My mind raced through scenarios, but the most obvious and logical one that hit first—and seemed most likely. Initially I thought Sakura's younger brother did it himself, or rather with Grandfather Matou's help, summoning a Servant and binding it to the folio. But I forgot one thing—no matter how you slice it, Sakura's a Mage too!
Yeah, untrained, but a Mage! So she could have been the Master for the summoning. Again, logical question—why wasn't she trained, and how did they steal the Servant and bind it to the book? I won't speak to family dynamics, but clearly it wasn't a friendly, loving atmosphere.
As one of the founding families of this whole Grail ritual, they should have knowledge on how to steal Command Seals or transfer and pass them on. This guess made me grimace—I need to find Kirei's corpse; his whole arm was covered in Command Seals.
For some reason, I didn't even think about it then. And the other Masters' corpses are taking on new meaning now! Mentally patted myself on the head for Illya's body.
But I digress; I didn't see Command Seals on Sakura, though to be fair I didn't inspect her naked. The hand might not be the only place for them, but I lean toward them taking all of hers. And here's the question—what the hell is Rider doing here then?
Hmm, only option is Sakura's still the energy source keeping Rider in this world. Basically, I'm the same for Hassan, even without Command Seals. Though I'm partially Hassan now, so hypothesis—but it sounds plausible.
But that's details; the main point—what do I do with this situation? From the talk, Shirou wants to team up with Sakura and beat Illya, but she's dead! Hmm, where's Artoria now?
Figuring she's either at the Matou house with Rin—whether storming, looting, or heading back. They're two and far; Sakura and Rider here.
Hooo, that's an idea! Risky plan, but might work! Hope my acting pulls it off! Was about to step out, take Rin's form, and lure Shirou out under pretense of helping wounded Artoria and kill him!
But realized I can't change my voice! Slightly altering baritone is one thing! But mimicking a girl's voice, specifically Rin's—is another! Fuck.
Okay, change of plan. Basically kill Shirou so Rin and Artoria team up, come home, see Sakura with Rider, blame her and try to kill her—good!
Can toss Illya's corpse in too! So no extra thoughts, then finish the winner! Nah, keep Illya's corpse—can't risk such value; they'll guess she's dead anyway.
Given what they'll find at Matou house and what I fed them as Ted—messenger of higher powers—they shouldn't doubt who's guilty.
Rin even has Command Seals, so she can form a full Master-Servant contract with Artoria, boosting her big time. And then high chance to take down NEH Sakura!
No doubt I can kill Rin—she's weaker than Illya. And experience shows—sudden backstab never fails! Hope it doesn't with the Japanese MC trope.
Stood listening to their nonsense a bit longer—starting to get nervous; they won't split up. But finally Sakura decides to cook, and Shirou goes to prepare a room for her. And I've got the Axe out and follow him.
Alas, couldn't kill him right away; without extra eyes, Rider decides to talk to Shirou and starts saying victory in the war doesn't interest her, her main goal is Sakura's safety. Shirou counters that victory interests him little too, and he'll protect Sakura with all he has.
Didn't get the point of the scene, but Rider apparently satisfied goes down to Sakura. I wait another minute, and when Shirou bends over the blanket to spread it—repeat the Illya trick. Swing the Axe and enhance with Magic right before impact, kicking me into reality… and the Axe gets stuck midway in his neck; I'm stunned.
Even more stunned that Shirou's still alive! Piling on top, pinning him to the floor, cursing silently that it wasn't silent, land two more blows and nearly sever the neck. Resistance weakens, new blow severs the head; adrenaline pumping, grab and wrap the body in the blanket to avoid blood trails and summon with it to the forest by Illya's Coffin.
Laughter hits me—fuck, I killed the Japanese MC trope! Ahah… laughed for a minute, then decided to freeze the body to preserve it longer and confirm final death—know those tropes, might resurrect the bastard! So head separate from body. Unwrap the blanket and freeze—fuck, it was a joke!
White threads emerge from the severed neck before my eyes, stitching the Japanese MC trope's head back like sewing threads. My shock level indescribable, but pulling myself together—I go to work with the Axe.
*10 minutes later.*
Fuck me! Already boxed the severed head, chopped off arms and legs, boxed those too—plenty of boxes in camp. But white threads still wriggling from the torso! Grumbled and started disposing of body parts—burning head, arms, legs. Except the arm with Command Seals.
*5 minutes later.*
Okay, good news—body seems finally dead; once I burned all extras to bones, threads vanished. Left the arm with Command Seals and torso. Interestingly, threads only from torso—no such crap from arms, legs, or head.
Scratched head, decided for safety dismember and burn torso too—scatter bones as far as possible, just in case!
*2 minutes later.*
I was wrong; my shock level wasn't maxed before. Found weird metal thing in Japanese MC trope's chest center; scratched head, pulled it out. Turned out sword scabbard—beautiful, golden, glamorous even. At this point I wanted a smoke—who knew Japanese MC tropes drop loot like MMORPG bosses!
Nah, obviously an artifact. But how this thing longer than his body fit there—no answer. Well, "it's Magic, Harry." Banged head on tree to regain equilibrium—examined loot.
After checking all sides, interesting conclusion. To summon Artoria needs Catalyst; maybe Shirou could without—by spirit. But adoptive father Kiritsugu had zero connection to Artoria! Anyway, skipping details—these are probably her sword's scabbard. Surely has name, but I don't know it.
Key: artifact! Giving body physical toughness—clearly why I couldn't decapitate in one blow! And insane regen; forget pierced heart early on—at school that was nothing! After what I saw recently, pierced heart—Shirou'd just rest, stand, keep going!
Dunno if all properties, but plenty! So scabbard goes in my stash! Though implanting, especially main body—no way yet. Don't even know how, or consequences. Don't believe none!
Don't know where to put scabbard yet, but no desire leave by Illya's body! Lest Alaya she resurrects! Maybe paranoia, but still. Dragging to camp risky too—Artoria might sense and come.
So thought and made two decisions—burn Shirou's body fully, bundle bones in blanket, dump in River—better safe. Bury scabbard in forest temporarily, cover illusion spot. Got to it.
***
Read the story months ahead of the public release — early chapters are available on my Patreon: Granulan