The Persistent Threat

Rin knocked on Shirou and Arturia's door quite loudly so that they would be awake in time for Fujimori's and Sakura's arrival for breakfast. When they didn't wake up she was tempted to push the issue but decided against it.

"If they won't get up when I knock, well, I can hardly be held responsible for the results, now can I?" Rin thought to herself, a devious smile creeping along her face.

"Goooood Mooooorning, Shirooou!" Fujimura chirped coming in the door.

"Good morning, Fujinee-sensei." Rin respectfully greeted her.

"Good morning, Tosaka-sempai." Sakura greeted Rin.

"Hey, where's Shirou?" Fujinee whined, "He's not here and I'm starving."

"I think he's still asleep in his room." Rin suggested, just barely able to suppress an evil smile.

"Why that little! If he thinks he can just sleep in for as long as he wants and keep the rest of us from all this delicious food, he has another thing coming. When I get my hands on him…" Fujinee fumed.

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Rin and Archer watched as Fujinee stormed off towards Shirou and Arturia's room.

"I get the feeling you knew this was going to happen from the start." Archer remarked.

"Well, yeah. What do you take me for?" Rin added.

"All I can get. Shirou always seems to stumble through a situation using the most painful method possible, doesn't he?" Archer retorted.

"Well yeah, that's his charm. Hey, are you trying to get yourself in trouble again so soon?" Rin yelled.

"Whatever could you mean? I'm shocked and appalled that you think so little of me." Archer responded in mock outrage.

"Whatever, you're lucky that I'm just waiting for the fireworks or else I would let you have it!" Rin shot back.

"Fireworks? Just what did you do?" Archer asked.

"Do? I didn't do anything. If they had just gotten up when I knocked this all could have been avoided. What a shame, and I went out of my way to do them a favor." Rin responded.

"How thoughtful of you." Archer said sarcastically.

"Don't you even!" Rin yelled, about to continue.

It was at this time that Fujinee made it into Shirou's room and was greeted by an appalling sight.

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Up until this point Arturia and Shirou had been sleeping, blissfully unaware of the firestorm streaking their way. So unaware that they didn't even hear the door as it was practically ripped open.

"Shirou, if you think you can just… What!?" Fujinee started until the scene before her registered in her brain.

However it was only a few seconds before she got back into her streak.

"SHIROU EMIYA! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" She screamed at the top of her lungs.

By this time Shirou was wide-awake and practically bolted out of the bed retreating towards the back wall. Arturia jumped out of bed and assumed a defensive stance protecting Shirou from the wrath of a certain psychotic homeroom teacher.

"NOT ONLY ARE YOU LIVING WITH NOT ONE BUT TWO GIRLS! BUT NOW I FIND THAT YOU'RE SLEEPING IN THE SAME BED AS ONE! I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO DISGUSTED IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! WHY I OUGHT TO-" Fujinee raged.

"Miss Fujimura, there is a perfectly logical explanation for all of this." Arturia responded in her trademark authoritative voice.

"I HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO YOU, YOUNG LADY. SO JUST WAIT YOUR TURN!" Fujinee fumed back.

At this time Rin had gotten her fair share of entertainment out of the entire exchange and finally took pity on the doomed pair.

"Fujinee-sensei, I'm sure they would be more than happy to explain everything over breakfast." Rin offered.

"Breakfast is ready! YAY! Let's eat! I'm famished!" Fujinee chirped, seemingly forgetting the anger from a moment before.

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After they had all finished eating breakfast and Sakura had cleaned up Fujinee continued her rant from earlier.

"Shirou Emiya, you better have a good explanation for all of this!" She raged.

"Fujimura-sensei, if you would simply calm down for a minute I'm sure Shirou would be more than happy to explain." Rin interjected.

"Oh alright, but it better be good." Fujinee finally relented.

"You see, with all the people we had staying here, well things got a bit awkward since we got another boarder. So as it turned it we decided it would probably be best if we tried to save room however we could." Shirou explained.

"Well, that would explain the two of you sleeping in the same room- Hey, another boarder!? Just what kind of establishment are you running here? Is this a hotel now?" Fujinee responded, not entirely satisfied.

"Rin, why don't you explain our most recent guest." Shirou said.

"Oh, alright! Miss Fujimura, this is Archer." Rin answered.

"Archer? That is certainly an odd name, is he foreign?" Fujinee mused.

"Not really, my parents never had the most active of imaginations. They met each other at an archery competition and, well, you can see where this is going." Archer answered.

"I see. But this still doesn't explain what Shirou and this girl were doing sleeping in the same bed." Fujinee said, continuing her earlier argument, "Shirou, just who is this?"

"This is Arturia." Shirou replied simply.

"Hold on a minute, Saber leaves and you practically leap into this girls arms immediately after!? How could you?" Fujinee raged.

"Miss Fujimura, I'm shocked that you don't remember me. After all the times we've eaten together?" Arturia laughed.

"Ok, just who the heck are you?" Fujinee yelled.

"Oh, right, the hair. I am Saber." Arturia responded.

"What!?" Fujinee leapt up in shock nearly sending the table flying, "SABER, YOU HAVE A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO!"

"Please, I prefer to be called Arturia. Saber was just the name I was using for a while." Arturia requested.

"Fine, but that doesn't explain how you could run off like you did. Do you enjoy inflicting pain on everyone you meet or just Shirou?" Fujinee retorted.

"Well, you see…" Arturia stalled, failing to find a good explanation.

"Arturia, I'll handle this. You see an old boyfriend of hers from England called her a few days ago trying to blackmail her into marrying him." Rin explained.

"Hold on, I wasn't asking you, Miss Tosaka! Is this true?" Fujinee asked, incredulous.

"Well, yes…" Arturia admitted.

"And exactly how does that justify what you did? You just leave without a word to anyone, not even Shirou?" Fujinee continued.

"You see…" Arturia stalled, not sure how to continue.

"Fujimura-sensei, would you mind if I took it from here since the entire incident is still fresh in her mind and left her a little shaken. She explained the whole thing to me so I should be able to answer any questions you have, if that's alright." Rin cut in, coming to Arturia's rescue.

"Well, I suppose that'll be fine. Since you put it that way." Fujinee relented.

"Well, the reason she didn't say anything to anyone was because this ex-boyfriend of hers had made threats on Shirou's life hoping that Arturia here would just come running. Well, she did but not in the way he was expecting. The main reason she didn't say anything was because she knew that if Shirou knew about this he would've run off to save her from this guy and she didn't want him to get hurt on her behalf." Rin elaborated.

"Come on, do you honestly expect to believe that?" Fujinee laughed, "Well, actually something like that did happen to one of my students."

"Good, now that that's settled. Shall we?" Rin turned to Archer.

"Actually, I have a few more questions." Fujinee directed at Arturia.

"Uh, sure. I'll try to answer them as best I can." Arturia continued.

"Exactly how did this guy find you and how do you know he won't come after you again?" Fujinee asked.

"I don't actually know how he found me, I thought that once I left England he would just give up. As for whether he'll stop now, well…" Arturia trailed off.

"If you've ever seen Arturia angry, you'd already know the answer to that, Fujimura-sensei." Rin completed for her.

Arturia just glared at Rin evilly but said nothing.

"Oh, alright. I see that this is another argument I'm not going to win. I suppose I'll just have to trust that Shirou doesn't do anything indecent." Fujinee relented.

"Do you really think that Shirou would do something like that?" Rin finished.

Fujinee didn't say anything but one could hear her crying as she left, "I can't believe I lost two arguments in a row with a student."

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"I get the feeling we dodged a bullet on that one." Shirou said relieved after Fujinee left.

"I suppose we did. I guess this goes to show how much she cares about you, even if she has an unusual way of expressing it." Arturia commented.

"I guess you're right. Thanks, Rin. You really saved our bacon back there." Shirou continued.

"Well, it's the least I could do. No need to thank me, though. The look on Fujinee's face was payment enough. Though maybe next time you'll wake up when I knock on your door, won't you?" Rin scolded.

"I'm glad we managed to keep you entertained." Shirou shot back.

"Now if you'll excuse me Archer and I are going out to grocery store to buy some tea leaves." Rin excused herself.

With that she and Archer walked out of the house.

"Well, at least we have some peace and quiet for a little while." Shirou remarked.

"I guess we do." Arturia admitted.

Shirou moved in to kiss Arturia when-

"Shirou! You might want to have a look at this!" Rin said, a little worried.

"Rin, I swear if this isn't important!" Shirou complained.

He and Arturia walked outside to where Rin and Archer where standing.

"So, what was so important you needed to drag me out here?" Shirou asked, "Hey, wait a minute!"

"That girl on the bike, she isn't moving. If she had stopped pedaling she should've fallen over by now, yet she hasn't. What's going on, Rin?" Arturia wondered.

"I don't know, there's only one thing that makes sense but it's virtually impossible." Rin complained.

"What are you talking about?" Shirou asked.

"What I'm saying is, is that someone actually managed to stop time." Rin declared.

"What, but how?" Shirou asked.

"That's what doesn't make sense. It sounds perfectly logical in theory but in practice the mana required for a spell of this magnitude would make it virtually impossible for any magus to actually cast it." Rin concluded.

"And yet here we are with clear evidence that some has done just that." Archer added.

"But how could someone do something like this without stealing the souls of thousands if not tens of thousands of people? Surely there would've been news of an incident of that magnitude occurring!" Rin complained.

"It's really quite simple. Someone erected a Reality Marble." A young voice chimed in.

"Illya? Do you know what is going on?" Shirou asked.

"Sort of. But there's still a few problems we have to deal with, even knowing there is a Reality Marble in place." Illya continued, "Tosaka, surely you know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

"Yes, even with a Reality Marble the cost of a spell of this magnitude would be reduced but it wouldn't be enough to change the fact that there would be a huge expenditure of mana involved." Rin mused.

"Yes, and since there have been no unexplained gas leaks lately, we still don't know where the mana came from." Illya continued.

"That still leaves the problem at hand, how did someone erect a Reality Marble this quickly without us sensing it?" Rin asked.

"Don't look at me, I'm nowhere near as good with this kind of stuff as you are." Shirou said, responding to Illya's and Rin's stare.

"I think the only conclusion we can draw is rather obvious. Whoever we're dealing with is obviously very skilled and has a tremendous reserve of mana." Rin added.

"But who would have the mana for something like this? Not even a homunculus would have the circuits required for this kind of spell." Illya said.

"Well, let's try and find out. Come on, until we figure out what's going on we should stick together." Rin said.

Everyone agreed and walked out to the main street. They were about to move on when Rin stiffened in place.

"Do you feel that, Archer?" Rin asked.

"Yes, it's definitely a servant." Archer said.

"But how is that possible, we destroyed the Grail!" Arturia said.

"I don't know but I doubt we want to wait around and find out." Archer said.

"You're right about one thing, you definitely don't want to wait around to find out. But what will you do now that you have?" A sinister voice asked.

"What, YOU!" Arturia screamed.

"That's right, you're still my property and I intend to collect." The voice continued.

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For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the honorifics in Japanese culture. Here's a quick guide of the ones I used.

Sensei- teacher or someone who has achieved a certain level of mastery in a field

Sempai- used to denote respect for another usually as a result of age or seniority