"And on a slightly different note, he seemed to have claimed a demonic Sacred Gear that matched that of Regeis Cornelius. If so this means he could steal Sacred Gears."
"Interesting." Cao Cao scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Anything else to report?"
...
Georg opened his mouth before pausing and closing his mouth again. There was one more bit he had yet to tell them, but he felt unsure about that bit of information. During his observations, Georg observed very unusual reactions from [Dimension Lost]; on the one hand, it was 'happy' for the lack of description, like a young child happy to meet his father. On the other hand, it also felt 'apprehensive', especially when Shirou Emiya combined the Excalibur Shards and killed off Kokabiel. He was not sure why that was the case, but he felt he should not report that tidbit until he got more info.
"Georg?" The wizard blinked at Cao Cao who looked at him with a cursory eye.
"No, nothing more." The wizard shook his head to clear his head and answer Cao Cao at the same time. He would think about it later.
"Okay, with that I would like everyone's opinions." Cao Cao looked at everyone in the eye. "Do we bring Shirou Emiya into our group?"
"I don't see why now." Jeanne smiled brightly. "He is strong enough to take on Kokabiel, he is worthy to use Excalibur, he is able to wield strong magic, and on the plus side, he is pretty cute."
"Hmph! That is good and all, but I still say he is scrawny." Hercules folded his arms as he snorted. "He may be able to take on Kokabiel, but that is because he used the sword, I doubt he is good in hand to hand combat."
"As for me, I suggest we hold off his recruitment for a while longer, at least until we can get more information about him." Leonardo answered as he leaned back with a thoughtful expression. "Based on the information given by our informant, Shirou Emiya seemed to have spouted out of nowhere and just took up residence at the town. As far as we know, not even the best sleeper agents can appear without a trace. It is best to watch him and gather more information about his magic cabal, if he does belong to one."
"Hmm…" Cao Cao looked to Georg. "What is your opinion? You and Siegfried have seen him in action, and I can't really ask Siegfried right now. You will be our tie breaker."
"… In all honesty, I agree with Leonardo's suggestion." Georg replied after thinking for a while. "There is much we do not know about this person, and given his brand of magic and the unusual manner of the sword shards reacting to him, not to mention the possible ability to claim or steal Sacred Gears, it would be wise to keep an eye on him and make our decision later."
"Hmm, very well then." Cao Cao lightly nodded his head. "We shall hold off recruiting Shirou Emiya until we can understand more about him. Are we all in favor of that?"
"Okay~" Jeanne raised her hand and replied energetically. Hercules and Leonardo lightly shrugged while Georg only answered with a quick nod while having thoughts about the individual in question.
He was going to be doing a lot of information gathering in the near future on Shirou Emiya.
...
"So then, are you satisfied with your findings?"
"Oh yes, very much so. At last we have proof that it is the Shirou Emiya we both know and hate. The Excalibur Shards reacting to him was somewhat surprising, more so with the transformation, but well within my expectations."
"As long as you are happy then. Correct me if I'm wrong. You actually recorded that fight and showcased it to several other factions around here?"
"Well, I figured the fight could go two ways. Either Shirou Emiya gets killed by Kokaibel, thus starting a war, or he lives and the other gods and leaders start to take notice of his fighting capabilities. Either way, we benefit from this."
"Guess we will have more players coming in."
"Well since Shirou Emiya loves to play the hero, let's see how the other gods and leaders feel about him."
"Looking at this fight though, he seems to look a lot younger than the last time I have fought him. I supposed it is the same for you?"
"At least it confirms our theory. Anyone who comes to this world seems to undergo some major remodeling of the body, thus either resulting in a younger appearance, a stronger body, or even something else completely."
"Well, guess that makes us the lucky ones. I think there were at least two who totally abandoned their old bodies and took over some new ones. Even I lost my limbs when I arrived and took a while to repair myself."
"That is not surprising. I'm more surprised that the both of us were able to hold on to our original bodies given the amount of damage we undergo, but I guess there are some benefits to this; at least I am back to my prime state and form thanks to that transformation."
"Indeed, though I feel that much of it can be attributed to the influence of the different mythologies around here. The Age of Gods never ended here, so much of our abilities are enhanced significantly. Even one of my weakest abilities is strengthened to a level I did not think was possible."
"Well then, it makes one wonder if Shirou Emiya's abilities have also been upgraded from the process. I wouldn't be surprised if the Wizard Marshall had a hand in this. After all, it was him who got most of us stuck here in the first place."
"Well then, we can find out on my visit to Kuoh Town."
"Oh, so you are going to do something?"
"Seeing as you have started the ball rolling by using Galilei as bait, and the others are not doing anything aside from sitting on their asses, I might as well play along and see if Shirou Emiya is sharp enough to see the clues around him I will be sending him."
"If that is the case, you might get your chance sooner than expected. It seems the three factions are coming together for a little happy hour to discuss this fiasco, and all the bigshots are coming along for the ride. What a perfect setting to test the 'hero', wouldn't you say?"
"Hmm. I will prepare a stage that would be fitting for the death of a hero if that ever comes about."
...
"Finally." I muttered as I trudged my way up the stairs. It had been close to a week since the incident, and I finally got enough Prana to give Avalon the boost required to heal my injuries. I made sure to control the output on those that the doctors had inspected before to avoid any suspicious questions about my quick recovery, and it was with a few bandages and a couple more checkups that I was able to leave the hospital much to my relief.
That said, I was a little worried for some of the younger nurses. They seemed saddened at me leaving for some reason.
I shook my head as I made my way to the new apartment where I was currently living in. Sometime after Mitelt came under my care, it became clear that we would need better accommodations in order to look after one another without any issue. It got more pronounced when the owner came to tell us that there others who needed the single-room flats. Thankfully the owner had one unused small 3-levelled building that essentially have three apartments connected to one another via side-doors, so we could live next to each other without problems. His only request was that we helped to maintain the place, something I could deal with through the fixing of the appliances and electric work.
Mitelt on the other hand, had the dubious job of dealing with any trespassers but that was quickly taken care of, as our first and last intruder learnt very quickly and deeply.
I would never look at a bamboo stick, rubber bands, a lighter and a rubber duck the same way again.
Shuddering at the memory, I finally got to the third level, noting the lights that were on. At least Mitelt was up so at least I could check up on her, but the one that got my brief attention was the apartment on the right side of mine. It seemed that the owner may have found extra tenants to rent out to. A minor inconvenience for me and Mitelt, as we would need to keep a low profile, but it should be manageable.
For now I was really looking forward to my futon.
"Oh, hello there. Still alive I see." Those were the first words Mitelt said as I opened the door to the apartment. At least she helped to keep the place clean.
"I'm back." I merely replied back as I set my bag down and trudged my way to the basin. "Honestly all that paperwork sucks."
"Paperwork, meaning the cleanup or the hospital?" Mitelt asked as she got up from her spot and made her way to me. There was an odd expression on her face that looked as though she was thinking about something but she was not telling, and I was too tired to think about it.
"Both." I took off my jacket slowly and started turning only to have a hand offered to me to hold the jacket. "Oh, thanks for that."
"You are welcome. Was the paperwork really that bad?"
I merely nodded as I made my way to the sink to wash my face. "I mean, sure there was going to be a lot of issues with me killing off a major player from the old ages, but that amount of identification required and witness reports was insane. And I get that the school got partially wrecked because of my fighting with Kokabiel, but come on, does a few dorms really require that much equipment? Half of it doesn't even conform to the regulations of any building whatsoever!"
"That sounds bad."
"No kidding." I muttered as I shook my head a little while blindly grabbing for a towel when it was thrust into my hand. "Thank you."
"No problem."
Well, she was certainly being thoughtful today. Guess being hurt got its merits.
...
A/N : The Story Needs More Power Stones ;)
PS : if we can reach 400 Stones by the end of the week, I will throw you an extra chapter
...
if you want to read ahead of the public release you can go to my p atreon :
p atreon.com/Aerle