It was time. The moment of the unofficial rating game that would also double as Shirou's official debut in the Devil society.
The circle deployed, and they were transported to the game arena. It took them a few moments to realize that someone had gone the cheap route and had simply recreated the school and the clubhouse.
"Everyone know their role?" asked Shirou.
"I'll summon my familiar and have her take the first shot at wherever they're holed up," said Sakura.
When she heard what sort of person this Riaser was, she had no complaints about using her Noble Phantasm.
"And I'll deal with whatever poor bastard is left behind," said Medea viciously.
"And if they survive her I'll snipe from the roof until Sakura and Illya are in position. Lancer will lead them on a wild goose chase while getting them into position," said Kiritsugu. He could live with maiming idiots. They were from the Phenex clan, and that meant they had a supply of tears that would make recovery almost instant.
"Herakles and the remaining pawns will stay behind to defend the clubhouse. If things get real bad, I'll deploy Unlimited Blade Works as a last resort. I refuse to let Riaser win, not when Rias' freedom is in jeopardy."
That, and Riaser pissed him off without even trying. No way in hell was Riaser going to win even if Shirou had to nearly kill himself to deal with the bastard.
"I'll patrol the skies and make sure no one takes out Medea. They'll expect her to be the Queen, not a pawn," said Mordred.
They would expect her to be Shirou's Queen, or at the very least a Bishop. But Shirou had sacrificed two Mutation Piece Pawns on Medea for a very specific reason.
She was more dangerous and versatile that way. Casters were good at magical attacks, but not in close combat. They also needed time to set up their more devastating magics.
He wanted an overwhelming victory against a house that almost never lost. He wanted to prove a very strong point that just because he was raised in the human world didn't make him weak.
He didn't spend all those years acting as Taiga's sparring partner and doing the cliché of weight training every single day just to lose his first game.
The buzzer sounded, and Sakura immediately went to the roof where she summoned Rider. Shirou had asked specifically if all familiars were permitted in the game. He suspected that after this they might make rules against them.
He wouldn't know it until later, but several devils recognized Medusa when she appeared. That recognition only cemented as fact when she summoned the Pegasus and unleashed it on the school. They knew that attack.
No one expected a relative unknown like Shirou Emiya to have her on his team, much less as something that many would take for granted. Sakura's use of her 'familiar' was unprecedented, and had many of the old bloods thinking twice about Shirou being the weak one.
It would amuse him greatly that the discreet bet he made on him to win (he was the long odds for obvious reasons) would net him quite a bit of spending cash and more than make up for the equipment Kiritsugu asked for. It didn't hurt that he had asked Rias to make the bet, or that they would split the winnings.
The worst to come out of that idea was that he would have to reimburse her later.
There was a flash of light, followed by an explosion nearby. A few moments later, Grayfia (he finally found out what her name was from Rias) announced in her usual tone how bad the damage was to Riaser's team.
"Five of Lord Riaser's Pawns, One Bishop, Two Rooks and Two Knights, have retired."
"Better than I hoped for," said Shirou with a grin.
Outside the game arena, Rias wasn't the only one staring. She was with Sona and her Peerage watching the games.
"He took out most of Riaser's pieces in a single attack, using a familiar no less," said Rias gaping.
Whatever she had expected Shirou to do in order to beat Riaser, sending a mythical monster from the Age of the Gods certainly wasn't it. Especially as a familiar to one of his Bishops.
She had thought he had found a bunch of Heroes from the old bloodlines who preferred their ancestor's title to their real names.
It was starting to become clear to her that these weren't some idiots from the Hero bloodline...but the real deal. Which begged the question...
Where in the name of Lucifer did he find people who were supposed to be long dead?!
Rias watched the one-sided slaughter, and she took vindictive pleasure watching Shirou pound Riaser's face in until he forfeited the game.
Immortal Devil or not, not even Riaser could withstand that kind of punishment without any back up whatsoever. It didn't help that Shirou had kept up his strength training even now. He had only taken off his weights to insure Riaser got the maximum punishment.
Suddenly Rias grinned as it hit her. She was free! Gloriously free! Now she just had to find a way to keep her dad from pulling this again!
Shirou felt rather uncomfortable in formal clothing. He was going to meet the Lucifer, who wanted to congratulate him on winning... and for freeing his sister from an engagement she didn't want in the first place.
He could only hope Lucifer would recognize the symbol that he saw every time he used magic.
When he finally met the man, he was once again hit with the strange sense of deja vu that he got around Grayfia...and then his next thought was that he looked like an older, male Rias.
It took him a few moments to realize exactly what he was dealing with.
A male version of Illya that thankfully was already married and had no interest outside of spoiling his sister whenever and wherever possible.
"I must admit, I'm surprised a relative newcomer such as yourself found that many powerful allies in a short amount of time."
"It's easier than you might think. In Fuyuki the Magi have a sort of ritual they've created a few hundred years ago called the 'Heaven's Feel' or the Grail Wars. The basic idea was that at the end of the ritual, the winning pair would be able to gain one of the lost Magics known as Heaven's Feel. Needless to say no one has successfully won the war in the five times it's been active, and thanks to me stealing almost all the spirits required, it's unlikely it'll be active again, if ever."
Sirzechs remembered something Kiritsugu mentioned when he spoke to him.
"I heard you're also looking for your birth family."
"My memory was either erased or blocked by the magical nature of the fire, and the only clue I have is the circle that shows up whenever I use my Devil magic," said Shirou.
"Well that is something I can help with. Do you have a copy of the circle?"
"My dad took photographs earlier this morning while he was showing me how to fight hand to hand. As much as I love Mordred, she's a better fighter with her sword than without it."
Sirzechs took one look at the circle, then his expression became rather...odd.
"Are you sure this is the circle you use?"
"All of my Pieces use it. According to Zelretch they got it from me since I hold the King piece," said Shirou, confused.
"Shirou...this is the circle used by the Gremory clan."
Shirou blinked.
"You're kidding, right?"
"I would know that better than anyone. What's more is that there is a Gremory who went missing some years back and was never found. He went out to complete a minor pact and it was only after that we learned of him being in a city where a major fire occurred," said Sirzechs seriously.
There was no way this could possibly be him. What were the odds that his missing son would end up finding Rias purely because she had made a certain blond her knight? Or that he would be found and adopted by the one person who could knew exactly where to look when it came to Devils?
"Well there is one sure fire way to see if I really am part of the same family as Rias. We could do a blood test to whomever has the nearest match," said Shirou. He wasn't afraid to use a little blood to find his birth family. Hell, he had been counting on it to confirm his claim!
Three hours later, three separate vials of Shirou's blood was shipped off to three private labs. Along with vials from all of the Gremory household old enough to have a child his age. Which thankfully for Lucifer's sanity (and the knowledge that Rias wasn't actively seeing anyone in the past year) meant his sister was not among them.
Rias wasn't the only eager one waiting for the results. Finding out Shirou might be a possible cousin was rather exciting. The best part was that the Phenex clan couldn't exactly protest a conflict of interest because Shirou hadn't known he was possibly related to the Gremory family, and Rias had no idea the circle he generally used as she had Akeno use theirs most of the time.
Finally the circle appeared with her brother and his wife. In his hands were the test results from all three labs.
"I had them confirm the results after the fact. They all say the same thing."
"Well?" said Rias eagerly.
"The only Gremory to go missing within the last ten years was Baelfire, and according to the results, your real name is Baelfire Gremory," said Lucifer rather pleased.
Grayfia had been very overprotective of their youngest son Millicas after what happened to Baelfire, and he had always wanted to meet his older brother.
Shirou blinked.
"I'm related to Rias after all?"
"To be more specific, you're my oldest nephew. Baelfire is my brother's first son with his wife," said Rias.
It took a few seconds to process that, and when he did the first thing he said was "I'll take as many pictures and videos of Rias as you want if it means I don't have to suffer through stuffy lessons. I'd like to complete my normal education first."
Rias shot him a look of betrayal for that one, because her brother was always taking pictures and had entire albums full of the silliest things.
"You will of course be taking lessons in proper etiquette and politics," said Grayfia solemnly. She couldn't fault him for wanting to complete his education, and it wasn't like Rias would be able to skip out on the same lessons if he was taking them.
"As long as it's not in a stuffy castle with far too many guards. I wasn't exactly going all out when I beat that overbearing chicken into submission," said Shirou flatly.
"Too bad. I'm sure Millicas would be delighted to finally meet his older brother," said Lucifer.
Shirou blinked.
"So now I have two younger siblings instead of one. And don't deny it Illya, you still look Koneko's age," said Shirou.
Illya pouted, but accepted the joke.
Then an evil idea occurred to him.
"Will all of my Peerage have to suffer through these lessons?"
If he was going down he was taking as many of his pieces with him as he could.
"Yes," said Grayfia without hesitation or room for argument.
Lancer was the first to catch on.
"You suck Shirou," he complained.
"Look at the bright side. We can drag Asia and Issei down with us, since they're still rookies," said Shirou brightly.
Issei was the one to look at him with betrayal now. Shirou smiled, and Rias had to avoid shuddering. It was like he had gotten most of his looks from her brother, but most of his personality from Grayfia.
It was only going to get worse when Lucifer found out the hard way that Shirou also picked up quite a bit from his now former guardian Taiga.
She wasn't the only one to pick up on it. Grayfia nodded to herself with approval and relief that her missing son hadn't taken after his father, however subconsciously. One idiot was enough for her to deal with, thank you.
On the docks of Kuoh...
Lancer was settling into his favorite spot when he heard the sound of feathers. So long as they didn't bother him or make a racket, he could ignore anything.
A few moments later, a figure wearing a rather simple, if old fashioned kimono walked up with his own pole.
"This spot taken?" he asked, pointing to one near Lancer, but not so close as to be annoying or considered a threat.
"Go for it," said Lancer, as he waited for the other man to settle in. "You're one of the Fallen aren't you?"
"What gave me away?" he asked, amused.
"Next time don't land so close. I heard your wings. That and you don't have any 'self righteous' aura around you, which to me says you lost it, probably a long time ago. So that makes you a fallen."
"You don't seem eager to start a fight."
"I come here to fish, not fight. Though if you want one I'll be happy to oblige and then get back to fishing with your corpse as bait," said Lancer, adjusting his reel.
The other man grinned.
"I like your reasoning. To be honest I noticed you hanging around a lot and thought you'd make a fine person to fish with, if only to pass the time. And I brought a peace offering just in case," he said, holding up a case of Lancer's preferred beer.
Lancer grinned.
"Lancer," he said, holding out his hand.
"Call me Azazel," he replied back, shaking it and handing over the first beer.
"So what's the leader of the Fallen doing in Kuoh?"
"I heard the current red dragon emperor has been found here, and I thought I might as well take a vacation here for a bit."
"If you want to play with the kid, you'll have to get in line. Mordred's been put in charge of torture... I mean 'training' the idiot."
"Oh?"
"She chases him on his bike while he's carrying a large amount of weight that she increases each week, all the while Rider's following him and forcing him to dodge while he's on his way to try and make pacts. His stamina's gone up and so has his awareness and ability to dodge. If he weren't such a weakling his King might actually feel sorry for him, but it's for his own good. The girls take too much enjoyment out of tormenting the pervert."
Azazel laughed.
The two settled in for a mostly quiet day of fishing, neither of them really in the mood for a fight at the moment.