Fate: Hammer Time

by TedTheRabbit

Shirou Emiya wanted to become a hero, that is well known by all who truly know him. For a long time though, he lacked the power to actually achieve that goal. But what if he did get that power? What if the Hammer of the Odinson had chosen him as new wielder? Prepare for Thunder. ShirouxMultiple, Thor-Shirou.

10. Going to Town

Going to Town

Illyasviel von Einzbern was not a happy little girl.

It shouldn't have surprised anyone who was even a little bit informed of her situation to hear such a thing. She said it often out loud in private and would still say in her mind when in the company of others. It was no secret at all to any dedicated fan of Type Moon.

Yet it still wasn't something anyone wanted to hear from her of course, but it was the undeniable truth anyway.

Illyasviel, or Illya, as most people were prone to call her, was currently laying on her large, luxurious, and comfortable bed, idly staring at the ceiling as she tried to empty her mind in a fruitless effort to just fall asleep.

If one would look through her personal room, one would never guess that she was living a miserable life, as the bed was far from the only luxury present. There were several large mirrors, desks that seemed made from the most expensive of woods, closets that were filled to the brim with the most stylish of clothes, expensive little trinkets thrown about anywhere, and more. The room of someone belonging to a very rich family.

But what could that do against the pain?

Illya was currently in pain, almost unbearably so, which was why so was so desperate to just fall asleep as soon as possible. But just like every other time she tried doing so when she was in a lot of pain, she miserably failed at it, her mind refusing to clear and her eyes refusing to stay closed.

The pain she was currently feeling was present in every aspect of her being. She was physically in pain from what her family had done to her, mentally in pain because of their vitriol and manipulations, and her heart ached like someone had thrown a dagger into it and was now twisting that dagger with glee.

The young Homunculus had just undergone yet another operation at the hands of the Einzbern's doll-makers. Contrary to normal operations though, this one was not meant to improve her health or remove something harmful, nor were any of the other operations she had gone through over the last years. Instead, they only served to ready her body for her imminent death.

Her family aimed to make her the perfect master in the next War for the Grail, to win them that accursed cup and with it the usage of the Third Magic. Unfortunately, winning such a bloody slaughter required extensive magical power, which had motivated her dear grandfather to order her to be filled to the brim with Magic Circuits, to the point where most of her body was made out of them.

Illya could not deny it increased her power and reserves considerably, making Magecraft come easier and easier to her as time passed, but that was not nearly enough to make up for the fact that they put those circuits into her through cruel operations, for which she wasn't sedated at all.

But not only the physical aspect was bothering her. Her mind hurt too, though it was the least amount of pain of all aspects, for now only being a dull ache. She was continuously forced to work and learn until her brain was overloaded, which was then followed by other training in battle and strategy, where her 'teachers' would then try to outdo each other in viciousness or callousness. Only Sella ever made an effort to be kind when the maid would help her study.

That part however was still manageable. What actually made her head hurt were the subtle manipulations she was forced to undergo all the time. People trying to convince her the Einzbern were worth dying for, others telling her the outside-world was a bother and a threat, her grandfather hammering it into her mind that nothing was more important than family, even though the word clearly held no meaning to him.

It was such a bother to keep resisting against having their nonsense affect her.

The most pain by far though she was feeling in her heart. For as long as she could remember, her remaining family had been nothing but cruel to her, treating her as a doll that was only slightly less disposable than the others, focusing on nothing but what she could do for them as a weapon.

It had been okay for the first years of her life, as she still had had her father and her mother around. Emiya Kiritsugu and Irisviel von Einzbern had been the best parents she could have ever wished for. Not that she knew much about parents of course, but it was her opinion anyway.

They support and love had given her the strength to get through the cruel operation, and Illya had loved them for it, hoping that they would stay together forever.

But that had all ended with the Fourth Holy Grail War, an event that had hatred bubble up in her like nothing else could. She hated it more than even her grandfather. It had been because of that wretched slaughter, as her father had once named it, that she was now without her parents.

Her mother had been sacrificed to become the Lesser Grail, to serve as some sort of container for the power released when the Servants died, or that was what had been explained to her when they also told her she was to do the same in the next War.

But her father…

Her father had abandoned her. He'd had the Grail in his grasp, after sacrificing mama and aunt Maiya for it, before ordering his Servant to destroy the device, for no other reason than to spite the Einzbern.

And he hadn't even come back to her afterwards, instead remaining in Japan, building a life there with a replacement for her. A son they said, though they did not tell her much more, except for his name.

Of all things torturing her at the moment, that was the most painful. That her father, who she had loved and idolised, who she still loved and idolised, and who she had been sure loved her as well, had left her behind in the hands of her family and had swapped her for another child, just like that.

It was absolutely grating, and it hurt her beyond belief, no matter how much she had wanted it to end. She had tried shutting herself off to those feelings, to hate her father instead of loving him, and she had the idea she might succeed in hating him somewhere in the future. Not yet though, as the dagger in her heart confirmed. Hating the boy, Emiya Shirou, was much easier however, and it was something she indulged in quite often these days.

Ultimately, the Fourth Grail War had been yet another loss for the Einzbern, and of course for everyone else as well, as there had been no winner, just like the three wars before. It had left her grandfather in a foul mood, yet he was not truly angry or desperate, as he had now placed his hopes on Illya herself.

Now that the Fourth Holy Grail War had ended in disaster and loss, she was to be the new master representing the Einzbern, as well as being the Lesser Grail, a fate that would doubtlessly cut her life short as soon as all Servants had fallen. The only slight consolation she had was that the Fifth War was more than fifty years away.

Though sometimes it didn't exactly feel like a blessing to have another fifty years of operations to look forward to. Not that she had much of a choice, she could only hope she would be at peak performance soon, making more operations a mere waste of time, money, and resources.

And as she was contemplating this, the world suddenly decided to throw her a bone.

"Young miss Illya, you shouldn't just lay in bed all day!"

Illya just about jumped out of her skin when the door slammed open and two figures walked in, the first of those having been the one who had spoken so loudly. "You know the best thing to do afterwards is to stay busy, we have gone over that multiple times before."

Quickly sitting up in bed, Illya saw just who had come barging in like they owned the place. They were Sella and Leysritt, two other Homunculi whose only task was to take care of the future Lesser Grail. In other words, take care of Illya. A task they had taken to with vigour, much to Illya's gratitude.

They had been around for only half-a-year yet, but they were already very close to Illya, who had been ecstatic when she was told she would be getting the two as personal maids. They were very kind to her and though they were supposed to be loyal above all else to the Einzbern-family as a whole, Illya liked to think they were actually more loyal to her personally.

Well, either way, it was without a doubt that the maids were her favourite people in the castle, no matter their true allegiance. Not that such a thing meant all that much when the only competition for her favour was a gathering of power-hungry, selfish, and narcistic Magi, but still.

Sella, with her mothering and always concerned attitude, was Illya's unofficial big sister. While being cold and distant to everyone except Leysritt and Illya, she hid an insecure and demure person inside that actually wanted to have a lot of friends.

Leysritt was fantastic too. She was Illya's unofficial little sister, with her ditzy behaviour and her tendency to say everything she thought of out loud and unfiltered.

Their antics never failed to amuse their mistress, no matter in how bad a mood she had been before. That did not mean she could just accept the disrespectful words Sella had just spoken though.

She gave Sella an exasperated look and pouted at the woman. "I know that, Sella." She grumbled, getting up from the bed to sit on the chair at the make-up table in the corner of the room. "But it's not that easy to occupy myself when I'm alone."

Sella's eyes softened at that, and Leysritt reached out to pat Illya on the head. "We know, mistress, I am terribly sorry that we are so late, but we had to help clean up the garden after that idiot of a Remas blew a crater in it while practising his Magecraft." Sella said, bowing in a clear apology.

Illya's eyes widened at hearing the latest stunt the heir of the Einzbern had pulled today, and she could only giggle when imagining his failure. Remas truly was an idiot. A sadistic, mean idiot that deserved every bit of misfortune that came his way.

"Ah well, I suppose it doesn't matter." She chirped, her mood having improved already. "Now come over here and comb my hair, I always look like such a mess after they have operated on me. None of them know anything about proper hairstyles."

"They are... all idiots... anyway." Leysritt suddenly interjected out of nowhere, closing her eyes and nodding her head once after speaking, as if imparting sagely wisdom to younger and more foolish students. Her voice was so perfectly deadpan that Illya just had to snigger again. Leave it to the scatter-brained maid to make comments like that at the best of moments.

"Leysritt!" Sella exclaimed after hearing it, pressing a hand to her mouth in shock at her sister's words. "You shouldn't say such things out in the open, what if they overheard you saying that? You know how petty they are! You will be scrapped for sure by those- those-… those idiots!"

It was all Illya could do to stop herself from bursting out into laughter, desperately trying to hold back her giggles as she held both hands against her stomach. "Stop it, please." She wheezed. "It hurts, it hurts if I laugh."

Sella rolled her eyes. "I hardly see what's funny here, mistress." She huffed, as she walked over to grab the comb. "It is a valid concern. Leysritt should watch her tongue and you shouldn't encourage her when she is speaking so boldly."

"But it's funny." Illya protested. "Leysritt always says the funniest things, so I encourage her to speak. No one ever comes here voluntarily anyway, unless it is to cast another spell in my room, so no one will hear her either. Keep saying funny things."

The last sentence was directed at Leysritt herself, who did not react overly much, but Illya was sure that she saw a little, tiny, almost imperceptible nod from the mostly expressionless maid. Evidently, Sella had seen it too, for she cast an exasperated look at her sister, before she turned to her mistress again.

"Mistress." She hissed, while continuing to comb said mistress' hair. "You know my sister has a tendency to speak her mind at all times. Even if there's no risk of anyone overhearing her here, doesn't mean she won't say something similar at a place where there are in fact people to listen to her."

Illya, who had closed her eyes in content at the slow, methodical brushing her maid was giving her hair, sat up straight at that, a frown forming on her brow. She had to admit she had not thought of that. Measures had to be taken immediately.

She drew herself to her full height, which wasn't much, and pointed her finger at Leysritt, who blinked once in apparent surprise.

"Leysritt." Illya began in a commanding voice, ready to lay down the law. "Make sure you only say funny things when there isn't anyone else around to hear it. Do you understand?"

Leysritt nodded, looking as serious as ever. Taking that as a sign of acceptance and agreement, Illya turned around again to give Sella a smile, only to find the more mature homunculus face-palming, her face set in a desperate expression.

The maid managed to recollect herself though, accepting that this was probably as much as she was going to get out of the other two. With that in mind, she went back to combing, now reaching to the side for a brush as well.

"Sel-la." Leysritt then murmured, looking at her sister with urgency in her eyes. Sella only responded with a curious look for a few moments, before her eyes widened in understanding, followed by a look of self-recrimination. The more mature of the two then put down the comb and the brush, surprising Illya with the suddenness of her actions.

"Sella?"

"My deepest apologies, mistress." Sella began. "But we were not yet finished cleaning up the mess from Remas. We had permission from Lord Jubstacheit to inform you about our delay, but we had to return at once after that. I forgot about it completely. Please forgive me."

Illya gaped at the maid for a few moments, before a complicated expression came to her face, as she was not quite sure what to make of this. It turned to sadness soon after though. "You have to leave already?" She asked sadly, hoping to guilt them into staying somewhat longer, or at least, into promising they'd be back soon.

"Not by choice." Sella frantically assured her, fully caving in to Illya's sad expression. "We'll only be gone for half-an-hour more, then we'll be around for the entire day." Illya perked up at that, happy that her tactic had born fruit, but quite unsure about something.

"Still." She thus began, once more drawing the attention from her maids. "It is strange for you to forget something like this, Sella. That's something that Leysritt would do." She continued. Seeing that those words could be taken as a disparaging insult, she turned to said ditsy homunculus right after. "Not that there's anything wrong with you, I love you, Leysritt."

"I… love… you too, mistress." Leysritt whispered haltingly, turning her face away for some reason. Sella huffed, crossing her arms petulantly. "It had just slipped my mind when I went through the motions, there is no need to be so mean." She grumbled.

"Alright, I'm sorry, but you have to promise to be back as soon as possible." Illya responded, giving the maid her best smile, knowing she'd cave again after seeing it.

And indeed, Sella turned to look at her and lost the stern expression at once. "We shall endeavour to work as fast as is possible." She assured her older charge. "The others were already working on it, so it shouldn't take very long."

And with that, the maid turned on the spot and made for the door, reaching out to grab Leysritt when passing the other maid in order to drag her along. Leysritt offered no resistance, calmly following her counterpart, while waving Illya goodbye.

Illya herself made sure to wave back, keeping a smile on her face during the entire time the maids were leaving her room. Only when they were well and truly gone, did she allow it to drop of her face. She wasn't upset with Sella and Leysritt of course, only with her family-members who made them work so hard, but it was still annoying to be alone with the pain again.

A look around her room revealed nothing more than it had before the maids had arrived, once more leaving her with very few options on what to do to take her mind of the pain. Could she perhaps read a book? Maybe practice some magic to hopefully see some improvement? But wouldn't that aggravate her new circuits causing even more pain?

Still pondering on that issue, Illya suddenly found she had to supress a large yawn. And then another a few seconds later, and she wasn't capable of stopping the third.

"Aaaaaaaaahn." She yawned, holding her hand in front of her mouth as a proper child should.

Feeling incredibly drowsy all of a sudden, Illya yawned at least three more times after that. She found herself to be tired. Not just tired as in 'I want to sleep', but tired as in 'I am going to fall asleep in a few seconds no matter what happens'.

Well, excellent, she had been hoping for that. Now she could just take a quick nap and then be woken up again by her faithful maids when thirty minutes had passed.

She stood up from the chair she had been sitting on, almost falling over as the world started spinning in front of her eyes. Wow, she really was tired, wasn't she? Quickly half-running, half-stumbling over to her bed, she only managed to reach it just in time before her eyes closed involuntarily.

Everything went dark, and her thoughts slipped away…

"Oh! Look, Illya. I found another one."

The white-haired girl opened her eyes again, blinking in confusion as she rapidly scanned her surroundings. She didn't really see anything, except the forest passing her by as she steadily moved forward.

That was quite odd. She could have sworn she was sitting on something, not walking forward. A quick look down revealed the cause of her mobility. She was just sitting on her father's neck, while he carried her through the woods on another one of their hunts for walnuts.

Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Her father?! How was that possible?

Illya looked down again, confident her eyes had fooled her the first time…

Nope, Kiritsugu was still there, looking around for more walnuts. He looked exactly the same as she could remember from when he had left. Strong, confident, amazing as always. It was like he hadn't changed at all over the years.

That, together with the fact that he was no longer around in the castle, as well as that her last memory was falling asleep, clued her in that this was a dream most likely. A strangely vivid dream, but a dream nonetheless.

"Don't just look at daddy, Illyasviel. Keep looking for those little brown things. We cannot lose against him." Another voice said, one Illya recognised as well. The white-haired girl jerked around, eliciting a shock cry from her father. Because right there, standing only a few yards away from them, was her mother; Irisviel von Einzbern.

Definitely a dream then, she now noted with sadness. Her mother was dead after all. And she wasn't coming back, ever. Not without the Third Magic at the very least.

Her mama was tagging along for this hunt apparently. She did that sometimes, when she had some time to spare, mostly to walk with them, but sometimes also participating.

They would always team up against papa in those cases, just for that extra edge. It was interesting to note though that it was equally difficult to win against papa when she was alone as it was when she was teaming up with mama. In hindsight, maybe her papa had been holding back?

But it was hardly the time to think of such matters. She was now together with her parents! It was like the Holy Grail War had never happened. To spend some time with her mama and papa, this was a priceless opportunity, even if it wasn't real.

And there was no sense wasting said opportunity by only sitting on her father's neck.

"Papa, can you let me down, I need to look for more walnuts to defeat you." She said, putting some petulance in her voice to convince him.

A few seconds later, she was indeed on the ground. She then made her way over to her mama, while also looking for walnuts as she had said. Dream or not, she wouldn't let her father win that easily. Her pile would be bigger than his by the end of this dream, that she swore.

After giving her mother a hug, savouring the feeling as much as she could, she went on to search. She still had a papa to defeat after all.

But no matter how much she looked, neither she nor her father nor her mother managed to find another walnut. It was like they had disappeared after her father had found the last one, putting him ahead of her and mama by one.

"Oof." She grumbled eventually. "Looks like your pile is bigger than mine, papa. I can't find any of them anymore." Seriously, who was stealing the walnuts? Was it grandfather? It was grandfather, no doubt about it.

Her father then laughed softly. "No reason to worry." He assured her. "Just take the last one I found, then your pile will always be bigger than mine."

Illya looked at the walnut in her papa's hand in surprise. He had never just given her one of their prized findings before. He always said she had to find the worthy things in life herself.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Of course, little one." He papa whispered, crouching down and pulling her in for a hug. "It is the very least I can do." He then let her go, and walked some distance away.

Puzzled by her father's words, Illya studied the walnut she had been handed. For all intents and purposes, it looked like a normal walnut, except for the letter 'E' having been carved into its surface.

'Papa marked his walnuts?' She wondered, looking at the first letter of his last name.

This was definitely a strange dream, but she could not deny it made her very happy. Even if it was only in her head, it was still nice to see her parents again. Though, at the risk of sounding ungrateful, she wished she could actually speak with her real parents once more, not just with their dream-images.

"Then perhaps I can be of assistance, little one?"

The voice suddenly sounded from behind her, making Illya jump out of her skin for the second time this day. This time though, the voice she heard did not belong to her faithful maid, not did it belong to either one of her parents. In fact, it did not belong to anyone she knew.

The white-haired girl turned around at once upon having that realisation, arm stretched out in front of her and her other hand reaching to her head to pull out a few hairs should it be necessary. The pain she had felt previously was non-existent in her dream, but the effect of the many operations was now clearly noticeable, as countless patterns lit up on her skin, signifying the activation of Magic Circuits too numerable to count.

With the power now coursing through her, as well as the training she had undergone in order to become the perfect little weapon, the intruder in her dream would no doubt find that his day was about to become very painful.

That is, if she could actually manage to find said intruder.

Illya blinked a couple of times as she took in her surroundings. Her parents were in the opposite direction from where she had heard the voice, fortunately, but in front of her, there were only trees and other plants. She was surrounded by the forest, with no sentient being in sight.

There was no enemy Magus, no Dead Apostle, not even a spirit, demon or wraith. There didn't seem to be anyone, despite her clearly hearing a voice coming from a few metres behind her.

A horrible thought then occurred to her: Was she crazy? Had she finally gone insane from all the abuse that had been heaped upon her? It hadn't felt like that at all, and she had been improving since Sella and Leysritt had appeared in her life, she hadn't heard the voices in months.

Yes, she had heard voices ever since the Fourth Grail War had ended. She admitted that, crazy as it made her seem, but those voices were not evil. They were only ever comforting her, reassuring her of the love her parents no doubt held for her. They had contributed greatly to her sanity being kept intact for those loveless years.

But those voices had stopped speaking ever since her maids had been created and then ordered to tend to her every need. Sella and Leysritt had taken over the duty of keeping their mistress sane, and the voices, as if feeling they weren't needed anymore, had gone silent.

And even if they were back, they had been soothing whispers in the back of her mind, not loud voices coming from behind her.

"True, but believe me, I'm still the same guy. I know we haven't spoken all that much lately, but you seemed to be managing pretty well now that you have some fellow Homunculi around. Still, I felt I couldn't really leave without giving you some kind of good-bye present, so I discussed and argued for a bit with my grouchy brother, and we eventually settled on something that was both nice to you, as well as convenient for the big-rescue-plot that's going to be executed soon."

The voice was now coming from right in front of her, giving credence to the invisible person-theory and prompting her to send out a wave of Prana in an attempt to locate the intruder. When that proved ineffective, she ran forward, as she attempted to home in on the voice. It was made easier by the fact that it just kept talking, going on and on about brothers, and fun things, and damsels in distress, and what not.

To be honest, Illya hadn't really listened to its words, instead focusing on trying to find the source. But no matter where she moved or where she looked, the voice always remained a few feet away from her, though never hidden behind a tree or something, always in the open, which was half the hassle.

"…But, seeing that you aren't listening to my words at all, I will cut my speech short now and instead move on to my true purpose here. Now, I know young Angra will try something similar in a few years, to put you off balance with some kind of mockery-ghost-form of your mother, but rest assured, for my versions are the real versions. I'll even throw in a little extra at the end so you can be sure. Okay, enough out of me, bye."

And just like that, the tension that had surrounded her disappeared, and Illya knew the owner of the voice had left. Or at least, she was pretty sure he had left.

The white-haired girl lowered her hand again and slowly powered down her Circuits, though she kept them on stand-by for now. Her pulled-out strands of hair went onto her pocket, she'd be able to use them later if she turned out to need them.

'That was weird.' Illya thought, now noticing how she'd felt strangely unthreatened during the entire episode. 'I know this is a dream, but that felt way too real for comfort. Should I tell anyone of this happening? Would they even believe me? I think I should tell Sella and Leysritt at least…'

"Illya?"

Once again, a voice sounded from behind her, but this time it was not a male voice, nor was it an unknown one. Her name had been said by a voice that was more familiar to the white-haired Homunculus than any other voice on the world. And even though she had just heard the person the voice belonged to speak to her, it was clear something was very different now.

Illya spun around on the spot, immediately homing in on the origin of the choked voice. What she saw was enough to make her feel like her breath had been taken from her, for before her stood…

Irisviel von Einzbern.

Her mother.

And she did not mean some kind of dream-image like she had seen her mother be before. Illya could see her mother so much clearer now, every detail was visible. From the tearful eyes to the slightly older look than before.

Illya could not think for a moment, nor could she move, the only thing passing her lips being a choked sound. This had to be a hallucination, still just a happy dream, this was too good to be true…

As if she had heard Illya's thoughts, Irisviel moved up to her daughter, a loving and tender expression on her face. Said daughter did not dare move, afraid of dispelling the illusion.

She needn't have feared. When her mother got close enough, a warm hand was placed on the younger girl's cheek, as the woman looked at her with unconditional love in her eyes. Then, after the woman crouched down, Illya was drawn into a hug. It felt just like she remembered it, causing her to almost automatically wrap her own arms around the older woman.

"Illya." The woman, no, her mama, whispered again. "My little girl. It is so good to see you again." She didn't say anything else, but Illya didn't need to hear anything more for now, hugging her mother with all of her strength, tears streaming soundlessly over her cheeks.

The two Homunculi stood like that for a while, until the older one gently withdrew herself from the hug. To make amends for that though, she placed her hand under her daughter's chin, guiding her eyes to her own.

"Mama?" Illya finally asked in a hushed tone, still almost unable to believe it. Seeing the woman nod with the smile that was so familiar to Illya, the little girl laughed in ecstasy. "You are really here?"

"Yes, dearest." Irisviel replied, smiling so brightly that Illya was almost blinded. "Though the time I was granted to spend with you is short, I am really here. I cannot describe how glad I am to see you once more, my daughter. I missed you during every moment of the War and even more so in death."

"But how are you here?" Illya asked, daring to ask that question now that she had confirmed her mother was truly present in her dream. "Grandfather said you died, that you were sacrificed as the Lesser Grail. Was he wrong? You survived anyway? But how did you get into my dream then?"

A sad look appeared in Irisviel's eyes, crushing Illya's hopes. And as the little girl tightened her grip on her mother's waist, to keep her present for a longer time, the woman answered her, melancholy clear in her voice:

"No, little one, I did not survive. I was sacrificed as the Lesser Grail when too many Servants had died for me to contain."

"But." She continued, cutting off the question on Illya's lips. "I was allowed to come back, for a short while. I don't know where I was after death, I cannot remember, but I do recall being approached by something that offered me a chance to see you again, even if it was for only half-an-hour."

Illya turned her head up to give her mother a shocked look, before the words fully sunk in. And as tears started to stream down her face once more, she pleaded with her mother to reconsider. "Only half-an-hour? That's really everything? Can you not stay somewhat longer?"

Irisviel's expression turned miserable when she saw her precious daughter in tears. She immediately lifted her up in order to hug her better, as she whispered soothing words in her ears.

"For now, it is half-an hour, no negotiation possible. But dear, this doesn't have to be the last time I am here. Whatever being allowed me to appear before you has alluded to possible future repeats."

Illya pulled back from the hug to give her mother her most hopeful look. "Really?" She asked.

"Really." Her mother confirmed, a smile now on her face despite the tears.

Illya sniffed again, though this time in happiness. "I am glad." She smiled through the tears. "This is the best day ever. Now, if only papa was here as well…"

She was cut off by a short cough coming from the left. Illya, for the third or maybe even fourth time today, jolted in shock, though this time her mama did so as well. Simultaneously, the two white-haired Homunculi turned towards the direction the sound had originated from, only for their jaws to drop in shared surprise.

A few seconds later however, Irisviel's expression turned into a delighted one, while Illya wrestled herself lose from her mother's embrace to run towards the source.

"Papa!" She cried out, catching him in a flying hug with all her strength, though it did not even stagger him, just as she remembered.

"Hey, sweetling." He murmured as he easily caught her in his arms, hugging her tenderly for a few seconds, before walking over to hug his wife as well, Illya still in his arms. The adults ended up sandwiching Illya between them as a result, but the girl had better things to do right now than complain about a minor issue like that.

Eventually though, the need to breathe forced the little girl to release herself form the two-way hug.

"A-Are you still alive, papa?" She breathed after freeing herself, wanting to believe he had made it to Germany alive, but having a feeling that told her otherwise. "Can you stay here?"

"Only for half-an-hour." Her papa responded, confirming her suspicions.

Illya's clenched her eyes shut for a moment, the truth settling in. Her papa really was dead then.

But that wouldn't save him from her anger, no sir! She was going to rage against him, truly she was, no matter how glad she was to see him and mama again. He would be so intimidated by her, he would never do something like that again.

"What happened?" She asked, puffing out her cheeks in an attempt to look intimidating and enraged, something that was ruined by the happy tears still streaming over her face, as well as her refusal to let go of him for even a second.

It was not a precise question, but it conveyed the sentiment just fine to Kiritsugu, who knew he should start explaining things fast. He owed them that and much more, and it would not be a bad idea to inform Illya of her adopted brother, so that when, not if, Shirou would save her from this place, she would already have some knowledge of him.

So with that in mind, he, along with Irisviel during the most of it, told Illya the story of the Fourth Holy Grail War, the slaughter that it had become, the tragedies that had occurred, and the price that their little family had had to pay for participating.

Illya proved to be a good listener at least, gasping at just the right moments, and crying sad tears when she was told of Maiya's death. They had to put a hold on the story when Irisviel herself had died, as Illya now hugged her mother very tightly for a good few minutes.

When she had regained her composure, Kiritsugu went on with the story, skipping over the unimportant parts, though he did mention Kotomine Kirei's betrayal of his father and teacher, as well as Gilgamesh's shift in loyalty, assuming the monster had any to begin with.

Both Irisviel and Illyasviel turned white as chalk however when they heard of the thing residing in the Grail, as well as its offer to Kiritsugu. Quite the accomplishment for the women, as they were already stark-white to begin with. There was no denying the sheer horror in their eyes though when he told them of the resulting fire.

"Papa, what did you do then?" Illya asked him fearfully, looking at him with a worried expression.

"I ran into the fire." He told them bluntly, wincing as he saw their rising panic. "I didn't get hurt anymore than I already was though." He amended, already having told them of the curse that had been put over him. "I searched for a survivor between the rubble and the dead, hoping I could save at least one person from that hell. I could find no one on the fringes however, and the situation seemed hopeless when I went into the centre of the fire."

"But…?" His wife then prompted, looking at him with the patient and loving expression he was so intimately familiar with and had never forgotten over the years. And even now, she still looked at him like that.

He soldiered on with his story.

"But I miraculously found someone still alive. Against all odds, this boy still clung on to life by a thread, long enough for me to merge Avalon with him, which healed him of all maladies at once, which it had never done before for anyone other than Arturia, now that I think about it. Now, please don't get mad at me, but I ended up adopting him…"

"Emiya Shirou, right?" Illya interjected, for the first time feeling no rage or jealousy at the mention of the name. He appeared to have been a victim as much as she was.

Her knowledge did surprise her father, who muttered something about 'Old Man Acht' and 'stalkers'. He refocused quickly enough though, and continued his story about what had happened during the years after the war.

The parts with Shirou were very amusing, and both Illya and Iri had to laugh out loud when Kiritsugu told them of how he had tricked the boy into becoming a god-level cook because he thought that such a thing was necessary to become a hero.

He told them proudly of Shirou's dedication, of his drive to help as many people as he could. About how he had already managed to find himself an almost-but-not-quite girlfriend when he was still a young lad and, finally, about the boy's promise to do what he himself could not.

It was with a heavy heart that Illya listened to her father telling them of his own slow and drawn-out death, believing he had failed his family and only leaving a son behind as a good deed for the world, for Kiritsugu did not doubt Shirou would succeed in his goal.

When his story was finished, Illya's mama spend some time cursing her grandfather, to her great surprise, as she hadn't expected her mother to be capable of such language, though she agreed with every word. To think that stupid old man would block her papa from getting to her, when papa was too weak to slaughter them all and come in anyway. How cowardly indeed.

That didn't solve their greatest problem though, that being Angra Mainyu hiding in the Grail.

Her father seemed to have confidence in her new brother though, and for now, that was enough for her as well. She shouldn't be thinking of heavy matters anyway. She should tell her parents of her own life so far, now that they had told her about theirs.

And so she did, telling them about all the interesting things that had transpired ever since her parents had left the castle. Illya attempted to cover as many subjects as she could, from rumours she'd heard, like the one about the Queen of the Clocktower being harrowed to marry yet refusing any suitors, to her personal happy experiences, such as getting Sella and Leysritt as her maids.

She did her best to skip past the less happy, feel-good parts, yet she had the feeling both her parents were more than capable of reading between the lines there, if the bone-crushing hug she got from her mother and the anger in her father's eyes were any indication.

Eventually, she finished her story, and looked at her parents expectantly, hoping to be praised for her tenaciousness and vigour. She didn't have to wait for long.

"I cannot properly express how proud I am of you, sweetling." Her papa said, looking at her with the warm eyes he only ever directed at mama, her, and aunt Maiya. Her mama then echoed similar sentiments, making her heart swell at the praise.

The good feeling disappeared very quickly though when her father's already black eyes darkened even further than before, and he put her down on the ground again. He didn't stop there though, also taking a few steps away from both her and mama. "Papa?" She softly inquired, giving him a curious look alongside her mother. What could be wrong with him?

"Iri, Illya, I must apologise for what I have done to you. Let me finish!" He began, cutting them off before they could react to the earlier part of his statement. "My years here with you were the best of my life. You gave me more peace and happiness than I could have ever imagined myself finding before, and I am more grateful for that than I can express."

Illya was torn between happiness at her father's word, and sadness at the reminder of the terrible life he had lived before he had been hired by the Einzbern.

"You have given me everything I could have wanted, yet in the end, I threw it all away for a dream I knew I could never realise. I let you become the Grail, Iri, and I left you here alone, Illya. My mistakes are greater than I could ever make up for. I am sorry." By this time, her father had bowed in front of the two of them, face down and voice so pained it hurt Illya just to listen to it.

Her mama clearly thought so as well, if her expression was anything to go by. Without saying a word, she walked up to her husband, grabbed his shoulders, pulled him into a standing position,

And smacked him around the face.

"Ow!" Kiritsugu said, more out of disbelief than actual pain, feeling somewhat astonished that Irisviel, sweet, innocent Irisviel, had just hit in him the face.

"You stupid man." Illya's mother sighed, looking reproachfully at the former mercenary. "You blame yourself for things beyond your control. I was fated to die from the moment I was born, no matter who the Master representing the Einzbern would be. You at least tried to bring me some happiness in my life.

"The fire in Fuyuki-City is to blame on Kotomine, Gilgamesh, and especially Angra Mainyu. The fact that you couldn't get to Illya is Old Man Acht's fault. You shouldn't blame yourself for those things, nor for the other crimes you might be punishing yourself over. You always did what you thought was right, and most of the time, it was."

Her mama's voice started strong and stern, but as she continued talking, it grew softer and kinder, until she had taken papa in a hug again, whispering things Illya couldn't hear into his ear.

The white-haired girl made sure to nod her head when her father glanced at her, showing she completely agreed. And she truly did. The budding hatred for her father and the already completely developed hatred for Shirou were gone now, as if they had never existed.

Looking at her father, she could see that his gaze was far lighter than it had been before, which was good. She wouldn't want her papa to have any regrets in the Great Beyond. And neither should her mama have any. If anything, it was now her turn to bear the weight of the War.

Her mama and papa were feeling good again, and she was happy too. What an amazing moment!

And it was right this moment that a soft chime sounded, as if glassware was being smashed to pieces in the distance.

It ended as suddenly as it had started. The three people present at the small clearing in the woods looked around for the source, before her father suddenly sat up straight.

"I fear our time here is up." He said in response to his daughter's and wife's questioning gazes, as he held up an arm that was slowly falling apart in particles of light, as if he were a disappearing Servant.

"Well, we did for stay way longer than thirty minutes." Irisviel remarked, grinning slightly at their own forgetfulness. "From what I can determine, we've been here for hours already." A glance from Illya at the sun, assuming that thing could be trusted in a dream, confirmed the statement. 'Strange.' She though, perturbed but not unthankful in any way for the extra time they had been granted.

She threw her arms around her parents one last time. "Be back soon. I'll wait here, at least until Shirou can pick me up." She mumbled.

Her only response were two happy, yet also sad smiles, before her mama and papa fully disappeared, back to where they had came from, wherever that was.

It should have filled her with heart-breaking sorrow and loss, yet Illya could only feel content.

Her mama and papa hadn't abandoned her after all. They had wanted to return to her, only to be stopped by stupid Grails, stupid grandfathers and all-around stupid circumstances. It was an incredibly relief to her.

It also made her want to strangle both Angra Mainyu and her grandfather to dead, but that was something for another time, now she just wanted to feel content.

It was only a few moments later however that Illya noticed her dream was falling apart at the seams, until she found herself laying on her bed again, in the same position as before, with several hours having gone by.

Despite the content feeling remaining, there was the expected nagging doubt in the back of her mind about the validity of the dream. Sure, it had felt very real, but that didn't have to mean anything.

Any such doubt was dispelled though when she felt something in her hand. A very familiar shape, one that she had held countless times in the past.

She was holding a walnut, and not just any walnut, but specifically the one her papa had given to her in her dream. It even had the letter 'E' carved into it.

It had already been amazing to see mama and papa again when she had half-thought it to be a dream, but to have it somewhat confirmed that her real parents really spoke to her was bliss. Even more so than before, she tried to commit it all to memory, even word, every action, every sight.

And then the time of quietly committing today to memory ended, as the door was thrown open behind her.

"Mistress." Sella panted out, gasping for breath, with Leysritt being in much the same condition behind her, though the ditzy maid did not say a word. Their faces were red of exertion and their outfits were sloppily put on, probably because they had taken them off when doing the heavy lifting.

Not noticing, or perhaps not caring about her mistress' chuckles, Sella continued: "I am beyond sorry that we took so incredibly long and I can only offer you our most sincere apologies. Not to make excuses, but it seemed as if every time we were finished cleaning up one mess, another would come into existence right away."

"Sorry." Leysritt murmured, bowing low towards Illya, making her unfastened headpiece fall off and her short hair splay out over her face.

"Leysritt!" Sella hissed. "I told you to refasten that before it dropped off, you, you… Ugh." With a growl, Sella grabbed the headpiece from the floor and put it back on Leysritt's head, taking care to fasten it properly this time.

"Ahem." Illya cleared her throat, making the maids turn their heads towards them. "It's okay, you two. I was able to amuse myself well enough. But now that you're here, let's practice our spells for a bit."

Looking slightly bemused at her sudden request, Sella nodded slowly in acquiescence.

After brushing up on her offensive spells in particular with Sella, Illya cajoled Leysritt into a spar, as the ditsy maid was a far better fighter than her sister.

The oldest Homunculus present was impressed with the proficiency she displayed when fighting. Illya could barely even keep up, even when she had access to all of her abilities and Leysritt was restricted to only using a halberd to battle her mistress.

It was as if Leysritt became a totally different person while fighting. No longer was she ditsy, distracted, and slow, rather she was a mean fighting machine that was at the absolute pinnacle of combat as far as Illya had ever seen.

And everyone knew of it too. Even the rest of the Einzbern-family didn't challenge her because they wanted to avoid the embarrassment of being defeated by a mere doll.

And while Illya and Leysritt sparred, Sella was standing on the side-lines, watching with a poorly hidden anxious expression at her dears putting themselves at risk with such barbarous training, which she nonetheless knew to be necessary, unfortunately.

Illya, after having looked at her maids, grinned widely in happiness and content.

There was no doubt in her mind that when the time to escape came, she would be taking the two along with her, no matter how much that might complicate matters. She just couldn't leave her two best servants behind now, could she?

During a short lull in the fight, she directed her gaze Eastwards, where her new brother was currently residing.

'I'll see you soon then, Onii-chan. I wonder what it is that you are doing right now.'

---

"Stop him! He can't make it to…"

A punch.

"Damn it, I can't see anyth…"

A kick

"Where the he…"

A jab of an elbow.

"Stand still and let me shoo…"

A fist brought down mercilessly on an unsuspecting head.

In a not-entirely abandoned building, criminals were currently dropping like flies. The building was completely dark, not a single light present or turned on, except for the meagre light of the moon and the stars, just enough to allow the people present to see some kind of shape taking down their 'colleagues' before coming for them.

The crooks that were watching could not fathom what could possibly be going on. All they knew was that something was attacking from the shadows, faster than they could follow, much less react to.

There was no doubt in anyone's mind that this was not a human. This was a vengeful and wrathful creature, a greater being that had descended from a higher plane of existence to smite them for their foul deeds. It was crushing them without effort or consideration, probably not even paying them all that much attention during the slaughter.

This was what they thought. They were not wrong.

Emiya Shirou was a man who was slowly turning into a space-god. Someone fighting dangerous criminals on a daily basis, without ever coming close to losing.

That did not mean however that there were no problems.

...

'This is getting me nowhere.' Shirou thought irritably.

He was currently busy culling the gangs in Ise, the home-town of Kurata. It was a mere hour away from Fuyuki by flight, which allowed him to make the journey every night without too much trouble.

As said before, when it came to removing criminals and gang-members from the streets, he was on a roll, having already taken down the majority of the gangs and cabals in town, as well as a large portion of the black market.

It was frustrating to the golden-eyed magus however, that when it came to finding clues about his greater purpose here, he was not getting any further than before. Not a single clue relating to the Magi could be found, no matter how much he searched or who he interrogated.

What was fortunate however about this city was that these gangs clearly did not have their own common leader, like the gangs in Fuyuki did, which showed itself quite clearly to Shirou in the form of multiple clues.

The gangs had no sense of unity among them for one, happily selling each other out to whoever paid the most, betraying each other during deals to save some cash, attacking each other in all-out gang wars over minor issues, and much more. To put it shortly, it was one big mess. They also almost never covered their tracks, resulting in constant arrests and eventually him arriving at their doorstep.

Speaking about the police, the law-enforcement in Ise was clearly superior to that in Fuyuki. The police had already been aware of the location of a majority of the gangs before he had arrived, and they appeared within minutes of him having made his calls. They even took advantage of his nightly outings to take down some people on their own lists as well. And where they couldn't do anything, they just generally kept the pressure up on the crooks. It was almost as if they were helping him sometimes.

But still nothing relating to the Magi could be found.

Of course, that did not mean he saw the weeks he spent fighting gangs as wasted time. No matter how incompetent and foolish, the crooks had still been threatening and hurting people, making it necessary for the golden-eyed Magus to put an end to their activities. He would never regret spending time to help people who were in need of it.

That being said, he was admittedly slightly glad that he was just about finished with his outings to Ise. According to police-records, the gangs were on their last legs, and the police were already mounting an offensive against the left-overs and the stragglers. It was probably for the best he would not come back after tonight, as he wouldn't want to have them direct their attention at him.

He could only hope that the next city would hold more clues for him.

But now it was time to return home.

Coming out of his musings, Shirou look around for a bit, studying the bodies on the floor, as well as the goldfishes in their bowl in the corner, making sure no one was pretending at being unconscious. Once this was ascertained, he made for the exit, calling the police on his burner-phone on the way.

Of course, he would be long gone by the time they arrived, even though they were significantly faster than their Fuyuki-counterparts. The third time he had called them to a location where he had fought, he had been unpleasantly surprised by their swift reaction, as he had been lingering around for a bit to look for clues of some kind.

A mistake he wouldn't make again. After hanging up the phone, ignoring the protests of the woman on the other end who pleaded with him to just wait for once, he walked through the door and, after making sure no one was looking, launched himself into the air again.

And so Shirou started the fifty-minute-or-so trip back to his home-town, leaving him free to plan for another event coming up in the near future, one that would be significantly harder than just taking down some criminals.

He had been invited by Ayako to eat at her place.

Apparently, her parents had heard from her about how he had taken her in, letting her take part in his celebration of a few weeks back, and also that he had become friends with her afterwards. According to Ayako, they had been delighted to hear about it, and had demanded that she invited him and Sakura over to spend dinner at their place to both pay them back and to get to know them better, as friends of their daughter.

Not seeing any reason to refuse, Shirou and Sakura had graciously accepted the invitation.

So that was basically the plan for over a few days, and he couldn't deny he was very curious about his exuberant friend's family, which consisted of martial artists and all-round badasses, if Ayako was to be believed. Now he just needed to make a good impression on them...

But the time for pondering was up. Lost in his thoughts as he may have been, the red-haired teen did not miss it when he arrived above his own house. A quick descend and a flawless landing later, he stood in his backyard once again, with plenty of time to spare before his purple-haired friend would arrive in the morning. More hours than he needed in terms of sleep.

Which meant he had time to read the letter.

Letters and the like would normally arrive in the morning of course, but this evening, right after Sakura and Taiga had left for the night, a letter had arrived anyway.

As he had been about to leave for his nightly business, Shirou had put the letter aside for the moment, relying on the fact that if it had been delivered as late as it had, it could not contain relevant information for the very near future.

There was no reason to put it off now however, so after stashing away his outfit, mask, and boots, he walked back inside, sat down at the table, picked up the envelope from where he had left it that evening, and, without further ado, ripped it open to reveal its contents.

It was a rather impressive looking letter, with the big and important looking seal of Fuyuki at the top of the page, indicating it was sent by the city's council-members.

Scratching his head for a bit, Shirou unfolded the paper, and started reading.

...

Dear young inhabitant of Fuyuki-City,

This letter has no doubt come as a surprise to many of you, as you've likely never before been addressed by the council or any other city-official in such a way. But fear not, for you have done nothing wrong nor are you in any kind of trouble.

This letter was sent with the intention of making all citizens between ten and eighteen, as well as any relatives, aware of a problem that has been playing for a long time in our city and in many other cities as well: The complete and utter lack of swimming capabilities of the youth.

This has not been much of problem before, or at least it hasn't been seen as such, because despite having a river in the city and being in close vicinity of the ocean, very few people have ever drowned in either.

However, in recent years, the number of drownings in and around Fuyuki has increased greatly for some inexplicable reason, making it necessary for the council to interfere before more of such tragedies take place, especially since they could have been avoided with little effort.

Thanks to a generous donation of a wealthy and concerned citizen, going by the name of B. Yonder, the council has been able to arrange a swimming course for the children belonging to the previously specified age-group.

We would like to inform you that participation is mandatory and that no exceptions will be made except in the direst of circumstances or when legitimate reasons have been given as to why one is incapable of participating.

Now for some practical information:

The lessons will take place in the town of Fuyuki itself, where the swimming pool has been hired for the learning children. The course itself will last three months, with lessons twice a week.

It will be finished with an exam, in order the examine the general skill of every participant. This exam will take place in the city of Hikone, located at a five-hour drive from Fuyuki itself. The reason the exam will be held there is because many cities are participating in this initiative, and Hikone lays very central compared to all other cities. Because of the long drive, the night after the exam will be spent in Hikone itself, in three-star hotel Maihame, payed for in full by mister Yonder.

Despite the rather large swimming facilities present in our own fair city, the number of adolescents is still too high for them all to receive the course at once, thus groups have been made. These groups will have their lessons in different blocks, consisting of several weeks per group.

The precise grouping, as well as the dates, can be found on the official town-hall site. Should one be otherwise occupied on one's appointed date and time, a request for rescheduling or permitted absence can be submitted, as long as a valid reason is given.

With this, all information has been relayed. We of the council wish you a happy day.

Was signed,

Meigo Hinamora.

...

Shirou blinked. Then he read the letter again. He blinked once more.

He was officially surprised. He hadn't been aware at all that most teens in the city apparently weren't able to swim, nor that the number of drownings had increased in the past years. Kiritsugu had made sure he was capable and later also proficient in swimming, since one never knew when a body of water would be in the way after all, and in legends, heroes had been forced to swim very often, though not nearly as often as cooking of course.

Still, while the news itself wasn't unwelcome, as Shirou would always be in favour of actions that would result in fewer people dying, this letter itself was weird in many ways. For one, there was the suddenness of it all. Shirou had always made sure he was up to date on matters concerning the city, and he was confident he had heard nothing about swimming lessons before this point. So for the council to drop this on the populace out of nowhere was very surprising, and very unlike the council he knew.

It was also quite strange that a single person was apparently funding this on his own, without even cashing in the obvious boost in reputation that such a thing would grant him. Was that not the whole point of sponsorship? Or did mister Yonder have another goal in mind with this?

The most concerning point of the entire matter however was the fact the swimming exam would be held in Hikone, the one city he wanted to investigate that was too far away for him to be able to visit by himself.

It almost seemed too convenient for it to be a coincidence, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out who or what would manipulate things to such a degree, only to seemingly help him in his goals.

It was a conundrum he couldn't figure out, but after a few seconds of pondering, the solution presented itself. Mjonir, having been quiet during the entire night, suddenly acted up again, humming slightly in content, showing its support for just following the flow.

So with a sigh, Shirou let the matter drop for the moment. It was hardly the first time after all that something strange had happened to him since the hammer's arrival. Heck, even the arrival itself had been strange, so as long as nothing was going wrong, he would just go with it.

'Still, swimming lessons of all things?' Shirou mused to himself. 'If there is indeed something behind this all, then why swimming lessons?'

Mjolnir did not answer, an amused feeling being everything Shirou got out of it.

---

Straightening his shirt beneath his coat, Shirou walked up to the front door of Ayako's house. Today was the day he and Sakura had been invited by Ayako's parents to come over for dinner, and he had to admit he felt a slight tinge of nervousness. For some reason, he felt like he absolutely had to make a good impression on Ayako's parents, lest trouble of some kind would arise.

Trusting his instincts, he had thus asked Neko-san for a few hints on what to do when visiting a friend's house on such a relatively formal occasion, and she had fortunately understood exactly what he had been going for. Though why she had sniggered after saying such was a complete mystery to him.

When she had gotten over her laughter though, she had summarized the event as a little sign of gratitude towards a friend. As such a thing was hardly official, it wasn't needed to go decked in a fancy suit or something. She had advised wearing tidy, neat clothes, as well as working a bit on his hair. That should be enough to show his sincerity, as well as making sure he didn't come over as too posh.

The time of dinner had been set on seven o'clock straight, and as such, he had arrived precisely on the dot. According to Neko-san, it was slightly more fashionable to either arrive earlier or a tiny bit later, but he didn't see the need for it.

After reaching the front door, Shirou reached out to knock on said door, which opened only a few seconds later. The one who had opened it turned out to be Ayako herself, who grinned widely upon seeing him. A small glance down her body revealed she was also dressed for the occasion.

It was with a raised eyebrow that Shirou took in her appearance. Don't get him wrong though, it was by no means displeasing to look at. It simply was something he hadn't expected.

Normally, the exuberant girl would be clad in functional and practical clothes, like trousers or a pencil skirt, blouses, shirts or vests, yet tonight, she had chosen to wear a black dress that fitted her form perfectly, accentuating her growing curves and even having a slit on the side showing off a bit of leg. As a finishing touch, she had apparently chosen to wear a small necklace, silver-coloured with a gem in the middle.

Shirou had to admit she looked stunning.

"Hey Shirou." She chirped, opening the door fully and coming to stand in front of him.

Taking a moment to ponder to oddity of Ayako chirping, Shirou smiled at the girl to hide his momentary confusion. That was not how she had ever behaved before, Ayako was not one who... chirped.

But Ayako was still waiting for an answer, so he put those matters to the back of his mind for a moment. "Hello, Mitsuzu- Ayako." He replied, beginning with a polite addressing but quickly chancing to friendly at a small glare from his friend.

She had decided some time ago that their relationship had evolved enough for them to be on a first-name-basis without the need for honorifics. Sakura had agreed, and Shirou, who wasn't even able to deny something to them when they were separated, did not stand a chance against their combined puppy dog eyes, making him agree to it as well, save for the occasional slip-up.

"Come in, come in." Ayako continued with her smile back on her face, grabbing his hand to pull him inside. After he had entered the house, Ayako closed the door behind him, waited impatiently until he had put away his shoes and coat, and then pulled him along towards what she said was the dining room.

Before they entered fully though, Ayako came to a halt, stopping cold several yards away from the door. Having quite fast reflexes, Shirou stopped in time to not even come close to running into her, though he did give the back of her head a surprised look at the sudden stop.

"Alright, you are probably wondering why we are standing still." Ayako said, as if having read his mind. She turned around to face him, rubbing her hands nervously and glancing to the side every time he attempted to make eye-contact with her. After a few second of quiet contemplation from her, she began to talk.

"So… You are going to meet my parents in a few moments, and I just wanted to lay out a few things before that happens, you know? To make sure you won't be surprised at their behaviour."

Now that was unexpected, and it was also enough to make him narrow his eyes. Call him paranoid, but that did not sound good at all. He might be a somewhat slow learner and a bit of a dense person, but even he could understand that such an opening could not be a good thing.

His fist clenched at his side, the other grasping as if desiring to take hold of Mjolnir. If Ayako was going to tell him now that her parents were anything less than stellar, he'd need to have a 'discussion' with them at once.

It would seem he was wrong in that, admittedly hastily made, assumption though, as Ayako immediately started waving her hands in front of her in denial after seeing his displeased expression. "No, no, no, it is nothing like that." She hastily assured him. "It's just that my parents think that we are either dating or going to date soon."

For a moment after this declaration, there was silence, as both teens stared at each other, neither of their minds quite catching on to what the girl had just proclaimed to her secret crush. Then Ayako brought her hands in front of her mouth, her face turning red as she realised what she had said exactly.

Shirou however was quite relieved to hear that. Well, to hear the first part of her declaration to be precise. He had really assumed the worst for a moment there. He knew he was not the best at spotting things like abuse and bullying unless it happened right in front of him, so hearing Ayako start a conversation like that had worried him quite a lot. He honestly though he had missed it for all the time he had known her.

But since it seemed the actual situation was nothing to be worried about, he'd just feel embarrassed about it instead.

"I see." He said, giving the girl in front of him small smile, hoping to dispel the slight awkwardness. "I suppose it is not that strange of them to think or hope for that. I believe that is a part of the role of a parent, or at least, so I heard." .

"Maybe." Ayako huffed in response, relaxing slightly at his calm reaction to the bomb she had inadvertently dropped on him without warning. "But it is still awkward to listen to them going on and on about it. And I was worried it would be even more so if mom started talking about it with you here, so I decided to speak to you first. You know, before you would actually meet my parents. So, please don't be insulted when mom and dad start talking about dating."

That last bit was said in a hopeful tone, accompanied with a small bow. It really was a very kind gesture of her to warn him, but her concern was unfounded. Not being able to stand seeing the usually peppy girl act so meekly, he hastily reassured her to the best of his ability.

"Thank you for the consideration then." Shirou said with a grateful smile, feeling that saying such a thing would probably be best. "While there is in fact no way I would be insulted by someone believing I was dating someone as amazing as you, it could indeed have been quite awkward if I were surprised by it." And to emphasize his words, he added his own bow to the mix, making sure it was slightly lower than hers.

And that was the truth. There was no denying Ayako was a fantastic person, and she would no doubt make someone very happy one day, though he feared she would in fact be hard pressed to find someone worthy enough of her.

Hearing no answer from the girl standing across from him, Shirou straightened his back and turned towards the door leading to the dinner room, correctly assuming the conversation was over for now. It was probably for the best if he would face the adults in the house as soon as possible.

Of course, that one action also caused him to completely miss the bright blush that came to Ayako's face at his words, as well as how she almost recoiled in shock. And with him missing that, there was no chance of him ever noticing how said blush was followed by a small, tender smile in his direction.

Ayako really couldn't believe how someone could be so dense yet at the same time so unintentionally romantic. She was aware her crush on the boy had grown over the past months into something more, but him doing and saying things like this really drove it home.

She didn't know yet if she truly loved him, as she was too young to say anything about such matters, but she definitely wouldn't say no to dating him, that was for sure, which actually made her mother's comments all that more embarrassing.

She actually would have contemplated making the first move, as she didn't believe in the whole spiel of the man always having to be the one asking, if it hadn't been for one thing standing in her way. An insurmountable obstacle. Sakura.

There was no way in hell that Ayako would snatch the plum-haired girl's crush away from her. She was there first after all, and she was also a very good friend, always remaining friendly despite Ayako visibly intruding upon her territory. As such, out of respect for her dearest female friend, Ayako would not pursue Shirou, even if that decision left her feeling strangely hollow.

In the meantime, Shirou had encountered his hosts of the evening, as well as Sakura, who had apparently arrived fashionably early, as Neko-san would put it. The plum-haired girl, who had her back turned to him and hadn't seen him yet, was sitting at the table. She had been placed right next to a little boy, who he assumed to be Minori; Ayako's little brother. The brown-haired girl often spoke of her sibling whenever she got the chance, sometimes angrily, sometimes laughingly, yet always with a tender and fond undertone.

Shirou couldn't quite supress a tinge of annoyance however, when he realised just how close to Sakura the boy was sitting. He supposed it was nothing more than expected that they would have to share different sides of the table, there were only four sides after all, but there was no reason at all for Minori to practically position himself on Sakura's lap, as he was doing right now.

He didn't exactly know why he was feeling so strongly about that, but he was aware he didn't like it one bit.

It was to his great surprise that Mjolnir, ever present inside his head, suddenly 'voiced' its agreement, insisting on Shirou going over there to break them up as soon as possible.

Nevertheless, before he could follow through with Mjolnir's suggestion, his attention was diverted by Ayako's parents standing up from the table. The matter was far from over though, and Shirou decided to keep a close eye on the young boy from now on, as for some reason, he rubbed Shirou completely the wrong way.

"Welcome to our home. My name is Mitsuzuri Chiaki. I assume you are Emiya Shirou." The woman, who was coming up to stand on his right, began, while elegantly holding out a hand for him to shake. Or at least, he hoped it was to shake, as he wasn't quite sure he could pull of a proper handkiss.

"I am indeed." He confirmed, feeling relieved when she accepted the handshake without batting an eye. "I am Emiya Shirou, it is an honour to make your acquaintance, Mitsuzuri-san, I hope it will be a pleasant evening for all of us."

The man now standing on his left, who he took to be Ayako's father, grinned at his response, now also offering his own hand. "Name's Mitsuzuri Ryozo, kid. Nice indeed to finally meet the one my daughter has been so lyrical about during the past weeks." The man, Ryozo, said, never losing his grin for the entirety of his sentence, though Shirou did not miss how the man seemed to be etching closer to him.

Introductions made, and having decided he was close enough to pull of the finishing move, the man then dropped his hand and suddenly entered Shirou's private space, towering over Shirou and casting a glare at him, no doubt intended to be intimidating.

It had little effect on Shirou however, who was at most mildly surprised at the man's actions, wondering what had caused the sudden shift in mood that had just occurred. Chiaki-san did not seem surprised in the slightest however, making this a pre-planned move most likely.

Shirou weighed his options for a moment, but eventually just settled on a dry look.

Seeing that, the man grinned again, his earlier glare gone, falling back a little bit and leaving the private space he had so rudely entered just seconds before.

"Not impressed by my intimidation hah?" He asked, an approving expression now replacing the grin. "Good! I can't have you be a wuss, not when you are no doubt intending to date my beautiful daugh…"

"Dad!" An outraged voice suddenly shrieked, making Shirou and also Sakura start slightly at its volume and suddenness. The next moment, Ayako had thrown herself bodily across the room at her father, slinging her arms around his neck and effectively shutting him up. It was slightly too late though, as both she and Shirou now sported blushes.

Hoping for some damage-control, Ayako turned around lightning-quick towards Shirou. "Ignore my father." She said, now facing Shirou directly. "He's just senile, and wants to embarrass us as well."

"I figured." Shirou answered with a nod, casting a pointed glare in the direction of her father, hoping to convey that the man should keep such statements to himself for tonight, as this was supposed to be a calm dinner.

It was not to be though, as the grin the man was still sporting indicated quite clearly that he was already planning his next move.

While the four of them walked to the table, with Ayako immediately making sure to place Shirou between Sakura and herself, Ryozo kept making off-colour jokes about Shirou's intention to chase after his daughter and how he would have to fight for his daughter's purity, while Chiaki happily praised Ayako for managing to conquer such a 'fine specimen'.

When they were all seated at last, with dinner already put on the table as well, Ayako was as red as a tomato, with Shirou not faring much better. The golden-eyed hero could only shake his head, as Ayako's warning had been spot on apparently.

Trying his best to ignore the inappropriate commenting, he greeted Sakura warmly, getting a happy response back. He idly noted from the corner of his eye that Minori did not seem happy at all with him saying hello to Sakura, which made him feel strangely satisfied for some reason.

Looking Sakura over, he found that she looked beautiful this evening. Of course, she was always very pretty, no matter the circumstances, but it was only accentuated tonight, now that she was wearing a simple, yet very elegant, one-piece, purple dress, with a small jacket worn over it.

He could only note once more just how appealing to the eye both his female companions were, though he was quick to discard those thoughts once he consciously realised that he was harbouring them. Thinking lewd thoughts about his friends was not acceptable at all.

Meanwhile, the teasing coming from the adults in the room let up once they saw that neither of their targets were paying any attention to them anymore, prompting them to just begin eating, leaving the kids be for now.

"I see that you were present here before I arrived. Were you very early this evening, Sakura?" Shirou asked, wondering whether Neko-san's statements about being fashionably early or late would hold any truth to them.

"Oh, not at all Senpai." Sakura hastily assured him. "I only arrived a few minutes before you did, but that's because I slightly miscalculated how long it would take me to get ready for this dinner when I was preparing at home. I wasn't quite sure what would be necessary, as this is my first formal dinner to be honest. I am still not quite sure if I am dressed correctly actually, grandfather was not much of a help."

"You and me both, dear." Ayako grumbled. "I've hoisted myself in outfits like this before, but I never seem to be able to grasp right combinations or the appropriate amount of formality. Mom had to send me back to get changed again thrice this evening alone.

"I understand completely." The red-haired teen replied. "I had much the same problem, which prompted me to ask Neko-san for help." He didn't need to explain who Neko-san was, as he had introduced the girls to the daughter of the shop-owner some time ago already, when they had stopped by at the Copenhagen to see the place he worked at.

Upon seeing his friends, Neko-san had grinned widely for some reason, nudging him with her elbow when Ayako and Sakura had been looking elsewhere. When he had asked her why she did so though, she only replied he would understand when he was older.

"But you don't have to worry at all, either one of you." The golden-eyed boy continued, reaching out to pat Sakura's head and Ayako's back. "She both look fantastic tonight, even more so than usual I mean.

And as expected for all those who were not named Emiya Shirou, Sakura turned red once more at his words, almost wiggling in delight at the knowledge that her Senpai thought she was beautiful, while Ayako was certainly flattered, but also could only look at Shirou's left hand on Sakura's head, wishing he would pat her head as well, instead of only her back.

It was also notable that Minori seemed to glare at Shirou during the exchange, and especially at one of the golden-eyed teen's hands, that being the one resting on purple hair.

"That's really kind of you to say, Senpai." Sakura murmured in response to Shirou's earlier statement, missing the glares both the Mitsuzuri-siblings had aimed at the hand on her head, though both for different reasons. "You also look good tonight. Not that you don't look good normally of course, but even more so now, you know?"

"Quite so." Ayako said, now reaching out herself to pat Shirou's back, though she put slightly more force in it than was strictly necessary. She pouted though when she realised that he didn't even seem to notice that little fact, and then pulled her hand back to cradle it. Man, her crush was tough.

It went unnoticed to all the teens present though that the adults in the room were watching them like hawks, only pretending to be deep in conversation with each other. Chiaki half smiled at the clear feelings of attachment her daughter was feeling towards the Emiya, yet narrowed her eyes at the other girl in the room. Not out of dislike, but more out of a sense of dread that this could be the prelude to a lot of drama.

Ryozo's focus however was not on the girls, but rather on his son and his male guest. He was a mature and sensible man, no matter how much he liked teasing, and as such, had no problem at all with seamlessly picking up on the hostility that Minori was feeling for the Emiya. A few seconds more of observation also revealed the cause, as well as the fact that his son could better give up right away.

The man sighed, not looking forward to the drama that just might come from this. It wasn't his place to interfere though, and he could only hope his son would take his loss graciously when the time came.

"Ah yes." Minori suddenly interjected, pulling the attention of the other three teens towards him, the adults being too preoccupied with imagining doom-scenarios to pay attention to what their youngest child was saying. "Sakura-san arrived somewhat early this evening, but she and I have met a few times before, so I could fortunately entertain her while we had to wait for you to arrive at last. Taking your sweet time no doubt."

"Well then, thank you very much, Minori-san." Shirou replied, wondering why it was that a tiny part of him now wanted to glare at the young boy. "I presume you have met at school a few times then?"

Minori opened his mouth to respond, with another biting remark no doubt, but he was cut of before he could make said remark.

"Indeed, this little runt goes to the same school as we do, and sometimes comes along when we are talking during the breaks." Ayako grinned, winking at her little brother, and hoping Shirou would let his verbal slight pass. "Sometimes he is with his friends, though why he keeps the ones that he currently has around him, I don't know. They're jerks really."

Minori spluttered at her words, aiming an outraged look at her, no doubt because he thought she made him look ridiculous in front of 'Sakura-chan', as he was fond of calling her in private. Ayako would have to make sure Shirou never discovered that, now that she thought about it.

"Come now, Ayako." Sakura huffed, pouting slightly towards the addressed girl, making said girl's heart skip a beat at how cute she looked when doing so. "Minori-san's friends are kind as well, and it is nice of Minori-san himself to come by when we are having a break to talk to us. I do like talking to him, you know? My brother doesn't do that."

Ayako could only flinch at those words, despite how kind and well-meant they were. 'First of all, dear, that's setting the bar real low.' She thought, now trying to formulate a sentence for damage-control. 'And second, your words, while they are nice of you to say, do not help at all right now.'

From the corner of her eyes, she could see her little brother cast a smug look at Shirou after hearing Sakura's words, no doubt feeling like he'd one-upped the older boy. Her red-haired crush was looking-, not quite irritated, but certainly closer to it than she'd ever seen him be before. And poor Sakura-chan saw nothing of the effect her words had.

"It's good to hear that." Shirou began, pulling her attention back to him, just in time to see him wipe the last traces of annoyance of his face. "It is very important to be polite and kind when dealing with others after all."

Sakura nodded at his words with a smile, and even Minori couldn't say much against that, to his obvious ire. Right, it really was time for her to change the subject away from the interactions between Sakura and Minori, and how frequent those were.

"But say, Shirou." She thus began. "How is it going at school at the moment?"

Alright, a cliché it was, but it was a useful cliché to divert attention away from a less-than-desirable subject.

Shirou himself in the meantime had not noticed Ayako's discomfort. He hadn't really noticed Minori's hostility towards him either, and only felt a faint distaste for the boy's words, even though he himself didn't understand why. But such a thing was understandable, as there was no denying that he, as a certain black-haired, jewel-loving girl would proclaim often enough in the future, was an idiot.

And since he was not truly annoyed or irritated, despite what the exuberant girl next to him might have been thinking, he accepted the change in subject smoothly enough.

"It is going rather well actually, Ayako." He responded to her inquiry. "If I continue doing as I am now, then according to the teachers, I'll end first of the year at my school."

That got him the congratulations of both Ayako and Sakura, as well as Chiaki and Ryozo, who saw it fit to join in again with the conversation now that they had properly prepared for any doom an gloom that might come in the future.

"Truly?" Minori suddenly questioned, huffing after speaking those words, while seemingly trying to come up with an appropriate response. From the corner of his eye, Shirou saw Ayako tense up for some reason, but he couldn't comment on it as the youngest male present continued, the mocking tone now so clear that even the greatest of idiots would have picked up on it: "The people of your school must be really stupid then if you can best them."

Okay… Now even Shirou could not miss or overlook the deliberately insulting words and tone of voice. It would seem Ayako's little brother had a problem with him. 'I suppose I'll have figure out what kind of problem later then.' Shirou thought to himself, not bothering to answer as he saw Chiaki already opening her mouth to speak.

"Mitsuzuri Minori!" Chiaki cried in anger, getting up from her place to tower over her son, her face set in an enraged expression. "How dare you be so disrespectful to a guest! Apologize at once!"

Shirou however was quick to settle tempers. He had noticed the insulting tone and words, yes, but he was not so easily bothered. If anything, Minori's actions towards Sakura were much more grating to him, for reasons he still did not understand.

"Please, Mitsuzuri-san. He doesn't have to apologize. I am sure it was meant as a harmless joke." The red-haired boy said in a soothing tone, waving a hand to convey that he really did not care. After saying this, as well as a couple of other assurances that, yes, he was in fact not slighted, Chiaki settled down again.

Shirou in the meantime had to squash a small part of him that felt very vindictively satisfied at the scolding the youngest male had been receiving. He also couldn't help but notice Mjolnir seemed to agree with that small part of him, to his great consternation.

Fortunately, the rest of the evening went very well for Shirou and the others present now that Minori had toned down his hostility. The food that had been put on the table was fairly good, with Shirou giving it a nice seven-and-a-half when compared to his own.

Sakura was decidedly less generous, giving it a mere four compared to her Senpai's cooking. She was willing to admit she might be a bit biased though.

Ryozo and Chiaki proved to be good conversationalists even with teens after they had gotten over their teasing moods, and had spend the evening making the kids laugh at their silly antics. It was not hard to see where Ayako had gotten her disposition from when one spend some time in the presence of her parents. In fact, one would be more surprised to discover that she was rather mild compared to them.

Even Minori had behaved himself well, though that was more out of fear of further scolding and embarrassment than out of genuine mellowing, but it was good enough. Instead of sniping at Shirou as often as he could, as had been his plan beforehand, he spent his evening tending to Sakura's every whim. The smug looks he send Shirou all the while not being missed by the golden-eyed Magus, who nonetheless remained puzzled as to why the young boy was acting like that, and why it was actually vexing him.

All good things had to come to an end though, and this was no exception. When the clock struck eleven, if really was time to go home for the two guests. Having already persuaded the plum-haired girl to let him walk her home, Shirou walked to the hallway first, having said his goodbyes already and now letting Sakura do the same in private.

Little did he know however that much more would be said than only goodbyes.

Sakura gave Ayako a firm handshake, to show her gratitude for the invitation. As she had already expected though, her brown-haired friend simply used the handhold to pull her in for a large hug instead. Sakura didn't protest however, as she had discovered that it wasn't entirely unpleasant to be hugged by her. To the contrary actually.

Eventually, she dislodged herself from the embrace of the other girl, though it was reluctantly for the both of them.

"Thank you very much for the invitation, I really enjoyed the evening." Sakura smiled, straightening her clothes again. "Please tell that to your parents as well."

"Will do." Ayako laughed.

Her parents and her little brother had left the room to go to the kitchen in order to start washing the dishes a few minutes ago, leaving the two girls the only ones present in said room. Seeing that this was the perfect time for some girl-talk, Ayako went on speaking.

"I am sorry about Minori by the way. I'm sure he'll get over it in time and see that it is a lost cause, but if he doesn't, please let him down gently as soon as possible, before Shirou breaks him in two."

"Hah?" Sakura gasped, astounded and confused at what her dear friend was saying. "Was something wrong with Minori-san? What do you mean? Why would Senpai attack anyone?" The mere thought of her gentle Senpai hurting someone without a good reason was anathema to Sakura. He might fight those who were hurting others, but he wouldn't strike at an innocent person, never!

Her confusion however only earned her a confused look back. At least, until the dress-clad girl across from her palmed her face muttering something about 'being made for each other'. Strange really, but then again, Ayako didn't seem to be making much sense this evening.

"Still, thank you again for the invitation. I assure you I truly enjoyed it a lot, maybe Senpai and I have to invite you and your family over sometime, as repayment." The plum-haired girl continued, choosing to move on from the previous topic, as she didn't really understand what that had been about.

To all ears, it might have sounded as just a few words of gratitude and goodbye, and in a certain sense, they were, but Sakura was currently building up towards an important matter.

"Disregarding the fact that this dinner was to repay the two of you, that sounds like a good idea." Ayako said in response, giving her customary big grin that Sakura had been fond of since the first time she had seen it. "It really was fun to have you over."

Deciding she wouldn't get a better opening than that if she wanted to talk about the important subject, Sakura brought up the matter she had been wanting to settle with the brown-haired girl for weeks now.

"Yeah, I saw how you looked at Senpai during dinner. You seemed to be having a lot of fun with that indeed. Now, if I'm not mistaking, Ayako, then perhaps you 'like' him? As more than a friend I mean?"

The grin dropped from Ayako's face at once at those words, a slight note of panic and guilt coming to her face, as she took a shaking step backwards.

'That wasn't what I was going for.' Sakura thought, now feeling worried about her friend. 'What's going on with her?'

"S-Sakura." Ayako stuttered out, now moving past looking red and going to white in the face. "I-I am really s-sorry. I didn't mean to and I know you already have staked your claim and…"

'Oh. That's the problem.' Sakura realised. Ayako thought Sakura would be mad about it.

Not an entirely baseless fear, as the plum-haired girl would definitely have been angry at anyone else that tried to get to cosy with her Senpai, but this was different. it was completely fine if it was Ayako. Sakura's decision had been made after all, and Ayako truly was the best girl available to get with Senpai.

"Ayako." Sakura thus interrupted the brown-haired girl across from her, trying to sound as warm as she could, even as she felt hollow at what she was about to say. "It's fine."

In any other situation, the purple-eyed girl might have laughed a bit at the normally exuberant girl's slackjawed expression. The current situation was not amusing to her at all however, it was actually rather depressing for her.

Seeing that Ayako needed a bit more of an explanation, Sakura soldiered on, bravely supressing the pain she felt at her own words. "I am fine with you pursuing Senpai."

There, she said it, she had gotten it past her lips. Now for some more background on that decision:

"I am aware that this might be a shock." She ground out. "And that it might not fit with my earlier behaviour, but like I said, I have no problems with you courting and getting together with Senpai. I really like you, Ayako."

She truly did. The exuberant girl had been an amazing friend for her, and to Senpai as well. They would make a good match if they did indeed get together.

Ayako herself had turned completely red at this point. "S-Sakura-chan…" She murmured, looking incredibly embarrassed at this topic. "What are you saying so suddenly? Are… Are you sure? Like, really sure?"

"Yes." Sakura confirmed, now struggling to keep the tears back, directing her gaze downwards to hide it from her friend. "I am sure. I know that you won't try to push me out of the picture, so, again, I have no problem with you getting in a relationship with Senpai."

Seeing that Ayako still wavered, she grinned a bit. "It will of course be a chore to get Senpai to realise that you like him as well, but I have faith you can manage it. You yourself can also think about it of course. I don't need a confirmation or rejection right now, take as long as you need, but I would like you to tell me when you've made your decision. Just know that you have my blessing either way. You always had it in fact."

And with another goodbye, she rushed outside of the room, unable to speak about such depressing matters any longer. In a few seconds, she was outside of the house, joining her red-haired hero in the walk towards her home.

It had been a good evening altogether, despite the rather upsetting ending, but she had no one to blame for that except herself, so she wasn't allowed to complain. And for the rest, the party had included nice company, relatively good food, and she even had managed at last to tell Ayako that she was free to pursue Senpai.

Of course, she would have rather pursued him herself, but she knew she was utterly unworthy of him. With the worms inside of her and the impure urges and thoughts they gave her, she shouldn't even be around him in a fifty-mile radius. Yet every day, she went back to him anyway.

The least she could do to make up for that was not getting in the way of better potential life-partners for him. So Sakura was willing to stand aside, and forever keep her distance from her Senpai. Ayako was free to pursue him.

---

It had been several minutes since Sakura had left, yet Ayako was still standing in the middle of the dining room, not capable of taking a single step or moving a single muscle. The events and words of the past few minutes kept playing over and over in her head, until she could only reach one final conclusion.

Sakura was willing to share Shirou with her!

It was the only thing that made sense. It fit perfectly. The willingness of the plum-haired girl to let Ayako hang around her crush was now finally explained. It wasn't because Sakura hadn't noticed that the brown-haired girl had a crush on Shirou, it was because She. Was. Willing. To. Freaking. Share!

Ayako had never contemplated or considered that before. She knew it was theoretically possible to be in a romantic relationship with multiple people at once, but had never thought it might one day apply to her. That is, if she accepted the proposal of course.

Ayako had been caught of guard completely by this. She had expected to have to compete with Sakura if she ever wanted to be with Shirou, not that Sakura would try to get her to share their mutual crush. And why did she have to be so nice when bringing that message?

How could she possibly pursue a relationship with Shirou now without feeling like an utter and complete jerk and backstabber? Her first real friend had now placed so much trust in her, so certain that Ayako wouldn't push her out of the picture, that there was no way that Ayako was ever going to betray that trust.

As such, it looked like the only possibilities left were either back off from Shirou completely, or woman up and share with Sakura.

...

When put that way, the brown-haired girl couldn't deny the latter option did sound a whole lot better.

And when thinking about it, Ayako also could acknowledge that it wasn't like it would be a chore or punishment to share a boyfriend with a girl as nice and kind as Sakura. There would be no need for power plays or strife, not with that motherly girl around to sooth things over. She was definitely one of the best options available when searching for someone to share a polygamous relationship with.

'B-but, what did she mean when she said that she l-liked me?' The brown-haired girl then wondered, once more feeling a heavy blush come up. There was absolutely no question she resembled a tomato right now with all of the blood in her head and she could only pray her parents wouldn't come in any time soon. 'D-did she m-mean only like a friend, o-or perhaps…?'

She didn't dare finish the thought. Sharing a boyfriend with just a friend was already a strange enough thought for her to consider, but a full three-way relationship… That would take some getting used to, that was certain.

'But it doesn't really sound bad, does it?' A treacherous, yet far larger than expected, part of her whispered, bringing to mind the hours spend together with Sakura, and how the plum-haired girl had endeared herself more and more to her, and just how often Ayako was thinking of Sakura as cute and pretty, as well as the fact that the hugs they shared were really nice...

Rapidly shaking her head, Ayako discarded those thoughts before they would drive her into taking a poorly considered decision. Stalling them in the back of her mind for now, she decided to just go to bed. This wasn't a matter she should decide on right away, especially this late in the evening.

She knew she genuinely liked Shirou, as someone she wanted a romantic relationship with, and she, well, if she was really, truly honest, if only for a few seconds, then she wasn't averse to getting closer to Sakura either.

There! She said it. Out loud and everything, or at least in her mind. Now if that perverse part of her mind could leave her in peace, that'd be amazing.

But in all seriousness, she would have to think about this. Fortunately, Sakura had said she would wait for as long as was needed for Ayako's decision. And of course, even if she did agree, then the task of getting through Shirou's thick skull was guaranteed to be quite a chore, even with the two of them.

It would be a lot of fun though…

But no, she should not think on those matters now, not when she was mentally compromised by shock and exhaustion.

Attempting to keep her mind empty of all thoughts pertaining to relationships and bold proposals, Ayako went though the paces of going to bed; helping her family clean up, putting on her nightclothes, brushing her hair and teeth, and then settling into her blankets on her comfy bed.

Fortunately for her, she fell asleep very quickly, with that sleep carefully being kept completely dreamless. Some might have expected her to have a couple of dreams relating to the unresolved issue, but there weren't any, as this was a decision miss Mitsuzuri would have to make for herself. Without anyone or anything pushing her into accepting or declining it.

Not that there was any hesitation about what her answer would be of course, but she would have to reach that conclusion herself, without the subtle influences from dreams or the less-subtle manipulations from Outerversal beings and mystic weapons.

And especially without the outright coercing from readers, that bunch of pushy micromanagers.

---

Urayasu, Shirou decided, while punching yet another criminal, would never be his favourite city, not even close, and not even if it was the only city left on this world and all other worlds he now knew to be out there.

This uncharitable opinion did not come out of nowhere, nor was it unreasonable of Shirou to think such a thing. Many of the readers would think exactly the same upon seeing the place for themselves, and even most of those who called Urayasu their home would rather live elsewhere if at all possible.

It wasn't a mystery either as to why they would want to move away. Even when forgetting about the kind of inhabitants this city was home to, it was simply filthy. And when he said filthy, he meant really filthy.

Rubble and waste were laying everywhere on the streets, with no one bothering to clean it up. Shirou had even spotted several people contributing to the mess, not caring who saw them.

Next to that, most of the public property in the city had been wrecked, such as bus stops, fountains, statues, and government buildings in general. This vandalism had been perpetrated by bored youths, bored criminals, or unhappy, protesting people no doubt.

Still, Urayasu was a large city, and Shirou knew that most of the citizens were innocent of any real wrongdoing. Just trying to live their own lives, all the while dodging the problems all around them. Yet some of them seemed to have decided to spread their own misery around to those next to them, causing no small amount of trouble for the poor city.

Granted, making others feel their own pain probably wasn't the main objective of most of the crooks he was apprehending, yet Shirou couldn't entirely shake the feeling that for some of them, it was their main motivation.

How else could he explain why the criminals in this city were so much more vicious than the others he had encountered in the previous cities? Fuyuki and Ise had had their own share of criminals, that much had been true, but those cities didn't have to deal with the things Urayasu had to deal with on a daily basis.

He had been active in Urayasu for seven nights now, with tonight being the eigth, and in that time, he'd only rolled up two gangs, as opposed to the ten or so he would have apprehended in Fuyuki or Ise. He had of course searched quite a bit throughout the city, but he hadn't been able to find any more of them.

The reason for that wasn't that he hadn't put in the necessary effort to find them. The reason was that there were very few gangs in the first place, with most criminals either going lone wolf or sticking together in small groups of ten at the most. Most of his time actually went into stopping those people.

He had broken up countless brutal muggings, he had stopped drugs dealers from forcefully injecting children, teens, and young adults with whatever trash they were selling, it was multiple times that he had to stop acts of baseless police-brutality against innocent people, or even apprehend an officer or three that were extorting or plain mugging people on the streets. He didn't really know what to do in those cases, so he had just hit the guilty cops on their heads, dragged them off, and hypnotised them to make them stop acting like criminals.

He'd even had to prevent several rapes from taking place, which was most definitely a first for him. He was ashamed to admit it, but Shirou had even drawn a blank for a few seconds when he saw such an act going on for the first time, not properly understanding what had been happening with the man laying on the woman.

That confusion hadn't lasted long though, and the second he had realised what had been going on, he had swooped in and kicked the rapist from one end of the alley all the way to the other end. He had probably crippled the man with that move, but he didn't feel very guilty about it, not then and not now.

So all in all, while there might be fewer gangs in Urayasu, the crime-statistics were still through the roof like few other cities in Japan.

It provided no small source of annoyance to Shirou, who didn't see any reliable way of stopping the majority of the crime in this city, except for manually patrolling the streets for weeks, maybe even months on end. All in all, a very inefficient way of fighting crime.

'I never thought I'd see the day I would miss the gangs.' Shirou mused to himself, while once more knocking a man out with the flick of a finger when he saw said man come at him with a knife, clearly intent on threatening or harming our courageous hero. Just like the five previous ones before him, this one had stormed out of a back-alley as well.

During the first two days, Shirou had proactively been searching around for crimes to stop. While it might have been unpleasant to behold the crimes being committed, the golden-eyed Magus could not deny he was in fact very effective, even if he didn't make much progress in the city a whole.

Even if the criminals weren't congregated in gangs like they had been in the previous cities, he could still catch them as easily as before, as the crooks weren't exactly hard to spot when committing their crimes.

Several problems had arisen with that though.

The first problem was an inevitable one for a hero, that being gratitude from the people that had been saved towards said hero, in this case towards Shirou.

It wasn't something he had been forced to deal with before, as he had always just caught gangs that were doing their own thing in their own hide-out. There had been no victims then who could be grateful to him, heck, most people didn't even know he existed because of the efforts of the police to keep him and his actions under wraps.

Now though, he was actively saving people from being mugged, assaulted, and even raped, tearing away their attackers from them and as such saving them from harm. Of course there would be plenty of gratefulness. It was a natural result of his actions after all.

But unfortunately for him, he hadn't seen it coming, and as such was stumped on how to react to their words and general behaviour.

It was not uncommon for the people he had saved during the past three days to fall to their knees to thank him, or to want to shake his hand, and the red-haired hero did not know very well how to deal with that, the former being significantly more difficult than the latter.

It was in fact the most difficult with the women he had saved from rape. Now don't get him wrong, he understood perfectly well how horrible a crime it was, and he would happily stop it every time he saw it or heard of it, but the aftermath was still a bit difficult to deal with for him.

Every single one of the women had started crying afterwards, if they hadn't already been doing so. Again, completely understandable, but hard to deal with for someone like him, who had little to no experience with crying people.

He wasn't an emotionless idiot though, and he had promptly done what seemed best to him at the time, that being calmly sitting next to the women and placing a comforting hand on their shoulders, as well as quietly reassuring them that it was over now.

It might not have been the best option available, but it was a whole lot better than just leaving right away. There was no way Shirou would ever leave someone in need of help alone, even if he wasn't sure on how to provide the help that was needed.

Fortunately, his way of helping them had seemed to work every time, as every single one of the women had stopped crying pretty soon after he sat down next to them in order to comfort them. Seeing that it worked pretty well, he had memorised the response for future use.

He had been surprised however when two of the women, on two different occasions, had suddenly hugged him, feverishly whispering their thanks over and over again. He had hugged them back at those times of course, but it had been strange when one of the women had muttered something about 'being saved by the freaking Terminator'.

In the end though, the gratitude shown to him in the aftermath of his heroics was only a minor problem, if it could even be considered a problem and not just a part of the hero's job, much like cooking was also a part of it.

After the first few times, he had learned to simply accept their signs of thankfulness and then move on quickly, all the while saying as little as possible, as his young voice had shocked the first person he'd spoken with something fierce.

The second problem that had sprung up was unfortunately much harder to deal with for him: The criminals had begun to hide themselves better after only a few nights.

It actually wasn't all that hard to find them anyway, but it did in fact make things a bit more difficult. They weren't visible from the air when they were holing up after all.

The golden-eyed Magus had theorised that the word of him taking down criminals must have spread, which was frankly surprising, as rumours hadn't travelled nearly as fast in the previous towns. Maybe it had something to do with the non-existence of gang-rivalries?

Anyway, he had seen that just flying over the city would be less effective than before, so he had adopted another approach. He had noticed some time earlier that if he altered his vigilante-outfit a tiny bit, and then put up his hood and walked with a bit of a slouch, he would seem be to a normal, if relatively well-off, citizen walking alone at night.

He had begun doing so from the fifth night onward, and had started walking over the streets through hot-spots of activity, making the criminals come to him. It allowed him to take them out and deliver them to the police-force, which, save for the few bad apples he had already largely dealt with, had generally proven to be manned by good people, much to his relief.

This tactic worked surprisingly well, certainly better than just flying around would have worked. It was probably not all that common for someone in rather expensive looking clothes to be walking alone at night through the bad parts of the city, making him a very attractive target. In fact, some people were trying to ambush him right at that moment.

For any normal human, it would have seemed as if his ambushers had sprung forth from the shadows themselves, coming out of their hiding places and surrounding him in an instant. Shirou however had long since seen and heard them, having anticipated such a move.

"Give us your money, kid, and we might just let you go with only a beating." One of them rasped out, brandishing a base-ball bat. "Yeah." Another agreed. "And while we're at it, why don't you give us those clothes, and yer trinkets, and whatever else you have with you, rich boy."

"And you'll let me go if I do so?" Shirou inquired, although he already knew the men had no such intentions. None of the other crooks he had faced today had been planning to actually let him go after all.

"You'd like that, wouldn't ya?" The one in front of Shirou laughed, balling his hand into fists and raising them in a motion that probably was intended to intimidate him. "But no, we changed our minds. We're just gonna beat ya to a pulp first, and then we'll take all of your belongings. If ya have enough shinies with ya tough, we might let ya live, if only just."

His suspicions confirmed, the red-haired Magus did not waste another breath with talking to these unrepentant miscreants, and set out to take them down at once.

There were seven of them, a considerable number for simply mugging-group. It wasn't enough to worry him of course, as he'd dealt with far worse than these scumbags. He was quite sure that even Taiga could have taken these men down, as they didn't look all that strong.

No insult intended.

To Taiga of course.

With a jump, he was in front of the man who had spoken last, who was too busy gloating to his comrades to pay any attention to what Shirou was doing. An open-hand chop to the back of his neck brought him down instantly. In the same motion, Shirou spun around and delivered a kick to the midriff of the man now standing to his right, causing him to go down, wheezing for breath.

The third was promptly grabbed and thrown at another, after which both hit the wall of the alley they were standing in. They didn't get up afterwards.

This all had barely taken a second, not giving the last remaining three a chance to do any more than widen their eyes and regret their life-choices for the half-a-second it took Shirou to reach them. Three punches, to the head, midriff, and neck quickly sent them to dreamland as well.

Standing amidst the fallen opponents, Shirou took a short moment to pat himself on the back for the restraint he had once more shown.

After yet another call to the police, where he was now becoming quite well-known, if the repeated requests to stay where he was were any indication, Shirou continued with his peaceful stroll through the city, all the while still keeping an eye out for anything related to his greater purpose here.

Up until now, he hadn't found even a single clue. Just like in Ise, it seemed every criminal smelling of magic had already left town, most likely to venture towards Fuyuki-City, where they had already been dealt with by him.

The golden-eyed teen would have accepted this as another bust, and then moved on quickly to remove the criminal elements present before choosing another city to terrorise, if it hadn't been for the faint smell that was permanently present in the city.

The smell of magic, and death.

It wasn't in any way similar to the smells he had picked up from the crooks he had arrested, as those smells had been the ones of proper, normal (as normal as was possible for First Rate's anyway) Magi, who had their own specialisations that he could almost completely figure out with only years-old smells to help him.

This particular smell however set his teeth on edge, with his instincts and even Mjolnir telling him something was very wrong in this place, making the need for him to keep patrolling even greater than if there had only been ordinary criminals around.

No, even if he had wanted to leave, he could not, for his very being would not have allowed it. Not before finding and eliminating the source of this smell.

Yes, he said eliminating. There was no doubt in his mind that whatever was causing this was both Not Human and definitely not innocent.

He had been searching for it since the day he had first set foot in Urayasu, even prioritising this over his main mission. Mjolnir had jokingly referred to it as a 'side-quest', though what that meant precisely, or why that was funny, Shirou did not know.

But as said before, until now, he'd had no success in finding the source, which was not all that strange considering Urayasu was fairly big and he had only been here for a few nights, of which most of the time was spend beating down criminals.

Fortunately, he did have one little thing, besides the smell, that might be a clue that could help him in solving this 'side-quest' as quickly as possible, so he could move back to the main mission. That little thing being a long list of missing persons.

According to the papers now folded in his pocket, papers detailing the missing-person-reports, that he had obtained though less than legal means, the cases of missing persons had nearly tripled in the past months in quantity. It was an outright disaster for the city, and the law-enforcement in particular, as they did not seem to be able to figure out who was behind it all.

To Shirou however it was clear that there was something magical behind it. Maybe another Magus who was now copying the ways of the ones Shirou had been hunting during the past weeks? Maybe it was a person of a mixed bloodline going after humans in order to obtain sustenance? Those with a mixed bloodline were a lot more frequent in Japan than in the rest of the world after all, for some reason, so it wasn't impossible.

Well, anyway, he'd better get on with the side-quest, there was still a lot of ground to cover after all, and the night wasn't getting any longer.

The golden-eyed Magus couldn't entirely supress a groan though when he saw people coming out of the shadows again, two cutting him off at the end of the alley in front of him and three more barring his way behind him, effectively trapping him.

It wasn't that they were any kind of threat of course or even a real hindrance. He had already proven multiple times that he could easily deal with them. It was just that this was the ninth time already in barely two hours since he had begun walking around that he had been ambushed. There had to be some kind of limit on how many criminals per mile square there could be in one city!

Grumbling under his breath about stupid cities, Shirou straightened his back and took a deep breath, ready to get the inevitable pre-battle banter over with. It seemed every criminal in this town loved the sound of their own voices. There hadn't been a single instant where it had been quiet while he had been fighting. His opponents had been making all kinds of sounds, from bragging and boasting to screaming in terror at the sight of him.

But in the middle of that deep breath, he couldn't help but freeze in shock. The reason for it being simple yet complicated.

These crooks smelled like magic.

Continuing his breathing, Shirou now dedicated significantly more of his attention towards his opponents. If these people had been hypnotised by the Magi, as he was now strongly suspecting, then he could in fact interrogate people again. Or even if it had been the doing of the being inside the city, they could potentially still tell him a lot.

'It shouldn't be too difficult.' Shirou mused, looking them over. 'Being hypnotised doesn't give you special abilities, so they should be well within normal human capabilities.' He didn't expect the hypnosis to save him from the talking though, so he prepared himself for tuning out annoying voices…

And that is why Shirou was stunned for a moment when the people in front and behind him suddenly attacked, without saying a word or making any other sound, save for their heavy breathing. 'That's new.' He thought to himself, shifting himself slightly to find his balance again.

The lack of talking and the smell of magic weren't the only new things though, now that he thought about it. In the few short moments that he had been wondering about the silence of his enemies, said enemies had already almost crossed the distance from the beginning of the alley to him, far faster than he had expected.

Resolving to take them more seriously now that they had proven to be more capable than the others, Shirou did not wait on the spot like he had done the previous times, but instead seized the initiative by jumping at the ones in front of him.

Despite their unusual competence shown, his opponents clearly hadn't anticipated such a move from him, allowing the golden-eyed Magus to land in between them and smack them over the head with his open hands. Which should be more than enough to knock even the toughest of normal humans, and even some enhanced beings, unconscious.

As that dealt with the two that had been in front of them, Shirou turned around lightning fast, took in the position of his other opponents, as well as the surprising lack of shock in their stances and body-language, and launched himself at them with a powerful kick at the ground. Five steps and three punches later, it was over.

Or at least, he had thought so.

Shirou had recently gotten a wake-up call. Having been surprised by the officer going up the stairs back in the police station in Fuyuki, it had driven home to him that he should always take things seriously, no matter how well things were going or how little a threat his opponents actually were to him. He had resolved to always keep his senses out for any unexpected things, never feeling completely save, so that no one would get the drop on him like that ever again. A lesson learned.

And it was this improved mindset that allowed him to pick up the soft footfalls behind him, indicating the fight wasn't as over as he'd thought it was. It looked like he had to put a little more power in his punches then.

Before doing anything else though, he leapt forward, creating some distance between him and his assailant, before turning on the spot to see which one of the crooks had managed to pick themselves up.

Now firmly in a combat-mindset, Shirou allowed himself only a moment of surprise when he saw that not just one of them, but all five had stood up again. That moment quickly passed, and Shirou's attention was back to taking down the threat in front of him, studying them carefully...

Shirou once more felt shock course through him for a moment. He knew these people!

Not personally, but their faces were incredibly familiar anyway, and Shirou also knew why that was.

As all five of his opponents were now in front of him, the golden-eyed Magus was free to jump backwards again, creating some more space between him and his pursuers once more. He then reached into the pocket of his jacket, and pulled out a bundle of papers.

These were the missing-person-reports of the past three months. Quickly riffling through them, the red-haired hero's eyes widened as his suspicions were confirmed. The people in front of him were some of those among the missing persons.

But why were they attacking him then? Because they were hypnotised? Which on itself did not make any sense now that he thought about it. They weren't criminals as far as the police had been able to determine, nor would they go unmissed after disappearing. They fell completely out of the tone when compared to the other victims of hypnosis Shirou had encountered. They were too important.

One of them in particular, Ehara Kageyasu, was a highly respected doctor, who was earning more with his profession than he ever would make with mugging people in back-alleys. He was just about one of the worst targets one could go for if one wanted to keep a low profile. And yet, here he was, running at full speed towards Shirou, faster than man his age should be capable of.

That was not even mentioning the fact that another should have very weak and damaged knees from years of volley ball, that being Aonuma Nui, making it impossible for her to move around like she was doing now. Seriously, she should be in a wheelchair almost, not jumping at him with a feral snarl…

Letting go of the papers with one of his hands, Shirou used that hand to smack Aonuma back towards her comrades, making them tumble over each other in a way that would have been funny to behold if the situation hadn't been so strange.

The golden-eyed teen then put the papers back in his pockets and clenched his fists, preparing himself for a fight harder than any other up until now. When he had thrown Aonuma backwards, she had ended up smacking on the ground head-first, with enough force behind it to crack open her skull if the normal laws of physics and human anatomy had anything to say about it. But such a thing had not happened.

Was this normal for people hypnotised by first-rate Magi? Or was something else going on? Shirou took another deep breath through his nose, trying to distinguish the smell that was practically wafting from the people in front of him.

The only thing he could associate it with though, was death, corpses, and poorly maintained grave yards. But that didn't make any sense…

...

...

Shirou's jaw clenched, his eyes narrowed, and his fists were now clenched so hard his knuckles almost cracked. No, on second thought, that did make an awful lot of sense. Using the information that he had obtained from the stories his father had told him some years ago, he now had a fairly good idea about what he was fighting at the moment.

Sparing a moment to pray he was wrong, Shirou looked closer at his opponents, now actually taking in the details. It was all in the teeth, nails, and complexion of the skin.

His hopes for his suspicions to be untrue were crushed when he noticed the fangs, claws, and unhealthy shine on the people in front of him.

'No, not people.' Shirou realised, a dark feeling taking hold of him. 'The Dead are upon me it seems.'

A dead Apostle.

With that grim thought passing through his head, Shirou abandoned all notion of restraint and holding back. He had to kill these things fast, before their master would take notice of them getting damaged. The red-haired Magus knew the Dead were always some kind of familiars of their creators, but with a bit of luck, said master wasn't paying attention at the moment.

Shirou went into the offense, hands crackling with lightning. A single jump brought him in front of the nearest dead man, and Shirou gave it a right hook, punching its head clean off before it had even realised that he was there.

He then turned half to the right, crouching low to dodge a swipe with a claw, and lashed out with a high kick before getting up, sending his attacker and the one behind it flying into the opposite wall with such speed that they broke to pieces on impact. Very brittle, those Dead.

The last two left then tried to reclaim the initiative and redirect the flow of the battle by charging straight at him, employing all of the increased strength and speed of the Dead in the charge. It proved useless though, as Shirou merely side-stepped their assault and then brought his fists down on their heads with enough strength behind it to reduce said heads to ash as well, an example soon followed by the bodies.

That dealt with the five in front of him, but this matter was far from over for Shirou.

'To think that all this time, the origin of the smell and the cause of the disappearances was a Dead Apostle.' He thought to himself, quickly digging up everything his father had told him about these creatures.

The most important thing by far was that these things spread their condition by a mere bite, which made them capable of infecting entire towns in a matter of days at best and hours at worst. The fact that the Dead Apostle here had been as patient as to make so little headway was probably due to its desire not to be discovered, which meant that is was probably reasonably smart as well.

On one hand, that was good news, as it meant that the entire city was not in immediate danger, but on the other hand, it also meant that it was probably also clever enough to hide itself and to flee if Shirou waited too long with catching it after dispatching five of its minions. He would have to move tonight in order to take the creature down, but that still left the matter of the mindless Dead wandering around.

It was now however that he recalled something Mjolnir had told him recently, for situations such as this: 'Cut off the head of the snake, and the body will wither.' It was clear that the head was the Dead Apostle in that case, and the body existed out of its familiars.

It was probably the best approach to do as the hammer had told him, even if it would leave a couple of the Dead around without supervision. While that might sound very bad, it really wasn't. The majority of the servants of a Dead Apostle were only a bunch of Dead kept alive through the influence of their master. They didn't have any free will, and would practically cease to function when said master died.

He would have to put his hunt for the Magi on hold, but the Apostle was more important now.

For other people hunting things like this, such as most Executors and Enforcers, that would be easier said than done, as Urayasu was still a big city with many hiding places. Tracking down the Apostle would be difficult for them, and impossible to do within one day, except when in large groups.

Not so much for Shirou, as he had his superior sense of smell to work in his favour. It wouldn't have worked at first admittedly, as he had only smelled a general scent of death-magic hanging over the town for the first days.

That was different now though, as he had the remains of a few of the Dead in front of him. As said before, those beings couldn't act alone, and had to be guided every step of the way. And to guide them, a link to their master was needed. A link brought into being by magic, and as such, a link he could track.

It was very faint, as was to be expected now that he had already destroyed the Dead themselves, but it was enough to get at least a general direction. One he immediately set about following.

Deciding now was no longer the time to walk around like an unsuspecting victim, Shirou threw off his hood and altered his outfit back to its proper vigilante state. Then, with a jump, he ascended to the top of the building on his left.

With a quick flick, Mjolnir was once more in his hand, the hammer now thrumming with power again, clearly ready as well to fight against the first opponent of the Moonlit World they had ever faced together. Truly a memorable experience it would be.

And with that thought, after putting on his mask again, Shirou launched himself into the sky,

Following the trail.

---

And that is that. The chapter ends here.

That being said, some things of importance happened in this chapter. I will walk through them for a bit again, just to soothe my own nerves because I fear some readers might not have understood everything.

First, we have little Illya getting a visit from mom and dad. Yes, those were really them, not just Servants or memories or anything like that, they were the actual Kiritsugu and Irisviel, who had been pulled back for a bit to spend some time with their daughter.

Shirou has no luck finding clues related to his main mission in Ise, and gets news of swimming lessons when he returns.

Dinner at Ayako's place, Minori has his own crush on Sakura and Shirou feels the stirrings of jealousy, without recognising what he feels. It is probably for the best though, as feeling jealous is completely unneeded. Sakura would never consider anyone but her Senpai.

Poor Ayako completely misunderstands Sakura's words, though she does not reject the proposal outright, but instead actually finds herself considering it. Interesting…

Shirou then hangs around in Urayasu, being generally unhappy with the place, and then stumbles upon a Dead Apostle.

And then there's the author's note, wrapping it all up.

Now, some of you might not be entirely happy with what I have done for Illya, but I felt she deserved something like this, so here it is. I don't write drama all that well, so it's better for me if Illya doesn't hate Shirou when the latter forces his way into the Einzbern-castle later on in the story.

Also, I will now attempt to explain just what it means for Shirou to become like Thor. Okay, I said he's going to become a god, and that's true, but please all keep in mind that he's not going to be a Type Moon god. He is not reliant on the Mana in the air, nor on the prayers and believes of humans.

He had some similar powers to the Type Moon gods, such as Authority, but let it be known that the Chains of Endiku aren't going to be some sort of kryptonite for him. Please remember this and don't start any discussion about whether Shirou should or shouldn't be bound in those chains. The chains can absolutely bind him, and scale with his divinity, but they can't cut off his powers.

He is powered by the Shirou-Force, formerly known as Thor-Force and Odin-Force, one of the fundamental powers of the Omniverse. It is impossible for anything in the Nasuverse to cut him off from that power, no matter what they do. Binding him is still possible though. Especially with that Chain.

He's still compatible enough with humans to somewhat pass for one of them if one doesn't look to closely. And reproducing with humans is also very much possible.

Special thanks once more to hollowichigo12 for helping me write this story, and for the many ideas he has given me, both for this chapter and the ones to come. Also my thanks for giving me the idea for the omake that you can find below.

I have at last decided by the way that I'm going to keep things simply when it comes to Shirou's vigilante name, I'll name him Rakurai (my thanks to CrazyLich79), which means lightning bolt or lightning strike. It will be given to him by the Police of Fuyuki-City, and later be made public when they can no longer hide his involvement in the arrest, now that he is also going to other cities.

That covers it, now for the promised Omake about walnuts and grandfathers.

---

Omake (canon if you want it to be, it does not influence the story an awful lot.)

Jubstacheit von Einzbern was a callous and cruel man, who did things on a daily basis that would make most civilised readers throw up at the very thought of doing it themselves.

It was not out of sadism or some twisted feeling of revenge however that he did those things. No, for Old Man Acht, it was about necessity. He was the head of an ancient Magus-family, holding fabled riches, the best Homunculi-creators, and one of the strongest specialities in the world, that being Alchemy. There was no way he would be able to keep his position if he weren't a right bastard.

Fortunately, being a rotten bastard had always come easy to him. He had never lost a second of sleep over heartlessly throwing the failures of the Homunculi in the recycle room, or over sacrificing his metaphorical daughter to a crazy War over a, though he was not aware of this, defect Grail, or even over planning to use his granddaughter for the exact same purpose.

It would be incorrect if one said he delighted in it, but it could not be denied he did sometimes feel empowered by being so ruthless against enemy and ally alike. Who was going to tell him off after all? He was free to do what he wanted in the pursuit of bringing the Third Magic back to the Einzbern.

Inside his own family, he would tolerate no disrespect or disobedience, demanding loyalty from everyone, both artificial and real. He would never hesitate to stomp on anything that seemed like insubordination or mockery.

And that was why he was currently staring at a walnut, innocently laying on his desk, as if mocking and laughing at him from its lower position. Jubstacheit could not properly understand how it was looking at him with so much challenge, but it was clear to him that this walnut needed to be destroyed, for his peace of mind if nothing else.

He had gotten this walnut out of the hands of the very granddaughter he was planning on sacrificing in the coming war, which seemed to be beginning sooner than anticipated. She had been holding it in her little hands during her lessons, sometimes looking at it with a smile.

Upon closer observation, he had discovered an 'E' carved in the surface of the little brown thing, the meaning of which he had understood right away.

He had been incensed. How dare she mock them all like that by carrying around something related to that traitor? Did she not have any respect at all for the family as a whole? Making them all seem ridiculous by constantly reminding them of when they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

He had marched over at once, demanding she hand over that walnut. He had expected protest, for her to try to keep it, but to his surprise, she had looked at the walnut for a few moments, and had then handed it over gleefully, a very unsettling smile adorning her face.

And that was how he came to be here, looking at a simple walnut with way too much anger and hate for it to be in any way healthy or normal. Just looking at it almost gave poor Jubstacheit an aneurism, it was too much.

So with a hate-filled yell, he picked up the walnut and threw it at the wall with as much force as he could put behind it…

Only for it to bounce back right against his head.

"Ow!" He yelled, both out of shock and out of pain. His hand flew to his head to cradle it, while the walnut ended up back on the desk in its previous position. It had somehow bounced from his skull right back unto its former spot.

Jubstacheit looked incredulously at it, before he quickly grabbed a hammer he still had laying around from a recent redecoration, slamming it down unto the walnut, confident that would be enough to break it into pieces.

A harsh crack sounded, the crack of wood, making him believe at first he had succeeded. However, when he looked at the walnut again, he saw to his astonishment that it was still unmarred.

It turned out it was the hammer that had broken from the force of his strike! The head had been snapped clean off.

But then where was it?

"Thunk!"

Jubstacheit dropped the useless piece of wood in his hand and grabbed his head in pain. It turned out that the hammerhead had been right above him, for a few seconds, before it had promptly fallen down onto him, causing him even more pain then when the nut had struck him on the forehead.

"What the hell?" He hissed, now feeling less hateful and more pissed off. That walnut was now openly defying him, hurting his head with brutal tactics.

It had proven that physical force would be ineffective against it, but there was no reason for concern yet, as he still had Magecraft at his disposal in order to get rid of it.

"Laden Brechen!" He shouted, pointing his finger towards the offending object, putting as much power as possible into it. The nut had proven itself an adversary worthy enough of that.

The spell impacted both the walnut and his desk. To Jubstacheit's shock and consternation, the walnut remained unaffected once more, while it was his desk that seemed to take all the punishment. The top splintered apart under the power of his spell, and the underlying drawer was shot away…

Right into his jaw.

"Akasha's Root!" The golem swore, now cradling his jaw in immense pain. First his forehead, then the top of his head, and now his jaw as well? This thing had it out for him. It was clearly creepier than he had anticipated.

But even now he still had the old wisdom to fall back on. As his own creator had always said to him: 'When in doubt, kill it with fire'.

Very wise words that applied here very well. So Jubstacheit promptly sprayed fire at the walnut, his desk would have to be replaced anyway, so he didn't hold back at all.

It should be enough to reduce the damned thing to cinders. Who knew walnuts were that hard to destroy…

"Fwoom!"

Jubstacheit jumped back like a frightened deer the moment the flames touched the devilish thing, as a huge torrent of flames suddenly burst forth from its position. And then, just as fast, it was also gone again.

Old Man Acht rapidly inspected his office for any damages, hoping nothing valuable had fallen prey to the flames. It seemed he was lucky this time though, as the only things damaged were his desk and the rope holding up the chandelier.

The chandelier, that was hanging right above his head!

Not even bothering to look up, the white-haired man made to get away from where he was standing, trying to jump to the side. It was too late though, and with a thundering crash, the chandelier came down upon him.

It was safe to say Acht was in more pain right now than he'd ever been in before. His whole body ached, with his head being the worst of all. It was worth it though, for he had finally gotten the better of that blasted walnut…

"Tonk."

Jubstacheit almost burst into tears when he felt something bounce of his head. Something very familiar.

Indeed, it was the walnut.

He could only stare at it for a few moments, before he put that famed intellect of his to work, and worked out the most brilliant plan ever, if he did say so himself.

He reached out and grabbed to walnut from its place, and then walked out of his office, his stride that of a man with a purpose. Everybody looking at him could only wonder about his objective and his wounds, throwing themselves out of his way in order to not get trampled.

It was only a few minutes later that Acht reached Illyasviel's chambers. Without knocking, he entered, causing the three girls inside to jump in surprise. He paid no attention to their activities though, and outright ignored the older-looking ones in favour of focusing on Illyasviel.

"Here." He said, voice kept toneless, holding out the accursed thing to her. "Take this and keep it out of my sight." His piece said, he walked away immediately after she'd taken it from his hand, vowing to never again pay any attention at all to any kind of walnut, and to order everyone in his family do to the same.

Except Illyasviel. She now had the task of keeping that cursed object under control.

Omake end.

---

Let us read forever.

Ted out.