A card popped out as well—Assassin's card.
The battle was over. It could only be described as a complete stomp.
Having gained the combat experience and abilities of the Heroic Spirit Emiya, defeating Shinji had not been difficult for Shirou.
"Wait, Senpai. Don't kill my brother yet. I... want to ask him something." Sakura stepped forward, looking at Shinji—her adoptive brother, who should theoretically have been dead—with a complicated expression.
"Huh? Why am I still alive? Wasn't I dead long ago?" As if recalling something, Shinji stared at his trembling hands. "Five years ago, everyone died. Me, Grandpa, everyone... So that's how it was? So that's how it was?"
Sakura was at a loss as she watched Shinji lose his mind.
"Sakura, kill me. Please, I'm tired. I don't want to be a tool anymore—a tool of Einzbern. Please, will you?" Shinji begged, leaving Sakura unable to say what she had wanted to say.
Although Shirou still wanted to ask some questions, the look in Sakura's eyes softened his heart.
"Then I'll let you bastard die quickly." With a swing of his blade, Shirou cut Shinji down, and Shinji finally revealed his original form—a doll.
Author's Note:
Writing it this way makes Second Brother seem so useless. == But he was pretty useless to begin with...
An Ally of Justice Who Doesn't Smoke or Drink
"That's roughly what happened, Senpai." After Sakura told him that Shinji had already died five years ago, she could not help glancing at the doll again.
Shirou exited Phantasmal Summon mode and nodded. So, Shinji in this world had been finished off before he could become a menace?
In that case, he had wrongly blamed this Shinji. His blade should have been faster, so Second Brother could have died more easily.
"Let's dig some dirt. It'll count as giving him a grave." Relying on the feeling from his earlier Phantasmal Summon, Shirou projected Guan Yu and Mo Ye, found a patch of ground in the yard, dug a hole, and buried the doll.
It was already very late tonight. Especially after Shinji's attack on the Emiya Residence, Sakura going home alone would be far too dangerous on this cold winter night. Anyway, with the Earth's axis so severely tilted, Fuyuki was this cold; they could just pretend it was winter.
Besides, he had learned an important piece of information from Shinji.
"There's no one at your house now, right? Other than you?" Shirou asked.
Sakura nodded gently. Even her usual feigned smile had vanished.
"They all died five years ago. In the Holy Grail War."
In the world of Magical Girl Illya—or rather, in Miyu's parallel world—the Holy Grail War had indeed continued. The last one had broken out five years ago, completely unlike the other parallel worlds.
"The Holy Grail War is a ritual created by the three mage families known as the Three Founding Families: Einzbern, Tohsaka, and the Matou family. The victor can obtain the Holy Grail, an omnipotent wish-granting device."
"Tohsaka?" Shirou asked in surprise. If he remembered correctly, Tohsaka had never been mentioned in the story. Even when Rin asked whether the Grand Hero knew the Tohsaka family, Shirou had been clueless.
Yet at the same time, Sakura Matou's appearance should itself have indirectly confirmed the Tohsaka family's existence. Sakura had only been sent to the Matou family because the Tohsaka family had two children.
"Mm." Sakura thought Shirou was confused by this unfamiliar family. Shirou undoubtedly knew Julian of Einzbern, and he knew Sakura from the Matou family, but there had been no mention of the Tohsaka family.
"Can we not talk about it?" But Sakura found the subject difficult as well. She even recoiled from the word Tohsaka. If she had not been sent to the Matou family, her tragedy would never have happened in the first place.
Shirou nodded. Since Sakura did not want to talk about it, he would not press her. If necessary, she would tell him.
"Actually, it's fine to say it. They also died in the ritual five years ago."
"All of them?"
Before you continue