"Shirou~ Are you still awake~?"
A little past eight in the evening, Shinji Matou showed up uninvited.
"I'm not asleep. What is it?"
Shirou, who had been lying on the bed with his legs propped up, staring at the ceiling, sat up.
"Take a look at this."
Shinji held out a Walkman.
"Tch, showing off again?"
Shirou felt like this kid was starting to resemble a character from a sci-fi anime he'd been watching recently.
Pretty sure his name was Suneo.
Shinji shook his head. "It's not showing off. This thing seems to be broken."
"Oh."
Shirou took the Sony Walkman and examined it in his hands.
Shinji sat down beside him. "So? Can you fix it?"
Shirou frowned slightly. "Seriously, what do you take me for?"
Do you think I'm Doraemon?
"You can't fix it?" Shinji asked, sounding disappointed.
"I never said that."
The moment Shirou said that, Shinji Matou's eyes lit up.
"That's amazing! I'm counting on you, Shirou!"
"Cut it out. Don't sit so close, it's hot. Move over."
Shirou ran his fingers along the damaged plastic casing.
A Walkman.
"Britannia" clearly didn't have anything like this. This was Shirou's first time handling such a precise piece of machinery.
But not having seen it before didn't mean he couldn't fix it.
Even problems that would stump professionals could be easily solved with Magecraft.
Shirou Amamiya closed his eyes, using his sense of touch to probe the Walkman's interior, reading its structure and reconstructing a schematic in his mind.
He remembered the first time he explained this ability to Morgan. The Fairy of Paradise had stared at him in wide-eyed shock.
"You can do this too, right, Morgan?"
"H-how could I possibly do that?!"
It seemed this was a rare talent unique to Shirou, something even the all-powerful genius witch Morgan couldn't replicate.
Morgan had smiled and said, "From now on, Shirou will handle maintenance for the team's weapons and equipment."
That woman… she didn't just trick me into doing all the work, did she? It's not actually that rare of a skill, is it?
Well, whatever. Thanks to this ability to deconstruct things, Shirou later developed a whole range of combat techniques.
For example, because his Origin is "Sword," he can analyze and store every prototype (sword) he has seen within himself, and reproduce them when needed.
But right now, all he could do was identify the Walkman's fault and repair it.
Come to think of it… maybe instead of becoming a chef, he should open an auto repair shop?
Lost in idle thoughts, Shirou finished fixing the Walkman.
"Shinji, it's done."
He turned around, only to find Shinji wasn't beside him anymore. Instead, he was leaning against the windowsill, staring out in a daze.
Kids his age really had no patience. He couldn't even sit still for a few minutes.
The seaweed-haired boy gazed at the city's night view and muttered, "Sakura really is cute… so quiet and well-behaved, just like a doll~"
"Where did that come from all of a sudden?"
Shinji turned around, clenched his fist, and declared, "Shirou, I've decided! I'm going to become an older brother Sakura can respect!"
"Yeah? Then do your best… Here, and don't break it again."
Shirou stuffed the Walkman back into his arms.
"Whoa, you really fixed it! As expected of you, Shirou!"
Shinji excitedly held the Walkman, already talking about treating him to a ramune soda tomorrow.
Shirou stood up from the bed. "Fixing machines is easy. But once a person breaks, it's not nearly so simple to fix."
"What's that supposed to be? Something a famous person once said?" the seaweed-haired boy blinked.
Shinji Matou said he wanted to become a good older brother. There wasn't a trace of falsehood in his words.
But Shirou didn't think it would be that easy.
The seven-year-old boy had no idea that, with Sakura's arrival, his place within the Matou family had already begun to quietly change.
Shinji, sensitive and proud as he is, would one day realize that he was actually the expendable one in the family, while the sister he wanted to protect was the true hope of the Matou household.
When that happened, just how would his mindset change?
Do your best, Shinji. I won't be helping you.
The seaweed-haired boy glanced toward the door. "It's already so late. Where are you going?"
Shirou waved a hand without turning back.
"Bathroom. Don't follow me."
...
...
Sakura Matou's place of training lay beneath the mansion.
After passing through layers upon layers of tightly sealed, impenetrable Magecraft barriers, she arrived at the workshop that Zouken Matou took such pride in.
A putrid stench filled the air. The darkness was a murky, oceanic green.
Faced with the hellish sight before her, Sakura Matou covered her nose, her pupils trembling.
"G-Grandpa… what is this place…? What are these bugs…?"
A few meters ahead of her yawned a massive pit.
Within that abyss, countless black shapes writhed.
They were grotesque insects, each with a sucker-like mouth, their bodies slick with mucus, clustering together like a thick, black carpet.
These were the Crest Worms raised by Zouken Matou. Monstrous creatures that fed on human bodily fluids, brain matter, and bone marrow.
If they crawled onto a man, they would crush his spine and suck out his brain, reducing him to a useless husk.
If it was a woman, the insects would burrow inside her body, seize control of her nerves, and turn her into a beast that craved bodily fluids.
In the end, any woman overtaken by them would have both body and mind completely violated and destroyed.
To reshape the daughter of the Tohsaka Family into something more suited to Matou Magecraft, altering her body was essential.
"So, let's begin."
"…Grandpa, please, no."
After hearing Zouken Matou's explanation, tears welled up in the girl's eyes as she let out a hoarse, despairing plea.
"If you must resent someone, resent the father who sent you here… Then again, Tokiomi is no longer your father, is he?"
The old Magus let out a dry chuckle as he approached her.
"Go on. Go become the true Sakura Matou."
"No!!!"
She screamed, her legs giving out as she collapsed to the ground.
"My, my… Sakura, this won't do. Don't make things difficult for me."
"No, no, no… eeek—!!!"
Zouken Matou strode forward, grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her straight to the edge of the pit.
Just as he was about to throw Sakura Matou in—
"Trace, On."
A low, steady voice rang out.
In that lightless, writhing world of insects, a single spark of flame flared into existence.
"What… Ugh, aaaaaah!"
Zouken Matou turned his head, only to have his eyes, long accustomed to the darkness, seared by the sudden blaze of light.
"W-what is that!?"
He cried out instinctively in pain.
"This? The thing in my hand? Ah… its name is—"
Shirou Amamiya raised the arm wrapped tightly in chains, his gaze filled with a trace of nostalgia as he looked at the two blades in his hands.
"[Blades of Chaos]."
…
Note: The Blades of Chaos are Kratos' iconic, chain-bound twin blades in the God of War series.