I do not own Fate/stay night nor Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! Ect ect, let's move on.
"I pity you Shirou, You're going to be deceiving yourself forever with that crying face of yours." - Ilyasviel
"How did I end up here?" Emiya Shirou asked himself, staring out towards the banks of Kawakami River, the river itself was starting to turn orange with the setting sun that was slowly declining over the skyline that made up the city of Kawakami. He only vaguely noticed the group of teenagers playing baseball on the grass below him as he stood upon the small hill before the river, staring towards the water deep in thought.
It wasn't too long ago that Shirou's only real worries were getting through high school, back then he'd help people in need, go to work a normal job, have meals with his guardian Taiga and his under classmate Sakura, who often would help preparing those meals, and he knew Rin Tosaka only as the honour student of their school. But his involvement with the fifth Holy Grail war changed all that, suddenly he found himself fighting for his life with supernaturally powered warriors of myths and legends called Servants, as their masters battled to receive their wish from the Holy Grail. Not only this, but he also found that Rin Tosaka was a powerful mage, and also a master in the Holy Grail war, and even his friend Shinji had managed to become a master, though through no magical means of his own.
The Holy Grail war had completely turned Shirou's life around, and in the end he had emerged the sole victor of the war, but his victory, and the destruction of the Holy Grail had come at a terrible cost. That cost was the reason why Shirou was never the same after, the horror that the war had inflicted on him, and the other masters in the war had stuck with him after the war ended, the sudden constant emptiness of a chair in his old classroom was enough of a testament to that.
It wasn't long after that Shirou decided to move, to get away from Fuyuki city and the memories that he had kept with it. Taiga had not been happy about it, but even she had guessed that Shirou had been caught up in the craziness of the past few days. So she allowed him to leave, so long as he kept in regular contact with her to assure her that he was safe.
So he had ended up here, staring at the River of Kawakami city, wondering what he should do now with his life.
It was then, that a sudden polite cough emanating from next to him caused him to jump in surprise, rousing himself out of his thoughts in shock.
To his left stood an old man, he had a long, well groomed, yet thin beard, and surprisingly large eyebrows that actually grew down from the sides of his face as if it was hair itself. The man was bald, and his face had enough lines and wrinkles to show that he had lived a rather active life in his day. He wore an old fashioned martial art robe and had a rather apprising look on his face as he stared back at Shirou's look of surprise.
"You look like you have some worries on your mind boy, Girl troubles perhaps?" The old man asked him with a mischievous twinkle lighting up his eyes.
"I wish it was that simple." Shirou replied, a small smile flickering over his face as he answered the strangers question.
"Perhaps." The old man replied mildly, seating himself upon the grassy ground, "Though some people find that talking over their problems with others can help on occasion."
"Mine is somewhat hard to explain." Shirou told him, taking a seat on the grassy slope as well, he considered his next words carefully before he continued, "But I'll give it a go."
So as he sat next to the old man on a grassy slope watching the setting sun, he started telling the old man about the main problem that had been on his mind lately, the Holy Grail War. Well actually, he omitted anything to do with magic, making it sound like he had gotten caught up in a gang war around the city, a war that he had lost many friends to before he stopped it.
As he finished, Shirou suddenly realised that his story would still be rather hard to believe, since he was implying that he had stopped several of the 'ring leaders' as he called them, by himself, but the old man simply nodded thoughtfully, seemingly thinking to himself as he looked at the horizon, now darkened by the almost set sun.
After a few moments of silence, the old man spoke "It sounds like you are trying to regain your direction in life after what happened; perhaps all you need now is some normality to refocus yourself."
The old man then turned to him and asked "You said that you never finished your second year of schooling, correct?"
"Yea." Shirou replied, he was fairly sure that he knew were the old man was going with this.
"Well then, my suggestion would be to finish your schooling, and use that time to help find a new focus for yourself, I happen to be the headmaster of a school over the river, the Kawakami Academy, and I am offering you a place there if you are interested." The old man told him, his voice suddenly became strong and crisp.
"I uh… sure." Shirou accepted in surprise, not expecting the old man's offer.
"Good, and you also said you were from out of town, so where are you staying at?" The old man continued.
"At a hotel at the moment." Shirou told him, still slightly out of his depth at how fast the old man had gained control of the conversation.
"In that case, tomorrow morning go to this address with your luggage, it's a student dorm for Kawakami students, and you'll find it much cheaper than a hotel room." The old man pulled out a notepad and a pencil, and started writing on it as he talked.
"I…Thank you sir." Shirou spluttered as he thanked the old man in front of him, taking the note from his outstretched hand, but as Shirou thanked him, he then a rather important question that he should have asked before.
"Who are you?" He asked the old man, who was getting to his feet.
"Me? My name is Kawakami Tesshin, headmaster of the Kawakami Academy." He told Shirou with a smile, before turning to walk away while Shirou climbed to his feet himself.
But as he was leaving, he turned back to Shirou and asked "And who are you boy, that is so far from home?"
"Emiya Shirou." Shirou replied to the old man, whose white robes made him stand out among the darkening city.
"Then I shall see you tomorrow, Emiya Shirou." Shirou's new Headmaster told him, before turning away and walking down the path that led to the bridge that spanned the Kawakami River.
Shirou turned away as well his head still trying to put together what just happened as he started the short trek back to the hotel. His heart was suddenly feeling slightly lighter than it ever had since the war ended. He may not have found his place in the world after all, but maybe a new beginning and a fresh start was what he needed to help forget about the tragedy that was the Holy Grail War.
Meanwhile, in Fuyuki city…
Bazett Fraga McRemitz awoke to the sound of silence, even in her dreary state she knew something was off. She pushed herself upwards, moving herself into a sitting position, while taking in the sight of the couch that she had been lying on. The couch felt familiar to her; in fact the whole situation felt familiar to her, the only thing that felt different was the lack of sound that greeted her as she awoke.
"How long have I been sleeping?" Bazett thought to herself, placing her palm on her forehead as she tried to think about her situation. Her head throbbed painfully as she fought to seize clear memories though the haze of her mind.
Her head started to clear as she delved further into her memories, she remembered the Holy Grail War, but she also remembered that something with wrong with it, she vaguely remembered her Servant, but could not remember her Servants class.
Unsatisfied with the information, Bazett delved deeper into her memories, ignoring the throbbing pain in her head as she continued to recall what had transpired. She remembered the priest, Kotomine, who had taken something…something important. Suddenly Bazett's vision turned white, and a sharp searing pain tore through her left arm, the pain lasted only for a moment before leaving as suddenly as it had come, her vision returning with it.
With the pain came the memory of that night, she had summoned her Servant Lancer, but the priest and mediator of the war, Kotomine had taken her by surprise, and had managed to tear her arm off. Stripping her of her command seals and leaving her for dead.
But something was still wrong, Bazett looked down, her left arm was still there, she lifted her arm out in front of her, examining her hand in particular. Her left hand was no longer like her right, instead it was covered in dark markings, they made no sense to Bazett, but they looked oddly familiar. Rolling up her sleeve as far as she could make it go, Bazett saw the markings covered as much of her arm as she could see.
Bazett shook her head as she attempted to stand upright, her arms and legs felt heavy, but she forced herself upright anyway, and had to brace herself on a nearby chair to stop herself from falling.
Annoyed at her body's weakness, Bazett started walking, and was pleased to find that her body was shaking off the fatigue much faster than her head was. Quickly her jerky pace was becoming stronger as she moved about the room, while she walked about she took in her surroundings. She was in an empty living room from her guess, a cracked mirror stood in the corner, with a rather nice table and a set of chairs sat in the middle of the room, close by to the couch she had awoken on. Bazett found the room to be rather familiar, though she could not remember why; she glanced out the window to see the darkness outside, signifying that night had fallen over the city of Fuyuki.
Gathering her thoughts and her strength, Bazett left her half formed questions and doubts behind as she took her situation in hand, she had originally arrived in this city for the 5th Holy grail war, but for all she knew now, it could have already finished, so there was only one place she could go for information, the Church on the Hill.
Bazett left the empty house, going into the dark night of Fuyuki city. Heading straight for the Church, Bazett was pleased to find her old strength returning with every step, and her mind was mostly clear now, though memories past getting her arm torn off by Kotomine were still a mystery to her.
It wasn't long before Bazett found herself standing before the doors to the church; the cold night air flowed past her, causing her hair to move with the wind. As she stood there, she could vaguely remember something. She could remember two women, perhaps sisters, both dressed in Victorian style dresses, and they were accompanied by two young women, both blond haired and armoured, and perhaps most vividly of all from her memory, was one who was armed with a rather wicked dark sword, the other who held nothing in her hands, but was gripping at that nothing as if a sword truly existed in its place.
Unfortunately, her memory of that moment ended with a haze of red, leaving her rather confused.
Shaking off the suddenly memory, Bazett pushed open the doors of the church, and walked inside.
The sight that greeted her was one she had expected, the alter of the church stood at the end of the room upon a risen platform, with several rows of pews lining the rest of the room, and standing by the altar, was one Kirei Kotomine, dressed in the standard black robes of a priest.
He turned from his notes that were placed on the alter as Bazett entered. His face was one of surprise as he saw just who had walked through the front door of the church.
"Bazett Fraga McRemitz." Kotomine greeted her, his deep voice ringing through the empty church, "I must confess, you are the last person I expected to see walking through my door, so tell me, why are you here?"
Authors note:
Here starts my attempt to break the massive writer's block that I've gotten myself into; I'm still getting back into the swing of writing, so advice is always welcome.
I should probably point out now; this story does not take the events of Fate/Stay night and Fate/hollow Ataraxia straight from cannon, but does start from one of the endings in Fate/Stay night, though it shouldn't be too hard to figure out which one that is.