To love a sword

Beta read by Paragon of Awesomeness

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-Tenjoin Estate-

"He's still not here!" 

In a lavish manor located at the edge of Sainan, with halls filled with gold and silver decorations at every corner. Inside a living room as big as a gymnasium was a girl lounging on an outrageously expensive couch while moaning in despair. 

The young woman, who resembled a princess from a fairy tale, had long blonde hair reaching down to her waist, her face was covered by makeup and red lipstick, and she was garbed in a beautiful black dress that served to highlight her curves and emphasize her assets. She has gone to great lengths to maximize her already stunning natural beauty to the point that she could be mistaken for a goddess.

…Yet the one person she had gone to such lengths for was nowhere to be seen.

Tenjōin Saki sat up from the sofa and looked outside through the large window. She had been waiting for over four hours now for his arrival! He accepted her invitation... but there were still no signs of him! Saki turned her head toward her two friends standing nearby, both still wearing their school uniforms.

"Are you sure he accepted the letter, Rin?" She asked her bodyguard and childhood friend. 

The brunette nodded her head, "Yes, I swear upon my honor he took the invitation right from my hand, there's no reason why he wouldn't come. If he had intended to refuse your generosity, he would have rejected it as he has done before."

By her side Fujisaki Ayako felt bad for her mistress, the heiress had prepared a lot for this day only to be let down. Ayako had long blue hair with square bangs hanging over her forehead and purple eyes which were rarely seen through the big round lenses of her glasses.

"Saki-sama… there is a possibility that he is not the one you're searching for." She said, making the blonde shake her head.

"No, I'm confident that it's him!" Saki insisted stubbornly.

The heiress still remembered the day of the accident vividly; she had been in her car while the driver was bringing her back home from her father's office. Out of nowhere, the driver collapsed, his head hitting the steering wheel. Panic flooded her mind as she saw the car losing control and nearly hitting two children on the road. It all happened so quickly, the car crashed against something which soon resulted in the car's interior being flooded with black smoke.

She didn't remember much after that, only feeling something carry her out of the car and saving her life. Saki had tried to open her eyes, but everything was so foggy and her eyes stung too greatly. But she remembered seeing amber eyes focus on her, a boy with the brightest shade of red hair and a worried face looking at her. 

It wasn't until a few days after that she woke up in the hospital with her parents around her. It was the first time she saw them together, and they even spent a few hours with her. Her father hugged her while apologizing continuously, while her mother cried with relief that her daughter was safe. 

Saki quickly asked to meet the boy who'd saved her; even her parents wanted to meet him to give their thanks. But the doctors denied her request, saying that the boy's parents wished for his identity to remain undisclosed. Even after being offered an enormous sum of money by her father, the hospital's staff still denied their request. 

It was so frustrating!

She always dreamed about that shadowy figure with amber eyes and red hair saving her from danger every time she slept. It had continued for years till she visited Rin in the middle-school kendo club and saw a boy talking to her friend. 

Saki forgot to breathe when she saw the same eyes and red hair from that day. She immediately knew that it was him, there was no doubt about it.

But when she tried to walk up to him, her body froze! She couldn't muster enough courage to even introduce herself! That one time she tried to approach him, that stupid brother of his, Yuuki Rito, ruined everything when he nearly tripped on her! Fortunately, Rin saved her with a quick slash of her shinai to send the clumsy boy flying. But that caused Shirou to check on his brother and escort him back home, while leaving her frozen in place as she was about to call him.

"Ahh, this is so frustrating!" She shouted, drinking her tenth cup of tea. "Is my method wrong? Is it not grand enough? Maybe I should use fireworks next time or have that principal hang a banner outsid—"

"—Saki-sama," Rin interrupted. "I believe it would be best if you talked to him directly." 

"What!?" A full-blown blush came to her face. "I-I-I can't do that! That's too much!" 

"You can do it, Saki-sama, I believe in you! Yuuki Shirou should consider himself lucky to get to talk to you. He will be grateful when the Queen of Sainan herself will personally come to speak to him, I guarantee that he'll be starstruck by your beauty!"  Rin encouraged her, followed by Aya nodding her head in agreement.

"Y-You think so?" The blonde asked, unsure if she would even be capable of such thing.

"I'm sure of it. Since when have such small obstacles ever bothered you? You've gone through bigger challenges before and always emerged victorious!"

That seemed to have sparked something inside Saki that gave her enough confidence to stand on her feet with a determined face.

"Yes… yes, such things are trivial for me! Tomorrow, I'll show Shirou just what he has been missing out on — he will be blinded by my dazzling aura! Ohohohohoho!"

{Break}

-Sainan-

Emiya was no stranger to facing foes who were far stronger than him. He'd had his bones snapped in two with a single strike, gotten half of his body crushed by a giant burning strawman, been downed from having blood fill up his lungs, and so on. 

It didn't matter how strong he became either in a Servant's vessel or as a Counter Guardian — his power had a limit. 

And unfortunately for him, he no longer had access to any of these enhancements and now lived in a regular human body. A body that was currently being crushed by a hug that felt like it came from Heracles himself! 

"Hng!" 

Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration but it was painful nonetheless. Emiya was forced to discreetly Reinforce himself to resist this pink-haired menace. Maybe she was truly here to kill him and make it look like an accident!

"Can you please let me go? I would rather not get infected by an unknown virus or illness from another planet." He said dryly, wondering why the people in this world were so touchy in the first place.

"Ah!" Lala let him go, though she had an offended look on her face. "Hey, that's mean! My sisters always say that my hugs are the best!" 

So she had sisters as well? Hopefully they wouldn't also end up teleporting inside his house in the future; Lala alone was already too much to deal with. 

"They either are expert liars or have bodies made of steel." 

He didn't miss the irony in his own words. 

"Oh? Um… did I accidentally hurt you? I'm sorry if I did that, I forgot to hold back!" She apologized, worried that her hug might have injured him.

"I'm fine," he assured her. "But don't go using your real strength like that on others, you could accidentally kill someone or paralyze them for life by breaking their spine."

The girl felt bad, her tail lowering itself as she touched her fingers.

"I-I've never encountered any humans before… you are my first." 

The way she worked her phrase sounded so very wrong to the former Counter Guardian. Was she doing it deliberately? …Probably not, given what he'd seen so far from her personality. Given that she didn't question how he wasn't phased by her strength or didn't have his bones broken was a good thing, as he had no desire to reveal the existence of magic without at least getting a general grasp on what she considered normal.

For all he knew, magecraft could have been a long-lost craft that got left in the dust with the advanced level of technology she showcased so far. Emiya didn't want to suddenly get hunted down by an alien race because he wielded a foreign power.

"Did you come alone? Was there anyone else with you while trying to get away from your pursuers?" He asked, not wanting to miss out on any details.

Lala put her finger on her lips, frowning as she was trying to remember something.

"Ah, I forgot about Peke!" 

Peke?

At that moment the bounded field around his room went off, signaling the presence of an intruder right outside the window. His eyes locked onto some sort of creature moving at high speed towards him.

'Is this one of the things pursuing her?'

It was oddly shaped, to say the least. Smaller than he imagined and with spiraled wings which shouldn't have made flying possible in the first place. Furthermore, there were its eyes, which shared the same bizarre spiraling pattern as its wings.

"Shirou?" Lala exclaimed when she saw his eyes narrowing before rushing to the window. 

His hands moved quickly and grabbed the entity in a flash before slamming it down on the floor, breaking wood as he heard a loud screech from it. Just from touching it, Emiya could feel that it was made from metal and was probably a robot or android of some sort. He wasn't going to perform any analysis on it as he learned from his mistake with Lala's bracelet.

"Stay back, I'll deal with thi—"

"—Wait, that's Peke!" Lala shouted, stopping him midway from Tracing a sword to kill it. She got up and ran up to him, taking the small… thing away from him and cradling it like a baby.

"Lala-sama!" The thing talked back, before starting to cry out loud. "This brute nearly killed me! We should leave before he brings any harm to you!"

Brute? How original.

Also, a talking robot thing with sentience, capable of showing emotions like a regular human? He shouldn't be surprised by this given the level of technology Lala showed with just a single item. If she can build a teleportation device so small that it could be wrapped around her wrist without the use of magic, then having a sentient robot was quite tame in comparison.

The girl chuckled at the robot's panicking state, "Don't worry about him, he's a nice person who promised to help us. He probably thought you were one of my pursuers. Also, I'm glad that you're safe."

"I was lucky the ship didn't leave Earth's atmosphere yet." The robot said, staring at Emiya warily with those spiraled eyes. "I don't trust you, weird Earthling."

Emiya rolled his eyes, "Same to you, spiraled eyes robot midget."

Like seriously, Lala looked like a human aside from her tail and shade of hair, but the latter could be easily explained by dye. So why call him weird when this Peke looked like it had been designed to have its appearance reflect its intelligence?

"How rude!" 

Seeing the little creature was not a threat, he relaxed, though he kept his guard up while looking outside the window. Lala mentioned how her pursuers had previously locked onto her coordinates, meaning that it wouldn't take long before those people came for Lala.

"Peke is a robot." He stated, the answer being quite obvious. "This robot is your creation?"

"Yep! Peke is an all-purpose costume robot that I made, he's my best creation so far!" Lala answered.

"…Costume robot?"

Like, did Peke help her wear clothes? He didn't even have to question her about her meaning before the robot flew just above her head and began to shine brightly.

"Oh, I almost forgot! Thanks for the clothes, but I don't need them anymore. Thank you, Shirou!"

Before his eyes, the pink-haired girl stripped herself without hesitation, making his eyes twitch again. It was true that they already saw each other naked in the bathroom, but that didn't mean she should get so comfortable around him. Maybe it was their alien culture that didn't put as much importance on modesty… who knew.

Feeling curious, Emiya crossed his arms and waited to see what this robot was about to do. 

In what could only be described as a transformation from an anime like a certain sailor, Peke's body turned into a bright light before molding into a different shape around Lala. Covering every inch of the spinning girl before turning into a white Spandex-like fabric that hugged every inch of her body. She even got a small red tie to add to the ridiculous outfit that made no sense to Emiya. The most eye-catching part of her clothes was the hat on her head, which looked like a larger version of Peke's head with the weird wings on full display. She even has a second pair of bat-like wings coming from her back.

As a whole the entire outfit just looked very tight, to the point he could see the curves and crevices of her body — including her breasts which continued to bounce around with the slightest movement.

"Is it too tight Lala-sama?" Peke asked.

"Nope, it's perfect," Lala said, holding up her arms and moving them around as if testing them. "What do you think, Shirou?"

"You either have the worst sense of fashion in the entire galaxy or your entire species are a bunch of planet-conquering otakus.* He didn't hold back with his words, giving her his true thoughts. "But it at least gives you a unique look, I certainly won't forget about this for the rest of my life, unfortunately.

"Thanks!" Lala giggled, prompting Emiya to sigh — that wasn't a compliment.

"Are you saying that Lala-sama's design in clothing is bad?" Peke asked.

"Well, it's not good. And by extension neither is yours."

"Humph, I'd like to see you come up with something better! This design is great for flying, serves as a perfect replacement for armor, and allows her to move around without restrictions!"

Lala yelped when Emiya pinched her stomach, frowning when he felt just how soft this material was. Being no different than a regular Spandex, it didn't give him the impression that it could protect her from any manner of wounds, let alone ones from battle. 

"Is that a challenge?" 

He did not test the material more thoroughly yet, but the only areas that seemed remotely protected were her arms and shoulders since they had more padding to them. Though it did remind him of Lancer's equipment, the Hound of Ulster's attire had been enhanced with Magecraft.

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"—!"

The bounded field reacted again, this time sensing the arrival of two individuals barely a second before they crashed through the window. They moved fast, too fast to be human.

"They're fast!" 

The pair of intruders crashed into his parents' room and surrounded Lala, blocking any path of escape and making sure to keep him separate from her.

Both of them were clad in black suits and shades. The first one had straight red hair and a pointy beard, and a long scar running across his left eye. The second meanwhile had short green hair and pale green skin. Emiya didn't even question if they were human or not, for he already knew the answer.

The two red tails were also a dead giveaway.

"You've been quite troublesome to track down." The red-haired man spoke with an irritated voice. "I should've restricted your movements, even if it meant tying your feet…"

Lala went all quiet for a minute before annoyingly looking at her hat.

"Peke," she said in a deadpanned tone. "Didn't I tell you to be careful about people following you?"

"Y-Yes..."

Clearly, the robot didn't follow her advice and led these people straight to her without even realizing it. 

"Geeeez! Stupid robot! Now everything just went down the drain because of you!"

While Lala scolded Peke, both men made a gesture to step forward, prepared to take the girl and detain her. But just as the scarred man was about to grab her, Emiya stopped him by taking hold of his wrist.

"I believe the girl does not want to go with you two. Not to mention both of you came inside my home uninvited, breaking the window in the process. I would prefer it if you left without forcing me to take matters into my own hands." He said, his sharp eyes gazing at the man's eyes hidden by the shades. "And worst of all, you're bringing your dirty shoes into this room and making a mess of the carpet. Have you any idea just how long it'll take to properly clean that up?" 

Half of it was already stained black with dirt and mud, his annoyance increasing with the shards of glass everywhere on the floor.

"Step aside, Earthling." The short-haired man warned, not taking his words seriously. "This doesn't concern you."

"False, it does concern me. If you would have done this outside my property then I wouldn't have taken a step. But unfortunately for you, this is my house and uninvited troublemakers like you and your colleague are to be thrown out." His grip tightened, each strand of his muscles getting Reinforced with a small but steady stream of Magical Energy.

"You don't know what you're dealing with, kid." The scarred man said with a firm tone. "Step aside, you don't know the story of this." He tried to break his hold, but froze when he failed to even budge Emiya's fingers.

Amber eyes looking at him with a hint of disappointment, even mockery.

"...You asked for it. " 

"What are yo—Keurgh!" 

The man coughed out saliva as Emiya's knees rammed into his guts, doubling the man over as he fell to his knees before a strong fist struck him under his chin. He fell to the floor on his back while both Lala and his partner were dumbstruck by the takedown, not ready for such a thing to happen so quickly.

"It's not like I want to kill you or even harm you, but if you persist then I will not hesitate. Also, I would rather not spill any blood in this room; bloodstains are particularly difficult to clean out, especially from a carpet of this color." It was one of the reasons why his combat attire was black and red.

Not to mention, both Mikan and Riko were just below the floor. He couldn't risk their lives here, and he couldn't discount the possibility of these two possibly taking his siblings as hostages. So he needed to have their attention focused on him with enough anger to blindly come after him in. 

"S-Shirou!?" Lala exclaimed, as he picked her up like a sack of potatoes.

"Bear with it, please. I don't want my siblings to get involved so I'll need to lure them somewhere far away, and you are the perfect bait." He said before jumping out of the window with his jump cracking the floorboard.

His Reinforced limbs carried him and Lala as fast as they could, moving as fast as a car across the roofs of the houses. His earlier attack gave him a headstart which helped Emiya to gain a lot of distance.  

"Are they behind us?" He asked her, as she had a better view behind him.

"Yup, and they're chasing after us. They look pretty mad!" She informed him, not sounding the least bit scared and even a bit awe.

"Good, as long as they don't do anything else."

 "Wow, you humans are fast!" The girl exclaimed as she felt the wind rush past them and the ground below her blurring with how quickly he moved. 

"Indeed, even I can't move this fast while flying," Peke commented, salty that he had to admit such a thing to the guy who nearly crushed his head open.

"You'll be hard pressed to find another human who can do this," Emiya said, keeping his eyes open for any open areas until he spotted the park. It was already late at night so there was no one there, the gates were closed so he jumped over them before running to the center. There were trees surrounding them, giving him an idea as he saw how tall they were.

'This place will do.'

He dropped near the fountain and dropped Lala to the ground. She had starstruck eyes, her demeanor radiating a lot of excitement and enthusiasm. 

"That was amazing! I never knew you were a fighter, Shirou! But why didn't you bring that sword with you?" 

"Firstly, we just met less than thirty minutes ago, I doubt you would have known much about me after such a short period of time, and secondly… "

Emiya jumped on top of a tree, looking towards the area they came from, and saw the silhouette of both of Lala's pursuers rushing at them with great speed. His Reinforced eyes could see them in great detail, like the number of buttons on their suits to where he stood. They were within his range, close enough for him to already start his attacks.

His hands extended forward when a giant black bow appeared before him. Both light and highly durable, capable of launching Broken Phantasm without fear of snapping. His second most trusted weapon, losing only to Kanshou and Bakuya. Made with the same material as the armor he used to wear during his missions, an alloy that mankind from his world only discovered in the far future. 

"Woah! Where did that come from?" Lala said, wondering if he had a spatial storage device somewhere. 

Creak!

The bow itself was hard to use for even the strongest human, requiring superhuman strength to draw the string. What it lacked in mobility due to its size and weight was more than made up for by just how far it could shoot. He wasn't looking to blow up the city by firing Caladbolg II, so he used regular arrows.

In quick succession, he fired two arrows within the blink of an eye. Each traveling through the air at Mach speed, and catching the two men by surprise as both of their knees got hit with perfect accuracy.

"Argh! My leg!"

"What hit us!?"

They fell to the ground, grunting before getting back up. While they had been unprepared for the attack for the most part, their Devilukian biology helped them to easily endure attacks from all but the most devastating of humanity's weapons. Though the boy's previous attacks were unexpected, neither of them had been injured or even scrapped thus far.

But still… "An arrow of all things!? I've never seen any species fire these with such force! It easily matches the power of an energy bolter." 

"Hm, curious."

They were chosen by the emperor himself to aid Zastin-sama; they wouldn't have survived a day in this job if such attacks could take them out so easily.

"Smutts, is the information about humans truly accurate? I don't remember anything about them having the capabilities to fire arrows as powerful as a laser gun. And the boy's physical strength also far exceeds even the strongest recorded humans." The one with the scar over his eyes, Maul, said to his partner.

"Then he is not human." Smutts answered, knowing their informers wouldn't have made such a basic error with the data about humans. 

"But we have received no reports indicating that aliens should be present here. Earth is pretty secluded, and most aliens shouldn't even know about its location."

"Then we clearly need to update our information, either about non-natives living on this planet or humans' capabilities, as this entire thing just doesn't make sense!"

Maul nodded, wondering just how outdated their other information could be. Someone in the intelligence division was going to get their ass raked over the coals for this; such an oversight was unacceptable!

"I don't think he is aware of Lala-sama's identity, nor does he seem to have been sent by one of the foreign princes. But we must be sure." 

Smutts nodded, what he was most afraid of was for Lala to start using her summoning phone and cause a lot of damage. Their boss explicitly said to not cause too much chaos in the town while retrieving her.

"No matter what, we must bring the Princess back to her father!" 

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"Tch, they're more durable than I expected. "

To Emiya's surprise, none of his arrows managed to even pierce their skin and merely tore their clothes if anything. If they had been human, then those projectiles would have gone right through their knees and left a bloody hole behind.

"Woah, I've never seen anyone use a bow before!" 

Lala appeared by his side, flying effortlessly without the use of magic. Another revelation he had to gloss over. If she were to be introduced to the Magi of his original world… nothing short of a war would happen over her gadgets. "Can you do it again? I want to see your storage device, I had no idea you were wearing one in the first place."

The girl snooped around, looking at every corner of his body to find some sort of bracelet or ring he used to store his weapons and bring them out. But her attention was immediately caught by the bow, its shining black metal reflecting her face. Even the sting was made of metal, yet she saw Emiya pull it to shoot arrows at a speed that should have been impossible!

"Lala, can you give me some space? I'm literally trying to save you from those two." He said drily, calling forth more arrows that he prepared to shoot at the men who both got up from the ground.

"Ah, sorry Shirou! I'm going to keep cheering you on!" 

"How wonderful, not like I find it easier to concentrate when it's silent." He couldn't be any more sarcastic with his words, but Lala just didn't seem like she picked up the meaning behind his words!

Sighing at this girl's airheaded behavior, he brought his attention back to the targets and fired again.

Each of them were shot at equal force and speed, his arrows ripping through the sound barrier many times over till they reached both men in less than a tenth of a second. Instead of taking his hits, both dodged the boy's arrows as best they could, jumping around with impressive flexibility and speed and avoiding many of the projectiles, though the barrage did at least slow them down a fair bit. It wouldn't be wrong to compare their speed to that of a Servant, an existence that greatly towered over Emiya's own in his current state. That aspect worried him a lot, for if that assessment was true for their other physical parameters, then his current self would not be able to contend against either of them in a one on one battle in close quarters.

There was a strong possibility for them to be susceptible to damage from Noble Phantasms just like any other opponent he faced in the past. And for all their speed, their reflexes did not seem to be equal to that of a Servant. But he still couldn't take the risky approach of facing them in battle. Maybe if there was just one of them he would engage in combat, but with two or potentially more of them on the way, Emiya just couldn't do it without using his more destructive weapons; and that option came with its own drawbacks.

"How about this?" He raised his right hand, a shimmer of light danced around his palm before taking shape.

"Eh, a sword? How are you going to fire that?" Lala commented, confused by his actions. "Wait, are you going to fight them head on? That's dangerous, Shirou!" 

"Just wait and see." 

Calling forth, let alone firing, a Broken Caladbolg or Hrunting would cause unacceptable damage to the neighboring houses. Even if the blast radius were to be completely contained within the park, he wouldn't have enough time to prepare the attack with how fast they moved. So he had this one chance to take them out with an attack strong enough to pierce through just about any obstacle shy of a Noble Phantasm-grade defense. 

The sword he called forth was a nameless E-rank Noble Phantasm that carried no particularly amazing properties. But Magical Energy has been flowing inside his body for a while now, seeping steadily into the weapon itself.

The air shifted, the leaves rustled against the wind, the sword itself started to shift and bend into a new shape. 

He analyzed the basic structure of the blade and modified it. Studying the composite materials and Reinforcing them. What the sword possessed was a simple effect that held no real power: the ability to negate air friction and so give its wielder a small advantage in battle in terms of speed. It wasn't particularly powerful, he'd selected this weapon since it used so little of his Magical Energy that he barely noticed any changes to his reserves. And besides, even the weakest of Noble Phantasms became quite potent when Broken.

If they could dodge his arrows so efficiently, then he would have to make his next attack untraceable to their senses. And even if they somehow managed to see it coming, their bodies wouldn't be able to move in time unless they could teleport away in less than a nanosecond. 

As Magical Energy was pumped inside the weapon, cracks appeared all over the blade as it reached the threshold to become a Broken Phantasm.

Holding his breath, Emiya waited, his eyes locked on the two figures as they drew closer and closer at great speed. His face calm and unbothered by the incoming threat, with a sound mind and heart, he released the arrow when those two finally reached the entrance of the park upon saying a single word.

"Scatter."

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"What is that?" Smutts said, noticing the silver glint from the tree where the boy stood.

"Humph, the punk is trying to fire another one of his arrows at us. You should be careful though, I have a bad feeling about this one." Maul did not like this, his guts screaming at him that something dangerous was upon him.

"We can dodge it in time if you're really that worried, but his arrows can't even scratch us." 

"...Yeah, no matter what ability he wields, it won't matter if he can't pierce our skin in the first place." 

Just as their confidence reached its peak, something unexpected happened; the silver light disappeared.

"Eh? What ha—" He couldn't finish his words before his eyes widened at the space in front of him becoming filled with hundreds if not thousands of shards of glowing red metal — one of the pieces being just a few inches away from his face. There was no sound, they appeared out of nowhere and reached them without any of their senses picking up the slightest clue.

"Look out!" He shouted.

It was too late.

"Urgh!" 

A searing pain came from all over his body, the shards pushing against their skin with so much force that their incredibly tough skin failed to protect them as it had  before. It felt as if they were stabbed simultaneously by hundreds of daggers across every square inch of their bodies. The shards grew brighter till every single one of them exploded at the same time.

Boom! 

Both men became enveloped in a ball of fire, the explosion not reaching any of the houses around them — leaving the surroundings untouched just as Emiya had intended.

{Break}

"…How?" Lala was speechless, her mind unable to comprehend which device or technology Emiya was using to alter the sword's shape to transform it into what looked like a silver arrow. 

She'd seen countless abilities from different species across the galaxy, from shapeshifting to manipulation of certain elements. But never had she seen someone not only seemingly summon a weapon from thin air without a storage device, but also change its structure to create something else entirely. Though it certainly looked quite beautiful; she was mesmerized by the motes of light and green hue coming from his hands as he pulled the string of the bow. The dazzling silver light made stars appear in her eyes, she wanted to have something like that as well.

Lala grew worried when the 'arrow' started to develop slight cracks from across its length, indicating it was on the verge of exploding for some reason. But that worry proved to be short lived before the arrow disappeared from his hands. Being shot at such speed that it looked like it had teleported.

She felt a slight tremor, gazing towards the gates, she saw that the gates and trees had become absolutely shredded by the attack before catching fire from the ensuing explosion. The streets were filled with holes and both Maul and Smutts had disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

"Did they… die?" She said out loud.

"Most likely not." Emiya said, jumping down to the ground. "From what I saw, their bodies are quite durable and couldn't be easily pierced. I could probably seriously harm or even kill them if I kicked things up a notch, but that would cause more collateral damage than I'm comfortable with. That attack should have at least incapacitated them both for the time being. They might also be injured with a few broken bones and torn muscles, but they'll make a full recovery without issues. I figured you wouldn't like it if I did any lasting damage to your future subjects."

"W-What?" Lala looked at him, his last words registering in her mind.

Emiya had his arms crossed, the air around him having changed — he was no longer messing around.

"Don't try to act ignorant. Now would be a good time to tell me why you're truly here, Princess."

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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.