The sound of metal hitting metal echoed through the room, the two men lunging at each other, running over the rubble of the building below their feet.
Letting out a battle cry, Shirou swung his blade downwards, Archer (or EMIYA) and the two jumped away from each other before quickly advancing again and clashing blades.
"Don't you realize that saving everyone only forces you to kill others?! It's a mistake! You will just regret your choice in the end!" EMIYA shouted, and Shirou scowled, slashing at him again.
"You aren't me if you regret a choice like that!" Making another powerful blow, he pushed the older male away and threw away one of his blades, before charging towards him.
'Too fast,' EMIYA thought, eyes widening. 'I won't have time to block or dodge.'
It was the end for him.
He knew - it was obvious.
He wouldn't live to apologize to Rin. He wondered if he should have simply continued to save people, and ignored the regret that had crept onto him, corrupting him. Maybe his eyes would have opened to the world that his younger self had wanted - the world that he could have seen but had been too blind to see.
He braced himself, closing his eyes. He knew that he would die.
"Don't give up yet. Don't you understand?"
EMIYA heard Shirou's sword hit the ground and looked up, confused. Rather than seeing the boy who was about to kill him, he saw a whispy, black, gas-like man(?) with a glowing magenta pattern on his face.
"You could help each other. You understand what you did wrong, Heroic Spirit. You understand his drive to save others - you understand it, and you're drawn to it. You want to save others as well."
Staring at the creature, EMIYA scowled, drawing his blades. "Who are you?"
"I am whatever you want to call me, but it's better to say I'm your savior. You were about to die, weren't you?"
"Let go of me!" Shirou shouted, trying to wrench his wrist from the creature's oddly strong grasp.
"Not until you understand what you were about to do. Can't you two work together, now?"
The two said nothing and the blonde woman who was watching, Saber (or Arturia) narrowed her eyes.
"How about this, Heroic Spirit..."
The creature turned to face EMIYA and a toothy grin appeared on its face.
"I give you and your friend here a new start, and you can save everyone - save the world."
The two counterparts' eyes widened at this making the creature's grin widen.
"You can save lives together - you can make so many people happy...of course, there will be those who will hate you, but think about it - a world full of conflict, and you two can help stop it."
"How do we know we can trust you?" EMIYA asked, and Shirou nodded in agreement. The creature thought for a moment before grinning again.
"Well, how about this...you two will travel there and have one opportunity whether to stay there or come back. And you can speak to your Heroic Spirit, Arturia and your Master, Rin Tohsaka."
The two counterparts met eyes for a moment before turning back to Arturia, who crossed her arms. "I would prefer to travel with Shirou, but it seems I can't."
"I'm afraid not. So, what'll it be?"
The two Emiya's squinted at the creature with suspicion before glancing at each other.
Before they could even speak, the creature expanded its gas-like body and covered them.
"Looks like your decision is mutual. Let's be on our way!"
"Shirou!" Arturia exclaimed, seeing her Master struggling.
"Bye-bye, Heroic Spirit Arturia!"
Before the blonde Servant could move, the three were gone.
Vanished.
Disappeared, to who-knows-where.
I'm falling, I can feel it. What happened? I can't open my eyes and I can't move at all.
I feel someone's hand grasping onto mine, pulling me downwards. It's a male hand. It's EMIYA's hand, I can tell somehow.
The wind whips my hair about and I feel his hand become cold and my hand suddenly clenches, feeling his hand slip from mine and I can feel some sort of cold liquid cover my arm and work its way to my chest and face.
I flinch at the icy feeling, but I can't wrestle the thick liquid off of me - it's like it has a mind of its own. I felt it split into two parts, one resting in the center of my chest, below the center of my collarbone, the other crawling up to the center of my forehead.
Suddenly, it begins to heat up and it seared my skin, and I open my mouth to scream out in pain, but I couldn't make a sound. I can feel my skin be ripped and curl up, the scorching hot substance on my forehead burning my flesh and burning the nerves around it. I suddenly can't feel my forehead - it's completely numb and the only pain I can feel, no, the only thing I can feel is the stuff burning into my chest.
And suddenly, the pain stops - gone, so suddenly that my body feels frigid, the sweat that's slipping along my skin felt like I was in the ocean.
Then, I suddenly jerk to a stop, and my back smashes into something. I can hear wood hitting the ground, and branches snapping.
I open my eyes slowly, wincing as the light hits them. Sitting up, I looked around and see that I'm in the middle of a forest of some sort.
I felt strange, like I'm being forced to be in a fetal position in a cramped space. Opening my eyes, I see darkness, except for two screens, both shaped like a circle. It was bright, but for some reason it didn't quite hurt my eyes.
"Emiya! Can you hear me!" I shouted, trying to move. My legs could respond, but not my arms. How annoying.
"Archer?" I heard him call back. "Where are you? I don't see you." The screens changed, as if they were getting up and looking around. I frowned.
"Did you just stand up?" I asked.
"Um...yeah, where are you?" He asked. I suddenly felt a wave of uncertainty. What is this?
"This makes no sense - I'm in a black space, and all I see are two projections, one that seems to be looking around, the other is just staring straight forward," I explained. Why do I feel that I can trust Emiya?
The screen suddenly stilled. "Archer, do you see a large mountain with the sun just to its right?" Emiya asked.
"Yes, I do. Why?" The screens suddenly went black. "Wait, I can't see anything anymore."
Again, a wave of emotion washed over me. This time it was shock and realization.
"Archer, I have some bad news," Emiya said, sighing. I quirked a brow and waited. "You've been turned into some weird gem that's been burned into my body."
Wait, what? "I'm confused, how?" I asked. Looking at the screens, I saw that they were turning around. "Ah, I think I understand. I've been somehow been pulled into some sort of world that I can see what's going on through these gems that you have in your body. And we can somehow communicate."
"I'm going to assume it's because you're these gems that I can hear you," Emiya stated. "This is weird - your voice is being projected directly into my head."
"A dreamscape of some sort?" I suggested, a bit unsettled that I'm in Emiya's flesh and skin.
"Probably. Do you have any idea where we are?" He asked, and the screens (which were the gems, I now understood) looked around.
"Nope, no idea whatsoever. Try heading towards those mountains." To my surprise, Emiya obeyed and began walking towards them. "What, do you suddenly feel like trusting me?" I asked, and Emiya hummed in thought for a moment.
"Well, does it look like there's anything I can do besides trust you right now?" I grumbled under my breath, seeing that he had a point. We were in silence for a moment as he walked along, then he paused, looking down. His locks of orange hair somewhat obscured my view in the left screen.
I rubbed my arms, regretting having not taken my ripped shirt with me. The gashes I had from my battle with Archer were scars, which surprised me when I had seen them earlier. "Emiya, did something happen?" Archer asked, but I shook my head, before remembering he couldn't see me.
"No, just a bit cold. You can probably see that I'm not wearing my shirt," I said, almost rolling my eyes. He just grunted and went silent once again. After another moment of mourning my shirt, I straightened up again and kept walking.
The walk to the mountain was bland and quiet, before I said, "I wonder how we're supposed to be able to speak to Saber and Tohsaka." Archer was silent for a moment.
"Search your pockets, maybe?" Complying, I came up with nothing other than a thin, white, folded piece of cloth. Unfolding it, I began to wonder how it had even fit in my pocket in the first place. Finally finishing unfolding it, I saw that was a hood with a string to attack the part below my neck. Putting it on, it draped until a bit below my shoulders. Pulling down the hood, I suddenly felt very warm. "Emiya, did something happen? You haven't spoke for a few minutes."
"No, nothing happened," I said, frowning at the hood before continuing on my way. Having Archer concerned over me was really, really strange.
It felt like hours later before I finally saw the end of the forest. "It's about time," I muttered, before stepping beyond the last tree.
What I saw amazed me. A huge city, built onto the side of a mountain, giant walking houses going about in the canyon just on the border of the metropolis. Archer was speechless, how I could tell I didn't know.
"Wow..." I let out and I felt like someone was agreeing with me. Archer, maybe? "Should we go over there?" I asked him, and he mumbled "I don't know," before going silent again. "Not very helpful, are you now?" I grumbled before looking down into the canyon. It was steep, but I would make it.
"There's a bridge to your left, genius." Archer stated sarcastically, and I looked up, looking around and seeing the bridge. "Point these things out sooner," I growled, running towards it. "Sir, yes sir," he said sarcastically and I scowled. Choosing to ignore him, I kept running and eventually reached the bridge. Looking over it, I saw that it was a drawbridge. "There's a house-thing coming this way," I mumbled, before running forward as fast as I could. "Emiya, what are you doing?! You're going to get us both killed if that drawbridge opens!"
"It won't kill us," I hissed, as it began to rise. Increasing my pace, I heard someone shouting at me. Shutting them out, I reached the edge of the first half of the bridge and jumped as far as I could, grabbing onto the edge of the other side, pulling myself up.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" Archer exclaimed, and I began to slide down the other side of the bridge. "I wasn't!" I shouted in return, finally reaching the bottom where a security guard caught me before I fell down.
"What were you thinking, young man? You could have died!" I looked up and my eyes widened in surprise.
A pig-human?
Quickly shaking off my shock, I stood. "Thanks for catching, mister," I said, dusting myself off. "And I'm alive, aren't I? Anyways, where is this?" I asked, and the security guard let out a breath before turning towards the city.
"This is Kanalis."
"Kanalis?" I said under my breath. "Alright, thanks."
"Ready your passport if you want to get in, young man. And don't pull any more stunts, got it?" I nodded, but didn't mean it. Walking past him, I heard awed whispering from people around me. Pulling up my hood as not to let them see my face, I kept walking forward.
"They're all animal-humans," Archer noticed and I nodded. "Yeah." Reaching the final policeman, he held out a hand (he was a monkey, which unsettled me). I dug through my pockets and took out my passport before showing it to him.
I was going to take an over-seas school trip, until I had to fight, so it wasn't too surprising that I found it.
"You're a foreigner?" The monkey-human asked, and I nodded. "All right, you're good. Carry on." Taking my passport back, I stepped past him and looked around. I heard squealing and excited chatter this time and turned to see some female animal-humans, some ordinary humans as well, staring at me. I looked down and my face heated up, remembering that I had no shirt.
Archer howled with laughter as I turned and ran down the street, a few people staring after me. "Shut up, Archer, you aren't helping me here!"