Chapter 6

~Shinji Matou POV~

After calling them out, both groups of girls were silent for several seconds before they came out onto the school grounds.

Rin, Luvia, and Miyu were understandably cautious given what I just did, while Illya looked more confused and worried, which is expected given Rin basically threw a normal ten-year-old into this without telling her anything.

"Who are you? And how did you get in here?" Luvia asked with a Finn shot pointed at me, with Rin following her example and pointing a Gandr at me.

"Don't ask stupid questions. Luvia, you obviously see this kaleidostick, so it should be obvious how I got into this mirror world," I said with a glare.

It is not that I hated either Luvia or Rin; it's just that their attitudes really rubbed me the wrong way. This incident with the class cards was completely unknown to them, and they had no idea what kind of threat these things posed, but they continued their petty arguments throughout the entire series, only getting serious when things truly hit the fan, which was stupid. Not to say a little rivalry is bad, but they take it to the goddamn illogical extreme.

"But how there should be only two kaleidosticks!" Rin yelled out.

"Like I have any obligation to tell you anything after all, you barely matter in this mission since you lost your contracts with Ruby and Sapphire without even obtaining a single class card," I said mockingly before looking over to Illya, who flinched under my stare.

"Hey, Illya Onee-chan, it's nice to meet you," I said with a smile.

Illya immediately went rigged, her eyes going wide and a noticeable blush spreading across her cheeks. "Well, it's nice to meet you too."

With Illya taken care of for the time being, I turned toward Miyu.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well. Hopefully we get along."

"What is with that total 180 in attitude?" Rin yelled in disbelief, with Luvia having much the same dumbfounded expression.

"Well, then I stalled you both long enough, so I must be going now," I said with a bow as the magic circle for the Mirror Road spell activated, having silently been cast by Kunzite.

"Wait! Don't you dare leave with that card!" Rin and Luvia said in unison as they released their Gandr and Finn shots at me, but thanks to Kunzite and the magical barrier, they had no effect.

"Well, see you soon, partners," I said before the spell activated, bringing me out of the mirror world. "Well, better get out of here before they come and hound me." My feet gently left the ground as I floated up into the air before I blasted off into the sky.

As I flew through the air, I placed the katana and class card in my hand back in my bag of holding before pulling out my adventurers card.

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Skill Points: 42

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"Dang, that's crazy, but that should be enough." Looking down further, I was able to see the available skills I could unlock.

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Available Skills:

One-Handed Sword: 3 Skill Points

Enemy detection: 2 skill points

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Well, better safe than sorry. With a mental shrug, I used my skill points. Immediately, I could feel something change inside me as well as knowledge flow into my mind.

"Wow, how am I not dead?" I said it in genuine confusion as the knowledge settled comfortably in my head. The way I was holding Kunzite was completely wrong, and I had so many openings that it wasn't even funny. It's literally a miracle I didn't die tonight.

Well, that's just one more thing to practice. But for now, I'm going to sleep; I'm exhausted.

With the thought of my bed in mind, I sped up my flight speed to get home faster.

[***]

It was now the next morning, and I found myself sitting at my table, staring at the Rider card.

"Okay, let's take my first step to getting one up on the Ainsworth." From my shadow, ebony black chains rose and wrapped around the card.

This was the Matou family's sorcery trait, Absorption and Binding, in its purest form, more specifically the binding element of it. Every Matou family member with magical potential could use the sorcery trait in one way or another. I decided to copy Sakura's use of it in the Heaven's Feel movies with her ribbons that absorbed servants left and right.

But I was doing the opposite, as I didn't want to absorb the card but bind it to myself. A fight with the Ainsworths was inevitable, either from them coming to the illyaverse or our group going to the miyuverse, and that meant fighting Darius.

As the Rule Master of the Ainsworth Holy Grail Wars, he has the authority to create and destroy class cards.

And that's going to be a serious problem if he decides we're messing up his legend too much and just decides to destroy the class cards.

But with this, I'll hopefully get rid of that weakness so that we have a somewhat higher chance of winning, even if it is extremely low.

Immediately, I felt the card bind itself to me, and I could tell I could destroy it at any moment.

"Next, I'll get the caster card so that I can start modifying this since I'm 100% sure it's still somewhat under Darius." With a sigh, I stood up, dismissing my chains, and grabbed the class card before heading outside with Kunzite following me.

Putting my hand out, Kunzite flew into it, transforming me into my Prisma Trace form. Then I placed the card on the ground, activating the magic circle.

"Thou body of mine! Thou sword be at my hand! Heed my call in desire and reason! To conquer the Holy Grail! Swear to me now! An oath shall be sworn here! I shall attain all the virtues of all of heaven, and I shall have dominion over all the evils of all of hell! From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power, come forth from the ring of restraint, protector of the holy balance! Install!"

Immediately the magic circle rose, changing my outfit once again. I now wore a black and purple leather jacket that hung loosely over my torso, revealing my smooth skin and developing abs. It also had four pockets, two on each side, with silver zippers and buttons. Several silver chains hung from my shoulders and collar, adding some weight and movement to my outfit. I had a black leather belt around my waist with a large silver buckle. My pants were black and purple leather jeans, with rips and tears on the knees and thighs. More silver chains attached to my belt loops, dangling down my legs. And finally, Gorgon Breaker materialized over my eyes, but considering what I have seen so far, it was most likely black and purple as well.

"So this is how Medusa sees the world." I couldn't help but be amazed as my other senses became sharper and I was able to perceive the world around me despite being unable to use my eyes.

Well, I better get used to this. With a thought, I materialized Medusa's nameless daggers and began going through the motions engraved into my body.

After about an hour of training, I dropped out of the install state as I felt decently comfortable with using it.

"Come on, Kunzite, we're going to use my gems to make something again."

"What are you going to make, Master Shinji?"

"Something I saw in my past life called the Cross Tail," I said with a smile as I headed back into my house. "Its full name is Infinite Uses: Cross-tail a Teigu from Akame ga kill. It takes the form of gloves with metallic fingertips with wire threads running through them connected to a larger-than-normal spool worn on the back of the waist. It was created from the body hair of a Super-Class, dragon-like Danger Beast, which is similar to phantasmal species."

Going over to my bed, I crouched down and reached under it, pulling out a chest, which I opened, revealing the gems inside.

Thanks to Kunzite, I had better control over my magical energy. I could store about 150 units of magical energy in each, and with the 30 gems, I had about 4,500 units, not including the magical energy I could get from Kunzite.

"Alright, it should cost me about 7,000 units of magical energy. I'll be relying on you, Kunzite."

"Understood, I'll start providing magical energy right away."

With Kunzite's confirmation, I began pulling upon my magical energy, forming it into a ball and compressing it every time it became too big.

Once I had about 3000 units of magical energy in front of me, I used it alongside my gems to create the Cross Tail gloves along with their spool.

As soon as it was made, I fell onto my ass, breathing heavily as my circuits felt like they were on fire. But I couldn't stop now, so ignoring the pain, I had the chains come out of my shadow and wrap around the Teigu.

Teigu from Akame ga Kill chose their wielder due to being made from Danger Beasts, and parts of their egos remain. But I had neither the time nor patience for that, so I was going to bind it to me by force if I had to.

As soon as the chains were tightly wrapped around the Teigu and I started the binding process, I felt it beginning to resist me.

"Heh, you're pretty spry for something that died hundreds of years ago. But don't underestimate me! I'm going to make you mine no matter what!"

The next hour was a fight between me and this damn Teigu, with it constantly fighting back against my control, but in the end, while it had special abilities, it couldn't outperform my magical abilities and submitted.

"Heh, there, I'm finished." With a confident grin, I slipped the Cross Tail gloves onto my hands and attached the spool to the back of my waist. "Kunzite, we're going to have to change the outfit so we can hide this better."

"Understood, I'll start making adjustments. But I am also temporarily closing your circuits to let them recover." Kunzite said that floating beside me, my Prisma Trace state dispersed, and I could feel my magic circuits being forcefully shut.

"Fine, I'll take a break from the magical stuff. So I think I'll go meet Miyu and Illya." With that thought in mind, I took a shower and put on a change of clothes that consisted of a white t-shirt with a purple jacket and a pair of jeans before heading out toward Homurahara Academy.

The walk took about twenty minutes without any magic, and I took that time to thoroughly enjoy the walk, and without much fanfare, I walked through the front gate.

"Kunzite, I'll be following you."

"Understood, I'll track down my sister's sapphire and ruby."

With Kunzite's help, I was able to track the two girls down with ease, finding them behind the school.

"Hiya Illya Onee-chan and Miyu-san." I said it with a smile as I walked up to the two of them.

"Ah, the boy from yesterday! What are you doing here? And how did you get in here?" Illya said this in shock while Miyu tensed up.

"Well, I came in through the front gate without a single person stopping me. And as for why I'm here, I wanted to meet you two without Rin and Luvia around." I said it with a smile. "Besides, he didn't say it, but I know Kunzite over here was excited to meet his sisters."

"While I did want to meet them, I wouldn't say I was excited about this, Master Shinji," Kunzite said, causing me to smile.

"Yes, whatever you say, Kunzite," I said with a shrug before turning to the two girls. "So were Tohsaka and Edelfelt pissed when they couldn't find me yesterday?"

"Yeah, Rin-san was really mad as well as Luvia-san before they started fighting each other," Illya said with an awkward laugh.

"Well, that was my intention after all; they pissed me off with their idiocy when they first got to Fuyuki," I said casually with a shrug. "Anyway, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Shinji Matou; I'm seven years old, and I am a magus."

"You're seven! You're as tall as we are!" Illya said it in shock.

"Were you dragged into this as well by those sticks?" Miyu suddenly asked, looking at both me and Illya.

"Well yeah, I was kind of tricked into becoming a magical girl," Illya said with a smile.

"While I wasn't dragged in by Kunzite, I was dragged into this by his creator. And while I would rather be more prepared, this set of circumstances is fine in its own way."

"I see. In that case, why do you fight?" Miyu asked.

"Huh…? Why do I fight?" Illya said it in confusion.

"You were simply dragged into this, right? You don't have any obligation to fight."

"But Ruby forced..."

"If you really didn't want to, Ruby would have given up and found someone else."

Those are some serious questions you're throwing around, Miyu. But that's an excellent question. While I knew that I was fighting to get stronger to face ORT in the future, did I have something to fight for? An ideal to call my own?

I guess if we're being honest, I really don't have any real reason to fight, but I do have goals, and the first one that I have right now is...

"Well, this card collection game is pretty fun. Fighting enemies with magic in another dimension It's like the stuff you see in anime and video games/To get strong enough to save my little sister." Illya and I said it at the same time.

Miyu's eyes widened in shock before looking down at her black hair, hiding her golden-brown eyes. Without fanfare, she turned around and began walking away.

Shit, I just said the first thing that came to mind, and I stepped on a landmine by accident.

"Um, did we say something wrong?" Illya asked in concern.

"We probably stepped on an old wound of hers," I said with a shrug. While I knew Miyu's past, I was going to let her come out with it when she felt the time was right. "Well, Illya, you better head home and see you later," I said while leaving Illya behind.