"That priest seems off."
After leaving the church, Shirou Emiya frowned. "I feel like he's hiding a lot of things..."
"Hmph, I think he's not the only one keeping secrets," Rin Tohsaka responded, crossing her arms with an obvious air of dissatisfaction.
Her attitude was clearly directed at Fang Mo. After all, back in the church, Fang Mo had made some shocking revelations, nearly exposing everything about Kirei Kotomine, to the point that Kotomine had to cut the conversation short and ask them to leave.
Rin understood the value of having a lot of information—being well-informed is always an advantage. But what truly irritated her was that her troublesome Archer had never shared any of these details with her. It meant he'd been investigating things behind her back.
That's what really bothered Rin. In her mind, weren't they supposed to be allies? Shouldn't they trust each other? Yet here was Archer, collecting so much crucial information on his own. Rin had thought he only cared about Europe, but it seemed he was quite invested in the Holy Grail War as well.
The information he had uncovered was indeed surprising. For example, Shirou Emiya's adoptive father had apparently won the previous Holy Grail War and had even fought against Kirei Kotomine. The great fire ten years ago had also been caused by the Grail.
Even Shirou was left shaken after hearing all this. Who knew how much more Archer could have revealed if Kotomine hadn't ended their meeting? It had only been a few days since Archer was summoned, and he had already uncovered so many secrets.
"You never asked me," Fang Mo said casually, clearly picking up on Rin's displeasure. "You can't expect me to share all my intel without being asked first."
"Why not?" Rin retorted. "Sharing information is critical—"
"Fine," Fang Mo interrupted, throwing his hands up. "The average length for Japanese males is about 13.56 cm, around 35,000 adult films are produced annually, and the most popular title right now is—"
"Shut up!" Rin's face turned bright red.
"Go ahead, use another Command Seal." Fang Mo taunted, pointing to his mouth and then to the German boy standing next to him, who was mimicking his gestures.
"I…" Rin groaned, rubbing her forehead. She had no idea what to do with this insufferable Archer of hers. While other Servants helped their Masters fight, hers seemed to exist just to give her a headache.
"Alright, alright, Tohsaka-san." Shirou tried to play the peacemaker. "Maybe Archer just recently gathered this information and didn't have a chance to tell you yet?"
"Indeed," Saber, surprisingly, chimed in to support Fang Mo. "Besides, it was you, Miss Tohsaka, who commanded Archer to keep quiet last night."
"He didn't keep quiet at all!" Rin exclaimed, pointing at the German boy beside Fang Mo. "Look! It didn't stop him from talking, did it?"
"I train with all my heart!" the German boy shouted proudly.
"..." Rin was on the verge of collapse, wishing she could just disappear.
The atmosphere was awkward, but at least the walk back to Shirou's house wasn't too long. After walking in silence for a bit, they soon arrived near the Emiya residence.
However, just as they reached the front gate, Fang Mo suddenly noticed two figures on his minimap.
He didn't quite recognize the girl with the short brown hair, but the other one, with long purple hair, was unmistakable—it was Sakura Matou.
"...Hmm?"
Fang Mo raised an eyebrow in surprise upon seeing her.
"What's wrong, Archer?" Shirou, now more attuned to his role as a mage, noticed Fang Mo's expression and asked, "Is there an enemy nearby?"
Before Fang Mo could answer, the gate to the Emiya residence opened, and a girl in a school uniform with purple hair peeked out, looking happy. But as soon as she saw the group outside, she froze. "...Eh?"
"Ah… Sakura?" Shirou stammered, equally surprised to see her.
But Sakura wasn't the only one who stepped out. Soon, another figure appeared—a mature woman with short brown hair. "Shirou, why are you out so early in the morning... Huh?"
She seemed equally surprised to see Rin and the others, particularly their unusual outfits. "Tohsaka-san? Wait... what's with these outfits?"
As mentioned earlier, the group had disguised themselves as cosplayers. While strangers wouldn't find it strange, running into someone they knew made it difficult to explain.
"Uh… well…" Rin was quick on her feet and immediately responded, "I have some friends who just came from abroad, and they wanted to experience the local cosplay culture."
"Is that so?" the woman glanced at Shirou, raising an eyebrow. "And you, Shirou?"
"I… we just bumped into each other on the way," Shirou said awkwardly, stumbling over his words. "There was a bit of a misunderstanding, and I ended up tagging along."
"Shirou, you're still as bad at saying no to people as ever," the woman laughed, clearly accustomed to this kind of thing. "But with everything going on in Fuyuki City recently, you all should be careful. The serial killer on the loose still hasn't been caught, and now there's talk of a cult appearing last night. It's really dangerous out there."
"Got it, Fujimura-sensei," Shirou nodded quickly.
Hearing the name, Fang Mo finally recalled who she was. Yes, this woman was Fujimura Taiga, the English teacher at Homurahara Academy and Shirou's guardian. She often came to his house to freeload meals. She'd even had a bit of a crush on Shirou's late adoptive father, Kiritsugu Emiya.
"I heard the explosion at the school was caused by that cult as well," Taiga knocked Shirou lightly on the head, sighing. "It's such a mess. I went to check the damage this morning—it's pretty scary. It's a good thing you came home early, or you might've been in danger."
"Haha…" Shirou laughed awkwardly, not daring to tell her that he had actually stayed late at school and had died once, only to find himself dragged into the Holy Grail War.
"So these are your foreign friends?" Taiga turned her attention back to the group, her gaze lingering on Fang Mo. "Uh… what's with his outfit?"
"He's an anti-war protester," Rin responded quickly. "Fujimura-sensei, you know how some people in Europe use irony in their protests, right?"
"Oh, I see." Taiga nodded absentmindedly, then extended her hand to greet the group. "Nice to meet you all, I'm Fujimura Taiga."
"Fujimura-sensei, this guy can't talk…" Rin quickly interjected, hoping to prevent Fang Mo from causing trouble. But she was too late—he was already smiling and extending his hand.
"Hello, I'm Adolf Hi—"
"COUGH COUGH COUGH!" Rin immediately started coughing violently to cut him off.
"Tohsaka-senpai, you're coughing quite a bit. Are you okay?" Sakura suddenly asked, her tone sounding polite but distant.
"I… I think I'm coming down with a cold," Rin responded, her behavior slightly off as well.
"Then you should rest," Sakura nodded, then turned to Shirou. "Senpai, I'll be heading home now."
"Huh? So early?" Taiga seemed surprised by Sakura's sudden departure. Normally, she would stay at the Emiya house for much longer, helping out until dusk. Her early departure was unusual.
"Yes, there's something I need to take care of at home," Sakura said with a polite bow before leaving without giving anyone a chance to stop her.
"..." Rin watched Sakura's figure disappear, saying nothing. She knew why Sakura had left—it was because of her.
As mentioned before, Sakura's real family name was also Tohsaka. She was Rin's younger sister but had been adopted by the Matou family, which was why her name had changed to Sakura Matou. Because of this, their relationship had become strange. Rin felt guilty about what had happened to Sakura, but it seemed like Sakura resented her.
Rin had also heard rumors that Matou Shinji, the Matou family's heir, was a vile and arrogant jerk. Sakura often had bruises on her body, likely because Shinji bullied her. This only made Rin despise Shinji even more, though there wasn't much she could do since it was a private matter within the Matou family.
These details weren't widely known. Shirou and Taiga, for instance, were unaware. However, Fang Mo, having read the original story, knew everything. When he saw Sakura earlier, he couldn't help but feel sorry for her.
After all, *Fate/stay night* had several different storylines, one of which was Sakura's route, where she descended into darkness. But with everything she had gone through, Fang Mo felt that her actions after turning dark were quite restrained, all things considered.
"Well then, I guess we'll be heading out as well," Rin said with a sigh after Sakura left.
Since Taiga was an ordinary person, it would be difficult to discuss the Holy Grail War in front of her, so it was better to continue the conversation elsewhere.
However, just as she was about to leave, Fang Mo suddenly decided to go against the plan.
"I'm not going back. I'm going to stay here and have some tea."
"Ugh…" Rin felt her vision go dark. "I have tea at my house too."
"The water at your place isn't hot enough, and the tea tastes bad," Fang Mo replied, waving his hand dismissively. "I want to try someone else's tea. I heard they make tea with rice here in Japan. I want to try a couple bowls."
"You—" Rin bit her lip in frustration, but before she could say anything more, Taiga chimed in with a smile.
"Why don't you come inside and rest for a while? It's rude to send guests away, right, Shirou?"
"Ah, yes," Shirou nodded, still looking a bit confused.
And so, the group returned to the Emiya household once again.
"You're from Germany, right? Your Japanese is really good," Taiga said as they settled in. "It sounds just like a native speaker's."
"Oh, well, my main job is translating," Fang Mo said nonchalantly. "Even though I'm German, I'm fluent in both German and Japanese. I've also lived in China for over twenty years, so my Chinese is top-notch too."
"For that long?" Taiga looked surprised. "You must know a lot about China then."
"Pretty much," Fang Mo replied casually.
"You won't believe this, but I've always been curious about China," Taiga said, her eyes lighting up with interest. "I heard that in some parts of China, trains run through buildings. Is that true?"
"Oh, that's true in Chongqing," Fang Mo nodded.
"Wow, that's amazing!" Taiga exclaimed. "I'd love to see that for myself someday."
"That's nothing," Fang Mo said, waving his hand. "In America, not only do trains go through buildings—planes do too!"
"Eh?" Taiga froze in confusion.
"I…" Rin, on the other hand, could feel her blood pressure rising. She knew exactly what Fang Mo was implying, and she glanced down at the Command Seals on her hand, barely able to stop herself from using a second one.
Just then, Rin noticed a figure creeping up behind Taiga. It was the German boy that Fang Mo had summoned as his Servant. He was holding a strange red brick and slowly raising it over his head.
"Wait—!"
But it was too late. With a loud *thud*, Taiga collapsed onto the table.
"What are you doing?!" Rin couldn't contain her anger anymore. "Are you crazy, attacking a regular person?!"
"It's fine, it's just a sleeping aid," Fang Mo said calmly. "I just wanted her to take a nap so we can discuss our plans in peace. We still need to deal with the Matou family, don't we?"
"You call that a sleeping aid?!" Rin shouted.