As soon as school ended for the day, Issei headed toward Iihito's class to ask for some more advice. The girls stopped trying to beat him but still gave him wary looks whenever he passed by.

Spotting Iihito leaving the class, he called out with a wave. "Hey, Iihito! Mind if I ask for more relationship advice? I think I'm starting to get it, but I'm probably still doing something wrong."

“Oh, sorry, Issei. Life got pretty busy as of late, and I have a lot of things to worry about. I can still give you some quick advice, but anything in detail would need to wait.” Iihito opened her locker door, storing away her textbooks.

Beginning to frown, he bit the inside of his lip in worry. "Is there anything I can help with? You help me a lot, so It's only fair."

“I mean, I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.” Iihito closed the locker before locking it.

Looking over at her, he squinted, his brow wrinkling in worry. "Are you safe at home? Do you need help?"

Iihito glanced toward Issei, his attempts to help felt adorable... The other intention she saw, however... “Ah, yes. I’m fine. It's more of the danger of a roommate I’m worried about. If you want to help, though, I don’t mind, so long as you feel like helping others in need.”

Nodding his head in thought, Issei gathered his resolve. "I'll do my best. Mind if I tag along to see what I'm dealing with?"

“Sure, I’ll just have to make a call. The roommate’s caretaker is a helicopter parent, so he’ll want to make sure he knows everything before anything happens.” Grabbing into her bag, she switched on her Samsung Galaxy S22. The Otterbox case ensured that it stood firm against her grasp.

Tilting his head and staring at the black brick with a screen, Issei mumbled in surprise. "What's that?"

Iihito tilted her head towards Issei, raising a brow. “Uhh... My phone?”

He decided to take it at face value despite never seeing nor hearing of a phone like that. "Oh, Cool."

Dialing up Kiritsugu’s number, Iihito made sure to turn to an isolated corner just out of sight. “Emiya, I found someone. They're someone of interest, I’ll bring him to the residence.”

<<Very well. We are to meet at the entrance of the residence.>>

“Right, thanks. He said he is willing to help with Shirou’s situation.” Pressing the end call button, she slipped the phone back into her bag. “Alright, let’s get out of here.”

~~Line break~~

Rin was seated in front of Kiritsugu while she waited for Shirou to get home. It took considerable courage to come back to his manor after the day before, but it was a necessity. 

Hearing a knock at the door, she began to listen closely to find out who it was.

“Wait there, don’t touch anything.” Kiritsugu left the room.

As she waited, Rin kept her hands on the table and began to make a plan. "Okay, so it's obvious he has quite a lot of support and more than one master on his side. He seemingly managed to break the grail war with his father's help. I can't beat them, but if I join them it's a guaranteed win."

Opening the room’s door, Iihito entered the room. Accompanied by another student... One of the perverted trio...

“Oh, hey... Rin right?” Iihito waved toward her.

Rin slid a polite smile on her face to mask her displeasure with Iihito’s use of her given name. It was not good to alienate potential allies after all.

Reaching towards her chin, Iihito raised a brow before quickly lowering it. “Oh right, forgot I was in Japan for a moment. I should be calling you Tohsaka, shouldn’t I? Sorry if I sounded rude there.”

Rather surprised at the apology, Rin decided it would be better to allow the powerful servant to call her by her given name if it would make her more comfortable. She could do at least this much if they were going to become allies. "It's fine. If it makes it easier, you can call me Rin."

Turning her head towards Issei, Iihito raised an arm. “Oh yeah, Issei. This is Rin. Oh, by the way, you want superpowers?”

Raising an eyebrow with a slight smile, Issei chuckled at what he thought was a good joke. "Superpowers? You're joking right?"

“Yeah, but wouldn’t it be cool?” Iihito shrugged.

Already beginning to nerd out a bit, Issei exclaimed just how much he loved dragon ball with a proud smile. "Hell yeah! I could imagine it already. Kaioken, it’s underrated as hell but super op in any other setting.”

Nodding along, Iihito made sure her dragon ball nerdgasm didn’t leak out. “Right? Do you ever feel like you want powers in real life?”

"That would be so cool!" He claimed.

Still seated at the table, Rin watched this train wreck in the making happen before her very eyes, unable to stop it from happening. She worried for the poor boy, who was about to become an experiment for a Caster servant.

Tapping on his shoulders, Iihito flooded a small portion of her mana to Issei, giving him a large amount of magical circuits by mistake while revealing a red gauntlet on his arm in the process.

[[Wha? Who gave this mana to me?]]

“Cool right?” Iihito raised a finger, giving off a smile.

Slamming her hands down at the table, Rin pointed her finger at the two and shouted, "H-how is that possible! Magecraft doesn't work like that!" 

Pausing in his examination of the cool red gauntlet on his arm, Issei looked at Rin with furrowed brows. "Magecraft? Wait. You mean like magic?"

A blinding light appeared above their heads. “Magic. A blight upon the world and a blasphemous attempt at grasping a morsel of God’s power.” It died down, revealing a suited Gabriel. Her leer forced Rin to shy her sight away.

Iihito waved at the angel. “Don’t be like that Gabriel, we can’t find the other magus without the help of a magus. Sometimes super spies need to cooperate with enemies to find their hideout. Besides, you might be able to convert her into a follower.”

Having grown numb due to the level of power the others have been showing off, Rin managed to pull off a much more confident act than before. "I'm already Christian. I don't see what her problem is."

“Yeah, Gabriel has the impression that all magus are evil.” Iihito shrugged toward Rin in response. “Also I wasn’t using magecraft before. Mages exist too, you know?”

Looking between the two, Issei's eyes shone with a hopeful light. "Wait. What are you guys even talking about? It's not like magic actually exists like that, right?"

Iihito turned towards Issei, tilting her head while resting her arms from the shrug she gave to Rin. “I mean... Magic, chi, chakra. It all has magical effects, right? Not like there is much of a difference besides the way it’s thrown out... Like, kinetic energy and electrical energy are both considered energy right? Same deal.” 

“Gabriel! Where’d you run off to?” A faraway voice reverberated throughout the household.

The angel’s face fell, her anger giving away to worry. “Uhh. Right here! Someone is talking about magic!”

One of the doors slid open, an annoyed Raynel peeking in. “And that gives you the right to leave the discussion we were having without warning?”

She looked away from him. “Nothing.”

“Right! Just because you’re an angel, doesn’t mean you can forgo manners. Now what is all this talk about magic?”

“Gabriel is being a racist,” Iihito responded before Gabriel could answer.

“As long as she’s only doing that towards pagan magic, I’m fine with that.”

Iihito rested her eyes. “Yeah, but Rin is a Christian.”

“Then we got a problem. Gabriel. What is magic? Explain it in your own words.” Raynell pulled up a chair to sit in.

The angel responded with fire in her eyes. “Magic is any world-altering power not ordained of God.”

“But some people are born with the innate ability to use said power. Are they born heretical? Are their souls already damned with their agency unable to save them?”

She fell quiet, her eyes glazing over in thought. Her timid voice cut through the quiet atmosphere. “No. Those that are born on earth are those who stood on God’s side when the Great Deceiver betrayed him. They are born with agency. Whether they follow God into the heavens or fall into hell is a choice they must make.”

Raynel nodded. “Then what are the people born with magical abilities?”

“People who have been given more responsibility in life. The temptations of Satan growing alongside their power.”

“And what of my powers? Is it heretical in your eyes?” Iihito interjected.

“No. Your kind have been good to us.” Gabriel drooped her head, her countenance forming a grimace. “I have let my anger blind me to the gifts that our Father has blessed the world with.”

Walking out of the kitchen with a piece of meat in her mouth, and a bunny in her arms, Aiko gave Gabriel a strange look. Finishing her meat, she began to realize how much of the current situation was her fault. "Gabey. You do realize I'm a beast right?"

The angel’s eyes widened. “You are one of the entities that despise humanity?”

Giving Gabriel the most deadpan look possible for her face, Aiko bored into Gabriel's eyes with her own. "Unironically, I'm the beast of cherishment. I love humans so much that I just want to kill them all for being dumb. Why are you taking anything I say at face value?"

Rin panicked on the inside, her face becoming pale as she began to sweat. "Oh. Shit."

“You see, this is why angels should also follow scripture. Angels are just as susceptible to the temptations of Satan as much as humans are. She isn’t Satan, more like some out-of-this-world entity, but you get the point don’t you?” Iihito added, raising a single arm.

A solemn nod. “I do. My time in heaven made me complacent to the temptations that mankind deals with every day.”

Starting to get a bit fed up, Issei called out with a frown. "What the hell is even going on? This is way too much too fast. Can we just slow down a minute?"

Turning towards Issei, Iihito rubbed the back of her head. “Ah, sorry about that. This is what I usually have to deal with when I’m at home so I kinda just went with the flow. What questions do you need me to answer?”

Pausing to think of what the most important question was, Issei gazed over everyone in the room. "Who- no, what are all of you?"

Reaching towards her chin, Iihito nodded. “Well, I’m a fae. Gabriel is an angel, Aiko is a beast and everyone else here is human. I think you already overheard what a beast is but you can think of a fae as a fairy, even if it’s a derogatory term for our kind. And angels are self-explanatory.” 

Speaking with a slow cadence, as if to ensure he got everything right, Issei began to perk up by the end of his sentence. "So you're not just roleplaying? That's… actually pretty cool."

Quirking her lips into a slight smirk, Aiko glanced at Iihito before looking Issei in the eyes. "I know right? Just like something out of a manga, or a self-insert fanfic."

Nodding, Issei agreed. "Yeah! Though I don't think many people would read it. It's too fast-paced."

Iihito nodded. “Anyways. Any other questions?”

"Well…"