Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/Stay Night or any other series that may be represented within this story.
Here is something that I had promised myself I would not do, especially when I already have a major project that I am working on for this series. But ever since I started playing Fate/Extra this idea wouldn't leave me alone. So I'm going with it and writing out what's come to me.
It takes Fate/Stay Night, mixes in a couple of Fate/Extra components with a few of my own ideas, and this is what came out. That said, this will be a more serious version of events compared to Fate/Extra and a greater number of Servants and Masters than Fate/Stay Night. And of all the times to post a new story, I thought, why not it do on New Year's Day!
For the rest of my thoughts, see the bottom of the chapter. For the start of my newest project, just keep reading.
Chapter One: Preparing for War
There were a number of mysteries left in the modern world.
Most people knew this, but didn't fully understand it. Even scientists and other kinds of researchers didn't know about the depth of the secrets that still existed. Only Magi, existing in what amounted to their own society, knew how many things were left to discover in this world. This was part of the reason so many magi were researchers to this very day. But not everything was done for the sake of knowledge. And in their arrogance, magi have uncovered things that may have been best left unknown.
Whether or not the Holy Grail is one of things is a matter of debate. But many people were willing to risk their lives for the reward that it represented.
Unfortunately, not every magi was able to understand what the Holy Grail was or the depths of its power. And in their quest to control a power they did not fully understand, they forced what may have been the most powerful artifact to change and evolve its method of selection.
What happens next is a result of those changes and those who sought to overcome them.
Shirou Emiya had not been having a good time of it lately.
For the last several days, he had been experiencing hot flashes. But in addition to the uncomfortable heat, there was a flash of pain that seemed to consume his entire body. Afterwards, his body would ache and he would be left in a cold sweat when the heat left.
Fortunately, these flashes of pain never lasted more than a second. The pain leaving just as quickly as it appeared and the aching would fade after only a few minutes. A lucky thing for him, otherwise he wasn't sure if he would be able to function properly. He had actually felt worse when he had first started to use magecraft, when he had been converting his nerves into makeshift circuits. Fortunately for him, his stepfather had noticed what he was doing shortly after his lessons started and stopped him from doing any more damage to himself that way.
If he hadn't, who knows what level his abilities would be at right now?
On a similar note, his current guardian had noticed that something was wrong with him and taken him to see a doctor. As he expected, the doctor had not been able to find anything wrong with him. He was almost certain that whatever was happening to him was due to magic, with the way his circuits were subtly reacting to whatever was happening, though he was a bit touched that Taiga had realized that there was something wrong with him.
In reality, it had been his friend Sakura who had noticed something was wrong and brought it to his guardian's attention, but she hadn't felt a need to tell him that.
The doctor had prescribed him an antibiotic and advised him to drink plenty of liquid and rest until the flashes passed. That was the reason he had stayed home from school today, despite the obsession his guardian had with his school attendance. Understandable, once you considered that she was a teacher.
That was also the reason Sakura was toiling away in his kitchen, making dinner for the two of them and his often hungry guardian. Missing out on cooking, something that he usually enjoyed doing quite a bit bothered him a lot more than missing school.
Taiga wasn't here right now, but that didn't surprise him very much. She was a teacher after all, as immature as she could be at times. But she would be here soon.
She had the uncanny ability to show up just before the food hit the table.
He had tried to help out, but Sakura had been firm in keeping him resting and out of the kitchen. He'd finally relented when she pointed out the possibility of him passing along whatever he had to them if he worked on the food they were going to eat.
Not having a way to argue that fact, without revealing that he was a magus and all, he had gone back to his room to study. Besides, if he had an attack while he was working on dinner there was a chance of him accidently ruining the meal or lighting something on fire.
The bang of his front door being flung open broke him away from his studies.
"Sakura, is dinner ready yet?" The booming voice of Taiga Fujimura was clear even through his closed bedroom door.
With a sigh, he placed his biology book off to the side. Even if he wasn't able to help cook right now, he owed it to Sakura to try and keep Taiga out of the kitchen. A feat made difficult if you were trying to cook at the same time.
The meal had been a good one, he had to admit. While Sakura may not have been quite as good as him, it was a close thing and he had no complaints as he dug into the meal she had worked so hard to prepare. Though with a bit less gusto and a little more grace than his guardian managed. Mixed in with a bit of lighthearted conversation and it felt like a typical meal for the three of them.
Caught up as he was in his meal, he was caught completely off guard when another attack came.
While he may have been a bit more used to pain than the average person, he wasn't able to contain a brief cry of agony. His companions instantly forgot about their own meals as his utensils hit the table, his hands digging into the wood to keep him from falling out of his seat.
The fact that he didn't have any food in his mouth was probably the only reason he wasn't choking. As it was, he could only sit there and wait for the pain to fade again. He couldn't even find the energy to answer the concerned questions of his dinner companions.
It took almost twenty seconds, but this attack faded just like all the others had.
The smile he gave the girls beside him to try and convince him of this wasn't as successful as he would have hoped. Though if he could see how weak it looked, that wouldn't have surprised him.
"You're going to get changed and go to bed Shirou," his guardian's voice was unusually strict. "And tomorrow, I'm going to take you to see a specialist. I don't care what the doctor said."
"I'll clean up here Sempai," Sakura piped up. "I can take care of anything else you need, so don't worry about it."
Feeling surrounding on all sides, and still feeling the effects of his most recent attack, Shirou didn't put up much of a fight before he was herded back to his room. Perhaps some rest would do him some good after all.
And while he was lying down, he could at least take some time to consider what was happening to him.
The next day did not provide the answers that he was hoping for. He had gone over his, admittedly limited, knowledge of magic to try and think of what was happening to him. So far, the only thing that had come to mind was that he had been placed under a curse of some kind. But that was unlikely for several reasons.
The first was how difficult it was for magi to be placed under a curse at all, due to their own magic interfering with the spell. The second, he couldn't think of anyone that would have cared enough to put him under one. He knew there was other magi here, but didn't know who they were.
The idea that someone was doing this in an effort to get even with his long deceased stepfather was much more likely, but anyone that he had pissed and held a grudge so long after his death would probably have done worse to him.
The specialist he had been taken too had been very thorough, but he didn't expect any helpful results from them. He suspected Taiga had used some of her families more questionable connections to get an appointment so quickly with them. But this was one situation where he really didn't have a good reason to complain.
Sakura had made him breakfast, for the third time in a row. Something that was honestly starting to frustrate him, but he couldn't think of a way around it. He had suffered two more attacks that morning, within the space of three hours. The quickest they had ever come. The pain had taken longer to fade as well. But he had figured out that the heat was coming from his circuits, though he couldn't figure out what was happening to them. Had he done something to affect them?
He was starting to think whatever was happening would kill him.
Right now, he was alone in his house. Taiga had gone back to school after bringing him back home and Sakura was likely still there. He had already completed the homework Taiga had left him, so he was just watching television now. He had found an old movie on the life of Merlin and was watching with some amusement.
The amusement disappeared when his world disappeared in pain again.
Unlike before, the pain didn't vanish after a few seconds. Instead, his world faded to red as he lost even the ability to scream. He didn't even realize his body had begun to glow as he writhed on the couch.
Then everything faded to black and he knew no more.
The world slowly came into focus; the way his entire body seemed to throb with his heartbeat didn't help the matter at all. After nearly a minute, Shirou felt he was in enough control of his facilities to get back on his feet. He also took the time to look at his new surroundings.
It was a small room, about the size of his living room but without any real furnishings. The white rug and light blue walls did give it a slightly more inviting feel though. The only other thing of note in the room was a white, wooden door standing at one end.
Trusting himself not to collapse getting there, Shirou carefully made his way to the door. He wasn't sure how he had gotten here, or even where here was, but there was no reason for him to wait here like this.
The hallway outside the room was plain, with an almost sanitized feel to it. Plain white walls and a tiled floor left him feeling like he was in a hospital. Something that would have made sense if he woken up in a hospital bed. With no other doors in sight all he could do was slowly tread forwards. It was strange, not being able to see the end of a single hallway.
After several minutes, another door came into sight. Half expecting someone to have come up behind him, Shirou risked a glance over his shoulder. But the hallway was as clear as it was when he had come down it. Sighing, he shook his head.
Strange as the situation was, there was no reason to treat it like something out of a horror movie. He should never have let Taiga drag Sakura and him to that movie last semester. Honestly, he had real reason to be frightened by vampires. He didn't need fake ones too!
Though the way Sakura had latched onto him had been pretty nice.
Shirou reached the door before he could get too far into those kinds of thoughts. Turning the knob, it seemed a bit odd that neither of these doors had been so much as locked. But if it helped him get out, who was he to complain.
The room on the other side was almost…inviting. Blue walls, a cream colored carpet, and a number of furnishings made it feel a bit like someone's living room. But more important than any of these things was the person sitting in center of the room!
Perched on the couch was a young woman, looking somewhere in her early twenties. Brown hair and eyes framed a rather attractive face as she smiled at him. Her uniform was very dark. Black pants, boots, and blouse with a blood red tie. All around, she was rather pretty looking.
"Hello there young man, please take a seat." Her voice was calm as she gestured to a comfortable looking chair sitting across from the couch she was sitting on. Looking at the seat, Shirou decided to stay on his feet as he questioned the woman across from him.
"Who are you?" It was best to get the simple stuff out of the way first.
"I am the guide for your evaluation. Please, take a seat."
Shirou stared at her a little while longer, a gaze the woman across from him easily met. Slowly, Shirou took the seat that had been offered to him. He clearly wasn't in control of the situation, but nothing had been done to him yet, so it might have been best to go along with the strange woman for now. Once he was seated, the woman continued.
"The evaluation is carried out in three parts. Passing all three of these tests will grant you status as a master in the Holy Grail War."
Well that explains everything, Shirou thought to himself, uncharacteristically bitter. But he shook it off quickly. He had questions and was going to get some answers!
"What's the Holy Grail War?" Best to get the basic stuff out of the way first, then he'd be a little closer to getting out of here.
"The Holy Grail War is a competition in which magi compete for the Holy Grail." An explanation that didn't really explain anything, Shirou noticed.
"Why am I being forced to compete?"
"All who attempt to summon a Servant are brought here to be tested."
"But I didn't try to summon anything," Shirou protested. To no avail it would seem, as the woman across from him didn't react to his objection.
After a few moments of silence, Shirou continued his questioning.
"How do I get through these tests?" He should probably humor her for now, especially if it would get him home sooner.
"The first test is through the door to my right. To pass, you have to return with the emblem at the end of the hall."
Looking to his left, Shirou saw that there was another door. This one was light brown with a white moon across the center of it. If it would get him out of here, he'd pass some stupid test. Getting to his feet, one more question came to mind.
"What happens if I fail?"
"Failure in the trials results in the death of the applicant," this grim pronouncement was given in the same tone as everything else had been. Something Shirou couldn't help but find unnerving.
After giving his odd host a moment to say something else, Shirou resigned himself to getting through the test he had been assigned.
The hallway in front of him seemed to have been made from some kind of polished stone. Between that and the light fog that seemed to hover around his waist gave the hall an almost supernatural appearance. An odd thing for a magus to think, he supposed.
Moving slowly through the fog, Shirou noticed that the only illumination seemed to come from the light glow of the mist around him. Leaving the ceiling cloaked in shadows.
He got so caught up in the mist, that he almost didn't notice the pit he was about to step into.
Barely noticeable through the mist was a black hole where the ground simply seemed to disappear. With one foot over air, Shirou panicked and threw himself backwards. Unfortunately, he used more force than was strictly necessary, landing hard on his back with a wince.
Rolling over to his knees, Shirou cautiously reached out with his hand. As he expected, his hand met nothing but air. And as intently as he tried, he couldn't see the bottom of the pit he had nearly fallen into. Reaching around did show him where the floor remained on either side of the hole. Getting gingerly to his feet, Shirou walked around the pit. Moving forward, he kept a much closer eye on his surroundings.
What followed was a series of drops and hidden weapons that wouldn't have looked out of place in a video game.
Crawling on his stomach to avoid being cut in half by an enormous pendulum, Shirou didn't feel any sort of amusement with his current situation. And worse, he didn't know any magic that might have helped him either.
Leaping over a pit that covered the entire length of the hall in front of him, Shirou finally found the end of the hall. Embedded in the wall in front of him was the emblem he had been forced to find. It was the left half of a circle, with a sliver of moon imprinted on it. The emblem itself looked like it was mad from bronze, though it felt a lot lighter than it looked when he carefully pried it off the wall and turned it over in his hands.
"That wasn't so tough," Shirou muttered at he put his hard earned prize in his pocket.
As if the world was simply waiting for him to say that, the hall began to rumble around him. Realizing he might have celebrated a bit prematurely, Shirou turned around and bolted for the entrance.
On the bright side, the traps had stopped after he got the emblem. So he wasn't dodging blades and stone columns while he went for the exit. On the downside, the floor was collapsing under his feet as he went. The already existing pits slowly getting wider as he went. Twice he almost stumbled into a hole rushing for the exit, awkwardly throwing himself side to side to avoid the drop.
After a minute of frantic running he got to the exit. Throwing himself against the door, he fumbled with the handle before getting it open. Rushing into the room, he slammed the door shut behind him as if afraid the collapse would catch up with him. Panting, he leaned against the door while he waited for his heart to calm down. His odd host watched him collapse the same way she had watched him before.
Getting to his feet, Shirou resisted the urge to wince. While he hadn't actually gotten injured, his muscles were burning from his brief run and his skin was iterated from where he had brushed against the hard walls and floor. Ignoring that, he made his way to the chair by his host. Reaching into his pocket, he held out the emblem to the woman in front of him.
"Very nice," she complimented as she took the item from him. "You have passed the first trial."
"It was…" Well, he wasn't sure what he could call it in mixed company. Instead, he decided to keep things moving.
"Can we just move on?" The woman in front of him nodded.
"Yes, you have passed the first challenge and now you may move onto the second. Proceed through the door on your right when you wish to proceed."
Turning, he saw that there was a door there. One he was sure hadn't been there earlier. A glance to the other side of the room showed a blank wall where he had taken the door to the first challenge.
Making a note of that particular oddity, Shirou cautiously made his way to the door. Wondering what bizarre test he would have to face next.
Instead of a hallway, the door opened up to another room. Though this one was far larger than the one he had just come from. The walls and ceiling here looked they were made from glass, though the floor was made from the same white tiles that the first hall he'd entered. The entire room had the impression of being held somewhere at the bottom of the sea, because on the other side of the clear glass walls was what looked like the ocean!
Weary of what seemed to be billions of gallons of water surrounding a small glass room, Shirou inched his way inside.
In the center of the room was a single glowing sphere, an orb of golden light that bobbed up and down in an invisible breeze. As benign as it looked, Shirou didn't think this test would be any less life threatening then the last one.
He was proven right when a small hole opened up near the ceiling on the far wall and water started gushing in to fill the room. More than a little frightened, Shirou did the only thing he could think of and lunged for the glowing ball in front of him. The sphere responded by dancing playfully away from him. Water already reaching his ankles Shirou kept going after it.
The chase that followed was every bit as frantic as the escape from the hall had been. While the ball he was chasing wasn't especially fast, Shirou was slowed down by the rapidly filling water levels. Once could only go so fast when they were slogging through waist deep water. He actually gained a bit of speed once he was able to start swimming, but the orb danced just out of reach.
The rising water levels also added a new dimension to the struggle. Instead of moving from side to side, the small orb would dive under water only to rise again a short distance away.
Pausing to catch his breath, Shirou turned and watched the small ball why he tried to float. Oddly enough, the ball hadn't stop moving. Instead it moved in what looked like a random pattern.
Once he had finished catching his breath, Shirou watched the ball continue and a pattern quickly formed in his mind. Meanwhile, the ceiling was only a few feet above his head. So Shirou made his move.
Diving under the water, Shirou waited where he thought the orb would approach. And seconds later, the ball dove and sped in his direction. It seemed to move much faster underwater than it did above it. As if just now seeing him, the ball tried to slow down. But turning didn't seem to be something it did well underwater. Reaching out, he felt a rush of satisfaction as he grasped the warm object.
Looking up, he felt a brief moment of panic when he realized the water had reached the ceiling. And he was running low on air already. Fortunately, grabbing the orb seemed to have triggered some kind of drain, because the water levels quickly began to fall. Once his head was above water, he let himself be brought back down to ground level with the water.
Once his feet found the floor again, he looked at the item he'd caught. Instead of a glowing ball, it had transformed into the other half of the emblem he had gotten earlier. Made out of the same odd material, it had the imprint of a sun rising over a hill.
Slightly unsteady, he made his way to the door. He wanted a chance to sit down.
Wandering back into the room, Shirou glanced at the door behind him. He watched in some amazement as the door seemed to lose its color and meld into the rest of the wall. That was an interesting trick.
Wearily, he took his seat, feeling about a bit cold in his drenched clothes. He was surprised when the woman across from him raised her hand. It was the most pronounced gesture she had made since he had gotten here.
A moment later, it was like a blast of hot air had rushed over him. Slightly flushed, he saw the water leave his clothes and body in a short burst of steam. The woman in front of him lowered her hand back to her lap when he was dry.
"Thank you very much." Consider how easily she spoke of his death, this was a level of courtesy that he honestly hadn't expected.
"I am capable of offering medical aid and other basic services such as clothing repair to all applicants in between trials," was the matter of fact response he got.
Shirou rolled that over in his head for a minute; he was in no hurry to take another test after almost drowning like that.
"You mentioned other applicant, which means other people took these tests as well?"
"Correct."
"How many other people have been through here?"
"Since preliminary evaluations began four days ago, there have been fourteen applicants including you."
That also matched up to when he'd starting having those attacks, but didn't explain why he'd had them.
"And how many of those people passed?" He hadn't forgotten her admittance of death resulting from failure.
"Six individuals have passed so far."
Shirou felt a chill go down his spine.
"And the other seven…died?"
"Correct," the grim announcement was offered in the same tone as everything else. He was starting to wonder if the woman across him felt anything at all!
"And this is just going to keep going?" He all but demanded. The guide didn't take any noticeable offense to his tone or words.
"Until all twelve spots are filled, applicants may continue to apply."
Waiting to see if she would continue, he wasn't surprised when she simply stared at him for two minutes. Sighing, he handed her the other half of the emblem.
Taking it in hand, his host left her seat on the couch for the first time since he had arrived. Turning away from him, she walked towards the wall his seat had been facing, the one wall where no strange door had appeared or disappeared. Taking the other half of the emblem from her pocket, she placed the two items together with a clink. Once that was done, she placed the completed circle against the wall where it promptly fused into the stone.
Honestly, he had kind of seen this coming.
"You are the first person to pass the first two tests without using any magic or magical tools."
Shirou couldn't stop himself from blushing, though he wasn't sure how that fell on the compliment insult scale.
In front of them appeared a set of old fashioned double doors, something that would not have looked out of place in an old fashioned country home. The emblem he had risked his life to create was fused into the wood, leaving behind a wavy impression of gold and silver where the two doors met.
Shirou faced his host for may have been the last time. "Do you have any advice for the last test?"
"Don't die."
It could have been worse advice, he supposed.
The final room had an almost…medieval feel to it.
It was a large circular room made out of stone. The kind of room you would have expected to find in an old fashioned castle. Illuminating the room was a series of torches attached to the wall, their flickering fires providing a decent amount of illumination. Like the other rooms, there was nothing really in the way of furnishings. But there were a large object sitting in the center of the room.
Human shaped and standing over six feet, it was made from what looked like bronze. In its left hand was an enormous broadsword, nearly four feet in length and three feet across. Tightly clenched in its left hand was a round shield, more than three feet around. The rest of its features lacked any real detail, save for the crude looking helmet perched on top of its head.
Shirou smiled as the figure began to lumber towards him.
This was a challenge he was ready for.
The creature before him was slow, sturdy, and probably very resistant to magic. But he wasn't reliant enough on magic to be worried about little details like that.
Despite being the stepson of the famous, or infamous, Kiritsugu Emiya, he didn't know many spells that would help him in a fight. Not too surprising, considering how reluctant the man had been to involve him in his world in the first place. But he did have one idea for dealing with the golem in front of him.
Shirou spent the next several minutes testing the range and flexibility of his new opponent. As he expected, the golem was slow but struck with great force, swinging wildly with his sword and at one point nearly taking his head off with a swing from the shield. Eventually his opponent overextended himself with an overhead swing and stumbled forward slightly, so Shirou made his move.
Reinforcement, an advanced application of magic used to strengthen an object. It was probably the most advanced technique he knew, not that he knew too many, and one he used occasionally when making repairs.
But it was possible to reinforce an object too much, destroying the object that you were trying to make stronger. And that's exactly what Shirou did here.
Rolling to his feet, Shirou reached out and touched the golem's right arm and then he flooded it with prana. The already unnaturally perfect metal didn't last as long as a normal object would have, so even Shirou was surprised when the arm broke so quickly at his touch. He stayed that way long enough for his opponent to spin around and clip him with its shield while he tried to dive out of the way.
Rolling with the blow, Shirou was sure a large bruise was already forming on his shoulder. But he got to his feet before it could come back in for another blow. Or worse, try and crush him.
Without its main weapon gone, it wasn't hard for Shirou to find a hole in the golem's defenses and reach for its head. Afterwards, the animated statue fell to the floor with a crash. Watching to it see if it would stay down, Shirou was satisfied when it remained on the ground.
Wincing, he rolled his shoulder. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off he was really starting to feel that hit. If it had struck him head on it probably would have broken his arm.
Considering the last test completed, Shirou made his way for the door.
The woman in the other room had mentioned that she provided medical service.
Wow, that was a chapter that just wouldn't end. I'm a little unsure about the ending, but I needed to get through this to get on with the real story.
Now, as is the usual case for me, I will conclude this chapter with a few notes.
First, I will repeat what I said above. This story was inspired by Fate/Extra, which I just recently got my own copy of. It will include elements from Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Extra, and several others, some of which will be my own creation.
Second, this does not mean that The Holy Grail Tournament, my other story for this category, has been cancelled yet. I may even use elements from one story in the other.
Third, the Shirou in my stories knows about and is able to use the circuits he has been born with. I always found it a little annoying that Shirou seemed to go from one extreme to another over the course of Fate/Stay Night.
Fourth, this is in fact a harem story. I am not sure who will be in the harem right now, but I do have a rough idea. On a related note, there will not be any Yaoi in this story. I do not read it, I do not write it. But I can't shake the feeling that I'll need to reiterate that somewhere down the line.
Fifth, I know that not everything in this chapter will make sense right now. I don't expect you to understand everything yet. Explanations will come in the next few chapters.
Sixth, the characters that I created for this chapter is not going to be a big part of the plot, she and the others like her are my version of NPC's created by the Holy Grail to supervise the war. Which should help explain why her answers seemed a bit automated, it was intentional.
Seventh, I head back to college on the sixteenth. I hope to update once or twice before going back, but even outside of class I have a number of things I need to take care of. So we'll just have to wait and see what happens in regards to updates. Sorry, but priorities are what they are.
Eighth, what did you think of the challenges I made. I know they weren't all that hard, but I wanted them to be potentially life threatening without being too hard, strange as that probably sounds. To be fair, Shirou is a rookie right now, even if he is a bit better at magic than he was in canon.
Ninth, I hope the challenges were interesting. But there are only so many ways to say duck and dodge for the first test to be interesting. Same with the second test, this was meant to be a sort of mental challenge, but that would have been boring to just read about. The last test was the most straightforward, but it felt a bit rushed.
Tenth, the Holy Grail War that I am creating here will have a total of twelve Masters. This is to help balance out the much higher number of Servants I'm going to have. I do not plan for any of the Masters to be OC's, so don't worry about that. That said, anyone with a character idea is free to submit it.
Eleventh, I've got a few ideas for a few different series right now and I hope to publish several of those stories sometime in the future. So keep a lookout for those and you might see something you like.
Twelfth, I'd considered leaving the last challenge out as a cliffhanger, but as you can see it didn't last very long. And honestly, I wanted to get through this part pretty badly.
Thirteenth, I try to keep the magic here as accurate as possible to canon. So if you see any glaring errors, let me know. I try and keep things accurate in a number of areas.
Fourteenth, I am trying to increase my aver chapter length to about six thousand words. So that may slow me down a little, but not too much.
Finally, I will end the first chapter of my newest story like so many authors do. Please take a moment, leave a review and tell me what you thought of my story.