As I washed the last dish from supper, I sighed and thought how foolish it was of me to get distracted these past few days. Yes, an alternate (and let's face it, slightly crazy) version of yourself and former lover are something to pause and take notice of, but at the same time it didn't mean that my life had come to a halt. The fact that I had forgot about Yukari just showed that things could have gotten worse had I continued to not pay attention. Minaka had announced a little over a week ago that the 3rd stage of the Sekirei Plan had begun and was currently organizing the matches that would start any day now. I was a little perplexed that they hadn't started sooner, but nevertheless I was thankful for the extra time to prepare. Not only that, there was my other problem with the recent Enforcer attack. I had gone over it in my head at least half a dozen times since I started cleaning up and I was still no closer to figuring out just how they found me. Unlike the Fraga magus, it was incredibly unlikely that any of them knew what the runes protecting my workshop were, so they would have destroyed them if they found it. Since I didn't feel my geas activate, that means they didn't know where I lived, yet somehow managed to find me regardless.

I sighed as I put the last dish away. The world keeps turning, no matter which one you're on I thought to myself. I turned around with the intention of going to Matsu's room to do some more planning (and get some video erased) when I found myself face to face with a small, inquisitive magus. "So, what's this I hear about your Rin and Saber breaking up with you and you being on the run from the Mage Association?" Rin asked with an arched eyebrow.

I managed to stifle a manly 'eep' of surprise at her sudden appearance and question. Throughout dinner, Yukari had alternated between rapidly questioning Rin about my past and making grand (and sometimes widely inaccurate) statements about what I had been doing since I supposedly last saw my high school friend. Rin undoubtedly realized that she should take everything my sister had said with a grain of salt, but it seems that she managed to pick up enough facts to be intrigued.

I rubbed the back of my head and looked off to the side. "Look, whatever my sister might say, I'm the one that broke things off, and it's not like any of us wanted this to happen. When I got word of the Sealing Designation, I had to run. Taking them with me would have ruined their lives, and I couldn't let that happen."

Rin tilted her head to side in confusion. "You got a Sealing Designation? For what?"

"My Reality Marble. It's not the same as Troper's," I said quickly, "but my workshop ended up being raided out of spite when I ended up killing an important heir while defending it."

She gave a contemplative 'hmmm' as she stared at me intently. I tried to hide how uncomfortable it made me, though I'm not sure how successful I was. The thing was, I still hadn't figured out how to act around her. I knew that she was someone I had just met and should treat her as such, but every time I looked at her I saw the small tsundere magus I had fallen in love with. I wanted to hold her and tell her how much I loved and missed her. I wanted to say I was sorry of all the things I said when we last spoke. I wanted to be with her. Considering that I had thought I had moved on from Rin and Saber, it was rather uncomfortable to realize just how strongly I still felt for them.

When Rin spoke she had a strongly empathetic look on her face. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Back when we were at the Clock Tower, Shir-Troper never had that problem. Even if someone had searched his workshop, I'd doubt they would have found anything. That place was more of a pile of books and computer terminals than a magus' workshop. It wasn't until Saber-" she suddenly cut herself off, casting her eyes downward. She then looked back up and continued "An-anyway we're not talking about me! What about your Rin and Saber? Did they just let you go without a fight? I doubt they would have considered it 'ruining their lives'."

I winced at the memory of our fight. "No. They wanted to come with me. I refused. It… was pretty bad. The only way I managed to convince them was that Rin could try to leverage her influence with the Mage Association to get it revoked and that Saber need to stay with her master."

She huffed. "I should think it would be bad. I know that I wouldn't have had any of it if Troper tried that on me. " She gave a tired sigh. "Ok, let's hear it."

"Hear what?"

"Your undoubtedly crazy plan to get back to them." Rin said with complete seriousness. "What is it, fake your death? Change your identity and appearance and hope no one notices? Introduce the MA to TVTropes and hope that they'll all be too busy doing Wiki Walks?"

"What?" I said, completely surprised by this assumption. "I don't have any plan."

"Ah, so you're going to go for the indy ploy? A risky move, though if your plans are anything like my Shirou's, then that's probably a good call. Seriously, I have no idea where all those cake crumbs came from…" She said, looking off to the side with a frown while she unconsciously rubbed her backside.

"No, I mean I'm not going back at all. It's too dangerous and I'll probably just get myself killed." I clarified.

"Eh?" Rin was taken completely off guard by my response. "What, you mean you're not even going to try?"

I felt my anger start to rise at this comment. "And what am I supposed to do? I'm a single, third rate magus against a centuries old organization filled with completely morally bankrupt men with far more skill and power than I could ever hope to get. No kind of clever plan or brilliant strategy could help me beat those odds. Not only that, there's the damn Sekirei Plan. If I leave, people will die. So don't you think for a damn minute that I'm not going back because I don't want to!" That last part almost came out as a shout. I was surprised by how quickly my anger had gotten the better of me.

Rin flinched back a bit at my outburst before looking down. "I'm… sorry. That's not what I was trying to say." She looked back at me. "Staying put is actual pretty practical of you, and is probably best thing you can do for now. I only said that because Troper usually comes up with these absurdly dangerous, harebrain plans that fail half the time and, well…" she looked off to the side awkwardly. "I just assumed…"

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "I'm the one that should be apologizing. I shouldn't have snapped like that. It's just that," I stalled as I tried to find the best way to phrase it, but I ended up putting it plainly. "You look just like her. You talk just like her. Hell, you act just like her in almost every way, so I think it's safe to say that you're not the only one having trouble separating people in their mind. Just having you around is reminding me of how much I miss my Rin, bringing up feeling I thought I had left behind. When it sounded like you were accusing me for not going back it… hurt like my Rin was doing it." I silently cursed myself for the emotions I was feeling. I doubt my Rin would truly consider me at fault for not having a plan to go back to England either, even without all of the Sekirei Plan nonsense I had gotten myself into. However, that did little to reassure the part of myself that thought that maybe there was some way I hadn't thought of and was just too stupid to figure it out.

Rin hesitantly put her arm on my shoulder. "I may not be her, but if she's like me in the slightest then she loves you more than anything. She would never say anything like that."

As much as I appreciated the heartfelt statement, I couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow at that. If my Rin ever saw me again, I'm sure she would verbally accuse me of a lot more than that. Of course she wouldn't mean any of it and it would just be her own tsundere way of showing her worry, but I was still amused by this Rin failing to realize that.

And true to her aforementioned tusndere nature, as soon as Rin realized how intimate the scene had become, she immediately blushed and pulled back, crossing her arms across her chest and looking off to the side. "An-anyway how should I know! You're still probably just as stupid as my Shirou!"

I barely managed to stifle a laugh. This was almost nostalgic. "Maybe we should change the subject," I suggested.

She gave me an even look. "One more thing. If she and your Saber are even the slightest bit like me and mine, don't think for one second that just because you can't get back to them that they won't come looking for you."

I felt a slight shiver down my spine when she said that. "S-so, we should probably figure out how to keep my sister away from Troper."

Rin grunted in agreement. "No arguments here. I'm not sure if you noticed, but she's somewhat… affectionate towards you."

"Yes, I know." I said with a sigh.

"And by that, I mean very affectionate."

"Yes, I know."

"And by that, I mean I'm pretty sure she wants in your-"

"I get it already!" I exclaimed, my face turn red as I desperately tried not to think about it.

Rin smiled with amusement at my discomfort. "In any case she went to the bath after dinner. She said something about getting into a fight before she got here. She should be still in there, and I had Troper hide in our room until we could figure out what to do."

I was about to respond and I heard the familiar squawks of outrage from Tsukiumi and squeals of delight from Yukari that indicated that the latter had gotten a little molesty with the former. As the sounds of the inevitable chase began, I put my forehead in my hand and said. "Sometimes her baths are a bit shorter than others."

Rin cocked her head to the side as she listened to the mad chase. "Well, that still shouldn't be a problem unless she goes in my room."

"Yeah," I said, chuckling to myself as I thought about it. "I mean, if she did it would probably result in some Hilarity Ensues, but the odds of that happening are-"

I abruptly cut myself off as I remembered what my counterpart was powered by. Rin and I looked at each other for the briefest moment before simultaneously taking off at a dead run towards her room.

As we sprinted out of the kitchen and into the hallway, I could already see we were too late. The door to Rin's room was flung open, with Tsukiumi standing in the hall looking into the room surprised. As we entered the door way, we saw why. It seems that in her rush Yukari ran into the room without looking and barreled straight into Troper. Both were laying on the ground in a daze, the former laying on top the latter. If that was all there was to the situation, it would have been fine. However…

"Tro-per!" This angry snarl didn't come from Rin but rather from me. The reason for this being that somehow the collision had knocked off Yukari's towel, leaving her naked for the entire world to see. What made this worse was the fact that, for reasons which I can most likely blame him and the Root in equal parts, Troper had been in the middle of changing at the moment and was similarly undressed, save thankfully for a pair of boxers. I may have known logically that the whole situation was an accident and not his fault, but it didn't change the fact that Troper was dangerously close to needing to make my sister breakfast the next morning. I felt my Knight Templar Big Brother Instincts begin to rise, and demand justice for this insult against my sister honor!

Toper was the first to regain his wits. His eyes widened as he saw Yukari, and then they widened further when he looked up and saw me and Rin standing in the doorway, neither of us looking particularly happy with him. Quite predictably, the first words out of his mouth were "It's Not What It Looks Like!"

"You're damn right It's Not What It Looks Like!" I yelled back, a hairsbreadth away from tracing Kanshou and Bakuya. "If it was, you'd be a foot shorter!"

It was at this point Yukari managed to get her bearings. She looked at Troper and began to blush at the sight his mostly naked body which she was lying on top of. Said blush increased to the point of luminance when she realized that she was completely naked. "Aaahh! Onii-chan! Don't' look!" She sprang up and turned around with the intent of finding her towel when she saw me standing in the doorway. "Aaahh! Onii-chan! Don't' look!" With that she turned around again only to come face to face with Troper as he was getting to his feet. "Aaahh! Onii-chan! Don't'- wait, how are you doing that?"

I sighed in frustration as I Face Palmed. Without removing my hand, I bent down, picked up Yukari's towel and held it out to her. "Put this on. I… it's complicated." I managed to say.

I waited what I thought was a suitable amount of time before I uncovered my eyes. Doing so revealed my sister to be looking back and forth between me and Troper with wide eyes and a blush still on her face. "Two Onii-chan…" she said with a slightly sultry voice. I really wish I didn't know of what she was thinking about. I really did. Turning to look at me, she asked. "Is this another one of your 'legacy of a misspent youth' things?"

"For once, no." I said as I tried to come up with a less fantastic explanation than 'Alternate Dimension Counterpart'.

Yukari didn't give me a chance to explain as she immediately started to excitably question Troper. "So, who are you? Are you another one of my long lost brothers? Are you a clone of Shirou made by the evil organization he left in order to secretly take his place? Oh!" she said, peering up at the couple of white strands that dotted his hair. "Are you Onii-chan from the future?"

I think it took everyone in the room by surprise when Troper responded in a completely serious voice "Yes."

"WHAT?" Yukari said with pure shock.

"What?" Tsukiumi said with confusion.

"What?"I said with incredulity.

"What." Rin said in a completely flat tone that was not a question.

Troper struck a Reverse Arm Fold pose. By this point he had managed to put some pants on, but he was still topless and the stance managed to highlight his slightly leaner than mine but no less impressive frame. "The timeline is in grave danger, and I have been sent back to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. I can't say much due to the risk of chronological corruption, but I can say that I'm part of an elite organization of Temporal Integrity Agents whose mission is to preserve history from those who would use the powers of Time Travel for evil." He said this with a completely straight face while looking my sister dead in the eyes, as if daring her to disbelieve him.

Yukari, for the second time in a few hours, let out a 'squee'. "Ohmygod Onii-chan gets even cooler in the future! I didn't even think that was possible!" She then began to start rambling very quickly and asking him questions about the future, all of which he responded to with "It's classified."

It was all I could do to keep my jaw from falling open at this farce. Why? Why of all the stories he could have made up he went with Time Police? Looking at Rin, I saw she had a resigned look on her face, shaking her head in exasperation. I guess this sort of thing happened often with Troper.

Paying attention to the conversation again, I managed to catch Yukari say "You know, in this one manga I have, the hero went back in time and met his younger self, and then the two of them-"

"No!" Troper and I shouted at the same time. Seriously, why does everyone keep thinking about that?