o. o. o.

Shirou stood in front of Taiga, both in kendo gear and both in the proper fighting stances. The sight was fairly amusing for spectators due to the sheer height difference between the two.

"I hate you Fuji-nee." Shirou's voice stated in a dead tone. If one was familiar with the boy, they would be able to tell that his eyebrow was twitching rampantly. "I hate you very much right now."

o. o. o.

Several hours earlier:

Shirou was excited as he walked to secondary (middle) school. This was where your future truly began to take shape in the Japanese school system. He knew that he had to sit through several boring speeches and get walked around a lot before any of the lessons started, but he was fine with that. It was nice to have an even paced education for once after spending a month in England learning magic by the seat of his pants at breakneck speeds.

The morning for him had started off fairly simple. Wake up early. Do some warmup exercises. Practice some projection magic. Make breakfast. Hypnotize Fuji-nee to help him with the dishes after she bummed breakfast off of him. Wonder what she meant by her having a surprise for him that day. Then go to school himself. Other than the tiger teen's eager hint of a surprise it was a perfectly normal morning.

Arriving at the school grounds, the boy looked around. The main larger building on the compound was the high school section. There were a lot of small buildings and fields around it where most of the sports clubs gathered and held meetings. All in all, it was what he expected.

Turning a bit, Shirou spotted the second largest building in the area which was where the middle school was. Fuyuki City was fairly standard in that the local middle and high schools were set up in the same compound. Students could transfer to private high schools if their grades and credentials were good enough, but otherwise they would get a simple pass to the high school here so long as they weren't flat out failing.

Looking around, the boy saw that there were many kids his age or older walking in with their parents for support. The reminder that he had lost his parent figures in his life not once but twice did flood the boy with jealousy for several moments, however he quickly regained composure. There was no point in pitying himself now. He still had family even if they weren't related to him by blood, and if he started dwelling in the past now he might as well rip off the thaumaturgical crest on his chest and give up the name Emiya right then and there.

Feeling more confident about himself, Shirou slapped himself in the face to wake himself up and walked to where the youngest students were heading for their orientation…

o. o. o.

Rin was on edge.

The apprentice magus had long attempted to emulate her father. Noble and faultless, always trying her hardest to make things seem as elegant as possible.

…It would explain why their magecraft was based around using jewelry to some extent despite the financial ramifications...

However Rin was still not only a young and rather inexperienced magus, but a girl with a rather short fuse and unfortunately many buttons that could ignite said fuse.

She hated her guardian Kirei Kotomine, she had a large competitive streak, she despised being looked down upon, she didn't like to admit defeat or being shown up, and she didn't like surprises.

So when she walked to the middle school and detected the presence of another magus, she was not only surprised, but pissed as well. The unidentified person had used a fair amount magic recently, but wasn't using any now if the residual traces of prana in the air were anything to go by.

Why was there another magus in her family territory? The only ones that should be in Fuyuki city are herself, those in the Matou family and Kirei. Kirei's at the church and other than Zouken and… the Matou's bloodline was magic free by this generation, and… she… wasn't in secondary school yet.

Gritting her teeth, Rin walked with a hand in her pocket, fingering the jewel in it. She was still studying mostly magic theory and basic spells. The only offensive magic she really had under her belt was the ability to release the stored prana in her family jewels and aim them like cannons, but that was a last resort. Even though she was an 'average one', a person who had an affinity to all 5 basic elements, she had yet to actually learn to use any of them as a decent weapon yet. She had been practicing her Gandr curse recently, but it took too long for her to fire them off to be useful in battle.

She paused. What was she doing? Unless the intruding magi was a complete idiot or didn't know about the Association, he would be keeping his magic to a nonexistent level during school. As such whoever it is wouldn't be doing anything should she corner him. She grinned confidently. All she had to do was corner the rat and threaten him with her jewel to tell her everything when no one is around. That shouldn't be too hard even if the trail would go cold after time.

Flicking her hair back confidently, the Tohsaka walked to school, ready to begin the game of cat and mouse, eager to see how she would come out victorious…

o. o. o.

Shirou was bored.

He was in the middle of what seemed to be sixth speech of the morning inside the gymnasium with the rest of his classmates and it almost made him think that studying theory with Waver-nii was less boring than this.

Almost.

Looking around desperate to pass the time in any way possible, the red head saw that many other kids his age were feeling the same way he was judging from how many had their eyes closed, their heads hunched over, or were whispering to their neighbors.

Losing his patience, Shirou decided to do something he frequently did these days to pass the time… structural grasping on virtually everything inorganic he saw.

While technically magic, the amount it used was so miniscule and the fact that there was no physical effects using it gave him the excuse to use it whenever he wanted without getting caught so long as no one magically sensitive was paying any specific attention to him in particular. Plus, since he was almost in the middle of the crowd of roughly three hundred students, it would serve as practice for increasing the distance at which he could analyze things.

… The wooden floor under him was made of seven hundred forty eight planks of wood, thirty one of them were rotten and needed to be replaced.

The chairs around him that were being used… a good two or three dozen were on their last legs, no pun intended.

The pen on the chest of the old teacher to his right was about halfway full with ink.

The lights on the ceiling were going strong, but they hadn't been changed in about four years. Two of them would likely fail in a few weeks.

One of the basketball hoops had been replaced, but several of the screws were missing.

A teacher was wearing a suit completely made of silk. How did he afford that on his salary?

The microphone that the teachers had been using for their endless speeches… was a bit far from where he was but he could still determine its rather basic structure and design.

The gameboys that several of the kids around him had whipped out were all identical sans the game they were playing and how much juice they had left. Two of them were so drained that the boys playing them would be hard pressed to get to the save point before the thing died on them. Technically he didn't know what each and every part of the circuit boards and chips did, but he could at least identify their general purpose and what they were made of. He didn't really see the appeal to those things anyway. All they did in his mind was waste time when you could be doing something more productive… though he assumed that it was simply because none of the kids playing them had the ability to make swords pop out of thin air.

There were a couple of cell phones out as well, but despite their different outer appearance, their internal functions were all pretty much identical. He heard that the new expensive ones had screens on them, but he had yet to lay eyes on one. He considered getting one in a few years when they became more accessible and affordable. He could see the use in a convenient device like that.

He sighed as he stopped looking into the structure of objects. There wasn't much in the room right now that he didn't see at one point or another so far. He could try to analyze the building itself, something that Sirius-jiji had suggested him to try to do once, but something on that scale was too much to try to do right now. Accidentally overloading himself was most likely a stupid thing to do on the first day of school.

Ah. He wished Sakura was here. The girl wasn't much of a conversationalist, but she at least listened to his moaning and gave him her honest opinion on things. It was sad that the girl who was smaller than him was more mature than Fuji-nee. Still, she was one of his few friends. Due to his temper and the fact that he kept on getting into fights with bullies, kids his age tended to prefer to stay away from Shirou…

… Why is that girl looking in his general direction like she's hunting something?

"Classes 1-A, B and C please rise." Called the principal, snapping the boy out of his curiosity. "Tomorrow you will be run through your classes, but today we shall guide you through the school and expose you to the many clubs that we have here. You will be given a brief introduction to many of them by their current presidents and representatives…"

"Finally." The magus apprentice groaned as he stood up and stretched, feeling his legs again. "I thought they would never stop." He followed the rest of his classmates as they walked to the teacher waving them closer. Apparently they were going outside.

o. o. o.

Rin grit her teeth.

Damn! She didn't know what frustrated her more! The fact that the idiot magic user was in her age group, the fact that the idiot magic user had actually been USING magic during the speeches, or the fact that he had managed to stop using his magic and everyone started to move before she could pinpoint him! It's like the bastard was mocking her, and she already had her fill of being looked down upon when she had to spend time around Kirei!

The three classes had just finished their interview with the track and field, baseball, basketball, and soccer clubs all at once and were now going to check out the martial arts clubs in another part of the school. She was sure that the source was coming from the class C group but she couldn't tell who.

At least now she knew that the idiot magus was someone her age. That evened the playing field for her since they both had the same experience, or should at least… which put things in her favor since she had her family crest and all five elements on her side. Most noble families with long backgrounds tended to stay away from Japan so whoever it was, odds weren't likely that they had more up their sleeves and foundation than she did.

The classes had entered the dojo when one of the boys from the suspected class stopped in his tracks and paled dramatically. "Oh no…" He whispered in fear.

"Shiiiirrrooooouuuuu-kuuun!" Shouted an upperclassman girl from the other side of the room dressed in kendo attire as she charged through the group and tackle hugged the screaming boy, confusing the heck out of everyone there.

"Fujimura!" Shouted one of the teachers in irritation. "I don't know what sort of relationship you have with that young man, but I demand that you let go of him this instant!"

"Why?" The red headed boy shouted, stuck in a hug so strong that might as well have been a headlock. "Why does this have to happen on the first day?"

"Because I love you silly!" The girl grinned and began to relinquish her hold on the boy… only to grab his arm in a vice like grip and drag him to the other side of the room. "Also because I want you to help demonstrate some kendo as my special helping buddy to sponsor my club since none of my teammates want to spar with me!"

"Why do I not have a say in it either?" The boy shouted defiantly as he tried with all his might to escape without results.

"Because you don't!" The upperclassman smiled sweetly, causing everyone in the room to look at her funny. "You're already better than most of the freshman in the high school AND you don't run away screaming from me when I get serious!"

"You're kidding me." Pointed to one of the two other males in kendo robes and pointed to the short boy. "That shrimp is actually better than the guys three years older than him? The one you bragged would be an unstoppable force of nature by the time he was a freshman?"

"Yep!" Taiga smiled happily. "He still sucks, but his reaction times and raw talent are amazing!" She paused and looked around confused. "Now where did I put that armor for you…?"

"Your compliments aside, I am not kidding when I'm telling you that your shinai is cursed!" The boy once again attempted to negotiate himself out of danger. "That thing won't stop until it draws blood! It's like it was made by Muramasa himself!"

Rin noticed out of the corner of her eye the other members of the high school kendo club were nodding shakily.

"Fujimura-san." The guiding teacher feebly attempted to get the girl's attention. "We don't have a lot of time here and the other clubs want to do their part too. Plus I'm fairly certain that we aren't allowed to let younger students demonstrate so early…"

"Shirou's an exception. He has a dojo in his home and I've trained him a bit for the past couple of years." She smiled. "Don't worry. If anything happens to him my folks will take care of things. Dad and gramps love this kid and he's my neighbor anyways so I can take care of him if I get a bit too rough."

Rin curiously wondered why all the adults and upperclassmen froze at the girl's mention of her father. Maybe she was related to one of the major financial donators to the school since at his mention none of the other teachers or students stopped the girl from kidnapping her classmate…

Taiga sighed as she dragged the boy to the dressing rooms. "Come on runt, the faster you get changed the faster we can spar, the faster it's over and the faster I can get more potentials to join the club."

"Why meeee?" The boy, Shirou wept comically before both of them disappeared behind the door.

"Sensei?" Rin raised her hand. "You do know that she just went into the boy's dressing room right?"

"Damn it Fuji-nee I know how to change myself!" Shirou's voice roared defiantly from the other room. It sounded less like they were changing and more like they decided to start their match early inside the room.

"We'll just assume that it will all turn for the best when it comes to Taiga-san's antics." The keno club's teacher sighed. Clearly this wasn't the first time he had witnessed something like this. "Let's just introduce ourselves for now and get as many of the other clubs out of the way before Fujimura-san returns."

Rin's eyes narrowed disapprovingly. This was supposed to be higher education, but the teachers apparently still allow the students to act as they pleased… no, there was no time to dwell on that, she had an enemy to track down.

Rin didn't care much for the martial arts clubs that explained what they did. She was already proficient in Chinese kempo due to her family tradition, no thanks to Kirei. If she was able to reinforce her body a small amount or grow up a few more years, she could easily beat the elder teens in front of her with ease. She already had good technique, her body just didn't have the needed force yet.

Once more she was snapped out of her search by the insane senior who literally kicked open the door and dragged out Shirou who was now in full armor and holding a shinai much like the girl's… only…

"… You have to be kidding." Rin muttered to herself as she got a good look at the girl's weapon and suppressed a shiver.

The weapon, despite all logic, really WAS cursed. It was possessed by some kind of feral spirit that screamed of bloodlust. Hell, it was hungry enough that the people in the room who had no idea what magic was were shivering due to the thing's presence. "Please don't tell me THAT'S what I've been detecting all day long." She pleaded under her breath as she watched the two demonstrators get into position.

"Poor idiot doesn't have a chance…"

o. o. o.

"I hate you Fuji-nee." Shirou growled. "I hate you so very, very much right now."

"I love you too Shirou-kun." Taiga replied sweetly from inside her helmet, completely contradicting the killing intent she was giving off at the moment.

Shirou breathed out slowly to calm himself down. This was no big deal. He had been through worse when he sparred against Sirius-jiji and that puppet mannequin familiar he kept around. He never managed to land a hit on either one of them, with or without magic, but he did get a hell of a lot better at reading opponent's movements and dodging things that would cause him pain…

… The shinai he was eyeing at the moment was something that had a long history of the latter.

"Hup!" Taiga grunted as she rapidly approached the young boy with her sword already coming down to strike his head. She was exceptionally fast and skilled despite her personality, already having a third degree black belt in the sport, but she was holding back and Shirou was determined to at least make his sister figure work for his misery.

Crack!

Shirou's sword was blocked by Taiga's demonic one. Few people had seen it happen, but the boy had just barely avoided her swing and had counterattacked at the earliest possible moment. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to get past the girl's defenses.

She was stronger than he was. She was faster than he was. She was more skilled than he was…

Shirou had tried to address this while running for his life in England, but as hard as he attempted he couldn't pull anything off. He acknowledged that he was a sword and should be used like one, but at the same time he knew that odds were likely that he would constantly be at a disadvantage in a fight against another magus or some sort of elemental. He had to be trickier and more flexible with his fighting and his magic to live longer.

He grit his teeth as he barely dodged and deflected Taiga's relentless assault while attempting to counter attack whenever he actually saw an opening. Honestly how could no one see that evil aura surrounding the girl and the weapon! It was one thing to play ignorant but this was ridiculous! It didn't help that his body felt too restricted using the single sword to block and attack all the time.

Maybe if he used two swords instead of one in order to improve his flexibility… though he heard that using two at once was really hard…

WHAM!

Having been distracted by his musings, Shirou missed the fast swing from his bottom right that hit him in the ribs and sent him flying a good few feet before he hit the ground in a painful heap. The air from his lungs was gone as he tried to adapt to the lightning that coursed through his body originating from where he was hit.

"Gah!" The boy hissed. "Damn it! This is why I hate sparring you!"

"Whoa." One of the other club members blinked. "The kid really is good. I didn't think he'd be able to block her attacks, let alone manage to counter her."

"Come on Shirou-kun." Taiga laughed evilly with her shinai ready and red eyes glowing from behind the helmet. "We haven't done a full set of points yet."

"Do you think we should tell her that she's actually scaring away anyone that would want to join the kendo club?" Asked an archery club member.

"Don't worry." Whispered the other kendo club student. "She's already graduated. Her college classes don't start for another few days so she decided to come help us out warm up and teach the upperclassmen a few things before she leaves."

"I'm going to miss the rest of school for the day if this keeps up." Shirou moaned as he stood up again. "Maybe even the whole week," He shook his head. There was only one thing he could do to snap her out of it. The only thing that can make her overwhelm that cursed weapon's influence…

"Come ooon." Taiga crooned, prowling and edging closer like a predator on the hunt. "Let's hurry up…"

"Fuji-nee. I have to go now." Shirou sighed as he took off his helmet, worrying many of the teachers and students there to no end. "If we keep this up I'll be in trouble."

His eyes narrowed. "If you get me in trouble Fuji-nee… I won't cook dinner for you anymore."

The reaction was instantaneous. Within a second, the downright murderous Taiga had dropped her weapon of pain and was now wrapped around the stiff boy's waist and clearly crying her eyes out despite the helmet preventing anyone from seeing it.

"Shiiiirrrrooouuuu-kuuun! Don't be meeeeaaaaan! I'm sorrrryyyy! Please don't leave me alone without anything to eat!"

Everyone else in the room either facefaulted or sweatdropped, clearly caught completely off guard by this turn of events.

Many students and teachers would without a doubt claim that this was the most interesting and bizarre first day of school ever…

o. o. o.

"Honestly." Rin shook her head as she navigated herself around the massive crowd of students to exit the school grounds. "It was only a minor cursed wooden practice sword. I got myself wound up over nothing."

She was both relieved and let down by this turn of events. On the one hand it meant that she wouldn't have to deal with any annoying new circumstances or rivals in her family's territory. On the other she wouldn't mind having a rival or at least someone her age… other than her… to talk to about magic.

The only person period that she did have to talk to about magic was Kirei, and the fake priest was someone she didn't like talking to period.

"Who am I kidding?" She laughed to herself. Despite her age, she knew how well magi got along with one another. It didn't help that she was a prodigy with all elements and a fairly large magic crest. If she encountered any random magus her age, she'd probably leave them speechless and jealous of her talent. Then she'd have to fight them off and probably win due to her overwhelming advantage.

Rin was so busy mentally praising herself that she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. Hence, she ran into several girls that were a few years older than her. The resulting crash caused them all to fall onto the ground and drop many of the things they were carrying…

… Including Rin's magically charged jewel…

"Ow!" The tallest of them hissed. "What the heck was that for?"

"It's some stupid freshman." Grunted a fat one.

"Idiot probably got lost." Grumbled the third, who looked like she had far too much makeup on for a girl her age.

"Tch." Rin clicked her teeth, mentally berating herself for being so careless.

"Oi oi! What's with the silent treatment?" The tallest glared at the Tohsaka. "You're supposed to beg your sempai for forgiveness when you screw up like this. Go on. Bow down and say you're sorry."

"Poor shrimp is probably scared stiff to move." Snorted the fat one as she began to pick her stuff up before pausing and seeing something among the mess. "Hey, what's this?" She bent over to pick up the jewel.

Rin's face paled. "That's mine! Don't touch it!"

"My my. What's a midget like you doing with a treasure like this?" The makeup wearer crooned as she gazed upon the blue sapphire and took it from her friend curiously. "You must be a spoiled little princess if your parents let you walk around with this."

The Tohsaka grit her teeth. Her father was dead and her mother was delusional after some freak tried to strangle her and she went insane due to the lack of oxygen.

"Give it back." She growled. It wasn't a matter of the jewel being a part of her magecraft anymore. It was now a matter of family pride. There were too many people around to do magecraft. She'd have to think of something else. In the mean time… she huffed and crossed her arms. "It doesn't suit such low born fools like yourselves."

The three girls growled and slowly ganged up on the smaller one. Before they could do or say anything though...

"I saw the whole thing. It really was an accident and you should really give her back her jewel." The red headed boy from before was standing to the side and staring at them without much care.

"Huh. If it isn't another new brat." The fat one moaned. "Are you here to protect your girlfriend or play the hero?"

"I don't know her and I'm not trying to be a hero. I'm more of a sword." The boy corrected the elder girl, getting strange looks from the four females. "I'm just doing the right thing. The sapphire is hers and you should give it back."

"Or else what?" The makeup wearer struck a defiant pose. "What are you going to do? Tell your parents on us? My daddy is rich so your parents will just back down if they complain to us. Or maybe you're going to beat me up for it." She smirked as her two other friends stepped up, using their height and numbers to be more intimidating… which if they were paying any attention wasn't working at all. "Go ahead. Try it."

"My parents are dead I don't like fighting like an idiot." Shirou stated calmly, not reacting to the momentary flinch that the girls gave him for plainly saying those two things in the same sentence as if he was talking about the weather. "But that doesn't mean I can't do anything." He shrugged, turned around and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Fuji-nee! I need your help with something!"

"You have got to be kidding me." Rin deadpanned as she spied the familiar figure of the psychotic cursed kendo fighter barreling her way to the group, shoving away anyone unfortunate to be in her way .

"Shirou! What is it! Do you need something!? Do we have to go shopping for more food!? Have you finally forgiven me!? Please say it's the last one cause I really want to eat your food still!" The childish teen skidded to a halt in front of the boy with puppydog eyes, just begging to be ordered around to appease her master to the point that for a moment the children saw a tail wagging behind her.

"T-that's the Tiger of Fuyuki!" Stammered the tallest of the bullying girls, taking a step back, clearly intimidated.

"Fuji-nee, those older girls have my classmate's jewel that she dropped by accident and they won't give it back to her." Shirou stated. "Can you please convince them to give it back since they'll listen to you?"

"He's lying." Grunted the fat one while still retreating. "He just wants to impress the shrimp."

Taiga frowned and instantly gained a few years in maturity. "I would consider that possibility, if Shirou here didn't idolize heroes and do things like this all the time. He also can't lie for the life of him." She held out her hand. "Fork it over. Now."

The makeup girl held her head high, clearly not willing to admit defeat. "No. We picked it off of the ground and you have no proof other than this shrimp's word that it's this kid's. You'd have to take it up to my daddy and convince him to make me give it up."

"Great." Rin grunted. "A spoiled daddy's girl." There were too many people around to use magic right now. She'd have to move everyone away before she could hypnotize them all to forget this mess and get her jewel back…

"What was that?" The brat shot at Rin who merely glared irritably in response.

"Hah…" Taiga moaned as she scratched the back of her head frustrated before suddenly donning a malevolent guise that was nothing like her prior demeanors. Her stature was imposing. Her expression cruel, and her eyes sadistically cold.

"Look you little snot nosed brat…" She growled, her perky voice dropping several octaves to everyone's, but Shirou's, shock. "I know you're lying. My dad and granddad are yakuza bosses so I've seen your type before. Ya think you own the world just because you have a few more bucks than most people, but cry shit stained tears and try to lie your way out the moment a bigger fish threatens to bite you. Personally, you aren't doing a good job of covering yourself to begin with."

She took a step forward, and the girls a step back. "Go ahead. Take us to your dear daddy. I'll just drop my name and you'll see what happens. Hell, Shirou could get my folks to help him out with this since he's done them more favors than some of our official gophers, but he's a very nice kid and tries to avoid getting people involved in trouble if he can help it. He's being polite by asking you nicely. I'm being polite, by asking you nicely. We both would appretiate it if things remained, polite. Do you understand?"

The scared girls all nodded as one.

The elder teen grinned savagely and hand again. "So, if you don't mind. Please. Give. Back. The pretty. Little. Jewel."

Taiga Fujimura. Heiress of the Fuyuki city yakuza families. While she does distance herself as much as she can from her family's life and almost never shows its affects on her, there has been some influences on her base personality that most only see hints of during kendo practice.

Very slowly and shakily, the terrified little girl reached out and relinquished her temporary prize, fearful beyond belief of the elder in front of her. The moment having done so, she bolted not bothering to pick up the remains of the stuff she had dropped when Rin accidentally ran into her in the first place, followed by her friends.

"… Impressive." Rin muttered while looking to the side. While she didn't like relying on other's to get her out of problems, she relented that it was relieving that she did not have to rely on her magic to get her jewel back. However she obviously would not admit this much like she would not admit that she was now extremely wary of the impish elder.

"Well then, that was easy!" Taiga grinned childishly, already abandoning her yakuza based demeanor and washing away any trace of its existence. She handed Shirou the jewel since he was closer. "Here ya go Shirou! Give it to your new girlfriend!" She laughed mischievously.

"She's not my girl…!?" The boy was about to argue with his sister figure when his eyes opened dramatically upon skin contact with the jewel and stared at it in shock. "No way…" He whispered in bewilderment before… sniffing the jewel.

Rin's eyes widened before narrowing considerably. It couldn't be…

"Um…" Taiga blinked, clearly left out of the loop. "I'm fairly certain you can't eat that Shirou."

The red headed boy froze before warily looking at Rin… who in turn glared back at him… and slowly donning a smirk. "If you don't give it back to me Emiya-kun, I'd have to kill you." She stated in a confident and calm tone. "That jewel is very valuable to me after all…"

Taiga nodded frantically. "Yeah! I mean it's a bit out of place seeing how its only the rock, but you should know better than to get in the way of a girl and her jewelry."

Rin mentally sighed. The boy in front of her was a magus, or at least a psychic. His reaction to her jewel screamed of prana sensitivity and the look he gave her likewise told her that he knew what she was. Not only that, but his lack of control of his emotions also told the girl that he was at most an apprentice that had no idea how to deal with other magi. The woman had no idea what the hell was going on and was thinking that the boy's reactions were due to something else... yet the seriousness of the situation was so perfectly lost on the elder woman that it was almost comical.

"Well?" She asked in a haughty tone. "I'm waiting…"

Shirou gulped before laughing nervously. "Y-yeah… please don't kill me." He pleaded as he slowly returned the jewel to the girl's hands. "I-I was just trying to help."

"Aw isn't this so cute!" Taiga swooned, clearly mistaking Shirou's absolute fear of getting murdered by another magus for being shy of girls. "He's so shy around you!" She straightened up and pounded one hand into the other. "I know! We should invite her to dinner to celebrate becoming friends!"

"… What?" Both Rin and Shirou asked/squeaked in disbelief.

"Yeah!" Taiga nodded with finality. "Shirou has trouble making friends his age cause he keeps on getting himself into trouble fighting bullies. This is a great way for him to start off his middle school years! With a girl as a friend!"

"I take back what I said earlier." The red headed magus wept. "Please kill me. Right now."

It took a moment for the Tohsaka to regain her composure herself before crossing her arms and smirking. "No… no I want to see where this goes. It will amuse me."

She ignored the boy's visual progression into despair and turned to Taiga. "I'd love to come for dinner. Can you please tell me where Emiya-kun lives so that I can come later? I have to tell my guardian where I'm going tonight."

Taiga nodded, also ignoring Shirou's frantic gestures to deny the girl's request. "Sure!" She took out a pen and paper and began to write down instructions. "You know its really good that you're doing this." She sighed gently. "He really doesn't have any friends around his age and he's going through a rough time. His dad died a little over a month back and all he's been doing lately is hanging around older family members in Europe. He only got back a week ago."

Rin's eyes momentarily widened. "Europe? You mean like England?"

Taiga nodded. "Yeah. London in fact, though he's traveled to other parts of that country from what he's told me…" She sighed as she handed Rin the instructions. "Still he needs someone like him to talk to. Big sister here can't be here all the time you know."

"I really wished today was one of those times…" Shirou wept.

"Stop pouting you." The oblivious woman slapped the boy upside the head.

"Why was that the only thing you heard!?" The boy cried and raged at the laughing Taiga, chasing her away. No doubt he wanted to get home as soon as possible to prepare for Rin's arrival.

The Tohsaka looked at the disappearing pair with an unreadable gaze. "His father recently died and he's been in England since then… huh..."

o. o. o.