Kuoh Academy.
Originally an all-girls school that taught the daughters of the elites, a prestigious school, it became co-ed a year or so ago due to certain changes in management and other things.
To boost the population of male students, it even lowered the bar for entry to an extent, which worked to a certain extent.
Unfortunately, this meant that some unsavory characters would also make their way into these prestigious halls.
Such as the trio that was currently trying to peep into the changing rooms through a hole in the wall that they found.
"Ooh~ Murayama's rack is so huge!"
"And Katase's legs are so good!"
Two of the three boys who are infamously known as the 'perverted trio' in this school giggled lewdly as the third member watched them have fun while fuming.
He kicked their butts while growling at them.
"Don't keep it all to yourself! Let me in!!"
The last words were unconsciously shouted by the boy, alerting the girls inside the room.
The two boys immediately realized that they had been had.
"Uh-Oh!"
"Scram!"
The two immediately bolted, leaving their unfortunate partner in crime behind to receive punishment from the Kendo club member whom they were spying on until that moment.
Fortunately, the other two would not make a clear escape as a certain someone stood in their path.
The first one to suffer was Matsuda.
The bald boy ran straight into the older teenager and slammed into him, like a car going at full speed crashing into a steel wall.
And just like that analogy, the boy crumbled to the ground, having run into an impossibly strong body that seemed as if it were made of steel.
Motohama saw the danger ahead of time and tried to evade, but the teenager casually caught the scuff of his neck like catching a kitten and held him in the air with ease, showing his ridiculous strength.
"Ow! Ow! Did someone catch the number on that truck!? I almost got isekaid by it!"
"Hey! Let me go! Emiya-senpai!!"
Shirou Emiya sighed at the antics of the two younger boys.
With a casual toss, he threw Motohama onto Matsuda, making them crumble into a pile.
"You guys have so much energy so early in the morning. Why not use it for something productive instead of doing things like this?"
"Tch! What would a handsome guy like you know about our troubles?"
"Yeah!"
Shirou smiled wryly while scratching his cheek.
"I'm not handsome, though?"
"....Tch."
"Damned Raijuu."
The boys continued to complain while Shirou gave them confused looks. However, things changed immediately as a stampede rang out, sending chills down the spines of the boys.
The perverted boys felt their instincts flare, forcing them into action. However, with the disorientation born from running into Shirou's steel-like body and getting tossed around, they were too late to react.
Allowing the Kendo club members to catch up with them, with a thoroughly roughed-up final member of their trio in tow.
The moment the girls spotted Shirou standing over the slumped duo, their rage-filled looks changed to admiring looks.
"Ah! Shirou-senpai!"
"Thank you for catching those criminals!"
Shirou smiled awkwardly while the gaggle of girls surrounded him and started speaking rapidly, alternating between expressing their gratitude and then beating up the two boys, an excellent display of multitasking, even if the skill was used for rather dubious purposes.
The way the girls acted made Shirou very uncomfortable, but it was understandable when viewed from the outsider's perspective.
Shirou Emiya had a really good track record in terms of grades. He is a friendly person who helps out when he can. Not to the extent that he would compromise his own life, but still enough to make people grateful. He also takes an active role whenever things become difficult for his classmates or other students in school-related activities. And on top of all of this, he was quite good-looking with his crimson hair and golden-brown eyes.
To the girls across the school, he was the perfect package. To the boys, he was someone that they looked up to despite hating his guts for stealing all the attention from the girls alongside another boy called Kiba Yuuto.
It was only when the bell rang, reminding the students to start moving to class, that the girls finally let up and left the boys as a pile of bodies while waving goodbyes to Shirou.
Finally, Shirou drew a deep breath and sighed in relief, looking down at the three idiots.
"Oi. You three can stop pretending to be unconscious now. They are gone."
Instantly, like zombies coming back to life, the three stiff 'corpses' on the ground jumped to their feet and gave indignant looks.
"Why the hell didn't you stop them when they were beating the shit out of us?"
"Yeah!"
"You owe us an explanation-"
The three stopped talking and huddled together as Shirou brought out his own Shinai from his bag, the infamous weapon of a certain Tiger from another life, making the boys tremble in fear.
The smile on his face was angelic, but to the boys, it was no different than the sneer of a devil glaring down on them.
"If I remember correctly, it has been some time since you three took some PE classes, yes? How about I give you three some personal training to keep you in shape?'
"N-No need! Senpai! We are very fit, you know?"
"Yes, yes. Like Issei said."
"Oh! Would you look at that! It's time for class!"
The three idiots bolted on the spot, not even daring to look back lest the demon in human skin catch them and 'train' them, which was a civilized way of saying that he was going to make them regret ever being born.
It was only when the three idiots disappeared into the building that Shirou put away the Tora-Shinai and turned back to the building himself, heading in.
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"Oh! Emiya! Good morning!"
"Good Morning."
"Good Morning, Senpai!"
"Good Morning."
"You are looking stressed out as usual, Emiya."
"Yeah. A bit tired."
The same morning ritual of greetings and casual talk. Another fragment of normalcy in my life.
After getting those three idiots to leave, I headed to my classes, greeting everyone who bothered to greet me, which was wierdly everyone I came across, and having small talk.
Truthfully, the three might have been perverted to the extreme and unwilling to change, I would normally ignore such people and go about my day.
There is a reason why many of my counterparts were able to maintain a friendship with an arrogant jerk like Shinji in their lives until the Fifth Holy Grail War.
However, things are quite different in my world.
Specifically regarding Illya.
As a student in Junior High's first year, she usually comes around to eat lunch with me or just to visit me at the High School division, and there is no way I am allowing perverts like those three to go about their ways when she gets here lest they corrupt my precious sister with their way, or worse yet, scare her or traumatize her with their actions.
That is why I took such a personal interest in keeping them in line as much as possible.
Soon, I walked into the class and was hit with the strange scents that I had gotten used to in the past three years.
Most of them belonged to regular students. The same students who greeted me on my entry, just like the other students in the school.
However, there were a few scents that stood out.
A sickly sweet scent, signifying decadence, with an undercurrent of darkness that all the anomalies held within them, belonging to a girl with long crimson locks and blue eyes. Rias Gremory is her name.
Another scent which felt similar to Ozone, belonging to a girl with long black hair and violet eyes. Akeno Himejima.
The third scent felt like the sea, belonging to the Student Council President. The girl with violet eyes and short black hair is wearing glasses. Sona Shitori.
The final scent felt like glass, steel, and a few others mixed in, belonging to the girl with long black hair and light brown eyes framed with glasses. Tsubaki Shinra.
Four beings that felt quite different from humans, because they were not humans at all.
Gremory was the first one to notice me as she waved at me with a smile.
"Good Morning, Shirou-Kun."
"Good Morning, Gremory-san."
The creature disguised as a teenager pouted at my response, causing Himejima to giggle.
"Ara~ why the long face? President?"
"I told you to call me Rias, right?"
I nodded at her words.
"You did, Gremory-san."
"Then why?"
"I don't feel comfortable doing it."
"....Wow, such a straightforward rejection."
Shinra's muttering was low enough for others to ignore, but I still caught them, just like the rest of these things probably did, given how Rias flinched slightly.
I don't know exactly what they are, but I am very sure that they are not human.
Another anomaly that is quite different from my various other versions I know of. One that I have been investigating for quite some time now.
The first time I came to know about these differences was nearly two years ago, when I was returning late from my part-time job.
A strange creature that looked like a chimera between a human and a giant spider attacked me when I was passing through an alley, using it as a shortcut.
The thing must have thought that I was a helpless victim that it could gobble up.
Unfortunately for it, I had already been practicing Magecraft for a few months by that point back then so it was relatively easy for me to project Kanshou and Bakuya, killing the thing easily.
Ever since then, I've run into a few instances of similar creatures that look different from each other, but share the same kind of power source based on my observations.
Somehow, someway, it would seem that Phantasmal creatures still persist in this world, probably due to the denser mana in the air. A worrying revelation that I've been investigating ever since.
Unfortunately, I've hit a wall in terms of what I can do without alerting whatever equivalent of the Clock Tower exists in this world, if it exists at all.
That is why I am so cautious with these four, and a few others in this school.
"Alright. Enough of that. Class is about to begin, Emiya."
I nodded at Shitori's words and sat down, preparing for the day, but I was not ignorant of the low conversation that happened between the creatures, thinking that I would not hear due to how low they were speaking.
'Hah. The lengths I go to for the sake of my family.'
Another frustrating but fulfilling day in the life of this unfortunate Shirou Emiya.
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Author Notes: Read 5 chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/Ruijard1