Fate/Infinity Shuffle

Chapter 48 – Two of Hearts - Part Two:

Extra Classes soon became dates.

They still met up and stayed in the classroom, but unless it was really necessary, instead of classes, they would simply stay together and do the things they wanted as boyfriend and girlfriend. Ranging from simply taking and flirting to kissing and holding hands.

On the third day…

"Umm…" Karen stared at the floor and twirled her foot lightly, calling Shoutarou's attention.

"What is it?"

"I… wanted to try something. But you have to promise not to laugh!"

"Why would I laugh?" Shoutarou was honestly confused. What could be Karen thinking?

Shyly, the woman pointed at his seat. "Please sit down."

"Alright." Shoutarou didn't have any reason to disagree. He sat on his desk chair, and shortly after, she sat on his lap, facing him. Shoutarou tensed up as the short girl's face reached the same level as his. "T-Teacher…?"

"I told you not to laugh."

"But what exactly do you want to do…?"

"…Kiss."

"Huh?"

"I-I want to kiss. A… lot." She closed her eyes with her face pink and red. "This sounds so weird…"

"D-Don't worry, teacher. It would be just as weird if I were the one asking, right?" While Karren did feel better, she narrowed her eyes at the teenager, as if he had just done a mistake. "Is something wrong?"

"I know I'm your teacher, but I'm also your girlfriend… At least call me by name."

"Oh… sorry. I guess it's force of habbit, tea- … Karen." He smiled when speaking her name. Suddenly, his cheeks were cupped by small hands.

"Thank you." Karen whispered as she pressed her lips onto his. Shoutarou immediately closed his eyes and kissed back the woman in front of him, placing bt9oh of his hands on her back, slightly pulling her in.

They continued, in an attempt to practice their kissing.

The sun hid completely, and the moon rose high in the night sky. At this point, the two had stopped the 'session', but were still in the same positions, however, Karen had her head pressed against Shoutarou's chest, while his arms were wrapped around her.

"…Hey, Karen?"

"Hm?"

"Isn't it illegal for teachers and students to have relationships of this kind?"

"It is. But I don't really care anymore."

"Huh? But your job…"

"I'm not that delusional. I know my job is at stake. But that's only if they catch us. If we only meet up here when the school is empty or meet up at my place, no one will ever know."

Shoutarou couldn't really argue with the logic presented. "That makes sense, yeah. But does that mean we can only be together at night? What about dates?"

"Oh, that can be solved too. If I put on a cute dress and change my hairstyle enough, I can trick anyone by acting like a little kid."

"Wow. You really thought this through."

"There's one problem, though."

"Hm?"

"We can't have romantic dates if I'm disguising myself as a kid. You'll be considered…"

"Oh. I forgot about that. I could just say you're my cousin?"

Karen let out a small giggle. "I don't think that will work." She leaned back in order to look into her boyfriend's eyes. "Shoutarou, remember: if you ever want to break up, please tell me. I don't want to obligate you to do anything you don't want."

Shoutarou was somewhat taken aback but responded accordingly. "Alright. Though… I don't think I'll need to do that." Karen immediately turned red again, so much that it could be seen in the dark, which Shoutarou found funny. "Is it that overwhelming."

"T-This is my first relationship, alright? Don't mock me." He could see her pout, and with another chuckle, he leaned in to kiss her.


Some more weeks passed. In fact, two months in total. And the special relationship between the teacher and the student remained hidden from everyone. Unbelievably, they managed to control themselves during the day. They made their best to hide the little smiles, the opportunities for kissing and hugging, and others.

One night…

"Hmm-hmmhmm…" Karen poured hot water into the cup of instant noodles she had bought the previous weekend when she went out for groceries. One of the things she was actually thankful in her small body was the fact that she possessed, as it would be expected, a small stomach, so she saved money by preparing small meals. She could eat more if she wanted, but a cup of instant noodles was more than enough.

As she waited for them to finish cooking, her cellphone rang. She received a text.

"Hm?" She took out her phone and checked the text message from Shoutarou.

'Hey… Can I go to your house?'

"E-Eh?!" Karen was taken aback by the question. Could he mean… that?! No, wait. The text message looked somewhat odd. The possibility immediately flew out of her mind, and she responded accordingly.

'Of course. Is something wrong?'

'I'll explain when I get there.'

Karren grew worried as dinner finished cooking. Attempting to calm herself down a little bit, she began to eat the noodles. As she was halfway done, the doorbell rung, and she quickly opened it, finding on the other side the person she expected to see.

"Shoutarou."

"Hey, Karren." He greeted with a slight bow. His face showed a little bit of anxiety, just like his voice, which made her worries return.

"Are you okay? You look…"

"Karen," he quickly interrupted. "Can I spend the night here?"

The woman with the surprise and confusion she felt and the curiosity that quickly brewed.

"…Shoutarou, what happened?"

She allowed him to come in and closed the door behind. She let him sit on the bed, and she sat close, next to him, her large eyes unable to move away from him, while he simply stared at the floor below.

"I had a pretty bad fight with my dad." Karen let out a small gasp. "It escalated faster than I imagined."

"D-Did he hit you?"

"No… But he tried to."

"Eh?!"

"I dodged by reflex. He must've been surprised himself, because he froze for a few seconds. I used that to dash out of there."

"At least that…" Karren placed her hand over Shoutarou's, making him turn to her. "You can stay here, don't worry. As long as you need."

"Thanks. I'm not going to be a bother, right?"

"Of course not. I just hope you don't mind the small size of the apartment." She giggled awkwardly, making Shoutarou realize just how small it was.

"Wait, do you have an extra futon?"

"…" Karen immediately turned red, with a cloud of steam coming out of her head. Shoutarou got his answer there and then.


Time to go to bed came sooner than they expected. Shoutarou was already laid down on the bed, blushing wildly, freaking out over the fact that he was going to sleep next to his girlfriend.

"If you call me a kid, I'm never kissing you again." Karren shyly emerged from the bathroom, wearing pyjamas. Shirt and pants. But the strange thing about it was that it was white with a pattern of kitty heads in pink. It was obvious she wasn't happy about it, but most would look at her and yell 'ADORABLE!'.

Shoutarou sprung up, sitting on the bed as Karen revealed her clothing.

"…It's really cute."

Karen narrowed her eyes and let out a small sigh as she turned off the lights. She moved in quickly into bed and Shoutarou lay back down again, as they pulled the covers over them.

Neither of them could really sleep, so Karen resorted to snuggle into Shoutarou, curling up into a small ball. He reacted accordingly, placing his arms around her and slightly bending his legs.

She fit just right.

Time passed, but neither of them really grew tired or drowsy.

"…Shoutarou?"

"Hm?"

"Would you be happy if you were my only student?"

"Eh?" He tilted his head down, meeting her saddened smile. "What do you mean?"

"…I overheard my colleagues speaking today. They're going to fire me a the end of the year."

"What?! Why?!"

"Why do you think?"

"…Oh, come on, they can't do that. You're a great teacher. I mean, besides the two guys that don't care about school, everybody has great grades."

"That's how far they'll go, believe it or not." She was making her best not to shed tears. "I guess I should've seen it coming though. None of them looked past what I look like."

"…" Shoutarou didn't know what to respond. He wanted to be supportive, but it really did look like a situation with no solution. He knew the students didn't really care for her that much ether. It was another face in the crowd, even if an odd one.

But an idea crossed his mind. He quickly reached for his phone and checked the time. It was somewhat early still, half an hour before midnight.

With some necessary courage, he made a proposition.

"…We could just leave."

"Eh?"

"If I'm living with someone with that will most likely try to hit me again, and yu're close to being fired… Why don't we just leave?"

"Shoutarou, that's…" Karen sat up, making her boyfriend copy her. She was surprised by the suggestion, and it was a rather risky move. For them to just hit the road and leave the city.

But at the same time… what else could they do? Not to mention, it was kind of a nice idea living together. Even if it also sounded like a recipe for disaster. And even then, with all that taken into account… what exactly did they have to lose?

They moved.

The two quickly prepared the bags of Karen. It wasn't that hard, strangely enough. She had packed light when moving in for the job. They placed the bags on the car and quickly drove to Shoutarou's house. While the boy collected all of his important objects, like laptop, chargers, clothes, even some canned food and things that would be useful. His father was passed out on the couch, and nothing would wake him up until morning.

As he was gone, Karen wrote a letter in the car. And the moment every bag was placed inside the car and Shoutarou buckled the seatbelt again, they drove. It was half past five when Karen quickly ran to the school, entered the teacher's lounge, and placed the sealed letter of resignation on her desk.

And the two drove away, in Karen's car, out of the city.

It was risky, and they were fully aware of it. Karen wasn't really bound though, and with a car, mobility wasn't an issue. Shoutarou, however, was a bit of a gamble. It all depended on whether or not his father reported that he was missing.

They reached the south of the country without much aof a problem, and Karen managed to ask her mother for a great amount of money to make renting an apartment. Shoutarou got a part time job here and there, and Karen started giving private lessons.

Strangely enough, it was a comfortable way of living, sharing a small apartment, that was just as small as Karren's previous one. But neither of them minded.

Shortly after, Shoutarou ended up finding a Card of the Assassin Class, and Karen found a Berserker one not so long after either.

Somewhat confused about the Game, the two kept it to themselves until they were attacked by now No Rankers. Of course, they managed to defend themselves, but Hakuno was the one who saved them from the situation.

And, just like with everyone else, he explained the game to them…

"And I guess that's it." Shoutarou and Karen finished explaining their story, and found a bunch of teary-eyed teenagers.

"Such a cute story…" Mizuki admitted, Lizzie quickly nodding and blowing her nose with a napkin.

Sayuri used her handkerchief to clean her tears. "I'm guessing the only one who's not affected by this is Monga-" She turned to the Archer a flinch, almost falling out of her chair when she found that the most affected by the story was indeed Mongami, whimpering like no other.

"So… can we join? Hakuno advised us to have a team, but most of them already have either an Assassin or a Berserker, but yours were still searching for those two."

"We didn't want to be in different teams, as you can tell. And being just reserve Players isn't all that fun either." Karen explained, finishing her slice of pizza.

Everybody turned to Mizuki. She was confused at first, but then realized why they did. She was the leader, after all. But it induced nervousness. Mongami and Isemi were the result of bets, and Sayuri, Lizzie and Edward were all recruited in private, in a sense.

But that didn't stop her from raising her head with pride and rose cheeks of nervousness and declare "Shoutarou, Karen, you're part of the Conqueror's of Deva as of now, as the Assassin and Berserker."


And finally, Mizuki's Team is Complete. The new members still need to show their skills and personality. I hope you enjoy them. But let the Plot proceed!

Just as always, if you have questions or requests, be free to ask, preferably through PM.

Until next time!