[[A year later]]

Shirou ran up to the Tohsaka mansion. The moment he touched the doorbell, the front door flew open.

"Your late." Rin stood in the doorway, her hands on her hips.

"Sorry, Sorry," Shirou gasped, "Taiga kept insisting on rematches until I finally let her win."

Rin's frown dissolved into a smirk. "You shouldn't let her push you around like that. That's my job. Come on, I made cookies." Not that her cooking was up to Shirou's standards, but Rin refused to give up. Once she discovered that Shirou didn't have much practice at baking western style desserts, she concentrated her own efforts on that one area. Now, whenever she hosted their study session, she tried to have something baked.

"So, English or Projection?" Shirou asked. He was somewhat surprised at how easily Projection came to him (at least when it came to weapons), but he credited Tohsaka's excellent tutoring. As he picked up a cookie, he added, "You know, I never mentioned how much I appreciate you helping me with my magecraft. Without that, I would still be completely clueless."

"I still don't think your constant focus on combat applications is healthy. There are other ways of helping people other than hitting bad guys over the head. You could go into medicine or law or something." Helping people as a way of life hadn't really occurred to Rin until after she had started working with Shirou. As a magical genius, her focus had always been on being the best magus possible, and that meant pure research. Now, though, she was considering the unthinkable – applications for her work. Rin intentionally ignored Shirou's statement of gratitude, as she had absolutely no idea what the correct response was.

"Rin, even with your tutoring, I'm nobody special when it comes to academics. There's no way I would be able to accomplish much as a doctor or a lawyer." Shirou, on the other hand, had picked up some of Rin's exceptionalism, to the point that if he wasn't the best at something, he didn't think he could amount to anything.

"Plenty of doctors are just regular people," Rin protested weakly. The problem was she, didn't really believe being 'normal' was acceptable, but Shirou was right – he really wasn't that smart. He was struggling to get an 'A-' average, and he wasn't even in the honors classes.

"Anyway, lets get started on the Projection." They had been working on Shirou's talent off and on, whenever Rin could come up with a new lesson (aka experiment). For instance, when she had realized that most of his skill was in weapons, she had dragged him to the museum (to inspect other medieval weapons and see which of them worked with his skill) and then out for ice cream (She claimed it was so that Shirou could thank her for her hard work).

^Trackless^

"I finished the project." Rin announced as she walked into Kotomine church. While she appreciated the training in both martial arts and magecraft that Kirei provided, he was both creepy and annoying, and she wanted to avoid spending too much time with him. The one time she had brought Shirou with her to train with Kirei (well, to watch her excel and be impressed, if she was going to be honest with herself), Shirou had been gotten so annoyed with Kotomine that he had refused to go back. He claimed it was to prevent himself from accidentally punching the fake priest.

"You said that you would show me how to re-purpose a spell gem when I was done." Rin had been working on pre-casting her spells into gems, instead of just using them as mana reservoirs, but Kirei had mentioned that it was possible to change the effects of the spell in the gem, even after she was done infusing it.

"Hmm. Are you still wasting your time with Emya?" Kirei got up leisurely from a pew, where he had been seated, contemplating the infinite. Or something.

Rin frowned. She didn't like how Kirei was so critical of her training Shirou. His projection ability was fascinating, and it only seemed fair to offer him tutoring in exchange for letting her use him as a lab rat. "Yes. And before you start in on me again, I have my reasons."

"Ah, yes. You have an itch to scratch," Kirei smirked.

"Why, you.." She threw herself at the smug snake, spinning into a roundhouse kick at the last moment. Kirei easily blocked her, stepping in and jamming an elbow down onto her leg.

"If you want to spar, we really should do that at your place. The Tohsaka mansion has more room." Kirei smirked.

"I am not sleeping with Emya. I am not even interested in sleeping with him!" Rin barked. Of course, she hadn't told Kirei the real reason she was spending so much time with Shirou: Projection was her secret research project, and she wasn't about to share it with this creep. Nor was she going to talk about her feeling on Sakura's death (She hadn't even told Shirou, though she had felt like a heel about that after getting him to reveal the Sakura that he knew). And she wasn't even going to consider that she might have feelings for the redheaded idiot.

"Lets get started on the magecraft. I can beat you up later." Rin's bravado was somewhat forced, as Kirei was still the better martial artist by far.

"You know that Emya's father was a Master in the previous grail war. For all you know, he was the one who killed Tokiomi Tohsaka." Kirei remarked casually as he watched to see if Rin wold rise to the bait.

Rin ground to a halt. She had long ago learned to ignore the bastard's little comments. "Who was his servant?"

"He had servant Saber, though given her fondness of motorcycles, she cold have passed as rider." Kirei opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a dog eared book. "I never learned who she really was." He flipped through to a book mark. "Here. Read this section, and then I'll show you how to use that with your gems."

^Trackless^

Shirou locked the Dojo door. He had finally surrendered and joined the Kendo club, if only for the exercise. They met a block away from the school, as the High school and Middle school shared the space - Fuyuki city was not known for its Kendo team (Taiga having been an anomaly, one that the coach still bragged about), so the club membership was low. But the instructor was decent, and Shirou appreciated the workout, even if the only one who gave him much of a challenge was the Sensei. (Unknown to Shirou, Sensei was starting to brag about him as well.)

"Hey Emya."

Shirou turned as a strangely familiar voice called out. He was embarrassed at being surprised – he was trying to work on his situational awareness, but he had started thinking about what to make for dinner for Rin (Fuji-nee had a meeting, and wouldn't make it in time).

A cadaverous teen shuffled over. He was pale and worn, almost drained of life, and the left side of his face was sagging slightly. It was Shinji.

"Hello." Shirou replied cautiously. It was broad daylight, and there were lots of people about, so Shirou didn't think his former friend would pull anything, but he looked like like he was drugged up or something, so Shirou prepared to project a shinai, just in case.

Sniff, sniff. "You stink"

Shinji shrugged, "Do you know what happens to a 14 year old pretty-boy in Juvie? They don't even wait for you to drop the soap. After the first five times, I stopped showering." Another languid shrug, "But it didn't really help – at first, it cut down the assaults to maybe one a week, but then my cell mate sold me to Big Bubba for a pack of smokes."

Shirou nodded, but continued watching Shinji. The Matou looked broken, like a reflection in a cracked mirror.

"I'll be seeing you around, Emya. My term is up and now I get to go back to school. So you better watch yourself."

Shirou watched Shinji walk off. His gait was broken also. 'I should warn Rin. If she hates him as much as she claims, she's going to get into a fight with him.' Not that Shirou didn't trust Rin to hold her own in a fight - he did (she was way better at open hand fighting than he was) - but with Shinji like that… There is no telling what he'd do.

^Trackless^

[[later that day]]

It was in math class that it happened. A searing pain shot through Rin's arm. It was only her focus as a magus that prevented her from reacting. Slowly, a reddish bruise in the shape of concentric circles formed on the back of her hand. 'And so it begins.' It was a command seal. She had known that the next Holy grail war was coming – she could detect the build up of energies under Ryuudo temple. And she knew that she would be one of the Masters – she was the Tohsaka heir, after all, and they had created the ritual. But she had been slacking.

She hadn't been preparing intensively like she should have. Why not? Was she burnt out? Rin frowned. She needed to get her act together. She glanced up at the front of the classroom. She wasn't missing anything - the teacher was just explaining last night's homework. She could safely tune him out.

Rin considered her magecraft. She was still looking forwards to the project that Kirei had assigned her. Though mostly to prove (yet again) that she was a better magus than him. But what she was really looking forwards to was getting together with Shirou to work on Projection.

So there. She wasn't burnt out. She still loved magic.

But today was Wednesday - today she was supposed to work with Shirou on English at her place. After some consideration, she realized that she was looking forwards to that just as much. As a matter of fact, she was didn't really care what they worked on. Rin scowled. This was turning into a serious distraction She needed to concentrate on her magecraft, especially at this time.

And the answer was obvious.

^Trackless^

As school was letting out for the day, Rin walked over to Shirou at the lockers, where he was switching into his outdoor shoes. This was the first time in the two years that she had been tutoring him (lets be honest – in the two years that they had been friends - there was no point in lying to herself anymore) that she had acknowledged him in school.

"Hello Emya."

The surprised redhead turned around. "Yes?" Several of the others stopped to watch, as they always did when the school idol was involved.

"I need to concentrate on my studies, so I will not be tutoring you anymore. Please do not come over. Do not speak to me or otherwise contact me. I apologize for the inconvenience." She bowed slightly and turned away. 'There. Maybe that little drama will help him in the social hierarchy.' She walked off quickly. That combined with the the milling teens that all were trying to ask Shirou questions blocked him from following her.

Rin kept walking, going faster and faster. She was almost running when she got to her home. As she did, she stopped. 'It would be just like that Baka to ignore what I said and come to my house anyway.' She turned around and headed down a side street, walking until she was in the middle of nowhere, overlooking the bay.

Rin stopped and leaned on the railing morosely. She had done what she had needed to do. Now she would be able to compete in the Grail War without distractions.

A sob ripped out of her.

She doubled over, hanging on to the railing for dear life, as sobs wracked her. This was an industrial part of town, so the few people about were working class men, and they didn't want to intrude on a woman's grief.

By the time she came to herself, it was dark.