Chapter 6: New arrivals

"Shirou-san, are you there?" Kobayashi's voice calls out from behind my door and I make my way over to it, opening up I find a rather flummoxed looking Kobayashi and already I'm feeling a sense of dread.

"Yes Kobayashi-san, how can I help...you?" I trail off as I gradually look down and see a small white haired child in a pink dress standing just behind Kobayashi, the small girl looks to be around, has shoulder length white hair which turns purple towards the tips, bright blue eyes and a pair of light grey horns extending from the side of her head.

I look back up at Kobayashi and raise and eyebrow "Nevermind, I've figured it out." she awkwardly chuckles at me and then replies "Yeah...I assume she's Tohru's friend-" as she says that the small girl looks up at her with a slightly murderous glint in her eyes, anyone else would find it hilarious that this cute little girl can look at someone with such an expression. I don't, it reminds me too much of Ilya shortly before she set Berserker loose on us "-but she's out shopping at the moment so I came here to get some support from you."

I release a small breath before nodding to her "I suppose it can't be helped then, you want to do this in your apartment or mine?"

"We'll do it in mine, Tohru should be back soon anyway and I don't want her freaking out because I'm not there." I begin to imagine how Tohru would react to her 'beloved' human friend if she found her and another dragon in my apartment "That's probably a good idea…" I say to her with a slight grimace.

Kobayashi leads myself and our visitor into her apartment, sitting ourselves down on the floor Kobayashi decides to speak first.

"So...what did you say your name was?"

The small girl looks at her "Break up with Lady Tohru."

"What?" I voice my confusion and the girl sees fit to deign me with a response "That slut seduced Lady Tohru with her body!"

I lightly chop the top of her head while adopting a stern voice "Don't be rude." the little girl rubs her head slightly before narrowing her eyes at me "She stole Lady Tohru away!" I pinch the bridge of my nose and turn to Kobayashi who matches my look of confusion.

I sigh and turn back to the girl in front of us "I think there's been a misunderstanding here, you see-"

"Miss Kobayashi, I'm home!" Tohru calls from the front door as she enters, cutting off what I was about to say. She walks into the room where she immediately notices the small girl sitting on the floor and her eyes glint with recognition while the smaller dragon girls attitude becomes elated, I can barely make out a small smile on her face.

"Lady Tohru!" "Kanna?"

The exclaim at the same time which only confirms both mine and Kobayashi's belief that they know each other.

"Is she a friend of yours Tohru?" Kobayashi's voice break Tohru out of her confusion at the appearance of the now named Kanna and she turns to us.

"Ah, yes her name is Kanna Kamui."

"Not to take this the wrong way Kanna-chan" she turns to me and tilts her head in confusion "But why exactly are you here?"

She makes a small face of realisation "After Lady Tohru went missing I came here to search for her."

"Went missing? So you didn't tell anyone where you were?" I turn my attention to the older dragon girl who avoids my gaze and starts sweating and lets out a nervous laugh.

"Still though, how did you know she was here?"

"I saw lady Tohru breath fire during a cloudy day." My palm meets my face and I let out a rather heavy sigh "Of course you did."

"You were pretty careless then weren't you Tohru?" Kobayashi says in a light hearted manner, she has no idea that this isn't anything to joke about though. Releasing that level of magical energy in public like that is a sure fire way to have enforcers breaking down your door where I'm from.

"Lady Tohru" Kanna walked up and gripped her dress "Come home with me."

Tohru stared down at her before looking away guiltily "I'm not going home." at this point Kanna's on the verge of tears with how sad she's looking at the rejection "Why not?" Tohru breathes in and closes her eyes "Because…" she takes on a shameless expression completely ignoring the heartbroken expression on the young girl "I'm in love with Miss Kobayashi!"

"Oi, take this seri-/ Lets avoid any misun-"

"I knew it!" Kanna points at the pair of us and cuts off both mine and Kobayashi's attempts to control this train wreck of a conversation "I saw you on your date at the Bazaar! You were holding hands too your perverts!"

I focus on the first part of that conversation and turn to Kobayashi a raised eyebrow "Date?" she doesn't look at me and replies in a tired tone "Food shopping." I hum in acknowledgement and turn back to the pair.

"In that case…" Kanna's eyes narrow dangerously as she focuses on Kobayashi "I'll have to kill you!" she rushes forward and starts pathetically pounding her fists on Kobayashi while cursing her name.

The display is far from what I would expect from such a powerful dragon. She continues for a few more moments before tiring herself out and panting as if she just ran a marathon Tohru looks down on her with a bewildered expression "Kanna, you've gotten really weak haven't you?"

"You're the odd one Lady Tohru" Kanna answers back "The mana purity here is too low."

"Really?" Tohru has a confused expression on her face before she turns to me "Myself and Emiya-san don't have a problem with it."

I freeze under her stare.

What?

"Tohru…" I begin slowly "What do you mean?" praying that I heard her wrong while Kobayashi is slowly turning her head to look at me with a puzzled expression.

"Sometimes I sense you practising magic next door." She says with a proud expression on her face like she just won a prize.

"Oh…" I dumbly start as if I haven't just been outed as a magus in front of my neighbour and her pet dragon. "That explains it then."

"You're a mage Shirou-san?" Kobayashi exclaims next to me, thoroughly surprised at my hidden talent.

"You didn't know Miss Kobayashi? He was using it at his place of work so I thought everyone knew he was a mage." Tohru asks her in a confused tone and I probably should have realised that practising my magecraft next to a phantasmal beast which can easily sense mana may not have been the best of idea.

"I'm actually a Magus…" I cough out before trying to turn the conversation away from myself "More importantly Kanna, could it be that your stuck here now?" The girl freezes and looks away from me rather suddenly "Th-that's not true…"

"Oh?" Kobayashi shifts her attention to me and back to the stranded dragon child "But you don't have anywhere to stay do you?" Kanna stills again and Kobayashi leans in towards her "Come on Kanna-chan Look me in the eyes and answer." Kobayashi's rather lifeless eyes have tears forming in the eyes of the young girl as she desperately tries to escape from her stare.

"Kanna, please tell us honestly what your plan is." Tohru questioned her before putting on an exaggeratedly worried expression "Don't tell me...You're here for Kobaya-"

"Okay, lets stop there." Kobayashi cut her off before she could finish.

"Actually…" the small girl began.

Pranks. She was exiled to Earth because she was playing too many pranks. The mighty race of dragons dabbled in the second True Magic as a means of effectively locking a naughty toddler in their room. If Tohsaka were here she'd probably start pulling her hair out as such a nonsensical use of magic, I myself was trying to bite back a slight chuckle. All the Magi in my world who so greatly revered true magic's and these dragons could just use them on a whim, true they weren't nearly as powerful as the Kaleidoscope but the principle remained the same.

I realise that I've tuned out the conversation and return to it just as Kobayashi offers Kanna a place to stay with her and Tohru.

"Are you sure Kobayashi-san?" I shift her attention to me "Tohru's one thing because I'm at least teaching her how to take her of herself-"

"Hey!"

"-But Kanna-chan is basically a child and let's face it" I gesture around the room "This place isn't really big enough for a small family."

"It's fine Shirou-san" she simply waves me off while patting Kanna's head "She has no one in this world she can trust but more than that…" She looks down slightly with a small smile "Aren't you the one always wanting to help people."

"he...I suppose so. If you're sure then I won't stop you."

"Besides I can always call on you if I need someone to babysit both of them."

I deadpan at her before shaking my head and giving a light chuckle "Well, you know where to find me if you ever need help."

"I'm sure I'll manage Shirou-san, but you'll be one of the first I call if I need help."

Honestly. What a strange place to be but…

I look over the smiling faces of my neighbours as they welcome their new addition and a small smile starts forming on my face.

...That's not a bad thing.

AN: How cute. Next time we move onto…

Well… Moving and not just for Kobayashi-san.