Emiya

Time passed bit by bit, and Emiya Shirou could clearly feel his power gradually growing—or rather, recovering.

He did not feel any of those so-called delusions from novels, where growing stronger made one think a punch could destroy a planet. Looking at it now, that was purely nonsense authors made up to pad their word count. Shirou could now tell exactly how strong he was.

Shirou was only eight years old. Rin had begun learning magecraft from Tokiomi, the Pot King, as soon as she was old enough to understand. Kiritsugu Emiya was known by the Clock Tower as the Magus Killer, but the Magus Killer was still a magus.

As a magus, Kiritsugu Emiya naturally taught Shirou some basic magecraft. As for anything advanced, it was not that Kiritsugu refused to teach him—he simply did not know it himself.

That could not really be blamed on him. Kiritsugu Emiya's father, Norikata Emiya, was the father Kiritsugu himself had shot dead.

What Norikata did was something many people probably knew: experiments on Dead Apostles. Because of that, everyone in Kiritsugu's village became Dead Apostles, forcing him onto the path of killing his own kin for the greater good.

People who did experiments generally were not proficient in mainstream techniques. Look at Orochimaru, another scientist who commanded the ninja world's core technology—how many times had he used ninjutsu transformations since his debut? Probably not even once!

By the same logic, Norikata Emiya had been the same. See? His old man barely knew any magecraft, so what the hell could his son know? The two tricks Kiritsugu had were purely things he learned from his godmother, Natalia.

So Kiritsugu could not be blamed for turning mage duels into modern mechanized infantry combat. If he knew any awesome magecraft, who would run around aiming a 98k? He could just stack himself full of buffs and rush in to brawl!

Which famous great magus in history did not fight like that? Take a certain Avalon Sword Saint; a certain Uruk Axe King; or a certain Israeli Fist King. ^0^~

The two types of magecraft Kiritsugu later taught Shirou were enough to explain his thinking: Projection and Reinforcement. Wasn't a magus's battle just stacking Reinforcement buffs on oneself and then going in with normal attacks?

At worst, he could use Projection Magecraft to handcraft a weapon. Look at Red Archer: a magus in life, yet he could still become an Archer after death. Wasn't that thing's ultimate secret drawing a blade and hacking away? Given his own circumstances, what kind of giant sword could he not make?

But then again, there was one utterly ridiculous thing about Kiritsugu teaching Shirou magecraft: he never explained what magi actually were. He simply taught him magecraft. The world of magi was not something one could infer through common sense.

That was also why Emiya Shirou in every timeline could not understand things when he first encountered the Holy Grail War—this complete novice simply did not know, and could not possibly know, how magi interacted with one another!

While teaching Shirou magecraft, Kiritsugu also made an important discovery: a massive amount of magical energy existed in Shirou's body in the form of spirit particles.

Moreover, Shirou had no Magic Crest and had not opened his Magic Circuits, so all that magical energy was stored within his body.

That made Shirou's mode of existence very unusual, something between a spiritual body and a physical body. It felt like—a Servant!

As someone who had participated in a Holy Grail War, Kiritsugu could not possibly be unfamiliar with how Servants existed. Although he trusted his little fangirl Maiya Hisau and the 98k in his hands more than his partner, the cowlick king, that did not stop him from studying the strange existence known as Servants.

The theory behind Servants came from the soul materialization of the Third Magic. Put simply, a Servant was a ghost one could see and touch.

This did not apply to every Servant, because some Servants were living people. For example, the Emiya Family's inherited Servant, the cowlick king; the eternally youthful, beautiful, charming, and forever eighteen-year-old Miss Scáthach; and Merlin, the online scammer living far away in Avalon, were all exceptions.

Where had so much magical energy inside Shirou come from? In truth, if that so-called magical energy were placed in the Soul Society or Hueco Mundo, it could not be called magical energy at all—it should be called spiritual power.

As the Cuarenta Espada, Ulquiorra had evolved from a Vasto Lorde Arrancar. At that level, if he did not deliberately suppress his spiritual pressure, the surrounding spiritual bodies would be pressured and weakened. Some weaker spiritual bodies would even be weakened to death because they could not endure the pressure.

Stark, the wolf guy, was even more outrageous. Merely the power he unconsciously emitted could achieve the same effect, over an even greater range.

There was something similar in this Nasuverse: the Age of Gods. If modern humans appeared in the Age of Gods, they would die because they could not endure the overly abundant magical energy in the air.

Likewise, Naruto also had cases where ninjas could not withstand excessively powerful chakra.

Hmm, regarding the commonalities and uniqueness of power systems across worlds.

"Shirou, why do you want to become a magus?" Kiritsugu asked Shirou beneath the night sky.

"For... power, I guess!"

"And why do you seek power?" Kiritsugu pressed.

"Justice, probably."

"Justice?" Hearing that familiar word again, even Kiritsugu Emiya could not help sighing. How laughable did the justice he once believed in—sacrificing the few to save the many—now seem to him!

"Then what do you think justice is, Shirou?" Kiritsugu asked. Although he did not want to influence Shirou's path through life too much, neither did he want Shirou to repeat his mistakes.

Shirou glanced at Kiritsugu. "Justice? That is probably victory!"

"What does one have to do with the other?" Kiritsugu asked.

"Of course they are related! Without power, where would victory come from? Only victors can hold on to everything around them. I don't want to lose anything important to me," Shirou declared righteously.

"Huh? That actually makes some sense! So your justice is the people and things important to you?"

"Yeah. Things are easier to deal with, but people are different. After all, when people are killed, they die. That is a very simple truth. Speaking of which, Dad, did you ever pursue justice too?"

"Yeah. When I was very young, I often dreamed of becoming an ally of justice! But I'm already old now, so I no longer dream such impossible dreams," Kiritsugu said calmly. But was his heart really calm? Who knew!

"That's very realistic, Dad! You sound just like a thoroughgoing materialist!"

"It can't be helped. People cannot run away from reality. The only thing they can do is accept it."

"What a negative way of thinking, Dad. I've decided—I'll take over and fulfill that dream for you. An ally of justice!" Shirou deliberately put on an expression that said, I'm so great, hurry up and thank me, making Kiritsugu laugh despite himself.

"Haha, looks like that's the only way."

An ally of justice? Who knew what would happen?

As everyone knew, Emiya Shirou had many versions, but whether Shirou, Red Archer, Black A, or Senji Muramasa, they all had one thing in common: they were masters of housework, especially cooking.

As someone who had inherited the name "Emiya Shirou," Shirou was equally skilled in that regard.

For the first few days, Kiritsugu Emiya would deliberately get up early to make breakfast, but after only a few days, he decisively gave up.

How could an ordinary person like Kiritsugu possibly compete in cooking with a Grand Chef?

As the Magus Killer who struck terror into countless magi, Kiritsugu Emiya had to admit defeat in this matter. He had lost to a five-year-old child. (What did that have to do with being the Magus Killer?!)

Every morning, Shirou got up on time to make breakfast. What, Shirou was only eight and not tall enough?

Sorry, but as an Arrancar with spiritual pressure all over his body, he naturally had the ability to hover. With that ability, height became utterly meaningless before Shirou.

As a father, Kiritsugu Emiya was undoubtedly quite competent. Although he failed to bring Illya back in many timelines due to his lack of ability, and now even lost to Shirou at making breakfast, he was still an excellent father.

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