Matou Shinji and the Broken Chains

A Harry Potter / Fate Stay Night Story

Disclaimer: Though I wish it were otherwise, I do not own or in any way, shape or form hold a legal or moral claim to elements of either the Nasuverse, the Potterverse, or other works I may reference in the course of this story.

Summary: It is a time of seeming peace, as the British Ministry prepares to host the Quidditch World Cup - the greatest sporting event in the Wizarding World. But unbeknownst to them, a grand army of Giants and Werewolves is gathering in Eastern Europe, under the leadership of the vicious Fenrir Greyback, their sole objective - revenge. In the East, Matou Shinji and his comrades have arrived at the hidden bastion of Mahoutokoro to hone their skills, given that they are likely to become Champions of the two Tournaments this year – the Tri-Wizard and the Potions. And if their struggle against the Acromantulae has shown them anything, it is that only through power can they gain victory - and only through victory can their chains be broken.

Chapter 38. The Hanged (Wo)man

For weeks, Tohsaka Rin had delayed in replying to Matou Shinji's request to meet, uncertain of what he would say – what he would offer – what she wanted him to say. After all, the boy seemed to follow none of the unwritten rules by which magi lived, with much of what had transpired between them being far more generous than anyone could reasonably expect from a colleague, and without the expectation of reciprocity thus far.

Were they friends, then? The Japanese magus wanted to think so, but if she was being honest with herself, they saw each other so rarely and had parted on such awkward terms that it was hard to be sure. She had laughed at him once. Thought he was but a fool and a weakling who would never amount to much, and yet…

In many ways, his kindness shamed her, not least because she knew she wasn't worthy of it, and hadn't done anything to deserve it. As a magus, she worried about the hidden costs behind what he'd given her, the unspoken price he might one day exact, especially as she didn't think there was anything she could give him that would be enough.

Rin had hoped, when Mashu came to visit her, delivering a missive from Matou, that the letter might shed some light on what it was that the boy wanted, but the note had been brief and to the point, a request to meet at a rather posh restaurant in London at a time of her choosing, without mentioning the purpose of such a rendezvous.

Indeed, the only thing she gleaned from it was the knowledge that Matou trusted Mashu implicitly, confirming her growing suspicion that the girl she'd known as a rather earnest live-in maid and fellow student at the Tower was far more than she appeared.

Eventually, however, no matter how much she would have liked to dither and dally, hem and haw, she had been compelled to set a date, and now, on the eve of the fated encounter, as she lay in her dormitory bed, Tohsaka Rin lay awake, restless, a thousand terrible thoughts flying through her mind like a murder of crazed crows.

'Is Mashu not just Matou's maid…but his mistress?'

It was odd how Matou trusted the strawberry blonde to keep his secrets, despite only having met her in the past few years, as well as how she had access to his resources. She was a couple of years older than they were, true, but all the same…

'…was that why he didn't…take me…that night? Because she was there, listening?'

That was…strangely plausible, given Matou's undeniable charm and power, and the admirers he unwittingly attracted – people like that bushy-haired girl she had met during the winter holidays, who had been so hurt at the knowledge Matou had bought a house for her.

'No…that can't be,' Tohsaka told herself, shaking her head as she waited for a sleep that would not come. 'Isn't he…with Lovegood?'

That was what he had told her that terrible night, after all, but…was it the truth? Or…

'Was there something else?'

Neither was a particularly settling thought – the first because it meant that the first person in her life since her mother was lost to her was beyond her reach – that she'd lost the opportunity to get close to the only person who seemed to really care about her.

Perhaps she should have used the mechanical owl he'd given her to send him letters more often before things had come to this, but she'd been…comfortable with their relationship, had thought there would be plenty of opportunities for them to see each other, and anyway, had liked the owl where it was, given that its presence was a reminder that someone was there for her.

That Matou Shinji, a boy she'd thought little of and had belittled, had held no grudge, and had not forgotten about her after his rise to glory. Quite a contrast to the fake priest who had been her father's student, who owed so much to her father, yet had never cared about her one bit.

If he'd lied that fateful night, though…maybe he wasn't the noble knight she hoped he was, but the dangerous, canny magus she feared he might be, an amoral schemer to whom manipulation came as easily as breathing – and who might well have caused his family's death at the hands of the Einzbern, since he just so happened to be the sole survivor of their wrath.

'No,' she told herself, a shiver running down her spine at the thought of the boy coldly smiling as the rest of the Matous were cut down in a sea of blood. 'Matou's not like that. He's not. He's not.'

Yet, despite her repeated attempts to reassure herself that her benefactor wasn't that sort of person, a part of her – the part raised as a magus – had its doubts.

After all, how well did she really know Matou Shinji?

The thought would remain with Tohsaka Rin as the raven-haired girl drifted away into the world of dreams.

When she came to awareness again, the young magus found herself somewhere else altogether, and without any of the grogginess or soreness she usually felt in the morning, though she flinched as she opened her eyes upon the rising – or was it the setting – sun? The air was chill and brisk around her, as one might expect of London in November, and with a shiver, Tohsaka Rin realized that she was dressed only in her pajamas, as she sat on a worn wooden bench in the middle of what looked like a park that had seen better days.

'Where am I?'

She looked around, but didn't see anything of note, save for a vast lake the bench faced, a body of water that stretched into the distance, the light of the sun glittering like shards of broken glass on its surface. Surrounding her in every other direction was a thick, shadowy copse of withered old trees that blocked her vision, with no immediately apparent paths leading through it.

There was no sign of a boat, either, of footsteps, or anything other mode of conveyance that might have brought her here.

Not that such things mattered much to powerful magi.

As her eyes grew used to the light, however, Rin came to realize she was not alone, as a slim figure around her size rose from where it had been crouched by the water, facing away from her.

"Who…?" the Tohsaka heiress spoke quietly, her mouth dry as her mind raced, considering the situation she was in. Why was she here? Who was this other person? Were they responsible for…? But Rin shook her head. Panic wouldn't help her here. "Who are you?"

"No hello, Nee-san?" the other replied after a long moment, turning to reveal the face of someone Rin hadn't seen in a long, long time. The face of someone Rin knew to be dead.

"Sak…sakura?" Rin stammered, her thoughts thrown into utter disarray by the presence of her…by the girl who had once been her sister. "What are you…?"

"Thinking like a magus again, Nee-san?" the purple-haired girl asked, though her eyes seemed an odd color in the sunlight, almost as if they were a deep shade of red. "How like you. But then, that was what Father wanted you to be."

"Uh…"

"You followed in his footsteps, even gained a Master other magi would kill for," the girl who looked like Sakura wondered aloud, with Rin powerless to face her accusations. "Even though you're bad with people, even though you can't show what you really feel, you've been given so much. Even Nii-san thinks the world of you. He bought you a house, gave you his Master, showed you more kindness than he showed his own family, but it's not enough for you…is it?"

"…what…what are you—?" Rin began, only for the other to speak once more.

"You're not happy, Nee-san, because everyone who knows the real Tohsaka Rin has thought of her as worthless," the one who looked like Matou Sakura spoke in a honeyed voice, the beatific smile on her kind features quite at odds with her words. "El Melloi II hates you and everything you stand for. Your Master can't stand how weak you are, and would rather have Matou as her apprentice again. Even Mashu and Matou don't want to spend more time with you than they have to."

Rin flinched.

"I—"

"Do you know why that is, Nee-san?" the other asked quietly. "It's because you don't care about anyone else but yourself."

Those words, though spoken in scarcely more than a murmur, seemed as loud to Tohsaka as a cannon's roar.

"You think you do, but the truth is you don't even know how to love someone," the other said to her. "You use them, and deep down inside you're afraid they're using you."

"Sakura, I—"

"But I'm not Sakura," the doppelganger cut off her reply as the features and form of her late sister dissolved, replaced with those of a much younger girl, a haughty child all in white, with sharp red eyes and silver hair. "After all, child of the Tohsaka, the Matous are dead, so there's no need to justify yourself to someone who you never really cared about to begin with, and no chance for redemption for your father's sins."

"Ein…Einzbern!" Rin cried out, recognizing the being before her as something powerful, but inhuman – a homunculus – with a cruel smile as cold as the iron frost of winter. What…what was such a being doing here? How had it brought her here? What did…what did it want with her?

"That's right, Rin," the other said in saccharine tones, as crimson eyes looked into those the color of the sea, the other's gaze paralyzing her with the intensity of it. "But that's also wrong."

"Wh—"

"After all, if I was truly an Einzbern, then you'd be dead, Second Owner," this…apparition replied. "As dead as the sister you pretended to care about. As dead as the Matou patriarch. As dead as all of those who have dared to cross your benefactor, whether human, or wyvern, or more." The other laughed, a sound that for all its musical quality was perhaps the coldest, most inhuman thing the Tohsaka heiress had ever heard in her life. "But as it is, I am but a fragment of what you fear may come. Betrayal. Though I wonder – can you really call it that if you are just using each other?"

"And this?"

"This is the future you fear, but not one which will no doubt come. Take heart, Tohsaka Rin, your sister doesn't blame you," the other said diffidently. "She can't. She's dead. You're the one holding yourself back from what you could be, because your heart is closed and cold, because you're like me, an automaton of flesh and blood, born for a single purpose." And here the Einzbern lookalike smiled. "Do you deny it, magus?"

Rin wanted to. With all her heart, she did, but her lips wouldn't move.

"I didn't think so," the other noted. "But I suppose I will you do a kindness and put you out of misery."

The figure in white took a step towards her, then another, then another still, until she was standing before the Tohsaka heiress, placing an ice cold finger on the middle of the magus' forehead.

"Wake up," the other intoned.

And with a scream of terrible pain – a scream that Rin only distantly recognized as issuing from her own throat, the world around her shattered, returning her to the land of the living – to her private dorm room at the Department of Archaeology, trembling.

Tohsaka Rin did not manage to go back to sleep that night, spending her time instead going over what the specter had said, and how the meeting with Matou might end up, with her trying to plan out what to ask, how to respond, how she should act, though in the end, her efforts availed naught.

By the time the private car arrived at the Department of Archaeology that morning, the Tohsaka heiress had worked herself into a frenzy, as she had come to no real conclusions. Quite simply, she couldn't, not without more information – information she'd only be receive at the meeting, and it was driving her mad, because Tohsaka Rin did not like to be caught by surprise.

'I'm not…really good at improvising,' she reflected. She never really had been, in all honesty, preferring the comfort of plans, routines, something to stave off the unknown.

Still, if Tohsaka couldn't prepare herself for the meeting mentally, the heiress figured that she could at least make herself presentable, given that even Matou (hopefully) had some weaknesses. She didn't have much in the way of perfume here at dormitory, but she washed herself quite thoroughly, using the scented soaps and shampoos which were some of her few guilty pleasures and dressing in a sweater and skirt ensemble that she thought suited her nicely – and which Mashu had once complimented her on.

She'd wondered if Matou would come to pick her up, knowing he had requested the meeting, but she wasn't especially surprised to find that the one at her door was a certain Mashu Kyrielite, clad in a very flattering black and red dress that took Rin's breath away.

"Miss Tohsaka," the bespectacled girl greeted her with a nod. "Are you ready to go?"

"I am," Rin got out, blinking as she had never seen Mashu dressed quite this fancily before. Quite frankly, it made Rin feel a little under-dressed. "You look…nice." The second bit was little more than a whisper, but the maid…or was she more than that…acknowledged it with a nod and a faint smile.

"As do you, Miss Tohsaka," came the reply, one that made her feel more than a little warm inside. "Come with me."

"Yes," Rin said simply.

The car took them to Rules, the oldest restaurant in London, and dropped them off, with Mashu escorting her inside, walking her through the sumptuous surroundings, redolent with velvet and fine wood, the muted perfume of centuries of use clinging to the walls.

It was quite a luxurious place, if not as gaudy as the first restaurant Matou had invited her to long ago in London, and Tohsaka Rin felt distinctly out of place.

'But Mashu looks comfortable here – do she and Matou…?'

But Rin shook her head. It wouldn't help her to dwell on such things, especially as they seemed to have reached their destination: a cleverly hidden door, whose outlines were barely discernible against the oak paneling of the walls.

"Inside?"

"Yes," Mashu replied, tapping a pattern on the door, as an audible click was heard. "Matou awaits."

The door slid open, and steeling her resolve, Tohsaka Rin entered.

Though the meal itself was no doubt delicious, Tohsaka barely remembered what it was she ate that day, as she was otherwise…distracted, her mind awhirl with thoughts about why Matou had called her here. The boy, for his part, seemed to be in no particular rush, contenting himself with asking about how things were going for her at the Department of Archaeology, under the tutelage of both Aozaki Touko and the famed Professor Lev.

'He can't have gone through all that trouble…just to have lunch with me, could he?'

"Better than when Lord El-Melloi was my supervisor," Rin admitted.

"Don't forget to call him El-Melloi II," Shinji quipped. "He hates it when people leave that bit out, or so I've heard."

"…I know," the Tohsaka heiress replied, her expression souring.

"Ah, sorry," Shinji noted, seeming to realize he'd hit a sore spot. Changing the topic, he regaled her with some news about the latest life-and-death challenge he was embarked on, some sort of "Potions Championship" to occur on a hidden isle isolated from the common sense of the modern era, a trial of arms and brewing skill in a place where creatures of legend remained.

"That sounds…rather dangerous, Matou-kun," Rin allowed, wondering why it was the boy seemed not at all nervous about the event in question. Surely, even as powerful as he was, the prospect of risking his life was not a pleasant one, even if it was something magi did by necessity. "Especially since you will be alone, yes?"

"That's right. This isn't something where my companions will be able to help me," Shinji replied, his steel-grey eyes calm – almost too calm. "This is something I must face alone, with every ounce of skill and power I have won over the years."

"What…what is the prize for something like this?" the Tohsaka heiress wondered aloud. Given that she was the heiress to one of the Three Founding Families, Rin was well aware that a dangerous tournament involving a fight to the death lay in her future, and presumably Matou's as well, yet it wasn't something she actively sought, unless…

"A golden vessel," the boy answered cryptically, as a small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "And perhaps…a boon."

"A boon…" Rin repeated, her eyes widening as she took in what he said. "You mean…a wish?"

"Something like that," Shinji answered, with a soft chuckle. "Though not from some omnipotent vessel. From my patron."

"Your patron?" Rin echoed. She'd suspected there had been someone who had enabled his rise to prominence, but for the boy to simply admit it was…unexpected. As was the gentle smile on his face and the warmth in his voice – neither of which were meant for her. "

"Yes," the boy acknowledged. "It is at her bidding that I am to take part in this whole affair. My patron is…curious about the limits of my capabilities, among other things."

"I…see," the Tohsaka heiress said, her lips curving into a slight frown as leaned forward, cupping her chin in a hand. "But why...would your patron be interested in potions, Matou? I suppose they are a staple of Witchcraft, but the only people in the Association who would really have a use for them are…"

Rin trailed off, with Shinji raising an expectant eyebrow.

"…alchemists," Tohsaka finished, as realization dawned. "Are you…are you hoping to become a researcher at Atlas, once you tire of being a knight?" she mused, her eyes widening as she looks Shinji up and down. "I do hear that Atlas isn't picky about the skill level or background, so they'd even take practitioners of witchcraft, wouldn't they…?"

"They would," Shinji acknowledged. "But it's not my goal just to be a researcher, and getting to a high rank in Atlas, or any other organization, is a different story."

"Easier if you have a patron."

"Indeed," Shinji noted, turning back to his food. "Ah, don't let it cool too much – the food's better while its hot."

"…who is she?" Rin asked flatly, eyes narrowing as she looked at Shinji.

"She?" Shinji echoed.

"Your patron," Tohsaka clarified, crossing her arms. "Who is she?"

Shinji was silent for a moment as he looked at Rin, his expression utterly flat as he studied her.

"…what makes you so sure my patron is a 'she'?" the boy returned after a long moment.

"I'm not blind, Matou," Rin harrumphed. "So tell me already."

There was another long pause, as Shinji studied her once more, before shaking his head.

"You know, Tohsaka, I don't think that's any of your business," the practitioner of witchcraft said quietly, in a tone that warned he would not tolerate any further inquiries into the matter. "Not when I'm effectively yours as it is."

"That's…" the Tohsaka heiress swallowed, realizing once more how much she owed Matou, and how quickly much of that could disappear if he was to become…displeased with her. "You're right, Matou," she muttered, shaking her head. Surely there was something she could ask about without causing offense, maybe something that would play to his ego…ah. "There's something else, actually."

"Mm?"

"Your former Master, Aozaki Touko," Rin began, glancing a bit awkwardly over at where Mashu was sitting by the door, then back to Shinji. "She said…she said that…" The girl braced herself for whatever he might say in response to her next words. "She said that I'm not as strong as you."

"And?"

Briefly, the Tohsaka heiress brought up the master puppeteer's rather sadistic training regimen, and how she hadn't managed to win against Aozaki-san's puppets in even a single encounter. Time after time, her new Master had criticized her performance, listing the many ways in which she was lacking in comparison to the puppeteer's former apprentice.

"I've tried everything I can think of," Rin muttered, looking down at her lap. "But I can't win. Reinforcement doesn't work. Gandr doesn't work. Martial arts doesn't. Nothing works. Master has…she said I'm missing something, but what? What is it I need?" The girl swallowed. "How do I become strong...like you?"

"Huh," Shinji noted, taking a moment to absorb what Tohsaka had told him. That Aozaki Touko had praised him was…something of a surprised, given how critical she usually was of him, but he took a quiet pride in it, nonetheless. "You want to become strong, Tohsaka?"

"…yes," Rin whispered, her arms going to her sides as her hands balled into fists. "I'll do anything," she continued, her face flushing for some odd reason as her heart began to hammer wildly in her chest. "Whatever you tell me, Matou."

"Well…have you tried learning something to cover your weaknesses?" Shinji offered. "Think about the area in which you are weakest. What seems to be the reason you lose?"

"…I'm not powerful enough," Tohsaka said after a moment, though she shook her head. "But that's not very helpful. I can't just make my spells more powerful or hit much harder than I already am. I've tried. Her automatons resist my magecraft."

"Well, the ones she used against me weren't particularly resistant to elemental abilities," Shinji offered, recalling how his master would often test his mettle with such things as a way to help him improve his elemental abilities. "You're a good magus, Tohsaka, shouldn't you be able to use those?"

Rin blushed at the praise.

"Well, yes, but…." Frankly, she hadn't thought about using those because it would mean using up some of her gems, and she'd always thought of those as an absolute last resort. She had so few which were actually empowered to a high level that ordinarily, she wouldn't even think about bringing them out in something that wasn't an emergency – and training did not count, as such no matter how serious.

"If you've been holding back against Master, I suggest you stop," Shinji replied gravely. "Master – when she was my Master – hated it if I didn't use everything I had to win, because it meant I didn't value her time and attention."

"But…"

For a wild moment, Rin considered telling Matou about the limitations of her magecraft, but that whim died as quickly as it had come.

"There's no buts here," Shinji commented. "It might be difficult, but you have to learn what you're capable of when you let loose, so you can learn to fight well even at the limits of your abilities. Being stubborn about holding back won't help – it will just make her work harder to beat taking her seriously into you."

"…you might have a point," Rin conceded. She'd tried everything else, to date, so she supposed it wouldn't hurt to do something new.

"I know I do," Shinji quipped with a wry smile. "After all, I was Master's apprentice for two years, until I asked her to teach you instead."

That was something Rin had no good answer to, no answer except…

"…why?" she all but demanded after some seconds had passed.

"Why what, Tohsaka?" Shinji asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"Don't get the wrong idea, Matou," Rin noted quietly. "I'm…grateful that you gave up his Master for my sake, and for everything, but…why?"

"Why what?" Shinji repeated patiently.

"You know what!" Rin all but snapped, troubled at his lack of guile. "Why did you do it? Why did you give up a chance to learn from one of the greatest magi of the present age – one who had already chosen you as her apprentice?!"

After all, no one who called him or herself a magus would ever be so...nice, so self-sacrificing, without expecting something in return.

'My body, perhaps? But he turned me down then, and with Mashu here, I don't think he'll ask for it now.'

Perhaps her loyalty then, meaning that he indirectly received the benefits of Aozaki Touko's teachings, due to what she owed him.

Perhaps her hand in marriage, given that none of the things he had done - giving her vast treasures, buying a house for her use, giving up his Master for her sake, helping her so directly - were generally things colleagues or friends did for another, but…family might. Was he saying then that he wanted them to become family? That he wished…to marry her?

If that was so, she would be happy to accept, yet…

"Who am I to you, that you would do these things for me and ask nothing in return?!" she demanded at last, rising to her feet with wild eyes as she stared at the boy before her.

"Tohsaka…you…" Shinji began, wide-eyes, before shaking himself and taking a visible breath. After that, he too rose, reaching out to take the tormented girl's hands, as the heiress swallowed. "Early in my life, Tohsaka Rin was an inspiration to me. She was my idol, for better or worse, and at the beginning of my journey, I did want to impress her."

"And then…?" Rin breathed, shivering as his skin touched hers, looking up into his stormy eyes and the intensity she saw there.

"And then I came to know her as more than an idol," Shinji said warmly. "I came to see her as a person, to learn how hard Tohsaka Rin worked, how much was expected of her, how little others appreciated her. And I just…"

"…you just…"

Tohsaka could feel her heart hammering in her chest once more, could feel her cheeks blushing tomato red, and knew there wasn't a thing she could do about it, enthralled as she was by him.

"…I just wanted to make you happy," the boy stated, with a sincerity that shook her to the core. "Because you, Tohsaka Rin, aren't just a magus. You're not perfect. You're not someone who doesn't need anything, and doesn't want anything. And you don't have to be."

"I…don't."

"No, you don't. Because the Tohsaka Rin who is my friend, my comrade, my companion isn't perfect. That Tohsaka is a girl who followed me to a distant land, without perhaps being ready. Who has fears and insecurities. Who misses people and is lonely sometimes. Who wishes someone would just look at her and acknowledge her as someone worthy."

"And…" Rin swallowed. "Do you…?

"I do. You deserve so much more than life has given you," Shinji whispered, as he looked deeply into her eyes. "Than the loneliness, the fear, the hurt. You, Tohsaka, deserve something better – and so I offer you what little I have, what little I can." '…because that's what someone did for me once, when I was alone.'

"Then…" Tohsaka Rin trembled, as no one had ever – ever – said anything like this to her before. No one had ever looked at her so intensely, so as to make her knees weak. No one had just taken her hand so gently yet forcefully. No one had just offered everything Matou Shinji did, without asking anything in return.

It was so…

…so…

…foreign.

So alien to her way of thinking that it shook her worldview to its very foundations.

People just didn't do that sort of thing. Not unless they wanted something.

"So is there anything at all that I can do to repay you, Matou?" Rin heard a voice asking, realizing after a moment of confusion that it was her voice. "Anything at all? I'll do anything in my power, give you whatever it is you wish. Even..." She blushed prettily as her voice grew quiet. "...me."

Shinji's eyes glanced over her figure, accentuated as it was by her sweater, and her mouth grew dry at the thought of what he might say now, now that she'd offered him anything at all. Would he…? With Mashu…watching? Was he going to…?

She could do naught but watch as the boy released one of her hands, taking advantage of the now free limb to step around the table and move to her side, where for the first time in many, many years, someone hugged her.

"None of that. Not because it owed. Not because I demand it," Shinji murmured into the Tohsaka heiress' ear, as her breath caught. "Whatever we are – as friends, comrades, and more, I think we're beyond things like debts and costs and favors, don't you?"

"Yes," Rin whispered against Shinji's skin. "That is, that would be…"

"So since there is no debt, all I ask, if you wish – and only if you wish – is that you look out for me as I have looked out for you, now, and in the years to come."

"Yes," the Tohsaka heiress answered, her thoughts somewhere else entirely at the thought that someone did care about her. That even though she'd offered herself unconditionally, he'd still taken the time to ask her if she was ok with what little he wanted – something she would have done anyway. He didn't have to ask. The fact that he did was… "I will, Ma…" she added. "Shinji."

Rin didn't remember too much of what happened next, as everything between that embrace and Mashu escorting her to a car to take her back to the Department of Archaeology, along with…Shinji giving her a set of Japanese sweets, knowing she must have been homesick.

'Of anything he could have given me, this…'

Well, it wasn't as if it was a dress, or a ring, but clearly she didn't need such things to be beautiful. Not in his eyes.

'I see now. He didn't take me that night, not because Mashu was there, or because of anything else. But because it wouldn't have been right for either of us. Not because he didn't care, but because he cares more than anyone in my life has since mother died.'

She felt…special, thinking about what he'd done for her. He was dangerous, yes. Had secrets, yes. Someone cunning and powerful and more, but…from her, he demanded nothing. And that was why she would follow him for as long as he wished, for as long as the road let them walk together.

Back in the dining room, Mashu and Shinji were sitting down for something of a debriefing, with the agent of Atlas voicing her concerns plainly.

"Sempai, do you go out of your way to try and charm every girl you come across?" the blonde asked with a moue of disapproval. "Or is it something that just happens?"

Shinji, for his part, just groaned, his shoulders slumping.

"…at least Tohsaka is…at least she feels better now?" he offered, still surprised about how his childhood friend had all but thrown herself at him again.

"Sempai, I realize you're a kind person, but I don't think you realize the significance of your words," Mashu noted reproachfully. "Unless you really…" She shook her head. "This might not be my place, but were you trying to propose to Miss Tohsaka?"

"No!" Shinji was on his feet before he realized it. Taking a deep breath, he sat down, flushing at how he'd reacted. "I wouldn't…I wouldn't try to take advantage of her like that. And…"

"It would sound like it to a magus," Mashu explained softly. "Especially one who has so few friends. She offered any single thing within her power – you said that there was no need for one thing, but for her to look out for you, now and in the future. That is the language of a binding alliance, Sempai. And to hug a girl while saying it…"

"…I messed up, didn't I?"

"Don't feel so bad, Sempai. This way, Miss Tohsaka feels more comfortable about what you've done for her, and an alliance is something useful in your position," Mashu offered, with a shy smile. "Especially with the coming Grail War."

"…a war she doesn't know anything about, Mashu."

"No, but at least she'll have an ally, won't she, Sempai?"

"Well…that's true enough," Shinji admitted. "I hope you don't think badly of me for how this turned out?"

"Our mutual benefactor will no doubt be happy to have another useful asset," Mashu noted simply. "A member of the Three Founding Families, even."

Shinji couldn't quite help but notice that the Agent of Atlas had avoided answering his question, and so…

"But what do you think, Mashu?" he insisted, as the strawberry blonde shook her head.

"Sempai, it really isn't a good idea to play with people's hearts, even if that's not what you mean to do," the other told him. "Someone will eventually get hurt, and that someone might or might not be you."

The boy let out a long, shuddering sigh.

"…I know. I just…."

"You're young, Sempai. You have a lot to learn, but I'll be there to help."

"Thank you, Mashu. That...I appreciate it."