2

001 - First steps

Things have gone well during our time in Homurahara. We have a modest but widespread reputation as admirable people who don't shake the boat too much which has done wonders to counter the effects of my unfortunate demerit. [Mr Steal Your Girl] would be a bother in the best of scenarios, since every vaguely attractive girl is considered a minor love interest, and every boy vaguely attracted to one of them is, in turn, minorly affected by this.

But I only have to suffer direct and malicious attacks from two people. The first of them is, as expected, one Matou Shinji, resident ladykiller and domestic abuser. He's also the only one capable of getting under my skin to the point where I forget my mask, frequently getting into passive aggressive sniping battles without even realizing what I'm doing. Our rivalry is legendary and something I really could do without.

Haku knows to be on her guard around him. One never knows when he'll break out the family tricks to try and get one over me through her. For now I'm trusting on Zouken keeping him from doing something stupid, which is not exactly a good idea, all things considered. But the only other measure I could take was a defensive seal triggered by her loss of consciousness or free will to do something.

Oh, we prepared the seal too, of course. A fun piece of work that first sends a wide-area hypnosis making everyone leave the immediate proximity, tied to a secondary trigger that will do it's best to blow to smithereens anyone who remains close to her thirty seconds later.

As you can understand, that's not something I'd like actually going off. Just a failsafe in case the dumbest comes to pass.

Anyway, that's it for Shinji. My other opponent caught me by surprise, but in hindsight I probably should've seen it coming.

Issei Ryuudou had shown some peculiar interest in Shirou back on the canon timelines. So I guess it isn't that surprising that he considered Haku a love interest. Even if she's not as selfless as the original. Honestly, between my personal lack of interest towards the man and not considering the far-reaching consequences of a genderbent Shirou, he flew under my radar until he started sending glares my way.

Come to think of it, he might be a love interest for Rin… somehow.

Pff… yeah, just kidding.

At least he's mostly harmless. He's too honest to go behind my back, so the worst I can expect of him is his own disapproval bleeding over his closest circle and maybe a challenge to a duel at some point. Even that's highly unlikely, but pays to be prepared.

Things will be different if Caster acts like in canon and starts using him as a plant, but I have good reasons to hope that won't happen.

Very good reasons.

"Well? Don't think I didn't notice you stalking me around, Emiya-kun." A voice pulls me out of my reverie. "You might as well come out and talk to my face."

Oh, yeah, I was following Rin.

I would curse my lack of attention, but I never expected to go undiscovered. That would've been a hurdle for my plans, actually.

"Out of curiosity" I answer, turning the corner to fully come into her view. "Did you expect me to be a teen in love crushing on you or something more sinister?"

"You overestimate my free time if you expect me to speculate like that, Emiya-kun." Hands on her hips, she glares at me as I try my best smile on her. I'm pretty sure she's affected by [Mr Steal Your Girl] too. "Not like there's any point to it, since you're going to tell me now."

I let out a sigh. Honestly, I have wondered how exactly I could manipulate Tohsaka Rin. She's not only a first rate magus, but someone that excels on pretty much everything. She has few flaws, and she's aware enough that exploiting those isn't particularly easy.

In the end, coming -relatively- clean with her doesn't carry that much risk, and being caught on a lie would easily mean antagonising her. Her instincts are too sharp for me to fool for long, and she knows how to hold a grudge.

"Actually, I was just trying to figure out how to approach you discreetly." I raise my hands, showing my palms, in a universal sign of peace. "Since this involves the Second Owner of Fuyuki."

Her eyes narrow dangerously at my words, but in the end she simply nods and turns around. If I'm supposed to believe she's showing an opening, the attempt fails miserably. Maybe it would work on an idiot trying to get an easy kill with no idea what he's getting into, but I'm not going to assume Tohsaka friggin' Rin is vulnerable until…

… You know? I'll probably never assume that. That sounds like a stupid mistake. The sort of stupid mistake one only makes once.

"Follow me then, I know of a place where we can talk."

The walk that follows is tense. For me, because I'm about to enter negotiations with a formidable partner from a position of weakness. For her, because the power play she made by showing her back to me means that, well…

Now she kind of has to let me walk behind her.

I'm sure she's confident she can handle any underhanded trick I might try, and she's right, but that doesn't mean she can relax. Overconfidence is the downfall of many magi and all that. Plus having someone you don't trust walking right behind you upsets us humans at an instinctual level. Monkey brain no likey stalking predators and all that.

But she's too proud to have me walk by her side, so her shoulders visibly tense with each step while I just have a leisure walk behind her, my only distractions telepathically checking on Haku every once in a while. As per canon, Shinji has joined the Archery Club alongside her, and I still loathe being away from her with that creep around.

It seems today too, my worries are for naught. Shinji has managed to maintain his ladykiller success from canon in spite of the competition my Perks represent, as far as I know, no supernatural bullshit is involved. If he wants to have a flock of sycophant harpies constantly around all the power to him. As long as he doesn't make a move on Haku we won't have a problem.

"It's here" Rin guides me inside a posh and expensive-looking café, where she moves with the ease of familiarity to sit on the most out of the way table and discreetly erect a privacy bounded field. "You said you had business with me, talk."

"I'd like to make sure of what you already know, so I don't make a fool out of myself." I scratch the back of my head uncomfortably, the last thing I want is for her to feel insulted if I assume she doesnt' know something 'obvious'. "Were you aware of my status as a magus?"

"... I had my suspicions" She lets out slowly. Yeah, I'm not buying it, she's bluffing. "But you've been very discreet. Your sister too?"

"Yeah, she's unfortunately a poor practitioner outside a few narrow fields, so I'm the one in charge." True enough, so please leave my sister alone, miss talented magus, she's nobody worth your attention. "I'm afraid father wasn't very happy with our insistence on learning magecraft and didn't do a good job teaching us proper forms. I just discovered the significance of a Second Owner and the basic rules of politeness involving their territory recently. I've been trying to approach you about it ever since."

"Who was your father?" Wrong question, Tohsaka-san, that's what happens when you bluff your knowledge. "I assume he skipped basic courtesy to live here too?"

"Wait, you didn't know? I assumed it was our family name that gave us out."

"Your family na—" Her eyes widen in a realization shocking enough for her to forget she's trying to play the cool card and she yells at my face. "The Magus Killer!"

"Kiritsugu Emiya came to regret his life's work at the end of the War, and chose a quiet retirement as he lived his last days with his adopted family. A curse sustained during his active years finally claimed his life when I was eleven."

"I'm sorry for your loss." She mutters listlessly.

"Much appreciated, but it was years ago." I also didn't cry too much for his death. Kiritsugu was a complicated man with complicated regrets. May he find in death the peace he couldn't in life. "Actually, unfortunate family relationships were the greatest hang-up on coming clean."

"While the Magus Killer infamous practices earned many enmities, I'm not so petty to extend those to his family." Yeah, Rin's always been good at passing good will as simple classy behaviour. "Much less adopted ones."

"I was talking more about his role in the war. While Father refused to go into details, I know the prior Tohsaka head was a participant, and that your current tutor held a strong feeling of enmity towards him." I pause there. "Please don't tell the scary sadistic executor who assassinated my mom and is capable of going toe-to-toe with a Servant that I'm the son of his rival."

At that point, the stony, business-like face of the Second Owner of Fuyuki takes a break to make way for a very unladylike snort. The combination of my prior seriousness with the pathetic whine that was my last sentence, added to the overall nonsense of it pulverising any self-control the girl has.

It only lasts a moment, but I can't help counting it as a victory.

"If you're done being ridiculous" Her tone is perfectly controlled, and her face is once again all business. It's only her reddening cheeks that ruin the effect. "I have yet to hear what your business with me is, Emiya-kun."

Alright, best not to mock ceremony here. I might be able to play it off as 'not much of a magus education' and get away with it, but then again, there's no point in being irreverent.

"I am here as Head of the Emiya Clan, to request leave from the Second Owner of the City to set here our base of operations." With my best roguish grin, stare into her eyes and continue. "Circumstances are a bit unconventional, but we'd be pleased to be in your care."

"I'm assuming you've been going behind my back for years." She grumbles, trying to hide her blush.

"Technically, the permission father had to set up shop in Fuyuki for the Grail War was never rescinded." I defended myself. "But I feel like coming clear with the proper authorities is just polite."

"You are aware some form of tithe will be exacted, right?"

"I was ignorant of the ways, Tohsaka-san. Emphasis on 'was'. Our family is magically weak after Father took the remains of the family crest to the grave with him, but I'm sure we'll be able to reach a mutually satisfactory deal."

And with that the verbal game of cat and mouse began between what we had, what we wanted, what Rin wanted, and how much each of us could get away with. It was a delightful couple of hours of intense negotiations, where we tested our wits against each other and…

Okay, so maybe Rin tried to get me off balance by asking improper things and I retaliated by turning the negotiations in a 'make the tsundere blush' game.

In the end we had permission to set shop here and I had secured magecraft tutelage once per week until we left high-school. In return, a non-negligible portion of the revenue from my privileged investments would go to her. Same with a bigger part of our savings than I really felt comfortable with. Rin is as ruthless with money as canon implies.

On the other hand, I promised to assist her in any emergency prana transfusion she might find herself in dire need of. It was the only time in the whole evening I managed to make her stutter.

We had just parted ways when I received communication from my dear sister. Shinji had been shot down by both Mitsuzuri and herself. One of them had been polite about it, the other one didn't make him run away crying.

Shinji is miserable and I have secured access to Tohsaka Rin. Yes, today is a good day to be a self-insert harem protagonist.