The White Cat (3)

Still, this was good news at the very least. Unexpected, but not unwelcome. It made my job a lot easier if I could work alongside them.

"No, quite the opposite actually." She said, instantly dashing any hope I had. "I want you to stay away from her."

"Because you want to deal with her yourself?" I asked, disappointed but not surprised that she wanted to handle the Fallen on her own.

This was her territory and for a Fallen to wander into what was the heart of it was nothing short of an insult.

While there was no official cease-fire between the Three Factions, there were certain unwritten rules that both sides tacitly agreed to. One of which was basically that any members caught in the territory of an opposing faction was free game, and could be dealt with however the owner of the territory wished. That the Fallen would enter at all meant they were either confident that they wouldn't get caught or believed that the owners were too weak to do anything to stop them.

I also wasn't worried about the Fallen being something that they couldn't handle. The guards that patrolled the city's borders would prevent any dangerous strays from entering and would have informed me if any powerful Angels, Fallen or otherwise, were seen entering the city. Though that was also unlikely to happen.

The other two members of the Three Factions are no doubt aware that the sisters of the Maous are in this city and are simply not willing to send anything that may threaten them. Not only would it send the wrong message, but there is always the small chance of a scuffle breaking out. They didn't want to risk sending anyone that may actually have a chance of killing one of them and kick-starting another war.

There was a reason why nothing higher than two-winged Fallen exist within the borders of the city. Their job wasn't to fight anyone here, just to keep an eye on things and report back to their superiors if anything unusual happens.

"No, I do not want the Fallen to be harmed in any way. In fact, I don't even want her to know that we are aware of her presence." Rias smirked, "It seems like the little crow tried to sneak in and believes she had gotten away with it."

"Ok, now you lost me." I told them frankly, "Why aren't you doing anything about her and why bother telling me about it?

"The reason why we're informing you is that we were worried what would happen if you accidentally stumbled on the Fallen." It was Akeno that answered me this time. "I'm not sure if you're aware of it but despite only recently becoming a Devil you've begun to build quite a reputation for yourself in the Underworld. You're renowned as a busy body, sticking your nose into everything and helping out anyone in trouble no matter what kind of mess it will drag you in."

In my defence, most of that wasn't my fault. It not as if I had been actively looking for trouble since becoming a Devil. It literally came looking for me, or at least it certainly felt as if it.

It wasn't like I meant to walk a Cthulhu Ritual where a bunch of Devils were trying to summon a Great Old One by sacrificing a group of children. I was just looking for the bathroom. And needless to say, I spent the rest of the week cleaning that mess.

Serafall did warn me about how my luck will change as Devil, I just didn't understand the scale it would change. When I told her what happened she just congratulated me on my first accident Cthulhu ritual discovery. Apparently it happens often enough that the Maous consider it a rite of passage into becoming a true Ultimate-Class rank. It had personally happened to Serafall three times so far, while Sirzechs held the record at five.

It was disconcerting, to say the least. I couldn't tell what bothered me more, that Cthulhu rituals were a thing in this universe or that it apparently happens often enough that people kept stumbling all over them.

"Ok, I could see why you might be worried about that. But I still don't understand why you're allowing a Fallen to roam unopposed right in the middle of your territory."

Instead of answering, Akeno pulled a folder from beneath the table. Opening it, she began flipping through the pages before apparently finding the one she wanted. Puling out a single sheet of paper from the folder, she placed it on the table before sliding it over to me.

"Hyoudou Issei," Rias began to speak as I quickly scanned the paper. It contained the basic information and a picture of the boy in question. "A sixteen-year-old boy who's currently enrolled Kuoh Academy. A mediocre student at best, who had barely managed to make the cut-off point for the entrance exam last year. Though that was in part due to the Academy lowering its standards for male students in an effort to bolster its male population after having recently turned co-ed.

"Athletically he's roughly average, at least for a student who's not a member of a sports club, without any history of serious injury or illness. Despite his lack of ability, he is renowned across Kuoh Academy as a member of the Perverted Trio, a group of boys who continually attempt to peek on the female population of the school whenever they can."

"Perverts." A voice to my left interjected. I turned to find Koneko sitting on a sofa that she was sharing with Kiba. There was a plate of Yokan, a type of traditional type of Japanese sweet, before her. Having said her part, she now turned back towards her interrupted meal.

"Now, now, Koneko, you make it sound like that's a bad thing." Akeno covered the smile that was starting to form behind her hand, "I'll have you know that being a little Perverted can be a good thing. Especially when there is someone there to...discipline you."

Koneko just stared at her silently for five full seconds before deadpanning. "Pervert."

Which just caused Akeno to laugh.

"Other than that Issei should have been nothing more than an ordinary if troublesome student." Rias continued after Akeno stopped her laughter. "That was at least until sometime last year when we were able to discover he had a Sacred Gear. It was nothing but pure luck that we found out about it, the boy's magical presence was so small that he's almost invisible to our senses. It was only because Akeno happened to bumped into him while he was being chased by the Kendo club that she even noticed it at all.

"While that was enough to catch my interest, I wasn't willing to risk an Evil Piece over him until I had identified what kind of Sacred Gear he possessed. With the abysmal amount of Mana he had in him, it would have had to be a powerful Sacred Gear to make him a worthwhile investment. But unfortunately, the very same lack of magical presence that caused us not to notice him for so long prevented us from properly identifying the Sacred Gear.

"Truthfully it ended up becoming so troublesome that we decided to simply sit on the matter and hoped the Issei's natural Magical supply would develop with time as he continued to grow and physically mature."

"Which ended up blowing up in our faces" Akeno added.

Rias just nodded in agreement while massaging her forehead, "That boy has the most abysmal magic reserves I have ever heard of. I have seen newborn toddlers with more magic than him, human toddlers. Even after almost a full year of waiting the amount of Mana within him didn't seem to increase at all, or at least not enough for either Akeno or me to notice. The only upside was that I now knew that turning him into a bishop was off the table."

"So what changed?" I questioned. "If you still failed to identify his Sacred Gears then why has he suddenly become important?"

"His scent," Rias said with a victorious smile, "While we couldn't identify his Sacred Gear through magic, we got lucky again and discovered that he's Sacred Gear was producing a distinctly unique scent."

"It was all thank to Koneko here." Kiba speaking for the first time since we entered the club room. "After she enrolled as a freshman, she began to notice the scent of a supernatural creature on school grounds that didn't belong to any of the Devils or their familiars. She traced the scent and found that it leads to Issei."

"What kind of scent are we talking about?" I asked, wondering what the big deal is.

"A Dragon," Rias answer and though she tried to hide it, there was a tone of reverence and wonder in her voice, "Hyoudou Issei has the scent of a Dragon."

Oh! Well, that changed everything.

In my world Dragons were the pinnacle of all Phantasm Species, the strongest among the strong. Even the weakest among Dragons had the power to potentially singlehandedly destroy a country. They were literal extensions of the world that were given intelligence and a physical form.

By nothing more than breathing they were capable of generating Prana, effortlessly generating an almost unmatched amount of magical energy. I was once told that Saber had some Dragon blood within her and that it allowed her to generate an obscene amount of Prana that, if you compared a Magus's body to a single machine capable of generating magical energy, then her body would be an entire factory mass producing it. That was how much of a difference introducing Dragon blood to a human could make.

In this world, I had discovered Dragons were pretty much the same. Except where in my world the strongest Dragon could bring ruin to the entire planet, Dragons here were capable of ruling entire dimensions.

There was a reason why the two most powerful beings in this universe were Dragons. Hyoudou Issei having a Dragon based Sacred Gear had just skyrocketed his importance from a 'normal human' to a 'potentially dangerous' one in the eyes of the world.

"That's not even the best part." Rias Gremory seemed to almost vibrate with excitement. "There are only two known Dragon-based Sacred Gears that are powerful enough to give off such a scent when still in their dormant state."

"The Two Heavenly Dragons," I answered for which she nodded in agreement. "And this generation's White Dragon Emperor has been found and recruited by the Fallen Angel Faction, which means that Issei has-"

"Ddraig, the Red Dragon Emperor." She finished the sentence for me. "That's right, Hyoudou Issei is this generation's Red Dragon Emperor and the wielder of the Boosted Gear."

"I see." At least now it's making a bit more sense why she went through the trouble of protecting Issei from being expelled. He had a Longinus within him after all. Still, "As interesting as this all is, what does it have anything to do with the Fallen? And considering your enthusiasm to the idea, why haven't you attempted to recruit Issei yet?"

"The answers to both of those questions are actually closely linked." Resting her elbows on her knees, Rias leaned forward while steepling her hands. "Have you ever heard of the Valantime incident?

I shut my eyes as I finally had an idea of what she was trying to imply, and I had a feeling that I wasn't going to like where this was going, "I see."

Valantime was the name of a city in the Underworld. It was once a fairly prosperous place despite being one of the smaller cities in the region. It owed its good fortune to be one of the only places that bridged the Underworld to the human world. Its population was a little under a million but it was expected to grow quickly as new people continued to move into the city. It had earned the nicknamed 'The Desert Flower' for it was a city that bloomed in the harsh dry region it called home.

But that over ninety years ago. Today Valantime was a completely different place.

Today, that city was a wasteland.

Exactly 92 years ago, the City of Valantime was brought to ruin by the rampaging of the wielder of the Sacred Gear Divine Dividing, The White Dragon Emperor. The exact details leading up to the incident was never discovered, however, what is known is that a Devil, the sole living member of the Gamigin, was able to discover and recruit a human that was the wielder of the Divine Dividing into his Peerage.

Not much was known about the human in question or at least nothing of any real importance. But what was known was that after being reincarnated he was identified as bearing the Sin of Pride. This came as a surprise to no one. Dragons, after all, had always been the prideful creatures.

The details were lost, but it appeared that an argument broke out between Gamigin and the wielder of the Divine Dividing. When Gamigin lost his patience and tried to force the wielder to submit using his status as his master as leverage, well that was when everything began to go to hell.

A Dragon's Pride will never allow them to willingly bend their knee to anyone, not even other Dragons. That was something Gamigin soon discovered when the wielder attacked him. The fight soon began to grow as the rest of the Peerage jumped and tried to pull the wielder off their master. In response, the wielder activated his Balance Breaker and soon what began as a small fight between Peerage members escalated to an almost city-wide fight as more and more Devils were brought him in order to subdue him.

It reached the point where one of the Maous was summoned to stop him, and that was when the real disaster struck. The wielder already beginning to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies, panicked when he caught sight of the approaching Maou. Trapped and cornered he became desperate and made what was perhaps the stupidest decision he possibly could have.

He activated the Juggernaut Drive.

And that was that.

His rampaged could no longer be stopped, not even by the Maou. Not without destroying everything else in the area along with him. All they could do evacuate as many people as they could from the city. For two full hours, the White Dragon Emperor raged and in his rage, he brought calamity onto the city. For two full hours, all in the vicinity could hear his madden howls of hatred and anguish. When at last he stopped, the wielder was found dead in the middle of what once was a city, the force of his power draining him of his life.

It took weeks before they were able to accurately tally the total losses of the disaster. They found that over the course of a single night over two-hundred thousand Devils were killed, the equivalent of billions of dollars worth of property was lost, the bridge between the Human and Underworld was irreparably damaged, and the last surviving member of the Gamigin Clan, one of the 72 Pillars had perished.

Not since the fight between the Two Heavenly Dragons during the Great War had the Devils suffused such a loss by a single being. The Devils had forgotten the might of the Dragons. They had forgotten why they should be feared.

Albion reminded them.

The Underworld learned to fear the wrath of a Dragon that day.

"I have a really bad feeling I'm really not going to like where this is going," I muttered.

"I'm sure that you are aware that Dragon based Sacred Gears Wielder are notoriously hard to recruit and even harder to control." Rias, having either not heard my words or simply deciding to ignore them, continued, "What makes them more dangerous than any other type of Sacred Gear Wielders is the amount of damage they could do when they lose control of themselves. This is especially true when it came to the Two Heavenly Dragons, as Albion had shown us. So before I could even consider recruiting him, I needed a way to ensure his loyalty.

"Fortunately, unlike the case with the Divine Dividing wielder, Issei's Sin will clearly be Lust. This not only makes him easier to manage but also far more likely to accept being a Devil considering our lifestyle." Here Rias paused a moment, taking a moment to collect herself before forging on, "But that's not enough to secure his loyalty. We cannot allow another incident like Valantime to happen again. I won't ever allow it allow to happen under my watch. I needed another reason for him to become loyal to me.

"For a while, I was stumped, I couldn't think of a single solution to the problem other than catering to his Lust, and that simply wasn't going to be enough. All it would take for the Fallen or even the Church to send someone to seduce him then he might trade sides at a drop of a hat. But then," She reached over to the folder that Akeno had placed on the table, pulled out a photo and slid it over to me, "the answer fell right into our laps."

In front of me was a picture of a young Japanese girl. She had long silky black hair with an innocent almost childlike face and dark violet eyes.

"Her name, or at least the name she's currently calling herself by, is Amano Yuma. Her real name is unknown to us but what we do know is that she is the Fallen Angel we sensed on campus and is currently posing as an ordinary schoolgirl. Normally we would have eliminated her by this point but when we began to track her we were able to discover the purpose of her appearance here."

I'm starting to connect the dots and I didn't like the picture that was beginning to appear. "Let me guess, she was here for Issei right?"

Rias gave me a firm nod at that, "At first we feared that she was here to try to recruit him into the Fallen Angel Faction as they did with Vali. However, it quickly became clear that wasn't the case. Issei's current human body would have made him too weak for him to be of any real use, Boosted Gear or no Boosted Gear. There was also the matter of Albion and Ddraig being sworn enemies and same side or not they'll try to rip each other apart the moment they set eyes on one another.

"But the thing that finally convinced us of her intentions was Koneko. When she was tracking her she was able to sense Yuma's emotions."

Koneko didn't even bother to look up from her half-finished plate of sweets as she spoke, "Blood lust."

"So we came to the obvious conclusion that she's here to prevent us from recruiting him ourselves. That she went as far as to pose as his girlfriend just made her goal more obvious. We were able to discover that she plans on taking him on a 'date' this evening on the other side of town, a place that's as far as you can get from the heart of Devil territory while still remaining in the city limits. We think she chose that spot because it bore the least likely chance of Devils interfering."

"So do you plan to do?" Despite my question, a part of me was dreading that I already knew the answer. "Are you going to approach Issei now or interfere with the date itself?"

"...No," Rias leaned back in her seat with her eyes shut for a moment and took a deep breath. Then she opened her eyes, which were now hardened with resolve, and stared back at me unflinchingly as she spoke.

We're going to let her kill him

I felt my heart go cold at her words.

For a moment I was sure that I misheard her, that there was no way that they were going to just sit back and watch a boy die. But all I had to do was look at her cold determined eyes, the same eyes that her brother wore, and I understood that this was no joke, no mistake.

Comprehension hit me with all the subtlety of a speeding truck and I realized that they were serious, that these bunch of high school students were gonna let the boy get killed in front of their eyes.

For his credit at least, Kiba looked clearly uncomfortable with the entire situation. Koneko wore no expression at all on her face but the way she studiously ignored everything around her as she stared blankly ahead was as clear a sign of her feelings as anything. Akeno however just a wore that serene smile of hers, the very same one she had been wearing the entire so I had absolutely no idea what she was thinking.

The Gremory however just looked determined.

"I can't let you do that."

I didn't even realize I was speaking until I had finished, but I didn't regret what I said.

"You don't have a choice," Rias countered coolly, "I know for a fact that you were ordered by your King not to interfere. And I already requested approval of the plan from my brother, which he gave along with the blessings of the Elder Council. No one is willing to invite another Heavenly Dragon into Devil Society again without taking every precaution, not after Valantime.

"So you see Emiya Shirou, there is quite frankly nothing you can do about it."

I said nothing, unwilling to move or say a thing. Not trusting myself not to lash out, with either words or swords I did not know.

When, after a long long while, I had finally begun to gain some resemblance of control over myself I asked, "Why?" although the word came out garbled from how I had to choke it out of my constricted throat.

Fortunately, I didn't need to repeat myself as the Gremory seemed to have understood what I was trying to say.

"Because it needed to be done," the Gremory leaned back on her seat but she never removed her eyes from mine, "this isn't some ordinary human Emiya, this a Longinus wielder, people born with the potential to kill gods inside them. The last time the Underworld had one, he brought ruin and desolation to an entire city, ending thousands of lives in the blink of an eye. If the cost of preventing something like that happening again is a single human life, then it's a price I'm more than willing to pay."

"Besides," this time she leaned forward, "I think you're misunderstanding something. It's not as if I'm going to let him stay dead, I do plan on resurrecting him. And I don't actually have anything to do with his death. I have no intention of lifting so much as a finger to harm a single hair on his head, let alone try to kill him."

"You may not be the one to do the deed but you're not planning on doing anything to stop it either. I thought you Gremorys are supposed to treat you Peerage like family and yet this is what you intend to do to Issei? Someone who you're planning on making a part of your Peerage?"

For the first time, the Gremory's eye turned cold, not determined or hard but truly cold. "For my Peerage, I'll do anything. Give anything. My life, my happiness and even my everything is not too high a price to pay for their safety or happiness."

There was a brand of madness unique to Devils, a type of insanity born from their Sin. It rules them in a way the human mind simply cannot comprehend. And the Gremory's cold eyes now shone with that very madness, of the intensity of her Greed for her Peerage possessing her soul.

When she said her everything, she was not lying.

"Issei, however, is not a member of my Peerage, not yet. He will be but until then he's just an ordinary human to me, no different than any other stranger in this city."

For a long while after that, silence ruled the room, as no one had anything else to say.

I simply sat back in my chair and watched her. Just watched as I tried to understand the person seated before me. It didn't take me long to put the pieces together and start figuring her out.

The sad thing is, despite all the things she's about to do, she wasn't evil. No, not evil, just selfish. Which might just be something worse.

She said that she was willing to pay the price of one human life if it meant preventing another Valantime. What she didn't realize was that she wasn't the one paying the price. It was other people. It was Issei who will die, his parents who will mourn him, and his friends that will miss him, they will be the ones who will pay the price, but from her point of view she was taking on the real burden of being forced to choose.

The scary thing is she doesn't see anything she's doing as wrong. In that sense, she's no different than her brother.

Gremorys, no matter what they keep managing to finds ways to infuriate me.

No. No that was unfair. This isn't a Gremory problem but a Pure-blooded Devil problem. They saw themselves so above humanity that they found nothing wrong with playing god with their lives. You just needed to look at how many of them mistreated the Resurrected Devils to see that. They believed that their powers made them superior to all others. What they didn't realize was that their very power was given to them by mere chance, that they have done nothing to earn it or the apparent 'superiority' that came with it.

Power earned was better than power given. For all of my issues with Sirzechs, and I have a lot of them, I could acknowledge that he lived by that rule. Even had he never been born with the Power of Destruction I had no doubt that he would have still grown to become powerful, even Maou-Class powerful.

His sister, on the other hand, didn't live by that rule. Everything she had was handed to her. Her power of Destruction, her rank of Heiress and even the privilege of starting a Peerage, everything was given to her. Yet she there was a sense of pride in her, a confidence that shouldn't have been there for her so-called achievements.

It was that sense of pride that her to believe that she, a not-quite 18-year-old girl, had the right to determine the fate of others, to decide if they should live or die.

Typical Pure-Blooded Devil.

Still, all of my complaining wouldn't do anything to solve the issue. I could whine all I wanted later when I had the time. For now, I had to think of a way to fix this mess.

Yet, there has been one thing bothering about the entire issue.

Issei having a Dragon based Sacred Gear.

No, I had trouble believing it. It didn't make any sense. Issei doesn't act like a Dragon, not even the slightest. A Dragon's Pride was a dangerous thing, unforgivingly brittle as it was hard. A Dragon did not run, ever. Not even before death, not even the inevitable could sway it from its course. It was something that would rather break before it ever bent and I had trouble coinciding that truth with the what I saw this morning. Of Issei running away from a bunch of schoolgirls that caught him peeping.

It...it didn't fit. That wasn't a Dragon.

A predomination washed over me at the moment. One that terrified me.

What if they were wrong? What if Issei didn't have a Sacred Gear? Will she just let him die then?

"Promise me," I stated, finally breaking the silence, "promise me that no matter what happens you'll resurrect him. Even if you find out that he doesn't bear the Boosted Gear you'll still make him a part of Peerage. If you do, then I'll give you my word that I'll not involve myself with this entire mess."

The Gremory didn't even hesitate, I'll give her that much. "I, Rias Gremory, the Heir of the Gremory Clan, one of the 72 Pillars, hereby swear that I will resurrect Hyoudou Issei into my Peerage, no matter what he's Sacred Gear may or may not be."

...What is it with these Clan heirs and their formality? First Sona and now her. Couldn't they just say a simple 'I promise' and be done with it?

Still, I could feel a little bit of tension leaving my body at her words. I may not like how they're going to go about this, but this was the best I could hope for. If I tried to do anything else I'd just end up making things worse for the boy.

If Issei wasn't going to be revived I would interfere nor matter what, orders or no orders. But considering that he was already being targeted by the Fallen Faction, he would need to join a side if he wanted to live. Heaven wouldn't want him, not unless he completely reformed his ways. The Fallen are more likely to kill him, if not directly then through Vali. In the end, his only real choice for making out of this mess alive was to join the Devil Faction and into someone's Peerage.

As much as I hated to admit it, no one watched over their Peerage like the Gremory. No one.

Then there were my own restraints. I couldn't act without thinking anymore. I was a member of a Maou's Peerage and whether I liked it or not, everything I do will have repercussions. It wasn't just my life at stake if I screw up. There is no way I wanted to get Serafall in trouble because of me.

Or worse, as unlikely as it was, sparked a civil war over this incident. Wars had been fought over far less than the Boosted Gear.

I suddenly felt tired. I couldn't stand being in this room with them anymore, I just wanted to get out of here and go home.

"Well, if that's all you wanted to talk to me about Rias Gremory," I said as I began to stand up, an action that was soon copied by the Gremory, Akeno, and surprisingly Kiba. Koneko was already back to eating another plate of snacks she had gotten from somewhere, "I believe it's time for me to get home."

They all walked me to the door, Kiba actually reaching the door before me and held it open.

I turned around and gave the occupants of the room one short wave. "Well, as much as I'd like to say I had a lovely evening meeting you all but I'm afraid I'd be lying. So instead I'll wish you all a good day. Kiba, Koneko, Akeno, Gremory." After giving each of them a quick nod as I said their name, I turned and left the room.

From behind me, I heard Kiba say, "Ah, Buchou. I'm going to help Emiya-san get back to the school entrance." Followed by the sound of a door shutting behind me, then footsteps as Kiba quickly caught up to me.

The door shut behind the departing boys, leaving the club room occupied only by the girls of the Peerage.

For a moment no one said anything, and then a light chuckle made its way from the Raven haired girl.

"Ufufufu, Looks like your plan to fluster him failed, eh Buchou. Or should I say 'little pervert'."

"Shut up, Akeno." Muttered Rias, her face turning red at the memory.

"And what did he call you? A nudist? No that's not it. Ah, that's right, a little exhibitionist."

"I said, shut up Akeno," Rias repeated a little loud while her face grew a little redder. She looked down and muttered to herself. "I'm not an exhibitionist damn it."

"Ara Ara Buchou, are you still angry on what he did to your brother?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She retorted while crossing her arms and looking away. "My brother kicked his ass."

"He also ended up looking like a porcupine didn't he?" Akeno replied while cupping her cheek and smiling as she happily imagined the look of agony on Sirzechs's face.

Rias puffed out her cheeks at that, "Nii-san is the strongest." Barely restraining herself from stomping her foot.

Rias held that pose for a moment, arms crossed and cheeks puffed out like a child before she physically deflated and appeared to almost slump over. She looked suddenly looked exhausted.

"Hey Akeno," her voice was so low that it was barely heard even in the silent room, "I'm...I'm not the bad one here, am I? I mean, I'm doing the right thing...right?"

Akeno, seeing her friend in such a state, dropped her smile as she answered. "Well, I'm not sure if I could call what you're doing the right thing but at the very least I don't think you're doing the wrong thing." Then an idea popped into her head as a wicked smile graced her face. "However, if you're still feeling bad about yourself I can always, ah, punish you. I know it can make really bad and naughty girls feel good again. I got a paddle and everything."

"AKENO!" her blush this time was simply atomic.

From the corner of the room where she was sitting at, Koneko looked up at them with a disapproving frown on her face before deadpanning, "...Perverts." and returning back to her meal.

Despite walking side by side, not a single word passed between the two boys as they made their way out of the old school building.

"...Emiya-san." Kiba finally said after they were almost halfway through the woods, "I wanted you to know that despite how it might have appeared today Buchou is not in any way a bad person. It's just that she'd been in a tough position lately, what with the discovery of the Boosted Gears and the possibility of it either rampaging or the Fallen Angels nabbing it from under our noses. The Elders threating to take the matter out of her hands if she didn't act didn't help either. Not to mention how desperate she is trying to find a way out of her marriage with Riser. Look, what I'm trying to say is that she really didn't have a choice in th-"

"Kiba," He was interrupted before he could continue rambling on. Shirou stopped in his tracks and turned to face him. He's golden coloured eyes locked onto his metallic grey. "Some of the most hideous and deplorable acts that were committed by humanity was not out of malice or cruelty, but rather it was done by simple ordinary people who did what they did because 'they had no choice'."

He turned and began walking again but not before tossing one last line over his shoulder, "That doesn't make it any less wrong."

Kiba had nothing he could say to that.

After a long, long day I finally found my way back home.

I slowly made my way up the walkway to my new home. It was a mid-sized family house, with four bedrooms and a backyard. It was honestly too big for me alone, but Serafall insisted and managed to convince me that it would be better to have too much space rather than too little.

Plus it had a basement underneath for me to train in. I would have preferred a dojo or a large garden like I had in my old home, but places like that were rare to find anywhere and almost impossible in the middle of a small city. I doubted that it would have done anything to stop Serafall from simply building a new house from scratch but thankfully I had to move here in short notice and there simply wasn't enough time for her to try.

Unlocking the front door I made my way in, tossing my schoolbag in the rack placed by the side of the door for that very purpose. After taking my shoes off, I made my way to the kitchen to start preparing for dinner.

"Yahoo~~~, Shirou. Welcome back~~~!" A cheerful if slightly slurred voice called out to me.

But apparently someone beat me here to it. There seated in my kitchen was a young girl.

She was in her mid-teens with forest green eyes and beautiful long blond hair that reached past her shoulder blades, ending in the middle of her back. She had pale skin matched with a beautiful almost aristocratic face. Dressed in long blue denim with a simple white T-shirt with the caption 'God is Dead – Nietzsche was right after all' printed on it.

She was sitting on one of the wooden chairs surrounding the dining table that was located right in the center of the kitchen and was currently slumped over its surface with a goofy smile on her lips. Her usually sharp and observant eyes were glazed over as she tried and failed to focus them on me. The empty wine bottle that was slowly rolling back and forth across the table gave me a hint as to why.

"Asia, is that the wine bottle I had hidden for guests?" I asked.

She shifted her head from where it laid planted on the table to look at the empty bottle. "Why yes," her eyes widening in surprise as she slurred her words, "yes it is. How did that get there?"

"I believe you put it there and unless I'm mistaken, you've been drinking from it." I could feel a headache beginning to form right between my eyebrows.

"Yes, yes I have." She lifted her head off the table and started to nod vigorously. "And it was wonderful~!" She threw her hand wide and began to lean back on her chair.

"No wonder the old fogeys at the church didn't want me to drink any. This stuff is awesome! The bastards probably just wanted to keep it all for themselves." She continued to lean backwards until she was balancing the chair on its two back legs.

No, I actually think they were just terrified of what a drunken Asia would look like. Like I was quickly learning to be.

Snatching up the empty wine bottle she held it up to the sky like she was about to offer a toast. "Truly wine is a gift from the all mighty. For good drinks and those who prepared it, for good friends with whom to share it," here she pointed the wine bottle at me before raising it to the sky again, "we thank you, Lord. Amen-OUCH!"

Clutching her head at the sharp sudden pain she was no doubt feeling, she predictably ended up losing her balance as her entire chair began to fall backwards, sending her tumbling onto the floor.

For a few seconds, there was nothing but awkward silence in the kitchen, until a voice made its way from the other side of the table, "Owie~ that hurts~." A hand emerged from behind the table, holding onto its surface as its owner used it to push herself back up.

"Asia, you're a Devil now. You can't praise god anymore."

"What!? Really? You mean I can't even pay him a compliment? Well then, screw you too God. I was just trying to praise you oh Holy Father – Ouch! Son of a bitch will you stop that! You won't believe how much that hurt, Jesus Christ – OUCH!"

...It was like watching a car crash. No matter how much you wanted to look away you just couldn't.

"What!" she wailed towards the sky, "It's bad enough that I can't pray to you anymore, but now you're telling me I can't even cuss? Jesus, Mary, and Joseph that's harsh – SON OF A BITCH THAT STINGS!"

Releasing her grip on her head after her latest bout of headache, Asia then began to glare towards the heavens before proceeding to flip God off. Or at least she tried to anyway.

"No, Asia you're supposed to use the middle finger, not the ring finger." I corrected, "Yup, that's much better."

Ladies and Gentleman, allow me to introduce my Bishop. Asia Argento, the former Holy Maiden turned Witch turned Devil...and now apparently turned alcoholic.

Yup, that was definitely a headache starting form.

Play OST Fate Stay Night – Kishi Ou no Hokori

It's funny how life goes sometimes.

I walked through the moonlit town. Walking up the road, I noticed there weren't any other people around. It was only seven-thirty. There should have been some people around at this time, but there was no sign of anyone.

You can go looking and looking for something and never find it.

"...Oh yeah." I muttered. There was some kind of crime committed here in Miyama City a few days ago. A burglar murdered someone, I think. It got everybody spooked. That must be why there's no one around, and it was probably why the school curfew was lowered till six.

"...Gas leaks and murder, huh? It's been getting dangerous lately."

No wonder there are fewer people walking around at night.

But when finally you stop looking,

"...Huh?"

it ends up appearing right in front of you.

For a moment, I couldn't believe my eyes. There is someone on the road which I was sure was empty. The person is standing above me as if looking down on me. It was a young girl with snow-white hair that shimmered like silver in the moonlight and eyes that shone ruby red.

Without realizing it, I held my breath. I knew that girl. The silver-haired girl smiles and descends the hill without a sound.

As she passes...

"You'll die if you don't summon-"

"-Ilya?" I interpreted before she finished talking, not caring how the grocery bag slipped out of my slackness hands and spilt onto the sidewalk.

"...huh?" She answered, surprised.

I remember when Kiritsugu told me I had a sister.

I turned and walked towards her, hesitantly covering the space between us in two strides, not even noticing how the world around blurred as tears began to gather in my eyes.

When I asked where she was, he told me he lost her. So I went looking...

I searched and searched, but I couldn't find her.

"...Ilya, Your Ilya right?" I asked again, hesitantly as my voice wavered and cracked. I kneeled before her, lowering myself to eye level. "Illyasviel von Einzbern, right? I-Is that you?" I didn't realize that I had tentatively placed my hands on her shoulder until I felt the material of her jacket in my hand.

Even though I really, really wanted to meet her. Even though I really wanted to talk to her, I couldn't find her. No matter how long or hard I tired.

"..y-yes?" She stuttered, seemingly utterly perplexed by my actions. At her reply, I felt my sight blur from unshed tears.

But now, here you are standing right before me

"Ha-ha...I found you" I felt tears that were barely held in check begin to spill down my face. "finally ...I... I FINALLY FOUND YOU!"

You're here, you were really here!

"W-Whaa!" she squealed out in surprised as I wrapped my arms around her, stood up and swung her around.

"I found you! Ilya I finally, finally found you!" I exclaimed as I continued to twirl you around in circles, laughing like a madman.

I wanted to meet you for the longest time

"W-What?" she asked with a completely bewildered expression, looking more confused than anything. "What's going on?"

But I didn't care, as I continued to laugh out my joy to the world.

Now at last, at long last, I can finally say:

Hi, I'm your brother.

Nice to finally meet you.