Chapter 6: Paying For It

2018, September 20th

"Shirou, is everything going well over there?" Rin asked. Her foot tapped impatiently on the floor of her mansion, with Saber quietly sipping on her tea in satisfaction by her side. Normally, she didn't enjoy being here unless she had no choice, but with everything going on, she'd leave what felt like her actual home alone for a while.

"Arguably." She can almost feel through the phone Shirous' frustration. "I'm on the trail of this apostle, but it keeps slipping away. Hopefully, it doesn't take much longer." His voice drops in worry. "But what about you? Is something wrong?"

Her eyes soften at his question, as her foot stops tapping. "A little, but nothing I can't handle." She pauses for a bit before straightening her shoulders. "Good news is, I have a new job lined up that pays well, *really* well."

His short, breathy laugh brings a warmth to her chest. It had taken years to get him to laugh in any real way. She scowls regardless as she feels heat rise to her face. "What are you laughing at?"

"Sorry, sorry. Just thinking about how very you that was to say." He doesn't sound sorry at all. Rin rolls her eyes. "So, what's the bad news?"

"There seems like there is another grail war happening." Rin winces internally at saying this bluntly. The last time they when they had to dismantle the grail had been a harrowing experience. So hearing it was all for naught...

Rin herself, once Gojo was gone, had ranted to a stoic and supportive Saber about the whole thing. To have her family's work stolen and copied only aggravated her.

"I see." All mirth had left his voice. "Details?"

"Similar markings seem to be involved with cursed energy from the sorcerer side," Rin suggests clinically, shifting the notes on her table in front of herself to refresh the details.

"Sorcerers, huh?" There was a odd nostalgia to Shirous voice that had Rin narrow her eyes.

"You've met them before?"

"A couple of times, nothing serious. Just remembered something is all." Tone of voice clearly in no mood to deviate into that topic, Rin notes it internally for a later time.

"No real notes outside of that. No servants or sightings that would give any further clues." Rin says.

"That's a relief at least," Shirou adds. "I'll try to get this done and come back as quickly as possible. Just let me know if anything happens, alright?"

"I will."

"Alright, I have to go. Love you both."

Before Rin can even say anything back, he hangs up on her. "I was about to say it back, you idiot." Despite her harsh words, she sounds more fond than anything. "Sorry, looks like he was in a big rush. He didn't even say much except for 'love you'."

"That is fine." Saber says. "I have faith that he shall be back soon. We can get caught up on the details, then." With an air of elegance, she takes a calm sip from her tea.

Rin, with a weary sigh, gets up from her space to move to Saber's seat. With a practiced motion, Saber places her tea down just before Rin squeezes to the side of her in the same spot. "I'm just worried. Last time was a complete mess, and this time I fell it's going to be only worse."

"It will be better this time. We shall make sure of it." Saber says. Comfortably Rin leans against Saber, who returns to her drink. They sit together comfortably in silence.

2018, September 21st

Having carried most of their luggage here, and using Gojos' money to pay for everything from a taxi to the high quality hotel, they made their stop at their temporary stay. Saber had sent a text ahead for Gojo to come visit them, but it was now a matter of waiting.

A self-satisfied grin made it across Rin's face as she stared across the room. "Maybe this trip won't be so bad after all if I can make Gojo pay for it all." She stretches and lets out a yawn.

"You shouldn't be so gleeful in taking advantage of our host's hospitality Rin." Saber's voice is lightly chiding, getting Rin to drop her smile and deflate a little.

"Yeah, yeah." She waves her hands before getting a smirk on her face. "Do you think we'll have enough time after this to go out for dinner?"

"Rin."

"Obviously I'd be paying." Her smirk gets wider. "But do you think I could get him to pay fo-" A ring of the doorbell cuts their conversation mid sentence. Frowning, Rin checks the clock. "I guess the help needs something."

Striding towards the door, she peers through the peephole only to be stuck in shock. On the other side stands the form of Gojo in much more formal clothing, and what seems like a blonde businessman wearing goggles, of all things. As soon as she peered through, he waved at her cheerfully before yelling obnoxiously through the door.

"Yoo-hoo, it's your favorite sorcerer and his sidekick."

"Be quiet. People live here. And I'm not your sidekick." Rin immediately liked the blonde man more already.

Irate, Rin immediately opened the door and ushered them inside. "What. Do you think? You are doing?" She hisses. Having forgotten completely her caution for a moment. She takes a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Come to visit like you asked. We were pretty quick, right?" With the smug swagger of a teen, Gojo steps his way inside and gives a nod to Saber, which she returns.

"I suppose so." Rin voices. Murder is in her eyes, but her smile is perfectly friendly.

"I'm sorry for the intrusion. Pleased to make your acquaintance." The blonde man gives a bow before offering a handshake that Rin accepts. "My name is Kento Nanami."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance." Rin returns the bow out of habit before taking the handshake with a much more genuine smile. "I'm Tohsaka Rin, and that there is my wife, Saber."

Nanamis' eyebrows raise in surprise, but he takes it in stride. "I was led to believe you had a husband."

"That too." Rins' voice turns mischievous before she sobers up. "It's complicated, and I'm sure we have other things to discuss."

They all take their own seats around an expensive, western styled table. Gojo places a bag with multiple folders on the table casually. "So, there are more details there on all of your students. But I figured we might as well get all our birds in one basket." Gojo motions towards Nanami next to him. "Nanamin here,"

"I will hit you." Nanami interrupts without pause.

Gojo continues acknowledging nothing that was said. "also has those command thingies. So, we can have him test out your whole magecraft stuff first, have a look at his shiny tattoo and get you acquainted with what you need to know about the students."

"Nanami here won't be able to use much magecraft at all on the first day that he will be recovering." Rin motions with one arm vaguely toward the man mentioned. Her other hand has her index finger pointed upwards at chin height. "It's a fairly painful process for most, especially for someone who hasn't ever opened them at all this late."

"That makes it simple, then." Gojo suggests. The not amused glare he gets in response has Gojo grin. "In that case, can you do mine too? It sounds fun."

"You heard it was incredibly painful, and think it's fun...?" Rin trails off in disbelief.

"I mean sure. I'm not even certain I have these circuit things you talk about, so it'll be cool to find out. Can't leave poor Nanami on his lonesome, can I?"

"Right." Rin says, processing his words with half a ear. "Lets move on to checking the command seals first." At her words, Nanami had already started taking off his gloves. He had gotten recently to cover them up. "This will take a while of checking my notes and setting everything up." She warns.

Gojo gives a groan while Nanami merely nods. Watching with curious eyes, Nanami doesn't take long to speak up as Rin searches through her bags. "Tohsaka, Gojo told me some details on the command seals. In exchange for being summoned, servants effectively have three commands you can give them that are absolute. He described them as being more and less powerful versions of a binding vow. Can you help clarify a little?"

"Binding vow..." Rin mutters to herself, pulling out various tools and tomes. "I only have passing knowledge on it, but it's like a geas, right?"

The blank stares they give each other as Rin pauses, her search drags on. Gojo shamelessly plants his feet up on the table under Saber's reproachful eyes. "Not entirely. Same sort of premise, but the results of breaking a binding vow with someone is usually deadly, and breaking it with yourself only has you lose the thing you gained from it."

Tilting his head as if to stare at the roof as he thinks further on it, he hums. "Geas, from what I remember, have varying levels of consequences for breaking it, that are part of the vow. But it can't take your life."

Rins eyebrows raise in surprise. She opens her mouth to say something, thinks better of it and closes it. "A geas isn't the right way to describe a command seal. Think more about you having three absolute commands you can use to help or stop a servant." Rin places her hands on her hips. "The more specific the command, the harder it is to resist. But if you make a very broad command like 'always respect me', its effects will be much weaker. The strength of a master also affects how powerful a command spell works as well."

She motions towards her companion with one hand. "Saber here, with her magic resistance being so high, could likely resist one command. Any form of resistance to magecraft or influences could change how effective it works as well."

"I see. Thank you for your clarification, Tohsaka." Nanami says. Rin inclines her head towards him, returning to her search.

Double checking her findings, noting down all the relevant details she had found, had taken long enough that Gojo had left to do some kind of undisclosed job and then return. But at the least, she had some results.

"It's not a normal command seal at all." Rin says out loud. "It's magecraft, just like the grail war I experienced. But somebody has made quite a few changes to it, using a form of charged mana that seems to be drawn out of Nanami here." Her frown deepens. "But finding out how, or why, will take longer. The foundation of this uses things I've never even heard of or seen before for a foundation of magecraft."

"So, how likely do you think it was from your mage club?" Gojo asks, casually popping a crepe into his mouth.

"Not any I knew about. Maybe... the spiral manor?" She shakes her head. "Regardless, the amount of mana used is so small that I don't think I'll figure this out in any reasonable time frame unless you summon a servant."

"Sounds good!" Gojo says, clapping his hands together. "Alright, time for my favorite part. Let's talk about my students." His grin is much too wide for what the subject should be, making Rin suspicious.

"Lets." She says dryly.

The first folder she is handed eagerly by Gojo, which shows an image of a dour boy, spiky black hair and annoyed eyes that stare at her before flicking through the rest of the paper. Her eyes slowly widen over time the more she reads before giving Gojo an incredulous stare.

"He's great. I helped raise that boy." The smug grin from Gojo makes her eye twitch.

Nanami shakes his head. "He's much too sensible to be your work."

"Oy!" Is all he says, but doesn't defend himself.

"So let me get this straight. You kidnapped a possible clan head for a rival clan because of a conversation you had with a man that nearly killed you?" Sarcasm slowly drips into her words. "I'm ignoring how powerful his ten shadows are for my sanity."

"Sure, seemed like the right thing to do." He waves his arms lazily as if to dismiss part of her words. "But it's not like I kidnapped them. I just gave them a choice, is all."

She reads over it a couple more times to get the general idea before closing it and placing it to the side. "He seems reasonable enough, at least. Dedicated and serious for a student is what I'd want. His having magecraft if he can at all would likely be shadow based if correlation will become causation later." Rin turns her head to look more at Nanami. "What's your assessment of Fushiguro here?"

"Fushigoro is as you said. Serious and reliable. I'm certain he will be a rewarding student if he respects you. But he won't ask for help. Itadori, another student, has talked about him before to me."

"I see, thank you."

Gojo pouts and crosses his arms as they ignore him. "Nobara." Rin mutters to herself, staring at the picture of a girl. "Rural town, traditional cursed technique with unknown mother and missing father." The rest, she read silently before glancing up. "Seems mostly fine. The temper will be a problem, but I can deal with it." Rin gives a sigh of relief. "I was slightly worried that all of your students were going to be something ridiculous." Her hand reaches for the next piece of paper, with a cheerful pink haired boy with markings under his eyes.

Nanami gives her a stare of pity she misses, while Gojo waits with bated breath.

"Normal civilian...?" she mutters to herself. "Unnatural strength... ate a finger?" Her voice slowly raises in volume as bafflement and horror creep on her face. "Imaginary demon that incarnated into a perfect host, who is possessed and still has full control." There is a moment of relief as she reads silently for a moment before blankly staring at one page.

"You let him go free. He died and then came back under mysterious circumstances. And you just let them roam free? He's free?" Repeating to herself quietly, Rin takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. Her composure last for all of two seconds before she hears Gojo give a snort in amusement.

"WHY are you LAUGHING?!" she yells, causing Nanami to wince. "Do you have any idea how much of a problem this is?" Her voice lowers as she stares at a Gojo who gets only more and more amused at her outburst. "If the church gets any idea of what you've done and they get a reason to come here, they will exercise that kid so quick it'll be done in a blink." She throws up her hands in exasperation. "What are you even going to do if something like that goes free?"

"Beat them." Gojos response is full of confidence, more amused than worried at her fears. "It might be difficult if he eats all the fingers, but I'd win."

"This is supposed to be one of the strongest figures in your entire history, and you think it'll be easy?" Rin asks, incredulous.

"Actually." Gojo says, his smile slowly turning predatory. "I could show you. You have your servant there, right? We can have a spar for the first blood if they are up to it. Or maybe something more elaborate?"

"We have important things to do this week. I'm not working anymore extra time than I have to." Nanami says, his arms crossed. His unimpressed stare sobers up Gojo, who sighs forlornly.

"Alright, alright. No spars for today." His smile returns briefly. "But if you ever feel like it later..."

"I'll keep it in mind." Rin scowls. "Well, you've certainly got your money's worth out of this Gojo. Let's open your circuits already."

"Oh goody, let's be in pain together Nanamin~"

"No."

Thankfully for them, they both had circuits. Rin watched bemused as Nanami tentatively made his way out of their apartment, while Gojo seemed positively radiant after what is likely feeling his entire body being in pain. Rin still wasn't sure if he was doing it to mess with her at this point.

She sighs.

Once she is sure they are well and truly gone, she drags herself to the bed and lies down on it. "Saber, I need someone to hug and my pillow husband isn't here. It's been a long day."

Before the bed dips on the other end, there is a shuffling sound, and a closer amused voice is heard. "What happened to dinner and making Gojo pay for things?"

"No matter how much I make Gojo pay for things, I'm still sure that he got the better deal." She says. Her arms reach out to grab onto Saber and sink into her familiar embrace. "I'll get up in an hour."

"Nanami wasn't so bad," Saber adds.

"Do you think we can make a handle Gojo support group with Nanami?" Rin asks half serious.

Saber says nothing, shaking her head fondly.

End of Chapter 6:

This was more of a half chapter to help address the lack of seeing Rins intial reaction to her students and who they are. Hints and tidbits about. Hopefully if I can get out of work hell I'll be able to write more, but till then enjoy. And thanks for reading. There was a changed part of chapter 1 as well for extra context on why they went for catalyst summons. I'll post it here as well for ease.

Gojo claps his hands together. "Yep! Servants are summoned with knowledge of where they are, as well as what they summoned for. So with the help of our wonderful new teacher here, we have changed the summoning chant."

"Do we even have a catalyst to summon with?" Nobara asks. Her pursed lips betray her concern at the whole situation despite her irritation.

"Nope." Gojo shrugs, carefree. "Honestly I don't think it's needed all that much. If they are a problem I'll just get rid of them."

"The more reasonable answer, is because we want servants who are guaranteed as close as possible to work with us." Rin takes a breath to continue her calm, measured response. "From your teachers assessment, he believes servants summoned based on you, would be the most trustworthy to have." Rin adds. Her face is unimpressed at Gojo who seems unbothered.

"That too."

Rins eyebrow twitches, but she stays relatively calm.

"So, which of us two will summon the servant first?" Megumi asks.