Even though Emiya's personal combat strength was crushing compared to ordinary... no, compared to the vast majority of magi or even combat-specialized spellcasters, in terms of true magecraft, he was clearly a pure amateur, not even reaching the level of a third-rate magus.
After all, even a "third-rate magus" in the parlance of the Mage's Association usually refers to a magus lineage with only three or four generations of heritage, where even the inherited spells are rudintary. As for Emiya himself...
His biological parents were rely ordinary people who perished in a disaster. The probability of an individual possessing such excellent first-generation magical talent is more astronomical than winning a lottery jackpot. Otherwise, in the mories of certain "Emiya Shirous," there wouldn't be so many magus families looking to recruit him as a son-in-law through marriage.
The superior bloodlines of prosperous families are optimized over hundreds of years and generations to produce genius descendants with [Magic Circuits] numbering in the dozens or even hundreds. While Emiya's 27 circuits were nothing compared to them, he was still a magus above the passing grade.
Especially for a first-generation magus—individuals who are typically quite weak—Emiya's talent was simply exaggerated, making him perfect material for families looking to optimize their bloodlines.
The reason those parallel-world "Emiya Shirous" were invited by magus families via marriage was mainly that they had already entered the Association's headquarters, the [Clock Tower], with a formal status. At that point, using "filthy" thods to obtain them would have been poor form.
But that didn't matter. To many magi, matters like procreation were standard tools of the trade. Even if an invitation to marry into the family failed, leaving behind one or two superior bloodlines was perfectly acceptable.
In a large family, only one person inherits the [Magic Crest] and the headship; everyone else is essentially material for interest exchange. They couldn't be expected to invest in training them at a loss, could they?
If "Emiya Shirou" was willing to agree to marry in, things beca even easier to discuss. Those magi didn't fear him having demands; they only feared his demands weren't nurous enough.
The more beautiful the wife Shirou wanted, the better—and if he was willing to marry several family mbers at once to act as a prize stud, that would be even more perfect.
However, "top-tier talent" only applied when looking at the specific group of "first-generation magi."
Emiya's practical talent for magecraft within the broader community of magi wasn't particularly brilliant, and it certainly couldn't be compared to a genius like Tohsaka Rin, whom even those in the [Clock Tower] had to look up to.
Lacking a formal magical heritage, the only spells he could use were "Reinforcent" and "Gradation Air" (Projection). It wasn't that Kiritsugu was unwilling to teach him more; rather, in that environnt, those were the only spells he could learn.
Even if so "Emiya Shirou" mories contained versions of himself who studied magecraft diligently, without a [Magic Crest] as a foundation, he could still only command minor spells whose [Magical Foundations] were completely public knowledge.
Such spells have no room for research or developnt, and their existence and counters are common knowledge. Their actual utility is mostly like "Reinforcent"—a special technique for utilizing prana where the only direction for improvent is simply increasing output.
Thus, in the modern world of magecraft, there is only one path to success: possessing a substantial heritage of "knowledge."
Knowledge is sothing an individual can never hope to catch up on from scratch compared to the hundreds or thousands of years of research and heritage held by others.
Kiritsugu did possess the [Magic Crest] inherited by the Emiya family, but because the previous head had achieved exceptional research results and was slapped with a "Sealing Designation" by the Association, most of the valuable research was seized. Only a few remnants were left to Kiritsugu.
However, since his father was a "pure magus," Kiritsugu didn't actually hate his father for his death; he simply hated a world where conflict never ends.
"Accelerating or stagnating the flow of ti within an isolated Reality Marble not interfered with by the world" was the magecraft inherited by the Emiya family. But this ti-acceleration magecraft put an imnse burden on the body. Even Kiritsugu, who only had a remnant Crest, couldn't hold out for long under excessive use.
Unfortunately, even if the Crest were whole, Emiya himself would find it difficult to inherit the Emiya family's [Magic Crest]. Because this fixed "Mystery" is like a truly "living" organ; it cannot be matched with soone who is not a blood relative, and even blood relatives usually require a period of adaptation after the transplant.
For Emiya, who had none of these things as support, calling him a "half-baked magus" was generous—so magi might not even acknowledge him as one of their own.
Of course, if those fellows knew that Emiya's [Projection Magecraft] could freely project Noble Phantasms that only existed in the Age of Gods, he would likely be placed under a "Sealing Designation" and be a wanted man, just like the previous head of the Emiya family.
But even if Emiya wasn't a "true" magus and would find little recognition outside of his combat power...
Having traveled the world with Kiritsugu searching for a way to save it, he understood very well that to "purely selfish" magi, no relationship is truly reliable, let alone verbal constraints.
Just because other "Emiya Shirous" acknowledged Tohsaka Rin didn't an he, who hadn't personally interacted with her, had to unconditionally acknowledge her. After all, people in every parallel world change in personality and behavior due to different experiences.
So, throughout the process of explaining himself, Emiya never let go of Rin's body, keeping her pinned firmly against the wall.
Yet, for so reason, Rin didn't actually resist. Instead, she stayed there obediently and listened to Emiya's narrative, even eventually turning her head back from its insulted position to reveal a look of intense interest.
"Hmm, hmm...
I see, I see... I completely understand now!"
After listening to Emiya's explanation, Rin imdiately repeated at a very fast pace: "So what you an is, you aren't actually a magus who used magecraft to simulate Emiya Shirou's appearance, but an Emiya Shirou from another world?"
"You completed a [Holy Grail War] in your world, but due to an accident, the power of the Grail sent you away, causing you to drift into other worlds?
Could it be that the Great Master felt that your presence in other parallel worlds would cause so unpredictable accidents, so he sent an excellent magus like to maintain the balance of the world...?"
The last sentence was muttered under her breath, but Emiya heard it clearly. Although this Tohsaka Rin seed noticeably different from the one in the mories, it was a good thing for him if she could convince herself with her own imagination.
To prevent things from becoming more complicated, Emiya decisively omitted all details regarding the Jujutsu world, simply stating that this was the second world he had arrived in.
Regarding the explanation of the [Holy Grail War], Emiya believed Rin could roughly understand it. Even if she wasn't personally participating, as the head of the Tohsaka family, it was only natural she would know about it.
And extracting information from her words just now... does "Great Master" refer to Zelretch? Had that [Second Magician] already noticed his arrival?!
That ability to observe the entire world was truly beyond the imagination of an ordinary person.
"That's essentially it. It's best if you can understand."
To show his sincerity, once he confird Rin understood his explanation, Emiya decisively released his hold on her, allowing her to regain control of her body.
"Isn't that obvious? If I couldn't understand such a simple explanation, wouldn't I be quite incompetent as a magus?"
Traditional magi are mostly shut-ins who bury themselves in research within their "Workshops," so their comprehension skills are naturally beyond doubt.
The biggest flaw of magi usually isn't on a material level, but rather that they are far too "arrogant" most of the ti.
Not only do they look down on magi without superior bloodlines, but they also find the products of technology useless and weak, believing these shallow creations are not even worth ntioning compared to the magecraft inherited by their lineages.
Having a certain degree of pride isn't necessarily a bad thing, as this world is often cruel enough to offer only the extre options of hurting or being hurt; extre ego at least ensures the person being hurt isn't you.
Unfortunately, most of the ti, this extre ego easily becos a liability.
Rin, having finally regained her freedom, stretched her body slightly before attempting to ask Emiya again: "That said, I think there are so things I need to confirm carefully... Since you say you are also Emiya Shirou, you should know yourself very well, right?"
"As far as I know, parallel worlds are often identical in many details... So I ask you, what should Emiya Shirou's imouto (little sister) be called?"
The question seed simple, but for the current situation, it was more than enough.
Her connection with Emiya Shirou... no, the Emiya Shirou of this world, was ostensibly only that of "middle school classmates," though she found his character unique. There was no way an outsider could guess this level of detail or investigate the family beforehand.
As for those high-fidelity fraudulent spells, they can at most manifest things based on subconscious psychological imagination; they can't directly read a person's mories and thoughts.
Therefore, for the "magus" in front of her, unless he truly was Emiya Shirou himself, he would never be able to answer this question!
Emiya knew what Rin ant, and he roughly understood the answer she wanted to hear.
But facing such a question, he answered without hesitation: "My imouto is Miyu... Emiya Miyu."
On this question alone, Emiya would never allow himself any deception or distortion of the truth.
Regardless, if things couldn't be explained clearly, he was perfectly fine with repeating the previous steps to explain again.
"Haha! Your true colors are finally showing! Shirou's sister should be called Illya! Even I only found out about that last night... trying to deceive with this level of trickery is far too naive!"
Upon hearing the answer, Rin imdiately jumped away from Emiya, smoothly pulling several translucent jewels from her pocket to aim at him.
"But... why does the na 'Miyu' sound so familiar...?"
After a mont of low-voiced hesitation and confusion, Rin quickly reset her stance, her eyes staring firmly at Emiya.
"Whatever! Even if there are still questions, I'll just beat you first and ask everything clearly later!"
"Jewel Magecraft... Scatter!"
Rin had total confidence in herself, a confidence derived from her exceptionally superior talent and tireless effort. In the ranks of magi, Rin would never admit anyone was more superior than her—at least not those of a similar age.
This ti, Rin didn't limit her prana output as before. She unhesitatingly threw out several high-quality jewels, having tuned the spell for maximum destructive power.
The light blooming from the jewels scattered in mid-air into dozens of blinding beams of light shooting all around Emiya. This clearly wasn't an attack style that could be blocked by twin swords.
Emiya decisively crouched and dodged the dense attack at top speed, then closed in on Rin, intending to restrain her again.
But right at that mont, a new voice appeared on the battlefield—
"Wait a minute!!!"
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