Tohsaka Rin was in a pinch.

  She was walking home with a few female schoolmates for a study session for the upcoming midterm exams. Not that she needed any help with her schoolwork. She was at the top of her age group academically, followed closely by the president of the student council, Issei-san, and Emiya-kun, or the janitor, as he was called nowadays for his inclination to be helpful to everyone, going as far as repairing school appliances.

  In a sense, those two were part of the reason for her current situation. Those two, busy with their respective commitments, managed to keep up with her in school with little apparent effort. It grated on her nerves even though she had her own business to attend to beyond school.

  Still, she couldn't use that as an excuse with his schoolmates since she couldn't exactly tell them she was a Magus, nor with herself, especially when Emiya was involved. She knew he was the foster son, but because of his circumstances, he also took care of the housework. To make matters worse, he has a pseudo-part-time job in town.

  Those facts alone couldn't be enough to annoy her, since she knew firsthand how difficult it was without parents. What grated on her was that he didn't do it out of need but out of principle. His connections would allow him to live without having to work a day.

  That fact, paired with his apparent ability to give her a run for her money academically, was enough to ignite her competitive streak and tag him as her school rival. If he could excel at school while helping others and while having a work life, she couldn't do any less. Besides, her carefully crafted public image would suffer if she denied a direct request for help from her cssmates. Middle school idols have a reputation to uphold, after all.

  They spent most of the afternoon after csses at school revising the material that was more likely to come up in the exams. Time came up short, though, and they had to continue their study session elsewhere. Tohsaka's pce was the best choice, seeing that she lived alone, and they began walking there, chatting animatedly.

  Fuyuki City was generally considered by its inhabitants a rather safe pce, despite the unusual and unexpinable events that took pce from time to time. Criminality wasn't a concern either since most unsavoury individuals ran their shady businesses, leaving the w-abiding citizen mostly alone. That didn't mean that walking down desert streets in the evening was considered a safe thing to do, especially for what looked like a group of defenceless girls.

  That was the crux of Tohsaka's problem. Following one of her friends' suggestions, they had cut through a rather dark alley, something even small children were advised not to do. Tohsaka expressed her concern, but the rest of the group waved it off nonchantly. That was Fuyuki City. Nothing ever happened there.

  'So,' She sighed inwardly as she looked at the surrounding scene unfold, ‘why are we surrounded by five men whose idea of fun involves a ck of clothing on our part?' She wanted to ask her now frightened schoolmates. Why did people choose to ignore wise advice until it was too te?

  “Ah, come on, kittens," one of the rger men said. "Don't be scared. We ain't gonna hurt you. Well… It might hurt at first, but it gets better after a while," he chuckled at his joke as the group recoiled in disgust.

  "You're preaching to the choir, dude. I'm sure these chicks have seen more than enough of a man up close."

  "Ah ah ah," another one ughed. "You're probably right. Schoolgirls these days are probably loose as a pro."

  "Nah. These still look pretty fresh to me," the fourth commented. "Maybe their cherries are already popped, but I'm sure they're still tight enough for a night of fun."

  "How about we cut this shit and find out for real, hm?" the first one asked.

  Tohsaka’s repulsion quickly turned to anger, realizing the danger they were in.

  "If you touch any of us," Tohsaka growled, "you are going to regret it."

  She bit her lip in frustration. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't come up with a foolproof pn to keep her friends safe and not expose her secrets. For all the wrong reasons, the thug interpreted the uncertainty in her eyes as proof of her already obvious bluff.

  She could wipe the floor with those guys, but that meant using her thaumaturgy and exposing her nature as a Magus to her cssmates. She wasn't sure she could deal with all five of them before one managed to hurt one of her friends. Even though she could hypnotize them afterwards and erase their memories, she couldn't be certain she could do it without anyone being harmed or slipping away before she was done. Suppose anyone managed to escape her and reveal the existence of magic? In that case, she was going to get in big trouble with the Association, not to speak of the blow to her reputation as the guardian of the nd.

  "And who's going to make me regret it, little dy? You?" He asked, his tone ced with sarcasm.

  "Maybe she won't," a previously unheard voice stated. "But I will." The man barely had time to shift his gaze from Rin to the speaker when something impacted right between his eyes with a loud thwack. The man tumbled backward while all the presents turned to face the newcomer.

  A slim figure stood at the end of the alley, completely bck, eyes hidden by a steel grill. A helmet that consumed his head, horns casting shadows even in the evening. On his arm was a strangely shaped bow made of darkness. He could have been just another shadow. A shadow that took human shape and descended upon the wicked to hold them accountable for their sins. Bck as the night, dark as a nightmare. He easily towered over the girls, but his voice was strangely soothing.

  "What the fuck? The hell are you?" one of the men asked. His answer came in the shape of an arrow again between his eyes.

  "What the-YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" The closest to the assaint shouted, closing the distance between them.

  One step, and the man was right on him, fist cocked to deliver what looked like a powerful punch. Tohsaka couldn't see it from where she was, but the rger man smirked, knowing he had the advantage of power at such a close range. He didn't leave time to draw another arrow to his bow. He never even realized he didn't need it at all.

  His fist went through space, missing his target entirely. The masked man weaved under his assaint's powerful right hook. Fast as lightning, his right leg struck the much bigger man in his nether regions, with expected results.

  He didn't have time to contempte his pain for long, as the masked man struck again with a blow that seemed to miss the man's face at first but curved at the right moment to hit him in the neck. He colpsed, presumably unconscious, without as much as a grunt.

  The viginte was far from having finished, however. Before anyone could react and before his victim had hit the ground, the shadow-cd figure sprang into action again, dashing toward the fourth thug.

  Perceiving the incoming threat, the man raised his guard, ready to face whatever might be thrown at him. It was again a fatal mistake. Five steps away from him, the masked man loaded his crossbow and grabbed a decently sized rock from the ground. The man's eyes had barely had time to widen in realization before he was struck in his jewels, shattering his guard among other things, just before the rock and arrow connected with his forehead.

  The fifth rapist wannabe had finally wised up and spun on his heels to flee the scene. He made his third step when an arrow hit him behind his head. The loud thud of his face hitting the ground signalled the end of the confrontation, giving rein to a dumbfounded silence on the girls' part.

  The nameless archer, on the other hand, cautiously walked from one of his victims to another, checking their vitals and retrieving something from the ground. Tohsaka shifted slightly, ready to engage this more dangerous individual if his intention to help them was less than noble.

  "Y-you killed them…" One of the girls, Saegusa Yukika, stuttered, frozen by shock.

  "They're alive," Tohsaka answered, still bewildered by the situation. Saegusa and the rest of the girls turned to her. "Look," she said, holding one of the arrows she picked up on the ground.

  Instead of a pointed head, the arrow had a thick metal ball. A blunt weapon instead of a piercing one. "You can't kill anyone with these.”

  “Of course," the viginte spoke. "I'm no murderer." He walked to her and picked the arrow from her hands, putting it back into his quiver. “What I’m doing is already illegal enough. You think adding murder charges would be good for my case?” There were some chuckles. Because of the nerves, not because it was funny, because it wasn’t.

  Their gaze met momentarily, and the girl took the chance to scan their depth for any ulterior motive, ignoring the sudden surge of heat to her face.

  The steel visor made it hard to make eye contact with the light shining off it, as if it was intentional. Gazing further in, she saw gss eyes that would be covering the eyeholes. She rexed and eased her pose.

  "The streets aren't safe at night for girls like you. There are more fun pces to hang around than here. This is a quiet city if you don't go looking for trouble.”

  "Like you do?“ Rin spoke in defiance. Her more aggressive persona had been brought to the surface by the recent events, and the masked stranger’s protective attitude didn't put her pride to rest either. She was more than capable of taking care of herself.

  'But not of those around you.' She thought. 'If he hadn't come could you have helped your friends by yourself?' A grimace formed on her face at those thoughts. The masked man’s ugh brought her out of her stupor.

  “Yeah. I’m not the best example of what I preach. In my defence, I get into trouble to get others out of trouble. By the way, I’ve already contacted the police, so stay here until they arrive. Well, not here, here per se. Just stay outside of the alleyway.” The viginte gently grabbed them all and pushed them out of the alley before being swallowed by its shadows.

  “Wait a moment! Who are you?” Tohsaka called back at him.

  He stopped and turned sideways, just enough to look back at her.

  “Can’t exactly give that information away, you know? Stranger danger and all that. Just don’t go around calling me a knight in shining armour.” He stepped forward and disappeared into the darkness.

  “W-was that?” Saesuga stuttered.

  “He’s real?” Another one, Himuro Kane, spoke in awe.

  “Argonaut!” “Knight!” “Archer!” They looked amongst themselves, Tohsaka included.

  “What do you mean, Archer?”

  “What do you mean, Argonaut?”

  “He has a crossbow, not a bow, and he doesn’t even carry it.”

  “I’ve heard rumours that he didn’t use any bow at all, I guess Archer really is an archer!”

  “This guy’s not even Greek! He’s definitely Japanese!”

  “He could be a robot.”

  Tohsaka sighed and turned to Saesuga. “I just thought that the name sounded cool.”

  Despite the conflicting names, Tohsaka understood what her friends were talking about. She had heard about it before. It had been a passing topic of conversation in school, like any other urban myth. The hero with no name. A lone figure that stalked the streets of Fuyuki 24/7, protecting innocents and punishing criminals. Whether it was a hit-and-run, bank robbery, or gang activity, he was there, yet no one could get evidence of his involvement.

  Of course, she hadn't paid any attention to such things before. Countless such rumours were running around, and they never sted long enough to bother. Yet the myth stared her in the eyes that night, emerging from the darkness in their time of need and disappearing immediately after without asking or expecting any reward for his deeds. He was just like one of those heroes in the manga her schoolmates liked to read, or a knight from the tales her father used to read her before falling asleep.

  Whoever he was, the viginte was a mystery. His identity, his skills, and his motives were all shrouded in darkness, and she couldn't help but mull them over and over again inside her head, asking herself why her heart hadn't stopped hammering inside since the moment when he stared into her eyes from up close.

  The police arrived not ten minutes ter, questioned the girls, and proceeded to escort the gentlemen away, who were fewer than what she remembered. The police officer in charge released a powerful sigh as she talked with a colleague. Tohsaka reinforced her hearing with magic and eavesdropped from afar.

  "So the Archer strikes again, huh, Yomikawa-senpai?" the younger detective spoke.

  "I don't like the tone of admiration in your voice, Watson," Yomikawa grumbled.

  "Again with the nickname? Ah well, you know, Senpai. I grew up reading stories of heroes of justice when I was a kid. I wanted to be one so badly that I ended up doing this job."

  "Who gives a damn about that? This isn't a manga. There's a maniac running around, carrying weapons, putting himself in danger, and putting us to shame. Chief's going to bite our heads off for this.”

  "Why? How is this our fault? It's not like we put the guy up to it," he was rewarded with a smack on the back of his head.

  "So what if it isn't our fault? It's still our duty to capture criminals and keep children away from harm. This whole Nameless business is a blow to our face and pride. What are the people going to think if they knew some rando is doing our job and fooling us for over a year?"

  "You didn't have to hit so hard, Senpai," Watson groaned.

  They bantered back and forth, but when it was clear they weren't going to discuss any other useful information, Tohsaka tuned them out and rejoined their friends. It was obvious that there wasn't going to be any more studying for the evening. The test events were too shocking to let them focus on anything else. They were escorted back home by the police, who had to reassure their parents their daughters were fine and in no trouble.

  Tohsaka was the st to be brought back since she didn't have family waiting for her. And she spent the whole trip wondering about the mysterious Archer. Whoever he was, he was running amok on her territory. As the Magus in charge of that part of town, it was her duty to keep her ears open, even if the boy's actions as a non-Magus weren't necessarily her responsibility. She spared no small amount of time convincing herself that her interest was purely professional.

  Clock Tower, London

  “Alright, first off. Welcome back, for all of you who have come here for the summer csses.” The teacher at the front of the css spoke while turning from the bckboard and towards the css, on the spot.

  Said teacher was Waver Velvet, otherwise known as Lord El-Melloi II. Standing in front of a Mineralogy css with a pitifully small number of students, just barely sitting in the double digits at 12 young Magi. Despite the small css though, Waver didn’t let it affect him due to having taught simirly sized csses for the st two years since returning to the Clock Tower.

  As he finished speaking, he let his eyes roam over his css. The names of each student came to mind as his gaze rolled over them like a calming breeze. This particur css had no rge names, at least as far as the majority of the css was aware.

  Because at the back of the css, on opposite ends of the cssroom, were two new students to the css that were far more important than anybody else would realize. His gaze instinctively moved to the one sitting by the windows first, with grey hair and green eyes that were becoming more and more familiar by the day.

  This student was a young twelve years old girl named Gray, and she was his apprentice.

  Despite her seeming aversion to the rest of her cssmates, Waver didn’t see much harm in it. Since he had been the one to take her in and teach her, he had gotten the full nitty-gritty details of her life. So because of this, he couldn’t quite bme her for her more isotionist tendencies, as opposed to many of her cssmates.

  Said thought led to his gaze moving to the other isoted student of the cssroom, who had also been one of the ones included in his welcome to the summer csses.

  The young boy, also twelve years old, was named Touma Tachibana. But to Waver and very few others, he was known as Shirou Emiya, the son of the Magus Killer.

  Unlike his apprentice on the other side of the cssroom, who had been staring out the window until Waver spoke, Shirou was still looking away. The boy had only looked up for the briefest of moments and nodded to himself before looking back down at his notebook while flipping a kni- flipping a knife?!

  Waver had to fight off the urge to do a physical double-take at the sight of the white-haired child flipping a small, single-edged knife between his fingers dexterously. As he did this with his left hand, his right was busy scratching something in a small notebook id out on the table.

  Moving his gaze off Shirou after the slightest few seconds, he sighed and turned back to the bckboard, picking up some chalk and beginning to write once again. His mind wandered as he did so, but not so much that he couldn’t hear and mentally store away some of the murmurs he heard from his students.

  “Hey, did you hear that the Wizard-Marshall’s granddaughter is back in London?”

  “Have you heard some of the rumours about the new head of the Barthomeloi family? She just showed up out of nowhere a month ago.”

  “There’s a new excavation being done in Greece. A hotspot of magical artifacts, apparently.”

  While the third one was interesting to Waver and something he would follow up with at a ter date, the first two rumours were rather worrying to the teacher.

  Being a Lord and, in addition to that, a teacher at the Clock Tower, Waver was well aware of the new Head of the Barthomeloi family, who had finally set foot outside the Barthomeloi manor a little under a month ago. The young Lorelei Barthomeloi, a staunch member of the Aristocratic faction, was rising in the ranks of the Clock Tower with terrifying speed and trying to drag Magi and families under her banner just as quickly.

  On the other hand, Waver was also aware of the Wizard Marshall’s adopted granddaughter, having seen her in passing when he had still been studying at the Clock Tower. Unfortunately, quite a lot of people within the Clock Tower remembered the Barthomeloi hatred of Dead Apostles, and Lorelei was undoubtedly on a warpath to prove herself using one as an example.

  Waver just hoped that Lorelei and the Wizard Marshall’s granddaughter never actually met face-to-face. Maybe something would catch the young Barthomeloi’s attention first? That would be a nice thought.

  “Alright, css. Today, you’ll be working in groups of two, and I will be choosing.” He pretended to ignore the one or two grumbles he heard from the css as he picked up the css roster and began to pair them up.

  “And finally, Gray and Touma Tachibana.”

  Waver carefully kept an eye on both of the isoted students as he watched the gears click as they slowly turned their heads, making eye contact at almost the same time. Grinning to himself ever so slightly as he watched Shirou gesture for Gray to come over as he moved some of his stuff on his desk.

  ‘She needs to interact with more people, especially around her own age. And if what Kiritsugu told me is true, he should still be a good kid.’

  Meanwhile…

  Touma was just in the middle of moving his stuff when a soft voice reached his ears.

  “Is that a knife?” Looking over, he saw the hooded, grey-haired girl, named Gray ironically, slowly shifting a chair over.

  “It is.” Touma confirmed, “A poorly made one, though; I was just fiddling with it.” He admitted with a shrug, the knife fizzling away into small blue motes of Mana.

  “Hm. Projection?” She asked, her voice soft, yet an undercurrent of curiosity was evident to the young bcksmith.

  “Sort of.” He answered with a small smile, “Touma Tachibana, nice to meet you.” He held a hand out to her.

  “Gray, a pleasure.” She responded, shyly reaching a hand out and shaking his hand for only a fraction of a second before pulling it back in a blur underneath her cloak.

  To his credit, Touma didn’t react to her strange actions or call her out on it. Instead, all he did was listen to the parameters of what they would be doing until El-Melloi stopped speaking, letting them go to work.

  “Ok, do you know much about the topic, Gray?” Touma asked, opening a new book to a fresh page and grabbing a pencil.

  After half a minute of no answer, he turned to look at her, only to see that she was wordlessly staring directly at his chest with an unblinking gaze. Her green eyes seemed to almost glow in the shadow of her hood, and her face rexed in a way that denoted her concentration as more subconscious than purposeful.

  “Gray? You there?” He asked, snapping his fingers before her eyes and getting her to yelp and flinch back.

  “What? Sorry. What were we? Oh yes. Css…r-right.” She muttered in embarrassment, her cheeks flushing so red she grabbed the edges of her hood and pulled it further over her face to hide it.

  “Are you ok? You seemed pretty focused there.” He asked, a raised eyebrow emphasizing his point.

  “I was just focused on the Mystic Code in your chest. I’m sorry if that was rude…” She muttered, only to get a stupefied blink from the redhead.

  “The what, in where?”

  “You aren’t aware?... I’m sorry, forget I said anything!” She shyly mumbled, pulling her hood further over her face and hunkering down to grab one of her books.

  “You can’t say that and just-”

  “Gehehehe! You’re preeeeeeetty red there, Gray~. You sure you weren’t thinking about something else while staring at him?” A quiet but high-pitched voice was heard by the two partners, immediately making Gray’s face turn even redder.

  Reaching around to fiddle with something at her waist, she pulled out a small birdcage that held a cube inside it with dimly glowing eyes and a ‘mouthpiece’ that moved up and down as it snickered.

  “Add! You can’t keep saying things like that out in public!” She whispered-shouted to the cube.

  “And why not? Not like what I’m saying is false after all.” The cube giggled at her, rattling slightly in the birdcage but not enough to draw the attention of anyone else in the css.

  “My partner!” She whispered-shouted again, getting an embarrassed noise from the cube as she looked over at Touma worriedly.

  Instead of any facial expression she was expecting, a bnk look with his eyes locked on Add. His silver orbs stared at Gray’s Mystic Code with an unnerving steel even the usually confident cube slid away from the boy slightly.

  Suddenly, he tore his eyes away, screwing them up and holding his head with one hand. He forced his forehead into the desk and tensed up as if he were in intense pain, yet barely the tiniest whimper left his thinned lips and tensed jaw. The sudden change in his behaviour caused Gray to quickly ignore her previous hesitation and pce a gentle hand on his back.

  “T-Touma? Are you well? What happened?” She muttered, feeling a pulse from whatever was impnted in his chest that coincided with his features beginning to loosen out more.

  “T-That nce…” He muttered, and Gray felt her heart plummet to her feet.

  “W-What nce? I-I don’t know anything about a nce?” She mumbled in return, her skin turning even paler and a cold sweat beginning to break out over her skin.

  Touma didn’t say anything for a moment, wincing briefly before opening an eye and looking at her and Add up and down for a few seconds before breathing in deeply and exhaling.

  “Do you mind if I speak to you after css? I think I…discovered something I wasn’t meant to.”

  “O-Ok?...” She muttered fearfully, getting a small nod from him.

  “Let's just do our work, ok? We can talk about all of this when we’re done.” Touma said, clearly still distracted but trying to work past it, his fingers occasionally twitching.

  Gray slowly nodded, now incredibly nervous and twice as paranoid. And it was because of that she noticed the way his eye would occasionally twitch, causing him to wince and eventually hold his hand to his head permanently.

  ‘Whatever he did… It definitely damaged him.’

  After Css…

  “Thanks for coming here.” I began as he sat on the seats in the empty testing grounds, a Reinforced room used to practice more destructive spells.

  “Well… w-what you found out was pretty serious.” Gray’s retort got a snort from me.

  “Anything that powerful… Well, I imagine it’d be kept as a pretty big secret. If not locked up completely.”

  “You… you already know what it is?”

  “I do,” I confirmed, smiling sheepishly at her.

  “How did you find out, anyway? Add should have protected it from some sort of investigative spell.” She took a few steps towards me before remembering the situation and backing up again, eyeing me warily.

  “I’m not going to use this information to hurt you or anything, Gray.” I commented, raising an eyebrow and leaning forward in my seat.

  “I-I don’t trust that.”

  I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “Yeah, I suppose that makes sense… Well. It wouldn’t do well to scare off a possible client-”

  “Client?” She gave me a bnk look, tilting her head to the side.

  “So I don’t mind telling you, especially if it’s such a big secret. I structurally grasped your Mystic Code there.”

  “You vioted me!” Add suddenly yelled out, banging against the birdcage and getting a sweat drop from me.

  “I-I wouldn’t go that far?”

  “I can’t have children after this! I’m unworthy of a bride!” Despite the tense air between us, we shared a look before staring at Add judgmentally, not that it noticed.

  “Gray! You’ll have to take up the burden for me! You’ll need to have enough children for the both of us!”

  “W-WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU SAYING!?”

  We blushed brightly, but while Gray scrambled to unclip the birdcage from her side and hold it up to eye level, I just averted my gaze. I ignored the proceeding ‘argument’ between the girl and her Mystic Code.

  ‘Speaking of that Mystic Code.’ I thought to myself, holding out a hand in front of him.

  “Trace On.” I had the blueprint in my mind, the entire structure of Add seemingly seared into my mind along with the memory of the pain of looking at that Lance had done.

  Yet the blueprint seemed difficult to fully wrap his head around, like there were certain parts of it I could fully grasp and parts that seemed so alien that I couldn’t even fathom them. With a wince as a surge of pain ran up my arm, I dropped the Tracing of Add halfway through, letting it shatter loudly into motes of light. The sound of shattering brought Gray’s attention back to me.

  “What was that?” She asked suspiciously, getting a pained smile from me.

  “I tried to do a Projection of your friend, but it didn’t work. As you heard.” I finished mely, chuckling at my failure.

  “He’s a Mystic Code. Of course, it wouldn’t work.” She responded dryly, “Look. I know you have whatever that Mystic Code in your chest is.” She spoke, walking towards me slowly, “But nobody can know about the Lance. Or what Add’s actually meant for.”

  “Of course. Of course.” I agreed, holding my hands up in surrender. “Considering it gave me a migraine. It must be pretty strong, huh?”

  “A migraine?” She asked unbelievingly, but her voice did lower slightly. “You don’t seem to be in any pain, though?”

  “Oh. I heal pretty quickly.” I waved off the brief fsh of concern that had passed over her features when he told her about the ramifications of Structurally Grasping her partner.

  ‘Though even I’ve never gotten over a migraine this quickly….’ He thought to himself.

  She gave me a carefully bnk look. Not like mine or Sakura’s, but more like she was intentionally trying to keep her features smoothed over.

  ‘Oh. She’s judging me.’

  “Anyway…” I slowly continued, trying to lift the mood “You have a Mystic Code made by Morgan le Fay-”

  “H-huh!?”

  “You should be pretty proud of that. You actually look a little like her based on what I saw—eh?” I Traced a simple bde and blocked the back of my neck.

  The reason for that was the sudden appearance of a beautifully made scythe circled around him with the bde resting against the back of his neck. The pole of the weapon was held in Gray's singur hand as she stared coldly into his eyes. Her green eyes seemed to once again glow in the shadow of her hood.

  Not that I spent much time noticing this before doing a Structural Grasp of Add once more, careful not to delve too deep this time.

  Though I did want to see that Lance in person.

  “Do not insinuate such a thing again.” She said coldly, her grip on the scythe tightening to the point her knuckles went white.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.” I said genuinely, smiling at her.

  “Y-you’re actually apologizing?” She stammered in astonishment, a small blush of embarrassment spreading across her cheeks.

  “Of course, he would.” She jolted at the sudden appearance of a third voice, one that we recognized.

  “Lord El Melloi II?”

  “Master?”

  Waver Velvet walked towards us in the otherwise empty room, pulling out a cigar and lighting it with a small mumble and a candle fme that burst to life over his finger.

  “W-W-What are you d-doing here, Master?” Gray stammered, transforming Add back into his regur cube form, while I just looked at him impassively.

  “First of all. We aren’t in css. Either go the full mile and call me ‘Lord El Melloi II’ or just call me Waver.” He spoke to me, taking a puff of his cigar “And I’m here because I noticed you looked anxious and paranoid when the both of you left css. So whatever Touma did must have shaken you pretty badly.”

  The man levelled a ft gaze on me when he said this, getting a sheepish smile in return.

  “Though in all honesty, I should have expected this when I put the two of you together. Kiritsugu warned me of your proficiency with Structural Grasping.”

  “His Proficiency?”

  “You know, Tou-san?” I asked, pying dumb. ‘The hell are you doing Waver?’

  This time, Waver turned to his apprentice to answer her question first.

  “That’s right. Touma here, according to his father, uses Structural Grasping in the creation of his bdes. To the point where he can Structurally Grasp something just from looking at it.”

  “Mystic Eyes?” I blinked at Gray’s question, having never thought or been told the ability to do what he did was so rare that it could be considered Mystic Eyes.

  “No. Just a lot of practice.” Waver shot down, turning his gaze back to me and blowing out some smoke. “And yes, I know your father. We were technically enemies in the past by circumstance. But he reached out to me recently and expined some details about your abilities.”

  “Do you want me to forge you a weapon? I take commissions.” I smiled, getting a snort from Waver.

  “We’ll speak about commissions ter. But Shirou Emiya-” I jolted at the man calling me by my adopted name. “I need you to understand. That nce inside Add? You do not let anyone know. Not friends, not family, and especially not anyone within the Clock Tower.”

  I could feel something thick in the air. Simir to the bloodlust that Gilgamesh would throw at him, in that it wasn’t a magical pressure, but weaker than the King’s as well. Despite feeling weaker, I was under no presumptions that the promise of something unpleasant was no less serious.

  “Because I’m an educator, Shirou. I’ll expin what will happen if you do.” Waver walked over and sat beside him, crossing one leg over the other and intertwining his fingers on his knee “If you let anyone know of that n-”

  “I got it, I got it. Every Magus has their dirty little secret. It just so happens that hers isn’t as morally dark as the rest.” I said back, irritation leaking through my voice.

  We stared at each other for a moment. A conversation went through our eyes. A promise to talk again.

  “Good.” Waver replied, nodding towards me and standing up, puffing out another cloud of cigar smoke.

  “You’re leaving already, Master?” Gray asked, not particurly surprised by his sudden visit and exit but disappointed he still wasn’t spending much time with her.

  “I am.” He confirmed, voice soft. “I have another css to teach in… five minutes. But Gray, it's best to stay around him.” Waver said, tilting his head in my direction for a moment. “You’ll both be able to train in weapons combat together. And he’ll be able to fashion you a weapon in case you’re separated from Add or he malfunctions somehow.”

  “HEY!” Add shouted, bouncing around in indignation, “I’m a top-tier Mystic Code! I don’t just ‘stop working,’ you leather-cd-”

  “O-Of course, Master.” Gray cut in, csping her hands and bowing at the waist.

  “I’m not gonna do a commission like that for free, you know?” I cut in, face ft and unimpressed.

  “Yes, yes. I’ve heard rumours from your distributors.” Waver responded, walking towards the door, “You and Gray talk it out and figure out a price. Then, Gray, you can come to me, and I’ll cover the cost if it isn’t too outrageous.”

  “Huh. Cool.” I hummed, my mind already swirling with ideas.

  “Y-yes, Master!” Gray excimed, happy that Waver was trusting her with the negotiation of the prices, seeing it as him warming up to her.

  Waver waved his hand and exited the training room, making us both look at each other before I grinned widely.

  “So. Can you show me the forms Add has? I want to see them in person.” Both girl and Mystic Code couldn’t help but back up slightly, feeling like they’d awakened something they shouldn’t have.

  Fuyuki, Japan

  The Following Morning

  Everyone was talking about Archer. While many already believed he existed, no one had a close encounter with him before that. The gossip spread like wildfire, reaching the student council president, Issei Ryuudou, who was eating lunch with his trusted friend, Shirou.

  “The school seems to be in an uproar today," he stated calmly. Issei was the kind of person who never lost his cool, even under pressure, and dealing with troubled kids daily only reinforced that trait.

  "Yeah," Shirou agreed. "Have you heard the news?"

  “About that Archer fellow? I would have to be deaf not to have heard. Everyone's talking about it.”

  “You don't seem to like it," he pointed out.

  “That would be because I don't," he answered coolly, pushing his gsses up his nose. "Don't get me wrong. It's heartening that someone is willing to stand up for the weak, but it's not his pce to do that. It's the police's job to keep the citizens safe.”

  “But if he wasn't there yesterday, our schoolmates would have been…”

  “I know," Issei said defensively, holding up his hand. "I'm not questioning his actions, mind you. I'm just afraid someone might try to emute him and put himself in trouble," he said, levelling a stare at Shirou. Even he wasn't dense enough to miss its meaning.

  “Actually, if it weren't for the fact that I can't imagine you coming out of a fight on top, I would have said you were this infamous Archer.”

  "W-what?" Shirou sputtered. "Why would you think that?"

  "Oh, I wouldn't know. Partly because there have been some rumours that his age, if he even is a he, isn’t what it seems and because you are into martial arts, but mostly because you have more sense of justice than common sense."

  “Come on! I'm not that bad," he protested.

  “No? Only in the past two months have you been dragged into three fights with the local bullies.”

  “But they were stealing money from their undercssmen. I had to stop them.”

  “How? By letting them punch you in the face until they got tired and left? Which is, if I'm not mistaken, exactly what happened.”

  “Err… But it worked," he pointed out, scratching his head sheepishly.

  "I'm not even going to comment on that," Issei deadpanned. "But seriously, Shirou, don't do something reckless like that, all right? You are the only person inside this school who doesn't seem to actively work to give me trouble. Don't start doing it now.”

  “Ah, come on, Issei. Can it be that bad? Besides, there's also Tohsaka-san, who can be of help if you'd only ask.”

  “I would rather not do that if I could, Shirou.”

  "Why?" Shirou asked. "She's a model student. Did something bad happen between the two of you that I don't know about?”

  "No, nothing of the sort. It's just that there's something about that that doesn't really convince me. Ah, forget I said anything. It's probably just my imagination."

  Shirou eyed his friend warily. He knew that the girl wasn't as pure as she made it out to be; no Magus could truly be that candid. Which held for him as well, of course.

  ‘Poor Issei didn't know half of it with us, even though he was proving to be quite receptive.’

  Seeing through Tohsaka's pleasant mask wasn't easy, and he had almost nailed him as my viginte persona. Granted, he probably knew him better than anyone else in school besides Shinji and Sakura, but they had their faults.

  Still, that made him think about the girl once again. He almost hadn't recognized her the previous evening until he stood before her. It had been a close call. If those guys had proven too much of a challenge for his mundane skills, he would have been forced to tap into his Mana, giving away his nature as a Magus to the magic-attuned girl, something he had no intention of doing.

  He didn't want to let anyone know about the existence of another Magus in Fuyuki, especially not the guardian of the nd. While he had no reason to csh against other Magi, he preferred to keep his identity and the full scope of his skills under wraps. As he was taught, secrecy was the most powerful weapon at his disposal and couldn't be retrieved once lost.

  Being an unknown factor, untraceable and unpredictable, gave him the upper hand in nearly every situation, as proven the previous evening. If those thugs had expected him and attacked him at once, he wouldn't have been able to dispose of them as easily. His sudden appearance and their ignorance of his actual skills had offered him an easy victory.

  He pushed the thoughts away and pced a hand on Issei's shoulder in a comforting manner, walking with him to his next period.

  ‘If the poor guy knew how many troubles Tohsaka and I could bring forth…’

  Meanwhile…

  Clock Tower, London

  The sharp click-cck of leather boots resounded through the hallway. Children, teens, and adults who had been having conversations parted like the Red Sea, and all sound died out.

  Lorelei Barthomeloi let her gaze sweep over the Magi that she walked past. Seeing very few that were worthy of her attention. And even the ones that did seem to have some sort of worth didn’t have enough to hold her attention for long.

  At the moment, the young woman of barely 18 years old was marching her way through the halls of the Clock Tower, heading towards a section of the esteemed establishment run by the Aristocratic Faction. Lorelei was the leader, being the newest head of the Barthomeloi. As she walked, she noticed a rger congregation ahead of her and raised a slender eyebrow before smoothing it over and speeding up her pace.

  “Why are all of you gathering in the halls? Do you not have csses or research to be doing?” She spoke up, uncaring of the sheer speed at which all conversation stopped.

  The hallway went from bustling with noise to silent enough to hear a pin drop in an instant. Slowly, many heads turned to face her, and the Magi before her began to pale.

  “Well? Do any of you have the ability to speak?” She asked, tapping her foot to put more mental pressure on them.

  “L-Lady Barthomeloi.” A young female magus, probably around 15 or 16, finally spoke up “I-It’s nothing, really. Just a duel between the Edelfelt and Pentel sisters.”

  “And a duel that’s ‘nothing really’ has attracted this much attention?” She asked, doubt cing her every word and action.

  The girl in question wilted under the Barthomeloi Head’s steel gaze, averting her eyes downwards and subtly twiddling her fingers together.

  “But the Edelfelt and Pentel Heiresses, you say? …Stand aside; I wish to watch.” She ordered with a wave of her hand, already walking forward as the surrounding Magi stumbled to make a path through them.

  Walking forward, she stepped through the doorway, which had also been cleared, and looked out towards where she could recognize the battle. Based on the Bounded Field that had been erected, it was more than just an unarmed fight. The explosions and spells being thrown around corroborated that observation.

  Walking closer to the Bounded Field and around its perimeter, she kept her eye on the fight. The Edelfelt sisters were undoubtedly the more powerful of the two groups. Though, on the other hand, the Pentel sisters had undeniably better teamwork.

  The one that looked to be the elder of the two Edelfelt sisters kept trying to go on the offensive but rarely got to initiate her attacks before her sister threw in another gem that either negated her own or overpowered it. Meaning that the elder-looking sister just had to fight passively as her sister wasted more and more gems and prana trying to almost single-handedly take down the Pentel sisters.

  Lorelei scowled at the crowd that had formed around the fight, refusing to mingle amongst them to watch and so having to find another way around. The chosen way occasionally blocked her view of the fight for a few moments and took her on a rather lengthy path. Said path led her closer to the fight; however, it was on the opposite side of the room from where she had entered.

  Taking a moment to slow down in her walking and focus fully back on the fight, she scoffed and rolled her eyes when she noticed that no headway had been made in either direction. The Pentel sisters decided on a strategy of waiting out the younger Edelfelt sister until she drained herself dry of gems, prana, or both.

  Brown eyes tracked the next batch of four gems thrown, watching two of them explode into a hail of distracting shards while the third exploded in a violently bright light. The faintest use of Od in her eyes kept the Barthomeloi Head perfectly safe from what was essentially a Magi fshbang.

  The fourth gem, however, was what caught the woman’s attention. The red crystal flew in an arc to try to slip behind the two sisters and catch them off-guard. Except one of the sisters had already completed a one-line Aria and coalesced a protective semi-sphere of water that stopped the bst from reaching either of the Pentels. Lorelei was fully prepared for the screams of fear or surprise from such a rge explosion but equally prepared to brush them off. If they weren’t strong enough to block such a bst, they shouldn’t have been standing so close, pin and simple.

  Except while there were a couple of yelps or screams of fright, none of the Magi watching suffered any sort of negative consequences. Thanks, in full, to the previously invisible barrier that shone to visibility while containing the explosion before shimmering out of view once again. Raising an eyebrow at the strange occurrence, most Magi didn’t fight often, let alone with spectator protection in pce; she expanded her senses to follow the Mana back to its source.

  Said task was far from difficult, as the Bounded Field she could sense was tied very heavily to a preteen standing about 16-17 meters from the young woman. A rather bored-looking boy in what she could see was btantly oriental clothing despite the modern elements. The boy uncrossed one of his arms and yawned into his hand, Magic Circuits fshing across his skin as another attack was once again contained by the Bounded Field he seemed to be helping supply/keep stable.

  “Luvia!” He called out, crossing his arms again and getting a curious noise from the eldest Edelfelt sister, the girl's eyes never strayed from the battle, however.

  “Yes, Teouma?” She threw an emerald that spun through the air before pausing at a predetermined point and expanding to block an attack headed toward one of her sister's fnks.

  “Speed this up! I’d like to get back to my forge sometime this week.” His words and tone may have been incredibly crude, yet Lorelei found herself agreeing with him.

  She understood the necessity of these matches on occasion. But the sheer time it was taking for either side to make some lead was beginning to grate on her nerves, and she’d only arrived two minutes ago. Despite her agreement with the boy's words, however, it would be remiss of her to allow such comments about a greater pedigree to slide; as a member of the Aristocratic Faction, it was practically a duty.

  “Boy. What is your name?” She questioned him after marching up to him, instantly catching the attention of a few magi near him and causing them to inch back.

  Including the form of Gray mostly hidden under her cloak, the girl turned pale at the form of the Barthomeloi head approaching the boy she was tentatively beginning to call a friend.

  “Hm?” He looked over at her, and she saw the brief fsh of recognition in his eyes.

  “Yes. You’ve recognized me. Well done. I expect an answer now.” She grouched with a stern expression.

  “Ah, right? I’m Touma Tachibana, Miss Barthomeloi.” He greeted her, at least having the know-how not to try to offer her a handshake or something simir.

  “Mr. Tachibana. Do you understand the slight you show by treating an heir of an older pedigree with such casualness? Such a thing is worthy of an incredible amount of retribution.” Despite her words almost sounding like a helpful warning, her tone of voice and how she carried herself were far more ominous.

  “Ahhhh, apologies if I’ve offended you in some way, Miss Barthomeloi. But I’m a business partner of Luvia’s.” He expined with a sheepish chuckle and a wave of his hand.

  “You? I hardly believe that.” She looked him up and down with a singur raised eyebrow.

  “It’s not much. I just make Mystic Codes, and they distribute them for some of the profit.” He admitted, shrugging his shoulders a little.

  His Magic Circuits lit up across his skin, brighter than before this time, as a bright fsh of light and a deafening bang resounded through the stone and marble room they had been using for this fight. The boy focused his attention back on the fight to see if he still needed to keep his attention on it or not.

  Lorelei, meanwhile, allowed him to do this and proceeded to drop his Bounded Field to speak to Luvia now that the fight was over. Instead, in pce of reprimanding him over his casualness with a bloodline as renowned as the Edelfelt currently was, a singur image before the explosion ended was seared into her mind as she looked at him in contemption.

  The image of bright green, incredibly complex Magic Circuitry across his forearms, hidden by his sleeves except in that moment.

  Evening

  Fuyuki, Japan

  For the following week, Tohsaka returned to the alley by herself around the same time as the first evening. She wanted to find clues about the mysterious viginte who runs amok in her territory. It was a matter of pride. She chose to go back at the same time as before in case the boy had a regur pattern of patrolling the city, but so far there was no trace of him.

  So far.

  "Good advice should be put into practice, Missy," a voice spoke from nowhere, and Tohsaka nearly jumped out of her skin. She looked around frantically for the origin of the voice and found the hero with no name perched like a predator on a small windowsill, high above the ground.

  "How did you get up there?" She asked, seeing there was no way to climb so high short of using a stair.

  “…From inside the building," he answered, and Tohsaka felt a little silly. What had she expected? That he flew up there? Being a Magus sometimes screwed up your perceptions.

  "Now, why were you looking for me exactly?"

  "…What makes you think I was looking for you specifically?"

  "You're here at the same hour as the st time, and I don't think you came back here because you like the scenery or enjoyed the company of the locals."

  "N… This is just the shortest way to my house," she protested.

  "So you'd go through a dangerous pce like this just to cut a few short meters?"

  "I… I was in a hurry!" She cimed. 'Why am I arguing with him like this?'

  "You've been standing there for the past ten minutes looking at the ground, missy…"

  "ARE YOU STALKING ME?" She shouted, almost ready to magically curse the annoying man.

  "That would be my question," came the dry reply. "See, I don't like when people snoop around me trying to find out my identity. I wear a mask for a reason, ya know? Now, why were you looking for me?"

  “I… It's none of your business where I go or what I do."

  "Fair enough," he shrugged. "Well then, since you don't seem to need anything from me, I'll be on my way."

  "W-wait a moment!" She all but commanded as he was about to get back inside.

  “Yeah?"

  "Why are you doing this?" The Archer narrowed his eyes a little, contempting if parting with that tidbit of information could lead her to find out who he was. Not finding any reason to withhold it, he answered.

  "Because I knew despair and hopelessness once, but I have been saved. Now, all I want to do is save others from the same fate with my own hands. Good night, Miss." With those words, he snuck back into the window and disappeared, leaving behind a puzzled Tohsaka.

  "He had been saved…?" She pondered alone in the dark alley for a while before realizing she had no longer reason to remain there and quickly left.

  Later…

  Emiya Estate

  Without so much as a noise, I slipped inside my house undetected, a little worried about that evening's meeting. Tohsaka was on my case. That didn't bode well. Why was she so interested in what she should have considered a mundane viginte? I never used any of my Thaumaturgy in her presence, so there shouldn't have been any reason for her to search for me.

  Or was there?

  As much as I’d like to say that I know her well as a schoolmate and fellow Magus, there are still some things I don’t know.

  Unless I wanted to become a stalker, I can only use what I managed to scrape from casual observation and the knowledge of the Tohsaka family.

  ‘Could it be that she had a way of detecting lingering magic?’

  ‘No, that couldn't be the case. If she could do something like that, she would have confronted me as Shirou already.’

  So why was she so interested in me? It went beyond her duties as guardian of the nd. What sort of interest could she have in me then?

  That night I fell asleep a little perturbed by my inability to come up with a logical reason for Tohsaka's behaviour, but still resolved to keep my guard up around her.

  Sorry for the te post.

  It's already three days into May, and I haven't posted for April.

  Life was getting busy: School was piling up, and I got hooked on Xenobde Chronicles Definitive Edition

  Add that to the fact that I didn't know what to write for a while and the next thing I knew, the end of the month was approaching with nothing to show for it.

  Regardless, this was originally a bigger chapter but was split into two, so hopefully this month's release will be on time.

  I hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you did, comment down below.

  This is FminHotGarbage signing off!