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[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========>
