After signing their contract with Ariadne, the party was teleported back to the surface.
Tension relieved, the entire party sank to their knees.
The fight against the Giant Eagle Headed Monster, and all those goddamn stairs, had taken it out of them, and the fright given by Ariadne's power had knocked the bravado out of the party, which was what had been keeping them all on their feet.
So even though the members of Polaris suggested going out for dinner for a victory celebration, they declined, just wanting to go home and hit the hay.
Sadly, they had other obligations. "I'm supposed to report to the Guild." Rin said with a sigh. "If I don't get there before the night shift, I can't get Yumi to cover this up for me."
"Want me to come along?" Shirou asked. He hadn't been back at the Guild since he repaid the receptionist he met on the first day for her kindness.
"No. I'm good. Just make sure that you have some dinner for me when I get back." Rin said, waving him off before heading in the direction of the Guild. The others returned to their little rental home and Sakura got to work preparing their meal.
Shirou attempted to help, but Issei grabbed him by the shoulder. "Shirou, mind if we talk in private for a bit?" The boy asked.
"Huh? Can it wait until after dinner?" Shirou asked, not wanting to give up on cooking.
"I think we are all going to collapse after that." Issei joked. "It's just a question I'd really like to ask you."
"Alright then. I guess." Shirou said, following Issei back into the boy's room.
Despite Issei saying he wanted a private talk, Theresa followed behind like Shirou's shadow. But they all had acknowledged that there wasn't much they could do about that.
Especially since she could open locked doors.
"So, what do you want to talk about?" Shirou asked as the pair sat opposite of each other on their own beds.
"...Shirou, I can sense magical energy. I always have been, despite thinking I couldn't." Issei said after taking a moment to collect his thoughts. "I didn't realize what it was until we came to this world. And I wasn't able to do it so precisely until I got the 'Sixth Sense' skill, but I had always been able to do it. Rin and Sakura. The two of them have always had a lot of magical energy in them, and I mean a LOT. They have so much that even after growing all of these levels, the rest of us can't compare to them. …But I had also occasionally sensed some coming from you, whenever you would help out with maintenance at school. You've also gained more MP than just from leveling these last few days."
Shirou stiffened as he realized Issei had figured out that he, Rin and Sakura were not normal.
"If you tell me this is something you can't talk about, I'll drop it. If there is a good reason to keep it secret, I understand. But otherwise, I think Ayako, Madoka and I have the right to know." Issei said, looking at Shirou with pleading eyes. "We are a team, so you don't need to keep things from us, especially not things like this. Not only that, we're friends. Regardless of what this is, I will always have your back."
Shirou didn't know how to respond. He noticed that Issei had omitted Shinji's name, correctly guessing that Shinji already knew if it had to do with Sakura.
"...All talk with Rin and Sakura about it." Shirou said, unsure of himself as he looked away from his friend's eyes. "I'm sorry. It isn't that I don't trust you, it's that… My father once told me never to reveal this to anyone, not even to save someone's life. Because if word got out, a lot of innocent people would die, more than I could possibly have saved."
"I understand." Issei said, nodding gratefully. "You know. I'm kind of glad that it turned out that Rin and Sakura really were different, and that I wasn't just paranoid. And it wasn't because they were evil. I understand that. They just have so much magic power that it triggers some kind of survival instinct in me whenever I feel it. Like they were giants that could crush me to death if they accidentally stepped on me."
After their latest fight, Issei had become Level 5, and had 50 MP. A fair amount of magical power. Rin still completely dwarfed it. Back before he had come to this world, standing in her presence was like an ant standing before a rhino. Now, he had been upgraded from an ant to a rabbit, and still he had to worry about being stepped on.
"Anyways. If you'd be willing to share the truth with Ayako and Madoka, maybe even Elysha and her party, I'd be grateful. Those girls aren't stupid and they will figure it out eventually. It would be better in the long run if you just told them all yourselves." Issei said before getting up. "If you want to still help Sakura cook, you should probably get back to the kitchen. It smells like she is already part way done."
"Right." Shirou said, glad for the excuse to get up.
Thinking about it, he didn't know if there was a reason to keep the three of them being magi a secret, and Issei was right that if they were going to depend on each other, the others had a right to know. But at the same time, it wasn't his decision alone to make.
He'd have to talk to Rin and Sakura about it. Then, they could sort this all out together.
"So, you actually uncovered it." Yumi said as she looked over the results of the day's expedition with a sigh. "I didn't think that there was actually a Hidden God in there of all places. Though considering the hoops you had to jump through to find it, I can imagine it laying undiscovered for 860 years."
=Results of Expedition=
-30 points for exploring level 3 of 'Valley of Dawns'.
-? points for exploring hidden area of 'Valley of Dawns'.
-40 points for Sakura reaching level 5
-60 points for Rin reaching level 7
-50 points for Madoka reaching level 6
-60 points for Shirou reaching level 7
-60 points for Theresa reaching level 7
-40 points for Ayako reaching level 5
-40 points for Issei reaching level 5
-20 points for Shinji reaching level 3
-30 points for Shinji reaching level 4
-225 points for leveling up of subparty members
-2000 points for refining 500 Magic Stones.
-120 points for capturing 2 "Gaze-Hounds"
-1560 points for defeating 78 "Gaze-Hounds"
-570 points for defeating 57 "Gaze-Hounds" by subparty members
-50 points for defeating 1 "Plains Eater"
-? points for defeating "*Giant Eagle Headed Warrior"
-50 points for increased credibility with Madoka
-50 points for increased credibility with Shirou
-5 points for increased credibility with Theresa
-100 points for increased credibility with Sakura
-5 points for increased credibility with Ayako
-2 points for increased credibility with Issei
-1 points for increased credibility with Shinji
-20 points for increased credibility with subparty members
-? points deducted for failing to subdue out of control Servant "*****"
-? points for receiving the blessings of "*****"
=Total Contribution points - 5188+?-?=
=Ranking in District 8 - 2/3032=
=Ranking in District 7 - 84/9999=
"So you did know about the Hidden Gods then." Rin said, taking a sip of the tea that they offered to people speaking with their Guild support advisers. "Why didn't you tell me about it when I brought in the key?"
"And have my ID report me for revealing Guild forbidden secrets, so that I can lose my job and get arrested, shipped off to a correctional facility and have my memories wiped? Rin, I love you like a sister, but don't ask the impossible." Yumi said dryly. "Everyone who works at the Guild knows about the existence of the Hidden Gods, but until the Seeker in question actually makes contact with one themselves, that information is more classified than anything else."
"I can imagine." Rin replied with a sigh. "So despite Seekers supposedly being brought to this world to find these Hidden Gods, the Guild would much rather we didn't. Does that sound about right?"
"Probably. Not sure about their reasoning though. Their claim is that if the Hidden Gods all start to mill about and fight one another, then the city is likely to be destroyed in the crossfire. If I come into contact with someone who has seen a Hidden God, I am to advise them to keep that secret as close to the chest as possible and to avoid confrontation with anyone else who might have one."
"Any we should know about?"
"That information is above my paygrade. It is above everyone's paygrade. I am not even allowed to report or record anything about the Hidden God you discovered even to my superiors." Yumi told her. "Though if you look around you can take a guess who might and might not have one, since the power of a Hidden God isn't to be underestimated. After seeing that key of yours last night, I did some poking around the archives for the last few years. You can spot them, if you know what you are looking for."
"How is that?" Rin asked out of curiosity.
"Like I said, nothing to do with the Hidden Gods can be recorded in the main archives. When people receive contribution points and there isn't a clear reason why, it's likely to do with a Hidden God. Or that is my working theory." Yumi said with a sly smile, nose in the air. She looked like she was expecting to be praised, so Rin did clap a little. "Most of the people you would expect to have the blessing of a God make it to the upper districts pretty quickly. So it isn't likely you are going to spot one until you get to District 5."
"...And who in District 5 has come into contact with one?" Rin asked, a little tense.
"I cannot say… But who do you think?" Yumi said.
"...Shit." Rin swore, as Yumi knew fully well that they only knew of a single organization in District 5. The White Night Brigade. The one Alliance who could conceivably have beef with them. "Since Elysha was able to form a contract with Ariadne, she must not have known. Did they only make contact recently?"
"Elysha was not originally in the White Night Brigade's lead parties. She was only a member of a third party. Only the members of the main party and the secondary party have unexplained points." Yumi informed her. "Though I suppose I should say the former third party. All the members she worked with are gone. Either because they were mercenaries whose contracts expired, or because they were suicided to complete an objective, or because they went nuts under the influence of a curse and ended up in a correctional facility until their Karma is brought back down. Nearly the entire party has been replaced by new members… more than once."
"Jesus Christ." Rin said in disgust. Not because she didn't know of Magi who wouldn't do the same, but because a man put his own 14-year-old little sister in such a suicide squad. Not only that, but by not extending the blessing of the God to his sister, the God's resurrection abilities wouldn't save her if the worst happened. "On second thought, I'm glad that bastard has the blessings of another God. It means I can kill him without raising my Karma if Ariadne gives me permission."
She'd have to ask Ariadne the particulars on the subject of resurrection. Killing him only once wasn't going to be good enough. Bastards like him, who would treat their own family like that, shouldn't get off so easily.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Yumi said flatly. though she understood the sentiment. She changed the subject before she could hear any more about planned murder. "I've filled out all the paperwork to get you guys into District 7. Your history is such that you can skip the exam, but you won't be able to leave District 8 until after it is over anyways. While there is a back door between the Districts inside of the Guild house, it is only for temporary transfers only. If you want to officially move between districts for more than a short period of time, you have to go through one of the gates in the wall, which only opens on certain days."
"So, if I went to District 7 right now, I would be ranked 84 out of about 10,000?" Rin asked with a bit of curiosity. She also noticed that the total number of Seekers in District 8 had gone down… but chose not to think about it.
"It is really out of 42,000, but the ID doesn't display anything higher than 9,999 in that spot. In the beginning, there were only a few thousand people in all of Labyrinth City, and it isn't like anyone has the ability to update the system that the Creator used to make the ID system in the first place. That's why nothing can be done about all the bugs in the Karma system." Yumi said with a shrug. "In the end, about a third of all Seekers end up stuck in District 7."
"And why is that?" Rin asked out of curiosity.
"Because unlike with with District 8, where you only need current total 2000 contribution points in order to take the advancement test, to advance out of District 7, you need to earn 10,000 in a single month, and you need to defeat at least 3 Named Monsters from District 7, each of which has to be level 5 or higher." Yumi said, explaining the rather steep requirements. "Most people just give up, rather than risking their lives against so many Named encounters."
"Pity the rule about it being in District 7, otherwise we could just straight to District 6 on the back of what we have fought so far." Rin said with a sigh. The 10,000 contribution points wasn't a big deal, but finding 3 Named Monsters would be tricky, more a matter of luck than anything else. Hopefully Yumi would be able to help them determine where they were once they got to District 7. "Well, I'm going to head back to our housing for dinner. Want to come over for a bite?"
"Sure. I won't turn down free food."
By the time Yumi and Rin reached the house, everyone else had finished eating, but Sakura had been more than happy to prepare them something fresh to go with their leftovers.
The pair of girls ate their fill while chatting about methods of finding out where the Named Monsters were in District 7, before Yumi left to go to her own apartment and get some sleep herself.
It was after this, while Rin helped Sakura clean up the dishes that Sakura said something that made her nearly drop said dishes. "We'll talk to Shirou tonight, right?"
"R…Right." With how long and tiring the day had been, Rin had basically forgotten that they had agreed to try to confess to Shirou together and suggest having an open relationship between the three of them.
Rin's face started to turn a bit red at the thought.
There had been a lot of good reasons not to confess to Shirou back in their old world. For Rin, it had been because she didn't know he was aware of magecraft, meaning a relationship between them was impossible. She also didn't want to steal her little sister's first love. For Sakura, Zouken would have killed Shirou if she had confessed her feelings to him.
Now the two sisters didn't have those excuses, and while Rin was the more flirtatious of the two, open to teasing the boy, it seemed like Sakura was the more determined one when it came to giving a confession.
"Please Onee-san, I want us to do it tonight." Sakura said before Rin could suggest delaying until they had a better plan of attack. She grabbed Rin's hands and forced her to look into her pleading eyes, causing Rin to slowly give in.
"Alright. If you think you are ready." Rin said, swallowing her own nervousness as she mentally kicked herself.
What did she have to be nervous about? She was Tohsaka Rin, a beautiful genius who no one in their right minds would turn down. And with both her and Sakura being open to a three-way relationship, not even someone who was gay could reasonably turn them away.
…Then again, this was Emiya Shirou they were talking about. A man whose obliviousness could only be rivaled by comatose victims.
Rin tried to hide her nervousness as she and Sakura walked hand in hand towards the hall leading to the boys' room, only to bump into Shirou as he himself was walking out. "Hey, could I talk to the two of you in private?" Shirou said before he even got a good look at them. "Are you two okay? Your faces are really red."
Rin and Sakura exchanged glances. "D…Don't worry about it." Rin said. "W…We'll talk in our room."
"What does Senpai want to talk about?" Sakura asked after closing the door to the sisters room and joining the other two.
She and Rin had been attempting to build up the courage to confess, when Shirou had jumped them and left them too embarrassed to get the words out.
"It's about opening up to the others about us being magi." Shirou said, causing both girls to freeze. "I know in our old world that was completely taboo and should never be done, but what about here? It would be nice to be able to open up to the others, and Issei already basically knows that we aren't normal."
"He does, does he?" Rin said with interest.
Shirou recounted his conversation with Issei for them.
"I always figured that Issei probably had a unique family background that was involved in magecraft. I guess he is from a family line that just stopped practicing." Rin said thoughtfully. "Truth be told, I don't know if there is a reason to keep our magecraft a secret from them. In our old world, the Clocktower would exterminate anyone who found out about magecraft, so that they could keep as much of the power of the Greater Mysteries for themselves, but to be frank, I don't think there are many magus who make it to this world. Based on what I've heard, only around .001% of people who die end up here, and the magus population of our old world was really low. It is statistically unlikely that more than a dozen magi have been reincarnated in the last 860 years. So the odds of there being a secret organization that would attack us is low. Especially with them having to operate without the Guild or the Temple noticing."
Statistically unlikely. That is what Rin said, but it had also been statistically unlikely that Shirou met with Madoka on his first day. It had also been statistically unlikely that Sakura would end up joining them, even if that one made some sense, given that Shirou had the 'Devil's Luck' skill at that point, meaning her dying had massively increased Shirou's luck. So a lucky event like having her reincarnate and find them, became more reasonable.
Or, that was Rin's theory.
After all, if a 'slight' increase in luck can cause something like making the odds of a treasure box dropping to go from 1 in 500 to 1 in 3, then what could a supernatural level of luck do?
"If we tell them about being magi, then Onee-san can use her magecraft to fight without having to worry about being caught." Sakura said, as while her own magecraft wasn't anything that could be noticed at this point, Rin had a few flashy spells that would draw a lot of attention.
It was actually strange that Madoka hadn't asked about the massive magic circles that Rin used to overcharge the trap when she vaporized Darkside.
"Alright, we can tell them about it tomorrow morning. Though I would still like that information to stay within the party, I think we can trust them to keep it a secret." Rin said. It wasn't like they weren't already trusting them to keep their Hidden God quiet. "Is there… anything else you wanted to talk about?"
"...No. That was basically it." Shirou admitted.
"Then, Sakura and I… had something that we wanted to say." Rin said, her face flushing a bit as she averted her eyes. Sakura also turned a deep red.
Shirou looked back and forth between them, wondering what this was about, until Sakura bit the bullet and said it.
"Senpai. Onee-san and I… we both have a crush on you." Sakura said.
"...Both?" Shirou said, trying to wrap his mind around the situation.
He had still been trying to understand how it could be that Sakura, who was like a little sister to him, could have had feelings for him. Now he was being told that Rin did as well, and both of them were confessing at the same time.
"That's right. And we were wondering if you would be open to being in a relationship with both of us." Rin said as she stood with her arms crossed, her eyes turned away, and her cheeks twitching in embarrassment.
"...If that's what you want. We can try." Shirou said, his mannerism slipping back into that of a robot. Not knowing how to react to the situation, he was simply doing whatever anyone told him to do. They could have told him to jump off a cliff and he would have done it.
Though it wasn't like his mind wasn't moving at all.
He had been close to Sakura for a long time, and like many people in his school, he had admired Rin. He'd also gotten to know the both of them a lot better these last few days. He had learned of their personal struggles and of their own forms of strength. They were both people he cared about deeply.
He didn't want to be responsible for hurting either of them. So he would go along with it.
"I've never dated anyone before though." Shirou admitted.
"W…Well then." Rin said, her face flushing a bright red. "We have tomorrow off, so we could all go around town together then."
"Yeah. Let's do that." Sakura said, equally embarrassed.
Shirou only nodded his head.
Tomorrow, he was going to go on a date with two beautiful sisters… Why did this feel more world shaking than entering a contract with a God?
Something that people always seem to do in fanfics that is questionable is they say that an over abundance of mana means that magecraft isn't rejected by the world.
This is counter to the fact that one of the ways a projection can last is by putting it in an area that contains no mana.
Mana is the free magical energy of the world, and it acts upon the world's POV. So unless you are in a world that doesn't have its own idea of the state of existence (which shouldn't be possible by the rules given) the rejection of magecraft should still exist, even without 'Gaia' being directly involve, as Gaia is only the name of the world's POV. If you are in another world, that world still has its own identity, or else it wouldn't exist. (It might be stronger or weaker depending on how strict the POV wants to be, but it would still exist.)
The issue is that everyone treats the 'Will of Gaia' as Gaia actively trying to destroy phantasms, when it really is a passive thing. Gaia has its own belief about the laws that govern the world, and so everything is automatically corrected in order to fit that belief.
Even if you are in a world that still has Gods, so long as that world has a POV the rejection of magecraft should still exist. If anything, more mana means that the pressure from Gaia's influence would be stronger.