"So, let me get this straight," Homura said as he cradled his forehead in his hand. "You're a Shirou Emiya from a parallel dimension who's currently traveling the multiverse with a nigh-immortal sorcerer, and you have the magical ability to invoke certain narrative devices in reality?"

"I'm also incredibly good looking, too."

I sighed as Homura's eyebrow twitched at Toper's response. Once everyone managed to settle down, the whole of the Izumo House gathered around the dinner table for what was rapidly becoming a tradition of explaining the latest reality changing event that had occurred. Most of the explaining had happened over dinner and the lot of us were sipping tea at this point. Overall, I was surprised at how quickly my flock had accepted Troper, not to mention the whole situation in general. It's likely that this would have taken a lot more getting used to if I hadn't already explained the 5 True Magics to them a little over a week ago. Hell, I should probably be thankful that he didn't show up 2 weeks ago, before anyone in the household knew magic was real. It would have been particularly difficult to pass him off as some sort of long lost twin if Matsu decided to look into it. In any case, except for maybe Homura, the rest of the household seemed to get along with my doppelganger just fine. Though in some cases, I kind of wish they didn't.

"Ah-ha, there is certainly no denying that," Kazehana said, giving a not-at-all chaste look at my counterpart. "I wonder how many Shirou's we can get to show up here?" She stole glances between him and me, a dark gleam shining in her eyes. Likewise, Matsu was laughing her perverted old man giggle at this comment. It seems that Akitsu wasn't the only one of my Sekirei that was considering the possibilities of have more than one of me around. Of course, it was Tsukiumi that took this line of reasoning to its terrible conclusion.

"Shirou…" she started, twiddling her index fingers and looking off to the side with a blush. "I know you're not into… that. But, since he's you, then technically-"

"No!" Both Troper and I interrupted simultaneously. Neither one of us particularly cared for the Screw Yourself scenario.

"Oh my," The room began to darken behind Miya, and a familiar sense of doom flooded the dining room "I hope you're not implying anything lewd." The all too familiar hannya mask of her Demon Head technique began to appear over her shoulder.

Before the landlady could start to apply he technique in earnest, I quickly tried to change the subject. "So, Toper! Does Zelretch frequently drop you off in random dimensions to fend for yourself?"

The darkness receded and the mask disappeared, Miya frowning slightly at one of her lectures being headed off. However, Troper wasn't going to let it go that quickly.

"What the hell was that?" He asked, his face pale, pointing to the spot behind the landlady where her avatar of malice so nearly formed.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She gave her usual response with a coy smile. Since it had been sometime since everyone staying at the inn had gotten use to Miya's traditional form of punishment, I think she actually enjoyed the chance to outright deny she had done anything again.

"But… there was… you just…"He was greeted with nothing but her smiling face. He looked around the table for support, but he found nothing but blank looks. "So, were all just going to ignore that?" Upon being greeted with more silence, he decided to move on from that weirdness. "Um, well, no. Not as often as you think," he said, turning to me. "He only does that when he finds a world that he thinks will teach me something. Or will provide a challenge. Or if he thinks it's funny. Or if he's bored." Troper frowned in irritation at that last one. "In any case, most of the time I'm the one that does the cross dimensional jumps. He just gives advice and instruction."

Uzume frowned at this. "Wait, if you can do that, doesn't that mean you're one of those sorcerer guys too?"

My counterpart rubbed the back of his head, looking off to the side. "Not… exactly. While a Reality Marble is quite impressive, it's not considered a form of True Magic, though that's likely because it's so rare that it's outside normal classification."

Uzume looked confused at this explanation. "Reality Marble? What's that?"

Toper looked at me in mild surprise. "I thought you said you told them about magic."

I gave him an even look back. "That's a bit esoteric, and I didn't feel that going into depth about that particular subject was important." Though I keep my tone neutral, I sent a clear message to my double that I didn't want to talk about this. This wasn't something that my flock needed to know about.

Troper raised an eyebrow, as if saying if they knew what a Reality Marble meant, I doubt they'd agree with you. A Reality Marble was basically a reflection of a person's soul onto the world around them, and it was only possible if that person has a sufficiently distorted perception to begin with. I had a feeling that the creatures who were biologically compelled to love me wouldn't be too happy to learn that I sometimes view myself as nothing but a weapon.

We stared at each other for a second longer before he resumed talking. "Well, he's right. It would take awhile to explain and the differences aren't important at the moment. The short of it is I can do something that can emulate a sorcery, but it's not a sorcery itself."

He took a sip from his tea while everyone pondered this. I doubted that they really understood what he was talking about, but it should be enough of an explanation to tide them over for now. Like he said, Reality Marbles fell outside of standard classification due to their rarity and how it's forbidden to research them. Still, imposing you're soul on reality around you to change it to your liking is an inherently temporary thing, which is a big mark against it being a form of True Magic. It made me wonder just how his version of the Second Magic really worked. Was it really possible to alter the laws of reality to connect it to another reality? I was well aware of the Another Dimension trope, but it's not specific as to how travel between dimensions is done.

I was broken out of my musings when Musubi asked Troper "So, where are you trying to go?"

I almost missed it, but he froze for just a split second before turning to the bear Sekirei. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I asked where you were going," she replied cheerfully. "Is there a certain place you're trying to get to?"

"I'm… not trying to go anywhere really," he responded in a pleasant tone that didn't reach his eyes. "For me, is all about the journey and what I can learn along the way."

He's not lying, but he's not being completely honest either, I thought. I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised that this other version of myself had his own secrets to keep. Being someone who appreciated the right to privacy, I decided to change the subject before any of my Sekirei picked up on his hesitation.

However, I was beaten to it by Miya. "Well, I hope your stay here will give you rest from your long journey of enlightenment. How long do you think you will be staying?"

He gave a noncommittal shrug. "Somewhere between a few days and a few weeks. Possibly even a few months."

"Oh?" The landlady arched an eyebrow. "You can't be any more specific than that?"

"Honestly? No. The amount of time I spend in a dimension is almost entirely determined by how long it takes Rin to find me."

"You mean Shirou-tan's lover in England?" Mastu asked.

"Yes. Well, no. I mean MY Rin." He snapped his fingers in realization. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you. I'm not Zelretch's only apprentice. Rin's one too. She can more accurately have the title sorcerer applied to her. Well," he looked off to the side again. "for a certain definition of sorcerer anyway. While she can use the Second Magic, she still doesn't have master over it. In fact, half of the training we do involves me traveling to a random dimension and then her trying to find me."

"Wait, find you?" Homura spoke up. It seems he had finally started to accept the absurdity of the situation enough to start analyzing it. "How can she find you if you're in a different universe? Aren't there an infinite number of them?"

"There are both more and less universes than you think, so 'infinite' is somewhat incorrect in this case. However, it can be said without a doubt that there are 'a lot' so you're point still stands." Troper reached beneath his shirt from his neck and pulled out a small red jewel on a cord. I recognized it as the same jewel which Rin had used to save my life that fateful night I summoned Saber. "After a great deal of effort on both our parts, Rin and I managed to turn this into a sort of specialized homing beacon. So long as I have it on me, she'll find me eventually."

"But if that's the case," Matsu interjected, a confused look on her face. "Why is it that the range of time in which it takes her to find you so large? Can't you guess based on past data?"

"Three reasons:" He responded, holding up his hand with 3 fingers extended. "The first is that the mutiverse is not exactly easy to navigate. It is not a grid where you can just look for what you want. It's a sea made of everything that was, is, will be, could have been, might be and may will be expanding and collapsing in directions the human mind can't comprehend. Not to mention the fact it's constantly changing in 'shape' based on how universes are related to one another." He sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead as he did do. "Honestly, I'm not sure how Zelretch isn't completely off his rocker by now. Although, on the other hand…" Troper looked off into space, deep in thought.

"Umm, Troper-tan?"

"Hmm? Oh right, sorry." He shook his head as if to rid himself of bad thoughts. "Anyway the second reason is that because this complexity, Rin sometimes gets frustrated and uses a… shortcut."

"A shortcut?" I asked. It had been a long time since I had been on the receiving end on a lecture about magic, and this was the first time I had heard anything in depth about the Second Magic. Besides being fascinating, I was sure I could make use of it somehow later.

"She finds it rather unpleasant and thus doesn't use it often, so I'm never sure when she'll show up far earlier than she should. She would be very upset with me if I elaborated on the mater any further." As he said this he looked like he was trying to suppress a giggle.

"I see. So what's the third reason?" Miya asked the prospective tenet.

Toper settled back with a small smile on his face. "The third thing that determines when Rin will show up is how long it will take me to accidently end up in a compromising, It's Not What It Looks Like situation for her to walk in on, thus causing Hilarity Ensues."

There was a brief silence around the table before Homura spoke up. "What? You cannot be serious."

"I'm very serious. It's happened enough times that it's probably a more reliable metric than the first two reasons. In fact," he said while rubbing his chin with a contemplative look on his face, "Considering the fact that I'm going staying in an inn full of busty young women who are currently involved with a nearly identical version of myself, it's probably a safe bet that she'll be showing up sooner rather than later."

"Oh god, you really are serious…" Homura stated, suddenly realizing and clearly dreading the wacky hijinks which a man powered by tropes would inevitably bring to the Izumo House.

"I am nothing if not Genre Savvy." Troper stated with some pride. Considering what his abilities were, that statement was bordering on the profound.

It was Kazehana who pick up on the detail he hadn't spoken of. "What about Saber? Does she not travel with you and Rin? Or maybe you're not as much as a man as my Shirou-chan and didn't manage to keep both?" She said this in a playful and teasing manner, clearly not meaning it to be a serious insult on his masculinity. He had been nonspecific as to the status of his relationship with Rin and Saber up to this point, so I was also suddenly curious as to why he hadn't made any mention of her after he recounted his telling of his Holy Grail War.

It was surprising how quickly his mood changed. The smile left his face, replaced by a look of melancholy. His posture slumped a bit, and he stared into his teacup. He stopped talking and a heavy silence settled over the dining room. It was clear to everyone in the room that we had just stumbled onto a topic which he did not want to talk about. Well, almost everyone.

"Hey, yeah! What about Saber? Didn't you find love with her too?" Musubi said, completely ignorant of the tension that suddenly filled the room.

He gave Musubi an unreadable look. "She…" He began before he stopped to recompose himself. "Saber isn't with us."

"Eh? Why not? Didn't you love her?"

"Look, I don't want to talk about." Troper said, mirroring the reluctance I first had at telling my flock about Rin and Saber.

"Why don't you-"

"Because it's not fair what happened to her." He interrupted, his tone perhaps a little more sharp than he had intended.

A tense silence settled before Matsu of all people said "Let it go, Musubi." It seems she still remembers how poorly forcing information from my personal life to surface went, and didn't want to relive the experience.

Troper sighed and put his head in his hand. "I'm sorry; I must be more tired than I thought from the battle this afternoon." He pushed himself up from the table and looked at Miya. "It might be best if I retire. If it's alright I would like to adjourn to one of your rooms."

"Of course," she replied, rising from her own seat. "We can handle the paperwork later. Let me show you were you will be staying."

I watch the two of them leave the room, suddenly wondering just how he felt about our two different circumstances, and which one he thought was better.

Things had settled down by the next day. Troper returned to his usual, playful self by the morning, and life had carried on as normal for the most part. As it turned out, Miya couldn't officially have him rent as he didn't have any kind of valid identification in this universe, so it was decided that if anyone asked we would just say that he was me and try to keep anyone from seeing the both of us at the same time. Still Miya was insistent, not unreasonably, that my counterpart should do something to earn his keep.

I grumbled to myself as I walked down the street, carrying several large bags of food. Unfortunately for me, it turned out that Troper was just as good a cook as I was. As Miya was still punishing me for damage done to her inn from the Fraga magus attack, this was the perfect solution for allowing my fine cuisine to fill the Izumo House once again while still keeping me from the joy of actually cooking it. It just seemed so unfair.

I was mulling over this injustice as I walked past the fence of the inn, so I was caught completely by surprise when a painfully familiar voice called out from behind me. "Shirou!" A sharp intake of breath and my magic sense of smell confirmed the sudden feeling of heartache I felt. They found me! How? When? Oh god, what would I say to them?

I turn around… and the logic centers of my brain promptly ground to a halt at the absurdity I was witnessing.

It was Rin, running across to street toward me, but that wasn't the part that made me gape like a fish out of water. What was responsible for that was what she was wearing. It looked vaguely like a bright red dress from Victorian Europe, if such things had no arms and the overly frilly skirt barely went down to mid thigh. The front was embroidered with gold and it had a slim, pink cape which split into two trailing off the back. She had long fingerless gloves running all the way up her arms which matched the red stockings on her legs. But perhaps the strangest part of the getup was on her head, which appeared to be a pair of cat ears. This combined with the rod in her right hand which was topped by a star and a pair of wings led to only one conclusion: Rin, my former lover and one of the most talented magus' in the world, was dressed like a Magical Girl. My brain simply couldn't accept that conclusion though, so it decided to turn itself off for a bit.

"Don't give me that look!" she said in a huff, crossing her arms across her chest. "I was looking for you for a month before Zelretch showed up and told me he sent you somewhere else he thought was funny. So yes, I used the damn stick." She began waving said 'stick' at my face. "Now fix it! Fix it fix it fix it fix it fix it!"