Chapter 16

~Shinji Matou POV~

"You know, to be completely honest, I didn't think you would get involved given how lazy you have been," I said with a shrug while walking up to Caren.

"What are you talking about?" Caren said with a calm smile. "I am just an observer, and of course I wouldn't get involved unless absolutely necessary."

"So me becoming what I am now has garnered enough of a threat for you to come personally?"

"While I don't know what you are exactly since you are obviously not possessed by a daemon, but the fact that I could sense you at all is enough to give me pause."

That's her masochistic something constitution right? If I remember right, it allows her to sense daemons, right? So it doesn't come into effect fully but she can at least feel I'm part demon or devil now.

"So what? Come to exorcise me in the name of God?" I asked with a shrug while preparing to fight.

"No, you're not overly malicious, and you are part of the central force in keeping those cards in check. So I will leave you alone for now." Caren said before beginning to walk away.

"You're just procrastinating, aren't you?" I said with a deadpan, but Caren didn't stop, even for a second, by the small twitch she had proved my guess hit right on the money. "Alright, see you later, pervy nun," I said cheekily while waving Caren off.

Once she was out of sight, I did some quick hand signs and created a clone that I imbued with half my magic core and my Arc of Embodiment. The clone gave me a nod before reinforcing his body and jumping off to fix the house.

Turning around, I headed back into Illya's house. Once I opened the door, I was greeted by Kuro, who was looking at me with a glare.

"So you heard that, huh?" I asked while walking up to her.

"I may not know much about the church, but I know that–." Before she could continue speaking, I pressed my finger over her lips, causing her to stop talking.

"It's fine, Kuro; after all, I don't plan to be killed anytime soon," I said with a smirk as I walked past her. "So come on and relax."

Walking back into the living room, I laid back on the couch with Liz and watched the TV. After a couple of minutes of watching TV and eating snacks, I heard the front door open.

"I'm home." A male voice I recognized called out, and then a guy stepped into the living room.

Immediately, I knew who this was with his short auburn hair and golden brown eyes. And while this was the first time I had seen Shirou Emiya for myself, I wasn't worried about him as I turned my gaze to Kuro, who stared at him with a blank expression.

While in the manga, they didn't really touch upon how the cards affected her mentally, but I had experienced firsthand how a class card, even with their egos broken down by Pandora's box, can still have their personalities bleed over.

And I had no idea how the Archer class card affected a user's mentally since I only made it so Darius couldn't destroy them with his status as Rule Master. But Archer absolutely despises his past self, but there were also her memories when she was still trapped in Illya's body.

'Kuro, are you okay?' I asked her telepathically through our connection, causing her to jolt slightly before turning to me.

'Shinji?' She said hesitantly, and I nodded subtly toward her.

'Anyway, are you okay?' I asked with concern.

'Y-yeah, I'm fine.' She said before taking a deep breath, and she regained her usual calm expression as she went back to watching TV.

"Anyway, who are those two?" Shirou asked Sella while pointing at us.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. You must be Emiya-san, right? Illya's big brother." I said walking up to him and putting my hand out for a handshake. "My name is Shinji, and that over there is Kuro."

Shirou looked at me before smiling back, taking my hand in his, and shaking it. "It's nice to meet you, Shinji-san."

With that, the rest of the evening was normal as Sella finished cooking a mean hamburger steak with mashed potatoes and greens, and after that, it was only a matter of time before we went our separate ways, with Kuro going to sleep in Illya's room while I slept in the guest room.

Climbing onto the bed, I closed my eyes and tried to go to sleep, but I just couldn't get comfortable on the bed. So with a sigh, I got up and walked over to the window, and after opening it, I climbed out of it and climbed onto the roof. There, I was able to look up at the full moon and the starry night sky.

"Heh, you would never be able to see the stars in the city like this back on Alexander's Earth. But here, I'm now able to see them in their full glory." I said while staring at the cloudy night sky in a daze as the cool moonlight shined down through the clouds on me for several minutes before I was suddenly hit with an influx of memories from my clone, who just finished remaking the house.

With a smile, I used the knowledge my clone had acquired and opened my wings for the first time.

Looking back, I immediately noticed that I had three pairs of wings. The first set was a pair of feathery white angel wings. The next set was a pair of feathery white fallen angel wings. And finally, there were the thin, jet black bat-like devil wings.

While they were just for show and didn't work as actual wings, just granting me conceptual flight, they were still cool to look at, and depending on how I angled them, I could slow down, speed up, or hover in place.

So with but a thought, I began hovering off the rooftop. I couldn't help but look at myself in awe before an excited smile wormed its way onto my face.

Spreading my wings out slightly, I then shot up into the sky. "Ah yeah! This is amazing!"

In my excitement, I flew all the way up until I broke through the clouds.

"Wow!" I couldn't help but gasp in awe as I was able to see the moon, which looked enormous since I was so high up. And despite seeing the full moon countless times, this time I felt a sense of peace as I stared at the white pearl of Earth.

Letting my wings slack, I leaned back in the air and then started falling toward the ground.

But even as I fell, I couldn't help but gently smile as I raised my hand and made it look like I was grasping the moon. "I can't wait… until I can relax and grasp that sea of stars myself."

[****]

~Shinji Matou (Clone #16) POV~

A month passed since the original made himself into the hybrid we are now. In that time, we spent our time practicing using our new powers as well as hanging out with Miyu, Illya, or Kuro when we had the chance. Of course, the original made sure to go with them himself and didn't send one of us clones since he did want to be like Naruto and delegate his relationships to clones despite us being technically the same person.

But I digress. Life has been pretty slow in Fuyuki, but we knew that it was about to change, and that was why I was here, stationed outside the airport, waiting for Bazett to arrive in Fuyuki.

The original was worried about how our abilities would be interpreted by Fragarach. It was one of the few noble phantasms to survive until the modern era, and it definitely lives up to its moniker of being the crystallization of legend.

The most notable of its abilities was counter-attacking the opponent once they released their trump card by rewinding time so that she kills them before they even release it.

And that laid the crux of our problem. Did it take rank into account like Heracles and his God-Hand noble phantasm? Or was it purely based on the destructive power the ability wielded? We had no idea how it would interact with all our abilities, and we were doubting if Worthless could even do anything to it given how it's supposed to be a divine construct.

I was taken out of my thoughts because of the piercing glare aimed at me. Looking down, I met the magenta eyes of Bazett. "Shit!" I couldn't help but curse before dismissing myself to send the information that Bazett had arrived in Fuyuki.

[****]

~Shinji Matou (Clone #7) POV~

I was suddenly assaulted by memories from my other self, who was at the airport, and couldn't help but grimace as, despite actively looking for her, she somehow slipped past our detection.

A rune, perhaps? Those things are pretty op given what Scáthach and Skaði did with them on the daily, even if that was basically the best of the best.

"Great, now we have got to make sure she doesn't slip into the Edelfelt mansion." With a click of my tongue, I stood up from the magic circle I was sitting in and began making my way back to Fuyuki City.

I had to be careful as Bazett apparently had a way to hide her presence, most likely a rune, which made sense given her profession, but still.

But she's not the only one who can hide their presence. With a smirk, I activated my Lurk skill and began making my way to Luvia's place.

It took me about 20 minutes to get there myself, and in that time several other me's had gone to fight her since she arrived at the Edelfelt mansion already and were fighting with Auguste and Luvia, but we were all overpowered in the end as the original had us doing about twenty different tasks at once. The only ones left were myself and the original. And while he was on his way with Kuro, they weren't going to make it, so I'm going to get her to reveal as much of her fighting style as possible, like the others did, so the original can win.

So with that thought pushing me forward, I opened the front gate. Immediately, I saw the real appearance of the mansion, hidden by the bounded fields. The mansion was completely destroyed, and the only one standing outside the home was Bazett.

Hopefully, Rin was able to grab those senzu in time. Auguste and Luvia were pretty beat up due to Bazett.

"You, once again," Bazett said while adjusting her gloves. "This will be the 19th one of you I defeat."

"I wouldn't be sure about that, Bazett-san," I said while forcing blue dragon scales up my arms and over my face. With that, I brought my hands up and slowly inched my way toward her. This was the best I could do, as I only had my magecraft and my bloodline abilities, and even then, they weren't as powerful as they normally would, so Bazett could easily get through these scales with her rune-enhanced body.

Once we were only a few feet apart, Bazett threw the first punch, which came at me with the speed and power of a freight train that I was barely able to dodge by tilting my head to the left. But even so, she was able to cut through my scales, causing some of my blood to spurt out of the fresh wound.

Swinging my right arm up, I punched her under her elbow, causing her arm to shoot away from my face. I then pivoted on my left foot and punched her with my left.

But Bazett caught the punch and threw me to the side. Flipping in the air, I couldn't help but have my eyes widen in shock as Bazett was already in front of me with her fist cocked back, which she threw forward and punched me in the cheek, sending me flying further until I landed on the ground, rolling to my feet.

"Got another one in you?" I asked with a smirk, gathering the blood and my knocked-out teeth in my mouth before spitting it out to the ground as I prepared to fight her again.

[****]

~Shinji Matou POV~

I couldn't help but grimace as another set of memories came through my head as I flew toward the Edelfelt mansion with Kuro in my arms.

That was my last one. With that, I landed outside the Edelfelt mansion and set Kuro down.

"Kuro, get Illya; I'm heading in," I said without giving her a chance to say anything as I went in. I might have come here to help the girls, but I'm a right petty bastard, and I wanted to beat Bazett for killing me so many times.

So once again, I stepped into the mansion courtyard and was met with Bazett once again.

I didn't even give her a chance to speak as I unleashed a mana burst, propelling myself forward like a bullet appearing in front of her and releasing a straight punch that she was barely able to dodge.

Bazett narrowed her eyes as she pivoted and sent a kick to my side, but I was able to dodge by performing another mana burst to blast myself forward and out of the way.

Turning my head slightly, I saw Bazett bring her foot down before turning to me with a more serious expression on her face.

"I know I asked the ones that looked like you, and you'll probably give me the same answer, but I'll say it anyway. Hand over the cards, and I'll leave this place."

"Come on, Bazett. I told you before you'll never get your hands on the class cards," I said, turning around to face her as I donned my water armor, grew my scales, and used all my enhancements from my energies before raising my hands and getting ready to fight her.

Bazett followed suit as the runes on her suit glowed brightly before fading as she got into a combat stance as well.

We both stared at each other for a few seconds before we dashed at each other. She threw the first punch, her fist flying towards my face, but I deflected it and landed a blow of my own on her liver. She staggered back, momentarily stunned, then recovered and launched a kick at my side. I wasn't able to block it, but with my aura, the hit only pushed me back slightly.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Kuro and Illya finally arrive, but I had no time as Bazett was already heading for me once.

I met her charge, head-on as I couldn't allow her to get the advantage. But there was one thing that was clear as we continued to fight: Despite having a huge advantage in the power department, I couldn't close the gap in our skills.

As I was punched in the chest once again, I saw Illya and Kuro coming to help me.

'Kuro, you can't use your usual tactics. She's the one who defeated the Archer card by herself.' I said to Kuro telepathically.

'That's even more reason to help you!' She said before she projected Kanshou and Bakuya.

Kuro tried to slash at Bazett's back while I held her, but Bazett freed herself from my grip before ducking under the slash.

I couldn't help but wince as Kanshou and Bakuya slashed into my chest. Ignoring the pain in my chest, I dodged the punch aimed at my kneecap with a flip and backed away.

"Shinji, are you okay!?" Kuro asked with concern as she pulled Kanshou and Bakuya out of my chest with care.

"I'm fine," I said as fire covered my wounds, and in a couple of seconds they disappeared and the wounds were gone. "See, all better, just some ripped clothes. Now come on, let's help Illya." I said while looking where Bazett was fighting Illya, who was barely holding on even with Ruby's help.

Using Cross Tail, now that I had a chance, I began using my wire trap skill to set up traps around the area and told Kuro the location of each one before hopping into the fight myself.

Illya was actually putting up a decent fight, using physical barriers to fend Bazett off, but it wouldn't last long.

So I joined Illya in fighting, with me taking Bazett on in close combat, while Illya supported me with Ruby and Kuro, sending arrows when she could.

"Now!" I yelled as I placed my hands on the ground before gathering magical energy and releasing it, creating a huge cloud of dust.

The course of the battle will be settled once this cloud of dust settles. Using my Aquabind chains, I sent them at the dust cloud and then sent an almost invisible blast of magical energy after them before focusing intently on this battle.

The cloud of dust was blown away by a shockwave, and I was able to see that Kuro had failed as she went for her version of triple crane wings, but she failed as Bazett, the monster that she was, countered everything we threw at her.

But it didn't matter, as I focused on Bazett, who was slowly coming into view. She punched the almost invisible blast I had sent at her with ease, probably planning to deflect it. But as soon as it made contact with her, the runes on her clothes seemed to break apart, and her eyes widened in shock. That invisible blast was the worthless ability, and it disabled her runes.

"Now come on, Shinji, focus," I muttered to myself. "Focus. Focus. Get rid of all distractions. Don't let anything get in your way. And clear your mind."

The noise and chaos of the battle faded away as I focused on my breathing, my heartbeat, and my will. I emptied my mind of everything else, feeling a sense of calm and clarity.

I felt a surge of energy coursing through my veins, as if I had tapped into a hidden reservoir of power. I didn't think; I just acted. I moved with instinct, not strategy. I saw Bazett, still recovering from my last attack. She was my target, my prey, my enemy. Nothing else mattered. I dashed forward, reeled my arm back, and unleashed my energy. And then, I struck. "Black… flash!!" My cursed energy erupted in a black flash, as I struck Bazett in the chest with all my might. She coughed up a mouthful of blood, and I felt her ribs crack and her lungs collapse under my fist.

I couldn't help but breathe heavily as I stared at the knocked-out Bazett, who was held up by some wires from Cross Tail having run into a trap I set up. Then, with a sigh, I fell to the ground on my back, thoroughly exhausted.