Emiya

Time passed, and Emiya Shirou could clearly feel his power gradually increasing—or rather, recovering—with each moment.

Unlike the novels he'd read, where characters suddenly gained the ability to destroy planets from a surge in strength—which was clearly just authors padding word counts—Shirou could now accurately gauge exactly how strong he was.

At just eight years old, Shirou had already begun learning magecraft. Rin had started studying under Tokiomi, the Pot King, as soon as she was old enough to understand. Kiritsugu Emiya was called the Magus Killer by the Clock Tower, but even a Magus Killer was still a magus.

As a magus, Kiritsugu naturally taught Shirou some basic magecraft. As for the advanced stuff, it wasn't that he refused to teach—it was that he didn't know it himself.

That wasn't really his fault. Kiritsugu's father, Norikata Emiya, was the very man Kiritsugu had shot dead himself.

Most people knew what Norikata did—experiments on Dead Apostles. That was what turned the entire village into Dead Apostles and forced Kiritsugu down the path of sacrificing his own father for justice.

People who run experiments usually aren't great at standard techniques. Look at Orochimaru—a scientist who mastered the ninja world's core technology—how many times did he actually use basic elemental jutsu after his debut? Probably never, right!

Same logic applied to Norikata Emiya. If his old man couldn't do any real magecraft, what the hell would his son know? The few tricks Kiritsugu had were all learned from his godmother, Natalia.

So you couldn't blame Kiritsugu for relying on modern mechanized infantry tactics in magus duels. If he'd actually known any badass magecraft, why would he be running around aiming a 98k? He'd just buff himself to the max and go straight for melee!

Every famous magus in history did exactly that—like a certain Avalon Sword Saint, a certain Uruk Axe King, or a certain Israeli Fist King. ＾０＾~

And the two types of magecraft Kiritsugu later taught Shirou made his thinking pretty clear: Projection and Reinforcement. Wasn't a magus's fight just about buffing yourself with Reinforcement and then going in for basic attacks?

At worst, you could Project a weapon on the spot. Look at Red Archer—alive, he was a magus; dead, he still became an Archer. The ultimate secret of that class was just drawing a sword and hacking away. Combine that with his own situation, what kind of big blade couldn't he conjure?

But then again, there was one thing utterly ridiculous about how Kiritsugu taught Shirou magecraft: he never explained what a magus actually was. He just taught the techniques. The world of magi couldn't be understood through common sense.

That was exactly why Emiya Shirou across so many timelines couldn't grasp the Holy Grail War at first—this naive kid fundamentally didn't know and couldn't know how magi interacted with each other!

While teaching Shirou magecraft, Kiritsugu also made a major discovery: Shirou's body contained a massive amount of magical energy stored in the form of reishi.

And since Shirou had no Magic Crest and hadn't opened his Magic Circuits, that energy was simply stored throughout his physical body.

This made Shirou's existence quite unique—something between a spiritual and physical entity, much like a Servant!

As someone who'd participated in the Holy Grail War, Kiritsugu couldn't be unfamiliar with how Servants existed. Though he trusted his little fan Maiya Hisau and his trusty 98k more than his partner Saber, that didn't stop him from understanding this fascinating form of existence.

The theory behind Servants came from the Third Magic's materialization of the soul. In short, a Servant was a ghost you could see and touch.

That didn't apply to all Servants, though—some were living humans. For example, the Emiya family's heirloom Servant Saber, the eternally youthful and beautiful eighteen-year-old Scáthach, and that online scammer Merlin from Avalon were all exceptions.

Where did all that magical energy inside Shirou come from? Well, if you put it in Soul Society or Hueco Mundo, it wouldn't be called magical energy—it'd be spiritual energy.

As the Cuarenta Espada, Ulquiorra was a Vasto Lorde who'd undergone Arrancarization. At that level, if he didn't deliberately suppress his spiritual pressure, the surrounding spirits would be crushed and weakened, and the weaker ones would simply be pressured to death.

Stark was even more extreme—just the unconscious leakage of his power could achieve the same effect, and over a wider range.

This phenomenon had a parallel in the Nasuverse: the Age of Gods. If modern humans appeared in the Age of Gods, they'd die from the overly dense magical energy in the air.

Similarly, in Naruto, there were cases where ninja couldn't withstand excessively strong chakra.

Well, there you go—the universality and uniqueness of world power systems.

"Shirou, why do you want to become a magus?" Kiritsugu asked under 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 couldn't help but sigh. How ridiculous his own justice—sacrificing the few to save the many—seemed to him now!

"So what do you think justice is, Shirou?" Kiritsugu asked. He didn't want to interfere too much with Shirou's path, but he also didn't want him to repeat his mistakes.

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

"What's the connection?" Kiritsugu asked.

"Of course there is! Without power, there's no victory. Only the victor can keep everything they care about. I don't want to lose anyone important to me." Shirou said matter-of-factly.

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

"Yeah, things are one thing, but people are different. People die when they're killed—that's a simple truth. Speaking of which, old man, did you ever pursue justice too?"

"Yeah, when I was very young, I often dreamed of becoming a hero of justice. But I'm older now, and I don't chase impossible dreams anymore." Kiritsugu said calmly. But was he really calm inside? Who knew!

"Pretty realistic, old man! You're like a total materialist!"

"Can't help it. You can't escape reality. The only thing you can do is accept it."

"That's such a defeatist way of thinking, old man. I've decided—I'll take over and fulfill that dream for you. A hero of justice!" Shirou deliberately put on an expression of "I'm so great, come thank me," making Kiritsugu chuckle.

"Haha, I guess that's how it has to be."

A hero of justice? Who knew how it would turn out?

As everyone knew, Emiya Shirou had multiple versions. But whether it was Shirou, Red Archer, Black A, or even Kiichi and Sento, they all shared one thing: they were masters of housework, especially cooking.

As someone who'd inherited the name "Emiya Shirou," he was equally skilled in this art.

For the first few days, Kiritsugu would force himself to wake up early and make breakfast. But after a few days, he decisively gave up.

As an ordinary person, how could Kiritsugu compete with a Grand Chef in culinary skills?

The Magus Killer, who made countless magi tremble in fear, had to admit he'd lost in this area—to a five-year-old child. (What did being a Magus Killer have to do with this anyway!)

Every morning, Shirou would get up on time to make breakfast. What, you say Shirou was only eight and too short to reach?

Sorry, but as an Arrancar with a full body of spiritual pressure, he naturally had the ability to hover. With that ability, height became meaningless to Shirou.

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

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