What Holy Grail War? Let's Play Cards!

"You can't lose focus now! You should be paying attention to your opponent at this critical moment! Yes, just like that, enter the battle phase! Dad, Mom, direct attack on Caster!"

Silver threads tightly bound Jiang You, and within the gaps, a scorching flash of fire flickered— a bullet struck him square in the forehead.

Jiang You LP 4000 → LP 2800 → LP 1200

"Amazing! Daddy and Mommy are both so amazing! Now Illya is going to win!" The small Illya hopped excitedly, waving her cards joyfully.

"Indeed, Illya is very skilled. Now, it's my turn! Draw!"

While complimenting young Illya, Jiang You mercilessly began his own play. "I activate the effect of Dress of Heaven from the graveyard! While this card is in the graveyard, I can banish an 'Einzbern' card from the game to Special Summon it!"

Dress of Heaven ATK 1500

"Next, I Normal Summon Illyasviel von Einzbern!"

A slightly older Illya appeared on the battlefield, glancing at Jiang You with a suspicious gaze. "So this is what you meant by 'playing with my younger self to raise favorability'? This is your idea of grinding affection points?"

Earlier, Jiang You had tried to duel with Illya to see if it would increase favorability with his cards. However, because this Illya was his Duel Spirit, the duel couldn't proceed properly. Left with no other choice, he decided to try his luck with a younger version of Illya from this timeline.

By coaxing little Illya into playing, Jiang You discovered that her deck was almost identical to Kiritsugu's—except for a few differences in card counts. Still, it was worth testing.

"How else am I supposed to grind? Watch movies? Tell stories? No way! Friendship and bonds in Yu-Gi-Oh! are all built through dueling! This is the proper method!"

"Are you even sane? Is your brain just a stack of duel cards?"

"Enough talk! I Synchro Summon using Dress of Heaven and Illyasviel von Einzbern! The hopes swaddled in infancy are but sparks waiting to ignite. When they finally spread their wings, they shall soar into the sky! Come forth— Illyasviel von Einzbern [Dress of Heaven]!"

Illya, dressed in the Dress of Heaven, descended onto the battlefield, her pristine white dress shining brilliantly.

"So this is what I'll look like in the future? I seem so powerful!" Young Illya's eyes sparkled with admiration, completely unaware of what was coming next.

"That's right! Illya is super strong! Now, I activate Illyasviel von Einzbern [Dress of Heaven]'s effect—I Special Summon Illyasviel von Einzbern from the graveyard!"

A soulless Illya clone materialized on the field, assuming a battle stance as she prepared to unleash Engel Lied, the Song of the Angels.

"Now, I activate Origin Bullet, destroying Kiritsugu Emiya! That concludes my turn! Illya, take this final attack of 4000 ATK!"

With Irisviel von Einzbern destroyed, young Illya, whose LP was already reduced, was struck directly by a 2500 ATK blow—bringing her LP to 0.

At the same time, Kiritsugu Emiya was sent flying.

Seeing Illya's puzzled expression, Jiang You explained, "Nothing strange about it. I transferred the duel's wager to Kiritsugu from the very beginning."

He then checked his in-game mail but found no battle rewards. "Looks like I need to either defeat an entire deck or eliminate Holy Grail War participants to earn rewards. This game has terrible guidance—I'll have to send some feedback later. I wonder how much my favorability increased. If it's significant, I might get some really good Illya-related cards."

"How could that possibly increase favorability?" Illya retorted, watching as her younger self anxiously tended to Kiritsugu, who lay collapsed in the snow.

"It definitely did! We dueled, and I won—favorability has to go up! Hmm, maybe K hid the affection bar for immersion. I guess that's fine, but having some direct feedback would be nice. I'll add that to my feedback report too."

Seeing Jiang You ramble about nonsense again, Illya cut him off and changed the topic. "Never mind that. Caster, you really like dueling, right? In the next Holy Grail War, I want to summon you specifically. That way, you'll have plenty of dueling opportunities. At least tell me your true name?"

Jiang You's eccentric personality and his strangely friendly attitude toward her—combined with his obsession with obtaining powerful collaboration-exclusive cards—made Illya grow somewhat accustomed to his presence in a short time.

"I swear this is my real name!" Jiang You sighed. Konami should've at least given players some kind of lore background to explain their existence as Servants. "As for the summoning method—well, we've interacted so much, and I'll keep summoning you in the future. Why not just use yourself as a catalyst?"

"That's possible?"

"I think it should work..." As he spoke, Jiang You noticed a new email notification—a new expansion pack was being prepared. At the bottom, a countdown timer displayed: 171:42:03.

"When do you plan on holding the summoning ritual?" he asked.

"Around seven days from now. Why?"

It matches perfectly. Jiang You internally praised Konami's generosity in making this crossover event so content-packed, then confidently answered, "Just go ahead with the summoning. I'll definitely be there."

"Really?" Illya's gaze subtly shifted toward Kiritsugu before she reconfirmed, "Promise?"

"Promise! You can doubt my integrity, but you cannot doubt my desire for new expansions! I'd take time off just to duel!" Jiang You declared, pounding his chest.

Illya understood every individual word he spoke, yet together, they somehow became an entirely different arcane dialect. She let out a long sigh.

"Caster, if only you were a little more normal… You're kind of wasting that appearance of yours."

She then glanced at her younger self, who was helping Kiritsugu up with her mother's assistance, brushing snow off his coat.

The three of them looked so harmonious together.

She began imagining what it would be like after she summoned Jiang You.

"First, I need to win the Holy Grail War. Even if the Grail is tainted, it should be enough to maintain a Servant's presence… But I should also prepare a way to keep him around even if I lose. That way, Mother can stay by my side more often. Of course, I won't be too greedy—I won't take too much of this timeline's happiness. As for Kiritsugu..."

Jiang You had already told her about the events of this Holy Grail War.

Kiritsugu hadn't abandoned her and her mother out of malice. But the choices he made…

"Abandoning me and Mother for the sake of world peace and saving humanity… I cannot forgive that. You promised you'd come back for me."

Illya's thoughts were a tangled mess.

Her feelings toward Kiritsugu were real. Unreserved. Just like her feelings for her mother.

But how much did Kiritsugu truly feel?

Perhaps, once, his love for them had been immense. But now?

"Caster, do you think Kiritsugu—"

But Jiang You had already logged off and gone to sleep.

Only the howling wind remained.