A/N: [9/30/2017]: This a buffer line to keep the following line centered. FFnet doesn't allow centering on the first line for some reason.

Heaven's/Feel Alchemist - Ch000

Memory 01

Illyasviel von Einzbern was a relatively carefree girl. Why wouldn't she be? She had the Heroic Spirit Herakles as Berserker and the financial backing of the von Einzbern family. Combined with her magecraft, there was very little in the world that could hope to oppose her.

Sure, she wouldn't live to see 20 due to the enhancements her family gave her for the Holy Grail War, but that was fine as long as she completed her goals. Sure, her body would never grow to adulthood, but that was fine as long as she took care of that boy who stole her father from her. Sure, she might have been just be a tool for Old Man Acht, but at least she wouldn't have to see his face anymore once she died.

Now if only the miserable old bastard would stop magically cramming the entire library of Einzbern alchemy into her brain, things would be perfect.

When only two days remained until her flight to Japan, Illya thought to herself that there were better things she could have been doing to prepare. After all, if Old Man Acht really thought that this was necessary to win then he would have done it ages ago. Illya pondered asking for a gun as well just to see the old man lose it, but decided against it.

There's no point, and soon she'd never have to see his stupid wrinkly face again.

Illyasviel von Einzbern wakes up surrounded by white. Aside from herself, there is nothing but white as far as the eye can see. Even the horizon ceases to exist in the white void she somehow stands in.

"Is this..." Illya trails off, realizing she doesn't know what she really wants to say. The afterlife? Heaven? Hell? The Swirl of the Root?

Suddenly, she isn't alone. There is a white void in front of her in the shape of a young girl. It is outlined, somehow, with a strange darkness that fades into the white surroundings.

"Hello, Ms. Homunculus," the white void creature says with many voices at once. "You've done a very naughty thing, haven't you?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Illya asks, still a little off-balance from her sudden arrival. "And who are you?"

"Who am I?" the creature repeats, giggling softly. "One name you might have for me is the world, or perhaps the universe, or perhaps God, or perhaps the Truth. I am All, and I am One. So, of course, this also means that I am you."

The girl-like figure points Its finger at Illya. Illya hears a loud groan behind her. She turns to find a massive rectangular set of double doors. A depiction of the Lesser Grail below the Greater Grail, covered and surrounded by Einzbern Alchemy formulas, is inscribed into its stone surface. It is opening, and inside there is nothing but darkness.

"Welcome, you stupid fool who doesn't know her place."

A ripple-patterned eye opens vertically within the open gateway. Beside it, hands made of shadow form. Illya turns to run.

"I am the truth of your despair, the inescapable price of your boastfulness."

The hands reach out on the tips of shadowy tendrils. They grab the girl, wrapping around her and keeping her from fleeing. She screams in fear.

"And now, I will bestow upon you the despair you deserve."

"Onii-chan! Onii-chan, help me!" she screams as she is pulled backwards into the gate. The doors start to close around her. The white creature smiles widely, its teeth unnerving on Its otherwise featureless face.

"Don't scream so much. I'm still giving you what you want."

Illya struggles to stay out of the gate, but it doesn't make a difference. She is bound inside it with no way of escaping. Just before the door slams shut, she thinks she sees the ghostly image of her mother, father, and brother leave her body and fly toward the white creature.

"I will show you the Truth."

Illyasviel von Einzbern falls through the darkness. The familiar sensation of having knowledge being crammed into her head, of being forced to understand formula after formula and theorem after theorem without pause. The scale is vastly different this time, as the massive amounts of knowledge she is being made to absorb make her head feel like it's going to burst.

As she screams, she finds that she has a more complete knowledge of the Einzbern alchemy. How to perform every alchemical accomplishment her family has ever achieved. How to accomplish every alchemical endeavor her family ever failed.

But who is this brilliantly smiling woman with white hair and red eyes?

She knows how to make every potion the Einzberns have ever made. She knows how to use every transmutation magecraft her family has ever used. She knows how to craft every alchemy related mystic code they've ever created.

But who is this awkwardly happy man with black hair and black garb?

She becomes aware that she has almost complete knowledge of the Heaven's Feel. How the ritual works in all the variant forms it can take. How the True Magic works, inside and out.

But who is this red haired boy with wide shoulders that she can only see the protective back of?

She understands that she is being deconstructed. How her physical form is being torn apart. How she is being dismantled atom by atom. How she is being unmade even as more knowledge is crammed in to her pain filled mind.

But who is Illyaviel von Einzbern?

Next: Heaven's Feel 01