333Chapter 1
It was over.
I looked at the girls coming over to my house's direction after their long and perilous battle.
My sister Miyu was looking all battered and tired after those dangerous fights that she did against the Ainsworth.
Illyasviel, my sister's dear friend too looked the same.
I turned at the older girls, Tohsaka, Edelfelt, and the Fraga. They look exhausted although they tried to not show it on their faces.
"Onii-chan!" My sister called for me as she finally noticed me.
I smiled at her.
Her face turned pale as she saw how beaten up I was. Wounds all over my body, including the diagonal one on my face then she finally noticed the bodies in my hands along with the older girls who gasped at them.
Tohsaka Rin especially, looked really pale as she noticed to whom one of the bodies belongs, she must have noticed her beautiful purple hair.
Matou Sakura.
The group then ran toward me at a fast pace. They too then turned at the other body.
Angelica Ainsworth.
It was quite weird since when I killed those fake Shinji and participants, their flesh turned back to puppet ones, but not for the blonde woman in my hand.
"Onii-chan…are you alright? and are they…" Miyu asked, I nodded sadly at her.
"Shirou-san…" Illyasviel too has her eyes puffed and begins to tear up.
The older girls just looked away with closed eyes except for Tohsaka who ran her hand through Sakura's hair.
Then she too began to tear up, muttering, "Rest well…sister…"
From that, I finally know why the black-haired girl looked sad when she listened to my story at Sakura's part.
But then, as if the time is up, the sky begins to crack, alarming all of us.
"Huh?"
All of us turn to look up at the broken sky.
"What's happening?!" the magenta-haired woman asked with a grim expression.
"The world can't handle it."
A voice rang behind the girls. A boy with blonde short hair and red eyes steps up toward our group with a dark expression.
"Gil-kun…what do you mean by that?! Pandora said that—"
"Yes, Pandora." He cuts in.
I know what he means immediately and before everyone can speak up, I opened my lips first.
"The world can't handle the Pandora's Box being opened in the Age of Man."
Everyone turns to me with an alarming look.
"You're quick in the uptake, Faker." The blonde kid known as the King of Uruk, Gilgamesh smirked at me while he said that.
"Then…then, what can we do to stop it!?"
My sister desperately asks the King of Heroes, but all she gets is a shake of his head.
"No…"
"This isn't all…" Gilgamesh adds with a heavy sigh. "I really would like to congratulate all of you for giving me such entertainment, but your time is up."
As soon as he said that, everyone starts to glow including the king of heroes.
"What is this?! What did you do to us Gil-kun!"
"You fool." He clicks his tongue. Then his eyes turn to me, followed by the others.
"No…no, no, no, no!"
I smiled at my sister who begins to tear up.
"It seems like even in this world, you won't have a happy ending, Faker." Gilgamesh snarked at me, but it isn't similar to what I knew from EMIYA's memories. There is a tiny bit of remorse in his wordings.
"You're mistaken, King of Heroes, with this, I'm certain that this is a happy ending for me."
"…Everything for your little sister huh." The king then begins to laugh. "You are always interesting, Faker…no, Emiya Shirou. Be grateful that the King mentions your name."
Gilgamesh did a 180 turn around but at that moment, I noticed his lips curling up a bit.
"Onii-chan…why…"
I turn to my sister who approaches me slowly with tears falling off of her cheeks.
"Don't worry about me, Miyu…as long as you're safe, then I'm satisfied with this."
I put down both Sakura and Angelica on the ground before Miyu wraps her arms around me.
I returned her embrace.
"No, no, no, no! I don't want to leave you alone here, Onii-chan!"
I didn't say anything but gently stroked her hair.
"But why…why only Shirou-san…" Illyasviel asked. Her face too is wet with her tears.
"The Holy Grail…" Edelfelt, the girl with blonde hair styled in large coils spoke up. "Shero…wished to the Holy Grail for Miyu to live happily in another world…therefore she is registered as an otherworlder…not of this world…"
I nodded gratefully at the sobbing girl for explaining it to the others.
"This is unfair…" Tohsaka spoke up beside Sakura. From her voice, I can tell that she too is crying.
The Fraga then stood up with her hand reaching halfway toward me.
"While it was only for a while…it was an honor to fight alongside someone fearless like you."
I reached for her hand and we formed a handshake.
"The same for you," I replied before letting go of her hand.
Then I noticed the glow around their bodies are getting brighter.
"It's almost time…" I hug my sister for the last time and she did the same before I kneeled to her eye level.
"Miyu…" I wiped her tears. "Be happy, alright?"
"Onii-chan…" she sobbed. "I…I can't…not without you…"
I smiled warmly at my spoiled sister.
"Miyu…" I called her name gently. "It might be hard in the beginning, however, you are not alone anymore."
I turn to Illyasviel, Tohsaka, Edelfelt, and the Fraga. They knew what I mean immediately and nodded at me.
"You have your friends with you, right? You've overcome so many things before you got here…and I'm sure you'll do fine without me."
"Onii-chan…" she hugged me again, this time tighter than before.
"I love you, onii-chan…"
"I love you too, Miyu."
With that final parting words, I moved my sister to Illyasviel's side. Tohsaka and the other girls too had lined up in front of me as they starts to become see-through.
"Please take care of Miyu for me." I bowed at the girls, surprising them a little.
"Don't worry, Shirou-san…I-I-I'll always stay with Miyu…" Illyasviel replied as she choked on her breath.
"She'll always be fine in my care, Shero…I promise this in my house's name…" Edelfelt too assured me with her words.
The Fraga only nods at me but I'm sure she'll do the same for Miyu.
"Emiya-kun…there's something that I want to say to you…"I turn at Tohsaka. "Thank you for being the reason Sakura smiles when she was alive. As for Miyu, I promise we'll make sure she's happy…"
"You're welcome Tohsaka…"
We nodded at each other as she wipes her tears.
"Onii-chan…"
"Miyu…" I smiled at her. It's a shame that I won't be able to see her grow up. "Goodbye."
The second I said that, they fades away. I didn't miss the look Miyu gave me at the last second, but I couldn't catch the last words she uttered.
I fell to the ground and sat between the lifeless bodies of Sakura and Angelica.
Then I look up to the sky where the crack is getting bigger. Earthquakes are occurring at the same time. I can see the houses start to crack.
The very earth itself starts to split, and it might be my imagination but I think I saw magma spurting out from the cracks.
"So, this is how a world ends…"
With that said, I carried the two sleeping princesses back to my house. Waiting for the inevitable.
That was how the story of Emiya Shirou ended. Alone, but my Oath was fulfilled.
It is different from how the Heroic Spirit EMIYA dies. But both of us fought for our dreams. His to become the Hero of Justice, while mine is to become a Hero for my sister.
Or that was what I thought.
I was sure that I died that time when the world ended.
But here I was, opening my eyes in a dark, gloomy cave, which had a deep red color for the wall and the ceiling.
I looked around the deep red cave incredulously then sat down, looking to my left and right, noticing the bodies of the girls that I'm familiar with weren't with me.
"Heh…of course not…"
Then I started to push my hand toward the ground to lift myself up, it failed, however. Because I fell on my side.
That was when I realize that my body shrunk.
Yes, shrunk.
I looked at my small hands and checked my clothing which somehow had been fixed. Blue jeans and long-sleeved blue and white shirt with an oversized black coat that I wore the day before Sakura came to my house.
"What…the hell?"
I rolled my coat's sleeves and opened and closed my small fists. My left hand was tanned, similar to how it was while my right was not.
"Trace on."
My magic circuits were the same as before, fully activated, but I can feel that they were a lot better. That was a relief in my case. At least I wouldn't have trouble facing whatever things that would jump me in this place.
I projected a small hand mirror to check my look.
"Geh!"
It was not because of the white tufts of hair among the auburn on my head, but my look too turned into a 10 years old one.
I touched the diagonal scar right in the middle of my face that Sakura gave me back then, it had healed up but it remains.
I dismissed the mirror in my hand before this time the twin falchions showed up in my hands.
Then I began to exercise my body to see how much weaker I got.
Nope.
I was not weaker.
But I felt really different.
My movement was a lot faster and more powerful than when I installed the Archer card.
I didn't feel anything uncomfortable from swinging the falchions even though they were bigger than my arms.
"Huh… what the heck is going on…"
I dismissed the weapons before checking my pockets, coat's and pant's.
Surprisingly, there were 7 cards that weren't supposed to exist since they were already destroyed in my back pocket, other than that, 3 protein bars, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner perhaps? The last one, which was in my coat's pocket was Sakura's scarf.
"Okay…this is getting weirder and weirder…"
I decided to put them back in my pocket. Not wanting to think about it right now.
I took a deep breath, trying to arrange my thoughts.
First, I was supposed to be dead since the world ended right in front of my eyes. I was laying down inside my house with Sakura and Angelica beside me.
Second, I woke up in a creepy cave with deep red color as its palette.
Third, my body shrunk yet my magic circuits were still there with improved qualities and physical capabilities that are much better than EMIYA's, by better, I mean a lot. Though my skin was still tanned and my hair lost some of its pigment. I chuckled dryly at that.
Fourth, the class cards were in my back pocket although they were destroyed in the war against the Ainsworth. The other things that I had in my pocket were 3 protein bars and her scarf.
I creased my brows and rubbed the bridge of my nose tiredly.
"This is definitely not my world… but I think I should try to get out of this cave first…"
I started to walk through the cave blindly with no direction. I can see clearly if I focused myself, therefore it was not a problem.
After several minutes of walking in this gloomy cave, I paused and tried to focus on listening to the sound of footsteps.
"Someone's being chased…by the sound of the steps… might be a girl/boy…while the one who chased them, has a heavy thud on the ground…definitely not a human…"
I grimaced and then started to run in the direction where I heard it. Then I made a mistake. I kicked the ground too hard and it was dug quite deep.
I almost kissed the ground because of that.
"Note to self… try to control my physical capabilities in the free time I will have later."
I started running again, this time I didn't use a lot of strength but I was going really fast.
"Papa! Help me!"
I was near. I could hear a girl screaming for help. The heavy steps behind her too were kicking up a gear.
In the next few seconds, I finally saw the thing that was chasing the girl in red and white collared one piece.
"What…the hell is that thing…"
It stood more than 3 meters high. Its body looked like it was melted because I could see the smoke coming out from it. On its head, there were two horns sprouting from it.
"Papa! Where are you! Help me!"
The girl cried again.
This was no time to be surprised by that thing!
"Trace On!"
I called forth the sword of Beowulf, Hrunting to my hand. The black-colored sword with a long grip was thrumming at its prey, recognizing the thing as a beast that must be slain.
This time, I jumped at the thing that was about to grab the girl.
"Haaaaah!"
I swung the sword vertically at the monster. It was truly a hunt, the monster didn't notice me at all. Then, the monster split into two. There was no blood coming out of it, making me truly wonder what this thing was.
I looked at whatever was left of the corpse that was slowly absorbed by the ground.
Then I heard the sobbing of the girl, I turned to her. Her blonde hair was covered with dirt and grim while the red dress was with mud. She too had several grazes on her knees and arms, not too deep but enough to leave a scar if not treated properly.
I took a deep breath. Can I communicate with her? I don't even know if I'm in Japan right now. Her look definitely says that she is not Japanese.
"Um…" I started, and the girl slowly looked up at my face. "are you alright?"
She stared at me for several seconds before finally nodding at me. That was a relief.
I'm so glad that she can understand me. That means I'm probably somewhere in Japan, as for where? I don't know but I'll find out later.
I reached out a hand for her to help the girl stand up which she readily took.
"I'm Shirou Emiya, what about you?"
"A-Aiz Wallenstein…"
That was the start of my tale with the girl named Aiz in this gloomy cave. What I didn't know was that there would be a life-changing event again soon after we got out of here.
AN.
Ah yes, another new story.
No this is not the prequel to my previous work, Starry Snowy Night.
But this indeed is set in the past before Aiz joined the Loki Familia, a thousand years in the past.
I might rewrite this because I felt the parting wasn't good enough.
Maybe removing the class cards would be a better option, but that will be for later to consider.
And let me make it clear, it hasn't been clearly explained yet whether Aiz is a time-traveler caused by her mother who is a spirit, or actually put in hibernation in the dungeon until Loki Familia found her.
In Astraea Record, it was said that Aiz is a girl of the dungeon, but I think it is because she always spends her time in the dungeon, killing monsters here and there to get stronger. But there is also a possibility that she is indeed placed in suspended animation inside the dungeon until Loki Familia found her, hence her age is still the same. Oh, and Hera Familia knew about her and wanted to have Aiz into her Familia including Ouranos.
Anyhow, what do you think of the first chapter?
Please enjoy and review but keep it civil.