Rias Gremory was having a good day.
She had finally managed to track down the last of the stray exorcists in the town, except for their leader, with the help of her peerage, rounding them up and shipping them out of town to have them interrogated.
She had a relaxing sleep after that and even woke up in a really good mood.
Then, she managed to trick her brother by sending him a false schedule for the Parent-Teacher conference, which meant she could avoid the yearly embarrassment of her overbearing sibling.
And then, she and Sona got the news from Raol, the Bishop of the Leviathan, whom they asked to investigate things discreetly without sharing his findings with the family or their siblings, which he did, and the result turned out exactly as Sona had guessed.
Admittedly, that did annoy Rias a bit since her best friend/rival would not stop giving those smug looks for a while after getting that confirmation.
And then, once they got that information, they pressed their advantage and caught Shirou Emiya in the morning, asking him to meet them in Rias's club room.
During the whole day, Rias felt no small amount of amusement as she saw Shirou's stiff back. Her mood was so good that she did not even react to the eventful introduction of Luvia Edelfelt and Rin Tohsaka into their class.
The whole time, Rias was trying to think of many scenarios and arguments that she could make to try and turn Shirou into a devil. Failing that, she even had backup plans to at least establish a contract with him.
After all, the news that she had established a contract with the son of the Supernatural Killer would be one hell of a deterrent against a certain Pillar Family and their advances.
Yes. Rias was indeed having a really good day.
That is why she felt so angry when all her plans went down the drain thanks to the two human girls who clung to Shirou all the time.
Within the Occult Research Club room, Rias gritted her teeth in anger while Sona gave a small frown.
As for the source of this discomfort, they couldn't care less.
"Seriously? Fake human skulls and candles? Can't you at least use the real stuff if you are looking for this kind of aesthetics?"
"Tohsaka is right. In fact, this place feels so drab with all these unnecessary and gaudy decorations. It's all reds and blacks. I know you are all devils, but even for you, this is a bit much."
Rin and Luvia had no mercy to spare for the devil girls as they mercilessly scrutinized the room, letting their opinions be known blatantly while Shirou sat between them, completely tense.
But this tension did not come from fear or exasperation.
It was caution.
Despite his deep dive into the books Zelretch gave him, which allowed him to now properly gauge the supernaturals of this world, his mind was still struggling to associate his knowledge with what he was seeing in reality.
This meant that, at this very moment, the Demi-Servant was ready to project a few really powerful holy swords the moment he saw something wrong. Not because he meant the girls harm, but because his instincts demanded he do so.
Luvia's eyes fell on the shower on the other side of the room at the same moment her rival's eyes did, making it so that the two girls had similar grins on their faces as they turned to face Rias.
"My, my, looks like someone is not above using cheap tactics like selling their body to get their way."
"Indeed. I always knew you devils were degenerates, but I guess you are just especially worse even among your kind."
Rias nearly swung her fist at the girls, but held herself back, if only because Sona kept pinching her thigh to keep her rational.
Her words came out cold through gritted teeth.
"If you hate it that much, why are you two here? I don't recall us asking you two to come here for this meeting."
The girls gave her a flat stare that momentarily made Rias's anger falter before her rage flared again at the girl's following words.
"There is no way we are leaving someone as gullible as Emiya-kun in the hands of a devil."
"For once, we are in agreement. There is no way I am letting you and Sitri trick Shero into selling his humanity or making him sign a contract under your manipulations."
"We do not force people into doing anything!"
""I'll be the judge of that/We'll see about that""
That retort from the girls, delivered without hesitation, stung a bit at the devil heiresses' pride, but they could do nothing but swallow it since they knew they could not attack them lest they cause a serious diplomatic incident.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, Sona spoke seriously while turning to Shirou.
"Emiya. I remember asking you to bring Hyoudou and Argento here as well?"
Shirou nodded his head at those words.
"You did."
"....And? Where are they?"
"Home."
The room descended into silence at those words, while Sona held a stunned look before speaking again.
"Why? I asked you to-"
Shirou raised a hand to stop her.
"Shitori? Sitri?-"
"Call me Sona, or Sitri, since you are in the know anyway."
"Sitri, then. Look, I get that you asked me something. But here is the thing, I am not obliged to do everything you ask of me. You are not my employer, and neither are you related to me in any way. Hell, you can't even be counted as a friend. At best, you can be called an acquaintance. Nothing more. So, I am not obliged to do anything you ask of me."
This time, Sona really glared at Shirou.
"We are the owners of Kuoh as per the contract with the Shinto pantheon. And as the owners, we were never made aware that you could use magic. This means that you are an unregistered magic user on our turf, which is a problem-"
"Says the devil who could not even handle the local infestation of stray devils on your own until Shirou jumped in to eradicate them."
Luvia's words cut deep, but Sona let it be.
Rias, on the other hand, was that mature.
"And who gave you the right to dictate how we run our territory?"
Rin grinned at Rias's question.
"The very same right that made you incompetent brats the owners of this town."
Luvia spotted the slightly confused look on Shirou's face and decided to elaborate a bit, both to explain things to him while also reminding the devils of what rights Rin had in this town.
"This land originally belonged to the Tohsaka family for centuries. It is a simple fact that everyone who knows this place's history knows. The only reason the Shinto even got the rights to this place was that the Tohsaka family willingly donated it to the Shinto in exchange for never having their right as the owner of this place forgotten."
Luvia gave a teasing grin towards Rin, who held a slight blush, stemming from her embarrassment at her ancestor's idiocy.
"Unofficially, it is said that the Tohsaka head of that time may or may not have fallen for a certain god of storms and ended up giving up her family's land to the Shinto under his guidance and only getting some paltry spells and rights in return."
"Enough, you damned tube-curls!"
Rin's temper finally exploded as Luvia exposed the dark history of her ancestor, but she reigned in her temper, speaking coldly while looking at Rias and Sona.
"The point that the blond idiot was making is that as the daughter of the Tohsaka family, I have rights in this town which are no less than yours. In fact, it can be argued that I have more claim over this town than you two both due to my bloodline and the God of Storm's promise to my ancestor."
Rias fell silent at those words while Sona took out a stack of contracts from her storage space, going through the papers she had not gone through since the day she set foot in this place more than two years ago.
For a few minutes, there was only silence before Sona sighed and put away the documents.
"There is no mention of this in the contract, but there is a clause that says that the Shinto have the ability to grant the administrative rights of this town to anyone they please, so their words can technically be enforced."
Once again, Rias could do nothing but stare helplessly, knowing that everything that she wanted to achieve today had already been dashed.
"As for your question..."
Shirou spoke seriously.
"The reason why I did not bring Issei and Asia here is that it was clear to me from the very beginning that you were planning on tricking them into joining your peerages. And truthfully, if it was a week or two before, I would not have interfered in their business since I don't have the right to dictate what they do with their lives or make their choices for them. But now..."
Shirou's eyes hardened, momentarily overwhelming the disguise magic as his newly acquired mana surged.
Steely golden-grey eyes met Rias's blue-green eyes and Sona's violet eyes, sending chills down their spines.
"Now, Issei is my student, and Asia is officially part of the Emiya family. That means I have a responsibility to both of them to keep them safe from harm. And right now, that 'harm' is you two."
This time, the two devil girls really felt offended.
"We are not like the others. We treat our peerages as a part of our family and never mistreat them."
"....That statement says a lot about your kind. The fact that you need to highlight how you treat your family not as slaves but as actual people is enough to reaffirm my decision."
Sona sighed at those words while Rias fumed.
"Maybe we should reschedule this meeting so that tempers can cool down and we can make actual progress on things."
Rin and Luvia stood up as one.
"There is nothing to discuss further. You keep sticking to your duties and keep out of our way, and we will keep doing what we are here to do without getting involved in your business. It's as simple as that."
Shirou got up as well, making the devil girls frown.
"No offence, you two, but I don't think we need another meeting either. At least for now. I know that you two are not bad people if what you've shown about yourself in the past year is anything to go by. But that does not mean that I will allow myself, or those I care about and am responsible for, to become your slaves in all but name."
Before the girls could protest, Shirou raised a hand, stopping them.
"As I said, I don't think you are bad people, but the peerage system as a whole rubs me the wrong way. If you want to remain as my acquaintances, that's fine. But don't ever expect me to sell my humanity to become a devil."
With that, the three teenagers left the room without even looking back.
Sona too sighed and left the room, leaving Rias behind to brood as usual.
Her good day was thoroughly ruined, and all her planning went to waste, putting her back in square one.
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Author Notes:
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