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The following is a fan-based

FICTION

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Chapter 2: Little Requests

The first week went on as smoothly as I had hoped for. While I had expected some issues when it came to keep the classroom from devolving into a chaotic mess because of the few but loud personalities that made up the group, I still succeeded in keeping everything under control and preventing worse escalations than the ones I ended up facing from time to time. The kids were quick to bore when the topic got too in-depth about something they didn't like and even quicker to come up with ways to make things interesting. I had a single name that more than once ended up sitting beside me by the teacher's desk because of how 'stubbornly excited' the girl would get.

Gakumazawa Tatsuko was a child that I was quite sure had a learning issue from the way she behaved but also handled simple mathematics. I didn't expect a girl her age to be a genius, but I saw her make multiple mistakes that were done out of her 'need' to rush things up. With her being at the desk for being a loud little thing which confirmed her title as 'mini-Taiga', I had the chance to check this issue more closely and give her a different set of homework just to try and see what the problem really was with her. Because, apparently, the answer she believed was the best to describe this flaw was 'I just do it like that'. Which didn't seem to be packed with truthfulness. I was looking forward to speaking with her father during the first parents' reception at school.

I could only enjoy and make good use of the four years to get a headstart for when things were going to get more complicated with Miyu and Kuro. Both girls, albeit not willingly disruptive, were going to be disruptive- and I didn't have anything at the moment to prevent some escalations to take lewd twists. I really didn't want to get pulled into the whole ecchi predicament, so I started to scribble down what to do to prepare for that kind of scenario. While also investigating why Zelretch had decided to put me through this for fuck's sake. Despite the standard 'Zelretch is a troll' idea I had of him, the way he wrote that message didn't leave much of any amusement in pushing me into this dimension. Something else urged him to take this kind of precaution and... I sure didn't know what that could be.

I couldn't exactly do much about it, with the best way to dig into this matter being currently a place someone like me couldn't get into. The Clock Tower was well away from my reach, and I doubted they would react nicely if a 'Muggle' tried to get inside their 'secret society'. It was going to be a tough investigation, but I was already plotting a way to try and reach out to the old man some other way. Some radical way too considering I relied on theories alone for this to actually work. But nothing anytime soon. Not with the school session already proving to be tough as hell. Especially when it came to other teachers. Or rather THE 'other teacher'.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Taiga Fujimura was no joke when you are a single male, of affordable age, with a modest to average appearance and within her range of action. I couldn't blame her for trying to get options out in the open, but I blamed her for being incredibly intense about that kind of attention.

"Johnny! Wanna go to the pub tonight?"

"I have work to do, Fujimura-san."

Now, you would ask me 'why not just push her completely away' or 'why are you against starting something with her?' and - before anyone asks - I do find Taiga to be pleasant to look at and her personality wasn't that centered about the flaws she had. I knew that those were flared in the Fateverse for the purpose of entertainment, but she was still a fairly independent woman since she always refused her grandfather's help to set up her flat, to handle the taxes herself and other stuff tied to living alone. The real issue was her grandfather and how he was rather into protecting his granddaughter.

It took me receiving a message in plain Italian from the Yakuza boss, suggesting me to 'keep things formal' with the woman and to not try 'anything funny' for the sake of my currently pleasant life. I got the message and I complied with it for the sake of living a long life. The other question, about why I just didn't chill her with a solid 'no' response, was also tied to the message. If the girl cries, the old man is going to grill my ass before turning me into shark-meat.

Just a week in and I'm feeling like I've been taken in by Fuyuki's traditional anime culture...

All in all, the situation was still far from impossible to handle, and I had a 'Cute MVP' moment by the third day of being at Homurahara Academy and working there as a teacher. I was enjoying a pause by the water distributor, doing nothing in particular as I was waiting for my next lesson to start when I noticed that a tiny head was peeking from the corner of the hall. I blinked, red eyes stared at me with a mixture of interest and reluctance. Was little Illya trying to get my attention?

I waved at her and offered a kind smile, both of which seemed enough to give her the confidence boost to finally approach. As soon as she started to walk towards me, I noticed that she was holding a bento in her hands and I doubted it was meant for me.

"Hello there, Illya-chan. Shouldn't you be in class to wait for the next teacher?"

She lifted the bento box up. "Mama put Onii-san's bento in my school bag. I want to give it back to him."

"Oh? I see... I guess you don't know where his classroom is, right?"

The loli gave me a tiny nod.

"Since I'm currently free, I can help you with that. I believe your brother is... Shirou? Emiya Shirou?"

Her eyes widened. "How do you know?"

"Well, I had heard from a fellow teacher that you cheered him up while he was busy with P.E.," I replied mirthfully, recalling how the P.E. teacher had come close to having a heart attack at seeing that 'cute weapon of mass destruction', or something along those lines. "That was quite a nice thing to do."

Her cheeks gained some color but she nodded happily. Her body tensed up when I crouched and picked her up. She was surprised, but didn't oppose the little help. "Now, I believe that Shirou-kun should be busy with Taiga-sensei and the classroom is... this way."

I started to move around, keeping a moderate pace so the girl learned the path I was taking to reach her big brother's classroom. She looked giddy when I gestured to her to be quiet before I moved in to knock at the classroom's door. I peeked inside and I sighed at the happy look on the brunette just looking at me as the finest piece of meat on the market.

"Fujimura-sensei, apologies for the interruption-"

"None of that, Jo- I mean, Bukharin-sensei. I was already done, so what do you need?"

"One of my students wanted to deliver something important to her brother. He is a student here."

"Oh?" Taiga looked a bit dejected, but her mood soared for a different reason as I finally revealed Illya. "Ohhh!"

The sudden appearance of an adorable loli was enough to gain the full attention of the class, with Shirou himself looking surprised as he noticed the little girl in my hold.

"I-Illya?"

"Onii-san! You forgot your bento!"

The redhead's jaw dropped upon hearing that exclamation as most of the girls in that classroom exploded in a collective 'Awww', but he still nodded thankfully as he received the food box from the eager child.

"Thank you, Illya-chan and... Bukharin-sensei."

"It's alright. The important thing is that this little issue is solved. Am I right, Illya-chan?"

Her smile doubled and she nodded. We were soon off as I decided to bring her back to her classroom, knowing that it was about time for my next shift to start and for the lecture in another class of the elementary section of the academy to begin. All in all, a much needed breath of relief through a fluffy problem solved via fluffy resolution.

It was a nice experience, and I couldn't help but reassert the point I made on the first day. It wasn't that bad.

Of course, my first week came to an end without an itch. But while I settled down in Fuyuki, a car stopped in front of the city's only church. The owner of the building, Kirei Kotomine, was standing by the gates as he calmly received the permanent guest in his humble home. A girl left the vehicle, she bore dull but glowing golden eyes at him. Her neutral expression was matched by an amused look on the priest's face.

"Father. I'm... here."

"Finally," Kotomine said back to his daughter, Caren looking far from pleased from this decision of the Holy See but... things sure were going to be far from boring as she expected them to be.

Very far.

AN

Dun-Dun-DUuuuun!

Quick remainder: the creator of Prillya made Caren slightly younger than Bazett, but still older than Shirou compared to her Hollow Ataraxia version.