Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon. I also do not own the Megami Tensei franchise, it belongs to Atlus.

Two Ladies

An annoyed cough echoed through the air, causing an exasperated – a common sight over the past few days – Shirou and the two young women frequently found arguing over him and his attentions to look in its direction. They found themselves looking at a rather buxom young woman of their age, wearing their school's uniform, and with short-cut dark hair. She adjusted her glasses before crossing her arms over her chest, all the while looking disapprovingly at the three of them.

There was something disturbingly familiar about her, only Shirou (and Sakura) couldn't quite put a finger on it.

"Um…can we help you?" Sakura asked.

"I would simply like to remind you three that public displays of affection are strictly prohibited by the letter of the school rules and regulations." The woman primly said. "And while your…show, several days prior was given sanction through the efforts of Fujimura-sensei, I would ask that you please refrain from further disruptions of our school's educational atmosphere."

"Noted…" Sakura deadpanned. "But…"

"…who are you?" Shirou finished, Luvia nodding beside him and opposite from Sakura.

The woman briefly flustered, and then coughing to regain her composure, visibly fidgeted as her cheeks turned pink. "Y-you don't recognize me?" she asked.

"Should I?" Shirou asked, looking and sounding confused.

"W-we used to be friends…" the woman softly said, fidgeting some more. "I mean…I look different now, but I thought…"

The woman trailed off sadly, while next to Shirou Luvia started tugging at his sleeve. "Darling!" she chided. "You shouldn't forget friends so easily! That's not being a good friend at all! And worse, look at her! She looks like she's about to cry! You're not the kind to make girls cry, darling, and you know it!"

"Come to think of it, this girl does look familiar…" Sakura mused aloud, eyes narrowed at the woman in front of them.

Suddenly feeling very bad, Shirou tried to make amends. "I'm sorry," he began. "But I really can't remember you, though I do think you look familiar, and I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Anyway, my name is Shirou Emiya, and I'd be really grateful to have your name. It might even help me remember you, so…"

The woman fidgeted some more, her cheeks turning even redder. "…" she mumbled out a name.

"Um…could you please repeat that?" Shirou asked, while next to him, Sakura's eyes went wide and her mouth fell open, catching what Shirou failed to. "I couldn't quite hear it."

"…Ryuudo…Issei…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…excuse me?"

"…l-l-long time no see, right, Emiya?" Issei asked in a mumble, unable to meet Shirou's eyes.

"Y-you can't be…y-you are…" Sakura stammered out, one eye twitching in shock. Next to her, Shirou was pale as a sheet, gaping at the now-female Issei Ryuudo while one hand shakily pointed a finger at her. On his other side, Luvia regarded Issei closely for a few moments.

"She's not lying." Luvia finally remarked. "She really is who she says she is."

"NO WAY!" Shirou and Sakura exploded before continuing in chorus. "B-b-b-but how? Issei/Ryuudo-sempai is supposed to be a boy!"

"I KNOW THAT!" Issei exploded in response, and stamping angrily at the ground. "YOU THINK I ASKED TO BECOME A GIRL? I JUST WOKE UP HURTING AT THE STOMACH AND THE CHEST AND…well, never mind where else…EXCEPT IT WAS DURING THAT WHOLE MESS OVER A MONTH AGO, SO COME THE FOLLOWING MORNING…no, not the morning after…THE FIRST CHANCE I GOT TO VISIT THE TOILET, I FOUND OUT I'D BECOME A GIRL!"

"…so that's how you were mutated by the Lovecraft Incident?" Sakura asked, before sighing in relief. "Well, thankfully that didn't happen to me. Not that it would but still…"

"Well, good for you!" Issei snapped at Sakura before adjusting her glasses. "Anyway, I'd really rather not discuss my gender, not that there's any point in doing so. There's no going back, so I might as well just do my best going forward."

"Uh…sure…let's go with that." Shirou deadpanned, still trying to wrap his mind around what he was seeing and hearing.

Issei's a girl now? But…that's…that's not…

"Good," Issei continued with a nod and a surprisingly-pretty smile. "Moving on, again I'd like to remind you three of the prohibition of public displays of affection on school grounds, as well as to ask that you all refrain from impromptu and disruptive displays of bravado."

"We can do that." Shirou deadpanned again.

"Very good," Issei said with a beaming smile. "That's all really…oh, and when you have the time, I'd like to talk to you in private at the student council meeting room, Emiya. Bye now."

Waving cheerfully at the three of them in goodbye, Issei sauntered off, leaving Shirou and his two…companions, looking after her in confusion. "…did…did that just happen?" Shirou asked, looking and sounding…disturbed.

"Yeah…it just…did…" Sakura replied, looking quite disturbed herself.

"That girl…" Luvia muttered to herself, slumped forward and with her fingers rapidly tapping against each other. "…could it be…she's also interested in my darling…no…I won't have it…not another rival…absolutely not…"

Unfortunately, as quiet as she already was, she wasn't quiet enough. Shirou caught what she was muttering, and paling once more, suddenly felt really dirty.

I need a shower.

"YOU! YOU'RE SHIROU EMIYA, AREN'T YOU?"

It might have been spoken in Finnish, but the syllables of Shirou's name, while somewhat mangled in translation, were recognizable for all that. The same went for the belligerence and outrage behind the exclamation. Shirou turned, as did Sakura and Luvia, and then Shirou and Sakura's mouths were falling open.

There, standing on the street a few meters behind them, and clearly just having jumped out of a car which had screeched to a halt next to the curb, was…well, Luvia. She looked absolutely identical, down to the eyes and cheekbones, the way she styled her hair, and even the blue and white dress she wore.

What was not identical, was the expression of fury on her face…

…as was the ugly-looking flail she was carrying in her right hand, her left hand pointing accusingly at Shirou.

It took a moment, and then it clicked in Sakura's head. "Oh right," she muttered. "Edelfelt…twins…I should have seen this coming…wait, no…now there are two of you?"

"Oh hush you." Luvia said with a dismissive roll of her eyes. "I know we look alike, and Marjatta is my other half, but we are still two separate people. And…oh yes, she doesn't like you, darling."

"Eh? But why?" Shirou erupted. "I've never even met her before!"

"I'll tell you why!" Marjatta said, still pointing accusingly at Shirou. "You seduced my sister, then you broke her heart by running back to this backwater country of yours, and then you take advantage of her pining for you by making her share you with that…other, woman next to you!"

"SAY WHAT?" Shirou and Sakura shouted in chorus, while Luvia just rolled her eyes and muttered something to herself under her breath.

"Shameless curs," Marjatta roared, leaping forward while swinging her flail in circles overhead. "I'll kill you both!"

"Oh enough!" Luvia said, snapping her fingers and sending a bolt of energy flying. It struck the chain of Marjatta's flail, breaking it apart and sending the head flying. It flew through the air and smashed into the ground right before a fat and pimply underclassman. He fell back to the ground, and causing the bag he was carrying in one hand to spill its contents: dirty bloomers stolen from the school's female locker room.

A few moments later, and he was running for his life, chased by a mob of angry young women. Sadly, they lacked the torches and pitchforks to complete the stereotype, but that would probably only make them even more frighteningly inventive if they caught up to him.

"Luvia!" Marjatta shouted, stamping one of her feet petulantly against the ground. "That was an antique! And come to your senses! That…boy is just playing with your heart!"

"No he isn't!" Luvia quickly and firmly disagreed. "He and I went through so much together, though it was admittedly a different life, and a different world even! We dreamed of a wonderful world together, a world we build together with our own hands, where our deepest desires would bear rich and wonderful fruit, and for which we became as one body and soul!"

"…that will not help." Shirou mourned, while next to him, Sakura visibly fumed at the…flowery, language used to describe what Shirou and Astraea had together become in the Vortex World.

"…SHIROU…EMIYA…!" Marjatta roared, before leaping at him. Finally looking alarmed, Luvia moved to restrain her sister, and for the next few minutes, the air echoed with the sound of breaking concrete, sizzling energy beams, and the popping and cracking of displaced air, before it ended with Marjatta held in an armlock by her own sister. "LET ME GO, LUVIA! DAMN IT, LET ME GO! LET ME AT HIM! THIS IS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!"

"Not until you calm down, Marjatta." Luvia said. "I can't let you hurt darling out of some misguided sense of sisterhood. Despite what you might believe, he's never done anything to me that I never gave my consent for, and in fact, he's been a perfect gentleman all this time!"

"LUVIA, WHAT HAS HE DONE TO YOU?"

"…you didn't tell her, did you?" Sakura deadpanned to Luvia. "The Vortex World…Masayoshi…the High Justice…Astraea…she doesn't know anything about them, does she?"

"Would it help if she did?" Luvia asked.

"OF COURSE IT WILL!" Sakura exploded. "SERIOUSLY? IF IT'S ALL A CASE OF 'MISGUIDED SISTERHOOD', THEN JUST SET HER RIGHT, ALREADY!"

"Huh…well, why not?"

"No, I don't want to apologize."

Luvia's response was to grab and then twist one of Marjatta's ears. "Alright, alright, alright already!" the latter shouted, before pouting as Luvia let go. "I'm sorry…there, happy?"

"It didn't sound really sincere to me, but I suppose the letter of judgment and recompense is satisfied." Luvia unhappily remarked. "Really, Marjatta…you can be quite the pain sometimes…"

"Count your blessings," Sakura said while walking over with a steaming pot of tea. "At least your sister cares for you both in word and action. I've got real bad luck when it comes to siblings: my half-sister is a neglectful prima donna, while my adopted brother was a rapist and a thug. To be honest, I'm quite jealous."

"Well, when you put it that way…" Luvia conceded.

"…thanks, Miss Matou." Marjatta reluctantly thanked the younger woman for vouching for her.

"No problem." Sakura said with a smile and pouring tea for Marjatta.

"…normally I'd be asking if you people really think I'm crazy enough to believe what my sister just told me…" Marjatta finally said after few moments and a sip of her tea. She nodded once at Sakura to acknowledge the quality of the brew, and then turned back to Shirou on the opposite side of the table. "…but seriously-speaking, my sister can't lie to me. She cannot. So it must be the truth, and considering the events of the past month or so…I suppose I should be grateful she was just bonded with an aspect of a goddess of justice, and not some other monster or being from the beyond."

"…is that the magic of Edelfelt's Ore Scales…?" Sakura asked softly after a few moments.

Luvia smiled, and drew Marjatta into an embrace, the latter matching the other's movements down to the millimeter, and wrapping each other's arms around each other until they were one in all but the literal sense of the phrase, spoke as one. "When we say we are each other's halves," they said. "That is all but literal. To break the mirror…like our grandmother and her sister once did…it is the greatest sin of all…"

"…I'm so jealous…" Sakura murmured, and Shirou quickly pulled her into a comforting embrace. "…take care of each other…and do not commit that greatest sin you speak of…what you have…it is so beautiful…"

"…it truly is." Luvia said, her eyes staring into her sister's own, their lips just inches from each other.

"And yet you have that Emiya boy coming between us." Marjatta archly murmured.

Luvia hummed, caressing Marjatta's cheek, a gesture Marjatta returned in kind. "Darling is darling." She said. "Just as Marjatta is Marjatta…both of you are irreplaceable in completely different ways…"

"Hmm…I can live with that…"

Then the two sisters pulled away from each other…

…and a flanged mace was being levelled Shirou's way. "I'd still like to think over this some more," Marjatta said with a smile. "But I suppose I can trust Luvia's judgment…however! Break her heart, Shirou Emiya, and mark my words I will use your skull as a wineglass if it's the last thing I do."

Shirou just sighed in exasperation. "Don't worry," he said. "I won't."

Marjatta pouted, but after a cough from Luvia, sighed and hefted her mace by the shaft on a shoulder. "Fine," he said. "But I'll hold you to your word, got it?"

"Got it."

"Good."

A/N

It's short, but this will be the first of a few shorts I plan to cover certain points taking place during the time-skip, and which can't really be expanded into full chapters.

Anyway, what do you think?