Shirou Emiya was the captain of his school's archery club.

It may not have had an instant correlation to the current problem, but his acquired skills did. When one perfected the art of firing small and sharp projectiles while training yourself to be able to see them in motion almost everyday, it naturally led to increasing the necessary reflexes needed to react appropriately.

With magical enhancements added in, Shirou beheld his world slowing down to an uncomfortable degree as his adrenaline spiked. Case in point, in one millisecond, Shirou beheld ten separate pitch-black daggers, most of them aimed at various lethal spots on his body.

Even as Emerald's warning shout started off, Shirou was already kicking off the ground as hard as he could, completely clearing the daggers as he soared several hundred feet straight up into the air.

For a moment, Shirou allowed himself to breathe in relief, only to panic when he started falling.

"Emerald!" Shirou screamed over the air shrieking past his ears. "How do I stop myself from dying like this?!"

"You gotta fly!" Emerald yelled back. "One of my special perks as a Kaleidostick is that we're basically cheat codes for complicated and costly spells! Just imagine yourself in a way that allows you to fly and I can handle the rest!"

Imagine himself in a way that could fly?! How the fuck was he supposed to do that?! No, no, he was like that one villain/rival he'd seen on tv, right?! Like from Illya's anime and cartoons! She could fly for whatever reason with her magic!

That meant that he could do it too, right?!

The moment Shirou processed that thought, the force pulling him down pushed upwards instead, letting his toes skim the treetops before he was soaring up away from the danger as more daggers flew after him.

"Holy shit, you're flying!" Emerald marveled. "I know I screamed all that out of desperation, but I honestly thought you'd at least manage to slow yourself down from smashing down into the earth! How'd you get up into the air?"

"Huh? Didn't you earlier say that I'm some kind of Magical Warrior thing?" Shirou panted as he gave the Kaleidostick a confused look. "What kind of Magical Warrior can't fly?"

"...what a useful misconception." Emerald muttered. "But hey, that's good for us, regardless."

"Yeah..." Shirou trailed off as he observed them all from above. Now that he wasn't in immediate danger, he could see his attackers. It was literally a small army of the same person, all gaunt, black-skinned and wearing the same bony masks. "Why do they all look the same?"

"Now, I see. That's because they are all the same person. This Servant is of the Assassin Class." Emerald explained. "All Assassins are usually from the ancient sect of Hashashin and all bear the same name. This must be the Hashashin with the noble phantasm that let them 'be many separate people', Hassan-i-Sabbah of a Hundred Faces."

"I'm not fighting the guys who invented assassination in a forest of all things." Shirou made his decision clear as he eyed the darkened sky. "Good luck finding a better murder scene that'd be suited for them."

"Then we blow them up from up here in the sky! It's always good to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses, so that you can plan and act accordingly." Emerald declared. "Use your imagination and channel your thoughts into me, and we can launch our own attacks from up here!"

"Right!" Shirou exclaimed before pointing Emerald face first towards the woods, visualizing a gargantuan blast to blow them away. For a single moment, Shirou hesitated with what he was about to fire upon what were essentially still people... until he remembered the daggers that had been thrown with very clear intent at his face (and it also helped that he could still see a few from here, hiding in the foliage with daggers clutched in their hands). "Fire!"

For a second, there was a satellite-like strip of symbols around the Kaleidostick before it converged into a basketball-sized orb of sparkling viridian energy right over Emerald's head. Then it fired downward, expanding as it crashed down onto the Assassins.

"[Debonair Blast]!"

*BOOOM!*

A good portion of the forest erupted in verdant light, burning trees and molten rock as his attack landed, obliterating many of the Assassins in one go.

'I know she told me... but is Emerald the magical equivalent of a super tank?!' When Shirou once again checked the radar, there was only one purple dot left.

"I see them!" Emerald lurched downwards, dragging Shirou along for the ride. "Dive, dive, dive!"

When Shirou landed, the last Assassin had crawled out of the smoking foliage to face him. Now that he was up-close, Shirou looked upon his very first Heroic Spirit. Possessing the same mask as her 'brethren', she had pale blue hair in a ponytail, black skin that was tinged with dark red veins, something which alarmed Shirou badly, as thanks to her skimpy black upper clothing, he could see how unnatural the veins pulsed on her body.

Even when he stood meters before her, Shirou couldn't feel anything from her. People usually gave off some sign of their presence but against this woman, Shirou felt that for one reason or the other, if he took his eyes off her, he'd never notice her presence again until it was too late. "Emerald, become a bow."

Shirou didn't know if it was possible, but Emerald handily complied as a second handle popped out of the top of her head before the two shafts lengthened and bent inwards, a thin line of dense prana connecting the two. Plucking it and adjusting his grip, Shirou drew back and pointed the manifesting arrow of compressed prana at Assassin.

Right as he did so, a dagger slipped into her hand before she flung it forward right as Shirou released his arrow. His arrow shot through the dagger with no trouble and right into Assassin's chest as she had made no movements to dodge.

Falling to her knees, Assassin coughed up a wad of blood from behind her mask before dissipating into motes of light, revealing a single card floating within her with the image of a shirtless man in a mask holding twin daggers, the word 'Assassin' written below in English.

"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" Emerald gushed as she returned to normal. "Ending everything in a single hit battle!"

Stepping forward until he reached the Card, Shirou gently took it and held it up to observe. 'To think that this small thing could cause so much trouble...' "Emerald."

"Yeah?"

"It's over, right?"

*CRACK!*

At that large sound, Shirou looked up in alarm to see the sky above him actually cracking apart.

"Yeah, it's over." Emerald answered. "Now that the thing causing the mana distortion's gone, this space can't hold itself any more. Let's go."

"[Removing Imaginary Axis from the Fifth Instrument Variable.]"

Shirou pocketed the Card as the familiar large golden circle appeared beneath his feet.

"[Reestablishing Central Coordinates.]"

As a familiar energy began to flood his being, Shirou cast a final look at the devastated forest around him.

"[Reestablishing Mirror Pathway with a Radius of 2 meters.]"

The magical glyph from before made a return, this time spinning in the opposite direction of when it had last appeared.

"[Returning to Originated Homeworld.]"

And suddenly, Shirou was back in a completely unharmed forest, almost thrown off by how he couldn't smell smoke anymore.

"[Coordinates Stabilized.]"

The circle beneath his feet faded as its job was completed.

"[Dimensional Transport Complete!]"

"Whew! What an evening!" Emerald wiped her forehead as she flew away from Shirou, transforming him back as they started walk home. "This is the best!"

By the time Shirou reached home, he felt drained.

"Shirou, you okay?" Leysritt asked the moment he crossed the living room, waking up from her nap as he passed.

"Yeah, just..." Shirou yawned widely. "Just had an unexpected thing to do earlier. Tell Sella she can have my turn to make dinner."

"Ha! I already took it when Illya told me that you'd be walking your classmate home!" Sella declared triumphantly as he passed the kitchen. "Of course, this doesn't mean that I'll be handing over my turn tomorrow!"

Taking a moment to tiredly blink at her, Shirou shrugged before moving on. Somehow, that silent attitude was enough to set off Sella worse than any spoken response could have.

'I'm so sleepy.' Shirou sighed as he put away Emerald and the Class Card securely in his room before heading into the bathroom. After divesting himself of his clothes, Shirou frowned as he noticed the amounts of steam still misting about. 'Illya must have bathed recently.'

Opening the door, Shirou flipped on the lights... and instantly beheld the sight of his naked sister leaning out of the window.

"Eh?" "Ah..."

Illya's red eyes widened in shock as she turned to regard him.

"W-Well, the l-lights weren't on..."

Illya's eyes grew wet with mortified tears.

"I-I thought you'd just finished..."

Illya's lips wobbled, her whole body shivering now.

"Wait, I get it!" Shirou closed his eyes, waving his hand in appeasement. "Please forgive me!"

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Then something slammed into Shirou's face hard enough to knock him out. For a second before Shirou conked out, he almost imagined it to be Emerald, but that was weird.

Emerald had bat wings to fly with, not white fairy-like wings.

"Senpai, are you sure you're okay?" Sakura asked while they ate together.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" Shirou replied as he took a drink of water, careful not to upset the bandage on his nose. "If you're worried about this, it'll be gone tomorrow."

"No, it's just..." Sakura frowned in worry. "I just can't believe that some horrible person would throw a rock right into your bathroom."

"Imagine how my sister felt." Shirou chuckled. "She's the one who saw the whole thing and had to call for help. So, did you need anything, having called me away from Issei instead of joining us for lunch?"

"Ah, yes." Sakura dug into her bag and brought out the spellbook. "It's filled with beginner spells and the like. If you ever..." her cheeks warmed. "If you ever have a question or want some pointers on things you don't understand, I'm here for you, senpai."

"Thank you, Sakura." Shirou smiled in gratitude, which did amazing things to Sakura's heart. "You've been so helpful to me lately. I wish I could repay you."

"No, senpai." Sakura shook her head. "You've always been helping me out in one way or the other. This is me finally having a chance to repay you."

"Urgh, there's still seven minutes until the bell rings." Emerald suddenly spoke up. "I'm sure you two will be able to reach second base before then if you'd just go for it."

The two choked on their food before Shirou grabbed the Kaleidostick and shoved it into his bag. "Sorry about her. I've been busy doing some things with her lately and she's gotten antsy."

"What have you been doing?" Sakura asked.

"There's something dangerous happening in Fuyuki at the moment, and I've been helping Emerald fix it." Shirou revealed after taking a second to think it over. "We succeeded in last night's instance and we're going for another one tonight."

"Is it..." Sakura's fingers clenched against her will. "Is it dangerous?"

"...yeah. It's dangerous." Shirou replied, flooring Sakura with his honesty. "But someone's gotta do it. As Emerald's Master, I'm the most capable one for it. If I balked away despite my capability and responsibility just because it's dangerous, I'd never forgive myself."

And thus, Sakura's efforts to dissuade Shirou died before it could even take off. How could she think of stopping him if he was acting like this? "Senpai, can you please promise me something?"

"What is-" Shirou's words cut off when Sakura suddenly held his hand tight and lifted it up until she could rest her forehead against it.

"Senpai, you're now a magus." Sakura's words felt pained even to her. "To be a magus is to walk along side death. I don't have the right to tell you have to live your own life, but please..."

Her grip tightened. "Please don't die."

"...Sakura, look at me."

Sakura raised her head and gasped when Shirou suddenly dragged her into a tight hug. "S-Senpai?!"

"Sakura, I'm not going to die." Shirou's words were strong and firm, even when whispered into her ears. "I promise you that."

While Sakura's cheeks lost a bit of the red in them, her hands still clutched his back tighter. "...okay."

"...for Kaleidoscope's sake, either kiss already or grab those cheeks below!"

Without disengaging from Sakura, Shirou's foot stomped on his bag.

"Man, I didn't think we'd meet you here in this house, let alone this country, Nee-san." Ruby cheered.

"Indeed, I was just as surprised to sense you, Nee-sama." Sapphire agreed. "Are you truly contracted to Illya-sama's brother?"

"Yup!" Emerald hummed. "Shirou's just the best! We went after one of those Class Cards last night and had zero problems taking down Assassin."

"Even if you were geared more towards combat as our prototype, that's still amazing." Sapphire marveled. "Especially as you wouldn't have had any noble phantasms to Include."

Emerald tilted in bewilderment. "Include? Why can I hear the capital letter in that word?"

"Oh, yeah!" Ruby snapped a wing in realization. "As our prototype, we don't even know if you can even materialize a Heroic Spirit's Noble Phantasm or weapon!"

"Wait, we can do that, now?" Emerald gasped. "I was just keeping that Card around as a trophy. Tell me more."

"Of course, Nee-sama. First, about Incl-"

"Wait, Sapphire-chan." Ruby cut Sapphire off, a mischievous lilt in her tone. "I just had a really great idea. How about we teach our ex-Masters a lesson?"

Sapphire gave Ruby her full attention. "I'm all ears."

"As you know, we're now serving new Masters, but that really hasn't inspired Rin or Luvia to behave better, has it?"

Sapphire shook her head in disappointment. "No. No, it hasn't."

"Well, I've been watching this anime with Illya..." Ruby floated aside and returned with a DVD package of Bushido Musashi before pointing to a character on it. "When Bushido Musashi was starting to get conceited, she was suddenly shaken by the appearance of her shadow archetype, Shinobi Chiyome! What she lacked in honor, the kunoichi/dark magical girl made up for in effectiveness!"

"Oh, I get it now." Emerald practically vibrated in excitement. "Because both of them got stiffed, they haven't felt the urge to redeem themselves as their replacements are literal children..."

"But if Shirou-sama showed up as a rival who's doing a better job than they ever did..." Sapphire followed up. "The sight of an agemate upstaging them..."

"Sapphire-chan, Nee-sama..." Ruby spread out her arms/wings conspiringly. "Shall we give our Magical Girls their dark rival?"

KingVessel: And thus, we reach the inevitable encounter.