Preface:
(VERY IMPORTANT)
Music time!
Look up the term "EMIYA - fate/stay night" on YouTube, and it'll bring up a soundtrack video.
I'll post it here, and on my profile page for very easy copy-pasting (since this site doesn't allow copy-pasting of stories, but does allow copy-pasting links on profiles).
Link:
www. youtube . (c) (o) (m) /watch?v=NqCsqSqr1Jg
(The original super-easy copypaste link is also available on my profile page, for super-easy copy-pasting.)
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First though:
Don't play the music at the start, wait until Shirou accidentally touches Tohsaka's card.
You'll know when.
Trust me, listening to that soundtrack while reading the text at the right point,
It seriously GREATLY improves the reading experience the first time you read through this chapter, just like the original visual novel.
With literally extremely little effort required on the reader's end
(Seriously, literally just an extremely quick youtube search, or a google search, or copy-pasting, which I'm pretty sure most people know how to do at this point).
It's freaking awesome when read and experienced this way. It'll seriously enhance the reading experience the first time around, no joke.
Seriously.
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Now then,
Have you got the soundtrack ready?
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Then, without further ado, please enjoy...
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Chapter 4 - The Fish Dish
Shirou made up his mind, as he exited the Church.
He was going to be a Master, and he would save as many lives as he could.
That was his duty as a hero, as an "Ally of Justice".
No, even more fundamentally, as a knight, he could never allow such injustices to continue on!
Shirou paused.
...Wait, as a knight...?
...When had had he ever been a knight...?
Well, whatever. it wasn't important. He shook his head, as he started escorting Tohsaka back to their places.
Tohsaka had told him she would be fine, from a certain point onwards, and they both made to part ways.
"Thanks, Tohsaka." Shirou said, sincerely. "You really are a nice person."
Tohsaka blushes. "I am not!" She insisted, "This was just, you, you know...!"
She struggled for words. "Hmph!" She said, flipping her hair back and turning her head to the side, in an attempt to play it off, "I would just feel bad if a novice like you got killed without knowing the rules! Th-that's all!"
Shirou smiled at her, to which she scowled.
"Anyways!" She said, "The next time we see each other, we'll be enemies!" She said, "Got that?! Emiya-kun?"
Shirou nodded,
"Yeah, but if possible, I don't want to be your enemy, Tohsaka. I really like people like you, after all."
He said, smiling at her.
Tohsaka's blush intensified, as she "hmph'd!" again and turned away, making to leave.
And then,
The cold air intensified, and the tension in the air suddenly became incredibly thick with malice.
Shirou and Tohsaka both shivered at the sudden change, not going unnoticed.
"And here I was, looking for you, Oniichan," A young voice called out, "Only to find you here, flirting with the Tohsaka heir, hm?"
A young girl showed up, adorned in red cloth and silver armour.
By instinct, Shirou and Tohsaka automatically equipped their card in an instant, on-guard against her intense killing intent.
Shirou looked on in shock.
"Mordred...!"
He didn't even know what he was saying, but the name had somehow slipped out between his lips, without his even realizing it.
"That's right, Oniichan...!" Ilya said, cheerily, "I summoned just the perfect card, for getting vengeance on you! How fitting!"
"Why...?" Shirou asked, "I don't know you!" He exclaimed, "Why would you want to get vengeance on me?"
Shirou's card was warning him, with much more urgency this time than before, to not let his guard down. All the hairs on his body felt like they were standing on end, and he himself felt like he was standing on needles, his body tensing up to an incredible degree, and preparing him to engage in battle at a moment's notice.
Ilya just cackled, mirthfully, but with a hint of deep sadness to her tone.
"Of course...!" She said, "Of course you wouldn't know about me...!"
She charged forward, and Shirou brought his blade up to defend, as she slashed at him wildly.
"After all, you're the one he abandoned me for!"
"What are you...?"
He was cut short, as he had to parry back another blow, and swiftly moved positioned himself and dodged backwards, evading all of her super-heavy blows.
"How lucky you must be, huh?!" Ilya declared bitterly, as she continued raining down blown upon blow on him, metal fiercely clashing against metal,
"To be loved! To be acknowledged! To not have the heavy weight of expectation always forced upon you!"
With one final blow that he barely managed to parry, she forced him back with an incredibly powerful kick, breaking his ribs in the process.
Shirou hacked up blood as he was forced against a wall.
They were both Sabers, weren't they?! So how?! How was she this much more powerful?!
Ilya giggled, continuing, "But that's okay. It's fine!" She said, as if in a trance of madness,
"After all, my trauma is what makes me strong! It's what gives me strength, in more ways than one!"
After all, Ilya had summoned a card that had extremely compatibility with her.
The Knight of Treachery who had killed Arthur, The Rebellious Knight, Mordred.
And Mordred, more than any other Servant, empathized with her; an artificial homunculus who was abandoned by her own father, made only to be used by others, and placed under the heavy weight of the expectations of her family, but never being able to live up with them.
Indeed, Mordred was the perfect match with Ilya.
Ilya doubted, in fact, that there would ever be anybody else would ever be able to match her, on compatibility alone.
And it wasn't just that.
That alone, by itself, would already allow her to draw out much more with her own card than other Masters would. But along with her power and status as a Lesser Grail (that which manifested and held Servants), she was able to draw out and manifest Mordred and her power onto her own body even more perfectly.
It was a card which passively fortified her naturally weak body, reinforcing its strength and durability with her own ridiculous amounts of magical energy, fixing any problem she had before with her naturally weak body.
With her own natural magical circuits funneling mana into the card, and with the spirit of the card funnel that mana back into her, to reinforce her own body, her own body even without the Card had already become several times stronger than the average human would ever be capable of.
And with her Card, she had managed to reach something close of an actual Servant, if only a weak one.
Content wither herself, and with her show of superiority and dominance, she looked down upon Shirou.
Looking at the pitiful of Shirou, already gasping hard while she was still herself was completely unphased, she smirked.
"I know!" She said, out of nowhere, "You should give up now, Oniichan!"
"If you do," She said, gleefully, "I'll let you work under me, as my Servant."
Shirou scowled, instinctively.
"As if!" He said, "I'd never work under you, Mor - !"
Shirou stopped himself, suddenly becoming cognizant of the strangeness of his sudden burst of indignant rage that welled up from inside him, without reason.
"Oh, is that so?" Ilya said, condescendingly, "Well, then..."
Ilya brought her sword up ominously, as Shirou still was clutching his ribs.
"Die!"
And she brought her sword down,
*CLANG!*
Only to be promptly interrupted from afar, as she parried an arrow shot at her, from a distance.
"Tsk!" Tohsaka clicked her tongue, from a far away distance.
Ilya had been entirely on Shirou, and she had managed to flee far away during their clash. She had, at first, only intended on running from the battle and leaving Emiya-kun to deal with it.
But upon glancing back, she couldn't help herself. It was against her best instincts (and the warnings and protests of her card\), but Emiya-kun really had been just too pitiful and pathetic in his performance. That-that was all, really! No other reason!
Besides, even if Ilya won here, she would still be an opponent to face off against later, and she would rather have Emiya-kun survive as useful tool, than get wiped out so early in the war.
But, observing the results of her shot, it has no effect.
And now Ilya was glaring and grinning in her direction.
"Tch!" Tohsaka clicked her tongue.
It's not like she was expecting that much. But even still, to be able to parry even such an arrow, from one her better and more prepared snipes (unlike the rapid quickfire snipes used against Lancer)...
Ilya was a real Monster.
They would be both be better off fleeing.
Apologizing to Emiya-kun internally, Tohsaka turned away and ran.
In the best case scenario, Ilya would chase after her until sunrise and eventually lose her, and Emiya-kun would also use that chance to retreat back home in the meanwhile.
Well, she hoped that he would be smart enough to do so, anyway.
Though for some reason, she could almost hear her instincts (or was it her Card?) telling her that she was expecting too much from that idiot.
Ilya smirked,
And in only a few short mana-propelled bursts,
She had already caught up to Rin.
"What - ?!"
In a series of incredibly fast, Ilya had closed the distance in only a few short seconds, far faster than Tohsaka had expected her too.
"Caught you!" Ilya taunted, delivering a sharp punch to Tohsaka's abdomen!
Tohsaka was sending her flying back, impacting into a concrete wall. She puked up blood as she fainted from the pain, her Card unequipping from in the process.
"Toh-Tohsaka!" Shirou struggled to breathe out.
They were a far distance away, but, with his Servant-enhanced vision, Shirou could still make out what had happened and that Tohsaka had just been taken out in an instant.
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Gracefully, Ilya had waited for Shirou to heal and catch up.
Like she was playing a game nobody else could win, she smirked in a very cocky and assured manner, confident in her victory as she was.
"Finally caught up, Oniichan?"
"Yeah."
And there was no more need for words, after that.
Sword met sword once again, as the battle re-commenced.
But something was a little different, this time.
Namely,
Ilya was far stronger and far faster than before.
Each of her blows overwhelmed Shirou with incredible speed and power, reinforced by constant bursts of mana, greatly increasing the speed and the force of her blows.
Even with Shirou going full-force his own mana-bursts to counter, he couldn't use nearly as much mana to counter her! Even with all twenty-seven of his circuits being pushed to their limits!
Ilya easily overwhelmed him, making her true strength abundantly clear.
This was her full strength.
It was too much!
And he could barely keep up!
No, couldn't keep up at all!
Any single one of her strikes could be lethal to him, and he barely managed to dodge or parry most of them, but she was clearly having fun just toying around with him and missing his vital spots by mere inches.
With another one of Ilya's kicks, right when he was least expecting it; Shirou was forced back, and slammed fiercely against the pavement, once again hacking up blood ferociously.
With just that one kick, alone, it felt like almost all his ribs and bones had shattered, along with the rupturing of a few organs.
He hit the floor right next to Tohsaka, laying bloodied on the ground.
"Toh..." He reached out to her, "Tohsaka..."
And as he reached out, his hand accidentally graze across her card in the process...
Suddenly, as an immense gust of wind blew, one far fiercer than than the one that had before, when he had first equipped the Saber card.
Ilya was stunned, as razor-sharp winds suddenly forced her back!
It was like an intense localized tornado that came out of nowhere!
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In the next instant,
Emiya Shirou forgot about everything else.
He forgot about Tohsaka,
He forgot about Ilya,
He forgot about his own wounded body, and about the Holy Grail War.
And he couldn't even hear the voice of his own card, trying to warn him, as it automatically unequipped from; as this new Archer Card encroached itself upon his body, overwriting the current him.
No, instead...
Emiya Shirou was completely lost, as he was plunged into a sea of knowledge - his own, but not his own; losing himself within it, until he managed to force his way back up to the air of reality.
It was almost as though he could hear the melody of his own soul, of EMIYA's soul, playing within his own mind...
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Shirou took a deep breath as he regained consciousness.
He had only lost consciousness for a second, but even in only that one second, he had been overwhelmed with incredibly, incomprehensively, terrifyingly, deep amounts of knowledge.
Truly, the depths of this card were terrifying...
But even so,
From his brief dive in,
He found a technique he could use against Ilya, within that vast pool of knowledge.
Red bandanas appeared around his head and his arm, and his whole shirt seemingly to become dyed red as well, as though with the blood of the fallen he couldn't save, and of broken hopes and ideals that he could no longer live up to.
But unlike Tohsaka, no black armour appeared around him, to protect him.
Very faintly, Shirou could make out the faint traces of the voice of the card.
"...keep...up?"
"...Yeah." Shirou said. "Of course, I can!" He declared angrily, as a mere matter of fact.
His pride, not willing to admit defeat to the condescending spirit of the card.
Greeting his teeth, Shirou began his process.
Breathing out in concentration,
Shirou focused himself,
His mind, his visualization, sharpened to their limits.
He unwrapped the cloth around his arm.
This was the first time he was truly using his own magecraft properly.
But, by instinct, and with knowledge he just gained, he somehow knew perfectly how to do it.
If he was facing off against a Monster of an enemy like Ilya, than only a Legendary Monster-Slaying weapon would be fitting to take her down!
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Judging the concept of creation...
Hypothesizing the basic structure...
Duplicating the composition material...
Imitating the skill of its making...
Sympathizing with the experience of its growth...
Reproducing the accumulated years...
Excelling every manufacturing process!
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The wind had started to die down,
And Ilya rushed in once more!
But, now, Shirou was ready.
He had projected successfully for the first time in his life,
A bow of massive proportions with its accompanying arrows.
One used by a certain legendary Greek hero, to slay an enemy with a seeming endless supply of heads and lives.
"9 Lives Bow Works: Shooting the Hundred Heads!"
The arrows shot off, cutting their air and homing on Ilya with incredible precision and force!
Arrow after arrow shot after the charging Ilyasviel, holding her off, and forcing to dodge or parry, even as they rebounded towards her if they missed.
"Tsk!" Ilya clicked her tongue as she started to struggle, but she was still hold her own very well.
Shirou grit his teeth.
No, this much, only this much, wouldn't be good enough.
Shirou was pushing himself far beyond his own limits, into the very starting edge of the territory of an actual Servant, an actual Archer.
...But,
Like this, and only like this, Ilya would soon break out of the technique.
This technique, used by a mere human and not a Demi-god, wouldn't be nearly enough to match a Servant's level. It wouldn't be enough to match Ilya's level.
Shirou once again a deep breath in, and a deep breath out.
He unwrapped the cloth around his head,
Concentrating even further,
And focused!
Blood vessel disrupted in his throat and on the outside of his neck, making him hacked up blood once again, viciously; this time, from more personal internal damage.
But even so,
Concentrate...
Concentrate!
Imagine!
Visualize!
If he couldn't defeat Ilya the way he was now, he just had to imagine something that could!
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Knowing the concept of creation...
Understanding the basic structure...
Recreating the composition material...
Reproducing the skill of its making...
Empathizing with the experience of its growth...
Reliving the accumulated years...
Exceeding every manufacturing process!
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The blood vessels in Shirou's forehead and right eye also began to break and shatter under the pressure, dying his head and his eye with a violent red color.
Lastly,
All he need to do was...!
CREATE!
Shirou looked over his work.
Yeah...
This, this was something Emiya Shirou could win with.
"9 Lives Arrow Works:"
Emiya glared at her, his whole body and eyes overflowing with prana, as his circuits ran far past overdrive.
Preparing the bow and preparing each Ginormous titan-slaying arrow to fire off,
Shirou pulled back on the bow...
And fired!
All 1000 shots, going off, all at once!
"SHOOTING THE THOUSAND HEADS!"
"Shit!"
Ilya parried one, and another, and another, and another, but they kept on coming like countless drops of rain, and each time she thought she was done with one, another would slipped past her and home back on her, grazing her and causing her immense pain!
Ilya was forced out of the area, each grazing arrow slowly chipping away at her armor one piece at a time, even for as fast and with as much as force as she could parry each arrow with.
"Tch!" Ilya clicked her tongue, but she would have to admit defeat for now!
Putting in all her strength and magical energy, she used her best mana burst so far to create a slight moment of pause in the firing momentum of one arrow from the next, and in that instant, used consecutive mana bursts to escape from the area of effect, even as the missed arrows continued to home in and chase after her.
Retreating, she had to admit it, as much she didn't want to.
Emiya Shirou (King Arthur) had won this round.
She hadn't expect him to suddenly pull off something like that!
With a different card, no less!
That had to be cheating, in some way!
What was that?
Seriously, what was that?!
Ilya grew increasingly frustrated, as she ran back to her castle.
Well, whatever!
It didn't matter!
Emiya Shirou would be dead the next time she saw him, anyways! She would make sure of that!
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Meanwhile, having see that Ilya had fled, and no longer able to sense her, for now,
Shirou relaxed.
And immediately, by instinct, had unequipped his card.
Steam and exhaustion rolled off of his body in waves as he started to collapse, far more exhausted than he had ever been before.
...It was only a moment.
...It was only a brief dive, into the shallowest layer,
...But...
...But, even that had been enough to sicken Shirou, to make Shirou never want to use the card again, not without damn good reason.
And it was only now that Shirou also realized that the blood vessels in his right eye had been completely ruptured, and that he could no longer see out of it.
'Ha,' Shirou thought, only now noticing, 'I guess I'm half-blind, now...'
That was his last thought as his body gave out, and his consciousness sunk into the peaceful dark abyss of rest.
A very small tuft of hair on the very edge of his head had whitened, and a very small patch of his skin, barely noticeable, off to the side, had become slightly tanned.
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Bon Appetite!
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Author's Notes:
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I did say Ilya had a Berserker card, I just never said which one lmao
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So, Shirou's changes as nearly as noticeable as the changes in Miyu's brother (yet), but the very starting signs of Archer's encroachment are beginning to show.
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Took out a scene because I misremembered the Shirou VS Kotomine Kirei moment in the original Visual Novel moment, and because I felt like it didn't fit very well with the Nasuverse.
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So,
Mordred actually doesn't have to strengthen Ilya's body, and it's not a natural effect of the card, but one that Mordred is blessing her with. Well, of course there are practical reasons for it, as Mordred does also does want to win, and she would even say as much if asked for the reason.
But the real reason is because of Mordred's hidden kindness and because of her empathy for Ilya, who also born as a homunculus into a cold family and only raised for one purpose, being abandoned by her father all the while.
Those similarities in life-circumstances and that empathy between them is also what gives them such a high compatibility rate, as stated before.
That, plus the fact of Ilya being a lesser Grail who can manifest and store servants, means that Ilya is ridiculously overpowered by this war's standards, just like Berserker Hercules is, normally.
Probably gives her the second greatest compatibility with her Servant and Class card in this war, besides Shirou and Archer.
...But wait, there's also someone else who just happens to meet those same conditions, isn't there? (*coughcoughcough*)
[]
Also, I have a new story called "Fate/Cooking Days" under the Shokugeki no Souma category.
Its basic premise (Fate Characters in the Shokugeki no Souma World) was inspired by a story I real a long time ago, "Fate/Stay Cooking", but every other idea is completely original.
No magecraft, but characters do have specialties like in the early parts of Shokugeki no Souma (though no ridiculous superpowers like the later parts of Shokugeki no Souma).
I think it's pretty good, so feel free to check it out!
Thanks!
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Next chapter, Shirou wakes up in Tohsaka's bed (as expect of Harem Protagonist EX).
And the conflict with Shinji (and Sakura?!) at school!
Look forward to it!