16 It’s Safe

(3rd POV)

The next day, Shirou and Kuroneko went to do their usual routine and as they were approaching the park where they had met Ikki previously, they found out that he wasn't alone anymore. Ikki was accompanied by the pink-haired tsundere princess who was a closet pervert.

"Good morning, Ikki! You fought well yesterday," Shirou greeted as raised his thumbs, "And of course, Stella-sama did great too."

"Thank you, Shirou," Ikki said.

Stella turned her head to look at the newcomers and immediately felt something was strange about Shirou as if it was something familiar but couldn't point out what exactly it was.

Ikki sensing the glare that Stella was giving to Shirou immediately tried to ease her by introducing them to her, "Stella, this is Kotomine Shirou and the girl beside him is Ruri Gokou, they have been my friends since they moved here."

""Nice to meet you, Stella-sama,"" Shirou and Kuroneko said at the same time while bowing slightly.

"Nice to meet you too. Since you are Ikki's friend you can just call me Stella," Stella said as her initial wariness disappeared and her posture became more relaxed.

"By the way Ikki, you look happier than usual, did something happen? Is it because of yesterday's victory?" Shirou asked as he could tell that Ikki was unnaturally cheerful, even though he already knew the answer.

"Yeah. My sister will enroll today. We haven't met for four years, so I am eager to meet her," Ikki said in a happy tone.

"Say…She doesn't happen to be your step-sister or anything like that, right?" Stella asked as she glared at Ikki.

"No, we are 100% blood related," Ikki said.

"Then I approve," Stella nodded to herself and crossed her arms under her chest.

"You approve of…what exactly?" Ikki asked while sweat dropping, Stella didn't answer instead she turned around.

"Let's go, class will start soon," she said as she walked away.

Ikki shook his head helplessly and sighed before following her.

Shirou and Kuroneko shrugged their shoulders and followed behind them.

"Who do you think we should invite?" Kuroneko asked Shirou, who was walking beside her.

"Honestly, I don't know," Shirou said, "I have a feeling that Ikki might refuse due to it being against his 'knight's moral codes'."

Shirou smiled and looked at his friend, even if it sounds stupid, Shirou was sure that Ikki would refuse to receive power from an outside source like Chat Group.

"Then what about Stella?" Kuroneko asked curiously, but Shirou shook his head.

"She would be the same, and I don't think anyone is trustworthy enough in this academy," Shirou said with a sigh, 'And I doubt Shizuka would be good either since she is a heavy brocon and the student council president won't accept either since her personality is very similar to Ikki's.'

"So we have to wait for Merlin, Jibril or even Romani to invite someone to the Chat Group?" Kuroneko pondered. The first two are more expected to invite someone, but the latter...no comments.

Soon they arrived in their classroom and sat next to each other and shortly after, the teacher arrived as well.

She has long grey hair and a pair of brown eyes, but what stood out about her was her pale skin. If it wasn't for the fact that the majority of the students knew her, people would mistake her for a zombie due to how pale her skin was.

She was Yuuri Oreki, a C rank Blazer but has an extremely weak constitution that made her vomit blood frequently and only God knows how she isn't dead yet.

"Hi! Hi! Good morning everyone! My name is Yuuri Oreki, but please call me Yuuri-chan, or otherwise, I will ignore you~!"

"..."

Silence descended upon the students.

Although Shirou was already expecting this, it was still weird for him to witness this in real life.

*Cough* *Cough*

She coughed blood and she immediately wiped it with a napkin and acted as if it didn't happen.

"As you know, the inter-tournament will start next week! Your battle schedule and your opponent name will be sent to your school email, so make sure to check your inbox!" Yuuri said enthusiastically although her voice was quite weak.

Stella raised her hand, "Sensei (Teacher)!"

"No, no," Yuuri said as she waved her index finger, "If you don't call me Yuuri-chan, I won't answer your question."

"Y-Yuuri-chan…" Stella said hesitantly.

"What, Stella-chan?"

"How many matches will there be for each student?"

"Well, it will be about 10 matches for each student, so it will probably be one match every 3 days."

There were some complaints among the students but the teacher proceeded, "Whoever doesn't want to fight can abandon the match! It won't affect your grades, but personally, I think it will be a great chance for everyone, so please participate okay?"

"So everyone! I want all of you to try your best this year, okay! Everybody let's gooouggghh!" The teacher tried to cheer everyone up, but ended up too enthusiastic and vomited gallons of blood.

"""Sensei!"""

The students called in worry and immediately got up from their seats and rushed to the teacher while some others facepalmed.

Shirou was actually worried about her condition and went to the teacher, Kuroneko also did the same as she was worried about the teacher too.

In the end, they brought Yuuri to the nurse and Shirou secretly used healing magecraft to lessen the symptoms as he couldn't stand watching his teacher in this pitiful condition. Shirou and Kuroneko then left Yuuri to Ikki and Stella and left the infirmary.

"How pitiful," Shirou commented and Kuroneko nodded in agreement.

"I am surprised at how cheerful she is despite her condition, if it was me I probably couldn't be like this" Kuroneko said.

"Indeed, but her condition is also her weapon," Shirou said as he leaned against the wall next to the automatic door.

"How so?"

"Her ability is pain sharing, in other words, she can share the pain that she is feeling all the time to her targets as long as they are inside her range, which covers some kilometres," Shirou said which surprised Kuroneko.

A few minutes later, they saw Ikki and Stella chatting to each other as they exited the door. Kuroneko was about to call them but Shirou raised his arm and stopped her. Shirou gestured to her to keep silent as he said, "Don't, something interesting will happen and prepare your phone."

Kuroneko nodded confusedly, but she still obeyed and took out her phone. A blond journalist girl suddenly ran to Ikki and put his arm in between her breasts, which made Ikki embarrassed and Stella jealous, so she just left him behind.

Ikki quickly freed himself from her grasp and followed Stella, but he froze immediately when he heard a voice.

"I finally found you."

Ikki turned around towards the source of the voice and found a girl with short white hair and a pair of light green eyes. She is Shizuka Kurogane, the youngest child and the daughter of the head of Kurogane Household as well as Ikki's biological sister.

Students started whispering to each other as they looked at Shizuka and even pointed at her, but the person in question ignored their existences as she approached Ikki.

"Shizuka?" Ikki widened his eyes as he called his sister's name.

"I really missed you, Onii-sama…" Shizuka said as she leaned on Ikki's chest and kissed him on his lips.

Ikki immediately widened his eyes and fell on the ground with Shizuka on top still kissing him.

"W-W-What are you guys doing!!??" Stella blushed like a red crab and all of the students nearby screamed in confusion and shock.

"I-I don't even know!" Ikki unconsciously raised his voice while still confused and shocked from the sudden kiss he got from his biological sister

*Flash* *Flash*

"This will make a great material," Shirou said as he and Kuroneko took pictures from them.

"Can you send them to me later?" The reporter girl whispered to Shirou and Kuroneko with eyes sparkling like stars.

"No," Shirou and Kuroneko said at the same time, which surprised the reporter girl.

"Eh!? Why!?"

"You wouldn't understand…" Shirou said as he shook his head and tapped Kuroneko's shoulder, "Let's go ahead, they seemed busy so we will go ahead."

Kuroneko nodded and followed Shirou to their room, ignoring the chaos that was happening behind them.

Once they arrived in their room, Shirou snapped his fingers and immediately set a bounded field around their room, which hid any anomaly that would happen inside the room. Then without warning, Shirou took off his clothes.

"What are you doing?" Kuroneko asked flustered with her cheeks turning slightly pink.

"Don't tell me, are you finally planning to defile my delicate body!?" She screamed jokingly as she covered her torso area and her crotch with her arms.

Shirou sighed and did a head chop on Kuroneko.

"I won't do anything, idiot," Shirou said as a white dragon plushie appeared on his shoulder, "I was planning to exchange my lungs for a dragon's ones."

Kuroneko stopped fooling around and asked in concern, "Are you sure it is safe?"

Although Kuroneko was aware that Shirou has a Dragon Heart that he exchanged from Albion, she still asked worryingly.

Shirou smiled and patted her head,

"Don't worry Ruri Gokou," Albion said through the avatar that Merlin created for him, "It will be over soon, I only need to remove Shirou's lungs and inject some of my essence in it before reconnecting them to Shirou's body."

"…Are you sure it is safe?" Kuroneko asked doubtfully for the second time.

"Absolutely," Albion spoke with confidence in his skills.

Shirou nodded in agreement, "Don't worry, as he said, it will be over soon and I trust in Albion's skills, so believe in him."

Kuroneko nodded and Shirou kept patting her head for a few more seconds before retracting his hand.

Shirou turned around and went towards his bedroom and once he arrived, Shirou closed the door and walked towards his bed and laid on it. Albion jumped from his shoulder and landed on top of his chest, right above where Shirou's heart was.

"Wait a moment," Shirou said as he took out his phone from his pocket and opened the inventory before a white pill appeared on Shirou's hand and he immediately put it in his mouth and swallowed it.

It was a Primordial Heavenly Painkiller made of the purest herbs that would remove completely the sensation of pain from the patient temporarily without any side effects.

(A/N: *Insert "I'm Peng Clan's Young Master" GIF*)

"I am ready," Shirou said without hesitation.

Albion nodded his tiny head and started the lungs exchange surgery. Shirou suddenly felt his breath being taken away and he also felt something uncomfortable moving in his chest area.

Dragon Lungs allowed the dragons to have a spiritual world that can produce mana just by breathing, in other words, a mana generating factory similar to a Dragon Heart, and with the combination of those two, Shirou will become more like an actual dragon than a proper human.

"I am done," Albion announced as he jumped off from Shirou's sweaty chest.

Shirou coughed as he greedily sucked the air from the atmosphere, but then he widened his eyes as Shirou felt his mana generation go on steroids and its quality increased significantly as well.

"How do you feel?" Albion asked with a knowing smug on his face.

"I feel…incredible," Shirou said as he slowly adopted a sitting position.

"Good," Albion said as he crossed his arms, "But remember that while you did just become stronger, there are always people that can easily kill you, so don't get too arrogant and drown on your own strength or else you will die."

Shirou nodded in understanding and got up from the bed and dismissed the bounded fields around the house before grabbing a shirt and leaving his bedroom. Outside his bedroom, Shirou looked around for Kuroneko until he saw her in the kitchen wearing an apron on top of school uniform.

"You are already done? I thought it would take some hours," Kuroneko asked in surprise as she planned to make some food for Shirou after he finished the thing.

Shirou smiled and nodded before walking beside her, "Let me lend you a hand."

"No need, just wait in the living room, I will finish it soon," Kuroneko said as she pushed Shirou away from the kitchen.

Shirou was surprised for a second and shook his head before walking away from the kitchen.

While they were at this, at the rooftop Merlin smiled before vanishing, leaving a trail of pink flowers behind.