Introducing Oneself to the Outside Context Problems, Longform

Ilya (of the “Heaven’s Feel” route)

"Momma?" one of the slightly younger sounding Ilyas mutters upon awakening and seeing her mother's face. "I had this weirdest dream! You'd gone to Japan and were going to be coming back with a bunch of new sisters and brothers for me to play with."

“Sister, It was not a dream,” I absentmindedly correct her as I am pushing myself shakily off the ground and stare at . . .my mother.

When I first recovered after having fallen unconscious (and my heart and soul telling me that she was my sister just like that one silly fantasy/scifi series that I read one time back at the castle), she asked if I was her sister. I . . .did and when she asked about how that came about (after I told her about how Papa had been really trying to get back and see her, only to be blocked by Old Man Acht every TIME!

I know this because I saw Papa’s passport back at Shirou’s place and I am sure that IF he ever could have managed it, he would have taken me back to Japan to meet with my adopted brother and live together, at least for as long as the curse he’d picked up from that accursed “Holy” Grail would allow.

I. . . didn’t mention that part about Papa being dead. How the curse had killed him way before I was finally sent out to kill Shirou and everything. I didn’t mention that and one thing just led to another talking with her and she thought I was a new sister somehow that was created while Momma and Papa were in Japan (along with Shirou getting adopted into the family) for her to play with and be a family!

I didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth, even IF homunculus are created by alchemy and my creation as a new sister isn’t TOO much of a stretch, all told. I just “went with it” and hoped

I . . I knew that Momma (and Papa) could be around in my head, but not in my heart. Momma, She’s supposed to be dead. She’s supposed to be dead, having her human form being lost in becoming the Lesser Holy Grail. That “magic item” to use an uncouth term from that one “role playing” game I heard of in passing from somebody at a “hobby store” before meeting with my brother here in Japan would have been used to then summon the Greater Holy Grail and finally End the Holy Grail War. All homunculus to be utilized as the Lesser Grail hale from my family, which I can safely say is NOT something to be happy about at all.

…

If Momma is here then . . .Papa is here as well.

”Papa?” Ilya . . .er . . .my Little Sister whispers a bit . . .gleeful, seeing him looking at me and her (a VERSION of my younger self right after my “grandfather” almost gleefully informed ME of the supposed betrayal my father did me and my mother). “You really didn’t abandon like Old Man Acht told me and you and Momma were . . .just getting all of my new brothers and sisters together!

“Best gift EVER!!” she finishes, jumping up and down in excitement with shining eyes.

. . .

Given what little I was actually able to see and hear while attempting to spy on them magically--lucky I managed shield my scrying device from the magicks that Rei angrily used to disrupt the attempts—for all I know my rather pathetic attempts to calm my younger self/sister might have been totally correct. Or something…. Whatever the case Little Sister accepted it without question and oh God that brings back memories on how Naïve I was back then!

Momma looks blankly at my little sister before giving me an odd look, one that says that she and I are going to have a LONG talk afterwards over this.

As . . .much as I suddenly remember how I really DO NOT like those kinds of talks with Momma, I’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Not like I was expecting to actually BE able to speak with Momma again after I THOUGHT SHE’D DIED TEN YEARS AGO.

WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?! I mean that from outbursts from everyone except “Rei” and the group of “Champions” (whatever kind of unauthorized Grail Class I’ve never heard of until now) remains silent throughout I’ve been left MORE confused. Dare say that “my” Big Brother (I’m thinking the one who’d been interested in Rider is “mind”), is just as confused if not more so.

Let me . . .restart here? Starting with myself since it IS the only spot I know ENOUGH about to give a coherent and intelligent go at it, okay please?

I start by giving a proper curtesy as my station dictates and introduce myself. Forgive me if I do not give a word by word rendition of what I said, but…

Basically, I am named Illyasviel Von Einzbern and…

(Author’s note: her bios found here http:// typemoon .wikia.com /wiki/ Illyasvie l_von_ Einzbern. Just follow the info regarding here for the Heaven’s Feel entry for her tale).

Of course, what with my Little Sister being here I do not go into scary or damning details, but coach it in such ways that while it goes over Little Sister’s innocent head the adults seem by their looks to understand perfectly!

”And so after having put the Dress of Heaven on to prepare for the final steps for the Holy Grail ritual I had to stop ‘my’ Shirou from destroying the Greater Holy Grail since it would . . .Well, let I better at doing it and could have died doing it. Better me than him!”

Actually, ‘my’ Shirou’s body was failing anyway and would have died anyway even IF he’d stayed back and let me safely finish the ritual. See, I revealed to Shirou that I is his older sister and told him that my duty was to protect him because of it.

I had learned that much by being with him for the short time we’d been together.

By the use of the Dress of Heaven, I materializes his soul incompletely[7] and gives him a portion of her body as his soul's temporary container. It was the only way to give him a chance to live on in some new kind of replacement body since is old body was breaking down and dying right in front of me! There was nothing else I could do to fix the problem in the time I had left and it worked by what I see..

Then I finished the ritual and “closed” the “Gates of Heaven” as a Grail, giving up my human existence in the process but saving the world in the process.

Next thing I remember is repeating the first encounter of meeting my brother in the streets at night. Playing with his head and warning him to summon his Servant or he was going to die! Happily, I would use magic to disappear from his sight, only to find myself going it again. And again. AND AGAIN!

I think I’d been doing it without knowledge of what was going on for the longest time. Then there was . . . .a shuddering within me and I almost felt like I was waking up but wasn’t quiet awake, unable to truly break free from the spell I was under.

Next thing? I find that Berserker, (who may or may not be the actual Servant I summoned considering we have THREE running around right now), trying to waken me and telling me we needed to get OUT of there like NOW! Why?

Why? Well, you see the “Champions” had still been fighting another Berserker while seeming to shield some people in the process. It was a running battle between Berserker and what I had thought (for a second) was “my” Shirou fighting along with Rin, but I DO have to say the fact that Saber was there as well (and I mean Saber and not the blackened/corrupted version of her: Saber Alter) had been in the debacle. That had been a big clue that something was seriously WRONG here. Well, it was more wrong beyond me being BACK and not stuck as the Grail…

Oh, and not mention the fact that Berserker was BACK from the beyond. Back at being able to speak in whole, coherent sentences! I mean he’d been able to give off a warning to retreat from that Shadow when it attacked my castle came under attack by the dark manifestations of the Black Grail (the thing that Sakura had been made into by her evil grandfather). He’d been converted by that attack and destroyed (by Shirou) later.

And he’s back now, uncorrupted and sane! He’d NEVER been sane when I had him! I’d only been able to lessen his shroud of madness to make him manageable. That is a far cry at being able to be coherent enough to speak simple words, much less what Berserker was doing here.

He’s . . .very intelligent. Smart. Battle savvy. Wise!

Kind.

Paternal…

…

I REALLY should have been allowed to summon Hercules--he likes the more contemporary version of his name-- as something besides a Berserker… What a loss. What a blood covered LOSS!

But even IF he’d been only able to bellow mindlessly, I would have known well enough to get OUT of there! What with Saber fighting there adding to this mess could only add to the danger with Berserker showing no restraint at all, beyond what I ever saw him even at the worst! Like he was trying to get at whatever these “Champions” and the others with them, with NO REGARD to anything and anyone else standing IN HIS WAY!!

What is just as frightening is that those who are standing in his way? Well, while there is some kind of grace and beauty (as strange as it may sound) to how Rin and Shirou (the duplicate of the brother I know) fought. I . . .somehow just “knew” that the people were NOT the actual people I knew (and cared for), but strangers who wore their faces.

With the others? Well, there was a precision to some of it, but there was NO beauty to it.

There was a sense of naked desperation. Fury. Brutality.

And desperation, to risk repeating myself. I mean it as like some of those attacks were improvised. Not meant for actual combat.

And whatever the case, there had been the chance of me getting caught in the crossfire and I did NOT want that at all! Not without figuring out what the HELL was going on here. Why was I back among the living and not existing as a part of the greater Holy Grail system?

I desperately wanted to know so We got OUT of there, Hercules carrying me along as he bound our way back to my castle. Once there we saw that things weren’t right there as well, and that was putting it MILDLY! I saw my first doppelganger sister (and another Berserker) in the hallway and . . . I fell unconscious and Hercules tells me that nothing he could do would wake me. But the thing that REALLY upsets him was that NOTHING he could do for the sister/twin in the hallway. He had been able to wrestle with Death in his life and win. Had been able to hold up heavens upon his shoulders. He was now even stronger than that now as a Servant, and he could not even budge my sister out of her upcoming fate with an invisible and untouchable monster who not only would tear her heart out from her ribcage, but would BLIND her right before the removal.

The fact that the other Berserker had died under a hale of Noble Phantasms from some kind of glowing portal while chained up by some ungodly strong chains right before then would explain just WHY my sister had died. Why it had been possible for her to have died. That Berserker had died to somebody or something more powerful and NOTHING I know of could do that besides that THING that had come from the Black Grail!

”That was Gilgamesh,” Archer (who I just happened to have known is a future version of “my” Shirou) mutters. “That bastard never showed his pompous ass in your timeline?”

Who? Never heard of anyone by that name…

“Archer . . .Gilgamesh killed my little girl,” Pappa says softly, with a deadly look in his eyes. “Then since I am uncursed and healthy… I kill both him and that priest now that I can after we return.”

”Daddy?” my Little Sister blinks, surprised at seeing that side of her father.

Yes, she would not know about Pappa being the Magus Killer. About him being a hitman specializing in neutralizing monsters and rogue evil magi. I learned this from the Old Man after they told me that Pappa had betrayed them all in the Fourth Grail War.

”Mind if I help in killing them?” asks Momma with a look like she’d like to kill a few monsters herself.

”I think we need to remember a few hard facts here about just what the situation is here,” coughs one of the other Berserkers into his hand, clearly not liking the way things were going here with my parents! “First, this Servant that killed my brother here is the OLDEST Heroic Spirits bar his friend of his from his Epic: Enkidu. He can be defeated . . . “

He glances over at the other version of my brother before looking back at my parents.

My brother’s twin over there defeated this “Gilgamesh” while “my” Berserker died?! How did . . .

Wait, it had all to do that if Berserker (mine) hadn’t stood in front of me to protect me from that raid of Noble Phantasms I would have died! This Gilgamesh CHEATED!!

Now I REALLY want to go out and help Momma and Pappa kill this “Heroic” Spirit. With Berserker’s help, of course….

” . . .but the fact of the matter is it will be hard as Tartarus to accomplish it, with a LARGE chance of being unsuccessful if we do it in a rushed manner!”

”Yes to that and let us not forget that there are FOUR of these monsters running around?” rumbles the other Berserker, shaking his head. “So we’re going to have to do it four times total IF we opt on going that route.”

Do n0t FOrgET aBoUT eA: thE SWorD of rUPTUrE. iT is An aNTi-wORlD NoBLE and Each oF tHEm have, a whispering foreign communication something like what Master and Servant are capable in doing comes from the way of that seated winged blue woman over on the side of the room.

By God, it is almost like nails scraping on a chalkboard!!

A lot of the others in the room either look towards Rei (that’s the sender’s name) or shudder in reaction to the eldritch words they heard within their heads.

Little Sister and that one dark skinned young girl over there with ears like the stereotypical el seems to be looking around as if wondering what the adults are doing there. Like they didn’t just get that message.

Late I will learn that Rei had NOT talked to them mentally when warning everyone else about Ea. She didn’t want to needlessly scare them.

Oh…kay…

”And isn’t there the not little factor of we Servants go and find our souls residing in the Lesser Grail until the end of the Holy Grail War?” that one other Berserker who’s name I have YET to learn but who is DEFINITELY not Hercules asks hesitantly. “From what was told earlier told to us, didn’t that have a rather ‘dire’ effect which only increases for the . . . bearer of the Lesser Holy Grail?”

He glances at Momma and then at me and my sisters, looking concerned.

I find his concern rather . . .nice after all the draconian measures and greed that had been the part and parcel of most of those who’d been part of the Holy Grail War, honestly. “Let us . . . make out careful plans before we even think about doing such things please?” Rei politely suggests in a way that is more an ORDER in the form of a request. “I have one or two ideas on how to handle this . . . .problem but let us not rush into it.”

1. “I have one or two ideas on how to handle this . . . .problem but let us not rush into it.”

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