《Unlimited Blade Works》


 Prologue

    Dialogue is between { }


    In his first life, He was no one, he himself thought if himself as nothing. From the moment he was born he was a burden and as he kept hanging on to life this didn¡¯t change in the slightest.


    Ango was born and raised in a hospital bed, to him, his world is made of just that, his family weren¡¯t bad people but they weren¡¯t good either. The only thing he received from them was the money for the hospital bill, after that there was nothing, he had no friends since he couldn¡¯t handle too much strain, and the nurses just took care of him out of duty and pity.


    His entire life tied in a bed, knowing nothing more than what he read on those books from the library and a couple of manga he managed to get from a patient getting released. That was his life for 17 years and that¡¯s how his first life ended.


    That is when he was given an opportunity. he once read a story called Dex/Clair¡¯s Adventure which became his favorite, though he had no idea that he was going to experience something so similar to that, in fact, the story was based on real events. He was chosen as a new source of entertainment for the highest god, and that¡¯s how he got his second life and the power of reincarnation with many more things.


    In his second life he had it all, money, fame, knowledge, and power, a lot of power, but most of all, he had love. One of the things he received was the power to summon monsters, but the god made it a little more fun and the only ones getting summoned were monster girls, with this, many were summoned and many adventures and battles were experienced. But . . . It was all stolen with the power of 19 gods.


    {9 thousand years searching for adventures, battles, challenges, it was a dangerous path to follow for any normal living being, but I am anything but normal. I was about to reach the point of no return in many different occasions, and in many different occasions the darkness inside of me was about to swallow me whole.


    But I still had things that chained me to my sanity, things that kept me sane no matter how deep into the darkness I dived. It was as if I had chains tied to me that brought me back to heaven every time I willingly jumped down to hell, that is how much I valued them.}


    Then¡­


    {3 thousand years searching for clues, diving into research, searching for hope. After losing the chains that tied me to my paradise, I lost myself in revenge, after finding no way to reverse my mistake, the little atonement I could achieve was to send those 19 gods to their graves with hopes of granting my chains bit of relief in the afterlife.}Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    In my 9<sup>th</sup> thousand year of life, I had the greatest battle of my life. It was a battle between the god Erebus and the mortal Ango who had reincarnated with the mission of killing the boredom of the greatest god of all, Kratos.


    We fought for 4 days and 3 nights, it was a close fight but I ended up as the winner. With the death of one of the 20 Gods, Erebus, my soul gained divinity and my strength once again grew. It was an honorable battle to the death with both of us in consent, but the Other 19 gods didn¡¯t see it that way.


    Some wanted revenge, some wanted to cover the fact that a mere mortal was able to kill a god, and others were simply deceived into thinking I killed Erebus out of some kind of greed. The end result of all of this was the death of all of my wives, sons, and daughters. It was a massacre, fighting one god was one thing but fighting 19 at once is something totally different.


    I only managed to survive after all of their sacrifices, one less and we all would¡¯ve died, one more and there might have been a chance, but there was not.


    {Now that those hateful 19 are dead, there is nothing keeping me here. I don¡¯t want to be here even a second longer.} Those were the last words I said in my second life.


    [User has died, please select ¡­]


    {Shut up, just give me a random one] I said with a tire voice while cutting the system from saying anything and selected a random world. with that, I fall into darkness once again.


    #


    {Damm You Emiya Kiritsugu, Damm You! How dare you destroy the Holy Grail, how dare you betray my expectations, how dare you interrupt my plans, Damm you! DAMM you! DAMM YOU! this hatred will not disappear even after making sure that you die with that curse.}


    It was a perfect plan, with the grail corrupted I will be able to absorb the servants that are eliminated from the war and their strengths will be mine, but with the grail now destroy I will have to wait for 60 years in order for the grail and the grail war again, this is all Emiya Kiritsugu¡¯s fault.


    {Wait, but if I use the energy gathered from the servants from this war, I will be able to reduce the time to 15, no, 10 years until the next grail war, but I will lose the power that I currently have.


    I wonder if ¡­ what if I expand the participants, if I bend the rules and gather more masters and servants then not only will I be able to regain the lost power, I will have even more than before, then not even the root will be able to prevent the destruction of the world.


    Serves you right Emiya Kiritsugu, you managed to delay me 10 years, but after that there will be nothing in my way to prevent my wish from being granted¡­. only ten more years and humanity will be no more}


    Like that, the voice sank into the darkness and there was not proof left of someone or something being present at the scene.

 chapter 1

    The transfer ended, and now I found myself in a new body, with a new couple who seem to be my parents in this new life.


    (sigh)


    this is the part I hate the most about my reincarnations, having to go through being a baby again and again it¡¯s quite tiring, I wish I could just fast forward to a couple of years in the future.


    Well, enough about that, I have no idea where I reincarnated to this time since I selected the random world option, I honestly wanted to join ¡°them¡± and stop my cycle after my second life but they begged and pleaded me to live, now I have to live my third life while carrying this burden on my shoulders.


    Shit, I feel like crying every time I remember that carnage, I should have been stronger, I should have found a way to help them scape instead of immersing myself in the joy of that battle, and I should ¡­ have kept ¡°THEM¡± alive longer to make them feel the pain that I am feeling right now.


    The worst thing about it is ... knowing that ... everything was the result of my own actions, the annihilation of my wives, my sons and daughters is not to be blame on them who did the act, but me who incited them to do it.


    I had lost track of what was happening around me while I was immersed in my inner thoughts, which were interrupted by a sudden spank in my rear *whack*.


    {Oh shit! Fuck! who did that? Old lady what the hell is your problem? couldn¡¯t you go a little easier on a new born baby for god¡¯s sake.}


    if someone saw the current scene knowing my past, it would be hilarious for them, the only thing coming out of my mouth was a bunch of mumbles, of course babies can¡¯t talk and I am not an exception for that rule.


    {guuu! gaga! Googu!}


    Sigh! I wonder what¡¯s waiting for me in the future.


    *Little did I know, that my third like would be filled with some many events*


    #


    {First *cough* a couple of  parents who turn *cough* from loving to abusive from not being able to handle the stress *cough* in their lives, thinking that I *cough* would be able to live a normal life, I laid low and accepted *cough* my life with my new ¡°family¡±, but *cough* what¡¯s this bullshit that I am going through right now!}


    In front of me are only 2 colors as far as the eyes can see, this two are red and black. The red from the flames engulfing everything in their path, as if they were trying to quench their immense hunger with everything including living and non-living things alike


    The black from the remainings of the things that were used to feed those flames, ofcourse those include non-living and living alike.


    Me? Right now, am walking without a goal, the smoke, the heat, the screams and yells of the people dying surrounds me from every side.


    My parents? Well, they already became part of the flames is one way of putting it. The weird thing is that I am kind of satisfy with the outcome of my third life, now when I die, I can finally see them again, I can tell them that I tried to keep my promise and tried to live but I die in this massive fire.


    From a moment to another, the voices that surrounded me while saying  ¡°help me¡± and ¡°save me¡± disappeared, the burned and charred black hands that were trying to reach me were no more, and even my own senses where leaving me now.


    But I still kept walking forward, I couldn¡¯t hear anything, I couldn¡¯t smell a thing, the taste of smoke in the air no longer filled my mouth, as I fell to the floor, the high temperature of the flames started to disappear, and the pain from the burns in my body started to leave with them. At last, the only one of my five senses left within me, my sight, started leaving.


    The red sky started to darken, finally I thought, Finally! I started thinking with tears running down my eyes, I am finally able to reunite with them in the afterlife only having to wait 7 years after reincarnating. After a second or two, my vision left me and I found myself in complete darkness, but that didn¡¯t last long either.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    My vision returned first, and I saw a man kneeling next to me with tears running down his cheeks. Then my mouth was hit by the taste of the smoke in the air, followed by the smell and heat of everything around me, the last thing that came back to me was my hearing.


    {You¡¯re alive, thank god, you¡¯re alive, you¡¯re alive!}


    This man in front of me had an  expression I could barely describe, I got confused for a second and thought he saved himself instead of me, but after the confusion left, all that was left was an incredible grief.  As the man hugged me, lifted me up and started to carry me somewhere, I started to drift off while thinking, ¡°why? Why did he have to rescue me? Out of all the people whithin this fire,why me? Is he the devil? Is this my hell? Just let me die and be with them, that''s my one and only wish.


    #


    I opened my eyes and found myself in a white room, there was nothing in it besides me, there was only pure emptiness everywhere. But after blinking once, I was suddenly surrounded by dozens of people, some looked young, other looked older, some males, but the majority were females, and to me they were not strangers either.


    {ah! I see, so I did die. I was finally able to reunite with all of you again in the afterlife}. they all had smiles in their faces when they saw me, all different types of loving smiles directed towards their husband and others towards their father. {I am sorry for the guy who tried to save me but I am glad he wasn¡¯t able to}.


    As I smile and finished my sentence, their smiles disappeared, some had a face full of regret, others had a face full of anger, and others just started crying  their eyes out with a face full of sadness. When I was about to tell them not to worry about it, four of them moved towards me and stood in front of me, before I could move or even say a word, my cheeks were struck four times, one time each which left me in confusion and in pain, they¡¯ve always know how to slap, it doesn¡¯t really hurt but stings, which is worst.


    {So, this is how you ended up after that, even though you promised us that you would survive and live for us}, said the girl with dragon wings and scales all over her body.


    {If this is how you are going to end up, then I don¡¯t mind you dying, but be sure to know that even in the afterlife I will never look at you in the face again}, said the girl with the lower half of a spider and the upper half of a human.


    {If this is what you¡¯ve become after a loss then you are not the man I fell in love with, he was a brave man full of love for both us and battles, I never fell in love with a coward like you who wants to scape his burden}, said the tall girl with a muscular body and her two legs resembling a bull¡¯s.


    {You¡¯ve avenged us already and that was enough, so why are you trying to make our efforts to keep you, our most loved person alive a fruitless one?} asked the girl with bat wings in her lower half and a tail that had a heart shape at its end.


    {Because you all died because of me, because of my lack of strength, because of my lust for battle,  everything ended  like this because of me.}


    {NO!} One of them yelled, {you had a fair and square duel with Erebus, and they dishonor your duel by looking for revenge  after your victory, it was not your fault but theirs, father.}, said one of my loved children, which cause all the others to nod their heads in agreement.


    {Dear}, said another one of  my wives getting closer to me and crouching  down in front of me, placing her hands in my cheeks and cupping my face  so that I was looking straight at her.


    {we know that you blame yourself for the outcome of that battle, and we have no idea of how much are you hurting right now,  but we do know that  you can¡¯t die yet, no, you are not allowed to die yet, not until you take "his" throne,  we won¡¯t accept anything less from the man we all admire and love,  go and experience new things, fight and keep fighting with that savage smile in your face, and then meet new wives that will become the home you return to after those battle, never stop looking forward my love, since that savage smile and that adventurous soul is what made us all love you as much as we do now}


    I wasn¡¯t able to answer, no, there was nothing for me to say, they all took turns to fill me with hugs and kisses, as they came up to me and  disappeared from the white space, there was not a single grudge or regret left within them, I knew that the best since I was able to feel the emotions within their souls as if they were actually mine. After the last one disappeared, the white space turned dark, and when I opened my eyes again, I was in a hospital room.


    I woke up with tears in my eyes, my eyes drifted to the home made wristband given to me by one of my daughters, I knew I felt a bit of their souls within it but I had no idea they placed a piece of their souls inside of it. I tried searching for remains but I can¡¯t feel anything from it, that must mean that it wasn¡¯t a dream and that this time was truly good bye.


    I was feeling really trouble right now, a mixture of happiness, sadness, and an ever growing pride for them, the troubled feeling came from their last request, which was to take the throne the most unfathomable god of them all, the one who gave me the power of reincarnation.


    {*sigh* this is going to be a really long adventure}, I said while strengthening my resolve and wiping off the tears off my face. When I was done with all of my inner monologue, the door of the hospital room opened and the man who rescued me from the fire stood there while looking at me as I looked towards him.


    We spoke and I decided to be adopted by him instead of heading to an orphanage, I knew he was not a simple man since I could feel the strength of his soul was above a normal human, and he confirmed my thoughts with his last sentence before we left.


    {Oh yeah, I should probably tell you this now, you see Shirou, I am a mage.]


    This is how I became Shirou Emiya.

 chapter 2

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    Club activities ended and I headed home, it was my usual routine.

 chapter 3

    [Chapter 3: The Grail War(part.1)]


    "Senpai! Wake up Senpai! It''s morning already."


    I opened my eyes, but had to closed them again because of the light, I couldn''t see who the person who woke me up was but I recalled both the situation and the voice already, I laid up and opened my eyes again, as the view became less blurry, I was able to see a silhouette, then it became more and more clear by the second and I see who the person was.


    "Thank you for waking me up again Sakura"


    I said while patting her head, I started doing it a while back since I notice she likes when I do that. I always thank her when she wakes me up, on her part I thank her for waking me up every morning.


    On my part, I thank her for ending my nightmares, the curse placed on me by the gods in my previous life is able to jump into action every time I sleep.


    Sometimes I find myself standing stuck in a single place and scenes flashing in front of me, the scenes of the carnage, but still, that one is not that bad, there are worst ones, like one where I am experiencing everything in a first person perspective, it feels so real that sometimes I can''t differentiate reality and dream, sometimes its all of my wives and children hunting me for revenge, and the worst of all that happens once a year, that day ¡­. that day and that day only the dream stops being a dream, I can feel their heat, I can hear their cries, taste the blood in my mouth, feel the pain from the attacks, that day of the year I can go back in time in my dreams and experience that hell again.


    I could have broken the curse in my previous life, but I didn''t want to since that is the sin I decided to carry. I will keep living like I promised them, but I will do so while carrying that burden in my shoulders. I have to get stronger, I know that if I lose someone like them again, even a single one, then I won''t be able to recover, my shoulders will be unable to bear the weight and ¡­. I will be broken forever.


    It''s being more than a year since that day with Sakura, since then, she comes and takes care of me every day, breakfast, dinner, and some other chores. I asked her for the reason why she was doing all of that for me but I wasn''t able to get an answer out of her, the only response was a stubborn shake of head, well, not like it bothers me anyways. The only problem, well, she keeps getting cuter by the day and that makes it harder for me not to eat her up, honestly, her defenses against me are too low.


    *sigh*


    A sigh of regret escapes my mouth, I was going to wait till she was a bit older but it looks like that was a mistake, looks like she found a boyfriend, she doesn''t want to tell me anything about it when I try to ask indirectly, and she hasn''t specifically talk about it but I know, since one day, that smell disappeared from her body. The smell of a virgin, it''s something I became sensitive to because of my succubus wife. I thought about reading the memories from her soul but the idea it''s kind of tasteless so I''ll just let it go for now.


    The morning goes by like usual, a quick shower and then eating breakfast with Taiga and Sakura.


    "If you don''t hurry and eat faster then you''ll be late again, Taiga" I said while eating my breakfast slowly.


    "I TOLD YOU TO CALL ME FU-JI-MU-RA SENSEI, AT LEAST CALL ME TAIGA SENSEI!" taiga roars which leaves my ears ringing.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    "Ugh- come on Taiga, I told you not to be so loud in the mornings" I answered while covering my ringing ears.


    She knew she wasn''t getting what she wanted so she growled, finished her breakfast and stomped out of the house while yelling "idiot, dummy, stupid Shirou".


    After seeing the angry taiga off, Sakura was smiling and giggling as she finished watching our occasional morning routine. After we both finished breakfast, we made our way to the school. We spoke about trivial stuff as usual, and me being me I took every opportunity to get closer to sakura, that''s a bad habit I made in my second life, if I want something, I take it. Meaning, I don''t care if sakura has a boyfriend, I want her, so I''ll take her. This was going through my mind as Sakura had the brightest smile on her face, that actually made me feel guilty, but not enough for me to stop wanting to rip her boyfriend to pieces.


    #School Yard


    "Senpai, won''t you come back to the archery club?" Sakura asked me with hopeful eyes.


    "Sorry but I think is better if I don''t, not after punching Shinji''s two front teeth out" I said with an awkward smile pasted on my face. One day I found a bruise on Sakura, I asked her about it but she didn''t answer so I asked Shinji about it instead, his answer was "I did it, so what" with an annoyed look on his face, after that, People tried to rip me off him but I didn''t stop until Sakura herself got involve.


    The only reason I stopped was because if I kept going Sakura might have gotten hurt. It was a work of art, his face had 5 different colors when I was done with him, after that day our relationship change from dislike to hate which made it somewhat weird between me and Sakura.


    "umm¡­ yeah, that''s true" she said with sad expression which made me feel guilty again.


    "Sorry Sakura" I said as I patted her head and turned around to head towards the school building.


    #StudentCouncilRoom


    "Do you think you can fix it Emiya?" That was Ryudo Issei, the student council president, I started helping him with some broken stuff after I found him being troubled about the budget to buy new equipment.


    "Well, let me check it first and then I''ll get back to you on that." I said that while taking the heater apart, while I was doing that, I was tracing the heater and checking its structure to see if it can be fix, after a couple of minutes of faking looking for the problem, I "found it" and fixed it.


    "Hoh! As impressive as always, there is nothing you can''t fix"


    "heh! I wish that was true, I can''t fix something that is completely damaged so try to be gentle with it"


    *sigh*


    "I wish the other students would listen to me when I ask them to"


    "haha, well try your best" I said while patting his shoulder and heading out.


    I was heading to the classroom when I saw Sakura, I was about to call out to her but didn''t when I saw the person next to her, there was a girl helping Sakura pick a pile of papers in the floor. After they were done and the girl left, I approached Sakura.


    "Hey Sakura!"


    "Senpai!"


    I looked to the direction the girl left with curiosity showing in my face,"That person just now?"


    "huh? That was-" she was about to answer but I cut her off.


    "Rin Tohsaka, right?" Sakura had a surprise expression on her face when I said that


    "umm¡­ you know her Senpai?"


    "oh, not really, there is not a single person who doesn''t know THE Tohsaka Rin"


    "right, of course Senpai knows her, Tohsaka-Senpai is cool and beautiful" Sakura said while touching the ribbon on her hair and looking away from me.


    "Humm" seeing her like that kind of flipped a switch in me, wanting to tease her I got my mouth close to her ear even if nobody was around to hear what I was going to say and whispered "well, it''s true that Tohsaka is cool and beautiful, but you are cute and adorable right?"


    After I backed off a bit, I saw Sakura''s skin turn from her usual tone to pink and then to red in less than a second,


    "ah! She ran away, looks like it was too much" I left with a smile on my face, I like teasing Sakura, her reactions are the best.


    After that was just the usual day, class, lunch, then class again, and then time to head home. Like every other day I waited for Sakura to be finished with the club and headed home together.


    Looks like this I grew accustomed to this peaceful life after a while. At first, I was wary, I might grow dull if I get too use to this but I don''t really care anymore, it would be a lie if I say that there was nothing missing but there is nothing, I can do but keep living my peaceful life.


    Just as if I jinx it, my peaceful life ended that night.

 chapter 4

    *Huh? I am pretty sure I went to sleep in my room, so where exactly am I right now?*


    I remember going to sleep in my room, but I have no recollection in my memories of the place I am in right now. If I had to guess what the place was, then I would say this is a church, it can be debatable but I would still lean towards the side that says it¡¯s more of a chapel than anything else. There¡¯s an altar in the middle, and benches on both left and right of it, plus the cross is even more evidence. I tried to move but couldn¡¯t, I looked down to realized that I was sitting in one of those benches and not only that but that I was completely surrounded by darkness, it looks as if I am a shadow myself.


    I tried to speak but nothing came out, and right after confirming if I had any control over my body, I learn that I can only move from the neck and above. I started looking around only to see more shadows sitting in the church just like I was, at first, I thought it was one of my usual nightmares but I don¡¯t remember ever having one like this. There were around 25 to 30 other shadows besides me, but that was it. There was nothing else besides ¡°us¡± in this church, however that didn¡¯t last long either.


    *what is that*


    Right in the middle of the church, a dark mist started to emerge from within the floor but this one was different from me and the others. This shadow could move, and its shape was more humanoid than ¡°us¡±, after taking the form of an adult man¡¯s silhouette it started moving towards the front part of the church.


    ¡°Welcome, my dear participants. I know most of you have no idea what is happening, in fact, I am sure none of you have experience this kind of situation before, but I couldn¡¯t be any happier to announce all of you as the participants selected to take part of the  5<sup>th</sup> holy grail war¡±


    The shadow looked towards it¡¯s right and started addressing one of the sitting shadows.


    ¡°Yes, precisely that same holy grail war, you will all summon your trusted servants and fight, fight, and fight until only one of you 27 is left¡±


    There was no sound coming from the shadow sitting down, but the dark silhouette answer as if he could read the thought of the shadows sitting down. He then looked towards another shadow and started another one man, or shadow in this case, dialogue.


    ¡°That is true, most of you already know of the grail war, which also means that you know that only seven servant and seven masters are supposed to participate in this event, however, as the representative of the grail itself, I will provide you all with the answer to these questions¡±


    Representative of the grail, what does he mean by that? I though the grail was an object and not a living thing with reason and a will to make any decisions. Before I was able to question the shadow on that, he started answering my other confusions.


    ¡°First of all, know that because of some special circumstances, the grail was able to reduce the cycle of the war from 60, to a meager 10 years. Another change most of you are suspicious about is the number of servants and master participating in this war. Well, unlike the others before this, the servants summoned in this instance will be considered to be incomplete, meaning that they will be weaker than what they would have been in the case of a normal summoning. But do not fear, their stats will just decrease a rank or two, however you will be able to return them to normal strength with various methods.


    The simplest yet at the same time the most complicated one being defeating another servant and absorbing them before they disappear completely. There are other methods to make your servants regain their past strengths, but I will leave those methods to your imagination, that will make it more interesting for both you and me.¡±


    Hoh? Well this is quite the change, although I only know the overall structure and not the details of the grail war, having 27 servants battle each other it¡¯s going to troublesome. Or ¡­ more like fun, if the number of servants increase then that means the number of battles, I can be a part of can also increase. But this ¡°thing¡± being the representative of the grail doesn¡¯t sound convincing.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°After only one servant remains, the grail will grant the winner any wish they desire, anything from money, love, beauty, power, anything !!! now my dear participant, go , summon  your trusted servants and have your deepest desire granted by the Grail.¡±


    The shadow¡¯s voice kept  getting more excited as he explained the war to the participants, and with those final words, my vision fell into darkness and I re-opened my eyes again to see the familiar ceiling  from my room.


    ¡°The grail war, the first step I will take towards the start of my adventure. I wonder what kind of wish I should make when I win,  for my purpose, the best thing I could wish for is power, but¡­ What if ¡­. What if there is a chance that I could wish them back. No, the only reason they appeared before me in this life was because they placed a piece of their souls in the bracelet, their actual souls were completely destroyed by those SONS OF B-¡± I was getting angry.


    *Breathe in* *Breathe out*


    ¡°Calm down, you killed them already, there is no target for this anger anymore so just let it be¡± with those words I kept breathing until I was calm again.


    I realized that there was a red marking on the back of my left hand.


    ¡°Command Seals¡± was the first thing that came to mind when I first saw it.


    ¡°From the fragments I could gather within Kiritsugu¡¯s memories, this should be what allow you to order your servant to do anything you want them to do.¡± Better keep these hidden and make sure not to waste them, who knows, I might summon some madman that will make me use them just to keep him in check.¡±


    *Sigh*


    ¡°Too much happening and it¡¯s not even 6 in the morning¡±


    Like that I stood up and went back to my daily routine as if nothing has change.


    -Interlude-


    It is early in the morning; the sun is rising and the morning wing still carries the cold of the night with it. On top of the roof of a high and quiet building, a female figure appeared out of nowhere as if with a magic trick, It was a blonde girl, by the standard of the people she is definitely consider to be ¡°beautiful¡±, her body was covered with a blue cloth and on top of that was a silver armor which showed her readiness for battle, not only that, but in her hands there was something. There was a white flag with a golden symbol on it.


    ¡°If I was summoned within the ruler class then something bad must have happened with the grail war. But this, I am ¡­ how do I word it ¡­ incomplete? If I am the only servant whose strength was reduce then my job just became 2 to 3 times more difficult than what it normally would have been. This place is? Ja- Japan, east of France, I am pretty far from my homeland. Alright! No time for useless thoughts, I have to move and bear witness to the grail war in order to make sure it runs smoothly. In the name of Ruler ¨C Jeanne D¡¯arc I will do everything within my power to ensure that the Holy Grail War will begin and end as it¡¯s supposed to.¡±


    After saying those words, the girl¡¯s voice disappeared into the void just as she did, leaving no prove that there was someone standing there just a second ago. It truly was like a magic trick.


    -Interlude end-


    ¡°So, I went ahead and kept my life going as normal, but I have to summon my servant if I want to stay alive enough time for me to fight in the war. Now to the main problem, I have no F-ing clue how to summon a servant, if I knew this was going to happen I would have read more of Kiritsugu¡¯s memories even if it meant blowing my cover. Well, worrying about it won¡¯t help me in any way so let¡¯s just go home¡±


    It¡¯s weird, it¡¯s being two days since the war started but I am still living normally, I was expecting things to be more exciting, maybe one or two servants coming to kill me from the start, I wonder what it would be like to fight one.


    This thoughts kept going around and around within my mind while I walked towards my house, but then I saw something that froze everything, at the other side of the road was a little girl, pale skin and snow white hair. The blood red color of her eyes was too contrasting from the other colors so they were causing me to be drawn in without noticing.


    I was going to take a step towards her but stopped and focused on reading her lips which were moving in an exaggerated way in order for me not to make any mistake with what she was trying to tell me. After she was done, a police car passed by and the next moment she wasn¡¯t there anymore.


    ¡°That¡­ that was Illya right? I didn¡¯t expect to meet her so soon, and by what she said I can expect her to be a master too.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t hurry up and summon your servant, then you are going to die, Onii-Chan.¡±


    This confirmed it, the grail war started already and I am most likely than not the only one who hasn¡¯t summoned his servant yet. I got to think, I need to find a way to summon my servant, if not I will have to fight in this war by myself, I mean, how strong can these servants really be, I didn¡¯t get to see it from Kiritsugu but if they were human then that means they can¡¯t be that strong.


    Thoughts like this kept hunting me until I reach the house. I entered the house but was to deep into my mind to notice it, I went in and found Sakura and Taiga at the dinner table.


    ¡°Oh Shirou, welcome home¡± said Taiga with a grin on her face.


    ¡°Senpai, you¡¯re back from work, welcome home.¡± Said Sakura with a warm smile on her face.


    ¡°Yeah I¡¯m home¡± I said while still thinking about the same things from before. I greet back and give a light kiss to Sakura then went to my room to get change.


    ¡°27 servants and masters, one wish granting grail, no way to summon my servant, things are not going the way I was expecting them to go, I mean, I was not exactly expecting to meet Illya on my way home. At least she didn¡¯t surprise me by waiting for me at home or that would have been a little troublesome with Sakura and Taiga being here.¡±


    That¡¯s when it hit me, I was done taking my shirt off when my mind finally managed to catch up to my body. I walked home, met Illya, arrive home, greeted Taiga like normal and then greeted Sakura with ¡­ a ¡­ kiss.


    ¡°Oh shit!¡± I finally realized what I did. After that you could hear the sound of crashing when I ran through the hallway towards the living room where a Taiga with her chin almost touching the floor and a Sakura that was 3 times redder than Illya¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°eh, well, what can I say, it was bound to happen at some point right? haha¡±


    I don¡¯t know if it came out as some kind of signal but right when I finished Sakura tilted sideways and collapsed in the floor. Looks like that was not the best excuse I could have made up.

 chapter 5

    [Chapter 5: Are you my master?]


    "What is this? The grail summoned a Ruler class servant while I was attending to my new toy. I thought my corruption was enough to prevent any further action without my consent but it looks like it still serves its original purpose if I easy up even a bit."


    In the middle of a dark room, there was a shadow, it was the same shadow that announced the start of the grail war to the 27 participants in the church. Its voice contained a tone of annoyance within it as it spoke about his error.


    "Do you really think that this "Ruler" class servant will cause any trouble to the continuation of our plans? By the way things are going, this servant must be in the same situation as the others. That servant should have been summoned as an incomplete and weaker servant and knowing the qualifications to make it into the ruler class plus the fact that they cannot directly interfere with the war. I am sure this "Ruler" class servant will not try to make itself stronger by beating other servants, as for the other way, it is even less likely that this servant will attack innocent people in order to increase its strength with their soul."


    "Oh! your words are wise Kotomine Kirei, it was indeed the correct choice to choose you as a partner, by my knowledge the fact that a person like you is working as a priest is quite ironic. But I still do not understand the meaning of you rising that plaything of yours, have not killed her father? Why do you insist on keeping her alive after those deeds?"


    "Haha! Do you really not understand? I am sure you and I are the same type of person so I know you understand Angra Mainyu. She has enough talent to be the winner of the grail war, I simply can''t wait for the moment she has to fight the new heir of the Matou family. Plus, don''t you think it would be fun to tell her about how I killed her father with the sword I gave her as a coming of age present. It would be a delightful experience don''t you think?"


    *Whistle*


    "You my friend are the best thing that has happen to me ever. I cannot wait to see that expression of her face, With the small patience that remains within me I will like to wait for the servants to grow stronger. In the mean time I will go hunting in the vail of the night and gain enough power to keep the grail from acting without my orders. May the day we destroy this rotten world reach us soon."


    "Your wish is the same as mine, go and I will handle the masters for as long as you are gone, with the help of that king there is certainly nothing that will be able to stand in our way".


    After those words were said, the shadow disperse into the floor and the priest was left alone in the darkroom, the man also walked out of the room and the room was now without a presence within it.


    #School Cafeteria


    "What should I eat, I think some ramen will do for now" I paid for my food and looked for a place to sit down when a voice called out to me.


    "Hey Emiya, over here" The voice belonged to the captain of the archery club Mitsuzuri Ayako.


    "Oh, been a while since we''ve spoken Ayako-Chan" I said while sitting down in front of her. It was fun to see her eyebrows twitch from me calling her Ayako-Chan, she always says that I shouldn''t treat her like a kid since we are the same age but gave up after I kept doing it, it''s just like what happen with Taiga.


    "ye-yeah, it''s been a while, why don''t you just come back to the archery club already, just so you know I have already improved enough to leave you in the dust, hahahaha"


    *hehe, such a lively kid, maybe I should start teasing her too, I bet it would be amusing*


    "Well, sorry but I don''t think I''ll be going back, you already know about the thing with me and Shinji, I can make no promise about leaving him with a single teeth next time he pisses me off"


    "O-oh, ye-yeah, I remember that" she said while grimacing with the memory.


    *sigh*


    "I know you don''t like him but I think you''re the only one who can keep him in check at this point."


    "what happen?" I asked sensing the annoyance and helplessness emanating from her soul.


    "Shinji made one of the new members take a bow and shoot the target until he managed to hit the target, which he didn''t, in front of all of the girls in the club, then started laughing and making fun of him with every miss, I think that kid won''t be coming back."


    "and¡­ you just let that happen? I asked with a calmed tone, it really didn''t concern me, on the contrary, I think I am somehow physically incapable of caring about it, the only reason I beat him bloody last time was because the target of his "I am better than everyone else" shit was Sakura.


    "HAH? Of course not! But I can''t be there all the time, Fujimura-sensei and I got our own things to do as the supervisor and captain of the archery club. And to top it off, the reason he is like that is because he got rejected by Tohsaka."


    *Cough-choke- cough*


    "What? He confessed to THAT Tohsaka Rin?" ok, there are some things in life that you can see coming from miles away, and others that you simply can''t see, this one was right in front of me but I never even expected it.


    "Wha- Shhhhhh! Keep your voice down" she was whispering for some reason I don''t know but let''s go along with it.


    "so, now he is mad because he was shot down?"


    "Yeah, I think he might do something to back to her for revenge, they keep getting into fights every time she goes to the archery club and the poor Sakura always ends up in between the argument."


    "Oh ok, I''ll see what I can do"


    "¡­. So, it only takes one mention of Sakura in the issue and you go from complete uninterested to interested in less than a second?"


    "Of course, Sakura is Sakura after all" I said while sipping on the soup from my ramen.


    "And you don''t have any shame admitting it so easily."


    "Why should I be embarrassed about it, such a cute little thing has to be taken care off right" I said with a grin on my face.


    "Woah, it''s worse than I thought, he just said that with a completely straight face" she said with cheeks that were tinted pink.


    "Thanks for the food"


    #Archery club


    "I haven''t been here in a while, I''ll take a quick look and see if Tohsaka is there, if not I''ll just leave" I was trying to check inside from the windows when I hear something coming towards me from behind.


    *Woosh*


    It was a reaction cause by pure instinct, I jumped to dodge the low blow to my feet and stepped on the "weapon" when I came back down, and then twisted my body to the side and let my leg rise to kick the "attacker" in the face and make some distance.


    "Oh" for better or for worse I regained control over my body and stopped my foot right in front of the "attacker''s" nose. I lower my leg and stepped back twice to make some distance.


    "you know, you should be more careful, I almost made your head fly, literally" I said while scratching the back of my head awkwardly. In front of me were three frozen figures, all three were girls, one with short black hair that looks like the boyish type, one with long silver hair and glasses, which looks like the type who just goes along with things, and the third was a medium length brown hair girl who looks like she is about to cry and was dragged over here against her will.


    "M-Ma-ma-Matou Sh-Shi-Shinji, I- hate to bre-break it to -y- you bu-but Toh-Tohsaka isn''t coming." She tried to sound threatening but it wasn''t working, not with her legs moving like soft noddle''s.


    "Ma-Maki, I don''t think he fits the description that was given to us." Said the girl with silver hair.


    "Emiya Shirou at your service" I said while trying to sound sarcastic and giving a light bow.


    "E-Emiya Shirou, THAT Emiya Shirou, the one who fixes all of the stuff from the Track club Emiya Shirou? The "you better don''t mess with Sakura Matou or the bloody hulk will come after you" Emiya Shirou?"


    "Wh- Th- Hulk? For real? That''s what they''ve been calling me? Wasn''t there something better, not wait, it actually fits" I said while rubbing my chin and nodding my head in acknowledgement of the nickname.


    "So-So-SORRY, WE GOT THE WRONG GUY" yelled the girl with the short hair and then she ran away while the other two followed behind.


    "Huh! Quite the interesting trio. Well, since Tohsaka isn''t coming I might as well go and wait for Sakura somewhere"


    #


    "Fuck, this curse won''t even let me take a nap in peace."


    *yawwwn*


    "Let''s go and get Sakura, huh? Why is it dark outside, that nap shouldn''t have been that long right?"


    When I looked at the clock in front of class room it was already way past the time the archery club ended.


    *sigh*


    "So, nobody managed to see the guy dead asleep in an empty class room. Sakura most likely went home already so I might as well just leave right away"


    I got myself together and started leaving the school, with nothing else to think about my thoughts once again drifted towards the grail war and my problem of not being able to summon my servant.


    "but still, I think I worried too much, like, what are the chances that I will meet a servant on my way home from school."


    *CLANK*


    "huh?"


    *CLANK CLANK CLANK*


    "I know those sounds, did I really just jinx myself, for real, out of all of the places I could end up meeting a servant, it had to be school."Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Following the sound of metal heavily hitting metal which might have not being the best idea, I arrived at the school yard, hidden in the shade of a shadow I managed to see what was making the sounds that could be heard all around the school.


    "Those are ¡­. servants?"


    That was a stupid question, of course they were, those two were using too much mana for a normal human body to handle, if a human used that much mana then either their bodies or their magic circuits would be totally destroyed. Those two in blue and black are definitely servants, by the way It looks they should be Lancer and the other seems to be a Saber? The blue lancer had a red spear, and the Saber in black had two short black and white swords, it was an incredible fight, that I am sure about it, but I wasn''t able to pay much attention to it, there was something weird happening. My od, the magic energy inside of me was moving without my consent, its goal was my eyes, as more and more od started to pour into my eyes, I started seeing something weird. I could see and make out a lot of things that I couldn''t before.


    First, I suddenly started seeing the lance and swords basic structure.


    Second, I suddenly knew what materials they were made with.


    Third, I suddenly knew what the skills and methods used to make them were.


    Fourth, I suddenly was able to sympathize with the experience of their growth


    Fifth, I suddenly knew of their accumulated years.


    More than suddenly knowing or learning of these five things, its more as if my eyes were analyzing all of this and sending the information to my brain, after the process was done with and the od stopped flowing towards my eyes, there was only one thing left within my mind.


    "I want them!" those words escaped my mouth by accident.


    "WHAT? Who''s there?"


    The two men in the middle of a battle froze when they were interrupted by an unexpected voice coming from me.


    "Oh shit!" I started running.


    "Shit, shit , shit, shit, SHIT!" I fucked up. If I don''t hurry up, I am 80 percent sure that I am going to die. I am in no condition to fight, much less to strengthen my body for any type of movement, in my current state of mind reinforcing my body would be the same as committing suicide. I can''t focus, my mind is full of bits of pieces of new information that I''ve never knew before. Kansho? Bakuya? Gae Bolg? Materials? Skills? This is all coming to fast."


    Calm down, Calm down, think, think, what is this, my eyes, my eyes did something when the od flooded them. After that I could see information that I couldn''t before. What now? I should run into the school building, I am too far from a place with a lot of people so the next best thing is to suppress my magic and hide somewhere.


    *Gasp Gasp Gasp*


    I was gasping for air, the seals I drew in my body to train were now acting against me, if I release them, then I will just give away my location, so I will have to keep running with this extra weight on me. Control, I need to control my breathing or I won''t be able to run for long. I ran up the stairs towards the second floor and was running in the halls, I decided on one of the random classrooms and was about to enter it when I sensed a presence behind me. I turned around, since I was already found I might as well and undo the seals and strengthen my body, if I am going to die then I will do so in an exciting battle, or so I wanted but things don''t always go the way you want them to.


    "Relea-"


    *Pierce*


    The sound of flesh being ripped and blood spilling on the floor was hear loud and clear.


    "Rea-lly man, *blood spurt* stra¡ªight for th- har-. Gi- me- a brea-" blood left me from both my mouth and the new hole in my body that is now where my heart used to be.


    "Sorry kid, no witnesses." Said the blue lancer before retracting his spears and disappearing into thin air.


    *Plop*


    I fell to the ground. Ah shit, I forgot that I don''t have the skills I use to have back then, having a hole in your chest is a new experience, I think it''s easier to breathe with this extra hole.


    "Haha UGH" ok, not funny, definitely not funny. Huh? It''s getting cold, I better do something fast or I am really going to die.


    "How is it Archer?" I hear a female voice from getting closer. I think I know it from somewhere but I don''t really feel like thinking about right now.


    "¡­"


    "Archer!"


    "¡­"


    "With this amount of blood loss, he is going to die without a doubt"


    She crouches next to me, it was more like I fell her do it more than I saw her do it, I wanted to do something to survive, but with a master and servant still here then that''s just reviving to die again. I felt her hand touching my arm and pulling me to the side so that I was laying on my back.


    "Oh my god! Wh- why did it have to be you, out of all the students in this school it has to be you here at this time. What am I going to do? She will break if you die, you can''t die, I won''t allow you to die, you are the only support she has right now."


    The voice was getting farther away, if I couldn''t feel her magic energy next to me then I would have thought that she was leaving already. But, why does she sound so desperate, I know the voice but I shouldn''t be close with the owner of this voice, from a certain point of view I am only close to Sakura, and this voice doesn''t resemble Sakura''s at all. Well who cares, it looks like I am going to die without being able to fight even a single servant, if my wives saw this then I would be too embarrassed to look at them, the fierce Ango, the god slayer, Demon King, The king of the biggest country in that world, one who was revered as god by many, dying by the single trust of a lance. DISGRACEFUL, TASTELESS, WHAT A FUCKING JOKE. I was only getting angrier by the second but that wasn''t going to make a difference, I''m stuck between a rock and a wall.


    Eh? My body was regaining its lost heat, I could feel it, I was getting healed by something, by someone but why? What reason does that person has for this? I know she has no idea I''m a master but I am still a "non-mage" witness, she should be making sure that I am dead if anything.


    "Ahhh god, that jewel is worth a small fortune¡ªno, scratch that, it''s worth a fortune so you better don''t waste this "free" life.


    Those were her last words before she left with her servant which was extremely quiet for some reason, that Saber in black I remember doesn''t look like the quiet type. Wait, she called him Archer so why is he using swords.


    After a couple of minutes and confirming that they were gone for good, I stood up with unsteady legs.


    " It looks like the blood loss will need some time."


    I looked down to the pool of blood that was where I was laying just a second ago and waved my hand over it, one second there was a puddle of blood and then the next there was none.


    "I got to say, Inventory can be useful in the strangest of ways when you put it to good use. Now that there is nothing left I better head home."


    #Emiya House


    *Gasp, Gasp, Breath in, Breath out*


    "getting home was harder than I expected, I had no idea that this is how having a hole in the chest would leave you afterwards. My throat is dry, my feet feel like jelly, and it was hard enough to focus before but now is even harder"


    I went straight to the kitchen and had a glass full of cold water.


    "UWAA! That''s that good stuff, I feel refreshed" I relaxed and my body fell to the floor.


    "Well, at least am still alive."


    *Jingle Jingle*


    My body tensed up again. Those bells were the boundary field in this house, it tells me when I get any "unexpected guest".


    "FOR REAL! I think I''m better than the grail at granting wishes, I should open up a business"


    I hurried and stood up, looking around the only things I found that could be useful were a couple of knives and a poster that Taiga brought in the other day. I ran to get out of the kitchen in order to get in to a better position but what greeted me was a lance trust coming right from above which I dodge by rolling forward and turning to face the lancer without missing a beat.


    "So, you were not satisfied after killing me once?"


    "Well, I have no idea how you survived kid but bad luck for you, my master''s orders are to leave no witnesses alive. You can blame your own luck for this."


    "Bad luck huh?"


    I can finally see him clearly, a man with short spiky hair, red eyes, and a couple of earrings on his ears, his clothes were also peculiar but I knew they were not simple silk either, it was a battle suit that cover his bottom half but left his stomach, chest, and sides with nothing over them, maybe it''s something about the servants being incomplete, or just his preference, who knows. I started seeing something appear next to him.


    Strength: D??? Endurance: E


    Agility: C ????Mana: E


    Luck: E?????NP: D


    Stats? What is this? a game? Still let''s see how good I can do in my current state against an incomplete servant.


    "RELEASE"


    With that command a couple of runes in my body shone and then disappeared just as fast. Now I feel way better than before, I feel lighter.


    "Huh? So, you''re actually a mage kid?"


    "Yeah, something like that"


    Right after finishing those words I strengthen two of the four knives that I took from the kitchen and threw them at him, and just like I expected, the one that was going for his head was dodge with a tilt to the side and the one going for his chest was block by the red spear.


    *sigh*


    "to think that because of an incomplete summoning I have to become "stronger" in order to regain my protection from arrows skill"


    "Is that so? Well good for me that you don''t have it"


    "yeah, good for you kid"


    He jumped at me with a super human speed, but it was not as impressive as I thought it would be, if this was all then I could manage.


    *CLANK CLACK*


    He kept attacking and I kept deflecting with the reinforced poster, left, right, above, and even below, hits were coming from everywhere but I could still manage to hold him back easily. After a couple more, times of him attacking and me defending I realized why I was managing his attacks so easily.


    "Heh! You bastard, so you''ve been holding back, and here I wanted to have some fun but it looks like you''re not into it."


    "oh! if you realized that then that means you know your stuff kid. Alright, let''s give you the fun you wanted. He said with a smile on his face, I recognized that expression, is the one I used to wear when going to battle.


    It was not that difficult to realized he was holding back by a lot, I already knew he could move faster but the biggest thing was his technique. He was only using big swings as if he was using a sword, clearly to give me time to react to the attack, a spear can be used in many ways, and one of the most difficult ways to deal with is thrusting, unlike wide swings that let you know where the attack is coming from, a thrust comes from a single point so you either see it coming or you don''t. still he kept using those big swings but this time the speed kept increasing bit by bit and I kept retreating step by step.


    "Come on kid, show me what you can do"


    "you asked for it" I said as I threw the last two knives I had hidden, but these two were different, these were "broken", I reinforced them a bit too much and now when he blocks them with his spear.


    *Crack Puff*


    They broke and became dust which kept flying towards his face, I was about to jump in and attack him while he couldn''t see but when I saw that he managed to "deflect" the dust by swinging his spear I changed my plans and decided to run to the yard instead.


    "good, kid, you have a talent for battle, let''s keep going, I feel that you are the same type of person as me" he was smiling, and so was I. it was a common yet rare trait found in those who enjoy battle, even a simple spar can make a smile appear on their faces.


    "Just what I wanted oh great hero"


    "Lancer, stop playing with the kid and kill him already, you might attract other servants if you wait too long"


    A female voice came from the side, when I looked towards it, I saw a woman who looked to be no more than in her early twenties, wearing a black suit with earrings similar to that of the servant fighting me and magenta color hair adorning her head. Looks like Lancer''s master was here all along. When I looked back to lancer his smile was gone, and so was mine, now it was about to become more business than enjoyment.


    "Sorry, looks like we were not destined to enjoy a duel"


    "No worries, do what you got to do and I''ll do what I got to do"


    We both gave a light nod to each other and resume the fighting, but it was nothing like before, he gained the upper hand in the first move which wasn''t actually unexpected. I slowly started to strengthen my body but the delay wasn''t going to help catching up to him, not unless he gives me a couple of minutes.


    *Kick*


    "augh" he kicked the air out of my lungs, I''m flying across the yard, like, literally flying. I felt an impact on my back and when I managed to see which way was up, I realized that he sends me flying more than a couple of feet into the shed that I use for training.


    "Guess this is it kid"


    "Hah? Nah, you got to try harder, or I''ll keep getting up no matter how many of those weak kicks you use." I said that but I knew it was bullshit, and he knew it was bullshit too, he really kicked the air out of my longs, Damn!


    " Just give it up kid, you might be a mage but you don''t know what you''re dealing with, at least die like a warrior instead of dying while being ignorant.


    "Nah, I know exactly what I am facing, Ireland''s Child of light Cu Chulainn, and I haven''t use everything I have yet so let''s start round two how about it?"


    His eyes grew wide, his surprise was the same as his master who gasped in the same place she was before.


    "ok, Level with me here for a second, you''re the second person to pull that out of nowhere today, do I have it written on my back or something?"


    "Hehe, let''s just say I have my ways"


    "Well, for a mage from this era you sure know your stuff, alright kid, this will be the last blow"


    He readied his spear and lower his waist; his heels dig into the grown and his upper body was arched forward just like a predator about to capture his prey. He was serious, and I could feel it in every move he took. I was not sure if I was going to survive or not, but like hell I am going down without a fight.


    "Like hell I am dying twice in a single night"


    He started his attack, but something weird happen, the shed was suddenly filled with light, at the corner of the shed a magic circle glowed but we couldn''t see it because of the light. Thanks to the light I managed to roll out of the way but crashed with something I was sure was not supposed to be there. After the light was gone and both Lancer and me regain our sight, we were able see the "thing" I crashed into. It was a petite blonde girl with a blue and white dress over her fair skin. She was someone that I''ve "seen" before from within Kiritsugu''s memories.


    "Artoria"


    She seems surprise at the fact that I call her name without notice but regained her composure and look down to me who was still in the floor,


    "I ask of you, Are you my master?

 chapter 6

    [Chapter 6-The bloody Hulk]


    I was dumbfounded, she appeared from within the flash of light as if,


    *STING*


    The command seals were glowing, I looked back to her after taking a quick glance at the seals and answer her question after standing up and cleaning myself up.


    ¡°Well, it sure looks like I am¡± I said while looking at her eyes, I took the back of her hand and gave it a light kiss.


    ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to be in the presence of a king with such beauty¡± were the words that came out of me while I was still mesmerized by her. She kept staring at me for a second trying to figure out how to react to my actions but her thoughts were interrupted by the man in blue behind us.


    *Cough*


    Both saber and I looked towards him and remembered the situation we were in.


    ¡°Oh! sorry, I totally forgot about the fight, let¡¯s go back to the yard and finish it, I can¡¯t wait to speak to her properly.¡±


    ¡°Hoh! So, you want to keep going even though you already summoned your servant?¡±


    ¡°Of course, this was a fight between you and me and it will stay like that until your master jumps in to help you.¡±


    ¡°I like your guts kid, but ¡­ do you think the situation will be any different from before?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it will be totally different, first of all, for some reason I am feeling better than before both physically and mentally, the only reason you pierced my heart earlier and that I couldn¡¯t fight properly was because of the information I was being given about your Gae Bolg and that Archer in black¡¯s Kanshou and Bakuya. It was really embarrassing but with the shock of summoning Artoria I am finally able to think straight again.¡±


    I was scratching the back of my head from embarrassment, I was looking straight at Cu¡¯s eyes but my peripheral vision still caught sight of his lance, it looks like that was enough for my eyes to keep analyzing it and sending me information. It¡¯s actually not that hard after you get used to it, by focusing on Cu, it looks like the information is being send to my subconscious.


    ¡°If you say so¡± said Cu while supporting his lance in his shoulder¡¯s which was about to make me drool for it again but I regained focus in half a second and followed behind him who was going out of the shed.


    ¡°Wait, I can¡¯t accept this¡± Said Artoria while following behind us.


    ¡°I was summoned as your servant to fight for you in the grail war, if I let you be in danger like this then I cannot call myself a proper servant¡±


    ¡°eh? Well, don¡¯t worry about it, I¡¯ll be ok, probably?¡±


    ¡°No! I refuse to allow you to put yourself in danger for no reason, even if I have to go against your will, my duty as a servant and my pride as a king will not allow me to leave you in danger when there is no way for a master to match a servant in battle.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it¡­ now, I Shirou Emiya challenge the child of light Cu Chulainn to a duel¡±


    That caused her to freeze just like I wanted to, she was a servant, a king, and also a knight, and now I was taking advantage of her knighthood.


    ¡°I see what you did there kid¡± he said with a smile ¡°I Cu Chulainn accept the challenge of Shirou Emiya¡±


    ¡°Wha--- I told you to stop playing with the kid and now you go and accept his challenge?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it master, it¡¯ll be over soon enough for us to avoid causing anything that will attract another servant here.¡±


    *sigh*


    ¡°Just hurry up and get done with it¡±


    ¡°Yes master, now, you heard her kid, we better hurry up¡±


    ¡°haha, alright¡±


    Alright, so what the hell am I going to do now, it¡¯s true that my condition is magically better than before, but I can¡¯t match him while bare-handed, I need something to counter his spear, something strong enough to fight against a servant. Something like his spear, or those two short swords, if only I could create a weapon just like in my previous li----.


    ¡°Oh! why didn¡¯t I think of that before¡±


    It came out as half a scream, if that Idea succeeded then the rest would only be a matter of who can fight better. I mainly depended on my skills in my previous life so I didn¡¯t really train with the weapons I made, but 12,000 years of experience cannot be something to ignore for a weakened servant.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what that was about but here I go kid¡±


    Just like before, his knees bended, his hip lowered, his heels digging into the ground, and his back arched forward like a predator who was more than ready to jump at me and ¡­ he did.


    ¡°Trace---on¡±


    It was something I¡¯ve never tried before so it was a gamble, since I was interested in projection magic since the moment Kiritsugu thought me about it, I managed to succeed and project anything I analyze, but I¡¯ve never done it with something of this caliber before. But for some reason it felt easier than before. Mana flooded my eyes and my magic circuits and something I¡¯ve never experience before happened,


    I recreated the concept of the creation.


    I recreated the basic structure.


    I recreated the composition materials.


    I recreated the skills of its making.


    I recreated the experience of its growth.


    I recreated its accumulated years.


    I recreated the manufacturing process.


    After completing these seven steps, I was holding both Kanshou and Bakuya in my hands before any of the people in the yard managed to realized I had them. They were both big and heavy, but thanks to my reinforcement it was easy to lift them and move them with ease.


    *CLANK CLANK CLANK*


    Before Cu¡¯s eyes went wide, I had already repelled his first, second, and third attack, now it was my turn to attack while he was still in disbelieve. I lowered my stance by bending my knees, and by kicking the ground I shot forward like an arrow heading straight Cu. My target was his neck, if I had the opportunity then it would be stupid to let such a dangerous opponent keep fighting. Kanshou approached his neck at an incredible speed just like I wanted but it was blocked by his spear, to amend my failure I used Bakuya instead to slash at his stomach.


    *CLANK*


    I failed a second time, there are two reasons I realized were the cause off this, first, his confusion lasted way less than I expected, and the second one and mostly the main reason is that, in short, I am rusty. This is what happens when you stop doing something you¡¯re use to for a long time, the last fight I had was with the gods 3,000 years ago. Then it was all about researching souls in order to bring my wives back, now, I am unconsciously hesitating and my body doesn¡¯t move the way I imagine it, I can keep up with him but back in the old days I would have kill him with the first blow.


    ¡°Fuck¡±


    ¡°Hoh¡± he was impressed, a master fighting him like this was something he didn¡¯t expect to find in this war. He jumped at me again and the fight continued, slashes and trust were exchanged many times, we aimed for the heart, the eyes, the stomach, legs, and many other vital points but the other always reflected or dodge the attack, sparks kept flying until a change in the stalemate happen.


    *Crack*


    Kanshou broke, I could hear a gasp from behind me that was coming from Artoria.


    ¡°Master!!!¡±


    I think Saber was about to jump towards me in order to defend me but Lancer was faster in taking advantage of the now broken sword. Unfortunately for him by the time he reached me I already had another Kanshou grasped within my hand, which I used to deflect his spear once again, and retreat a couple of steps to then follow up by throwing Bakuya to get a couple seconds to breathe.


    After catching my breath, I stepped right behind the flying sword and approached Cu at high speed, he deflected the white sword and send it flying behind him, I started fighting him at close range with a single sword which strained my senses to their limit but my plan was going just as I wanted.


    ¡°Lancer! Watch out¡± yelled Lancer¡¯s master from the top of her longs, but it was too late, he dodges to the side but Bakuya which came back flying like a boomerang slashed his side, it wasn¡¯t a deep cut but it was the first injury I managed to get on him.


    ¡°How was that?¡± I asked him after catching Bakuya and getting back into position.


    ¡°Not bad at all kid, I knew you had a knack for fighting but if you can fight like that on this era then you must have been born for it, and that grin on your face confirms it.¡±


    ¡°Thanks for the compliment but you still haven¡¯t use everything you have, right? Come on, you¡¯ve already said you were coming at me with your all twice but are still holding something back, it¡¯s about time to use whatever it is you¡¯re hiding.¡±


    ¡°You wish for cursed crimson spear¡± he said while changing his position, the tip of the spear was now producing a red fiery energy.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see how you handle my noble phantasm kid¡±


    He didn¡¯t have to say it for me to know, I was shivering the moment that spear started letting out that red mana. I had a feeling, I was rusty but I could still sense that peculiar feeling you get from time to time in a battle to the death, it was the feeling of a sword held against your neck, the feeling of death.


    ¡°Shit¡± note to self, don¡¯t taunt servants in the future.


    I am still getting information from my eyes at this moment, more and more details about the structure, more and more details about the concept of its creation, and the detail that managed to change the feeling I have from I am going to die if I don¡¯t do something to there is nothing, I can do to prevent death. This is the noble phantasm GAE BOLG, it rewrites causality, meaning that my heart will be pierce before the spear even reach me. How am I supposed to dodge a blow that rewrites causality? With luck?


    My back was drenched in sweat, my pupils were the size of niddles, and my mind was working faster than ever before in order to think of a way to survive. This brought back a memory, it was the first battle I had when I used the skill monster attraction at max level to find some prey in the mountains but attracted an army of monsters instead, I almost died in that battle and I am about to die here too. I tried thinking of something but even if I used all of my mana or use Time alter to become faster, I am sure there is less than a 50% chance that I might survive.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°The fuck man, that¡¯s cheat level¡±


    ¡°GAE¡± the mana in the air froze.


    ¡°Lancer stop¡±


    That voice saved my life, weirdly, it came from Cu¡¯s master. Caught by surprise by his master¡¯s action Cu stopped his attack and looked at his master with confusion.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong master, don¡¯t tell me you fell for the boy after seeing him fight me.¡±


    ¡°Wh--- of course not you idiot, there is another servant approaching and there could be more on the way, so unless you want to give away your identity to more servants then you better stop right there and leave the fight for some other time"


    She spoke fast but it would have been more convincing if she wasn¡¯t blushing from being teased by Cu. After stopping and focusing on the magic energy in the area I was able to feel two sources moving fast in our direction.


    ¡°Looks like we¡¯ll have to save the conclusion for another time, you better not die before that kid¡±


    He swung his lance and face towards his master then nodded and left by leaping over the wall of the yard, his master followed without showing any difficulty in doing so. Looks like she can also take care of herself.


    I looked at Artoria who was staring straight at me and said,


    ¡°Well, looks like I¡¯ll live another day, hehe¡± she didn¡¯t like that response, I knew because her staring turned into an angry glare from a second to another.


    ¡°We will speak about this right after I finish fighting the ones outside¡±


    After saying that she jumped above the wall and headed towards the front of the house to fight that other servant.


    ¡°This just keeps getting more and more interesting I wonder who I am going to fight next, let¡¯s hope that it¡¯s not someone with a cheat ability like rewriting causality, I could have survived the blow but to do it would be the same as committing suicide so ill either die from Gae Bolg or die from self-damage¡±


    Well let¡¯s leave that for later, now that I managed to catch my breath let me see how saber is doing.


    #


    *CLANK CLANK CLANK*


    Steel clashed with steel and that metallic sound with many sparks were being let out of the conflict. Saber was now facing the Archer in black that was fighting Cu back in the school, the owner of Kanshou and Bakuya who are now in both his hands and mine. It was interesting, when I got to the scene, I was able to notice an attraction force coming from the swords pulling them towards the other pair. But strangely that wasn¡¯t the only pulling force I felt, there was another, it was something I just came to realize right this moment without even having to analyze the memories within Kanshou and Bakuya in order to know who the Servant fighting Artoria was.


    The fight stopped when I jumped down from the wall and Artoria jumped back in order to place herself in front of me.


    ¡°Master! What are you doing here? I told you that I would handle it.¡±


    She was speaking to me but I couldn¡¯t hear anything she said. I was too focused on the individual across from me, this white hair servant¡­. It was a gut feeling, instinct, it told me, kill him, making disappear first or you will disappear. Not only that, Hate, pure anger started brewing up from the deepest place within my soul, the person in front of me was myself, it looks like I became a heroic spirit in this timeline or another, but that¡¯s no problem, I wouldn¡¯t mind being a heroic spirit for some time.


    The problem came from the feelings that were being emitted from his soul, and the lack of the curse I have within my soul. He broke the curse that serves as the last connection to our dead wives, and the feelings being released from his soul are helplessness, anger, and many other negative emotions, but there was not a trace of it, there was not a single trace of the feelings I have for my wives and children within him.


    ¡°I will ask you this just once, what happened with the curse, and what happen to those feelings for them¡±


    He understood my question right away and answered with an uninterested tone.


    ¡°I broke the curse at the first opportunity I had, as for those feelings, I threw them away, there was no need for me to keep something as unnecessary as that.¡±


    *SNAP*


    ¡°I AM THE BONE OF MY SWORD¡±


    This is something i came up with in my times as a blacksmith. With that chant, one of the locks I have within my soul was broken. I made those after the accident with reinforcement magic, I realized that the amount of magic within me was too much for my circuits to withstand. So, I created an 8 level lock that divides my od into 9 portions, with those locks I created an aria that its divided into 8 sections which each serve as a key for each lock.


    The part of the aria I just recited now allows me to use 2/9<sup> </sup>of my magic, the limit before my circuits can¡¯t withstand the od is the 4<sup>th</sup> lock, if I use more than 4/9 of my od then my circuits will start breaking down.


    Od was released from my body and now I was able to reinforce my body to another level, not only my body but I was also able to reinforce Kanshou and Bakuya better than before.


    *CLACK*


    ¡°Why are you still holding on to things from a past that will only continue to hunt you until you can¡¯t bear it anymore¡±


    ¡°SHUP UP¡±


    I slashed again and again towards the man in front of me, the murderous intent grew so much that it could almost be physically seen. I thrusted and swung both swords at him to every single fatal point I could find, anger can be a mysterious thing, the usual feeling of unrestrained anger consumes whoever is the one feeling it, but in my case, I consume every bit of my anger, I consumed it and used it to find every and the best possible ways to cause pain to my enemy and kill whoever made me drown in anger.


    If I had to choose between fighting a berserker who couldn¡¯t control his anger or someone who use his anger as a focus for his actions then I would not doubt choose the former.


    ¡°Mas¡­ter¡±


    I could hear saber behind me but I didn¡¯t bother to double check on her, all of my attention right now was focused on killing this bastard, which I had to do as fast as possible. We are two beings that shouldn¡¯t exist at the same time so the world will no doubt try to erase us, but that it¡¯s not easy even for the world itself, so now it¡¯s trying to unify us instead, every time we clashed the process becomes faster as I gained his memories, I was looking at him but I was also seeing his memories, in other words a possible future for me.


    ¡°If you want to die so badly then be my guess¡± he said and then for the first time since I started attacking him, he switched from defense to offense. He started attacking me nonstop, which I barely could handle. His projections surpassed mine so it was a no-brainer that my Kanshou and Bakuya were weaker.


    *Break*


    They broke into pieces, I was going to project another pair but this guy unlike Cu, knew that I could project another pair so he wasted no time in kicking me in the gut releasing all the air in my lungs and sending me flying back to where saber was.


    ¡°Master!¡±


    Saber ran up to me from behind and caught me while jumping back to kill the momentum of my flight.


    ¡°Master, are you ok?¡±


    #Point of view from Saber


    My name is Artoria Pendragon, I am a saber class servant summoned in the Holy grail war in order to fight with my master and win the grail to fulfill my wish. When I was first summoned it seemed like my master was in the middle of a fight, it was a fight against a servant no less so it was lucky of him to summon me right before things got worse.


    Or so I thought, this Master didn¡¯t stop surprising me even for a second, first of all he called me by my name when I am sure I haven¡¯t met any youngster that looks like him before, even if the era I was summoned was just ten years after my last fight for the grail war. Second, he not only doesn¡¯t allow me to fight but insist on fighting himself.


    When I was getting ready to jump in and intervene, he challenges Lancer to a duel, which made me freeze in place, my code as a knight will not allow me to dishonor the duel between two agreeing parties.


    This then brought my third surprise, He stated that his name was Shirou Emiya, He doesn¡¯t look like him but the family name Emiya is the same as the one my master in the last war had. The duel was about to start and my mind returned to the fight when I saw the lancer running like a wild beast towards my master, it was a foolish decision, it looks like I will have to wait for another change in order to acquire the grail.


    ¡°Trace on¡±


    Wh- he deflected the lancer, the kind looking guy that looked to be in trouble before now had two shorts in his hands and was fighting the lancer to a stalemate. The lancer wasn¡¯t using his noble phantasm but it was still impressive. My master taunted the lancer to use his full power and now he will, he was prepared to use his noble phantasm when his master stopped him and left.


    ¡°Well, looks like I¡¯ll live another day¡± said my master which won him a glare from me, how can he be so irresponsible.


    Now my master is fighting another servant again but this is different from before. The smile he had while facing the lancer was gone, in place of it was anger and killing intent, how can such a young child have such a killing intent. There was only a mild breeze in the night but his hair seems as if there was a strong wind hitting him straight on, his hair was raised on its end and it was flowing with the magic energy my master was releasing.


    ¡°Mas¡­ter¡±


    It was too different for me to adapt so fast, my master was send flying to me with a kick to the stomach and I caught him before he gained more damaged than he already has, it looks like he hasn¡¯t notice it yet but his clothes were stained by blood from his fight with the lancer, he didn¡¯t seem to notice the many times when the spear hit him before he dodge or parried.


    ¡°Let go of me SABER¡±


    *Flinch*


    I flinched without noticing, this was the first time he called me saber, it¡¯s not weird for a master to call his servant by his class but from the very start he was calling Artoria with a likable warm tone, but this was different, this was not a request but an order, the likable tone from before change into a tone filled with anger and hatred. What did that other servant do in order to get my master to become like this, what was that thing they spoke about before my master became like this.


    I had no idea. My master forced his way out of my grasp and ran up to the other servant again,  and once again he was holding onto the same swords that the servant was fighting him with.


    ¡°AHG¡±


    3


    ¡°UHG¡±


    7


    ¡°UWAA¡±


    13


    This was the 13<sup>th</sup> time that my master was send flying by that servant and once again he struggles to stand up and repeat the same thing who knows how many more times. The weirdest thing is that the more times he was send flying the more time he managed to hold off against the servant, it was as if he was improving while fighting him.


    But still, I couldn¡¯t watch it anymore so I approached my master again and helped him up from behind, he wanted to break free but I didn¡¯t let him no matter how he must struggle. Lucky for me he had his anger under control but no enough for him to use a command spell against me.


    ¡°Let go of me Saber¡±


    ¡°Sorry master but I cannot follow that order, please change your order to something more acceptable¡±


    He looked towards my face and I could see the pure hatred in his eyes that had a weird glowing circle within them. But after looking at my eyes he froze, I didn¡¯t know why until I saw the reflection of my face in his eyes. He knows me somehow but I don¡¯t know him, but it is still painful seeing someone full of hatred with no regard for their life.


    The feeling was showing on my face which he finally looked at after a while, his muscles relaxed and his face regained calmness, the anger within his eyes was still there but it had decrease enough for him to stop and think for a second. The last pair of swords that were on his hands gave out and broke just like the pair before them, and the ones before those, and the many before those.


    I sensed something in front and when I looked, I saw the servant trying to attack my now distracted master. I was about to jump and engage him when a female voice sounded from behind.


    ¡°ENOUGH! What do you think you are doing archer?¡± asked the girl who seem to be his master.


    ¡°I am finishing the enemy.¡±


    ¡°and? why are you fighting the master instead of the servant?¡±


    ¡°well, you clearly saw that he was the one attacking me, right?¡±


    The girl blushed when she realized her question was not too smart but that quickly change to an expression of annoyance.


    ¡°Shup up, stop trying to be smart with me. I am going to have you reflect on this later, go and check the area for any other servants around.¡±


    ¡°Yes master¡±


    The servant gave a polite bow towards his master and his swords disappeared from his hands and a small knife took their place which he threw at something  that seem to be an insect before he left to scan the surroundings.


    When I looked back to my master, I realized that he was still staring at me but his eyes no longer had those weird glowing circles in them.


    ¡°Thank you, Artoria¡± he said in a soft voice while a small smile found its way to his face. This smile looks charming but I find the one he wore when fighting Lancer was better for some reason.


    ¡°So, this is the rumored bloody Hulk, nice to see that you¡¯re well Emiya-kun¡±


    ¡°All thanks to you saving me from the hole lancer left in me earlier Tohsaka¡±


    It looks like my master was already acquaintance with this other master, but.


    ¡°What¡¯s this Bloody Hulk thing¡±


    I asked which caused both to look at me at the same time, I wonder if I said something wrong for Master to be looking at me with that trouble expression.


    #Back to Shirou¡¯s point of view


    Right there and then an unbelievable fatigue and pain washed over me from one second to the other, I fell to my knees but all of this didn¡¯t last long either, the fatigue and pain started leaving just as they came. When I looked down to my body, I managed to see that my clothes were cut here and there suggesting that I was cut in places I didn¡¯t even notice, and since these two were the first real fights I¡¯ve been in the last 3,000 years, the fatigue is more than what I thought it would be. My eyelids are getting heavier by the second, and the lock in my soul was once again closed.


    ¡°Artoria, can you take care of me for a couple of minutes?¡±


    I said while looking at her. She looked at me and realized what I was talking about and answer with a smile on her face.


    ¡°Yes Master¡±


    My eyes closed and I fell into darkness. This time, the dream I had was different. It had nothing to do with my past, as a matter of fact, it was my future. I saw myself, or more like, I saw the Archer me who now I¡¯m sure came from a different timeline, he is just one of the many possibilities of what could have been my future.


    The main difference? That would be that he never received the last message left to me in the bracelet, souls are a mysterious thing, those pieces of their souls having survive across time and space is just a matter of luck but he didn¡¯t have the luck I had. He never saw them after the fire, after having been tough magic by Kiritsugu he killed him as revenge for saving him, then there was only loneliness that was only kept away by the remands of their memories kept within us with the curse from the gods.


    He kept everyone at a distance, there was no Taiga, no Sakura, as for saber, after summoning her in his holy grail war, he killed her and absorbed her, then followed by killing the other 6 servants and masters and becoming something similar to a pseudo servant, who managed to sell himself to Alia, the will of humans to survive in exchange for the only thing he had left, lust for battle. After searching for more and more battlefields, he found many weapons he managed to ¡°take¡± with his ¡°mystic eyes¡± like Kanshou and Bakuya, the Shield Rho Aias, and even used his knowledge as a blacksmith to create his own bow able to withstand the power of a broken phantasm and his battle gear which is a mystic code.


    He stopped being Emiya Shirou and became the counter guardian Emiya.

 chapter 7

    [Chapter 7] ¡ª A good morning, or is it?


    My consciousness returned to me as I felt a light hit my eyelids. Then sound reached my ears, it was the sound of two people talking, after a bit I realized that one of the voices belonged to Artoria while the other belonged to Tohsaka.


    *huh? Weird, she stayed? I don¡¯t see a reason why though.*


    I laid up slowly and opened my eyes to now realized that we were inside of my house, the living room to be exact. Artoria and Tohsaka were in the table while I was laid down next to it.


    ¡°Master, you¡¯re finally awake!¡±


    ¡°ugh, I feel like I have a hangover¡±


    ¡°Oh, you seen to be ok from what we see Emiya-kun¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s that what it looks like? and why did the beautiful idol Tohsaka Rin decided to stay here instead of attacking me while I was out?¡±


    It looks like she also realized it was time for serious talk time since the playful smile she had just a second ago disappeared.


    ¡°Telling me things I hear from every other guy in the school won¡¯t win you points with me Emiya-kun, so maybe you can try harder with your flattery next time. Now, there are many things I want to talk about so let¡¯s start by giving you some advice first, don¡¯t ever try to do something as stupid as fighting against a servant again if you have any intention of winning the grail war. The servants are there to be used, if not, then there would be no point with summoning them.¡±


    ¡°Oh, are you worried about me?¡±


    ¡°I am trying to give you some serious advice here Emiya-kun. Next is your servant, I don¡¯t recall anyone from history named Artoria but with some research I am sure I can find her identity no problem. Point being that calling your servant by her name in front of other masters is not less stupid than attacking a servant, by knowing their name is possible to figure out the identity and weakness of a servant, do you get my point?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I got it, however, believe me when I say that there won¡¯t be anyone finding out about her real identity unless we tell them who she is, unless it¡¯s your Archer and any other servants with abilities like his.¡±


    ¡°hoh, if you say so, then don¡¯t blame me when it comes to bite you back in the future. Now third and most important thing, what is your relationship with MY servant? You talk about him as if you know more about him than me, HIS master¡±


    I kept quiet for a bit and then opened my mouth.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you think asking your servant will get you a more trust worthy answer?¡±


    ¡°I already tried! If not for him not wanting to answer then I wouldn¡¯t be here right now. Now, I¡¯ll ask you once again E-MI-YA-KUN, what is your relationship with my servant¡±


    *SHIVER*


    Holy, what the hell is that, she is just smiling but I got shivers running up my spine.


    ¡°We-well, we kind of met in the street the other day and he stepped on my shoe, he didn¡¯t apologize back then so I was trying to get an apology earlier?¡±


    *Pfft*


    I hear saber keeping her laugher inside in order not to brake the serious mood that Tohsaka was trying to make.


    ¡°haha, you¡¯re so funny Emiya-kun¡±


    *SHIVER*


    ¡°Ok, can you stop that, that¡¯s seriously freaking me out¡±


    ¡°Stop what Emiya-kun?¡±


    That smiled didn¡¯t leave her face until she calmed down and took a couple of breaths.


    ¡°Ok, you win, don¡¯t tell me. I¡¯ll find out what it is even if I have to waste a command spell for it¡±


    I thought that was a joke but it sure as hell didn¡¯t sound like one.


    *cough*


    ¡°ok, so we finished with everything I suppose. Then I think I should treat my injuries from fighting your Archer¡±


    I looked down towards my bloody clothes and found more rips and holes than I could count, all of this couldn¡¯t have come only from archer, so some also came from lancer and I didn¡¯t even notice. But at a closer look, there were no injuries, there was dry blood, there was the clothes ripped and full of dirt, some of that dirt also found its way to my skin but there was not a single trace of an injury.


    ¡°huh? So, one of you healed me? Was it you again Tohsaka?¡±


    I asked while looking at Tohsaka and then Artoria but their looks didn¡¯t match what I was expecting .


    ¡°what are you talking about? You healed yourself, right?¡±


    ¡°hah? What are you talking about, I can accelerate my healing yes, but it takes way more time than that in order to heal so many wounds even if they are light. So ¡­. if it wasn¡¯t you then it must have been Artoria right.¡±


    I looked at Artoria with a grateful smile but she received it by shaking her head lightly.


    ¡°Sorry Master but I was not the one who healed you either, from what we saw you healed yourself.¡±


    She sounded a little sad about it which was the cutes thing I¡¯ve ever seem by the way but the problem still stands. Wait, she is calling her Rin?


    ¡°So, I just magically healed?¡±


    Both of them nodded their heads in response which left me drowning in thought.


    ¡°I guess we have to test that¡±


    ¡°Test it? How do you supposed we do that Emiya-kun?¡±


    ¡°Like this¡±


    I didn¡¯t feel like looking for what I needed in the kitchen so I just projected them. On top of the table that separated all three of us now was a bowl, it¡¯s one of the many I have in the kitchen, and in my hand appeared a knife. They both realized what I meant by testing it and their eyes grew wide, Artoria Jumped and grabbed my arm to stop me but by the time she managed to grab it the knife was already going out of the other side of my hand.


    *Gush*


    ¡°MASTER¡±


    ¡°Wh-WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU IDIOT!¡±


    ¡°eh? I¡¯m testing the healing thing am I not?¡±


    ¡°There are literally dozens of other ways we could have tested that!¡±


    ¡°But this is the fastest one is it not?¡±


    They both stood quiet looking at my face, their expressions told me everything I needed to know about what they were thinking. Artoria was looking at me with a worried and flustered face, she was honestly worried, as for Tohsaka, she was looking at me as fi trying to guess when was it that my mother dropped me as a baby.


    I closed my eyes before I heard anything else and traced my body for any changes, and I found something that made me open my eyes in surprise,  I pulled the knife out of my hand and place my eyes as close as I could to the wound, after strengthening my eyes to their limit I was able to see how I was healing. My muscles were changing into something else, if I had to describe it then it would be ¡­. Swords? not complete sure yet but they were not muscle fibber anymore, and the thing that now resembled blue glowing metal was literally stitching itself as the wound closed. I closed my eyes and traced myself again in every nook and cranny, I even tried checking if everything was good within my soul and after a minute or two of checking I found the source of what¡¯s happening.


    ¡°There is some kind of ¡®thing¡¯ spread out throughout my body. I am not sure what it is but it¡¯s showing a reaction with the wound? If I take some more time, I might be able to figure out what this thing is but for now I only know that ¡°it¡± is the cause of the healing.¡±


    *sigh*This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°and how exactly did you figure all of this out Emiya-kun?¡±


    ¡°eh? Well, I just used structural analysis on my body, is there something wrong?¡±


    She stayed in silence for a second as if hesitating on whatever she was trying to say but decided to say it anyways.


    ¡°It¡¯s just that I find it weird, the way you acted just now was like a mage but only a novice would have thought of attacking a servant before, plus you¡¯re too reckless, and I saw you use magecraft earlier and even now, which makes it more ¡­¡± she said while looking at me as if trying to analyze me and figure her questions about me on her own.


    ¡°Well, you are not entirely wrong with what you said, from a certain point of view I can be said to be a novice. I don¡¯t really know much about the magecraft used here so it¡¯s not wrong to call me a novice magus¡±


    ¡°Hah? What do you mean? But you summoned a Saber class servant, the strongest class in the grail war, and you¡¯re telling me a novice who ¡®doesn¡¯t really know about magecraft¡¯ summoned her¡± She was getting louder by the second as she once again listed everything, I just said about myself.


    ¡°well, yeah¡±


    ¡°th-then you should be someone with some hidden talent or something, surely, you must have a lot of magic circuits, or maybe it¡¯s the family crest, or the elements you¡¯re compatible with¡±


    I felt that she was going to keep listing things as possible reasons for why I summoned a saber class servant so I just cut her off before the list got any longer.


    ¡°that¡¯s not right either, I don¡¯t have a family crest, nor do I have that many magic circuits, or even the element things, from what I know, I am sure that I can be said to have no talent. I¡¯ve been at it for a while but I only know 3 different types of magecraft¡±


    Well, I have no reason to lie but I also don¡¯t have nay reason to say the truth. The part about me not having that many magic circuits is true but compare to other normal magic circuits these can be considered to be abnormal, since their capacity is much more than what can be said to be normal. This is thanks to the divinity I gained from killing gods, my body is human, but there is divinity within my soul, if I had to put it into numbers than I would say that right now I am a 1/3 divine being or something like that. Because of that my magic circuits are enhance greatly.


    ¡°WHAT? So, you who has not talent managed to summon a Saber but I who is a genius mage is stuck with an Archer?¡±


    Weird, I am annoyed at that comment not because of what she said about me, but what she said about the other me. It feels like she is saying I am worse than any saber class servant.


    ¡°Sure, looks like that¡¯s what happen here, well if you excuse me, I have to attend to something¡±


    I stood up and acted like I was pouring the blood in the sink but placed it in my inventory and let the bowl disappear, then left Tohsaka who was still sulking in the floor and Artoria who was still looking at me curiously in the room. I was headed towards the yard, I felt Archer return a couple of minutes ago and I still got things I want to speak about and so should he. After watching his memories, the anger and hatred I had for him decreased ever so slightly, I understood him, I don¡¯t accept it but I understand it. If it was me in his position I would have more likely than not done the same. I would have killed that bastard Kiritsugu for saving me, I would have killed all of the servants and masters in the war to become stronger, and after seeing what he went through with the curse, then I would have undone the curse too in order to keep at least that one part of me alive.


    The only thing keeping me together every morning after watching those dreams is the meeting with ¡®them¡¯ after the fire. With Taiga and Sakura here I can at least pretend to be human, If I can¡¯t feel any happiness then maybe I¡¯ll get somewhere by pretending to be, unlike him who gave it up because he had nobody to rely on, nothing to keep him from breaking down every morning. In the end, after years and years of enduring it, he couldn¡¯t hold that weight anymore, so he decided the best option was to keep at least a part of himself alive, he threw the weight aside and kept the small flame of his will to live by helping it with the winds of battles and wars.


    I found him in the yard with a black bow in hand. It was a bow I recognized from the memories of him I saw, but what kept me from making any sound was that he was doing exactly what I do when I grab a bow. He was letting his mind wonder to any place it found itself on.


    *PLUCK*


    ¡°Are you going to tell Tohsaka about you? I mean ¡­. about us?¡± I asked him


    ¡°I don¡¯t have a reason to do it. Since doing it could become an annoyance. What about you, are you going to tell your Saber?¡±


    ¡°I have no reason to do it, but I also have no reason not to, so if she wants to know I¡¯ll tell her.¡±


    There was a long silence after that but unexpectedly he was the one who broke it.


    ¡°Did you see?¡± he asked me


    ¡°¡­.  Yes¡±


    ¡°I see¡±


    ¡°What about you? Did you see?¡± I them asked back


    ¡°Yes, I saw¡±


    ¡°So? Do you resent me now? Do you feel hatred towards me because of it?¡±


    ¡°¡­. No¡­. it all comes down to you having more luck than I do, you had enough luck to keep those soul fragments attached to that bracelet, but what about you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I do, I reject your decision with every bit of my soul, but I understand it. I would have done the same, if not, I would only end up crazed with madness as time passed by. But I still want to ask you this, Do¡­ Do you regret it?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡­¡±


    No answer came back, I fell nothing from him, it looks like he is interfering so that I can¡¯t get a read on his soul. I was about to ask again but I hear something from behind me.


    *Rustle Rustle*


    ¡°you know, that¡¯s a bad hobby both of you have there Tohsaka, Artoria¡±


    ¡°ah, they noticed!¡±


    I looked back and saw both girls the one in red and the one in blue walking towards us. Artoria had a light blush on her face from embarrassment and Tohsaka seem annoyed by the fact that she couldn¡¯t listen to more of the conversation.


    ¡°So? What were you two doing?¡±


    ¡°well, you were taking your time so we were going to see if we got anything out of archer but found both of you talking and decided to let you finish instead of interrupting you, mind you we were only trying to be considerate, right Artoria?¡±


    ¡°Ye¡­ yes Rin¡±


    ¡°you see, Emiya-kun¡±


    ¡°Yeah right¡± 2x


    Came from both me and Archer. We looked at each other in surprise with some annoyance mixed into it and glanced away just as fast.


    ¡°Well, I see that you sure have a good relationship with my servant, don¡¯t you ¡®Rin¡¯. Oh, and since she can call you that then I can do the same right?¡±


    ¡°but of course, Shirou-kun. Well, it looks like you are ok now and I won¡¯t be getting any answers from you so we¡¯ll be taking our leave¡±


    ¡°oh, so the reason you stayed behind was so that you could make sure I was ok? that¡¯s so cure coming from you Rin¡± I said with a grin on my face.


    ¡°Wh- What are you grinning about? It- Its just that those wounds were caused by my Archer so it¡¯s only normal I take responsibly, I can¡¯t let you die before you tell me what your relationship with archer is.¡±


    ¡°oh, I see, I see¡± I said while still grinning.


    ¡°Shup up, before I leave let me remind you one last time. Stop calling your servant by her name before you regret it. Also, next time don¡¯t try to fight a servant, that¡¯s the stupidest thing I¡¯ve ever seem someone doing, as if a master could fight against a servant, and a novice master that can only some reinforcement and some useless projection at that.¡±


    *FLINCH*


    Archer tensed up for a second in the place he was, it looks like he feels the same awkward way I felt earlier.


    ¡°With all in all, I recommend you go to the church and give up the war before you die. It¡¯s the best option that can keep you alive considering that you¡¯re not even a proper master, if not then the next time we see each other you better run. Now let¡¯s go Archer¡±


    Archer nodded and gave Artoria a light bow before grabbing Rin and jumping away without stopping and glancing at me even for a second. Just like that the girl in red and the guy in black left under the light of the moon.


    ¡°Wait, so she thinks I¡¯m weak because she saw her Archer breaking a couple of my swords, hump, wait till I show you oh miss Talented mage. I bet all her magic circuits are in her tights!¡±


    I stumped my way into the house while Artoria giggle and followed behind me. I made Artoria wait in the same place we were before with Rin and went ahead to clean myself and change into something with less holes than what I was currently wearing.


    ¡°Now, I guess it¡¯s about time we talk properly don¡¯t you think so too Artoria¡±


    ¡°Yes master¡±


    ¡°huh? That doesn¡¯t sound right, how about Shirou instead¡± I asked


    ¡°that does indeed sound better, Shirou¡± She answered with a smile


    ¡°Man, that smile is really cuter in person than from what I¡¯ve seen previously¡±


    ¡°That is something I have been wondering about from before Shirou, I¡¯ve no recollection of us meeting before so may I ask how is it that you know of my name?¡±


    ¡°eh? Well, you sure don¡¯t remember but your master in the war before this one was Kiritsugu Emiya, and he is my adoptive father. I used a little trick I know and managed to see you in his memories in the last war¡±


    ¡°What? So, you really are his son? And you read his ¡­ memories?


    ¡°yeah, it¡¯s a little trick I learned a while back. But, more importantly why do you sound as if you know who I¡¯m talking about?¡± I said while narrowing my eyes. From the knowledge I have, the servants summoned in this war are like a copy of the soul of an individual with a big impact on history, or at least a with a lot of fame. The fact remains that when a servant disappears, they don¡¯t head back to the ¡°Throne of heroes¡± but just get absorbed into the grail, if they are to be summoned again then what would be summoned is a copy of the copy back up in the Throne of heroes.


    ¡°There is something you need to know Shirou, we are in more of a disadvantage that you think. You mentioned earlier that you were a novice mage, that is bad on itself, however I am also an incomplete servant.¡±


    From there she explained what she was, how she was a servant but she never really died, and because of that she remembers the time she was summon by Kiritsugu. She also spoke about how unlike other servants she can¡¯t turn into a spirit and travel like them, she can only remain in her material form all of the time. There is also the fact that she is not receiving mana from her contract with me, But the biggest problem we had was that not only was she an incomplete servant to start with, but now because of the setup of this war she is now even more ¡®incomplete¡¯. She told me that her fighting style revolves around her using her mana burst skill which she currently doesn¡¯t have, she will have to become stronger to ¡°unlocked¡± it and be able to fight normally.


    *Sigh*


    ¡°We are in more of a disadvantage than I initially thought.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s my fault Shirou¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it¡±  I said.  ¡°Let¡¯s go to sleep, it late and we might be able to think of something tomorrow¡±


    ¡°I agree¡±


    I stood up and started heading towards my room.


    ¡°alright, let¡¯s see ¡­. which room do you want Artoria?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean Shirou? I¡¯ll be sleeping with you, that¡¯s the best way for me to protect you.¡±


    I froze.


    ¡°oh, it¡¯s that so¡± I turned around to face her and walked towards her and lowered my self until my eyes were right in front of hers, I think our nose were touching but then again, I wasn¡¯t paying attention to that.


    ¡°But I might do something to you, is that ok with you Artoria?¡±


    It took some time before she finally realized what I was talking about, but she didn¡¯t react the way I expected her or wanted her to, I wanted to see her at least a bit flushed but what I got instead was her eyebrows closely knit together.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see myself as a woman and neither should you Shirou¡±


    I wasn¡¯t expecting that, I saw many things within Kiritsugu¡¯s memories, but I didn¡¯t see everything. I was limited with time so I could mostly only see images, and If I pushed too much, he might have realized I was doing something, I Saw her image, her name, and some other things like her chivalry but I couldn¡¯t see much of her personality as a whole.


    ¡°It¡¯s that so, well sorry to say this but, no, as a matter of fact I won¡¯t say it¡±


    I turned back around and kept walking towards my room without saying another word, I didn¡¯t say it but the only thing I could see her as is a woman, a strong woman, a knight, a king, but a woman. Since, like the other women I know, she is the living proof of the saying ¡°who says a woman can¡¯t be strong¡±. In fact, the thing that I like the most about her is her strength after all, not only physical, but how she is able to carry herself as both a knight and a king. We arrived at my room and I started getting ready for bed. I gave Artoria one of my old pajamas and waited for her to get changed.


    ¡°It looks good on you¡±


    I went to bed while Artoria was still standing in the middle of the room.


    ¡°Where should I sleep Shirou?¡±


    ¡°Eh? Here of course, you said not to think of you as a woman so there should be no problem, right?¡±


    I was pointing at the space next to me in the bed, which made her tensed up.


    ¡°Oh, I see, then please don¡¯t mind me Shirou¡±


    ¡°Tsk¡± no reaction again huh.


    Like that went to sleep but not before I noticed the red shade that creeped into saber¡¯s ears which was laying on her side with her back towards me.


    *oh, I see. She is a king after all so she has to carry herself as one, however it looks like deep down she is still as cute as she looks*


    I moved closer to her ear and whispered softly,


    ¡°Goodnight, Artoria¡±


    ¡°¡­ Goodnight¡­ Shirou¡±


    Finally, a reaction.


    #Interlude#


    (Jeanne D¡¯arc)


    ¡°This cannot be called anything other than a tragedy, with so many servants participating in the war its already a good thing that the number of victims caught in the crossfire has just numbered the thirties. But¡­ that¡¯s only me being optimistic, it¡¯s only being 3 days since the start of the grail war and there are already about 30 victims. Not only that but this ¡®shadow¡¯ is not a servant but it¡¯s still causing as much damage, I have to hurry up and find it before things get worse. I have no idea where I am going but I can feel it, lucky for me even when I don¡¯t have the skill true name discernment, I still have the skill revelation. I hope whatever my goal is helps me do something about this war filled with madness.¡±


    I kept leaping from roof to roof until I finally meet my destination, it was a house, a relatively big one at that, after reaching a close distance I unexpectedly managed to sense a servant inside of the house.


    ¡°Oh, my lord, is this you telling me to ask for the help of whatever servant found itself upon this household? I will trust the path you¡¯ve set for me and do everything in my power to get this servant¡¯s help, even if I unfortunately have to use my command seals for it.¡±


    It¡¯s late at night so I will wait until tomorrow to ask for the servant¡¯s help, I hope the master is reasonable enough to understand the current problem. Like this, the light that shone onto me from the moon resided and the sun started to take its place in the sky. It was still very early in the morning but I saw two women going into the house, they had a key so I am sure they knew the master in the house. I thought about stepping closer towards the house when I froze because of the sound that came from it.


    ¡°KYAAAAAAAAA¡±


    ¡°Sakura! Sakura what happened. AH, SHIROUUUU WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN BED WITH A BLOND BEAUTY¡±


    ¡°WAIT WAIT TAIGA, SAKURA ITS NOT WHAT YOU GUYS THIN-¡°


    *SLAP*


    ¡°¡­.. What kind of morning practice does this household uphold, I wonder¡±


    -Interlude end-


    I woke up early because of usual nightmares, the morning seems to be a bit colder than usual but I felt none of it. I hadn¡¯t completely woken up yet, but I still managed to notice a warmth that¡¯s usually not there whenever I wake up, and what I saw when I looked down blew the sleep off of me. Besides me was a sleeping Artoria, this, this is, I don¡¯t even know what to call this level of cuteness, she has her arms wrapped around my back and her legs wrapped around my legs, by the way she was pressing herself against me I knew she was feeling the cold of the morning so she ended up like this when she was looking for warmth. I tried to shift a bit but not too much in order not to wake her up but her eyelids still shivered a bit and her eyes started opening slowly.


    ¡°Shhhhhh, don¡¯t worry, you can go back to sleep¡± I said while patting her head, it looks like her guard is down right now because she didn¡¯t hide the fact that she was liking it when I patted her head, her eyes once again closed and she kept sleeping as if nothing happened. I also closed mine to keep sleeping, I don¡¯t mind having to see those nightmares again if I am greeted by such a thing every morning. Ah! I forgot about school but whatever, I can be absent for a day. But I feel that I am forgetting something else.


    Like this My mind started drifting off to the land of nightmares again but right before completely falling in, my eyes shot open like they¡¯ve never done before.


    ¡°Oh, Fuck, so that¡¯s what I forgot¡±

 chapter 8

    [Chapter 8] ¡ª Love and War


    My mind was racing at light speed but it still found no way to get me out of this one. I would prefer fighting both Cu and ¡°Myself¡± at the same time before having to repeat this scenario again. Right now, I am sitting in seiza while listening to Taiga¡¯s lecture with Artoria next to me now wearing a blue yukata.


    ¡°SO? Do you have anything to say for yourself? And it better be something very convincing or else¡±


    OK, you can do this, you¡¯ve fought millions of monsters, you¡¯ve fought gods too, this is nothing compared to that.


    ¡°Well¡­. This¡­. *clear throat* this is Artoria, my¡­. Fiancee?¡± I said while tilting my head to the side, I think my thoughts were racing just a bit too fast. They froze, maybe they it¡¯s not the best way to put it since all four of us froze when those words left my mouth.


    ¡°YOUR WHAT?¡± 2x


    Well shit, yeah Shirou keep digging deeper, that¡¯s the best you can do.


    ¡°You see, her father and Kiritsugu were very good friends and one thing let too another when we were on a little family trip and things ended up like this. I know arranged marriage it¡¯s not a common thing now a days but we didn¡¯t really have a problem with it, or more like we also agree with it after growing and knowing each other more¡±


    I knew the story was bullshit, Artoria knew the story was bullshit, and I am sure as hell Taiga and Sakura would have realized the story was bullshit if I hadn¡¯t put a little something on my voice. It¡¯s one of the many things I learned when studying souls on my last life, I use my soul and mix simple suggestions within my voice, something like calm down, believe it, trust me, it¡¯s like a tone down version of brainwashing and it was working.


    ¡° I see¡­. So that happen and you had not even thought of mention it to me OR to Sakura?¡±


    ¡°Well, the thing is that Artoria was not sure if she was going through with the plan so I was waiting for her decision, the reason she came here was to let me know that she agrees with the marriage and so she will be living with me now and we¡¯ll be getting married after we graduate from school.¡±


    ¡°I see, since you are engaged then there is no problem, but refrain from doing ¡­. Things you shouldn¡¯t do until you get married. Now let¡¯s get ready, go make breakfast or we are going to be late for school.¡±


    See, problem solved, you are the best indeed brain. I looked at Artoria and gave her a thumbs up but it looks like she was still trying to process all the information going into her at once, I am sure that I am the only one who has met this kind of situation in the middle of the grail war. I then looked towards Sakura and smiled at her, the smile she gave back told me everything I needed to know, I made it through the storm. Or so I thought.


    --- A couple of minutes after the storm ---


    ¡°Eh, Sa-Sakura, what¡¯s this?¡±


    ¡°huh? What do you mean Senpai?¡±


    ¡°We-well, this bread, you know what? forget it.¡±


    After the greetings and the getting to know each other, we were all together at the table about to eat breakfast. Sakura prefers to cook western food, so the breakfast that found itself on top of the table was scrambled eggs with sausage and toast. It looked like today she decided to keep it on the simple side but I am sure it would have tasted good anyways. The thing is, the tasty looking breakfast was on the plate of the three women on the table, while my plate had only bread on it, no butter, or even toasted, just plain bread. I knew Sakura was resistant to my soul related abilities but I didn¡¯t expect it to have no effect at all, furthermore I didn¡¯t expect this outcome. Now there is nothing for me to do but to eat the plain bread and push it down with the tea next to it.


    *Ugh*


    ¡°Bitter¡± I said while my tongue hanged out.


    ¡°Did you say something, Senpai?¡± Said Sakura with her head tilted to the side.


    ¡°N-no¡±


    OK, there is no other option, I looked towards Taiga to see if I could take some of hers but she knew what I was thinking and was shielding her food as if trying to prevent the wind to put out a weak fire. With no other choice I can only get help from Artoria, or, so I thought until I saw that she was almost done with hers.


    ¡°By the gods, how did you?¡± how did she eat it so fast at that pace.


    It wasn¡¯t a fast pace, it wasn¡¯t rushed at all, it was a normal speed, but the food was disappearing into her as if she was just breathing.


    ¡°huh?¡± she looked at me in wonder.


    ¡°Nothing ¡­ keep enjoying your food¡± after I said this, her eyes opened in wonder and she looked at my plate and saw the half eaten bread and the bitter tea, she blushed and then started separating her food to give me half of the things she had left.


    ¡°Oh, no need to worry miss Artoria, he doesn¡¯t eat much in the morning so you don¡¯t have to worry about him, on the contrary, I am glad that you are enjoying the food I made, if we weren¡¯t rushed for time then I would have prepared something better.¡±


    ¡°no, this is indeed something simple but it¡¯s way more than just acceptable, it has a wonderful taste¡±


    ¡°hehe, I am glad you liked it.¡±


    Tick Tock Tick Tock, minutes went by and it was time for us to leave for school, we all finished getting ready to leave when Artoria approached me in silence,


    ¡°Shirou, don¡¯t you have something else for me to change into? I don¡¯t think I should be going out dressed like this¡±


    ¡°huh, we got to buy some clothes for you since all you have is your dress. For now, let me see what I can find¡±


    I made my way back to my room and looked for anything that could work, but I didn¡¯t find anything. Until an idea popped into my head.


    ¡°Oh, that could work¡±


    After a couple of minutes of waiting for Artoria to change clothes, the door to my room opened and now Artoria stood in front of me newly dressed. Her top was covered by one of my white shirts and her bottom was cover by one of my jeans, I also gave her a pair of white shoes to match it. Her hair was down from sleeping so it was a completely different feeling from before. Of course, there is no way my clothes would fit her so I used a little magic. After she changed into them, I used Alteration magic which is a step between Reinforcement and projection on the clothes and changed it so that it was as if it was specifically made for her.


    https://typemoon.fandom.com/wiki/Saber_(Fate/stay_night)?file=Saber_new_casual.png#Casual


    ¡°I see¡± I said with a thoughtful voice as I rubbed my chin with one hand and supported that arm with another.


    ¡°What is it Shirou?¡± she asked me and still drowned in thought I answered.


    ¡°Oh, I was thinking ¡®so you are that type of woman¡¯"


    Her expression changed into a troubled one, I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s because I called her a woman even though she wants me not to think of her as one.


    ¡°What type?¡± she asked while being half trouble and half curious.


    ¡°The type of woman who looks beautiful no matter what she wears, those clothes are just regular every day clothes but you still look outstanding. However¡­ let¡¯s make a little change.¡±


    I grabbed her hand and pulled her inside of the room, sat her in a chair and start it doing her hair, she doesn¡¯t look bad with her hair down. But I bet she will look twice as beautiful with the hair style she had before. It looked kind of difficult to replicate but when you have to help more than 20 of your wives and all of your daughters to fix their hair, you can end up being at least half a professional. Like that I ran my hands through her hair, it was as soft as it looked, as for the smell, it was unfortunately the shampoo I usually use. Doing this reminded me of the feeling I got when feeling her soul, On the surface she is a king without a doubt, but in the deepest place where no one can she hides a simple girl who wants to be happy.


    ¡°Done¡± I said while being satisfied at my job and pulled her in front of a full length mirror in the room. It wasn¡¯t any different from what she was wearing when I summoned her, her blonde hair tied in a bun with a blue ribbon to keep it together.


    ¡°Like I said before ¡­. Beautiful¡± I said while standing behind her, I saw her mouth open to say something but it was interrupted before anything came out.


    ¡°Shirou, hurry up or Sakura will be late to the club¡± yelled Taiga.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯m done¡± I yelled back.


    Artoria walked to the door next to me in silence, I don¡¯t know if she was just lost in thought or if she just didn¡¯t have anything to say. When we reached the outside door, I looked at Artoria and asked her where she was headed to, she remembers the last time she was summoned here which was only 10 years ago so she probably is going to one of the places she visited before.


    ¡°What do you mean Shirou? I¡¯m going to school with you of course.¡±


    #


    Amazing! Only a bit, only a bit more and I would have let her come to school with me. Her sulking face almost made me fall to my knees.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    ¡°Senpai¡±


    ¡°What happened Sakura?¡±


    ¡°We-Well, was it ok to leave her like that? she seemed upset.¡±


    Her mentioning it again just triggered my memories. When I asked Artoria where was she headed to, she answered with ¡°eh? I am going to school with you Shirou¡± as if it was the most natural thing in the world. After I told her I couldn¡¯t bring her to school with me she insisted but backed down after some time of discussion and after I told her that she can go with me from tomorrow on, reason for this being that I need to do a couple of stuff first, like casually brainwashing the principal to get her to transfer from whatever made up school in England.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, she knows that she has to wait until tomorrow since her transfer papers say she starts school tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°What? So Artoria is going to transfer to our school?¡±


    ¡°yeah she is, even if she ends up married, she still has to keep up with her education since she is still young¡± well not really, she is probably older than you by a lot.


    ¡°Married¡± I heard Sakura said under her breath but it still managed to reach my ears.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright Sakura, nothing will change between us even if I get married. Plus, maybe with an example in front of you, you might be able to advance your own relationship with your boyfriend¡± after I said this, I expected the usual denial saying that she doesn¡¯t have a boyfriend she has repeated time and time again but it never came. I looked back and saw that she stopped walking and was looking straight at me.


    ¡°Yes, but¡­ Senpai¡­ if ¡­ if I didn¡¯t have a boyfriend would anything be different between us? What could have been different?¡± she said as she looked into my eyes waiting for my answer. I didn¡¯t answer, or more like I couldn¡¯t since she caught me by surprise but that didn¡¯t stop me from walking back to her. When I reached the space in front of her, I raised my hands and cupped her cheeks in both my hands. She was still looking into my eyes while I was brushing her soft cheeks with my thumb. I thought twice about doing what I was thinking of doing but both times resulted in the same desire and the same answer once again, I lowered my head until my lips were almost brushing with hers but stopped at the end.


    Yeah, I like her, there is no denying that. But what about her? She has a partner already and me trying to take her for me could end up being more negative than positive. She gave him her first time, and I know that she is not the type to do something like that without feeling, if she gave him her first then he must be important. Yeah, she wavers from time to time, like now she is not pushing me back, but if I selfishly go through with it and she ends up regretting it later then it going to be hard for us to keep a normal friendship. I just have to make sure that I don¡¯t meet the guy since I might actually end up killing him by accident. Hehe! These thoughts raced in my head when I decided to retreat not out of fear or cowardice, but from wanting the best for Sakura.


    ¡°Sor-¡° I was apologizing while bringing my head back up but the complete words were not able to leave my mouth. My head was pulled back down forcefully and my lips were sealed, my eyes went wide as my mind managed to catch up with what was happening. Sakura pulled me back down and kissed me herself, it was a sloppy kiss from a beginner, it feels as if she is still not use to it but It was soft and sweet. The hands that I brought down to the side found their way to Sakura¡¯s waist as I couldn¡¯t control myself and made the kiss deeper than it needed to be. Every time my tongue moved and brushed against hers, I felt her shiver as light moans were escaping through the gaps.


    ¡°Sen-Senpai¡± as she was grasping for air, I regain my senses when I had to support her since her knees were about to give out.


    ¡°Sakura, are you ok? Sorry I didn¡¯t mean to-¡±


    ¡°It-It¡¯s ok Senpai, Just- Just give me a second to breathe¡± Lucky for me the streets were still empty since it was early in the morning. After confirming this, my gaze return to Sakura which caused my breathing to stop, her usual well-kept hair was a mess, her cheeks were flushed red, her lips moist from the mixed saliva, and her eyes were misty. I would have taken her somewhere ¡®indoors¡¯ right now to keep going, no questions ask and it would not be for her to catch her breathe but for her to lose it. But what stopped me was a single tear going down her face, I felt my heart going down to my feet and then coming right back up.


    *By the gods, what the hell did I just do*


    ¡°Sa-Sakura Sorry I didn¡¯t mean to¡±


    *Shake Shake*


    She stopped me from apologizing by shaking her head.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright Senpai, It¡¯s nothing¡±


    ¡°It couldn¡¯t have been nothing, you¡¯re crying!¡±


    ¡°It-It¡¯s really nothing¡±


    ----Sakura¡¯s Point of view----


    I¡¯ve been with Senpai for more than a year now, I thought I knew almost everything about him since I am with him almost every day but who would have thought that one of the things that I didn¡¯t know was that he had a fiancee. Now that they are going to live together, I will have to stop going to his house, I will have to stop waking him up every morning, I will have to stop making him breakfast, I will have to stop what I feel for him.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright Sakura¡± Senpai said while looking at me. ¡°Nothing will change between us¡±


    I know he meant it to be good, that¡¯s how he has always been, a kind Senpai who always worries about me. But I don¡¯t want to stay the way we are now.


    ¡°¡°Yes, but¡­ Senpai¡­ if ¡­ if I didn¡¯t have a boyfriend would anything be different? What could have been different?¡± Those words escaped my mouth without my permission, but I still want to know the answer even if it¡¯s not the answer I want, so I¡¯ll face him and accept it.


    He looked at me in the eyes without looking away for a second even as he walked towards me, his hands cupped my face and his face approached mine all within a single smooth action, but he stopped before his lips met mine and then start to back up.


    *No-NO, don¡¯t leave me Senpai, I need you with me or I¡¯ll brake, or he¡¯ll brake me*


    I pulled him towards me and kissed him, it was my first kiss. Even if I let ¡®him¡¯ do all that to me, I have never let him kiss me. I thought it was going to be scary like what ¡®he¡¯ does to me but it¡¯s not, I like it, I am so happy that tears are running down my face.


    ¡°Sorry¡± oh, he thinks I am crying because of him.


    ¡°It¡¯s not your fault Senpai¡±


    After I managed to fix my breathing and regained the strength on my legs, senpai let go of me and turned around to keep walking, but not before I managed to catch a glance at his expression. He still thinks that I was crying because of him, I don¡¯t know what to do, He doesn¡¯t look like he will believe me even if I tell him it wasn¡¯t his fault again.


    *Grab*


    I ran to him and held his hand, he looked surprise and tried to take his hand away but I didn¡¯t let him. He doesn¡¯t know but I can be surprisingly stubborn if I put my mind to it. When he realized I wouldn¡¯t let go he stopped pulling his hand and held mine too, like that we kept walking towards the school in silence, when I looked at his face again, I managed to see that his expression was better than before, I kept stealing glances at him but my eyes kept focusing on his lips. I felt my cheeks heat up from one second to another and it looks like senpai realized it because he had a goofy grin in his face, I know I shouldn¡¯t feel the way I do with him now having a fianc¨¦. But he thinks I have a boyfriend so as long as I don¡¯t tell him the truth then there should be no problem.


    We entered the school and Senpai dropped me off in front of the Archery club, I didn¡¯t want to let go of him but I had to but right after I let go, he pulled me back and hugged me from behind, he gave me a light kiss on the cheek and then left towards the school building.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I want us to stay the same Senpai¡± I didn¡¯t have the courage to say to his face so these words just banished with no prove of them.


    ---Shirou¡¯s PV---


    School went by just like any other day. Classes were just as boring as before, being alive for more than 10 thousand years and having reading as a hobby it¡¯s going to be a problem when you go to classes that are meant for a teenager. With nothing else to do I just let my thoughts drift to and from every place my mind finds, Thoughts about the war, about the future me, about Artoria, about Sakura, and about my wives and children. I didn¡¯t even notice that it was time for lunch until I hear a voice directed at me.


    ¡°Hey Emiya¡±


    ¡°¡­.¡± Someone called out to me but when I saw where the voice came from, I lost all interest.


    ¡°Come on, don¡¯t be like that. I just wanted to speak to you about Sakura¡±


    ¡°What do you want Shinji!¡±


    ¡°Nothing really, The Archery club is not going to meet for a while and Sakura is going straight home after school. You should do the same to since we wouldn¡¯t want something bad to happen to you, things are dangerous at night now a days.¡±


    That¡¯s all he said and then left. I can¡¯t understand how such a cute little girl can have such a garbage of a brother.


    ¡°Let me go meet the principal for a minute¡±


    -Some time later in the day-


    ¡°Well, thank you very much mister principal, I trust that everything will be ready for her to start attending school tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Yes of course, there is no problem¡± if anybody else was in the room they would have known that the principal was not in his right mind, first of all he is following the orders of a student as if he was his boss, and second is that his eyes are strangely foggy and lightless as he spoke. It was as if he was sleep talking.


    I went out of the office and after closing the door I snapped my fingers, from that point on he was going to start working on making up every document needed. I could have also just modified his memories but then I would have to modify the memories of the other staff and if someone from the outside notices something then things would be annoying to deal with. After Walking for a bit, I started noticing that there was something weird, something fell out of place or more like there was something missing. There is something that you will always be able to find in a school, that¡¯s the people there whether they are the students or the staff but there was no sign of anyone close to me, when I used my soul to feel the location of the people there just a couple near while the rest were leaving.


    ¡°So? Do you have anything to do with this, Rin?¡± Besides the Principal and a couple of other people in the school, the closest soul I felt near me was Rin¡¯s.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you that the next time we saw each other we were going to be enemies and that the best place for you would be the church?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you did¡±


    ¡°So?¡±


    ¡°So¡­.what?¡±


    ¡°So why are you here acting like it has nothing to do with you?¡±


    ¡°Well, to be fair I never agreed to it, plus the chances of something happening at school are pretty low, right?¡±


    ¡°Normally yes, if it were not for the fact that there is a master about to blow your brains to bits right now¡± she said as she rolled her sleeves up.


    ¡°and who would that master be?¡±


    ¡°Me¡± She activated her magic crest and a blue pattern started glowing on her arm, she then pointed at me with her arm and asked me


    ¡°Will you surrender and give up your command seals?¡±


    ¡°What are you going to do if I don¡¯t? Shoot me?¡± I said with a smile on my face which could be translated to me no taking any of the current situation serious which might have not been the best option to take when dealing with Rin Tohsaka.


    ¡°Yes¡± she said and without any further warning,


    *BANG*


    A black beam of light shot straight through the concrete wall behind me.


    ¡°You-you really shot at me?¡±


    ¡°I said I would, right?¡± she answered while preparing another which I dodge by tilting my upper body to the left.


    ¡°So? Where it¡¯s your servant?¡±


    ¡°Not here, but you don¡¯t have to worry. I am more than enough to deal with you!¡±


    She ran down the stairs she was on and kept shooting the black beam to me, but she was still acting as a tsundere even now. All of her shoots were aimed towards nonlethal places, mostly my arms, shoulders, and legs to keep me from moving, but things were not working for her. I kept dodging all of her shots, the next shot was aimed at my left shoulder so I tilted my body to the right as I moved backwards to keep the same starting distance we had at the start. Then the target was my right leg which I dodge by jumping lightly so that the shot would pass under me. I tried to make the ¡®game¡¯ more interesting and reinforced my body bit by bit, until she was not able to even grace me with the beams.


    ¡°How about this!¡± I said while increasing my speed from 25 to 75 in less than a second, she was still not used to the speed so by the time she managed to blink I already had both her arms in my hands, her feet stopped touching the ground because I had my knee between her tights and her back against the wall as a support. It might be because of what happened with Sakura before but I wasn¡¯t satisfied at all, so I replaced my target and now Rin was receiving a kiss from me. It was just what I imagined, after you had a taste of it you wouldn¡¯t get enough no matter how much you had. Just like with Sakura, from one second to another the kiss got deeper and deeper. I saw her cheeks tinted red so I thought things would have gone the same as with Sakura but I couldn¡¯t have been more mistaken.


    *Flinch*


    She bit on my lower lip softly, I thought she was starting to get into it but the strength she used to bite me was increasing by the second, I pulled back and she released me to allow me to back up but just before I was going to complain about her getting to into it I felt something struck the side of my face with a force that could be said to be three or four times more than that of a grown man. It was Rin¡¯s elbow that hit with that strength which caused me to be surprise for a couple of seconds as I rolled on the ground.


    ¡°Oh, my oh my, if you are that forceful with girls then you will be hated Shirou. And also, you don¡¯t think you are the only one capable of strengthening his body, right?¡±


    I felt something hot going down my mouth and when I touched it to see what it was, I realized that she bit me strong enough to cut my lip so deep that blood was basically dripping down my chin.


    ¡°Wow, who would have thought that the famous Rin Tohsaka was into rough play. Well, I won¡¯t mind it if that¡¯s what you like¡± I said while wiping the blood off.


    ¡°Well, if you are down for it then that means I can be as rough as I want right?¡± she said while pulling something out of the pocket in her skirt.


    ¡°A jewel?¡± Right then and there my instinct told me something that could be described in a single word. RUN!


    ¡°Oh shit!¡± I said with a smile that became stiff, it looks like she really does like to play rough.


    ¡°Wh- You¡¯re running!?¡±


    ¡°Hell yeah I¡¯m running¡± I ran down the hall and jumped down the stairs making sure to keep my attention on Rin who was following close behind. I never seen something like that but the amount of mana inside of that gem would be enough to blow two or  three classrooms no problem.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you taking this a bit too serious?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you playing around too much?¡± she answered.


    It became a game of search and destroy. Actually, it already was, but now that she started using reinforcement the level went up by 1 or 2 levels. She began shooting at me again which caused me to turn a couple of corners I wasn¡¯t planning on but then I realized what was happening when I saw the dead end in front of me.


    ¡°Smart, she led me to a place with nowhere to go¡±


    I looked back when I had no more hallway to run to and saw her make the turn and reach the place I was.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see where you plan to run next¡± she said as she was readying herself to throw her gem at me and she did. There were many things that could get me out of this situation in a heart bit, the main one being getting serious. But I wanted to play for a bit and now that she pulled this gem out, I will be able to test something I wanted to try from before.


    ¡°I AM THE BONE OF MY SWORD


    THEIR BLOOD MAKES MY BODY, AND THEIR SPIRIT MAKES MY SOUL¡±


    With these two verses, two of the locks that I placed on my soul and magic were released.


    *Boom*


    The gem exploded and blue light covered my field of vision almost just as fast as I managed to project a shield, I saw it in the dream I had of future me.


    ¡°RHO AIAS¡± as I yelled that, a 2 petal flower bloomed in front of me and two shield layers appeared in front of it.


    *huh? Wasn¡¯t it supposed to be a seven petal flower with seven shield layers?¡±


    As I thought of that, my od was draining fast and the explosion reached the shield, since the floor didn¡¯t crack, I think Rin might have reinforce it. It was an incomplete Projection, it was draining too much magical energy, there were only 2 of the seven petals, and the shield layers were way weaker than what they should be. The result of this experiment led me to a mistake that I am sure I will not repeat again; do not try to use something you¡¯ve never projected before in the middle of battle or you will regret it.


    *Crack*


    Good, even though the projection was bad, it still managed to hold enough to take that explosion. It wasn¡¯t as bad as I though.


    ¡°Guha¡±


    *SPURT Splat*


    Right as the shield broke, I felt an unimaginable pain going through my body and fell to my knees, not only that but I felt that something broke, I don¡¯t know what it was but the amount of blood coming out of me is telling me is something important.


    ¡°Do you finally surrender?¡± asked Rin as she came out of the corner she hid in from the explosion.


    I was going to answer her right away but I was still grimacing from the pain. Which also didn¡¯t last long, once again just like the time I impaled my hand with a knife the thing inside of me was doing its job. The pain was leaving just as fast as the injuries were, on the outside I looked the same as I did before we even started the ¡®fight¡¯, but my insides were a mess that is in the middle of healing itself and changing more of me from human flesh to swords.


    ¡°Great, become more of a monster than you already are¡± I whispered to myself. ¡° And no, I have no reason to surrender when there is no threat to me here.¡± I said while rising to my feet again and getting ready for whatever she was going to throw at me next.


    *Sigh*


    Rin sighed and raised her hand arm to shoot at me with the black beam again.


    ¡°Don¡¯t say I never gave you a warning¡± she was ready to shoot when,


    ¡°KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA¡±