Author's Note: For people who note Rin's accomplishment and think it was a bit too much to happen within a couple months, please keep in mind that Rin's been trying to do this off and on for years by now. She simply had a breakthrough at Shirou's birthday party that made all the pieces fall into place. She is also even further ahead than her FSN self when it comes to intelligence, Magecraft studies, and skill.

This also gives a glimpse into the sorts of duties Rin would have to conduct as Second Owner.

Chapter 5: Discoveries and Duties

November 1, 1999

Tohsaka Residence—Study

Texture 1986A—Unlimited World Works

2:29 AM

Tokiomi Tohsaka looked at his older daughter who had fallen asleep on the couch during his lecture about not overworking herself. To be honest, part of him thought that maybe he should have lectured her after she had a night's sleep from her two-day work binge. The other part knew that she could fall asleep at 5:50 or so, wake up at 6:00, and be rested for the day thanks to the rules of Shirou's Texture. Tokiomi and Waver did that themselves to manage their work lives in Britannia and home lives in Japan. There was no excuse for Rin to miss that window and simply not rest at all.

A harsh tap of his staff on the floor startled his lethargic daughter back into awareness. "I'm up!" She groggily exclaimed before realizing where she was. Not a morning person at the best of times, her hair was in disarray and her eyes had dark circles under them.

"Rin...would you care to explain what was so important that you neglected to sleep for an entire weekend and into Monday morning?" Tokiomi's inquiry would lead to the girl tilting her head before her eyes widened slightly in dim awareness.

"Oh yeah...I finished it. Where was it..." she mumbled, searching her person. Rin ultimately found a gemstone and tossed it to her father lazily and without fanfare while still resting on her side. The man caught it with a slightly irritated expression. Rin had grown too accustomed to being rough with her things since Shirou could so easily replace them. He would need to talk with Shirou again about not enabling that bad habit—

These thoughts abruptly ceased when he looked more closely at the diamond...a diamond with a ridiculously detailed Magic Sphere inside that happened to be as large as Rin could safely cram into the gem's smallest dimension. There were also supporting Formalcraft structures in various other parts of the gemstone—some of which were suspended in sapphires that had been carefully implanted inside the diamond—and it held a significant amount of power stored inside. Clearly, the gem-within-gem system existed to allow some of the Formalcraft sections to benefit from the divergent elemental affinities of the gemstones. Sapphire could be used to govern the 'flow' of things, whether for water Magecraft or magical energy regulation. The final result looked like snowflakes and raindrops captured inside a moment of time with a literal additional dimension of surrealism applied.

"Rin...what is this?" Tokiomi inquired of his child regarding the most complicated display of Jewel Magecraft he had ever seen for its size aside from those made by Zelretch himself.

"Memory Jewel. It can—yawwwwwwn—connect to the mind or Magic Circuits and be a storage device for memories or Structurally Grasped data. I want to Structurally Grasp and Trace things, but clearly remembering what I Grasp long enough to Trace it is hard. All that data just can't fit in the human brain." Rin straightened up on the couch and crossed her arms, her next words spoken with a touch of envy. "Shirou gets around that by bypassing his brain and storing the memories in his Texture, so I'll get around it by storing them in jewels like this. If I find something in there worth putting in my brain's normal memories like some new discipline or process, I can work on integrating that properly into my head when the time comes. I can stick multiples in my Jeweled Cloak and use them that way too."

The girl gave a sigh of exhausted frustration. "That thing would have taken months to make without Memory Partitioning, and that's if I didn't make many mistakes. So many of the patterns in memory storage structures just repeat over and over...ugh..." Rin uttered before she fought back another yawn, Tokiomi noticing behavior consistent with his daughter feeling something more along the lines of 'I'm glad I'm done with that chore' than pride. She had clearly pushed through the weekend to simply finish this jewel and get the task out of the way once she hit the home stretch. "I could also make it part of a Magical Computer later, but nothing close to Grandpa Zelretch's work or Add's level. I'm still far away from pulling that off. I could improve faster if I found a way to improve my Grasping skill..."

Tokiomi suspected that he knew what Rin truly meant by hinting at this. Rin wanted to be able to use advanced Structural Grasping to access knowledge and skills as Shirou did, including ones that would otherwise be lost to time or hidden away within their patron's Mystic Codes. It was an unparalleled research tool for any discipline.

Anyone could technically use Shirou's more advanced brand of Structural Grasping and Tracing but there were limitations. Being able to retain the memory of what was Grasped and comprehend it were issues because of the constraints of the human mind—the former simply due to capacity(something Rin now had an answer for) and the latter becoming an issue in cases where one was dealing with Divine Constructs that defied human understanding(which did not come up exceedingly often). Having the power to Trace something was another, but Jewel Magecraft could help shoulder that cost as well by using gems as prana batteries. Formalcraft over a charged leyline could also help with that. Rin's internal energy reserves had also increased sharply due to the time she spent training in the Texture and growing up with a prana-infused diet as recommended by Waver Velvet's notes—enough for Artoria to claim that she was significantly stronger than her older Fifth Holy Grail War counterpart. The last main limitation was the quality of the initial Grasped image. Human eyes alone were not enough to get a perfect Structural Grasp of an item, so the copies were always inferior. Rin had normal human eyes and a human mind, meaning she still suffered from the full quality and comprehension drawbacks in spite of her natural gifts and preparation.

Rin did not like being told she was unable to do something so she sought ways past or around her limitations. Tokiomi had known this ever since Rin had accidentally blinded herself trying to use Reinforcement on her eyes when she was six...and again at seven. Shirou had restored her sight both times, thankfully. Then she entered a phase where she started to ask for copies of Shirou's Mystic Eyes. It was a logical step to take—they were a natural solution to some of her problems. However, Tokiomi ultimately had to tell Shirou and Touko Aozaki not to give her Mystic Eyes because she needed to accomplish things with her own abilities rather than using their generosity as a crutch.

...but making tools for herself counted as 'her own ability', did it not? So long as she did not neglect her own inborn abilities like some Alchemist ideologies might compel her to do, a researcher was allowed the devices of their craft. Still, he had limits on what was tolerable even with this perspective.

"You're thinking of doing something similar to the Lehrman family's Magecraft. Jewel-based artificial Mystic Eyes," Tokiomi observed rather than inquired. "You know that those require the removal of their original eye to use. The wearers also need brain surgery to become compatible with multiple Mystic Eyes. I would not permit you to mutilate and risk yourself to such a degree. We've seen from the Matou what path that might take."

Rin's tiredness was temporarily forgotten as she felt an initial urge to argue, but the remainder of Sakura's suffering and the realization that her father spoke out of concern cut this impulse quite short. She instead remembered her education, sat up properly, gathered herself, and spoke her case. "...I won't do anything permanent to myself. This would be more like a set of glasses or Medusa's blindfold. I can use other ways to connect to the mind and circuits that don't need me to stick it in my eye socket, including the system the Jeweled Cloak uses. Even if I stayed away from that, there are also things like Passes, Displacement Magecraft, Telepathy, Familiar spells...I can use these instead of a physical link if I make the connection more efficient with three-dimensional etching. I could even use more than one method at once if I had to. I'll also add spells to help process the image within the eye before it ever gets sent to the brain—there won't be a need for surgery to use it. Even if all that failed, I could still have the Eyes connect right to a Memory Jewel instead of the brain if I had to."

"And how will you know what 'processing' needs to be done?" Tokiomi inquired. He was proud that his heir had gotten it together and was making a decent argument for her intentions.

"Shirou—" Rin started before realizing something and pausing to parse what she said next carefully. "...I asked Shirou for permission to Grasp his eyes and brain once I had a Memory Jewel made for it. I'd study that to make a prototype Artificial Mystic Eye of Clairvoyance. It wouldn't be perfect because my Grasping wouldn't be perfect, but I could use the eye to Grasp him again for better data, fix the eye, and do it all again until I got the best results I could. He said he'd just Grasp himself and give me a perfect set of data because it was less trouble and safer for me..."

Tokiomi nodded, realizing why Rin had been careful with her words. If she had simply said 'Shirou gave me his data', it would have sounded like laziness on Rin's part. "At least you were willing to put in the work to perform the iterative process. I have to agree with him giving you the data this time though. It is safer for you to start with more complete data if you're ultimately connecting the prototype to your brain in any manner."

"Then I can do it?" Rin asked excitedly, only for Tokiomi to raise a hand in a 'wait' gesture. The man considered the matter carefully. In truth, it was a well-constructed argument and something Rin had been working on for a significant amount of time. She already had a number of prototypes that Tokiomi had disregarded as dead ends but had still taught her much about Magecraft in the process. One learned the most from failure, after all.

And Rin had learned—those lessons combined with the skills she had recently married together had created a massive breakthrough that could rapidly complete a number of those 'failed' projects.

Tokiomi gave his final decision on the matter. "Not without oversight or precautions. Early attempts to connect the Mystic Eye to the brain will be performed on Familiars instead of on yourself. We will see if Touko Aozaki is willing to assist in the process or at least supervise. She is our authority on Mystic Eyes. Shirou must be on hand to monitor and heal you if he is willing. Merlin must be on hand to use his Clairvoyance to convey if there is a problem before you conduct each test, provided we can convince him."

Tokiomi started to write down a list of things to do to prepare while he spoke. "I warn you, though—this is outside of the terms of Miss Aozaki's agreement with us. There may be a price for her assistance. To make an example of these glasses or a blindfold for her to use for herself is likely a required concession. She may also demand access to any artificial Mystic Eyes you develop, though I would then argue for mutual access and use of each others' artificial Mystic Eyes. You would also need to retain control of any patents, provided they do not infringe on those of the Lehrman family that already exist. I will use this opportunity for you to receive first-hand experience with negotiation, patent non-conflict verification, and patent submission." Tokiomi's concerns were reasonable, but he chose to add something else. "Also, you would need to take on another project for me depending on the nature of these Memory Jewels."

"What kind of project?" Rin inquired, having not expected all of this. It was so...complicated.

"Can you find a way to mass produce these Memory Jewels rapidly, Rin? Can they store the spells from a Magic Crest?" Tokiomi asked his daughter.

Rin looked at her father with slight confusion. "Yes and yes. I planned on making a lot of them anyway. That final prototype has a near-perfect copy of its own data that I put in it as I was making it. Using that as a reference to make quicker copies with Displacement Magecraft and Alteration instead of Tracing should be easy as long as I have materials...Why?"

"I am not at liberty to give details right now, but it may be important to make as many copies as possible for the Clock Tower. Something bad is happening there, and this act could place you on the good side of a fair number of powerful people." Tokiomi saw Rin's discovery as a partial solution to a major problem he was facing. He knew that storing memories or Magic Crest information meant storing a family's knowledge. His mind had immediately pondered on the implications for the Clock Tower, whose oldest Magic Crests were being hunted down. Rin's offering wouldn't have the same regenerative magical energy benefits as a true Magic Crest, but it could at minimum be used as a backup to preserve the spells should the worst happen and a new Crest need to be created later.

The tired girl grumbled a bit at both the delay and the idea of being 'stuck on' her previous project for a while longer. "Ugh...alright. Can it wait a few days, though? I need a break from it."

"I suppose that would be appropriate," Tokiomi said, prompting Rin to relax a bit. That was—at least—until he handed her a book on Mage's Association patent law. "After school today, we will delve into this instead. It will be essential information for you to know in the immediate future, and switching to a different task now and then instead of throwing yourself at the same one until you pass out is a viable option."

He gave his daughter a deceptively kind smile, a variant of the one future Rin sometimes gave Shirou when he did something foolish and was being punished for it. "If you don't want to be mentally or physically exhausted by your work, pace yourself better next time."

The girl could only lower her head in defeat.

December 17, 1999

Clock Tower Courtyard

London, Britannia

6:06 PM Local Time (Greenwich Mean Time)

(December 18, 1999, 3:06 AM Japan Standard Time)

Here Rin stood, front and center in a courtyard before a white backdrop with heavy symbolism and participating in a strange ceremony. The white robes were strange to her and she was still getting used to the glasses she was currently wearing—diamond lenses with gold frames that had been made by Shirou at her request before she modified them into her own Mystic Eye Emulators.

Her father had said that the Memory Jewel would have an impact, but she never expected to be in a ceremony to receive the rank of Fes at the Clock Tower. It was a strange catch-all rank for accomplishments that were too unusual to fit on the normal ranking scale but otherwise demanded acknowledgment. Being too young to attend the Clock Tower and yet doing it a service while finding a new way to perform Formalcraft and Runecraft apparently qualified. She was thankful beyond belief that she had managed to become fluent in British and Latin, as well as that Waver Velvet had helped in preparing her for this. The fact he was the one standing in front of her in a black robe conducting the ceremony was reassuring at least.

Another reassuring detail was that Atalanta was in Spirit Form right there with her. The Servant had rejected being returned to life thus far so she could astralize and be ready at a moment's notice to defend Rin and Sakura, citing that it was hard for her to disguise herself normally and stay close any other way. Medusa and Hercules also rejected revival, though the Greek Servants would revisit the situation when their Masters were older.

A number of students from Tokiomi and Waver's classes at the Clock Tower were watching while similarly dressed in black robes, as were most of her family and friends. Zelretch and Tokiomi—as men of station in the Clock Tower—wore rather distinct attire. Gray wore a somewhat more fashionable blue robe due to her own station. Artoria did not wear a robe due to her duties as a Knight but formal British armor, Caliburn, and Prydwen. The students were...whispering. This was the last activity they had before they left for winter break—one that included the winter solstice on the 22nd and the celebration of Yule in this particular institution. Curious about them, she applied a degree of Reinforcement to her ears...maybe she should start designing 'Mystic Ear' functionality next?

"She's the one who came up with Three-dimensional Formalcraft? She's just a kid!"

"That's a Lord's daughter and main heiress! Of course she'd start young."

"Yeah, and Zelretch is watching her. No matter how young she is, it's either excel or break."

"Twelve isn't that young to start making achievements..."

"Riiiiiiight, spoken as if you have any at nineteen~"

"3D Formalcraft isn't a big deal. Pseudo-Spiritron Computing is better!"

"Then why don't you just march on over to Atlas and ask for their crown jewel?"

"Aren't they just giving her this because her father's a Lord?"

"No, you idiot! She invented the Memory Jewel. Some families are just barely hanging on because of her!"

"Yeah, and her father summoned the monster that caused those families' falls in the first place."

"But that Dead Apostle and Lord El-Melloi teamed up and stole the Servant during a formal truce, didn't they?"

"The corruption inside the ancient Crests was proven true, too..."

"Hey, let her have her Fes rank. Memory Jewels mean I don't have to take notes in class anymore!"

"Isn't that Grand Duchess Gray over there with her family and friends? And Mélusine Albion?"

"I'm pretty sure that Knight is King Artoria as a Servant...she hasn't aged in five years and my grandfather says she looks just like the one from World War Two."

"Oh yeah, the Tohsaka Sisters were Masters in that Grail War back in '94, weren't they?"

"The Edelfelt family isn't happy about this..."

"Atlas is watching her too. Poachers."

People in the Clock Tower were beginning to openly suspect Artoria. With Gilgamesh actively attacking them and Iskandar boldly ruling North Macedonia and Kosovo while running for the Greek Presidency, it wasn't hard for them to notice that some Servants still walked the Earth. Thankfully they were mostly content to let their King keep to herself until the Promised Time and protect her kin. A few tried to demand that she fight Gilgamesh to protect the Clock Tower, but it had become possible for the families to start checking for a demonic signature hidden within their Magic Crests by this point...so the number of families willing to volunteer their possessed status as to make this demand were very few. They ran the risk of eviction from the Clock Tower to avoid even one more intrusion, after all.

Some of the family heads and heirs in the Clock Tower had refused Touko's advice to remove their Magic Crests for storage even after confirming their Demon God Pillar status but were willing to load up a Memory Jewel with a copy of their knowledge and hide it away just in case. These models were 'base' models that were much like her original 'full' model but removed the latter's ability to store Structurally Grasped data like Traced weapons or Saint Graphs. As Gilgamesh's body count rose and Magic Crests were damaged or destroyed, several families found themselves with their Memory Jewel being the only record from which to rebuild. Others adopted it simply as an emergency measure should their Crest be lost in a Subcategory Holy Grail War or an attack.

Waver immediately requested a cheaper and less complicated version of the Memory Jewel within the price range of Clock Tower students that eliminated the diamond and sapphire construction in favor of quartz. Why? General storage and playback of memory data including the 'feel' of how to cast spells. Waver could record himself casting a spell he wanted to teach, let his students play back his memory, experience every aspect of the spell-casting including physical sensation, and learn it faster. Then the students could record their results and let Waver analyze them in the same manner for flaws or advice. Between this, the recording of lectures, note taking, and just about any other use that could be equated to a media player; the Memory Jewel was well on its way to becoming a universal tool within the Departments of Mineralogy, Modern Magecraft, and Policies. Astromancy and a few others were also showing interest. Kirei was even making a Bajiquan training library out of it while the various Servants started to record their own combat arts.

The invention had also pushed the concept of 3D Formalcraft, 3D Runecraft, and especially Magic Spheres further into the consciousness of people in the Clock Tower. It was a good thing that those things and other nuances of the process had all been patented in her name. Her method of artificial Mystic Eye production was also patented, even if hard to replicate.

The Edelfelts had immediately contested all of the patents and tried to take the patents for themselves on the grounds that the Tohsaka Jewel Magecraft allegedly used stolen aspects of their own variant. They lost miserably. Rin's work was even considered a step further removed from the Edelfelt research than the normal Tohsaka Magecraft.

The Lehrman family also contested the artificial Mystic Eye patent, but the Magecraft used to make them was completely different. As such, that claim failed as well.

Then the Atlas Institute—a rival branch of the Mage's Association to the Clock Tower based in Egypt—realized that Rin had displayed 'the proof of an Alchemist' in the form of Thought Acceleration and Memory Partition to create the Memory Jewel. They didn't consider it an impressive invention when compared to Pseudo-Spiritron Computing, but they did acknowledge that a twelve-year-old managing something requiring that much processing power by herself was 'a notable accomplishment' and that the invention filled a niche. Worrying that the heir to a Clock Tower lord would be poached by Atlas, the order to give Rin a rank in an effort to bind her more strongly to their own organization was given.

The Edelfelts had immediately contested that and lost again.

"—and so the Clock Tower awards Rin Tohsaka the rank of Fes for her advancement of Jewel Magecraft, Formalcraft, and Runecraft as well as for services rendered to the Magical community related to the preservation of magical lineage and the improvement of educational doctrine." Waver finished, calling forth a small amount of polite applause. It was given a bit more enthusiastically from the family. A pendant was placed around Rin's neck and she received a certificate, after which she shook Waver's hand.

"Thank you, Professor," Rin said, using the title that the Fuyuki Faction rarely addressed him by internally because of his older self. Maybe they should fix that? This younger version was finding a great deal of success as an educator.

"You're welcome, Miss Tohsaka. You are growing into a fine Magus. Never lose that drive to improve yourself." Waver responded in a measured manner appropriate for the venue.

The educator then turned toward his students and strode over to them. "Now...you lot weren't as quiet as you thought you were. This was a solemn ceremony meant to convey respect and you couldn't even wait until it was over to start running your mouths. Every one of you owes me a ten-page report on the meaning and symbolism of the Clock Tower's rank assignment ceremony, due on the first day of classes after the break." Waver's response was met with a muted, collective groan from the students. There were also glares from peers at the ones who were the most responsible for the chatter.

Tokiomi stepped forward at this point while smiling at his daughter. His response was measured while in public, but he was clearly and honestly proud of her. "Congratulations, Rin. I remember the day I attained my first rank meriting a formal ceremony. I was significantly older than you and it was certainly not one this prestigious. I'm afraid we lack time to stay and mingle, however. We have a prior appointment in town with a family head regarding one of the patents." This was planned ahead of time, of course. Rin might manage to handle being swarmed by Clock Tower students, but there was no reason to test it until she was older. This was doubly so if nobility showed up. Having a pre-scheduled meeting was a fine excuse to bow out.

"Agreed. Her Highness needs to be returned to Akershus Castle to prepare for her winter solstice and Christmas duties in Norway. Good day, Lord Tohsaka. Congratulations, Miss Tohsaka." Artoria said to them with a bow. This too was planned to keep Gray from being swarmed.

"Of course. Thank you for attending, Sir Watson. Your Highness." Tokiomi gave an appropriate bow, carefully measured for their statuses.

"Thanks for inviting us, Uncle Tokiomi. Congratulations, Rin! I'll see you all on Christmas Eve!" That was a little less formal than planned, but no one said anything to criticize.

As Artoria guided Gray to a different area for a separate ride to Ahnenerbe and Waver left to tend to his students, the remainder of the group went to their own vehicles. Medusa and Leysritt—in chauffeur outfits provided by Irisviel and Illya as part of their mutual hobby—opened the doors to Tokiomi's red Bentley and Leysritt's black van respectively. While everyone else got to go home or explore the city, she had to go meet another complaining or simpering Magus family.

Rin pondered the education this had been for her thus far as she rode in the red car. In addition to her own research into her Mystic Eye Emulators, Rin had been responsible for a lot of paperwork. She had to come to the Clock Tower, cross-reference patents, make sure nothing could weaken her patent application or come up with solid counter-arguments if it could, and conduct various negotiations with her father's aid. The other children assisted as it had been turned into a lesson of sorts for them as well. She was also having to interact with the families who wanted to license her Magecraft. These were responsibilities she would be expected to assist in sooner in her life than normal due to her father's obligations at the Clock Tower.

The first such licensing effort was negotiating with Touko about the Mystic Eye Emulators and managing to arrange cooperation with her. Rin was the patent holder. Touko advised and assisted in refining Rin's process in exchange for access to the platform. Both could also access each other's improvements to the platform and artificial Mystic Eye designs...within the bounds of reason. If Rin made only half of the eye designs Touko did—for example—Touko could choose to provide a comparable number of Mystic Eyes of similar quality and only share those. They could also deem some eyes as private and not share those if they were sufficiently dangerous or sensitive to their respective crafts. That was Rin's first business negotiation, and Touko could easily have demanded more.

Another was the Ainsworth family—a thousand-year-old family of Displacement Magecraft users who operated outside the Clock Tower. They had declined to the point where they were considering joining the Yggdmillennia family in the late 1980s, but Natalia had hired them to assist her in various construction and restoration efforts across Europe and Japan. Though inglorious work, it kept their family afloat and led to future agreements. Now they were going to be supplemental manufacturers for 3D Formalcraft and 3D Runecraft designs.

But these were built on the existing reputation and relationships of the previous generation. The coming discussion had none of that. In fact, it had the potential to start on a more negative tone than a positive one. "Remember, Rin," Tokiomi said to his daughter. "These people may be upset, but you are not obligated to give up anything. Your artificial Mystic Eye patents are sufficiently different to theirs that they have little recourse...but the time and effort they have placed in their own branch of research warrants a courteous response."

"Yes," Rin agreed quietly. After stopping the car, Medusa would step out of the vehicle and open the door for Tokiomi. She would then allow the children out as well. Leaving Medusa behind with the car—but keeping Atalanta with them in spirit form—the group entered a small cafe that was not Ahnenerbe. After Tokiomi spoke quietly to a waitress, the group was led to a table with two people.

Tokiomi approached with a courteous smile and greeted the Lehrman head and his heir. They promptly set up a spell to keep people from listening in or paying them much attention. No one was aware that Atalanta was nearby in Spirit Form while Medusa was watching the area closely. "Greetings, Mister Lehrman. Miss Lehrman. I am Lord Tokiomi Tohsaka, the Head of the Department of Mineralogy Thank you for agreeing to the timing of this meeting. It gives us an excuse to keep the vultures off of Rin until she's a little older," Tokiomi said before looking at the children with him. "These are my daughters and heirs Rin and Sakura. This is my third apprentice, Shirou. Rin studies Mineralogy, Runes, Formalcraft, Mystic Eyes, and the Second Magic. Sakura studies Imaginary Number Space, Runes, Mineralogy, and the Second Magic. Shirou studies Mineralogy, Archaeology, Runes, Structural Grasping, and Materials Analysis."

The man being introduced had hair that was a bit darker than his daughter's—trending toward purple—and wore a normal gray suit along with a black eye patch over his right eye. He would remove the eyepatch in a way that made Sakura briefly tense up—it had been replaced with a blue-green gemstone that everyone present identified quickly as malachite. The daughter of the family looked to be the same age as Rin with pink hair and purple tips, but the white and pastel purple sweet lolita outfit was a bit strange. Her eyepatch was also odd in that it was shaped in the form of a five-pointed star. She removed it to show an eye identical to her father's. "I am Karl Lehrman and this is my daughter Yvette. We both study Jewel Magecraft, Mystic Eye construction, and the accompanying Mind Modification Magecraft."

Karl seemed irritated as he looked at Rin, weighing her in his mismatched eyes before speaking. "For someone whose family trends toward more traditional Jewel Magecraft, you have certainly made waves in other fields. I can tell that you are kin with the Edelfelt."

Rin's eyes narrowed a bit as she realized what this concealed dig referred to. The expression on his face made the intended context clear. He was calling her a thief of family secrets who should have stuck to her family path rather than swerving onto his. The heart of the matter was that she had intruded on their family's niche when making her Mystic Eye Emulators even though her solution wasn't based on their family's work at all. Rin could see their concern but this fool just insulted her family and needed a reality check. She recalled her training, gathered her poise, and replied. "I achieved what I have with hard work and independent research, Mister Lehrman. Whether your insult is hidden in subtle words or clearly stated, the fact my research hits a little too close to home for you is no excuse for you to make this your family's first impression."

Karl's eyes widened ever so slightly as Rin called him out on his stunt, but she kept going. "My meeting with you is a respectful courtesy given at your request. You can be civil, or I can walk away right now. I don't need to be here." Rin refused to lean on the fact that her father was a lord even though this man's words were disrespectful of him as well. No, this was a consequence of her actions alone. So she reminded the man that she owed him nothing. Did this risk escalating the situation? Maybe. But the man had insulted the entire Tohsaka family and needed a subtle reminder to control himself. Magi didn't respect those who failed to protect themselves.

The Lehrman patriarch gave Rin a searching look and the daughter he had with him was a little surprised...but then Karl gave a small smile after a few moments. "Hnn. You're not an Edelfelt after all. You're just as unlikely to take an insult to your family, but less likely to drag their name into your response. A bit more straightforward, too...I guess you pass, though you didn't see through the test like your father did."

Rin glanced at her father, who she now realized had said nothing even though his family was insulted. Tokiomi clarified the matter for the children. "It is not unusual for Magi to issue measured taunts to get a feel for each others' natures and weaknesses. That Mystic Eye that he has open is also likely helping him to gauge us. Experience is the only way to learn to deal with such things. That last insult was a bit close to the line, though." Tokiomi said this last sentence with a slightly more serious tone and aimed it as much at Karl in warning as at the kids in teaching.

"Sorry, sorry," Karl uttered with a hand raised in a casually placating gesture. "A bit too much actual irritation got out there. Your little girl managed parity with generations of our work in...what, a few months? Those Atlas mind tricks are no joke. It's obvious why they don't let their people out of the Titans' Pit and allow those skills to spread."

"Don't feel too bad. I had to analyze a Noble Phantasm to get started on this and had the ideas in my head for years. I just hit a breakthrough recently. It's all still my work, but it did give me some ideas to explore," Rin volunteered, though she didn't elaborate further. Let them think it was the Fourth Grail War that triggered this rather than the Jeweled Cloak.

Karl gave a light whistle. "That'd do it. I'd like to go into a Subcategory Holy Grail War, summon a Caster, and just run off for the rest of the War to study under them. That's a bit hard if the war only lasts a couple of weeks and they have a wish to fight for, though. That and the mortality rate is too high. I'd have to wait until my little girl was older to even consider risking that."

Tokiomi interjected, "A Caster is usually the sort to stay in one place and fortify their location anyway. There's nothing wrong with your idea of being taught in the meantime, so long as you adjust the Aria to seek out a Servant who is willing to teach Magecraft to you. You could even have them fill a Memory Jewel with their knowledge. Just make sure that the Magecraft they teach can still be used in the modern age. It won't accomplish much if the spell is so incompatible with the World that it can't activate in the first place. The upside is that the catalysts for such Casters should be cheaper."

"Is that right? Huh...well, food for thought. We still need to figure out how to move forward here. Your patent is different enough from our own process to where you still got it. What does that mean for us?" Karl asked with irritation.

Rin contemplated the matter. This was the man's attempt to weasel a promise out of her family not to overtake their research without anything in return. Not that he had much to offer. Rin's method didn't have the downsides of the Lehrman one. "I keep studying. My main goal was to make a certain kind of Mystic Eye for myself that didn't exist outside of nature yet and didn't require me to remove my natural eye or tinker with my brain. Any Mystic Eyes I make would probably be kept private or in the hands of allies for the moment. I won't box myself in with promises, but I'm not chasing any clients you may have or whatever path to the Root you're pursuing right now."

"So our saving grace is that you're less interested in our path to the Root or our wider market than protecting your own internal solution. Hmph...I guess our Magecraft has stagnated in your eyes." Karl Lehrman scowled.

"I don't think of other houses that way unless they get arrogant and have nothing to show for it. I'm too busy figuring out where I'm going," Rin answered with a level voice. Still, her irritation was visible to the emotion-detecting eyes worn by these two.

"Daddy, don't be such a fuddy-duddy!" The daughter finally spoke. "You thought they'd look down on us and they didn't. Just ask for the license to the 3D stuff before you make them angry at us for good reasons!"

"Yvette—!" The man exclaimed, but the girl flicked her hair and ignored his protest.

"Sorry about that. Daddy's been angry at himself for not thinking of etching the insides of our eyes. It's such an obvious thing now! We still don't know how you figured out how to adjust the eyes without testing them and tweaking the brain first, though," Yvette said. She appeared irritated at her father's behavior.

Rin found the girl less of a concern...or was this some good cop-bad cop routine? Well, she didn't mind giving out an answer for that either way. "For the sake of protecting your own minds, I'll give you a basic answer you can develop for yourselves. Father had me test the Mystic Eyes and their effects in a Familiar first, employ some protected sense sharing to see through the Familiar, and I tweaked the design from there. We try never to forget the basics, even if they're from different disciplines of Magecraft." She and the group used a more complicated process than that involving multiple steps of Clairvoyance, but it was mainly because they had access to more resources and more accuracy. The Familiar method was still something that worked even if it was just more time-consuming. Rin initially felt bad about doing that to Familiars, but these Familiars had already died once and Shirou could repair any damage to the mind easily. Not that damage happened often with Clairvoyance doing some serious error-checking.

"That's...but...what am I altering my own brain for, then?!" Yvette exclaimed, standing suddenly and discarding her composure almost entirely for a moment. She then pouted at missing something that seemed so obvious before regaining her composure and sitting back down. "Right. I'm learning Familiar Magecraft over break! I'll pick a familiar that's human-like—maybe a pig—and stick a Mystic Eye in it. Once I've tweaked that piggy's brain meats just right, I'll reference that when I finish etching the eye to reflect the changes and stick it on my own head." Yes, in spite of her cute voice and appearance, this was still a Magus who had altered her own neurology a bit. It was thankful that she wouldn't need to alter it any further.

"I suppose we could try...multiple internal structures in a sap housing that is artificially aged into amber..." Karl pondered, contemplating ways to get around the patent. Then he realized himself and went silent. Giving the Tohsaka more ideas was a bad idea.

"Hey, I've been wondering! Are those glasses your Mystic Eyes?" Yvette asked boldly, intruding slightly on Rin's personal space.

The Tohsaka daughter was a bit confused by this breach of etiquette, but it was Illya-like behavior that she wasn't completely unequipped for. "Yes? Or at least the first layer of the system—"

"Mystic Eye buddies!" Yvette promptly hugged a surprised Rin. The girl was startled, but after a glance to Shirou who silently verified that the girl had no malicious thoughts she simply chose to endure. This exchange wasn't missed by Karl, who wondered if the boy had an ability of his own in play.

Ultimately, a solution where Rin would allow them to use her methods of etching under license while they sought their own solution was reached. Karl seemed not to be completely satisfied, though his daughter forcibly adopted three new friends and admitted to looking forward to not needing to alter her own brain anymore. On returning to the car, Tokiomi spoke once more to Rin. "...You're upset that you weren't able to come up with a perfect solution."

Rin nodded, "when I made my Mystic Eye Emulators, I didn't think about what the other families chasing this path would think..."

The car pulled away as Tokiomi contemplated the matter before answering, "You will cross over into other disciplines that other Magi consider their own. Stealing or condemning what came before is improper, but all you did was excel and show another path. They are dealing with the results of their own stagnation and it is not your place to solve their problems for them. If they truly merit the path they have chosen, this will become the motivation for them to advance further. The daughter certainly seems to have that drive."

Rin took note of her father's words and silently acknowledged them as they moved down the streets of London...she wondered how far that Yvette girl would go in her family art and how they might interact in the future.

ITEM DATA:

Name: Memory Jewel

Owners: Rin Tohsaka, Fuyuki Faction, Luviagelita Edelfelt, Various Magi(lesser versions)

Rank: D+ for 'full' version, D for 'base' version, E for 'economy version

The Memory Jewel is a creation of Rin Tohsaka that serves as a memory storage device that can save or load memories into the mind and Magic Circuits. It is also possible to selectively delete its contents or copy from one Memory Jewel to another. It does not achieve the data density of Pseudo-Spiritron storage, but it is more accessible. The Memory Jewel's construction employs Three-Dimensional Formalcraft(including Magic Spheres), Three-Dimensional Runecraft, and Displacement Magecraft etching techniques to inset those structures into the transparent gemstone that it is built into.

All but the cheapest versions are diamonds with spheres of sapphire inset directly into the main structure to help better govern information and prana flow. The end result is a surrealistic three-dimensional image of what could be interpreted as stylized blue raindrops(sapphires) and white snowflakes(Magic Circles) with what appears to be a spherical snowball(Magic Sphere) dominating the structure in the very center. The cheapest version has no sapphire insets and is made of quartz instead of diamond. The snowball also appears 'fuzzier' due to being a less densely packed storage medium.

The internal components of Memory Jewels do not glow when simply recording or playing back content, but they will glow if energy is cycled through them to cast a recorded spell. They can be 'bound' to a bloodline or a series of bloodlines, though Luvia obtained hers without this feature yet being triggered.

There are three versions. The original 'full' version is entrusted to Rin's allies and has the added ability to be loaded with the data from Structural Grasping, allowing its use as a reference in Tracing or even for the storage of Saint Graphs. Outside of the Fuyuki Faction, only Luviagelita Edelfelt has been able to obtain one with this capability. She currently remains ignorant of the added feature.

The 'base' version is one with the Structural Grasping storage ability omitted and is provided to Clock Tower Magi for backing up things like Magic Crests or other essential records. It can still easily store far more memories and thoughts than the scope of a person's lifespan, ultimately serving as a wider family record in general. The base version, like the full one, can also store a decent amount of magical energy with which to use spells stored in its memory—though it must be actively recharged, unlike a true Magic Crest.

The 'economy' version is a cheaper variant requested by Waver Velvet that has less memory capacity, even less energy storage, and more complexity. It is also made solely of quartz rather than diamond and sapphire. The end result is a version that a Clock Tower student can afford. This version is meant for mass production and serves as a day-to-day form of memory storage and playback, though some of shallow generation without much financial means might use it for Magic Crest backup. Its key selling point is that parents and teachers can load them with spells complete with the thoughts, memories, and sensations of casting spells. Their children and students can then review these spells, emulate them in practice, store their memories of the practice in the same Memory Jewel, and allow the teachers to review the students' work. This allows magical education to happen on a deeper and faster level even if the teacher and students' shared practical training time is limited and makes it ideal for classroom use. It also allows for teachers to 'save' lectures for future use—allowing for things like time-shifting or reuse should the content not change from year to year. Waver hopes that, eventually, a complete set of lectures could be stored on such a crystal and made accessible to his students.

In addition to these various uses, it is possible to save memories of events, research records, note-taking, or for playing back memories of specific senses to emulate a music player. Some even use it to convey the 'feel' of certain martial arts techniques. The limit is the creativity of the user.

Name: Mystic Eye Emulators(version 1999)

Owner: Rin Tohsaka, Touko Aozaki

Rank: C

Derived from the concept(but none of the Magecraft) of the Lehrman family's Artificial Mystic Eyes, combined with her own Three-Dimensional Formalcraft/Runecraft and the nature of the Jeweled Cloak of Morgan to interface the caster's will and prana with spells stored in jewels, Rin's Mystic Eye Emulators are a pair of glasses that can selectively 'connect' and act as gateways to artificial jewel-based Mystic Eyes that reside either in Imaginary Number Space or are installed in the Jeweled Cloak of Morgan. They can also store and simultaneously connect to Memory Jewels, a form of dense magical data storage, to record what the Eyes see even if it exceeds the ability of the viewer's mind to perfectly process. Each type of Eye also has integrated and tailor-made sub-processing abilities to allow their use and hot-swappable nature without causing mental damage or requiring prerequisite brain surgery—sidestepping a limitation of the Lehrman process due to constraints of using conventional crafts to enchant their Mystic Eyes.

The end result Rin employs appear to be tasteful, traditional glasses made of gold with diamond lenses. Sapphire and black opal components also exist in the earpieces. The diamond lenses are enchanted to act as foci and filters through which the Mystic Eyes' effects are channeled and are crafted to conceal any passive glowing or luminescent effects so as to hide the eyes' use from sight—unless the power has a secondary luminescent effect like an offensive fire spell. The Black opal earpieces are enchanted to provide the needed connection to Imaginary Number Space. Sapphire governs 'flow' and, alongside the gold that is similar to that of the Jeweled Cloak, helps Rin interface with the glasses for both data transfer and prana flow.

When the Mystic Eye is used, the connection between Rin's normal eye and her brain is intercepted and replaced with the connection to the Mystic Eye connected to the diamond lens. Peripheral vision, however, is preserved. No verbal Aria is required to employ the glasses or to 'select' the appropriate Eye type. Rin may only connect each lens to a single Mystic Eye at a time for a maximum of two, though the eyes can be mismatched to stack up to two effects at once.

A downside to the Mystic Eye Emulator system over natural Mystic Eyes is that there are Mystic Eyes that cannot be easily created or fully replicated by human processes such as Glam Sight: Fairy Eyes or Mystic Eyes of Death Perception due to their transcendent nature. It might be possible for such an eye to be created by a non-human entity with the appropriate Authority and used with the system to bypass this restriction.

Each Artificial Mystic Eye is either constructed around a spell or made based on the Structural Grasping of a natural Mystic Eye(plus a user's brain if available) and its careful reverse engineering under the supervision and support of Touko Aozaki, Merlin Emrys, and Shirou Enjou. The very first Grasped Mystic Eyes were Shirou Enjou's self-Grasped Mystic Eyes of Clairvoyance, though without the benefit of Glam Sight: Fairy Eyes. These Mystic Eyes of Clairvoyance were used in turn to obtain more perfect data on natural Mystic Eyes that could not be replicated before under the typical or Lehrman processes. Sadly, Rin has a limited number of Mystic Eyes to draw from as of 1999—even with Touko Aozaki contributing to the platform for mutual benefit.

Note that an amplification system based on that of the Rail Zeppelin is being planned that can supercharge an Artificial Mystic Eye at the expense of destroying it is in the works, but has not been constructed as of 1999.

Mystic Eyes(and their sources) available as of December 1999:

Clairvoyance(Shirou)

Enchantment(Alice and Touko)

Gandr/Finn(Touko's Aoko Puppet)

Ansuz(Constructed from ruby and Ansuz Rune spell, independently of Yvette's Flame Eye)