Rating: T

Disclaimer: I only own the plot. Every characters belong to their rightful authors.

Author's note: This is my first fanfic, I hope that you will enjoy it. And I would be very grateful for your comments and reviews, so that I can improve.

As you can see already, this is a FSN x I.S fanfic. But since it's fiction, the characters of both worlds may have a bit of change in their personality. There are also some changes in the event of FSN, and in the description about I.S academy as well.

And in this story, I used a mixture of all 3 routes in FSN, not just a specific one.

Also, I'm sorry for possible grammar mistake. I only got a beta from chapter 2 onward.

I also posted this story on fanfiction.net but new members can't post external link so...

Progress: On going (chapter 2 published, chapter 3 completed waiting for beta)

This is a long fic with ~10k words per chapter.

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Shirou Emiya was standing at the entrance of Tokyo High school examination center.

"So cold..." He mumbled as his entire body shivered. "Why do I have to go all the way to Tokyo to take an entrance exam, there are plenty of other high schools that is nearer to Fuyuki."

It wasn't like he didn't know the answer though.

It was almost 1 year since the end of the fifth Holy Grail War. And due to a reckless action of a fake Master during the war, that his Servant - Rider - had constructed a Blood Fort - a bounded field that absorbed the life force of every living things within its boundary - over Homurahara High school.

Luckily no one died at the end since Shirou and Rin managed to stop Rider and her Master - Matou Shinji before they managed to complete their scheme, but the aftermath was still not beautiful. The Fort, despite being not really completed, was still activated, causing almost the entire students and school staff to be hospitalized. Although the lightest cases were just people losing consciousness, there were still a large number of victims suffered from body deformation, with melting skin and the like. Of course no one ( normal people at least ) could explain what happened, so the government covered the entire event as a gas leak and attacks from biological weapons.

As a result, the school was declared a dangerous zone and closed down until further notice. And even though almost all of the victim students and teachers had fully recovered, their only option was to transfer into another school to continue studying, or teaching in case of teachers. And Shirou was one of them. After 8 months of lazing around the house, now it was time for him to start studying again.

And for the reason why he had to go this far to Tokyo, instead of choosing a nearer school, that was because Fuji-nee ( a.k.a Fujimura Taiga, Shirou's guardian ) had a friend here, a childhood one even. Her name was Chifuyu Orimura. Shirou only met her a few times in his elementary school years, but he knew very well that her and Fuji-nee were very close.

"They even practiced kendo together." He shivered again. Anyone could stand against that Taiga in kendo was definitely not normal. It wasn't like Taiga's skill could be compared to a certain blond swordwoman he knew, but it was above that of a normal human for sure.

Anyway, since Fuji-nee had contacted Chifuyu and asked her to let Shirou stay at her apartment while he studying in Tokyo, and had gotten a "Yes.", he had to come here to take the exam.

"You don't have to worry about renting fee and transportation fee while you are there." Said Taiga before sending Shirou off. "Chifuyu's house is very close to the school you applied for, so you can go there on foot."

Well that was basically true, so he couldn't argue at all.

"Oh poor me..." He sighed, and entered the examination building. "Now let's see, where is the room I'm supposed to go to..."

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"Seriously this place was like a maze." Shirou mumbled and resigned to the fact that now he was completely lost. "Isn't there a map or something? How do the staff find their way around here anyway?"

Cursing the person who designed this damned building, he decided to find a staff and ask for the way around, before turning at a corner and find himself standing in front of a large wooden door. And suddenly, his nose was invaded by a strange but familiar smell, no doubt coming out from inside the room.

Prana.

Every magus can sense the presence of prana around him/ herself. The way they feel it wasn't the same for everyone though. It was different from person to person. It could be in the sense of touch, or sight, or even taste. And in Shirou's case, it was smell.

The smell appeared for him was also varies. As for the case of the Blood Fort constructed in Fuyuki, it had a sweet smell, and for whatever it was inside that room, it felt...metallic. It wasn't very strong though, only about the same as a normal magus. But the source of this prana definitely wasn't that of a magus, or a human for that matter.

Shirou decided to check out the room, as he was curious about the 'thing' inside. He pushed the door open slowly with one hand, while the other prepared to trace the first sword that comes to his mind in case of something unexpected. It never hurts to be careful, whatever was behind that door, it could be dangerous.

But to his relief, nothing happened. After entering the room, Shirou finally saw the source of the mysterious prana.

The sight in front of him left Shirou breathless. Kneeling on one leg in the middle of the room was something like a medieval armor. Its posture was like that of a knight swearing loyalty to his king.

But really, despite being called an 'armor', the thing's protection rate was ridiculously low as it only covered minor parts of the body, leaving most of the fatal ones like the head, neck and chest uncovered.

"So this is an IS..." Thought Shirou. Of course he knew what it was. Despite him being not 'very good' in technology, the Infinite Stratos - IS for short - had been the center of media attention for years since the day it was invented by a Dr. Whatever-her-name-was. It wasn't like it was important to Shirou anyway.

The I.S was originally created as a multi-purpose power suit for space operations. But somewhere along the way, it was modified by some of the specialists, and turned into a 'war machine'. However, for whatever nonsense reason it was, all of the countries involved designated it as a 'Sport flying device', thus a new sport was born.

"It's ridiculous." Thought Shirou as he examined the armor. "A sport where people get on a barely protected suit and battle each other until one side runs out of energy to keep their shield up. It's too dangerous. What if the other party couldn't stop in time, and accidentally injured the one who lost? It could be fatal..." He sighed again.

The I.S, despite being all powerful as it was, had a big flaw in its system: It only reacted to females. Therefore, could only be used by one.

That mean the metal pile in front of Shirou was just what it was - a metal pile - to him.

But it was definitely the source of the metallic smell prana he felt earlier. Even though Shirou had seen it before, it was only on newspaper. So he couldn't tell that it was a prana source. Now that the thing was right in front of him, he could feel clearly. The prana came from a small part of its body, the core.

"Hmm... Interesting." Shirou mumbled as he reached out and touched the armor... "Does that mean it used prana as its power source?" ...and poured his own od into the machine, attempted a 'Structure Analysis'.

Naturally, all of the I.S's aspects appeared inside Shirou's mind, from its functions, to the way to operate it, and so on... Basically, he saw and remembered all of its features.

But what he didn't expect, was that the armor in front of him accepted his od. And as Shirou felt a bit of his od - no more than a small sip - taken from him, went into the IS's core, the machine started to activate.

"You must be kidding me..." Obviously Shirou had a tendency of being pulled into unexpected mess. Face palmed himself as he saw two instructors ran through the door he came from, accepted that he was busted doing something he shouldn't be able to.

"Wha..." One of the two instructors stopped dead on her track, seemed to lost her ability to speak as she watch the unbelievable scene happening inside the room.

"A...a boy activated an I.S..." The other one murmured in disbelief.

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That was what happened 2 months ago.

After that small incident where Shirou accidentally became the first male ever to have activated an I.S, he had been dragged out of his house to meet a few important looking people, then finally accepted to the I.S Academy. And today was his first school day.

That led to an embarrassing situation, since only females ( with the exception of Shirou himself ) were able to use I.S, the school was an all-girl one. Now being the only male on campus, he was surrounded by nothing but girls his age.

That wasn't to say he didn't have any experience with girls. Heck, Shirou might have gone further with them than some of the boys his age. But still, the situations were completely different. On one hand, it was him with Saber - the spirit of the Legendary King Arthur, or the prodigy magus Rin Tohsaka in a war of life and death. On the other, was him and a bunch of excited school girls in a completely school-like atmosphere, minus the fighting machine part.

"This is gonna be troublesome..." Shirou massaged his forehead. Needless to say, Fuji-nee, Sakura and Illya weren't very happy with that arrangement.

Matou Sakura was Shirou's friend back at Homurahara High, and she was one grade below him. She also was the sister of that fake Master Matou Shinji. Thinking of the bastard's name and his cruel action still enraged Shirou, but he by no mean hated Sakura. He liked her even, the girl often visited Emiya Resident in Fuyuki, and help him with various chores around the house.

And Illya in some way could be described as Shirou's little sister. As she was the child of his adopted father - Kiritsugu Emiya. The little girl with beautiful silver hair was also a Master in the fifth Grail War. After her Servant Berserker got defeated by Shirou and Saber, Illya moved in with him. And they had become very close ever since.

Well, the reason that they were unhappy was obvious. While there was no problem with the academy itself, as there were mundane subjects along with I.S training, they knew Shirou fully well to know his obsession with saving people, despite putting himself in danger. He wasn't as bad as he was during the War though. In eight months at home, Shirou was trained in both magecraft and swordmanship by Rin and Saber, and he had improved greatly. Especially the fact that he now no longer desperately putting himself in front of others and got injured.

Well, most of the times anyway. There are still special occasions when Shirou's heroic blood acted up, making him do some stupid things. And the girls worried that with the power of the I.S backing him up, the frequency of those occasions would just increase.

There were something else in case of Sakura though. As they were arguing about Shirou's acceptance into the academy, between others' bashing, he swore that he could hear the girl mumbled something like 'surrounded by girls' and 'go with him there'. Of course, Shirou was smart enough to pretend that he didn't hear anything at all.

"Was she jealous? It's not like I go there to hit on girls. Hell, I didn't even plan to go there in the first place." Thought Shirou as he remembered their not-so-pleasant talk. Shook his head to get rid of the unnecessary thoughts, Shirou stepped into his classroom, prepared for whatever waiting for him in the future ahead.

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"Is everyone here? Yes? Then let's start SHR. ( Student homeroom meeting )"

That was Yamada Maya-sensei, the vice homeroom teacher, who was now standing in front of the blackboard and smile earnestly at the entire class. She had a petite figure, and could be easily mistaken for a student. And Shirou honestly thought she was one, until her introduction.

The way Yamada dressed with clothes that didn't fit made her looked like a child being forced into adult's clothes. And on her face was a pair of big, hazy glasses that looked out of place on her large, olive green eyes.

"She looks like the type of person that wouldn't hurt anyone." Thought Shirou as he observing the vice homeroom teacher.

But appearance could be deceiving. If the Grail War had taught Shirou anything, then it would be that a person's size doesn't indicate his or her strength at all. Illya was a prime example for that statement. Despite having the appearance of a 10 years old, as the vessel for the Grail itself, she was even stronger than that Tohsaka Rin, in term of magecraft of course.

"Everyone, please get along nicely next year." Said Yamada cheerfully.

But unlike her, the entire class was filled with an awkward atmosphere. The reason for that was clear though.

Shirou was the only male student in class. And he no doubt could feel the gazes of all other students on him. And his seat position in the middle row didn't help it at all.

"Ehem..." Yamada-sensei continued, oblivious of the awkwardness around her. "Let's move on to the introduction, we will go by seating arrangements."

After that, one by one, Shirou's classmates went up to the black board and introduce themselves. The event helped taking the attention away from him for a while, which was good. But when it was finally his turn, it became even worse, as Shirou now stand in front of the whole class, and the pressure from their stares wasn't a joke.

"Hello everyone." Shirou started, feeling that he must end this as soon as possible without leaving a bad impression. "I'm Shirou Emiya, transferred here from Homurahara High school in Fuyuki city."

Silence. But he decided to ignore it and go on.

"Despite sitting in this first year classroom, I'm actually 17 years old, a third year student back in Fuyuki. But since I'm completely clueless when it comes to I.S, I have to learn it from the beginning. It's nice to meet you all, I hope we can get along great."

Now there were whispers among his classmates, and he sighed in relief. He couldn't hear  whatever they were whispering about, but by the looks on their faces, at least it seemed like he made a fairly good introduction.

"Excuse me, Emiya-san." A girl with shoulder length black hair sitting near the back of the class said as Shirou about to come back to his seat. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yes, of course." He blinked at the girl in surprise.

"You said you transferred from Homurahara High, right?"

He nodded, wondering what she was getting at.

"I heard about what happened there." The girl continued. "Is it true? You know, about the gas leak and stuffs..."

Shirou frown at the question, it wasn't like he didn't want to talk about it, and it was nothing to be kept hidden. But remembering about the event left a bad taste in his mind.

"Yeah, it's true." He finally answered in an indifferent voice. "There was a gas leak and biological stuff too." Well, obviously that was a lie, but it wasn't like Shirou could tell her the truth.

"So you were one of the victim too?" The girl kept pushing, didn't notice his frown.

"I was." He answered immediately, decided that he would just lie his way out of this. "But I really don't remember anything, we all lost our consciousness, remember?" Of course that wasn't how it went. Shirou and Rin were at the school when the bounded field went on, but their magic resistance kept them from being affected like other people on the compound.

"Ah...that's true, isn't it?" She slumped, disappointment showed on her face. "But do you remember how..."

"Ok, stop asking him unpleasant questions on his first day at school, Takashi-san." Yamada-sensei decided to step in and stop the curious girl.

As if suddenly realized what she had been doing so far, the girl named Takashi blushed hard, and slowly sat down. "Sorry, Emiya-san, I didn't mean to..."

"Don't worry about it." Shirou waved his hand. "It's just natural to be curious about something like that. And I don't mind telling you about it, except for the fact that I don't even know anything to say."

"Yes...you are right, Emiya-san. Thank you for answering me." Takashi mumbled as she kept her red face down.

"You are welcome." Said Shirou with a gentle smile as he went back to his seat. Well, at least his introduction didn't go too bad, and he thought that he managed to score a good first impression.

After that, the introducing speech went on until the last girl came back to her seat. Shirou did pay attention, but it wasn't easy to remember all of 29 girls' name on the first day. Instead, he focused to pick out some of the girls that stood out. And there were only two of them.

The first one was Shinonono Houki, Shirou knew her as she often visited and practiced kendo under Fuji-nee's instruction when they were still kids. He didn't recognize her at first, but after hearing the name, and seeing her familiar hair style, Shirou was sure that was her. The way she kept staring at him in what he deducted as annoyance, and quickly looked away when he looked back at her confirmed that even more. He didn't know what he did that annoyed Houki though.

The second one was a British blond girl named Cecilia Alcott. From what she said during the introduction, she was one of the I.S pilot who represented her country, thus an elite. So Shirou assumed that this Cecilia should be skilled at piloting that armor. But aside from that and her good looks, she had an annoying attitude and looked down at everyone else. It would be hard to deal with her, but Shirou decided that he would keep an eye on the British classmate.

"Ehem..." Yamada-sensei had once again taken the position in front of the black board. "Thank you for your introductions, everyone. And now I'd like to introduce you to our homeroom teacher, Chifuyu Orimura-sensei!"

"What did she just say?" Thought Shirou as he raised an eyebrow at the familiar name. And when said person made her way into the classroom, he was shocked even more to confirm that his suspicion was correct. Seeing Houki again was nowhere near the shocking level of this homeroom teacher's arrival.

That was definitely Taiga's childhood friend, Chifuyu Orimura. The one who agreed upon Shirou's lodging in her apartment, thus a part of the reasons why he had come to Tokyo in the first place.

"She is an I.S instructor?" Shirou thought, didn't realize that he stood up, and stared at his homeroom teacher in surprise.

"What's the matter, Emiya-kun?" Asked Chifuyu as she saw the boy's sudden behave.

Snapped back to reality, Shirou quickly shook his head "Nothing, nothing at all, Orimura-san." He even accidentally called her '-san' in the middle of a class, but it was too late when he realized what he had done. And that made Chifuyu's eyebrows twitch.

"Call me 'Orimura-sensei' when we are in school." She scolded Shirou. "Seriously, you are just as idiotic as Taiga described."

"Yes, ma-am." Shirou replied in a serious tone as he made a mental note to cut Fuji-nee's share of food when he came back to visit next time.

"Kyaaa! It's the real Chifuyu-sama!" A cry from behind made Shirou almost jumped. And it was soon followed by a series of girly shrieks.

"I'm so happy to be taught by Chifuyu-sama!"

"I've always been your fan!"

"I've come all the way from Hokkaido to be taught by you, Chifuyu-sama!"

...and some others that belonged to the 'fangirls meet their idol' category. Chifuyu, on the other hand, just let out a disappointed sigh looking at the unfolding chaos.

"I see." She began. "My class this year is full of idiots again. Are these fools really come here just to attend my class?"

That was genuine disappointment, nothing about her sarcasm was an act at all.

And then ignored all the cries of her 'fan', Chifuyu turned to Shirou again.

"What are you doing? Why didn't you sit down already?"

"Ah yes, Orimura-sensei." This time Shirou really jumped, since he was busy watching his classmates went crazy over Fuji-nee's friend. He had no idea Chifuyu was this famous. It was only natural though, since he didn't care much for the technology world.

"Now listen here." Chifuyu announced to the entire class. "I'm Chifuyu Orimura, your homeroom teacher this year. And I'll make sure to use this time to drill the I.S basics, operations and controls into your heads. If you don't understand anything, I will teach you until you do. You can dislike my attitude, but you still have to do what I say, got it?"

Shirou didn't sure if anyone beside him got that declaration of war, but reality helped him by showing that no one did. Apparently, the shrieks of the girls had become more extreme and things like 'Chifuyu-sama, please scold us more!' and 'I could die for Chifuyu-sama' could be heard from the overly excited crowd. He now really doubted that his classmates were all M.

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Homeroom ended without any further incident as Yamada and Chifuyu managed to calm the overly enthusiasm mob. And they moved on to the next class - Basics of I.S. There are five classes a day, with the first and the last classes were about I.S, and the rests were mundane subjects like Japanese, History and Math.

I.S academy as its name suggested, was a school funded by Japanese government itself to teach and protect the young I.S pilots. As these people are the future of national defense, the government had to interfere fairly if anything happened to them. However, the results of every researches within the academy had to be shared between involved countries as Japan had no right to hide them or remain silent.

Also, as a mutual agreement between I.S agencies, the academy would open its door to accept all foreign students, and protect them as it would with its own pilots. As a result, only half of the students there were Japanese.

And as the only male being able to operate an I.S, Shirou wasn't only well known within the school. Now every other countries had heard of him, and his face often show up on newspaper. Needless to say, being the kind of person he was, Shirou saw this sudden fame as nothing but a bother. And the fact that he had got several invitations from other countries' I.S teams, or even scientists ( for his DNA ) didn't help the matter at all.

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Shirou's first I.S class was a total failure. While he was able to 'understand' the machine with his 'Structure Analysis', facing the scientific terms within the textbooks and Yamada's lecture was an entirely different matter. Being a technology noob, he could only understand about a third of everything. And Shirou himself admitted that if this situation kept up, it definitely wouldn't end well.

"And that's everything for today's class, is there anything you didn't get? If there is, don't hesitate to ask me." Yamada happily concluded.

"Uhm...sensei?" Shirou raised his hand, she did say 'don't hesitate' after all.

"Yes? Emiya-kun. Is there anything you didn't get?"

"Ehm... actually..." He was trying to find a better way to put this, but there simply wasn't one. "I didn't understand almost everything, sensei."

"Eh?" Yamada's eye went wide at his confession. "Almost everything? But...but..." And tear started filling up her eyes. "...was it because of my teaching..."

Shirou could clearly feel his classmates' stares on him, as if they were saying together 'hey you made a female teacher cry, you insensitive bastard. Hurry up and apologize'.

"No it wasn't your fault, sensei." He said quickly, a bit panicked at what happening in front of him. Certainly, he didn't expect this, what kind of teacher cried in front of her students because of something like that anyway?

"Really?" The vice homeroom teacher looked at Shirou with her teary eyes.

"Really. It was a problem on my part, sensei. So please don't cry." He said, feeling relieved as the petite female in front of him stopped sobbing. He had few experiences when it came to crying girls, as all of the females he ever knew were strong-willed ones, who could easily looked after themselves. "You see, before studying here, I had little chance of learning about all these hi-tech things, so I had problems understanding scientific terms. And since that was the case, the handbook I was given before school starts wasn't of any help."

"Well in that case, it can't be helped." Chifuyu, who had been standing and observing the class in a corner, suddenly spoke up. And that made Shirou almost jumped again. Seriously, she should stop doing that.

"Stay back after class today, Yamada will help you to learn and remember all the terms." Said the homeroom teacher. Well, that was obviously a good idea, so Shirou saw no reason to refuse. But before he was able to give his reply, another loud 'Eh?' came from behind Chifuyu. The entire class turned their gazes to the source of the voice to find a deep blushing Yamada with both hands covering her face.

"Staying after class, just the two of us..." Still hiding her face, she started with an extremely embarrassed voice. "...but we are student and teacher..."

Shirou went completely pale hearing her muttering. It wasn't like he disliked Yamada, but he had absolutely no experience dealing with this kind of girl. And she said it herself too, they were student and teacher. Was she really a teacher? She was like a teenage girl with wild fantasies about guys.

"I...I appreciate the offer, Orimura-sensei." Shirou said in a hurry. "But I think it's better to...study by myself after all." In truth, he was about to suggest having a classmate to help him. But then he remembered that he was the only male here. And Shirou was very familiar with girls' gossip network, having been in a high school himself. He believed that if he ever made that kind of suggestion, then there would be another rumor about him dating a girl only after one day in school to go with his already dangerously famous status of the only male I.S pilot.

"You think I would trust you to study by yourself?" Chifuyu glared at him. "Stay back, that's an order. And Yamada-sensei, please get yourself together."

"Y...Yes? Ah right." Seemed like Yamada finally snapped back to reality, she quickly regained her posture. "That's everything, I will be seeing you after class, Emiya-kun."

Sighed and slumped down his seat, Shirou face palmed himself, he really wasn't of any good when it came to avoiding troubles. But what's done is done, there was no use brooding about it now.

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"Can I have a moment?"

It was the first break between class, and Shirou had already been visited by what he guessed was trouble. Well, 'trouble' actually was Cecilia Alcott, the British representative that Shirou saw earlier. She was a natural blond, her hair curled at the end revealed a sense of nobility. And her blue eyes showed that she was clearly upset. Even Shirou was amazed that he made 2 girls unhappy on his first day. He just didn't know how he managed that.

"Hey! Are you listening?" Now the annoyance showed in her voice too.

"Yes. Do you need something, Alcott-san?" Shirou looked up at her, wondered what the foreign classmate wanted from him.

Cecilia frowned, her arms folded in front of her chest. "What kind of respond is that? You know who I am, so you must know that it's an honor to talk with me."

Now Shirou was annoyed too, he didn't like this kind of girl. In this world where only females could pilots the I.S, the 'female=great' prejudice had been born. It was a normal sight in Tokyo to see men being bullied, or treated like servants. Luckily that trend hadn't spread to Fuyuki yet.

And as a matter of fact, Shirou refused to follow such stupid prejudice.

"I believe I'm being polite toward you, Alcott-san." He said, trying to keep his voice unemotional.

"Polite?" Seemed like his words upset the blond even more, her face now flushed with anger. "I'm a representative candidate student, an elite, and I got top score in the entrance exam. You should have a better attitude toward me." She sighed. "Seriously, what a backwater country, even its men don't know their place at all."

"Ah that explain her attitude." Thought Shirou. Living in a female dominated world like this, plus her status and achievements, that was a natural behave. But it wouldn't be good for Cecilia if she continued being like that.

"Please watch your words, Alcott-san." Shirou's glare made Cecilia flinched away a bit without realizing it. His voice was now cold and sharp. "This 'backwater' country was the one who invented the I.S, making you who you are now. So please stop with the insults, I won't forgive you if you continue."

There were several gasping sounds from the entire class,  the girls no doubt had been listening in Shirou and Cecilia's conversation, and were clearly shocked by the boy's attitude.

Cecilia was no different, her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped in surprise. Obviously she had never been talked down like this before, especially by a guy.

"Won't forgive... You...did you just threaten me?" Finally she managed to speak, and her voice filled with rage. "How disrespectful..."

"Yes, I believe I just did." Shirou told her coldly. "And Alcott-san, to me, respect is something earned, not freely given. So please forgive me if I wasn't being respectful toward you, since you haven't earned any from me."

Suddenly, a pair of hands slammed hard on the table in front of him, making a loud 'THUMP' as an enraged Cecilia declared.

"That's it. It's a duel."

The entire class gasped again.

"A duel?" Shirou was puzzled by her sudden declaration.

"Yes, don't tell me you don't know what a duel is. I can't have myself being disgraced and don't do something about it."

"And you want to settle that with a fight?" Shirou was honestly surprised. "Sorry, but I don't fight girls. Even if you say girls are greater than boy, I still can't bring myself to hit you."

"Wha..." Cecilia seemed to be taken aback by his word, her face flushed, but not from anger anymore. "What are you saying? I'm talking about I.S!! I.S duel!"

"Oh..?" Shirou, despite being in his serious mode, blushed a little too. "I'm sorry, so that was what you mean. But even if it's about I.S, I don't think I can..."

"You can't refuse!" Cecilia quickly interrupted him. "Are you planning to disgrace me even further?"

"But..." Shirou was about to say something else. But when he looked into the blond classmate's eyes, he saw determination behind her anger. It seemed that pride was very important for Cecilia, and kept declining her would do more harm than good.

"Ahh..." He sighed, accepted the unavoidable. "Fine, I accept your challenge." He would figure something out to solve this later.

"Good." Said Cecilia, now regained her composure. "Then I will give you one week to prepare yourself. We will have our duel by then."

"There's no need to wait that long." Shirou replied instantly, making the blond frowned. "We can do this by tomorrow if you want."

That was not a bluff, or overconfident on Shirou's part. Despite not being good with scientific terms, he still could control whichever I.S given to him like it was just an extension of his own body that he was familiar with. That was an advantage of his high level 'Structure Analysis' and his unique 'Tracing'. With those two, Shirou could understand any object or weapon he touched, or saw, in cases of blades. And in term of fighting skill, he was confident that he wouldn't lose to any normal human.

"Are you trying to anger me again, Emiya?" Cecilia growled at him, clearly taken his word as another personal insult. "You should know that I was the only one who defeated an instructor in the entrance test. And you are saying that some newbie like you who can't even understand the terms, can win against me with only one day to prepare? Are you looking down on me that much?"

"No." Shirou quickly corrected her. He also stood up, his face got close to Cecilia's, and he looked straight into his foreign classmate's eyes. "I don't look down on you in anyway, Alcott-san."

"Eh?..." Surprised by his sudden action, Cecilia blushed hard and stepped back. She stared at Shirou for a long time before words managed to get out of her mouth. "That...That's good. A...As long as you know..."

Then she said quickly "Tomorrow then. We will duel after class, so don't run away." And immediately turned away to her seat, her cheeks were still deep red.

Sighed, Shirou sat back down and massaged his forehead. Troubles had shown itself on his very first day at school, the girls back in Fuyuki would definitely not like it when they heard about this.

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The rest of the classes ended smoothly, with the exception of the last I.S class as Shirou was still sucks at understanding terms. But the problem seemed to be solved when Yamada gave him a list of terms and their meanings after class. She was surprisingly helpful, with no trace of the teenage girl earlier, to which Shirou was deeply grateful. After reading through the list once, and confirmed with the vice homeroom teacher again about the parts he wasn't sure about, it was time for Shirou to go to Chifuyu's apartment, where he was supposed to spend the night.

But to his surprise, Chifuyu herself walked into the classroom. He didn't expect her to still be here, school had ended a long time ago after all.

"I need to talk to you, Emiya-kun." Fuji-nee's childhood friend said. And Shirou once again wondered what trouble was coming for him this time.

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Two months ago, Chifuyu Orimura had got a surprise when her childhood friend Fujimura Taiga suddenly contacted her to get permission for a boy named Shirou Emiya, who was under Taiga's care, to stay at her apartment while the boy studying here. Chifuyu agreed, she never said 'No' to Taiga's requests. And it wasn't like the boy would bother her anyway, since she rarely come back to her apartment, usually once every two or three months. Her job as an instructor at I.S academy had eaten away almost all of her time. And actually, having someone to look after the apartment while she was gone was a good thing, as she remember what Taiga said, and she herself had witnessed a few time when she visited her friend in Fuyuki: This Shirou boy was a genius when it came to house chores.

But things didn't go as planned. On the day of Shirou's arrival, Chifuyu received an even more shocking news. The boy she was supposed to take in had activated a freaking I.S, which could only be used by female.

At first she thought that was some kind of mistake, as there were no way for Shirou to be able to use an I.S. But after seeing his performance in the entrance test, Chifuyu had to admit that the boy indeed could pilot that damned armor, and he was doing it so well even.

Resigned to the fact that Shirou would be going to study in I.S academy, since it was the government's decision, all she could do now was called Taiga, and give her childhood friend her word that she would look after the boy while he was here.

"There go my housekeeper." She sighed. Since the academy was a boarding one, Shirou would be staying in the school's dorm.

Came back to present, today was Shirou's first day at school. And while Chifuyu was a bit happy that the boy seemed to recognize her, she couldn't help but wonder how someone as skilled in controlling I.S as him could have trouble understanding the related terms. As experienced as she was, once being an I.S representative candidate and a champion, Chifuyu could recognized right away that Shirou held back a lot in his entrance test. If he had been serious, then Cecilia Alcott wouldn't have been the only one who defeated an instructor. And needless to say, the boy would have gotten the top score instead of the British girl.

She was also glad that he seemed to be able to handle himself well enough while being surrounded by girls his age. The boy was surprisingly mature for a seventeen years old, which was a bit odd, but a good thing nevertheless.

At the first recess, Shirou continued to surprise Chifuyu even more. She was right outside of the classroom during the conversation between the boy and Cecilia, but decided not to interfere. She wanted to see how he would react in that situation.

Interesting enough, Shirou was able to set the British girl on edge. And Cecilia's duel challenge wasn't anything unexpected. But what Chifuyu couldn't understand was the reason that made the boy agreed to the fight. Did she misjudged him, and Shirou wasn't as mature as she thought? After all, what kind of idiot would go and fight his classmate on his first day of school anyway?

But in the end, Chifuyu decided that she would let the duel happen. Maybe she would get a chance to see Shirou's true strength. He was indeed an interesting boy.

She still had to have a talk with him first though, and after class was a good time as any. Yamada was extremely helpful helping Shirou with his troubles, Chifuyu was right to trust her vice homeroom teacher with that. And since they are finished, it was her turn. Opened the door, she walked in and saw Shirou preparing to leave.

"I need to talk to you, Emiya-kun." Chifuyu said as she approached him.

"Yes? Orimura-sensei, I thought you've gone home already?" Shirou asked, obviously surprised to see her.

"Well, I don't normally leave campus." She began. "And talking about home, I have something to inform you about. You see, you won't be staying at my apartment like we intended, instead you will move to the school dorm."

"What?" Shirou's eye opened wide. "How come?"

"It can't be helped." Chifuyu looked straight at him. "This is a boarding school, and we can't let student sleep outside of the campus to ensure their safety."

"I can understand that." Said Shirou, but he still wasn't convinced. "But isn't this also an all-girl school? So the dorm must be all-girl too."

"Exactly." Chifuyu nodded. "But don't worry about that, a room had already been assigned for you to stay in. And all of your stuffs had been moved in too."

"Oh, fine." The boy sighed, looking clearly disappointed. "I guess it really can't be helped. So I will come to see my room now. What's the room number by the way?"

"1025." Chifuyu answered. "But hold on, there is something else I want to talk about too."

"What is it, Orimura-sensei?" Shirou once again stopped packing his stuffs, looked at his homeroom teacher.

"Your stupid duel." She said like scolding him. "Why did you agree to something childish like that?"

Now the boy in front of her completely dropped his school bag on his desk, before turned to look at her with a look of surprise with a little bit of disappointment. It made Chifuyu uncomfortable, Shirou was making her feel like she was wrong about something.

"Childish?" He shook his head slowly. "No it's not, Orimura-sensei. By the way, I noticed you were watching us from outside of classroom." Chifuyu frowned at that, she didn't used to being busted, but Shirou ignored that and continued. "But from your position, you might have missed what I saw. I saw determination in Alcott-san's eyes. You know all about her status and achievements, right?"

She nodded. "I do, but what about it?"

"Well, I think with all of those things, she must be carrying a heavy burden all by herself. Her own pride as a representative cadet, together with the hope of her own country and family. That must be hard." Shirou looked thoughtful. And for a moment, Chifuyu glad that she was right, the boy really was mature for his age. But still...

"So you intended to solve that by beating her in the duel? She asked, testing him.

"What? No, of course not." Shirou waved his hand frantically. And seeing that eased Chifuyu's mind.

"Beating her straight out in the duel can hurt her pride badly." The boy continued. "I'm still thinking of a way to solve this without hurting her feeling. Nothing came yet, but I will figure it out by tomorrow for sure."

"Why do you want to help Alcott so much then?" The question popped up in Chifuyu's head, and she decided to ask. "You like her or something?"

"No, I don't." Shirou panicked, his face blushed a bit. "Please stop joking, Orimura-sensei."

"So he can be like that too." Thought Chifuyu, amused by the boy's reaction. "So what's the reason then."

"Nothing specific. I just like helping people, that's all."

Chifuyu's eyes widened at Shirou's answer. But then she sighed, remembering about what Taiga said about the boy's dream. So it was natural for him to answer like that.

"Is there anything else, Orimura-sensei?" She looked up to see Shirou had picked his bag up again.

"Actually, there is one last thing." Chifuyu answered. "It's about your personal I.S."

"I have a personal I.S?" Shirou was obviously shocked hearing the news.

"Sure you do." Chifuyu gave him a nod. "You are the only male pilot after all."

"So where is it now?" Asked Shirou. She could now felt eagerness in his voice.

"It's still being adjusted and I think they are adding its weaponry at the moment. I can have it sent here by tomorrow afternoon so you can use it for your duel."

"Weaponry, huh?" The boy in front of her murmured, now he looked thoughtful again. "Orimura-sensei, can I ask you a favor?" Shirou said as he pulled out a pen and paper from his bag, then wrote something on it. "Can you tell them to add these in my I.S's armory? I don't need anything else, just these will do." Then he gave Chifuyu the paper.

Looked at what was given to her, Chifuyu couldn't help but being surprised. Those were...strange weapons to be used on an I.S.

"I see." Finally she answered. "I will see what I can do. You can go back to your room now, Emiya-kun."

Shirou thanked her, and left the room. Chifuyu still stood in place and looked at where the boy had been standing in until just now, thinking about their conversation. Then she looked at the paper he gave her again.

"You really are a strange boy, Shirou Emiya." She concluded with a small grin.

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"What a surprise, a personal I.S." thought Shirou while finding the way to his room. He had asked Chifuyu to add some weapons of his choice to his I.S's armory, and had seen the puzzled look on her face. It was natural though, since what he asked her to add were strange things to use on an I.S. But it couldn't be helped, they are his - a strange magus's - favorite weapons, they were bound to be unique.

And it seemed like Chifuyu was curious about Shirou. She had been observing him all day. Was she just interested in his status as the only male I.S pilot? Or there was something else? Either way, Shirou had decided to be more careful in showing off his skills. It would be a disaster if people found out his magus secret after all. While Shirou was afraid that if words got out, people would start questioning him, or even used him, he was more scared of the Mage Association. If they ever heard that he was the one who leaked the secret about magic, they would 'erase' him along with everybody involved for sure. And their Enforcers' strength were not something to be taken lightly.

Well nothing dangerous so far though, Shirou would be safe as long as he didn't start Tracing weapons in front of normal people.

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"Well here it is, room 1025." Finally found his room, Shirou opened the door and went in.

It was different from what he imagined of a school dorm. But since this academy was funded by the government to nurture its future defense, this was to be expected.

Shirou was looking at a fairly big double room, with 2 beds, one on each side. In a corner, there were two sets of school desks placed right next to each other. And at the end of the room - Shirou's heart jumped in joy when he saw that - was a kitchen, and by the look of it, it had every necessary things. There also were a round dinning table with four chairs around it as well.

"So despite having a cafeteria, the school still provided personal kitchen in each dorm room as well." He thought.

It wasn't like Shirou had any complain though. When he had to go to study in Tokyo, and then later lost the chance to stay at Chifuyu's apartment, Shirou had thought that he wouldn't be able to get into a kitchen as much as he used to until he graduated. So at the moment, having a kitchen that he could use whenever he want in front of him, Shirou was obviously overjoyed.

Being obsessed with the kitchen, it was normal for Shirou to miss the small bathroom on the right of it. He only knew of that room's existence when a voice came out from inside.

"Excuse me, are you my new roommate? I will come out right away." Shirou went pale when he heard the voice, that was clearly a girl. And it sounded so damn familiar too...

Before he managed to react, the bathroom door swung open. And from inside came a Shinonono Houki wrapped only in a bath towel. Shirou froze, in front of him was a girl from his childhood. Well obviously she wasn't a child anymore.

Long black hair dropped straight instead of the usual ponytail, in contrast with her silky smooth white skin that the towel failed to cover properly, revealed the upper part of her chest and her long, beautiful legs. As a final bonus, the water drops and her lightly pink cheeks from the bath gave Houki a sexy look that took Shirou's breath away.

"Sorry for greeting you like this." Houki said, still had her back turned to him. "But I just came back from club acti...vi...ties..." Finally, she turned around, realized who was in the room with her, and slowly trailed off.

The awkward silence went on for minutes, before Shirou managed to recover from the shock. "Why...why are you here, Houki?"

That seemed to wake Houki up too. Blushed deeply, she growled. "Why? I want to ask you the same question too. This is my freaking room, you pervert."

"Actually, it's my..." Not letting Shirou finished his sentence, Houki swung a bokken that she took out from God-know-where down at him. Quickly side-stepped, he decided to make his escape first and let her had time to calm down.

Dodged another strike aimed for his head, Shirou made a roll on the floor before taking two other long steps and reached for the knob, turned it open, then threw himself out of the room, not forgetting to shut the door between him and his enraged supposed-to-be roommate.

"Really..." Shirou sighed as he walked away from the deadly room. "Who thought of the idea of letting a teenage boy and a teenage girl to be roommates anyway?" He massaged his forehead again, wondered how many more headaches he would get before the end of the day.

"I guess I will just go sight-seeing around campus until Houki calmed down." Shirou sighed once again.

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I.S academy was a large facility, and it provided almost everything for its residents. Aside from the school building and the dorm, there were several more places. From the I.S related ones like the research building, or the I.S maintaining area, to some of the entertainment-purpose ones, like a game center, or a cinema. There were also a library, a park, and a multi-purpose gym. But what impressed Shirou the most was the fact that they managed to have an entire shopping mall inside the school campus.

All of those were to provide all of the students and instructors with their needs of course, so that they didn't have to go out of the school ground, thus endangering themselves. But just like other boarding schools, students were allowed to go outside of campus on weekends. They were all required to return before eight though, with the exceptions of the ones who came back to visit their home.
Since it was the first day of school, there were not many homework, so the students had something that could be called a free evening. And of course, they used this opportunity to go out and play.

When the situation looked all nice and good, it was actually another trouble for Shirou, who was dangerously famous. After refusing three different invitations to go to a restaurant, to watch a movie, and to have a stroll in the park from three groups of girls, he started to think that go sight-seeing at this time might not have been a good idea after all.

Shirou wanted to find somewhere less crowded. But since he was a newbie here, finding such place proved difficult. If only there was someone who can show him...

"Oh...What a surprise to see you here, Emiya-kun."

He turned around, and saw Yamada walking toward him. Her head poke out from the side of what seemed like a big pile of papers and books that she was carrying, which looked obviously too much for the petite woman. Her steps were unsteady from all the weight.

"Good evening, Yamada-sensei." Shirou said, then reached over and took most of the paper pile onto his arms. "Here, let me help you carry them."

Yamada looked like she wanted to stop him, but since her own arms were also busy, she couldn't do anything. "Th...Thank you, Emiya-kun." She said shyly after awhile.

"You are welcome, sensei." Gave her a gentle smile, Shirou asked. "What are all these anyway?"

"They are test papers of the second year." Yamada looked up at him, she was now smiling too, and her face was still a bit red. "I'm helping their teacher bring these to the staff's lounge."

"Why didn't she do this herself?" Shirou said disapproving.

"Now now Emiya-kun." The vice homeroom teacher scolded him. "It wasn't like she made me do this. The homeroom teachers are very busy you know."

"Ah..." He blushed a little. "Yeah, maybe you are right. I'm sorry."

"It's quite alright." Yamada giggled a little. "Thank you for caring about me. That really made me happy. So tell me, how was your first day at school?"

Shirou frowned a little, remembering all of today's events.

"It was nice, I suppose. The lessons were good, even the I.S ones since I already got the list you gave me. It helps me a lot. Thank you, Yamada-sensei."

"You are welcome." Yamada smiled brightly. "It was my responsibility after all."

Shirou smiled back, she really was a good person. He wondered if she really could get into an I.S and battle another in the arena.

"Hey, Emiya-kun." She started talking again. "I heard about what happened back in your previous school, and I couldn't help but being bothered by it. Are you alright?" She asked, blinked at Shirou. "I mean, after going through something like that, it must be really hard for you."

Shirou's eye opened wide looking at his vice homeroom teacher. And what he saw in her eyes wasn't curiosity, she honestly cared about his feeling. That made Shirou felt warmer  inside.

"I'm alright, Yamada-sensei. Thanks for caring about me." That was the truth, he really was okay about it. "Like I told Takashi-san earlier, I was unconscious, so I don't remember anything about that at all." Well, this one was a lie. But since the fire that almost killed him in his childhood, Shirou became immune with seeing corpses and blood. So the scene at Fuyuki High didn't affect him at all.

"Really? I'm glad to hear that." She smiled at him again, then stopped walking. "Well here we are, I can take care of these from here, you should head back to the dorm, Emiya-kun."

"Are you sure, sensei?" Shirou asked. "I can help you to bring these all the way in."

"No, no. It's okay really." Yamada said with a smile, and Shirou returned the paper pile he was carrying to her. He worryingly watching the petite woman struggled to keep her balance.

"Are you sure..." Shirou said hesitatingly.

"Yes, Emiya-kun." She said with determination, and then turned back to him, smiled gently. "Thank you, and good luck with your duel tomorrow."

."Thank you, sensei. Good night." Shirou said as Yamada started walking into the teacher's lounge.

"Good night, Emiya-kun."

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Shinonono Houki was extremely depressed at the moment. Now already changed to her nightgown and sitting on her bed, she blamed herself for the action earlier.

"I was such an idiot, attacking Shirou like that when we finally met again..." Houki thought solemnly. Obviously it wasn't Shirou's fault, she was told earlier that there would be someone moving into her room later, but she wasn't bothered to check who it was.

Well, it wasn't like Houki could admit that, so it couldn't be helped.

"But his reactions were so good, he must be training as hard as I do." She thought, remembering Shirou's movement as he dodged her bokken.

Thinking that cheered her up a bit. When she was a kid, Houki often came and practiced kendo with Fujimura Taiga, who was Shirou's guardian, so it was natural for the two to meet. At first, she didn't talk much with the silent boy, but nevertheless admired his sword skill and hard work ( as a kid of course ). And the two of them became closer later on.

Even though she stopped coming to Taiga's dojo years later, Houki still kept on practicing kendo, and recently she finally won the world championship, of which she was very proud. And seeing her childhood friend's improvement made Houki happy, as kendo was the only connection left between her and the boy she admired.

"Now he's here, and we even share a room together... It's like a dream." Such a simple thought was enough to make Houki's face flushed, and her heart beat faster.

And that thought led Houki to remember their reunion, and her already red face got even redder that steam almost came out of it. It was the first time a boy had got to see that much of her. While Houki was happy that Shirou was the one, she couldn't help but being embarrassed since she wasn't ready for it.

Houki also couldn't help but noticed the way Shirou looked - stared to be exact - at her when she was in that shameful appearance. That was too much for the innocent girl to bear, so she snapped and attacked him with her bokken, resulted in Shirou fleeing the room.

"I wonder what he thinks of my...my body." Looked down at herself, Houki murmured shyly. She was, in fact, proud of her beautiful white skin and well-endowed body.

Then, the sudden knocks on the door made her jumped off the bed.

"I'm sorry for earlier, Houki. Are you in there?" Shirou's voice came in from the other side of the door.

"Wait...wait a moment." Houki panicked, and quickly trying to calm herself down. She couldn't let him saw her in that state. "I'm coming."

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The door opened, and Shirou saw Houki, who was still a bit flushed, standing in front of him.

"Good evening." He began, it was a bit awkward, and he didn't know what to say to her. Well, at least the bokken was nowhere in sight.

"What are you standing there for?" As expected, Houki scolded him. "Hurry up and come in."

Shirou sighed in relief, looked like she managed to calm down after all. He walked into the room, and Houki quickly shut the door behind him.

"So..." Shirou said hesitatingly. "I guess we are roommates after all, huh? To be honest, I had no idea that I was going to be in the same room with you. When Orimura-sensei told me that there was a room prepared, I thought I would be living alone, since everyone else are all girls."

"So...so you didn't asked her to be in the same room with me?" There was a hint of disappointment in Houki's voice. That and her question made Shirou raised an eyebrow.

"No I didn't." He answered. "I'm sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, living with a guy and all..."

"No it doesn't, you idiot!" Houki shouted, clearly irritated. Then she walked past a shocked Shirou to sit on her bed, looking angry.

"Why are you angry? He asked, obviously confused by his childhood friend's attitude.

"I'm not angry!" Said Houki as she turned her head away with a 'Hump'.

"What's wrong with her, I don't get this at all..." Thought Shirou as he also went over and sit on his own bed. Girls really were impossible to understand, was it really that hard to say what was bothering you instead of holding it in like that?

Decided that it was a lost cause, Shirou tried to change topic.

"Actually." He said. "There is something that I've been wanting to ask you about, Houki."

"What...what is it?" She answered, still not looking at him.

"About my duel with Alcott-san tomorrow..." Shirou paused, wondering if she would really help him if he asked.

"About that." Now Houki turned over and glared at him. "What kind of idiot would go and fight his classmate on his first day at school?"

"Ah...you are right, it was a bit rash of me." Shirou admitted quickly, and decided that he would just go ahead and ask. There was nothing to be afraid of anyway. "But what's done is done. And I've wanted to ask if you could help me get used to my I.S tomorrow after school, before the duel."

"Eh?" Houki looked like his request was completely unexpected. And then two small blushes started to form on her cheeks. "You...you want me to help you?"

"Yes, I do." Shirou said firmly. "It would be unfair if I asked Orimura-sensei or Yamada-sensei. And you are the only one I know here, so..."

"That's right." Houki nodded. Now she was smiling too. "You wanted me to help you. I'm busy, but since you asked, I guess I can help you out."

"Really? Thank you very much, Houki." Her answer confused Shirou a bit, but it didn't really matter. She agreed to help, right?

"You are welcome." Houki, now humming happily, stood up and told him. "I think we should get to bed now, we have school tomorrow too."

"You are right." Shirou answered. "You go on ahead and sleep, I'm going to have a shower first."

And as he stood at the bathroom door, Shirou remembered something. He turned around, looked at Houki, and smiled. "By the way, I forgot to tell you this earlier. But congrats on winning the championship, I heard about it from Fuji-nee."

And then he turned away, not knowing that behind him, Houki's face had once again turned deep red.