Atalanta's point of view. The next morning.

I placed the last of the pancakes on the dining room table. The rest of the table was already filled with a variety of breakfast foods.

My father asked me to cook a small feast to accommodate our two guests, but I think he just wanted leftovers for a while I'm gone. He's probably going to break his diet while I'm gone.

Silena and her father, Mr. Beauregard, were sitting on the other side of the dinner table. Silena looked like she was having trouble sitting still.

Aphrodite didn't show up, as Mom predicted before she left.

"Good work, head chief!" Dad thanked me with a smile. "Everything looks as perfect as ever."

"It does look really good," Mr. Beauregard added in as well. "Thanks for the meal."

I hummed in response, satisfied to see they enjoyed my cooking. That satisfaction turned to happiness when I saw Silena smiling as she ate my food. Hmm, I'll need to learn what her favorite food is.

"Hey, Ata, where's your mom?" Silena asked me after looking up from her breakfast.

"She talked to Dad and then left," I responded quickly. "But she told me all the relevant details for the quest."

"Neat."

Mr. Beauregard looked at me before turning towards my father. "Silena and Aphrodite said Atalanta's mother is Artemis, right?"

"Yep," Dad answered right before he went to take a bit of his food.

Mr. Beauregard whistled in response. "Didn't know she could have kids."

"I'm the only one," I told him matter of factly.

Silena started laughing, causing me to glare at her. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Silena barely stopped her giggling. A mischievous smile adorned her face. "But Mr. Moonlit, how'd you meet her!"

"Atalanta? I met her at a hospital a couple of years ago," Dad responded with his usually clown-like attitude.

"No," Silena shot back, slightly annoyed. "Miss Artemis!"

"Oh her, I found her bathing naked in the woods," Dad casually responded as if he was recounting the weather.

Silena blushed while Mr. Beauregard looked as if he couldn't believe Dad just said that.

"How about you, David? How'd you meet Aphrodite?"

Mr. Beauregard almost dropped his drink, his face turning bright red. "Our start wasn't so…."

"You should mind your thoughts, or Artemis will take offense," Dad quickly warned Mr. Beauregard.

"Right," Mr. Beauregard said as he stopped to take a breath. "One night, I was out drinking with some of my friends and saw a beautiful woman. Before I knew what I was doing, I struck up a conversation with her. Aphrodite is just too beautiful to resist; I couldn't stop myself. You can imagine the rest, one thing led to another, and I became a father before I knew it!"

Silena looked radiant as her father talked about his experiences with Aphrodite.

"Tough job, isn't it?" Dad asked Mr. Beauregard as he leaned back in his chair. "Raising a Half-blood alone."

My expression darkened. That's right; I don't deserve to be happy when I'm such a burden on my father. I put on a fake face before anyone could notice the change in my demeanor.

Silena looked resentful but said resentment didn't seem to be directed towards her father.

"Not really; raising Silena has been a blessing."

Silena smiled. Happily, resentment faded off her face.

"Sorry to interrupt your moment," I interjected. "But we have something important to talk about."

"Right," Dad agreed as he sat up and looked at me. "Why don't you tell us about the quest?"

I sat forward and pushed my empty plate away from me.

"The quest is simple; two people defiled one of Mom's temples down in Phoenix. She wanted me to go investigate it."

"Why didn't Artemis take action?" Dad asked in shock.

I looked at him carefully, thinking about how I should answer.

"Because the temple was created by Uncle for Mom's Roman-half, while the defilers were related to her Greek half," I stopped before explaining the Roman-Greek split. "This led to a conflict between her two halves, her roman version that was born from the beliefs of the Roman Empire, and her Greek half."

"Why didn't your mother tell me about this?"

"Because she's not supposed to. Greek half-bloods and Roman half-bloods kept killing each other, so the gods used the Mist to erase each sides' memories of the other. Most gods swore on the River Styx to never reveal this fact, but Mom didn't as her hunters had both Roman and Greek half-bloods."

Dad slumped slightly when I mentioned my mother's hunters, but our guests didn't notice.

"The vow on the River Styx was probably the reason why Aphrodite isn't here and was unable to talk about the quest last night," I added while looking around the table.

"What does Silena have to do with this quest?" Mr. Beauregard asked.

"Ask Aphrodite, not me," I shrugged. "She's the one who forced Silena into the quest."

Mr. Beauregard sighed slightly. "So, it would be fine if Silena stayed out of this quest."

"That isn't a good idea," surprisingly, Dad was the one to shoot Mr. Beauregard down. "Aphrodite wants Silena to go on this quest; she won't be happy if you go against her will."

I worryingly looked at my dad. I could tell that he was thinking about his first death as he said that.

Mr. Beauregard contemplated Dad's words. "Then I guess it would be alright if we went along."

"No," Dad stepped in again. "We can't go on the quest with them."

Dad's words were heavy and full of regret.

"Why not?"

"It's not our place, and you'll just get in the way," Dad responded in short.

As a prince from ancient Greece, Dad has a better insight into the Greek gods and culture than most. Unfortunately, being able to understand something doesn't mean he can explain it well.

I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from undermining the latter half of my father's statement. The way he phrased it, it almost sounded as if he thought he'd be able to hold his own.

Silena decided to pipe in. "Don't worry, Dad! I can handle myself."

"But you're still a child!"

I stood up and started to grab the dirty plates.

The discussion between Silena and her father isn't something I want to be a part of. Doing the dishes sounds much more relaxing.

A couple of hours later.

I looked at Silena as we walked towards the bus terminal.

Silena and my father managed to convince Mr. Beauregard to let us go on the quest alone. After that, we purchased two-way tickets to Phoenix.

"Are they really going to let us on the bus?" Silena asked me while crossing her arms.

"Getting cold feet? It's not too late to back down," I smirked.

"No! Not when there is so much at stake!"

I crossed my arms as we reached the boarding area. "Are you that considered about my mother's temple?"

"Temple? I'm talking about my reward."

"I see. Risking your life for some makeup, was it? Isn't that kind of frivolous?"

"Is not!" She responded angrily.

"I wonder if all of Aphrodite's kids have such messed-up priorities."

"My interests have nothing to do with my mom! And you shouldn't say her name so loud!"

"Don't worry; I'm using the mist to make everyone ignore us," I waved off her concerns.

The Mist was surprisingly easy to learn how to control, as it worked similar to a bounded field.

"Really?" Silena asked incredulously.

I nodded as we reached the bus and used our tickets to board the bus.

Silena stared at me; she looked annoyed.

"Do you still doubt me?" I asked her as we took our seats.

"No," she muttered, looking out the window.

"Hey, Ata," Silena called out to me after a moment.

"Yes?"

"Are you still blocking everyone out?"

"Yes," I repeated.

If I wasn't using the Mist to hide us, we'd have to deal with people wondering why two kids were on the bus alone. Assuming they even let us onto the bus, though the bus driver looks shady, so he might've let us on anyway. Though being kicked off this bus wouldn't be so bad, at least the next bus probably won't smell like a locker room and wouldn't be so hot.

"Awesome," Silena said as she turned back towards me. "Now we can talk about our parents!"

"What's there to talk about?" I asked quickly.

"Why don't we talk about you and your mom first!" she sounded really excited as she said that.

"Did your mom put you up to this?" I asked her.

She looked offended at the accusation. "No, she didn't... You're the only other half-blood I've met, and I wanted to talk about it."

I sighed as I looked into her eyes and saw no deceit.

I guess it makes sense for her to want to talk to another half-blood. However, I'm probably the worst one for a conversation like this.

"Fine, what do you want to know?"

Silena started to beam, causing me to look away from her.

"How often does she visit? Like an exact number."

I turned back towards Silena to see a serious look on her face.

"It depends; she used to visit three or four times a year, but recently she's visited more," my voice was slightly sad as I said that.

"You see her that much?!" Silena exclaimed with shock.

That much? Mom only visits every three or four months, at most. Does Aphrodite never visit Silena or something?

"My mom only visited only me twice in the last three years!" Silena crossed her arms. "It's so unfair…."

"That your mother never visits you, or that my mom visits me?"

"Hmm, neither." she glared out the window as she said that. "But don't you wish your mom would visit more?"

"She already visits as much as she can."

"That's not what I asked," Silena turned and looked me in the eyes. "Do you want your mom to visit more?"

I looked down at the floor of the bus as I felt it start to move.

What do I want?

I don't want to bother my mom; I'm fine letting her visit when she can. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss her when she disappeared for months of time.

"Yes, but she can't."

"Our parents are gods, right? Shouldn't they have the power to visit us more?"

I frowned.

The emotions behind her words… were surprisingly understandable. At the same time, I mentally disagreed with her words.

"You have it backward; they can't visit us because they have so much power and responsibility."

Silena was annoyed by my response. "Why are you trying to defend them?"

"I'm not trying to defend them, just explain why. If you have issues with your mom, then that's fine."

Silena huffed. "Whatever."

"Would you rather our parents not be gods?" I asked her simply.

Silena contemplated my remark before responding. "I don't care if my mom is a god or not. In fact, I don't care about her at all!"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her.

"What!" She complained.

"You know, I like hardheaded girls, but it's only cute if they're self-aware."

"Wh- What?" Silena stuttered while blushing.

"I see. Apparently, my words weren't able to get through all that clown makeup."

"You!"

"Silena, you wouldn't be asking about my mom if you didn't care about your mom. And you wouldn't feel the need to tell me about how little you care about her. You clearly care about your mother and want to spend more time with her… So why don't you ask her to visit you more?"

The daughter of Aphrodite stared blankly into my eyes. The gears in her mind were turning as fast as possible.

It took a second, but she eventually looked away from me.

I looked at her curiously. Silena has never been one to just accept what I tell her.

"Silena? Is everything alright?"

The girl turned and looked at me; her face was red. "Ata… do you like girls?"

I looked at her confusingly. "Didn't I just tell you? I like girls that are hard-headed and strong-willed. In fact, your hard-headedness is one of the view things about you that isn't terrible."

Silena's face turned redder than her brightest lipstick.

The girl next to me squirmed in her seat. "I'm sorry, Atalanta… but I like boys…."

"What are you apologizing for? And what do you mean by liking boys?"

"You know what I mean!" Silena stuttered. "I don't like you like that, Atalanta!"

What is she talking about…?

Suddenly, I felt very embarrassed. I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks, causing them to glow red.

"You've got it all wrong," I started to correct, even as I felt uncomfortable. "I have no romantic feelings for you or any other girls. And before you get any more wrong ideas, I don't like boys either!"

Silena looked up at me as if she couldn't comprehend my words. "You don't like girls?"

"Yes."

"Then why'd you talk about finding girls cute and about the kind of girl you like?!"

"I meant as people."

The air around us couldn't have gotten any more awkward. If we weren't on a moving bus, I'd probably be trying to get as far away from Silena as possible.

As that wasn't possible, I turned and looked out the window.

I shifted slightly in my seat; my butt was starting to hurt from sitting for so long.

Silena was sleeping silently next to me. Being able to sleep in this heat was impressive.

Just thinking about how hot it had caused me to wipe my forehead with my hand. It must've been because of the summer heat and the bus's insulation, but I felt like I was going to melt.

Fuyuki's endless winter prepared me for the cold, but the heat was beyond what I could handle. Even taking off my jacket didn't help.

In some traditions, Mom is credited with using frost to freeze people alive and to destroy farmland. Couldn't she have used that power to make the jacket more comfortable in the heat? It's not even that complicated of enchantment; if EMIYA's red clothes could protect him from the environment, then I don't see why a goddess couldn't do that.

I sighed.

The lack of sleep must be getting to me.

Unfortunately, the heat wasn't letting me sleep.

And I was getting bored of looking at the night sky, blotted out by a blanket of clouds as it was.

As quietly as I could, I stood up and climbed over the seat.

I would go crazy if I just sat there. And my sweat-soaked shirt was starting to bother me.

Luckily, while Silena was asleep, the two bus drivers were still awake. The fact that there were only four people on the bus was kind of strange, but I guess everyone else had to switch buses at the last stop. Or maybe they couldn't deal with the heat and the bus's horrible smell.

My feet quietly touched the ground after I finished climbing over the top of my seat. Then I stood on the window seat behind my own and grabbed my bag from its compartment.

I placed my bag on the seat next to me and then carefully stepped off the one I was standing on.

I glanced at the two bus drivers. The one currently driving the bus was the one from earlier; he had short brown hair. His eyes were set firmly on the road, but I felt like he could tell what I was doing.

The other bus driver was a woman with long blonde hair; she was reading what looked like a cookbook.

Somehow, they were both wearing the same heavy uniforms, despite how hot the bus was.

Returning my gaze to my bag, I opened it and pulled out a water bottle. I took a sip of water and then placed the bottle back in my bag, right next to the daggers Mom gave me.

I reached into my bag and pulled out a redshirt. I quickly turned once again, making sure no one was looking at me. I turned my back to them and hid behind the seats.

After unfolding my red shirt, I took off my current sweat-drenched one.

My skin was gleaning from all the sweat. The air felt nice on my skin, even if it was hot. Using my old shirt, I started to dry myself off.

As I was drying my arms, I felt someone's warm touch on my back. Chills spread throughout my body in response.

"What's going on back here?" A feminine voice asked me from behind.

I turned to see the female bus driver. Somehow, she snuck up on me.

A second set of chills ran through my body as I looked up at her face.

The woman was casually licking one of her fingers. Her eyes were a sickly green and had the shape of a predator. It almost felt like she was evaluating me, and the way her expression morphed into a crooked smile was genuinely scary.

"I'm just changing," I responded quickly while pointing at the red shirt I had laid out on the seat. "It's way too hot in here; you guys should turn on the AC."

As quickly as I could, I grabbed the red shirt a slipped it on.

"That's not gonna happen; you see, we're quite cold-blooded."

I didn't react to the 'woman's' words.

The unusual heat. The unnatural green eyes. The sense of danger I feel from this woman. Silena and me both demigods on the bus alone.

This woman is definitely a monster.

Besides, I'm currently using the Mist to block me and Silena from normal people's views. The only way for this person to interact with us is if we let her or if she's resistant to it.

Actually, based on the feeling of the Mist, this woman is manipulating it too.

I had to stop myself from biting my lip. The combination of manipulating the Mist, exhortation, and dehydration caused me to miss something so obvious. If I focus hard enough, I should be able to see through her illusions, but I need to get my daggers first.

"Is something wrong?" The woman asked me casually.

"Yeah, a total creep is bothering me," I responded without letting any expression show on my face.

"Creep? Are you talking about me?"

"Tasting someone else's sweat makes you a creep," I said loudly, hoping to wake Silena up. It didn't work.

"How narrow-minded; there's nothing wrong with tasting something delicious."

"Finding someone's sweat delicious is creepy!" I almost yelled this time, but Silena didn't get up again.

"You should quiet down, or you'll distract my husband," the woman looked back at the bus driver as she said that. "Now, what was I talking about… oh right!"

The more the woman talked, the more she confirmed my suspicions. I just need to wait for the right moment to make my move.

"I don't find any someone's sweat delicious, no. Truthfully, tasting someone's sweat is like licking a lollipop; it just gives me a feel for what someone tastes like. And you have such a unique but delectable taste. It was like biting down on an ice cream cone, but one made of regrets and self-loathing. Then there was the power! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Your body should be filled with far more of this unique divinity; it would be a meal without compare," the woman's words were steadily getting crazier as she spoke. "The only issue is that you're so underdeveloped! You're just so small… it's disappointing. But you do have such a soft, lovely body, free of hard muscles! I'm sure I can work something out! HAHA," the horrible monster started to crackle in delight.

As the monster closed her eyes to do so, I threw my old shirt at it as hard as possible. It realized what I was doing as I threw the shirt, but the monster didn't have time to block the throw. Especially since I used the time, the abomination was monologuing to reinforce both my body and my old t-shirt.

The hardened t-shirt hit the monster square in the neck, giving me just enough time to grab my weapons. My mind was stewing in disgust and hatred as I did so.

This monster is disgusting.

The way it views sentient life as nothing more than food is unforgivable.

I can only imagine the pain of the people this monster killed. The pain of slowly being cut to pieces and watching their bodies be devoured in front of them.

Anger continued to build inside me, and a switch was pulled in my mind.

I pulled out both of my daggers from my bag and turned to face the creature. It was regaining its footing.

Silena was still 'sleeping.'

My glare was shot towards her. There is no way she is still sleeping; in fact, I can see her barely moving. She must be terrified.

It looks like I have to deal with this myself while protecting her.

Turning my eyes from Silena to the monster, I focused on seeing throw the Mist causing its true form to appear.

Instead of the human woman I saw before, there was a half-snake monster. In place of its two legs, it had one long tail, and it had scales running across the lower half of its body. It had surprisingly human hands but based on the fact that its hands were crushing one of the seats, it must have monstrous strength.

One quick glance told me that the same was true for the other bus driver.

"Is everything alright?!" The bus driver yelled from the front of the bus.

"Yes, we just seem to have a lively one," the monster smirked after its comment.

If I attack the bus driver, the bus will speed out of control. And I'm incapable of driving the bus since I can't reach the brakes. So, attacking it is out.

This bus is also an enclosed space, leaving me without much room to dodge.

So, I guess my best bet will be to get up close to the first monster and kill it quickly. Then let the second monster keep driving until it stops to fight us.

Before I made my move towards the monster, I took a deep breath. At that moment, all I could feel was the comfort of my daggers. At this moment, holding those knives felt truly natural.

This shouldn't have come as a surprise.

These nameless daggers were given to me by my mother, the moon goddess herself. They could be considered divine swords, created to help me master my powers.

As such, they hold within them Mom's feelings and emotions as she prepared the blades for me. Their purpose is to protect me and help me; it is the very reason for their existence.

It almost feels strange to wield them in battle. How natural they felt to me was in of itself unnatural.

EMIYA's favored blades were Kanshou and Bakuya, and my as well. They were created by the blacksmith Gan Jiang during the Spring and Autumn period of China, at the cost of his wife's life. In the end, Gan Jiang would lose his life for only giving Bakuya to his king while keeping Kanshou for himself.

As weapons, they have no purpose.

They're not meant to defend their wielders.

Nor are they meant to attack an enemy.

They aren't weapons made for the sake of creating something beautiful, nor do they desire fame.

Kanshou and Bakuya are weapons that'll never be capable of cutting through all things or only cutting what needs to be cut.

Yet, that's what makes them so beautiful and why there so captivating.

EMIYA was someone that lived his life without purpose, without a goal in mind. He never knew what he was searching for or what he truly desired. And because of that, he went too far, destroying everything thing around him, including himself. It's no wonder that he who lacks purpose would fall in love with swords equally purposeless.

I see the blades in much the same way as EMIYA does, but with one major difference. EMIYA lived his life without purpose or fulfillment, but I don't want that. I want to know my purpose; I want to feel fulfilled.

Why was I reborn and not someone else? For what purpose was I granted this second life?

In other words, the weapons remind me of my own lack of purpose beyond protecting my family, and sharing the same interest in them as EMIYA proves that I lack purpose.

But in the end, that doesn't matter.

Kanshou and Bakuya are just like my other weapons, even my daggers. Expendable. No matter what I feel from the weapons, I will use them to ensure my victory. Practicality comes before both artistry and personal feelings.

Using one of my legs, I jumped towards the female snake monster as its eyes widened. Unfortunately for me, the snake monster's scales managed to deflect my first attack.

"You're surprisingly strong for someone with so little muscle," the snake smiled as it raised one of its hands to try and hit me.

The attack was slow enough for me to block it!

I brought the dagger in my left hand up as fast as possible! It collided with the creature's fist, which had enough force to send a normal person flying, but I barely managed to stand my ground.

In terms of strength, this monster was far stronger than I am, both with and without reinforcement. If I still had my old body without reinforcement, it would have been impossible for me to block attacks like that repeatedly. With my current demi-god body, I'll probably only be able to block one or two strikes before I am too tired to block.

After quickly applying reinforcement to the blade in my right hand, I launched an attack at the monster's waist.

The monster didn't try to stop me as I launched my counterattack, its arrogant grin clearly conveying its thoughts.

It truly believed that 'food' like myself couldn't hurt her, that she was somehow better than me.

That arrogant grin disappeared in an instant, and it was replaced with a sharp yell of pain as my reinforced blade cut through its scales.

"I'd don't know much about monster biology, but I'm guessing your scales are protecting something important. All I need to do is stab you a few more times to find it," I taunted the creature.

Out of nowhere, the bus abruptly swerved sharply, causing me to lose balance.

I quickly glanced and the bus driver to see it turning the wheel to the far left. Its tail was pushing the gas pedal all the way down.

For a moment, I felt as if my eyes met it as he looked at its rear-view mirror. Its eyes were full of hatred, hunger, and desperation.

Between the look in the male creature's eyes and how far it was turning the wheel, the creature's plan was obvious.

I abandoned the dagger lodged in the female monster's side and ran towards Silena as fast as I could.

By the time I reached her, the bus was about to be sent careening off the road and into the nearby forest.

Thanks to the reinforcement I cast on myself, I was barely able to grab her and drag her up.

As I thought, Silena's opened eyes proved that she was awake. It almost looked like she was frozen in fear.

Silena was far larger than me, making it hard for me to pick her up, even with reinforcement. Instead, I tightened my grip around her and jumped without slowing down.

"Ata- Ata!" Silena shouted in fear; the bus bumped as it flew off the road.

I ignored her.

Using all my physical strength, I pulled Silena into the air.

Crash!

Pain flared throughout my back as I jumped through the bus window. Several shards of glass were embedded in my back.

It hurt, but I knew it was just the beginning.

Even though I protected Silena from the glass, I couldn't stop yet.

My arms cried out in pain, my muscles felt like they were being strained to their limits, but I ignored it. I used my grip on Silena to pull her closer to me, letting me use my body as a cushion to protect her from the ground.

There was a loud crash, probably the bus hitting a tree or something, but it was impossible to tell.

My knees,

My elbows,

My shoulders,

My neck,

They all hurt as I hit the ground. It didn't stop; it kept getting worse.

"Atalanta!" Silena screamed in fear as the pain reached its peak.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. Silena was sitting next to me unharmed.

I must've lost consciousness for a moment.

Which means I don't have time to lie on the ground.

Gathering all my willpower, I moved past the pain to sit up. Ignoring Silena, I quickly got up.

Taking a quick survey of the surroundings, I noticed one of my daggers a couple of yards away. After stumbling at first, I managed to regain my footing and run to my dagger.

"Ata! They're monsters! We need to run!" Silena yelled as I picked up my dagger.

"Don't be an idiot! Our best shot is to kill them here!" I shouted back while taking a survey of my injuries.

My elbows and knees were skinned. There were glass shards in my back, and half of my body was bruised.

If it wasn't for Unlimited Blade Works' ability to increase my durability, then I would've been killed. But I need to be careful, or Unlimited Blade Works will go out of control and turn me into a porcupine.

I faced the crashed bus while holding my dagger in my left hand.

Using this dagger won't be enough to deal with both of them. I need to hold them off long enough to project something that to kill them.

Suddenly, I smelt blood coming from the bus. Then out of the back of the bus, the male monster slithered out of the back of the bus. He had my other dagger in his hand. His face was covered in blood.

A small flare of anger flared up inside of me when I saw my weapon in the hands of a monster.

"Now you're all my little half-bloods," the snake monster had an insane expression on his face.

"Wh- What's that supposed to mean?" Silena asked weakly.

"You killed that other monster, right?" I asked simply.

"Duh! Hahaha! We've been working together for years, but that fool kept taking all the good half-bloods! But this feast is all mine now!"

I see… then it didn't crash the bus to help the female monster, but to kill all three of us instead. Then it'd probably eat us.

This creature was probably willing to eat his own friends; the blood around his mouth proves that. He must've taken a bite from the female monsters.

"Silena, stay behind me," I commanded her.

The male monster snickered as if he'd heard a funny joke. "You should be worried about your friend… not when you're about to die!"

The snake monster charged at me. Its speed was far greater than the female monsters. The snake quickly covered the distance, its mouth opened wide, revealing sharp fangs. Instead of trying to hit me, it was going after my throat.

I jumped back just before the monster's mouth could reach my throat.

"Don't run away!"

The monster slithered towards me, using my bloody dagger this time. Its movements were slower this time, and its form was sloppy. This beast must rely on natural instincts, not training.

Instead of just dodging the monster, I focused on predicting its movement.

Based on its movements, it will attack there!

Pain welled up in my legs as I jumped to the side, just in time to dodge the creature's attack.

In a split second, it took for the monster to realize it missed. I used my dagger to try and sever its arm. The pain in my arm flared up, causing me to flinch.

Despite being reinforced, my dagger couldn't cut the monster's bone.

The creature's hand opened, dropping my other dagger.

I quickly moved to catch it with my free hand; there's no way the snake could recover in time!

"Wh- right!" a pained gurgle left my mouth as something hit my side. The force caused me to fall back several feet. I saw the snake's tail recoil, but I didn't have time to think about that.

As I landed on my back, all the pain in my body disappeared for a moment. For a moment, I felt nothing at all, but that wouldn't last.

A throbbing pain erupted from my back as I felt some of the glass try and dig deeper into my body. The sensation was pure agony.

It felt as if my nerves were on fire, which only got as worse as it felt like my body was shifting around, grinding against the glass. As Unlimited Blade Works tried to heal my body, it was trying to knit my body back together with swords. And it wouldn't stop until it healed me… or killed me.

My body was stuck in a pained loop. The areas around the glass were trying to push the glass out of my body but couldn't. Which simply caused my body to try harder. The more it tried, the more pain I felt.

Damnit! Why's my body so stubborn!

Unlimited Blade Works simply doesn't have the healing powers to fix these wounds. The only time this side effect of my reality marble could even theoretically work is under a full moon when my body and soul are at their strongest. And even then, its healing power won't be that strong.

Swallowing hard, I fought down the pain, even as my eyes started to instinctively water. I tightened my grip on the dagger I still had in hand, causing me to feel a little relief.

I managed to beat my pain back just in time to see the monster's next move.

An aura of anger and insanity seemed to emanate through the monster. Its expression made me think it went rabid.

One of its arms dangled by his side as he ran towards me; my attack had rendered it useless.

I could not move out of the way, so I took my dagger and used it to defend myself.

The monster returned to trying to rip my throat out, so I raised my dagger and put it between its mouth and my neck. One hand was on the hilt while the other one was supporting the blade from the other side.

The abomination ended up biting down on the diagonal blade.

My arms strained from stopping the monster's attack. I won't be able to block a second attack. I need to kill the monster, know, but how?

There's not enough time for a projection, and there was no moonlight for me to use…

No, there is some!

Focusing on the power held within my dagger, I desperately tried to pull it out and form it into an attack.

I felt the power react, and my instincts told me that this was my chance for victory.

Using all the power my battered and bruised body could scrounge up, I pushed the blade past the monster's teeth. At that moment, I shaped and released all the power held in my blade. A small silver crescent launched from my blade and separated the top of the monster's head from everything below the jawline.

Blood splattered onto me as the monster fell to my side before dissipating.

Instead of relaxing or celebrating my victory, I sat up as soon as possible.

My entire body was screaming in pain as the glass in my back was still torturing me.

If I let myself relax now, then it might be impossible to get up again.

Placing one hand on my knee, I forced myself up and walked towards Silena.

She was still frozen in fear, to the point that she hadn't moved an inch from when the fighting started.

The way she's reacting… has she never seen a monster before?

"Silena…," I called out even as my body was telling me to shut up. "You really do look terrible in the morning, don't you?"

Silena didn't raise to my taunt. Instead, she slowly looked over towards me. Her eyes widened when she looked at me, then she shivered.

Why'd she done that?

I raised my hand to face as quickly as I could. My fingers ended up drenched in that male monster's blood.

"You shouldn't worry about me, nor do I want you to. Besides, this bloods mostly from that monster," I did my best shrug, and then I limped my way towards the crash bus. Each step hurt, sending waves of pain across my body.

Right now, I need to get this glass out of my back. Everything else can be dealt with afterwards.

AN:

Hello!

To start this author's notes, I want to talk about the response to the last chapter.

To those who took their time to offer criticism, thank you. Improvement is impossible without criticism. I would like to also thank everyone for not getting too hateful.

And to those who offered support, thank you too. When putting your heart into something, even valid criticism can be disheartening. So, words of support services as great motivation to continue.

On the reviews from the last chapter, many of you might've noticed that I didn't respond to them like normal. The reason for this is that so many of the reviews felt like responding to them would lead to similar conversations based on the same ideas, so to be more efficient, I decided to just respond to all of them at once. Even the ones that had nothing to do with the controversy from the last chapter. The reason that even unrelated reviews with being addressed here are that I feel bad for only responding individual to certain ones; this method ensures everyone is treated equally.

And for those of you wondering why I wouldn't have several similar conversations going all and once and want to go with the efficient route, well, it's due to time and interest. Overall, a long message chain with a review can take up to two or three hours when tallied up, while even shorter message chains can take up to ten or twenty minutes. Right now, there are about 30 reviews for the last chapter; if half of them end up being similar conversations, then even if they all somehow only take ten minutes, you're looking at 2.5 hours of typing the same thing over and over again. (of course, some of those reviews are guest reviews or just short single sentences, so they wouldn't take as long, but this is just an example of how responding to reviews can take a long time.)

For my personal sanity, this is the best method, but I would like to apologize if anybody dislikes this format.

By the way, feel free to let me know if I'm being either too hardheaded or too easily swayed on any of the following topics. Because here's the truth, as the writer of this fic, it is completely impossible for me to look at everything objectively; it just can't happen. When writing this fic, there are some topics that I know I'm being stubborn on and need to be called out for, while there are other things that I don't fully trust and will change on the turn of a dime if someone even some much as blows on me. And to write the best possible story, one needs to find the right line between not listening to any advice and changing your entire story to suit the taste of one reader (100 times over). In order to find that line, sometimes you need someone else's help to tell you where the line is and when you're crossing it.

Ok, enough rambling. On to the topics, starting with the easy ones.

There were some complaints last chapter about nerfing Atalanta in regard to Egyptian/non-Greek weaponry. As stated in the last chapter's authors' notes, that isn't exactly true. Atalanta couldn't trace them right because they were non-Greek, but due to a world-building detail that couldn't be fit into the chapter. In short, the idea is tied to the House of Life and a way that they'll be expanded slightly in the future. In this fic, The House of Life attempts to gather magical things so they don't hurt ordinary people (and to prevent incidents like a certain one in the Kane Chronicles.), in their place, the House of Life places enchanted replicas so that Egyptian culture can still be studied. The only enchantment these replicas have is the ability to distract people who get too curious. This is why Atalanta got distracted when she straight-up tried to trace it. She was analyzing it at basically the deepest possible level, triggering the weapon's enchantment and distracting her. (Also, I thought it'd be neat for UBW's to have a sort of anti-virus aspect, and Atalanta manually tracing it was the equivalent of allowing a program through the anti-virus software.) Atalanta wouldn't have been affected by this enchantment if she knew about it or if she had been channeling magical energy. It should be noted, though, that Atalanta was especially vulnerable to the enchantment due to her divinity, as in this fic, the Egyptian House of Life will have a conceptual advantage over those with divinity due to their whole anti-god thing. Basically, some small nasuverse ideas like conceptual advantages (ala the Church vs. Dead Apostles) are going to be included in this fic.

A common complaint about this fic's Artemis is that she is too much of a man-hater. This is something that's been said since basically chapter 1. To start this section off, why does Artemis have a bias against men in this fic? Well, it's because of Riordanverse! Artemis has discrimination against boys and men. In the riordanverse Artemis's hunters are female only and stay away from men to the point that the hunters are uncomfortable when Percy is at their camp. And immediately after telling Percy that, she asked Zoe who the last boy that met was. Zoe said it was a boy from Colorado that Artemis turned into a jackalope, to which Artemis comments on how she likes making jackalopes and is noted as being satisfied as she said that. In other words, Artemis just straight up turned a boy into an animal for wandering too close to her camp. Riordanverse!Artemis only respects men who've earned her respect. All other men are worse than worthless to her. Now let's look at this fic's version of Riordanverse!Artemis, several thousand years ago, spared Hippolytus's life we he not only saw her naked but also admitted to using her spring to heal up and is shown to have developed a friendly relationship, at least until Orion attacked, but that's for later. In chapter one, she didn't right strike the salesclerk down the moment he hit on her and offered to help her learn archery. Instead, she gave him a chance at survival. (Which is tame compared to what the Greek gods usually do, ask Archine). She has ignored all the other men she's encountered, and Poly claimed that Artemis would strike down males and females equally for lusting after her. In short, this fic has toned down Artemis's man-hating, but to remove it would be to take away a considerable part of Artemis's personality and potential development. Artemis's abuse/mistreatment of Poly doesn't come from him being a man, just to clarify.

On the question of Poly's treatment by Artemis since it came up, no, it's not meant to be a joke, and it's going to have actual consequences down the line.

Now then, let's talk about the reviews that revolve around Atalanta.

There were two or three comments on Atalanta's fighting style and how it's different from EMIYA's, so this section will discuss that. Firstly, as stated in the chapter where Atalanta was given her daggers by Artemis, she's only using the daggers temporarily until she can wield Kanshou and Bakuya again. This chapter also explores Atalanta's views of the twin weapons (albeit accidentally, as that section was something that I came up with within the moment since it seemed to fit,) so that won't be covered here. In terms of actually fighting style, while disregarding weapon choice, Atalanta's fighting style is the same as EMIYA's. EMIYA's fighting style isn't one based on the attack but defense (As stated in Fate/Extra Extellia). Using Kanshou and Bakuya, EMIYA prolongs fights to gather as much information as possible on his adversaries. (Which is why Julius Harwey warns his assassin class servant to end their fight quickly, as EMIYA/Nameless are great at prolonged battles.) Once EMIYA has enough information on his opponent to form a strategy, he switches to the best weapon/combat style for the job. For Atalanta's fighting style, it is meant to be the same. That's why she was even given two daggers and why she fought defensively in the first spare against Artemis. This was also meant to show through during the fight against the boar, with Atalanta using Unlimited Blade Words to create the perfect weapon for the job. Assuming this is true, what would the point be in having Atalanta not use Kanshou and Bakuya? After all, it won't make that much of a difference, would it? Well, the reason is a meta one. Within the confines of this fic, the daggers will represent her identity as 'Atalanta Moonlit,' while the black and white swords represent her identity as 'Shirou Emiya.' So far, the few fights that happened have been since Atalanta got the blades, have been against Artemis, magic users she didn't fight, and a pair of monsters. The only one Kanshou and Bakuya that they would've thematically worked with was the magic users, but they were far beyond Atalanta in terms of a fight. There's a much more awesome debut for the twin blades planned for the end of Atalanta and Silena's first year at camp half-blood, but that isn't her or there. Finally, it should be noted though, that giving Atalanta's weapon's suit to her demi-god nature spices up the fighting scenes. As the fight against the snake monsters, this chapter was just plain cooler with it being a struggle ended thanks to Atalanta using her demi-god powers. It keeps things fresh, you know. That way, every fight doesn't just become Atalanta using K&B to win, or every battle is like the fight against the boar where Atalanta is given a chance to just trace the perfect weapon for victory.

Thinking about the identities as 'Atalanta Moonlit' and 'Shirou Emiya' brings up several topics that need to be discussed, but let's focus on a simpler one, and that is how the lack of an anchor messed up the balance that was attempted.

Within this fic, Atalanta is the only nasuverse character, which means all her relationships with other characters has to be built from scratch. When considering the creation of relations between characters, several questions had to be thought about. "What is their relationship?", "Why do they have this relationship?" "How would they interact within that relationship?" and "How does this relationship affect the characters?" These questions help to develop to flesh out character bonds, especially between characters that already have established relationships. For Atalanta, though, Shirou Emiya has no established relationships with anybody, which means there is no character to anchor Atalanta to make sure her character doesn't drift off as she has in some ways that'll be discussed later. To show how a character can drift off, lets use Shirou Emiya/Atalanta and Artemis as examples.

For their relationship, let's treat them as parents and childlike in the fic. For the literal answer of why they have this relationship, it would be because Artemis gave birth to them, but from a narrative perspective, there is a lot to be gained from making them, parent and child. On Artemis's side, you'd gain the storylines of how she got pregnant, the other gods reacting to the news, how this affects Artemis relationship with her hunters, how would Artemis adapt to being a mother, etc. From Shirou's point of view, you could tell plotlines based on experiencing maternal love for the first time since the death of his original mother. You could tell tele of Shirou adapting to his new extended family and being disgusted by many of their more vile actions while also linking him to the god in is most similar to, you could also use most versions of Shirou Emiya's desire to be a hero to have a fic that travels the Percy Jackson world, and explores the relationships between the various pantheons, etc. Now, how'd the interact would be interesting? Artemis loves children and is highly protective of them. She would definitely love any child of her own. But Artemis is a god, so she wouldn't be able to interact with Shirou that much, and her values might be warped as a goddess leading to her doing things that might be terrible to Shirou from an average person's point of view but perfectly rational to a god. Overall, Artemis would be loving and companionate towards her child, but also try and groom them to be like her and would have a strict attitude. Shirou, meanwhile would have shown himself to be more open with those he loves, in that he won't hold back around them (see the times he calls Fuji-nee a dumb tiger), he's also been shown to be a kind of a massive tsundere, especially another version of himself like EMIYA/Nameless, yet other works shown him to be the perfect stereotypical housewife, who's kind to everybody. So, he'd be sort to Artemis one minute but wouldn't hide his honest thoughts and would go tsundere mode relatively often. So, they have a good relationship and everything, but how would their relationship affect them as people? Well, as the goddess of the hunt, Artemis would definitely try and get Shirou into hunting, which he should be good at since EMIYA is mentioned in FGO as tying in a hunting contest with robin hood. If anything, he'd probably enjoy tracking down animals and things like that rather than the act of killing them. Still, it doesn't seem like it'd be too much of a stretch for him to get into hunting because of Artemis. After all, a certain tiger got him into video games enough for the servant stats to appear RPG like, so Artemis getting him into hunting doesn't seem like that big of a leap, and while they're at it, Shirou is a lovely person who would like nature all things considered, so it won't be wrong to have Artemis to encourage him to love the forests?

Yeah, ok, that section been going on for far too long, and that ending part is enough to get the point across (at least I hope so since I was getting tired of writing that and just rushed to the ending, so just act like it makes sense please.) As you introduce new character relationships, it leads to new developments and character developments that could destroy the character and everything people love about them. Look at the previous example. Just through a normal relationship between Artemis and Shirou it would be possible for him to develop a love for hunting and the wilderness, which is fine on its own but is unaccepted when compounded by other relationships changing Shirou. After five or six relationships on the level of the Artemis example, Shirou would end up as a completely different character. In the hands of skilled writer, this might be able to work, unfortunately, this fic isn't written by a good writer. What needs to be done to fix this is to either introduce another nasuverse character with a connection and use that to keep Atalanta better centered (No, I don't want to do this.) or to slow down the character development and the impact these relationships have on her. Instead of having Atalanta predisposed to liking hunting, then have her develop those feelings while hunting with Artemis for the first time. It might be better to have her go hunting with Artemis repeatedly across the years and slowly come to like it over time. An issue with this approach is that it would take away from the Atalanta questioning her identity scenes, where she catches changes in her personality and her reaction to it.

As a character, there are several traits of Atalanta that need to be fixed. The first issue is that Atalanta's personality too much into the jerk side of Shirou Emiya's personality. Basically, she needs more Momiya and less Edgiyma. The jerk and sarcastic side should be more regulated when she trying to help someone, when someone deserves it, or when she's messing with someone close to her. Atalanta shouldn't smile but have a super depressed smile. It should have been that she can feel happiness, but her trauma prevents her from embracing it or thinking she deserves it instead of outright not feeling happiness/joy. She should be more of a dork at points too. There are also more minor details that need to be fixed for Atalanta's characters, such as her mannerisms and speech. Also, based on the reactions to Atalanta's opinion of Artemis's horrible actions as a god, the intent of that scene and Atalanta's response didn't get through (It's an excellent example of me trying to be a way to clever and 'deep' but ending up just confusing and horrible.) and just came out as OoC. That is something else that'll probably be changed in the future too. As an add-on, it would probably be better to have Atalanta's traumas be less noticeable in her daily life and have it be a more repressed thing that mainly comes out in emotionally tense scenes and her nightmares.

Speaking of intent that didn't really come through, we need to talk about Shirou Emiya's ideals since his rebirth as Atalanta and how those ideals are being expressed in her. Last chapter, when the author's notes made mention of bring Shirou's ideals to the forefront and setting up an arc to go over them and stuff, that doesn't mean that Atalanta wasn't living her life according to her ideals, even if she denies it. You see, if you past Atalanta's self-deprecating point of view, and look at her actions from a more neutral standpoint you'd see that she was doing exactly what any other version of Shirou Emiya would've done. Examples: Agreeing with her teacher to make Silena feel more welcome, was nice to an animal even if it was annoying her, rush head long into danger to protect the people around her from the boar monster, running into battle to fight two 'magi' stronger than her because they were a threat to everyone in the museum, she gathered and carried all the firewood during the first camping trip, she even dressed up in clothing she was embarrassed by for the sake of her classmates. And the intent in this chapter was made to make this more obvious, with Atalanta protecting Silena even if it hurt herself.

While it's come up, lets talk about how Atalanta is currently embarrassed when she's seen wearing something like a skirt or a dress. Several people have made it known that they feel this is OoC for Shirou Emiya, but this is something with a hard disagreement. Firstly, in Fate/Extra CCC when talking about his red leather coat and his leather paints, Nameless says something along the lines of he like to dress this way, but his friend told him not to, so he didn't. This proves that Shirou Emiya cares about what he's wearing. As for getting embarrassed by girl clothing, in Fate/Hollow Ataraxia there is a scene between Shirou and Saber where Saber starts to ask him about underwear, especially women's underwear, throughout the scene Shirou gets more embarrassed and ends up running from saber after he refused to help her pick out underwear, and Saber just casually declares she won't wear any underwear not chosen by Shirou. Considering the fact that Shirou has shown the ability to both be embarrassed by the idea of helping saber pick out some underwear, and Nameless shows that Shirou is in fact cognatic of the people around, it doesn't feel like too much of leap for Atalanta to grow uncomfortable being seen in a skirt.

Next up is the mention of Atalanta forgetting details about her past life. The thing about that is that was meant to be a reference to the fate route where Shirou slowly forgot things about saber like any normal human but held onto what mattered most. So, it was kind of meant as a hint to show that Atalanta would never forget about what she cared about most in her past life (Miyu), no matter how much time past.

One thing that is suggested is that Heaven's feel Shirou would be better than Miyuverse Shirou for this fic. In many ways that is completely true. Due to archer's arm, HF!Shirou's memories are messed up, many of the lost, thus making the loss of identity better, while also making the parts of their personality that change feel better. From a power viewpoint, HF!Shirou should be able to use tracing at a level similar to Miyuverse Shirou, when disregarding his projection limit. At the same time though, there are a couple issues with using HF!Shirou. Firstly, as a person he won't fit into the story I want to tell in later in the story. As talked about before, Miyuverse Shirou still held onto his ideals in the end, but choose to ignore them and become a villain. HF!Shirou meanwhile was 'broken' in a sense by Sakura, and moved beyond his ideals to become human. As one or two people guessed, a part of the story will be about Atalanta getting involved with world-ending threats, and accepting her ideals again is one of the things that'll happen, becoming an actual hero. HF!Shirou has completely moved past this, and that plotline won't work. And as a character, HF!Shirou would be less conflicted about their identity, but would be more curious and saddened by their past lives as they desperitatly try to regain those memories, which is a completely different storyline from the one this fic is going for. Basically, HF!Shirou would be way too good at adapting to a new life. Plus, using HF!Shirou from the normal end means HF normal end happens, and Sakura is all alone. Sakura doesn't deserve that she should be happy. (And I don't want to add her into this story, since that would railroad the story into a HF!ShirouxSakura story, while also getting in the way of the hero thing. Though it would be a good plotline to have a HF!Shirou doesn't remember Sakura, and is trying to remember his past life, while there's a reincarnated Sakura who's trying to get him to remember her.)

All the issues with Atalanta's character issues are doubled by the failure to get her tone and manner of speech right. For this story, first-person is the best point of view for exploring Atalanta's thoughts, personality, and emotions, which is important given how important those things are for this story. The issue is that it is far harder to write, and can easily cause a character to sound wrong, which can make a character OoC alone. An example of this would be like having Saber go, "Yo, are ya my master?" This can be caused by even otherwise pointless lines, like having Atalanta use a computer as a reference to explain something. In short, this isn't the main issue, but it does make it worse.

Atalanta's guilt for killing Zachary and Angelica Ainsworth makes sense, especially after how so much time to think about it. Before continuing, it needs to be stated clearly that Atalanta stands behind Miyu, but that doesn't mean she wouldn't feel guilty. In the fate route, on day 10 when Shirou and Saber are looking for Rider he thinks, "I can't go and see Sakura if I am to fight Sakura's brother soon. If the worst comes to the worst and I have to kill Shinji, I'll never be able to face her." This shows that Shirou would feel guilt for killing people related to his friends. And in chapter 36 of 3REI, Shirou is clearly shocked when he learns Zachary is Julius's father, and the way he reacts imminently after that shows he is either feeling guilty or horrible for killing him. Kotomine tells him, "You have already chosen a path. There is no need for you to know the identity of someone you've cut down." After being told that Shirou hardens his heart and marches on. The thing, Atalanta is a Shirou after that path, after years of being able to do nothing but think about it, it makes sense for her feelings of guilt to reemerge. Especially when you remember that miyuverse Shirou isn't like Nameless, Emiya, or Emiya Alter, he didn't have humanity eaten away by being a hero of justice for decades. In fact, miyuverse Shirou's heart of steel was melted by Miyu over the years they lived together. Atalanta's guilt honestly seems like a natural progression of what happened in Oath under Snow.

Ok, this author's note has gotten too long so its going to be cut in two like this chapter was. (This chapter was originally longer and include the introduction of Atalanta and Silena's garden but that's being pushed back to the next chapter.)

Just of the top of my head, there are at least three to four more failings of this fic that I need to cover.

1. Making everything far more complicated than it should be, making the story impossible to follow, and messing up characters.

2. At several points treating characters as bases to build off of, instead of their normal selves.

3. Not going into detail about which parts of the changes in Atalanta are due to a change in nature, or a change in nurture.

4. Another issue sometimes thinking about the possibility of what could happen next, over what the characters could do next, which can lead to justifications of things the characters would normally do.

Anyway, the next chapter will probably go over all those, maybe. The next chapter is from Silena's point of view and will cover the next part of their trip to Artemis's temple and how Silena deals with everything that happened in this chapter. Also, Silena and Atalanta's guardians will appear in the next chapter.

Wow, this author's note is over 4k (4459) words long, and it doesn't even cover everything… it's longer than chapters in some of my other stories…

If any of you guys ever complain about it taking to long to get back on a review, I'm gonna point y'all to this. But hopefully, y'all now understand what it means when I say responding to reviews takes a while. Seriously though, over 4k words and it didn't even cover all the topics or reviews from the last chapter…

Thank you for reading all of this and have a super wonderful day!