#bladedillusions

“Oniiiii-chaaaaaaan~!!!”

Illya seemed rather excited about tonight, and with good reason too. Tonight was going to be the first family dinner she had with her mother and father in a long while. Irisviel and Kiritsugu were often away on business trips, making Illya feel rather lonely at times despite having her friends, Shirou, Sella, and Leysritt. But tonight, they were a complete family once again, so they would celebrate with a feast of a dinner.

“Senpai, where are the tomatoes you bought?” she calls out from the kitchen, but a few beats give her no response.

Strange. She is rather sure that Shirou came back from the market; she remembers distinctly hearing his “I’m home” and her mouth forming the familiar words of welcoming him back. So she places the knife down. There is no point in continuing if she doesn’t have the fruit anyway.

She makes her way to the dojo only stopping short when she sees him sitting at the hallway, looking out at the empty courtyard. She spots the plastic bag from the market beside him.

It seemed that today would be a day much like any other, Sakura slipping out of the Matou mansion early in the morning before heading out to the very familiar home of a certain senior the female always enjoyed being around. As soon as she'd walked up to the door, she let herself in as usual, key in hand and a bit of a pep in her step.

"Good morning, senpai!" She called out as she usually did, slipping off her shoes before making her way into the kitchen to help with breakfast as she usually did. Only.. Shirou wasn't the one she met as soon as she walked in.

Illya stared up at the ceiling of the Emiya residence’s living room, for the moment without anything to do. She’d come to her brother’s house with the intentions of annoying Shirou--no, it was making sure that her brother spent some of his day with his sister, as was only right--but when she’d arrived, he’d been making dinner, so she’d reluctantly let him go for the time being.

However, that left her with nothing to do except wait, since she had a feeling Shirou would probably share the food even if he hadn’t planned on her being there. She didn’t usually come around in time for dinner, and this time she’d honestly forgotten how long it took to travel between her castle and the Emiya residence, so she had an excuse.

The white-haired homunculus sighed, for what was the third time in a row, and climbed to her feet, ambling into the kitchen to observe her brother, who was chopping up some vegetables. That didn’t really tell her anything about what was made, though, since a lot of Japanese food seemed to involve vegetables. Still, she did realize that she’d seen Shirou making food a lot.

She knew their father had died a few years ago, so was it just that Shirou had been cooking since then? He seemed to like making food, if anything...all she could ever come up with when she tried to make food was everything ended up burnt. Sella always told her that she didn’t really need to learn anyhow, since that was what she had maids for, and she’d mostly given up by now anyhow, but...

The summoning pool glowed radiant gold for a moment before a pillar of energy erupted from the center. A blinding light if you may. Before the energy dissipated showing a gold card of what looked like a chained woman...

The ‘cover’ burned away in dust before showing the image of Jeanne Alter briefly before a voice spoke...

“Servant, Avenger. I answered your summoning.……”

The card quickly was encased in deep purple flames as a dark form appeared in as the flames died out, leaving a figure standing in its wake.

“I still appreciate you, too, Tohsaka.” Even if he does find enjoyment in seeing her go from graceful and elegant to. Right now.

“Sure, sure. Sure you do, Emiya-kun.”