Hello Folks. This is my first attempt at a fanfic. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so my uploads may be a bit on the slow side.
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the original content by Type Moon.
Second Chance
Five years after the Fuyuki Fire
"I wish upon the Holy Grail; Miyu, I pray you find a world where you won't have to suffer any longer. I pray that you meet kind people. I pray that you find friends you can laugh with. I pray you find… a second chance….a warm, small…share of happiness…".
That was the wish Shirou Emiya made upon the Ainsworth Holy Grail, his reward for winning their falsehood of the sacred ritual the Founding Families had created two and a half centuries ago. He could never have been more surprised by the when he had woken he had found himself back in his seven year old body in the destroyed ruins of Fuyuki City in 1994. The day the Fourth Holy Grail War had ended.
The day everything changed.
There had however been two significant changes to his original version of that day. One was that his younger sister had somehow ended up there with him. He had later hypothesized the Grail had read Miyu's feeling with his wish and had in turn determined that him being with her was what made her happy.
The other had been that the Class Cards from the false war were there, floating above him in a circle, each glowing with power and displaying a different character and name on them.
Saber.
Lancer.
Rider.
Berserker.
Assassin.
Caster.
Archer.
Each were names his father had told him about when he told him about the Heaven's Feel Ritual, also known as the Holy Grail War. Seven Servants summoned by seven Masters to compete over the mythical wish-granting chalice in an all-out battle, winner take all. The Ainsworth's had created the Card System to replace the Servant System for their version of the war. Instead of summoning Servant's they channelled their powers through the cards.
He had realised this was his second chance, a chance to save those he had lost. To change fate itself. He had researched the events leading to the Ainsworth's rise to power carefully and identified the main causes.
As a result, he had falsely claimed to be a former associate of the Ainsworth's and secretly warned the Einzbern, Tosaka and Matou families along with the Mage's Association and the Holy Church about the Ainsworth's and their plan to steal the records of the Heaven's Feel Ritual to create their own version of it and of their intention to destroy the Founding Three.
While the Founding Three had been a little dubious of the warning the Association and Church had taken it seriously and investigated. As a result, their plans had been discovered and the Enforcers along with a large group of volunteer magi, both freelancers and tower magi, had attacked the Ainsworth family. They had taken down Beatrice Flowerchild and Angelica Ainsworth, the users of the Berserker and Second Archer cards respectively, along with the reanimated Atrum Galliasta, Kariya Matou, Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald and Zachary Ainsworth, the Caster, Rider, Lancer and Saber Card's former owners.
From what his spy familiars reported, the original cards had not been found during the raid. This led Shirou to believe the original cards had been erased to prevent a time paradox with his own cards. As for the Second Archer Card, the one based off Gilgamesh, it had been destoryed in the raid and its fragments had been to damaged to be repaired, something Shirou had been very grateful for.
Julian Ainsworth, however had gotten away along with his most dangerous weapon, Pandora aka Erika Ainsworth. As a result there was and active bounty on them both and the information given on both of them was frankly, disturbing.
The files the Association had found in the Ainsworth Estate had enabled them to piece together that Julian was just the current reincarnation of the original leader of the Ainsworth's, Darius, and Erika was an immortal Mud Doll, a type of homunculus, that possessed the Noble Phantasm, Pandora's Box. The box was extremely dangerous, as when opened it would release the sins of humanity upon the world. However, the good news was it was currently unable to be powered without the Holy Grail, which could only be used by the winner of a Holy Grail War.
It also meant that Shirou had saved the world from the Ainsworth's evil designs.
Still he had kept his vigil knowing that one day they would be back.
Right now however he was enjoying the new life he been given by the Grail. He was currently sitting on the back veranda of his home, looking up at the stars. It was so peaceful he wished it could stay that way forever.
His gazing was interrupted by his adoptive father sitting down next to him.
Kiritsugu Emiya. A man both respected and feared by all of magical society. In the years before they had met he had been an infamous mercenary and assassin, hunting down anything from basic criminals to Dead Apostle Ancestors. Fifteen years prior, however the Einzbern's had contracted him to be their representative in the Fourth Grail War. In those ten years before it he had met and fallen in love with the future vessel of the Grail, Irisviel von Einzbern, and the two had had a child, Illyasviel.
Sadly, the war had torn their family apart. Irisviel had died as a result of being the vessel for the Grail, Kiritsugu had been cursed by the Grail's evil contents and Illyasviel had been all but kidnapped by the Einzbern's, to serve their own twisted ends.
Kiritsugu had explained to him about the Grail Wars when he had asked about them a couple of years ago. Originally, the Grail had been an omnipotent wish granting device, created by the Einzbern's. The Matou's, original known as the Makiri, had provided the Servant System and the Tosaka's had provided the spiritually rich land of Fuyuki as the battlefield. Every sixty years the war would be fought, but for some reason the Grail was never won. After the first two failures, the Einzbern's had tried to swing things in their favor by summoning a Servant outside of the original seven classes.
Angra Mainyu, the source of all evil.
The Persian God of Darkness had been summoned as an Avenger Class Servant. However, it turned out his vast power had been unable to be replicated by the Grail. As a result he had been killed in the early stages of the war.
But little did they know, that had been his plan all along.
The Third War had been another failure, but Angra Mainyu, after shedding his Servant form, had infected the Grail to its core, distorting the Grail's orginal purpose. Now it only granted wishes through destruction and that destruction was meant to fuel Angra so he could be fully resurrected.
The Grail was now a tool of the Apocalypse.
That had confused Shirou at first before he had realized the Ainsworth's and Einzbern's Holy Grail's were two different objects entirely. The Ainsworth's Holy Grail was formed from a magical formula that used a human as a conduit for the seven cards to power it, rather than a conceptual object with a homunculus as its core, so it was perfectly safe to use.
Now the curse was killing him and if his guess was right, Kiritsugu wouldn't last more than a few more weeks.
Kiritsugu looked up at the stars for a moment before speaking. "So, how long have you been a magus?"
Shirou smiled. "Should have guessed you'd figure it out", he replied ruefully, "To answer your question, I've been one since we met".
"So you lied about losing your memories?" he asked.
Shirou shook his head. "No, I learned these skills in another timeline", he said.
Kiritsugu frowned slightly. "So time travel, eh?"
Shirou nodded. He reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew the Class Cards. They began to float in a circle above his hand.
Kiritsugu studied them for a moment. "Mystic Codes?" he asked.
"Of a sort", Shirou answered, "These are the Class Cards. Each one is connected to a Heroic Spirit and is capable of channelling their power into a human being".
"Fascinating", Kiritsugu breathed, "Which one's are they?"
"Well, Lancer is Cú Chulainn, Ireland's Child of Light. Caster is Medea, the Witch of Betrayal. Rider is Medusa, the Gorgan. Assassin is Hassan-i-Sabbah, the man of a hundred faces. Berserker is Hercules. Saber is Arturia Pendragon and last is Archer. Ironically, he is none other than a possible version of myself from the future, the Counter-Guardian Heroic Spirit EMIYA".
The last one seemed to shock his father. "A version of you became a Counter-Guardian?" he breathed.
"Yeah, I suspect he was the one from the original timeline", Shirou replied, "According to his memories, he has been summoned in multiple different timelines and each time he was defeated in the Fifth Holy Grail War. And just like my other selves, I was able to learn his skills in virtually no time at all and even surpass them, thanks to our magic resinating with one another".
"How so?" his father asked.
"Well you've probably heard of magecraft that can allow one to learn skills from a previous life. Well in our case, our magic was one in the same and as such it connected us on a spiritual level allowing me to learn from his experiences and make his skills my own in a matter of days. Even his Reality Marble was remade in my own image".
"REALITY MARBLE!" yelped Kiritsugu.
"Yeah, I'm an Incarnation", Shirou explained, "The Incarnation of the Sword to be exact. You see my magic skill is called Tracing, an advanced form of Structural Analyse. With it I scan a weapon right down to its history, create a blueprint of it and store it in my Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works. I can then replicate any weapon I've traced with an advanced combination of Projection and Reinforcement magic and use them as my own, though bladed weapons are the easiest. I can even throw in some Alteration magic to alter their properties if I want to".
Kiritsugu looked quite impressed and curious.
"Are you the only one who can do this?" he asked.
Shirou considered it for a moment. "Well anyone could do Tracing if they put enough time into practicing the technique. But unlike me they don't have Unlimited Blade Works, so they wouldn't be able to retain the blueprint of the weapon after they have used it. On top of that, they wouldn't be able to copy more than one at a time. As such, they wouldn't be able to use Sword Barrel: Full Open, a technique that is similar to the Gates of Babylon that Gilgamesh used".
"The King of Hero's, eh".
"Yeah he was the Archer Servant in the last war, from what I understand", Shirou explained, causing Kiritsugu to flinch at the memories of that monster.
The elder Emiya quickly regained his composure. "Still, I have to ask, where did you obtain the cards from?" he asked.
Shirou sighed. "I fought in a different type of Holy Grail War, one created by the Ainsworth Family and specifically designed so they would be the victors no matter what happened. But they made two mistakes. First being that they kidnapped Miyu, to use her Sakatsuki lineage as a sacrifice to activate their Holy Grail. Their second mistake was they gave the Archer Card to a girl who had fallen in love with me. She sacrificed herself to get the card to me and protect me from the wielder of the Assassin card. It was them that gave me the strength to interfere with their plans and defeat the other card holders".
Kiritsugu smiled sadly. "So you travelled through time to save your sister and this mystery girl?" he asked.
Shirou nodded. "Yeah, although", he gave an amused look, "When I made my wish upon their version of the Grail, I was only thinking of saving Miyu from their grasp. The time travel thing was a complete accident. I suspect that the wording of my wish included Miyu's thoughts on what would make her happy. Thus she brought me along for the journey. But I don't regret it for a second".
His gaze intensified. "When I arrived here things had already changed", he told his father.
"How so?" he asked.
"Well, for one Miyu and I didn't originally meet until three years after the Fuyuki Fire. Another is that I used my knowledge, with a little deception, to have the Association look into the affairs of the Ainsworth's, who either are now dead or on the run".
"What do you mean you didn't meet Miyu for three year after the Fuyuki Fire?" Kiritsugu asked.
"Well in the original timeline, you became obsessed with fulfilling your wish even after the Holy Grail Fiasco. That search led you to discover the existence of the Sakatsuki and their children's wish-granting talent. You thought if you could convince them to grant your wish you'd be able to honour Irisviel's sacrifice. When we went to meet them however, the Ainsworth's had struck. They killed Miyu's family and unleash a magical tornado on the Minami Town. Miyu had been protected by Bounded Fields until that day, but they failed when her mother died and hearing the wishes of the people crying out for salvation, she stopped the tornado. We found her shortly afterwards".
He looked slightly downtrodden after that. "Your obsession led you to take Miyu in to fulfil your objectives and tap into her powers to grant everlasting peace. But it failed and you died with shame and regret. I raised Miyu after that. At first I thought I could be like you and find a way to use her to fulfil your wish, but I realised after a while I wasn't you. I couldn't treat Miyu like a tool. It just wasn't in me and as time passed she became everything that I thought a sister could be and not to long after that she became my sister in blood, when she accidentally use her Sakatsuki powers to make a wish of her own", he smiled at that memory, "We had been talking right here, looking at the stars when a shooting star wised by. She told me that if she could make a wish it would be for us to be true siblings", tears began to pour from Shirou's eyes as he said that, "In that moment, her eyes changed from the colours of flames to the same amber eyes I had and I realised her wish had been granted. In that moment I had never been happier", he choked out.
Out of nowhere, two smaller arms wrapped around him from behind and he felt a small body latch onto his. His younger sister had snuck up on them and now hugging him, with her face buried into his back. His shirt got a little wet and he knew she was crying to.
"Not as happy as I was Oni-chan", she said.
He smiled and twisted in her grasp. He wrapped her in his arms and brought her around into his lap, where she snuggled into him happily as he stroked her black hair. Kiritsugu surprised both of them by bringing them into an embrace. "Then I can go on knowing the two of you can take things from here", he said in a peaceful voice.
The siblings looked up at him. "Dad… are you saying…" Shirou trailed off.
"Yeah, I don't think I live through the night", he said, "But I'm at peace now, knowing the two of you have each other. I know you will be alright", he said that with a true smile on his face.
"We will dad", Miyu sobbed.
"And we promise, we'll find a way to rescue Illya to", Shirou added.
Kiritsugu pulled them back to look at their faces one last time.
"Then I will leave you both with a parting gift. Shirou, I'm leaving my Magic Crest to you. The Emiya Time-Altering Magic will serve you well. Also, I want you to contact an old associate of mine, the Fourth Dead Apostol Ancestor and infamous Mystic Code Crafter, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. Have him extract my bones and forge a sword from them for you".
Shirou looked aghast at that thought. "Dad I can't desecrate your body!" he shouted.
Kiritsugu smiled. "Please son, this is the last gift of a dying man to his children, so please honour my wishes. Besides, my Duel Origin is what made me famous", that got a confused looked from both of them.
"During my mercenary days, my mentor took parts of my first and second ribs and ground them into powder. This powder was then used by Kischur to forge sixty-six conceptual weapons known as Origin Bullets. I've used up my stock of them, but whenever they were used they bypassed any magical defence and upon contact with an opponent, their Origins of 'Serving' and 'Binding' caused my targets magic circuits to overload and rip themselves apart. In short, my bullets destroyed an enemy's ability to use magic. If you wielded a blade with said ability, you'd have the ultimate Anti-Magus weapon".
That, Shirou had to admit, had an appeal to it.
"Okay", he relented, "But only because you want it".
"Don't worry", Kiritsugu scolded him, "Kischur has ways of extracting bones magically and replacing them with ones that are made of a nearly identical material, so I will look whole when I'm buried", he said.
He them turned his attention to Miyu. "Miyu", he reached out to cup her cheek, "You are a most precious girl. I hope you have a good life", she gave him a watery smile, "Now I recently had a certain something commissioned for you and Illya. Kischur should have completed it by now, so when you have the blade made, you can get these objects to. I'm certain they will be very useful to you".
He turned his sight to the stars once more before standing up and hobbling back to his room.
The First Chapter will be up soon.