Hello, and thank you for taking interest in this story.
However, before you begin to read, I would like for you and perhaps some others you may be reading with to keep in mind that this part of a four book series takes place after the events of the Fate/Stay Night anime, and therefore has spoilers of the anime adaptations of the Fate Series, as well as some characters and components of Fate/Apocrypha and Fate/Grand Order. And later on it's very possible I will bring in parts of other parts of the games, light novels and manga associated with this series.
In addition, I have a few OC Servants as well, and there are plenty of OC's here - the story's riddled with them. It'll also be slightly departing from the original course of things, then again, it's simply another dimension, isn't it?\
And with that, let the tale begin.
It was unexpected.
It came without warning.
No words of advice had been given before it hit.
The fire, it just happened. It wasn't the cause of gunfire, nor a grenade. It just started without any known cause.
Many people were caught in its hungry flames, licking at their feet and eating them alive, as they screamed in pain, struggling to get away.
She just stared. Stared at the mayhem than was happening as she stood, blankly gazing out at the chaos beyond the door of her home, her broken home with its concrete walls on the floor from previous explosions. For a split second, she felt lucky.
Lucky she had been born into poverty - well, less money than most at least.
If she had been standing in a tall building for those who were born with money to back them, it would have collapsed and she would have died just a few minutes ago.
She flinched slightly as a chunk of the ceiling fell next to me, and she looked up before seeing the roof was unstable. Small pieces of plaster were falling from it, it was going to crush me soon. In a fit of slight panic, she forced herself to walk out the entryway to my home. The fire was all around her, but she couldn't let it get to her. Her pace slowly turned from a slow, tired walk to an all out sprint. Sprinting down the street, feeling the fire all around her as her eyes stung relentlessly.
It became hard to breath, the smoke surrounding my small form.
I can't die like this. I don't want to, I want to survive.
I want to live my life through, no matter how poor I may be, how worthless or talentless I may be.
I want to live.
That was the last thought that ran through her head before the building next to her began to fall. She didn't see it nor move fast enough to escape the impending doom, that was the rubble falling towards me, and she screamed.
She screamed louder than she had ever before.
But then she blacked out, the pain overtaking her.
This couldn't possibly be happening, where were all the people?
The young man ran about, his coat disposed of, his gun strapped to his back. He couldn't see a living soul, not anywhere. He couldn't let this happen.
He came here to save lives, not witness the death of the very ones who he wanted to rescue. More buildings came crumbling down around him, and slowly, his spirit dropped notch by notch.
For every building, there could be four or five people inside. Four or five people inside, who were probably just remains and crushed bones by the time he arrived. Desperately, he dug through the rubble. He would be satisfied to find even only some small sign of life. Anything.
A plant would suffice.
But then he heard it.
A shrill scream floated in the air, and he stood up rather suddenly, making a dash for where it came from. It sounded like a little girl. A child. No, they couldn't die, they were so young! He wouldn't let it happen.
He arrived at a fallen building, the damned thing destroyed and in pieces - he felt his knees grow weak and small tears fill his eyes. Had the girl died, just like the others? The others he couldn't save, no matter how hard he tried?
She's dead. That was the only thing he could think. The young man willed his legs to carry him to the rubble, before seeing a small pool of blood come from the edge of a large rock. Now that he looked closer, there was a small hand. It was pale, skinny, and a little gray - the hand of a child who possibly hadn't eaten in days.
No, no, no
He wouldn't let her die. There had to be a slim possibility she was alive, right? Right? He stood there for what seemed like forever, trying to convince himself that she hadn't died. No! These thoughts won't get him anywhere, he scowled, before gaining the courage to walk over to the stone and, placing his hands under it, heaving it away.
He pushed the stone a good distance before turning around to inspect the body.
The young man felt his mind go blank as he stared down at her.
A young Asian girl, a resident of the area. He'd completely forgotten he was on a battlefield in North Korea. This poor girl, an innocent civilian, had nothing to do with it, yet she had been pulled in. She was probably just trying to live her life, with what little money and food she had.
Rushing to her side, his hands hesitated above her frail, bloodied form. Would he hurt her by touching her? He could tell she was still alive from her breathing, which relieved him, but how was he supposed to get her out of this destruction?
Taking a deep breath, he carefully turned her over so she was lying on her back and took out some water and spare bandages. Tears fell from his eyes, both out of happiness he was saving someone, and out of the smoke hitting them. He held onto her small hand, a smile spreading across his face as he saw her weakly look towards him. She was alive, and still kicking.
He had to get her out of here, he snapped himself from his small "happy fit." He poured water onto her wounds, washing off the blood the best he could before wrapping up her worst injuries quickly.
The fire was spreading towards them and he had to get her into a safe area. Ripping off her burnt clothes, he picked her up in his arms as gently as he could before running through the flames, ignoring the pain all the way until he was back at the military base.
It felt like she was floating. Her body felt as if it was there, yet not there, rocking up and down with some imaginary waves below her. The faint sound of lights buzzing filled her ears, but her eyes remaining closed. The girl tried to open them, but to no avail - she quickly realized her body was ridiculously tired and exhausted, making it nearly impossible to move at the moment.
Her world remained black - rather, it was dark and she couldn't see much. All she could see was her eyelids as the light hit them, she assumed it was her eyelids anyway, seeing that everything was a reddish orange, with a few (what seemed to be) veins stretching across her vision.
She couldn't remember a whole lot, come to think of it.
Who was she? Her name didn't pop into mind when she questioned herself.
Where was she? She didn't remember that either.
The only vivid memories were a burning city, death in the air and faint screams for help with bodies everywhere, and a man with tanned skin, white hair and silver eyes looking down at her as if it was the happiest moment in his life - as if her just existing that moment then and there was the best thing that had happened to him.
Screw who she was, who was he?
The man who saved her life, the man who she felt indebted to, without even knowing his identity. The mere thought of him intrigued her.
But enough for now, she felt her consciousness slipping once again as she felt herself fall into her imaginary ocean, her thoughts becoming still and her breaths growing slower.
She was about to fall asleep once again when the sound of a door opening interrupted her peaceful state of being. There were two voices, speaking in an unfamiliar language - it sounded similar to yet completely different than her native tongue. Korean.
Yes, that word felt familiar to her. That was the name of her language.
And she was from...Korea! Yes, Korea.
Once again she was cut from her thoughts when the sound of footsteps approached her, and the rude sound of a chair being pulled up made her internally flinch. There was a slight sigh as the person sat down and she identified them as male, from what she could hear.
"Do you want me to open your eyes?"
The sudden words startled her, waking her from some sort of daze she didn't realize she was in. It was the same voice as one she had heard speaking in another language just a moment ago.
She did her best to open her mouth to speak, but was only able to move her lips enough to part them ever so slightly.
There was a deep chuckle, though it was out of both amusement and sadness. She heard the shuffling of cloth before feeling two large, warm hands touch her. She felt like flinching away but, of course, she was unable to do so. Gently, the hands, she assumed they belonged to the man who spoke to her, helped her sit up a little before pulling what she thought was a blanket a little further up her form.
When his warm hands drew back, she felt cold. Why were his hands so hot?
Then, she felt them on her eyes, carefully pulling up her eyelids, doing their best not to hurt her. The sudden appearance of the harsh light made her pupils shrink into small pin points before they slowly grew accustomed to the glare from above her.
There were long, white lights hanging from the ceiling, light green tiles as far as she could see without moving her eyes too much. There were white curtains on either side of her bed, and a curtain drawn around something on the other side of the room - another bed, probably, but she didn't try to look around too much, her eyes were too dry for that. Thanks to the unidentified person having helped her sit up, she was able to see him, though.
It was the man who rescued her - his tanned skin and white hair were impossible to mistake for any other. "There, can you see okay?" He spoke with a slight accent, implying he wasn't Korean like herself, but that much she could tell from looking at him. She knew her skin tone was pale, since she had managed to see her hands, and her hair was coal black. The opposite of him.
Trying to nod her head, she was taken by surprise when her head followed her commands, bobbing up and down, though very subtly. He looked so relieved, seeing her respond, his tense form relaxing considerably. He was sitting rather close to the bed, allowing her to have a good look at his face and take in his gentle yet stern features. He reached out and took her hand in his much larger ones, as if consoling her.
"I'm so glad you're okay, you were in really bad shape when I found you..." the man said softly and she nodded again, doing her best to show the man she was understanding what he was saying. He smiled at her before it disappeared as he remembered something. "Do you remember your parents?"
She shook her head, slowly gaining more strength and he saddened at this. "I see. Do you remember your name, at least?" No, she shook her head again. The man frowned, rubbing his thumb on the palm of her left hand. It felt comforting. "Would you be alright with me giving you a name for now?"
This time, she nodded her head. She felt she could trust this man, despite having met him...well, she didn't know how long ago, but this was her second encounter with him.
"Well...from now on, I'll call you Hajime, okay?" She - no, Hajime nodded. The name sounded strange to her, but she would get used to it eventually. "I'm Shirou, Emiya Shirou. I don't know if you'd approve of this or not, but I'm your legal guardian, starting today."
Wait, legal guardian? What did that mean? The complicated phrase flew right over her head, though she did understand 'guardian.' But either way she had no idea what he had just said. So Hajime nodded, not knowing what else she could do in this situation. Shirou looked like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and for some reason, that made her happy.
"You don't have to worry about anything, I'm going to help you through it okay?" Through what though? Hajime gave him a questioning look but he didn't answer it, just giving her hand a reassuring squeeze before letting go. "I have to go now, Hajime."
As Shirou stood up, though, she weakly reached after him. She didn't want him to leave yet, not when she had begun to feel so at ease in his presence. The white haired man saw this and he looked like he pitied her, yet felt touched by the gesture. He leaned over and petted her black hair, and hesitantly pressed his lips to her forehead. Hajime blinked at the gesture. It made her feel refreshed, almost. Energy entered her system and she felt blood rush to the rest of her body, pins and needles everywhere.
After a short moment, Shirou drew away and patted her cheek with a small grin. "Don't worry, kid, I'll be back tomorrow. So hang in there for me until then, aight?" Hajime nodded, and the ghost of a smile crossed her face. His grin widened before he waved, "bye Hajime, see you later," and straightened up as she offered him a faint wave as well.
The girl watched Shirou leave before attempting to sit up a bit more. And, thankfully, she was successful in adjusting herself slightly, though the feeling of pins and needles became stronger, making her flinch. She lay still before feeling exhaustion slowly creep over her once more as she closed her eyes, falling asleep again.