CHAPTER 3:

SAKURA AND SHIROU

The interview went fairly well, and by the end of the week, Harry had been hired. He was glad for Hermione's help in learning the Nippon Decimal Classification. He was more used to the Dewey Decimal Classification. The previous librarian had disappeared while out on a walk outside the city, and someone else had been filling in on an ad hoc basis.

He was introduced to the various staff members at the school. Of these, the only ones who stood out were Taiga Fujimura, whom Rin had spoken of already, and a rather grim-looking man by the name of Souichirou Kuzuki. Taiga was obvious: the brown-haired woman was energetic and eccentric. The fact that she spoke excellent English didn't hurt either, and the two held some interesting conversations. Harry found himself liking her, even if some of her tendencies were a bit irritating.

Kuzuki was another matter entirely. The reason why Harry noted him was that the grim history teacher set his instincts screaming. The man seemed to be a robot, moving precisely and with complete discipline. He almost had no other expression than a faint scowl, not of contempt or anger, but simply as if that was his basic state. The scowl had no real emotion behind it, just something like an extreme discipline, as if living was an effort. And Kuzuki seemed to mark Harry for some reason.

By the time Harry had gotten the job, he and Rin had gotten a little more used to each other. Rin was delighted to hear that Harry could cook, and cook well, and so had him cook some meals. While he hadn't cooked Japanese food (the Dursleys wouldn't have touched, in their words, 'fancy foreign muck'), Rin seemed fine. Rin could cook to a degree, and cook fairly well, but not as well as Harry. Harry offered to teach her, and she accepted.

Harry realised fairly shortly that Rin, despite her pretentions to be a proper Magus, wasn't anywhere near as amoral. Despite her protestations, she actually cared about others too much. True, she still kept her distance from those without magic (though she thought the term 'Muggle' was stupid and sounded vaguely derogatory), and her relationship with Sakura was more distant than it should have been, but still, she denied vehemently wanting to cause any death in pursuit of her work. And she was utterly fascinated by the tomes and books he had brought over from his world, even if she couldn't make much use of them.

She also met Fawkes for the first time, and was awestruck that Harry had a Phoenix bound to him as a familiar. As Phoenixes were Phantasmal Beasts in this world, she agreed to keep his existence secret…in exchange for doing as much research as she could into Fawkes without, well, killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. Even if Fawkes was more of a fried turkey. Fawkes' reaction to Rin cemented Harry's impression that Rin, while trying to be a cold Magus in attitude, was fundamentally a decent person.

When he brought out the Pensieve, she was really amazed, and they soon found out that this was one of the few magical things that could be used in both worlds. Indeed, the Pensieve seemed to be one of the few things that didn't get Gaia's attention.

The first time Harry met his youngest sister was, understandably, in the library. She came in during the lunch break on his first day. Harry found himself drawn to her. Gentle, sorrowful features were framed by bluish-purple hair. Of course, actually talking to her and telling her that he was her big brother was another matter.

He went by Harry Potter officially, lest using the surname of Tohsaka raise eyebrows. After all, he looked European, not Japanese. However, he did have a cover story ready, in case people wondered why he was staying with Rin, something he had already told Taiga: he was a distant relative of the Tohsakas and the Matous, albeit from Europe. This actually wasn't wholly out of the question, as the Tohsakas did have some European ancestry in the mix. In fact, it was rumoured that one of the Edelfelt Masters in the Third Holy Grail War back in the 1930s (in this world, the year was 2003) married the Tohsaka Master at the time, though this was rather hard to discern, and there had certainly been a rivalry if not an outright feud between the Tohsakas and the Edelfelts (who hailed from Finland) ever since(1). And the Matous, as the Makiris, originally came from Russia. He claimed he was related to the Tohsakas on his father's side, and the Makiris on his mother's.

Rin had, in addition to discussing her sister and Shirou Emiya, told Harry about other students of note. In her year, there was Shinji Matou, the Magus equivalent of a Squib, a blue-haired Casanova-wannabe who, while he had oodles of superficial charm, rubbed Rin the wrong way. There was also some archery club members that Harry didn't really remember, as well as some boy who wanted to be a Buddhist monk, just like his father, called Issei Ryuudou.

Anyway, here was Sakura, his youngest sister. He wanted nothing more than to speak to her, reach out to her. There was something of her that reminded him of himself, and of Neville. A downtrodden nature.

Eventually, Sakura came over to him with some books. Horror books, he noted. "Would you like to borrow these?" he asked in Japanese.

She nodded nervously. "Are you the new librarian?"

"Yeah. Harry Potter, nice to meet you."

"Umm, I'm Sakura Matou. Likewise," Sakura said, returning his smile rather shakily.

"Rather strong stuff for a girl your age," Harry said, noting that they seemed to be a mix of Eastern and Western horror novels.

"I'm used to it," Sakura said. "I like scary books."

"Hey, I do too, but, well, you didn't seem like the type. Hope you enjoy them anyway, Sakura."

She nodded, and left. And Harry wondered how he was going to break it to her who he was…

As it happened, Rin took the initiative, leaving a note for Sakura that had the girl coming to the library a few days later. She invited him to come with her to the house of a friend of hers…namely Shirou Emiya. Taiga would be coming along to chaperone. Taiga found the whole thing heartwarming, and found it lovely how Harry was reconnecting with who she thought was distant family.

The house, while not as large as that of the Tohsakas, was still fairly large by Japanese standards. And Taiga all but barged in, demanding food from the sole resident. And that was when Harry met Shirou Emiya…

The boy was not that impressive physically. He was rather slight, albeit with red hair and hazel eyes that were unusual in a Japanese. He had an earnest nature, an eager one, though he greeted Harry politely. Harry realised he had met the boy a couple of times previously, albeit in passing.

Harry suggested that he cook for once, and Shirou and Sakura, after a moment's hesitation, let him get to it. As he cooked, Shirou asked, "Mr Potter…why did you come to Japan looking for work?"

"Long story short, I burned my bridges in England," Harry said. "A lot of people had been telling me lies, and I found out I had family here. Distant family, but, well, my father is distantly related to Rin Tohsaka, while my mother was related to the Makiris, the Russian family that became the Matous. I approached Rin first. We have areas of mutual interest, and allowed me to stay at her place. Plus, I've always had an interest in the supernatural and the unexplained, and I wanted to do some research for a book about the various events that happened nine years ago."

"Do you mean the Fuyuki Fire?" Shirou asked.

"Yeah. Although there was also a serial killer running around at the time, and a bunch of terrorist attacks," Harry said. "Not to mention some weird monster movie filming that went on."

"Hey, yeah, I was around at that time," Taiga said. "There was this weird pair I ran into, some whiny British kid called Waver, and some burly red-haired guy who called himself Iskandar."

Harry had to hide his reaction. Taiga had run into Waver and Rider? "I've met Waver Velvet. He's now an academic in England, he helped me track down my family."

"Oh?" Taiga asked. "Anyway, Shirou here was rescued from the Fuyuki Fire by Kiritsugu, who adopted him."

"He saved my life," Shirou said. "He…never looked so happy as he did when it happened."

"Shirou wants to be a Hero of Justice," Taiga declared.

At this, Harry scoffed quietly. "A Hero of Justice, huh?"

"What's so funny about that?" Shirou asked, a little affronted.

"I never said it was funny. Being a hero isn't funny. Far from it. Unless you like shitty endings. Don't get me wrong, helping people isn't wrong. But being a hero isn't a job. It can be a chore, though. And that's if you're lucky."

Taiga peered at him. "You sound like you speak from experience."

"Let's just say that I had a terrorist after me and my friends for most of what was laughingly called a childhood after he murdered my parents," Harry said. "I've had my fill of adventures…"

Harry was glad he cooked, at Shirou and Sakura's suggestion, extra portions. Taiga was a glutton, shamelessly asking for seconds. Although to be fair, while her swift style of eating reminded him too much of the Dursleys, she seemed to at least appreciate his efforts, unlike that menagerie he laughingly called relatives.

The reason why Sakura suggested that Harry come along was that she was sleeping over at Shirou's place, and Taiga was doing the same thing. While Shirou distracted Taiga, Sakura could talk to Harry in private. So, while Shirou and his guardian discussed something, Harry was talking to Sakura in another room.

"Rin sent me a note, telling me about…you," she said uncertainly.

"That I'm your older brother?" Harry asked.

Sakura nodded, and showed him the note, which he read. "It seems so fantastic…this is the first time Rin's really contacted me as a sister since I became a Matou. Every time we meet, I am just her junior at school. I had thought…"

"Hey, hey, none of that. As far as I am concerned, I'm your big brother. I know we've only just met, but you're family to me just as much as Rin is. And quite frankly, Tokiomi was an arsehole for adopting you out, Magi inheritance rules bullshit or not. And I'd rather have you two back together, even if you have to live apart. Rin still cares about you, she's just having to think of you as a Matou, and not a Tohsaka."

"And is it true that you came from another world?" Sakura asked, curious.

"I grew up there, yes," Harry said. "That terrorist I mentioned was an evil wizard. The idiots there thought I was their messiah…or just a naughty boy. They couldn't make up their minds. And when I finally killed him, they turned on me. That's why I was a bit derisive towards Shirou. Being a hero isn't all that it's cracked up to be."

Sakura nodded, and there was something in her expression that had Harry believing she had some experience with that. Maybe Kariya? So, he changed the subject. "By the way, do you know whether Shirou is a Magus or not?"

"Shirou? Umm, I'm not sure. He likes working on things in a shed, I often find him there, and I think he can use basic magecraft. Structural Analysis and Reinforcement. I don't know for sure, and I didn't think it polite to bring it up. Magecraft is not something you can just expose to the world, you know. But his father was the Magus Killer."

"That's why I asked," Harry said. "Rin's curious, and so was I. Besides, if he wants to be a hero, I can give him pointers on what to avoid. Like avoiding meddling old men."

"Like you, big brother?" Sakura asked impishly. He would later learn that while she hadn't quite accepted his status as such at the time, she was testing the waters, and certainly liked him better than her own big brother in the Matous…though considering what Shinji did to Sakura, that set the bar pretty low.

"Hey, I'm only 20! That's not old!" Harry retorted, much to Sakura's amusement. "Taiga's older than me!"

"DID YOU JUST CALL ME TIGER, POTTER?!" Taiga yelped.

"And what of it?" Harry asked, wincing. He hoped Taiga hadn't heard anything else. He would later learn it was just her Tiger Senses tingling.

"I'll give you a pass this once, then, for making me a great meal! Don't call me Tiger!"

"It's your name! Anyway, who doesn't like tigers? I mean, unless they're being eaten by them?"

Sakura chuckled. "You must be tired of living if you keep digging yourself deeper," she remarked.

"I have a bad habit of living dangerously, that's all," Harry said with a shrug…

CHAPTER 3 ANNOTATIONS:

So, Harry's met Sakura and Shirou, and has faced down the wrath of the Taiga! What next?

Incidentally, thanks for the great debut! I'm glad you guys like what's been posted so far. As of posting this chapter, I have written 10 chapters (counting the prologue), with Chapter 7 being the debut of Medea. Medea's dynamic will be different to that she had with Kuzuki in canon, or indeed with that of Shirou in Path of the King, though it will lean more towards the latter.

Review-answering time! Amatsumi: I didn't, I just used it as an exclamation. Rin uses 'God' as an expletive later.

merendinoemiliano: No I don't, though I'm fairly unfamiliar with the Kamen Rider franchise as a whole anyway. I know roughly what it's about, and that's it.

Thunder Dragon: Fair enough, but I decided that this version of EMIYA, while he didn't fall in love with Saber during the time he knew her, fell in love with her afterwards, much to his personal regret.

Kaiser Dragon: Did you not read my foreword? I explicitly stated that Path of the King would be an influence. Ugh.

OBSERVER01: Well, yes and no. Harry's tempted to go out there and save her, but he also knows, thanks to Rin, that doing so may have consequences that may backfire (Zouken may have more pull with the Magus Association, given his long life). They're able to put a stopgap measure by asking Zelretch to take Sakura in as an apprentice (I'm sure Zelretch is probably one of the few people Zouken cannot refuse an order from), until shortly before the Grail War. And that's when Medea comes along…

God-King Ghidora: Umm, who's the author here? While your suggestion of Harry being an Average One has merit, Harry, while his magic is OP by Nasuverse standards, is not an OP character. His main draw here is his perspective. His magecraft is well behind Rin and Sakura's, though it's still ahead of Shirou's, but he prefers to focus on Potterverse magic anyway. He will use Gandr curses in actual combat, though, and given his unusual hybridised magic, Medea may be able to teach him a few of her abilities. Not so much so he will be as powerful as Medea, but…well, let's just say that flying and firing off at least one of those Rain of Light beams won't be out of the question.

1. This was based on a comment HolyKnight5 made in their review of the prologue when it was posted in Zelretch's Collection of Alternates. After some quick research on the Type Moon wiki and finding this to be a possibility, I integrated it into the story.