43 - Family Drama

Shirou stood in front of Miyu's school. According to her, Illya walks her home. He didn't know any other way to confront her, but this would have to do.

Once it was almost time for the students to be dismissed, Shirou caught sight of a white-haired girl with red eyes. She seemed to be somewhere between Shirou and Miyu's age.

Bingo.

Shirou walked up to her, standing side-by-side before asking, "Here to pick up a sibling?"

She didn't face him as she nodded, "My little sister is too cute for me to let her walk home alone. However, I can't say the same for my brother."

Shirou deadpanned, "Is that so?"

Illya started to go on a rant, "He takes all of papa's attention to himself! How can someone be so selfish? If I ever catch sight of him…"

Shirou gulped, "…Sounds like a troublesome fellow."

She nodded, "I just want to cut him up and keep him in a jar. How could he possibly go and become a celebrity when nobody has seen him for over a year!"

Shirou started to rapidly sweat, "…Definitely sounds like a normal thing to do to someone."

He saw Miyu approaching them with a confused look on her face. Illya started to wave at her with a bit too much excitement.

Miyu looked between Illya and Shirou, "…Big bro, did you come to pick me up with big sis?"

Illya froze, before slowly turning around to look at Shirou. They stared at each other for awhile, before Shirou decided that he should say something.

He scratched the back of his head, "Uh… I didn't want to interrupt you since you were really getting into it, but you should really know who you're talking to before you start ranting."

Illya had a crooked smile on her face, as she waved for him to lean down. Once he did, she cupped her hands as she whispered in his ear.

"Could you pretend that we came to get Miyu together? I don't want her to get worried."

Shirou locked in.

He picked up Miyu and placed her on his shoulders. With his Ascended strength, it was as if he wasn't carrying anything at all.

"You see Miyu, Illya and I wanted to surprise you."

Even though Miyu was quite smart, she was also very gullible, so it was easy to trick her into believing that they had come to pick her up together.

Shirou and Illya made eye contact with each other, silently conveying that they would have to talk.

————————————————————

After leaving Miyu to watch some TV, Shirou and Illya stood across from each other in the shed. This staredown continued until Shirou got bored.

He sighed, "What do you want with Miyu?"

Illya seemed genuinely confused by the statement, "Well, nothing in particular. Rather, you have something that I want."

Shirou tilted his head in curiosity, "And what would that be?"

"Revenge."

He stared at her for a few moments, "Could you be more specific?"

She looked at him with unbridled hatred, "You stole Kiritsugu from me."

Huh?

"Actually, could you just explain everything from the beginning? I'm seriously not grasping what you're going on about."

Illya sighed, before starting her story, "I'll simplify it. Your father had once married into the Einzbern Clan. I was the daughter born from that marriage. When I was eight, my parents both disappeared somewhere. I'm not sure what happened to mama, but she was supposedly caught in the radius of a powerful Nightmare Creature. Even though she didn't come close to it, she was still killed by it's presence. I don't believe it, but there isn't any other explanation."

She looked at the forge in the shed, before continuing, "Kiritsugu didn't come back either, since he was too busy having to take care of you. I can't get my revenge on him since he's dead, but you're still around, so it's fine."

"…I guess that makes sense."

Illya narrowed her eyes at Shirou, "…Don't act like you understand."

"Huh? I never said I did though? I mean, it makes sense that you would want to kill me. So go ahead."

Shirou spread his arms, seeming rather detached from the conversation.

Illya blinked, "…What?"

Shirou also blinked, "Well, you wanted to kill me, right? Unless you were talking about a different kind of revenge."

Illya was confused, "Of course I want to kill you, but that was a pretty bad way of setting up a trap."

Shirou was even more confused, "Uh… I don't think I have any traps set anywhere. Why would I need one?"

"Don't play dumb. That was to set up an opening to kill me, right?"

Shirou facepalmed, "…I'm being completely serious. If you want to kill me, just do it."

He suddenly seemed to remembered something, "Actually, can it wait for a while? I actually have some personal business to deal with. Once that's done, you can kill me then."

The [Obsidian Locket] is still tracking Artoria's soul after all. I'd need to become a Saint if I want to stand a chance against her.

Illya looked at him for a moment, before pulling out a few strands of her hair. Shirou watched in awe as they took the form of string swords. However, they suddenly dove into his direction, threatening to skewer him.

Shirou immediately summoned two Transcendent swords, which easily tore through the string constructs. It seemed that they were Ascended at most.

Shirou had a vein bulging on his forehead, as he said, "Don't throw dangerous things around! If you want to play, do it when you're alone."

He shook his head in exasperation, "Besides, you don't stand a chance against me. If you want to kill me so bad, just wait until I'm done with my business. I mean, I have to become a Saint, and I have to teleport to Camelot, and I have to kill what is most likely either a Corrupted or Great Beast, and that's just a hassle. So don't make it worse, you got that shortstack?"

Seriously, why do I always get stuck with the short and crazy people.

Illya was livid, "Who are you calling a shortstack, you homewrecker?! I'll kill you whenever I want! Hmph!"

She walked out of the shed, going towards the house.

Shirou sighed, "Old man, why are all of your kids nutjobs?"

Shirou had noticed something however, and it was that the constructs that she had used to attack him were quite weak. They might lightly injure a mundane person, but they couldn't feasibly harm an Ascended. Although they had the durability to take an Ascended level attack, they were otherwise harmless.

Shirou smirked.

I guess she doesn't actually want to put me in a jar after all.

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"I had my First Nightmare when I was nine!"

Illya sent a smug look towards Shirou as she recounted her achievements to Miyu.

How the hell is she alive?

"Well, what rank is your Aspect? I bet it's nothing impressive if those constructs were the best you have."

Illya smirked, "It's a Supreme Aspect!"

…You know, if you really wanted to kill me, you shouldn't try to make yourself seem impressive.

Shirou waved it off, "Mine's is Divine."

Illya and Miyu both stared at him for a few seconds, before Illya banged her fist on the dining table.

"I should have expected this…"

Huh?

"…As a protagonist, it only makes sense to have a Divine Aspect."

Miyu nodded along, berating herself for underestimating Shirou.

…Wait, they actually believe that?! Just because I'm some protagonist that they made up?!

Shirou wanted to cry.

Illya looked back up with determination, "Well, I have a Lineage Attribute!"

"Huh? What's that?"

She smirked once more, "It seems I have you beat. A Lineage Attribute is gained from using certain Memories."

"Oh, I think I have one of those."

She banged her fist against the table again.

For some reason, they had started to compete on who could impress Miyu the most.

A sibling rivalry… over another sibling?

Shirou was currently making something for them to eat, since he was not one to let a guest go hungry.

No matter how crazy.

Shirou asked Illya in curiosity, "Anyways, how much does your flaw effect your aging?"

She seemed surprised by the question, but answered nonetheless, "From what the experts have said, once I've hit my physical peak, I'll stop aging completely."

Shirou froze, "That doesn't sound much like a flaw."

"I'll end up never dying of natural causes. Do you know what that means?"

Oh.

Awakened can't get affected by mundane diseases, and if Illya is effectively immortal, the only way for her to die is to be killed by a Nightmare Creature or another person. Suicide was also an option, but Shirou preferred not to think about that.

Her flaw ensures that she will die a painful death.

I guess she's okay with sharing it since it's not much of an exploitable weakness. Ugh… at this point, it would be rude not to share mines.

"My flaw makes me feel the pain of others. It's not actually that bad, since I can mostly ignore it."

If it's just pain, Shirou will not stop.

Illya chuckled darkly, "Thank you for sharing your weakness homewrecker. I'll be sure to remember it."

Didn't I just say that it didn't effect me that much?

Shirou shook his head at her antics.

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[You have slain a Fallen Tyrant, Ghoul Emperor.]

[Your sword cannot grow sharper.]

Shirou dismissed the sword he had just used to kill the Nightmare Creature. He was practicing with the new fighting style he was developing.

Normally, [Lord of Swords] would have made it easy to fight, but it was different since he was constantly summoning and sacrificing weapons. Switching between weapons at high speeds, while also using [Sword Trial] to increase the damage was something he had to learn himself.

He watched as the Tyrant's minions noticed him. As the army of ghouls tried to surround him, the temperature started to rise.

Shirou had summoned the black flames from [Furnace], and coated the remaining of his Awakened weapons with it. They were all floating above the Nightmare Creatures, and were enhanced by a thin layer of black flames.

"Fall."

The swords rained down upon the army, exploding due to the usage of [Sword Trial].

[You have slain…

[You have slain…

[You have slain…

He was already full on sword fragments, so he was only fighting these enemies to collect their soul shards for later use. Sunny had said that he was able to use them for something, but Shirou wasn't sure what.

As per usual, Shirou hadn't obtained any memories, but that was okay. As he was now, he only needed his [Drang Armor] and utility memories. Weapons were completely useless to him, since he had his own arsenal.

Shirou had used the [Living Sword] ability to apply some enchantments upon himself. Thanks to Sunny, he was able to get a look at his weapons.

He had taken the [Dark Mirror] enchantments of the [Cruel Sight]. This allowed him to apply elemental damage to himself. He had asked Sunny to inflict soul damage to him, so now he passively dealt soul damage with any attack using his body.

What a convenient Aspect Ability.

Once Shirou had packed all of the soul shards into the [Bottomless Box], he went back to the Ivory Tower, where the Fire Keepers had set up their base.

The Fire Keepers were remnants of the Dreamer Army who had decided to follow Nephis.

Once he had gotten back, he had been greeted by every Fire Keeper he walked past. It seemed that his fame was extremely high among those who had been apart of the Dreamer Army.

After a couple of minutes, he had found Cassie. He dropped off most of the soul shards so that they can be used on the Fire Keepers, and held onto the rest to give to Sunny.

Cassie kept brushing up against him during the process, but Shirou guessed that it was because she was blind.

I guess even as a Master, a disability is a disability.

If [Eroge Protagonist EX] had a face, it would certainly be palming it.

By the time that he left, Cassie was pouting for some reason. He tried to ask what was wrong, but she ignored him as she walked back inside.

Huh? She's walking just fine without me.

Although Shirou was absolutely bewildered by that encounter, he decided that he should go back to the Waking World.

It had been three months since he had returned, so the news about Forged In Hell being back was quite widespread. He hadn't gotten any offers from the Great Clans yet, but he was planning on using the first event he may be invited to as a chance to publicly announce the revival of the Emiya Clan.

As Shirou appeared in his shed in white sparks, he summoned the [Bottomless Box] and took out some Nightmare Creature corpses. He had to restock on his weapon supply after all.

After a few hours of creating weapons, Shirou decided to think about how to advance his Aspect Legacy.

The first step required him to be able to change his body into swords. The second required a deeper understanding of the first step. The third step required him to be able to completely transform his body into another form.

The fourth step would have to be on a deeper level than changing his material body, so Shirou had to think about the best way to go about it.

After a few minutes of deep thinking, he had come up with an idea.

…The soul.