Chapter 13: Chapter 13
~Shinji Matou POV~
"Illya, while I allowed you to leave yesterday out of consideration of your situation, I won't allow you to kill Illya," I said, looking at the tanned Illya before me with a glare. I wasn't really worried about her being a threat to me; after all, she was sustained by my magical energy, and even then, while she could use quite a few dangerous noble phantasms, she could never pull them out with the minimal amount of magical energy I was sending her.
"Hi, hi, Shinji-kun. It's nice to meet you again." She was trying to be flirty, but it didn't really work with her childish figure.
"Illya, did I ever tell you about my magecraft?" I said with a smile. "I make these chains out of my energy, and I can shape them however I please. But they can also affect spiritual bodies like yours and even drain magical energy." As I spoke, I could feel my curse energy surge and reach new heights as I fulfilled my binding vow.
In response, Illya, perhaps feeling the shift in my presence, jumped back and traced EMIYA's bow and a sword, which she notched and shot at me.
I watched as the sword came at me and was about to pierce me, but it was swatted away by a black, watery chain.
"Illya, if you don't give up on this goal of yours, I'll have to restrain you by force." I was surrounded by magical energy, and I donned my prisma trace clothing. "Now come quietly, Illya. I won't ask again. I understand how it feels to feel like you don't belong in this world and your existence means nothing."
"Heh, as if you could possibly understand me, Shinji-kun, you don't know what I've been through! To be abandoned by your whole family and only being allowed to watch as they raise some other girl who looks exactly like you!"
"Yeah, my family isn't the best either, and most of them have a problem of some kind. But I do understand; I'm basically the black sheep of my family, though I am happy with my position now. Our situations are somewhat similar, so I can relate to you."
"You think some sweet words would work on me?" Illya said with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey, it was worth a shot," I said with a shrug. "But I guess it's to be expected since you fused with that snarky bastard. Now prepare yourself, Kuro; I'm going to beat you into submission." With that said, I activated all my boosting techniques, including my curse energy, before pressing off the ground and appearing beside Kuro, preparing to grab her by the face.
Her eyes slowly widened in shock before she ducked under my grab. Landing, I pivoted on my right leg and spun around, meeting Kuro's Kanshou with Kunzite.
Using my Aquabind technique, I spawned several more chains that shot at Kuro from all directions. She was able to push me back slightly and jump out of the way to dodge some of them, but not all of them, as she got several small cuts. The effects were immediate as I felt the high-purity ether that now made up her body flow into the chains, making them way stronger than normal.
Kuro grimaced as her spiritual body gave way slightly. She then threw Kanshou and Bakuya at me, but I already knew their gimmick, so I simply sent chains at them before grabbing them by their handles and throwing them into the ground.
Looking back up, I saw Kuro holding EMIYA's bow once again before she released a salvo of arrows at me.
But a simple release of a slash of mana produced by Kunzite easily dealt with them.
Once the dust settled, I saw that Kuro was already gone. "Those instincts saved her, but she forgot one thing: I am her master, so I know exactly where she is going." Using our connection, it took no time at all to find her general direction. Not wasting time, I jumped off the roof and followed our connection."
In no time at all, Kuro was in my sights once again, so I sent more chains in front of her, blocking her path and allowing me to land behind her.
"You know girls don't like clingy boys, Shinji-kun," Kuro said while her eyes twitched in annoyance, probably.
"Well, I'm not really trying to impress you, Kuro; I'm trying to capture you alive. So just sit there quietly and allow yourself to lose." Not wasting any time, I cleared the distance between us, bringing Kunzite down on her, the blade being at maximum length.
She projected Kanshou and Bakuya and blocked my strike, but before she could do anything else, I sent a kick that connected to her chest and sent her flying until she collided with a wall.
Raising my hand, I commanded my chains to go toward her, wrap around her body, and then stab into it with the blade on the end. Immediately, the chains began absorbing the ether that made up her body and, as a result, grew stronger.
"What are these chains!? They are way stronger than before!" Kuro said while struggling against them.
"Like I said, these chains work against spiritual bodies like yours with ease." Walking up to her, I wrapped her in a cocoon of wires with Cross Tail and then slung her over my shoulder.
"Hey, what the hell! You can't do this to–. Mmmmmm! Mmmmm! Mmmmmm!" Using Cross Tail, I wrapped Kuro's mouth to shut her mouth before flinging her over my shoulder and activating the mirror road spell to take us out of the mirror world I pulled us into before we started fighting.
With Kuro secured, I simply made a small, bounded field to surround myself and Kuro to have normal people ignore us before I flew toward my home.
Kuro continued to struggle as I carried her, but I ignored her. I had nothing to worry about as the chains constantly drained her magical energy, and any attempts to use magecraft resulted in the magical energy being redirected to the chains as well, making them stronger as a result.
It wasn't long until I landed in the safety of my house, where I set her on the couch before grabbing some snacks back and sitting down myself.
"So, Kuro, are you calm yet?" Her only response was to glare at me harder, so I simply shrugged before continuing to eat the snacks. "We can sit here as long as we want, Kuro. After all, you don't need this food; you just need magical energy to survive. So let's see how long your resolve can last." I said with a gentle smile.
The next three hours were spent in my living room as I ate the snacks in front of Kuro while she could do nothing but watch as I cleared plate after plate of snacks. While she may have all the knowledge from being a Justeaze model homunculus and the subtle experience from the EMIYA class card, she was still basically a child, and finally, she showed signs of cracking.
"So, are you finally ready to talk, Kuro?" Her response was to nod her head. Walking over to her, I untied the wires and chains from around her.
"Why do you keep calling me that now? My name is Illya, not Kuro," Kuro said while stretching.
"Well, we already have the other Illya, and I would get pretty confused, so I gave you a new name, Kuro von Einzbern. What do you think?"
"...I guess it's good for now at least," Kuro said with a huff before continuing to speak. "Now why did you take me here instead of killing me?"
"Well, besides your attempted murder of Illya, which would not have worked in the slightest, you haven't done anything to warrant me killing you. Besides, you are my servant." I said while showing her my command seals.
"What!? How do you have those!? They were only in development before Kiritsugu and Irisviel disassembled the grail!"
So I was right in my assumption that the Grail War's construction was only supervised by the Einzbern, and the Matou and Tohsaka families had nothing to do with it.
"You must be familiar with the Wizard Marshall, correct? Well, he sent me here on a mission that I will leave confidential for the time being. Anyway, long story short, in my world, the holy grail war was created and is fully functional, and my family, the Matou, are one of the founders."
After that, I stopped talking, letting her digest all that information before continuing to speak. "Anyway, back to what we were talking about earlier, while you are my servant, I won't restrict your movements unless you go out of your way to be a little brat. I don't want to use these command seals on you, but if you force my hand, I will use them without restraint to keep you in line understood?"
"...Fine, I'll keep myself in check for now, at least."
"No, I need you to be on our side. I don't want you going on a revenge quest against Illya, Irisviel, or Kiritsugu, so promise me right here right now that you won't."
"Fine, fine, I promise," Kuro said with an innocent smile.
Not that I believed that smile one bit. She had the experience of EMIYA, and he had a traitorous record. He would do anything to achieve his goals, and Kuro had inherited that experience as well. So I'll wait until she tries to betray me and punish her appropriately.
"Anyway, you can stay out here; I'll be in my room. Also, prepare yourself since we're going to meet the others later." I said while heading into my room.
Once I locked the door, I turned around, and in the center of the room on the floor was a complex magic circle. Walking over to the circle, I sat in the middle of it in a meditative position before closing my eyes and beginning to focus on my reserves of magical energy, cursed energy, and aura.
[***]
"Come on, it's not that bad, Kuro," I said while turning toward Kuro, who was walking beside me with a pout on her face. "Just think of Illya as your sister or something along those lines."
"Easy for you to say; not even a day ago, we both shared a body. And then I have to deal with her bratty attitude as well."
"So you're a brat as well since you're the 'same person' right?" I said with a teasing smirk.
"I am nothing like her; I am completely mature!"
"Whatever you say, mature girl," I said with a shrug while continuing to walk.
"What the hell! Was that sarcasm!?"
"Who knows?"
"Uh! You totally are saying it sarcastically, you big jerk!"
We went back and forth like that for a couple of minutes, and in no time at all, we arrived at Luvia's place.
Walking up to the gate, I rang the doorbell, and a couple of seconds later, a male voice rang out. "Please come in, young man, young miss."
Opening the gate, I walked up the path with the now-quiet Kuro before we got to the door. It immediately opened to reveal an older man with gray hair, pointed ears, and wore a butler suit.
"It's a pleasure to meet you both. I am Luvia's personal butler, Auguste." He said with a bow before moving to the side. "Please come in; I'll escort you two personally."
"Thank you for your consideration." Walking past him, I dragged Kuro inside as well, and once Auguste closed the door, he began guiding us through the house.
This place is similar to the Edelfelt mansion in my world; it's almost uncanny.
Anyway, it only took a couple of minutes for him to take us to a room, where he opened it to reveal a large living room. Sitting on the couches were Rin, Luvia, Miyu, and Illya.
As soon as I could see Illya, Kuro saw her as well. Her response was immediate, as her killing intent surged out and she glared at Illya.
"Stop it; we came here with peaceful relations in mind, so act like it, Kuro," I said before reinforcing my fist before bringing it down on her head, causing her to stop projecting her killing intent as she crouched down and gripped her head in pain. "Anyway, let's get introductions out of the way first. This is Kuro von Einzbern, and she is a separate part of Illya as well as the Archer class card."
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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