Ok here's the next chapter, A reviewer asked what time line this was set in, so here's the run down. The story is an AU set in Soul Calibur 4 since that is the point in the series where all the women who are going to be in the harem are perfectly in place. As for who's going to be in the harem? 6 women and I've already decided who they are. So, sorry if you think I should add more than that because I've already got like 2 mass harem stories going and one that's going to be a minor harem and the last is probably going to be at least a threesome or something. Yeah I know, that's a bit bonkers to wrap my head around it too. BUT! If you want a hint as to who the 6 women are... Well... here's a hint. Truth, Courage, Duty, Deliverance, Honor and Devotion.
Also, since this is an AU there are some key differences in canon that I'll be making throughout the series to suit my needs, these will be explained in story if they are large changes, or if they are small changes then some minor dialogue should be appropriate since they shouldn't be that out there for anyone to believe. There will be one small change this chapter in particular, if you know the lore you can spot it right away.
On with the story.
Fic o' the day: The Familiars of Zero by Corvus no Genmu A series of one shot like chapters of different people, creatures and things that Louise could accidentally summon. A what if series that I enjoyed immensely.
Song/vid of the day: Emiya Archer & Shirou UBW Look for the vid by jamierawr88, that's the right one
Word/s of the day: Thunderballing. -To give a good shagging to. I found this amusing.
Disclaimer, I don't on the fate or Soul Franchise, those are owned by the owners :/ this is just a work of mindless fun.
- ooo-
"Talking"
'Thinking'
"/Dark/evil creatures talking"
"/Dark/evil creatures thinking"
-ooo-
Chapter 2: It Begins!
POP!
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHUOOOF!"
Dust rose into the air as our hero, Shirou Emiya slammed into the ground after having been dumped from extraplaner space. Face first, unfortunately.
The man groaned as he rolled onto his back, raising a hand to cover his eyes as the glare from the sunlight beat down on his body. "Why do I always land on my face?" He grumbled, not for the first time cursing his luck in unexpected landings. Rising from the small crater he landed in, the faker set about making sure everything was still connected properly, then making sure he had everything with him.
After both checks turned out positive, the Sword user stood, dusting himself off before taking stock of where he was. It wasn't much to look at... for miles in almost all directions all he could see was wasteland, the only key features were a forest, around a half mile off to the south, and a single ominous castle far off to the north.
Castle, Forest, Castle, Forest, Castle?
An arrow landed an inch away from his foot from the direction of the Castle, several strange looking lizard men coming out from behind a boulder not far off in that direction, all of them armed to the teeth (Quite literally speaking) and looking for blood.
Forest it is then.
Turning on his heel, the Faker shunted an obscene amount of prana to his limbs and body, hyper-actualizing in one of his only skills in magic. Reinforcement. Like a shot, he took off towards the forest, running faster than even an Olympic sprinter, breaking several human speed records in the process. Not like he cared really, this was just his normal Reinforcement speed, he wasn't even empowering himself with Unlimited Blade Works yet.
The Lizard Men fell behind as the man put half a mile and a cloud of dust between himself and them. It was only a few minutes later that he realized he wasn't being followed and came to a stop, his breathing only slightly labored from the exertion.
"Ok." He mumbled to himself, sitting down to calm himself and take stock of his situation. "I've been transported to a different dimension, I nearly get attacked my first minute here, and I have no clue where I am." He sweatdropped slightly. "Well, at least it isn't too far off from what I'm normally used to." This was probably his dozenth time landing in an unknown place face first and then have some strange being attack him out of nowhere. Even now, he could hear Rin's voice in his head calling him an unlucky baka.
Shaking his head to clear those thoughts the man set about doing the one thing that had been bugging him since he got it. The Magic Crest on his hand.
Pulling back the sleeve of his longcoat, the white haired man stared down at the unique Magic crest, even now he could feel the power thrumming through it. Curious, he ran a bit of prana through the thing watching it light up like lightning bolt as dozens of green lines ran between the twin lines that led up to his shoulder, between each of the runes within the circle and between each line of the knuckle. All in all it looked like a demented dream catcher tattooed on his arm. Satisfied with the result, the Faker used one of his other few magecraft on the thing. Structural Grasping. The ability to grasp every layer of an object (Hence the name, obviously) Going so far as to understand the age, purpose, make, any physical and Magical abilities inherent in the metal and (in the case of his blades) even the forging process that was used by the creator.
Looking down at the unassuming tattoo the man scanned the item and nearly collapsed on the spot.
No.
No way.
NO! NO! NOPE! NO WAY! NOOOO!
Shirou Emiya, one of the most powerful sword magus' on the planet, facepalmed at the sheer absurdity of what he was seeing.
To list the craziness that was his supposed clan's Magic crest.
Conceptualized awesomeness, (How the hell you even conceptualize something as abstract as awesome was beyond the blade user.) Sixty, (yes, count them) SIXTY magic circuits were placed into the framework of the crest, allowing an absurd amount of prana flow.
To put into laymen's terms, Shirou had a pool of around a hundred Od (Due to his reinforcement of his body and constant projection of Noble Phantasm level weapons stressing his pool) and twenty-seven magic circuits that could channel around twenty-five Od each. He had unfortunately allowed them to stagnate from under use due to the fact that up until the Holy Grail war he had been using his nerves to cast his magecraft, a dangerous and downright suicidal method by most established magus'. Shirou's twenty-seven circuits used to be able to handle only ten units of prana each and he had been told that he'd never get past that number but due to his never give up attitude the tenacious man had wormed his way up to twenty-five in spite of all the things holding him back. So, all in all told he could naturally output six hundred and seventy-five units of prana at any given time.
The output of the Magic Circuits of THIS Crest was no less than eighty units of prana. EACH. On par with the Tousaka Magic Crest, an established and touted clan of magecraft.
Combined, he could output almost five THOUSAND five hundred units of prana. A far cry to what he was capable of before. It was times like this that he was thankful he could use Mana to fill in the gaps that his now extreme output took up.
Of course, it was nowhere close to Rin's pool of five hundred units of Od and her nearly seven thousand plus unit output, which included her crest. Still it was nothing to scoff at either. (*)
But what really, REALLY took the cake for the faker was the actual use and history of the crest. His alternate self, had a harem... Not just any harem... It was a harem composed of more than twenty-two members, nearly half of which happened to be a here-to-unknown alien species and a human who was the lover of one of them. Along with that there was Rin, Sakura, Arturia, Medusa, Aoko Aozaki, (the user of the FIFTH-FUCKING-MAGIC) Toukou Aozaki (Her SISTER in a false doll body) Bazette FRAGA, Luviagelita EDELFELT, Altrouge Brunestud, (a dead apostle ANCESTOR of all things) Lorelei Barthomeloi (the QUEEN and VICE DIRECTOR of the Magus association) and ... oh dear god... no... nonononono...
Alaya-ko... His alternate self boinked the personification of the Will of Humanity, the thing that would have cursed him to an afterlife of Counter Guardianship.
He had fucked humanity... and from what he could gather... enjoyed it immensely.
And...and was that Gilgamesh...in an apron...with number one nanny embroidered on the front...?
After those two minor stroke slash heart attacks the man dug deeper, searching through countless branches. It was odd, his alternate self was basically the progenitor of (What he could tell) the largest magical clan in history, having well over 30 children from all of his wives, spouses and mistresses, a memetic sex god (whatever the hell that was) and a master of his secondary Reality Marble.
"Unlimited Harem Works..." The sword user shook his head in disbelief. This didn't even count all of the children his alternate self's children had. All told there were over three hundred members of the Emiya Clan before any of the first generation had finally died off. Not only that but they were now related to over half of the well established Magus clans, including the Barthomeloi, arguably the most powerful today, beside his own.
Hell, his alternate self had even married another alternate version of himself... or herself as the case may be. His clan had apparently been very active in the multiverse, coming across Zelretch (Which explained how the man was able to procure this crest) and other anomaly's that transported them across dimensions. But still...Selfcest... it was a new term that the faker felt mildly uncomfortable about... and apparently this was the crest of that branch.
Yeah, you heard right, branch. Since the clan was so large, the Emiya's had taken up the practice of creating a magic crest for each branch of the clan, well over twenty Magic Crests passed down The Emiya Clan line.
After a half dozen more generations after the first generation died, the clan had become the ruling body of the ENTIRE world, even going so far as to reveal the secret of thaumaturgy to the non magical world. At that time the science of humanity was sufficient enough to be considered magecraft in it's own right and the leaders of the Magus Association (Which were predominantly Emiya Clan members at the time) had agreed to reveal itself. The World (Both magical and not) would look back on that day in an almost child-like wonder. The point where humanity was finally brought together as one unified entity.
To see the family that he started (Or at least a version of him) have a hand in all that... it was... humbling to be honest.
And all it took was him marrying an almost absurd number of women and fathering an equally absurd number of children. But that begged the question, seeing as he was working towards world peace and all...was this a viable method of creating peace? Conquering the world through superior numbers? There was no bloodshed as far as he could tell, his family had simply ingrained themselves in society, slowly taking control of all levels of power, a natural form of domination and control, generations in the making?
That got the sword user curious. Working further into the structure of the Crest, the Emiya divined the practical application to the magecraft that was inherent in the symbol itself. Aside from the conceptual awesomeness and the insane boost of prana channeling capability, there was one final ability placed into the crest.
A magic based on the progenitor of the Crest, the alternate Shirou himself. It was a crystallization of his alternate self's allure, an ability which was cleverly named Allure or the power to attract the opposite sex. (In some cases the same sex.) He had created the twenty or so crests out of his own magic circuits, this particular one contained the origin 'Sword' of it's original owner, but it also contained a secondary origin that had apparently been actualized due to the alternate Shirou Emiya's renown as the progenitor of Clan Emiya. Over the many generations since his reign each of the Crests had taken on an origin of 'Harem' due to the world believing Shirou as the ultimate builder of harems (which was further cemented by many of his sons and daughters who also had harems) So anything directly associated with his body (including the magic circuits that made up the crests) took on an almost Noble Phantasm level. It was a silly origin in theory, but considering what he had seen so far, an appropriate origin in practice for his alternate self's abilities.
Which had always been the Emiya way, practical application over theory.
But the real question, how would he use these new abilities? What practical application could he use these for, besides the obvious...
From what he could tell, Allure only worked on the gender the user was attracted to, so that this wouldn't cause any complications due to the user or the target's sexual orientation. Allure was always active and it constantly emitted at an E-Rank level, something that would only create a minor reaction of mild fondness in those around them, which explained the charismatic nature of his clan after a certain point which allowed them to essentially rule the world.
The real magic however, was when the crest was used during combat, which would bump the level up to B+ rank and cause reactions depending on what level magic resistance the opposing party had. For someone like Saber, who had a Magic resistance up to A rank it would have bounced off of her like it was nothing. However for someone like Rider who only had a B rank magic resistance, she would have reacted as if it had been an E Rank level, which went up as each level of Magic resistance went down, becoming B+ rank when the person being fought had no magical resistance to speak of.
The world he was currently occupying didn't feel extremely magical, so he could only assume that the people in this world either had an E rank resistance to magic, which was to say no resistance beyond what was normal, or at best a D rank resistance, possibly higher if there were a few magic wielders in this world and would make just about anyone short of a select few fair game.
Which kind of scared the sword user really. He wasn't a blushing virgin by any means since, he, Saber and Rin had done more than their fair share of hanky panky before they had to break up. But this... this was a bit much even for him. Did he actively want to pursue the methods his alternate self went through for world peace?
"Who are you!?" A voice, a feminine voice called from behind him, the sound of steel being released from a sheath quite apparent.
He'd have to get back to that later. Right now there was a very, very valid threat standing only a few feet behind him.
Rising slowly so as not to tempt the woman's ire, Shirou kept his hands above his head so that she wouldn't strike him while he tried to stand.
"Who are you?" The voice asked again, this time with a clear intent of hostility.
Shirou turned, hands still above his head to face the speaker.
-ooo-
Sophitia Alexandra, a woman of uncommon beauty and even more uncommon sword skill pointed her blade down upon the man in front of her "Who are you!?" She barked, knowing full well she might have to kill this individual. She had watched the youth run away from the Lizard men guards of Ostrheinsburg Castle, a castle which she herself protected, held in bondage at the threat of her daughters life. She had killed dozens if not hundreds of men and women to protect the cursed evil sword that held her daughter Phyrra enslaved to it's will. Even now she cursed the blade, the thing that had stolen her peaceful life from her, had stolen her family. The thought of her husband and her son came to mind as she stared down at the broad back of the man who had just now started to rise, the thought of them dead despite all she had sacrificed, killed by that insane bitch Tira who had abducted her daughter... and now the only thing left of her family was her little girl and she meant to protect her as long as she could, trying to find a way to free her while she was forced to do Soul Edge's will.
He was about the same age as her husband she noted as the man turned around. Though surprise lilted through her brain when she realized just how handsome the man was. He was tall, surprisingly so, easily seven inches taller than her with hard gray eyes, a firm jaw, and naturally tan skin tone along with white hair the color of fallen snow which created this ethereal beauty that was only matched by the aura the man exuded. The sheer calm demeanor that marked the man as a warrior and one who was completely comfortable in the situation he had just found himself in. That thought brought a measure of fear to the woman's heart. To be so uncaring with a blade held in your face, to stare down someone who could possibly be your death without a single shred of fear... An uncontrollable little shiver went up the woman's spine.
Meanwhile, Shirou was nearly sweating bullets, though the poker face he'd built through countless battles had stayed in place as he turned to face the woman who had drawn her sword on him. The first thing he noticed was the beauty of the woman in front of him. Golden hair, pulled back into a pony tail and tied off with an aqua hued bow, eyes of the same ocean color and fair skin that covered a face that was almost too cute and innocent to match the woman's fit body and large breasts. Out of many of the women he had seen in his lifetime very few ever matched the aura of enchantment that he had witnessed during the Holy Grail War. With women like Caster, Rider and Saber, all three women renowned for their rare and elegant features; beauty matched only in legends and this woman came very, very close. An appraising eye roved over the woman's body, activating Structural Analysis all the while so he could get a measure of the woman's skills and abilities.
The first thing he noted were her weapons. The Omega Sword & Elk Shield, a short sword and small buckler shield forged from holy ore by the woman's husband on order and blessing from Hephaestus, a Greek god of fire and blacksmiths. It didn't have any magical enchantments like he had expected but it did have a purifying aura inherent in all goodly god blessed items. Archiving the weapon in his mind, the man continued his search, going over the off white, roughly Athenian dress and shoes. He then noted the earrings, the shoulder guards, the several arm and shin guards along with the belt buckle, all of steel and designed in brilliant azure colors and gemstones. Overall he likened her appearance to an innocent and subtle ocean current. However, her demeanor at the moment was more like a raging squall, her face holding a look of anger but also a hint of apprehension, like she didn't want to do this.
That was something the Magus picked up on quickly and forced a small chink in the girls determined armor.
"Um, hello." Shirou greeted the woman, waving cheerfully with one hand. "You wouldn't happen to know where we are right now would you?" That's it, divert attention away from your reasons for being there in the first place, confuse her so that she lets her guard down and hopefully...
Sophitia gave the man a strange look. "How do you not know where you are? I saw you fall from the sky right before you were chased by those Lizard men, how is it that you have come here?"
Ok, you've confused her, now to divert her attention even further. "I don't know actually." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "One moment I was talking to an old man on the street, the next I'm falling out of the sky here." Really, he didn't know exactly by what methods Zelretch's Kaleidoscope worked when it teleported people, just that it did. A half truth on his part but it satisfied the woman enough for her to lower her weapon.
"My name is Sophitia Alexandra, who are you?" She asked smoothly, taking a single step back, though she did keep her weapons out and in hand in case he tried anything.
"Shirou Emiya." The faker answered truthfully. "And you still haven't answered my question."
"Japanese?" She asked curiously, narrowing her eyes all the while. "You are near Castle Ostrheinsburg in Germany."
"Ostrheinsburg?" Shirou blinked, wasn't that where Zelretch said that Soul Edge was currently located? A calculated look appeared on the man's face as he did another scan of Sophitia, It was a strange set of occurrences if this woman had seen him fall to the ground. Where he had landed was relatively flat ground as far as he could see with maybe a few boulders here and there. If she had seen him fall then she must have been seen by the lizard men as well and if that was the case, why did she appear unharmed, like they had completely ignored her?
There! An eyebrow rose imperceptibly as he saw with his own eye's exactly what had been bothering him the entire time. There was a small piece of... something sitting right next to the woman's heart and by the root was it corrupted beyond all manner and reason. If he had to guess, it was probably a shard of Soul Edge, something Zelretch had mentioned in his tale, a shard of malignant power that would twist it's users to do the swords bidding.
That thought, the possibility that this woman would turn on him at a moments notice put the man on edge. Not willing to risk the chance, the blade user loaded several copy's of Kanshou and Bakuya into his mind, ready, just in case he had to do the one thing that he was good at, the one thing that set him apart from any other Magus in history.
Apparently the woman sensed a change in the way Shirou held himself as she had backed away from him, holding her sword and shield up in front of her for defense.
"What are you doing?" She hissed? After a moment of him not responding she glared at him. "You're here for Soul Edge aren't you? That damned cursed sword?" It was more of a statement than a question as she caught the man's minute nod. "Very well." She spoke solemnly, leaping forward to stab the man in his guts, completely prepared to end this man who would take Soul Edge and endanger her daughter's life.
That's when she heard two words, barely a whisper.
"Trace on."
Sophitia's eyes widened as her blade was caught between the crossed points of a pair of blades that she hadn't noticed the man carrying. They were mirror images of each other except one was as black as night and the other as white as Ivory, both however, were short and wickedly curved, perfect for defense and making quick decisive cuts.
Her shield came up to block the staccato of strikes that numbed her arm, pushing her back all the while. With a roar the man she had thought unarmed leapt forward, smashing both of his swords against her shield, nearly caving her knee in on that side at the sheer weight behind the dual blows.
Falling back, the woman focused on dodging the man's strikes, though any time she thought she was out of striking range he would appear before her like a giant red reaper of death to strike her shield again, putting more and more damage upon that one knee. It was a very common tactic to use against shielded foes, with a heavy enough strike you could force a shield user to their knees with enough applied force over their center of weight, which was usually over their shield arm as the somewhat heavy thing was placed over the leading leg to support the extra weight.
Sure, Sophitia's shield was smaller than normal and the girl was quick on her feet but that also meant she wasn't as physically strong or stout as a larger, stronger opponent. So striking her shield arm would be just as effective, if not moreso.
The entire time this had been happening, Sophitia had been backing away from the white haired man, the crimson of his cloak flitting in and out of her vision as she back tracked through the wooded area. The man was fast despite his tall stature and he was easily pressing his advantage in height and strength. Even his dexterity was beyond normal as another series of loud clangs of metal on metal met her ears, signaling another jackhammer of strikes to her shield.
The girls breathing was coming in gasps now as she felt her shield arm go completely numb from all the repeated strikes. But that wasn't all that she was feeling at the moment... no, it had started the moment he had blocked her blade. The moment her sword met his... it was like an electric shock shot through her arm and hit her right in the heart. Even now she could feel it, her body was heating up and skin going flush like she was coming down with a fever.
Desperation was beginning to set it, she hadn't expected the man to be this skilled in combat and her body was beginning to fail on her. So, desperate to put some distance between her and him she stopped trying to defend and used her shield as a battering ram to bash the numb limb and metal plate into the man's stomach.
With a small exhale of air the shield dug into it's target, drawing thrusting power from the woman's feet by digging into the ground, adding more leverage to the push which knocked the white haired man off his feet. Also, to add to that, the woman took a half hearted slash with her sword which scored a small nick over the man's brow. She prayed it was enough to blind his vision with blood while she made her escape.
With a grunt, Shirou took the shield blow as best as he could. He hadn't expected the woman who was easily half his weight and size to pack such a huge punch, the small sting to his forehead told of a glancing blow from the woman's blade and it was a lucky thing really. She could have killed him in that instant, simply from him making assumptions but luck was apparently on his side today as he had Reinforced his body right before the start of the battle. So, even if the girl had made more than a glancing blow, the weak strike most likely would have bounced off his Reinforced skull, leaving a deep gash in the skin and bone. Dangerous, but not nearly as lethal as the alternative. As it stood, he just had the wind knocked out of him and a small wound that would barely be an annoyance.
At least it would have been an annoyance if the woman had been there when he had recouped himself. Glancing around quickly the faker made sure that his back was protected as he expanded his senses. It was a skill most magi had, a sixth sense for detecting magecraft which was usually shunted through one of their senses. For him, it went through his sense of smell... which got him called bloodhound by Rin on more than one occasion. The Sword Magus took a deep sniff of the air, taking in any and all magical traces he could find. The girl and her weapons were not magical in the slightest, but that shard stuck in her chest exuded a distinct aura of magic that made her easily traceable. After a moment of pinpointing her location it wasn't surprising that the woman was running, a pronounced limp in her stride as she hadn't made it very far but she was definitely moving away from him.
Normally Shirou would have just let her go, it wasn't in him to hunt down and kill an innocent girl who was being controlled against her will but something made him face the direction she had run off in and rush after her. That something was a feeling he couldn't describe, he had felt it the moment their swords had crossed, the moment he had run prana through his body in Reinforcement and the moment raw prana had touched the crest on his right hand... the means with which to trigger the crest's secondary origin properties...
Unknown to him, the crest apparently worked both ways. He felt the connection from their battle actualize and he was subconsciously drawn to her, his instincts overriding his brain for the dozen or so seconds it took him to catch up to the woman.
His speed really was impressive when he wanted something bad enough.
Sophitia gasped as she felt her blood boil again, her limbs going numb out from under her. It was safe to say that the woman had almost no magical resistance to speak of, despite having a magical artifact lodged in her chest. Since the woman was inherently good, the inherently evil shard couldn't be arsed in the slightest to help the woman overcome this disability. Of course she did have Hephaestus blessing to protect her from these things but her less than pious attitude, her grief from losing the man she loved and her only son, and the simple fact that most of, if not all blessings of just about any god in the multiverse were only meant to counteract evil influences.
Shirou's influence wasn't evil, at worst it was neutral without a single speck of ill intent, so the blessing's of the god of fire and blacksmiths (for what they were worth) essentially did jack all.
So with nothing else to do and her limbs turning to spaghetti, the Athenian collapsed on her behind, legs splayed out and leaning forward on her hands while she gasped for breath. A shadow fell over her then and she looked up in terror along with an emotion she hadn't felt since she had met her husband so many years ago.
Shirou blinked, coming to from his mild loss of mental faculty to find himself staring down at the nearly prone Sophitia, the woman's face holding a mix of terror and arousal that threatened to choke the girl into unconsciousness. It was then he felt a tingling from his right hand and the telltale feeling of a magical contract being formed. Another unknown that he hadn't been able to determine when he had structurally grasped the crest was that the 'harem' origin in the crest formed a verbal contract.
It was similar to a Geis, or more appropriately a version used by CĂș Chulainn which was a self imposed Geis, imposing a condition on oneself first which then forced that condition on the opponent and as long as one followed this self set condition the opponent would be forced to as well.
The contract his crest made was similar in that it required a self imposed condition that the crest supplied, working the charm on both parties as the caster used Allure, but beyond that the two were completely different in that it required the consent of both parties to keep the magic going, in this case verbal. If either party had not agreed to the contract then the Allure would have stopped and both parties returned to normal. A fail-safe to make sure the owners of the crest wouldn't just charm and bed any and every person they came across and fought. Apparently using your crest to take advantage of people sexually was something the Emiya Clan frowned upon. (Whoda thunk it?)
Only knowing that a magical contract was in play the Emiya was careful how he phrased his next words. "Sophitia-san, Why did you think it was a good idea to attack me like that?"
The woman looked up in shock and a small hint of anger. "Me? Why were YOU preparing to attack? I saw you tense up and change posture and it was easy to assume you were going to strike me first."
Shirou blinked, before palming his face in irritation, how would he not realize that was what would happen? The girl was practically a strung chord standing across from him, she most likely would have taken his preparation for her attack as a hostile intent.
"I wasn't going to attack you." He sighed. "I sensed a great evil within you and assumed it was possible you were being controlled by it, so I prepared myself in case you attacked." He threw her an annoyed look. "You having your weapons out and ready didn't help that assessment much."
"You..." Confusion flared on Sophitia's face, battling the Allure's enchantment for a moment as she took in those words. "You could tell I was corrupted? How?"
The Sword magus nodded. "Simple really, I have an ability that let's me see the inner workings of things. Like your weapons for instance, The Omega Sword & Elk Shield." The woman's eyes widened at the naming of her weapons. "I could see the shard of Soul Edge in your body, near your heart and assumed it was controlling your actions."
"You'd be fairly close to the truth." She remarked bitterly. At the white haired man's questioning stare the woman explained. "The cursed sword had one of it's minions kill my husband and son while they abducted my daughter. Now, she has been bound to it's will and if it were to be destroyed then so would her life be destroyed." Tear's welled up in the woman's eyes as she looked hopelessly towards the ground. "She's all I have left of my family, I have to protect her, even if it means serving evil."
The woods around them was quiet for many moments, even the wildlife feeling the tension in the air and choosing to remain silent. Then.
"Sound's like some form of magical contract, maybe even a bondage of the soul... hmm, It's possible to free her if you wish."
It was said so casually, without any hint of arrogance in his abilities but that one sentence put more hope in the heart of that broken and tired women than he could even begin to understand. "I-It is?" She stuttered, a look of shock on her face. "...Y-you would free her? Why?"
A rueful little smile appeared on the man's lips. "It is my dream to be a hero of justice, if I can't help a mother free her daughter from an evil sword then I wouldn't be a very good hero now would I?"
Another moment of silence crossed between them before a small giggle came from the woman, almost all tension fleeing her body as the conversation went to a more pleasant topic. "Yes, I suppose so." She giggled again, raising one of her hands up. "I have a question, do you now why I'm feeling the way I am right now?" Light headedness, check. Fluttering heart, check. Flushed cheeks, check. Right now she felt like a blushing little maiden just coming into womanhood and finding out that boys weren't exactly the icky things she'd thought they were.
"Ah.." A small grimace appeared on the man's face as he studied the woman's aroused appearance, a travesty of an expression in Sophitia's opinion, that such a handsome face would be twisted in such a way. If only she could wipe that look away with a quick little...
The Athenian blinked. 'Where in Hephaestus' forge did that thought come from?'
"I...may know why that's happening, though I didn't expect it to be that... potent..." Well apparently he knew where it had come from, now to determine the reason and intent, the woman thought patiently. "As I said before an elderly man spoke to me earlier and then I found myself here, what I didn't say is that he intentionally sent me here for his own amusement and he gave me this." Shirou held up his right hand so the woman could get a good look at the tattoo on his hand. "It's known as a magic crest by my people and is usually an heirloom of great power passed down through a family or clan." The white haired man's grimace deepened slightly as his brows furrowed. "The man who gave it to me called it a gift and I have since found out why, along with the main function of the crest. Allure, a magic that enchants those of the opposite sex or the same sex in some cases."
"So these feelings I'm experiencing" A pause, as the woman swallowed slightly. "... They are not real?" The Athenian asked sadly.
Wait what? Sadly? Both Shirou and Sophitia stared at each other, both having heard the sadness and longing in her voice.
Shirou raised an eyebrow. "Did... did you want them to be?"
That was an interesting question for the blonde, did she want to continue to feel these emotions? Did she essentially want to be bound to this man as she had been bound by Soul Edge?
Yes and No, was the answer from her heart and head. Her heart wished for that longing touch of another, the one that she had lost when she had found her husband and child dead on the floor. She had spent months grieving and now only felt emptiness from their memory, had her daughter been dead along with the rest of her family she most likely would have taken her own life out of grief.
Her mind however, wished that she stay away from the man, too reluctant to initiate any kind of bond that would bind the two together much as the cursed sword had done to her daughter.
She needed something more, something concrete to help her decision along and her next question would either clinch it or send her running from the man once again. "What are your intentions for the cursed sword? Why are you searching for it?" She asked quietly, almost too quietly to be heard, though Shirou apparently had as he answered her.
"I've come to destroy Soul Edge." He spoke seriously, "I've spent my life helping others and I cannot stand what that sword is doing to this world." The hand that his crest was emblazoned on clenched tightly, fingernails drawing blood from his hand. "It needs to be destroyed, once and for all."
That settled it for the Athenian. She had been lonely, quietly waiting in her own little corner of hell, waiting for something to drop into her lap to either save her from the situation she'd found herself in or give her the means to do the same. This satisfied both conditions admirably.
"Speaking of which." The man spoke seriously. "I think it would be a good thing to remove that shard from your body as soon as possible."
Sophitia blinked for what felt like the dozenth time that minute. "You... you can do that?"
In response to that the faker held up a single hand and a small blade actualized into existence with a small sound of clashing metal, which caused a slight jump from the woman in front of him.
It was a curious thing really, it had no battle capability beyond perhaps a throwing knife, but it looked more like a barber's razor or a field knife that she had sometimes seen on a battlefield being employed by a surgeon to cut flesh quickly and easily.
And speaking of cutting flesh by the time the woman had realized it happening the warrior in front of her had already taken the blade to the side of his wrist, cutting into meat and bone like it wasn't even there.
The woman's eyes widened "What do you're think you're doing!" She all but yelled, leaping up from her sitting position, hoping beyond hope she could save the man before... he bled... out? Her hand was almost touching the limb when she noticed something strange. The wound... wasn't bleeding... As Shirou moved the blade away her eyes widened in shock as she saw the man's hand hanging limply, being held on by the outermost bone of his arm and a bit of flesh, but everything from there in was an open wound... that didn't bleed. Like magic it seemed. It was even more mystifying as the man brought the blade back over the wound, pushing the hand against the arm before sliding the flat of the blade along the seam of the cut, and like he was filling the hairline gap between two bricks with mortar the space between the wound seemed to mend and stitch themselves back together.
Shirou stared at the Athenian's gob smacked expression with a happy little smirk on his face. This was one of the few tools he had at his disposal to heal wounds and save lives passively. It was a mystic code he had picked up while touring Europe. Funnily enough the code was named Black Jack and was in the hands of a magus surgeon who was much like himself, he helped people and if that person was truly needful of his help he would cure them for free, a true hero, though his methods were a bit unorthodox.
The code itself had two key features, the first was the ability to cut through flesh and bone like it was hot butter while simultaneously projecting a bounded field that wouldn't allow blood to flow through the veins or arteries it had cut. This would normally be a bad thing as a limb could die in the meantime with no blood going to it. However, that was fixed by the second feature of the tool, the ability to seal any cut, no matter how deep, simply by sliding the flat of the blade across the tissue. Of course, there were a few things that the code couldn't do. It couldn't seal wounds that weren't physically connected to the flesh it was trying to mend, so if he was mending the skin above a wound it wouldn't heal the damaged organs underneath. To combat this he would have to go in and seal each and every organ before closing the outermost wound. Beyond that, the code also couldn't heal blunt force trauma or deep abrasions, only cuts and small punctures could be mended.
But really, that's all he needed this for. All he had to do was cut down to the shard, remove it while the bounded field was still up, then close the wound. In and out in less than a minute, easy peasy lemon squeezy.
That was something Sophitia picked up on quickly. A small grin found it's way on her lips. "You do realize that there are ancient customs that could consider this a marriage proposal right?"(**)
"Guh!" The faker flinched back like he'd been bit, falling back onto his rear and scooting away from the woman. He gulped loudly when he felt his back hit a tree.
Sophitia's grin grew as she watched how her teasing affected the poor man, her motions were like a predatory lion as she skulked over to him on her hands and knees.
"I think I might like the idea of feeling these emotions if it's for someone like you. Such a selfless man" One of her fingers found it's way under his chin as she pressed her body into his. Right now the crest on Shirou's hand was going bat shit insane, flashing prana up and down his arm like a rubber band. "I've always liked that, it's what drew me to my husband and it's what's drawing me to you. So tell me, , do you want to feel these feelings too?"
Shirou swallowed heavily again. It should be a crime that a face so innocent looking would have such devious and sexy side, it made his heart flutter and 'DAMMIT, KNOCK IT THE OFF YOU MAGIC INK-STAIN!' It really wasn't helping that the crest on his hand was throbbing to the beat of his already frantically beating heart.
"Ummm." Downing another lump in his throat, the man answered the only way he knew how when strong, partially psychotic women asked him for something. "Y-yes...?" He blamed Rin and Saber for this, blamed them with a passion. How in the Root he had convinced them to let him go he'd never understand. Right at this moment he was surprised that they hadn't followed him the moment he had left, threw a lasso over his head then dragged him kicking and screaming to the bedroom to "Explain" why running of on a suicidal self enlightenment quest was a terrible idea... a rather vigorous "Explanation" actually.
The woman's grin turned into a self satisfied little smirk. "Good. Then yes, I want to feel these emotions as well."
A small burning from his hand momentarily brought a gasp to Shirou's lips, though that gasp was smothered and buried under the soft lips of Sophitia as she pressed into him, causing the two of them to collapse into a bush right next to the tree, every once in a while a foot or a hand would visibly twitch as the bush shook.
While this was going neither of them noticed a small band of mystic symbols etch themselves on the woman's ring finger on her left hand or the small bit of prana that flowed through Shirou's lips into the woman's body.
-ooo-
Clapping could be heard, if there was anyone else within the pocket dimension they had now found themselves in.
Wizard Marshall Zelretch watched the two make out with a furious passion, his teeth gleaming in the unnatural rainbow light of his Kaleidoscope.
The clapping turned to maniacal hand rubbing as he laughed evilly. "So it begins, Muhuhuhahahahaa"
-ooo-
*Starts humming another one bites the dust*
Yep, I'm awesome, so al of you bask in my glory, BASK IN IT!
Ok enough dicking around. This chapter is a bit info dumpy in places, but this should be the only major moments of dump since I had to establish what the crest does and where it was from, which was a bit of a chore to be honest, but was easy enough once I got in the groove.
This chapter sort of just wrote itself rather quickly honestly, though I did have a few snags here and there, hope that doesn't make this any less interesting for you guys, because I had a lot of fun with this chapter.
(*) Used some numbers from the wiki and what I could remember from playing the game, if these numbers are wrong then could someone tell me the exacts so I can fix it? The conversion of Od and Mana to prana confuses the hell out of me since there's no defined chart or anything, and even then that doesn't take into account the quality of the magic circuits which throws any mathematical equation I can think of on it's head. If the numbers are close enough then just chock it up to artistic liberty. It sounds impressive at least, which was the whole point.
(**) Back in olden times, doing a great service or going out of you way to help a woman and or her family usually netted you a marriage to said woman out of gratitude. This wasn't a rule but could be easily forced on the hero if they weren't careful. I'm pretty sure there are several stories from ancient times that used this as a plot point.
Till next time
peace.
