Disclaimer: Fate/Stay Night is property of Type-moon, RWBY is property of Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC. This work is purely fanfiction and as such earns me no income.
*May receive some edits in the future and maybe additional dialogue.
*Fresh post. May have more than few mistakes here and there. May update with corrections in several days or so... probably.
"This here to our right is the staff break room. You are welcome to use it anytime you prefer during your break."
Glynda Goodwitch was busy showing the new staff some of the important locations of Beacon Academy. She was professional and strict with her decorum, whilst the two being guided by her were silently and attentively listening to her.
"And over here, we have—"
"Food fight in the mess hall!" Students were scrambling pass them as they made their way to, what would probably be a mess of a hall by the time they get there.
"Uhm… Professor Goodwitch?" said Rin towards their guide, who had her eyes closed, obviously trying to calm herself down. "Will that not need your attention?"
Letting out a small exhale, Professor Goodwitch answered, "I am sure it's only a small, minor thing caused by one or two students. There should probably be no need for me to—"
*BOOM!*
A student came flying through the roof of the building where the mess hall was located. The spectators watched as the yellow comet reached the height of its peak before it began its descent back towards the ground. There came the sound of a second crash, most likely a second hole was made on the roof.
"Grrr!" Professor Glynda Goodwitch tried to appear calm, but the grinding of her teeth could be heard by the two behind her. "As I've shown you all the necessary basic facilities, I believe it is fine for me to end our tour here. I'm sorry for this sudden interruption."
"It is no trouble at all," replied Rin politely. "Short as it was, your guidance was immensely helpful."
"Thank you for understanding," Professor Goodwitch nodded before leaving towards the source of her current headache.
"The students here certainly seems quite a bit more spirited than ours," said Shirou. "I can see why they would need help with repairs for the entire school. It wouldn't be too far off the mark to say that they have plenty of students with Fuji-nee's disposition."
Rin chuckled. "I'm not sure if we should consider that a blessing or a curse."
A loud crash can be heard coming from the mess hall.
"Looks like I'll be a lot busier than I thought I would be," sighed Shirou.
"You're just here to observe, anyway. There should be plenty of opportunity for that. Meanwhile, I'll be browsing through their library collections for any clues regarding to magecraft. The jobs shouldn't be too hard for both us."
Rin would later take that statement back after her first day on the job. She didn't know full well the requirements of being a librarian in this world. Her grave mistake was that thinking libraries would only revolve around books. She had not expected that she would need to use a computer for some of her duties.
"Encountered a bit of a problem, have you?" Shirou smiled as he prepared some tea for the exhausted Rin.
Rin grumbled as she sat down haphazardly in a chair. Master and Servant were both currently in the staff breakroom.
"Ugh! What kind of libraries need to use computers!" complained Rin. "Such things are just a bother to academia!"
Shirou sighed at her as he passed her a cup of tea. "You do know that even our school had already started using those years ago, right?"
Rin frowned as she did remember about that. It didn't really inconvenience her that much back then, since their school library wasn't all that large in the first place.
"Are you sure you're going to be fine, Rin?"
"I'll just have to manage somehow."
Another person soon arrived to join the two.
"Oh? If it isn't Mister Emiya and Miss Tohsaka." Professor Port had entered the breakroom and saw the new staff members. "Do you mind if I join you two?"
In a flash, Rin had her social mask back on. Gone was her tired and lazy appearance just a while ago, replaced by an elegant lady with poise.
"Good morning, Professor," she said. "Please do."
"Would black tea suit you just fine?" said Shirou.
"Ah, yes." The professor took the cup handed to him and took a seat on their table. "So, how goes your first day here?"
"It's going fairly well, thank you for asking," said Rin in a pleasant tone. "Although, it will take us a bit more time to acclimate ourselves here. There is just simply too much to see in a single day."
Professor nodded in understanding. "Yes, that is so. The academy is certainly a large place. I doubt you would see everything, even with several days of just wandering around its grounds." He took a sip of his tea, his moustache bristling in satisfaction after tasting it. "This is finely made," he commented before taking another sip.
"I'm glad you liked it," said Shirou. "Rin does prefer it since it helps calm the nerves."
The three enjoyed their hot tea quietly for a moment.
The approaching heavy clack of footsteps from outside the breakroom had broken the silence, though. In front of the doorway, an irate looking Professor Glynda Goodwitch stood with her eyes closed, appearing to be on the brink of frustration.
"Ozpin is too soft with those children," she mumbled in quite anger to herself, unaware of the occupants of the breakroom. "Honestly, how does he expect them to behave themselves in the future if he keeps letting them off easy like this?"
"You seem to be having quite a stressful day today, Glynda," said Professor Port, catching the woman's attention.
Professor Glynda went slightly red as she had shown an appearance unfit of that of her usual professionalism.
"Why not join us for a cup of tea?" offered Professor Port. "It is quite a relaxing brew, and you certainly look like you could really use one."
"I thank you for the offer and apologize for showing such an unsightly display just now," answered Professor Glynda.
"Please, don't worry about it," said Rin, whilst Shirou passed another cup of tea to their new arrival. "Being affected so much like that, it just shows how dedicated you truly are to your work. I can understand your feelings of frustration well."
"Hmm?" Professor Glynda was a lot more relaxed after taking a sip of her brew. "Although you don't look any older than some of the children here yourself, you seem quite more mature than even most adults." She gave a narrow, sideways glance towards Professor Port as she said so.
"Not at all," said Rin with small shake of her head. "I still consider myself far from a mature adult. There is still far too many things for me to experience to even consider myself as such."
Professor Glynda smiled at that bit of humbleness. "If only we had more students like you, I think my life here would be far less stressful."
"Thank the heavens there's only one," quietly whispered Shirou. "Urgh…!"
Both Professors looked at Shirou, who had a strained smile on his face.
"Is something the matter?" asked Professor Port.
"No, not really." Shirou said, still smiling at them. "My muscles are probably just a bit sore from moving around too much stuff yesterday."
Underneath their table, Rin, who still carried her pleasant smile on her face, was grinding her heel into Shirou's foot.
"My, Shirou, you should really take better care of yourself," said Rin. "You just need to speak politely, and I would be sure to offer to help ease your muscle pains."
Translation: Better watch what you say about me, or I will break your foot!
"U-Understood." Shirou nodded vigorously.
"So, Professor Goodwitch," said Rin. "It looks like your students seem to be a handful."
The professor sighed. "I suppose that is one way to look at it. Although, the headmaster would probably use the term youthful instead. They have a way of always finding trouble wherever they go."
"Come now, Glynda," Professor Port chuckled. "The youth should enjoy themselves in our time of peace. Even I had spent some of my youth being a little rapscallion."
"If we could continue to afford doing so, I would probably agree."
Professor Glynda knew well that their peace was being threatened. She did not know how much longer until the curtain drops, leaving the children exposed to the dangers out of their hands.
"Sooner or later, a baby bird will need to learn how to fly by itself," said Shirou seriously. "They can't stay in their nest forever. Someday, your students will walk their own path, and I hope you'll be proud of them as you watch their backs."
Professor Glynda was surprised by this, but smiled. "Yes. My heart will surely be lightened when that time comes. Although, I can't say I won't miss them." She took another sip of her tea, and took a moment to think. "That will still be quite a long time from now, though. There is no need to rush them, so I suppose it's okay to let them stay in their nest a little bit longer."
Professor Port chuckled. "No need for the mother bird to feel lonely just yet."
Professor Glynda scoffed at that remark.
"Say, Professor…" said Shirou. "Would it be alright for me to come watch one of your classes some time?"
"Hmmm…" Professor Glynda considered this. "I don't think there should be a problem with that. Some of our combat classes are held in an indoor arena with plenty of space. It allows for most students from other years and classes to observe and learn from their fellow student's battles. As long as you don't make any interruptions to the class, I think it should be perfectly fine."
"Is that so?" said Shirou. "That is good to know."
"But may I ask why you are interested in it?"
Shirou looked to ponder about it before answering, "I guess it is more of an interest in their weapons than actually seeing the students themselves. They look quite impressive from my point of view."
"Hoho!" Professor Port let out a hearty laugh. "It's true that most people would probably find that fascinating. After all, each weapon is unique for every Huntsman or Huntress, an extension of themselves so to speak. They are as varied as the students that wield them. If you want, I could even show you my own."
"Maybe some other time," Shirou declined. "I don't believe I'll have that much free time to just watch other people work hard. There are more than a few places that I have not gone through yet, and the ones I have are still in need of repairs and cleaning."
"It's nice to see you're serious about your work here," said Professor Glynda. "If you could lessen my workload even by a fraction, I would be glad to thank you for it."
"No thanks would be necessary. I was hired to do the work, after all."
The old and new staff of Beacon Academy spent their break getting themselves well acquainted with one another. They soon returned to their work, once their break was over.
Inside the Beacon Academy library, Blake was headed towards the reception desk. She was there to borrow a book for her homework from Professor Peach's class. She hadn't expected to see a familiar face turning up to greet her.
"Oh, if it isn't Blake," said Rin after looking up from her paperwork. "It's nice to see you again."
"Miss Rin?" queried Blake in a little surprise. "What are you doing here?"
Rin smiled at the cat faunus. "I told you that calling me just Rin is fine. As for the reason why I'm here, I've just recently started as a part-time assistant librarian here."
"Is that so?" said Blake. "That's nice."
"Yes. I hope to get along well with you once more, and the rest of the people here in Beacon," said Rin.
"Sure thing," answered Blake. "I'm sure you'll be very welcome here."
After shuffling away her paperwork, Rin asked, "So, what may I help you with?"
"I was wondering if you could look up where A History of Grimm and Geography is? I need it for some research."
"That one should be in the third shelf down from the entrance, lower right corner between History and Geography section. It should be in alphabetical order, so you shouldn't have any problem finding it."
"Thanks!" Blake nodded, before furrowing her brown in thought. She just noticed that Rin hadn't used the terminal at all to find the book's location. "Have you read it before?"
"It's on my reading list. It looked like it might be interesting, so I made a mental note of it," answered Rin. She couldn't say that she gave up on using the terminal and just memorized most of the general books locations instead. She had surmised that it would take too long to learn how to use the damned thing than just memorizing the locations. It helped immensely that the organization system would allow her to just memorize the names and genres of the books to locate them more easily.
"Thank you," said Blake. "I might come back to check it out if I don't finish it in time."
"Please, take your time."
As soon as Blake was gone, Rin returned to her stack of paperwork once more.
"…This is definitely going to take me some time to go through," Rin mumbled to herself as she looked over the list of materials regarding anything to do with dust, grimm, and magic. She sighed. "Not to mention, I still have to figure out how to use this cursed machine for checking out books."
She never figured it out before Blake returned with her book. The faunus had to walk Rin step by step on how to do it, even going so far as repeating it three more times to the magus.
"No offense, but I'm kind of surprised to see you so bad with this," said Blake. "You just seem like the kind of person that could probably do anything."
"We all have our flaws," said Rin, slightly exhausted from her learning experience. "Mine being technology in this case. My family was really old-fashioned. I'm probably the only one who even considered the practicality of having a phone."
"Wow. That sounds pretty inconvenient. Were they still writing letters or something?"
Rin nodded. "Most of the time, yes. But they did have some other means of delivering messages to their contacts aside from that."
"Well, if you ever need any help, I do spend some of my time here in the library," Blake offered. "It's the least I could do to repay your generosity for letting me stay at your home."
"I don't think it was really that much of a big deal, but I'll be glad to accept your offer, nonetheless," Rin answered gladly.
Several days have passed since the new staff have arrived in Beacon. There hasn't been any problems as of yet with their stay, but some of the students have begun to take notice of them. Particularly the tall and well-built handyman that had been going around in his olive green hat and custodian uniform.
"Don't think I'll let you win!"
"Bring it, sister!"
The female students were quite ferocious in their combat practice today.
"Aren't those two on the same team?" whispered Ruby to Weiss. They were watching the 2 on 2 battle from the sidelines, alongside the rest of their class.
"That guy must be watching again."
It hadn't taken others long to notice that many of the girls were a lot more fired up when their new handyman watched from the top railings of their small arena. He would come by from time to time during combat practice.
"Wow. Sucks to be those two right now," said Sun.
Sun was referring to Dove and Sky from Team CRDL, who were facing off against the duo of Team NDGO. The women had started trying to beat their respective opponents with ardent fervor, as if trying to win the attention of their prince charming. Needless to say, their opponents end up getting thrashed from the overzealous women.
"Uugh…I hate that guy," grumbled Dove before falling unconscious on top of Sky.
"Ha! I got both of them!" proudly stated Nebula.
"No fair! You threw your guy at mine!" protested Octavia.
While the two girls quarreled over their win, Shirou had been carefully watching each and every detail of the battle with intense focus. He noted their movements, their weapons, their so called "Aura," and some of the Semblances that they used.
Huntsmen and Huntress were quite adaptable in the way they fight. Much like the way he fights, almost all of them were easily able to switch from range and close combat, transforming their weapons on the fly to fit each of their attacks. It would certainly be more difficult to fight them if they were physically on par with Servants. He understood that better than most, being statistically weaker than most regular Servants.
He relied mostly on his ability to adapt to any type of combat, using range to snipe enemies before they got too close, engaging them in close combat if it was to his advantage, or even using a combination of both to throw them off balance. Underhanded tactics were never fully off the table with him. All of it was free game, as long as he won the battle in the end.
Lifetimes of killing had warped his already broken self into what ultimately became the Counter Guardian known as EMIYA. He ended the lives of many, saving the lives of countless others. His ideal from the start, betrayed over and over by his own actions.
"Not good," Shirou rubbed his forehead. "That guy really would do just about anything to win. Can't say I don't really understand him better now, though."
"Hey, show's over."
Shifting his focus away from his thoughts, Shirou saw one of the female students walk over to him.
Just as the girl said, he noticed that the class was over and the students were already halfway out of the arena. They were probably going on their break.
She threw a can of juice at him, which he caught with his right hand. He looked at the can before looking up at the student who gave it to him.
"Looked like you were spacing around too much," said Yang Xiao Long with a wide grin. "Thought maybe you could use a drink."
Shirou smiled. "Thanks."
He opened up his can and took a gulp of it. Yang also had one for herself and joined him in leaning on the railings.
"So…" began Yang after a few moments of silence between them. "What did you think?"
"About what?" said Shirou.
"You know, the fights?" said Yang. "The ones you've been staring at so intently every single time you come here."
"I didn't think students would find a custodian so interesting."
Yang smirked at him. "Maybe if half the class didn't think he was such a hottie, then I probably wouldn't have taken a closer look myself."
Shirou sighed internally.
He had thought he was being inconspicuous with his observations. He's going to have to find a way to correct that next time. Rin did tell him that the less attention to themselves, the better.
"So you think I'm a hottie too?" Shirou returned the smirk. "Is that why I get a free drink?"
"Meh, you're okay," said Yang after pretending to look him over. "Just not my type, though."
"So why talk to me then? I'm just a custodian interested in killing some time here. I don't think I'm really bothering anyone by entertaining myself with watching a few fights."
Tell that to the guys who faced your adoring fans, thought Yang.
"Hmmm… I guess no reason really," said Yang. "Although, for a custodian, you seemed a little bit too serious with watching us fight."
"Just curious about those fancy weapons you all have," said Shirou calmly. "I just have a deep interest in them."
"Haha! Just like my sister, huh?" Yang seemed pleased by that. "Maybe I should get you two together to talk about them sometime. I'm sure she knows almost everything about them."
"Ruby Rose, right?"
Yang's smile froze. "How do you know that?"
The blonde sister didn't look it, but she was very protective of her young sibling. The thought of a man watching her so intensely with scrutinizing eyes did not elicit warm thoughts from her.
"She's friends with my little sister," simply stated Shirou, unaware of the change in his companion.
"Little sister?" Yang's frozen smile was replaced with a look of confusion. Her eyes looked at the white hair of the man before her, then the puzzle in her mind fell into place. "You're Illya's big brother!"
Shirou laughed as Yang backed away from him in surprise. "You don't have to be that surprised, you know? I know we don't really look alike, but so do you and your sister."
"Ah, well…" Yang shuffled her feet, embarrassed at her reaction. "I hadn't really seen you before, and she did tell us that you were the chef at the café. Didn't really think you'd show up here, of all places. Even working as a custodian too."
"I'm just working here part-time," informed Shirou. "I still work at the café on most days."
Yang took her place back on the railing. "What? I thought business seemed pretty good there?"
"We're doing quite well, but Sakura needs a bit more time with sharpening her cooking skills. I've recently gotten a boost in experience, so I thought she could use this chance to catch up."
"So you opted to work as a custodian?" said Yang, looking at him like he was crazy.
"Strange as it may seem, it does help me relax. And I'm not the type that can just laze around at home all day," chuckled Shirou. "Plus, I was serious when I said I was interested in seeing the weapons used here."
"You're a pretty weird guy, you know that?" smiled Yang.
"I get that a lot."
The two laughed together at that. They seemed to be enjoying each other's company while sharing drinks and telling stories.
"You think you can get me a discount when I eat at your place next time?" asked Yang jokingly.
"I'm not sure our manager would like that." Shirou could just imagine Rin's smiling visage at such a suggestion. It sent chills down his spine just thinking about it.
"How about just letting me borrow your little sister while I'm eating?" said Yang. "I can loan you my mine while yours keeps me company."
"You won't try and snuff her out this time, will you?"
"Oh… she told you about that, huh?" Yang laughed awkwardly.
"She did say a few things about you," admitted Shirou. Yang looking a little depressed at that. "It was actually the first time I've ever seen her talk so much about other people. She seemed really happy to meet you guys."
"What, really?" said Yang, perking up.
Shirou's attitude shifted slightly from his earlier merriment.
"She hasn't had much of a normal childhood to speak of," he admitted with a soft trace of sadness. "Let's just say our father wasn't able to bring her the life she deserved to live before he died. There were also certain family matters that complicated things more and had wedged a gap between us some time ago."
"Hmmm… sounds rough."
"Things are a lot better between us now," waived off Shirou. "She's got a new chance at life here, and I'm trying to make up for what my father failed to give her." He turned around to face Yang seriously. "And having friends like you around her really makes that possible. Thanks for that."
Yang scratched her cheek, a little embarrassed about that. "You don't have to thank me for it. She's a cute little kid. Hard not to want to be friends with her at all."
Yang's scroll rings, disturbing their conversation.
"Oh, that's my alarm. I gotta get to my next class before I'm late," said Yang.
Shirou removes himself from the railing. "I should get back to work too."
"Take it easy, okay?" Yang smiled while giving a small salute at him. "Also, you can add me as one of your friends too."
Shirou blinked blankly at that before returning a smile. "I still can't give you a discount, you now that, right?"
"Does the price of friendship cost so little now?" Yang said in mock disappointment.
"I'll see if I can get you some free desserts some time," replied Shirou.
"Now we're talking!" Yang gave him a thumbs up before running off to her next class.
She kind of reminded Shirou of his talks with Mitsuzuri. They were both certainly quite headstrong. He was happy getting another friend like her here.
"I guess being back in school, even just as a custodian, isn't all that bad," he said to himself.
A/N:
I'm still working on that date with Rider. Maybe in the next several chapters or so.
So I finished FHA. It certainly gave me a lot of background for more of the cast and their personalities. Although, I won't be using all of it as canon source. Mainly because some parts of it came off as too silly. I didn't know there was a stuffed animal store scene there too.
As always, please read and review. It will help me if you can point out some mistakes in spelling, grammar and inconsistencies as well. Please do try to make constructive criticism rather than blatant dislike.