Fate/School Days - 01

"Fufufufu~ middle school at last," Karin proclaimed. "I can finally work on achieving one of my life's ambitions!"

Her bluenette of a sister looked at her askance as they entered their homeroom. "Which one is this?," Koyuki asked.

"Yuki, I'm hurt you don't remember!" the redhead cried. "It's always been my dream to become the Class President!"

"Ohayo, Emiya-san, Emiya-san," a boy near the front desks greeted each of them in turn. "We're in the same class again!"

"Hello hello, Nameless Extra #4!" Karin returned cheerfully.

"When will she ever remember my name..." came the grumbled reply.

"Sato-kun," Koyuki inclined her head at the boy politely, then returned her attention to her sister. "...Why Class President? I acknowledge that you are definitely one of the most intelligent students of our age group. However, your treatment of our fellow classmates is... ah... lacking."

Karin's glasses reflected the light, which somehow cast her face in shadow as she continued chuckling. She shook her head slowly, "Yuki, I'm disappointed in you. It is a well documented fact (in certain anime/manga) that boys can never resist bringing in to school their *special* magazines and DVDs to trade with their friends. As Class President the duty falls to me to save their minds from such things and confiscate them for an indeterminable period!"

The normally stoic snow girl couldn't help but take a step back as her sister continued chuckling as she continued, "And it's an excellent way for me to start collecting the research material mother still won't let me look at..."

Nameless Extra's #1-5, all coincidentally their repeat classmates from elementary school, nervously stared at each other as the younger Emiya's laughing turned from the vaguely troubling to the downright disturbing kind. It was probably a trick of the light, but somehow a small area in the back of the heads had suddenly turned reflective and... blueish.

"Koyuki-chan!"

Koyuki paused in the hallway and turned back the way she had come. A short girl with her brown hair cut to her jawline smiled as she stopped in front of her. "Kaori-san," she greeted.

Kaori Aida, aka Nameless Extra #7, grinned shyly back at her. "I'm so sorry I wasn't able to get into the same class as you, Koyuki-chan! I'll make sure to work harder next year so we can be together!"

Koyuki blinked slowly. "I am not so sure that is how the system works, Kaori-san," she said evenly. "I believe the homeroom classes are divided up mostly by chance the initial year. Our teachers would have more of an influence on the following years beyond that, but I do not think we as students have much to do with that."

The other girl maintained her earnest expression. "Still, I'm very sorry I can't be with you this year! But-!" she whipped her arms from behind her back to display the two bentos she had stacked on each other. "Perhaps you can forgive me if... we... ate lunch together? I happened to make a bit extra today!"

And every school day for the past year, Koyuki mused as she regarded the girl with the same even expression. She really was too careless in measuring out her ingredients for the day. Shirou-tousan would never have made such a novice mistake. Even Gil-jisan would throw a fit if he'd ever caught one of them wasting food in that manner. "As always, I am afraid I must decline today," she bowed as she displayed her own packed bento. "I already possess sufficient rations for the lunch period and would not be able to consume beyond this much. In addition, I have been tasked by my sister to locate our siblings and have tarried too long already."

Kaori's expression didn't exactly change. She had more or less expected this anyhow, but somehow her smile became somewhat weaker. "I-I see. Sorry to have bothered you!" She bowed low and scampered back down the hall. "I'll see you later, Koyuki-chan!"

Koyuki waited a few beats before she turned back the way she had been heading, and wasn't too surprised when she found her three siblings standing right before her with large grins plastered onto their faces. "Sisters," she greeted. "Shall we eat?"

"Oh we will, Koyuki-chan~" Keiko stretched out the last syllable, sounding eerily like the girl who had just departed.

"Maa~ Koyuki is so lucky to have a friend who thinks so highly of her," Sakuya said happily. Her smile remained the same but somehow grew much darker, more ominous. "So *very* highly of her," she continued, her tone now somehow sending shivers down the snow-girl's spine.

Koyuki stared between the three blankly. "What?"

"No~othing," Karin chimed, absolutely the picture of innocence. "We don't mean a~anything by that, 'Yuki." She spun on her heel and marched down the hall towards the cafeteria. "Lunch?"