The inhuman silhouette immediately put Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka on guard, while Bazett secretly activated her Noble Phantasm, Fragarach, the Gouging Sword of the War .
When the figure fully revealed itself, Jiang You realized it was Tiamat. The goddess was cradling a black-haired girl in her arms. The girl's eyes were tightly shut, and traces of recent combat remained on her clothes.
"She... she's that remarkably active Servant," Shirou Emiya said. As a frequent participant in Hero of Justice activities, he had naturally taken note of Fuyuki's unique individuals. The white-horned girl who had recently appeared was too distinctive to ignore; each of her Servant Cards possessed world-shattering power. Though her impassive expression gave off an aloof aura, she was surprisingly approachable. Many Duelists had come seeking her out, eager to witness the girl who could grant powerful cards to anyone who inflicted battle damage.
Yet no one had succeeded so far. Tiamat's first phase was immune to battle damage, while her second phase, with a staggering 5,000 attack power, crushed nearly all Magi outright—not to mention her absurdly broken effects.
The situation at the scene clearly pointed to Tiamat as the culprit behind this sudden crisis, with the "corpses" strewn across the ground serving as the most damning evidence. Shirou Emiya gritted his teeth and stepped forward first.
"Mr. Jiang You, since this battle is unavoidable, allow me to distract her first. Please take the child from her grasp while I do my best to uncover all her Card effects. Then, I'll leave the rest to you."
"Don't suddenly make this sound like the final showdown, okay?"
Rin Tohsaka knew that Tiamat was a Servant summoned by Jiang You, so she wasn't too worried about the situation. At least, the enemy couldn't possibly be Tiamat herself—a fact that brought her considerable relief.
"Should I say you're fearless because you're ignorant, or that you're like a newborn calf that fears no one? This is Tiamat we're talking about! How dare you actually try to fight her?"
Everything at the scene pointed overwhelmingly to Tiamat as the culprit behind this sudden crisis, with the "corpses" scattered across the ground serving as irrefutable evidence. Shirou Emiya gritted his teeth and charged forward.
"Mr. Jiang You, since this battle is unavoidable, let me stall her first. Please seize the child from her grasp. I'll do everything I can to uncover all of her Card effects. I'm counting on you all from here."
"Don't suddenly make this sound like the final showdown, okay?" Rin Tohsaka retorted.
Rin knew that Tiamat was a servant summoned by Jiang You, so she wasn't particularly worried about the situation. At least the enemy couldn't possibly be Tiamat herself, which was a great relief.
"Should I call you fearless for your ignorance, or simply naive for your boldness? This is Tiamat we're talking about, and you actually dare to attack her?"
"Tiamat...?"
As mentioned earlier, Emiya-kun was currently troubled by the possibility of being held back a year in school. It was no surprise that he had no knowledge of such obscure myths. After pondering for ages, he still couldn't recall the origin of those four syllables.
"Is there anything special about her?"
Rin Tohsaka slapped herself in the face.
"I didn't know you'd actually show up!"
Jiang You focused his attention on the black-haired girl in Tiamat's arms. Though disheveled and lacking any distinctive accessories, connecting the dots—the Holy Grail War, the wish to travel to another world—her identity became clear:
—Miyu Sakatsuki.
"Miyu?"
Jiang You blurted out the name instinctively. All previous intrusions from other characters had been due to his Card summons. This was the first time someone had arrived in person. Jiang You had assumed any connection to Prisma Illya's worldline would have to come through the erroneously summoned Illya.
Upon hearing the familiar name, Miyu's eyelids fluttered, but she remained unconscious. The prolonged suppression and exhaustion had pushed her small body beyond its limits, plunging her into a deep slumber.
"Do you know this girl?"
If Tiamat took enough interest to personally retrieve this child, she must possess some extraordinary qualities. Rin Tohsaka immediately pressed for answers. "But why now... Could it be?!"
"Yes, she's the one who came from another world."
Jiang You could even pinpoint the exact timeline. If events were progressing according to the original story, Miyu should currently be in the Prisma Illya world, poised to contract with Sapphire and become a Magical Girl.
"Moreover, the victor of the Holy Grail War in that world was Shirou Emiya."
"Huh? Me?"
Jiang You had no reason to lie, yet Shirou struggled to accept this. "I won the Holy Grail War? Seriously? Am I some kind of super-powerful Magus in that parallel world?"
"Extremely powerful—with a face so thick even Ea couldn't pierce it."
Even though Angelica Ainsworth's Ea, summoned with her golden, glittering card, couldn't match the original's power, its potency remained formidable. Shirou Emiya, in the body of a high school student, had accomplished a feat beyond the reach of almost all Heroic Spirits, earning him the title of "Fuyuki's King of Slaughter."
But how had Shirou Emiya's wish—"for a world where Miyu would no longer suffer, where she could meet kind people, make friends to laugh with, and grasp that gentle, tiny fragment of happiness"—led him to this Worldline? Surely the Prisma Illya world, with its more fitting art style, would have been more appropriate.
Jiang You pondered carefully, then remembered: all those promises of a world where every Illya could find happiness were lies. Once readers relaxed into the seemingly harmless, lighthearted yuri plot, the author would suddenly brandish the butcher's blade. This world, at least, offered stability. Even if Jiang You plunged Fuyuki into chaos, ultra-powerful forces like Tiamat and Ereshkigal would hold the line. Moreover, this world still had Illya, a child in elementary school.
Over there, Emiya's wish seemed to have been fulfilled even more perfectly.
"Are you... actually praising me?"
Shirou Emiya was speechless. His face is thick enough to withstand Ea? That's impossible, right? When Goldie pulled out the Sword of Rupture, Ea, it felt like he was about to obliterate all of Fuyuki City. If I could block that with just my body, wouldn't that mean my physical defense is at least EX Rank, on par with a defensive Noble Phantasm?
"Of course I'm praising you," Jiang You said, lying without a trace of embarrassment. "I must say, the Emiya household certainly has a thriving population, even if none of you are blood-related."
"?"
Shirou instinctively looked at the black-haired girl beside him, a sudden sense of familiarity washing over him. Remembering Jiang You's Clairvoyance-like abilities, he quickly guessed what Jiang You meant.
"She's an Emiya too?"
"Almost. She prefers to call herself Miyu Emiya... no, she is one. She went from being someone with no blood relation to your actual younger sister."
Jiang You recalled the moment Miyu's eyes suddenly changed color to match Shirou's. The poor girl doesn't even understand what that means. She just kicked herself off the path.
"Huh?"
Shirou couldn't quite grasp what Jiang You was saying. How can someone go from being an adopted sister to a blood-related one?
"We'll explain the specifics later. Right now, our top priority is to get this girl settled in. Her world is pretty complicated too, so I'll need to find a way to go there. Emiya-kun from that world is still waiting for our help."