Iihito took a deep breath, observing the intricate architecture of Kuoh Academy. The school reminded her of the exact same school she had gone to before this world. Minus the decorations, because dear god does this school look generic. And old. Like, she saw 1800's architecture as more modern looking than this school…
She supposed that the Japanese don't pay as much attention to architecture as the Australians.
"So Taiga told me to wait in front of the school gate for my guide…" Iihito reached towards her chin. Glancing towards her phone, the internal clock displayed 6:55 am. Hearing footsteps, she glanced toward the source of the sound. A black-haired girl in glasses and a bob haircut.
Internally Iihito sighed upon seeing Sona's presence. Though she made sure to suppress her mana, it certainly wasn't enough to hide herself from anyone familiar with the supernatural.
"I suppose you are our new student?" Sona asked, giving off a smile that reeked of insincerity.
"Indeed, I've finished the documents and the entry tests just a few days prior." Iihito responded as she responded with a fake smile of her own.
"Iihito Smith, I presume?" Sona asked while maintaining her smile, unaware that her eyes could detect the truth from lies.
Giving off a light chuckle, Iihito nodded. "That's me."
Resting her eyes, Sona turned around before facing the school gate. "Very well, follow me."
~~Later~~
Entering the reception, Iihito observed a room holding a woman behind a solid wooden desk. Brown and square, not the same as the curvy sleek style she was used to at her school.
"I'm sure you have already seen this area beforehand when you were doing your placement test. However, it does not hurt to be given a refresher. This is the reception area where any visitors to the school may head towards to answer their questions. Or when any student happens to be caught late."
Nodding towards Sona's expression, Iihito followed her out of the room.
~~Later~~
Feeling the sun hovering above her head, Iihito found herself looking at a statue surrounded by a round concrete surface and grass at the outer edges. A little bland for Iihito's tastes, the concrete wasn't even painted.
"This is the courtyard. As you already know, this is the place students will lay their eyes upon before heading toward their classes. To our left is the gymnasium, the facility for all those related to physical education. Right next to the gymnasium is the pool and the track field."
Turning to her left, Iihito laid her eyes upon a concrete building covered in green lines, periodically broken up with glass planes. Although the gym was quite generic, she was surprised to see the pool outside in the open over being indoors.
What truly stood out, however, was the track. Although the track in itself was not new to Iihito, the fact that it was inside school grounds was something she only saw in her elementary school years.
"And to our right is the school garden, where most students go to rest or exercise when they wish to be away from the gymnasium for a change. Further to the right is the kendo dojo and the archery dojo. They were made for the kendo and archery club, respectively."
Nodding along, Iihito shifted her head to the right. Sure enough, her eyes bore sight of a field of grass along with a circular wall of leaves surrounding a grey fountain. Very unlike her old school, which just has a patch of grass near a soccer field.
~~Later~~
Iihito scanned the hallways. Unlike the courtyard, Iihito did not find anything that stood out from them. The rooms bearing only white cubed lockers lined up before a long line of classrooms.
"These are the first-year classrooms. As you can guess, this is where you'll naturally be spending most of your time. At the end of the hallway is the lecture hall where those in your year level would meet up for a meeting."
Walking towards the lecture hall, Iihito saw the familiar sight of red curtains covering a stand, along with a staircase surrounded by a valley of chairs.
"As you can see, this assembly hall is too small to house every student in the entire school. If you follow me, I'll show you where everyone would head towards should they want the entire school to meet together."
~~Later~~
Seeing the familiar sight of chairs, staircases and curtains covering the stand, Iihito mused at how similar the lecture hall looked to the one she was seeing now. The only difference she noticed was how upscaled it was, easily able to house four or more of the first grade lecture hall.
"And this is the assembly hall, this is where students would meet up when there is an important meeting that needs to be announced. Or to act as another lecture hall should you have a guest."
Iihito nodded, pretending to remain intrigued. Assembly halls were not new to her.
"And that concludes our tour, however before I leave you, I believe we have enough time to discuss if you are interested in joining any clubs?"
Noticing Sona's intention leaking out, Iihito shook her head. "Unfortunately I won't be free to do any club activities until some time, perhaps mid year? Will be willing to do favors for clubs however, so long as people pay me back however."
"Very well, I'll keep that in mind. You are to be in class 1-A in 20 minutes, I'll be heading off to finish off some documents. Good day."
Walking out of the assembly hall, she noticed white hair retracting from the entrance. Likely trying to not be seen by her.
~~Line/break~~
In a classroom full of young teens, a tiger began to roar. "Sit down and listen up!"
She waved her hands at the newcomer beside her. "We have a new student today, treat her kindly alright?" Was this her cub? Or just someone under her protection.
Upon entering the room, the only thing that popped up on most of the student's minds was the word princess.
"Greetings, my name is Iihito Smith. I came from Australia, I hope we can get along." She bowed before standing back up.
A young man with glasses at the very back of the room adjusted said spectacles and began to speak. "B8-" He soon found his mouth filled with a bar of soap out of nowhere.
Iihito smiled with a hint of smugness. Her sizes remain an unknown. For now at least.
In a stroke of bad luck, he swallowed the soap by mistake. Belching a few bubbles in surprise, he began to wobble in his chair. Soon, he fell over into his desk, unconscious and unresponsive.
Matsuda shook his friend, who was frothing at the mouth and called out to him while he dragged him to the infirmary. "No! don't die~! I need to know!"
Dematerializing the bar of soap, Iihito pretended she didn't just force him to swallow an entire bar of soap.
Oh speaking of… Issei suddenly found a bar of soap in his mouth.
Issei jumped out of his seat, spitting out the soap. "Blegh! What was that for!"
"What was what for?" Taiga said, noticing Issei standing up for seemingly no reason.
Looking down for the soap, he couldn't find anything at all. "What? But I swear I tasted soap!"
"You know, when you daydream hard enough to trick your brain, you actually feel what you are daydreaming," Iihito replied.
Still being quite loud, Issei commented in an exasperated manner. "That doesn't even make sense!"
"Sure it does, haven't you heard of the placebo effect? The drugs don't actually do anything, but your mind would certainly make you feel better."
Becoming a bit offended, Issei scowled. "Are you calling me a drug addict?"
Iihito deadpanned. "I was referring to medicine. How did you conclude I was talking about illegal drugs?"
Staring at Iihito with a deadpan expression, Issei sat back in his chair. "You're the one who started bringing up drugs out of nowhere."
"Yes, because it's the most common example of the placebo effect and how the mind would trick you into thinking something was happening when it actually wasn't. Didn't you already know that the term 'drugs' and 'medicine' is interchangeable when it comes to medicine?"
Not quite sure if she was fucking with him or not, Issei decided to leave it at that.
Clapping her hands, Taiga decided to chime in. "As expected from someone from an English-speaking country, yes drugs and medicine have the same meaning in English."
Issei wondered if the English language was fucking with him.
"Now Iihito, please take a seat."
~~Line snek~~
Walking into the courtyard while holding two bento boxes in her hands. Iihito glanced around to see where she could eat. Unlike her prior visit, the courtyard this time around was filled full of students hanging around eating their meals or playing various games.
Waving to Iihito, Kiba walked over with a rather fake smile. "Hello there. My club president, Rias Gremory, would like to invite you to sit with us."
"Ok? What does she want with me?" Iihito responded, not all that affected by Kiba's fake smile. She's more into girls anyhow.
Still holding up his fake smile, Kiba chuckled. "I'm sure she just wishes to talk with you about our club and see if you might be interested in it in the future."
"Oh… Sure I guess?" Iihito said with cautious hesitation.
Guiding her over to their table, Kiba motioned to a free spot on the bench across from Rias and beside Koneko. "There is a free spot here next to Koneko and I."
Iihito propped up. "Oh, you said Koneko was here? I got something to give to her."
Nodding his head, Kiba continued to smile. "Really? I'm sure she will appreciate it."
Iihito nodded. "Indeed, Shirou told me to meet up with Koneko if I want to have the food I made properly reviewed."
Koneko perked up upon hearing Iihito's voice. Especially the words 'food I made properly reviewed'.
Taking a seat, Iihito proceeded to open a bento. The aroma made itself known to the entire peerage present the moment she opened it. The small white-haired girl known as Koneko started to drool, the tall black-haired girl began to analyze her bento, the red-haired girl looked towards Iihito in jealousy and the blonde male continued to display a false smile while ignoring her bento.
Placing the second bento on the table, Koneko snatched the box as soon as it left Iihito's hands. Removing the lid, Koneko proceeded to scarf the contents down almost instantaneously.
"Kinpira. Fresh, Onigiri could be grilled longer, Tamagoyaki could be sweeter, and the Tsukemono slightly too acidic. Overall, good bento. Eight out of ten."
Rias looked at Koneko, eyes twitching at how fast she downed the bento.
Noticing the silence, Iihito decided to speak up. "So, I've heard you wanted to speak to me?"
Turning to Iihito, Rias's eyes shined. It was as if she was channeling her inner Otaku here. "Yes actually. Tell me, what are your opinions on the supernatural?"
"Eh, they tend to not be all that creative despite being supernatural in my opinion." Iihito shrugged.
Rias folded her hands together and gave her a look of interest. "Oh? Please, tell me more."
Noticing Rias' intentions leaking out, Iihito decided to shoot it down. "I'm not all that interested in joining the Occult Research Club at the moment, sorry."
Noticing how she worded it, Rias gave a slight smile. "Hmm. But perhaps you might in the future?"
Iihito shrugged in response. "Maybe. No peerages though."
Shaking her head for a moment, Rias's eyes shined a bit brighter. "I couldn't if I tried."
"Mhm…" Iihito muttered, "So… What now? Any hobbies or…"
Rias beamed with ever growing excitement. "I like to watch anime and read manga. Jojo's Bizzare Adventure is one of my favourite manga at the moment."
"Oh? I like Jojo, part five is my favourite. Speaking of, are you interested in anime game adaptations?"
"Sure! I enjoy the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm game. It has pretty fun gameplay."
"Ah, so you liked the Ninja storm games. Personally I liked Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4. You tried Persona 5?"
Rias's eyes widened. "Wait. Four!? The first one just came out this year!"
"Huh… Weird, lemme check my Switch real quick." Iihito materialized a Nintendo Switch under the table before placing it on top. She selected Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 after turning it on. "Yeah, Ninja Storm 4 right here. Wanna see?
Turning the console around, she let Rias and, to an extent, Akeno see the game on her switch.
Pausing for a moment, Rias stared at the screen in disbelief. "Can I try it?"
Thinking for a bit, Iihito shrugged before passing the console to Rias. "Just make sure you pass me back the console before the break ends."
Nodding along, Rias started selecting her characters while Koneko circled around to the other side of the table. "Controler."
Materializing a couple of extra switch controllers under the table, she passed them to Koneko.
~~Beyond Godlike line break~~
Entering the Emiya residence, the faint echo of an infuriated Kiritsugu yelling at someone greeted Iihito.
Looking towards Shirou, Iihito raised a brow. "So… Anyone you know who'd infuriate your pops to that point? He doesn't seem like the type of person who'd lose his cool all that often."
Shirou felt sweat drop from the back of his neck, unsure what to say.
"YOU SHOULD NOT BE INTERACTING WITH THE TARGET IN THE FIRST PLACE. MEETING YOUR TARGET SHOULD ONLY BE DONE ONCE YOU KNOW THE PERSON! OTHERWISE YOU RISK EXPOSING YOURSELF AND COMPROMISING THE ENTIRE OPERATION!"
Listening in by the table as she took notes for a profile on Kiritsugu, Aiko nodded eagerly. "He really knows his shit."
"I CAN UNDERSTAND NOT BEING ABLE TO COMPREHEND MOST 21ST-CENTURY GADGETS, HOWEVER, SOME OF THESE GADGETS WERE INVENTED FOR A REASON! YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE NEAR YOUR TARGET TO LISTEN IN ON WHAT THEY ARE CONVERSING."
Materializing a capsaicin spray in her hand, Aiko sprayed it on her rice ball and began to eat it. "Om nom."
Seeing Shirou's eye twitch, Iihito decided it'll be better to ask Aiko a question than to stand around and do nothing. "So… Mind telling us what's going on?"
"WHEN YOU ARE IN A SITUATION WHERE YOU HAVE TO INTERACT WITH YOUR TARGET, YOU SHOULD NEVER ONLY HAVE ONE PLAN. ESPECIALLY A PLAN YOU MADE UP ON THE SPOT. ALWAYS ASSUME YOUR PLAN COULD GO WRONG AND PLAN AROUND THAT SHOULD IT HAPPEN!"
Aiko gave a nonchalant shrug as she finished chewing. "Kerry is a sensei now, I guess. Raynell and I dragged in an incompetent spy."
"I'll go talk to him," Shirou said before heading toward the source of the yelling. Iihito followed shortly after, not willing to entertain the idea of asking Aiko why she'd use pepper spray on a rice ball.
Opening the door, they saw the strange sight of Kiritsugu rubbing his temples in the direction of a blonde woman in a blue business suit. The woman in question took notes with a trembling hand and incessant sweating.
Shirou decided to chime in. "Am I… Interrupting something?"
Looking towards his adopted son, Kiritsugu sighed. "No, I'm just giving this one a lecture as to how to conduct basic espionage. I cannot risk someone who was THIS naive walking around in public exposing the magus world, the magus would eat her alive."
Shirou nodded. "Ah, you want something to drink?"
"Scotch, and bring in Raynell so he can remove my drunken state once I'm done. I cannot do this sober." Shirou left to grab the drink.
Gabriel brought her legs into her chest after she finished writing in her notebook. "I was wrong. So, so wrong. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid."
"Sheesh, what did she do to garner this reaction?" Iihito winced. "She can't be that bad… Right?"
"I don't want to repeat myself, my voice has gone sore enough as it is." Kiritsu rested his eyes, which did little to calm his nerves.
Gabriel whined as she buried her head in her legs. "I don't want to hear about it again. I'm not fit to be a super spy."
Iihito winced, feeling sorry for the blonde woman. "I mean, if it means anything. Everyone has to start from somewhere, even the best of spies start off as bumbling buffoons when they first start. It's just that there are severe consequences to spies who get caught so Kiritsugu here is trying to make sure you don't get caught again. Know thy enemy and know thyself and you shall win a hundred battles you know?"
Iihito felt like she was going nowhere in trying to comfort the woman.
"But I'm their top spy. How do we know anything about our enemies if I am terrible at spying?"
Kiritsugu glared at Iihito, knowing exactly what she was about to say. "Don't you dare suggest I help them out. I'm already at my limit with just one of them."
"Uhh, I know a thing or two about spying. More specifically on computers but I know a thing or two." Iihito offered.
Gabriel gasped as she looked up, a beaming smile breaking through her gloom. "Really?! Thank you. Thank you! THANK YOU!!"
"Just… Don't meet up here next time, I think Kiritsugu needs a break from you. No offense."