Chapter 4-3: Through Empty Eyes 2 (Illyasviel)
When Grandfather told me that Mama and Kiritsugu weren't coming back, I felt something break inside me.
I didn't want to believe it.
So I didn't.
Mama and Papa were both okay. They were just taking their time coming back home to celebrate their victory.
Even when Grandfather had put those… pieces that felt like Mama under my skin, I didn't believe him.
Mama might be gone, I now knew, but that didn't mean Kiritsugu was…
Dead.
It was as I was looking outside the window, hoping for the warm sun to stay in the sky long enough for Papa to find his way home, I heard the maids and butlers rush off with the familiar clank of weapons towards the front gate.
I felt the pieces of Mama inside me tremble warmly. It was a sign. She was only like that with me and Kiritsugu.
And so I gingerly got out of bed, and fell to the cold floor with a pained yelp.
My skin was bleeding again, but that was okay. If Papa was back, he could kiss it all better.
Right?
So I crawled to the wall, used it to stand up, and slowly walked to where I could hear voices talking. I listened to Grandfather's voice.
He said Kiritsugu's name.
I walked a little faster, not caring about how much it hurt or how more pieces of my skin that were holding the parts of Mama inside me started bleeding more.
The deep voice I didn't recognize took my breath away, and I almost curled up there on the spot in despair. But the biggest piece of Mama next to my heart got
So I kept walking, doing my best to not cry.
Grandfather didn't like it when I cried. He was mean. And scary.
I didn't wanna stay here anymore. I wanted to go to Papa.
But when I finally got to the room with the big chair, Kiritsugu wasn't there. The only reason I didn't fall to the ground right then and there was because I was pressing most of my weight on the guardrail of the staircase.
"Who are you mister?" I shook my head and asked brightly. Well, as energetically as I could with how much everything hurt.
Anyone the pieces of Mama had a connection this strong to could only be a good person.
I leaned my chin against the rail, looking down curiously at the suddenly still man just as much as I was trying not to collapse in front of Grandfather.
A grinding noise of something… really big started filling the room everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
"I am… Emiya Shirou." He said, the tortured groaning of impossibly enormous machines being fed the fuel necessary to churn out millions… no…
Bajillions of swords.
And suddenly, I could see the vague outline of a gear covered sky in the distance, the giant cogs rumbling hotly to melt the snow and flake off the rust that had kept them from moving for so long. And at the furthest peak, I could see him. A man whose body was run through with countless mortal wounds.
Like his body was made of swords.
But only for a second.
The next thing I knew was that all the guards had leapt forward, only to be blown away by a storm of wind as the lady standing next to… Mr. Emiya, swung her arm and a singular tornado slammed each and every guard into the walls of the castle.
I couldn't count the number of cracks that sounded at that moment, but while I didn't think she killed any of them, I don't think they were going to get back up.
The stranger wearing the red cloak didn't even seem to notice, his steely gray eyes almost burning at how he was glaring at Grandfather, who still sat unmoving in his big chair.
"So. Then that is your answer, the old man rumbled, and the castle began to shake.
Without answering, crimson clad man stepped forward, his hands looking like they were gripping something at his sides. I could see the outline of swords starting to form in his empty fingers, but then he vanished in the crushing stone of the Einzbern castle's defenses.
The walls at the sides of the hall had shot outwards like square shaped arms and tried to smash the man who called himself Emiya, into paste.
"Steel is my body."
Only to be stopped by the appearance of giant swords that were better described as slabs of sharp metal slamming into the ground in a shockwave of force and buffeting air. The familiar blonde woman that had left with Mama and Papa, tapped, her invisible blade against the ground and cleared the room of dust and debris.
Standing tall with his hands tightly gripping the ghostly, half ethereal pair of matching black and white sword, the man who radiated enough menace to cause Grandfather's eyes to widen, stepped forward.
And while Grandfather never moved from his throne, I could hear and see his own hands clenching hard enough against the armrests that his already pale hands looked like they'd been dyed in paint.
"You dare." Never once raising his voice, it nonetheless sounded like he was screaming in a frothing rage as the walls castle began to rumble and groan.
It was scary. The last time I'd seen Grandfather so angry was before he put the pieces of Mama under my skin.
But the tall man who gave off the same air of subdued self assurance, seemingly felt none of my terror.
No. Not even a little.
Uncaring of the crumbling walls that were even now flowing to cover Grandfather's throne in the rough shape of a living giant, Emiya Shirou continued to walk forward. With each step he took, I could see bleeding afterimages being torn in reality. Images that showed a snow covered wasteland made up of countless graves. Graves that were pierced with pristine, freshly forged swords. "And fire is my blood."
It was Grandfather who attacked once more. A snake-like stone whip as thick as the largest support pillars that held up the castle, was flung forward.
But nothing happened.
Instead of hitting the imposingly tall warrior like I thought it would, Emiya simply whipped his arm quicker than I could perceive to the side and created another portal to elsewhere.
The stone whip hit the tear in reality, tore through it, and what was left of the appendage whipped the bangs of the steel haired man.
In shock, Grandfather brought the limb up for inspection.
I could see that the limb had been cut so cleanly that the end of the whip was now flatter than a piece of paper could ever be.
"... impossible…" Grandfather's voice softly muttered, seemingly realizing whatever this magic was.
The pieces of Mama that were inside me seemed to pull towards him, enough to make it hurt.
Instead of continuing to fight like I thought he would, the ancient man instead seemed to have had the fury burning behind his eyes, doused.
"For someone of this era to have developed something so inimical to the will of the world… Who are you? Really?" The stone giant that had once protectively covered my Grandfather in its chest, flowed away back into the familiar vision of the throne room.
He sounded defeated.
But I'd never seen the light of curiosity enter his eyes like it did now.
A small, fragile candle that lit the world even as death drew close for the last iteration of Jubstacheit von Einzbern.
And in front of him now stood the shadowed form of the red clad man, the blades that had been forming in his hands finally finished in their impossibly bright white and glistening black steel.
"Just a nameless hero doing his best to save what he can." Emiya said softly before unhesitatingly pushing his blades into Grandfather's chest.
The old man doesn't seem to feel the pain from the thick steel pushed into his heart, instead he almost seems to have accepted his end with a small, ironic smile.
"So I see. That is what… you…."
Those are the last words Jubstacheit von Einzbern whispers before the light is snuffed from his eyes.
…
I don't feel sad. Not really.
But I don't know how to explain why my heart hurts so much. And since Grandfather isn't here to watch anymore…
It's okay to cry right? Mama?
The last thing I remember before falling asleep is the feeling of big, strong arms wrapping me up against a hard body that feels hot enough I can imagine water would steam off the skin.
"It's okay Illya. I'm here."
I'll save you this time. I promise.