"A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it." ― Jean de La Fontaine

Author's Note: While this has a similar premise and may share some backstory to our previous work "Ring of Fire" it should be treated as an entirely separate story. Reading Ring of Fire would not spoil anything for this story, nor is it required to understand anything that happens in this story.

It should also go without saying that this will contain spoilers for Fate/Stay Night and Date A Live.

Now let's begin our fated date.

Falling in Circles
By Snarky Miracles

Prologue

April 10th, 2011

Shirou Emiya sat down on the veranda behind his home in Fuyuki. Waves of nostalgia washed over him as he reveled in the atmosphere of his garden. The happy memories, even the frightening memories, and the sad ones as well.

He lifted up a cup of freshly brewed green tea, the warm liquid washed through his mouth, a smile came to his lips as he savored the earthy flavor and flowery aroma, it was like floating in an ocean of happy memories. Moments he shared with people he treasured while partaking of this beverage.

"Ahhh. There really is no place like home," he mused aloud.

Taiga Fujimura ran her hand through her surrogate brother's whitened hair. "I can't get over this. It's so freaky!"

Shirou sighed, "How much longer are you going to be stuck on my hair? It's not like I dyed it, it just happened."

"Yeah. I've heard of it. It's because of extreme stress. If whatever happened to you was intense enough to turn your hair ghost white, I think it's only proper that you take some time off to rest."

"That's that plan, Fuji-nee. We're going to be here for a long while."

"That's good! You don't know how badly I've missed you and your cooking!" remarked Taiga.

Taiga felt a pair of arms snake their way across her waist and hug her from behind. "I can tell you've been eating nothing but junk food."

"Yes… Well… You both know I can't cook to save my life…"

"We're not going anywhere anytime soon. So you and I can start going to the gym together! We'll have you back in shape in no time, Sensei."

"I'm fine with that! But could you please stop calling me that? I'm not your teacher anymore, I'm your sister-in-law!"

"It's just too nostalgic to resist. But I'll do my best, Taiga."

"Thank you, Rin-chan. Was that so hard?"

Rin chuckled to herself before taking a seat between her husband and sister-in-law where she accepted a tea cup from Shirou. The three then focused their attention on the garden and the clear night sky before them.

"So... Now that you're back. Does this mean you two are finally ready to settle down and start a family?"

Rin choked on her tea and Shirou couldn't help the amused smirk as he patted his wife on the back.

"Well. Uh… Yeah. About that," remarked Rin as her hand slowly found its way to her belly while she smiled radiantly at Shirou.

"Yes, Fuji-nee. That's exactly the plan," added Shirou while he brought his hand over to rest on top of his wife's hand over her belly.

Taiga squealed louder and more energetically than any excited child the two had ever encountered anywhere in the world. "EEEEEEEEEEEEE! Finally! I'm so happy for you! Congratulations!" she said before she pulled Rin into a very tight hug, followed by putting her arm around Shirou to pull him into it as well. She then placed an excited kiss on both of their cheeks.

"Easy, Tiger! She's pregnant, so be careful!"

"That doesn't mean you have to put a 'fragile' sticker on her!" Taiga then leaned over so her head was next to Rin's ear, "So what happened? Did he finally figure out where to put it?"

Rin spat out her tea and started cracking up while Shirou's eyes narrowed at his surrogate sister.

"You know I can hear you... Right?"

"That's what you get for using her nickname!" laughed Rin.

"I'm not surprised he's a clueless adult. Shirou was the only teenager in the world who didn't have a stash of porn anywhere in the house. Believe me, I would have found it if he did!"

Shirou slapped his hand to his face.

"I snooped around quite a bit myself trying to find anything like that to clue me in on what he might be into. Sure I would have made fun of him for it, but if he really never had any, it explains a lot."

Shirou growled into his hand.

"I remember you're the one who had to ask him out on your first date!"

"Shirou never would have had the guts!" exclaimed a laughing Rin.

"Are you two having fun yet?"

Rin and Taiga then giggled amusedly together at Shirou.

"Do we know if it's a boy or a girl?" asked Taiga after calming down from her mirth.

Rin chuckled, "Too soon to tell, and I don't think I want to know. I'd like it to be a surprise."

"What about names?"

Shirou smiled, "Well. I've always known that if I ever had a son, I'd want to name him after my father. If Rin's alright with that?"

"Kiritsugu? Yes. That's completely fine," she said while leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.

"What about if it's a girl?" asked Taiga.

Rin smiled down at herself, "I'll need to think about it, but I'll most probably name her after my mother. Aoi."

"Awww! You two are so sweet!" she gushed. "So when were you going to tell me about this, huh?"

Shirou raised an eyebrow at his sister, "We just did."

"No! I got it out of you by making a wisecrack about you two not having kids yet."

"We really were about to tell you. It was just your timing on that joke that ruined the little announcement we had planned," explained Rin.

"Yeah. This was exactly where we wanted to break the news, and you're the first person we've told," added Shirou.

"Awwww! I'm so happy!"

Rin smiled and took a hold of Taiga's hand, "You mean a lot to us. You supported us so much through everything. So it was only right that you be the first to know."

"Exactly. Also, this was the right time and place to announce it. Right here, on a night like this, in this exact spot. This was the place where I have all my best and strongest memories with my father. So where else would I announce that I'm about to become a father?"

Taiga smiled and nodded. "Kiritsugu would be so proud of you, Shirou. And so am I. Congratulations. To you both. I couldn't be happier for you."

Shirou and Rin smiled at each other before she leaned over to rest her head against her husband's shoulder. Shirou then put his arm around her and held her warmly before taking another sip of his tea.

November 11th, 2011

Rin held the newborn in her arms and couldn't keep the smile off her face as she looked down at her sleeping daughter.

"I still can't believe the coincidence. She was born on the same day as her grandfather," remarked Rin. "Do you think Shirou's disappointed that it wasn't a boy?"

"There were a lot of things on that man's face when he held her for the first time. When the nurse handed her over to him, there was panic. Then, when he finally realized she wasn't going to break in those tree trunks he calls arms, there was joy. The only time I saw disappointment on his face was when the nurse had to take her away. She had to get insistent because he did not want to let go."

"Don't worry. I promise not to tell Shirou you had his back just now," remarked a smirking Rin.

"I would sincerely appreciate that," replied Shiki Tohno.

"Aren't newborns supposed to be noisy?" asked Ciel in a low voice.

"Clearly she enjoys her sleep," remarked Shiki in a whisper.

"Like mother, like daughter," added Ciel.

Rin chuckled, "Think Shirou's alright handling all those Fujimura people on his own? I thought Taiga was a handful, but the whole family are crazy people."

"They're treating this like the birth of their own heiress. I guess since Taiga is so useless, they're hoping your little girl will be the next leader of their clan," remarked a snickering Shiki.

Rin smiled in amusement, "She's got enough on her plate just being the Tohsaka heir."

"I'm gonna go get some coffee, and make sure your incompetent husband isn't slacking off. Can I get you anything, Rin?"

"Junk food. Sweets. Chips. Soda. Whatever they have. I don't care. Get it all."

"Hah. You got it."

Once Shiki was out of the room, Ciel sat herself down on Rin's bedside and looked down with a smile at the newborn.

There was then a gentle knock at the door before it slowly opened.

"May I come in?"

"Of course you can," said Rin with a kind smile.

A blonde woman then stepped in and carefully shut the door behind her before she quickly stepped over to the opposite side of the bed from Ciel and seated herself to look down at the newborn.

"Awww. How adorable," she said quietly so as not to wake the sleeping infant.

"She really is."

"So it's a girl," she said before holding her hand out to Ciel. "Pay up!"

"Luvia… Did you seriously start a betting pool on the gender of my child?" asked Rin while Ciel grumpily handed over a wad of cash.

Luvia grinned proudly, "Mhmm. Len and I are the winners. So we'll be treating ourselves to something nice," she said while she started counting the money.

"Seriously? You insult me by counting it right in front of my face! It's all there!" Ciel whisper yelled at the Finnish woman.

Rin then looked over to Ciel, "And you. Gambling? Really?"

Ciel rolled her eyes, "When have I ever been a saint?"

That was when the baby woke up and made a few grumpy noises.

"Oops. I think we woke her," said a disappointed Luvia.

"We didn't. She just senses your aura of evil," said a smirking Ciel.

"May I hold her?" asked Luvia after stuffing the cash into her pocket, and ignoring Ciel's remark.

"Why not? Just be very gentle."

"I know. She won't be the first baby I've ever held," she replied while gently taking the infant in her arms.

"But she is the first not to scream her head off when getting close to you," said a laughing Ciel.

"That's because she knows I'm going to love her, and spoil her with treats, and beautiful clothes, and teach her how to properly use Nordic curses so she won't embarrass me in a fight."

"Oh, you're funny!" remarked a sour Rin. "Well, now I can save money on birthday clowns by inviting you!"

"Gladly, I'll even brush up on all my old party tricks," replied Luvia to which Ciel and Rin jaw dropped at her. She was just smiling down at the bundle of joy in her arms. "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner. I meant to be here days ago but there was some kind of disaster and all the flights were delayed or canceled."

"You're here now, that's what matters."

Luvia nodded, "So what's her name?"

Rin smiled widely, "Kurumi."

Chapter One

April 20th, 2027

"Onee-sama! Wake up already!"

Kurumi groaned in irritation while being shaken by her sister. "Damn it, Kotori... Let me sleep..."

"You wouldn't have a hard time waking up if you didn't stay up all night playing games! Come on! Wake up! Stop dreaming about games and start living real life!" yelled Kotori next to her sister's head.

"Games are more interesting than real life..." she mumbled in protest.

"Weren't you playing some kind of fantasy magic game? You can do way cooler things in real life."

"That was last week…" she muttered before closing her eye again.

"Onee-sama! Don't go back to sleep! You gotta wake up and clean this pigsty of a room before our father sees it and has an aneurysm!"

The black haired girl just muttered something inaudible while waving a lazy hand at her little sister to shoo her off. Kotori snickered in response while easily dodging her hand and then ripped the blankets off of her big sister and then dove in to tickle her into waking.

"You know I'm not ticklish…" she said in a low and emotionless voice.

"Yeah. But it still annoys you!" said Kotori with a cheery smile.

Kurumi's red eye went vacant and void and she stared at her sister with a growing scary grin. "But you're very ticklish!" she said in her best yandere voice while going in to tickle Kotori's sides.

"Ahaha! Onee-sama! Please! Hahaha! Stop that!"

"How dare you disturb my slumber! Now you're going straight to tickle hell!"

Kotori squirmed her way out of her big sister's arms who then started chasing her around the room cackling with insane laughter. As soon as she found an opening Kotori bolted out of the room as fast as she could run while Kurumi took a deep breath to clear her carefully engineered 'scare people straight' expression and replaced it with her normal one.

"Since I'm awake now… May as well start the day," she said with a loud yawn as she fought off the temptation to go back to sleep. She then picked up her futon to neatly fold away along with the covers.

Kurumi lazily walked into the living room with her one eye only half open, the other obscured by a white eye patch. She was dressed in her school uniform, a white shirt with a tan colored vest and a black knee length skirt. The uniform was somehow neat and tidy in spite of the rest of her person being entirely disheveled. As she stumbled her way to the table she fluffed her dark bangs over the eyepatch to obscure it from view.

When she eventually reached the table she bent down next to her father, "Ohayou, Otousan," she murmured lazily before placing a kiss on his cheek while also taking a bowl of rice he was holding out to her.

"Ohayou, Kuro-chan. Sleep well?"

"Sleep? What's that?" she asked groggily while moving over to her seat at the table beside her younger sister who was in the process of tying one of her twin-tails.

Shirou Emiya sighed wistfully while filling a mug with fresh coffee from a french press. After sliding the mug over to his daughter, he watched as she slowly added cream and then stirred. Then she picked it up, and then he shook his head after she spilled some onto the table.

"You're even worse than your mother in the morning…" he muttered while getting a handful of tissues out of a box to place on the spilled wake up juice. "You can't even get the mug to your mouth. I should start putting the coffee into a nipple bottle for you."

Kotori stuffed a lollipop into her mouth and then grinned at her still half asleep sister. "She was up late playing games. She probably didn't fall asleep until about an hour ago. Such a slob."

After a few sips she started turning her head to look around into her blind spots, "Speaking of slobs, where's the tiger?"

Shirou shrugged, "No idea. I wish she'd let me know which days she's coming over for breakfast so I can plan meals around her."

"She probably finally noticed you cutting her rations," muttered Kurumi. "Either that or she's finally getting the hint I've been dropping every day that she should make more time to spend with her grandfather…" Kurumi then put her hands together to give thanks for the meal before she took another sip of her coffee and started eating. "Mmm… What'd you do with the rice today? This is tasty."

"Nothing, it's just a different brand. The store was out of the usual."

"Onee-sama… It's just rice! How can you tell the difference between one brand or another?"

Kurumi smiled at her sister, "If you didn't always have sweets in your mouth, you might be able to distinguish more subtle flavors," she said while reaching out to snatch the lollipop from her mouth.

Kotori bit down on the stem of her lollipop and groaned in protest as her big sister tried to pull it out of her mouth. She then reached out to tickle Kotori's side a little which made her release the lollipop with a loud pop.

"Got you! Now eat your breakfast!" she said while putting the lollipop into a designated saucer for this morning ritual.

"No fair…" moaned Kotori with a sad voice, after which Kurumi reached out to pet her gently on the head.

A moment later, a little girl with long pale blue hair walked into the room. Her arms lifted high above her as she stretched and then quietly yawned.

"Now would you mind telling me why don't you wake her up in a violent manner anymore?" asked Kurumi while gesturing to the little girl who sat down at the table across from her and her sister.

"Because everytime I wake her up she does something mean to me. Like chilling my bathwater. So I made a peace treaty with her. I stop waking her and she stops pranking me. We've been enjoying good relations ever since."

Kurumi turned her ruby eye on the little girl, "Len… You're picking up bad habits from Taiga. Unacceptable!"

Len shrugged her shoulders before holding out her hands to receive a rice bowl from Shirou.

"I'm with Kurumi, Len. Please don't ever consider Taiga to be a suitable role model. The last thing we need is another prankster running amok in this house. By the way, would you like juice or milk this morning? I squeezed fresh orange juice earlier."

Len held up her hands and stared at each of them for a long moment, deliberating on the matter as if it were life or death. After what felt like an eternity, she held up her left hand which was the signal to Shirou that it would be the juice this morning.

"D'aww!" gushed Kotori. "So cute!"

Shirou turned over a glass and then picked up a jug from under the table with which he filled the glass, "By the way, Len. If you have a chance this afternoon could you help me inspect the underside of the house? Just to be safe."

Len nodded at the tall man while receiving her glass.

Kurumi glowered at the little girl, "Who's familiar are you supposed to be? I've been asking you to help me organize the workshop for a week now, but every time my father asks you for something you jump right to it..."

Len held up her rice bowl and juice glass together and stared blankly at Kurumi, causing Shirou and Kotori to laugh hysterically.

Kurumi maintained her glare, "I also make you food."

Len set down her bowl and glass and took a deep breath. Kurumi and Kotori waited in breathless anticipation of one of the rare instances of Len using actual words.

Len then pointed towards Kurumi's bedroom before giving a quick shrug, she then took up her chopsticks and began eating.

Kotori sighed disappointedly, "I guess she's saying you need to clean your room before she'll help you with anything."

Kurumi sighed while taking up her chopsticks again. "Sometimes, it's like all I am to her is just a mana battery."

"You know what they say, Onee-sama. Dogs have masters, cats have servants," remarked an amused Kotori.

After breakfast, Kurumi stood up to take the empty plates into the kitchen and then pulled out three bento boxes from the fridge and brought them over to the rice cooker beside the table so she could dish out into the boxes alongside the meals she had previously prepared.

"For someone who's such a slob, you're really responsible when it comes to packing our lunches," said Kotori with a teasing voice while putting her lollipop back into her mouth.

"If I don't. Who will?"

"I could if I wanted to!"

"Then maybe instead of Thaumaturgy we can practice cooking over the weekend? When you learn how to at least make udon instead of lava we can talk about letting you make your own lunch, if you survive that, I'll consider letting you make us food," she said with her eye closed and a cheerful head tilted smile.

"Grrr! Why do I have to be the only Emiya who can't cook?"

Shirou chuckled at that and stood up, "It takes practice and persistence, Koto-chan. I didn't master any of my dishes in a day. Come help me in the kitchen sometimes and I'll show you how it's done."

"Thanks, Otouchan!"

"If it's any consolation, mom couldn't cook either," added Kurumi.

"Yes she could! She wasn't a five star chef like you two, but she made the best fried rice in the world! And she was amazing at literally everything else. I'm S-O-L in the kitchen and workshop..."

Kurumi wrapped the boxes together with a cloth and tied it off. "Now who's not getting enough credit? My little sister the flamethrower recently reinforced a flame to a level that makes napalm feel cold."

"Before you go. I just want you to know that I won't be home when you get back from school," remarked Shirou while standing up from the table.

Kurumi raised her eyebrow and looked at her father over her shoulder, "Oh? Going on a new adventure?"

"Ryouko's mother has to be out of her apartment a bit sooner, so we're going today instead of Friday. It'll also give us a chance to visit a couple places to find parts for the Benz."

She turned around and stared blankly at her father, "Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Kurumi then narrowed her eye and glared daggers at him, "Do we need to have another conversation about your boundaries with that particular woman?"

"Whatever you're imagining, it's not happening. We're just friends."

"Does she know that? As much as I love Ryouko, I also know that she's a thirsty woman, and she thinks you're a whole bottle of sake."

Shirou raised his eyebrow at his daughter, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Kotori snickered, "I'd approve of it. I like her just fine... When she's sober. Heck, even when she's totally plastered, she's still a lot of fun!"

"Well I strongly disapprove!" yelled Kurumi.

Shriou smirked knowingly at Kotori before turning back to Kurumi, "What's the matter? Afraid I might turn your girlfriend into your sister while I'm away?"

Kurumi put her hands up in defeat and marched back towards the kitchen, "Excuse me. I need to go get that stain of a thought out of my brain! Good thing I have easy access through this empty eye socket, now where's the bleach and funnel?"

Shirou narrowed his eyes while walking up to his daughter. "Kurumi… Are you not wearing it again? We've talked about this."

With a roll of her eye Kurumi started dodging her father's attempts to grab her. "No, you talked, and I pretended to care. It's uncomfortable! It gets dry, it itches, and it gets sore!"

"Do we have to have this conversation again? Go put it in right now! The doctor told you if you don't wear it you'll get another infection!"

"I got an infection even with it in! I hate that damned ugly thing! Not only is it uncomfortable but the color is wrong!"

"You wear an eye patch and cover it with your hair! Who's going to see?" asked Kotori.

"Nobody! But I have to actually wear that stupid glass eye!"

"Just do it, Kurumi. Please? For me? For your sister? For everyone who loves you and will worry about you if you have any more problems…"

Kurumi's throat rumbled with a low growl as she relented and marched off to the bathroom where she'd put in her prosthetic eye.

"And make sure you clean it properly before you put it in!" yelled Shirou after her.

"That's what she said!" she yelled back at him.

Shirou palmed his face, "What are we going to do with your sister?"

"She got you. Just admit defeat."

"Defeat? I'd call it a draw."

"Depends on how you score the hits…" muttered Kotori. "If you ask me you both lose. I wish you two could figure out a way to get along better. But for what it's worth, I'm always on your side, Otouchan."

Shirou reached out and pulled Kotori into a little side hug before he leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "What would I do without you?"

Len shook her head before she resumed eating.

Shirou leaned down to hug Kotori, she tip-toed to kiss him on the cheek before wrapping her arms around him at the front gate.

"I'll miss you, Otouchan," she said softly.

"Take care, Koto-chan."

Kotori hugged him back tightly, resting her head in his firm chest. "I will, please don't be gone long."

"I'll do my best," he answered.

"I love you."

"I love you too," he replied before they released each other.

When he stood back up, he looked over at Kurumi who sighed and went up to hug her father.

"What she said. Please don't get into any trouble over there and leave us alone for however long."

Shirou leaned down his head and placed a soft kiss on the top of his daughter's head. "I'll try my best, but you know I can't promise that."

"I know, but I still had to ask."

"Take care of your sister."

"You know I will," she said before hugging him just a little bit tighter. "I love you, Otousan."

"I love you too, Kuro-chan."

Homurahara Academy
Archery Dojo

Kurumi had her bow fully drawn and then launched her arrow at the target, hitting it almost exactly dead center. Standing beside her and mirroring her movements was another girl of equal height with short white hair in a bob cut. Both girls reloaded and mirrored each other's movements through all eight steps as they raised, drew, and fired. Both completed the movements and then walked off the firing range at the same time with the rest of their group. Then they each sat down in the seiza position against the back wall to wait and observe with critical eyes while other students had their turns to shoot.

"Psst… Kuro-chan, Origami-chan, can I have a moment?"

"Yes, Fujimura-sensei," answered Origami Tobiichi in a discreet tone.

"Yes, Oba-san," answered Kurumi equally discreetly.

The two girls stood up and walked to the back of the archery building.

"I'm going to make this brief. We got a lot of new members this year. We need to weed out the ones who aren't going to take this seriously. If we want to have a shot at the national tournament this year, we need to win at the prefectural and regional tournaments. Which means we can't have our time being taken up by people who aren't going to give it their all."

"We can't just kick people out for not being good. Can we?" asked Kurumi with a raised eyebrow.

"Sure we can! We just need to know who's here because they want to work hard, who's here to slack off, and who's here to stare at the pretty girls!"

Origami slowly nodded, "I'm fairly confident that 'almost' nobody is here for the last thing you mentioned. But we'll keep our eyes open and try to convince the 'slackers' to take it more seriously or quit."

Kurumi grinned devilishly while cracking her knuckles, "I'll deal with the wanna-be playboys myself."

Suddenly there was a loud scream and a commotion from the shooting range. Kurumi turned and bolted for the scene as fast as she could run. She then bent down onto her knees and slid her way through the other club members until she was beside Kotori who was kneeling on the ground with a few people gathered around, and she was holding her forearm protectively under her body.

"Kotori! Are you alright?!" she asked in a panic as she reached her sister to check her injury.

"I'm fine… It's not a big deal. The bow string just hit me. It hurt like hell, but I'll be fine," answered the twin tailed girl.

"Let me see," Kurumi said while she carefully took Kotori's hand away to look at the wound despite her protests. She was immediately confronted by the sight of blood dripping from her forearm. "You're bleeding! We need to get you to the nurse, right away!" she put a hand around her sister and the two stood up together and started walking away.

"Onee-sama! Please! Anything but that!"

"No arguments!" said Kurumi in a firm tone.

But before exiting the range, Kurumi looked over her shoulder with a toothy grin at all the students whom she heard mumbling things they'd later regret about her baby sister, "Back to practicing, or I'll make sure you all have an excuse to visit the nurse."

Everyone scrambled to get back to work in a big hurry.

"Why does she always act like she's in charge? And what's she gonna do? Make us stand on the end of the range with apples on our heads?" asked a young brown haired boy.

"Be quiet, Mitsuzuri! You're gonna get yourself in deep shit! Now get back to practicing, before Emiya-sama sees you slacking!" ordered the team captain. A dark brown haired young man who was suddenly breaking into a nervous sweat.

"Emiya-sama? Seriously? That's what you call your junior? Why is everyone so afraid of her?"

"If you can't just take a hint, then keep talking like she can't hear you if you want to find out," added another boy with short purple hair right before he launched his arrow.

"Don't tell me you're scared of that one-eyed freak too, Matou?"

"That 'one-eyed freak' and I have been best friends our whole lives," he said coldly while he launched another arrow. "I know better than anyone what she's capable of. So yeah, I'm plenty scared."

"You also missed completely… Weren't your mom and uncle like two of the best this club ever had? It must be really sad for you to suck so much at this," remarked Mitsuzuri in a mocking tone.

"Please forgive him, Tobiichi-san. He knows not what he does," said Matou without even turning around.

"Huh?" The first year boy turned around and found himself staring into the hardened azure eyes of Origami Tobiichi. The next thing he felt was a shiver move up his spine, and a cold sweat which fell from his brow.

"There is a proper way to conduct yourself in the dojo. It seems we have failed to teach you. Please come with me and I will endeavor to correct that failing."

The boy nervously gulped and then slowly nodded.

Kotori clenched her teeth nervously while the school nurse cleaned the cut on her arm. It wasn't from the pain though, of which there was no small amount, but from the presence of the woman tending to her.

Kurumi held her arms crossed under her breasts while leaning down to observe. "So what do you think, Caren? Will we need to amputate?"

"Not funny!" protested Kotori.

"I wish… Next time you come in, at least have the decency to come with a life-threatening injury," said the nurse with a disinterested tone while she started bandaging the wounds.

Kotori glared at the woman, "Have you been raiding the medicine cabinet? Why would you want to work as a school nurse if you want to see life-threatening injuries?"

"Who said I wanted to be here?" asked the woman with that same bored tone of voice.

"So why are you here then?!" demanded Kotori.

"Because I needed a job, and I enjoy seeing children suffer…"

Kotori rolled her eyes while Kurumi snickered in amusement.

The woman pointed back at the ravenette with her thumb, "She gets it."

"I'm also the one who keeps you busy. For taking such good care of my sister, I'll do my best to send you a few creative and interesting injuries at the first opportunity."

The woman's head turned and she gazed at Kurumi with golden eyes, "I'll hold you to that."

Kurumi grinned, "Have I ever let you down?"

"No. Unlike your parents, you never disappoint."

"When could our parents have ever disappointed you?" asked Kotori.

"Another time," replied Caren after tying off the bandage. "You're done here. Better get changed and go to class. If you want to hear stories, come back with a severed limb or a broken neck. Anything interesting."

"I'm not gonna chop off my arm or break my neck just to get you to tell me a freaking story!" yelled Kotori.

"Who said it had to be your own?" asked Caren with a small shrug.

"Right… You're a freak, and I'm outta here," said Kotori while heading out the door as quickly as she could.

"I don't think she likes me…" muttered Caren.

Kurumi giggled in amusement, "Kihihi, you're an acquired taste. Give it time."

Caren then opened a drawer in her storage trolley and pulled out a tube of cream, which she handed to Kurumi. "Here. Apply this to soothe the irritation. I presume, since you brought her to me, that neither of you have mastered healing spells?"

Kurumi shook her head, "No. We're both over-specialized in causing pain, not relieving it."

"I knew there was a reason I liked you."

"Love you too. I'm off, see you around."

"I await your victims."

After changing out of her archery clothes, school proceeded as normal for Kurumi. Dull and monotonous, but she muddled through it all. With what felt like no real effort on her part, she maintained respectable marks in all of her classes. It was really only the fun factor of actually being a student that gave her the motivation to sit through her classes and do the work, all of which she would essentially just sleepwalk through, or sometimes, simply fall asleep mid-class, sometimes even with a snore that drew a few laughs.

Then there was the girl who sat next to her in class, who would occasionally reach over and shake her awake. When she was awake, it took a considerable effort not to turn her head and smile at the white haired girl who was presently packing up her books for the lunch break.

"Uhh, excuse me. Emiya? Tobiichi? If you don't mind, would you like to eat lunch together with us?" asked a girl with long violet hair and glasses just as Kurumi finished packing up her own books.

Kurumi slowly stood up and faced the girl as she was speaking to her and then put on the kindest smile she could. "Thank you for asking, Fujibakama. But, as always, I'm going to be having lunch in the cafeteria with my sister."

"Oh. I keep forgetting your little sister is here now. I'm very sorry for stopping you then."

"It's alright. I know I've been a bad friend to you all recently. But don't forget about this weekend, alright?"

"Right. I'm sure you're going to be great! We'll be there to cheer for you!"

"Gotta go now. Have a nice lunch," she said while giving the girl a nice and encouraging smile before walking away.

"Looks like you got shot down, Mii," said a girl with short brown hair who was sitting in the classroom opposite a girl with tied up blonde hair. "Didn't I tell you? Ever since her little sister started coming to school here, that creepy yandere siscon has been totally blowing off everyone to spend every free moment she has with her."

"Mai. All we need to do is go to the cafeteria and eat lunch with her right?" remarked the blonde girl in a matter of fact tone. "Why don't we just do that? Tobiichi does it?"

"Hah! No way!" she exclaimed with a wide gesture of her hands. "Just try sitting with Emiya and Tobiichi in the cafeteria sometime. It's annoying! They're always the center of all the guy's attention! When we all went out last weekend, all of the guys wanted to talk to them and we just got to sit and watch! Seriously! How can they all be attracted to that cycloptic serial killer looking girl and the albino ice queen?!"

"You know. I'd be quieter if I were you. Emiya-sama can hear everything you say," the blonde girl said with a warning tone. Then her eyes drifted to something behind the brunette.

With a startle, Mai quickly turned around to face the front of the classroom where she saw Kurumi smiling at her, eye closed, and arms crossed.

"Aww crap! She's glaring at me! I'm gonna wake up in a basement tomorrow aren't I?" Mai asked while suddenly breaking into a nervous sweat.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" asked Mii while leaning forward to see what Kurumi was doing. "It really doesn't look like she's glaring at you. I don't think she actually heard you?"

Mai turned to look at the bespectacled girl incredulously, "It's the glare of death! Everyone knows that Emiya is at her scariest when she's smiling!" she discreetly declared to her friend as if it should have been obvious. She then turned to look at Kurumi once again before raising her voice to be heard across the room "It's just a little smack talk! Let it slide!" she said before Kurumi stepped out of the room, and out of view.

Mai raised her voice even higher to be heard throughout the entire floor, "Damn it, Emiya! I bought you your favorite castella didn't I?! Do you know how hard that was to find?!"

"This is so lame…" lamented Mii.

Later in the school cafeteria, Kurumi unwrapped the three bentos she prepared and distributed them to Origami and Kotori. "I made us sushi. Enjoy!"

Origami opened her bento before peering inside, "Impressive. The presentation is your best yet. It looks too good to eat," she remarked before pulling out her phone to take a picture of the food.

Kurumi gave a very smug and satisfied smile, "Nothing but the best for the two girls I love the most."

Kotori tried to open her box but winced in pain from her earlier injury.

"Still hurting?" asked Kurumi while opening the box for her.

"Not just hurting. It burns. It burns so badly…" she said through clenched teeth.

Kurumi winced in sympathy for her little sister, "Roll up your sleeve," she ordered while pulling out a tube of cream from her pocket. "Caren gave me this after we got done with her this morning."

Kotori nodded and started rolling up her sleeve. Her big sister then carefully unwrapped the bandages around her forearm to apply the cream to the injury. But what she saw caused her ruby eye to widen in surprise.

From what I saw this morning, this should look a lot worse. Was I just imagining it?

Kotori sighed with relief as her sister gently rubbed the cream in, "Ahhh. That feels better already."

"It's already healing nicely, I guess it just looked worse than it was. After this is all better, I'm going to be spending more time teaching you proper posture. This happened because you weren't-"

Kurumi scrunched up her face in confusion while she put the tube of cream back into her vest pocket and then put both of her hands onto the underside of her sister's forearm. "That's odd…" she remarked before moving one hand up to her sister's forehead. "You don't have a fever, but your arm feels really warm. Maybe we should stop by Caren's office again before you go back to class. This can't be good for you."

"Please, Onee-sama," replied Kotori with pleading eyes. "That woman is a sadist! Is it really necessary?"

"She's a perfectly fine woman. Besides, our father was the one who helped her get that job, so she can't be all that bad."

"Yeah. You would think that," said Kotori with a roll of her eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Kurumi with a raised eyebrow.

"In the simplest terms, the only person in this school whom people are more afraid of than Ortensia-san is you," she said before turning her attention back to her lunch.

Kurumi reached out and patted her little sister on the head, "Aww, you always know just what to say to make me feel so warm and happy! I have the best little sister in the world!"

Kotori sighed defeatedly, "It always amazes me how you get the wrong message from anything you're ever told about your behavior."

Origami nodded at Kurumi once she turned around and faced her across the table, "My compliments to the chef. This meal is most excellent. I'm not sure what you did, but there's something about it that's bringing out a subtle but pleasant flavor I can't quite identify."

Kurumi grinned, "More compliments, yay! I found out this morning that my father got a different brand of rice than we're used to. I'm going to tell him to keep getting this one. It's really very tasty."

Origami nodded her agreement with her mouth full.

"Even you can taste the difference? I can't. It just tastes like rice to me," remarked an annoyed Kotori.

"That is possibly because of the lollipop which is almost always in your mouth. Doubtlessly it affects your taste buds."

"I told her the same thing this morning…" added Kurumi with a barely stifled giggle.

Kurumi's head tilted up to observe a purple haired boy walking up to their table with a overly exaggerated casual swagger.

"Hey there, Koto-chan, Tobiichi-san," he then stopped and leaned down to look closely at the bag under Kurumi's eye, "and Suima-san."

"Hey, Haruto. Did you see the critique I left on your new fan art?" asked Kotori.

"Yeah! Thanks a bunch for that. I'll try to implement some of your suggestions in my next one."

"Don't take the wrong message! I thought it was great! I just wish you'd use more vibrant colors to make it pop. The show's colors are all matte and dull and boring. You know?"

"Well, it's a low budget anime, but I was trying to be true to the art style."

Kurumi rolled her eye until she was looking to her right. "Are you two actually going to start discussing anime fan art in the middle of the cafeteria? Or did you actually need something?"

"Yes. The 'Captain' told me I need to quit the Archery club. He said I should come to you if I needed further explanation."

"Yes. And?" replied an indifferent Kurumi.

"And I'm waiting for the explanation!" he yelled.

The ravenette stuck a finger into her ear to rub out the ringing caused by the boy's raised voice. "It's quite simple, you're a slacker," she started before she put a salmon roll into her mouth, keeping him waiting while she chewed and swallowed. "The only thing I see you practice is shooting down the hopes and dreams of every girl who confesses to you."

"I'll start taking it more seriously! Don't throw me off the team, Kurumi!"

Kurumi raised an eyebrow at the boy, "Don't you have anything you'd rather be doing instead of archery? Something you might be more adept at? You've had all of last year, yet my little sister, who's only been at it for two weeks, is already better than you."

"Do you want to see me miserable?"

Kurumi shook her head, "Of course not. I just question why you're so insistent on being in the archery club when you know as well as I do that you're no good at it. You should find something else to do. Can't you think of anything that you might enjoy doing more than archery?"

"Like what?"

"The art club maybe? According to the critics," she said while pointing with her thumb at Kotori, "You're really good."

Haruto sat down beside Origami and looked Kurumi in the eye, "I promise, I'll try harder with the archery club. I know I'll never qualify to be on the tournament team, but please, don't have me kicked out of the club. My Uncle and I have a difficult enough relationship, Kyudo is literally the only thing we have in common that we can talk about like civilized people. So please. Cut me some slack?"

"Come on, Onee-sama? You can relate…" said a puppy eyed Kotori.

Kurumi looked at her sister and sighed heavily, "How can I say no to that?" she said before turning back to the boy with a stern look in her eye. "Two weeks, Haruto. I'll give you two weeks to show me that you're taking it seriously."

"Thank you, Kotori! And thank you, Kurumi. This really means the world to me. I won't forget it."

"Just quit while you're ahead. Or else I might change my mind," she said lazily while her eye drifted away from him.

Her eye rolled at the sight of the boy approaching them and offered up a silent prayer that he wasn't coming to them, but unfortunately her prayer went unanswered as he continued to close the distance. Even Kotori picked up on her sister's annoyance.

Kotori growled in irritation, "Uuugh, speaking of people who don't know when to quit…"

"Emiya! Tobiichi! I need your help!" exclaimed a young boy with his black hair spiked up with copious amounts of gel.

"With the porcupine stuck to your head?" replied Kotori before throwing in a furious huff, "You're on your own!"

"I mean the other Emiya. We should really figure out something with the naming confusion. Anyway! I need to copy some English homework. I didn't get a chance to finish mine last night. Please! Before I get mauled by Tiger-sensei! I'm begging you!"

"I'll just excuse myself. I didn't bring any food with me, so I'll queue up. Good luck, Tonomachi. You'll need it," said Haruto as he got up from the table.

"Thanks, Matou."

"Hey, Haruto? Could you please get me a couple of those bread rolls? Whichever were the ones you got last time? I'd like to snack on them later," asked Kotori while pulling out her wallet.

"Keep your money, I've got you. Anyone else want anything?"

"Coffee…" said Kurumi.

"Bread rolls for Koto-chan. Coffee for Suima-san. Anyone else?"

"I'm good. Thanks man," replied Tonomachi.

"No, thank you," said Origami.

After Haruto left, Kurumi turned her attention to the spiky haired boy. "Now. You said you wanted to copy some homework?"

"Yes. Please, Emiya!"

"Don't underestimate the Tiger. She always spots the copied homework assignments. Especially the assignments copied from her own niece," replied Kurumi.

Kotori slowly nodded, "My sister's right. Just accept your fate."

"I won't copy it exactly then! Please just help me! I can't get into any trouble this year, my old man will lose it!"

Kotori crossed her arms and huffed, "You should have just done your homework then! You could have stayed up to finish it. There's no excuse!"

"I'm sorry? Did I ever do anything to piss you off? I literally bend over backwards to make you feel welcome and get adjusted to this school. Why are you always so mean to me?" asked Tonomachi.

"I'll be nicer to you when you lay off the gel," replied Kotori. "You slacked off, you gotta face the Tiger's wrath."

"No need to be so cruel. I wouldn't wish Aunt Tiger on my worst enemy. He's family. So I'll help him out," stated Kurumi. "But she is right about the gel."

"How is he family?" asked the annoyed looking Kotori.

"Didn't you know he's Origami's cousin?"

"What? Seriously?!"

Origami shook her head. "No. Not until Ryouko's adoption request is approved. Until then, Tonomachi is nothing to me."

"Ack! Just stab me in the heart and get it over with!"

Kurumi shook her head, "Now, now girls, to my knowledge he hasn't done anything wrong. So let's give him the benefit of the doubt and just assume he had some kind of crisis or something and help him out. Do you have your papers with you, Tonomachi?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Good. Sit down, I'll help you get it done," replied Kurumi while gesturing to the empty seat beside Origami.

"Really?"

"Yes, of course."

"You're amazing! Thank you so much!"

"Let's begin immediately. Time waits for no one."

Tonomachi quickly took the offered seat beside Origami and pulled his text and note books out of his bag.

No idea why everyone finds her scary. She's really nice! Not to mention FREAKING BEAUTIFUL! But her sister on the other hand…

Tonomachi's eyes drifted over to Kotori who was glaring at him with hate and fury and felt himself tense up from head to toe.

Now THAT chick is SCARY. But soooo freaking CUTE it HURTS!

"Emiya!" exclaimed another young man as he walked up to their table.

Kurumi sighed, "This is quite vexing…" she said as she brought up another bite of her sushi before looking up at the boy with medium length spiky and scruffy black hair wearing glasses. "I know I never congratulated you on becoming Student Council President, but I thought it best to save the celebratory cake for your inevitable impeachment."

"Very cute, Emiya. Care to explain this request I just received?"

Kurumi narrowed her eye at the paper which was being held up to her. "You're going to have to read it to me. I only have one eye, and between your inability to hold it steady and the author's illiterate scrawl, it may as well be written in hieroglyphs."

"This is a request from your 'Captain' to fund your club's trip to a tournament."

"So what's the problem?"

"The amount of money you've requested."

"Why are you taking this up with me? Talk to the Captain. I'm busy."

"Everyone knows he's just your puppet. He's only in charge when it comes to paperwork and all the boring things you don't want to do."

"Yes, that's correct. Don't you think that might include this conversation? I'm busy helping a classmate with his school work, and eating my lunch."

Origami stood up with a heavy sigh, "I calculated the budget, so I'll address your concerns."

"Thank you, Tobiichi. But I still need Emiya to realize the club budget isn't unlimited. We can't cover these kinds of expenses. So either find a way to cut costs by two thirds, or your tournament trip is canceled."

Origami narrowed her eyes at him, "Two thirds? That would only cover the team's train fair. Where would you expect us to sleep? In the street? I did everything possible to minimize expenses. You have to be more reasonable, Urobuchi-san."

"I have a limited amount of money to spread to all the clubs. All the sports clubs want to compete in things this year, it's not just the archery club. The kendo club, the track team, and the baseball team… And I haven't even started looking through the academic club's requests. I'm not a magician, I can't just rub my hands together and conjure up more money to grant everyone's wishes!"

Kurumi couldn't help but giggle, "Well, unlike you, I am a magician, and I can rub my hands together and conjure up more money," she said while rubbing her hands together and dropping some coins all over the table. "So if the club can come up with the funding on our own, will our plan be approved?"

"How do you plan to come up with that kind of money? You'll need a lot more than your pocket change and party tricks."

"That's my problem."

"No it isn't, because I have to approve of any fundraising activities. So if you plan to do something shady like you did last year, you can forget about it. Anything else, submit it in writing and the student council will consider it. Unlike my predecessor, I will not be charmed or bribed into looking the other way for you!"

"Every man has his price, I'll find yours, eventually," replied a smirking Kurumi.

Ai, Mai, and Mii watched from the cafeteria entrance as the talk between Kurumi and the Student Council President began to heat up.

"See. It's just like I told you. They're always the center of male attention," remarked Mai.

"That's so lame…" lamented Mii.

After lunch, Kotori returned to her classroom, she started getting her books out from under her desk when her arm started to bother her again.

"Ffff… Why is it still burning so badly?"

"What's the matter?" as a male voice from the desk beside her.

"My arm's just burning really bad from this morning."

"I've never seen that happen to anyone before. Since Emiya-senpai is flawless, I guess the archery trait must be genetic. You're adopted right?"

"Yes. Do you have a problem with that?" she asked in a low, growling voice.

"No. But I guess your parents did. They probably knew how useless you'd be and abandoned you."

The redhead slammed her fists down on the desk and stood up, she turned to face the boy sitting next to her with fire in her cherry red eyes. "Who the hell says something like that?! If you want an ass kicking, just ask directly!"

The boy gave her a dismissive wave of his hand. "You're embarrassing yourself, 'Emiya'. Worse, you're embarrassing your 'sister' too."

"Hey! Stop it! Why are you being a bully?" yelled a girl with medium long light brown hair standing behind the boy.

"Mind your business, Okamine!" he yelled back at her.

"No! I'm not going to sit here and watch this. Maybe everyone else will, but not me!"

Mitsuzuri stood up and then went over to the girl where he looked down into her light brown eyes. "What will you do?"

Kotori ran over to the side of the girl who came to her defense, there she looked up into the boy's dark brown eyes. "Don't worry about what she'll do, worry about what I'll do!"

"And what will you do?"

"Enough! Class is starting! Everyone pipe down and sit down!" yelled the class rep.

"She's adopted?"

"You didn't know?"

"No, but I see it now. She looks nothing like Emiya-senpai."

"Well yeah? How many siblings have such completely different hair colors?"

"Yeah, but they both have similar eyes, don't they?"

"Not really. When we were in middle school, Emiya-senpai's eye was blue. But then it started turning red. Red like blood. It was so freaky."

"There is something seriously wrong in that family…"

"What do you think Emiya-sama is gonna do to Mitsuzuri? The man's got balls of steel to mess with her little sister."

"Back in middle-school there was a rumor that Emiya cursed a girl who picked on her sister."

Kotori had returned to her desk, and couldn't avoid hearing all the indiscreet gossip. Her head slumped down.

The rest of today is gonna be long...

After classes had wrapped for the day, Kotori stepped over to her classmate who stood up for her earlier. "Excuse me?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for what you did earlier. It meant a lot that you stood up for me. You don't even know me."

The girl shook her head. "I know enough. I'm an orphan too."

"You're Miss Okamine's little sister, right?"

The girl shook her head, "No. We're cousins."

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's fine. Everyone always assumes we're sisters, she finds it flattering. She took me in and gave me a home when I had nowhere else to go. What about you? Miss Fujimura is your aunt, right?"

Kotori nodded, "Kinda of, sort of. It's complicated, but to keep it simple, she was my father's guardian when he was young, but they treat each other like they're siblings. So, that makes her my aunt."

"Makes sense. Oh. I'm Mikie Okamine. It's nice to meet you properly."

"Oh. Right. I'm Kotori Emiya. It's nice to meet you properly as well."

Mikie took out her phone, "Would you like to exchange numbers? I don't have any friends here yet. I just moved here from Kitakyushu about three months ago."

"Sure," answered Kotori while getting out her phone. The two touched their devices together and exchanged contact information. "I don't really have any friends of my own either. I just hang out with my sister, and my cat."

"You have a cat? I love cats! But Tama-nee is allergic, so we can't have any pets. Oh! Do you have a picture of your kitty?"

Kotori looked down at her phone and started tapping and swiping around. "Sure, just a moment, lemmie find one."

Kotori clenched her teeth, she had plenty of selfies with Len in her human form, but very few of her in her cat form. "Oh. Perfect!"

Kotori turned the phone to show Mikie a picture of Len sleeping next to a slice of cake.

"KAWAII! Look at that pretty bow! Aww! You gotta let me come over and play with your cat!"

"Sure. But Len's not very good with strangers. It takes her a long time to trust new people."

"Was she a street cat or something?"

"No. I don't think she was ever a street cat. But she's very old and very set in her ways. But if she does decide to trust you, she's the sweetest girl in the world. I love her, she's my best friend."

"Aww! How long have you had her?"

"Oh, my sister's had her longer than me. If I remember the story right, Onee-sama had just turned five when she got her, so that's like, eleven years? I was only adopted five years ago."

"Five years ago? Are you, by chance, from Tenguu city?"

Kotori gave a slow nod.

"Me too. It's a long story. Maybe we can talk about it some other time. I need to get to practice before I'm late."

Kotori nodded, "Which club are you in?"

"Kendo, you?"

"Archery. But I don't think my sister's gonna let me practice with this injury I got. But I should still be there to watch."

"That looks painful."

"It was. Now it just burns and stings."

"That means it's healing. I'd better get going, I'll text you later!"

"See you."

Later in the archery dojo after evening practice, Kurumi had the club together for a post-practice address.

"Good work today, everyone. I see the threat of expulsion from the club has sufficiently motivated everyone here. While we're sad to see that some of our esteemed members have decided to explore other extracurricular opportunities, this just means that those of you left are the ones who are taking this seriously," said Kurumi to her gathered club members. "Now. Our lovely Vice-Captain has a few things to go over for everyone, so if we could kindly give her our attention, that would be appreciated."

Origami nodded to Kurumi, "In one month, we shall be participating in this school's first Kyudo tournament in ten years. None of us were even born the last time this club performed respectably in any tournament. Our goal is to change that and restore this school's reputation for Kyudo. To that end, each of you should be familiarizing yourselves with what will be expected of you during an official tournament. I have emailed you all a list of instructional videos and texts to peruse on the internet which covers everything there is to know about Kyudo tournaments…"

"Does anyone have any questions?" asked Kurumi.

"Yes, Emiya-sama? How will you be selecting the team members?"

"Fair question. Tobiichi and I have invited a professional kyūdōka to assess the team and help select the best of us for the tournament. So, if you want to have a shot, practice hard. Any other questions?"

Kurumi turned her head to scan the room with her eye, "No? Alright then, good work today. We'll see you bright and early tomorrow. Everyone except Mitsuzuri can leave now. I need a word with you."

Kotori glared daggers at the brown haired boy before she got up to leave along with her clubmates.

"Do you need me?" asked Origami in a discreet voice next to Kurumi.

"I've got this. Just keep an eye on my sister, and everyone else."

"Understood," she replied before walking away.

"What's up, Emiya?" asked the boy as he walked to the shorter raven haired girl.

"When you get home today, I suggest you call your aunt Ayako, and thank her from the bottom of your heart."

"What would I be thanking her for?"

"Because she was my mother's best friend, and because she's married to my father's best friend."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"It's the reason I'm not going to physically hurt you. This time."

"Why would you want to hurt me, Emiya?" he asked with his tone growing colder.

"Because a little bird told me what you did to my sister in class today. I expected more of you. Your father was the last captain of this club to win a national title for this school. So after you get done thanking your aunt for saving your hide, you'd better apologize to your father for blowing your chance to live up to his legacy."

"You're kicking me out, aren't you?"

"Yes. But you're also going to clean the dojo tonight. All of it, by yourself, and I expect everything to be clean enough to eat off. Do you understand?"

The boy folded his arms and glared smugly into Kurumi's ruby eye. "And why would I do that? If I'm out, I'm not obligated."

Kurumi's lips curled into a devious grin as she felt her magic circuits come to life while she stared back into his brown eye, "Because I am ordering you, and you will obey me because you don't want to see what will happen if you refuse this punishment for trying to bully my little sister. My mercy has limits," she said in an icy-cold tone of voice.

She then dangled her keys in front of the boy's face. "Lock up when you're finished cleaning, and leave my keys in my shoe locker for me."

The boy's posture changed as he looked at her with a lifeless expression. "Yes. Emiya-sama…"

Kurumi started walking away, but then stopped and turned around to face the boy again. "While I still have you under my spell, I want to ask just one more question, Mitsuzuri. Why did you do it? What could Kotori possibly have done to deserve that?"

"You protect and spoil her too much, you can't see that she drags us all down because you and Tobiichi go out of your way to focus on her training at the expense of the rest of the team. I'm not going to compete with that. She'll never amount to anything, and you'll eventually go to your grave with your life wasted from constantly looking out for her because you keep her too weak to stand on her own."

"I see. I'm sorry you feel that way. Maybe you'd understand if you weren't an only child. Or if you just knew anything about what it was like to endure what she survived. I'm going to leave now, before I lose what little self-control I have left."

I suppose I should be more careful when I hypnotize people into being obedient and honest. Sometimes they say things they'll really regret...

Kurumi, Origami, and Kotori walked out of the dojo together and started heading for the gate.

"So what do you plan to do to acquire the required tournament funding?" asked Origami.

Kurumi put a hand on her chin, "I honestly have no idea. But I'll come up with something. I refuse to allow the team to miss this opportunity to regain the notoriety it once had. We've worked too hard for that."

"Wait for me!" exclaimed Taiga as she came running towards them.

Kurumi grinned mischievously at the other girls before turning around with a sweet smile at Taiga, "Oh hi, Aunt Tiger!"

"KURUMI! YOU KNOW BETTER!" growled the angry Tiger once she caught up to the teenagers. "Origami! You should be reminding her, and everyone else not to ever call me that!"

Origami bowed to Taiga, "Gomen-nasai, Tiger-sensei."

"YOU TOO?!"

Kotori smiled cheerfully at Taiga, "Aww, come on Oba-chan, we don't do it to make fun of you, we do it because we love you. You know that!"

"Indeed," added Origami.

"Well your classmates haven't learned not to do that! Ever since Kurumi started school here more and more people have been doing it, and since Kotori arrived, it's gotten even worse!"

Kurumi nodded, "We'll spread the word, no more Tiger remarks."

"We'll see what comes of that…"

As they reached the gates a black cat with a black bow around its neck suddenly ran up to Kurumi and jumped up into her arms.

"Meow!"

"Hello, Len. Is everything alright?"

"Meow," she calmly replied.

"Aww, so you were just lonely at home?"

"Meow!"

Kurumi silmed brightly before bringing the little black cat up to her face for a quick nuzzle.

"Kuro-chan, your cat seriously gives me the creeps…" remarked Taiga. "I've never heard of anyone's cat waiting outside their school for them."

"Maybe other people's cats just don't like them enough?" supplied Kotori.

"All I know is, your cat is not normal. I can't place what it is, but ever since you took that thing in, strange things keep happening, and I just know that cat is somehow responsible!"

Kurumi looked up at Taiga with a devious grin. "Oba-san, you're letting your imagination run wild. Next you're probably going to tell me that Len is actually some kind of a demon masquerading as a cat."

Kotori chuckled amusedly, "That sounds like the plot to a freaking great manga! Maybe I should draw something about that?"

"Go for it! I'm sure Len would be happy to be your muse and inspire a best-selling manga series," Kurumi then nuzzled her cheek up against Len's head. "Isn't that right, Len?"

"Meow!" replied the cat.

As the group were walking along the street away from the school, Taiga finally noticed that Origami was carrying a large military style duffle bag which she felt compelled to question despite knowing what the answer would probably be.

"Origami-chan? What's with the big bag?" asked Taiga.

"Oh. I guess you didn't know that our father and Ryouko left for Tokyo today," explained Kotori.

"They did? Why didn't he tell me?"

"You didn't come over this morning, so when would he have had a chance?"

"He could have called or texted me! But that still doesn't explain the bag though."

"Origami is going to be staying with us until they get back," supplied Kurumi, "Shouldn't that have been obvious?"

"Is your father alright with this?"

"Why wouldn't he be?"

"Because if she were your BOY-friend, I very much doubt he would."

"Even if she were my boyfriend, didn't my parents move in together during high school?"

"That's different!"

"Different how? Origami is staying a week tops. Mom lived with him for over a year before they went to London. And they continued to live together ever since."

"Whatever, just… No hanky panky!"

Kurumi burst into laughter while Origami blushed with embarrassment. Kotori palmed her face.

"What's so funny, young lady?"

"You are, Oba-san. We've been together for just over a year, we've been 'out' for nine months, but you knew about us from day one. Only now are you trying to open this conversation? You obviously didn't impose this 'no hanky panky' rule on my parents, or I wouldn't be here now!"

"Has your father even tried to have this conversation with you? Or is he too embarrassed and waiting for me to do it?"

Kurumi smirked, "Tell you what, Oba-san, when he gets back, the three of us can sit down and I'll explain sapphic sex to both of you."

Kotori started laughing hysterically.

"Could we please change the subject?" asked Origami in a small voice.

"Yes, Oba-san. Change the subject. We're turning poor Origami into a tomato," said an amused Kurumi while taking a hold of Origami's hand.

"I just don't think it's proper for people your age to be doing things like that."

"I don't see the big deal. It's not like either of them could get the other pregnant," remarked Kotori.

Kurumi started laughing hysterically again.

"Kotori… It's just improper."

"What would be proper? To wait until they're married? Oh wait. That's not legal in Japan."

Kurumi took a deep breath to control her mirth and then she and Origami both looked in awe at Kotori while she defended them.

"They love each other a lot. Origami is over so often that she has closet space and clothes in Kurumi's room. You think they don't have their own rules about what is and isn't proper? It's not like our father is gonna lay down the law on them, he's way too embarrassed to go near this topic."

"That's because he's a bad parent and spoils you both way too much!" exclaimed Taiga.

Meanwhile on the train to Tokyo… Shirou sneezed.

"Bless you," said Ryokou without looking up from her car magazine.

"I'm sure that's Taiga yelling about me, they should all be heading home by now."

"I take it you didn't warn her that Origami would be staying over at your place?"

"I would never deprive Kurumi of all the joys that come with being that woman's niece."

"Yeah, what kind of father would you be if you didn't leave our children in charge of the single most immature woman on the planet while we're away?" she said while flipping the page.

"Exactly. There are many important life lessons to be learned from dealing with the Tiger of Fuyuki. If I had to suffer that woman's insanity growing up, so do my children."

"And mine… apparently," added Ryouko with indifference while skimming over the page in her magazine.

"The only person in the world who could actually put Taiga in her place was Rin. I don't know how she did it, but when she put her foot down, even Taiga would obey."

"It's probably too late to even ask this now, but are you sure you're alright with Origami and Kurumi staying together unsupervised? Or, relatively unsupervised?"

"They've done it plenty of times before now. In the grand scheme of things, being open about their relationship doesn't change anything. I don't believe for a moment they'd do anything to make Kotori feel like a fifth wheel in her own home. That's just not who they are. Kurumi loves Kotori more than anything."

"And Origami loves Kotori a lot as well. You've pretty much just laid out all the reasons why I was alright with it."

"You could have said that before. Instead of just 'ask Shirou if he's alright with it'. That was awkward."

"Yes. I know," replied a grinning Ryouko. "It's so amusing how uncomfortable you are when it comes to our daughter's relationship."

"From the day she was born, from the moment the doctor announced she was a girl, I had been mentally preparing for the day I'd have to meet her first boyfriend… Then one day, they bring us all together, and come out of the closet. The one thing I'd never given any consideration to."

"You really had no suspicion of what was going on between them?"

"None at all. What about you? Be honest."

"I honestly did suspect. I was never as close to my best friend in high school as Origami and Kurumi seemed. Maybe it was just a woman's intuition, so I can't really fault you for not picking up on the clues. Most men would naturally just see their daughter with another girl and assume all is well because, as you said, you'd been preparing yourself to meet her eventual BOY-friend, and didn't consider she might be gay or bi-sexual or whatever she identifies."

"Her mother was bi as well. But, we never really talked about it, it never came up. She's the one who could have helped Kurumi to navigate this time in her life. Even now, I'm still just feeling around in the dark when it comes to this topic. Hell, I'm completely useless when it comes to anything to do with matters of the heart."

Ryouko finally put down the magazine and turned to face Shirou. "Look. I've asked myself the same questions you have, and here's what I've concluded. Just be supportive and accepting. That's all you need to do. The world treats same sex couples badly enough already. They don't need their parents adding to their worries or making things more difficult. We should just do our parental duty and provide our children with the safe space they need to learn and grow."

Shirou looked at the woman beside him with awe. "That's… Amazingly enlightening." Shirou's face then suddenly soured, "Why couldn't you have said something like this to me months ago?! Or better yet, the day we met when they came out to us!"

"It's what my mom told me when I talked to her the other day. I honestly had no fucking idea how to handle this anymore than you did. But I think we did alright until now. We didn't judge them, we didn't forbid them from dating, we didn't make them feel like they're freaks for being different. Between them, I don't honestly think they've even had any fights more serious than what movie to see. They're both well respected by their peers, they get top marks in their academics. And despite Origami and Kotori's past, they're both living normal, healthy and happy lives. So I think it's safe to say we're not bad parents."

Shirou closed his eyes and took a deep breath before turning to look out the window.

"Hey, I know that look," she said before reaching out to turn his head back towards her. "Don't shut yourself inside your own head, I think we're close enough friends that we can talk about anything."

Shirou slowly nodded, "I'm thinking that neither Rin, nor I, had parents when we needed them. When we started dating, I had no idea what I was doing. Taiga, despite all the crap I give her, was a rock for me, she was the only person I could confide in. Not that Fuji-nee ever understood such things, there's a reason she's still single. Rin though, she didn't have anyone at all. It was years before she made friends she could comfortably confide in about the true realities of our relationship, and yes, as you might suspect, it was a while before I really became sensitive to that fact."

"Lucky girl. Most men never develop that level of sensitivity towards their partners..." muttered Ryouko.

"You're probably right. In the end, I don't want Kurumi to have to figure it all out on her own. I want to be there for her. But I feel like I'm failing at that because I have no idea what she's going through. I can't even begin to understand, and the more I try, the more I feel like I'm intruding, or pushing her away, or just, having the complete opposite result than I intended. This is a time when she needs her mother the most, but instead, she's stuck with me."

"She also has your sister," added a smirking Ryouko.

"Yeah, gods help her."

"You know. You can put all that 'boyfriend' planning you made for Kurumi to good use when Kotori eventually introduces her boyfriend."

"She has a boyfriend?!" growled Shirou through his teeth with indignant fury.

Ryouko started cracking up, "No. At least not that I know of. But keep that face ready for when she eventually does. That's perfect! Reminds me of my own father! Haha!"

"Please don't mess with me like that. Kotori is the one bright center of my life where I do feel like I've done something right."

"I like to think I've got a good relationship with Kurumi, and Kotori. From what I can surmise about Kurumi, and she's a really tough one to read, so take it with a pinch of salt, she was very close to her mother and she's just having a hard time relating to you. That's normal for a teenager. As for Kotori, she adores and looks up to you. It's really cute! She also doesn't close herself up at all, I mean, she hasn't had a problem coming to me with little things she would normally go to her mother about."

"Such as?" asked Shirou with narrowed eyes.

"Ooof! Overprotective father is the sexiest father! Look at that face! Ooof! Total DILF!"

"Ryouko…"

"Relax! It's nothing serious. It's just, not things a girl can talk to her father about without being supremely embarrassed. You're uncomfortable enough with Kurumi's sexuality, are you really comfortable talking to your girls about things like sanitary pad messes, or if it's safe to use tampons? Which is better? And-"

Shirou palmed his face, "Damn it, woman! Enough! I get it. And thank you for being there to spare me from that conversation…"

"How about what's considered normal and healthy breast development? Kurumi is totally stacked and Kotori's feeling a little inadequate sometimes."

"How much longer are you going to torture me for asking one stupid question?"

"Until you turn about two shades redder than you are now," she replied with a playful wink and giggle.

Shirou glowered at his traveling companion.

"There it is! The perfect shade of red!"

"Why must you torture me?"

"Because red is a good color on you," she answered while giggling.

Shirou rolled his eyes.

Emiya Residence, Fuyuki

"So what's for dinner, Kuro-chan?" asked Taiga from the table.

"I haven't decided yet. What do you feel like having?"

"I want meat! How about some teriyaki steak?"

"If you're willing to buy them, I'm willing to prepare them. But not tonight, it would take hours just to marinate them."

"Does it really? Can't you rush it?"

"No. Don't ever suggest allowing something imperfect to come out of this kitchen, or I'll go full Gordan Ramsey on you!"

"Haha!" Taiga laughed loudly. "Did your father ever tell you the story about when he met him in London?"

"Many times."

"It's a good story!"

Kurumi opened up the fridge and started looking through the available ingredients for ideas.

"Meow?" asked Len from the floor beside her.

"Don't worry, Len. I would never forget you."

"What's Origami's favorite dish?" asked Taiga.

"Energy bars. Not exactly our thing."

"It was when I was on my own without your father. That and instant ramen."

"You felt like eating meat right? We had some chicken here a couple days ago. We didn't eat it, so what happened to it?"

"Maybe it escaped?"

"Yes. It must have smuggled itself out of the house in your belly."

"Hey! It could have been the cat!"

"Ara, ara! Len would never. She has higher standards than you do. Now what am I going to do with you and the bottomless pit you call a stomach?"

"Feed me more? Your father thinks I haven't noticed him giving me less food!"

"Money doesn't grow on trees, you know."

"It does when it comes to buying your sister a laptop, and that drawing pad thing, and all those anime figures, and-"

"Yes. I spoil my little sister to encourage all her talents, you know our father doesn't pay into any of that. That's all me."

"Mhmm. Then we have your game consoles. The high end TV…"

"Yes. I spoil myself to encourage my own lack of talents. But at least I'm good at making money when I need it. Oh! We have some ground beef left that we may as well use up. How do we feel about the Emiya special hamburger steak?"

"Meow!" said an excited Len.

"That's one vote. What about you, Oba-san?"

When she didn't get an answer, she picked up her head from the fridge and turned around so that she could see her aunt with her one eye. Taiga's mouth was watering and she had to wipe away some drool with a napkin.

"Shall I take that as a yes?"

"YES!"

"Very well then, let us indulge ourselves while the old man is away. Nothing vegetarian tonight, if all goes well, we can call in sick with gout tomorrow!" exclaimed Kurumi while picking up her apron from a hanger in the kitchen.

"Now you're talking! See? You do have a talent!"

"Meow!" exclaimed Len in agreement.

"Cooking isn't a talent. It's a necessity."

"Food is a necessity. Cooking is a talent. You and your father are the two best chefs in the world as far as I'm concerned. But between the two of you, I think you're actually about to surpass him."

Kurumi smirked in amusement. "There's no need to suck up to me like that. I will feed you regardless. But please, continue."

"That's why I love you so much, Kuro-chan! When your parents were out traveling, I was stuck eating instant food all the time. By the time they got back from their adventures I was ten kilos overweight. Your mother had to take me to the gym and work me like a Drill Instructor. It was even worse because she was pregnant with you, and let me tell you, she was tsundere enough already, but the hormones made her one hundred tsun, and ZERO dere."

Kurumi smiled while gathering all of the ingredients she would need, "I miss her so much…"

Len started rubbing up against Kurumi's leg.

Taiga mentally kicked herself, "Sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine," said Kurumi as she knelt down to pick up Len and hug her. "I know you didn't. Let's just change the subject…"

Kurumi then whispered softly into Len's ear. "I'll bring your meal to your room. I don't think you want to eat this out of a bowl, do you?"

"Maaorrao," said Len with a shake of her head.

"Mmm. Something smells amazing!" said Kotori as she walked into the dining room. "OOOOH! HAMBURGER STEAK!"

"Someone had to get their favorite tonight," said a smiling Kurumi to her little sister.

"If you're not careful, every carnivore in the prefecture is going to be gathering outside our house."

"Mind setting the table? This won't take much longer."

"Sure thing!" exclaimed Kotori while rushing up to hug her sister from behind, "I love you, Onee-sama!"

"I love you too, Koto-chan!"

"It's so cute how you call her that," remarked Taiga. "I wish your father would have had something cute to call me."

"He calls you 'Fuji-nee' when he's not upset with you," replied Kotori while setting the table.

"Yeah, but just once, I would have liked to hear an 'Onee-chan' out of him."

"Pfft! KIHIHIHIHI!" Kurumi burst into boisterous laughter from the kitchen. "My father, calling you 'Onee-chan'. Sure! Kihihihihihi!"

Kotori also couldn't help but catch the infectious laughter. "Sorry, Tiger-chan, Oba-chan and Fuji-nee are the best you're ever gonna get."

"Grrr! I'm barely tolerating you two using that nickname!"

"What if our father started calling you 'Tiger-nee'?" asked the amusedly smirking Kurumi.

Taiga turned red and started fuming. "He did that once, and I tortured him for a week!"

"How about, Oba-Tiger-sensei?" added Origami as she walked in.

"Enough already! You're all so mean to me!"

"You sure took a while to unpack? Being a perfectionist?" asked Kurumi as Origami stepped into view.

"Kotori and I cleaned your room. How can you be such a slob?" replied Origami in a flat voice.

"Why would you do that? I was going to clean it myself!"

"When?" asked Kotori. "You knew she was coming over for a week now, but you never bothered to tidy up."

"The trash in your room was about to achieve sentience," remarked Origami.

"When the world ends, I just know it's going to be because of something that came out of the mess in Kuro-chan's room," supplied Taiga.

"You know me too well, Tiger-chan!" replied a smiling Kurumi.

Taiga started fuming again.

"Dinner's ready," she announced which instantly calmed the raging Tiger.

Len sat down on a pillow at a short desk under the window in her room. She could clearly hear the sounds of boisterous laughing and merciless teasing at the dinner table. She couldn't help but feel glad that she didn't have to participate at the table when the Tiger lady was around.

The little demon opened the screen of her laptop and browsed the internet until she found something to entertain her while she ate. She navigated through a streaming service until she found the next episode of a drama she'd been engrossed with.

After dinner, Kurumi took a sip of her tea and observed with amusement her sister and aunt cuddling together, gushing cutely over a new anime they were into. That was when she felt the burn in her eye socket and started rubbing her eyepatch. After a few more moments she couldn't stand it anymore and pulled the patch off, but as she was about to pluck out the prosthetic eye, Origami reached out and caught her hand.

"You shouldn't do that."

"But it's all dry and itchy and burning!"

"I have a solution," she said while retrieving something from her pocket.

Origami then guided Kurumi until she was laying down with her head resting in her lap. With her fingers, she gently brushed aside the long bangs, revealing her blue prosthetic eye.

"What are you doing?"

"Do you trust me?"

"With my life…"

"Do you trust me with your eye?"

"Of course."

Origami nodded and then opened up a bottle of eye drops, she then carefully placed two drops onto her girlfriend's glass eye.

"It's cold!"

"Blink," she ordered. After Kurumi complied, she took a tissue and wiped the runoff from the sides of her eye.

"How does that feel now?"

"Better. Much better. I've tried drops before, but they never helped. This is amazing!"

"These are intensive lubricating eye drops. I ordered them online last week when you started pulling out your eye in the middle of classes again."

"So thoughtful. Why are you so good to me?"

"Because I love you."

"Even though I'm a slob?"

Origami picked up Kurumi's hand and softly kissed the back of it, "Even though you're a slob."

"D'awww! You two are so cute!" gushed Taiga and Kotori in unison.

"Don't you two have anything better to watch?"

"It's on commercial break," remarked Taiga.

"Ara, ara… This isn't your personal yuri anime," she said ruefully before she closed her eyes and smiled radiantly as she allowed herself to become fully relaxed in her girlfriend's lap pillow.

Could my life be any more perfect? How did it all get to be so wonderful?

One year ago

"First day of High School! I'm so proud of you, Kuro-chan!" declared Taiga while smothering Kurumi in a tight hug.

"Oba-san… Aren't you supposed to be a teacher here? You're embarrassing us both."

"You're my niece first, and my student second!" she said firmly while pulling her camera out of her bag. "Hey, you there, could you take our picture?"

Taiga handed her camera to a random student and then the pair took a moment to pose for a photo while the student looked at the device in bewilderment.

"I'm sorry. I have no idea how this works. Can I just use one of your phones?"

Taiga grumbled as she got her camera back from the boy and started looking around. "Seriously? Kids these days don't know how to use a real camera?"

"Are you having fun yet, Tiger-sensei?"

"Kuro-chan… I'll never forgive you if your classmates start calling me that!" she petulantly fumed.

"Taiga-san, Suima-san! Good morning!"

Kurumi smiled and waved at the boy, "Good morning to you too, Haruto."

"Haru-kun! Come take a picture with us!" insisted Taiga. "Does anyone know how to use a real camera?!" she yelled into the crowd.

"You're setting yourself up for disappointment, Oba-san, let's just take a selfie and-" Kurumi started but then suddenly stopped. Her eye focused on someone behind Taiga who was approaching her.

"I know how to use a camera," said a girl with long white hair.

"Oh thank you so much. Could you please take a picture of us? I'd like to keep a proper photo for the memory."

"Not a problem," she replied.

Taiga turned around and quickly stepped over to stand between Kurumi and Haruto where she put her arms around them and smiled proudly for the camera. Kurumi meanwhile struggled to keep her jaw from dropping to the ground.

The white haired girl held up three fingers and started counting down. That was Kurumi's cue to pull herself together or risk having another stupid looking photo go in her aunt's album.

After she took the picture, she came over and returned the camera.

"Thank you so much. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this."

"It's fine," she replied without taking her eyes off Kurumi.

Taiga and Haruto each started glancing between Kurumi and this other girl. Azure and crimson eyes locked in what they might have considered love at first sight.

On this rare occasion, Taiga chose to keep quiet and see what would happen.

"Do you... remember me?" asked Kurumi in a voice strained with emotion.

"There hasn't been a day I haven't thought of you since then," came her monotone response.

"You two know each other?" asked Haruto.

"Yes…" replied Kurumi who was in utter disbelief. "This is her. The girl from Tenguu City."

Haruto widened his eyes at her, "Holy crap. That's awesome, Suima-san!"

"Oh wow! I honestly wasn't sure if she even really existed. We'll give you two a moment. See you later, Kuro-chan." Taiga then quickly grabbed Haruto by the hand and pulled him away. After she got a good distance away, she turned around to snap a quick photo of what she knew was Kurumi's love struck gaze while giggling amusedly.

After a long moment, Kurumi finally found words again. "I tried to find you, after what happened. I tried so hard. Just the other day, I was going through news from Tenguu City, hoping to find some reference to you somewhere."

"You wouldn't have been able to. It's a long story."

"You probably have questions for me…"

"Nothing important. I already have the only answer I truly need. You didn't forget me."

Kurumi smiled, and her cheeks turned red, "And you didn't forget me."

Present day

Kurumi's cheeks turned red, and Origami put her hands on both sides of her face, and then her forehead, causing Kurumi's eye to open narrowly.

"What are you doing?"

"You're turning red. I'm making sure you're not developing another fever."

"Origami… I have my head resting comfortably in your lap, thinking about how wonderful my life is, and then my mind went back to our first day of school last year, of course I'm going to be turning red."

"Good. So you aren't developing another infection."

"I didn't say that," she said with a devilish smirk. "I happen to have an infection which I have no desire to be cured of."

Kurumi then reached up to put her hands on Origami's head, she then pulled her down to give her a tender kiss on the lips.

"Get a room!" yelled Kotori.

"We're in a room," answered Kurumi.

"I already told you! No hanky panky!" exclaimed Taiga.

"You're watching an ecchi harem anime, but a kiss is too much for you?"

"A very chaste one at that…" added Origami.

"You're like a High School Romance, and we're the annoying extras that make it into a RomCom!" exclaimed a giggling Taiga.

"You watch too much anime…" muttered Kurumi.

"A yandere ojou-sama with a kuudere girlfriend, a tsundere little sister, and a fun sensei-chan! Your life would make for an awesome anime! It has all the best tropes!" exclaimed an amused Taiga. "I wish you could have seen your father when he was your age. He was a real-life harem protagonist! Always surrounded by beautiful women! He had a sweet and beautiful kohai, a slutty nun, a sexy onee-san, a cool and mysterious blonde foreigner, and a cute tsundere!"

Kurumi grinned mischievously, "We'll discuss how you talk about Caren later, but for the moment, let's just focus on how you not only painted yourself as the 'sexy onee-san' but how you're also casting yourself as a member of my father's harem. Could you elaborate on that?"

"What?! No! I didn't imply anything like that!"

Kotori started laughing so hard she fell over holding her belly.

"No! No! No! Eeeew! NO!"

"Our aunt doth protest too much," remarked an amused Kurumi.

"You set and baited your own trap, Aunt Tiger!" said Kotori while laughing hysterically.

"Come on! You can't start thinking of me as some kind of pervert who lusts after her own little brother!"

Kurumi covered her mouth and started giggling.

"It's alright, Tiger-sensei. I still respect you. Your secret is safe with us," said Origami.

"What secret?! There is no secret!"

Kurumi's phone started to ring, so she fished it out of her pocket, "Moshi moshi… Are you in Tokyo yet? That's good. We're all here, we just had dinner. Myself, Kotori, Origami, and your 'sexy onee-san'."

"KURUMI!" screamed Taiga.

Kurumi gave Taiga a sadistic smile as she listened to her father. "She was just telling us about how you were an eroge protagonist in high school… Yeah. I know she does."

"She does what?!" growled Taiga.

"He says you need to get a life," replied Kurumi while hanging up the phone.

"Grrrrr!"

"They just got off the train. Anyway. I'll go fill the bath, since you're our guest, you get the first dip," said Kurumi while sitting up.

"That is not necessary," replied Origami.

"Yes it is," she said after standing up, "If Tiger-chan can't handle a little kiss, her head would explode if we shared the bath. So you're going first."

"Stop calling me that!" growled Taiga, "And do you honestly believe I'm naïve enough to think you two haven't shared a bath together?"

Kurumi turned her head until her eye could see her Aunt, "Yes. Neither of us have a bath tub that can fit two people."

Kotori shook her head and looked confused, "Ours totally can! We used to take baths together all the time!"

"Then allow me to rephrase, neither of us have a bathtub which can fit two full-size people."

Kotori pouted and looked away, "Great… Now I set and baited my own trap."

"That you did. Anyway. You can go after me if you want to use a bath bomb. Then I'll redress your arm after you're done, alright?"

"Yes, Onee-sama."

"What about me?" asked Taiga.

"Tigers get washed with the garden hose," replied Kurumi as if that should have been obvious.

"So cruel…" mumbled the woman. "I'll have my revenge for this, Kuro-chan."

"Bring it. I'll defeat you and prove once and for all that I'm better and smarter than my father."

"Very ambitious, I like it! I need a good challenge to keep my claws sharp! I'll go last, I don't mind the bath bomb."

Len peered from around the corner into the living room, she kept her gaze locked on the Tiger lady. Her senses told her that treachery was afoot, and she would be vigilant.

Taiga casually wandered into Kurumi's room while she washed the dishes. The tiger was on the prowl for a clever way to get back at her niece. The first thing she noticed was that the pig-sty had indeed been made tidy. Her electronic devices were all neatly stored under and around the TV she kept up against the side wall. The window on the back wall was open, and the curtains were blowing into the room with all the fresh air it probably very badly needed.

She wandered over to the closet and carefully slid it open with a small grin on her lips, whatever she needed, she'd find in there!

As soon as the door slid open, Len lept out and grabbed onto her face.

Taiga screamed at the top of her lungs as she flailed around in an effort to get the beast off her. After a few moments, Len let go and landed gracefully on all four legs before running towards the door where she jumped up into her Master's waiting arms.

"May I help you find whatever you're looking for, Oba-san?"

"That cat is evil!" exclaimed Taiga. "Pure evil!"

Kurumi lowered her head and pressed a soft kiss to the top of the cat's head. "No. She's just smarter than you."

"That's just it though! That cat is way too smart! It's unnatural! It anticipated my move and ambushed me! That's foresight and premeditation! Cats can't do that!"

"Can you hear yourself? There's a perfectly logical explanation if you're not too paranoid and delusional to consider it. I couldn't give her attention because I was doing the dishes, so she went into my closet where my scent is strongest for a sense of familiarity and security. You opened the closet and startled her, so she pounced you. She obviously didn't intend you harm because she didn't use her claws."

Taiga stepped forward and narrowed her eyes on the little back cat. "I'm onto you, little one. I will learn your secrets!"

Kurumi giggled at her aunt's antics. "You're so funny, Oba-san. You're feeling threatened by a cat. We're going to go have our bath now. Be careful in here, you never know what else might be lurking in the darkness of my wardrobe."

"Yeah… Hey wait! What do you mean 'our' bath? You're not seriously taking the cat in there with you?!"

"Maybe. Maybe not…" replied a smirking Kurumi. "Maybe I'm just helping Len to lull you into a false sense of security? Who knows..."

Later in the bathroom, Kurumi and Kotori were wearing their bathrobes while the elder Emiya daughter examined her little sister's forearm with bewilderment. "This is incredible... It's completely healed."

"How can this be?"

"Have you been practicing healing magic behind my back?"

"No?"

Kurumi closed her eye for a long moment to ponder the possibilities, "I don't know, I can just speculate until I'm blue in the face. Ordinarily, I'd want to do some tests and gather evidence, but I'm not the sort of mage who would torture her little sister just to see what happens."

"It doesn't have to be anything big you know, just a little prick with a needle maybe?"

"No!" she replied much louder than she meant to, startling Kotori.

Kurumi instantly and deeply regretted her loss of temper when she saw the fearful look in her sister's cherry eyes. She immediately pulled the smaller girl to her bosom and stroked the top of her head.

When she spoke again, it was in the softest and kindest voice she could muster. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to sound angry with you. I'm not angry with you at all. It's just that the idea of experimenting on you is repugnant to me. I'd never harm you, or ever allow you to be harmed. You're my precious little sister, and I love you more than anything. Do you understand?"

Kotori wrapped her arms around her big sister, "Yes, Onee-sama. I love you too. Very much."

"I presume I can trust you not to self harm for the sake of science? Right?"

"No, Onee-sama. I'd never do anything to make you worry about me."

Kurumi pulled back slightly and opened her crimson eye, she stared intensely into Kotori's cherry eye. "Do you promise?"

"I promise!" replied the nervous girl.

She then gently pet her little sister on the head again and smiled warmly with her eye closed, "That's good. Now, I suggest keeping the bandage on your arm for the next few days so nobody, especially Taiga, asks questions, alright? You can keep it off from Monday."

"Yes, Onee-sama," she said while holding some of Kurumi's hair next to some of her own. She stared at the various strands of hair in her hand for a long moment before turning to look into the mirror where she stared at herself with a critical eye.

"Something else on your mind that you wanna talk about?" asked Kurumi with no attempt to hide her concern.

Kotori was silent for a long moment, but Kurumi kept her eye on Kotori's through the mirror until she was ready to speak.

"People in my class were gossiping out loud about us not really being sisters because we look nothing alike."

"Since when has that ever bothered you?" asked Kurumi while snaking her arms around her sister's waist to hold her from behind so they could both look into the mirror together.

"I don't know why it's bothering me now when it never did before. I'm thinking maybe I should dye my hair black, so it'll be like yours, and Okasan's."

"Black would look cute on you. You'd look sort of like Noire from the Neptunia series. But I honestly like you just as you are."

"If I had the breasts for it, I could probably totally cosplay as her."

Kurumi snickered in amusement. "Please don't cosplay as my waifu. That would be really weird for me."

"Okay, that got awkward really fast. Moving along… Don't you ever get questioned about our relationship?"

"Never to my face, but I've heard it mentioned behind my back. I just don't care. The fact of the matter is that you are my sister and opinions to the contrary are irrelevant. But if you're feeling less like a sister to me for some reason, changing your hair color won't change what's inside your heart."

"D.. Do… Don't misunderstand!" stuttered Kotori. "Of course I feel like I'm your sister! I just wish people wouldn't gossip about it!"

"Dying your hair won't stop them gossiping. They'd just gossip about your new hair color and question your motivations. Whatever you do, you need to do it for yourself. If you want to change something about yourself do it because you want to bring your outer-self more in line with your inner-self…"

Kurumi squinted her eye at their reflections. "I think that sounded better in my head than it did out loud. The point is, changing yourself for other people is only going to make you feel worse. You're the protagonist of your own story," she said before she leaned her head down to place a soft kiss on top of Kotori's head, "And you're the deuteragonist of mine."

Kotori smiled while turning around in her sister's arms. She hugged her tightly. "You say the cheesiest things sometimes, but that's part of why I love you so much, Onee-sama."

Kurumi bent her head down and softly kissed the top of her sister's head again while hugging her back. "I love you too, Koto-chan. More than anything. You've always been, and you will always be, my most precious little sister. Nothing can ever come between us. Nobody can ever take that away from us. If they try, they will die! I'll always be here for you, and I'll always protect you. No matter what."

"I believe in you, Onee-sama."

"That makes me glad. Now. I need to go check on something in the workshop. Would you do your best to make sure Taiga doesn't come looking for me again?"

"I'll try, but you know how stubborn she is."

"Just do your best."

Tokyo

Shirou and Ryouko stared pale-faced at the receptionist who held out a single key to them.

"We booked two rooms…" said Ryouko.

The receptionist bowed apologetically. "I am deeply sorry, but there was a mistake somewhere and we only have one room available. It has separate beds."

Shirou sighed and rubbed his aching brow, "There's always something when I come to Tokyo…"

"Well, I guess it can't be helped. So we're sharing a room, how bad could it be?" asked Ryouko.

"If the train ride over was any indication, it could be terrible…" muttered Shirou.

Fuyuki

Kurumi was now dressed in a plain gray yukata, her hair was left undone and fell loosely behind her back. Once she entered the room, she found Origami and Kotori at the dining table doing their homework. Origami wore a purple and white yukata with a pattern that looked like arrow tails, and Kotori wore a pink one with flowers all over it. Taiga stuck out like a sore thumb with a plain white bathrobe and a towel wrapped around her hair while she was alternating between watching TV and brushing Kotori's long red hair.

Well done, Koto-chan. Getting her to brush your hair, genius.

Taiga glanced up at Kurumi with a wistful expression while the ravenette poured herself a cup of tea at the kitchen counter.

"Did you want some tea? Or did you pour laxative into it?" asked Kurumi.

"Neither. But that second one was a good idea. I'll save it for another time though. I was just thinking about your grandfather. That yukata reminds me of him."

"Haven't you learned better than to indulge in your nostalgia around me? Didn't you have a giant crush on him?"

"Yes I did! I'm not at all ashamed to admit that! He was a VERY good looking man!"

"Ara ara! So, you had a crush on your surrogate father, and proclaimed yourself a member of your little brother's harem. What is wrong with you?"

Kotori covered her mouth and snickered.

"Kiritsugu was many things to me, but a father was never one of them. We didn't have that sort of relationship."

"Oh? So what sort of relationship did you have? Obviously it wasn't the sort you wanted."

Taiga rolled her eyes, "He was like my life-coach. He was always there to encourage me to do better, and be better. He guided me to achieve the things I wanted to achieve."

Kurumi snickered as she sat down to join them at the table where she started getting out her own homework.

"Do you think he failed?"

"I don't kick Tigers when they're down."

"You're such a bully today! But that's fine, I still have Koto-chan on my side! So, which is your favorite class so far?"

"Heh, at the risk of sounding like a total suck-up, English class," replied Kotori.

"That's my girl! Tell me why!"

"Because listening to everyone who ignored their English classes before now trying to speak it is the highlight of my day. We also have a really fun and energetic teacher!"

Taiga pulled Kotori into a hug, "Aww, that's why I like her best," she then smothered the little redhead with kisses on the cheek. "Flattery will get you everywhere!"

Kotori started blushing, "Oba-chan… You're embarrassing me..."

The ravenette watched her little sister's reaction and struggled not to gush over how cute she looked. But she did smile brightly, she couldn't help it. When Kotori wasn't wearing their mother's ribbons, she was a completely different person, in every way, the stereotypical, idealized little sister that light novel and manga authors dream of, but could never have because Kurumi would keep her all to herself!

"Yes, well, it's only because she doesn't have it in her to point out that the students only like your class because most people have to pay to be entertained by someone willing to debase themselves for the amusement of others," remarked Kurumi while stretching her arms.

Kotori snuggled up against her aunt, "Ignore her, Aunt Tiger, she's just sour because everyone in school is afraid that if they upset her, they'll end up locked in a basement."

"The funniest part of that is that I don't even have a basement. Just an attic. Speaking of which, do you think it's about time I let a few trouble makers out of there?"

"If I didn't know you better," started Taiga while she resumed her brushing of Kotori's hair, "I'd actually be concerned when you say things like that. The whole 'yandere' thing you've got going on can be quite intimidating to your classmates. That's why you don't have any friends."

"I have friends. I have the three stooges with whom we occasionally get together and they would amuse me with gossip and other entertaining anecdotes."

"Fine, I'll grant you that. But even they cower in fear around you."

"You say that like it's a bad thing… But there's also Haruto?"

"Whom you never see outside of school anymore. What about you, Koto-chan? Have you made any friends yet?"

"I think so. I talked a bit with Miss Okamine's little cousin. We traded numbers. We'll see what happens with that. But I hang out with my sister and Origami. They're all I need."

"That's good! You should learn to be more social. High-school is a time of self-discovery as much as academics you know. That goes for all of you. I won't rest until I've seen you expand your social circle in a meaningful way!"

"Oba-san, do you enjoy setting yourself up for disappointment?" asked Kurumi.

"Yes. It's pretty much the only thing at which I excel."

Tokyo

"Ryouko…"

"Yeah?"

"If you touch that minibar, we're not splitting the bill. It'll all be on you."

"Aww come on, Shirou. Don't be such a stick in mud! You know you want a nice cool beer just as much as I do right now!"

"What I want is to get some sleep. I'm looking forward to not being startled out of bed for once."

"Startled out of bed?" started Ryouko before jumping onto her bed where she lay on her side and watched Shirou. "That begs for an explanation!"

"Kotori is always the first one out of bed in our house. She gets up, gets cleaned up, dressed… And then she comes into my room and wakes me up by yelling in my ear and poking me in the ribs."

Ryouko started cracking up.

"When she was smaller, she would jump up on my belly. Her mother would wake up and start laughing her ass off while I'm begging for mercy."

Ryouko turned over and held her belly while she laughed.

"Yup, Rin would laugh just exactly like that. She thought it was the best thing she'd ever seen in her life."

"I don't have moments like that with Origami. She's not the most energetic of girls. Sometimes I feel like we're just roommates instead of mother and daughter. What was it like for you and Kotori after a year?"

Shirou chuckled, "She fell right in with us like she'd always been one of us. But you can't take Kotori as a baseline for what an adopted child is like. For a while after my father adopted me it was awkward between us. Neither of us really knew what to expect from the other. It took us a while to get comfortable and build up a relationship. My old man couldn't cook, and he could barely do any of the house work. So I did the cooking, and I learned how to do the things he couldn't. So we sort of developed a team dynamic and that was the foundation of our relationship as father and son."

"Sometimes I wonder if I didn't bite off more than I could chew…" she said quietly.

"Ryouko… Answer me this. Do you love her?"

"Of course I do! More than anything!"

"Well. I know for a fact that she loves you too. Even if she's not very expressive of her emotions, she does feel them just as strongly as anyone else. Now think hard, what is it you two really connect over?"

"Not much honestly. She's not into any of the same stuff I am, which is probably a good thing, but I digress. She's into her academics, and archery. I was never a good student like her. I suppose the one thing we have in common is fitness. We jog together, and we do our workouts together. I guess that's something."

"It's something. All I have with Kurumi is that we cook together. That's where our bond is the strongest. That she took up archery made me very proud, but she does it because I didn't go all the way with it. To her, it's about getting ahead of me, which doesn't bother me. I want her to be better than me at everything. I know we don't always get along, but when we do, they're precious moments that I live for."

"I suppose you're right. I guess I don't need her to call me mother, or show me physical affection. I just need to know that I'm not failing her."

"You're not. Believe me. You're not."

Ryouko sighed. "Alright. This is getting too heavy. Wanna get some room service for dinner?"

"Why not?"

Fuyuki

Later that night, Kurumi got into her side of the two futons which were neatly laid out in the middle of her room and then scooted herself beside Origami who was already under the covers.

"Your Aunt is amusing as always."

Kurumi grumbled in her throat before she started speaking, "She's a child. But I do love her."

"I hope you tell her that sometimes. Or do you always just mercilessly tease her?"

"I do tell her, sometimes. When she does something to earn it. I don't want to spoil her. My grandfather made the mistake of bringing a wild tiger cub into his home and failed to properly house train it. My father tried and failed, but I won't!"

Origami couldn't help but let out a small laugh, "I like it here, in your home. It feels like a home should. Warm, and loving."

"Don't you have a good relationship with Ryouko?"

"You misunderstand me. I love her very much, and I have no doubt that she feels the same towards me. However, our relationship feels more like we're roommates rather than family. If that makes sense?"

"I see where you're coming from. She's willing to take on the challenge, but I presume she hasn't quite settled into the role yet."

"Precisely."

"I have a request," whispered Kurumi.

"Anything."

"Next time, don't sneak off behind my back to clean up my room. Instead, we can get some cute and sexy maid outfits, and have some fun with it."

"That can be arranged," she replied flatly.

"Just like that?"

"You've indulged me in every one of my fantasies and whims. I'm equally willing to indulge you in any of yours. Though I suspect you don't envision much cleaning being done."

"Certainly not," Kurumi amusedly replied.

"I have a question for you now," whispered Origami.

"Anything."

"Is Tiger-sensei a light sleeper?"

Kurumi's lips curled up in a big grin, "No. She sleeps like a rock."

"Excellent," she said before pulling off her covers to reveal her complete lack of any clothing.

"Ara ara… Kotori and Len are-"

"By now, Len is busy with whatever she does on the internet and Kotori is listening to loud music while drawing fanart."

"You know my familiar and sister better than I do, you creepy stalker…" she said just before their lips met.

Len looked up and turned her ear towards the wall. Her superior hearing was doing her no favors tonight in spite of her master's genuine effort at being discreet. Though, with nothing but a paper wall between them, the demon suspected that even a deaf human would be painfully aware of what was happening in the next room.

She then shook her head while she opened her desk drawer where she retrieved a pair of earbuds which she then plugged into her laptop. After a few clicks she started up some music to block the sounds of love making flowing into her room.

Even to a succubus, those two were freaks.

Len raised a curious eyebrow at the thought of how absurd that thought sounded in her head. She quickly switched browser tabs and began typing at a furious pace. The idea would surely be entertaining.

She couldn't help but wonder if Kurumi would be upset with her if she found out about her web novel. Would she regret buying a laptop for her? In the end, she decided that she wouldn't mind, Kurumi encouraged both Len and Kotori when it came to all their interests.

After she finished writing out her thoughts, she clicked in to see the latest comments to her most recent update:

"Such a perfect analogy for how the powerful oppress the powerless! Tohno-sama is a literary genius! The best moments in this story are the moments when the stupid Tiger gets her comuppance! Never mess with the cat! Little people can fight back!"

Len shrugged her shoulders.

Humans read too much into everything.

Her eyes then drifted down to the next review which came from her single most dedicated reader.

"I wish I had the power to put words together like you do, Tohno-sama. No matter how hard I try, I can't express how happy this chapter made me feel. It came at the perfect time while I was really depressed, and it gave me hope that on the other side of every disaster is a happy ending waiting to be enjoyed. I hope there's one on the other side of what's happening to me right now. I hope my family can come together to solve problems like the family in your story does. -M.I."

Len moved the cursor over and began typing her response. She wished her reader well and expressed her sincere hope that everything would work out for the best.

Sometime later, Kurumi's phone began to ring. Her hand slowly drifted away from her futon to search for it in the darkness while Origami was laying on top of her.

"Ignore it…" the snowy haired girl said between kisses at her girlfriend's neck.

"Nobody who has my number would call me at this hour unless it was life or death…" she muttered as her hand finally found the offending device.

She brought it close to her face over Origami's sweat glistened shoulder and stared at the bright screen through her narrowed eye. Kurumi then growled in frustration while her finger struggled to slide the button to answer the call. She then slowly brought it back around her lover and up to her ear.

"Haruto… If you want to live to see tomorrow. This better be good."

Origami did her best to stay quiet so as not to be heard by the caller as she rested her head in the crook of Kurumi's neck and listened carefully.

"Sorry, Suima-san. I know this is a bad time."

"It's two o'clock in the morning. Of course it's a bad time."

"Your raspy breathing tells me it's the worst time. So I'm especially sorry."

"Could you stop being sorry and tell me what's going on?"

"There's a problem. I need your help. And no, this can't wait."

"What's going on?"

"Is it safe to talk?"

"At this moment in time, safety depends entirely on why you're disturbing me."

"Alright… I was just on the phone with Yamabuki and she freaked out. She told me something was outside her house, some kind of monster."

"You should have just led with that. What happened next?"

"I managed to calm her down and convinced her it was probably some punk trying to pull a prank for YouTube. Which I honestly really thought it was, but just in case, I had one of my familiars check it out."

"Since you're calling, I presume that's not what it turned out to be..."

"No. It's really a monster. It's humanoid. But it's like a…"

"Like a what?"

"Like something you'd conjure up with your shadow tricks. I don't know what that thing was, but it was horrible. Maybe you should get your father out there to deal with it."

"My father's in Tokyo… We'll have to deal with it ourselves. Can you meet me?"

"Do you even have to ask? I'll send you a map pin of the area it's prowling, we'll meet up there and then we can go find it."

"Right. I'll get dressed and head out." Kurumi hung up the phone and groaned with frustration. "Arrrgh! Why now of all times? This was just getting really good."

"You're going to go out, alone, at this time? To fight some kind of monster? Is this really happening?" asked Origami in shock. Or at least, what Kurumi knew to be shock. Her monotonous mode of speaking required that one gets to know her well before being able to fully understand her.

"Yes. That's exactly what I'm going to do," she said while standing up. "Though I think I'll need to freshen up a bit first, you got me quite excited."

"You intend to go out and fight a monster. Alone with Matou. May we focus on that?"

Kurumi shrugged, "Wouldn't be the first time."

"Wait what was the first-" Origami started and then stopped while she stood up. "Nevermind. I'm coming with you."

"That's sweet of you. But you can't."

"Why not?"

Kurumi went and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend's waist, "Because, my love, what could you do? You have no offensive capabilities as a magus. You have a good grasp of the most basic fundamentals, but you can't fight a creature of the Moonlit world. Not yet."

"You're wrong. For you, I'd fight anything. Don't underestimate me."

"I'm not. Believe me, I'm not. I'm just saying that you're not ready for this yet. I've been training for this my whole life, and this won't even be my first battle. You just don't have the tools with which to fight this. Not yet. But I'll keep teaching you until you do."

"How can I just wait here while you're out there putting yourself in danger? You can't expect that of me."

"This is part of the reason I tell you everything. Because things like this come with being the Second Owner. I keep an eye on the Ley Lines, and from time to time, I have to protect my territory from strange things. Right now, if you want to support me, be here for me. Knowing you're here waiting for me will help keep my head on straight. It'll help keep me from taking unnecessary risks."

Origami sighed and hugged Kurumi tightly. "I don't like it, but I understand. I'll be here, waiting for you."

The two locked their lips in a passionate kiss.

One year ago

Kurumi arrived in New City at the appointed time and found Origami was already there waiting for her. Her long white hair swayed in the wind. She was dressed in a blue v-neck pullover with a short white skirt showing off her shapely legs. Her mind just couldn't think of anything else except how beautiful that girl looked.

"Were you waiting long?" asked Kurumi as she approached. She herself was dressed in an elaborate black and white gothic lolita style ruffled and frilly dress decorated with red ribbons and roses.

"No. I just arrived," came the monotone response.

"You got here early to make sure you found the right place. Am I right?"

"No. I just arrived," she repeated with her eyes shifted to the side. "You look... very nice."

"Mhmm… And you look good enough to eat," replied the amused Kurumi. "Well. No sense standing around any longer. It's a wonderfully pleasant day, so we shouldn't waste a moment of it," said Kurumi while taking Origami by the hand to pull her along. "You're in my city now, so I'm going to introduce you to the very best it has to offer."

After showing her around the downtown city square and its many offerings, the pair ended up going to Origami's apartment, which wasn't very far away, just three bus stops until they were in the Miyama district. Which wasn't too far away from Kurumi's own home.

"Make yourself comfortable. Ryouko's out on the base."

"Base?"

"Did I not tell you? She's a military officer."

"I see. That's interesting. I didn't know we had a military base in Fuyuki," remarked Kurumi while taking a seat on a couch.

"It's nothing big, it's a search and rescue facility for rapid response to natural disasters."

"She sounds more and more impressive with everything you tell me about her. No wonder you've taken such a liking to her."

"May I offer you anything to eat or drink?"

"Oh no thank you. I'm quite full from all the snacks and treats we've had."

Origami nodded and then took a seat beside Kurumi on the couch.

"I suppose we can talk in more detail here. I hope you don't mind that I have a lot of questions."

"I will answer anything you ask," replied Origami.

"Alright. How did you end up all the way in London?"

Origami closed her eyes and sighed. "It's a long story. But to make it short, I was taken to an orphanage maintained by a company called D.E.M. Industries, they take in young homeless people from all over the world and offer them education and training with the goal of putting them to work for the company. From Tenguu City, I was taken to a boarding school in London owned by the Managing Director"

"That's quite a journey. This company is certainly clever, it sounds like a good way to maintain a loyal workforce."

"That would be the objective."

"But you left?"

"Yes. It wasn't easy. But when I had the opportunity to return to Japan, I took it. I landed back in Tenguu City, that's where I met Ryouko, and when I told her I didn't wish to return to London, she was willing to take me in."

"So how did you end up here in Fuyuki?"

"That was thanks to Ryouko. After we had gotten to know each other somewhat, she told me she had a sister and nephew here in Fuyuki. I told her that I had a friend who was from Fuyuki. She then applied for a transfer to this city, and here we are. Finding you, turned out to be the easiest part of this entire process."

"This whole time, I was trying to find you again, and you were trying to find me again as well. This feels so surreal."

"Indeed, it does. The other's would often make fun of me for holding onto the thought of some random girl I played with once. But I suppose the events of the rest of the day, pardon the expression, burned it into my memory. The one happy moment I had before it was all taken away. The one..." Origami stopped and took a deep but strained breath.

Kurumi reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No. I do want to. I want you to understand what that meant to me. What that precious memory helped me to overcome…"

"Believe me, Origami. I understand."

She shook her head, "No. You couldn't possibly…"

"Yes I do. Do you remember I told you I have a little sister?"

Origami nodded.

"Well. She's also from Tenguu City. My father rescued her from the fire and we adopted her. I'm willing to wager that whatever you've been through, whatever you're going through, she's the same. She has nightmares about it all the time. She can't remember anything about her life from before the fire. Not her parents, not her friends, her school, nothing. All we knew about her was her name, because it was written on a toy she had with her. Kotori. Not even a family name. Just, Kotori."

"And whenever she tries to remember… Fear takes over…"

"Exactly. That's exactly right. So you see? I do understand."

"I'm fortunate in that I wasn't completely amnesiac. I remember my parents. I remember some of my former life, not all of it, but enough of it. My memories of that day in particular are a scattered mess. But there are two things I remember clearly, as if they had just happened. Playing with you… and…"

"And what?"

"And how you saved me."

"I saved you? You must be mistaken. I was with my mother after the fire broke out, and then-"

Origami reached into her handbag and pulled out a fist sized amethyst crystal bird, and one broken wing along with it.

"Ahh. I was afraid of this," she said with a heavy sigh, "You remember that, and you kept it too..."

"I never told anyone… Who would believe such a thing?"

"Well. I suppose it's my turn to answer questions now. Frankly, I'm astonished that it's still intact. Or mostly intact. They're fragile enough when they're active."

"I took good care of it. The boy who broke the wing, I broke his nose. I would be nothing but scattered ash were it not for this... bird."

"That's what he gets for messing with my familiar," replied a smirking Kurumi.

"Familiar?"

"That's what it is. It's one of my familiars."

"Explain."

Kurumi sighed, "Well. I suppose there's no way around it. So here it is. I'm a mage."

Origami's eyes locked in on Kurumi's, "I remember you said that before. That when you grew up, you wanted to be a great and powerful mage."

"And you asked me if I was a chunni," replied Kurumi with a playful wink. "I remember. But it's true though. I really am a mage."

"There's no such thing as magic. And yet… I saw this. I don't know if it was real, or if I imagined it, or if… I need to know the truth, am I crazy? Or was this real?"

Kurumi held out her hands, "May I see that? The wing too."

Origami looked at her for a long moment before carefully handing over the crystalline bird and the broken wing along with it.

Kurumi held it in her open hands and closed her eye. "You're not crazy at all, watch."

The bird levitated in her hands and miraculously reconstructed itself. Then to Origami's amazement, the bird became animate and began to fly. It left Kurumi's hands and then flew in a circle around the two of them. Origami's eyes never left it while it floated about and then slowly came in front of her. She held out both hands and the crystal bird landed gracefully in her palms before it stopped moving again.

"Jewel magecraft like this is the specialization of my family. Familiars are, shall we say, very costly. So I only bring them out when I really need them. Such as to locate my idiotic father. Or to help a friend in need."

"Incredible... You're really a…"

"Yes. It's real."

"Incredible…"

"If you want to see something incredible, you should meet my cat. This is actually quite boring and mundane when you know how it works."

"You're really a mage… I'm not crazy. I didn't hallucinate..."

"Origami…" started Kurumi while leaning forward to look deep into her azure eye.

Recognizing the seriousness in her tone, Origami gave her undivided attention.

"You can't ever tell anyone. If the wrong people found out about this, about me sharing my secrets with you, we will both be in mortal danger. I'll get a sealing designation and then powerful people will come for us, and they will kill you, and they will take me away to a place where other people will dissect me alive. They'll take my magic circuits, and my magic crest, and seal them away. That would be the end of my bloodline. I know you don't know what half of that even means, but you do understand the seriousness. Right?"

"If that's true. Why share any of it with me at all? Was it just because you used this familiar to save me? Oh. I see. You weren't allowed to do that at all. Were you?"

Kurumi shook her head. "My mother was there with me. I was supposed to use my familiar to find my father. He went into the fire to try and save people. We had to find him, and help him find his way out. But instead, by chance, or fate, depending on what you believe in, I found you. The correct thing to do was to ignore you and focus on my given task. But like my idiot father says, just because you're correct, doesn't mean you're right. So in this case, the correct thing, and the right thing, were two different things. There was no way I was going to leave you to die and not keep my promise to you. That's not who I am."

Origami nodded her head, a smile crept onto her lips, "So you remember the promise too?"

Kurumi looked up into Origami's eye with a small smile and red cheeks, "Yes. Of course I do. It's part of the reason I'm being so open with you now… Instead of adjusting your memories to convince you that you were actually hallucinating..."

Origami locked eyes with Kurumi once again, who was blushing furiously.

"I like you, Origami. I've been agonizing about this all week, since the moment we saw each other in the courtyard. This might sound insane, it'll probably even make you uncomfortable, but you've become such a beautiful girl. You were unbelievably cute back then, but now… Arrgh! You're so beautiful! I don't even know you that well yet, I don't even know if you actually 'swing' that way, but after meeting you again, I know I do for sure, swing that way I mean...

"Arrgh! I'm bi-sexual, that's the bottom line and now I'm sure of it! And I know I want to be with you. I want to date you. If you'll give it a chance that is… I don't want to pressure you or anyth-"

"I was under the impression that we were already dating?" she interjected, matter of factly.

"Really?"

"I thought you'd intended today to be a date. Was I wrong?"

Kurumi rolled her eye, "Ara ara. This was embarrassing enough the first time. Alright then. Let's make it official now. No misconceptions, no misunderstandings... Will you go out with me? Origami? Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Yes. I want that very much."

Present day

After twenty minutes of walking, Kurumi arrived at her destination, the Fuyuki bridge where she saw Haruto Matou waiting for her on a bench. She was wearing a frilly black gothic style dress decorated with purple ribbons. Her hair wasn't done up in her usual twin tails but instead flowed loosely behind her. A pair of platform boots put her on eye level with her taller childhood friend who stood up to meet her half way. He was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans, a plain white t-shirt, a black hoodie and matching sneakers.

"Kurumi! You're looking rather radiant for almost three in the morning. Were you having a good time?" asked the purple haired boy while handing her a canned energy drink.

Kurumi accepted it with a warm smile, pleased to note that it was still chilled and then popped the top. "I was having a very good time. Right up until you called me," she said while taking a long sip of the drink. "Ahhh. I needed that. I've had an hour of sleep in the last thirty or so."

"That's my Suima-san. What do you even do all night long? Magecraft?"

"Sometimes. Lately, I've been practicing Melty Blood."

"Is that some kind of new thaumaturgy you're working at? I've never heard of such a thing."

"It's a video game. You've heard of those, right?"

"Seriously? Will you ever grow up?" he asked with disbelief before he started cracking up.

"I'm sorry? Who do you think you are to judge me, Mister B.L. Connoisseur?"

"Fair enough, Suima-san."

"So have you managed to learn anything about our mysterious intruder?"

"If you'll kindly step this way, I think it's better to show rather than tell. Especially since I don't actually have the words with which to describe exactly what this thing is."

Kurumi and Haruto walked side by side along the river bank. Each walked with their eyes constantly on their surroundings.

"So, what were you talking to Yamabuki about?"

"Hmm?"

"You told me you were on the phone with Yamabuki when she noticed this thing. What were you talking about?"

"I dunno, just stuff," answered Haruto.

"What kind of 'stuff'?" asked Kurumi with a growing smirk.

"I know that look, Suima-san…"

"Then you know to be honest!"

"She wants to date me..." he replied dejectedly.

Kurumi raised her eyebrow at the purple haired boy, "That sounds like it should come with balloons. What's the problem?"

"You know why…" he muttered softly. "She's the most popular girl in school after Tobiichi, and you. I should be happy about it. But I'm not."

Kurumi slowly nodded before her lips curved into a devilish smirk, "Oh? So you're looking for a trophy girl?"

"That's not what I said!"

"Yes it was! You just used her popularity as a measurement of her datability."

"It seemed like a more polite way of saying she's the hottest of the available girls."

"Oh? So it's the hotness that matters to you? Now I have to know, who's 'hotter' to you? Yamabuki, Origami, or me?"

"That's not even the point I was getting at, and is there even a way to answer that question without ending my evening as fish food?" he asked while nervously eyeing the river. "If there is, please tell me, because I'm gonna fail this test."

Before Kurumi could respond, they finally caught up to the creature they were after. A creature darker than her wardrobe. The being was a literal hole in the world made of absolute darkness which only vaguely resembled what one might consider to be the human form. It was so perfectly pitch-black that it seemed like a two dimensional object standing against the backdrop of the city lights reflected in the river.

"So what do you think it is?" asked Haruto.

Kurumi widened her eye at being put on the spot, she started gesticulating wildly with one hand and she stammered a response, "Well… It's… Err… Well…. It's… It's black."

"Are you serious?"

"I have no idea what it is, okay? I've never seen or heard of anything like this before."

The creature seemed to turn around, or at least, performed an action which could be interpreted that way. It seemed to get thinner, and then wider without much motion being revealed. Its intentions became clear the moment they both sensed the creature's aura. Dread, rage… and sheer unadulterated hatred emerged from its being along with the wisps of inky smoke which was now gathering around it.

Kurumi and Haruto looked at each other and gave firm nods before running in opposite directions to see which of them would be chased. When the creature went after Kurumi, Haruto came to a stop and held out his hand towards the shadow monster. From the darkness of the tree line emerged a large flying insect that flew straight into the shadow monster and exploded against its body.

"Hah! I got you, you- have got to be kidding me!" exclaimed Haruto when the unharmed creature started charging towards him.

On reinforced legs, Haruto bolted in the opposite direction.

"My turn!" exclaimed Kurumi while raising her hand towards the creature. "Gandr!"

The creature let out a blood-curdling roar as it turned back to Kurumi and charged. Her ruby eye widened while she started running away. Her hand dove into her pocket and pulled out a few gems.

"Haruto! Your turn!"

"I'm already on it! Just keep moving!" he exclaimed while raising his hand to the creature again, his magic circuits came to life while he concentrated on his target. A blue circle with magical formulae inscribed throughout appeared in front of his hand. "Destroy!"

The creature was impacted in the back with a sickening crunch of bones being shattered. It fell to the ground while Kurumi stopped in her tracks and turned around to hurl a red gem at the creature which exploded on impact.

Just as she started to sigh in relief, the creature got up and started running away from them. The teenagers tried to keep up but it was just too fast for them.

Haruto pointed his finger at the creature which was fleeing down the river bank away from the city. "Follow it!" he shouted.

"Can your bugs keep up?" asked Kurumi.

"No reason they shouldn't... So what the hell was that thing?"

Kurumi knelt down to examine the ground. "I don't know. We hit it with everything and it still managed to run away."

Haruto knelt down beside Kurumi and examined what she was looking at, a puddle of blood. "Not unscathed though. Probably why it retreated."

"I'm surprised you even managed to wound it. I am very impressed," said a stranger from behind the teens.

Kurumi and Haruto quickly turned around with both their hands pointed at the person now standing behind them.

How the hell did she sneak up on us like that?

"Who are you?" asked Haruto.

"And what are you doing here?" added Kurumi.

The two mages carefully assessed the person standing before them. She was a young woman, seemingly not much older than they were. She had long pale pink hair and brown eyes. Kurumi couldn't help but think this poor girl was in desperate need of a fashion advisor because her clothing was all wrong for the time of year. A white dress that went down to just above her knees which seemed more like something a girl would wear in the summer, at the seaside, not out in the middle of spring in Fuyuki City where the nights were still quite cool.

"I'm after that monster you just fought."

Kurumi narrowed her eye to that statement. "Who sent you?"

"Nobody. I'm here all on my own," the girl answered in a sweet tone.

"Are you a magus?" asked Haurto.

"Not exactly. I suppose you could call me an 'ally of justice'."

Kurumi palmed her face, "Please don't tell me you're some kind of fan of my father…"

"Your father? I don't know what you mean. But may I ask who you are now?"

Kurumi shrugged, "Someone claiming to be an 'ally of justice' who's out hunting monsters at night, in this city, should already know who we are."

"I'm afraid I don't. I'm sorry…" replied the stranger.

The ravenette glared at the girl before her through a narrowed eye. "My name is Kurumi Emiya. I'm the Second Owner of Fuyuki City. This is my best friend, Haruto Matou."

She put a finger to the side of her lips while she absorbed that information. "The Second Owner? Who was the first owner then?"

Kurumi and Haruto both sighed in unison.

"You have to be kidding me… How can you be getting mixed up with supernatural monsters and be that clueless?" asked Haruto.

"I'm not from around here. But, if I may, that monster is getting away. I think we should team up to eliminate it before it does any harm."

Haruto leaned in towards Kurumi, "What do you think, Suima-san?"

"I hate this but we should keep an eye on her. We also need to stay focused on the immediate problem."

"Agreed."

Kurumi led the group through a field just beyond the trees. This part of Fuyuki was very sparsely populated which made it an ideal battleground, but also made it an ideal hiding place for a creature made up entirely of pure darkness, but they did have the advantages of a full moon and an open field.

"So you're an 'ally of justice', huh? What's that even mean?" asked Haruto.

"It's just what they call people who protect the world from monsters. Isn't it?" replied the girl.

"So they tell me…" muttered a rueful Kurumi. "In my experience though, a hero of justice is just someone who selfishly pursues their own desire to save people at the expense of themselves and their family."

The pink-haired girl eyed the raven haired teen curiously. "What do you mean?"

"It's also been my experience that trying to explain it is a waste of time because they will never listen. Never compromise, and never stop."

"Do you not believe in justice then?" asked the new girl.

"Don't put words in my mouth. I believe in justice. I just don't believe in self appointed heros of justice. The whole idea of a hero of justice is self-centered and shallow minded. You can't impose your own definition of justice on the entire world and expect everyone to go along with it. It doesn't work that way, no matter how hard you try. Justice and injustice are nothing more than points of view, and if you're too rigid in your own definition, then everything that does not fit within it, becomes an injustice, and on and on it goes, and it never stops."

"For someone who didn't want to explain it, you sure did a good job of explaining," remarked a snickering Haurto.

Kurumi groaned, "Whatever. Can we just find the creature? Where's your familiar?"

"It's searching. I'm sorry, I lost it somewhere here. But it's around, I'm sure of it," replied Haruto.

"It is. I can feel it's eyes on us," said the newcomer.

Kurumi started turning around to glare at the pink-haired girl but her eye suddenly widened while Haruto ran towards her and knocked her to the ground while the creature leapt through where she had just been standing.

The two rolled each other away while the creature leapt to where they had just been on the ground.

Two blasts of energy shot at the creature from where the strange girl was standing before it could try to pounce them again. Wasting no time they both stood up.

Kurumi held her hand out to the monster and passed her mana through her magic crest before she fired three Finn Shots in rapid succession, but to her dismay it seemed to have little or no effect.

"Haruto! Hit it again!" she exclaimed while the creature ran after her.

"On it!" he shouted back. "Hey, new girl! It's time to show us what you've got!"

"I can't. She's in my way. If I do anything I'll kill her too!"

Haruto cursed while his magic circuits became active. One of his insect familiars flew up to the creature and landed on its back while it chased after his childhood friend.

"Shatter the bindings and scatter the fragments," he started saying as a blue glow manifested around his hand. "Cast aside the fallacies and redirect to the core," he continued while just a foot ahead of him a blue circle with a thaumaturgical formula appeared with a Rub el Hizb finally manifesting at its center. "Open the gates and rupture the soul!"

The insect detonated, causing the creature to be consumed in a white-hot flame. The creature stopped and turned towards Haruto.

"Ahh, shit. I think I just pissed it off…" he said while running up to the pink-haired girl. He took her by the hand and pulled her along behind him. "Kurumi! Finish it!"

Kurumi held up her hand with four gems held between each of her fingers, she recited a few words in German before hurling the gems at the burning creature.

"Hit the dirt!" she screamed before ducking down.

Haruto wrapped his arms around the smaller girl and tackled her to the ground, using his body to cover her while each of the gems found its mark and detonated somewhere on the creature's body. The force of the explosions sent rocks and dust in all directions.

"Are you alright?" he asked the girl underneath him.

"I'm fine," she answered with a smile. "Would you mind unhanding me though? I don't think we're well enough acquainted for this sort of thing," she said cheerfully.

"Wha- Oh crap! I'm so sorry!" he exclaimed while getting his hand off her breast. He then quickly stood up and offered out his hand to help her up, which she accepted.

"Suima-san! Tell me you're alive!"

Kurumi pushed herself up off the ground and stood up to be seen by the purple-haired magus. "I'm alive!"

Haruto slowly started walking towards the creature with the other girl beside him while Kurumi did the same.

"Is it dead?" he asked while approaching.

Kurumi held out her hand with her fingers all pointed at the creature and launched a Finn Shot that got no reaction from it. "It seems dead."

"I assure you, it's quite dead," added the new girl while walking faster up to the body.

"Would you mind telling us what this thing is?" asked Kurumi.

She knelt down beside the creature and began to examine it. "This thing is a monster called a spirit. If left to roam, it would kill indiscriminately."

"I figured that last bit out for myself. But that is not a spirit."

"Yes it is," she said back. "It might be a misnomer, but it's the best we have," she answered while holding out her hands over the creature. A light began to shine through the darkness of the corpse and became progressively brighter, forcing Kurumi and Haruto to look away.

The light eventually faded, and she stood up with some kind of yellow crystal in her hand which she was examining. "Hmm… Still not enough."

"Not enough for what? And what is that crystal?" asked Kurumi.

"It's a long story. But the most important part of it is this… This won't be the last monster to roam this city. There will be more, and they will be much stronger than this one was."

"If that's the case then-"

"Suima-san…" interrupted Haruto.

"What is it?" asked Kurumi.

When her eyes turned to Haruto he was staring down at the body of the creature with wide-eyed horror. With a finger, he pointed down to it. "Look."

Kurumi's eye drifted down to the body, which was no longer a thing of darkness but a human teenager. A human teenager wearing their school uniform. Finally, Kurumi focused on his face.

"Oh no…" uttered a strained Kurumi.

"Mitsuzuri…" said Haruto in a low voice.

Kurumi reached out and grabbed two fistfulls of the pink-haired girl's dress, pulling her until they were face to face. "Tell me everything! Right now!"

"But I already told you everything?" she replied in a calm and slightly confused tone of voice. "Would you like to get rid of the body, or would you rather I do it?"

"How did he get turned into that monster! Answer me!" yelled Kurumi at the top of her lungs.

"I see. You knew him. I'll leave it to you then. I'm sorry, but I have important business to attend to. You did very well to defeat that monster. Maybe I'll see you again sometime?" she replied before dematerializing into particles of light which seemed to be carried away by the wind as they faded from existence.

Kurumi felt her hands empty and widened her eye. "What the hell?"

"Where'd she go?" asked Haruto.

"I don't know. She just vanished. She didn't turn invisible or anything like that. She's just gone."

"I didn't even sense a mana surge…" he then shook his head. "What are we going to do about Mitsuzuri? We can't just leave him here."

Kurumi turned her head back down towards the dead boy. "This was my fault…"

"No. Kurumi. Don't start doing that to yourself."

"It is! If I hadn't made him stay late after school then ma...may...may-" she began to stutter as she fought tears.

"Suima-san…" said Haruto in a soft voice as she stepped up and embraced her.

Kurumi returned his embrace and rested her head against the taller boy's chest.

Haruto leaned down and softly kissed the top of her head. "Suima-san. Don't think this was your fault. It wasn't. You're not at all responsible for what happened to him. That's the fault of whomever did this to him. Not you."

"I killed him…"

"No," said Haruto in a soft but firm tone while he gently tightened his grip on her. "We killed him. You and me. That's on both of us. We had no choice though. He was going to kill you, he was going to kill me. He was going to kill anyone he came across. Even if I knew who he was, I wouldn't have acted differently. I don't think you would have either."

"No… I would give my last breath to protect you."

"Same for me with you. So you see? There was no way to avoid this."

"It doesn't mean I like it… How can I ever look Ayako or Isei in the eye ever again after I just murdered their nephew?"

"Kurumi!" he said loudly, "Don't think that way! You didn't murder him! This was not murder! This was self-defense. This was in defense of all the innocent people he would have killed if he'd been left to roam the city!"

Kurumi held onto her childhood friend even more tightly as she quietly sobbed into his chest. After a few minutes, she finally calmed herself down enough for rational thought to resume in her grief stricken mind.

"We need to dump him in the river…" she said in as calm and even a tone as she could manage. "Too many questions will be asked if they find him here and see the damage we did. Fire and explosives, and yet he's still so intact…"

"You're right. I'll take him. You look out for any witnesses while I move the body."

"You shouldn't. I should be the one to-"

"No. Kurumi. Let me do this. Let me carry the emotions that will come from this. You've got enough on your plate already. Okay?"

"Okay…" replied Kurumi with a small nod.