Chapter 10: Meeting Part 3

Beta read by Shigiya, Paragon of Awesomeness and Darklord331

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--Infirmary-

"Get yourself a few more hours of sleep when you get back home. I understand that you must study for your exams but you won't learn anything if your health keeps getting weaker by the day."

Back in the infirmary, Ryouko Mikado was in the middle of helping one of the students with their recurring migraines. She noted down his symptoms and the possible cause of his problems — which mostly boiled down to stress and lack of sleep. She wrote a quick note for the boy, telling him to give it to the teacher and go back home to sleep. 

"You can sleep here if you want, there are many beds available." She offered nicely, but was instead met with a furious head shake. 

"I'll be fine, I-I don't need to rest anymore! Anyways, thank you again!" The rumor that the hot nurse liked big and strong men who could tough out whatever ailed them had spread rapidly around the school. The boy knew that if he accepted the nurse's offer of rest then his chances with her would get crushed to bits. The boy bowed deeply, unable to hide the blush on his face when talking to her. She giggled, already used to the boys' stares. "I-I'll be sure to follow your advice, but there is no need to sleep here — I can hold on until after school before getting a good nap." 

He slowly walked back out of the infirmary, leaving the buxom brunette all by herself. Despite her attentive attitude with the student, her mind had been elsewhere. The matter of the Princess of Deviluke, Lala's presence on Earth was still on her mind. Given she flew all across the galaxy and settled on this planet to lead a simple life amongst the humans didn't mean she would ignore certain news throughout the galaxy. All of this to flee Solgam and basically continued practicing her passion without working for an organization hellbent on overthrowing the Emperor. Gid Deviluke could be described as a ruthless tyrant who was known to destroy whole planets just to crush those who opposed him, though, if he was in the mood, he would spare them if they submitted to him. Fortunately, she'd never witnessed the Emperor in such an act or else her life would have been long gone. 

From what she gathered from her informants, the Princess was supposed to be in the middle of choosing the perfect suitor to marry. It wasn't a secret that she was less than happy with this arrangement, so it wouldn't be a surprise if Lala decided to run away and ended up here. A backwater planet at the very edge of the empire's reach, where the number of aliens like herself could be counted with her fingers. 

Mikado was not worried about having her identity revealed by Lala's bodyguards or any other alien that might make their way to the planet. She had long since made sure to erase any and all traces of her past life whilst creating a solid background on Earth. Nevertheless, she worried more about Emiya instead.

"The boy will have a lot to deal with." The woman didn't know the particulars of the relationship between him and the princess. Maybe he offered to hide her or gave her shelter? There were many reasons. 

Emiya Yuuki Shirou, or Emiya as he preferred to be called, was one of the few students she conversed with regularly and even enjoyed doing so. Calling him odd would be an understatement — mature was the correct term, though in her experience that in itself was odd for a boy his age. Whenever they talked over a cup of tea during breaks and visits, Mikado had to remind herself many times that she was facing a student and not a man near her age. Just the way he talked and behaved did not match her experience as to how a person his age should. 

There came a point when she grew suspicious and wondered if he was an alien like her, disguising himself as a student. But the medical record didn't lie, not a single trace of forgery coupled with the abundance of evidence that showed his growing up as a human child in Sainan. 

"Maybe some people mature faster than the average person…" Still, she enjoyed having company with someone who wasn't just keen to jump on her like a certain perverted principal, have all their attention be focused on a particular part of her body — which, granted, she didn't mind in the first place — and didn't seem affected by her teasing. The looks he would give her after such attempts instead made her feel like a child getting stared down by an adult. 

Safe to say, she didn't want something bad to happen to the boy, especially if it happened because of matters concerning the royal family. 

Bam!

Mikado was cut off from her thoughts when the door was opened rather violently. 

"Eh, Yamamoto-kun?" She did a double at the boy's face, which had been beaten black and blue with swollen cheeks, lips, and eyelids. He was being dragged inside by another student who looked like he was only in a marginally better state. "What happened?"

None of them answered, instead falling to the ground unconscious. 

"Ara, seems like he already has a lot on his plate." She mused mirthfully, walking up to both fallen boys and checking their state. "Nothing serious aside from a bruised face and shattered pride. They'll be fine by tomorrow." 

"M-Mikado-sen…sei." Another voice came from the door, and the woman looked up to find another pair of boys had appeared at her doorstep with similar wounds and bruises. Then came another, and another, and soon enough a handful of students had turned into a dozen kids now laying on the floor. She looked outside and found a line of boys walking like zombies and moaning in pain. It gave her the impression of soldiers reporting to the medical center after being forced to retreat from a devastating loss in battle. 

"I'm going to need a lot more beds." 

Just what could have caused so many to get beaten in such a way? It didn't take long for the nurse to figure out the situation when she recalled that Lala was probably glued to Emiya's side as he gave her a tour of the school and how there was a big possibility for her words to have caused some misunderstandings…

Mikado sighed, already imagining the hours and headache-inducing effort it would take to heal everyone here. "I'll have to call for some help." A part of her was curious about what Emiya was doing right now, though her work came first. 

"Mikado-sensei!" This time, she heard the voice of a girl, which turned out to belong to Kotegawa Yui.

"…" The extraterrestrial nurse grew speechless as she saw the girl drag a beaten Saruyama Kenichi by his foot while the latter tried to resist as much as possible, and was even clawing at the floor to get away.

"I-I-I'm fine! This is but a scratch! I don't need to go to the infirmary for such a minor thing — I'm a man!" 

"What man!? You can barely walk and I found crying by the stairs from the pain just a minute ago!" 

"Don't say that out loud! M-Mikado-sensei might hear you! I can't let her see me in such a state!" 

A vein throbbed on Yui's forehead. For some reason, Saruyama and a large number of the injured boys all absolutely refused to go to the infirmary no matter how badly they'd been beaten. Some of the more sensible or muddle-headed ones didn't dare ignore her orders, though they were easily in the minority. Unfortunately, Yui's role as head of the school disciplinary committee did not allow her to neglect the well-being of fellow students, and thus her own morals compelled her to help them when the need arose. 

The ground screeched as Saruyama used his nails to vainly attempt to grab onto anything he could even as Yui continued to drag him. "Yo-You don't understand what you're doing! The image I've built for so long as a manly man will be destroyed!" He said with tearful eyes. 

"How the heck is seeking medical help and going to the infirmary going to make you less manly!? Get a hold of yourself, you idiot!" Using more strength, she pulled the boy across the floor while he continued to struggle. 

Mikado watched the entire comedic show with a small smile on her face. Her claim about liking strong men who could shrug away wounds and minor ailments might not have been a good idea after all. She had just wanted for these boys to stop crowding the beds and leave some room for those who actually needed her help and expertise. "Ara, Kotegawa-san, I see you brought me another patient." 

"Noooo! Please, Kotegawa, I'll give you anything! Let me go!" Saruyama grew pale white when he saw how close he was to one of the hottest women he'd ever seen in his life. He didn't want to show this side of himself to her after she said she preferred strong, tough guys who could shrug off a bit of pain. 

The young girl smiled awkwardly at the nurse, "Sorry about his behavior, I don't know why he and the other boys are being so stubborn."

"What exactly happened to them?" 

"I… I'm not certain." Yui shook her head. "Apparently Yuuki Shirou has started a fight with the other male students, which violates many rules of the school. Unfortunately, I can't leave these boys suffering on the floor and decided to bring them here first." 

"An apt decision on your part, Kotegawa." A small glint flashed across Mikado's eyes, she looked at the boy and couldn't help but feel a bit mischievous. "It is my job to take care of little boys like him and help them feel all better." She even patted Saruyama's head like he was a small child. "Come on, Saruyama. I think I might have a lollipop for you if you're a good patient."

One could hear his heart shatter into a million pieces by her action. The shock was too much for Saruyama Kenichi and forced him to lose consciousness. But before his head touched the ground, he uttered a few final words. "This ain't over… Emiya… I'll have my revenge."

Those words made Mikado giggle while confusing Yui.

{Break}

-Hallway-

Pa!

"Hurgh!"

Pa!

"My leg!"

Pa!

"Pft!" 

Surrounded by the dozens of defeated students, Emiya delivered his last strike to a boy who tried to tackle him from behind. Making sure to not go overboard, he only struck them hard to induce some minor bruises and red marks. 

"That was so amazing, Shirou!" Lala cheered, mesmerized by the… performance, from beginning to end. "You moved so fast! You were like woosh! Then brought the sword to strike them like bang!" She moved around her arms, mimicking his movement with a bit of exaggeration. 

There was so much wrong with this situation. To start, there was the fact that such a thing wouldn't have ever happened in Fuyuki. Sure the boys there praised and worshiped the presence of certain girls like Rin, but it wasn't anywhere at this level of zeal. It almost made him question if someone hadn't placed a bounded field around Sainan that induced a form of extreme pervertedness and lack of control over the male population— Honestly, it would explain a lot if that were the case. Unfortunately, he detected no such fields and even purposely stabbed Rule Breaker in every corner of the building with no result. 

Perhaps the people in the world were really that eccentric by nature. Though as soon as he thought of that, the faces of Mikan and Mikado emerged in his mind. 'Alright, so not everyone is that crazy and there are at least a few level-headed people around.'

"Hell yeah, I want to see you in action again!" A voice came from behind Lala before a pair of hands came and grabbed the pink-haired girl's breasts, making her release a short yelp in surprise. "And who is this beauty, Emiya? Did you get yourself a girlfriend without telling me? Tut tut tut, that's rather cruel of you, you're breaking this poor maiden's heart with your selfish desires." 

Risa peeked her head behind Lala's shoulders, a giant grin on her face as she groped the alien princess. 

"Is that a tail? You must be a cosplayer! It looks so real!" Then came her partner in crime, Sawada Mio. She gazed at Lala's overall body, making sure to look at every inch of her form, as if studying a work of art. "Yes, she's definitely ranked in the top three for having the best figure in our school."

"Right!?" 

While these two messed around, Lala was just confused with the entire ordeal and looked to him for guidance. 

"Nii-san!" And then Rito joined the party followed by Haruna right behind him. They were shocked by the scene in front of them, the many defeated male students laying on the floor with bruises and dirt on their faces. "What happened here!?" 

"They saw me walking with Lala." His explanation was enough for Rito to get the general gist of the situation. "To be honest, I expected for Kotegawa Yui to show up first with how strict she is with discipline and all that." He dropped the Tora-Shinai, no longer having any use for it. Emiya hoped this would teach them to not pull off such a stunt against him next time. Just like everyone else, there was only so much he could ignore before snapping from anger. 

"A-Are you hurt, Emiya?" Haruna asked, worried whether he got injured or not. 

"Yeah, don't worry. I don't have a scratch on me." The redhead sighed while looking around him, some of them merely got a single hit to the face and others took a couple dozens. Thankfully, no one bled or had their bones broken as that would be taking things too far. At the end of the day, though these boys were in the wrong with their horny behavior — they were still only children. 

"Rito, don't say anything about this to Mikan. She'll just worry needlessly."

"Um, sure, no problem. Should we call the principal or something?" Rito asked. Leaving them on the ground like this didn't sit well with him. 

Emiya shook his head, "That principal will only make matters worse. These brickheads will recover by the end of the day, so there's nothing to worry about. And he'll just make things worse if we involved him, since I'm honestly worried that he'll just end up rallying them for round two. Mass stupidity can be a difficult thing to predict." 

Risa meanwhile inspected everyone after letting go of Lala. "Still can't believe you managed to beat them all by yourself with nothing but  that weird shinai of yours. No wonder that Kujō Rin is hounding your ass for a duel every day… you're basically like the final boss for her." After Risa said that, she immediately remembered something crucial and went to Emiya before focusing on his eyes with a serious face and hands outstretched.

"What?" 

"You haven't forgotten what you promised me today?" 

Realizing what she was referring to, Emiya rolled his eyes before grabbing his bag he'd thrown into a corner where it'd avoided any trampling, and retrieved two small bento boxes before handing them to both Risa and Mio. 

"Woah! You're the best, Emiya!" Risa exclaimed with a bright face. Going so far as to give him a hug which he stoically accepted, as he was used to her rather overly affectionate behavior. 

As they were about to leave to return to their respective class with Lala following along, Emiya stopped as he heard the sound of footsteps approaching rapidly. Lo and behold, Kujō Rin rushed inside the hallway with a battle aura emitting of her and her wooden sword in hand. 

"Great, it's one headache after another." He muttered silently, knowing what might have attracted her here. Rito and the others also felt slightly scared from this girl's sudden appearance and general threatening aura. They were told by him to just go back to their class with Lala and let him deal with Rin by himself. Lala was a bit hesitant, but he told her that it was for just a bit before he would come by to pick her up. Most of the perverts were beaten so she should be safe now.

After they left, Emiya crossed his arms and gazed at the battle-ready Rin.

"Can I help you, Rin?" He asked calmly. "You look to be in a bit of a mood I must say. Perhaps you need a bottle of water to cool off?" 

His words were ignored as the girl rushed forward with her sword raised high. To many, this would have been a scary situation, especially when the one wielding the weapon was a highly competent swordswoman with incredible speed. 

Woosh!

But for him, she was still very slow and he could easily keep up with her moves. The man just turned his body to avoid the attack, his arms still crossed.

"Pick up your sword and fight me!" She spoke coldly, gritting her teeth at his lackadaisical attitude. She dreamed of fighting him in a duel but he never gave her a chance. But now, having her intuition been proven correct, she rushed to battle Emiya and didn't want to let go of this rare chance.

"I'd rather not." 

Using a shinai or a wooden sword would just give her the satisfaction of a duel. Next, she would come by more often seeking another match and giving him more trouble than usual. So he decided to just not fight her at all and wait till she tired out.

"Don't you have any honor as a swordsman!?" 

"No," he said while leaning backward just to avoid a swipe. "Just stop it, Rin. You're basically wasting my time and I have a guest I need to take care of today." 

"I will make you pick up your shinai and fight me!" Watching him just predict her strike so easily before moving away at the last second without any effort frustrated Rin to no end. It was clear to her that he wasn't taking her seriously and gave her a glimpse of the gap still present between them. Though that only made her more eager to see his skill with a sword be realized. 

"Why are you so persistent, woman? You must have better things to do aside than this." 

"Not until I reach your level or you accept my previous request."

That made him chuckle. Reach his level? Though Emiya never claimed to be a great swordsman in comparison to some truly monstrous freaks in the Throne of Heroes — he was still quite competent to keep up with some of them. Rin, for all her natural talent and hard work, was still a tiny pebble facing a mountain. "You don't understand, I don't need a weapon as my hands are more than enough."

Emiya lifted his hand up to the trajectory of the sword's upcoming attack.

Pa!

"What!?" To her surprise, Emiya casually grappled her wooden sword mid-swing before gently pushing her back. The sensation felt like she had just hit a concrete wall, and was now unable to break free. Rin, caught by surprise by his previous action, failed to notice the fallen body of a student behind her and tripped. 

"Ah!" Now on her butt and still trying to process what just happened, Emiya threw the sword down onto her lap before patting her head with an irritating smirk on his face. 

"You still have a lot to learn. Next time, be sure to check your surroundings first or get surprised so easily." He said casually before walking away.

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"This isn't over, Shirou!" Rin shouted, grabbing her sword and stomping back to her gym class, already trying to figure out how she would respond to this unacceptable humiliation.

{Break}

After that whole fiasco, the rest of the day ended up passing by rather smoothly for Emiya. The boys who had tried to attack him were now being taken care of by Mikado, Yui, and a few other staff members. He felt a bit bad for having given her so much work, but figured she could handle it without any issue. Perhaps he should buy her an apology gift just in case. 

Lala came with him to his classroom instead of staying with Rito and the rest. He received more than a few jealous looks for this, but everyone kept their opinions to themselves now after the incident.

Rin, for the most part, had stopped chasing after him, but he knew this wouldn't be the last time she would come for him with her sword drawn. 

"Neh, Shirou, how come you know so much about sword fighting, archery, and magic in the first place? Rito said you both grew up together since you were babies and he didn't believe me when I said you could use magic, bows, or swords." Lala, who walked by his side, questioned him. Rito was on rotation to clean up his classroom so they couldn't return home like usual. 

"I would prefer you don't bring up matters concerning magic and my mastery over weapons, or anything not relevant to my family so casually. Or at all for that matter " his parents, and siblings were still ignorant about his ability to use magecraft and he preferred to leave it that way. "And to answer your question, I just practiced on my own whenever I had the time. Granted it wasn't much in the beginning, but I managed to pull it off in the end." It wasn't a lie technically, but he preferred to remain vague about such topics. 

"That's even more impressive, Shirou!" Lala said with stars in her eyes. "Can you do other things as well?" 

"Uh… I can make myself stronger and more durable." He purposefully did not bring up Structural Analysis, given what he knew about her… passion for such things. For all he knew, her desire to create more inventions with the help of his abilities could grow, which he knew would only end up causing more chaos. He acknowledged the fact she was a genius when it came to creating inventions that broke the laws of physics and reality like they were mere toys, but having them malfunction for no reason would be seriously dangerous. 

What if she accidently made a black hole in the middle of his house?

"And the magic you used last night? Was that matter creation coupled with alteration of the material, or did you pull it out of a storage unit or something?" This question had been bugging her the entire time. She'd never seen such a display of power, and there was still the question as to how he could shoot a regular arrow with the power equivalent to that of an energy sniper. 

"Why do you want to know the details?" 

"Because I want to replicate it!" 

That statement made Emiya choke a bit and cough from the absurdity of her statement. While he was extremely doubtful that she could replicate the mystic aspects of some of the more dangerous weapons in his arsenal, he still didn't want to underestimate her capabilities after seeing what she was capable of creating.

"L-Lala, I don't think that's such a good idea… Why don't you just focus on improving your pre-existing inventions? They certainly are quite faulty and far from perfect." stated Emiya, hoping to change the topic.

"You're right!" He sighed in relief when she said that. 

As they continued to converse while talking as they walked along the road, they both stopped at a sight that would forever remain stamped inside his mind. 

"O-Oh, I promise you I'm not some criminal, officer!" A certain alien wearing a set of bone armor shouted with tears flowing down his eyes as he kept trying to converse with a police officer on the street. The latter ignored his words as he handcuffed the man, not knowing that he could easily break them like wet paper. 

"We've received multiple reports of a man in cosplay fitting your description standing outside the school staring into the building for hours on end." The officer said strictly, suspecting Zastin to either be a potential kidnapper or creep who had come over to spy on underage teens. Though privately he had to give the man some credit for his stubbornness to remain in character. Bringing up talks about being a highly acclaimed knight to some space-emperor here to protect the princess and scout for any potential danger. 

'People these days… He's a grown man yet continues to act like a child. I'll check the mental institution's record for any possible escapees after bringing him to the police station.' The officer thought to himself as he tried to drag Zastin back with him. 

"N-No, again, I'm f-from planet Deviluke, a-and it is my duty to p-protect—"

"Okay, okay, I'll listen to the rest of your story at the police station." 

Emiya watched the scene with a deadpan face. He was starting to see how Lala managed to escape from her bodyguards so frequently in the past if this was how their commander acted.

"Eh, what's Zastin doing here?" 

"Don't know, don't care. We should let him deal with his own matters by himself. Let's not waste time and lea—

"Emiya!" Damnit, he was spotted! "Please explain to this human officer that I'm a Devilukean Royal Guard here to protect Lala-sama!" 

He reluctantly looked back, staring blankly at Zastin who had a hopeful look on his face. The officer on the other hand stopped and looked over, wondering if they indeed knew each other. 

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Emiya said with a confused face, shocking Zastin as he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. This only made the officer angrier as he believed the guy was trying to waste time and put others in an uncomfortable position.

"I knew you were trouble! Now please stay quiet and follow me to the station!" 

"W-W-Wait! He's lying! We know each other! He even fed me delicious Earthling food this morning! Emiya! Emiyaaaaaa!"

He couldn't help but smile at the scene after turning away, finding the entire thing amusing now that he was out of the line of fire. One could look at it as a form of revenge after Zastin ate all his food and forced him to spend another half an hour preparing another meal. 

"Will he be okay?" Lala asked, following his lead as he walked away. 

"He'll be fine, no harm will come to him aside from this arrest unless you count the embarrassment." 

It was almost evening, the sun setting upon the horizon, the dusk creating a beautiful scenery which Emiya enjoyed watching walked back home. Mikan was definitely already back home, either cooking dinner or finishing her homework. 

"Ne, Shirou, are you sure you want to confront my father?" Lala asked out of nowhere, her face no longer smiling as it was clear she was worried about him.

"If everything that happened so far hasn't already convinced you about my decision, then I don't know what to say. Yes, I am going to speak with him, it is an inevitable event that would have happened sooner or later as soon as I agreed to have you as a guest in my home. Worst case would have been either Gid coming here physically or sending a full army to invade or occupy Earth. Both cases are far from ideal. Confronting him now would be the least troublesome choice, even though I wish to not get involved in such things — we both know that wouldn't have worked for long. Plus, my siblings would probably hate me for not helping you out." 

"You care about them a lot, don't you?" She said with a warm smile, hugging his arm affectionately. 

"I do," Though not much of his memories remained intact of his original life. Emiya knew for certain that the relationship between him and Illya never came anywhere close to what he had now with Rito and Mikan. Enemies till the end, with her wanting nothing more than to crush him with Berserker's sword. He didn't remember how she died, probably at the hand of Gilgamesh or another Servant. So really, this was his first true experience as an older brother, and he didn't want to fail. 

"I understand why you worry about them. I have two little sisters of my own which I love and care about a lot. I hope they get to meet you soon, you and Momo will get along well given she likes plants. Nana as well, she gets lonely at times so having someone to talk to would be great." 

"Will those two be forced to escape their engagement and follow your footsteps?" Emiya asked dryly, hoping that wasn't the case.

Lala giggled, "No, fortunately, that is not the case. Even though both have many potential suitors who want to marry them, they're still very young. But I do miss them a lot, and I know they miss me as well." 

"Well, if they ever want to stop by just for a quick visit then I wouldn't mind. But advance notice would be appreciated, and don't expect me to accept any more freeloaders around the house. Both Mikan and I will quickly get tired of feeding more mouths."

"Hehehe, Shirou, you act all mean and angry but you wouldn't throw them out. You're like a strict mother." She rubbed her cheeks against his shoulders, making some of the pedestrians giggle at the cutesy display. 

"I'll have you know that I'm not above using my weapons to throw them out. My generosity does have its limits."

"Don't worry, those two will help out the best they can."

"Oi, why are you talking as if they'll truly come and live in my house? It's not even guaranteed you'll remain here for long even if Gid concedes. Furthermore, if he agrees to stop this whole engagement thing, then you will be free to return to your home." Most likely she would remain here for a week, or a month at most. He couldn't imagine what would make a princess who was also the heir to the Galaxy's Emperor stay in his house for that long.

"Emiya!" Both stopped when they heard the hurried armored footsteps coming from behind followed by the angered voice of Zastin. The alien man had managed to escape his arrest and rush all the way here while having one of his wrists handcuffed. 

"I see you managed to deal with the situation by yourself."

"No thanks to you! You lied and betrayed me!" Zastin shouted with grievance, before a look of fear and trepidation painted his face. "But there's no time for that right now, we must hurry! We've already lost enough time with that incident. Gid-sama will contact us at any moment!" 

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All three of them rushed towards Zastin's spaceship located deep in the woods. He tried to have Lala return home if she didn't feel comfortable, but the girl insisted on coming with him. Inside the ship and being there for the call, Emiya found both Maul and Smutts kneeling in front of a large computer, their attention focused solely on the screen.

The lights dimmed considerably until the screen flickered on to show a figure hidden in shadows. Emiya couldn't see any of his features aside from some jewelry on his hands and a trident-shaped tail that differed greatly from the soft spade-shaped tail Lala had. Unlike hers, the Emperor's appendage was clearly a weapon that could pierce through flesh with ease. 

"Hm, Lala… You've caused me a lot of trouble these last few days."

"It's your fault, Daddy!" She shouted, not looking at all afraid of her father, Far unlike the other three Devilukians in the room who were already sweating buckets. "I told you that I don't want to marry any of those people, they're weird and I don't like them! You just want me to get married and rise to the throne because you want to do nothing but laze around all day and have fun doing pervy stuff with Mama and any other pretty women that catch your eye!" 

Zastin and the rest were practically shaking in their boots.

"Those people are princes and even kings of different planets under my command. Marrying any one of them will guarantee you a life of luxury and comfort that most in the galaxy can only dream of, don't you want that?" His tone didn't show any emotion aside from boredom, he didn't seem to even care about this whole matter, to begin with. "Come back now or else I'll blow up that pathetic planet you're on." Emiya felt a pair of eyes from the screen focusing on him. "Not even this magic-wielding human trash can protect you from me, and you know it." 

Hearing his ultimatum, Emiya decided it was best if he intervened, if only to keep this conversation from devolving even further. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Gid Lucione Deviluke." 

Gid chuckled maliciously, "How amusing, you're trying to become my son-in-law as well, human?" 

"No, that was never my intention. I have no interest in the affairs of galactic royalty or their politics. I just want to take all the necessary steps to handle this matter without it turning into a chaotic mess since they will inevitably involve my family and most likely even hurt them if I allow things to proceed in that manner."

"Humph, how arrogant of you to think that you can negotiate with me." Sparks of lightning covered his tail, lighting up his lower face just enough for everyone to see his razor-sharp teeth. "I can skip this entire farce and order your planet to be reduced to rubble and ash in a matter of hours. Just because you can use a bit of magic does not make you invincible, you're a frog in a well who doesn't comprehend who he's dealing with."

"Perhaps," Emiya narrowed his eyes, figuring out his next move. "But you won't destroy Earth as long as Lala is here. If you're truly planning on doing so, then I'll just have to keep Lala here with me for the remainder of my life." 

The entire room went silent, Maul and Smutts stunned that he had the guts to pull the same move he did on them with their Emperor! This boy was the very definition of crazy in their mind!

Crack!

The throne on the screen started to break apart, static noise filling the screen.

"Is that a threat, human?" Emiya wondered how strong Gid would be compared to a regular Servant. Zastin mentioned how no one in Deviluke or even the entire galaxy could come close to his power. If he was really capable of destroying a planet all by himself, then that truly was not an opponent he could defeat power wise. But he didn't need to be stronger in this case, he just needed to play his pieces carefully and prevent him from being able to use any of his power in the first place. 

"It is a promise about what I'll do to protect what's mine. Don't pretend you're really giving me any semblance of a choice if destroying my planet is such a minor thing to you. Even if I gave Lala back, what guarantee have I that you won't just go back on your words as soon as she's back home? None at all." 

"Do you truly believe you hold any semblance of authority over my daughter? I am her father and she listens to me. If I tell her to come back then she will."

"Remind me again who escaped from your subordinates six times already?" Emiya said sarcastically. "How about you just give her more time to decide. I don't know how long your species lives, but a year or two won't be that long. By the end, I'm sure Lala will have things sorted out and you won't have to keep sending your best guards to chase her all across the galaxy."

"…" Gid was silent now, his fingers tapping the partially destroyed throne. "Human, I can have Zastin and his men forcefully take Lala away and tie down her every limb and appendage this time before leaving this planet before I send my armies here to conquer or destroy it. What are you going to do then, human?" There was a tinge of mockery in his tone, as if all of this was nothing but a game to him. He didn't truly care about Lala's arrangement to begin with, this had become clear to Emiya. 

"Then I'll kill them." He said without hesitation, making Zastin and the rest give him sharp glares which he ignored. For someone who used to be a Counter Guardian, this kind of answer was quite obvious.

Though to his surprise, a large maddened grin emerged from Gid's lower face. 

"Hehehe…Hahahahaha!!! That's funny, YOU'RE funny! Kill my finest subordinate with arrows and flying swords from what I heard? I like it! You know what? You're better than most of the candidates I've met so far, and your eyes sure don't show any cowardice. Lala really got lucky with you. Fine, I accept you."

Eh? That was a weird way to phrase things. And accept him for what?

"Daddy… you don't mean…" Lala whispered by his side, her eyes widened with surprise and joy, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing and was elated by it. 

"What is going on here?" Emiya couldn't help but ask, feeling the situation start to slip away from him — he didn't like it one bit.

Gid continued his speech, ignoring his question and growing confusion. "But before that, you must prove yourself before my eyes with actions to back up your words. Zastin, I give you the direct order to confront this human with the intent to kill. Don't hold back, I want to see his worth for myself." 

"Daddy!?" Lala exclaimed in anger. Both Maul and Smutts came by her side and restrained her, making sure she wouldn't grab her D-Dial phone or any other inventions.

The inside of the dimly lit room became brighter with a secondary source of light activating. Emiya watched as Zastin now wielded a blueish laser sword while looking at him with a sharp gaze. 

"Forgive me, Emiya. You have fed me when I needed food, but now I must follow my Emperor's command. For your own sake, please do not hold back. Haaa!" 

With a loud roar, Zastin jumped at Emiya with his sword held high to strike him down. 

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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.