Come morning, I found my target leaving her humble mansion around the same time as before. She looked one way, then the other, cautious and attentive, before slowly turning to pull the heavy iron gate shut.
I took that time to pop up behind her with my trademarked disarming smile, guaranteed to not get me kicked in the face. It hadn't worked last time, but they did say the second time was the charm… or was it the third? Eh, it mattered little, I was him. It'd work.
"Hey there, neighbor-"
It did not work.
"Woah, I thought Japanese ladies were supposed to be more reserved. Last time someone was this quick to punch me, I fell in love with her~" I leaned away from the punch, reminded of my adorable Luvia halfway across the world. "Is that what you want? Miss Tohsaka? Are you taken with my wealth-"
She cut me off with a deadpan, "No. I think you need to keep away from your romance novels. They're fiction for a reason."
"Geh. Who even reads books in this day and age?"
Admittedly, I was a sucker for anything fantasy. But, that was as William. Being a magus of my particular tastes, books just weren't interesting anymore. Fiction was real. I'd already faced vampires and old wizards performing ancient rituals calling upon forces beyond. No book was beating being face-to-face with that sort of fantasy.
"I should've known." She mumbled.
I tilted my head, "What was that?"
"Nothing."
Rin Tohsaka put on her mask. A practiced, amiable smile meant to hide how fed up she was. Unfortunately for her, I lived with Luviagelita. Seeing through those kinds of mask was a skill I'd attained long ago. Doubly unfortunate was that I absolutely loved messing with those masks.
"If you'll excuse me, I have to go to school. Two absences one after the other will be noted."
She pulled on her bag and started down the street. With not a lick of shame, I followed right behind her. After all, as much as I'd have loved to simply follow along to bother her, I did have an agenda of my own this morning. She ignored me for a good minute, then glanced at me irritably without slowing her pace.
"Can I help you?" She asked, smile frozen.
I took a deep breath of the chill morning, carrying the scent of domesticated flowers in the mansions and not-so-humble abodes all around Miyama Town. Then, I coughed like a smoker, because the air was so cold it felt as though someone had taken long nails to my lungs.
She watched me with pursed lips and a terribly nostalgic face.
"Not much. My Professor told me to check in with the Second Owner before I went around." I said politely.
She froze again, for a moment longer this time, then sighed in defeat.
"I thought you'd be more surprised. You know, get worked up a lot more or shout at me, something like that. Maybe even resort to violence…"
"Do you think I'm some kind of gorilla?"
Well… she did remind me of one. I kept that little fact to myself for the time being. Instead of dragging me back home for a private talk, she began addressing the matter as we walked.
She wiped her face with a hand. "I thought about it a little. An Englishman with money turning up this close to the Holy Grail War is too much of a coincidence. But, you can't be…" Her eyes flickered to the back of my palms, "You can't be a Master, because they're exempt from needing my permission. And you'd go to the Church for asylum unless you were…"
"Unless I was?" I lilted, curious to no end.
"Stupid. But you can't be that… Maybe you ar-" She cut herself off.
I narrowed my eyes.
"The other possibility was you being the Sealing Designation that's coming to my city."
My face then must surely have looked like it came from a cartoon then, with how desperately I was trying to stifle a grin. Fortunately, Rin was thinking with a hand on her chin and her gaze on the road then so the moment passed with me managing to reel in my reaction just in time.
"But I doubt someone who attacked the Clock Tower and irreparably damaged many lineages and crests would even care for traditions like seeking permission from me of all people."
Honestly, she had the truth of it. I didn't care at all past the amusement… and oh boy was it amusing to see her jump through her hoops to rationalize my presence. The funniest bit was I'd admit to it easily if she just asked.
As she talked, we came up to an intersection, and I spotted a pair of teenagers walking just beyond us. A lean, soulless ginger with his hair cut short and a purple-haired girl joined at his hip. Her figure was crazy well-endowed, but I wasn't paying attention to that past the first second. BOTH of them were wearing the single most ugliest school uniform I had seen in two lives combined.
Okay, the girl's was maybe salvageable, the same as Rin, with the traditional dark skirt and a shit-brown vest. The only change being her hair was down completely where Rin's was half-tied in twintails. But the guy's? Hell no. Shit-brown from head to toe. Shit-brown jacket. Shit-brown pants. Shit-brown fa-… no, his face was fair, same as literally everyone else I'd seen in this island nation.
Contrary to my expectations, when I looked at Rin, she also made the same constipated face as me. The guy up front somehow noticed us and turned to wave but she ducked into an alley, pulling me along with her by the arm.
"Woah! Surprise furious alleyway makeout sesh-! Mmph…!" She shoved her wrist in my mouth, closing it shut.
Yeah… the resemblance was a little too uncanny.
She peeked out the side as I thought up an appropriate response.
A moment later, I was able to speak again when she backed off, cheeks tinted red.
"O…Okay, they're gone. Don't shou-"
"Help! She's rapin-"
I was silenced unfairly once more, my dignity tainted.
Rin Tohsaka looked like she wanted to cry. That was weird. I was the one being forced against my will. When she backed away again, I covered my face with both my hands and started sobbing into them.
"W-What's wrong?"
"You forced… even though I told you to stop~! I can't become someone's wife anymore-"
"How would you be the wi-… You're a man! Come on!" She kicked the ground, an inch away from fully exploding at me.
"Woah, way to be sexist~ Whatever happened to equality in the big 21st century? My grandmother didn't fight the patriarchy for this~"
This was some of the most fun I'd had in a long while.
Rin moaned, buried her face in her hands and crouched down, trembling ever so slightly. No, she was not enjoying this. Her ears were burning, twitching. She seemed to be sniffling, actually. Maybe I went too far…
Awkwardly, I patted her shoulder like I wasn't the sole source of her frustration.
Then, she rising dragon'd me.
By that, I meant she rose to unleash an uppercut from the depths of purgatory upon my virgin chin that made me stumble back baffled. My totally justified reaction was promptly socking her in the noggin like her father never did.
-
"I can't believe you punched me!"
"You did it first!"
"S…Shut up."
After properly bruising my chin, Rin looked the other way. Somehow, after her barbaric savagery, she decided the blushing maiden act was going to work on me. It was not. I handed her one of the ice packs I'd brought from the local convenience store because my mother raised a gentleman.
Pressing it against her head with one hand, Rin rested the other on the bench and leaned my way with a troubled expression.
We'd stopped at a bus stop along the way to her school. Maybe because of the hour, there was only an elderly lady sitting at the far end. She clutched her handbag the moment she saw me and mumbled something about 'gaijin' or whatever that I didn't understand. It felt racist… but I decided to leave well enough alone for the moment.
"About the permission…" She started slowly, "What do you want to do here?"
"So we're just gonna ignore our fistfight?"
Rin blushed, averting her gaze, "I-It was your fault!"
"You tried to have your way with me!"
I felt grateful we were talking in English because that old lady would definitely be glaring at me harder than right now if she actually understood us.
"Shut up... What do you want here? In Fuyuki? It's not like there's much here unless you're here for tutelage. "
"I just wanted to have a look-see at the Grail War, nothing else. I promise I won't be much of a bother~"
She raised her brow. I could tell she didn't believe me at all.
"I can pay rent?" I offered awkwardly.
That got her going immediately. It turned out this young lady wasn't as rich as she wanted everyone to believe. Fortunately for her, I had more money that I knew what to do with and something of an affinity for easily-embarrassed angry women that held no reservations about kicking my ass.
She furrowed her brow in suspicion, "How much?"
"First, you tell me more about that tutelage thing."
"I'd have to ask you about your family's focus, then."
That was a… most curious question. I was the first magus in my family that I knew of, at least. My main focus was observing and steal-…er… 're-creating' as much mystery as I possibly could. I wanted to know all there was about the mystical nature of the world, because there was nothing more exciting, because I truly loved it. I'd already encountered a supposed 'god' the night before for God's sake.
"I guess that was a bit too intimate." Rin murmured.
"Oh nah. It's something like… all of them? I want to say Modern Magecraft Theory."
"Formalcraft, then?" She raised a brow, "So your family's not that old."
I nodded expectantly.
Formalcraft was… if I remembered my lessons correctly, it was a way of re-creating mystery through the way of symbolistic rituals using sacrifice and magic circles and all that jazz. Basically, what came to mind when the layman thought of magic, with terms and catalysts that said layman would typically associate with magic.
A system used by weak magi that enacted mystery without using one's own Od but instead, the ambient mana. Consequently, it took a really long time to cast any spell more often than not, and was a system discarded by all but those who had no choice to use it due to a lack of their own magical energy.
Magecraft for noobs and dumdums or just those unfortunate.
"So that explains why you'd head here without being a master. You desperately want to improve, in whatever meagre way you can."
That reminded me of my Professor.
But it was true for me too. I'd move mountains for even the most redundant of codes.
"That's an odd expression. Fine, fine! I'll teach you some stuff." She crossed her arms under her nonexistent breasts with a loud huff. "But don't expect me to be your babysitter, okay?! You'll have to look after yourself!"
I cackled like a madman at that.
"I'm still suspicious of you by the way. Hmph!"
-
Hope you enjoyed.
You can find 6 chapters ahead at patre0n.com/Bleap
Though they are big, the numbers only not 9-10 because I'm still sick af.