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.
Well, that threw me for a loop. I mean, makes perfect sense, but still.
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.
Well, good thing Shirou is going to St. Freya, very real chance he would have been mobbed to death if he stayed in Fuyuki.
"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.
Well, that's your mistake, Shirou.
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?"
Very niiiiiice.
For reference, there's some early line that notes that machinery is about 30% as efficient as humans at processing Honkai energy?
So, Valkyries are by and large more useful, though Schicksal - in the modern day, at least - does seem to make use of mechanical forces as security, and presumabky in supporting roles as well.
"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."
Yes. Run. That's
exactly what Rin Tohsaka would do.
"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-"
Hmmmmmm.
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!"
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Contacts. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Yeah, that seems completely legit.
"Confirm. E Tohsaka R. Password homeKwrecker," Tohsaka recited, clear and crisp. "Transfer administrator privileges to Emiya Shirou."
That's a real weird choice of password, Rin, NGL.
[ ] His class president.
[ ] The dorm's Resident Assistant.
[ ] The History teacher.
[ ] The Valkyrie Operation teacher.
[ ] The Honkai Physics teacher.
History teacher is probably Welt incognito.
Valk ops - could be Himeko, but she's still captaining the Hyperion, I think?
Class President miiiiiight be Fu Hua?
And if it is, I feel obligated to vote for the wearer of my favourite battlesuit (Night Squire).
[X] His class president.
Resident Assistant could be anyone. Honkai Physics could also be anyone - if it were Fate based, I'd go Waver.
Hmm, so the attachments were:
-Two bangles.
-Elbow pins.
-Shoulder pins
-Knee/Thigh clips.
-Necklace
-Anklets
I'm not sure how much he could disguise them(or whether he'd need to)...but wouldn't 90% of it be covered by wearing a longcoat over a shirt?
TBF, if I remember the manga right, the official Valkyrie uniform is straight up a leotard, short, and stockings. No gender differences. (Louis wore that thing like a
champ, damn.) At least, that was the uniform a decade or so ago.
It's possible she's just a gifted researcher. She's obviously aiming towards research work and Anti-Entropy aren't the only ones who do science. (Basically, this is a Rin who turned all her magecraft brains to something she can actually get social recognition and accreditation for) While Anti-Entropy's q-state tech is absolutely the forefront of the field, Rin is telling the truth that it's available on the private sector. She may not be bullshitting. She's bullshitting.
The Tohsaka family has actually been vaguely Schicksal-affiliated for most of its history, though in this generation there's no real connection and Rin has expressed more interest in private sector work than working as a Schicksal researcher.
She does also have contacts who can give her super-advanced machinery on the cheap, and I imagine AE would like some eyes on the ground of whatever's happening in Fuyuki.
The big question is, has she ever done any work with - ME, was it? Raiden's company.
Also, WRT to the Tohsaka's being Schicksal-affilliated, that makes perfect sense, given that the Tohsaka's used to be secret Christians, and Schicksal was/is(?) an arm of the Catholic Church.
And I just noticed the invisitext. Yeaaaaaah, she's AE-affiliated. And she just gave Shirou an example of that technology. When he's going to a place full of Valkyries.
Oh, Rin, will you ever stop making massive mistakes? Well, I guess they may not be able to instantly peg it as AE tech.