Shiro was never overly fond of planes. The fact that he just had to sit through a ten hour connecting flight from Japan to Germany did nothing to redeem the experience for him. "Still," he thought privately in the confines of his head. "Flying was better than this."

Kiritsugu and he were currently overlooking a secluded valley. They were all dressed in white and had a white tent that made them all but invisible against the snow that littered the mountains overlooking Einzbern castle. They had spent the past day just sitting outside the castle and by now Shirou was bored stiff. Kiritsugu had forbidden him from using any magecraft to warm himself up because the Einzbern probably had methods to detect it. Thankfully he could still use his magic.

Right now Kiritsugu was scoping out the perimeter watching the various homunculus go about their daily routines and look for the various weakpoints in the perimeter. He had made prior probing runs against the castle in prior years and through trial and error he managed to create an intricate map of the castle and the various entryways that could be used. Right now he was finalizing those plans and looking for any possible last minute changes that could mess up everything.

Shirou sat on a white deckchair and had hot chocolate served to him by Nine while he browsed the internet on his smartphone through the shitty reception in the valley. Shirou had already done his job when he showed up took one look at the bounded field and told Kiritsugu what it did. Well until the next stage of the plan that was. He lifted up his empty mug and Nine topped it up. Unfortunately the three of them were the only ones available for the mission.

He would have loved to bring Sumire but she was greatly weakened on land. Worse than that was she was quite clumsy as she spent the majority of her time on the water only leaving the water to visit Shirou and consume alcohol. She was also terrible with plans and Shirou didn't feel like bringing her would up the success of theirs.

Secondly was Arcueid. She could probably solo the entire Einzbern family no problem. The problems lay in the fact that if it was discovered the True Ancestor was no longer on the side of humans and actually attacked them than the church would throw a fit. Shirou really really didn't want to take on the church especially since for the most part they were doing good things. He also really, really didn't want to fight Narbareck.

He didn't even entertain the thought of Satsuki. Her talent aside she was still quite weak after her unvampirification and she had a lack of any killing instincts. She could very easily get herself killed on this mission.

He didn't even bother asking Gilgamesh. The golden man had flat out said he wouldn't help Shirou on any of his journeys.

On the good side Nine was ready, willing and capable to assist them on this journey. When Shirou created him he hadn't specifically intended to use him for combat. However when Nine had requested to assist them on the mission Kiritsugu undertook to test his combat capabilities. Nine acquiesced on the condition that he could fight against somebody that he couldn't kill. So Shirou and Kiritsugu asked Arcueid to try and spar against Nine.

Nine lasted three minutes. In most cases that wouldn't sound very impressive however there are very few beings in the world that can even last one minute against the True Ancestor. While Nine was not much stronger than an ordinary human, he was both far more flexible in body and had a far greater instinct to kill. Almost all of Arcueid's blows were dodged and he repeatedly struck sensitive blows to her. His form wavered constantly between liquid and solid Nine and Chaos. Even Shirou would rather avoid fighting Nine.

To that end Nine had a specific duty in the following plan. Strapped to his belt was a bag that Shirou had made with a carrying capacity of a small car. His job was to infiltrate the Einzbern's workshops and to steal all their research notes. Knowing Nine he would steal enough of the research to set the entire family back hundreds of years.

Shirou's job was the distraction. As the most powerful magus of the three and a true magician to boot he should have no trouble facing down the entire Einzbern army. The first editions of the plan called for Kiritsugu to stealthily bring down the bounded field and sneak in. This was vetoed by Kiritsugu himself when he came to realise Shirou's ineptitude at stealth and his aptitude at breaking bounded fields.

Kiritsugu's job was to rescue Illya. He was the person who was most familiar to her and would help assuage any of her worries and also the best person at stealth and tactical infiltration. While Shirou was causing trouble he would sneak in through one of the windows on the second floor.

Kiritsugu suddenly shifted and Shirou was instantly alert. His father turned towards him and just nodded his head to signal the plan was go. Shirou yawned and stretched giving his smartphone to Nine to take care of. His moonrock ring was on his left hand, his water controlling glove was on the right, his runic boots were on his feet and his necklace was on his neck. In addition two more mystic codes adorned him. A bracelet adorned his left arm, this was an evolution of the sucking sweet he had created nine months ago. Unlike the sweet that could change saliva this bracelet had the properties of changing the PH level of all nearby liquids.

His last mystic code was a gift from Kiritsugu and sat belted to his waist. Kiritsugu had tried to teach him how to use guns and Shirou found out that he was an abject failure when aiming them. So Shirou buckled down and started to work. Using a Desert Eagle that Kiritsugu had acquired for him for his twelfth birthday he started using his magecraft and magic to turn the weapon into a mystic code that can rival Kiritsugu's contender in danger.

The first thing he did was apply the concept of [Absolute Accuracy] on the gun. Whether he focused on the heart, head or hands a shot taken by this pistol would never miss, tracking its target and curving to meet their flesh. The second thing he did was to apply the boundary fields that Kiritsugu employed in time manipulation. Every bullet shot from the Desert Eagle shot out at over Mach five. The last thing he did was to fiddle with the chamber. By simply channelling his prana into the gun he had the ability to inscribe explosive runes on the next bullet.

His new updates to the mystic codes were necessary in this case. Kiritsugu stated and Shirou reluctantly agreed that a take no prisoners approach was necessary. The Einzbern were a magus family and unfortunately that meant their mentality could be best described as cult-like. Not to mention the majority of their forces were homunculus that were literally bred to be loyal to the Einzbern and they wouldn't stop coming until death.

Shirou sighed put his hands in his pockets and bounded down the mountain. Sliding down the steep slopes and jumping off sheer cliffs that no human could survive. He swiftly came upon the bounded field. It was ancient having been placed down hundreds of years ago and improved upon by generation after generation and with a swift application of his magic he destroyed it. His magic had become a lot easier for him as he practiced and got into the mind-set required to activate it.

Walking up to the great doors that lead into the castle he grimaced to see the homunculus pouring out. He really wanted to kick in the door sending it flying inwards but the destruction of the bounded field seemed to have tipped them off. Sighing he walked towards the homunculus who seemed to be split between holding weapons or mystic codes.

"You know," he said, "If you surrender to me now you'll likely survive the next few minutes. A gust of flame and wind created a minor flaming tornado that barrelled towards the young magician. The heat was overwhelming and it would have burned to ashes any normal human and indeed even any normal magus. Shirou just sighed, "So be it," he said.

Before he went on his trip to Misaki Sumire had implied that his steadily increasing levels of mystery had affected him in a special way. To be more specific she had compared his ability to that of a dragon's lungs which generate prana just by existing and count as spiritual worlds. After about a month of analysis after that clusterfuck he had finally chanced upon what she meant. A normal person's body at adulthood was sixty percent and amounts to about forty-two litres of water. Shirou's body had about one thousand litres and consisted of ninety seven percent of his body. The fact that all this water was continuously soaked in his prana gave him great control over his own body. But there another thing he could use it for. He quickly drew out four hundred litres of prana soaked water from his own body and casually stopped the flaming tornado redirecting the rotating winds by use of a barrier of water and extinguishing the flames.

The water was warmed up by the flames so Shirou decided to go all the way and convert the water into steam. Channelling prana into his bracelet he converted the steam into acid and sent the acid towards the group of homunculus. Stepping into the acidic mist he walked forward. Almost immediately he noticed the homunculus trying to blow the mist away by use of wind spells. Unfortunately for the two homunculus whose element happened to be wind he felt the ripples and sent out fast blasts of water.

He felt the attempts against his mist stop at once. The pair of false humans either dead or too damaged to continue he strolled forward under the cover of the acidic mist yet not breathing it in. Sensing the ripples from the homunculus who entered his field of death he walked forwards forming a pick out of ice and brought it down straight through her skull. She almost looked comical as her red eyes widened at the figure that appeared in front of her then she slumped down never to see anything again.

Shirou exhaled, he wasn't a fan of killing but the fact that they were homunculus made it easier. Mass produced and expendable with no will of their own, he was doing them a service and freeing them from their indebtedness to the Einzbern family. He was simply disposing of weapons.

Fire erupted from the ground around them and Shirou jumped backwards. As he jumped backwards he was cornered by another of the white haired red eyed girls who had somehow managed to track him through the ice. She charged at him with an axe moving at speeds far beyond human. Shirou merely kicked the snow on the ground into her face and then punched her right in the sternum with a bone shattering blow causing her to fly backwards and struggle to breathe. At this point he realised that his mist was being dispersed by a wind element user. Sighing he just decided to let it happen walking over to the weakly struggling homunculus and with one swift kick to the head and one minor application of runes he exploded her skull.

The mist suddenly cleared and Shirou was treated to the sight of the homunculus having multiplied where ten once stood now there were twenty. All of them had white hair and red eyes and all of them were staring at Shirou with battle ready expression.

"There's still time to surrender," Shirou said, once again putting his hands in his pockets ignoring the two dead homunculus on the ground. "If you value your lives at all you will walk away from this battle." He waited for their reply.

The one in front wielding what seemed to be some form of lantern stepped forward looking impassively at him. "Attack," was the only word she said.

Shirou sighed and started shooting highly pressurised blasts of water all of which were either blocked or dodged by the girls he was facing. Wraithlike shapes flew out of the lantern towards Shirou but in an instant his desert eagle was released and the lantern had exploded. Arrows flew towards Shirou but he redirected them using the water from the mist that he had condensed when it was blown away.

The ground beneath him opened up to swallow him but he jumped and manipulated the water in his own body to send him clear of the pit. A ripple of prana and Shirou shielded manipulating the snow on the ground into a makeshift wall.

While the wall was up he immediately found himself flanked by two sword wielding homunculus taking one step back he used his glove on the hand on the one in front manipulating her arm in an instant to lash back and decapitate the homunculus that was a bit behind. She paused in shock over what she had done and Shirou stepped forward striking her in the face and condensing water into an icicle that he directed so that she impaled herself on the way down.

Seeing the magic false humans preparing another barrage Shirou beat them to it sending a wave of water at them. Putting his hand to the ground Shirou used his magic to heat up the snow causing it to start to melt. The Einzbern homunculi were truly fearsome. Kiritsugu had once stated that they were far above most magi and it showed. Their combat skills were excellent and the magic that they had flung at him so far would have killed any enforcer or exorcist that had gone against them.

Unfortunately for them Shrirou was not just a magus. He has fought Dead Apostle Ancestors and regularly throws down against Arcueid. Teleporting behind the homunculus that controlled the wind earlier he pointed his gun at her and ventilated her cranium. He fired two more bullets at the other homunculus but they were blocked by one of them wielding a hammer. The bullets exploded against the hammer but the weapon stood firm.

Suddenly a hail of icicles came from the side. Shirou once again deflected the icicles by using his water noticing as he did that the water froze immediately upon contact. Seeing the hammer wielding girl charging towards her he spat into her eyes turning the saliva into acid as he did so. As she covered her eyes he hit her with a piercing blast of water right through the chest. He then grabbed her hammer out from her hands and with a swing finished her off.

Shirou once again blocked another volley of those icicles but this time he unfortunately dodged into the path of a rock. Skidding backwards he felt the bones in his arm snap. Hitting the rock and using the forth magic to turn it to dust he immediately pumped prana into Avalon and used the water into his body to set the bone.

He barely had any time to do so as a wave of flame came at him and he was forced to dodge once again. He teleported in the direction of the flame wave and had to duck underneath the swing of a halberd that was braced to take his head off. As his circuits spun and water leapt out to devour the halberd and flame wielder he found himself hoping that Nine and Kiritsugu were having a better time.

xxx

Nine was having a great time. When his master had commanded him to find the research he had initially feared it would be boring. Not that he would have complained if it was. These notes were important for the survival of his sister. His sister was a lot more complicated than the Piece of Chaos that spawned him and if his master believed that he required the notes to fix her then who was he to judge?

His master meant the world to him and if he cared about his sister then Nine would do the best he possibly could for her. It didn't matter if he would much rather be fighting the homunculus outside with his master, in this case as in all cases his duty came first. Which was why it was such a pleasant surprise to run into a group of homunculus guarding the workshops.

Nine was physically and magically weaker than his master and he had heard tales of the Einzbern prowess in creating golems. So he acted fast and killed the first of the homunculus when her back was turned piercing through her neck and devouring her. Jaws sprouted from his body and tentacles dragged her inside the chaos to be assimilated.

Then disaster struck when Nine had eaten the homunculus he had underestimated how tasty the being would be to him. As such he made a small noise in contentment which alerted the rest to his position. There were three other of the Einzbern golems and they were all incredibly proficient. However Nine had upon multiple occasions requested a spar with Shirou, Arcueid or Sumire in order to increase his combat facilities and better serve his master. The one melee was killed when she overextended into his currently liquid body and his currently needle thin fingernails pierced her eyes and entered her brain.

The two others were harder as one wielded some form of mystic code that shot out damaging lasers and the other one controlled a puppet like dog that was made out of metal and was both fast and enduring. Unfortunately they could do a lot of damage to somebody with his composition and he was forced to go on the defensive. It took five minutes of bobbing and weaving around the lasers and the mechanical dog before he was able to take the opening and close the distance. In an instant he had engaged the one with the mystic code that controlled the mechanical dog and he turned to liquid dodging her strike and cut her throat. Then it came down to the one last homunculus with the laser. He had wasted enough time with the others so he shed his appearance as a butler and summoned tentacles, mouths and claws to chase down the retreating homunculus who was backing up while firing her lasers at him.

She didn't stand a chance Nine shambled forward and engulfed the lone homunculus dodging the lasers by tracking her hands. For all the incredible magic circuits bestowed upon her at her creation she just didn't stand a chance against somebody of Nine's ferocity. The remains of both Homunculi were devoured and their mystic codes stored for dissemination later by his master.

As he strode into the workshop determined to strip all the knowledge on behalf of his master he idly hoped that his master's father was doing just as well.

xxx

Kiritsugu slunk through the empty halls of Einzbern castle opening up various doors checking for hi. Despite his skills he was aware that he was the weakest of this assault team. Einzbern Homunculi were tough, easily as strong as all but the strongest of magi. While not quite on the level of some of the tougher Dead Apostles Kiritsugu really didn't fancy his chances against a bunch of them. But that was not the point of his being there. His job was to get in convince Illya to leave and then to get them both out of there while his son and his pet abomination raised havoc.

Kiritsugu was against stealing of the research as it would likely cause the Einzberns to come after them with a vengeance but Shirou was correct in saying that it would help Illya. Homunculi often were tampered with and who know what could have happened to Illya in the time he wasn't here. Plus if Shirou does enough damage hopefully they will cut their losses. It was a slim hope but he resolved to barrel forward regardless. Opening up the last door on the corridor he was suddenly without warning confronted by the sight of his daughter.

The sight was so sudden Kiritsugu was struck speechless. Illya lay upon her bed just staring at the ceiling. Upon the door opening she looked to see Kiritsugu and she now lay there with her mouth open. Raising a hand up to her pale cheeks she slowly pinched herself. Kiritsugu stopped just standing there and went towards her. Tears slowly welled up her in her eyes and she leapt into Kiritsugu's arms.

"You came, I knew you would come," she wept, "I didn't give up on you daddy. I was waiting."

"I know Illya," Kiritsugu said his voice a little hoarse, "I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner. Acht prevented me from taking you. But don't worry I'm getting you out of here. We're going home."

"I'm afraid it won't be that easy," a voice came from behind and Kiritsugu turned to see the aged, white haired figure Jubstacheit von Einzbern looking easily more furious than he had ever seen him. There was a fire he had never seen before in the old man's eyes and he felt an impending pressure that indicated that whatever came next would not be easy.

Author Note So here is the first chapter of the invasion of Germany Arc. I would just like to once again clarify Einzbern homunculus are tough. Even their failures are considered superior to magi and their strongest can even reach servant level. Sella and Leysrit have not been created yet as this takes place three and a half years before the grail war. For the record I would like it to be said that Nine does not in any way look like Sebastian from Black Butler.

HPfan 7-8 Yup.

Pepebomb If you're talking about [The world over heaven] then yes. You're tripping death flags on the second half of your sentence though.

Rangle Altrouge may show up in future. However she is not somebody who Shirou or anybody sane would go out of their way to meet.

sandmanwake Sorry if I came off to harsh. I do try to avoid most anime tropes if possible. How good a job I do is debatable. Blame Nasu for making so many interesting female characters. Originally I wanted Nrvnqsr to join the troupe but I couldn't quite write it #only partially joking.

The Rupture Honestly Merem seems pretty chill he'd probably want to examine Shirou's mystic codes. Zelretch is always watching if he wasn't then technically the timeline wouldn't exist.

Oblivion168 Honestly he created a vampire that has no side effects and only about thirty percent of the perks. Though she is gaining more perks over time.

KRKing I don't understand if the character is unrelated to the nasuverse how would he join him. This isn't a crossover. By this point Shirou has had basically all the allies that he would ever need. I don't need an OC and if I was going to include one at this point I would just have to work around the character. I'm sorry but my answer is no.

As for your question about summons. Technically the Avalon that Shirou possesses isn't linked to Artoria. It is owned by him. Yes he would enjoy the company of both Mysterious Heroine x and Alter.

Read and Review please.