12 Chapter 12

~Shinji Matou POV~

"I'm sorry, Shinji-san!" The blushing Illya apologized for what was probably the twentieth time while bowing toward me.

"I said it was fine, Illya; no harm done," I said while waving off what happened earlier. As for what happened, I had come over for my usual training session with Sella, and she told me to wake up Illya while she made breakfast. Of course, as the lewd magnet that Illya was, she somehow ended up kissing me, even though I was many times faster than her. I'm still wrapping my head around how that happened.

Anyway, while it was slightly embarrassing, I got over it quickly, but Illya was much more embarrassed than me, so she had been a blushing maiden the entire breakfast.

"Well, I'll see you later, Shinji-san, Sella-san, Leysritt-san!" Illya said while standing up from the table. "Come on, Miyu-san, we're going to be late for school!" Without waiting, she dragged Miyu out of her chair, despite her protest, and out of the door.

"Well, I'll start cleaning up, Sella," I said while picking up my plate and going over to the kitchen.

"No, it is fine, Matou-san. I am one of the maids of this household, and you are a guest, so simply wait for me." Sella said while snatching the plate from my hand.

"Why will you never let me help you? I'm literally offering my services." I said with a sigh while sitting back down.

"I am a maid of the Einzbern; of course I would–." Sella started to say, but she was interrupted by Leysritt.

"She just wants to make a good impression on you, Shinji." She said while opening a bag of chips, "After all, you're one of the very first guests we've had over."

"W-what are you talking about, Leysritt!? I have no such inclinations! I am simply doing my duty!" Sella said, and I would have believed her if I couldn't see the blush on her face.

The next couple of minutes were spent in silence, with the occasional click of dishes from Sella and the crunching of chips from Leysritt.

"Alright, let's get going, Shinji-san. You too, Leysritt." Sella said while dragging Leysritt out of the house, with me following along.

After a ten-minute drive, we arrived at the Einzbern Castle, where our training sessions were usually held. While it was abandoned, it was still in tip-top shape due to the bounded fields and such.

Walking through the castle was still a novel experience since it was so big, but I had gotten somewhat used to it over the past week and a half. In no time at all, we arrived at the large courtyard that served as the training grounds.

"Shinji-san, let us begin." Sella said, and I walked over to her while dropping my bag of holding but not before popping a body-tempering pill in my mouth.

"I have some new things to test out, Sella, so come at me with everything you have," I said with a smirk before dashing toward her, my guard up. I cleared the distance between us and sent a jab at her, which she easily blocked. She gripped my hand and pulled me toward herself, and sent a palm strike to my chest that I had seen so many times before. But I couldn't help but smirk as she struck me, but instead of the stinging pain, there was only a dull pain that quickly faded as she struck the translucent blue barrier that surrounded my body.

Using Sella's strike, I retched my hand free spun around, and sent a kick to Sella's side that she also blocked by holding my leg up.

She lifted me into the air, but I sent a kick at her chin that missed by a mere millimeter, but it was enough of a distraction to loosen her grip and allow me to be tossed into the air. Flipping in the air, I fell almost immediately and performed an axe kick that Sella dodged, letting me strike the ground, which shattered as soon as my leg made contact with it.

The next ten minutes were spent throwing punches and kicks that were either dodged, blocked, or deflected by Sella. But with each strike I dished out, the world around me began to fade out more and more until I was only focused on Sella and nothing more.

Strike. Dodge left. Duck. Sweep. Strike harder. Strike faster. Dodge. Counter. Reinforcement. Strike. Dodge. Jump. Kick. Mana Burst. More. Stronger. Faster. Even more. Draw more.

*Boom*

I was suddenly jolted out of my concentration by the huge noise, and looking up, I saw that I had taken out another wall of the mansion once again. "Shit! Sorry, Sella!" I said in a panic, after all, every time I had a spare with her, I always ended up destroying a wall.

Sella only released a sigh before she walked over to me and began fixing the wall with some spell. "While I would like to get mad, this has happened so many times that I frankly don't care anymore. What I want to know is why you subconsciously begin fighting more seriously, even though at the beginning you usually keep it within sparring parameters."

"I don't know either. This is my first time fighting without going all out from the start, so maybe that's it." I said while contemplating why my strength exceeded my normal limits whenever I was in the heat of battle. But it wasn't this bad even when I was fighting the heroic spirits literally three weeks ago, so what was happening?

"And what was that barrier around your person? I felt as if I had hit an iron wall."

"It's a new spell I created that uses the soul's natural conceptual powers of an 'existence outside the materialized world' and projected it outside my body." At least that is what I would say from now on, but it was complete and utter bull. It was just another thing I got a hold of to use this time, it being the aura from RWBY.

The passive barrier was already a plus in my books, and I would have even more protection. Then there was the semblance aspect of it, and while I had no idea what it would be, it would be a boon all the same.

"Anyway, did you ever get in contact with Irisviel-san and Kiritsugu-san?"

"No, while the madam was here two weeks ago, she hasn't contacted me back," Sella said with a sigh.

"Hopefully I can talk to them soon before it hits the fan," I said with a sigh as well. "Well, let's continue, and this time, can you fight me as well, Leysritt?"

"Do I have to?" She said with a tilt of her head.

"I'll buy you as many snacks as you want tomorrow," I said, and immediately Leysritt was standing beside Sella, holding a giant halberd she had taken a liking to.

'Damn, I'm going to lose so much money.'

[****]

"Ah, it's good to be home," I said while walking into my home after getting dropped off by Sella and Leysritt. The past six hours were spent training, and I didn't use Kunzite the entire time; only my aura was used since it couldn't be turned off.

*Honk* *Honk*

"Master Shinji, I believe those are the others," Kunzite said while floating out of my bag of holding.

"Alright, I guess it's time to deal with the leylines," I said with a sigh as I grabbed Cross Tail out of my room, putting it on before heading outside.

Once I was outside, I was able to see the limousine that was parked in front of my home. Walking up to the limo, the door opened, allowing me to climb inside.

"Tohsaka, Edelfelt." I nodded while taking a seat. "I'm guessing this has to do with leylines and how they have been becoming increasingly unstable." I said getting shocked looks from the others. "What? Are you surprised that I noticed? It was to be expected that the leylines would become unstable when heroic spirits were involved."

With that said, the rest of the ride was silent until we arrived at Mount Enzou. After getting there, we walked through the small forest area around the mountain until we got to the cave entrance that led to the caverns beneath the mountain.

If I remember right, then the greater grail should be here in this world too. I don't know why Irisviel and Kiritsugu didn't dismantle it, but hopefully I can use it to my advantage at some point.

Anyway, the next couple of minutes were relatively silent until we arrived at a huge cavern.

"Alright, let's get this over with so we can go home," Rin said as she set the bag she was carrying down. She then reached inside and pulled a tree-like thing that she stabbed into the ground, which spawned a magic circle on the ground. "Alright, you three are up!"

Me, Illya, and Miyu then poured magical energy into it with the help of our kaleidosticks.

Off to the side, Luvia was doing calibrations on the magic circle as we poured magical energy into the ritual. "Loading ratio 20… 40… 60… 75… 90… 100… 115… 120!! Öffnen(Open)!!" With that, we finished the ritual that would have taken days in only a couple of minutes.

"So, is it over?" Illya asked

"Yeah, it should be fine. But it's better to watch it so nothing goes wrong." Rin said as she continued to watch the ritual.

We all simply stood here in the cavern for a couple of minutes, but suddenly the ground began to shake as the magic circle began growing brighter with each passing second.

"What!? But how could the reflux be happening now!? It's only been five minutes!" Rin shouted as a beam of magical energy shot up and collided with the ceiling of the cavern, sending rubble down on us.

I was already preparing a blast of magical energy with Kunzite, and looking out of the corner of my eye, I saw Miyu preparing a blast as well.

But there was a huge influx of magical energy as a black and red blur jumped into the air. It was Illya with the Archer card installed. She placed her hand out in front of her and said only two words. "Rho Aias!"

A beautiful, purple, four-petal, iridescent flower sprang forth in front of her. I knew this noble phantasm well; it was the bounded field that took on the conceptual powers of Aias the Great's shield. It blocked almost all of the falling debris, but the shield began to flicker before she fell to the ground and Rho Aias dispersed.

I couldn't help but cough as dust filled my lungs and–. "Gaahh!" Suddenly, a pain shot through my right hand. Pulling off my right-hand Cross Tail glove, I couldn't help but have my eyes widen in shock as I looked at the thing on the back of my hand. It was a small red tattoo that glowed softly and was divided into three parts. "You have got to be fucking kidding me." I cursed as I stared at the command seals, and judging by where I felt my magical energy flowing, I had a guess at what happened. "This is going to complicate things, for sure." With that said, I placed my glove back on and began walking toward where Illya was. The other also recovered and began to walk over to Illya.

So the personality came out at last. In front of me was Illya, of course, but just beside her was a girl almost identical to Illya in every way, besides her tanned skin, her white rose-colored hair, her yellow and orange eyes, and the oversexualized version of EMIYA's servant clothing.

The girl looked at us for a couple of seconds before jumping up and running out of the cavern.

I'll let her calm down for now. I'll talk to her later. I couldn't help but sigh as the others began to panic.