Well... this chapter is a bit late.

Anyway, let's just get on with the chapter.

XXX Chapter Start XXX

Shirou felt his heart sink as he looked over the map of Hades that Fishcake had produced as he sat at the council table, the others still sitting around it.

It was a literal labyrinth, countless hallways and rooms scattered all over the place on far too many floors, with several dead ends and countless chances of being seen and the alarm raised.

In the end, the more he stared at the map the harder the invasion was looking to be.

And that wasn't even counting for the monsters that apparently made the compound their home.

If he got into a confrontation with either of them, then they were doomed.

Which meant he needed to find a way to lure them out of the facility just so he could stand a minor chance of success, let alone pull it off flawlessly.

To make matters even worse, they would have to go the long way around. They didn't know where Illya was being trained to be a Prinny, meaning they had to find the hall of records just so they could look into which instructor she was placed under and then figure out their path towards the training facility.

Which just left them in the building with those monsters even longer.

He took a deep breath.

There was no benefit in losing his composure for this objective. Losing his composure would just make him more likely to fail.

And he couldn't just let himself fail this.

He looked towards the rest of the table.

"... dad said we couldn't just buy her freedom from Hades," he decided to say, "is that true?"

"Hades doesn't just let Prinnies leave untrained," Lotsa responded, "if she was fully trained then it would be another matter but…"

"The whole point is to avoid her training ending," he acknowledged.

"I heard that some exceptions are made," Alyssa spoke up and his eyes immediately locked onto her, "there was apparently an Overlord who was originally a human witch who died, ended up being taken before she was turned into a Prinny and eventually became an Overlord."

Shirou felt a sense of hope well up within him.

"Any idea who it was?" he asked.

"... they were a woman?" Alyssa replied with a shrug, "there are a lot of Overlords out there… you can't expect me to remember every last one of them."

Shirou blinked.

Of course that would be the case. There were apparently countless Netherworlds out there and each had its own Overlord… so it made sense that at least one had a history like that.

"The important part is how can we get Illya without picking a fight with Hades," he muttered, "what was it that allowed this person to leave when others can't?"

The table fell silent in response.

Of course they wouldn't know. It was entirely possible that what Alyssa had heard was wrong, hearsay wasn't uncommon after all.

"I guess we can't really risk it can we?" he asked himself. This was an extremely dangerous plan he was attempting to formulate and if they failed, everyone could die.

But he couldn't abandon Illya. Not now that he knew she was his sister.

So they couldn't risk revealing their intent to Hades and let them prepare.

Closing his eyes he steadied his nerves.

"All right then," he said as he opened his eyes and looked at everyone else, "anyone who doesn't want to risk this, feel free to leave this room now… there is no guarantee anyone involved in this plan will survive."

He wouldn't force them to join him. But he would need all the help he could get to infiltrate the institute so he couldn't just reject their aid no matter how much he may wish to.

"Uh… can I leave?" Cherry Blossom asked hesitantly.

"What?!" Fishcake practically shouted, "you actually want to wimp out at a time like this?!"

"Shut up! You're the one who said we're going to be up against Post-Game bosses!" she responded without hesitation.

"Actually…" Scarecrow cut in, "the fact that there are Superboss level foes there probably means we will end up in conflict with them, lose badly but survive and then have some deus ex machina hop in to save us."

Shirou tried to stop himself from groaning at the statement the oldest ninja made.

Did the guy honestly think they could rely on narrative devices to survive an encounter like that?

"Let's… not think about that," he said even as he tried to push aside his increasing migraine, "but if any of you wish to leave, then do so, I won't punish you for this."

The room fell silent as the other members of the table looked between each other. Eventually all eyes lay on the pink haired martial artist.

"W-what?" she responded to the stares, "Scarecrow-sensei's right… we probably don't have anything to worry about."

Shirou felt himself sink. There was no way they could rely on such arbitrary reasoning when trying to invade a place as heavily guarded as Hades.

"I'm serious," he raised his voice, "this isn't a joke. We may very well die doing this."

"Shirou-sama… we understand that," Lotsa spoke up, her voice firm, "but you are our king. The one to whom we have sworn our loyalty towards. We cannot simply allow you to do this alone."

Shirou blinked.

It was still strange to consider that they weren't his partners but his minions. He had been so used to fighting with others as the weakest of the team, of having to rely on others to save him when he didn't want them to risk themselves that he had been applying that mentality to the group he had formed since he started his conquest against Vile Plotz.

… did he really just use that name?

He needed to get home if he was to avoid losing whatever remained of his sanity there.

… he absently wondered what the stats of Rin and Saber were before dismissing that thought.

It was obvious already that he was on a whole other level of power to either of them already. Lotsa had shrugged off Caladbolg when they first met after all and that had outright killed Berserker with a single hit. And now Lotsa was even stronger than she had been back then but he was still stronger than her.

Which meant he could probably throw around Berserker with the same sort of ease Berserker could throw him around during the Grail War.

In the end though, none of that really mattered for the current situation.

"Just because you swore yourselves to me doesn't mean you can't have survival instincts," he pointed out.

"Don't worry about it dood," Kiritsugu finally chimed in, prompting everyone to look at the Prinny, "I have a plan dood."

Shirou focused on the Prinny who simply looked at him once again.

"Give me a communicator and I'll infiltrate the building myself dood," Kiritsugu stated firmly, "I'm a prinny so no one will bat an eye at me wandering the halls dood."

Shirou froze and felt his jaw go slack.

Why hadn't he even considered that.

"Now that I know where the record office is, I can find out where Illya is on my own dood," the black Prinny said, "and then after we have her location, Fishcake can create an army of doppelgangers and pretend to launch an assault to draw their attention while we reach Illya-chan dood."

"Do you really think you can pull it off?" he asked his adopted father.

"Of course dood," the man turned penguin replied, "I may be a strange colour for a Prinny but I have been seen around before so I shouldn't draw any attention dood."

Shirou took a deep breath before looking at the rest of the table.

"Any have any suggestions?" he asked.

"Well.. if Fishcake is to draw the occupants attention away from security then she'll need to produce quite a few copies," Scarecrow said, "so they'll all be pretty weak."

"Hey!" the blonde Kitsune shouted indignantly.

"So we need to keep her out of combat as long as possible," Shirou acknowledged.

Scarecrow nodded.

"Yes, so we'll need to be quick during the rescue operation," the shinobi declared, "straight there and straight back."

Shirou nodded.

Speed would be the most vital part of the mission. Which meant that the further Illya was from their exit point, the more likely it was for things to go wrong.

"All right, everyone get some rest," Shirou commanded, "tomorrow we commence operation 'Rescue Illya'."

"Is that the best name you could come up with?" Fishcake cut in before the group could disperse, "why not something like 'murder-loli reclamation!' or something?"

Shirou felt his eye twitch.

"What are you blabbering on about?" he asked, silently worried about the kitsune's description of Illya and how accurate it actually was.

"Don't worry about it dood," Kiritsugu responded, "things like that will just give you a bigger headache right now… perhaps in the future you'll be able to understand though dood."

Shirou swallowed before sighing.

His dad was the one person there who actually knew how to act as a stupidity filter for him so he was just going to trust the man.

"Fine, I'll drop it," he agreed, "but Fishcake shouldn't know that description fits Illya."

"Wait… I'm not meant to know that yet?" Fishcake said blinking, "ah… whoops…"

Shirou took several deep breaths.

He needed to stay calm. Fishcake apparently knew things she wasn't meant to. Exactly how he didn't know and Kiritsugu said it would just cause him a headache.

And as much as he wanted to grill the blonde trickster spirit, he already knew how insane this world could get so he wasn't exactly eager to push the limits of his sanity any further.

"All right… go and get some rest," he commanded yet again, "Violet!"

"Yes Lord Emiya?" the maid said as she appeared behind him.

She was definitely teleporting or something. There was no other way she could do that so quickly and consistently without ever attracting his attention.

"... bring me the strongest bottle of liquor you have," he commanded.

"Of course Lord Emiya," she responded before turning and walking away.

"... you're underage dood," Kiritsugu stated tonelessly.

"Yes," he responded.

"... how often have you done this dood?" the penguin asked.

"This'll be the first time," he admitted, "I never wanted to damage my body with that poison before… but now… now I don't care anymore… I need a drink."

"... understandable dood," his adopted father replied with sympathy clear in his tone.

"Sorry if I've disappointed you," he muttered.

"Shirou, you've done better than I ever dreamed of dood," his father responded, his voice filled with both regret and pride, "this won't change how proud of you I am dood."

Shirou felt a lump form in his throat.

"Thanks dad."

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

"An' then I got all this stone lodged in my back."

Lotsa could do little more than listen intently as Shirou spoke of his introduction to this 'Grail War' thing. It was surprising to hear that he had been stabbed through the heart by some spearman.

Of course, that had led onto a tangent about Rin, about how she had saved his life by healing him when he had been on death's door… which eventually led to him talking about the time he went on a date with her and this 'Seiba' person that he hadn't mentioned before.

It was certainly interesting to finally get a good idea of what life had shaped Shirou into the man he was now.

Eventually though, he had moved onto talking about Illya. Or Illyasviel Von Einzbern as the black Prinny corrected.

"Did Rin heal you again?" she asked after he described Illya's first attempt at murdering him.

"Nah… she said I healed myself," he slurred out before taking another swig of the extra strength liquor that he had been given.

She blinked.

"How could you have healed yourself?" she asked him.

"... summut to do with Seiba being my servant," he continued.

She nodded.

Honestly his life had sounded pretty boring up until the first time someone tried to murder him. It was a wonder he was as competent as he was given how peaceful his childhood had been.

"So… I guess this Archer person managed to kill Berserker," she said.

"Yep… though… only once," he responded.

"Only once?" that was a surprising answer to give.

"Had to kill 'zerker t-twelve times before he stayed dead," he clarified and she nodded, "would kick his ass now though."

She let out a small chuckle at that.

It was certainly strange to see Shirou-sama acting so… open. He always had some level of guard up when dealing with her before, even when he was clearly trying to let his guard down it was clear he didn't really know how to.

But a bit of booze in the system had him spilling his guts freely.

Thankfully his adopted father hadn't tried to stop it so he just kept going.

Shirou let out a yawn and she made a decision.

"Shirou-sama, I think it is time for us to go to bed," she said as she stood from her seat even as he took another swig of his drink, "while the nurse can cleanse you of the side-effects of the drink tomorrow, you still need to get some sleep."

Shirou blinked and looked at her, looking almost confused before he finally blinked and let out a sigh.

"Yeah… you're right," she felt relief as he agreed without issue.

"Would you like to finish the bottle or should I take it now?" the maid that served Shirou-sama directly asked.

"I'll finish it," he replied before placing the bottle to his lips and downing the rest of the liquid.

When he put the bottle back on the table, the maid pounced to take it with a grace that could only come from experience.

Shirou for his part started to yawn yet again.

"Come on Shirou-sama, let's get you to bed," Lotsa said as she walked up to him and proceeded to lift him from his seat.

"Mmkay," his response was barely audible but she did what she said she would and started to aid him to his bedroom.

*click click click*

Looking behind her she noted the fact that the Black Prinny was following them, his peglegs clacking against the floor rhythmically despite the fact that the souls knew how to avoid making that noise.

Meaning Shirou-sama's father wanted her to know he was following her.

Taking a calming breath, she carried along the corridors that felt like they stretched on forever, the clicking of the pegs hitting the stone never leaving.

Finally she reached the door to Shirou-sama's room.

"We're finally here Shirou-sama," she said before reaching for the handle and opening it.

Stepping into the room she blinked as she saw the room was almost exactly as it had been when the castle had first been constructed, Shirou-sama hadn't a single item in the room that said anything about him.

"Shirou-sama… don't you have anything of your own to decorate with?" she asked.

"He wouldn't decorate even if he did dood," Kiritsugu answered, causing her to look at the Prinny and blink, "he has always been a pretty minimalist individual dood."

She didn't know how to respond to that.

Shirou-sama had been very insistent on having all the facilities available to him so she had just assumed he would want all the luxuries he could get for his bedroom.

"But he wanted every facility," she told the dead human.

"They're practical dood," Shirou-sama's dad answered, "of course he'll want them all when he's trying to win a war dood."

Glancing away, she felt uncertain even as she proceeded to move Shirou-sama onto the bed so he could rest.

As she pulled away, she found herself unable to leave.

His arm was wrapped around her.

"S-Shirou-sama… I need to go to bed too," she said even as her heart started to race.

"Stay," he said before pulling her onto the bed with him.

"W-w-what?!" she didn't understand, Shirou-sama would never do this sober!

"... I will take my leave now dood," the black Prinny said before turning to leave.

Lotsa felt her heart race as the Prinny left the room and closed the door.

Was… was she about to lose her virginity?

She would have preferred it to be when Shirou-sama was sober but she couldn't deny him, not after she already swore herself to him.

Laying on the bed, she could feel his arms around her, clutching tightly.

And then his breathing levelled out.

"Shirou-sama?" she said, her voice almost a whisper as she looked over her shoulder and at the man she now shared a bed with.

His eyes were closed.

She felt a sigh of relief escape her lips.

She wouldn't be ravaged by Shirou-sama acting in a drunken stupor.

It was relieving.

Yet a small part of her panged in disappointment.

Well… she may have just been the equivalent of a teddy bear this time but she was at least sharing a bed with him now.

Letting a smile escape her lips, she closed her eyes and let the darkness take her.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Shirou's head throbbed as consciousness returned to him.

What had happened last night?

He groaned as he noticed he was clinging to something that felt more solid than anything that should have been on his bed.

Slowly he opened his eyes as he tried to remember what had happened the previous night.

Seeing a mop of black hair in front of his face brought the memories of the previous night back to him.

He groaned before taking note that he was still in his clothes and the same applied to Lotsa.

Meaning at least he hadn't forced her to have sex with him.

That would have made him feel even shittier than he already felt.

Okay, first things first. He needed to get up.

Slowly he started to ease his grip on the girl before trying to remove his arm from under her without disturbing the sleeping princess…

Oh shit…

How had he forgotten she was technically a princess?

There was probably a special place in hell for people who did what he had done.

… wait… that didn't really work, he was already in hell.

So the special place in hell for people like him was technically his bedroom right now.

He sagged before he managed to extract his arm.

"Urgh…" Lotsa started to squirm and he held his breath.

It didn't take long for him to hear a yawn coming from her as she started to sit up before laying eyes on him and blinking.

"Oh, Shirou-sama, you're awake," she said.

"A-are you all right?" he asked, wondering just how she had felt about the whole thing.

"Of course Shirou-sama," she replied without hesitation before glancing away with a soft smile and reddening cheeks, "I got to sleep with the real you instead of just a plushie."

He blinked.

Then he released a sigh.

Of course she'd be fine with what he did. She had already accepted her subservience to him under the assumption that it was marriage, so something as minor as this naturally wouldn't bother her.

In the end, the only thing stopping him from actually going the full distance with her was his own feelings that screamed he'd be betraying Rin if he did so.

"W-well… I guess we should get cleaned up," he said, trying to figure out a way of dealing with this situation.

"... do you want me to wash your back Shirou-sama?" she asked and he felt himself swallowing once again.

"N-no… I'll be fine Lotsa," he replied, causing her face to fall dejectedly.

Urgh… why did seeing her make that face make him feel like a villain?

"Sorry Lotsa… I need to fix my head right now," he said as his headache worsened.

Rising from his bed, he felt his stomach churn and the need to vomit hit him.

"Shirou-sama… the nurse can fix that for you," the girl said.

Shirou froze.

"Thank you Lotsa," he responded, "I'm going to see the nurse first."

"Of course Shirou-sama," she said, her expression no longer as downcast, "is there anything else you wish of me?"

"N-no thank you Lotsa," he managed to get out, "I'll see you later."

Now he just had to get to the nurse.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Shirou definitely felt better now that he had had his body cleansed of the aftereffects of the alcohol and gotten a shower.

So he started on his way to the meeting room, ready to assemble his minions for the upcoming mission.

He cringed upon realising he had thought of them as minions. It was yet another sign that he was slowly filling the role of an Overlord despite his best efforts.

"Did you enjoy your night dood?" Kiritsugu's voice cut in and Shirou stopped in place before turning to look at the man turned Prinny.

"... did you know about me taking Lotsa to bed?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

"Of course dood," the prinny responded.

"Why didn't you stop me?" he asked.

"... I have no right to object to you doing that dood," his adopted father responded.

"Why not?" he asked, causing the dead soul to cringe.

"... I would rather not talk about it dood," Kiritsugu replied, "but, if you truly wish to know then I will tell you dood."

Shirou swallowed nervously.

Did he really want to force his dad to talk about something that made him uncomfortable? Honestly, he didn't want to do that. But he did want to understand where his dad was coming from with his lack of actions towards him.

In the end though, it wasn't fair to force his father to relive whatever it was that had scarred him in the first place.

"Okay, I won't push," he said, "though you shouldn't have let me drink so much with a mission today."

"Demon healers can easily fix that dood," Kiritsugu responded and Shirou grimaced.

It made sense that Kiritsugu knew that already.

"Even so…" he trailed off.

He could barely remember anything about the previous night, but he did vaguely recall her asking about his life and deciding to talk about the Grail War before the booze started to take its toll.

There was no telling how much he had spilled that he shouldn't have.

"Shirou dood," Kiritsugu spoke up, his voice solemn, "I know how hard it can be to open up to someone, to get the weight of your life off your chest dood."

Shirou glanced away at that.

"I don't know what you've been through but it is probably healthier to share it with someone who will listen dood," the black Prinny continued.

"Who did you share things with?" he asked, he knew Kiritsugu hadn't told him anywhere near everything now.

"My adopted mother, an associate and my wife dood," Shirou nodded before a frown found its way onto his face.

"What happened to them?" he asked, his curiosity piqued by the mention of these people he hadn't heard of before.

"... they're all dead dood," the Prinny stated with despair clear in his tone.

Shirou grimaced at that.

So they had all died.

"..."

"What are you doing Shirou dood?" Kiritsugu asked, his eyes narrowed.

Shirou blinked in response.

"What do you mean?"

"You ellipsed there dood," the penguin said.

"... I have no idea what you're talking about," he pointed out bluntly.

"... nevermind dood," his adopted father said, clearly not sure how to explain whatever he was talking about.

"Anyway…" he said, deciding to push aside that awkward conversation, "you said they're dead but this is the afterlife."

"It won't work dood," Kiritsugu responded without hesitation, "Natalia died decades ago, Maiya was susceptible to manipulation and Iri's soul was merged with the Holy Grail dood."

Shirou processed what his father said before grimacing.

So there was no way for them to be saved.

Taking a deep breath, he proceeded to push those thoughts aside.

It just meant that they only had to worry about Illya.

And the less they had to focus on, the less likely it was that the mission would go wrong.

"All right then," I guess it's time to prepare for the mission then.

"Yes dood," the prinny replied.

He was tempted to asked about the three people he mentioned but given they died and there was no way to save them, he doubted his father would be happy to talk about them.

"Violet!" he called out.

"Yes Lord Emiya?" the voice of the obvious teleporter answered from behind him.

"Gather everyone," he declared, "it's time to finalise the plans and start the mission."

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

Kiritsugu couldn't stop himself from feeling nervous as he considered the situation he was currently going to be involved in.

When he had been allowed to graduate from Prinny training he had assumed he would never return to Hades. Beyond that, there was the question of the instructors in the facility.

How would they actually respond to a prinny trying to enter the records room?

Beyond that there was the issue of finding where Illya was.

After all, even with an exact time and date of her death, there was still a good chance that many others died then as well. So would he even be able to find her name?

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

There was no point in letting his nerves get to him.

Doing so would only increase the chances of him failing to do his part in the mission. And there was no way he could accept that. Illya's afterlife was on the line.

He would succeed.

He would not let himself fail her. Not this time.

So what if Lord Valvatorez resided in Hades? The man was a well known crackpot who chose the position of Prinny Instructor when he had already conquered his netherworld. And that was before the vampire regained his full power.

He knew from the few small instances he had had of witnessing the being who was apparently once known as 'Blood-Soaked Valvatorez of Absolute Evil' and 'King of Carnage and Atrocity' was probably a kinder person than he himself was.

So he couldn't stop himself from feeling that encountering him wouldn't be that bad a situation.

Especially not if that angel that kept showing up was anything to go by.

After all, what sort of angel would regularly visit a demon in their home?

Shaking his head clear of those thoughts, he instead turned his attention back to Shirou.

Just looking at him made guilt well up inside of him. He had promised to teach Shirou magecraft but had never intended on keeping it. The boy was supposed to give up trying to learn it when he taught him a horrifically painful and inconsistent method of performing it.

But the boy kept practising.

No matter how much it hurt, no matter how long it took, Shirou kept trying. The boy's sheer bloody-minded determination crossed the line from stupidity to just pure stubbornness.

Just how much pain had he inflicted on the boy with that decision? Just how many times had Shirou almost died because of it? From what he overheard from Shirou talking to Lotsa when he was drunk, Illya had sent Berserker to kill him.

Was Shirou yet another life he brought nothing but suffering upon? The boy obviously didn't hate him but that didn't change what he heard.

He had caused Shirou nothing but suffering. First with the fire, then with his lies about magecraft and then due to not telling him about his enemies.

He was a complete and total failure as a father. Both to Illya and to Shirou.

But now… now there was a small chance that he might be able to try and make amends to both of them. He couldn't bring himself to believe he could actually make things right but it didn't mean he couldn't try.

And the first step was to push aside his misgivings and infiltrate Hades.

He just hoped Illya hadn't been broken by her trainers yet.

XXX The Fate Of A Hero Complex Overlord XXX

"So, is everyone ready?" he asked the assembled group.

"Yes Shirou-sama/dood," was the response from the majority of the group.

"Y-yeah…" Fishcake was the only one to respond with hesitation.

And he couldn't blame her.

She was effectively being asked to act as a one girl army for the purposes of drawing out the forces of Hades.

And with opponents who were over level one thousand, it was obvious that she was in genuine danger.

"Fishcake," he said with a firm tone, causing the fox-girl to cringe, an action that made him grimace before softening his tone, "thank you for doing this."

"Y-you can thank me by being quick and making sure I don't fight the Super-bosses down there," she responded, her worry clear in her tone.

He simply nodded in acknowledgement. She was right about the importance of finishing the mission quickly.

He just hoped they were quick enough.

"All right then," he spoke once more, "it's time to invade Hades."

"Yes sir!"

He just hoped they all made it out alive.

XXX Chapter End XXX

And that's all for now.

Next Chapter should be the start of the actual invasion.

Shadow Out.