Chapter Six

Vergil was growing increasingly certain that Shirou was too nice for his own good. He had, reluctantly, decided to maintain his cover and actually go to the boy's school. Not that he had any desire to relive high school, but people were going to start asking questions if he missed any more time. The fact that Shirou seemed to be the sort of person with borderline perfect attendance was immensely inconvenient. Anything short of severe illness wasn't going to get him out of class. Which meant it was either find a way to deflect concern from his guardian and his friends, or just put up with school. So reliving the 'joys' of high school it was. He had spent most of his adolescence training with demons to master his powers and he still wasn't fond of the human interpretation of school.

Making it through the day was easier than he had feared at least. His classmates didn't bother him very much thankfully. They seemed to take his excuse that he was still not feeling one-hundred percent at face value. At least Shirou was an honest sort of person. Far more so than he would have expected from a magic user in his own world. Though that seemed to be more a fact of Shirou trying to be a good person than a common trait of magic users. Tohsaka was a distant but seemed alright as well, but the girl who was controlling Berserker was clearly much less kind-hearted. He supposed that was at least one shared trait between humans in this world and his own.

He rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, absently staring at the clock. He already knew all of this content and, unlike his brother, he had actually paid some attention to academics growing up. It was only lunch time and he was already starting to grow bored out of his mind. This was going to be a very long day. He absently wondered if he could find somewhere to eat where he could get a little privacy, but the sight of Shirou's classmates crowding around the door reluctantly drew his attention. "What's going on?" he asked as he made his way to the back of the group.

"There's trouble waiting at our door," one of Shirou's friends (Vergil was pretty sure his name was Issei) said with obvious distaste in his voice.

Vergil considered his options for a moment before he poked his head past the stern-faced young man to see what all of the fuss was about. One of his eyebrows popped up as he caught sight of a familiar face. "Tohsaka?" He sighed. He hadn't expected her to try to approach him at school. They hadn't known each other for more than a day or two, at least not properly. He was going to have to come up with a way to explain their sudden acquaintance, wasn't he? Oh, and now she was glaring at him. Well, there was nothing to do about it then. "Good afternoon." Yes, that was helpful. "Would you like to join me for lunch?"

Tohsaka then decided the appropriate reaction was to blush of all things. Because that wasn't going to send entirely the wrong message. Then she just silently gestured for him to follow her.

Vergil sighed again and let his shoulders slump. "Give me a moment." He stepped back to pick up his lunchbox, pointedly ignoring the flabbergasted expressions on all of his classmates' faces. Was it really that surprising? Shirou's memories told him that Tohsaka was supposed to be popular, but really, this was a bit much. "Pardon." He slipped past Issei, who looked like he was somewhere between wanting to stop him and not wanting to seem rude. He could sympathize. The half-demon held his tongue until they were away from the gawking crowd before he let his passive demeanor slip. "Is this wise?"

Rin glanced back over her shoulder and looked around for a moment to see if anyone was watching. "Let's go up to the roof. We should have it to ourselves."

"By all means." He followed closely behind her, keeping one eye on the students practically gawking from all of the classrooms. Did they have nothing better to do? Thankfully, they did seem to be too awed, or afraid perhaps, to actually follow them. Thank goodness Tohsaka's reputation outweighed the curiosity of teenagers. The rooftop was just as empty as she had suggested, but that didn't stop Vergil from feeling like he was being watched. He had always thought he'd had good instincts for danger, so when the hair on the back of his neck went up, his hand slipped to his side where his sword should have been. He stayed very still, letting his eyes dart around the open rooftop for a moment. Come to think of it, he had been so frustrated with the day that he hadn't actually considered that Tohsaka might have decided that she was better off without him. A wide open rooftop with clear skies all around was the perfect spot for her Archer to deal with him. Though how she could possibly cover up his sudden 'tragic' fate was beyond him. Short of taking out most of the school as collateral, but she didn't seem nearly that ruthless. Perhaps he's being a bit ungenerous to someone who hasn't actually given him a reason to suspect her yet. Hopefully it was just paranoia and not actually some kind of scheme. "So," he began after a moment, "What did you want to speak with me about?"

Rin crossed her arms and gave him a look like she thought he was stupid. It was a look that Vergil was quite familiar with making, but hadn't been on the receiving end of particularly often. "I wasn't sure if I would see you at school today."

Vergil hated to admit that he wasn't quite following her. "Well, I could only play at having the flu for so long before someone started asking questions."

Rin huffed and ran a hand through her hair to push it off her face. "I know. It's just… there's been trouble in town recently, with everything going on. I would understand if you wanted to take a couple of days off."

Vergil raised an eyebrow. Now he felt a little bit bad about his suspicions. Unless Tohsaka was a particularly good actress, in which case he could at least respect the effort put into the act. "You were worried?" Which was also not a particularly familiar feeling for him. He had still been working on the feeling of someone looking out for him before… whatever had landed him here had occurred. He really needed to figure out something about that at some point. Dante was probably worried about him too. "You saw that I am more than capable of taking care of myself. You don't need to worry about my safety, of all things." He tried to keep his face out of a grimace as he felt another shiver down his spine. Was it just Archer, or was it something else?

"I suppose I don't, but I have my responsibilities. This is my city and I'm responsible for what happens here. Including when people get hurt."

That sounded a lot like something Dante would say when he was feeling idealistic rather than making 'witty' quips. He had misjudged her quite a lot then. "I understand your concerns." Though usually he was on the opposite side of the arcane catastrophe plaguing an innocent city, he at least knew what it felt like. And considering what they'd heard from the priest, the Holy Grail War could turn out at least as badly as any of his schemes. "But I'm the last person you need to be worried about." Short of the other Masters, presumably. "I'm more than capable of taking care of myself."

"I saw." Rin studied him for a moment. "I guess I can't be too upset, but I wanted to… check on you, I guess…"

Vergil was almost impressed by how quickly she could go from stern to awkward. The joys of youth. He wondered if Nero had ever had an awkward phase or if being raised by a cult meant he was denied that. He should ask his girlfriend. If he recalled from Dante's stories, the two had grown up together. She would probably be happy to share her own stories about his son. He shook his head slightly, focusing on the present rather than a vague possibility for the future. He was letting his mind wander too much. And the instant he focused again, he got that distinct unpleasant feeling again. Damn it, what was going on? "Do you have your… friend on lookout? I feel like someone is watching me."

Rin immediately stiffened slightly. "He's around, but he shouldn't be doing anything weird. But there might be something else… a spy? No…" She trailed off with a grimace. "I think I can feel what you're talking about. It's not quite being watched it's more…"

"Something dangerous?" Vergil suggested. Rin replied with a nod. "Yes, I thought it was more hostile than your Servant deserved."

"I don't like it. There shouldn't be anything around the school like this."

Vergil shook his head. "Someone tried to ambush and kill us both last night. I have no doubt there are others who might attack in broad daylight." He turned around, his eyes tracing the skyline as if a demon was going to come out of the cloudless sky and try to kill them both. It wouldn't be the first time. "It started when we came onto the roof. So it must be something around here that's causing it, right?"

"Right, so we find whatever it is and deal with it." The pair split off in different directions, Rin scanning the edge of the roof from one direction while Vergil went the other.

He clenched his hand a couple of times, fighting the urge to arm himself in public. That prickling feeling finally seemed to spike as he circled around to the back of the entryway and he felt a throb behind his eyes. "Rin, over here."

The girl hurried over and frowned as she looked at a seemingly blank wall. "There's nothing…" She frowned deeper and her arm started to glow softly as she channeled her magical energy through it. She reached out with one hand and the air seemed to shift and distort. A moment later, a sigil drawn in blood red appeared on the pale concrete.

"Lovely," Vergil drawled out. "This can't be good."

"This looks like some kind of Bounded Field," Rin muttered, more to herself than to her companion. "Who was setting this up around the school though?"

"I think who has to be secondary to what is it right now," Vergil suggested. "And erasing it, if that will actually work."

"I think I can do that. Give me a second." Rin crossed her hands and muttered something in a language that sounded vaguely Germanic. Vergil was well traveled, but he could only speak so many languages. She winced and energy started to crackled between her hands and the circle, but it only started to fade extremely grudgingly, coming apart until the magical assault. "This is way too strong. Whoever set this up had a lot of time to make it hard to take apart."

"That's never a good sign. And it implies that they were actually worried that someone would find it. Tell me, are there any other mages at this school?"

"None," Rin said slightly too quickly. Vergil narrowed his eyes slightly, but didn't respond. "There's another family involved in the Grail War, but their magical power faded generations ago. There shouldn't be anyone able to do this in Fuyuki."

"So it's an outsider sneaking in to a school full of children to set up a magical field of some kind." Vergil wrinkled his nose in distaste. "We need to see if there are more of these. I still feel slightly… uneasy."

Rin nodded and clenched her fist. "I need to. You need to keep out of the way."

Vergil raised an eyebrow. "And pray tell, how are you going to find the magically hidden circles that you didn't notice until I felt something was wrong?"

Rin raised a hand and her mouth opened like she was going to respond, but she didn't actually say anything for a long moment. "Fine, but be careful and stay out of my way. I can handle dispelling a couple of magical traps."

"I'll leave the sorcery up to you and keep an eye out for our perpetrator then," Vergil said dryly. "Between hunting magical bad feelings, of course."

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up," Rin muttered. "Fine. We can scout out the building a little with the rest of break, but we'll probably have to stay after school to deal with them without witnesses around."

Vergil sighed. It was a shame that this was more important, but he couldn't argue with that plan. Still, Sakura was going to be disappointed if he came home with a full lunch box. He would have to find some way to apologize. The least he could do was try to not screw over Shirou's love life while he was borrowing his body.

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Archer watched as the two teenagers made their way back inside the building, but elected not to follow immediately. He could catch up quickly enough in his spirit form any way. He already didn't like this whole situation and the pair's abridged conversation had made it significantly worse. Shirou Emiya was not behaving the way he was supposed to at all. He was still cordial, but everything else was just wrong. He was too formal, too guarded, and too strong. Shirou Emiya was supposed to be a naive idiot who was in over his head and way too idealistic for his own good.

Shirou Emiya was not supposed to be a taciturn, soft-spoken young man who could throw around magical swords with his mind. Throwing magical swords around with his mind was a skill that should have been years out. He had only been mildly annoyed while he had been sorting out his memories, but now he was getting worried.

The world had seemed so familiar at first. Everything was lining up just the way he remembered. And it had given him the perfect chance to start making plans. A chance to escape his fate. But if there was something different about this Shirou Emiya, then is might be a complete waste of time. He was starting to think that he like this version of the dumb kid less than the one in his own memories. At least that one was predictable.

The fact that he had seemingly detected him watching was… concerning. If this Shirou had inherited Kiritsugu's paranoia, then it would be hard to deal with him. But then again, he wasn't the only Servant lurking around Homurahara. And not everyone had the good fortune to have Presence Concealment. He could vaguely sense that Rider (or at least someone he hopes was Rider) was lurking around the campus. If this world was still similar enough to his own that his plan might succeed, then it shouldn't be long before the pair had their confrontation with the next Servant. Hopefully that would fill in the missing piece of the puzzle that was nagging him.

Or maybe he would get lucky and Rider would take care of the kid for him. Which probably wouldn't actually work the way he wanted, but it would at least prove that this world was different enough that his plan was probably doomed anyway.

To many questions and not enough answers. The sooner he figured out what he was missing, the better.