Cross Effects- The RP

[Daiki]

"Ruu will punch your face off if you make Kitty cry." His warning dropped, he put back the trinket in his bag. Got a grab on it and looked in his direction. "Ruu will go in last, ever watching you." He added darkly.

He was as pleased to see that newcomer tagging along as Lancer, yet Rin gave the thumbs up, so he will comply to it for now. However he wouldn't hesitate to smite down the guy would he attempt anything weird. His heavy gaze falling upon Archer's back, he pushed on his the man's leg forward.

----

"Yes, I'm on my way. Do not damage the goods, can't make profits out of it if you reduce it to pieces."

Telling this to me, you dickwad.

"Sure. Just make sure the end of your bargain comes along." Answered Shuya before ending the call.

The hybrid turned to the "package" he was ordered to deliver, still not sure why this one was precious enough to warrant a "good shape" to begin with.

He sighed longly before approaching the person lying down on the couch. The work had been messy, the methods barbarous even compared to his own standards. The girl was clearly in a shock state, her eyes widened and not quitting him. Had been lacerated in lots of places, bruises and wounds covered most of her half naked body when he found her. Right arm missing down the elbow. Probably had broken bones too. Messy work, which he should have led in person but he only noticed the girl when she was already pursued by a gang or werewolves. Got raped and hit all over the place before one of the bastards started feeding on her directly. Shuya killed the bunch but he was too late. Worst was the visage though. Clawed so many times he would have not recognized her if it weren't for her blue irises and the few strand black hair left. She looked nothing like the teenager he saw briefly earlier.

Shuya sighed again, he had tried to fix her as much as he could but he doubted she could ever be the same again. Crouched like a wounded beast on the side and wearing clothes he had to go fetch for her, face hidden by bandages save for the eyes and mouth, she looked pretty miserable. He didn't felt pity but he didn't like what he saw. The bandaged face looked at him, trying to appeal to his compassion in order to release her. After all, he was in the middle of work and while he wasn't into slavery market, she had no way to know that. Plus, that Valken bastard expected him to carry the thing through.

Eh, damn bastard better watches his ass.

His initial plan was to wait for him to come here, let him pick the girl, follow him to meet the client and then dispose of both at once. Garbage like' em wouldn't be missed. But here she was crying silently while looking at him. It pissed him off  to no end to witness that. Hospital would take care of her. Probably would need people to support her though. Couldn't be him. Hardly an option when his job is mainly to cut down others. So it should be people she was with. Didn't speak a word though. Narrowing it down to the people she seemed to get along. The blond chick didn't seem too bad as far as an hypocrite good doer can be, at least. Yeah, she would do.

The man shook his head. He didn't have time for this shit.

"Hoy, get your ass up, kid."

He indicated his back while bending the knees. She rose to a sit, staring at him.

"Better hold tight, can't really maintain you still with one hand. I'll get you to the psychic vampire but don't you complain if she drinks you dry."

With hesitation, she climbed on his back and got a secured hold with her only hand left.

Shit, she's not even half my weight, assholes.

Maybe he should have reduced the beasts to a pulp rather than minced meat. He felt the girl crying against his back.

"The fuck imma doin'." With a growl of his own, he ran off the building.

[Alice]

Archer responded to Rin's question with a tilt of his head, his smile widening. He chuckled before replying. "Isn't that being a bit presumptuous, Rin?  This Landlady doesn't even know who I am."

Rin was about to answer his question, but didn't get a chance to reply. "No.  I'm not letting this wanker anywhere near Forest," Lancer said, as he prepared himself to take the magus back. "Or you for that matter.  I'll turn my back and then I'll find you both being tied up in chairs about to be raped by some unsavory sort because he had a tantrum."

Rin frowned a bit in confusion. It's obvious that Lancer trusts this Archer about as far as he can throw him, but... it sounds like he's referencing something specific. What's he talking about?

Either Archer had just as much of a clue as she had or just didn't care about the insinuation, as he responded with a snort and a shake of his head. Blowing Lancer off, he turned back to Rin. "I could use a place to stay.  Besides, its your style to make sure there's a place for me, Rin." He said this with a grin. Rin found herself blushing again, though she wasn't sure why.

"Lass, you'd better know what the hell you're doing." Rin's attention was turned back to Lancer. The Servant was visibly fuming. Beside him, little Ruu was glaring at the bowman, trying to do his best to make the threat he made earlier should "Mr. Eagle" make "Kitty" cry stick.

"It's obvious.  If I'm a danger, she's herding me to a place where I can be dealt with if needed." Rin heard Archer say this with a sigh. Her attention was drawn back to the darkened Servant once more. "I'm sorry you have to put up with idiots all the time."

Rin shook her head in response, but her words were casual. "He means well enough, even if he didn't quite catch on. He's just trying to make sure nothing goes wrong." Still, Rin was a bit surprised that Archer had seen through her plan so quickly, but wasn't as surprised as she could have been. After all, she knew from her past experiences that he had quite a sharp mind. She turned back to Lancer.

"What Archer said is true. However, I don't think he's a threat to us, but I don't mind keeping an eye on him." She attempted to give Lancer a reassuring smile. "Besides, I'm a powerful magus in my own right. I can handle myself if there's any trouble. Plus you'd be there to back me up if anything bad happens."

Rin turned back to Archer again. "As for your question about the Landlady, she offered her apartments as a place for people to stay if they needed it. I don't like imposing on her myself, but I'm sure that if we just explain to her that you're with me, we can get you a room too. So then," Rin continued with a smile, "I take it you're willing to accept my offer?"   

[Cherry Lover]

Satoshi chuckled "the idea that not using your power is a waste is the most popular logic for evil men to enact terrible things. The better question a person should ask is do I need to use my powers and why. As for your mother, to be honest there are far too many answers I have to give, you'll have to be more specific." he remarked continuing to brush Taiga's hair.

Really?

To Kiyoshi, it seemed like a simple enough question.

"How can I be more specific than 'how do you know my mother's name?'", he said, frustrated at the man's apparent inability to answer a simple question.

"And, if you can protect others with the powers you have, then you should absolutely use them to do so. Why should I leave people to suffer when I have the ability to help them? Plus, your sister called you a 'hero', so you must surely use your own abilities."

Then, he turned to Taiga, who was so far keeping herself out of the conversation.

"Hmm, what do you think? You called your brother a 'hero', after all...."


Rider groaned slightly at the obviously-faked smile on Forest's face as she responded to Rider's comment.

 "Well, I do have an awesome car collection and an absurd amount of money.  Those are nice things to have."

Ah, I see....

Clearly the woman was lonely. Unlike her, who had a family to call her own, Forest seemed to be in a position where she had few real friends.

"I'm sorry, Forest, I didn't mean to upset you."

Then, changing the subject slightly, Rider continued.

"Yeah, my master is wealthy too. Possibly not quite as wealthy as you, but enough that she doesn't need to worry. It's a nice position to be in.

I like the sound of your car collection. too. I'm more of a bike person, though. I have a Hayabusa back at home. Shirou rescued it from being scrapped and refurbised it for me, as a 'thank you' for everything I've done. With a few special touches, of course...."

[lantzblades]

"oh try when did you learn her name, what is your relation to my mother or better yet why do I use her first name. Using your power is fine but depending on it is not, your mind is a far better resource." Satoshi answered.

Taiga spoke up without turning to Kiyoshi "I think you have a lot of growing up to do Kiyo, the word hero is a personal one, titles don't mean much on their own."

[Cherry Lover]

Kiyoshi sighed.

Why is he being so damn obstructive?

Kiyoshi really couldn't understand why Satoshi found his initial question so difficult to answer. It was clear and unambiguous enough, and the only reason for him to refuse to do so, really, was if he had something to hide.

However, even though he seemed to be acting like a character from one of those old puzzle games in the way that he answered questions, his most recent answer had actually given away a reasonable amount of information, perhaps more than he had intended. The fact that he suggested asking what relation he was to Kiyoshi's mother implied that such a relationship existed, and the fact that he suggested asking about using her first name even though "Emiya-san" or similar would have been ambiguous implied that he was close enough to be on first name terms with her, and that this was a big deal to him.

As for the rest, he was somewhat right that, in the end, using your mind was important. Still, any intelligent person would always use their full abilities, and would not restrict theirselves arbitrarily. Just smashing things without thought was a bad idea, but so was not using the abilities you have in the best way you can.

With Taiga, though, he understood what she meant. His father was his mother's hero, and both of them were his heroes. Whether the world at large would see it that way wasn't always so clear, although he liked to think that if people knew of all the work they did keeping the city safe they'd appreciate it, particularly given the amount of time his mother spent doing charity work alongside that.

Kiyoshi knew he had to consider his question carefully. The way Satoshi was acting, he might suddenly decide to only allow one question or something, and he would almost certainly not give out any more information than was specifically asked for. The most important thing, though, seemed to be how he knew his mother, so asking what relationship they have would be sensible.

"Well, OK, then what relationship do you have to my mother? You seem to know her quite well.

And, I understand that you should never fight without using your brain, but only an idiot doesn't use all the abilities available to them."

Then, he turned to Taiga.

"Yes, I guess you're right. After all, my father is a hero to my mother, and both of them are heroes to me...."

[lantzblades]

"let's just say it's complicated and leave it at that, I'm quite a bit older than I look" Satoshi replied with a chuckle

[Elf]

Archer tilted his head at the not-child and then smiled at his nickname for Rin.  Then the boy threatened Archer, and he had to keep from out right laughing.  However the smirk couldn't be quelled. 

Instead he looked at Ruu and replied, "I'm not in the habit of making young women cry."

Lancer glared at that, but kept walking.  The Celt shoved his hands in his pockets and gritted his teeth, eyes narrowing at Rin.  Archer wondered just how much he fucked up in Lancer's respective reality to make the Celt want to ram Gae Bolg up his ass and twist.  Sure, he liked antagonizing Lancer, but this wasn't annoyance he was sensing from the Celt and it wasn't Lancer's bloodlust for battle.  It was a genuine hatred, as if Archer had done something unforgivable in Lancer's eyes. 

Rin looked at him, surprise flickering in her aquamarine eyes.  "He means well enough, even if he didn't quite catch on. He's just trying to make sure nothing goes wrong."

Archer nodded and said, "I don't blame him."

"The hell?" Lancer asked, before snorting and shaking his head. 

"What Archer said is true. However, I don't think he's a threat to us, but I don't mind keeping an eye on him." She attempted to give Lancer a reassuring smile. "Besides, I'm a powerful magus in my own right. I can handle myself if there's any trouble. Plus you'd be there to back me up if anything bad happens."

Lancer eyed Archer and he said in a low voice, "I hope to gods that you know what you're doing Lass."

Rin turned back to Archer again. "As for your question about the Landlady, she offered her apartments as a place for people to stay if they needed it. I don't like imposing on her myself, but I'm sure that if we just explain to her that you're with me, we can get you a room too. So then," Rin continued with a smile, "I take it you're willing to accept my offer?"   

"I didn't expect you to preposition me this quickly," Archer said with a thoughtful tilt of his head, "However, if you hadn't I would have.  So, yes, I'll be more than willing to stay with you."

*****

Forest blinked at Rider's words, but she was glad for the change of subject.

"The fastest production bike ever made," she said with a nod, "As for modifications, that was actually what the manufacture had in mind when they built them.  They knew people would modify them and made it so they could be done so easily."

[Alice]

Rin was happy that Archer had accepted her offer so willingly, even after her intentions were revealed. She couldn't really blame Lancer for not being too happy about this little arrangement, but Rin was confident that she could keep things under control regardless.

Rin smiled a bit as she gave her response. "Then it's settled. Shall we go?"

[Elf]

"I'm ready, if Lancer has no objections," Archer replied.

Lancer looked at Rin and replied, "You had better know what you're doing."

[Alice]

Satisfied, Rin was about to announce that she was ready to take off before realizing that she had a bit of a dilemma. She would need to be carried there. The question was, who would carry her? She liked the idea of Archer carrying her, and also figured it may be the best way to get him to cooperate. At the same time though, if she let Lancer carry her, it might calm him down a bit, or at least put him more at ease.

With that in mind, Rin looked at both men. "So then, who's going to be carrying me the rest of the way?"

[Daiki]

"Ruu will carry Kitty on its shoulders." With these words he placed himself before her, waiting for the magus to get in position.

[Cherry Lover]

Rider smiled slightly. It seemed like Forest had a real passion for motorised vehicles of all kinds, which was something that she could definitely appreciate. Her nature as a Rider-class servant gave her a natural capacity to use such vehicles, and the nature and variety of modern transportation appealed to her inquisitive side.

"Ah, so your interests extend to bikes too? It's nice to meet someone with as much interest in such things as I have.

With my bike, though, the sort of modifications Shirou makes are definitely not the sort that the manufacturers would have been expecting. See, Shirou has a talent for making and fixing things that goes beyond the mundane.

Remember when that other Shirou was pointing swords at us? Those weren't materialised from spiritual form like my nails or Lancer's spear. He made all of those swords, using his magic. That is Shirou's speciality, the ability to understand and copy any weapon, and he even has a Reality Marble based around that, which is why Hakuno shouted at us to stop him when he tried to summon it. But, as a side-effect of that, he is exceptionally good at both the improvement and alteration of existing items, and the creation of more mundane items from scratch. He managed to take a bike that was so badly damaged that it was fit only for the scrapyard and turn it into possibly the best Hayabusa in existence.

I wish I could show you it, but unfortunately it's still at home. If I'm lucky, then Sakura might bring it when she comes here to find her son. Which won't take her long, not when the welfare of her baby boy is at stake....

Honestly, I wouldn't want to be Rin right now. I doubt she'll get a moment's rest until she's found a way to bring Kiyoshi back home, or to send Sakura here to keep watch on him. Not that she'd want to, mind, she'll be devestated that she's let Sakura down like this."

[Elf]

Archer chuckled at the sight of the small "Child" inviting Rin to ride upon his shoulders.  He did also notice that Ruu called himself an "it" and not a proper gender pronoun.  Interesting, the Servant thought absently. Lancer was staring, blinking in a stupor that Archer thought fit the Celtic Servant.

Then the blue haired warrior stepped up and said, "I'll carry ya Rin.  Ruu, your arm's still hurt and I don't want Rin to make it worse."  He cast the magus a quick look, "Not that I'm saying you're heavy or anything."

Archer smirked, made sure to look Lancer in the eye, and then look at Rin.  "As someone who was a version of your former Servant, I think I would know the best way to carry you so you're more comfortably and efficiently conveyed."

******

"I'm not as fond of bikes as I am a good pony car, but I have a lot of time so I like to look up things," Forest said with a shrug.  Then she smiled at Rider's words of Sakura's concern for her son.  "Well, hopefully Sakura knows that you're doing what you can to protect him."

She pointed to the hotel looming closer and asked, "So, is that where you're staying at?  The manager is a real misogynist asshole."

[Alice]

Rin fretted as she wrangled with the decision- each choice had it's own advantages after all, and their own complications. But in the end...

The young magus gave Lancer an apologetic look. "I'm sorry Lancer. Normally I'd be more than happy to have you carry me, but I want to make sure Archer cooperates with us fully. And I want to keep an eye on him. Therefore..." Rin turned back to Archer. "I'm going to let him carry me."

Rin moved closer to Archer, a bit of a smile on her face. "Alright then, 'convey' me away, Archer."

[Cherry Lover]

Oh, for Christ’s sake, what is this guy’s problem?

Kiyoshi’s annoyance at the total non-answer given in response to the question Satoshi had specifically told him to ask was clear.

“How can it be ‘complicated’? It’s not a difficult question to answer.

You even suggested that I ask you that, and yet you still avoided answering the question. Why did you even bother making the suggestion if you had no intention of answering from the beginning?”

Then, he turned to Taiga.

“Is your brother a politician or something?", he said with a slightly irritated tone. "He seems allergic to answering questions....”


Rider’s face showed clear surprise at Forest’s last revelation.

“Really? He seemed nice enough to me. I’m pretty sure he only accepted our offer of protection because he didn’t want to throw us out on the street.”

Still, hearing that made Rider feel much less bad about reneging on the deal before she’d spent even one night at the hotel. People like that had a nasty habit of reminding her of Shinji rather too much for their own safety. One of her relatively few regrets she had from her time in the modern world was that the asshole had died far more quickly and painlessly than his crimes had warranted and, consequentially, when she came across people who were similar to him the temptation was always there for her to “rectify” that injustice.

She continued, responding to Forest’s earlier comments.

“And, yes, I’m sure the fact that I’m here will reassure Sakura somewhat. She knows she can trust me to always protect her children, although she would be worried about what I might be forced to do in order to replenish my prana supply....

Even so, though, Sakura won’t be able to bear the thought that one of her children might be in danger or suffering, and she would never forgive herself if she wasn’t there for him when he wanted or needed her.”

A mournful look came across Rider’s face.

“See, as a young child Sakura was forcefully separated from her beloved mother and sister and given by her father to another magus from a different family, who tortured her for eleven years. Mentally, physically and even sexually. The head of the family deliberately made her suffer as much as possible because doing so furthered his goals, and intentionally made her life as miserable as possible.

Because of that, she does everything she can to give her children the happy childhood she should have had were it not for her father's magus nature and her mother's spinelessness, and to protect them as much as she can from anything that might harm them. Her absolute worst nightmare is that she will one day end up failing her children as her own mother failed her, forced to stand by impotent as they’re taken from her and subjected to some horrible fate. And, Kiyoshi is her little baby, so she’s even more protective of him than she is of the rest of her kids.

Plus, their bond is very deep. Even if Kiyoshi is safe here with me protecting him, he’s still a frightened little boy who misses his mummy, as much as he might try to put a brave face on it. I can comfort him a little, he does trust me and sees me as family, but he would still feel a lot happier and safer with her around.”