Fate/Collapsing World

[Pale Wolf]

~~~I========>

Hero.

That had been Emiya Shirou's dream for the longest time. To experience the joy of saving someone. To pull others from Hell, the same way he had been.

And when you thought of heroes, you thought of Valkyries.

There were many things that endangered people, but none of them were like the Honkai. The mysterious force that rose up again and again to kill humanity, corrupting people with its energy and manifesting monsters to destroy every human and all of their works. Apocalyptic outbreaks like the Second Eruption that had shattered Russia as a country thirteen years ago were thankfully rare, there had been no Third Eruption. But smaller outbreaks would occassionally appear to ravage a city, and honkai condensation would frequently produce lone killers out in the countryside.

Schicksal was humanity's protector, an organization that stood up against the Honkai, and Valkyries were their soldiers - the people good enough to be worth enhancing through honkai energy so that they could fight against its monsters, win, and save the day for whoever was caught up in that horror. They sacrificed their lives so that others may live happily, stepping onto the battlefield, and merely in volunteering, they had been injected with a poison that would one day kill them as the price for its power.

Shirou's dream had been to join them as far back as he could remember. His father, a former Valkyrie himself, had been against it, and told Shirou in no uncertain terms how crippled he was in what was necessary for Valkyries.

The human body's ability to adapt to the honkai varied. A Valkyrie candidate needed a fairly high tolerance to it, so that they could withstand the poisonous power they were injected with. Shirou had eventually badgered the old man into having him tested, but the results hadn't been promising - Shirou's honkai tolerance was lower than the general population average, let alone Valkyrie standards. His potential career would be very short, and outside a crisis Schicksal wouldn't even let someone with his low tolerance enlist.

But Shirou must become a hero. It was necessary that he achieve it.

And it wasn't impossible. The legendary Murata Himeko, ace of Schicksal's Far East Branch, had tolerance below Schicksal's standards, and she'd got in and become one of their best. There were other skills involved in being a Valkyrie. Honkai tolerance was how power was implanted into the body, but if you were smart enough and tough enough, you could make up for having less raw power.

It was possible. He just had to work a lot harder to make the cut. And that was one of his strengths. He could train his body, train his mind, and learn martial arts and academics in between the part-time jobs he used to fund his life. He had applied to St Freya, the academy Schicksal's Far East Branch used to train Valkyries and people of similar gifts, every single year.

And of course, every year he had recieved a letter politely rejecting his application. That was okay. He knew he hadn't even reached the starting line yet. But he got closer every time, and for him, that was enough.

~~~I========>

St Freya was unique in the world. The one and only civilianized Valkyrie Academy on the face of the Earth. Valkyries were soldiers, and when they signed up, war became their lives. They learned how to fight, and how to survive, at dedicated military academies.

But wasn't that kind of tragic? Valkyries started pretty young, at the peak of their honkai tolerance, and few lived past fourty, between the stress of war against monsters and the corruption of their own power source. They gave up all possibility of a life to create a peaceful world that they had no real place in.

That was why St Freya had been founded. It was a military academy, it deployed its students as soldiers, and taught them how to fight. But in between that, it gave them a reason to. The chance to live and enjoy the peace they were creating.

Its principal, and the director of the Far East Branch, was a woman in her early thirties with the somewhat unfortunate name 'Theresa Apocalypse'. At least, in her own mind, though to the eye she wouldn't ever look like more than a tiny twelve-year-old girl with white hair and a nun's habit scaled to her miniscule height. Probably for the best. She wanted height. Height! And other things. But those came with hormonal surges, doing really dumb things to impress a cute boy/girl, and moping into a bottle of booze after numerous failed dates.

Theresa hummed a little ditty to herself as she pushed this year's Emiya application across her desk, tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth as she pondered. His wish was serious, she could tell that much. He'd sent the application in for seven years straight, and been rejected for six. St Freya had only existed for four of those years, he'd been applying to Schicksal Far East before that, since before Theresa had taken over out here. She stretched her arms out, sighing. "Man, what a shame."

He had the wish to do it, and that was irreplaceable, but he just didn't have the ability. It was possible to get by, and even do pretty well with low honkai tolerance, but not this low. It legitimately wasn't possible for him to make the passing grade, even if he scored every mark on every single other test.

Theresa honestly did want the kid. His adoptive father had been a top-class Valkyrie and, even better, had pissed off her grandfather something fierce when he'd 'resigned'. And this kind of consistent excitement about the job was precious - the kid had already taken full marks in physical conditioning and marksmanship, and his martial arts and academics were well above the normal cutoff and getting closer and closer to a perfect score. But even if he got there, he wouldn't pass through admissions. His honkai tolerance dragged him too far down, his aggregate score mathematically could not make it.

Theresa could waive the admission process, of course. She could get him in class any time she wanted. But ethically, that was another thing. An implanted stigmata would rot his body away. With his tolerance, he'd probably make it five years, and he might not make it to graduation. He could live a happy, productive life as a normal person, and letting him in would steal that from him for nothing.

Letting him keep sending these in was almost as bad. He would never live the life that was possible for him if he kept working towards the impossible. Theresa really should arrange a meeting with the kid and explain the math to him this year, it was legitimately depressing watching these applications come in every year, clawing their way up the scoreboard so ferociously towards a goal they could never reach.

But she didn't want to do that, either. Taking away a kid's dreams... "Muuuuuuuu," Theresa grumbled, spinning her chair around.

"What's wrong, Madame Principal?" a woman's husky voice queried from the doorway.

Theresa yelped in surprise, half-jumping in her seat. She pointed angrily at the voluptuous red-haired woman who'd just peeked in her door. "Knock, Major! Knock! Kay Enn O See Kay!"

"I did," Major Murata Himeko pointed out, entirely unreasonably, shutting the door behind her. "Maybe you didn't hear?"

"Knocking means waiting for a response, Major," Theresa grumbled, rolling her chair closer to her desk. It was a specially made booster seat office chair, an absolute necessity for a twelve-year-old body living in a world of desks made for adults. She loved her chair.

"Ah, I'll have to take that into account next time," Himeko half-apologized, moving up to take one of the seats in the office. "Anything good or especially bad in this year's summer applications, or were you looking at another report?"

"Repeat customer," Theresa sighed, sliding over Emiya's file. "He applied at the start of the year, actually, but I was taking a look again. Seventh year running, it's like looking at a you that'll never actually make it."

Himeko hummed to herself, paging through the folder. "In the kid's defence, I wasn't qualified either when you let me in. His aggregate scores are actually higher than mine were at that age." Oh right, hadn't Himeko been around that age when she'd joined up? That had been a special case, though.

"Not the same," Theresa waved a hand. "I let you in because you were already infected. The artificial stigma increased your expected lifespan." She drummed a finger on the desk. "It's different here, y'know? He's got no infection, he's looking at another sixty years of life. The stigma'll cut him down to like a tenth of that."

"You never know, people can surpass predictions. I'm years past my expectation too, after all, but I'm not dying any time soon."

"Your constitution is a mystery of eternity, Major," Theresa deadpanned. "How you're still alive when you never slow down to take care of your health is beyond the reach of science."

"Hahahah," Himeko threw back her head and laughed. Theresa glared at her jiggling melons. How did anyone go through life, let alone battle, with those stupid things? They had to throw off her balance. "I've told you, Principal, I won't die before I'm united with my soulmate."

Your delusions are beyond the reach of science too, Theresa didn't say, but thought very hard. "People can also not even make it to the prediction," she pointed out instead. "I'm not going to make a decision to cut his life decades short based on the hope that he exceeds the prediction."

"Then I'll make a prediction of my own," Himeko declared, slapping the folder against her leg. "Fifteen years. Good service, numerous honours, A-rank." An excellent Valkyrie's career, including the usual lifespan expectation. Low for what St Freya aimed for, but well above Schicksal's normal standards.

Theresa rolled her eyes. "You can't just make numbers up, give me a reason to think your prediction is better than the official metrics." Not that she expected Himeko not to have such a reason, but she wanted to know it before factoring it into anything.

"I'll give you three." Himeko snapped her fingers, pointing the first one at the file in her other hand. "One, full marks doesn't actually mean perfect. The tests have a performance cap, and the human ability range goes a lot higher than that cap. He got full marks in two fields, which means a standardized test is too easy to find his actual level in them. If we tested to find his actual limit and gave him extra credit, the math might change."

"That'd just be a mathematical artifact," Theresa shook her head. "Talent isn't that fungible. A strong area can make up for a weak one, but there's only so weak it can get away with being before it can't be made up. There's a reason we don't offer extra credit on our tests in the first place."

"Of course. But for my second reason? This isn't actually his potential. I can guarantee you once he's on our coursework, he'll improve rapidly."

"Hah? Have you met the kid? Where's this confidence coming from?"

Himeko smirked, handing the folder back to Theresa. "Look closer at his bio. In particular, his employment history."

Theresa raised an eyebrow, paging through the file. It didn't take long to see what Himeko had. "That is a lot of part-time jobs..."

"Isn't it? There's not enough information to suss out his actual schedule, but with that many part-time jobs, it's hard to imagine when he'd find time to study or sleep."

Theresa whistled.

"Exactly," Himeko nodded. "I'd bet he's working twenty hours a week, minimum. Which means his martial, marksmanship, and academic scores are purely from attending class and whatever study and instruction he manages to squeeze in between all that. If he starts attending, those are all going to shoot up fast once he invests the proper amount of time in them."

Theresa sighed heavily. "Man, why'd you have to point that out, Himeko? Now I'm even more depressed he won't make the cut." She shook her head. "Like we just discussed, we don't offer extra credit. The best he can get is full marks, and if you're right, sure, he can do that. But his tolerance is still too low. Full marks in every other field won't get his aggregate score up to the minimum. He still can't make it, it's just depressingly closer."

"Oh, wait 'till you hear reason number three." Himeko leaned forward. "Remember what you said? It's like looking at me?" She grinned, an expression that always looked savage on her face. "It is. And there are things I had that carried me on. Things that didn't show up in entrance exams. Determination. Cunning. Courage. The ability to put it all together. All the things that distinguish a Valkyrie from a student."

"Mm? So what makes you think they're present? They don't show up on the exams, remember?"

"Honestly, nothing," Himeko admitted, settling back into her seat. "They aren't the sort of things that can be seen through paper. I can see hints on the determination front - if you don't have a little bit going on there, you're not going to apply year after year for what, seven straight? And I have no idea how much actual personal time he manages to fit into his schedule in between school, work, and whatever training he gets in, so there's another mark on dedication. But I can tell you the others might be there. You don't think it's worth a look? We have a practical on entrance, if you really are so sad about constantly rejecting him, we can run him through the practical with everyone else. If he pulls it together, we've got ourselves a Valkyrie, if not, seal his stigmata and send him home, overstrain in the exam won't push him past losing a couple months on the tail end of his life." She shrugged. "And if he at least gets the chance to wash out, he might move on, too."

Honestly, if she didn't think he'd make it through the practical, Theresa would never have signed off on it. Even 'just' a couple months off his life was a big price to claim for a gamble she didn't even think would pay off. But Theresa was an elite. She had been from birth (decanting?). She'd never performed poorly on any of the standard metrics - and they were the standard for a reason, they were usually right. She didn't know the pain of the ungifted, or those who had the ineffable 'something' that pulled their substandard stats into something that worked anyway.

Himeko, however, was the opposite. And teaching and commanding Himeko had taught Theresa that that 'something' was real, that the tests didn't tell the whole story. And if Himeko thought it might be there...

"... Worth the test." Theresa chuckled. There'd have to be some measures to keep the kid alive, the output of an artificial stigmata was far too high for his tolerance, they'd need to force him to keep it to minimum output or he'd corrode before he even graduated. But that wouldn't be too hard. She could sign off on this.

~~~I========>

Frankly, Emiya Shirou hadn't expected to get in this year, either. He'd sent the application more to show his progress than anything else - St Freya's scoring wasn't a mystery, and he was more than capable of looking at his marks and calculating whether he'd crossed the bar or not. He knew he'd still been well short. So he hadn't put his life on hold waiting for St Freya's reply. It was between school years, so he was on break, and expecting his second year at Homurahara. He'd expected it to be another rejection letter, and made no special ceremony about opening it. Where was he at the time?

[ ] Hanging out with his friends. Shirou was a workaholic by nature, but he did have friends, and on occassion could be forced to have a life.
[X] In a dojo in the eastern part of town. When there was no school, he had a whole lot more time in his day, and he could really buckle down and train. For some reason a local priest taught kung fu there on occassion, and he was alarmingly good to learn from. Thoroughly unpleasant to deal with, but the path of a Valkyrie is fraught with peril or something. One of these days he wouldn't be used as a floor mop by that new kouhai of his...
[ ] At a cram school. His training also included the academic, it wasn't his strongest suit but he needed the best scores humanly possible to stand any kind of chance on St Freya's entrance exams. Also his crush attended the cram school, not that she ever looked in his direction.
[ ] At home, where one normally opens letters. Not alone at home, he has some kind of weird dysfunctional freeloading family (plus a useful person), but at home.

~~~I========>

 

[Pale Wolf]

~~~I========>

[O] In a dojo in the eastern part of town. When there was no school, he had a whole lot more time in his day, and he could really buckle down and train. For some reason a local priest taught kung fu there on occassion, and he was alarmingly good to learn from. Thoroughly unpleasant to deal with, but the path of a Valkyrie is fraught with peril or something. One of these days he wouldn't be used as a floor mop by that new kouhai of his...

~~~I========>

The floor was comfortable, Shirou thought. Here, with his fingers laying against the hardwood planks, he truly was at peace with the Earth, and all the creatures that lived upon it.

Wait, no, that was exhaustion, not peace. Well, close enough. As long as he didn't have to actually stand up it was basically the same thing.

The floorboards creaked lightly as a foot settled in next to him, and its owner crouched down at his side, lightly poking a finger into his chest. "Taking up residence, Shirou-senpai?" Kiana Kaslana was a smallish girl, with clear blue eyes, white hair pulled back into two braids, and the ability to kick his ass on a whim.

"No..." he groaned. "Just a rental. Roll me out of the way, please." She could probably drag him easily, or pick him up bridal-style, so he had to specify the one that would do the least damage to his frail male ego.

"Yep-yep, sure!" She shifted slightly to get a grip on his clothes - t-shirt and sweatpants, the dojo wasn't highly formalized - and started tugging to get him off the floor so that another pair could take their turn sparring.

The two young men heading up kept a bit of a wide berth between them and the rolling pair. Most of the people at any dojo were hobbyists and unwilling to go at it even half as hard as Shirou and Kiana.

The white-haired girl wasn't a Fuyuki native, more of a drifter who happened to be attending school here for a few months, but Shirou counted himself lucky that she'd turned up. With a sparring partner that he had to work to keep up with, he'd improved faster than ever. The teacher was too good, Shirou couldn't catch any opportunities on the man unless he intentionally exposed them, which meant Shirou sparring against him was more an exercise in determining whether the deliberate opportunity was 'real' in the context of the spar, or a feint that he'd be punished for exploiting.

"Did you have to throw that hard, though?" Shirou complained as Kiana brought him to a halt off to the side.

"Hahah, sorry senpai." She stuck out her tongue. "I actually did, though! Any slower and I might've missed it, you did great today."

"Yaaaay," Shirou cheered(?), throwing up his fist as high as he could send it (about a foot).

"That is arguable," a heavy, solemn voice spoke, as a shadow loomed over him. A local priest, Father Kotomine, who helped out at a nearby dojo every so often. Tall, broad-shouldered, lanky, he was built sharp, with the bones of a very big man, but the bare minimum of meat on them. "It was not a bad spar, but it seems it will be the last one you'll be having for today," he pointed out, hands clasped behind his back. "It is questionable if the intensity taught you more than repetition would have."

"Ugh." Kotomine-sensei was a teacher who specialized in criticism. You could never quite deny what he said, and it was never pleasant to hear, either. Shirou didn't like him at all, and he didn't really enjoy learning from him, but he enjoyed the results, so he kept coming.

"Kaslana-san, remember that we do not provide replacement training partners. If you break this one, there will be no substitute." Please sound a little sad at the possibility, sensei.

"Ahahahahahah, aye-aye, sir," Kiana acknowledged, scratching the back of her head. "That'd suck."

"You may wish to keep the strength farther down, as well," Kotomine continued.

"Ah, I don't actually mind," Shirou volunteered. When Shirou finally did manage to become a Valkyrie, he would always be one of the physically weakest ones. His actual physique could only do so much next to the utterly tiny level of enhancement his body could tolerate. Which meant practicing against Kiana Kaslana's superhuman body was good for developing the skills he'd need.

'Kaslana' wasn't really a name spoken in modern history, and didn't come up in common lessons, but Shirou had studied Valkyrie, Schicksal, and Honkai history in every single detail he could manage. In the distant past the House of Kaslana had been one of the key pillars of Schicksal in fighting against the Honkai, and its members all carried a true stigmata in their bodies.

The artificial stigmata most Valkyries used was a pale copy of the natural kind some people were born with. Derived from it, but the real thing was better in every way - more powerful, more sophisticated, and more resistive to honkai infection. Kiana had been born a Valkyrie, and it wouldn't impact her lifespan either, true stigmata had none of the deleterious effects.

Shirou didn't begrudge her that. She was born with everything one needed for his dream, but it wasn't hers. She had never signed up with Schicksal, nor had she expressed interest in it. She had things that mattered to her to pursue (namely, her deadbeat father, who she was apparently wandering the world in search for). She had just been born that way, it didn't impart any extra responsibilities on her. He'd like to have it, but it wasn't her fault he didn't, and there wasn't any benefit in angsting about it rather than working with what he did have.

And one of the things he did have was a sparring partner who had all of the advantages he lacked - which meant the opportunity to practice from the point of weakness that he would be spending most of his career in.

"It is not about politeness to you, young man," Kotomine shook his head. "It is about what she gains from the lesson. You are much stronger than any of your sparring partners, young lady. But is the same true of your prospective opponents? Can you afford to spend your time practicing how to defeat only those who are weaker than you?"

"... probably? I mean, it's not a short list." Kiana shrugged. "I see whatcha mean, though, I don't get as much out of it if it's super-easy."

"You just shattered the last vestiges of my pride, Kiana-chan," Shirou deadpanned. It was true, though, sparring against her was more a question of how much she held back. And she wasn't just muscle, she was skilled and he honestly wasn't sure how well he'd do even if she held her strength and speed down to his level, or even the level of a normal girl her size and age.

"Ah no, I didn't mean it that way senpai!" she waved her hands in denial. "The super-easy is, like, hypothetical! Not specific to you!"

"Though it is true if she went full-force," Kotomine pointed out, drawing a wince from Shirou. Couldn't deny that either, though. Kiana hadn't been able to beat Kotomine, even going all-out - she'd first come to the dojo as a challenger, and had only started studying here once she'd seen there was something to learn. But he'd seen her going all-out against Kotomine in that challenge, after anything less had failed her, and Shirou was entirely capable of comparing it to the speed and force she used against him.

"Mngghhh-!" Kiana bristled at Kotomine's assertion, back hunched like a hissing cat, and Shirou wasn't entirely convinced her hair wasn't standing up on end like a cat's too. She did look a bit fluffier than normal. "No bullying Shirou-senpai!"

Kotomine folded an arm in front of his waist and bowed like a European butler. "Of course, young miss." With a faint smile, he moved on to other students, leaving the pair to rest.

Kiana looked around awkwardly, before sitting down next to Shirou. "... you gonna be okay? I didn't do it that hard, did I?"

Shirou waved a hand. "No, no, I'm just resting. The fall was just a finale, I'm mostly just tired from keeping up with you until then." While her inborn Valkyrie powers were probably involved, half of it was just her sheer bouncy energy.

"Heheheh, you lasted a while, senpai!" she perked up at his assurance. Stamina was his strong point, at least. And he'd been able to stave off outright defeat long enough to get tired, so he was honestly feeling pretty good about his performance. You didn't measure yourself by whether you beat an opponent out of your league, you measured by how far you got. And he'd been getting further every time. "So whatcha doin' after?"

"Hungry?" Shirou chuckled. Kiana was entirely untroubled by mooching off her fellows with a cutesy act.

Her cheeks puffed out. "Not just-! I have other reasons to hang out with friends, hmph!" She folded her arms across her chest, ostentatiously looking away from him. The effect was somewhat hampered by the occassional flicker of her eye to catch him in the corner of her vision, though.

"Sure, sure." Oh right, that had reminded him. "Just remembered, I ended up cooking more than I needed last night." Translation: Taiga had been busy and hadn't come. "So, yakitori in my ba-ahahahah."

Shirou broke off laughing as Kiana instantly vanished from where she sat, already rifling through his bag. "Awwww yissssss~!"

"Save one skewer for me!" he called out after her. "... and another one for the next girl to catch your eye!" he added after a moment's thought. She would absolutely offer one on reflex and then realize she'd eaten them all and embarrass herself.

She'd tagged along with him after classes a few times. (Sometimes they worked the same part-time job, so they were heading the same way on occassion)

Kiana blew a raspberry his way, held up a chicken skewer retrieved from his bag like she'd just drawn Excalibur from its stone, and then promptly stuffed the entire thing into her mouth and pulling the skewer itself out with a flourish. She could probably take up sword swallowing, there was talent in not poking yourself with the skewer.

She strolled back to him, munching happily with her cheeks bulging, the boxes that held the skewers balanced in her hands. She plonked back down next to him, chewing smugly, and held out his own requested skewer.

Shirou took it, shaking his head with a smile. "At least take the time to taste it, Kiana-chan." He didn't wait for a response, just working at a more sedate rate on his own skewer.

Eventually, she finished chewing, and picked something up from on top of the boxes - an envelope with Schicksal's logo emblazoned on it (to Shirou at least it looked like a pair of upraised wings made from a mechanical gear). "Didja forget this? It didn't look opened."

Shirou twisted slightly to see it - ah, it was addressed to him, his reply from St Freya. He hadn't really had the heart to open it and see his rejection early in the morning when he got his mail, so he'd just brought it out with him. "Just a bit of bad news I was putting off."

Kiana winced in sympathy, and held the envelope out to him. "I always feel better about bad news if I've got something nummy, is it the same for you? Your cooking's about as good as it gets, so..."

Shirou smiled faintly, taking the envelope. "It's worth the try." He worked a finger into the seal and slowly ripped it open, pulling the letter out and holding it up in the air above his face. Yeah, reply to his applicatio-

Shirou blinked. He blinked another four times to make sure his eyes were clean, and read it again. He rubbed his eyes with his fingers, sat up, and read it again, and the words didn't change.

'Probationary Acceptance'.

In a bit of a fugue, Shirou read through the following pages, detailing where he should travel, when he should arrive, what he should bring and expect, a voucher for travel, and the details of his probation - accomplishing course standards while remaining within acceptable honkai tolerances, basically. In other words, using less power than everyone else, to a low enough degree that even his tolerance could withstand it somewhat - and still accomplishing what was expected of everyone else. Difficult, but about what he'd expected to need to do anyway.

A small finger poked his cheek. "Shirou-senpai, you okay?"

"Ah," he shook himself. "Yes, I... sorry I need to organize my thoughts this is not what I was expecting," he took a bite of his yakitori to buy himself some thinking time. Of course he was going, this was his dream. He'd never imagined it'd come this soon but how could he do anything but leap on it now that it had? "... I think this might be the last baji class I go to, Kiana-chan."

"Eh?! Why?!" She leaned in behind him to look at the letter.

"Ah, no, no, it's nothing bad! I was expecting bad news but then it was good news so now I need to be ready for a new school by the end of summer break." Shirou paused, taking time to catch his breath. "... yeah, so, I need to pack and say goodbye to everyone, and I have a lot to do. I had no idea I'd get accepted this year..." And in the middle of the year too.

Kiana slumped. "... man, you sound excited. Where are ya goin'?"

"St Freya, it's an academy for Valkyries and I'm in." If he didn't flub this, he'd be saving people from the Honkai so absurdly soon it was unreal.

"Hoh? Was this year's application accepted, then?" Kotomine's voice rumbled from the side as he approached. No surprise, they hadn't been quiet.

"Yeah," Shirou nodded, grinning so hard it almost hurt. "Hey Kotomine-sensei, you used to be a Valkyrie, right?" It had never been said, of course, but the man was clearly Honkai-enhanced to keep up with Kiana, and his priesthood was with Schicksal's faith, so it wasn't exactly a difficult guess. "Any tips?"

Kotomine cocked his head. "No, I am not a former Valkyrie." He allowed a beat for Shirou to get exactly the wrong interpretation before continuing, "I am a current Valkyrie. Fuyuki observation is my duty station."

Shirou blinked again. ... had it just never come up to ask? How did this not...? "... why Fuyuki?"

"The outbreak ten years ago," Kotomine answered, putting an instant end to Shirou's good mood. "Its causes are not entirely gone, so the Overseer decided it was best to station a long-term observer."

"What." Shirou glared at Kotomine as if he could squeeze answers out of the priest with his stare. "It could happen again?!"

"It is plausible," the man answered, voice sober and level. "If the source is not managed properly."

"What source?!" Shirou yelled, standing up fully. "What caused it that was just left here?!"

Other students were looking to them in alarm, but Shirou did not care right now.

"I am not at liberty to say," Kotomine pointed out. "Especially in such a public place. Suffice to say that it was not adviseable to do anything further to that source, after the outbreak was ended. If you reach a sufficient clearance, I will be happy to tell you more details."

Shirou shut his eyes and focused on calming his breathing. Calm breaths made for a calm mind. Eventually, he felt safe to open his eyes, and look up into Kotomine's. "Were you involved in suppressing the outbreak?"

Kotomine nodded, folding his hands behind his back. "I was. In fact, I was your father's associate." He chuckled to himself. "I thought of him as a rival, at the time. He did not think of me at all, though. It was a one-sided affection."

Shirou chose to interpret that as figurative rather than Kotomine confessing to a gay crush on his father. The gay wasn't an issue to him but no one ever wanted to think of their father's sex life. Also the thought of Mama Kotomine was terrifying on an existential level and Shirou would not be able to live on without that image banished forever from his mind. ... then again it was still better than if Taiga had managed to marry the old man. "... what was he like? When he was still a Valkyrie, I mean?"

Kotomine licked his lips, pausing for a moment to phrase it. "... he was filled. He felt so much, for so many, that fear for them brought him to despair. So he hid from those feelings, to do as he believed he must." Kotomine closed his eyes in a moment's reminescence, before shaking his head. "The only 'tip' I can give you is that. Find what fills you, young man. And glut yourself on it without shame or fear."

There was only one thing that had filled Emiya Shirou. That smile that Kiritsugu had shown at the end of Hell. The salvation he had felt, that exceeded even the one he had saved.

He nodded, swallowing past the lump in his throat. "I understand."

Kotomine looked askance at the younger man, an eyebrow raised. "Do you, now?"

Well, that was unexpected. Shirou was honestly caught by surprise, and he had the rest of spring break to pack up the entirety of his life in Fuyuki and settle in at St Freya. The process was a bit of a rush, so he couldn't take care of everything. He did get all the basics covered, goodbyes to friends and family were said and things were packed, but there was only so much he could do, and some of the things he'd have liked to take care of didn't get as much attention as they should. Which of them did he focus on getting the most done?

First, vote for how many tasks Shirou works on.

[ ] One task will give Shirou time to settle in at St Freya before the start of the school year. He'll be able to meet with the people he'll spend his time with, get his bearings in what resources are available to him, and get a decent footing in the coursework, especially the parts he knows are going to be hard for him.
[ ] Two tasks are possible, but Shirou will arrive late. He'll be in time for the bare minimum orientation and start of classes, but he'll be hitting the ground running and will have some trouble getting into the swing of classes.

Next, vote for the tasks you want Shirou to take special care of. Vote for up to two. If you consider one task substantially more important than the next-best, vote for the one to make sure it gets in and your other vote isn't competing for it. If you want to have a say in the potential second, use both votes.

[ ] Spend time at home with Taiga and Sakura, some quality time before he leaves. This will be the last time he'll get to see his family until the next school break, after all. He should enjoy it.
[O] Shirou has no intention whatsoever of confessing to Tohsaka Rin - to him, she is one to be admired, not one to be had. And certainly not now that he's leaving town. But it might be nice to attend the cram school one more time and just mention that he's leaving. He doesn't really think he's someone that features into her attention at all, but it would still be kind of rude to just vanish from her environment without saying anything.
[ ] Shinji, Sakura's brother, has been hitting her. Shirou had been thinking over what to do about it, but he's run out of time. His best idea right now is just punching the guy so he knows how it feels to get punched, but if he takes some extra time he may come up with something less likely to lose himself a friend. (Don't worry, Shinji will get punched whether or not this vote is taken, the vote determines how much more complex Shirou's response is beyond that)
[ ] Make sure to get a last visit to the dojo in. It probably won't mean much to him as a fighter, but it'll be a good last chance to spar and speak with Kiana and Kotomine. Mostly Kiana, at least there he only loses the fights rather than the conversations.

~~~I========>

 

[Pale Wolf]

~~~I========>

[O] One task will give Shirou time to settle in at St Freya before the start of the school year. He'll be able to meet with the people he'll spend his time with, get his bearings in what resources are available to him, and get a decent footing in the coursework, especially the parts he knows are going to be hard for him.

[O] Shirou has no intention whatsoever of confessing to Tohsaka Rin - to him, she is one to be admired, not one to be had. And certainly not now that he's leaving town. But it might be nice to attend the cram school one more time and just mention that he's leaving. He doesn't really think he's someone that features into her attention at all, but it would still be kind of rude to just vanish from her environment without saying anything.

~~~I========>

Tohsaka Rin was something special. It wasn't just that she was a beautiful young woman, though she was. It wasn't just that she was dizzyingly intelligent, though she was that too - she was literally only in high school to socialize with people her own age, when it came to actual educational attainment she had multiple college degrees and standing job offers from several major corporations. Nor that she paired both of those with great athletics to complete the picture of a full-spectrum superstar.

If it was any one thing, it was the grace and elegance she achieved all of that with, as if it were simply natural. She was simply better than everyone else, and she knew it as much as any of them did, but she was comfortable enough in it that she saw no need to rub it in anyone's face. It wasn't wrong to call her an idol.

Shirou was in no way the only one to admire her, but they all knew that dating her was out of the question. She was a higher existence, none of them were suited to the world she belonged in, because it certainly wasn't high school.

Shirou himself was a fairly accomplished student, but he was within the norms for his age. A cram school he could comprehend wouldn't have anything new to teach someone as brilliant as Tohsaka. But it could offer her one very valuable thing: money from a teaching job.

The fact that Tohsaka-sensei was the same age as or younger than her students wasn't incredibly convenient for getting a teacher's respect, but several students at the cram school were from Homurahara and familiar with her, and the rest had fallen in line after seeing her command of the material and her dignified behaviour. In the end, everyone in a cram school wanted to learn, and it was impossible to deny that Tohsaka Rin had much to teach.

Entirely unrelatedly, the glasses she wore while teaching were one of the seven greatest gifts the gods had bestowed on creation.

Shirou's last class here had ended, with Tohsaka giving out coursework for the students, and people trickling out of the classroom. Shirou took his time with packing up his books and notes - he meant to talk to Tohsaka for a moment after class, but she was just as popular here as at their main school, so right now she was at the center of a swirling nexus of people coming up with various excuses to talk with her. It would be best to wait for at least the most urgent of those to be attended to.

Unfortunately, Tohsaka had a lot of fans, so even taking his time left her still busy with people. Shirou was perfectly willing to wait, but it looked like she was starting to head towards the exit - she had her own life to get to and would be leaving some people not attended to today. Under normal circumstances Shirou was patient enough to accept that, but this was literally his last day. And at this point it would be unconscionably rude not to at least say goodbye so she didn't have to find out where he'd gone from the admin office.

So he'd have to get a bit out of character. Shirou took a deep breath, readying his book bag, and marched forward, pressing his way through the crowd around Tohsaka. His way went clear enough - this wasn't a train platform, so no one was in the mindset to shove through the crowds or fight for their position, and everyone instinctively stepped out of the way of a guy who looked like he wasn't going to be stopping. "Tohsaka-sensei!" he called out once he was close enough.

"Hm? Emiya-kun?" She looked up from the conversation with a small girl she'd been buried in, cocking her head in curiousity. "What is it?" With her gesture, the last of the space between them cleared, so Shirou was able to move into conversational distance.

Urk. The flaw in this plan had been that it wasn't easy to talk to her. She was too perfect, so anything unrehearsed ended up far too coarse for her presence. Shirou swallowed the knot in his throat, and forced his eyes away from examining the finer details of the way her slim fingers slipped one of her braids out of her face and hooked it behind her ear. Had to say something, though. "This'll be my last class. I'm leaving town. Thought you should hear from me." Okay, yeah, that covered it. Not perfectly, but perfect was beyond him.

"Hah?" That baffled expression didn't suit Rin's perfection, but somehow, it was a really good fit for her face. He kind of wanted to see more of that expression. Unfortunately, it disappeared as she shook her head, crooking a finger at him. "You live in Miyama, right Emiya-kun? Let's talk about this on the way home."

Wait, was she inviting him to walk home with her? Tohsaka Rin walking home with him? The concept was earth-shattering, but the chorus of gasps from around suggested that numerous other students of the cram school had come to the same conclusion, so Shirou was forced to tentatively try and fit it into his map of reality.

He still hadn't really managed when she spoke up again. "I assume my instruction hasn't been bad enough to chase you out of town, is something up?"

Shirou blinked, looking around as he was jerked out of his own thoughts. He... appeared to be on the street outside the cram school, he must have headed out with Tohsaka on pure autopilot while trying to grasp the concept of heading out with Tohsaka. Resolving to stay conscious and actually enjoy the rest of it, he answered. "Nothing bad. I was suddenly accepted into my dream school, so I'll be attending there once term starts again, and I have to leave to settle in pretty soon. Thought you should know from me, rather than the admin office."

"Mmmmmmm," she hummed, leaning forward so she could examine his face. "Well, congratulations. I see my instruction did well for you, then. What school?"

"Saint Freya Valkyrie Academy." Shirou grinned. "I've been wanting in for the longest time, and I just got accepted."

With a twirl, Tohsaka stepped out fully in front of him, and came to a halt on the sidewalk, expression serious. "I suppose I shouldn't be congratulating you so carelessly, then." The light tone her voice was usually host to was gone, now. Shirou had never really realized that Tohsaka had never been serious until now, when he actually did hear her serious voice. "Congratulations still. It's an achievement, you got something you wanted, and it's a job to be proud of. But you're going off to be a soldier in a trade that dies young, so it's reckless to just congratulate you without acknowledging that."

Surprised, Shirou nodded. Her respectful tone needed to be met, so he took a moment to compose his response. "I don't really want to die early, but I can't deny the risk, either. But it's work that needs doing, and I want to do it. I've always wanted to. Thank you for understanding, Tohsaka-sensei."

He was surprised again when she actually jumped back at his words, as if shocked, and spoke rapidly as her face grew redder. "I-i-it's nothing that complicated of course I understand a-a-a-anyway I can't argue when you say it like that but-" At that point she ran out of air and had to stop.

Shirou felt his lips quirking into a grin, and quickly brought a hand over his face to hide it. Tohsaka was surprisingly cute when she was off balance. He still wasn't sure why she'd lost her poise, but whatever had caused it, he was so very thankful for.

"Anyway," Tohsaka declared, tossing her hair back over her shoulders just as she sought to toss the previous moment's slip into the forgotten pages of history. "It's a dangerous job, so let me give you a gift to carry you by." She pulled off the bangles she wore on both wrists, and started methodically removing similar pieces of jewelery - small pins in the sleeves at elbows and shoulders, clips from the top of her knee-length stockings, a gem necklace, and a pair of anklets. It was all clearly a single set, with the same style of filigree and similar gemsto-wait, those weren't gems, there was something different about them. Regardless, once the process was finished, she handed the assembly over to him with an expectant expression.

Shirou blinked, very slowly. "I... ah, appreciate the thought, Tohsaka, but I don't think those are really my style..."

Tohsaka rolled her eyes, reaching over to pull open his book bag and dunk everything but the necklace in. "This is just the control system. You'll want to put those in the same places I wore them, but the interesting stuff is stored in quantum-state. How familiar are you with that technology?"

Shirou blinked again. "Uh, not a lot. Layman's terms, basically. It's an advanced storage technology some high-end Schicksal Valkyries use to store their equipment." Something along the lines of creating a quantum superposition of 'this exists' and 'this doesn't exist' and flipping the switch between the two states as needed. "I thought it... wait, is this a battlesuit? Are you a Valkyrie, Tohsaka-sensei?"

She stared at him for a moment, and then broke out chuckling, waving a hand as if to fan away the suggestion. "Ahahah, no, no, heaven forbid. I'm not heroic enough to sign on for a violent career and an early death." Oof. It wasn't like she was wrong about Shirou's career choice but still. Oof. "Q-state technology is available in the private sector, sometimes. I made some custom orders." She held her arm out, necklace hanging from her hand. "Blue Bride, initiate observer shift. Suspend state."

From the necklace, machinery appeared in a sort of grid wave - a wireframe matrix of blue light that cascaded down from the necklace, and was then filled in with real, solid metal. It was of a humanoid shape, but very, very much larger than any human, and seemed hollow, a cradle of steel bars and hydraulics to fit oneself into. An exoskeleton? Painted a rich, royal blue.

"Tohsaka... what...?" Shirou was more than just a little confused, so he was still working on complete sentences. He legitimately had not expected his school idol to have a suit of power armour on hand.

Tohsaka grinned, a broad, saucy grin entirely at odds with her Miss Perfect image. An image Shirou was increasingly suspecting had been intentionally crafted. "It's an exoactuator. Machinery isn't as receptive to honkai energy as flesh and bone are, but it doesn't have to be efficient when it can be bigger and no one cares if it burns out. These can match an A-rank Valkyrie's strength and speed for about a minute, and the self-repair should have them ready to go again about a week later." She shrugged. "Of course you'll be a Valkyrie, so you'll have your own superhuman strength. But it never hurts to have a little extra in a pinch, mm?"

Shirou shook his head slowly, still trying to take it in. "Tohsaka... why do you have something like this?" It was almost like a more expensive version of a Valkyrie battlesuit... how could she possibly need this sort of thing?

"Custom order. A girl can never be too safe in a time like this. But if there's a honkai incident near me, I'll be way better off with these," she declared, the smugness actually audible. There was just a little too much of a pause before she continued. "To run, of course. Need to be able to make a quick getaway in that kind of situation."

Shirou looked at her flatly. "I... can't fault being prepared, but isn't this a bit much? Most people don't have direct encounters with the honkai, and even those that do... even if you're unlucky, wouldn't you end up using this just once in your life, and you wouldn't even know the decade?"

"It would be my second encounter, actually," she stated, voice solemn. "I wasn't in town for the full outbreak ten years ago, but I had gotten caught up in one of the preliminary bursts. And my father died back then. He wasn't prepared. I will-"

Shirou cut her off, bowing deep in apology. "I understand." He wasn't the only one who carried scars from ten years ago. It wasn't about reasonability in the first place, so there was no value in pointing out the unreasonableness of how she dealt with her own trauma. His own response wasn't very practical either.

"... H-hmph! F-fine! As long as you get it!" He rose from his bow to see Tohsaka with her arms folded across her chest, looking away from him with her nose turned up. Apparently in 'suspend', the... exoactuator?... didn't weigh anything, since she wasn't actually holding the necklace up anymore and the whole thing was just sort of hanging there in midair.

Shirou leaned to the side a bit to examine the thing. "Still... why give me this? I mean, like you said, I'll have my own Valkyrie enhancement." Granted, this was probably stronger than he'd ever be, but he didn't see a need to burden Tohsaka with her own troubles. "Isn't something like this kind of important?"

Tohsaka's face reddened, and she started rambling. "H-honestly these ones are getting kind of old! I-the maker can do way better now, so r-really you're doing me a favour by taking them off my hands! That way I can m-order new ones! I have contacts so they don't even cost that much!"

Shirou stared down at the girl in awe and rapture. Was this Tohsaka's real personality? Why had she been so cruel as to hide this amazing thing from the world? Why had he been so blessed as to see it?

Soon enough, she managed to compose herself, hiding her true self again and coughing into her hand. "Blue Bride, transfer administrator privileges to Emiya Shirou."

"Confirm last command," the necklace 'spoke', in a synthesized feminine voice.

"Confirm. E Tohsaka R. Password homeKwrecker," Tohsaka recited, clear and crisp. "Transfer administrator privileges to Emiya Shirou."

"Acknowledged." The gems in the necklace flashed.

Tohsaka exhaled, flipping her hair back again. "All right, Emiya-kun. Blue Bride is yours now." He didn't have much choice but to nod along. "When you have time, you can ask for the instruction manual and change the password to your own. For now, tell it to initiate observer shift and return to quantum state."

Shirou nodded. "Right." He was still fairly unsure, but she'd been pretty serious about giving it, and this was no small gift, so he'd have to accept it properly. "Blue Bride, initiate observer shift. Return to quantum state."

One of the gems in the necklace flashed, and in the same gridwave pattern, the exoskeleton swiftly vanished, and the necklace, no longer suspended in midair, fell to the ground.

Shirou's hand shot out and caught it. "Thank you, Tohsaka." He put it in his bookbag with the other pieces, and then bowed deeply to her. "I will find this very useful." He would need to do some craft and fashion work if he wanted to look even vaguely heterosexual with this, though.

She grinned, smug as can be. "That was the idea. Now let me give you some workbooks for the rest of the course, one day's homework won't last you very long."

"Oh, thank you," he gave another quick, shallow bow. "I didn't want to trouble you to prepare something like that, but if you had the full coursework ready I could definitely use it." He was probably okay academically, but more material definitely couldn't hurt, and Tohsaka's assignments were always good to learn from.

"Ahahahahah yes, it's definitely ready, of course, though I may take a while to find it." Tohsaka turned, resuming the walk back to Miyama. Her step was a bit stiff, though.

She must not be used to not having her exoskeleton with her, Shirou realized. So with a nod to himself, he followed after her. He'd have to properly appreciate that gift.

~~~I========>

"Waaaaah, Shirou's going awaaaaay," Taiga wailed, clinging to his arm while he waited at the train station.

Shirou chuckled, idly patting the woman's arm. "I'll be back for break, Fuji-nee."

"I'll staaaaaaaarve~!" she wailed.

"Hey..." Shirou began, looking down at her. "You're a grown woman, you should be able to at least feed yourself."

"Yes but it's not deliciouuuuuus..." She was sort of wiggling, like a worm caught on the hook of his arm, which usually meant she had accepted it, but didn't want to admit having accepted it yet.

Sakura, at his other side, giggled to herself. "I can still cook for you, Fujimura-san."

Her body went entirely still against his arm, and he could feel her face and ears perking up.

Shirou frowned. "Sakura-chan, you can feel free to use the house while I'm gone, but you shouldn't feel like you have to. This is technically an adult," he wiggled his weighted-down-by-Taiga arm as best he could.

The purple-haired girl smiled. "Please, don't worry, senpai. It isn't an obligation, I'm happy to."

Taiga nodded seriously into his shoulder. "You're such a good girl, Sakura-chaaaan!" She detached herself from Shirou's arm and latched onto Sakura instead, sticking her tongue out at Shirou. "Don't ever grow into a meanie like Shirou, okay?"

Sakura chuckled weakly, while Shirou just let the aspersions against his character slide.

"Honestly, I really will miss you guys."

Sakura shook her head, slim fingers sliding through her hair to hook an ill-behaved strand behind her ear-

Shirou broke out coughing, looking away into the crowd for a moment. That gesture had looked every bit as elegant as it had on Tohsaka. But it would become very troublesome for her if he let himself pay too much attention to the fact that she was indeed a woman. When he felt he had sufficiently banished such thoughts, he returned his gaze to her.

Sakura's lips curled into a small smile. "I understand, senpai. There are things you have to do, even if you can't do them with us. I still look forward to Winter, though." Next break, when he'd be back in Fuyuki. There was a hint of impishness to that smile. Looks like she was already making plans for when he was back.

Hopefully he'd been able to get Shinji to back off. He wasn't entirely confident in the redeeming power of his fist, but it was the best idea he'd been able to come up with.

Taiga made incoherent grumbling noises, but nodded at Sakura's side in what Shirou presumed to be general agreement with the sentiment.

"Thank you." Nothing more was worthy of being said in response to her understanding, or at least nothing Shirou could think up.

"Stay safe, senpai."

Shirou nodded. "As much as I can." He was signing up for a military, after all.

He wanted to say more - to somehow put to words his thanks for them always being there with him - but he was out of time to attempt that impossible feat. The train was visible in the distance now.

The train is pretty fast. Shirou will arrive at Soukai City without incident, and be picked up and escorted to St Freya. Who picks him up and introduces him to the place?

[ ] His class president.
[ ] The dorm's Resident Assistant.
[ ] The History teacher.
[ ] The Valkyrie Operation teacher.
[ ] The Honkai Physics teacher.
[ ] About that. No, he doesn't arrive without incident. (This isn't particularly a mystery box vote - rather this is a 'okay that's enough talking I want some excitement' vote)

Also, to be clear, none of the teachers will give an in-depth introduction to their field, this is the tour. They're just introduced by their title, feel free to guess who has which position (none have shown up in-quest yet but all are familiar to readers).

~~~I========>

 

[Pale Wolf]

~~~I========>

[O] His class president.

~~~I========>

Having disembarked from the train, Shirou was now waiting for his pickup from St Freya. Since he had the time, and the waiting area wasn't so crowded he'd be disturbing anyone else, he pulled out his new cellphone to make a call.

Fortunately, it was pretty simple to use. Shirou had never been the most modern guy and had never needed a cellphone before now, but as a Valkyrie he'd need to be open to contact pretty much all the time, a home phone and answering machine weren't sufficient anymore. So he'd had to buy one in a shopping center in Shinto before he left, one of many little things he'd needed to get done.

He'd been swamped since he read the letter, without enough time to do nearly as much as he wanted, so most of his goodbyes had been fairly perfunctory, uninvolved affairs. But one of them had been niggling at him for a while, so he could at least begin to address it now that he had breathing time.

Kiana had been in a bad mood after he had told her about St Freya. He hadn't noticed it at the time, she hadn't complained or been all that demonstrative, but the memories had wormed their way through his brain until he realized it. The fact that she had been quiet about it was how he knew it should be addressed - Kiana Kaslana was not often a quiet person.

It wasn't as if it were necessary to clear things up. She was a drifter, she moved every few months, it was unlikely she'd be in Fuyuki anymore when he returned for winter break. Odds were they'd never meet again, and any awkwardness wouldn't ever matter. But still, she was a friend, so a better goodbye, at least.

Fortunately, she basically lived off her cellphone and didn't even have a home line, and school hours were over so she should be free. He didn't actually know her cell number by heart, they'd never really contacted one another outside the dojo, but the dojo had had it on file, so he'd obtained it and put it into his contacts list.

After a few rings, her voice came on. "Heya, who's this?"

"Good afternoon, Kiana-chan."

There was a remarkably chicken-like squawk over the phone. "Senpai?! Wh-? Huh?!"

Shirou smiled. Truly, elegant as ever. "I got a cellphone, so I thought we could trade numbers. I won't be living in the same city, but that doesn't mean we need to drop all contact. You can call me anytime, and if you happen to be in Soukai you can feel free to visit."

"..." There was a long silence on the other end. He could hear her breathing so he knew she hadn't hung up on him, at least.

"And sorry for just sort of tossing it out and rushing off. I didn't really end up having time to meet up again for a more elaborate goodbye," Shirou added. Come to think of it, had he even actually said goodbye, rather than just implied it by talking about his intent to immediately leave? "I can't really improve it much at this point, but still, sorry, I didn't deliver it that delicately."

Eventually, words came to her. "... Shirou no baaaaaaaka." The call terminated with a click.

Shirou suppressed a chuckle, putting the phone away. She was still kind of ticked. But it was back in her normal range, rather than her being silent and truly, genuinely ill at ease. Kiana didn't grumble at people in her seventh language when she was seriously angry with them. Even with her knack for languages, there was too much disconnect between the self and the words - if she were truly infuriated with him rather than annoyed, he'd be hearing something incomprehensible in German, English, or some tormented hybrid of the two. (That had been her reaction when someone at the dojo had gotten a feel and seemed to enjoy it more than she felt appropriate, so he knew enough to recognize it)

She'd probably call back to chat when she was a little less immediately annoyed with him. His number was in her phone now, so it was at her leisure.

It wasn't too long after slipping the phone back into his pocket that he was pretty sure his pickup arrived - someone was approaching him with a very purposeful stride, as if they'd recognized their objective.

It was a girl, maybe eighteen? Shortish, slender but moving in a way that indicated her figure came from extreme fitness rather than dieting, with long steel-gray hair tied back in a loose ponytail, the only thing keeping organized what seemed to be inspiringly messy hair. Serious blue eyes behind square-rimmed glasses, and dressed in what looked like a blue Chinese-style dress and black leggings, though the upper chest was covered by a distinctive military-style white jacket decorated with a braid of gold thread. St Freya's uniform jacket.

Shirou took hold of his roll-on luggage and started maneuvering through the scattered handfuls of people towards her - there hadn't been a huge amount he needed to take, so while his suitcase was fairly sizeable, it was basically all he'd be bringing. With both of them pressing towards each other, it didn't take too long to meet up, and Shirou bowed.

The Valkyrie pressed a fist into her palm and matched his bow with a solemn dignity that looked more like it belonged in a period movie's most dramatic setpieces than a train platform. "Good afternoon. Am I correct in believing you are Emiya Shirou, the new student for St Freya?"

Shirou nodded, rising from his own bow. "Ah, yeah, I am. Are you here to pick me up?" Ugh. He felt like a baboon next to her refinement. It was like Tohsaka when she wasn't being adorable, like he didn't belong in the same universe as this girl.

She nodded. "Yes. I am Fu Hua, your class representative."

Shirou paused, mentally sorting through the name. It sounded Chinese, but two syllables was a Chinese given name. Given name alone, even with honorifics, was a bit too direct for someone he'd just met... "Ah, is there an issue with your family name? You didn't mention one."

Fu Hua nodded. "I do not have one. Feel free to use my given name." She paused, holding up a finger. "I am not particularly sensitive about this matter, but I would recommend you ask about families with more delicacy with other students. Many of your classmates have somewhat troubling backgrounds, and not all of them are over it."

Shirou's eyes widened. "Oh! I'm very sorry!" He bowed sharply, cursing himself for not realizing it. St Freya wasn't just a military prep school, it was a shelter. People with high honkai tolerance were often useful, and that meant there were a lot of people out there of varying ethical standards who wanted to use them. St Freya was partially dedicated to protecting such people and ensuring them a safe school life, but no, obviously they didn't always manage to be the first to pick them up...

Fu Hua waved it off, and took hold of his suitcase. "Don't worry. I grew up a street orphan, but I have long gotten over any related traumas or shames. It's simply that not everyone has, so some delicacy is wise." She turned and started hauling his suitcase through the flow of people, clearly expecting him to follow.

Shirou darted after her. "Ah, no, let me handle that, I'm fine!" Letting a girl handle his luggage was way too much. The fact that she was a physically-superhuman Valkyrie and could probably carry it far more easily than him had no bearing on that.

With a tilt of her head, Fu Hua acquiesced, angling the handle so that they could easily transfer grips without a hitch in their movement. It didn't take them long to reach a solidly-built white car parked on the sidewalk, which opened at their approach.

"... wait, you have a driver's license?" Wasn't she a bit on the young side for that?

"Yes, but the car is automated, so I will be talking to you in the back rather than driving it." At a gesture, the trunk opened, and Fu Hua waited for Shirou to whistle at the technological flexing and sling his suitcase in before slipping into the backseat.

Shirou slid in on the other side, and once he had buckled in and shut the door, he was immediately presented with a pen and a clipboard filled with a lot of paperwork. He took it on reflex, eyes crossing at the sheer mass of it.

"Do not be concerned, your information is already filled in," she assured him as the car smoothly sailed out onto the city roads. "All that is required is your signatures, though I would recommend you read each form carefully, both to ensure the information is accurate and that you understand what you are agreeing to. Ask me if you have any questions."

Shirou nodded, twirling the pen between his fingers and running his eyes over the papers. Nondisclosure agreements and consent forms, mostly. Nothing looked out of order, so he signed his way through and handed the clipboard back. "There wasn't a medical procedure consent form, am I not getting the stigmata implanted?" He assumed he was, stigmata were sort of a necessity for Valkyries, to amplify their natural resistance and enable them to actually operate in honkai-heavy environments. But his probation might interfere with that.

"Medical procedures are more involved, so they will be explained directly and consent will be obtained specifically for each procedure," Fu Hua explained. "Your medical schedule will start tomorrow, today is for settling yourself in."

"Makes sense. What's the plan on that? I'd like to get everything done as soon as I can so I can acclimate a bit before classes start."

"Preliminary physical tomorrow morning. If there are no issues detected, you should have your stigmata put in the evening of the day after, stay in the medical bay for the night, and be good to go the following day. There will be plenty of time until classes from then."

Shirou nodded, committing the schedule to memory. He'd have those two days to familiarize himself with the facilities, then once the stigmata was in he'd have to get into immediate practice if he was going to catch up.

Fu Hua drummed a finger against the car's window, drawing Shirou's eye to the clean streets they were passing through. "Ah yes. You are going to be under probation."

Shirou nodded. "It was mentioned, yeah. What are the terms?"

"Your honkai resistance is substantially below what is normally acceptable for Valkyries," she began. "This raises serious concerns when it comes to your health, which is a problem in both a moral and a practical sense. The moral consideration should be obvious, but if a Valkyrie's service life is too short, that can also be a problem for Schicksal. So St Freya is absolutely insistent that your honkai flow remain within a safe range, to minimize the health complications. At the same time, with that honkai limitation - which is substantially lower than any of your peers - you must still maintain the same range of grades as them. Your expectations are no higher, but you will find them a great deal harder to reach."

"... right, that makes sense." It was about what Shirou's own personal target had been already, so it wasn't too out of the ordinary.

"To monitor this, in addition to the stigmata, you will also be implanted with a honkai detector, which will inform the faculty if you go above your limit. The school nurse will give you the finer derails on this and the consent forms, but I'll ask right now - is this acceptable to you? If it's too intrusive, we can look into other methods of monitoring, or if being under these restrictions is unacceptable, we can turn around without issue."

Shirou blinked, and rapidly shook his head. "Ah, no, no, this is fine! I have no issues with this." Well, he'd been hoping to go with his own idea of what a safe level was rather than St Freya's, but it wasn't that shocking that they weren't allowing that. "This has always been my dream, I'm not going to give up on it because it involves making me a cyborg." Wasn't it even cooler that way, actually?

Her lips curled just a little, a small smile. "You will be on a three strikes system. Each time you go over your limit will be one strike. In principle you may appeal to your homeroom teacher and the principal to have a strike removed if the situation justified it, but don't expect much of this - they will evaluate it strictly, if they are not convinced that the strike was the only way to prevent death or serious injury, it will remain on your record. If you reach three strikes, you will be immediately expelled. Do you understand?"

He considered it for a while. "... I do." It was more generous than he'd feared. He had a bit of room to screw up and figure out a decent swing of it before expulsion came on the horizon. He'd really have to make sure to stay within limits, though. If it was just his health he could risk it, but getting kicked out and unable to be a Valkyrie was far more terrifying.

"As a personal suggestion, I would recommend you get your first strike as soon as feasible."

Shirou blinked.

"You will have to ride a rather fine edge of honkai flow, high enough to be useful in battle, but also low enough to stay within your limit," she explained. "So I would recommend familiarizing yourself with the feeling as thoroughly as possible under controlled conditions. You need to know what your limits feel like so that you know when you are approaching them, and can make certain to stand exactly on top of them rather than stepping over."

He considered that, and then solemnly nodded. "Thank you, Fu Hua-senpai." It wasn't a bad idea.

"I am always glad to advise an eager young warrior." Outside, Shirou could see water, sparkling a perfect blue. "Ah, we're here."

Shirou looked more carefully out the window, and saw that they were crossing a bridge - there was a guardhouse behind them that they must have passed on automatic, and ahead of them lay the island in the middle of Soukai's northwestern lake, the island that St Freya was built on.

The campus stretching out before the car was legitimately impressive. White walls and pale blue roofs, stately buildings like old European mansions, cathedral spires rising overhead, with a deep forest stretching out across the island from it. Schicksal never really went an inch less than all-out when it came to aesthetics.

Fu Hua seemed to have been waiting for him to finish looking around, since it wasn't long after he'd got a decent view of everything in sight from the car that she resumed speaking. "I am the class representative for your class - we are both in Class 5, which is taught by Major Murata Himeko."

Shirou's eyes widened, and he pumped his fist in victory. "That's good to hear, her reputation is one of the best." And she was sort of his secondary idol after Kiritsugu, since she'd thoroughly crushed the same challenges he was facing, so getting to learn from her should be great.

"Her performance merits every bit of it," Fu Hua nodded. "Class 5 is also Squad 5 in the Schicksal Far East Valkyrie force - every Saint Freya class doubles as such, with their homeroom teacher as their commander, and the class representative as the student commander." She bowed her head. "Saint Freya is lighter when it comes to military discipline than most Schicksal forces, so behavioural rules are not very strict in campus life, but please do not hesitate to obey orders in field operations."

Shirou nodded. "I understand. I don't have military experience, but I do understand the gravity of the situations we will be responsible for handling. I'll strive not to be a problem."

"That should suffice, for a beginner. You will have time before it becomes a concern, regardless. Actual frontline battlefield operation is only for those Valkyries on the Squad who are Rank B and above. C and D-rank Valkyries participate in training exercises, but do not deploy into actual battlefields outside of dire necessity."

Shirou nodded, quickly running through the basics in his head. B-rank was when a Valkyrie was qualified for frontline combat. A and S ranks were for the ones who were really good at it, rather than 'met the standards'. C was for specialists - a C-rank Valkyrie was not expected to fight the Honkai directly, but wasn't completely helpless in the event of confrontation, and was honkai-resistant enough to stand on a Valkyrie's battlefield to operate and maintain the various honkai-powered tools Valkyries relied on for support, or perform some other specialty useful to the situation. D-rank was not yet cleared for anything.

Shirou's aim was B-rank. A and S were nice dreams, but he had to be realistic about his level of talent. C was acceptable, it would mean he could operate in post-eruption search and rescue teams or battlefield support roles, but he'd prefer B if he could get there. There was something satisfying about hitting evil in the face himself. Kiritsugu had been A-rank, but Kiritsugu had had talent.

"When's the next ranking exam?" He'd have to get prepared for it as best he could.

"Early October. Slightly more than a month after classes resume in September."

So about a month and a half. He'd have to get to work.

"Make sure not to focus only on combat subjects," she cautioned, a finger held up. "Conventional academics are also required, and Saint Freya's conventional academics are somewhat compressed to make room for the Valkyrie courses. It can be easy to lose your footing."

"Thank you for the warning, class rep." He would have to let his academics slide to get any kind of handle on all the new 'being a Valkyrie' things, but he still had to reach some basic standards, and catch up when he could. He'd have a day or two to hit the books before he had the actual implanted stigmata to practice with, at least, so he could work on Tohsaka-sensei's homework and get a little bit ahead before he had to focus on everything else.

"What does your financial status look like?" she asked, as the car slowed down, navigating between the beautiful white buildings. "You were an orphan, I believe, so I presume your parents aren't giving you an allowance."

Double-orphan, technically. Truly a rare status to be proud of. Shirou nodded. "I've been doing part-time work to pay my living expenses." Kiritsugu had left him an inheritance, alongside the remaining assets of his first set of parents, of course, but Shirou had considered it prudent to keep that as a reserve in the face of unexpected crises as much as he could - if he suddenly had a medical bill, part-time wages weren't going to cut it, so it was best to keep that fund as intact as possible. He'd never gotten sick in his life and didn't injure easily or for long so that was more theoretical, but it was still best to save, medical emergencies weren't the only kind. "My understanding is living expenses are covered by Saint Freya itself?" It would be good if he could keep his off-class hours to focus on training, especially early on.

"That's correct. In addition, qualified Valkyries of C-rank or higher, as members of Schicksal's Far East Valkyrie Division, recieve wages for being on-call depending on their qualifications, and hazard pay and such when actually deployed. Since Saint Freya covers your expenses, that will be pure savings and spending money." Fu Hua held up a finger to accentuate the next point, a gesture he was very familiar with from Rin-sensei. "If you need more spending money than that, or cannot reach C-rank, part-time jobs are permitted, but you are only allowed a maximum of ten hours a week. Twenty if you can maintain B-rank."

"I understand." He probably wouldn't be doing much part-time work. He was, frankly, a spartan existence. He just did not spend much to begin with.

"Good." The car came to a halt, and Fu Hua opened the door and slid out.

Presuming this was their stop, Shirou followed out the other door, moving around to the back where the trunk had already opened for him to retrieve his suitcase. Man, this kind of automated vehicle was so smooth to work with he was going to get spoiled if this kept up.

They had stopped in front of a long, three-story building, of the same construction as most of Saint Freya's buildings. "The dorms?" The car's trunk shut itself and it drove off behind him, so he hoped so.

"Yes. Please follow me." She started on her way up the stairs to the upraised first floor, and Shirou followed without complaint. "Most faculty live in the dorms. All faculty rooms are on the third floor and are clearly labelled, so if you need something from them, feel free to ask." She pulled open one of the large double doors and strode in. "You won't need keys. Sensors perform unobtrusive surveys at entrances, if you have the right to access the place, such as the dormitory or your room, you can simply enter at will."

Shirou whistled, hauling his suitcase in behind her. "Nice. What about guests?" The inner foyer was nice, a big open sitting room with chairs, couches, decorative plants, a TV up against a wall, and various paintings and sculptures laying about for decoration. It was basically empty of anyone, though.

"If you're accompanied, it will be assumed you're letting them in. Off-campus guests are permitted, but please don't keep them long, the honkai level around the dormitory can fluctuate heavily and could potentially reach unhealthy levels for normal people. Do not take any guests towards the forest or the central class buildings especially, the honkai levels in those areas are never safe for non-Valkyries."

"I'll bear that in mind," Shirou promised, and resolved not to go there himself, either. Right now, he was a normal person.

Fu Hua paused, coming to a halt and turning to face Shirou. "If you are being accompanied against your will, once you're at an entryway speak the alert password and security will be alerted and attempt to evaluate and resolve your situation. It changes by month, for September it's 'ski resort'."

"Don't say it in front of an entrance if I'm not in trouble?"

"Try not to. You won't be in for disciplinary action if you do it by mistake, but security will have to evaluate the situation and it's inconvenient."

"Got it."

Fu Hua pointed to the nearest door, next to the sitting room. A pair of nameplates were fastened next to it - Laeticia Janvier and Adele Janvier. "Laeticia Janvier is the Resident Assistant. If you have any dorm-related issues, look for her, she's responsible for most such things. Her roommate is her twin sister, make sure not to mistake one for the other. They're easy to tell apart as long as there's light, but when you're first meeting them, ask their name, don't address them until you're told."

Shirou blinked, but shrugged. "Okay?" Well, he supposed twins might get tetchy about people thinking they were the wrong person. "Actually, are they even here right now? The dorm seems pretty sparse." It was summer holiday so it was no surprise if people were gone.

"Yes, a few students stay, they're among them." She snapped her fingers. "Right, before I forget, Emiya-kun. The Resident Assistant is also responsible for basic sexual health. If you need protection or contraceptives, she'll be where you go. Please use protection, and especially make use of contraceptives if you have any sexual relations that could result in conception. This is a paramilitary facility and unplanned pregnancies greatly complicate operations."

Shirou choked. "I-wha?!" He could feel his face heating up and it was almost as humiliating as having this conversation.

"Oh, planned ones are fine, though - consult with the principal and your squad leader if you'd like to try for a child," the class rep continued on, without a hint of mercy. "We don't advise it before your graduation, but Saint Freya students arrive from all sorts of backgrounds, with all sorts of circumstances and psychological hangups, so it isn't forbidden, as long as it can be handled in an organized fashion. Sometimes they need heirs fast."

"Th-thank you for the information!" he definitely did not squeak. His voice came out firm and manly. Definitely.

Fu Hua smiled faintly. "There is, of course, no rush. If you have any questions about such things, Laeticia is trained to handle them. If you prefer familiarity, I can do so. She's in a different class, so you will know me better than her before too long." At the look on his face at the idea of asking pretty girls about sex, her smile widened just a bit. "If you'd prefer someone of the same gender, pick a male teacher you feel comfortable with."

"... okay." If he said anything more she might stay on this topic, so Shirou remained entirely silent.

She reached into a bin hanging on the wall of the common room, and pulled out a thin notebook, handing it to him. "School rulebook, dormitory rules in the first section. It's more or less self-explanatory, but I must emphasize one of the rules - pets in the dorms are strictly forbidden."

Shirou blinked as he paged through the book a little. "That shouldn't be a problem, I don't have any pets or plans to get any." Well, there was Taiga, but whatever the actual nature of their relationship, 'pet' rules were about animals, not humans.

"Good. You do not want to see a Valkyrie having an allergic reaction."

"Is it that bad? I hadn't heard of that." He supposed uncontrollable twitching and the like might be a problem with superstrength.

"For the Valkyrie, it isn't any worse than for unaugmented people. Our resilience increases to the same degree as our strength, so we won't hurt ourselves. But our environment doesn't, so repair bills can be expensive when someone sneezes hard enough to fire a bullet, and it's really best if unaugmented people aren't anywhere nearby." She allowed a few moments for that image to settle into his mind, and then shrugged. "Really, though, if you have an animal and need it cared for, please ask the faculty, accomodations can be made to take care of them if you found a box of abandoned kittens or something."

"Does that actually happen?" It was common enough in anime and the like, but Shirou had honestly never heard of an actual occurrence of the box of abandoned kittens.

"... Valkyries are prone to statistical anomalies," she answered, after a long, haunted pause.

At that moment, Shirou felt a true sense of kinship with this girl. Teachers who managed to injure themselves badly enough to need carrying to the nurse's room while delivering a lecture were a statistical anomaly too. "Taking care of people can be hard when they're crazy," he commiserated.

Fu Hua looked at him, and in her eyes, he could see that she knew. She knew that he understood. They sighed in unison.

After that moment of communion, Fu Hua led Shirou towards and up one of the staircases, towards the left side of the building. There was an elevator, but Shirou didn't mind not using it - a little bit of exercise wasn't a bad thing in this job. "Your room is on the second floor. You're rooming with Ruan Fen Chao. If you don't work well together, talk to me and I'll trade rooms with you."

Following with his suitcase, Shirou frowned as he did some math and came out with nothing at all appropriate. He couldn't tell the gender of Fen Chao's name, but if they were female then Shirou rooming with her was highly inappropriate, and if they were male then Fu Hua rooming with him was. Either way... "Isn't that a little...?"

"Hm?" She looked back over her shoulder at him, trying to ascertain the nature of his protest.

He waggled a hand in a way that honestly didn't at all call to mind what he was trying to communicate. "Boy and girl rooming together?"

"Ahhh, right." Fu Hua waved it off. "Another statistical thing about Valkyries is that they are a great deal more likely to be LGBT than the general population. It may have something to do with historic stigmas against variant sexual expression - when there isn't a space for you in regular society, occupations like this start looking far more appealing. The general takeaway is that segregating Valkyries by gender does not actually do anything to reduce sexual activity, so Schicksal has decided to rely on the maturity of the Valkyries involved and not really care as long as it doesn't impede operations."

"... ah." Shirou wasn't sure if that explained Kiana but at the same time he could not pretend that rooming her with girls rather than boys would have the intended results.

"It's more of an apartment suite, so I won't be dangerously close." She chuckled. "Don't worry, he isn't the sort to make a move on me anyway. He's not very... good... with people."

Ah, so it was a boy. That was good. Even if he knew no one was going to proposition anyone, it seemed more tense to live under the same roof as a girl.

With that, they'd arrived at what must be his room, since the door opened after Fu Hua brought him to stand in front of it. Even though it was open, the older girl rapped her knuckles against it a few times. "Fen Chao, I'm here with your roommate."

The room was still built like a high-class English manor, with a central living and dining room, a narrow bedroom on each side, each flanked with either a bathroom or a small kitchen. There was a thick sofa in the middle of the living room, facing a television. The television was on, displaying what looked like a fighting game, but Shirou couldn't see anyone on the sof-

Ah, they'd been laying down on it. The game paused and a blanket-covered head arose from the couch. "... hello..." The slight figure stood up and turned to face him, and Shirou realized that this room was going to be a little tense after all.

Ruan Fen Chao was male. Shirou had been told that, and in principle he believed it, but it certainly wouldn't have been his guess. The boy was very small, built delicately and downright beautiful, pale and soft-skinned, with incredibly long and soft-looking reddish-brown hair falling to his waist or so. He wasn't crossdressing, he was basically wearing a light shirt and boxers with a blanket wrapped around himself, but he was just pretty enough that he'd be mistaken for a flat-chested woman at first glance. As well as most subsequent glances.

Shirou coughed into a hand. "Uh... I'm Emiya Shirou, it's a pleasure to meet you." He didn't think he was gay, but when someone was this pretty normal orientations didn't apply so well. His libido was not able to detect the Y chromosome. This would be awkward.

The smaller boy bobbed his head. "Ruan Fen Chao... welcome?"

Well... Shirou supposed he'd better start moving in. Gave his eyes an exuse not to linger in the boy's direction.

Adventures in adolescent sexuality aside, Shirou will spend this first day familiarizing himself with the area. There'll be a few things he settles in to work on doing - one activity, and getting some kind of dinner.

[ ] Fen Chao says he cooks, so Shirou will let him do the first meal and spend some time getting to know his roommate.
[ ] The fridge is stocked with Fen's ingredients. He said Shirou can go ahead and use them, though they probably won't be a perfect fit for Shirou's repertoire. Still, Shirou can cook tonight's dinner easily enough, and spend some time with Fen Chao.
[ ] There's a cafeteria down on the first floor. Shirou prefers to cook, but it may be worth seeing how good the cafeteria is, and there should be other classmates in there to introduce himself to.

[ ] Go into the city to buy groceries. Even if he can make do off Fen's ingredients for a bit, Shirou plans to cook as many of his meals as feasible, and will need his own stock of necessities to do so. Rude as hell to operate off Fen Chao's generosity longer than the minimum necessary. It'll also help him familiarize himself with Soukai City and meet a few of the people he'll be seeing a lot of while he's here.
[ ] Go introduce himself to the Resident Assistant. He won't need her help immediately, but it'll be good to meet up with one of the people responsible for the dorm, maybe she'll need a hand with something?
[ ] Prowl the dorm common rooms for fellow students. The first floor one was empty but there are two more Shirou hasn't checked yet, and it's another likely congregation point for students.
[ ] Saint Freya is built on an island, so it has swimming spots. This is summer, so a few students are likely making use of them, both for play and since swimming is a good workout. It'd be another decent opportunity to meet his fellows.

~~~I========>

 

[Pale Wolf]

~~~I========>

[O] Fen Chao says he cooks, so Shirou will let him do the first meal and spend some time getting to know his roommate.
[O]The fridge is stocked with Fen's ingredients. He said Shirou can go ahead and use them, though they probably won't be a perfect fit for Shirou's repertoire. Still, Shirou can cook tonight's dinner easily enough, and spend some time with Fen Chao.

[O]Go into the city to buy groceries. Even if he can make do off Fen's ingredients for a bit, Shirou plans to cook as many of his meals as feasible, and will need his own stock of necessities to do so. Rude as hell to operate off Fen Chao's generosity longer than the minimum necessary. It'll also help him familiarize himself with Soukai City and meet a few of the people he'll be seeing a lot of while he's here.

~~~I========>

Saint Freya had an on-campus convenience store, and quite a lot of useful things, including straight-up meals, could be purchased there. But in terms of groceries, convenience stores were never that good, so Shirou opted to stroll across the bridge and into the northwestern edge of Soukai City itself, seeking ingredients.

He and his roommate had decided to collaborate on cooking dinner so that neither of them had to work too hard. Fen Chao cooked Chinese, though, and didn't have quite the same ingredients Shirou's Japanese-style cooking relied on, so Shirou was off to stock up after having asked the distractingly pretty boy where to find the best grocery store or produce market nearby.

He hadn't actually known, though. Apparently Fen Chao used the internet to order ingredients delivered to the dormitory and didn't scout the local shops, so Shirou was using the time-honoured technique of asking the housewives he passed on the street for recommendations. Shirou had invited the boy to come with, but apparently he didn't really like going out in general.

... 'Boy'. Shirou shook his head, attempting to chase out errant thoughts. Fen Chao was older than him, at eighteen. He was just small-framed and pretty-faced enough that Shirou's brain was having trouble accepting that he was both male and older. He really needed to work on his brain, his discipline was lacking.

Either way, he'd made it to the grocery store in question, a pretty sizeable non-chain establishment with a large sign proclaiming it to be Saehrimnir. Shirou had a pretty broad knowledge of myth, but he'd had to look it up on his cellphone to remember that was the name of the eternally-resurrecting boar that provided the meat for the feasts of Valhalla. They were not at all subtle about their target clientele.

They weren't at all short of the mark they claimed for themselves, either. The selection was broad, Shirou was pretty sure the only basic ingredients he hadn't spotted while filling his cart had been things you'd get at a specialty shop. You could cook nearly anything from this grocery store alone, it was pretty well set up to service the multinational coterie of professionals and students that worked for Schicksal, and the prices weren't too bad, either.

Which was good, since Shirou was stocking the basics for an entire Japanese kitchen right now - Fen Chao's Chinese cooking didn't really use the exact same ingredients as Shirou's did, so he was just collecting his own set of basics, in addition to his contribution to tonight's dinner. As part of his attendance in Saint Freya, Shirou got an allowance for meals, so he didn't need to dig into his own savings, but it was still good to be frugal. Saint Freya could use the money if he didn't need it, after all.

Soon enough, he was done loading up - he'd had to limit his ambitions since he'd need to carry everything back - and lining up at the cash. The line wasn't that long, and the cashier was alarmingly smooth and efficient at processing the purchases, so it was a short time before he was face-to-face with the cashier, handing over his Saint Freya meal card to pay for it all.

The cashier - a small-framed girl of around sixteen, with a slender build, elegantly ladylike features, and long dark hair tied into low-resting twintails - paused as her slim fingers took the card, and looked up at Shirou with a curious expression. "Oh hey, are you the new student that was coming in this semester?" The girl hummed a musical note, and a strange, floral scent filled his nose for a moment, before it vanished.

Blinking and rubbing at his nose, Shirou cast a glance around for the source of the smell - nothing seemed like it - before turning back to her and nodding. "Er... yes, I'm Emiya Shirou. I didn't realize I was expected quite so widely." He doubted there'd been a general announcement across the city, obviously she'd heard from somewhere.

The girl grinned as she handed his card back, her movements graceful and feminine in a way that left Shirou feeling a little self-conscious. "Sorry to say you aren't, Emiya. I'm the class rep's roommate, so I knew she was giving the intro to someone today. I'm a Valkyrie trainee too, this is a summer job," she winked.

"Ah, I see," Shirou nodded awkwardly, taking his card back and trying not to take too much notice of the slender hand he was taking it from. "That makes sense."

The girl turned to start slipping his purchases into bags. "My name's Seomin, and I thiiiink I'm gonna be your rival."

Wow, that was a quick decision. "... any chance for us to get along, instead?" He wasn't really that competitive by nature, he just wanted the group as a whole to succeed.

"Hey, it doesn't have to be an unfriendly rivalry," she pointed out, while her hands were occuppied with neatly adding a daikon radish to a bag, with motions sure and graceful enough it almost looked like a dance. "You felt my ping a minute ago, I saw you reacting. Means you've got high honkai sensitivity, like I do. And that means my niche is getting nosed in on," she stuck out her tongue, handing over the bags.

"Uh... sorry?"

Seomin waved it off. "Relax, relax, I'm not offended, I'm teasing." She glanced behind him, at the next people in line. "Anyway, it's not really slow enough today for me to give you the rundown, so when you have your physical, ask the doc to look into your sensitivity, tell her that Seomin's pretty sure you're a sensor-type. See ya later!"

She turned to the next customer, leaving a somewhat bemused Shirou to set up the bags for comfortable carry, and proceed on out of the grocery store. Certainly energetic. It was strange to imagine Fu Hua sharing a room with someone so intensely different from the calm, dignified young woman.

Though they may actually fit one another better than the surface image, Shirou realized as he walked back to the academy, bags dangling in his hands. Fu Hua's grace and dignity were different from Tohsaka's - more like a perfect knight than a lady. But Seomin did give off a bit of an air of refinement, underneath the bubbly attitude. She didn't feel like a minimum-wage grocery clerk, even if she was working it, it felt like she was some kind of wealthy ojou-sama. Like Tohsaka, and more in Tohsaka's way than Fu Hua was. Fu Hua gave off a similar impression, Seomin's attitude just felt more approachable, while Fu Hua's unimpeachable dignity left her standing out and leaving people (well, Shirou) feeling a bit like a clod around her.

Neither of them really fit the background. But Shirou sort of felt like they fit the same background. When he pictured Fu Hua, Seomin, and Tohsaka at a high-society ball in generically-elegant gowns and with wineglasses in hand, the image felt right. Though his traitorous brain couldn't decide whether to put Fu Hua in a gown or a tuxedo. That aside, though, yeah, he could picture them as roommates now.

In fact, it occurred to him that like Fu Hua, Seomin had never offered a surname. Best not to ask, it could be one of those complicated situations Fu Hua had warned him about. Or it might not be, but it was better to err on the side of not bringing up unpleasant issues.

~~~I========>

The kitchen in St Freya apartments was well-outfitted, but it wasn't exactly spacious. There was enough space for two people to work, but only in the most technical sense - two people squeezed next to each other with enough counter space to work at, or tending to something on the stove. There wasn't space for really moving around.

Shirou and Fen Chao had turned it into some kind of coordinated dance, announcing when they would need to move to a different position and moving to allow one another the space to get there. It was still a bit awkward, Shirou was new to the kitchen and neither of them had the practiced experience of moving around one another that made this sort of thing really come together - with Sakura, they didn't even need to actually say anything, she and Shirou would simply move with and around one another as a natural function. It'd be some time before Shirou was nearly that used to Fen Chao or this kitchen.

"Left burner," Fen Chao announced, setting the knife down on his cutting board, next to the cubes of sweet potato he'd just finished chopping.

"Got it," Shirou acknowledged, moving aside a little from where he was busying himself with the heavy-duty pot resting on one of the stove's right-side burners. "Go."

The long-haired boy spun around Shirou's position, settling in at his side with a spatula to give his frying noodles an inspection. With a look of satisfaction on his face, he reached past Shirou to pick up the small bowl he'd mixed the sauces in.

Shirou froze, far more conscious than he really wanted to be of the light body next to him. It had been way easier with Sakura, they'd started cooking together before he was really aware of her as a woman, so once he started noticing, he'd had habits and instincts to fall back on and didn't need to pay enough attention for things to get awkward. Fen Chao was not a woman, but between the waist-length hair, the light build, and the soft features, it was something of a challenge to keep the older boy outside that mental category anyway.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long for Fen Chao to pull back, pouring the sauces over the thick noodles and stirring them with the spatula. "It should be about a minute from here."

Hearing silence from the pot, Shirou switched off the burner and dipped the spoon into the deep-frying oil to pull out the last few pieces of tempura-battered sweetfish, setting them on the rack to drain. "All right, the tempura's ready." Shirou slid out of the kitchen to give Fen Chao the space to finish up, looking over the noodles as he did.

Thick yellow noodles stir-fried with bean sprouts, cabbage, carrots, and some fresh ginger, coated in a mixture of oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sherry. Shirou would confess to not having the highest opinion of Chinese cooking, but it looked pretty enticing, and smelled even better. He might have to overturn that opinion by the time classes started, at this rate, Fen Chao was good.

He'd make an excellent w- Shirou slapped himself in the face with an audible cracking sound to cut off the inappropriate thought. He was going to have to recalibrate all of his 'not creeping on Sakura' disciplinary habits, it seemed they had just completely shut off once it wasn't literally Sakura.

Though it would really help if Fen Chao wore more concealing clothing at home. It would be entirely inappropriate to ask him to cover up in his own home, and he wouldn't ask for it - this was Shirou's problem, not Fen Chao's. But it would help.

While Shirou had been wrestling his mind onto appropriate channels, Fen Chao must have finished, since he was dishing out the noodles onto their plates. That didn't take long, and the small boy slipped out of the kitchen once he was done, making space to let Shirou enter and add the tempura to the plates, alongside a lemon wedge for seasoning-to-taste. With that set up, Shirou picked up the plates and carried them to the table.

Taking a seat and a quick "Itadakimasu", and the meal began. The savoury, lightly-sauced noodles and vegetables tasted as good as expected, but Shirou wasn't beaten. The noodles were pretty simple fare. Shirou's tempura - the fluffy golden batter cooked to his exacting standards, and the sweet flavour of the lightly-salted ayu within - was far beyond it, and he could see his victory taking shape as Fen Chao closed his eyes to savour the taste.

The boy won Shirou's approval, though. Shirou had prepared a tentsuyu sauce for the tempura earlier, and Fen Chao hadn't fallen for the trap sitting next to his plate. Good tempura only needed a bit of lemon, not the sauce. Fen Chao had proven his palate, trying the sauce, but quickly realizing it was entirely unnecessary.

Shirou had secured his lead, and he was confident. But he still had to be on guard. Fen Chao still had the dessert, another quick and simple recipe to even out the workload. If Shirou's lead wasn't strong enough, he could still lose.

The meal proceeded mostly in silence other than compliments to the chefs - it was good food and there was no urgently pressing business they needed to discuss, so they could focus their attention on it. Soon enough, it was but a delicious memory, and Shirou placed down his chopsticks. Normally he would do dishes, but Fen Chao was going to be in the kitchen soon, and it'd be best to allow him space to work.

They could talk now, though, and Shirou took the opportunity. "There was a pretty good grocery store not too far from the lake, Saehrimnir. It's an easy walk, if you want ingredients. Ordering them must get expensive."

Fen Chao gave a quick, sharp shake of the head, reddish-brown hair fluttering in the motion. "I... really don't like being out in the city. I can afford it."

Shirou had more or less expected this - it had, in fact, been the actual topic that had caught his concern and attention. He'd just needed Fen Chao to bring it up directly so that he could touch on it without being intrusive. "Is there a problem with the city? Anything I should worry about?"

"... no. Just with me." Fen Chao stood, heading back into the kitchen to work on his dessert. He didn't elaborate, and Shirou didn't really think he could or should press further. No way to do it without being hurtful.

So, he'd change topic entirely. After a reasonable wait while emotions cooled and the frying oil heated back up, Shirou spoke again. "I hope it's not intrusive having a roommate. You seemed to be enjoying having the place to yourself."

Fen Chao looked back at him, cheeks slightly flushed. "Ah, no, it's-! It's okay. I'm used to sharing space, I think the last couple of years is the first time I've had a room to myself. It should-" He shook his head again. "No, it'll be fine. It will."

Shirou eyed the boy, a little dubious. That had sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than a dry recitation of facts. Fen's cheeks reddened in direct proportion to the amount of time Shirou silently stared at him - must not be great with attention, before too long he whipped his head around and turned his attention more wholly on his cooking.

... well, if he said it was fine, Shirou would have to take him at his word. Hopefully he could minimize the discomfort while Fen Chao got used to cohabiting again.

After a short silence, Fen Chao spoke up again. "What sort of time do you head to sleep? I'm a night owl, but I can turn the volume down after hours."

"Usually around ten." It was a bit later than he'd like, but it gave him a good chunk of time after dinner to socialize, wrangle tigers, and study or train.

Fen Chao eyed Shirou with an expression of faint horror on his face.

Shirou looked back, his own expression one of dawning horror to match it. God, when did Fen sleep if ten o'clock was getting that kind of reaction?

Fen Chao brought a hand up to cover his mouth and coughed into it, returning to his potatoes. "Got it, I'll put everything on mute around then."

"I'll try to wake up quietly," Shirou offered. If he went to sleep especially late, he'd probably still be sleeping when Shirou got up. Best to let him rest. Shirou wasn't a huge noisemaker anyway, so it wouldn't be that difficult.

Fen Chao sent a smile his way. "Thanks. Oh, and don't worry about waking me up for class once they start. We just have to keep up our grades, there are no attendance requirements. Except for missions and exams, obviously."

Shirou could feel his brain stalling. His nature as a proper, upright human being was making it difficult to process what was apparently the prettiest juvenile delinquent in Japan. "Uh..."

"Don't worry." The smile faded as he turned to pull the cooking dessert out of the deep fryer and set to work on something else in a frying pan. "My grades are doing fine, I can keep up A-rank." ... this pretty delinquent boy was an A-rank Valkyrie? Shirou's brain was having even more trouble processing that. "Trying to adhere to the attendance schedule would put me in worse condition and drop my performance, actually."

Shirou eyed the boy dubiously. He wasn't entirely - or even vaguely - convinced, but frankly, if Fen Chao could hold A-rank, he was a radically superiour Valkyrie to even what Shirou knew was his maximum potential, and he must have something workable going on. Shirou didn't know enough about the boy or the curriculum to butt into that right now. He made a mental note to keep an eye on that, though. There were a lot of oddities with the older boy, and Shirou wasn't yet sure what were actual problems and what were just his own prejudice. Shirou tended to be a boring, by-the-rules type of man, but he was mature enough to understand that the rules of society were generalities, and did not actually guarantee the best path to happiness for everyone. So he'd need to learn the circumstances before he shoved his well-meaning nose in.

Shirou shook his head. "Anyway, how do you want to divide chores? Any preferences?"

Fen Chao shrugged, stirring the sauce in the frying pan. "I don't mind doing all of it. Pick your favourites and I'll take care of the rest, I spend most of my time in the room anyway."

The idea of leaving all the work to someone else was so repulsive to Shirou that he almost shuddered. "I can take groceries, garbage, and laundry. Share the cooking, and whoever doesn't cook does the dishes."

The long-haired boy nodded. "All right. I'll do cleaning then." Roughly an equal workload, assuming Shirou was reasonably conscientious about not making a horrid mess (he was), and Shirou had taken the chores that involved going outside the room.

He wasn't sure if it was good to do it - Fen Chao was clearly loathe to leave, and the chores that needed him outside were one of the few ways that Shirou was sure he got out of the room other than whatever time he actually got himself up and out for class. He absolutely should get out of the room. But it also clearly distressed him - he had already been paying delivery surcharges in lieu of grocery shopping - so for now Shirou would take it off his hands. He'd like to lure Fen Chao out into the sunlight where the rest of humanity was, but until he understood the circumstances, he shouldn't act towards that. Until he actually knew better, he would be kind in the way Fen Chao wanted, rather than the way he perhaps needed.

"And dessert's done!" Fen Chao proclaimed, carrying a plate of candied sweet potatoes and a bowl of cold water towards the dining table. "Golden-silk style, it's hot, so dip it in the water before you eat it."

Shirou looked on the plate with an assessing eye. It certainly looked good. The sweet potatoes were fried and crispy on the outside, a beautiful golden colour, and covered in gleaming, fresh-off-the-stove caramel. Shirou was a relentless gourmand, so he knew of it - a Shandong dessert, North Chinese cuisine. Most of what found international popularity was South Chinese, so it wasn't that easily-found outside China itself. He'd never actually had it before.

Shirou picked up his chopsticks and picked up one of the pieces of potato, watching as the reason for the dish's name revealed itself - pulling a piece from the mass drew the caramel out into amber strings that rapidly hardened in the air if the temperature and timing had been managed correctly, and it had. A few more pieces and the plate would look like it was covered in a crystallized spiderweb of caramel.

"Do you know what a 'sensor type' is? I met Seomin at the grocery store, she said I was one." Fen Chao wasn't in the same class - he was Class VIII rather than Class V - but the Valkyrie student number was low enough Shirou assumed that people mostly knew each other. So he could just say the name and expect it to be recognized.

"Who...?" Fen Chao queried with his head cocked, proving Shirou wrong immediately. After a moment he blinked and shook his head. "Oh, right! Her." There was something about his tone that caught Shirou's ear. He didn't exactly spit out the 'her', but he didn't sound all that fond.

"Yes, do you not get along? You didn't seem too happy to hear the name." Shirou continued drawing his piece of potato out, the caramel extending further and further, and his foreboding growing right alongside the strings of caramel. With absolutely perfect consistency and temperature, the finest cooks in China could have the caramel hold together and pull out a three-meter string. Shirou didn't plan to get up and test the full limits of it, but he was at half a meter and still going. His victory was in grave danger.

"Mm. We used to fight over dumb things. It was three years ago, we've changed a lot since then, but we haven't really tried to make friends or anything. Just bad memories, I don't really know anything about what she's like now." Fen Chao dipped a piece of potato into the bowl of water, cooling it and solidifying the caramel, and popped it into his mouth.

Shirou nodded, dipping his own dessert into the water - he'd basically reached the limit of his arm's length without breaking the caramel strings, so it was time to actually taste it. "Yeah, I guess things change." It was sort of the opposite between him and Shinji. He'd counted the other boy as a real friend, but he'd learned there were things about him he knew nothing of when he'd realized he was hitting Sakura. Someone with those things about him wasn't someone Shirou wanted to be friends with, but the good times and the things Shirou had wanted to befriend in him hadn't gone away. Things changed as everyone grew up, and a year was a long time, but not everything changed, and the past, good and bad, didn't disappear, even if it wasn't going to repeat.

And with the philosophy having run out and the food cooling below mouth-scorching temperatures, it was time for Shirou to take a bite, and accept his defeat. Sure enough, the flavour was perfect. The slight crunchiness and the softness within, the sweetness of the caramel and the potato itself... He'd lost.

Allowing Fen Chao two dishes had been a mistake. And he'd let himself become overconfident. So sure of victory that it had eluded him. Next time, he would have to surpass himself. Bring forth the fullest potential of his skills and his labour, and push his cooking to its very limit. He had let himself shamefully plateau, he could see that now.

Shirou's next few steps are pretty set. He's going to while away the rest of the evening settling in and looking around, and then he's going to go to sleep at a decent hour like some kind of weirdo, wake up in the morning, and go to his physical. There isn't really much decision-making here.

So instead, the vote will be on what interlude we have. Shirou left Fuyuki behind for now, but it hasn't stopped moving. Let's take a look at what's going on back home, and vote for who you'd like to take a peek at.

[ ] The House of Emiya is absent the 'Emiya' part, but he was never really alone in that place. Taiga and Sakura don't sleep there, but they're very much part of the household and still have the habit of cooking and eating their meals there, odd as it may be to meet up in someone else's house entirely for that.
[ ] The House of Tohsaka never revolved around Shirou, but it certainly paid attention to him. Rin misses him a bit, but she's got her own things going on, and honestly, she's never bored. She'd kinda like to be bored, honestly.
[ ] The House of Matou, on the other hand, has many of its own concerns, but has never really been able to ignore Shirou. For better or worse, both its son and its adopted daughter have been drawn towards him - a recipe for trouble, when two people with many issues already between them find themselves wanting the same thing.
[ ] The House of Kaslana has only met Shirou recently, and its youngest daughter is wandering the world, unlikely to remain in Fuyuki for all that long. The house may be more of a tent, to be honest. But by coincidence, they met, and the girl's lonely road brought her into contact with Shirou. It wasn't a fateful meeting, nor was it one rich in meaning, but it was a fun one. She doesn't expect to see him again, but she enjoyed it while she had it.

~~~I========>