Disclaimer: I don't own Fate/Stay Night.
A Reversal of Fortunes
Chapter 2
Ayako Mitsuzuri stared down at the peacefully sleeping form of Shirou Emiya, dressed in grey-colored overalls, while lying down on a piece of matting in his own storehouse. Setting aside the inappropriate setting for a nap – much less overnight rest – he was also sleeping-in on a weekday, to the point that if he still had to cook and eat breakfast, he wouldn't have the time to bathe or at least shower without getting late for school.
Ayako frowned, and reaching up scratched her head in thought. At the same time, Shirou murmured something unintelligible, and then turned to sleep on his other side. Ayako couldn't help it, she smiled at the surprisingly-cute sight. Still, as tempting as it was to just let him sleep, it wouldn't be very friendly to let him be late for school, would it now?
Or for that matter, get tongue-lashed by a certain tiger if he was caught sleeping-in at the storehouse of all places.
So with those considerations in mind, she knelt down and reaching out with a hand, began to stroke Shirou's belly with her fingers. At first there was no reaction. But after a few moments Shirou began to fidget, at first weakly but then more pronounced, before rolling onto his back.
He opened his mouth to laugh, his eyes following suit in another moment. Ayako grinned down at him.
"Good morning." She said as their eyes met.
"GAAAH!"
There was the sound of bone striking bone, and both teens went reeling, cradling their heads after accidentally hitting each other when Shirou had abruptly sat up in surprise. "You'd think," Ayako growled from where she'd been knocked back onto her rump. "After having been woken up by me for years now, you'd have grown out of being surprised waking up with me hovering over your face."
"S-sorry," Shirou said. "But, you were tickling me so…"
Ayako said something unintelligible, but after a moment she got to her feet and held out a hand. Shirou blinked at it, and then giving a small smile took it and was helped up to his feet. They stared at each other for a bit, but then Ayako sighed and scratched her cheek. "Well I don't know what you were expecting when you woke up," she said. "But enough about that. You shouldn't sleep here you know? If that tiger catches you, you're in for an earful."
"Yeah, yeah I know that."
Ayako crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at Shirou who just returned her stare. She sighed and dropping her arms, looked around. "I still don't get why you spend so much of your free time in here anyway, and with all this junk too." She said.
"I've told you before," Shirou said with a hint of exasperation. "This place is my base, ever since I was kid."
Ayako stared at him again, and then sighed. "I get it, I get it," she said. "Honestly though, that's just like you, along with that crazy dream of yours."
Shirou smiled sadly. "Do you really think it's crazy?" he asked.
"Of course I do." Ayako said. "But I'd rather not get into an argument with you this early. And the last time we did have an argument over it, we didn't speak to each other for a week. And besides,"
Ayako fell silent, and Shirou raised an eyebrow in his turn. "And besides?" he prompted her.
"It's certainly better than that bullshit Matou spat out back then."
Shirou's face fell at that, as he remembered those cold, poisonous, violet eyes glaring down at him and Ayako, bruised and battered at her feet. And he remembered, as Ayako did, what the Matou girl had said.
There's no such thing as heroes or justice, you stupid idiots. There are only victims, and victimizers. I choose to be the latter. And if you have even a drop of intelligence in your brains, you'd choose the same.
Ayako sighed again, and began to walk away. "Well enough about this depressing topic." She said. "I'm going to go make breakfast, and you, Shirou, are going to take a bath."
"What?" Shirou asked, blinking as he returned from reminiscing. "Wait, I can't let you make breakfast all by yourself. That's…"
"Sure you can." Ayako said with a smile and a roll of her eyes as Shirou ran up to her at the storehouse's door. "You leave me alone in the kitchen, I wash my hands, set the table, cut some vegetables, scramble some eggs, prepare other ingredients, bring out pots, pans, and utensils, cook breakfast, serve breakfast, and then wait for you and Fujimura-sensei before starting to eat. See? It's easy."
Ayako grinned at Shirou who just stared at her for a few moments. "No," he said slowly. "I meant can't I help? I mean I don't really need to take a bath right now I can just,"
"Shirou, I'll be frank." Ayako interrupted. "You're filthy. And Fujimura-sensei is going to tear into you for being dirty at breakfast as much as she is if she finds out you spent the night in here."
Shirou blinked and glanced down at himself, and sighed. "Now that you mention it," he said with another sigh. He glanced back up at Ayako who playfully stuck out her tongue and winked at him. "Alright, I give, I give."
The two of them shared a laugh as they left the storehouse together, and began to walk back to the house. "Still," Shirou began. "Don't push yourself, and just take your time."
"If I take my time, we might be late for school." Ayako responded. "And then the tiger will tear into us both."
Shirou sighed and nodded. "I guess I can't argue with you there." He said. "Though, there's no need to rush either. I don't want any accidents to happen to you, alright?"
Ayako laughed and nodded. "Yes, yes," she said with a mocking salute. "Thanks for your concern, but I'll be fine so don't worry your head off. Now, go and take a shower, shoo! And take your time, breakfast will be ready just in time for you to finish."
Shirou laughed Ayako hypocritically throwing his words back, but nodded before turning to head off to the shower. "Alright," He said. "I'll leave breakfast to you then."
"Yeah, just leave it to me."
"Honestly," Taiga Fujimura began as Shirou sat down at the breakfast table. "Sleeping-in on a school day of all days. I thought I raised you to be more responsible than that, Shirou."
"Oh come on, Fujimura-sensei," Ayako put in from where she was drying her hands with a towel. "I told you, I found him sleeping at his desk with his homework scattered across the table and on the nearby floor. Cut him some slack already, it's not like it's not true we have a lot of schoolwork to finish every day."
"Well if you put it that way…"
As Taiga rambled on with theatrically-closed eyes and a raised finger, Ayako winked at Shirou who smiled back at her. "…complain too much," Taiga continued. "It's good practice for the real world, whether you go to college or not after graduating from high school. It isn't good if this much is already so hard for you, things will be even harder out there…"
She broke off as Ayako held out a hand. "Ayako-chan?" Taiga asked. "What?"
"Rice bowl?"
"Oh right!" Taiga said, instantly switching from a chiding character to a more relaxed, and cheerful one. "Sorry about that, Ayako-chan! I got all worked up and forgot about this delicious breakfast you made! Anyway, we should move on past this topic, so I'll wrap it up with this: Shirou!'
"What?"
"Don't stay up too late."
Shirou froze in the act of feeding himself, and stared incredulously at Taiga. "That's unreasonable, Fuji-nee." He said sullenly.
"In what way?"
"I've got a part-time job after school, remember?" Shirou pointed out. "Depending on how much schoolwork needs to be done when I get home, I can't afford to not stay up late…sometimes. It's not like I make a habit out of it."
It was true. While sometimes he did fall asleep in the storehouse working on one thing or the other, most of the times he had to sleep up late was because of schoolwork piling up. It wasn't like he could just leave them undone and go to sleep simply because it was getting late and he was tired.
That was simply lazy and irresponsible, and he was neither.
"Anyway," Ayako cut in before Taiga could begin another tirade on the subject. "Let's just enjoy our breakfast, alright?"
"Alright, alright," Taiga said with a sigh. She chewed a mouthful of rice and swallowed before continuing. "Just don't make a habit of it, and I suppose I can let it go if it's something that has to really be done."
"That's all I'm asking for Fuji-nee." Shirou said, with a small nod at Ayako, who shrugged at him in response.
"Oh no."
"What's wrong?"
"It's her."
Ayako's eyes went flat, and Shirou's turned troubled. As they turned the corner and entered the school's main gates, they saw just ahead of them a schoolgirl of their age with a wavy mane of violet hair, tied up into a pair of pigtails. And as expected, just nearby with a subdued air was a boy (also of their age) with violet hair that matched his sister's.
The girl heard them however, pausing to look over her shoulder with an air of relaxed curiosity. Violet eyes blinked in recognition, and lips twitched into an amused smile. "Is there a problem, Mitsuzuri-san?" Rin Matou asked.
Ayako didn't reply, though her face dropped a little, and Shirou subtly put himself in front of her. "Still trying to be a hero, I see." Rin whispered with a laugh. She didn't say anything more, instead turning to resume walking to the main school building with a dismissive sweep of her hair. Shinji Matou managed to give a small nod at both Shirou and Ayako, and then rushed off to rejoin his sister.
"Stuck-up bitch." Ayako hissed once the other girl was out of earshot.
"Don't be so harsh on her." Shirou said. "You know what her past was like."
After the incident a few years ago, Ayako and Shirou had dug as far as they could to find out as much as they could about Rin Matou. In the end, they'd discovered that the Matou family was an old noble family, and that Rin was their heiress. Ayako had assumed initially that Rin was just another rich, spoiled brat, but Shirou didn't think it was that clean cut.
For one thing, even for a rich, spoiled brat, what Rin had said to them seemed more than a bit strange.
There are only victims, and victimizers. I choose to be the latter.
And there was also her younger brother…except according to what the public records at city hall said, the difference in age was barely three months. While Shirou couldn't completely rule out Ayako's belief that Rin was just a rich, spoiled brat, he could convince Ayako that there was more to it than it seemed.
Ayako now glanced at Shirou skeptically. "There are plenty of cases of abused people growing up normally, you know." She said softly, walking not towards the school but towards the archery building. "I know it's said and somewhat proven that abused children grow up to be abusers themselves, but many of them grow up better than their parents."
It was not until Shirou had managed to make friends with Issei Ryuudo that they managed to discover the truth. Originally Issei – at the time just a class representative – had been unwilling to allow them access to confidential school records, but when he learned who they were prying into, he'd given in: for some reason, Rin just rubbed him the wrong way, and his perception of her was surprisingly (and for Ayako, amusing) not much different from Ayako's.
Though he agreed that she was spoiled rotten by her rich old grandfather, he also considered her something else: a witch.
That would have been very amusing, and it was, except while Shirou was willing to pry somewhat into her past, he didn't dare pry into whether or not she was a witch just in case it proved to be true. That would involve tipping certain stones best left alone, and he knew that his kind in general didn't like it when the stones they hid under were tipped over by overly-nosy people.
After all, Shirou himself was a magus, albeit an amateur one.
Ultimately, they ended their investigation after Issei had provided what he could from the school records. It also explained why there was such a short age gap between Rin and her brother.
Rin was a mistress' daughter, and who'd been adopted into the family at the age of six after her half-brother had been considered unsuitable as family heir. There were no details given why that was the case, though it mentioned that before Rin was brought into the Matou household, she had suffered neglect and some physical abuse under her mother.
Well, it certainly explained her strange words to Shirou and Ayako, and caused more than a fair bit of pity for Shinji. While he had the reputation of a spineless milquetoast that trailed after his sister and did her every whim, in hindsight the intrepid trio realized that was probably only after his spirit had been crushed, first by his family stripping away his birthright, and then by his domineering sister asserting herself.
It was even likely that his being 'unsuitable' as family heir was just a quiet and unassuming character on his part as a child, which could have been twisted into submission to his sister's dominance.
Shirou just hummed unhappily at Ayako's words, and Ayako sighed. "I know you like to think the best of everyone, Shirou," she said as they walked towards the archery building. "But all you have to do is look at how she acts and at the people she surrounds herself with. Her 'friends' are basically a gang of petty bullies and shallow girls that leech off her money."
"Understandable," Issei put in as he walked up to them, and apparently had overheard the last of what Ayako had said about Rin's friends. "They're henchmen and yes-girls for her."
"Henchmen?" Shirou echoed skeptically. "Really Issei? She's not an evening cartoon villain, you know."
Ayako giggled at that. As Shirou and Issei glanced in her direction, she held up her hands. "Sorry," she said. "I couldn't help but laugh."
"At what?" Shirou asked.
"Well," Ayako said, tapping her chin. "I was just thinking, when Issei mentioned henchmen, I suddenly had this mental image of Matou sitting and holding a cat at a supervillain lair on an uncharted island in the South Pacific."
Shirou deadpanned at that, while Issei began to laugh. "And then a tied-up Shirou's brought in wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt," he began.
"What?" Shirou asked in surprise.
"…along with Ayako in a bikini…"
"Hey!"
Issei paused to laugh. "And then Rin gives a speech along the lines of 'my nuclear missiles will cause a giant earthquake that will destroy California' and 'No Mister and Missus Emiya, I expect you to die!'…"
Issei broke off from laughing, while Shirou restrained a blushing Ayako from pummeling the near-hysterical Issei for making jokes at their expense. "Really Issei?" Shirou asked. "Why exactly would she want to destroy California? And I'm supposed to be James Bond and Ayako a Bond girl?"
"You've never watched Superman, have you?"
"Are you saying I don't have what it takes to be a Bond girl?"
Shirou twitched at the first question, and then glanced sharply at a scowling Ayako who'd crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. "No, that's not what I meant!" he spluttered. "I mean, uh…"
Issei laughed again as Shirou tried and failed to calm their friend down, though after a moment Ayako smiled and patted Shirou on a cheek. "Just kidding." She said cheekily, joining Issei in laughing as Shirou fumed. "Don't worry, I'm not offended. To be honest, I'm not exactly the bombshell type you'd expect a Bond girl to be, so it's not exactly untrue, is it now?"
"No comment."
"Coward." Issei snickered.
"Shut up."
Shirou sighed and looked up at the sky. "Going back to the original topic," he began. "While I'll admit that Matou's choice of friends is problematic,"
Ayako snorted at that, already untying her shoes before heading into the archery building. "There's an understatement." She muttered.
"I'd like to think that she'll eventually grow out of her issues." Shirou finished with a disapproving glare. "Like say, when she realizes that those girls are just hanging around with her for her money."
"Fat chance of that," Ayako muttered before raising her voice. "And her bully boys?"
Shirou made an unhappy noise, and scratched his head. "I hope they…grow…out of it?" he said hesitantly with a weak smile. Ayako sighed and shook her head.
She smiled at Shirou afterwards though. "Always thinking the best of everyone, don't you?" she asked.
"He probably thinks Matou will stop being so…unfriendly, eventually." Issei said.
"Is that so wrong?" Shirou asked.
"Not really," Ayako said, standing and picking up her shoes. "But, reality doesn't always live up to our hopes and expectations, does it?"
Shirou looked troubled, and Ayako sighed again. "Well let's talk about this some more later," she said before winking. "Maybe."
Shirou smiled. "Maybe?" he echoed, and Ayako laughed.
"Yes, maybe." She said. "Who knows? We might find something better to talk about. Now if you'll excuse me I have other things to take care of before class starts. Now shoo!"
Shirou and Issei laughed as Ayako made playful, dismissive gestures, and with waves turned and headed to the main building, while Ayako vanished into the archery building.
From an upper floor window, Rin coldly stared down at Shirou and Issei as they headed back to the main building. The Ryuudo boy and Mitsuzuri girl were nuisances, nothing more and nothing less, if wisely perceiving her as someone to be wary of.
Most wise indeed, compared to the Emiya boy who for some reason continued to behave as though she hadn't shown him – along with that Mitsuzuri girl – his place all those years ago, and imparted to him the wisdom she'd learned in pain and suffering. Perhaps that was it: without pain and suffering to drive the lesson home, it simply could not be understood by those ignorant of the world's true nature.
Rin narrowed her eyes. Her grandfather had once told her that the Emiya boy's father had been a spell-caster and assassin of some note, though crippled by his exertions as a Master during the previous war. Fortunately, the man had died before he could have taught his son much, though there was still the issue of how much he did manage to teach. However, Rin's altercation with the Emiya boy and Mitsuzuri girl along with the laughable defenses of the Emiya property had answered that question easily enough.
With that said, her grandfather had taken care investigating the Emiya, and had warned Rin after the altercation not to go too far in her dislike for the boy. Apparently, the Church Overseer – one Kirei Kotomine – may have something of an interest in the boy, given the priest's previous rivalry with Kiritsugu Emiya, the Emiya boy's father.
And Kotomine was a retired executor. He might have gotten seedy from years of inaction, but outside of their territory even Zouken Matou was wary of the priest's skills. And where her monstrous grandfather was wary, Rin was wary too.
In any case there was no need to rush. For one thing the Emiya were a broken reed, despite Rin's dislike for the sole Emiya left alive. She could deal with him at her leisure in the future, after the Fifth Holy Grail War. She had bigger fish to fry than him, such as the other Masters and the returning Tohsaka heiress in particular, who'd left Fuyuki eight years ago to study at the Clock Tower.
Rin grit her teeth as she saw in her mind the innocent and smiling face of the Tohsaka heiress from eleven years ago. "Tohsaka's ace in the quest for the Root?" she thought disdainfully. "Let's put that to the test, shall we? Because no matter how much potential Tohsaka's brat might have, it's no good if she can't actually put that potential to use."
Rin smiled, and stroked her arm, above where her command spells were marked.
"Soon."
A/N
Sorry for the long delay in updates, I was having writer's block on how to proceed. With that said, here we have Shirou and friends, and our first look at Rin Matou.
Rather bitter isn't she?
With that said, I'm going to say this now: there's no way a Heaven's Feel-like scenario will develop. Rin can be used as a potential host for Zouken, as breeding material for a new generation of Matou magi, but she cannot be a Lesser Holy Grail. Without the Sorcery Trait Imaginary Numbers, she cannot interface with the Grail like Sakura Matou could. Hers is a different role in the twisted mind of Zouken Matou. Her 'training' and 'upbringing' are accordingly different.
Hopefully, the next update for this won't be as long in the making.
