41

040 - The meeting nobody asked for.

Compared with the pleasant surprise that was Rin wantonly throwing herself at me to aggressively make out, even if it was just to try and wraggle concessions out of me, the rest of the school day feels rather lackluster. Having a bunch of astralized Servants around and Ayako suddenly being in the know doesn't really change much when it comes to the drudgery that is public compulsory education. Though I suppose this is now the most well-protected high-school in the whole world.

The highest point was when a sulky and rather tight-lipped Jackie popped around. She made for a rather amusing sight, materializing in places nobody but me could see and sending me adorable pouts and frustrated glares before astralizing again before she could get caught. Apparently Medea didn't want her around while she poked at the unstable and highly dangerous setting of the corrupted grail, just in case.

Okay, fine. I guess today wasn't as boring as usual, but still. Being as far ahead for the syllabus as I am does have some downsides. I swear, once we're done with the War and all related bullshit, I'm testing out. No matter how ridiculously hard it is to skip grades in Japan.

At least we're finally done. It's with a relieved sigh that I walk out the walls surrounding the school building, finally free for the day.

"So..." I trail off as I take a glance around. "We make quite the picture."

"Picture?" Haku repeats from my right with a questioning tone that's a bit too innocent to be natural, right as Sakura takes a step even closer to my left side.

Haku and Sakura already caused a ruckus with their attitudes during the morning but, now Ayako herself has apparently decided to announce to the whole school her new disposition by joining us instead of sneaking around like she did back then.

That makes three out of the four school beauties hanging around me in a very blatant fashion. Gossip for the ages and a shock for the social circles of Homurahara, I'm sure. Heh, if only they knew what I did with the fourth one during school break…

To top it off, both Ecchan and Medusa have decided to materialize for some reason and join us as soon as we leave the school walls, falling into step behind their respective Masters. For people in the know, it's obvious they're staking their claim. For the average overly hormonal high-school student, that makes them part of my entourage.

"I can't help but notice how this looks for the casual outside observer." I continue making my point in an amused tone. "And wonder whether you're doing it on purpose."

"You mean, staking our claim?" Haku continues cheerfully. "Of course we're doing it on purpose, silly."

I turn towards Sakura with an arched eyebrow and she manages to hold my gaze for approximately half a second before her cheeks turn cherry red and her eyes lower to her feet. She still has the presence of mind to nod in agreement, though.

"I... See." I answer slowly. "Can't say this isn't an ego booster."

Heck, I can actually feel killing intent coming from my surroundings. Real, almost-tangible killing intent, coming from utterly mundane teenagers. A shit-eating grin forms on my lips at the realization. Yeah, I think I'm fine with this. Have I ever mentioned how much I love being me?

"Ugh, you really didn't need one of those, Nii-san." Haku answers in faux-dismay, melodramatically taking a hand to her head. "But It'll take more than that to get away from us."

It's at this point that Jackie sneakily materializes between Haku and me, bodily separating us to hold my hand and silently pulling me ahead. The both of us trade amused looks. Whether she's acting jealous or simply wants us to get home faster is anyone's guess, but it's adorable all the same.

We continue in that fashion, chatting with Haku and Sakura while Jackie does her best to make us walk faster and an uncharacteristically quiet Ayako walks beside us. Our more stoic Servants close up the formation, keeping an eye for trouble and on each other. I can't say I blame them for it. Ecchan did a number on Medusa not twenty four hours ago, after all.

As much as Medusa is a pragmatic person who has no trouble working beside old enemies, she's also both competitive and somewhat spiteful. I have no doubt she's considering her chances against Ecchan now that she's back at full power. Maybe we'll have to organize a spar between them at some point, if only to provide a harmless way to release all that tension.

It's not until we're around one third of the way back that Ayako suddenly stops, hesitantly calls for my attention.

"Actually… Emiya, do you have a minute?"

"Hm?" I ask nonchalantly, casting a side glance her way before turning to face her for real. Her attempts at nonchalance fall flat with how blatantly tense she is, but I doubt calling her on it will improve the situation any. "Finally going to bring up whatever is eating you?"

"Of course you noticed…" She huffs at my reaction, but I don't miss how a good part of the tension leaves her body. "My parents are going to be difficult once I get back home."

"About spending the night out?" She gives me a small nod, and I find myself scratching the back of my head. "Damn, sorry about that."

"Eh, it sucks but that's life." She shrugs easily. "And that was more Haku-san's fault than yours, anyway."

I can only nod at such sagely wisdom.

"Hey!" We both ignore the indignant protests of our personal troublemaker.

"The problem is that I'd like to stay with you until the war is over." Ayako continues with a sigh. "And there's no way I'll be able to convince them to give me permission if they're already annoyed."

"With what I know about your family… I rather doubt they would let you come live with me. At all."

"You're living at the Ryuudou Temple, Emiya." She deadpans. "I'd just say a couple of club members are staying there and I want to use the chance for extra archery practice, it'd be even true. I'm not stupid enough to mention you'll be there too."

"Oh, yeah. That."

"You might be part of this mess…" She continues. "But better to be in the middle of it knowing what's going on than become another ignorant victim."

"There's been exactly zero 'ignorant victims' in this war so far, unless you want to count Shinji." He was pretty ignorant, after all. "But I get what you mean. Anyway, I don't mind giving you a hand, but I'm not sure how me being there when you talk to your parents is supposed to help."

"You're the magus, Emiya. Can't you…" She shrugs uncomfortably, looking away before making her suggestion. "I don't know, hypnotize them or something?"

Ah… I had guessed it would be something like this.

"Not my specialty, but any magus worth their salt can befuddle a couple of muggles." I chuckle before my expression turns serious. "Are you sure you want to take that route right from the start, though? I can't really preach about morality, but midfucking your own parents sounds like a bit of an extreme escalation."

"Extreme? You don't know my parents. This is the bare minimum." She winces at my comment, but swiftly rallies herself back up, crossing her arms to double down on her choice. "Where do you get preaching about morality anyway, Mr. 'I'm the best of the worst'?"

I let the silence stretch after her words, giving her time to stew on them while I consider my answer. Ayako's parents are never mentioned in canon material, but after being casual acquaintances with her for years, there are some hints that they're fairly controlling. Whether they're the legendary asian tiger parents or not is another story, but what do I know?

I sagely bite down any snarky comments about teenage melodrama, enjoying for a bit longer the way she's starting to fidget under my stare before giving her a slow nod. It's not like I mind lending a hand either, and I don't care too much about what happens to faceless people I don't know. As long as she's sure she wants this, it's all the same to me.

"It's your choice. Still, hypnosis cannot work out of nothing, especially if we want it to hold for a while. We'd need some sort of believable excuse for– " Suddenly, an idea hits my mind. It's a great idea. So great, in fact, that my cheeks hurt because of how wide my smile gets. "I got a plan."

"I'm suddenly not sure this is a good idea." Too late, Mitsuzuri-san. We're committed now.

"Don't worry, it will be fun." I distractedly assuage her worries. "I'm going to need a responsible-looking adult for this, though. Sakura, do you mind if I borrow Medusa?"

Suddenly brought into the conversation, Sakura raises her head to throw us a surprised look, hesitating for just a moment before looking at the Servant dutifully trailing right behind her. "... As long as she doesn't mind?"

"I'd rather stay with Sakura." Medusa answers without hesitation, pausing for long enough that it almost seems like she's done answering before continuing in a far less firm tone. "...But as long as she remains safe..."

"I'll be fine, Rider." Sakura says with a small and content smile that hits straight into the feels. "I'm amongst friends."

"Excellent!" I clap my hands once, rubbing the palms together as I try to keep my smile under control. "Now we just need to rent some formal clothes for you to wear and we're set."

"I'm suddenly very much unsure about this idea." Ayako insists, not that I pay her second protest any more attention than the first.

This is going to be great!

"Just for the record, Emiya." Ayako whispers harshly. "I hate you."

"Awww… Sucks. Don't worry Mitsuzuri, I love you anyway."

The three of us are now sitting down seiza-style in front of a tea table in the living room of the Mitsuzuri residence, which is decently-sized building where an effort has been obviously put on projecting an air of conservative respectability, but amusingly enough doesn't really hold a candle to the Emiya residence. Advantages of having Yakuza contacts, I guess.

Ayako and me are still wearing our school uniforms, but Medusa, sitting right between the two of us, is clad in a rather fetching purple kimono and some rather elegant wire-framed glasses.

'Thank you again for the Mystic Eye Killers, Princess' I send Medea. 'Medusa looks adorable in them. Great job as always.'

'It was just a trinket cobbled together in a hurry, Master. Please remember that they won't be able to contain [Cybele]for longer than a couple of hours.' Medea protests with a distracted huff, no doubt focusing on her work on the Grail. After a brief pause though, she continues in a softer tone. '... And I'd appreciate pictures.'

I send a mental chuckle before focusing back on what's in front of me. A short woman with dark chestnut hair held in an elegant bun and wearing a flower-patterned Kimono has just arrived with a tray full of refreshments. This is Mrs. Mitsuzuri, whose name I don't know and will probably never bother learning.

"Please allow me to apologize again for my husband. He will be with us shortly." She says demurely, serving us before taking her seat. "It was terribly inconsiderate to forget about this."

"A lapse without malice, I'm sure." I wave away her apology, amusedly noting how she's already shifting the blame around. I can practically taste the love in the air. "There's no harm done."

We were briefly left alone as soon as we were guided inside, while Ayako's parents panickedly got ready for the meeting we had arranged for today and they've both 'inexplicably forgotten about' until we popped up on their door. It was all properly mortifying, I'm sure.

Because we're having an omiai(1). That's right folks, I've decided to step up and officially interview myself with their parents to ask for their blessings to court her with views towards marriage. Medusa is here as our chaperone.

Why Medusa, you ask? Well, she was the only one around who could fit into the role. Plus, watching her so out of her comfort zone, desperately trying to sell the illusion that she knows what she's doing to avoid ruining the plan is extremely amusing. Earnest Medusa trying her best is a real treat.

… I might be empathizing with Stheno and Euryale a tad bit more than I'm comfortable with.

While I was distracted self-reflecting on important and previously unknown sides of my own soul, Mr. Mitsuzuri joins us and the conversation proper starts.

I'd love to regale you with the amusing double-entendres I slipped past Ayako's parents to fluster the girl, the adorable reactions of Medusa each time she was put on the spotlight and the interesting back-and-forths we had as we negotiated my right to court their daughter and I slowly redirected the conversation towards my plan of having her living with me in a heavily supervised environment as a compatibility test.

Unfortunately, the conversation was dry and as short as politely acceptable and everyone bent over themselves to please me. Mr. Mitsuzuri looked terribly intimidated by me for some reason, and it turns out he's a very dull and boring man when he doesn't feel confident in his own superiority.

Mrs. Mituzuri considered herself a prim and proper Japanese woman and wouldn't dare undermine her husband in public. She's also pretty cowed herself and gleefully hides behind that excuse to shut up and look pretty. I'm not sure she uttered more than three words before it was time to say our farewells and pretty much wrap her daughter up for me to take away.

My only usage of hypnosis during the whole thing was to get the omiai going in the first place. There wasn't even a shovel speech! I left the place with official permission for our plans and Ayako practically wrapped up with a ribbon on top for me to take away.

"Mitsuzuri?"

"Yes, Emiya?"

"Your parents are kind of pushovers, aren't they?"

"Only when they're worried about burnt down homes and busted kneecaps." She snarks sullenly. "The Yakuza is kind of scary for normal people."

"Huh… " I always forget Raiga-jiji is kind of a Yakuza Oyabun. I shrug. "Oh, well… Mission accomplished?"

"I still hate you, by the way."

"Some gratitude."

"I asked you to keep my parents from raising a fuss about me spending a couple of weeks living away, not to try to solve my marital life!"

To emphasize her answer, she throws a shoe at my head. No wonder she's friends with Rin.

(1) Omiai: A highly ritualized form of marriage interview popularized in Japanese media.