Fate/School Days – Sidestory 03: Keiko

I was down at the targeting range when Sakura-kaasan came to fetch me. I noticed her as soon as she had stopped just outside of the sound-shielded booth behind me, but continued with my targeting sequence. She waited patiently as I focused on the five targets down-range, each at various distances and levels of visibility, the last 2 slowly sliding around in random patterns.

Ten minutes, five shots later, I frowned as I chambered out the last shell and threw the safety back into place. Five direct hits, four of them striking dead-center on the targets. The fifth missed the exact center by a few centimeters after the moving target suddenly went down a new path at random. I stared at the weapon in my hand and sighed; normally I would have taken the time to strip down the rifle and clean it off before I stored it back into its dimensional pocket, but looking back at my expectant stepmother's expression, I knew I couldn't spare the time. I settled for strapping it across my back, hoping its physical presence would remind me of the chore afterwards.

I acknowledged my visitor with a lazy wave as I opened the door, "Hey, kaa-san. What brings you down here today?"

Sakura-kaasan greeted me with a nod and a smile, "Nee-san asked me to bring you to her study."

"Oh?" My mind raced through the possibilities. It was too early for the day's lessons in the Tohsaka branch of thaumaturgy; I hadn't gotten into trouble at school recently; if anybody asked, it had been Karin that had done that thing with the things and made the things do the thingies... I looked back at Sakura-kaasan and forced an even tone into my voice, "Now?"

She smiled and waved an arm back down the hallway towards the entrance, " 'As soon as is convenient,' she said. But you shouldn't keep your Mother waiting."

ooo

When we arrived at my Mom's study, we found her stalking slowly around a magic circle drawn across the floor, as if double-checking the various glyphs used to empower it. To the far side of the room stood Chiho-kaasan and Daddy, who lifted his head and acknowledged my presence with a short grunt.

Mom looked up from her own inspection and smiled at me, "Keiko, I'm glad you responded so quickly." She stared at the rifle slung over my shoulder. "We didn't interrupt you, did we?"

"Hey, Mom," I returned. I glanced towards my guide, "And no, Sakura-kaasan was nice enough to wait until I was mostly finished. I just haven't had a chance to clean up yet."

Daddy perked up, "I can take care of that for you, Keiko. You might not get the chance to, afterwards."

I frowned, "What does that mean?"

Mom crossed her arms, "We're going to begin the process of transferring the Tohsaka Family's Thaumaturgical Crest to you. Normally we'd start when you were much younger, but we were hoping we'd be able to find a way to duplicate it first, similar to how the Edelfelt Family is able to."

I frowned, recognizing that name from my Mom's numerous rants in our previous lessons. "Um, didn't you tell me that was because of a Sorcery Trait unique to their family?"

Mom glared at me, raising and clenching a fist until I could see the veins popping out from the skin. "Anything that witch can do, I should be able to do as well!" She exhaled and was suddenly back in her previous pose, appearing as collected and calm as before. "Anyhow, that's why we're starting this a bit later than usual, so you mi~ight have a slightly stronger reaction to it."

Father spoke up then, "We'll start slowly, just inscribe a new framework for the crest and one of the circuits Rin has already mastered herself. Once we see how well it takes, we'll be transferring one or two circuits at a time in the coming weeks or months; again, just the ones she's already mastered and can do without."

"But that doesn't mean you can slack off on your own training," Mom pointed out. "We're doing it this way because there's no possible way you could take on the whole thing at once, but this is a fallback. I'll still expect you to give your best during our lessons and to expand on what you can do from there."

I blinked. "So I'm the Tohsaka heir?"

Mom stared back at me with more than a hint of pride. "You – Keiko Emiya – are my daughter," she said simply. "I expected nothing less."

Something seemed to stab at my heart as I flushed with pride myself. A knot of tension I hadn't even known existed seemed to unravel itself and I choked at the feeling of relief it brought me. Throughout the years, Mom had never shown any hint of approval at the end of our Thaumaturgy lessons. She always had something to critique, whether it was my jewel-crafting, or my spellcrafting in general. If my accuracy was spot on – as it always was – she would critique my power. If my powers were sufficient, she would critique the efficiency of the spell. It was this constant negative feedback which had me shooting out gandr at random objects around the house, which soon transitioned into self-training with firearms.

Intellectually I'd always known it was just a training method, a way to push me against my own limitations. After all, this was Rin Tohsaka-Emiya, a person who would never show approval or affection if she could help it. She was the reference picture for the phrase tsundere – nevermind that Matsu-kaasan had been the one to write up the dictionary the family used. Until now, however, I hadn't realized just how much I yearned for her praise. Hearing her tell me outright that I had met her expectations made me a bit more emotional than I would have thought previously.

I rubbed at my suddenly wet eyes with a sleeve, but didn't let any other sign of my emotional state show on my face. Mom had resumed her study of the magic circle, giving herself an excuse not to witness my quiet breakdown, but lifted her head almost as soon as I had schooled my expression. She gave an almost imperceptible nod in my direction. "Go ahead and let Shirou take care of your weapon," she said. "And then take off your shirt and step over into the middle here."

Mom followed her own instructions, unbuttoning her vest and blouse and stripping them off to leave her shoulders and arm bare. She stepped into the open spot at the center of the magic circle, the crest on her left arm flaring into existence as she crossed the boundary. As I stepped in myself, Mom nodded towards Chiho-kaasan, who I saw was occupied in the corner with a mortar and pestle, busily grinding up herbs and small ivory-colored objects into a powder.

Mom closed her eyes, chanting a few words in German which caused the circle to thrum with power and light up beneath us. She opened her eyes, a somewhat regretful expression on her face as she reached out with her left arm towards me. "Brace yourself, this could hurt a bit..."

ooo

I was in no condition afterwards to head back to my own room, so Mom let me pass out in her study for the night. Chiho-kaasan gave me a drink laced with the powdered mixture, which alleviated the pain somewhat. When I woke up the next morning on her couch, I found the room empty, though Chiho had left several packets of that powder to bring with me to school.

I went to the bathroom closest to Mom's study and found somebody had brought my school uniform and supplies there, so I freshened myself up and made it to the front door just as Karin and the others made it down the stairs.

"Keiko!" Karin ran up to tackle me in a hug. "Where have you been? Sakuya just said her mom told her you'd wouldn't be back last night." She pulled back to arm's length and frowned at me. "Hm? Something's different about you... "

I waved her off, "I'm fine. I just had some training with my mom that sorta beat me up. I'll be back to normal in no time!" I wasn't sure why I felt the need to downplay my possession of a crest of my own around my sister, but something deep in my gut told me it would be a good idea to do so.

Karin gave me a look that suggested she still found something about me weird, but seemed to let it go as she stepped back and hefted her school bag. "Hm, if you say so."

I shrugged easily and nodded my head towards the door where Koyuki and Sakuya were waiting for us. "Trust me, it'll just be business as usual."