimed in then. "Can you try with me too?"

I grimaced. "I don't think so. I could with Rias because her Soul was open to me, and I could feel her Circuits during the Pact. I don't even know if you have any to begin with. That's one of the most problematic things on Magi lineages. Sometimes comes a generation of Magi in a family that simply don't have any or enough Circuits to be able to receive their Family Crest."

"Family Crest?" Rias asked.

"Too much to explain right now." I waved off. "Bottom line is, I could try but I have no idea what will happen. As I said, I don't have that much experience with Soul Dive."

Himejima bit her lip. "But you can, right?"

I frowned at that. "I just said is dangerous and can possibly cripple you. And all for something that has little to no use for you. Why do you want to try?"

She looked down, trying to collect her thoughts. In the meantime, I looked at Rias but she too looked worriedly at her Queen. When I looked back at the brunette she had a face set in determination. "I have my reasons. Magic is everything I am good at. If there is even a possibility of me getting stronger, then I think it's worth it." I frowned at her.

I'm sure that she wasn't being completely truthful with that just by looking at Rias' grimace. There should be some story about it, but it was not my place to pry. I'm the last person to judge others for trying to get stronger with reckless methods.

"Very well. Let's do it like this. I'll try, but as I said, I don't know if it'll work, okay?" The girl nodded and I got up. "Then first, do you guys have a Formalcraft circle designed to eliminate the ambient prana for analysis of the..." I trailed off when they looked at me blankly.

I had to facepalm. Maybe they had but they wouldn't call it that. "Formalcraft circle?" Case in point, the redhead asked.

"Yeah. Didn't think so." I moved my hand from my face. "What about a magic circle that eliminates the ambient prana inside it?"

She knitted her brows. "No. I don't think I ever heard of those." She looked at Himejima who just shook her head.

"No? Then how do you guys research new spells?" I asked bewildered. "Or new ways to channel your techniques?" She blushed and looked away from me.

She shook her head minutely and I let an exasperated sigh escape. "Normally," Himejima began. "when we are researching new spells we go to areas where there's a lot of ambient mana to power up the new arrays of the spell we're trying to create. After that is easier to recreate the effect once we know the exact equation for it in the first place."

Taking her explanation, I was about to say that it was actually counterproductive to spend so much energy on a spell that you didn't even know if it would work or not, but then had to reel my thoughts back. I was still thinking in terms of my own universe where prana in the ambient was scarce and you needed to use the absolute minimum necessary to create the maximum efficiency. Some of the spells I saw being used by the Devils here, while they didn't exactly waste too much energy, could be refined to be more streamlined.

Himejima's lightning spells during the Rating Game came to mind. They were powerful, yes, but she spent too much of her prana directing the bolts. They were more precise, maybe because there were allies around the two times she used and needed the control, but during training she used the same amount of power on that spell. In that case she could have the same result with spending less mana, and consequently less stamina, leaving her with a better window to chain her spells, like many elementalists did.

Elementalists were the worst kind of Magi back on my universe. Once they achieved a certain level of control on their chosen element, you needed a very specific set of tools to be able to fight against one. And some Dead Apostles were elementalists too, to make matters worse.

"Shirou?" The brunette's call brought me out of my reverie.

"Oh, sorry. Lost in thought for a second there." I shook off my ideas and continued. "Anyway, if you guys don't have a circle like that, then we need to draw one."

"Draw?" The redhead asked. "Tell me that it doesn't need to be with blood, please. Because some of the stories I heard from the older Devils about the circles they were summoned to being drawn using the blood of virgins or kids or cattle were disgusting."

Huh... A Devil who don't like offerings in blood. Apparently this universe is making a point to me today that it is definitely not mine. "No. It's not designed entirely out of blood. Blood can be used as the catalyst for the Magus to insert his Od on the paint but it's not strictly necessary. It can be other fluids, like spit, semen, urine or any other body secretion, but blood is the more readily available and the cost-benefit is higher."

They both made faces at my alternatives. Tough for them. Magecraft isn't always pretty. If they want me to teach them about it, they'll need to get used to these things.

My mind screeched to a halt and my eyes widened at that thought. Teaching them? Why am I even thinking about teaching them again? And even then, aside from Reinforcement, Alteration, Structural Analysis and Projection what can I teach them? My brand of Gradation Air is practically impossible to be used without my Reality Marble, and I'm not even good enough for myself with Runecraft to try and teach them. Most of what I know about Runes is what needs to be used to create Boundary Fields, and they can create Boundary Fields much more easily with their own techniques.

Maybe I'm going about this from the wrong side. Maybe if they knew more about Magecraft they could help me find a way home more easily. If they knew about my way of handling mysteries, they could correlate with what they already know more easily?

I shook my head. "You're doing it again." Rias brought me out of my reverie one more time.

"Hum? Oh, sorry." I scratched the back of my head. "It usually happens when I'm thinking about my art."

"Art?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, well. It's called Magecraft for a reason. We need to Craft the mysteries to be able to use them. It's not just a case of remembering the flow of Od or Mana, sometimes we need to create vessels for the mysteries, like Mystic Codes, other times we need to align the flow in a certain order to maximize effectiveness..." I stopped and looked at the girls, who had a mix of confusion and mirth on their faces.

"I see." The brunette said.

"Anyway... We need draw a circle that eliminates the ambient prana for even trying to do what you want me to do." I said, circling back to the initial request.

Rias looked at me with her eyebrows knitted. "Why? You didn't use anything like that when you done it to me during training camp or yesterday at your house."

"That's because your Soul was already open to me." I said sighing. Am I talking Greek here? Wait, they would understand Greek, right? "In her case," I pointed to Himejima. "I'll need to break the barrier around her Soul to be able to look inside, but to do that with the interference of the ambient prana would be complicated. There could be cross contamination, not to mention that she isn't even human, so I have no idea what would happen with her or with me. I don't know if even without the interference will be possible to be honest."

"Why don't you try first then?" She said it. "I mean, if it doesn't work, then we can try and do this again after we draw the circle, right?"

I frowned thinking about it. It wasn't that impossible to manage that, since Rin could do it almost anywhere. Just needed to concentrate, but she was considered a genius for a reason. She could make the most outrageous things look easy. I could try, but I'm almost certain that it would be fruitless. In the end, I relented. "Alright, I'll try, but don't get your hopes up." I said the last part to the brunette.

"Alright." She said. "So, what do I need to do?"

I scrubbed my hand on face hard and breathed out explosively. Then got up and walked around the table in front of the couch she was sitting. "First, kneel seiza style here on the floor."

"Oh," The brunette commented, smiling slyly. "Making a girl grovel at your feet already are you?"

I was about to comment in the inappropriateness of the remark when I realized that her face was actually strained. She was scared and covering that with mirth. I shook my head in exasperation. "Just do it, alright?"

She did. I knelt in front of her. "Now what?"

"You have a place inside yourself that your mana gathers when you cast your spells. If you have any Magic Circuits, they are probably centered around there. I need you concentrate and find that place inside yourself." She nodded in a stutter. "Even if you have some kind of special technique that is dangerous or suicidal to use, if it is the strongest you have, its where you should concentrate for this to work, okay?" She nodded again. "Are you sure you can find that place?"

"Yes. I always knew where it was." She said, grimacing. Something about it made her uncomfortable.

I frowned at that. "Look, what I'm about to do can be an invasion of privacy. If there are things you don't want me to know, its better if we don't do this. I'll try to not look where I shouldn't but as I'll be going in blind, I'll probably see things that I don't know if you would want me to know about you or not. The Soul only records the stronger memories a person has, or actually the memories with the strongest emotions attached are the only ones etched in the Soul. So if I end up seeing anything, it'll be either something incredibly good or incredibly bad."

She looked stunned at me. "Then you'll see..." She trailed off.

My mouth twisted more and my frown deepened. "Yes. Not that I'll ever talk about it if you don't want me to, but I'm liable to discover secrets without meaning to. And all of that taking into consideration that maybe I won't find anything there. The more I need to look for the Circuits, the more I'm bound to find things that you don't want me to. A Soul Dive normally is done in kids that are barely on elementary school, so they don't have much to hide. In your case though..."

She looked down, then at me, and for a moment I saw another face on top of hers, familiar lilac hair and eyes, haunted, a similar smile that hide so many things behind. Then the moment was gone when she turned to the redhead that, at some point, moved from her chair to sit on the couch near us.

Then she looked at her hands again. Whatever she was trying to decide in her head, she finally did and nodded to herself. "Promise something then?"

"Depends on what." I said, trying for flippancy on my tone, but I think that I failed when she looked at me with a hardened expression.

"Anything you see there, don't ever talk about it with anyone. Not even me." She asked.

I thought about that for a second, before nodding. "If that's what you want, I won't, but as I said, I have no idea if this will even work. If it does, I promise you that I'll never talk about what I'll see and what I won't." Then addressed both of them. "And I didn't tell you this before, but don't spread this to anyone outside the three of us. There's a saying about the abyss, right? Soul Dive is dangerous for me as well in part because of it."

"Sure. I'll not talk."

"On my name as the Heir of the Gremory Clan." The redhead seriously throws that around a lot. So much so that I'm liable to start doubting its honesty in fact.

I grimaced, but nodded. "Alright, let's try this then. First, fix your eyes in a point in space. Concentrate on your strongest energy. Relax. Breath in through the nose, breath out through the mouth... Again... Again... Relax..." When she was entering the trance state necessary for this I held both her shoulders, put my forehead to hers and looked into her violet eyes.

It was hard. No hard would be to put mildly. It was like trying to beat a wood nail into an iron anvil using a hammer made of jelly. This was practically impossible. How did Rin did this so easily without even needing to look into my eyes when she did it? The eyes are the doorway for Soul, and that's not romanticizing. It's the truth. I was tired just from trying to break the barrier of her consciousness, but when I finally thought I had managed, I was hit with a powerful blast of... something... from somewhere inside the girl and reeled backwards physically and fell down, blinking at the ceiling without really realizing where I was.

After what felt like a minute of this, I finally said. "Well... That was awkward..."

"What happened?" The redhead asked, and when I looked at the brunette she was still in the trance.

I shook my head. "A number of things could have. I have no idea which one." I said as I picked myself up from the floor. I snapped my fingers on the brunette's face after a moment and she was out of the trance.

She blinked a few times and then looked at me, then at Rias before turning back at me. "Did it work?"

"Either the wall around your Soul is thicker than I imagined, is better guarded, you have some kind of protection against invasion, or the power of your Soul simply kicked me out, or the ambient prana broke my concentration, or maybe the-"

"Summing it up, it didn't." Rias answered dryly.

"Oh..." The brunette voice was genuinely disappointed by that.

I scowled at nothing in particular. "Yeah. It didn't work."

"Well, maybe after you draw that circle..." She began again.

"It's not so simple. To draw a circle like that I would need first to find all of the ingredients." I continued scowling at the wall.

"Ingredients?" Rias asked tilting her head to the side, confused.

"Like lead-based paint, for starters. That's not something sold in the market anymore. It's toxic. Not to mention all the other things, metals, essences..." I started to list them.

"What? Why?" Himejima this time, not understanding the need for so many things.

"I said it was a Craft didn't I?" I reminded them. "Its like a cooking recipe. You need to use the right ingredients to make good food. Sure you can substitute some, but it changes the taste of the end product. To create a circle like what I'll need to do this I'll need to start it from scratch, and to do that, I'll need the right materials."

I still don't think they understand how hard it is to be a Magus. It's not like their brand of magic. You don't simply gather energy and start manipulating it. Their brand of magic has more in common with the Einzberns' Alchemy now that I think about it. They simply throw as much prana as necessary to create the effect they want.

"There's a joke on the Clock Tower that says that the only thing that keeps more lineages from appearing aside from death of the practitioners is the debt the starting Magus racks up just so they can build their workshop."

"So these materials are expensive? Even here?" Rias asked.

I opened my mouth to answer but stopped, then frowned. "You know what? I have no idea, but I don't think that things like silver, gold and diamond dust are cheap here as well..." Then I grimaced. For better or worse, I would still need to find ways to get money enough to build the circle anyway sometime in the near future in order to create the beacon.

Himejima let out an impressed whistle. "Magi are big spenders, huh?"

"Not really. I could create a simple circle only with paint, blood, metal filings and runes but it would be so low quality that it wouldn't last a week, but for a workshop, something like that needs to be of quality. My father's circle that was inside his workshop was the same I continued to use for years after he passed away and it still worked. The paint had practically faded completely and you could barely see it when entering the place without looking for it, but once you positioned yourself inside it, you could feel the difference."

"Huh... Then why don't you just create a simple one?" Rias asked.

"Aside from the fact that I don't have anywhere to do it?" I asked.

She grimaced. It was obvious that she had forgotten about the fact that I didn't have a place for myself in this universe. "What about here on the clubroom?"

I was shaking my head before she even finished. "I can't use this place as I please, like you Devils. I have to actually ask permission to enter the school after hours." I reminded them. "And I can't teleport in, like you guys all seem to be able to do."

"What about the Shrine?" Himejima asked.

"Shrine? What Shrine?" I looked puzzled at the brunette.

"My Shrine. Where I live." She answered easily. "What about there?"

I grimaced again at that. "I still can't use a place like that as I please, and won't the priests throw a fit if I start scrawling on the floor?"

"Oh. Don't worry. The Shrine was abandoned sometime ago. I live there alone now." Then the corners of her mouth turned upwards slightly, and she had that glint in her eyes that I know that means trouble. "And you can come and go as you please."

I ignored the last part. Best for everyone involved, but the first part made me frown. Why was she living alone in a Shrine of all places? Did she not receive much Devil work like the others seem to? I decided not to think about that for now and thought on her proposal. Leaving aside the obvious nuances of what she mentioned with that last part, this place looked like a good one for me to try an impromptu circle, at least to see if I could make one in this universe and discover if it would work.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to take her up on her offer of making it there. After all, she was the one who wanted me to find if she had or not the Magic Circuits. "You know," I said after pondering about the ramifications. "now that I think about it, it may be a good idea to try."

Her eyes widened for a second in surprise, before it returned to her usual serene expression. "If you think you can-"

"Are you busy right now?" I asked before she continued. "If you show me your place I can see if its possible or not."

She pulled back, stunned, then turned to Rias questioningly.

---

That is one broken down Shrine if I ever saw one. I don't think even the Ryuudou Temple was so run down after the Grail War. The place Himejima had taken to live in was apparently really used as a Shrine at some point during its existence but as the followers started to dwindle, so did the power of the deity enshrined there, and in the end there was nothing left anymore. It was just a broken down temple. Correction, a broken down collection of materials put together to resemble a temple.

When viewed from the front it was apparently still sturdy enough, and could be reused at any moment, but the moment one stepped inside, I had to take care not to put my weight on certain places, otherwise I would sink through the floorboard, the walls were falling apart and the rooms where she actually lived in, although in better condition than the rest, had black spots on the ceiling from obvious leaks on the roof tiles and I swear I saw termite patches in one of the pillars when we passed by.

"And why is that you live here again?" I had to ask. The place was so destroyed that even if I had come across it before, I wouldn't use. And I am homeless.

"What's so strange about a Shrine Maiden living in a Shrine?"

"When the Shrine is so obviously out of use that it doesn't receive any maintenance for years, and the Maiden in question wouldn't actually need to live here?"

She shook her head, as if explaining to me it would be pointless. "Come this way." She led me into an even further room inside the rundown temple. After passing several doors, we reached the room she was leading to, only for the door to jam and not open when she tried to pull it. When she used a little more force on it, it fell out of the rail completely and got stuck in an awkward angle.

"It wasn't supposed to do that, I'm assuming?" I asked the girl, trying to keep my tone as bland as possible.

She looked at me once, then out of nowhere ripped the door out with one simple flick of her wrist. These Devils act normal so much that I forget that they are actually strong enough to break bones of normal people just by grabbing on their arms too hard.

After settling the remains of the door aside, she signaled for me to enter the room. It was actually what I believe to have been the main hall of worship on the Shrine when it was still in use, but right now, a good portion of the roof was missing and the rest was in bad disrepair.

Seriously, if someone wanted to actually make this Shrine usable again, forget repairing. It would be easier to tear down the whole place and build it up again from the foundation.

"Can you do it here?" Came the nonchalant question. I shot her only a look and walked inside the room, feeling the place around. It didn't need to be so big, just for a simple Formalcraft makeshift circle, but since she asked...

"It'll do." I answered her in kind, and opened my schoolbag. Before leaving the school I pilfered- Er, borrowed some supplies from the janitor's closet. More specifically, a can with red paint still half full, a brush, every piece of scrap metal rolling around I could find, chalk and few meters of white string.

Opening the can, I placed it on the ground, I ground the chalk to powder and put it inside, then traced a rasp and began to fill the metal scraps, letting the metal fillings fall on the can, stirring every now and then. When the consistency was what I expected to see, I sliced my finger and let a few drops of my blood in it. Thanks to Avalon, I had to repeat that three times, to my annoyance.

Himejima was watching the process with interest. In the end she was the only one who came with me since Rias had to stay at school while the other Devils of her Peerage were out on contracts. I didn't know that business for them was booming so much. Which makes me return to the question, why is Himejima still living in this place?

Setting down the can I got the string, traced a nail and hammered it in a point where the center would be, tied the string to it and using it as compass, began to draw the circle. It was one slow process, and boring, even for a simple circle such as this one, so when Himejima started to ask questions about it, I was kind of glad.

"So, were lying when you said you didn't know Formalcraft?" She asked.

"No. Not really. This here, even if its part of Formalcraft is actually pretty minor. This for Formalcraft is in the same level of what two plus two is for mathematics."

"Oh, and you know two plus two then?" I somehow knew she had a smirk on her face, even with my back to her.

"Yes." I decided to ignore. "This type of circle is one of the basic things necessary in a workshop, alongside a workbench, tool walls, shelves and bookcases. Then from there you'll need the things you'll specialize on, and that can be pretty much anything."

"Such as?"

"Well, in the workshop back home I had an anvil and a forge powered by runes in a corner. Also some training dummies. My partner had jewelry boxes and every type of precious stones you can imagine, in bulk."

"Precious stones?"

"Every Magi specializes in something. Some, like me, overspecialize, almost to a crippling point, but generally a Magi studies their own style of Magecraft during their whole lives, and then passes on that research for their children along with the Family Crest, who in turn continue the lineage in the same way. That's one of the reasons that the oldest lineages are generally the most powerful ones. There always the exceptions, but that is the general rule."

I paused and licked my lips. One of the floorboards was loose and would get slightly out of alignment when my weight was on it, throwing the circle off by a few milimiters. I traced another nail and started hammering it in place.

Done with that I continued. "In her case, her lineage uses Precious Stones to store Prana. You see, rubies for instance, are terrible for creating Mystic Codes, but are great mana batteries. Depending on their quality they can store upwards of months worth of Prana a single Magi can produce during one day. And Rin would always finish her day storing all the prana she could on them."

"That sounds... useful, actually."

"Oh. It is. I'm actually only alive today because of one of those rubies." I commented lightly, but the girl started at that.

"What? Why?"

"Remember the scar on my chest? Where I said Gae Bolg had hit me?" I asked her, and when she nodded I continued. "It was at the beginning of the Grail War. I was stabbed by it and only survived it because Rin used one of the rubies that she had been storing prana for years on me."

"I see."

"Yeah. Thank the Root I didn't need a second dose of that." I grimaced at the memory. "Not for lack of the guy trying, though."

"You said that during this Grail War, it was common tactic for the enemy Servant to target Masters, right? Was it because of this?"

"Not really. You see, in my world, Magecraft is a secret guarded closely. No one not already in the know can know about it. If a uninitiated stumbles on it by accident, there two ways to deal with them. One, is if they are valuable for the Magus who they stumbled upon, is to be hypnotized and have their memories wiped or changed. Not generally used since memory manipulation is kind of difficult with Magecraft. With practice it can get to a decent enough level that its worth the risk of using it. The other is to simply kill the witness. And with all that, the Grail War itself was even more secretly guarded. Only the people participating in it could know about it, aside from the Observer and the Supervisor sent by the Mage Association and the Church respectively. At the time, Lancer, the Servant that attacked me, thought I was a bystander and attacked me immediately. And I can't even begrudge him because he was right."

"Really?" Her tone of voice was definitely not interested. It was something else, that I really don't want to think about right now, given the implications.

"Yes. At the time, I was a bystander. I didn't know anything about the War, or about Servants or anything else really. I didn't even know about the Mage Association. My father, who should have explained those things to me, died before he could," Or would, in his case. I don't think Kiritsugu would have taught me anything aside from what he had already, unless I somehow managed to catch the attention of the Association by mistake. "and I had not even met the Second Owner of my city. Actually, he should have been the one to introduce himself to the Second Owner, but didn't..."

I shook my head. Kiritsugu was a fugitive at that point. No way would he go to the Second Owner and basically tell the Association that he was alive. Not to mention that he had taken part in the War that had killed the father of the new Second Owner at the time, Rin, who in turn was being trained and taken care of Kotomine. There was no way that he would go to her in that situation.

"Then if you were a bystander and was law to not let any witness to continue living, then why did she saved you?"

"To this day I don't really know, but I have my suspicions. At the time I was in the same school as her and only knew her in passing. She was like an idol around school, kinda like you and Rias are the Great Onee-samas of Kuoh, but in her case it was more of a standoffish thing. She had an aura of control to her that few people dared to even look at her in the eye at school, even some teachers."

"And this Rin is your ex-girlfriend, right?"

"Yeah. Did I say that before?" I asked confused. I don't think I had, but...

"No. Just connecting dots." The girl said with a impish tone in her voice. "So, she was in love with you, but you never approached her. When she saw you on your death bed, she used all the energy she stored in one of her rubies to revive the love of her life. Am I getting warm?"

"No. Getting cold actually." I answered, turning to her with a grin. I didn't even noticed that the girl was actually taking notes. If it was about the conversation or about the runes I was drawing, I don't know. "As I said, she never told me. But I suspect that it had more to do with Sakura than with herself."

"Sakura?"

"Sakura was..." I frowned, trying to think the best way to explain. "They were sisters, but Sakura had been sent to be adopted by another family because she had just as much potential as a Magi as Rin had, but since only one child per generation can bear the Family Crest, their father thought it would be a better service for Sakura if she was adopted into another lineage that had no heir at the time. But some things happened and they ended up resenting each other, at least outwardly, acting as if they knew each other only because of school, and such. It was... complicated."

"Humm..."

"Anyway, Sakura had a brother, Shinji. I only discovered that they were only brother and sister through adoption much later, but anyway. I met Shinji in middle school and made friends with him. During that time, I met Sakura and after another series of unpleasant events, where I had to defend her from Shinji's abuse she became the only other female friend I had at the time aside from Fuji-nee and another girl in the Archery Club."

"You were friends with a guy that abused his sister?"

"I was friend with a guy until I discovered that he abused his sister." I corrected her. Shinji was a scumbag and I'm glad that he disappeared off the map after the Grail War.

"Oh, sorry." I waved it off.

"Anyway, at the time I didn't know that Sakura and Rin were sisters, but they certainly knew. Sakura... Well, there no other way to put it. She was in love with me, and Rin knew. I didn't. When Rin saw my body on the floor, she thought what would happen when Sakura discovered and saved me because of her."

She hummed again. "She was a Master in the War, right? How come she didn't know you were one too?"

"That's because at that exact point in time I wasn't one yet. I hadn't summoned my Servant. Heck, I didn't even know how or that I needed to. Or why."

"So she saved you just because of her sister." A pause. "Interesting..."

"Yeah. Not really. As I said, that's my self-serving take on the situation. For all I know, she could be going around saving people left and right at that point. She never really liked to talk about those days."

She became silent after that. I had finished the circle and began going around it, doing minor adjustments in some of the runes or retouching the paint in some other points. Then I entered the circle proper. It was like night and day. It was actually a little disconcerting, really. If I had to make a comparison would be like the difference between standing at sea level and then stepping through a portal that took me to the stratosphere. Change air pressure with magical pressure and you get the idea. I nodded to myself after standing there for a few seconds. It still had some ambient prana, but for a hasty scribbled circle like this, it was good enough. I stepped out, making sure not to step on the paint.

"Is it done?" The girl asked, looking around the floor.

"Yeah. Just need to wait for the paint to dry a little more." I sat down next to her, and she immediately got up and left the room. I looked at her back, puzzled for a moment, then shrugged.

Watching paint dry isn't the most compelling pastimes either, so I would welcome some more conversation in the meantime.

Himejima came back to the room with a tray in hand. Wordlessly she sat down where she was before, and handed a cup to me. "Thanks." She continued to smile until I took a sip of the tea and for some reason her smile strained when I said. "It has a nice fragrance."

"Thank you." She said with a strained tone that mirrored her smile. After almost five minutes of waiting, she must have come to the same conclusion I had earlier about watching the paint, because she asked. "You said that the guy tried again. Then the second time was because you were already a Master?"

"No. The second time was actually just a few hours after the first. But after fleeing to my workshop at home, I ended up summoning my Servant by complete accident in an effort to save myself from death."

"How?"

"I don't actually know. The ritual to summon a Servant is not really all that complicated. Only needs a Formalcraft circle that resonates with the Od of the user, a reagent for the Heroic Spirit that you want to summon and the will of the Master. There is a Circle created specifically for Summoning, but it isn't strictly necessary. A normal circle, even one scribbled in the ground with a stick can be enough. Of course, when summoned that way the ritual is considered incomplete and some skills a Servant has would take more mana than normal, but in a pinch is possible. It was how I actually managed to summon Saber in the end, using a circle my father had designed years before. Rin actually taught me the proper ritual to summon an Heroic Spirit later on but it takes an prohibitive amount of Prana to do it, and when an Heroic Spirit is summoned without the Command Seals or a goal that it can be negotiated with, the Servant generally kills the Master."

"But if it is so prohibitive, how come you did it accidentally? And what are these Command Seals?" I gotta hand it to the girl. She didn't even blink when I said a Servant could kill the Master.

"I managed to do it because I was chosen by the Grail as one of the Masters. During the summoning part, the Grail does all the heavy lifting, and any additional Prana the Master adds to the ritual goes directly to power up the Servant. In my case, my Od reserves were abysmal at best, couple that with the impromptu summon without ritual, and the Grail simply summoned my Servant at her base strength, without any of the power ups."

"Her?"

"Yeah. Saber, the Heroic Spirit that I summoned, was a girl." Calling Saber just a girl was pushing it though.

"Hummm... And the Command Seals?"

I pondered on that for a moment. "Think of it like this. You're going to call a warrior from the Throne of Heroes, in order to battle against other warriors, all for some magical trinket that can grant wishes. If the Heroic Spirit you summon isn't interested in any wish, he's either going to attack you immediately in order to be set free or first hear your reason to summon him and then attack you in order to be set free. The Command Seals ensured that the Heroic Spirit that was summoned had to obey the Master to a point. It was up to the Master to negotiate with him the obedience, though." A smile came to my face when I remembered the first discussions I had with the blonde haired King. At the time I was frantic not really understanding what that War meant. "In my case, Saber had a wish, so we only really had to negotiate how we were going to proceed in the War. We butted heads often and repeatedly from then on."

"You speak of this Saber with fondness. Were you in love with her or something?"

The smile that was on my face fell a little. "I don't really know, to be honest. At the time I'm certain that I at least felt some camaraderie with her, but that was to be expected, since she was my Servant. Nowadays, when I think about it, I can't really create a full picture of our bond, because while I knew everything about her, she hardly knew anything about me. It wasn't fair to be that way."

"How come you knew so much about her? Did she talk about it a lot."

I shook my head. "No. That was because of the Dream Cycle. You see, the bond between a Master and Servant is more than just what the names would imply. It closer than any friendship, any marriage, even closer than a Devil Pact where the Souls are open to each other. During the Dream Cycle, that is, when the Master is asleep, he or she dreams of the life of the Servant, seeing their memories that are etched in the Soul of the Heroic Spirit. And I saw a lot of her memories while we were bonded. Her life... It was beautiful. It had so much hardship, so much pain, so much blood, so much sadness but, in the end, she pressed on to lead her people. That made the good memories even more poignant, because of the way she lived in the dark times was the same that she lived during the happy ones. With her full might. I think that the saying that goes 'In times of peace prepare for war and in times of war prepare for peace' didn't exist in her time. In times of war she was ruthless. In times of peace she was happy. Simple as that."

Another pause in the conversation. Actually, wasn't just me talking most of the time? She was looking through her notes and when I was about to ask her about them when she fired another one. I didn't realized earlier, because I was so focused on drawing the circle, but this was looking more and more like an interview. "You said that you need a Reagent, right? How did you manage get one in that situation."

I had to grimace at that question. Avalon was always within me. Never would I be able to summon any other Heroic Spirit besides Saber because of it, even if I had another reagent. "I'm sorry, but that's one secret that I can't tell anyone. Let's just say that Saber is the only one who would ever be summoned if I ever performed the ritual." Then in order to not let her get another word in edgewise, I got up and entered the circle again, signaled with my hand and told her. "Come."

She was about to protest, but didn't in the end and got up on her own.

"Why were you taking notes?" I asked. It wouldn't really matter once I was out of this universe, but now that I payed attention, it began to unsettled me a little.

"Rias asked." She confessed without missing a beat. "If you taught me anything it was for me to pass down to her. Since I have no idea what about you said just now will come up again I got afraid that I would forget something and started taking notes of it. And also..." she trailed off, looking slightly ashamed. That was a look I didn't see that often on her. I waited for her until she continued. "The story of your life is actually quite interesting."

"Interesting?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Taking out the parts about magic, its material right out of a morning time drama." She grinned at me, still somewhat red in the face. I have no idea what to say to that.

Well, it was not like I told her anything that was any major secret. For all she knew I could have fabricated the whole story. And if the thought that it was some kind of drama, well, one less worry. A lie based on facts already per-established can become more convincing than the complete truth. "I see. But as I asked earlier, tell her that nothing I said should be passed around. It really can kill you, some of the things I comment offhand sometimes are that dangerous."

She nodded. "No problem."

"Now come here." I extended my hand and she took it. One step into the circle and the effect on the girl was instantaneous. She practically fell into my arms. If it wasn't for the effect of it, I would have thought that maybe she was trying another trick on me, but the way she was breathing hard, as if tired from just being inside it, told me that wasn't the case. "Are you alright?"

She didn't answer for almost a minute, and I was starting to get nervous. When she finally did, her voice was strained with exertion. "It's... I don't know how to describe this. I feel my body like normal, but it seems heavier, its like its hard to breathe but I can breathe normally when I think about it. Everything is..."

"Your existence is centered around magic." I posited for her. "You must be unconsciously using mana from the ambient to reinforce your body without meaning to all the time. Otherwise I don't think that you Devils could stay up until late at night doing jobs and still go to school during the day without showing some type of strain. Now your body is trying to readjust for the environment inside the circle that has less mana."

She nodded, but didn't confirm or deny my assessment.

"If you think its too much, its better if you leave. I have no idea what will happen if you stay inside for too long. It can be just like I said, and you just need to readjust, or it could really be harmful." Wish I had thought of this earlier. She lived her whole life in a prana rich environment. Suddenly being deprived of it was tantamount to put her on the gallows with the noose suddenly tightening.

"No." She shook her head lightly. "I'm okay. I think it was just the sudden difference. I'll adapt to it eventually."

I grimaced. Eventually could mean in a minute, in a year, in a decade or even longer. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm sure. Don't worry about me. This isn't..." She cut herself off there, making me frown again.

"Well, okay then." I relented in the end. I'm the last person who should talk about others when taking risks with their own bodies. "Kneel here then, in the middle."

She did just so. "Are you going to hypnotize me again?" Her smile wasn't actually teasing this time, but somewhat more fearful.

"It's not an actual hypnosis. It's just to induce a Trance state while your body is relaxed to make it easier for me to Soul Dive." I told her honestly. I knelt in front of her and began again. "Concentrate on your essence of power, same as before. Fix your eyes in a point in space. Breath in through your nose, breath out through your mouth. Again. Relax. Again... Again... Again..." Both hands on her shoulders and my forehead to hers.

It was easier this time, compared to the first, but still hard. Either her consciousnesses was really more closed than normal or, maybe because she was a Devil, I can't say for sure. After hitting the wall several times I finally managed to breach it, and again was washed by that powerful energy that was inside her Soulscape. It almost made me pull back again, but I was prepared this time, and found purchase on the place and continued going.

Her Soulscape was completely different from Rias'. While Rias was darkness with some spotlights, hers was almost the polar opposite. There was light everywhere, and few dark spots, concealing things that I knew not to look at. These are probably the secrets that she has and don't want others to know. I pulled myself away from those, no point in trying to see them.

The construct that my consciousness created this time was completed faster than before, as it was more simple. Maybe because we were physically inside a Shrine, the construct resembled one. One impossibly long corridor after the front door with doors left and right, up and down. I landed at the entrance and began to follow the flow of power that I felt, it took me getting near the source to realize that it was actually what passes for Holy power in this world.

It didn't made any sense. How can a Devil have so much Holy inside herself? I knew she was a Shrine Maiden, but if she had so much Holy power, then why...

Then it hit me. Of course she couldn't use because she was a Devil. It would hurt herself if she tried, I think. Getting to the source was difficult. The construct my consciousnesses made for me to navigate her Soul, the Shrine corridor, was breaking apart near a void of pure light, and didn't let me see exactly what I was looking at. I stopped at that point. If I continued going, I didn't know if I could go back to the construct. The barrier was preventing my consciousness to define shape of her Soul from this point onward, but the feeling from it was actually kind of inviting. It took me some doing and concentration, but when I finally managed to pass that barrier, there it was, the shapeless source of her power. It was a warm light, that could be either inviting or foreboding in a snap of fingers, but I decided to leave that alone in favor of her Magic Circuits that were just behind that amorphous blob. I had to smile at the image. She had nineteen of them Circuits. All of better quality than Rias' had.

Using a burst of Od, I connected her Circuits but didn't trigger them. The first time she manages to trigger her Circuits on her own it'll probably leave her reeling. It would be better if I was on hand when that happened to make sure she didn't hurt herself. I turned back to follow the same path that I used to get to the Circuits back to the construct, but instead got a facefull of one of her memories instead. It was a strong and beautiful memory. A woman that I could guess should be her mother was smiling gently at her, while she was saying something to her. I tried to reel myself away from it. It had nothing to do with what I was doing here, but even after pulling myself out of that memory, I found myself in another one.

That's one of the problems I had with Soul Diving this way. You could easily get lost inside the Soul of another. The image I saw now was of the same woman, with her eyes open but unseeing, with her arm outstretched in Himejima's direction. The image was murky and the emotion from it was very real. Grief and Desperation. And I felt it like I was her. Like I had seen my own mother die in front of me.

It was too much and I forced myself out of that memory, only to fall in another one. She would be about ten or eleven years old, scavenging for food on trashcans much like I did at the beginning of my stay in this world. Eating things that weren't meant for consumption anymore, just so her body could have some sustenance. Misery and sorrow tinted this memory.

Another memory, fleeing scared of a mob in a rural road. A forest on one side and a field of rice in the other. They were throwing literal sticks and stones at her, when out of nowhere, black feathered wings formed behind her back and she escaped the mob through the air. I inhaled sharply at that image. I didn't know that Himejima was a Fallen. Either that or some type of Youkai that had black wings also. A Tengu maybe? Or was there another type of mythical being with black feathered wings that existed in this world?

While I was thinking on that, the memory changed again, showing her battered and with a leg clearly broken, limping up the side of a mountain on a trail. Fear, hunger and cold. She came across a cavern and let her body dive inside it. The other occupant of the cave took exception at her sudden appearance and tried to attack her. The eagle had no chance. There wasn't fear on her face anymore. Just wild hunger on looking at what others would think was a threat to their lives as the possible meal. Determination. She latched on the claw that the bird attacked her with, successfully mangling her arm, but her other hand attached itself on the animal and using all the weight of her tiny body she managed to break the bird's neck. Tearing into it immediately, using her own hand and teeth to tear apart the flesh and eat it.

Another. Performing a ritual in a house of someone else. Her clothes were pristine again as she chanted with a paper seal between her hands. A purifying ritual in return for a single meal from the family that had accepted her proposal when she knocked on their door. The warm feeling of family in that house hurt her more than she would have imagined.

Walking on a road during a thunderstorm during a dark night, her clothes and hair matted to her body, her feet calloused and cold. Her tiny body pressed on to reach the light she saw in the distance. Determination to keep on living.

Being flung against a wall by a man in a dark alley. He forcing her down on the dank floor, while ripping her haori open. The pain of the blow wasn't as much as the terror of what was about to happen, and she unleashed her lightning for the first time, involuntarily. Her scream was as much about her fear as was about the charred corpse of the man she just killed.

Walking in a street and realizing that people were giving her a wide berth and scornful looks. Disheartenment with the fate the world seemed intent on putting her through.

Fear. Her own relatives coming to kill her, because of her heritage, because of who her father was. Disgust with them.

On and on and on. Memory after memory after memory. They all had the same feelings attached to them, overwhelmingly. Grief. Despair. Misery. Pain. Sorrow. Anguish. Disheartenment. Memory after memory, etched on her Soul. The images that tainted such a beautiful Soul, were all dark like that and I was reeling from them, because I felt them as they were my own.

All of a sudden I realized that I had returned to my own consciousnesses and that I wasn't seeing anything. My face felt wet, and was pressed against two soft things. I inhaled sharply at that, and tried to pull my head back, only to realize that I was being held on to someone's bosom and was being embraced by another person on my back.

It took me a minute to come back completely to my senses, and to be allowed pull back my body from where I was. To my surprise it was almost dark already, and the room was bathed in the crimson rays from the sunset coming from the broken windows and ceiling. And we weren't alone anymore either. Rias and Asia were with us inside the room. Rias had knelt beside the two of us and was hugging both of us and, for some reason, it was the brunette that had pulled my head to her chest.

I looked lost at the other two for a moment, then when I finally fixed my gaze on the Shrine Maiden's eyes was that wave of feelings hit me again, those same emotions I felt inside her Soul and I involuntarily began to tear up again. "I'm sorry." I said, but it came out broken. I couldn't really understand or explain why. Here was another life that I couldn't protect. Couldn't save. The logical part of me insisted that I wouldn't even know about her if it wasn't for a series of events that made me become stranded in this universe, but the sorrow I felt at the moment was too overpowering for me to feel anything else, so I repeated. "I'm sorry."

If she thought that I was apologizing for looking at her memories or for what happened to her, I don't know, but she just smiled at me. It was the same smile she always wore on her face, but now that I saw all that inside her Soul, I could feel how much of this smile was faked, how much of it was a mask to cover her broken heart.

"I'm sorry." I said a third time and slumped. I blacked out after that.

And dreamed. About violence, about dread, about fear. About what happened to a poor girl who couldn't even know what it meant to be alive yet had to go through. All because of her heritage, all because of preconceptions and prejudices, all because she wanted to keep on living, and was being denied by the bloodline she was born to. I'll probably break my promise with her at some point, because there's no way I can look at her again without remembering all of that.

---

When I woke up again I was still on the same place, inside the circle in the old, abandoned Shrine, with a weight on my chest, but my head was leaning on something soft. When I opened my eyes, I saw that the soft things I was lying on was Himejima's thighs and her long black her was pooled around my face while she had her head down, sleeping probably uncomfortably in that position.

I pulled a hand up, to the side of the brunette's face, and moved a flock of her hair behind her ear, before cupping the side of her face, and whispering. "Himejima." Then more forcefully. "Himejima."

The girl's eyes fluttered open, like she hadn't been sleeping at all. She looked down at me then without moving from the position she was, she pulled my hair to the side on the forehead. "Akeno. Call me Akeno from now on, okay?" She said with a small sad smile on her face.

I nodded at that. What do you say in situation like this? It was hard for me to even put into words what I saw and felt during the Dive. I was pure and raw emotion. Not at all like watching a movie, like Rin had described a Soul Dive before. Or like the Dream Cycle I experienced during the Grail war. The emotion was overpowering and genuine, not faked by actors or imagined second hand through the Dream. It didn't even compare.

I was half intending to break my promise right then, but then the girl surprised me, putting a finger to my lips. "Ssshhh. You'll wake Asia-chan."

It was only then that I looked down and saw that Asia was the weight I felt on my chest. From my position I could only see the top of the blonde's head, but from the rhythmic way she was breathing, I could see that the girl was still sleeping. I smiled at the sight, before looking again at the brunette. "Humm... What do we do in a situation like this?"

Her sad smile took on a glint of wickedness that I came to expect from her and it almost comforted me, if it wasn't for what that row of teeth meant in the first place. "Oh, I can think of a few things..." She breathed out.

"Ermm... Himejima. I-"

I was cut off again when she put a finger on my lips and her mouth directly in my ear while breathing out. "A-ke-no." Pronouncing every syllable as sensuously as possible in the situation.

I gulped, hard. After a moment I could feel that she was forcing herself not to make a noise while she giggled. "A-Akeno, a few questions, please?"

She moved her head, just enough to make her breasts cover my vision of her face, while she leaned forward. "Sure, anything you want. I can even be an 'M', depending on the situation."

"What?!" I said a little louder than I meant to. "No, not that. What time is it?"

"Oh..." She's either a great artist or the disapointment in her voice was very real. I don't know which would be worse. "Let's see, about eleven, I think?"

"I see." She looked down at me again, and her face ended up hidden by the position of the moonlight and her hair falling again. I wanted to talk about her life, all the hardships she passed through, all the problems that came because of her heritage. I wanted to say that everything was going to be okay, that she could count on me for it. Then I realized that if I did that, it would only bring back memories that are buried in her soulscape for a reason, and that she was already doing okay, with Rias and the Gremorys. Not to mention that I may not be here for much time in the end. So I changed my line before it came out of my lips and said. "Congratulations."

Her head shot back and the smirk one her face turned into a confused look. "What?"

"You have nineteen Circuits, all active." I smiled at the girl, who must have forgotten that the whole reason for this experiment was to try and find and activate her Magic Circuits. "Ten more than Rias has, and of better quality too."

Her smile returned and it was something different. Not joyous, but more relaxed and more tender. "Thank you, Shirou."

I shook my head at her. "No, don't thank me yet. I only connected them. You still need to learn how to trigger them."

She scrunched her face. "And how do you do it?"

I just gave her a knowing grin. "I'll teach you the techniques I used when I was beginning, just so you can get acclimatized later, okay?"

She nodded. "Thank you."

I smiled at her, and then turned my head down again in the direction of the form of the sleeping Sister. "Now, let's get up, so we can go home."

I thought that she would try another prank when I said that, but she didn't. She just leaned her body backwards to give me space to try and move Asia from my chest. The blonde is one heavy sleeper, and didn't woke up, even after I sat upright and put her head on my legs.

"What happened in the end?" I heard Akeno's voice from behind me, moments before she embraced me. "You were bawling like a baby."

I grimaced. Either she was inciting me into breaking my promise with her or she genuinely didn't understand what it means to relive memories etched into the Soul. In the end I decided to sidestep the whole issue. "I don't remember much. One moment I was in the Soul Dive, the next I was in your chest, then the next I was in between your thighs." I paused. "And by the Root, does that sentence looks wrong when taken out of context."

She giggled against me, then embraced a little harder and whispered in my ear. "Thank you, Shirou." Then pulled back.

I grinned despite myself, then put both my arms under the former Sister and moved her to the side. Only now I realized that we weren't the only three in the room. Rias was sitting outside the circle, with her head down on the notes that Hime- that Akeno had made earlier, but hadn't reacted to our conversation so far.

When Akeno didn't move from her position, I offered a hand for her to get up. She took it, but stumbled once she tried to put her weight on her legs, falling into my chest in the process.

"Sorry." We both said at the same time. I did because her legs were in that state probably because of me and she probably because of the stumble itself.

"A Shrine Maiden that can't even sit seiza for long periods of time." She said admonishing herself. "I'm a disgrace as a role model for other Maidens aren't I." Her tone tried for levity but her smile was strained and made her realize that it wouldn't really work on me.

"No. Not a disgrace. You just didn't reach the point where you'll be the role model, that's all." I said to her, still holding her in that position. Her head was still on my chest, when she swivelled it up to look at my face. "You're just a seventeen, eighteen year old girl." My tone turned warm to reassure her. "You still have much to live for before turning into a role model."

She blushed at that and looked down again, but didn't leave her position. "Sometimes, it's easy to forget that you are older than all of us."

I chuckled at that. "Yeah. Sometimes I too forget that." Then waited for a moment before letting her go, and she too let go the shirt and sleeve she was clinging to.

"You must have all kinds of experience with women then." Later I would realize that she was trying to get a jab in, but at that moment, the only thing that came to mind was...

I sighed, depressed. "In my whole life, I only ever been with three girls." I said after a moment. "And of the three I only had any intimacy with two, and even then only one of the two..." I stopped there, not sure if I should continue.

She pulled back and looked at me in the face, trying to judge my honesty. I wasn't even looking at her, but at the moon out of the night sky through the hole in the ceiling.

"The first one I never had any intimacy with, the second we had a relationship for a while and the third..." I pulled my head back down, looking straight ahead into the darkness. "The third was more because of a medical condition than because of love." I smiled without cheer. Saber I didn't even realized that I maybe had loved until after Caster had stolen her from me, Rin ended up being a case of drifting apart and Sakura... I'm sure Sakura loves me to this day, but I knew she understood that I would probably never love her back. Not in the way she wanted anyway.

"That's..." Akeno began then stopped. "That's hard to make fun of." She frowned, and her confession brought a small cheer to my mood, even if short lived. "I thought that if you loved someone, than everything would be alright in the end."

I chuckled bitterly, but not really getting depressed with her naivety. "Sometimes love isn't enough. Sometimes people drift apart." I put a hand beside her face and traced a thumb throw her cheek. "Not everyone gets to live with their loved ones forever. Sometimes things happen that make that the best solution is to simply not be around them anymore." I have no idea what I should do with all the emotions that I basically stole from her Soul, but at least some hints I should be allowed to drop, right? I promised her I wouldn't talk about her heritage, but that didn't mean I couldn't at least try to help her.

She didn't get to answer me because in the next moment a rumble that I hadn't heard in weeks rocked the room. I looked down and a very unhappy looking Asia was still sleeping but her face clearly told what her body was complaining about.

I had to laugh at that. Even Rias jumped from her position. I thought she was reading the contents of Akeno's notebook, but in fact the redhead was sleeping in that position.

---

After trying and failing to convince Asia that I was okay and could carry her home, here I was walking in the direction of the Nekomatas house, only now remembering that she would be coming today with the offer to pay for my services. For reasons that I can't seem to compute, Akeno and Rias were coming with me too. And the two great Onee-samas of Kuoh weren't looking so great at the moment.

Rias hair was frazzled, even after she spent the whole time from the entrance of the Shrine to the front gate combing it, it was still not really presentable on the level she was accostumed to be seen. Akeno was holding her skirt pulling it down every few steps, I don't know why and am affraid to ask.

Like I said, problem with girls you can't solve? Ignore it and hope it blows over and not in your face.

I finally got home and still didn't understand why they were coming with me. They only said something about their pride. I shaked my head when I entered the house and had to forget about all of that as I was greeted by the sight of three Nekomatas lying on the tatami mats around the living room while a chorus of nya-nya-nya rang all around.

I almost thought in going back and checking the nameplate, then realized that even if I did, there was no nameplate in this house, and even if it did, it wouldn't be mine. I walked inside the room, and once again took in the sight of the older Nekomata, that had the obi on her yukata slighly loose, leaving her neckline more exposed than normal, while she rolled around the floor play-fighting with her two daughters.

I coughed once on my hand and when they finally noticed me, I said. "Good evening, Marlianna-san. Nirlianna. Lirnianna."

"A~ah~~ Shi-chan~~ Good evening. Nya~~" The woman tried to bow from her position but as she was half on her side with one hand over the catgirl with red hair while her leg was tripping the blunette, it was actually an exercise in futility.

A moment and a loud thump later, the girls chimed simultaneously. "Evening~"

"Ah, Ria-tan, Ake-tan, Asia-chan~ Good evening~~" The woman greeted my three companions who until that moment were watching the scene with the same morbid curiosity that I was.

The three returned the greeting almost simultaneously as well, looking more bewildered than I did.

"Kitties~, I have to talk with Shi-chan now~, so behave, alright~?" The woman said to the girls, but the nya-nya chorus didn't stop nor did the play bites they were attacking each other and their mother with. Out of nowhere the whole atmosphere around the older woman changed and she said again. "Behave until I finish my talk with Emiya-dono."

The effect was instantaneous, the chorus stopped, the girls sat seiza at either side of their mother, who somehow in the middle of it had her obi refastened and her yukata properly readjusted. I have no idea how she did that. I could only blink in confusion as even the two catgirls, whose clothes were disheveled before, now were prim and proper again.

I chalked up to another mystery of this universe and sat in front of her. No way I'm figuring that one out. She pulled a roll of paper from the sleeve of her yukata and handed it to me. "Here's our proposal for your services, Emiya-dono."

I caught the roll, thanking her before unfurling the thing. I almost thought it was a joke because the thing kept unrolling and unrolling until it hit the wall on the far side, not completely unrolled yet. It got worse when I started reading it. It was a list of houses, establishments, numbers of bank accounts with values attached, numbers of shares in multinationals... On and on and on. My eyes bulged at the list and I had to look back at the woman and ask. "So..." I coughed to clear my throat that somehow got closed during the whole process of reading a tenth of the list. "I need to pick something from this list as payment then?"

"No." The woman answered impassive. "That's all yours. If it is not enough then if you could make a counteroffer, I can take to the Elders."

Not enough? Not enough?! By Zelretch's fake beard, are these Youkai swimming in money or something? Where the hell did they even find ways to gather so much money. The disbelief must have be written all over my face because the woman pulled another paper roll from her sleeve.

"Also, we have another proposal for you, Emiya-dono." She handed me the other roll of paper.

I took it, and thankfully this one didn't unfurl to the ends of the room, just in a normal sized paper form.

"With the new additions to our Clan, some of the girls might need adjustments during the coming months and years, so we would like to hire your services to be available to us if there are something they need." She started explaining what was written on the paper. "Some of them might be better suited to live among humans than among the Youkai, and since you are a human and has some association with Devils of more than one Clan, you would be suited to be their caretaker if the need arises."

I looked at the thing. It was basically a contract for me to become a caretaker for the Devils who were under the Youkai care, but only if they needed the help. They would stay with the Youkai and only if they needed to readjust to society again, they would stay with me. In the meantime, I would receive wages from the Nekomatas, in the range of-

"I'm sorry, but I can't accept this." I said without continuing reading.

The woman looked dispirited when I said that. "That's unfortunate. We'll look for someone else to-"

"No, what I can't accept is the salary that you are offering me." I cut her off. "It's-"

"I'm sure we can negotiate a better stipend in this case, Emiya-dono." The woman said without noticing, or completely ignoring my disbelief.

"Better stipend? As in more than this?!" I asked increduously.

"Well... Yes..." The woman finally noticed that something was wrong with me, and I hung my head.

"Look, let's do it like this." There's no way that I'm going to talk them down in offering me something for this work, so I may as well take what I think would be enough. "Any of the Devils or Youkai that need helping in readjusting to society are welcome, but I will not receive any salary from you for this. The Devils themselves will need to pay for their stay. I don't know until when I'll be available to continue helping you, so I can't promise anything so long term. And from this list here," I got the other list. "I'll keep only this house that I was already living in, and this bank account that ammounts to what I would normally make in three years." In my world, not here, I added in my mind. And this account was the one with the lowest amounts of money too. "I don't want for you to feel offended by me not taking all the other assets that were offered, but they are simply too much for a simple guy like me."

The catwoman studied my expression. It took only a few seconds, but I was starting to feel very lightheaded. "Very well. If that's what you wish for, we won't be making any counteroffers for that proposal. We accept those terms." She looked slightly different after that. I have no idea if it was hurt or proud, but there was definitely a difference in her.

"Thank you, Marlianna-san."

"I'll send the servants to retrieve the altar from the bedroom and by tomorrow afternoon that account and this house will be transfered to your name." She stated without much inflection on her voice.

"The altar, it doesn't need to be removed. If at some point you'll be sending people my way, it would be easier if it still here, so I think the best would be only to move it to another place, that isn't inside the house." I proposed to the catwoman.

"That's an acceptable compromise. I'll have the servants build a Shrine outside and the altar will be placed there. I trust you to keep it clean during the period that it isn't in use?"

"No problem with that." Then it hit me. "Just another thing. Your servants will build this Shrine tomorrow?"

"Yes, the earliest the better."

"Humm... Coud they build a shed as well?"

She looked at me quizzically. "They could, but I don't see the need for such."

"Ah... It's..." I gulped down a lump of air. "It's actually for me." I tried to smile at that. "I'll even pay them if that's the problem."

"Oh, no it is not a problem. I just didn't imagined that you wanted such a place for yourself."

I waved off. "It's okay. I need a place that isn't inside the house to create a..." Then paused, grimacing. "Anyway, I just needed a place separated from the house to conduct my exercises and experiments."

"Very well." She retrieved both rolls of paper, and with a flick of her wrist, the longer one rolled itself up perfectly. How these people do these things? "With this I believe we are in accord about the recompense, correct?"

"Yes. That's correct."

She bowed again. "It was a pleasure doing bussiness with you, Emiya-dono."

"The pleasure was all mine, Marlianna-san." I bowed back to her, then got up. "Now, if there isn't anything else, I need to make something for my sister to eat otherwise her stomach is liable to scare the neighbors."

"No problem~ Nya~" The airhead was back. Seriously, her switches have no tell on them, the atmosphere around her just changes out of the blue.

"Would you like to eat with us?" I offered.

Now that business were concluded, she and the other two catgirls were back to sprawling around the floor. Spontaineity is one thing, but these three acted like they owned the place, which, come to think about it, they did. You know what, forget it. Not gonna even try and figure them out. At least Koneko is easy to deal with. Just keep the food coming and she's happy.

"If you don't mind us eating with you~ We were waiting for so long that my kitties are almost eating their own fur~" The woman said, and now that I saw, her Obi was loose again. Was that a illusion spell? Maybe the same way she makes her ears and tail disappear?

Before I let my pondering get in the way, I smiled at the woman. "Ah, sure, no problem." And started to the kitchen then stopped at the door. A nagging feeling pulling me back, because it was something that I shouldn't forget in this case. "Just to make sure, how much do you guys eat? I don't want to offend you or anything, but Koneko eats alone in a single meal what Asia and me eat during a whole day."

"Ah~~ Koneko-chan~~ How was she after the training camp?~~ Some of the things I taught her were pretty wild~~" The woman asked, then added. "Ah~ And don't worry we eat only a normal portion~"

"I see. I honestly couldn't tell the difference with Koneko but maybe you girls saw anything?" I said looking at the trio from the Occult Research Club. They were tightlipped until now. "You can converse amongst yourselves for now. I'll be right back."

I left the room to the kitchen in order to prepare what in the end was a midnight snack. There are six hungry women in my living room. Five Devils and one Youkai. And I was the cook.

There's a joke here somewhere, I think.

---

After the meal was over and the three Nekomatas said their goodbyes, I was sitting at the low table of the dining room, while Asia did the dishes with Rias. I have no idea why, but both Rias and Akeno looked more defeated now than when they came into the house.

Did something happen when they were talking with the Youkai?

At least it gave me time to broach a subject with Akeno. When she said that she lived at that Shrine I was sure that she was kidding, because the way Rias acted with her subordinates, there's no way that she would let Akeno live in a dump like that for no reason, unless the brunette herself asked for it.

She was sitting at the table with me, keeping me company while siping her own cup of aftermeal tea. The same face as always, but with all those memories still fresh in my mind, I simply couldn't let it go. I couldn't let this girl continue to live there.

With all the rooms she showed me there, there wasn't actually one that I could say that was her room. I know that I'm frugal, but in her case it was like she was punishing herself for some reason. If there was some spiritual reason for her to live there, then maybe I could let go as well, but the leylines that crossed the grounds were weak compared to others places in town. Heck, even this house had leylines stronger than the ones at her Shrine. Probably the reason the Senri Clan bought the land in the first place.

But I had promised her not to talk about anything that I saw during the Dive. I grimaced at the images when they came again to the forefront of my mind. Her life had too many hardships at too young an age. There was no need for her to continue there.

I was brought out of the loop my mind was going through when I heard a giggle coming from the other side of the table. I raised an eyebrow at her, confused by the reaction, and she giggled again. "What?" I asked. Voice harder than I intended, but the point came across nonetheless.

"Oh, nothing. Nothing." She hid her mouth with her left hand. "It's just that your keep making faces all the time that I couldn't help it."

I stared at her blankly until the moment Asia and Rias came back to the room. Rias took one look at Akeno, then at me, then nodded to herself and sat at the corner, with both elbows on the table while watching our interaction as if it was a show. Asia on the other hand sat beside me, but kept launching glances from one to the other, confused.

Finally I gave up trying to understand the girl and turned to the Sister. "I know its late, but can you draw a bath for yourself tonight, Asia?"

She looked at me blankly for a moment, before pouting and mumbling. "I'm not a little kid, Onii-chan."

I patted her head. "I know, I know. You're not." Her face clearly said that she didn't believe a word I just said. "Anyway, can you do it for you, Akeno and Rias?"

The two girls who were suddenly addressed had bewildered looks when they realized what I was implying. "Sure, I'll do it." The blonde said, ignoring the silent byplay.

"Good. Can you guys help her?" I asked the girls, then back to Asia before they answered. "There should robes on the closet in your room that are fit for them."

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" The redhead finally said. "Why are we going to take a bath here?"

I cocked my head to the side. "Because you two are sleeping here tonight." Before she could get a word in, I continued. "No way I'm letting you guys go home at this hour. I don't care if you are Devils, and the night is your playground. You are not leaving this house tonight, and that's final." I said getting up. "Also, I need someone to make company to Asia while I go out. There are some things that need to be done and it can't wait."

And again without letting them say anything I left the house. I needed to sort out my thoughts on what to do and if leaving my new house to three Devils was necessary then so be it. While thinking about everything that happened today, unsurprinsingly my thoughts kept coming back to my little adventure on Akeno's soulscape. I was also not surprised when my feet ended up carrying me to her Shrine.

At night it was an ominous place. It didn't even had electricity and for all that she was a Devil, she was still a girl, one that had killed someone by accident during the first time some unlucky pervert tried to force himself on her. I didn't see her memories after she was older. Only when she was at that age, either because I was pulled out of the Soul Dive by her suddenly been free of the trance or maybe there weren't really memories etched in her Soul as strong as those. The ones that I saw were the ones that I had to continue replaying in my mind.

I invaded the place, looking around for where it would be her living quarters. After searching for almost five minutes I came across something that could be it. It had a couch older than myself, I think. It also had a burner with some pans in the corner and her futon laid out in the other. After a continuing the search, there was really nothing else. The little closet placed beside the futon was really the only thing that was well maintained.

I frowned at that image and when realized that my body was already acting, I had already started to pack up her things. Apparently the decision that was made by my body was agreed upon by my heart and both forgot to inform my brain of it.

When I got back to the house, for some reason I couldn't find any of the occupants anywhere I looked. I was about to knock on the door for the bathroom, but though better of it. No need to open myself to a prank from the two older girls.

Putting down everything that I had carried inside what in the end would turn out to be the guest room, between mine and Asia's, I began to unpack the things and line them up in the closets when finally the girls came out of the bath. Asia was visibly dizzy and the other two were redfaced as well. "Why did you guys took such a long bath?"

Rias was the one to answer. "We didn't take so long in the actual bath. It took some time to draw it. There was no hot water."

"Oh." I answered without stopping what I was doing. "I need to take a look at the pipes sometime soon then."

She nodded then the brunette that was beside her tilted her head. "Since when did you have so many hakamas, Shirou?"

"I don't. You do." I answered truthfully for the girl, and continued to set them up inside the closet. "And really, making me put your things away is just beyond rude."

"My things?" She asked confused, and knelt down behind me. Then out of nowhere she slapped the back of my head, hard. "What are you doing with my stuff? What is it doing it here?"

After rubbing the back of my head for a second, I got up from where I had knelt down and loomed over the girl. "I'm putting your stuff in your closet. Do you have any idea how hard it was to carry all these things by myself? Or to gather all these things in the dark? There's no lights working on that place, and I can only Reinforce my eyes so much."

She looked back up at me angryly. "What I mean why is that my things are here instead of my house?"

"Your house? Your house is going to be demolished tomorrow." I answered her, copying the same angry tone. That took the wind out of her sails, and she became confused.

"What!?" She turned to Rias who looked just as clueless. "Why?"

"Because I'm going to tear that place down, plank for plank if I have to." I answered her dutifully. "I don't know if you have some reason to want to live in that place. I have no idea what it is, and I don't really care, but you're not going back there while it's a gust of wind away from falling in your head."

She continue to eye me stunned for a moment, but reeled back in, her voice getting more louder. "Who do you think you are to be acting like that?"

"I'm the guy who'll take care of you from now on. And the guy who'll rebuild the Root be damned Shrine if I have to, just to make sure you don't end up buried in wood and shingles." I continued, my own voice getting louder to match hers. Rias actually stepped back and out of the room, and I saw that Asia was hiding behind her.

"You are not my-" Before she continued I cut her off.

"I'll be your brother if you want to," I said, taking a step forward. "I'll be your father if you want to," another step forward and she stepped back this time. "I'll be your lover, your guardian, your uncle, your protector." Another step forward and she was with her back against the wall and I was looking down at her. "Just as long as I can keep you out of that place long enough for it to be fixed in a manner that is suitable for someone to actually live in it!" I finished breathing hard. I'm sure my face was red with all the blood that got up to my head.

I was being forceful with this, yes. Absolutely. I didn't take her feelings into account when I made this decision. But I'll continue to bear it down on her until she gives in and stops trying to hurt herself indirectly by living in what amounted to a campsite inside a Shrine falling by the seams.

I looked down at her wide eyes, face still red with anger and from the bath as well, and when she didn't say anything else, I turned my back and sat back down, continuing what I was doing.

After more than a minute of silence, I felt someone move behind me and kneel down and a pair of arms embrace me. "So..." Her tone was watery even if she was trying for flippancy. "Do I need to call you Onii-sama now too?"

I snorted despite my earlier mood and simply continued to pile things inside the closet.

---

I woke up the next morning at the same time as always. Years of waking up early, first for training in Magecraft, then by either Sakura or Fuji-nee, then to make sure Rin wouldn't spend her whole day lazing, my body became used to get up always at the same time everyday. I was about to go to the bathroom to refresh myself, when I passed through the guest room, that would be Akeno's room from now on.

Two things caught my attention immediately. One it was open. Two it was empty. No futons on the tatami mat, no sign of anyone having slept there, the curtains on the windows were still drawn close. Exactly as it was when I had gone to bed.

Feeling my blood boil again, thinking that the girl had fled after all I said yesterday, I took the steps that would lead me to the living room, only to pass by Asia's door and realize that it wasn't completely closed as well. Peeking inside as I was passing, I had to stop. The blood that was starting to get ebullient coming down some. Inside, the three girls were sleeping soundly, using the robes that Asia had lent them as sleepwear.

It was a tender image, seeing the three girls like that, but my male nature made me notice that both Rias' and Akeno's robes where disheveled, showing more skin and cleavage than they normally would, and had to beat an hasty retreat to the bathroom. Akeno's robe apparently came undone at some point by Rias hand pulling on it, as the brunette was sleeping perfectly still, as was Asia, but Rias' futon was completely open, and the girl had half fallen out of it, half fallen on top of Akeno.

I gave up trying to make sense of that image and did what I did best on the mornings to take my mind of it. Breakfast. No longer a surprise was Koneko waiting for me at the doorstep again. Now, where does this one lives? If its anywhere similar to Akeno, I'll need to have a long talk with Rias.

I was in the middle of putting the rice on the cooker when a groan came from behind me. I was treated to a sight of a disheveled and not at all proper Rias Gremory. If this image appeared on campus for any reason, her status as one of the Great Onee-samas of Kuoh would crumble like a tower of cards. Apparently the Buchou of the Occult Research Club wasn't a morning person. She walked inside the kitchen without acknowledging me, got to the sink and poured herself a cup of water. While she was drinking, I finally came down from the image that assaulted me and greeted the girl. "Good morning, Rias."

Apparently it was the wrong thing to do, because she sprayed my face with the contents of her mouth.

After a moment, I began to towel my face with the still dry part of my shirt, saying in a deadpan. "And I already had washed my face. You didn't need to help me do it."

"Sh-Shirou...? What-?" Rias' brain finally rebooted apparently, but still hadn't loaded the contents of the previous night.

"Go wash yourself." I told the gaping girl. "Breakfast is almost done."

She continued to look at me dumbly until I made a shooing motion with my hand and turned back to the stove.

It was to her credit that when all of them finally made to the dining table, no one was anything less than their presentable selves. Asia was used to wake early for morning prayers, and I guess Akeno was too, now that I think about it. Rias was the only one I had no idea about. She was the Heir of a Devil Clan, so she should be used to people waiting her hand and foot, but the girl looked entirely too independent and didn't give off that image at all.

And I still didn't know why had the two of them followed me home last night. The only thing so far that I had managed to get out of them was something about their 'Devil's and woman's Pride' being hurt. Whatever it was about, they didn't elaborate. I'll have to ask Asia later.

After finishing breakfast and a still stunned looking Akeno insisting that she would do the dishes, I spent the rest of the time getting my stuff back, thinking on Shitori's request and how would I train with them later tonight that I realized one slight problem. It was at night, and there wouldn't be anyone at home to cook dinner.

Stepping out of the house after the girls and locking the door, I was handing the key to Asia. "Tonight I have to do a favor for Shitori, so I'll probably get home later than normal. If you could make something for yourselves."

Akeno face that hadn't been anything less than solemn around me all morning finally sported the smirk that I was more used to from her. "Don't worry, Onii-sama."

Her words were like barbed wire lashing at me, and I winced. Though when I was about to retort, Rias' voice made me stop. "Actually, tonight we too will be out for most of the night."

"We?" I asked dumbly. "We as in we four, or we as in the Occult Research Club, or...?"

"We as in my Peerage. Asia and Ise still don't have familiars, and I booked a time in the Familiar Forest for them to be able to select one for themselves." Was the conscientious explanation.

I have no idea what to make about that. Familiars were normally dead animals infused with the leftover thoughts, or the Soul, of a dead person, and were bonded to the Magus that performed the ritual. "Are you going to use your-" I cut off my own remark when I realized that I was about to ask if they would use their own Magic Circuits on the animal they would be bonded to. Of course familiars here must be different from the ones I was accostumed to see. "Never mind."

Rias looked at me cocking her head, eyes wide with curiosity, but didn't say anything. After that the girl carried on the conversation about what familiar would Asia get and I was suddenly glad that I didn't ask them about what would be their proccess to create one. It was apparently entirely different from all the ones I knew about. They would simply go to a forest that had all sorts of creatures already saturated with the mana of the forest itself and could bond with one of them there. Rias and Akeno already had their own familiars too, apparently.

Classes continued to be boring and to my surprise, lunch break passed without anyone actually coming to talk to me. Not even Asia had come this time, but I noticed that after lunch break, before class, there were more whispers and furtive looks in my direction than before lunch or this morning.

Apparently the gossip mill made its rounds and there were new interesting facts about my life that it was necessary to be expanded and discussed by the girls. I shrugged, not even trying to listen on their conversation this time. If it was anything like yesterday, it was obviously more rumors blowing simple actions out of proportion. I remember once in Middle School one girl was disgusted with whatever Shinji-

The thought brought a scowl to my face. Just thinking about that bastard makes me wanna grab his head and twist until I discover how many times a human skull can spin on the axis of the spine until the skin and flesh of the neck breaks. Even if Sakura had forgiven him, saying that even if his... ministrations... were forceful he was helping stabilize her. Once I discovered what exactly he had been doing, it took Rin and Sakura physically interposing themselves, in Sakura's case latching onto my waist hard, to make me not hunt Shinji down to the ends of the world. I ended up coming up with a compromise with them. I would not seek the bastard out, but if he had ever made the mistake of appearing in front of me, I would cut him up in so many pieces not even the worms on the ground would get anything out of eating him.

He dropped of the face of the Earth after that.

I was brought out of my reminiscence when a finger made its presence known by poking my forehead, right between the eyes. "No one told you that if you scowl too much, your face will turn like that permanently when you were a kid?"

I blinked, surprised. Looking up, the commiserating face of the librarian who was helping me read the tomes appeared. "Oh, Kusaka. Sorry, just thinking about something unpleasant."

"No worries. Then shall we?" She asked, and I had to blink again.

"But class is-" Again I stopped. Apparently I was in such deep thoughts that I spent the whole afternoon classes in them and didn't even hear when it had already ended. "Oh." I blinked one more time. "What time is it?"

"More than half an hour after the classes have ended." The twin tailed braided girl informed me without informing exactly the time.

"I see." I grimaced. "Well, thank you for coming to me, then. Shall we?" She nodded and off we went to the lybrary.

Perharps unsurprisingly, we finally found some passages about dimensional hopping during the afternoon. It was all about spell for transportation to the Underworld or to Heaven, and something called the Dimensional Gap, but it was progress finally. Knowing these spells, and formulas they used, I could devise something to help me make the beacon as I was hoping. It would still take time though. According to Kusaka, trying to tweak these spells was something not even Devils did often. If the calculations where incorrect in a single variable, the teleportation spells could send someone inside the crust of the Underworld or so high up in the air that they would reach terminal velocity with minutes to spare before splatting on the ground, or even worse, teleport out in space.

After taking notes on them, and copying all the formulas, that I still have no idea on how to use, the bell for the end of the day rang. I was leaving the lybrary when Shitori came for me and brought me up to the Student Council Room. She wanted to know what I had in mind for training first. Apparently she had heard some stories about my methods from Rias and was having second thoughts, even after all she said yesterday.

"Well, today what I want to know is only the capabilities of each of your members and yourself. Training for people like me, like us, isn't something of a 'one size fits all' deal like the military. Each one has their own strenghts and weaknessess, and in order to maximize potential, I'll need to evaluate them." I answered truthfully. "But there are some things that I think I'll do right off the bat." A innocent smile spreading in my lips.

"What things?" She asked unnerved by my expression.

My smile only grew wider. "Let's just say that you all will be cursing my name and saying very bad things about me in short order."

Oh, and how they did. First thing I did was making all of them run thirty laps around the track field, weighted down with loads depending on the piece they had inside themselves. Needless to say, the stronger the piece, the heavier the load. By end of the ordeal, and several muted curses and promises of revenge under their breaths, we moved to inside the gym.

"Strip." I ordered them, while holding a bokutou with the point down and resting both hands on top of it. I waited for the questions and confused looks to finish, and repeated. "Strip all your clothes off." Again I ordered.

"Emiya-san! What is the meaning of this?" Shitori asked, outraged, her face flushed with embarrassment.

Pointing at her face I answered. "That right there!"

"What?!" She obviously didn't understand.

"Why exactly are you against this exercise?" I asked instead.

She was taken aback for a moment but pulled back again. "Exercise? You call us stripping of our clothes a exercise?"

"Yes." I answered seriously.

"And what is this exercise will accomplish?"

"Several things. First, let me ask you. What happened during the Rating Game when Rias' Pawn used his spell on Riser's two Rooks and Knight?"

"They were defeated." Then her eyes widened when she made the connection. "Are you telling me that you want us to continue-" She bit her lip, and began promptly to unbutton her shirt, even as her face burned hot red.

The rest of the people there didn't understand what was happening, and it was Shinra who asked. "Kaichou. Why..."

"Your King understood the nature of this exercise. Have any of you watched the tape of the Rating Game between Rias Gremory and Riser Phenex?"

They looked at each other, but it was Shitori, still stripping haltingly, who answered. "I was going to show them tonight."

"Oh, okay." I conceded. "Then you'll understand what happens on the battlefield when things like modesty is taken into consideration, but let me explain in two simple words what happens. You die. Simple as that."

I started walking from one side of the row of people to the other while continuing the lecture.

"On a field of battle, you are not a woman, or a girl, or a man, or a boy. You are a warrior, a combatant. Nothing else. Your body is your weapon. If you take precious tenths of a second thinking about that a slash of a sword will expose your chest, those same tenths of second should be used in planning your next move in the combat. You can't be distracted by your unmentionables being exposed."

When I saw the girls start to imitate their King's movements, hesitantly, I continued.

"Also, sometimes" A loud crash resounded inside the gym, a moment later a thud on the floor, and a groaning Saji writhing. "it can be used to your advantage, as you can see. Some enemies have exactly that problem, and can't look directly at the other when they aren't decent or they can't stop gawking, leaving them wide open for attacks."

I grabbed Saji from his hair and pulled him up again.

"Never lose concentration during combat." I continued after depositing on him his feet. "Clothes can be reinforced to be as strong as armor. But if they disappear on you, what you should be thinking is that the openings are points of vulnerability, not that they are letting the world see parts of your body."

They were all on their underwear now, with the exception of Saji, who was still removing his pants. When he tried to take a furtive look to the side another crash on his head occurred as a thrown bokutou reached it. "In this exercise, you'll learn to combat without shame of being watched. You'll learn that this is a battlefield. The Rating Game, from my understanding, is meant to train for War, and in War modesty is a commodity not a right. Start treating the Rating Game as a War."

I walked to the other side of the Gym.

"We'll simulate a Rating Game now. You all against me. One clean blow to the head or chest is the same as retiring. This here is my territory. Where you are, will be yours." I looked at Shitori. "What is your first move?"

At first glance everything is to her advantage. I'm alone, don't have where to hide, she can see me and even if she doesn't know of my capabilities, she could sacrifice some of her pieces to discover them. The third lesson I wanted to impart was specially for Shitori.

She still thought that a Rating Game was a game. I needed to beat that out of her.

Shitori took two steps back and yelled. "Formation twenty." I had to hand to them for at least moving in formation with just that. Both her Pawns, flanked both Bishops, while her Knight took point, and her Queen and Rook stood in front of her, protectivelly.

The Knight, Meguri, charged at me with her own bokutou on hand, both Bishops started to gather energy while the Pawns advanced protectivelly of the Bishops they flanked. Meguri was fast, with the speed boost the Knight piece confered her and she had the technique of a swordswoman clearly etched on her body, but the problem was that she was still fidgety with being on her underwear.

I parried her first slash, then redirected the follow up return slash and took step back, making her overextend when she tried to get to me. I made a sideswipe with my bokutou, that she blocked with her own, but didn't realized that I had a second one in my left hand at this point already. I conked her in the head. "You're dead. Move to the side of the field."

The girl pouted, but moved, just in time for the place where I was standing to be peppered with spells that really weren't supposed to be used in a spar. I mean, really. Who uses Lightining and Fireballs in a training exercise?

Apparently the girls were more angry at me than they showed. Reinforcing myself, I jumped backwards then darted in the direction of Kusaka, who was being guarded by Saji. He interposed himself in front of me, but I threw my second Bokutou at him, which he batted aside, but was caught off guard when I got near enough to slash at him but didn't, and only tripped him, clonking a wide eyed twin braided girl behind him instead. "You're dead." Promptly I jumped back and was almost skewered by Saji's bokutou when it came up against me in a thrust. Using the same momentum that I build up with the jump backwards, I hit him in the chest, sending him sprawling backwards. I took the moment to kneel down and grab the other bokutou again. It wouldn't do to keep tracing more of them without need.

The other Pawn came at me immediately, but she was empty handed. I decided to not take advantage of the bokutou in my hand, and threw both of them up, while the girl tried to kick me on the chest. I caught her leg, and pulled her closer, breaking her balance, while striking her chest with an open palm. "You're out."

The prickling sensation of a spell about to land on me came, and I let go of the leg I was holding, jumping in the air grabbing both the wooden swords, and promptly throwing one of them at Hanakai, just as her Fireball hit where I was again. She yelped when my impromptu projectile hit her arm, knocking her arm aside. I bounced off a support beam and landed behind the bishop, and tapped her head. "You're out."

Then darted in direction of the Rook, who too didn't have any weapon on hand. She rushed in my direction at the same time, coming low to the ground. I grinned. This one had experience, apparently. She tried to trip me with a low kick, but I cartwheeled over her bonking her in the head during her charge. When I landed, Shinra attacked me with the same wodden stick. She apparently prefered a Naginata as her weapon, or at least a polearm. It didn't matter, he sideswipe was too crude and stuttered. She was still embarassed by her state of undress. I dodged it low, then jumped up and clonked her in the head too. Then turned to Shitori, with the tip of the bokutou tapping her head.

"Line up!" I called out.

Shitori was still gaping, but nodded. The others came from their various positions around the gym. And lined beside their King.

"Now, why have I beat every single one of you, without using much magic aside from Reinforcement and one invoked wodden sword?"

"You're more experienced." Shitori said. "You clearly has more combat experience than any of us."

"No. While what you say is true, it wasn't the reason for your defeat just now. I can think of four other reasons more poignant out of the top of my head. First, what's with that formation? I'm not saying that it was wrong or anything, but in the situation you were in, what was the need for it? There was a single enemy, with unknown capabilites, true, but he was still alone. That formation was too tight. There was no need to guard the King with two pieces in that situation."

I began walking from one side of the line to the other.

"Another thing, what's with that chivalry? You had the numeric advantage, but aside from the tandem spell cast by Hanakai and Kusaka, there wasn't a single attack simultaneous. You can't leave the enemy with that kind of advantage. There's no honor in the battefield. No mercy. No quarter. If you have the chance to get an enemy from behind, do it, don't wait for him to finish your ally. The only one that tried to attack me from behind was Saji. You all need to learn that ruthlessness."

Looking at them, they were finally listening to what I was saying. I think they thought that having me as a instructor was just some novelty their Kaichou had invented.

"The third thing, is why you were fighting while on your underwear. Shame. Nimura, Yura, Shinra, Meguri and Hanakai were the worst in this case. Your moves were completely stiff. Saji wasn't, but he needs to learn to not spend time looking at the bodies of the females around him. It's just as harmful and a girl with the correct mindset, can and will use it against you." I said looking at the blushing boy, then turned back to the girls. "That's the mindset that I want you to learn. It's not to flaunt your body, but learn to get over it while in combat, and still be able to recognize when the enemy is distracted by it to be able take advantage."

Then I shook my head, and sighed exhasperatedly.

"The last thing that contributed to your loss was that you all, without exception, underestimated me. You all dismissed me, maybe subconsciously, maybe not, because I am human, that has some magic, but still human. Until this point, who among you really thought that I could go against any of you in open combat and not win?" I looked between all of them. "None, right? Even if you wanted to believe in what Shitori told you, deep down, none of you could trust that acessement. 'That's a human. That's weak.' That was the thought proccess in your minds, even if you were all human until not long ago. You of all people should know about how strong a human being can be, after all. All of you must have heard the stories about the great heroes of the past. They are not just stories, but history. Humans have battled against supernatural creatures since the dawn of time and have emerged victorious more times than you can count. Never underestimate an enemy, no matter how weak it looks. A small bacteria can kill a bull. A virus can bring down a horse. A human can kill a Devil. It's that simple." I paused in my lecture, took a deep breath and added. "But its not good to overstimate the enemy either. There's a saying about the elephant being affraid of the rat. It has some grounding since the rat can enter the elephants body through his anus and wreak havoc to his innards, but that only happens when certain conditions are met. Yet the elephant, a being that's thousands of times more large and can literally stomp a rat into paste, overestimate its capabilities, effectivelly creating the opening for the rat to do just that. You'll need to find a balance between the two points. Learn to proccess the enemy's capabilities and how they match up against your own. You'll need to learn to create these estimatives on the fly." I stopped in front of them and then took five steps backwards. "Some of these things we can correct as the training days go by, but some of it you all have to work on it yourselves. For today, I'll leave it here. Tomorrow I'll be delivering Shitori accessments on each one of you and what I think you'll need to train on. If you feel that it is not well suited for yourselves, then come and talk to me. During these sessions, we'll work on team building. Use your individual time to train your own abilities."

I turned my back to them and began to walk to the door, not waiting for them to question me.

"See you all tomorrow."

---

It was weird. Having explained the upcoming training exercises for Shitori's Peerage, I left them to do the clean up themselves. I actually wanted to help with that, but apparently the President wanted them to do it. Shitori's group was completely different from Rias' or even Riser, the two that I had studied closely over the last few weeks. Where Rias' had versatility and firepower, and Riser had firepower and experience, Shitori's Peerage was more like having a machine with parts of it missing, and each of the Pieces of the group fill in a spot inside the machine. Complementarity and utility seemed to be the choice for her Pieces. The two bishops had raw firepower and still needed to polish on their skills, but they complemented each others weaknesses. Nimura and Saji also complemented each other with hand to hand, but I think Saji must have a Sacred Gear of some kind since he was awkward with the bokutou in hand. The Rook, Yura is strong, but either she was more thrown off by the underwear battle, or she's used to brawling, not conventional fighting techniques. The Knight's, Meguri's, style is orthodox, and easy to read. She either needs to add more feints on her swordstyle or take better advantage of the abilities her Piece grants her. Shinra on the other hand was stiff, but her attacks with that polearm were better polished. Still, she too needs more decisiveness and ruthlessness on the attacks. Shitori herself... I have no idea what to make of her, to be true. Even after all this time, I still have no idea what is her main form of attack, or if she has some kind of lineage like Rias' Power of Destruction.

Distracted while recounting in my head the actual training exercises I could impart them, I was almost getting home when a scent prickled my senses. It was all the warning I received to Reinforce my arm, turn around and lift it to meet a fist coming down hard on it. It took me a second to realize who had attacked, but this scent was different from what I was used to feel in the city. It was a hulking of a man, with long hair and built like a bodybuilder. Actually, he looked too much like Berserker, only smaller, without the gray skin and red eyes. Just looking at him, I almost had a flashback to the Grail War and the cemetery that was destroyed during the battle between him and Saber, and later, Archer.

"Hoooh... You really blocked my attack." The hulking man said, showing teeth in a feral grin, putting more pressure on the fist that had hit my forearm.

Whoever this beast was, he was human. Did the Clock Tower or some analogue on this world finally caught wind of me and sent a freelancer to deal with me? No time to ponder on this now. Feeling the pressure on my forearm, I Reinforced my legs and redirected the force to the side, while using the momentum to back flip out of his range.

To my surprise the man didn't promptly attacked me, so I held the blueprints to Kanshou and Bakuya in my head, almost tracing them. "Who are you?"

"Oh? I heard that Japanese people were polite and knew that it was manners to introduce themselves first." The man watched me amused. He stroked his chin while talking, carrying his eyes up and down my posture, that it would look ridiculous without the swords in hand.

"If you resorted to attack me out of nowhere, I assume you already know who I am, but you have me at a disavantage right now. Who are you?" Several other blueprints were hovering just outside his line of vision in my mind's eye. It was then that I felt the prickle of another scent wash over me. Without thinking I immediately jumped to the side, and not a moment later, a blur of blue and silver shot through where I was.

"Good instincts, Emiya Shirou." The blur said, feminine voice, amusement on her tone, even as she turned to look at me. Blond hair framed her face for a moment, before she shook it off to the back of her head. She was holding a rapier that was the silver I caught a glimpse earlier.

The blade itself wasn't anything remarkable. It was actually pretty crappy compared to some other rapiers I have on my Marble, and the way her feet set after that first lunge suggested that this blade wasn't actually her primary weapon. But she held with her long enough for me to sympathize with its history, and piece together some information about the woman carrying it.

I grimaced at the two. They were human, undoubtedly, but they reeked of prana too. "If you won't introduce youserlves or tell the purpose of this unnanounced attack," I began turning half my body to them. "then I think were done here."

"Oh, running away, chicken?" The tall man goaded me. I only raised an eyebrow at the man, still positioning my hands to the sides, as if about to hold two weapons.

"I'm not a battle maniac. When I fight, I kill." Then flexed my hands slightly, turning my head away from the two.

A blade appeared on my field of vision then, swinging at me, but the blade itself wouldn't hit me. At least if it didn't suddenly extended out of nowhere. It took me only one glimpse to see what it was. Gram, The Sword of the Sun. A dragonslayer sword, with enough demonic power that was said to rival Excalibur as the strongest Demonic sword. But this wasn't the one I had in my Marble, it was still Gram, but different, the lithe design and simple golden handguard and quill were missing, and this one had more detailed engravings on the blade itself. Its history was different, as well.

While my brain processed that information, I jumped backwards to avoid the sword, but still didn't trace any of my blades. These first attacks weren't meant to hurt. They were almost like introductions. No killing intent whatsoever from them.

"I told you this guy wasn't who we were looking for." The one with the blades, a silverhaired boy, looked at the other two. "If he was, he would already have summoned his swords."

"He fits the description. Is human. And can handle one of my weakest punches." The hulking man said with a shrug. "I say he qualifies."

"Qualifies?" I asked, bewildered by the interaction.

"I'm tired of this already. We can just take him with us and let Georg or CaoCao deal with him. And even if its not him, we can throw him with the other puppets." The woman was ignoring me.

"That's an idea." The first one answered. "At least we can go back soon. Have I told you how much I hate this country?"

The woman sounded exhasperated. "Repeatedly. Now" She turned to me. "this will only hurt a little. Don't worry, we won't kill you."

"Wha-" I was about to ask what was she talking about, but had to reaccess. The woman's rapier was much faster this time, and managed to nick the side of my shirt and torso when I dodged to the side.

"I told you not to move." She said with a suffering sigh.

"No you didn't." The silver haired one corrected, amused. And the woman actually stopped, pondering.

"I didn't...?" She said, replaying the conversation in her head. "Well, I did now, so..." Shruging off the issue.

If I wasn't in a situation with three unknowns I would call her out on what she was talking about, but decided against it for the moment. Even if we were on a deserted street there were too many houses around us for a pitched battle to occur and bring innocent bystanders into the fray. I needed to get out of here and move this fight to somewhere else.

What was even worse, was that the woman's attack was done without any sort of killing intent. It was like she was just lunging at the air, instead of at me. That unnerved me even more. But there were three things to my advantage, at least. First, they were understimating me. Second, they were human. And third...

When the girl lounged again at me, I pointedly let her pierce me on the stomach, feigning fear at the attack. When it connected, she looked at me with an amused smirk, apparently not caring that she had just potentially hurt another person. I doubled over watching her feet, one hand on the wound that she made. She callously pulled off her blade, making the wound worse.

I watched as her feet turned while she was talking. "Now, Heracles, get-"

That's was all she had time to say, when my arm snaked on her neck in submission hold, Kanshou traced and poised to slice her neck and four other normal blades formed around the other two, poised to slice their necks, pierce their hearts and both eyes. "Now, since we got to this, either you tell me who you are, or I'll have to discover from your corpses."

The woman tried to struggle a little, but I pressed Kanshou to her neck, drawing blood.

"Is that your final answer?" I asked again, making sure that I kept both the others on my line of sight. When none made mention to say anything, I sighed. "Very well." And was about to start to fire the swords on them all, when a fourth voice came from the fog in the corner.

"That won't be necessary, Emiya Shirou-san." A boy with glasses said. "My colleagues were only instructed to bring you with them in order for us to have a conversation."

I pulled four blueprints on the boy as well, but didn't trace them. "Hell of a way to invite someone for a talk. Now, my earlier statement still stands. Either tell me who you are, or will I have to investigate your corpses later."

"We are of the Hero Faction of Khaos Brigade, Emiya Shirou-san. My name is Georg." He bowed to me with a hand in front of his body as if greeting his audience.

"Hero Faction?" Khaos Brigade? What the hell?

"And what do I owe the honor, or in this case," I said pointedly maintaining my hold on the girl, even as the two men were getting more worked up. "displeasure, of meeting you?"

"That's such an ugly word, Emiya-san." Georg said, mock hurt on his face.

"No. It's just a word. It's the action attached to the word that is ugly, and as you can see your colleagues also don't seem to understand other words like tact or courtesy." I explained. "Now, was there a reason for this unwarranted attack on my person? Make it quick, because I still have to get home to make dinner."

He raised an eyebrow at me, his eyes trailed down to my stab wound that was polling blood at my feet then back at my face. "Indeed. There wasn't a need to attack you, my colleagues were only trying to assess your abilities."

"There are better ways to do that than to stab someone with a pointy object, or try to crush him with a punch, or slash open his chest with sword." I continued. "But you didn't answer my question. What does the Hero Faction want with me?"

"To put it bluntly to recruit you." He replied without missing a beat. "We are a group of normal humans such as yourself, that exists in order to battle against the supernatural creatures that lurk around the world."

A group of heroes? You've got to be kidding me. "Normal humans?" I deadpanned. "There's nothing normal about a human who can wield Gram," The guy with the aformentioned sword widened his eyes. "another who's apparently The Hulk's lost cousin, another who stabs people in the gut without flinching because she thought it was too tiresome to explain things properly, or lastly someone who can appear out of smoke."

"Yes, I think my definition of normal has been somewhat askew. What I mean is that none in our group is a supernatural being. Some of us have talents, such as you have, others such as us four are reincarnations of heroes of the past." The boy continued to explain, nonplussed by my jab. I needed to get out of here, fast. It wouldn't take long for them to realize that Avalon was doing its work, and the wound the girl made was being healed.

"Reincarnated heroes?" I asked anyway. I needed more information.

"The one you're holding is Jeanne, the Maiden of Orleans. Siegfried, the norse hero," He pointed to the guy who was holding Gram. "and Heracles, also known as Hercules, the greek demigod." He signaled the towering muscle bag. "And I am a descendant of the legendary alchemist Johann Georg Faust."

If I wasn't already locked into combat mode right now, I would probably gape at the penultimate one. Berserker's image came back again to the forefront of my mind during his battle against Saber. "Tell me you don't have a white haired little girl for a Master." I said despite myself.

The guy tilted his head, almost making the sword that was at his neck bite on his flesh. "What?"

"Nevermind." I shook my head. "Look." I said, and in one single movement took Kanshou off the girl's neck, released the hold and kicked her back, using the momentum to jump backwards and away from the group. "What you said is of some interest, but the way you conducted yourselves did little to make an impression of goodwill. Be glad that we are in a populated area. I'll be leaving now."

I crouched down and got my schoolbag, and continued walking down in the direction of my house. "I see. We'll talk again some other time then, Emiya-san."

In a flash, I felt their presence disappear. Teleportation. It seems that having too much prana in the air in this universe was not actually a good thing. Everyone and their uncle knew teleportation, apparently.

Tomorrow would be Thursday. Nothing to do aside from another round at the library with Kusaka or Shitori. It seems that I'll have to take the day off from research tomorrow to start creating some Bounded Fields to protect the house.

Still, Hero Faction, huh? If what that boy said is true then at least now I know that there are no Heroic Spirits from this dimension on the Throne of Heroes. Their Souls don't get that reprieve, and come back to the cycle of reincarnation.

Another curveball, world?

---

When I finally got home that night I sat in the limit between the foyer and the living room with my back against the wall as soon as I entered. I should probably clean myself up a bit before but...

By the Root of World and all its secrets, I was tired. Not really physically, but mentally, even though I had a half-inch hole still healing in my gut. Too many things were happening as of late. Just last month I didn't have to deal with these things, and I was obliviously happy to just try and find some way to create a beacon for Rin or Zelretch to find me.

Now, in that time span, I discovered that the people I regularly interact with are all Devils, that there's a Cold War kind of thing happening between three groups of supernatural entities, including the Devils, and going by the way the two I ran into act, if I discount Rias and Shitori, the Devils are comtemptible pricks who only see worth on their own kind and they even look down on their own weaker members, the Fallen Angels are a race of genocidal unrepentant demons wearing feathers and even the Church, supposedly the bastion of order for mankind isn't above kicking out people from their ranks that were tricked into committing an honest mistake.

And now there's another. Hero Faction, whose methods of recruiting involve stabbing someone in the gut and kidnapping them to who knows where. They claim to fight to the good of humanity, but so far the only people I saw where either homicidal, psychotic or battle maniacs. If those three are their recruiters, I don't want to have anything to do with the rest of that organization. I have enough problems as is, and I know myself well enough to realize that the more time I spend on this universe the more I'll end up getting involved in this situation, as long as there are people to save.

I sighed, passing a hand through my hair. It felt damp and I didn't understand why until I looked at the hand and realized that the hand I had used was the same that was covering my wound a few moments ago. It was drenched in blood already going dry. Letting another explosive sigh, I winced as I got up from my sitting place and moved to the bathroom to clean myself up.

My clothes were already ruined, and I'll need to burn them. That was one of the reasons that I ended up adopting Archer's choice of color when picking clothes to go to the battlefield. It was easier to hide and remove blood stains from red cloth than in any other color after all. Comparatively, this Kuoh Academy Uniform couldn't be used for anything more than maybe as cleaning rags.

While thinking about that, I finished getting undressed and put them on a separate basket to take to the yard later and burn it. Fishing around the cabinets I found some gauze and cleaned the wound with it, noting the way Avalon was working its magic. After more than twenty years with it on my body, and more than ten years learning how to make use of it, I can say that I learned how to use its more general properties better than anyone could aside from Arturia herself. I couldn't use completely like she could, Avalon wouldn't stop my aging proccess for starters, and the wounds regenerated at a slower pace than they did with her, but right now I was at least able to heal the wounds at almost the same pace that they did when Saber was around me to feed me her Prana.

I was finished with dressing the wound, just because I didn't want to deal with Avalon having to heal an infection because of the wound, but was still reeking of sweat and blood. That wouldn't be good, but I couldn't take a bath in that situation as well, so I made it do with a towel bath, cleaning the dirt, blood and grime from my body during the process, wincing at the color the water in the bucket turned after I was done with it. Dumping it on the drain, I let the faucet open to get rid of the excess that was still above it and put the towel I used for it together with the clothes. It needed to be burned as well.

Making sure the bathroom was clean, I wrapped another towel around my waist. I was living with one, er... two girls in the house now, and even if they are out, I don't want to take any chances. Living with two women for so long has drilled certain senses in my mind.

Thankfully, my zeal wasn't needed as the girls didn't come back during the time I spent inside the bathroom. After putting my work out clothes, I went to the kitchen to make dinner. I didn't know what time they would come back, so I had to make cold dishes this time around. Finishing my own meal, and after wrapping theirs with cellophane, I left it at the table.

A cursory glance around the kitchen to make sure everything was alright, I returned to the bathroom to prepare myself for the night. A nagging feeling was on the back of my mind, something I shouldn't forget was slipping, but in the end I couldn't really remember what it was.

A shriek in the middle of the night, followed by heavy footsteps and my door bursting open warned me that I shouldn't have let it go. I got up from my futon only to be knocked back down by the blonde Sister. "Onii-chan! Are you hurt? What happened? Why there's blood all over the entrance?"

She was frantic, eyes darting all over my body as if to discern where I had been hurt. Since I was still bandaged, and half my body was still tucked inside the futon, she couldn't really locate the wound. I put a hand over her head to pat and calm down the little Nun. "It's alright. It was nothing serious." That did little to comfort the girl, who was still distressed, babbling about something or other, when my eyes caught the image of Akeno on the doorway, eyes hard and face set.

"Who attacked you?" She asked, voice cold and measured. Almost uncaring.

"It was nothing serious, okay?" I smiled at her as well, trying to defuse the tension. "It was just a stab. I already patched myself up." To illustrate, I showed them the gauze wrapped around my stomach. "No need to worry, alright? I'll be okay in the morning."

The blonde's eyes widened and in the next second a cold wave of prana and a green light took over the gloominess of the room. Asia had her Sacred Gear out and was using it on me. Five seconds later, my wound was completely healed outside. Avalon was quick, and could heal any wound way faster than a normal human could, but this was beyond that. Twilight Healing was incredible, and not for the first time I ended up gaping at the power of the Sister's abilities.

"Who attacked you, Shirou?" The brunette didn't let up on her question. I grimaced minutely while thinking about what to tell her. I could tell her about the Hero Faction, but then she would immediatelly tell to Rias who in turn would warn Shitori, and getting everyone involved with it. These guys were ruthless with me, a human, I don't even want to think what they would do with these Devils, since their stated goal was to hunt them down.

To put it plainly, I don't think they are ready to meet a foe thats out to kill them mercilessly. Not yet, anyway. In a lot of ways, these kids are still sheltered, maybe because they are related one way or another to two of the Maous, and don't actually know the reality of war. Akeno might know, with the way her life played out when she was young, but then that was another reason I don't want her to know right now.

After I train her more, maybe, and when I have more information. Right now, all I want is to have her live a more carefree life, and to her smile to be more genuine than the fake ones she sported nowadays. If it is to protect these two from all the wrong that there is in the world, I'll hide the ugly side from them a little more. In a way I'm sheltering them even more, but these two suffered enough in their lifes already. I want them to have at least some more time of reprieve, before I they have to face the reality of the world one more time.

They are Devils, but right now their lives have little to no burdens, as teenagers should. To protect this type of lifestyle for them, I'll hide the truth, even lie if necessary.

"I was trying to mix some of the spells you guys use with my Magecraft, but as you can see, it didn't end very well." I forced a sardonic smile on my face. "But I'm sure I cleaned up everything. How did you guys know?"

Akeno bit her lower lip, not completely trusting my words. "There are traces of blood all over the foyer and on the wall of the living room."

I frowned. "I see. I thought I cleaned everything." I tried to steer the subject away from the wound.

I failed. "What kind spell would need for you to be stabbed?" She asked pointedly, narrowing her eyes.

"My Magecraft revolves around swords and bladed weapons." I said without missing a beat. "It just didn't mix very well with the spell I was trying to use." Shrugging it, I turned my attention back to the Sister, who was watching me after finishing up with her treatment.

"And what does that correlates with you stabbing yourself." I grimaced for real this time.

"Look. I have some secrets that I don't want anyone to know." I looked directly in her direction. Her eyes were hidden in the semi-darkness of the room. "One of them is the nature of my mysteries. When, and if I ever take anyone as an apprentice, then that person will be the only one that will know the full extent. For now, all I can tell you guys is that this isn't the first time I ended up with a sword jutting out from inside myself." When she was taken aback by that I pressed on. "And probably will not be the last."

They both looked stunned for a moment, but didn't say anything else. Asia's eyes were widened and her lip was trembling as if she was trying to say something but either didn't know how to voice it, or couldn't get her voice out. Akeno on the other hand didn't look like she believed in me but had a hooded look on her face, no doubt reminding herself that she wasn't the only one with secrets.

I changed the subject for real during this lull in the conversation. "Did you guys had dinner already?"

Asia shook her head, and Akeno simply turned back to the hallway. I smiled at them warmly and directed them to eat the snack I had prepared earlier.