A/N: Happy holidays to all of you! I am sorry that this chapter is a bit late, but you know.. Real Life has other plans than writing fanfiction.
I ended up splitting the chapter in two parts, because I didn't want to publish a 20k words chapter. Next chapter will be the fight with Kokabiel and afterwards.. Well, that's a surprise!
I hope you enjoy the chapter and I am as always, happy to hear your thoughts.

...:::...

In the backyard of the Emiya residence, a battle was raging. It was by all means not something anyone had seen before in this world, a battle more suitable for a Holy Grail War or a fight between supernatural entities. And it was totally out of place in a backyard. Only an extremly strong Bounded Field and a tired homunculous were protecting the secrecy and controlling the damage.

Because in this backyard, there were two fighters. A huge tanned man, swinging a crude sword made of stone. Every swing shattered the ground, sending shockwaves in circles around him. But what was notable, notable because it really wasn't, was the other man. He was a mere teenage boy, running around the giant in wide circles, only armed with one weapon – a bow.

The bow itself was sleek and elegant. It looked fragile and like a piece of art, a bow you hang onto your wall to impress your friends. It didn't look like a tool of war, no the looks suggested that its dark purple material would break after a single draw. But that couldn't be right. After all, the backyard was full of destroyed 'arrows'.

To answer this riddle, one had to go back to the teenage boy hiding in the dark. While he was holding a bow, no arrow could be seen. Instead he only wore clothing suitable for combat and that was it. That's because he didn't need arrows. No, he didn't even fire arrows. He fired swords. With his fragile bow he was firing one sword after another, never stopping his running and never enabling the giant to get close to him.

The giant was pinned in the middle of the backyard, swatting swords out of the air, not capable of moving a step in any direction without opening holes in his defenses. If he was up against a normal Archer, he could have charged at his position, relying on his unnatural reflexes to dodge or defend against the arrows, but against this one.. The arrows had a force behind them that more than matched the giant's own strength.

And what's more, the Archer didn't just fire any swords.. No, flying at the giant were swords only found in legends and lyrics, constructs that shouldn't exist. Not that he knew. All he knew was that these annyoing swords changed their flying path after missing him. Only after he destroyed them, they stopped circling him until they hit him. The giant wondered, just what kind of swordsman was that good of an Archer? Being extremly skilled in one was unusual for a person his age, but two.. What else was there, the boy could do?

The giant shook his head and decided to break this stalemate. If it continued like that, he would eventually tire out enough for the Archer to beat him. And he knew from experience that the Archer wasn't going to run out of swords to fire. The giant opened his mouth and roared, a sound so primal that it wasn't wrong to assume it belonged to a beast. The Archer stopped for a moment, confused at the action and that was all the giant, the berserker, needed to start charging.

Of course that didn't go unanswered. As soon as he did a single step, the swords started to fly faster and more accurate than before. Now, they aimed for lethal areas instead of disabling ones, forcing the giant to defend against the incoming barrage. But he didn't stop. He swung his sword, faster and faster, the size helping him in deflecting the arrows by simply being in front of him. Not that it did much to the accuracy.

Suddenly, the Archer stopped the head-on barrage, either seeing that he couldn't break through the man's defense or trying to widen the distance between them. A feral grin spread on the face of the giant. This was his chance. Without the need to defend himself, he could strengthen his charge, making it unable for the Archer to stop him.

Well, that was if he would have continued the frontal assault. Instead, a dozen red swords were passing his sides and he knew that he didn't have much time left. These swords would soon turn around and aim for his unprotected back. He would either have to stop and defend himself or try and defeat the Archer before they hit him. Naturally, he decided on the later course of action.

He closed in on the Archer who couldn't outrun the giant while running backwards and raised his sword to gut the person who was responsible for his troubles in the last few minutes. However, the Archer did something very uncharacteristic for one of his profession.. He stopped and swung his bow like a sword.

The huge stone sword collided with the fragile looking bow and it shattered. Surprise written in the giant's face, he couldn't do anything as the bow continued to close in on his throat. When the bow stopped, it wasn't a bow anymore. Instead in the Archer's hands there was a simple katana and it rested next to the giant's throat who groaned disappointed in response.

"It's my loss... Again. One day you will run out of tricks and I'll defeat you Shirou. That I swear by the pride of my name, Heracles!" The now identified Heracles exclaimed, collapsing on the ground exhausted. "It's not fair. Just when I thought I have seen everything you can do, you pull out this bow and use it like you were born with it. And start firing swords of all things, who the hell does that?"

Shirou chuckled in response and let the katana in his hands shatter to pieces similar to the stone sword before. "I'm not that good. You were able to close in on me after all, that shouldn't happen to anyone claiming to be an expert with the bow. I only won because your sword was already close to breaking due to you using it to block all the arrows."

"Yeah, sure. It's not like you could defeat me in close combat as well, right?" Heracles said with an extremly sarcastic voice. "And I'm like one of the only ones who can actually defend against that barrage of sword-arrows and that's just because you told me how to defend against it without dying.. And I still think that you went easy on me!"

"Maybe.. But I didn't want to hurt you! I don't think Asia would be able to heal you if you were dead. So I only aimed for non-lethal places and didn't use the most destructive ones.. Anyways, that isn't important now. I hereby declare this bow-testing experiment succesful!" Shirou shouted happily.

...:::...

An hour later, an extremly tired little girl entered a certain red-head's workshop.

"Onii-chan, I finished.. *yawn* ..fixing the courtyard.. please learn how to do it yourself. I don't care if you are close to uncapable of learning that, I will force you to learn it. Is there anything else or can I go to bed?" Illya mumbled in a sleepy voice with half-closed eyes.

Shirou smiled at the sight, thankful for his sister's help. He knew that she had a tiring day behind her and it was close to midnight right now, a time they normally were fast asleep. Or he would be at least. Sometimes Illya did a marathon session of anime watching and would only sleep for one or two hours in a night.. Just like last night.

On any other day, she would be fast asleep by now, but Shirou was too exited to test out the Exali-bow, as he came to call it, and asked her to stay awake so he could do so. Somehow that ended in an hour long fight between him and Heracles and an impressive amount of destroyed area. He offered her to do the cleaning up tomorrow, but she insisted on doing so tonight, claiming that people may come over tomorrow and would certainly ask about the destruction.

He couldn't argue with that and decided to finish his notes on the Excali-bow. Shirou wondered if there was anyone else in the world who could have thought of using one of the mightiest Holy Swords for something like that, but he didn't really care. After all, he now finally had a bow firing his swords! And the Excali-bow didn't even look strained. It was the perfect bow for him, he had to admit. Now he only needed to test it with Broken Phantasms like Caladbolg II, but he decided that could wait until he needed it in a real fight. Or had a lot of space to blow up.

His gaze wandered back to Illya and found her slumped down on a wall, her back against it. Just as he was about to open his mouth to thank her for her hard work, he noticed that she was already asleep. Smiling to himself, he closed his notes and stood up from where he was sitting behind his desk. Walking over to her small form, he wondered just where she found the strength to repair the whole backyard without falling asleep, if she did so seconds after entering his workshop.

Shirou gently picked her up and shifted her small body in his arms, until he held her securely. He didn't really notice that he held her in a fashion most known for marriaged, but even if he did, he wouldn't care. There was nobody around to see them and Heracles was most likely in his room showering. He exited his workshop after turning off the lights and started the short walk back to the house.

In his arms, Illya shifted slightly, leaning more into him and unintentionally pressing against him. He was about to reposition her when he noticed the small unconcious smile on her lips. How could he do anything to destroy that? So he resigned himself to his fate and carried her to her room. Gently removing her shoes, he laid Illya in her bed and wrapped her up comfortably in her blanket.

He definitely didn't think about the fact that she was still in the clothes she wore during the day and would be too tired to change into her pyjamas. And he most definitely didn't think about undressing her to change her. No, his face was red because he was so exhausted, yes, that was the reason. After all, what kind of brother blushed about the thought of seeing his sister nearly naked? Unthinkable that he would be one of them.

In his mind, pictures of Illya flashed through his head. Illya in her skimpy pyjamas during their trip to the hot springs and how they slept next to each other.. Illya sitting under the star-lit sky, gazing upwards with a dreamy expression.. Illya smiling excitedly at her ice cream.. Illya pouting at his teasing..

Shirou faintly shook his head to clear it of these thoughts. She was family, the only one left in this world to call as such. And he had sworn to protect her, no matter what. It was no wonder that she was on his mind so often. He turned around and left the room, closing the door silently. However, just before it closed, he could hear Illya mumbling in her sleep.

"I love you... Onii-chan..."

...:::...

Rias and Akeno were sitting in the ORC clubroom, talking about what to do with the current situation. After the mock battle with the Executors, Yuuto left and hadn't returned yet. Furthermore, the last words exchanged between him and Rias were less than friendly. Akeno worried about her best friend.

Rias was a person that saw her peerage as her family, a view nearly unique to the devil's society. For her, everyone was invaluable and she wouldn't part with them for anything. Instead of treating them like expendable chess pieces, she strived to give her peerage members a family, something that most of them were lacking.

Akeno herself, the first of Rias' pieces, was a child from a Fallen Angel and a human woman. When her clan killed her mother and mortaly wounded Akeno, Rias showed up and rescued her. Akeno still was thankful to her for that day and had sworn to stay with her and protect her as long as she could.

Koneko lost her family as well. She and her older sister were taken in by a devil when their parents died and stayed with him for a short time. Then came the fateful day when her older sister killed said devil and fled, leaving Koneko behind. Schedulded to be executed, Sirzechs, Rias' older brother, saved her from her gruelsome fate and gave her to his little sister.

And then there was Rias' bishop, Gasper Vladi. A cross-dressing dhampire of all things. Gasper was born between the Vampire Lord Vladi and a human mother; the latter of whom died shortly after giving birth to Gasper, who was born as a mass of darkness which accidentally cursed his mother and several servants to death. Between the incredible fear of Gasper's true form from the higher ups, his uncontrollable Sacred Gear the Forbidden Balor View, and people's general prejudice towards the half breed, Gasper grew up in isolation and abuse. One day, he escaped the castle and was killed by a vampire hunter shortly afterwards, only to be ressurected by Rias.

Asia was a former holy figure in the church because of her Sacred Gear, until it was discovered that it could heal devils as well. Adding the fact that Asisa did so willingly, the Church banished her and she fell into the hands of Fallen Angels.

Issei.. Well, Issei was a special case. He didn't loose his family, nor did he go through a series of traumatic events. Not really at least, Akeno didn't count getting stabbed from his girlfriend was too traumatic for him. After all, he was a pervert and Rias spoiled him more than necessary, even sleeping naked next to him. If the boy wasn't the Red Dragon Kaiser, his dream of being a Harem King would be unreachable, but Akeno had to admit he was doing good progress on that front.

Yuuto Kiba's history was just as tragic as the ones of the other members. Being a nameless orphan, he was adopted by the Church as a part of the Holy Sword Project. There, he was tested and experimented on again and again, the only reason why he didn't give up on life were the friends he met there. The friends that died in front of him when the experiment failed and they weren't needed anymore. Just because of their sacrifice, he could escape to meet Rias.

In a way, it was ironic how Rias managed to find all of them at their lowest moments. Maybe that's the famous devils' luck? It would certainly fit, all of them are extremly powerful after all. Akeno was really curious who would join them next. Maybe an Executor and a powerful figure of Norse Mythology? That would certainly fit the uniqueness of the peerage.

So it wasn't a surprise that Rias was hurt and worried about Yuuto. He basically told her that he would leave and be a stray devil if it enabled him to chase down the Excaliburs. If that came to pass, Rias would be tasked to hunt him down and kill him and Akeno didn't think she or anyone in the peerage would be able to kill their friend.

"Why did he say that, Akeno? Didn't I give him a family and a new reason to live? Something to forget his revenge for?" Rias asked more to herself than anyone else. She sighed sadly and turned to Akeno.

"I'm sure he will come back, Rias. Once he realizes revenge is pointless, he will be back by our side. And in the meantime, he will search for the Excaliburs, venting his anger. If he actually succeeded in detroying one, that would be great news to the devil communities!" The queen in the peerage replied carefully, trying to cheer Rias up.

"True.. But I worry about him. What if he runs into someone who is stronger? Someone with an Excalibur who will just kill him then? I don't want to loose him! If I have to, I will lock him in his room, forcefully." Rias stated and Akeno's smile widened slightly at the thought.

"I think I would like that.." She ignored the irritated glance Rias gave her. "Let's just have a familiar follow him and help him if he runs into trouble. And I think Issei, Koneko and that pawn of Sona's are going to search for him and help him as well. Let them do their thing and wait, everything will be fine."

Rias sighed in defeat. "I hate to admit it, but you are right." She looked out of the windows for a few seconds and then continued talking. "And I have the feeling that Shirou and Illya are planning something as well. In the last few months, a Fallen Angel visited their house quite frequently from what I could gather."

"The siblings and the Fallen Angel, huh? That would fit with the reports of Azazel speaking favourable of them. Well, of the boy at least, I think he called Illya-chan a greedy little witch." Akeno chuckled in amusement and Rias joined her. It wasn't often that Azazel complained that openly about people.

"Maybe they are his agents here? It would certainly explain their abilities. But then again, they wouldn't stop the Fallen Angels in person then, but inform him instead. An alliance of sorts? I can certainly see their potential uses, Shirou defeated Irina very easily after all." Rias remarked and Akeno had to agree with that. Xenovia had been able to defeat Yuuto without many difficulties while it looked as if Shirou just played with Irina.

"Well, his swords are capable of blocking Excalibur strikes, maybe he already unlocked his Balance Breaker. I just don't see how they could be of any use against Kokabiel. That guy has raw power in spades, a talented swordsman and mage couldn't hope to accomplish anything against him. If only they were devils.."

"We tried that, Akeno. And as much as I want them to join us, we can't force them. I'm not even sure we could defeat both of them.." Rias trailed off, but shook her head. "It doesn't matter. This is a matter between Devils, Fallen Angels and the Church, we are not going to deliberatly putting them into danger."

...:::...

Illya gritted her teeth in annoyance. That brat was back and she was as enraging as ever. She kind of got the appeal of seeing Shirou and jumping at him in joy, but calling him 'Shirou-sama' and clinging to him like that? No way in hell was she going to let that slide. Yes, it would only need a flick of her hand, activating her circuits and taking her by surprise.. Wait, didn't she have these thoughts before? She was pretty sure she did, maybe she should hold back a bit.

'Okay, that's enough.' Totally forgetting her previous train of thoughts, she activated her Magic Circuits and created a dozen hair swords, all aiming at the little pest. However, they missed her because Shirou separated them just in time, by throwing Mitelt in Berserker's general direction. Heracles. Weird name. But she had to give him credit, since he didn't catch the wildly flailing Fallen Angel, but instead watched her fly past him and hit a wall. He followed that action by rising a single eyebrow at Shirou, as if he was asking if he were supposed to catch it.

Illya giggled to herself and turned towards the living room, expecting to see it destroyed. Every time Mitelt came over, they ended up destroying the living room and by now, Shirou and Illya didn't keep any easy breakable items in it. Normally, she just fixed whatever damage the dealt, but this time it didn't seem necessary. She looked at her brother in confusion.

"Onii-chan? What happened, why isn't everything broken?" Her confusion clearly showing in her voice.

"Well..." Shirou drawled, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck. "You know how I told you about various experiments I wanted to do?" Illya nodded, not looking any less confused.

"I might have ended up overdoing it. You see, I expected Mitelt-san to visit" Shirou stopped shortly because Mitelt shouted "For you it's Mitelt-chan, Shirou-sama!" and continued after she finished. "And since the living rooms ends up destroyed every time, I thought, hey, why don't I project the furniture that time?"

"That's surprisingly well thought of, Onii-chan." Illya said in admiration, but seeing Shirou's embarassed smile, she grew suspicious and narrowed her eyes at him. "What are you not telling me?"

Shirou sighed in defeat. "This isn't normal furniture. Normal furniture would have broken. So I thought which sword can also be furniture?" Illya froze as she puzzled together just what she was sitting on. Shirou continued to talk. "So I ended up replacing the furniture with Excalibur Mimics.."

Illya looked at him and then back to the furniture. And then back at Shirou. Finally she couldn't stop herself and burst out laughing. How could she not? Shirou might as well be the only one who could come up with that idea. Using one of the most powerful holy swords in existance for furniture of all things was just so like him. If the Executors found out, she was sure they would start a war with him for this blasphemy.

Thankfully, there weren't any Executors in the room. Just a confused and unknowing Fallen Angel and Heracles who already knew about some of Shirou's abilities. But it seemed that the shock that he could project Excalibur Mimic was all but drowned by the ridiculousness of this situation. He was similar to Illya lying on the ground laughing and holding his stomach.

Mitelt looked at Shirou to get him to explain, but was instead captivated by his expression. Shirou was pouting and glaring at the same time. That caused her to jump at him in adoration again. Which caused Illya to stop laughing and start trying to kill her. While the well-known scene continued, Illya swore she could hear Shirou mutter "This was a good idea after all..".

...:::...

A few minuted later everyone had calmed down and repositioned to the still flawless couch. Shirou smiled proudly to himself. That sword-couch wasn't only indestructable, it was also very comfortable. He definitely had to do more research about Excalibur Mimic..

He refocussed on the situation on hand. The last time Mitelt came to visit them, she asked them to prevent a war. It seems that there have been new developments.

"So why are you here Mitelt-san?" Shirou asked their guest and the mood turned serious.

"We found out who the thief is. Kokabiel of the Grigori, one of the leader of the Fallen Angels. I think I told you about how he wanted to restart the war? It seems that he wants to use the Excaliburs to do so. By stealing three of the Holy Swords and with the help of a Holy Swords expert, he wants to reforge them in this city." Mitelt stated and Heracles jaw dropped, knowing what that would entitle.

"Why is that such a big thing?" Illya asked, confused. "They are just swords, what kind of horrible thing could reforging three Excaliburs do?"

Surprisingly, Heracles answered. "For one, nobody ever found a possible way to reforge the fragments into the original Excalibur, that would require immense amounts of magic power. More than Kokabiel would have, so most likely they are going to couple the reforging with a magic draining spell. But for the amount of energy needed, they would need to wipe a whole town from the map. A town about the size of the town we are living in."

Illya and Shirou paled at the thought, but Berserker wasn't finished just yet. "And that wouldn't be the worst thing. Such a mighty sword in the hands of a mighty Fallen Angel could eradicate whole armies of Devils and a good amount of Angels as well. Add to that, that by reforging the sword here, he also kills two Devil heiresses who are sisters of two of the Maous, he basically starts a war and wins it in the same move. None of the Maous would back down after a family member was killed."

"Okay.. I get now why Azazel asked for our help." Shirou shuddered and looked at his sister who was in a similar shocked state. "But why isn't he stopping him himself? If he knew all that, why not act?"

Mitelt looked embarassed and only answered after a few seconds. "..well, he kind of wants to know what you are capable of? He said that you wouldn't decline because Shirou-sama has an unwavering sense of justice and Illya-chan.. She is way too greedy to pass an opportunity to place Azazel-sama in her debt."

Next to her, Heracles snickered at the thought of Illya forcing the Leader of the Fallen Angel to buy her presents. Illya however was scowling at the Fallen Angel. Shirou quickly changed his smile to a neutral expression, just in time before Illya turned to look at him.

"I guess we don't really have a choice.." Illya muttered, glancing at her brother.

"It's the right thing to do. And I would also like to know what one of the strongest Fallen Angels is capable of. It's a good opportunity to test ourselves." Shirou said thoughtfully. He didn't really fancy putting Illya, Heracles, Illya, himself and escpecially Illya in a life-threatening environment, but he needed to evaluate their overall combat capabilities. And Azazel wouldn't place his entire trust in two teens, he surely had a back-up plan.

Heracles wasn't that hesitant to agreeing. Not that anyone asked him to agree, they all just kind of expected him to follow them. "I knew I made the right decision! That's a fight to die for! Let's go kick some ass!"

Illya giggled at his antics and turned back to Mitelt. "Do we have to fight Kokabiel or can we just grab the Excaliburs and run?"

"It's very likely that he is just going to kill the Maous' sisters then. The only safe way to catch him would be during the process of reforging. A spell of that scale needs around two hours to charge."

"A fight is inevitable then, huh?" Illya sighed and glanced at her brother. "But don't worry, Onii-chan and I will take care of him. We just moved here after all, it would be way too annoying to search a new house.."

"And it would be way too annoying if all these innocent people die, right Illya?" Shirou deadpanned at his sisters' words.

"I guess. A war would be way too troublesome. Think of all the animes that would be left unfinished! It's bad enought that I have to wait a week for a new episode."

"..." "..." "..." Everyone turned to stare at the small white-haired girl.

"What?!"

...:::...

"Okay, let me get this straight." Shirou groaned while pinching the bridge of his nose. "Because Yuuto hates the Excaliburs, you want to ask the Exorcists if you could destroy them. After they found the others and put the thieves to justice?"

"Yep." Koneko and Issei nodded enthusiastically, not noticing Shirou's incredulous look. Saji on the other hand did and gave him a look that said 'They forced me to go along with them'.

"I wish I could be there when you tell them.." Illya wiped away a few tears from laughing too hard. "Asking to destroy some of the mightiest and oldest weapons. And you really think they would allow you something so ridiculous?"

"Of course! Because in exchange we plan to offer them our help in their task!" Issei stated confidently, causing both of the siblings to sweat-drop.

"Onii-chan.. I will let you handle this. If I stay here, I will never finish the spell I was working on. That's just too funny." The homunculous told her older brother and started walking in the direction of the door to their backyard. When she passed Shirou, she started to mutter to herself. "I must tell Heracles about that.. Asking Exorcists of all people to destroy holy artifacts. As devils... He will love to hear that.."

Shirou smiled apolegetically at the devils in front of him. "Ah, you see Illya and I were in the middle of preparing everything for a difficult spell. I apologize for her rudeness, she is just a bit annoyed because she had to draw runes for about three hours."

"Huh?" Issei looked at him confused. "Is that some kind of Magecraft, Shirou-san? I thought only Illya-chan was a mage?"

Shirou smiled at that. "Well, just because I am no good at it, doesn't mean I can't use it. I can use only about three spells and that's it. Additionally, these three spells are regarded as completely useless by most."

"You are just like me then!" Issei exclaimed happily. "I am also no good at all this demonic power stuff. I think Akeno said I was the devil with the least amount of demonic power she had ever seen!" His voice sounded proud and he put his fist to his chest, as if he had accomplished something great.

"Ano, Ise-senpai? You know that's bad, right?" Koneko stated in her usual monotone voice, but Shirou thought he could detect a hint of disbelief. He was getting very good at reading the small white-haired girl, in the past few weeks she had spent a lot of time at the Emiya estate. Illya had suspected that she was a victim of Shirou's cooking and entered a state of addiction to his food. After asking her how she knew that, Illya had just said that she had been in that state since she first had tasted his cooking.

"No, because Shirou-san is that strong with only using his Sacred Gear! That means I will be even stronger eventually because I have a Longinus. Then I will be the ultimate Harem King!" Issei raised one of his fists in a victory pose.

"Pervert." The nekomata deadpanned. "So Shirou-senpai, are you going to help us?"

The red-head shook his head in response. "I'm sorry, but Illya and I need to finish that spell, so we are very busy. Furthermore, it wouldn't feel right to destroy the Excaliburs, no matter what. They may not be the original, but they are still extremely powerful and versatile. I couldn't stand the thought of destroying such beautiful swords."

"That's too bad then. Oh and please don't tell Buchou or Kaichou about this. We are kind of doing this on our own." Issei rubbed the back of his head in embarassment.

"Don't worry, I don't see a reason to do so. Be careful!" Shirou called after them.

...:::...

Illya was looking proudly at the magic circle in Shirou's workshop. She wasn't the most proficient in formalcraft since her family specialized in Alchemy, but her natural talent with magic enabled her to study that particular branch of magic as well. However, in the last few hours she had remembered why she never bothered to really learn it.. It was just plain boring.

Formalcraft was the use of magic with the help of magic circles, rituals or sacrifices. The magic circles helped to stabilize, power and strengthen the used spell and sometimes even had the spell written in them, so it could be activated in an extremely short time. All in all, it was very helpful for rituals, like the Servant Summoning in the Holy Grail War, but useless in combat unless you fought in a beforehand prepared battlefield.

If only it wasn't so exhausting.. Drawing all the small runes around the circle carefully and making sure that everything was in the perfect place was tiring. But doing it twice? Oh, how she hated it, all of it. And her hand still hurt a bit because the ritual needed her blood to work better with her prana. At least she was finished now.

She was happy that they didn't draw these circles in her workshop, cleaning that up would be a pain. The door opened and she saw a concerned looking Shirou walking in.

"What's bothering you Onii-chan?" She asked curiously. Illya was aware that he didn't like refusing Issei's and Koneko's request, but they didn't really have any choice. They had to prepare to find the location of the reforging as fast as possible. That was why Illya was preparing this spell. It was a wide-scale searching spell that scanned the whole city for a particular magical semblance, the semblance that all Excaliburs shared. The only catch with this spell was that the Excalibur needed to be wielded to emit this semblance.

It regrettably didn't work when the Excaliburs were just lying around. The key to this spell was Shirou, or to be more precise, his traced Excalibur. By consistently powering it with prana through one of the magic circles, the spell had something to search for. It had taken a few days for the siblings to come up with something complex like that, but in the end they succeeded. Now everything that was left to do was the activation.

"It's just.. Even though I don't think that Kokabiel would show himself to them before executing his plan, I can't help but worry about them. They are nowhere near the level they need to fight him, from what I heard." Shirou looked at his sister with a thoughtful expression.

"Hm, don't worry about that Onii-chan! I'm sure they could survive for five minutes, and that's all the time we need to arrive at their position. Isn't that part of the reason why we went for a spell like this?" Illya tried to reassure him.

Smiling slightly, Shirou patted her head, causing her to adopt a blissful expression. "I guess so. Let's get this started then, Illya. Now that they are actively searching for the thieves, the chances of us finding them increases as well."

"Hai." Illya nodded. "Then please project one Excalibur and place it in the middle of the circle."

She watched as Shirou carefully stepped in between the differen segments of the circle, trying not to mess up her work. "Trace on." A moment later, he held a huge sword in his hand that Illya recognized as Excalibur Destruction.

"I thought you liked the other one more Onii-chan?" Illya asked curiously. He had more than once told her about all the different possibilities of Excalibur Mimic and the uselessness of Excalibur Destruction in comparison.

"I do, Illya. But every time I try to see the true form of that sword, I get a headache and no clear answer at all. It's just everything at once! And because I wanted this spell to succeed, I decided to go for the safer option." Shirou admitted sheepishly.

"Better safe than sorry, huh?" Illya mused and waited for Shirou to get out of the magic circle. "Okay, I will start now."

The small homunculous concentrated on her magic circuits and the vast amount of od in her body. With a small mental command, all of her circuits opened and soon prana flooded her entire being. It was a thrilling experience. After a few seconds of managing her prana, she approached the circle and started chanting in German, like she always did when utilizing her magecraft.

"Suchen und finden, überall."
"Die Aura des Schwertes ist mein Begehr."
"Führe mich zu ihr, in dieser Stadt."
"Warne bei Benutzung, zeige mir den Ort."
"Ich befehle dir, hör meinen Befehl!"

Illya felt the prana leaving her body and powering the magic circle in front of her. With a faint glow, the circle started humming and after a few seconds the sword slowly started to levitate in the air. The glow grew stronger as she pushed more prana in the circle, carefully activating the second one which drew mana out of the air to power the searching spell. It needed a certain amount of prana to start with and she had decided that just to be safe she would feed it with enough power to last for two days on its own.

After everything was finished, Illya let out a relieved sigh and closed her magic circuits which were emitting a pleasant warmth by now. She hadn't used more than a quarter of her od, but it was still exhausting. After all, a quarter of her od would be more than twice of Shirou's capabilities. If she had presented the spell to her grandfather or the Magic Association, they would have laughed at the immense power requirement for such a basic skill and disregarded it completely.

Sure, over time she could develop a cheaper, easier and faster version, but it wouldn't be finished in time. And there wasn't anyone knowledgable enough to laugh at her, not that her brother ever would. Illya smiled to herself as she saw his astonished expression. It always surprised her how easily impressed he was by the simplest things magecraft could accomplish.

One of her fondest memories was when part of his house in Fuyuki was destroyed and Illya single-handedly fixed it in a few hours. His open-mouthed expression was priceless and she still regretted not having a camera back then. Thankfully she did have one when she controlled her familiars so, that they acted like living birds..

She looked back at the magic circle and didn't notice anything wrong. However, the magic circle didn't give any indications of an Excalibur being found, so she still wasn't sure if it was working perfectly. Turning back to her brother, she saw him still staring at the glowing construct in front of him.

"Onii-chan, that should be it. Now we can only wait for a feedback. Why don't we go eat something? I think Berserker, eh Heracles, is getting impatient as well. I swear I just heard his stomach growling!"

Shirou looked at her for a second and was about to say something, when a deep rumbling sound echoed through the room from outside. Both of the siblings broke out laughing. "Alright, let's get dinner ready before he starts eating the fridge!"

...:::...

Dinner was a pleasant affair, as always. Afterwards, Illya immediately went back to the shed to check everything while Berserker and Shirou were sitting on the veranda in the backyard. Both were drinking tea. Shirou broke the comfortable silence.

"I know I asked you this before, Heracles, but are you happy about staying with us? In the last weeks both Illya and I noticed that you are a good guy. If you promise to stop hurting anyone, we would let you go, you know?"

Heracles looked at him surprised, raising one eyebrow. "You would, I am sure. But that little sister of yours is disturbingly fixated with me for some reason."

Shirou laughed quietly in his cup. "She once had a protector, before I met her. We all called him Berserker, because, well, he was one. He looked very similar to you and if Berserker hadn't been mad, I think he would have acted like you do as well. You have to understand that Illya has always been alone, since she was little. Her parents involuntarily left her when she was small and her grandfather manipulated her to hate both him and me."

He sighed sadly and wrapped the arms around his knees, while Berserker listened carefully. Normally the siblings were very secretive about their past, and besides little anecdotes, he knew next to nothing about them. That Shirou was telling him that much meant that he was trusting Heracles a lot.

"It was Berserker's duty to protect her. But she was waging war against me and my friends, and in the end I had to kill him. That day I gained a sister, but she lost someone very important to her. Thankfully, she doesn't resent me for it, but sometimes I caught her looking sad and depressed and I can't help but blame myself for it. Why couldn't that end without a fight?"

Shirou was clenching his fist strongly by now and Heracles was about to pat him on the shoulder when he continued. "So I have to thank you Heracles. Thank you for trying to kill us. Thank you for staying with us and being who you are."

He smiled at the giant of a man sincerely, who blinked in surprise. He definitely hadn't expected that.

"Thanks to you, Illya refound some of her confidence. She is way more cheerful and motivated. Because of your presence I am able to see her smile more often. So if you need anything, tell me and I will help you to the best of my abilities."

Heracles smiled at the boy. "It's a pleasure, my friend. I have learned a lot since I have met you two and I am glad I did. I shiver at the thought of us being enemies.. I would have died before I knew what hit me." He chuckled to himself and slapped the teenager on the back, who nearly fell down by the strength of the slap.

Suddenly, Heracles face turned serious. "Shirou-san, I only have one fear. If Illya-chan ever decides to force me to wear a maid uniform, you must stop her with all you have. And if you fail, you must wear one as well."

Shirou looked at the man with a blank expression for a few seconds and then shivered at the thought. Heracles nodded thoughtfully. A minute later, both of them were rolling on the floor laughing.

...:::...

"Illya?" Illya heard Shirou calling her through the house. She jumped down from the bed where she was reading a manga and opened her door to reveal Shirou leaning at her doorframe.

"What can I do for you, O~nii~chan~?" Illya asked in a playful voice and smirked. The boy in front of her nearly tripped, even though he was standing still, but caught himself in time.

"I just wanted to know if there is any progress in locating the Excaliburs?"

"Hm, not really. The spell didn't pick up anything significant in the last few days. Well, except a few short moments where someone used an Excalibur. But as you know, they were just short instances, as if someone was experimenting with them. I still can't locate the location though, we would need a fight that lasts at least for half a minute.." Illya mused and Shirou nodded with a serious expression.

"Let me know as soon as you pick something up, Illya." The red-haired teen started to turn around, but Illya caught his sleeve between her fingers.

"What aren't you telling me Onii-chan? You are way more tense than usual..." The homunculous stated.

"..I can't really hide anything before you, can I?" Shirou asked with an amused sigh.

"Nope." Illya half-smiled, popping the 'p'. "So why don't you come in and tell your cute little imoutu everything about your worries?" She smiled at Shirou and he admitted defeat. There was no way that he could say no to that smile.

A minute later, they were both sitting on Illya's bed which was just cleared free from stray mangas and anime DVDs Illya had lying around. Shirou turned to Illya with a conflicted expression.

"I'm just not sure if we can do that, you know? I mean Azazel asked us to stop a war! A thrice god-damn war between three absolutely ridiculous powerful races. How can we even hope to beat one of their leaders? We are up against someone whose name stands in the Bible!"

Illya laid one of her hands on Shirou's in concern. "It will be fine Onii-chan. We are two very powerful magicians in our own right, and you have an incredible amount of combat abilities. You have weapons which are literally able to kill gods. And you don't really have to worry about me anymore. With Heracles fighting with us, I bet we could take on a small army. But we are just fighting one guy plus not important entourage. I'm more than sure that we can beat them."

Shirou sighed and smiled softly. "I know, I should be more confident. I just wish that I had already finished the employment of my Reality Marble. It would give us a huge advantage.."

"We will be fine without it! And come on, even if not, I'm more than sure that Azazel has some back-up plan. That man isn't a one trick pony. So, if we fail, no war will be started and this world will be safe!" Illya said encouragely.

"That might be true, but.." Shirou blushed faintly and rubbed the back of his head. "I don't want you to get hurt! If you died, I wouldn't know what to do! There's a real chance that you will get hurt and I don't want that!"

He was quiet for a minute and then continued with an almost pleading expression. "If you want, we can just leave. Run away from the fight, leave everything behind and hide. Find a safe place and live our lifes quietly. I'm not striving to be a hero anymore, who is throwing himself in every fight he can. I'm just a concerned brother who doesn't want his sister to get hurt!"

Illya gave him a true and beautiful smile. That were the words she had wanted to hear the whole time. Her brother was ready to give up everything he was before, just so she would be safe. It was perfect, beautiful and at the completely wrong time. Because for all she wanted to just take Shirou and leave, she couldn't. If she did, she would die in less than a year and leave him beind, heartbroken. And she couldn't do that to him, not ever. She needed the devils and Fallen Angels.

Her smile changed slightly, now she was smiling sadly at him. "I would love to do that, Onii-chan. But not now. Wouldn't that mean we would have to leave all our new friends behind? Wouldn't it be no different from the loss of Rin, Sakura, Saber, Rider and Taiga? I know I am your main concern, and I'm unbelievable happy about that, but.. I think we, especially you, would regret it."

Her smile turned mischievous. "And I can't miss the chance of the leader of the Fallen Angels being indebted to us! Just think of all the things he could give us! The magical items! The raw materials! With his help, we could jump leaps and bounds in your research and mine! And all the money.." She giggled a bit crazily and after a second, Shirou chuckled with her.

The heavy mood lifted considerabely and the two smiled at each other, faces only few centimeters apart. Shirou couldn't avert his gaze from her blood red eyes, and continued to stare at her in silence. After a minute, Illya moved closer to Shirou, slowly inching forward, until...

"Guys, there is somebody on the door for you...?" Heracles trailed off, stepping through the still open door. However, he didn't finish his sentence because of the scene in front of him. He knew that he just walked in at the second when his little master wanted to kiss her brother and interrupted them.

Even though their faces were more than funny, Shirou looking confused and totally obvious about what was going to happen and Illya having a mixture of embarrassment, anger, and annoyance on her face. Slowly, Heracles inched backwards and turned around the corner, hoping that his punishment wasn't going to be too bad.

Before he left, he heard Shirou saying "I will just go and see who is at the door!" and face-palmed. He really liked the boy, but most of the times he was so oblivious to the feelings of love of others, that Heracles wanted to hurt him. Really badly. Maybe, just maybe, he needed to talk with Shirou and tell him about a few things.. That is, if he survived Illya's wrath.

...:::...

Four days after Issei, Koneko and Saji came to the siblings' house, the spell located an Excalibur. Illya was up and running as soon as she got the mental feedback from the searching spell, nearly kicking in Shirou's door.

"I found one and it's not one of the Churches' Excaliburs. The amount of energy suggests that the wielder is fighting against someone or something, so I think we should be able to arrive there in time." She informed Shirou and both of them immediately ran downstairs, picking up Heracles on their way.

"Okay, they are very close to our home, we should be there in two minutes." Illya told the others as they were running through streets and gardens. They were taking the shortest way to the location, which means they didn't bother with streets. Instead they jumped from one garden wall to another, making jumps that no normal human could hope to accomplish. Only sheer luck saved them from being seen.

True to her words, they arrived two minutes later, finding Koneko, Issei, Saji and Yuuto facing two guys in priest outfits. One of them had the aura of an older gentleman, while the other one just looked crazy. Shirou signalled for the others to wait and took a good look at the sword in the crazy priest's hand.

Excalibur Rapidly, his structural grasping told him. He felt it embedding itself in the wide desert of his Reality Marble and analyzed it as good as he could quickly. Similar to Excalibur Destruction, it only had one ability, besides being an extremely strong holy sword. Excalibur Rapidly grants the wielder incredibly enhanced speed, fast enough to create afterimages of oneself, if used correctly. The sword also seems to give the wielder enhanced flexibility, making it easier to avoid attacks at high speed.

Its form was interesting as well. Instead of a European style sword like Excalibur Destruction, Excalibur Rapidly had the form of a long Kris. A Kris is normally supposed to be a dagger, shaped similar to Rule Breaker, the dagger of Medea of Colchis, but Excalibur Rapidly looked like a long version of it. The only difference was that it had a lot less turns in its blade, so it was still quite straight.

The reason why they were just looking at the scene and not intervening, was because it wouldn't change anything. It actually suited them fine if the two priests successfully fled. If the devils were able to capture them and destroy the Excaliburs, Kokabiel would just kill everyone and that would be way worse.

No, the siblings built on Kokabiel's reputation of a war loving leader who liked to flaunt his prizes. That meant that he wouldn't do anything if his original plans were set in motion, which included baiting the Maou out from the underworld to fight him. The time needed for the reforging ritual to be completed, was the only time for the siblings to fight him. If they wanted to attack him before, they would have to storm his base and no magus in their right mind just goes into an enemy base when there is another choice.

So they just watched the scene unfold in front of them, making sure that everyone was safe. After a short talk and a tense moment where Shirou thought he had to jump to action, the priests fled with the Executors chasing them. They didn't really care for the two girls, they were just at the wrong location at the wrong time and would surely be easily defeated if they managed to find Kokabiel's hideout.

Even though it hurt Shirou to admit it, it was better to maybe sacrifice the two, especially if they were on a course to unknowingly sabotage their plan. His concern was Illya first and then the devils he became friends with over the last few weeks.

The scene in front of them ended with the appearance of two furious looking devil kings who started to spank their pawns of all things.. The trio silently turned around and went back home to get some sleep. Now that the Excaliburs were sighted and Executors on Kokabiel's tail, he would have to move soon.

"So, tomorrow is likely, huh?" Heracles mused to himself, an excited grin on his face. The siblings nodded in response.

"Most likely. We just don't know where. That's why we need to move as soon as the spell picks something up." Illya remarked, as they arrived back home.

Heracles waved them goodnight and went of to his room. Just as Shirou was about to do the same, Illya grabbed his arm.

"Onii-chan.. Would you.. would you stay with me tonight?" She asked with a small blush and downcast eyes. "It's just.. We don't know what tomorrow will bring and I'm a bit scared.."

Shirou smiled kindly at her and patted her head lovingly. "Sure Illya. Let's go to bed then, shall we?"

"Hai, Onii-chan~"

...:::...

Omake: The Game of Excaliburs

- Shirou admitted that he may have overshot in his experiment. All he wanted to do was to test, if Excalibur Mimic really could take any form. Now, he was sitting in a sword house, with sword furniture, sword apples (which were non edible which he found out by hurting himself when biting into them), and a lot of other things that were swords in the beginning.

After recreating mundane objects, he turned his focus to fictional things. All around him, things he had seen in Illya's different animes were scattered about. For example there was the cool looking black sword from this virtual reality game.

But the most striking feature currently in the room was the thing he was sitting on. He had seen it one night, when he was watching TV before going to bed, and he came across what he thought was a normal Middle Ages series. He later noticed that it was more akin to a porno and swapped channels as soon as he saw that, but one particular picture stayed in his head.

A throne made of swords. It was horribly looking and totally unsuited for a benevolent king, but for someone who could be considered a sword, it was fascinating. Just how many great swords were used for this?

So he ended up projecting it and sitting on it, just to see how it would feel like. Of course that was the exact moment Illya walked in.

"Onii-chan, seriously? Projecting a whole house and a bunch of other stuff... Wow, what a lot of cool stuff!" Illya exclaimed happily, not noticing what Shirou was sitting on and hurrying other to the pile of anime related things. After a while, she sighed happily and spoke up again.

"Onii-chan, I hereby declare you to be the best brother in the world. All the merchandise I don't have to buy now.. hehehe, why didn't I think of that before?" She drooled slightly and Shirou sighed in defeat. Only Illya would think of something like that.. His sigh caused Illya to look at him and the throne and she blinked surprised. But only for a second, before smirking evilly.

"Oh, Onii-chan~ I know this throne~ Did you project this to feel like a Tangaryen~?" She asked innocently, slowly edging closer to him.

"Illya? What are you talking about?" He exclaimed in shock at her sudden shift in behaviour.

"Mhm, I think you know what I am talking about~ After all, why would you project something like this otherwise~?" She stated in a seductive voice and with a sultry voice. She finally reached Shirou and jumped onto his lap, drapping her arms around his neck. "So want do you say, brother. Why don't we act like all the siblings of the Tangaryen should?" -

Shirou woke up and nearly screamed. He noticed that he was sitting up in bed, Illya sleeping peacefully next to him and he concluded that everything had been a dream. A very.. disturbing dream. Yes, disturbing. He would never ever again watch TV except maybe the animes Illya recommended.

His breathing eased up a bit and he was about to settle down, when he heard Illya mumbling in her sleep. "Come to bed, Onii-chan~ I will show you how siblings should act~"

This time, he screamed.