Gentle Everyday
It was beginning.
The Holy Grail War. Seven Servants, legendary souls of heroes of old summoned under seven "Masters" chosen by the Grail, fight for supremacy. All for one wish.
…Perhaps, it would be an overstatement to call something between seven people a war.
However, those seven masters were usually Magi. Shrewd, callous and valuing results over everything, even human lives, these were people who wielded the power of "Magecraft" or "Thaumaturgy", the art of recreating mysteries.
But during this "war" they wielded something which surpassed common magecraft. "Servants", the souls of past heroes incarnated as familiars through the power of the Holy Grail. They surpassed any modern weaponry, themselves being equivalent to modern armies… No, perhaps they surpassed even them them.
So, in essence, it was indeed a war. Like real war a callous, cruel and calculating leadership commanded death and destruction for either selfish reasons or a delusion of righteousness. The moniker was well earned.
Wondering what this "war" has to do with the "Honor Student", Rin Tohsaka?
It was something he wished with all his heart that he wasn't involved in. Contrary to his rather cold personality, he really did care about others.
It was an… obligation (perhaps "curse" would be a better word) inherited along with the name "Tohsaka".
His fate was sealed at the moment of his birth as the first-born child of the Tohsaka family. It was his destiny to be a Master in the war from the beginning.
"Rin, the Holy Grail will appear eventually. It is our duty as the Tohsaka family to win it." He was told almost ten years ago.
He would have to take part in the Holy Grail War as the representative of the Tohsaka family and be victorious.
Yes, he thought of victory as an obligation as well; his natural competitiveness wouldn't allow himself to participate in the war half-heartedly.
It was only two days before the Holy Grail War officially began and only two classes were yet to be summoned, one of which was Saber.
Now was the time to act. He was sure of his abilities as a master, and with a Saber class Servant, victory would be all but assured.
The early morning sunlight flitted through the windows of Tohsaka Rin's bedroom. It was quite the handsome room, the cream colored curtains glowed ethereally in the sunlight as it illuminated a small rectangular table complete with a matching pair of chairs with scarlet cushions. They were in front of single bed with cream hangings which matched the curtains. Another window was right beside the bed, and a dressing table and mirror was just beside it. The whole room had a prim and proper aura not unlike its owner.
The silence of the morning was only occasionally punctured by the soft chirping of birds who nested in the forest near the mansion.
The large lump beneath the comforter on the bed scarcely stirred, indicating that the owner of the bed was still fast asleep. But a sudden sound of ringing pierced the silence, and Rin began stirring. A low groan signaled his awakening, and he brought out only his hand to fumble at the bedside cabinet to locate the alarm clock.
After a minute of futile attempts to locate the the noisy machine, he finally became awake enough to realize that he had placed the alarm clock on the table in front of the bed.
It was a rather simple-minded attempt to make sure he didn't just turn off the alarm and go back to sleep, but it seemed to be working as he threw off the blanket and swung his legs off the bed to sit up. He yawned and looked towards the table to see if it actually was there. But the soft sunlight was just bright enough to dazzle his unadjusted eyes. He squinted his handsome aqua eyes, and there the stupid little contraption was, still ringing in a tone so obnoxiously loud and high-pitched that he was sure his neighbors would come complaining if he had any.
"I. Hate. You." He spat at the impish machine, with every drop of spite a person could possibly muster against a machine. But, as machines aren't really affected by spite, especially that of the humans dependent on them, it kept ringing as though to say sarcastically, "I love you too; now please get your lazy backside off the bed and get ready. You're going to be late."
Finally getting out of his bed, he picked up the clock and turned the alarm off, fighting the usual urge to fling it out of the window. "If you didn't make sure I was never late for school, I would've used you for Gandr target practice a long time ago." He hissed at the now quiet alarm clock which, naturally, didn't respond.
His body felt sluggish that day, he thought as he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He wasn't really a morning person, but never had he felt so unwilling to wake up.
"Well, I was up late deciphering Father's will…" He reminded himself as he stifled a yawn. He slightly shivered as he passed through the cold hallway to enter the equally cold living room.
His breaths came out as puffs of semitransparent white. Fuyuki had long winters, yet they're scarcely cold. In fact, late winter here was about as warm as early spring elsewhere. Yet today seemed to be particularly cold. The cold only compounded his sleepiness and sluggishness and Rin almost thought that nature was conspiring to send him back to his bed by tormenting him.
He looked for the heater and turned it on before heading to the bathroom. He almost wished that there were someone else in the house; the living room would've been warm by now.
"Unless the person I was living with was lazy…" He joked to himself, but he ended up feeling annoyed rather than amused. He almost felt like he was consoling himself about his lonely life in the Tohsaka mansion. He was too proud to indulge in self-pity, consciously or unconsciously.
He entered the bathroom and splashed his face with cool water and looked at his reflection in the mirror. His reflection stared back him, wet bangs of his short black hair framing his face and water slowly dripping from his face. He ran a wet hand through his hair to make them settle from their misshapen state. He briefly amused himself with the thought of going to school with his usual bed hair as he combed his hair. Would it shatter his image as a model pupil? Or would his classmates naively think that it was some exotic hairstyle which was in vogue elsewhere? He certainly wished it was the latter.
He frowned towards his reflection and ran a hand down his bare torso. It was lean enough to give him excellent mobility yet muscular enough to allow some strength behind his physical blows…
However, he would have to hide this fact. He was known only for his academics, and most of the school didn't know of him participating in any kind of sport. So it would be suspicious.
…And most of the sports clubs would certainly pester him to join like they had in middle school. Perhaps that was the last straw, so he swallowed his not-so-little pride and purposefully underachieved in P.E from his third year onward. One should note that the word "underachieved" for Rin Tohsaka was "not at the top".
He quickly made himself some toast for breakfast and got dressed and grabbed his bag. As he was leaving, he saw that it was barely ten past seven.
"Hmph, I guess I was in a hurry for nothing." He said, rather disappointed. (Which is another way to say "I wanted to sleep a bit more, damn it!")
But he was glad he wouldn't need to run. After all, the Tohsaka motto was "Always Elegant."
…He was also quite glad "Elegant" and "Dandy" didn't intersect these days. He could scarcely stand his father's sense of fashion.
He suppressed a cringe as he imagined himself in one of his father's scarlet suits while stinking of musk. Honestly…
He paused for a bit and contemplated bringing his father's jewel necklace with him for safety. However, he brushed the desire away. It wasn't in danger of being stolen in his house, and it would be a bother keeping it out of sight.
But, as a precaution, he brought some of his jewels with him. They were all filled with magical energy he had been accumulating in them for years.
He locked the house and activated the bounded field protecting it before leaving in a brisk jog. He really didn't need to but still hurried on, just to be on the safe side. Once he came to the intersection with the Japanese-style houses, he slowed down to a walk.
A sense of uneasiness filled him when he found the area empty.
"Why is it so quiet today?" He thought as he looked around. Not one person was in sight. Usually there are some people leaving for work and school.
He put one hand in his pocket and gripped a jewel he kept for safety. Some others were hidden away in his shirt, but he doubted that he would actually need (read: use) them.
Soon he was at the school gates, and the sense of unease became bigger than before. Where was everyone?
But when he saw that the clubs were just starting practice, he realized…
…His father had done something to make all the clocks in the house run an hour faster.
"Oh, Tohsaka? You're up early today."
"…Yep, he did."
"What was that?" the person addressing him, a cheery girl with auburn hair and brown eyes asked. She must've heard him mutter to himself.
"Nothing in particular. Good morning, Mitsuzuri-san." He greeted his classmate from class 2-A, Mitsuzuri Ayako curtly.
"You're as cold as always." Mitsuzuri commented rather playfully.
Rin mustered a half smile, "I resent that. One would think I was trying to drive you away." Which, in reality, he was. As a Magus, it would be bad to be involved with normal people too much. Not that he disliked Mitsuzuri, it was refreshing to have a female he could socialize with normally, seeing as every other girl was either interested in him or already rejected by him (thus making him an insufferable self-important snob in their eyes).
"Oh really? I never knew keeping classmates at arms length was a way to keep friends." She replied frankly.
Rin couldn't help but chuckle a bit, but regained his composure, "I have to keep up appearances, don't I?" he said rather snidely.
"That you do. 'Tohsaka Rin, Insufferable Frigid Genius' extraordinaire, or something like that." Mitsuzuri said with a grin.
Rin rolled his eyes halfheartedly at the remark, but didn't contradict her.
"Ah, sorry for the sudden question, but might I ask what time it is?" Rin asked her, just to be sure.
Mistuzuri looked at him curiously, "It's almost seven. Still half-asleep?" she shook her hand in front of him as though to make sure he was alright.
She was one of the few frien- acquaintances who knew that he wasn't a morning person. He sighed to himself and replied. "It's nothing, just me rambling. Anyway, morning practice as usual?"
Mitsuzuri told said yes and told him about some of the problems the Archery Club was facing.
"I see, always something to worry about as the captain, no?"
"Yeah... I wish other people understood as well. I mean, you're an outsider and you're still saying that; it's not that hard to figure out. Oh, how about coming, seeing as there's still some time until class starts. I bet the girls would love it."
"I think I'd be more of a hindrance than help, if that's the case…" He replied matter-of-factly.
"Most likely." She replied, cracking a smile.
"…Okay, then. But I'll only watch." He decided to go. He had some acquaintances in the Archery Club he'd like to meet, so it'd be like killing two birds with one stone.
"Great! But, are you sure you don't want to join the club?"
"You know I'm not much of an athlete." He told her as they walked towards the dojo-like building.
"But you always do well in P.E. I bet you'd catch on in no time. Besides," she smiled cheekily, "you could do with some muscle anyways. Archery is great for building the upper body."
"I guess I'll consider it." He replied.
"Really?" Mitsuzuri exclaimed, shocked.
"Nope." Rin smirked as Mitsuzuri punched his arm with a "Hmph!"
"Sorry, but I have other obligations." Rin said, genuinely apologetic.
Mitsuzuri sighed, "Well… I guess it can't be helped."
They arrived in front of the impressive archery range. It was rather fancier than one would expect of a mere school archery range. Perhaps the director was interested in archery.
"Come on, there's still time for practice. Let's have some tea inside." She said happily as she dragged Rin inside by hand.
He had to admit, it was almost like having a girl and guy for a friend at the same time. Although the male aspect of Mitsuzuri was rather strong when expressing her true feelings.
They have tea inside the handsome archery range. The range was empty apart from them, and judging by the expression on Mitsuzuri's face, Rin realized that she wanted to ask something he'd rather not answer.
"No comment, no comment and no comment." Rin said preemptively.
"Whaaaa? Why?" Mitsuzuri demanded.
"I've told you about a thousand times already, I'm not interested in having a relationship with anyone." Rin said tiredly.
"Why, are you impotent or something?" Mitsuzuri said rather bluntly.
"There is such a thing called "Aesexuality", ya know." Rin replied rather tersely.
"I know there is, but you're not asexual." Mitsuzuri said.
"And you know… how, exactly?" Rin demanded.
"Because you sometimes stare at the girls during P.E." Mitsuzuri said simply.
"I do not!" Rin replied, trying to sound outraged rather than flustered.
"Liar." Mitsuzuri said, grinning, "I saw you staring at Makidera while she was doing stretches. She has quite the bust, doesn-"
"Okay, I'm not totally uninterested in girls, so shut up!" Rin said quickly, ashamed at being cornered.
"Ha!" Mitsuzuri said victoriously, "Now tell me the real reason for not wanting a relationship."
"…Obli-"
"If you don't want to explain these "obligations", don't use them as an excuse." Mitsuzuri told him.
"W-well, I… er, um… What's the word? Hehheh…" Rin fidgeted, but saw the determined expression on Mitsuzuri's face and decided to relent… And make up a better lie.
"I... I already have someone I like." He blurted out, and Mitsuzuri looked at him, wide-eyed.
"I should've known." Mitsuzuri said. "So, I guess you're interested in Makidera, right? I guess it's natural you're nervous about confessing. Don't worry, Makidera only acts like she can't stand you-"
This was going south fast. "It's not Makidera!" Rin said rather too loudly.
"Damndamndamndamndamn!" He cursed in his mind, ashamed at letting things escalate so far. Usually he'd just brush her off, but today she cornered him with the staring at Makidera thing which was totally unintentional on his part he was just briefly taken in by those stupid pitfalls of youth and he was half-asleep and THIS IS TOTALLY THAT ALARM CLOCK AND FATHER'S FAUL-
"Mitsuzuri, it's you I like." He said, and with as much passion he could muster grabbed both her hands in his while looking in her eyes. "Why do you think you're about the only girl I communicate with? It was love at first sight! You're the only one for me!" He said, almost gagging on the cheesy words he was regurgitating from that shoujou manga he'd read out of boredom once.
Mitsuzuri looked back, dumb struck. Almost a minute of silence followed, and Rin was half-expecting Mitsuzuri to snort disbelievingly or burst into hysteric laughter. But…
"W-what the heck are you saying!?" She demanded as her face turned a shade of red that would make a tomato farmer proud, surprising Rin. "T-t-t-this is t-too sudden! Well, I-I-I…"
She seemed to me stuck on the "I" part and Rin decided it was the right time for a tactical retreat. So he let go of her hands, sprang up on his feet and scurried away.
"Man… that was surprising…" He sighed as he closed the door of the archery range behind him, "I'd never have thought that Mitsuzuri would react like that. I guess I'll clear up everything during break. There goes my only non-male friendship." He mused to himself as he put on his shoes.
"Ah…" He looked up at the soft voice to see Sakura Matou standing before him. "Good Morning, Matou-chan." He said, trying not to betray any emotion.
She looked back sadly at him with her purple eyes and replied, "Good Morning, senpai. Were you planning on watching us practice?"
"Yes. But I ran into a problem with Mitsuzuri-san, so I'll pass for today." Rin replied.
"I hope it's nothing serious." She replied, looking anywhere but towards his direction.
"No, it'll be sorted out in no time. Well, have a good day." Rin said as he started to leave.
"Um, Senpai?" Sakura asked just as he was five feet away.
Rin looked back to see a slight smile on her face. "Thank you for coming."
He didn't reply and turned around, only to see someone he would've preferred never existed.
"Oh ho, Tohsaka-kun." The slime ball that was Shinji Matou greeted him.
"Good Morning, Matou-kun. You're certainly early today." He said, putting a delicate stress on the honorific, but otherwise being impassive, as though he didn't even know him.
"What are you saying? I'm always one of the first to come. I'm the ace and Captain of the Archery Club, after all." He bragged, and Rin couldn't help but mentally snort.
"Is that so? Mitsuzuri-san was just telling me how you seem to be skipping practice a lot and the last I saw you, you failed to hit anywhere close to the bull's eye many times." Rin stated as disinterestedly as possible, and was satisfied to see his smirk disappear. "And I believe that's "Vice-Captain". I hope you can distinguish between a true leader and a figurehead, seeing as how you're a "honor student" and all that."
"W-well, I was in a slump that day! I certainly was better than the other commoners there!" He said nastily, disregarding the second part completely.
"Ah, indeed." Rin replied. "Matou-kun I realize now why your performance was so bad. You seem to be developing severe Myopia. You should really see a doctor about that." He said coolly, and was satisfied to see the male Matou become a furious shade of scarlet.
"What are you implying?" He said menacingly as he stalked close to him, his face almost an inch away from Rin's.
"I'm implying that you're becoming cripplingly shortsighted, especially now that you seem to need to be an inch away from me to see me properly. To add to that, I'd advise you to see a doctor about your putrid breath, you might be developing halitosis as well." Rin replied unfazed and refused to look away from him.
"Why you…!" Shinji made to grab the front of his uniform, but was stopped by a voice saying, "Nii-san!"
He retracted his hand and furiously looked behind at his sister. "This has nothing to do with you, Sakura. Go inside the archery range."
"But… Um, Captain was calling you. She wanted to discuss plans for this April so we can attract more freshmen." Sakura said softly.
"Oh, of course." Shinji said, his smug expression returning. "There's no way that she could decide on something so important without my input. I'm sorry Tohsaka-kun, I'll have to get back to you about out little "disagreement" a little later."
"I can't decide whether your delusion of grandeur is pathological or a self-defense mechanism against your cripplingly low self-esteem." Rin whispered quietly so that Shinji wouldn't hear.
"Senpai…" He heard Sakura call as Shinji noisily entered the archery range, "Please don't provoke Nii-san again."
Rin left without glancing back. He might take the advice, but he doubted he could resist the urge to knock Shinji down a notch every time he would try to look bigger than he really was. He had a misguided sense of self-importance that drove him to regard Rin as his rival; he was anything but.
He made his way towards the classroom, only to encounter Fujimura-sensei on the way.
"Oh, Tohsaka-san, good morning." She greeted kindly.
Rin bowed curtly and replied, "Good Morning, Fujimura-sensei."
"Ah, I'm so happy that you greet me properly." She replied almost crying from happiness.
"I didn't think it possible to greet a teacher improperly." He lied, trying to keep as neutral a face as possible before his eccentric English teacher.
"Of course it is possible… I'll skip the explanation, I wouldn't want you to respect me any less." She said, almost floating in the air, and Rin made a mental note to himself; never greet Fujimura-sensei in an overly respectful way... Unless you need something done.
Fujimura Taiga floated away while waving at him airily.
Rin tried to push this encounter out of his head and left as well, only to run into another person he would rather not meet early in the morning. Today was really not his day.
"Gah, Tohsaka!" A bespectacled boy with blue hair greeted him rather rudely.
"Good Morning, Ryudou-san." He said, bowing with a sarcastic kind of respect.
"What are you up to? You're not in any clubs." He asked, looking at Rin suspiciously.
"Hmm… I admire your dedication, Seto Kaichou-san, but please don't get carried away." Rin replied without emotion, "You're possibly indirectly accusing me of a number of unsavory acts without any basis or proof. Can a person of your standing afford to do such a thing? It reeks of "abuse of authority"."
"Don't think you can confuse me with your treacherous words, you sly fox! I'm not as gullible as the Treasurer." Issei Ryudou, the Student Council President told him, his face showing a healthy bit of contempt mixed with mistrust. Rin didn't know exactly why Ryudou disliked him. It was perhaps "Hate at First Sight", seeing as he hadn't done anything to offend him. On the other hand, Ryudou had a certain sixth-sense for dishonesty, maybe he sensed that his image at school was a farce.
"I was simply stating the obvious. I apologize if it came across as deception." He said, with another sarcastic bow. "Also, what I did was a necessary evil. You show favoritism towards the non-sporting clubs when it comes to funds, so I did something about it on Mitsuzuri-san's request."
"W-well, if you really had that much of a problem with it, there are certain procedu-" Ryudou started rather defensively only to cut off by Rin.
"I am well aware of that. However, to put it frankly, I have little patience for bureaucratic labyrinths." He told him, "I would also like to point out that, while I might have used subtle… "manipulations", as you'd phrase them, for achieving that end, it is not against regulations. In fact, even with the way you're presenting the situation, it would be no more than me giving my opinions and advice about how school funds should be spent based on unadulterated facts. I neither lied to nor blackmailed him. As a student of this fine establishment, I am quite entitled to voicing my opinions."
Ryudou was about to retort but was interrupted again by someone calling him from inside the room he exited from, "Issei-kun, the heater's fixed."
It was a sweet voice, filled with a childish kind of innocence. A read-headed second-year girl came out of the room to see them. She was wearing the Homurahara High's girl's uniform and was carrying a toolbox on one hand. The girl's name was Emiya Mashirou.
"Oh, Emiya-chan, thank you for your assistance." He said gratefully, looking at the rather short girl.
"It was nothing, really." She replied with a sweet smile, "There wasn't anything seriously wrong with the heater anyway." Emiya looked towards Rin and gave the impression that she wanted to say something.
Rin nodded to her in acknowledgement and turned to Ryudou, "Taking advantage of Emiya-san's kindness again, I see."
"Excuse me?" Ryudou said, rather outraged, "Your phrasing makes it sound like I pressured her into this."
"I'm doing this by my own choice." Emiya told Rin.
There wasn't any notable change in his expression as he asked, "Ah, so Seto Kaichou-san didn't ask you; you came to him yourself after hearing about the broken heater?"
"W-well…" Ryudou stuttered, but Emiya, seemingly oblivious to Ryudou's plight, replied, "No, Issei-kun asked me for help."
"I rest my case." Rin said, secretly feeling satisfied at Ryudou's shamed expression, "I just hope you'll have a female accompany you in future. You never know…" He trailed off, not quite finishing the sentence.
"Are you implying that I can't be trusted?!" Ryudou demanded, outraged. However, his scarlet face made it clear that he did hold rather problematic feelings for Emiya.
"Not at all. I was just saying that it had rather unfortunate implications; you randomly making Emiya-san stay late or come early…" Rin said lightly, "This is a High School, after all. Rumors are already surfacing about you two."
"That doesn't matter." Emiya insisted, "Issei-kun's a good friend, he'd never do anything wrong to me." Ryudou looked at Emiya gratefully.
"Besides, Issei-kun's more like my older brother, and I know he sees me as his younger sister. Ne?" She looked at Ryudou with those sincere and innocent eyes.
Rin didn't know what was more priceless; Emiya's obliviousness or the look on Ryudou's face. Ryudou looked like a defeated soldier returning from a war, his shoulders slumped and head down.
"Yes, of course…" He said in a dead-sounding voice which made Rin feel almost sorry for him.
The keyword here being "almost".
"Ah, how precious." He said, trying his hardest not to laugh, "Emiya-san, why don't you privately address him as your brother from now on?"
"Not a bad idea." The red-head replied with over-bright eyes. "Yoroshku ne, Issei-nii!"
"Hissatsu~" Rin chirped in his head before mentally smacking himself for it as he looked at the zombie that was Issei Ryudou. Rin really needed to stop reading shounen manga…
"Haa…" Was the only reply she got.
"Hey, didn't you say the VCR in the multimedia room needed a look too? Let's go, Issei-nii, class is gonna start soon!" Emiya chirped as she pulled Ryudou by the arm. But Ryudou didn't move.
"Emiya-chan, you go ahead…" He said, "I'll be there in a bit."
"Oh, okay! Just hand me the keys, then."
Ryudou handed her the keys stiffly and Emiya scurried away, and Rin was rather surprised at the ease with which a girl of her stature carried the toolbox. "Later, Tohsaka!" She said, briefly standing and looking back with a smile.
"What was that?" Rin asked himself, trying not to feel too pleased.
"You're surprisingly worldly for a son of a Buddhist Monk." Rin said to Ryudou when Emiya was out of earshot. Ryudou didn't reply, just stood there like a statue. Rin decided that his work here was done and left.
As he passed Ryudou, he put a hand on his shoulder consolingly, "Ganbatte, Seto Kaichou-san."
He was leaving when Rin heard Ryudou say, "Don't patronize me, you demon!"
He went from a sly fox to a demon within one conversation. Not bad, if he did say so himself. He usually didn't indulge in this much schadenfreude, but he thought it was kinder for Ryudou this way. Better disillusioned than clinging to false hope.
He was able to make the rest of the journey to his classroom unhindered, and plopped onto his seat before sighing. He hoped that this was the last bit of bad luck he would have to face today, as he was planning to summon his servant tonight.
But he knew he wouldn't mess such a crucial thing up. He would summon Saber, the strongest servant class, and be victorious.
There was nothing that could possibly go wrong.