"Talking"
'Thinking'
"Master/Servant Link"
Noble Phantasm
To be honest Shirou's relationship with Rin is kind of complicated he is grateful to Rin for saving his life, (even if she did try to kill him once) he respected her determination to win the war, and her willingness to make a deal with him and dutifully attempting to school him in traditional sorcery in light of his powerful Servant and also generally likes her
But... It's still pretty embarassing to be carried bridal style by your girlfriend
"I can't believe that I am doing this "Rin grumbled as she dropped him on Illya's bed
"Sorry" Shirou apologized sheepishly
Atleast on the bright side Rin is still his friend even in this timeline
(Shirou's POV)
"Hey are you done talking?"
I don't know when the clouds parted, but a brilliant moon is now shining in the sky.
The shadow is long and grotesque, like a devil in a picture book.
In this gloomy town of shadow-pictures stands a figure that should not be there
"Berserker."Tohsaka mumbles a word I'm not accustomed to hearing.
Even though I don't know what she means, I can feel the giant's dreadfulness all too well.That thing is not human.
Then it is one of the beings called "Servants", just like Saber.
"Good evening, Onii-chan. It's the second time we've met like this." the girl smiles as she says this.
That innocence sends a chill down my spine.
The girl looks so out of place next to the thing behind her, it feels like I am dreaming
No, chill is an understatement.
Not just my body, but my mind is frozen as well.
That thing is a monster.
I'm not even staring at it, but its mere presence roots me to the spot.
"Nice to meet you. Rin. I am Ilya. You should figure it out if I make that Ilyasviel von Einzbern."
Einzbern
Tohsaka's body stiffens, apparently recognizing that name
Perhaps she liked Tohsaka's reaction, as the girl smiles happily. And then...
"Then I'll kill you now. Go ahead, Berserker."..She orders the strange shape behind her, as if she's singing.
Shirou Woke with a start. She was sweating heavily and frenzied from what he'd just seen looked around her room to confirm where he was before breathing out in relief.
'It's not real…' he told herself '...a nightmare no rather a bad memory'
She shook her head before sitting up.
before he realised that a sleeping Illya was hugging him
He looked at the girl hugging him the face was the same but it was ... innocent...the face of a cheerful child than her twisted counterpart
"..." It was almost unbelievable that she was actually Kiritsugu's daughter
Another memory replayed in his head
Bound by chains, Berserk receives 22 Noble Phantasms on his defenseless body.
The black giant falls silent after becoming a grotesque object.
I don't even need to check if he's alive or not Even if he is a great hero that overcame ten deaths, he should not be able to get up after receiving twenty Even if he to alive, he should not even have the power to breathe
And the battle ends.
It was known from the start who was going to win.
...Berserker cannot beat that Servant.
A scream.
Gilgamesh mercilessly slashes Illya with the sword in his hand
He slashes her eyes in one blow and he pierces her heart. But it misses.
No. He made it miss. The girl is pierced in her lung and coughs up blood.
"Oh"
Coughing up blood, the girl crawls to the hard figure.
…She cannot see, but she can still feel him.
Berserker hasn't lost yet.
She cannot see anymore, but Berserker is still strong like always.
"That's good, Berserker. Stay there, okay?"
Strength fades from her body.
She is hurt and scared, but it's all right as long as he's here.
He always protected her.
He was scary, but he was really kind.
His big body was like that of a dad, and she wanted for him to pick her up once...
"I'm not scared anymore even though it's dark. You're strong, Berserker.I'm safe if you're there like that" she rests her body on him it feels as though he'll rest one of his big, solid hands on her head it's probably true,he should be patting her head when she opens her eyes.
"……Mm… It's a bit cold."
Her body is cold recalling the forest from that time, the girl smiles it happened so long ago.
Recalling the giant that protected her even when injured, the girl peacefully falls asleep
"Stop!!"I yell I don't consider the personal danger, nor what could happen to me but Gilgamesh smiles ominously.
"Sto" My shaking throat speaks up before I can think.
But…
There is no way that man will stop
I couldn't even tell him to stop.
"Squellzz" with a sickening noise he tore through her body and pulls something out of Illya with a smile.
A red object that looks like a poisonous fruit.
The thing in the man's hand is Illya's heart.
"No "Shirou shook his head maybe it's true that Illya tried to kill him but that was a different one from a more messed up life not her
Now just what should be cook for breakfast
(later)
"It's It's not your place to make food, Shirou!" Sella narrowed her eyes "Your Mother and Father entrusted Liz and myself with such duties.
"Bu-but" Shirou tried to protest it was almost unbelievable that he had a maid who cooks for him luckily atleast this version of him did not give up on cooking (that is one thing that is worse is Archer)
"Why!! what's with you doing all the housework like it's your Job!!"
"There's no need for you to get so angry" Shirou sweatdropped "anyways I'm off to school bye !"
"Ah! Wait, Shirou!!"
The bright blue sky was beautiful today. few clouds drifted lazily by, accompanied by the flitting of small sparrows and the amusingly indignant cawing of a pair of crows. The sun shone clearly upon the lush grass and modest trees peppering the cheerfully normal neighborhood.
Shirou had no idea where he was.
He knew he was Fuyuki but just it felt so different almost as if he was a stranger in a stranger land although, he found this a rather small issue compared to the fact that his father was somehow alive.
Shirou ran the possibilities formed in his mind.
It could not have been something as simple as temporal magecraft, or even the Fifth Magic, given all of the differences between his memories and whatever place he currently was trapped within. The Second Magic was certainly a possibility that eizard marshel was infamous for his practical jokes/unfortunate accidents on unsuspecting victims, Illusion magic is a very slim probability since any illusions dealing with dead family members, magical girls and kaleid sticks would not even would make little sense(why would anyone even make up something like that anyways?)
Either way, his lack of memories likely meant that the Emiya Shirou of this world had died. He might have even been the cause.
Shirou shivered. That was an unsettling thought.
Once he had escaped the residential districts and moved into the business districts,
"Good morning sempai!!!!" a familiar voice called out Shirou turned to see a girl with lustrous violet hair, which she styles with a red-pink ribbon on the left side, and violet eyes.
"Good morning Sakura-chan!!"
Sakura however froze looking at Shirou with a troubled expression
"Sakura, you sure you're okay?"
Shirou's face appeared right in front of her and she nearly jumped away in surprise. She gave a smile and nodded. "I'm alright. I was just thinking how good this morning is." Sakura blushed lightly and gave a weak laugh. In the inside, she was mentally berating herself for spacing out right there in the open.
"Oh ok"
Sakura gave a sigh of relief. At least he didn't pursue the weak explanation. "Oi, Sakura! You coming?" she spun around and saw Shirou already at the sidewalk, waving towards her. "H-Hai!" she quickly walked over to Shirou and gave him a smile as they began walking over towards the high school.
Classes went just about the same routine, sitting down, listening to the teacher, taking notes, and finishing his homework during his breaks.
The exam season was approaching quickly, students were more focused but Shirou didn't feel the need to study more or stress himself over the exams, he kept a disciplined lifestyle of studying two to three hours every day, even during weekends and holidays. This helped him in the end in keeping his grades and he wasn't planning on changing his schedule.
"The air conditioner's filter is filled with dust and dirt, this usually restricts the flow of cold air, causing it to build up inside the air conditioner and lower the internal temperature. Given enough time, that buildup of cold air can eventually cause ice to form on the coils." Swiping his fingers on the plastic, Shirou showed the small amounts of gray-colored ice, making some of the student council members gag in disgust. "This is the first reason why your room's temperature stayed the same as barely any cold air was being blown in. And some of the wirings have also had their outer rubber case decompose making the copper rust over time, so we also need to change that."
He was called to the student council room by Issei . Not wanting for weeks for the school to respond and having to spend more days under intense heat, they called Shirou.
The latter obviously was happy to help them, he wasn't known as the school janitor for nothing—even though he never chose that nickname in the first place.
"Ooh, so I guess there's no way to have you fix it up then?" Haruto, the club treasurer, said as he began calculating the total cost for a replacement.
Even though they only had a month or two of time before the end of their scholar year, the heat wave was just too intense to ignore. Just by sitting there for an hour, he was already sweating and the high levels of humidity didn't help at all.
"I can clean up the filter, and replace the wiring for a bit, but you'll need to replace the entire thing nonetheless. It's been here for a decade and is barely holding up. While I can fix it today, it'll probably keep running for a week at best."
Truthfully, the thing was already falling to pieces. Just applying some small pressure would break the plastic, but if he applied reinforcement to the air conditioner, then it would last a bit longer. But overall, it was still a temporary fix.
"You're a lifesaver Emiya, as long as it can run for another day or two, we'll have a replacement ready by then "
"Heh thanks "
Shirou sighed as he finished reparing dragging himself into the locker rooms, pulled on his archery uniform and headed towards the dojo.
kyudo was calming, almost meditative. Shirou lived and breathed the eight stages of shooting, even applying the principle to his magecraft, and had long since mastered archery as a result. If he wished, he could compete at and beyond an Olympic level considering the fact that he could land bullseyes at a little over 1 kilometers because he was the best, however, did not mean that there was nothing he could improve upon(Archer had hit Berserker repeatedly from four kilometres away compared to that his archery record seem cute)
Kyudo was not a sport to Shirou anymore. It was simply a ritual.
While he collected his arrows from the target once more, immersing himself in the repetition of archery, he heard the door to the dojo slide open slowly. He turned to look at the traditional rice-paper door, one hand still on the large wooden target, and noticed a surprisingly familiar face, though not one he would have expected to see at the archery range.
Glittering blue eyes stared at him curiously, framed between black twintails that swung freely as Tohsaka Rin's head tilted cutely to one side.
"Good morning, Tohsaka," Shirou greeted her with a smile.
"Emiya-kun," she nodded at him, mildly distracted by him pulling the arrows out of his target before walking back to the firing line and setting them back in the quiver.
"...So about your feet ? " Rin
"It was fine when I woke up today," he smiled at her for a quick moment before he drew the bow, stretching out to full draw, breathed out, and released.
The arrow struck dead center, as always.
One of Rin's eyebrows raised just a bit
Shirou flowed through the eight steps again as if he were born to do so, and when he released the arrow, it landed exactly where he wished it to.
How long was it since he did this? back in the original timeline he had to drop out of the archery club for the sake of his part-time job
He didn't even know till Sakura asked him if he wants to practice and he almost scared Sakura into believing that he planned on dropping from the club
That all seemed so long ago, now.
"Emiya-kun? Emiya-kun?" Ah, Rin was closer to him, now. He must have missed her response.
"Ah, sorry, I guess I'm a bit out of it. Could you repeat that?" Shirou asked her, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
She stepped back and crossed her arms, her expression setting into a displeased frown. "You are a mangus ."
"Yes I am "
"How long,no how did you even hide it in the first place?"
"Um..." Shirou blinked that caught him off guard "I don't really use it much so I guess nobody detected it I guess"
"And you didn't tell me anything about it?"
"...Um I.I don't really talk about that stuff..."
"So what the heck is your magecraft anyways?"
"Swords... it's my element and origin"
"Y-you are an incarnation !!!" Rin shouted "how the heck are you a third-rate!?"
incarnation are those who have matching elements and origins, a person who had such an in tuned alignment to this single concept or substance that they were considered a living human representation of it
"Yeah..about that I can only use graduation air compared to you having all 5 affinities and high level magecraft I am not that great compared to you..."
"..."
"..Eh Tohsaka ?"
Tohsaka had been silent for longer than he would have expected, usually she had some kind of witty response by now—oh.
Tohsaka's face is really red.
A fierce blush had spread across her cheeks, all the way to the tips of her ears. Her sharp eyes glared at him angrily as her clenched fists shook at her sides.
"Tohsaka, I—" Shirou started, but was immediately cut off.
"Idiot! Don't just say things so thoughtlessly! You'll give people the wrong idea!" She shouted, turning away from him and running off hurriedly. By the time he had even taken a couple steps, she was rounding the door to the entrance and out of sight.
'Did I say something wrong? Is she angry at me?'Shirou sighed
He left the range after de-stringing his bow, heading back to the locker room to change into his everyday clothes.
Illya was sulking in the park, .
"Isn't that enough sulking, Illya-chan?" Ruby tried to cheer her up.Miyu.
the reason was Miyu Eldfelt her new classmate the first suprise was in the Mathmatics class where she solved a basic maths problem with integrals and formulas.
Art class was another surprise. Being told to draw freely, the girl then made a piece in cubism.
It only got worse.
In the food tech class making a hamburg steak, a bit of a challenge.
Not for Miyu though.
In the end she cooked up doubles for Tiga sensei
The final nail in the coffin was PE.
Miyu was fast,so fast that she beat Illya(and completely shattered her pride she had in being the fastest runner of her age)
She was unnaturally good at everything she did. It wasn't some case of 'Geniuses exist' it was a case of this child being perfect
"What are you doing?" A voice called out from across the park, Illya turned to see Miyu staring at her.
"Oh? Miyu-san!" Ruby called out and waved her small arms, Miyu began walking up to them. An unreadable expression on her face.
Illya panicked slightly before bowing slightly and rubbing the back of her head "G-good day, and apologies for such a display…"
"Might you be heading home presently, your highness?" Illya finished her awkward greeting.
Ruby got in Illya's face "That's way too much respect!"
Illya shrugged slightly "I-I didn't mean too…"
"Geez, Miyu-san's a magical girl just like you, and your companion!" Ruby said in an exasperated voice.
"Oh, yeah." Illya nodded "I suppose your right." she gave a nervous laugh before being interrupted by Miyu.
"Why are you even collecting the cards?" The girls expression gave nothing away.
"W-well it just kind of happened and I didn't have a choice…" Illya nervously replied while shrugging "I kind of got tricked…"
"I see." Miyu nodded "Then why do you fight?"
Illya blinked in surprise "What do you mean?"
"You were simply dragged into this, no?" Her eyes narrowed slightly "You have no duty or responsibility to fight."
"T-that's because Ruby…" lllya began only to be cut off again.
"If you were serious about declining, Ruby would have given up." Miyu shot down her counter argument instantly.
Illya shifted on the spot before flushing in embarrassment "To be honest. I did dream of doing this sort of thing." she turned and gave a small smile to Miyu "I mean doesn't it feel like an anime or a game?"
"A...game." Miyu replied slowly, Archer saw a hint of something in her eyes.
"Yeah! We use magic to fight enemies in some Bizarre world." She gave a small chuckle "It all feels like a joke, but it's kind of exciting." she shrugged "So I figured I may as well enjoy this card collection game thing…"
"That's enough." Miyu cut her off "So it's all just a game to you?"
"Illya-chan !...?" a very familiar voice called out
"Oniii-chan !"
"huh ?"
"eh ?"
"I'm Illya's brother... but... you are...?
"Ah... yeah Oni-chan she is Miyu Eldfelt my new classmate "
"Nice to meet you, my name is Emiya Shirou"
".. Your Illya's brother ?"
"I guess it's a bit confusing since I don't have the same family name as Illya, but I'm her brother."
"I'm really sorry, confused you with my brother; you look alike."? Miyu hid her emotions well, yet apparently this hit a little too close to home for her...Illya could now see the barest hints or anger and...sadness on Miyu's face .
"That was it. your brother looks like m-"
Miyu suddenly hugged him before stepping back
"If you will excuse me" she turned and ran
Illya was silent for a minute after Miyu left and puched her brother for no reason
"Oba?!…"
Illya walked home in silence after that. She didn't talk to Ruby or Shirou.
When she came back to her house she found Sella standing out the front staring at something.
"Sella?" Illya tilted her head in confusion "What is it?"
"Oh? Welcome back Illya-san." Sella nodded to her before frowning slightly "Well…" she then pointed at the opposite side of the street.
"Hmm?" Illya turned her head and promptly went wide eyed as she was greeted to the sight of large iron gates leading to a giant mansion which hadn't been there when she left for school.
"Wha-!" Illya exclaimed as she stared at the recent addition to the neighbourhood "That's huge! What's with this Mansion?! I don't remember seeing it opposite out house!"
"Construction began this morning and suddenly a mansion stood there before I knew it." Sella shrugged in confusion.
"Huh?" Illya turned to the side to see Miyu staring at her, a hint of surprise on her face before she composed herself and continued walking.
Miyu walked up and pushed the gate open "Wait! I-is this mansion your home, Miyu-san?" Illya exclaimed in surprise. Miyu turned around and gave her a sideways glance "Well, you can say that." the gates closed
"Illya-san, was that...your friend?" Sella asked, slight puzzlement on her face.
"W-we...know eachother…" Illya sighed out before heading back inside.
'well atleast today was interesting in a way...' Shirou thought as he went to his home
Unknown to him a pair of amber eyes kept looking at him from behind the mansion gate