Shirou stared down Heinrich. Options running through his mind. There were only two choices really, try to fight from a distance with his bow, or close in and face her with his fists.

Bow seemed like the better idea. He didn't know what her powers were, and with Lunulupae potentially out of the equation, there was practically zero chance of him surviving anyway.

Time to give it his best try.

"Shirou, what are you doing?!" A growl came from the plume of smoke.

Shirou glanced at Lunulupae emerging from the smoke. Her jaw was bleeding from numerous gashes, a result of tanking a failed attack head on. The scene only convinced Shirou that he needed to do something to help.

Eugen clicked her lips, hand still outstretched in the direction of the phantasmal beast. "I hoped you would've dropped from that. Seriously, why do you have to make it hard for yourself?" Her face was strained, trying to keep the wolf locked under her control.

"I'm trying to help you!" Shirou responded. Change of plans, it looked like melee was the only option. Using a bow while Lunulupae fought was only going to hinder him from helping. The sheer carnage and shockwaves she could unleash would only fling all his arrows away from their intended targets. Said targets being equally as powerful as Lunulupae, judging from how they were able to hurt her.

It was a risk he was willing to take. He was placing his life in the hands of his reinforcement, it was about time he put his magic into practice.

Prana circuits surged as Shirou prepared to fight the girl in front of him.

Let's test the waters shall we? Save Mode is the weakest of his reinforcement abilities, focusing more on stretching the limit of his ability over power.

Power thrummed within Shirou's reinforced body as he unleashed a picture-perfect right hand jab at Heinrich.

Only to find it easily caught by her hand. His fist was trapped within her grasp, and Shirou found it hard to pull it back. Eyes widening, he realized that Heinrich wasn't like normal people. Her grip strength was unnaturally powerful, slowly crushing his hand even.

This was bad. Shirou needed to back off and reconsider his plans.

He boosted the reinforcement in his arm to medium strength, briefly surprising Heinrich, then jerking it out of her grasp. One quick jump landed him a distance away from the powerful girl. She didn't chase after him, preferring to stay back.

"Impressive, we already knew you had some hidden strength, but that boost was beyond what I expected." Heinrich smiled at Shirou. Despite being enemies, she knew that he was a good kid. It was only unfortunate that he had to get dragged into all this.

Honestly, killing him would be a pain. Especially when he had such a promising future ahead of him. Such talent would sooner or later be found by people anyway.

Shirou watched Heinrich across from him. Where did her strength come from? He made sure to check with Mana Analysis, but found no active or passive spells in play.

She had caught him with pure strength alone.

Could people actually gain that much strength? As embarrassing as it was, he had remembered how their bodies looked in pyjamas last night. You really couldn't forget such a scene. Not when they were probably the most beautiful girls Shirou had met up until that point. Living on the edge of civilization really didn't teach him to expect much.

One thing was for sure, her body didn't reflect the amount of power her body had.

Plan A was still in action. He could test further by boosting his strength during his attacks, then retreating with Save Mode to preserve his energy. It should at least give the illusion that he had stopped holding back. Then later, he could go all out and use Power Mode at full strength.

Plan B? Well, he'll repeat the same idea he used against Lunulupae. Aim for the weakness you could hit. In this case, the eyes were his only option.

Plan C? Well he was working on that.

A tremor rocked the earth, originating from one point. All eyes looked towards a shaking Lunulupae, slowly starting to move from her position. Eugen behind her was visibly straining to lock the enormous beast down.

Heinrich copied her sister's hand movement and held Lunulupae down. Their combined magic froze the wolf in place.

Shirou capitalized on the opportunity and threw a small rock at her. Only to see it caught just like his hand earlier. Then his reinforcement kicked into gear, overloading the rock's structure and exploding with the force of a grenade at point blank.

The explosion caught Heinrich off guard. She pulled her twitching hand back, but remained undamaged.

Well, shit. He needed to find a way to fight her, Shirou concluded. As long as he found a way, then he should be able to build around it. He quickly gathered a handful of rocks, preparing to shower an entire volley at the girl.

Then staggered, as an invisible wave of energy smashed into him. Shirou and Heinrich blinked in unison, wondering what happened. On one side, confusion at the attack's lack of result. The other, in confusion at what hit him.

There had been no magic involved, and therefore invisible to Shirou's eyes.

To Heinrich, the attack should've floored Shirou. Not many people had the ability to defend from her special skill. In many cases, a stronger form of the attack was enough to outright kill anyone.

Unknown to both, the attack indeed had a result.

Unlimited Blade Works shook as it felt a tiny gash tear into it. The slumbering soul slightly aroused.

"Heinrich stop playing around and kill him already! She's breaking out!" Eugen urged from the side as Lunulupae continued to thrash against their powers.

This time, the invisible wave was far stronger. Whatever it was, Shirou didn't like it. Something was reacting within him. He threw the rocks at Heinrich, who decided that it was time to stop holding back and quickly finish him.

The rocks exploded mid-flight, turning into a makeshift scatterbomb of fragmentation. She charged through as if the exploding projectiles didn't exist. Then Heinrich closed in and punched Shirou.

Hard.

For the first time, reinforcement failed Shirou as the power held within her punch cracked a rib and ragdolled him for a few meters.

But he had no time to address the pain, suddenly being forced to dodge as Heinrich smashed a foot down on his prone form. He rolled to the side, then gaped as he was launched into the air when the ground cratered where he originally was.

There was no way he would've survived that.

Just what kind of strength did Heinrich pack?! What the hell was this?!

Thoughts ran through his mind, processing the power he was seeing. There was no possible way for him to match her punch for punch. Even pushing his reinforcement to the maximum using Power Mode wasn't enough to cut the gap between them.

Not to mention that the last attack confirmed his fears.

Heinrich really was trying to kill him.

Another wave of the invisible attack washed over him. It was starting to become a pattern. Heinrich would come at him with some crazy strength, followed by a spell that was absurd to defend against.

It didn't need magic, it didn't need an incantation, and it certainly didn't look like it was taking any energy from Heinrich.

Practically impossible to counter whatever it was.

Inside Shirou, another attack smashed into Unlimited Blade Works, accelerating its awakening.

Landing on his feet after rotating midair, Shirou faced a charging bull in the form of Heinrich. This time, a rhythm of invisible attacks slammed into him, shaking his vision and body out of sync as the damage to Unlimited Blade Works started piling up.

Quickly, he reinforced himself to the best of his abilities as Heinrich kneed him in the stomach. He coughed out blood, before getting smacked around the forest floor by a series of attacks.

He didn't stand a chance. Each time he tried to disengage, Heinrich locked him in place with a chain of attacks, shaking his concentration and body like crazy.

Vision dimming, blood pumping in his ears, his arms were starting to ache from the constant pummeling, Shirou's mind screamed at him to do something.

Anything.

Shirou knew that this was his last chance.

Plan A has crashed, and is currently a burning pile of wreckage.

Plan B couldn't be used. Heinrich had him completely locked defending his injured body.

There wasn't even enough time to think of Plan C.

But there existed one plan, and Shirou had never thought that he would ever deem it useful. For it was too dangerous, too evil. That not even he could stand thinking about it.

Reinforcement was used to reinforce, strengthening the physical structure of an object. Objectively, it was a defensive spell, a support type of magic that improved the condition of existing objects.

But when used incorrectly, it resulted in more damage than what was considered acceptable. The magical power injected into small pockets of imperfection grew outside their boundaries, breaking and stretching the structure from within.

Breaking them apart, or worse, exploding from the sheer amount of expansion.

Humans belonged into that object category.

Shirou nearly vomited blood from what he was about to do.

In the next attack, he weakened his defense, allowing Heinrich to smash his chest with her insane strength.

Then he wrapped both his arms around the offending limb.

And pushed as much prana into it, intentionally flooding the limb with careless reinforcement.

At the same time, he used Mana Analysis. He needed to confirm if it worked. It was his last option.

Unlike before, the scan showed a different result this time. The last time showed Heinrich and Eugen as normal people. But now?

Shirou was confused whether they were still humans, or something else.

One thing was for sure, Heinrich's body was made up of a different composition from normal humans. Shirou didn't scan the physical composition, but was able to read through magical senses how her body reacted to his invading mana.

It all happened in a split second, before Shirou's reinforcement of her arm broke down.

As he was launched away, he saw Heinrich jerk her arm back and pull it against her body.

Shirou crashed into the ground, breathing heavily from pain.

Impossible. He had expected Heinrich's arm to explode from his reinforcement. He had been practicing reinforcement for a long time, and had yet to make it work.

He crawled to his knees, shaking and coughing, wondering why Heinrich wasn't killing him then and there. Shirou was already kneeling, it was the perfect chance to take him out.

Despite the pain, he looked up at her.

Heinrich was grimacing, holding her right arm close to her chest. Her eyes were switching between her arm and Shirou. She didn't recognize the spell he used, but it ruptured her arm's internals. It was still operational, but was heavily damaged.

Which should have been impossible.

They were modified homunculi, created by The Great Deutschland Empire for war. They used to be proud members of the Kriegsmarine, the elite naval forces of Deutschland, who struck fear and awe into the hearts of their enemies.

They were weapons of war, created with durability rivalling that of castles, strength to crush entire fleets, and power that represented the great might of the Third Reich.

Their nation rose up to the challenge, and fought the world. No other nation could rival their achievement on the battlefield.

Twice, they challenged the world, and twice, they failed. Twice, more than anyone else.

The second time utterly destroyed their homeland. The nations of the world worked together to split Deutschland into pieces. Crippling the nation from recovering for decades.

Prinz Eugen and Prinz Heinrich saw it all happen with their very eyes.

They, along with all the other German homonculi grew up taking pride and honor in the power and glory of their homeland. Seeing it bend down on its knees and surrender to the invading armies proved too much for them.

Shamed and humiliated, they abandoned the Kriegsmarine, along with their homeland.

But cutting ties with the former Deutschland empire wasn't an option. Part of the reparations of the divided German lands were to surrender all technological advancements and industries they had to the victors.

And that included all of them.

Nations wanted to capture them, to study them, how Deutschland managed to build the German superweapons that allowed them to face naval fleets despite being outnumbered.

After all, the technology of Deutschland was legendary for being built on quality over quantity.

The homunculi weapons of the navy decided that disappearing together was their best chance to avoid being captured for life.

Heinrich locked her eyes to Shirou's crumpled form, respect growing within her. Whereas she and Eugen abandoned their home, here was a human, weakened, injured, and absolutely crushed out of his league.

And yet, he continued to fight for his friend.

A friend that was far more powerful than him, yet he still tried to help.

Maybe he wasn't so outclassed in this fight after all. Shirou had managed to injure her arm, when even Lunulupae struggled to land a critical hit. It was commendable, if not impressive.

Shirou really was throwing all sorts of surprises their way.

The sound of splitting wind reached Heinrich, making her jump to avoid the tail that crashed on her location. Looks like their control over Lunulupae had eroded.

Heinrich retreated, regrouping with Eugen on the other side of the battlefield. Lunulupae stationed herself between them and Shirou, obviously trying to protect him.

"Shirou, take Lunea and get out of here!" This time, Lunulupae growled using Beast Tongue. This made sure that none of the girls understood her message.

Despite the damage he inflicted to Heinrich, Shirou was clearly out of his league. He had lost the exchange, and was practically out of the fight.

"I-I can't leave you." Shirou countered. He could still fight. He just needed time to ebb some of the pain away. His body could tank the damage as long as he kept reinforcement up.

"Absolutely not, I can't fight at full strength with you or Lunea here. Then I can focus on pushing them back and escaping."

Shirou gritted his teeth in frustration. It was sound logic, which he couldn't argue against.

He was just dragging Lunulupae down.

Slowly, he forced himself to his feet and started shuffling away slowly, heading in the direction of the cave.

Once he was far from the battle, the forest floor shook once again. The three reengaging each other in combat.

It was the sound of Shirou's shortcomings. He believed that maybe, just maybe, he stood a chance. But those hopes were dashed when he faced Heinrich. Just how powerful were the sisters? And to think that Lunulupae was fighting them both at the same time.

Insane.

Madness.

Shirou bit his lip in anger at himself. He believed that he was getting stronger, perhaps even strong enough to start looking for Sakura. With Lunulupae and Lunea leaving after winter, Shirou had thought about leaving as well. That maybe, it was time for him to start travelling.

But now, he had glimpsed what the world was truly capable of.

Lunulupae, Eugen, and Heinrich were all leagues beyond him.

Shirou shook the thoughts away. He should focus on finding Lunea. Lunulupae was entrusting her safety to him. Out of everyone, Lunea had the least chance of defending herself.

He reached the cave and paused at the entrance.

He focused some prana into his vocal chords and spoke Beast Tongue. The blessing Lunulupae gave to him allowed Shirou to understand and speak Beast Tongue, but the process wasn't automatic. Sure, he could understand Beast Tongue properly. But speaking the magical language actually required practice. It required him to turn magical energy into a structured message that could be conveyed.

Thinking the message was easy, conveying magic from his throat? Not so much.

"Lunea?" Shirou uttered into the cave.

No response.

Something ticked about the situation. Lunea should be hiding here, away from the fight.

Shirou used Mana Analysis to check the magical signatures in the cave. Lunulupae could masterfully hide her mana footprint, but Lunea couldn't. She was a child, and had yet to learn how to cover her own aura like her mother.

He found her aura, fresh and new, she should've been here just a few moments earlier.

Except, it was leading somewhere. Somewhere in the direction Shirou stood.

Alarm dawned on Shirou. He jerked around and looked at the exit to track the direction of her aura.

It was going towards the direction of the battle.

This was bad. Lunea must've ran to her mother. It didn't help that Shirou knew that Lunea could hear the pained sounds Lunulupae made. She would've obviously tried to return to her mother's side out of fear.

Shirou rushed back out, following the trail that Lunea took.

As he ran through the forest, the fighting suddenly died down, the forest returning to its former peaceful ambience.

But his senses were screaming the opposite. The surrounding mana had surged up to another level of intensity. Shirou could practically feel the hostility and anger coming off in waves from the direction of Lunulupae.

Shirou quickened his pace, following Lunea's aura trail…

Straight back to the battlefield.

He slowed down, hiding behind what remaining foliage survived from the carnage. Shirou peered into the clearing. Lunulupae had stopped fighting the pair, who seemed to carry an object that Shirou couldn't discern.

But in his heart, he knew exactly what Eugen and Heinrich found.

"It's quite rude to stalk people you know, especially when they're two beautiful girls like us. We could mistake you for a pervert~" Eugen teased, turning around and looking straight at Shirou's hiding place.

How? Shirou made sure to tread lightly, using his hunting skills to the best of his abilities, limiting the amount of information that could give his position away. There should have been no way for them to find his position at all.

He emerged from his cover, slowly walking towards the two girls. Shirou observed the situation to the best of his abilities. Lunulupae was subjugated, judging from the multiple runes and seals that appeared on her bloodied fur. He could see her muscles tensing in an effort to move, but remained completely frozen in place. Her eyes were focused on something held within Heinrich's hands.

Then, she turned around. Facing him with her sister, completely confident to present their backs to the sealed phantasmal beast behind them.

In her hands was a familiar white wolf that looked like it was shaking in fear.

Lunea.

Shirou's nails dug into his palms at the implications. They had Lunea as a captive. No wonder Lunulupae had stopped fighting. She had allowed herself to be captured after the sisters caught Lunea nearby. By extension, he was also forced to concede to their demands.

"You've won. What do you want?" Shirou gritted out his response. If he was damning himself to death, then he'll at least try to protect Lunea from them. Lunulupae was now out of the fight, meaning that he was the last one left.

"Nothing really. You've got nothing we want, nor could you even stop us now." Eugen smirked at him. Normally, such an expression would be considered sexy and seductive by normal men, but Shirou was unfazed. He was too focused on saving his friends.

Heinrich had a different expression from her sister, hers was more of pity. "Sorry about this, but if we can't leave witnesses, it's part of the job."

Job.

It was all a job to them.

Shirou couldn't believe that any job could be this evil. Hunting animals was one thing, and while technically phantasmal beasts were also animals, they were sentient beings, capable of thought, capable of emotion, and capable of communication.

Shirou's naivety reared its head. Living his entire life in the outskirts of civilization had protected him from the evils of the world. Now, he was seeing what humanity was capable of underneath all the sunshine and rainbows.

"C-can I say goodbye to her?" It didn't need to be said who Shirou was referring to.

Heinrich and Eugen glanced at each other, an invisible exchange of words between the two.

They had seen what Shirou was capable of, although he was able to hurt them with physical contact, there was nothing else he could do. Lunulupae was a distance from them, making it impossible for Shirou to charge at them without being suppressed by their powers should he attack.

Heinrich nodded. It was a final request before they killed him. The least they could do was respect his wishes.

Shirou slowly walked to Lunulupae, who looked at him with regret. It was all her fault she believed. She had dragged Shirou into her problems the moment she captured him for the sake of her daughter. Now, he was guilty by relation.

One idea emerged from Shirou's chaotic mind. He had been thinking and dumping plan after plan, trying to find something, anything, that could possibly work.

Reinforcement helped him against Heinrich. But could it repeat the same miracle to Lunulupae?

He needed to try it. At least one attempt.

All this time, he had been applying reinforcement on physical objects. Thinking that it was the only method possible. He thought up hundreds of ideas, triem them all, and discarded each and every one. He couldn't find a way to control the reinforcement when he applied it outside his body.

But what if he used reinforcement on a magical construct?

Reinforcement was a double-edged sword. When it worked properly, it was good. But when it failed, the repercussions were horrible.

Instead of training reinforcement to succeed on other objects, Shirou had started doing the opposite.

He started training it to fail on other objects.

So what if it failed on the magic that was sealing Lunulupae?

But first, he would need to bank on reinforcement working on a magical construct. As long as there was a structure, there was a weakness, and if there weren't any, then he would create one. Mana Analysis would help him find any concentrations of mana, which should act as the foundation of the spell.

All he needed to do was pump reinforcement into those areas and hope for the best.

Shirou stood in front of Lunulupae, then held his right hand up to her chest, looking like a parting farewell between friends.

Lunulupae's eyes were shimmering with unshed tears. Despite her long life, Shirou was one of the few human friends she made. The short winter was enough to leave a mark on her memory about this small human child.

It was the perfect scene from an outsider's perspective. Heinrich and Eugen couldn't see Shirou's determined face because his back was turned towards them, and Lunulupae's expression further reinforced the scene's authenticity.

Mana Analysis was casted, and Shirou saw a foggy blueprint in his mind. It was unclear, this being the first time he had tried to analyse a magical construct.

But it was enough. Shirou had sensed the locations of the seal's foundations.

Heinrich and Eugen didn't react. Unlike last time, Mana Analysis was casted to analyse them and the surroundings, the only reason they found out was because they felt Shirou's energy wash through them.

Now? They weren't the objects under analysis, and thus, weren't aware of the spell.

One chance.

He scrambled whatever prana he had and forced it all into the sealing array.

Shirou begged the entire world for a miracle.

His prayers were answered.

Suddenly, the runes and sealing array holding Lunulupae down started unfolding, releasing the beast.

Heinrich and Eugen were caught off guard, not expecting the sudden turn of events.

Shirou took the opportunity to seize a rock and threw it at blinding speeds for their eyes, jerking them out of surprise. Heinrich who held Lunea was forced to block with her free arm, unable to help Eugen who tried to slow down Lunulupae's charge.

The move bought enough time for Shirou to reinforce his body and charge Heinrich down. His shoulder tackled her stomach, Heinrich tumbled at the sudden force and fell, releasing Lunea from her grasp.

"Ruuuunnnn!" Shirou shouted in Beast Tongue, buying time for Lunea to escape their clutches.

Once again, powerful attacks pummeled Shirou as he tried to hold down the larger woman. Which didn't work very well. He was thrown aside and both of them scrambled to their feet.

Shirou stared down Heinrich once again, preparing for a second round with the girl. At this point, his personal reserves were running low. Despite conserving mana wherever he could, Shirou was still burning through his pool of energy just to keep fighting.

He had already resigned himself to dying earlier, so going the extra mile before being killed was only a bonus.

Afraid of death, but accepting his fate, Shirou entered the fray once again.

He reinforced the floor, breaking structural bonds of snow and ground into a crater of mud and exploding fragments, catching Heinrich off guard. She stumbled again, which Shirou took advantage of by moving in close.

Using reinforcement at point blank was his only option. He needed to injure Heinrich if he wanted a chance.

She unleashed another one of her mysterious attacks, shaking Shirou's world again. But he powered through the attack and reached Heinrich.

Unlimited Blade Works shook again, each attack evoking a response, which grew stronger and stronger.

If the opening of Shirou's prana circuits unsealed Unlimited Blade Works, then these attacks were acting like electrocuting shocks, advancing the process of awakening.

Shirou tried to grab Heinrich's right arm, planning to flood it with reinforcement again. She jerked it away from him, and smashed her left fist into his side. Shirou pulled a dirty move by coughing blood in her face, momentarily blinding her.

All reservations thrown to the side, Shirou grabbed her head and reinforced it, drawing a shout of pain from Heinrich. Then, he found himself smashed dozens of meters away as a full powered kick slammed into his stomach.

Shirou crashed and tumbled to a stop, coughing and choking blood that crept up his throat. His nearly empty reserves causing his reinforcement to falter slightly, even when running at the bare minimum.

Soon, he would truly be out of the fight.

He looked up to Heinrich summoning a massive steel superstructure behind her. 10 steel cannons encased in humongous turrets rotated to aim towards him, their interiors shining brightly as magical shots charged.

They were the armaments of the Deutschland empire. Designed to be used by the German homunculi in their conquest of the seas. Weapons housing great destructive power that allowed the Kriegsmarine to fight on par with the dozens of fleets beset against them.

Shirou quickly pumped all his remaining energy into a full-powered reinforcement, boosting his defensive capabilities, then shrinking into himself, minimizing the area that would be hit by the volley.

His vision turned white as his world was engulfed in pain, the cannons firing a single barrage of concentrated energy beams at him.

This time, his reinforcement failed him.

Skin tore, blood splattering across the floor as he was shot into the ground.

Then as quick as it arrived, it disappeared.

Heinrich dashed to join her sister's fight with Lunulupae, leaving Shirou to succumb to his wounds.

Shirou laid there as his vision flashed white, overloading his mind with pain, and losing track of time.

He rolled to his side with tears pouring from his eyes, his throat screaming silently from the sheer pain he was feeling.

After a good long while, he started regaining a tiny little bit of energy back, enough to move slightly. Adrenaline, keeping him from staying down despite the pain.

Then the earth shaking tremors ended. Notifying Shirou that the fight was over.

He forced himself to crawl to a kneeling position, to see if Lunulupae won.

And his heart promptly broke, seeing her bruised and beaten form, lying prone on the forest floor.

Heinrich and Eugen stood over her, redoing the runic arrays and sealing talismans on the downed beast.

They had lost.

Eugen and Heinrich were both staring at him, keeping track should he pull any more tricks out of his bag, the both of them agreeing that he had become a true threat.

But Shirou was out of tricks, and out of bags to pull them from.

There he knelt, watching the two girls approach him with their guards up. They weren't going to risk letting another chance slip by.

Shirou barely held himself together when they both stopped in front of him. His form was a bloody mess, crimson liquid practically leaking from his entire body. He coughed, blood spraying out of his mouth like a mist. Unbearable pain wracked his body, but that did not stop him from uttering his next few words.

"I'm sorry….Sakura…."

Her face flashed across his eyes, clouding his view from impending doom as Heinrich and Eugen summoned their massive superweapons and aimed at him.

**BGM: Maou Wiruberuto no Musume** (Ignore the anime, the music is lit)

What was a miracle? A blessing ushered forth by gods? An event of extreme proportions and impossibility? An accident? A miracle was many things, but this one was a miracle brought about by puzzle pieces falling perfectly in place.

Shirou's soul, Unlimited Blade Works, desired to live, pushed awake by the constant attacks from Heinrich, cracked open, and spilled into the world.

Beast Tongue, marked him a friend of the children of Gaia, extended that bond with her and her world.

Under normal circumstances, Gaia's influence would erode and erase any inconsistencies that appeared in her domain.

Unlimited Blade Works was one such example, a small reality born from the experiences and soul of Emiya Shirou. A reality that did not exist in the Realm of Man, nor in the domain Gaia held, and therefore a false construct in her eyes, deserving of destruction.

But Shirou was a friend, marking him an exception.

The ambient mana, filled with the emotions of Lunulupae, reacted to their bond and rushed to Shirou's Unlimited Blade Works, combining together, allowing it to smoothly integrate itself into the world, existing peacefully without Gaia's influence eroding it, and by extension, being accepted by the Realm of Man, due to its core nature being a product of Humanity.

The world changed, transporting all of them into his soul, the Unlimited Blade Works.

Activated, awakened, and angry, Shirou's soul answered his subconscious desire to survive, to live, to protect.

Shirou, already fainting after memories of Sakura flashed across his eyes, crashed on the ground, far away from the two girls.

Heinrich's and Eugen's unleashed magical volley exploded on an empty clearing, Shirou being whisked away to another area of Unlimited Blade Works.

Lunulupae and Lunea froze, as the ambient mana of Gaia disappeared, replaced by the overwhelming presence of legendary weapons surrounding them.

Heinrich and Eugen were equally blown away, their minds shutting down in shock at the sudden change in the world around them.

"W-where are we?" Eugen choked on her voice, still trying to come to terms with what she was seeing.

Heinrich, meanwhile, was repeatedly checking using her magic. Her face, an expression of fear.

"I-I think this is why we couldn't read his soul before."

In front of them stretched out the manifestation of Shirou's soul.

Swords upon swords upon swords extended to the horizon, interspersed by different varieties of plants combined from the current and previous eras of Gaia's history.

Unlike the burning sky that Archer EMIYA's Unlimited Blade Works had, his sky was a galaxy of a myriad of stars and constellations, shining brightly on the land below. Beautiful and chaotic, a reflection of the events playing havoc within his soul.

In the distance, a forest of prehistoric and modern trees mixed into a confusing mesh. Beside it, a huge claw mark tearing entire valleys into the earth, each filled with the power of Primate Murder from a previous lifetime.

Far away to the edge of the world, stood a black jagged tower with malevolent power, on its precipice, a corrupted grail, with a glowing red eye floating above it.

All of them felt the burning gaze of All The World's Evil as its eye settled on them.

Here lies all the powers that had rooted themselves into Shirou's soul.

The essence of Man, imbued into the legendary weapons of heroes of old.

The concept of Sword, emanated from the land itself.

The blessing of Beast Tongue, manifesting through the emerging vegetation, changing the soul into a world habitable for phantasmal beasts.

Primate Murder's mark, scarring Shirou's soul, identifying him as an enemy of all beast kind.

The Holy Grail, held within the grasp of All The World's Evil from its tower at the end of the world.

Six powers, fighting to control his reality marble.

The only peaceful area was a small hill, with a false copy of Avalon and Excalbur, their combined presence halting the chaotic pressure from the other powers.

And the four outsiders, caught in the middle of the crossfire.

**End BGM here.**


When Shirou awoke, he was lying on a bed covered in bandages and wet cloth. Lunea was snuggled beside him, peacefully snoozing away.

His body was heavy, nearly impossible to move even if he tried.

So he had a mini panic attack when Heinrich appeared out of nowhere, dressed in the same pyjamas she wore before.

A pathetic and terror-filled 'eeep' weakly emerged from his throat, to which Heinrich giggled at.

Giggled.

She and her sister had just tried to kill him last he remembered.

And she was giggling at his suffering.

Pure evil couldn't be cute. Something was wrong here.

Was he finally dead? But Lunea was here, which meant she must've also been killed.

But if he was dead, then why was everything so painful?

Shirou exhaled painfully. Hell, even breathing felt like shit.

"Don't move, doctor's orders." Heinrich said as she took a seat near the bed. In her hands, a journal filled with notes.

Notes about Unlimited Blade Works.

"Even if you force yourself, Eugen's magic stops your body from moving, and I patched up that wound in your soul to stop it from bleeding into our world. I doubt you even know how to control it, so you're pretty much under our mercy."

Shirou blinked. What was going on? What soul? And he was under Eugen's control?

Huh?

He tried to move one finger, and found it completely frozen.

They weren't lying.

Not like he could've done anything with his injuries, as grievous as they were. He could even remember the pain of moving his shattered body in his last moments.

"Why?" Shirou croaked out. The question was obvious. He was supposed to be dead. Then out of nowhere, he was being treated, if the blood-soaked bandages were any indication.

"Why not? We came here for a phantasmal beast, and we found another hidden gem. We're simply taking you back with us." Heinrich answered while going through her notes.

This was the first time that she had run into a genuine reality marble, and she would be damned if she didn't take the opportunity to study it.

She's used her magic to read the souls of many things. But this one was new and interesting.

"You can't kidnap me." Shirou complained.

Imagine planning to save your childhood friend after being kidnapped, only to find yourself kidnapped years later.

How ironic.

"Can't we? We have Lunea and Lunulupae, would you really abandon them?" Heinrich hummed.

She had him there. This version of Shirou couldn't leave his friends even if he wanted to. It simply went against his character.

"W-what are you going to do with me?" He asked, scared to find out what they had in mind. Shirou didn't have anything of value, except his Beast Tongue blessing. So what exactly did they want from him?

Everything else was just magic he trained himself with.

"We're going to make you our little toy~"

Shirou's heart quickened at seeing the other sister appear in the room. Eugen was drying her hair with a towel, clearly coming back from a bath. She didn't even bother dressing properly, just using another towel to cover her alluring form.

"Sister, you should dress yourself first." Heinrich sighed. She knew that Eugen was teasing Shirou again. The girl always loved to saunter around seductively, grabbing the attention of anyone nearby.

Sometimes, it was a pain working with her. But they were sisters, and Heinrich couldn't exactly pick siblings.

"Nothing wrong with giving the boy a little peek, he's proven that he's man enough for it~" Eugen winked at Shirou. The action frightened him. There was something predatory behind those eyes, and he didn't want any part of it.

It was already bad enough that he was incapacitated in a room with dangerous girls.

Girls, who I might say, just captured a phantasmal beast.

"I have updated Pein on the mission. He thinks we're currently chasing the phantasmal beast. That should buy us enough time for Shirou to recover before we return." Heinrich closed the journal and placed it aside. It was time to get to the main reason why she and Eugen kept him alive.

"Hmmm~? Does this mean we get a little break? Tracking her was a pain, even our combined talents barely worked." Eugen stretched, unintentionally showcasing her body more.

Shirou was starting to think that she was doing it to unnerve him. Nobody he ever met acted like her, or nobody he knew anyway.

How does one go from being friendly, to downright murderous, to being friendly again?

Shirou's inexperienced mind was calling Eugen's seductive actions "friendly".

Bless his poor innocent soul. May the gods have mercy on any girl who takes an interest in him.

"I-I have nothing except Beast Tongue, what do you want with me?" He tried to make sense of the situation. The pain of his body doing more to distract his train of thought. Shirou couldn't even connect enough clues together.

"Well for one, you could start cooking for us…" Eugen posed thoughtfully, one finger to her mouth, along with a lick of her lips. She and her sister were good cooks, but having another one helped when it came to dividing the workload.

"Wouldn't it be a dream for men to service two beauties like us~?" Her tease failed to get a reaction from him.

"Eugen, stop playing for a little bit and be serious." Heinrich stood from her chair and leaned against the wall beside Shirou's bed.

"You have something we want. After you recover, we'll be leaving this village with you….whether you like it or not." Her tone sounded final, convincing Shirou that he really had no other option.

"So we're taking you with us….as our little servant." Eugen continued in lieu of her sister. Which responded with an exasperated look.

"You see, we're kind of in need of members, and you have already shown ability and potential. So rather than killing you, we're going to make you join us." Heinrich finished.

Say whatever you want. A child with a reality marble for an awakened soul was bound to be powerful in the future. Especially when it contained various powers fighting to control it.

Heinrich and Eugen weren't going to forget that memory for the rest of their lives.

Heinrich and Eugen just wanted to steal Shirou before people found him. As former members of a once legendary empire whose entire foundation was built on power, they could spot strength and potential, far better than many others. Finding Shirou was like winning the lottery, the sheer value of his soul immeasurable from the numerous entities existing within it.

"Starting from this day onwards, you're going to join us in Akatsuki."


Author's Note

DUN DUN DUNNNNNN. Congratulations Shirou! You've become a criminal! So this is where Volume 1 ends, with Shirou leaving behind his home village, getting dragged around by two former Kriegsmarine shipgirls. Next chapter will just be the epilogue, but don't worry, I've already planned out a good timeline for Shirou's life as an Akatsuki member. Expect action! Drama! Lots of fanservice! (I have to balance the bloodshed somehow, one reviewer is crying for my blood after all the shit I put Shirou through)

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and thank you to all the reviewers who gave honest opinions with my crazy bullshit. Expect more crazy shit coming in the next volume!

Hopefully releasing 3 chapters in a row makes up for the rather late updates I've been making the past month!