Note: Now that I'm doing this again, think of Chapters 1 - 3 of what I've written before as... Filler. It's not canon anymore. I certainly intend to use the general plot ideas from those chapters, but as to what actually explicitly happens, those chapters are no longer canon.

Chapter -1: Awakening

When Shirou woke up muttering, "Fuji-nee?" the first thing that he noticed was that somehow, he was still alive.

It was a hard thing not to notice. One moment, he was empty, hollow, not feeling or seeing or hearing anything. The next moment, he was... well, he was him again. He was Shirou Emiya. The same Shirou Emiya who had willingly died just a few moments ago.

The second thing he noticed was that he was in a place he had never seen before in his life. It wasn't Tohsaka's place, and it wasn't his own home either. Instead, he found himself in an old, broken down looking large wooden room that had 6 small bunk beds occupying it. It was almost like some sort of Dormitory. Looking next to him, he found a small desk with the things that he assumed to be his personal belongings.

He wearily got up.

Shirou shook his head in confusion. He was dead. He had died, he was sure of it. In his last moments, he had quite literally felt his heart stop beating. It was a strange sensation, the shock that came with finding out that the small beat inside of him had suddenly stopped. The thing that had always been there for his entire life, simply gone. He would have practically screamed in shock if he had enough energy to yell.

And yet, here he was. Alive, and completely fine.

'In fact, I feel more physically well ever since the day I got stabbed in the heart by Lancer. How... did I heal so quickly?'

Sure enough, when he took his hand to stretch his neckline to find the scar that Lancer had left when he stabbed his heart, he was surprised to see it completely gone. In fact, so were all of his injuries during the holy grail war. His scratches, his scars, even his deeper wounds from his fight with Gilgamesh. It was all gone. It was extremely odd. Not even Saber's regenerative abilities had the ability to heal all of his injuries so quickly, and without leaving any marks as well. It was almost like he had practically gone back in time to his younger self.

The door to the room suddenly burst open, revealing an extremely distressed looking boy who looked about 11 years old. The boy had broken square shaped glasses, along with shaggy brown hair and freckles dotting his cheeks. His eyes were a startling grey color, almost like Archer.

He was wearing a white t shirt along with black shorts.

"SHIROU! You're late for your chores! Quickly! Ms. Burns is mad!" The boy walked over to Shirou with an exasperated look in his face. "C'mon, you lazy bum! You should have seen the look on everyone's faces when you didn't wake up early! Now come on! Let's go before Ms. Burns comes here!" With that, the boy grabbed Shirou's arms with small hands and pulled him upwards, dragging him outside the wooden room.

What the fuck?

Who was the boy? How did he know him? In fact, where the hell was he?

The boy dragged him into a decrepit wooden hallway that looked like it was almost about to break down. Shirou nervously simply followed along, trying to figure out what exactly happened to him. Suddenly, there was a fat woman standing right in front of the two. She had grey hair and... Red eyes?

"You two are late." She said.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Burns! Shirou overslept!" The boy replied in a terrified tone.

"Shirou? Overslept? I don't believe it. First you become tardy, and now you lie? You should be smacked for your misbehavior!"

It was at this moment when Shirou decided to step in. "I'm sorry Ms. Burns, I did oversleep today. The... The boy is telling the truth."

"Eh? What? Shirou, you overslept?" The woman sighed. "Just don't do it again, and we'll be fine. Now go do your chores!" The woman said before backing out of the way to let Shirou and the boy pass. Shirou sighed in relief. He still had to figure out what the hell was going on, and the woman wasn't really helping.

"Shirou...?" The boy suddenly asked, tugging his shirt. "Why did you call me the boy to Ms. Burns? You know my name!" He pouted.

"Yeah, of course! That was a mistake... Your name is... J- Josh?"

"What? No! My name's Joseph!"

"Oh... Right, yeah, of course..." Shirou nervously scratched the back of his head. "How silly of me..."

"Shirou, are you ok?"

"YEAH! I mean... yeah. Of course I'm ok." Shirou responded nervously.

"Shirou, I've known you for 7 years, and you're 15 right now, so I've almost known you for half your life! You wouldn't just all of a sudden forget my name." Josh said, this time more seriously than before. "Are you ok, Shirou?"

'No, I died while fighting a demigod King reincarnated as a heroic spirit after I got stabbed in the chest. Do I sound fine to you?'

"Yeah, there's no need to worry about me. I'll be fine, just... Leave me alone for a bit, alright?" Shirou said before suddenly stopping. "7 years... Half my life?" He mumbled, before suddenly pausing. "I'm 15?" His eyes widened, suddenly getting the urge to go check the mirror. Quickly, he scanned the room for a possible mirror, and found a sign for the bathroom about 10 meters to his left. He quickly walked towards the door and opened it, to find what looked like an average public bathroom in Fuyuki City. When he walked over to the mirror, and found a boy who was shorter than he had previously remembered. His face was still relatively the same, but he had decreased his height by a few centimeters, and his hair was slightly less spiky.

It was unnervering to say the least.

Quickly, almost like second instinct, Shirou whispered, "Trace On," making his skin glow blue and his prana to activate in his body. But immediately, he could feel that his magic circuits had definitely decreased. And not just because of the lack of Rin in his circuits. They were simply less than what they were when he was 17 years old. By that time, he had much more training, and well... 2 more years of age. Shirou sighed, starting to get a grasp of what had transpired. Somehow, he was 15 again, with his magic circuits and memories still intact, in... What seemed like another world.

For some reason, he had the urge to yell, "ZELTRECH!" despite the fact that he had never even heard the name before.

'What could have put me in this position? Is this fate, giving me another chance? What about the others? Is Rin, or Sakura here as well?' He wondered.

But those questions could come in time. For now, he had some chores to do.

...

It was pretty safe to say that Ms. Burns was astounded when Shirou cooked up what looked and tasted like a budget gourmet meal for breakfast and washed all the dishes perfectly, all in the length of an hour. Clearly, in this reality, his 15 year old self was not too good at cooking. He mentally scolded himself. He didn't want to arouse too much suspicion, but he had simply assumed that everyone had thought he was good at cooking.

That was, until he was whacked over the head.

"Idiot! This... This is good, but you have to cook for 20 people! Not just 3!" Ms. Burns exclaimed.

"E- Eh?" Shirou's eyes widened in nervousness.

"This is an orphanage, you dolt! We have lots of mouths to feed! Now, back to the kitchen, boy!"

Shirou huffed. So, even in this world, his parents were dead.

'I guess some things never change...'

He made his way to the kitchen with his head down at the depressing thought.

'I'm an idiot after all. I should have figured it out earlier...'

And then, when he got to the kitchen, he saw the guy with goat legs.

Goat. Legs. And real looking ones too.

Shirou stopped in utter shock, pointing towards his legs.

"Y- your legs... They're... You're... Half goat?" The guy turned around to face Shirou, with a look of panic on his face. The boy suddenly snapped his fingers, and said, "I don't have goat legs. I have perfectly normal legs, and you just saw wrong."

Shirou blinked. Was this guy high or something?

"No, you have goat legs. I can see them very clearly." He stated bluntly. Instantly, the guy suddenly muttered, "Damn... Pure sighted mortal."

"Pure sighted mortal?"

"Nothing! I said nothing!"

Shirou sighed, deciding to ignore the boy.

"How have you not noticed them before?" Goat boy suddenly blurted out. Shirou simply shrugged in response before the guy with the goat legs suddenly put him into a chokehold.

"You're a monster, aren't you? Reveal yourself! What are you, like a male empousa?" Shirou's eyes widened at the action, his mind suddenly flashing back to his days in the holy grail war where he had come within an inch of death. Suddenly, like second instinct, Shirou retaliated.

"Trace... On!" Shirou whispered without even thinking about it.

Blue light started to gather around his hands, forming a familiar shape. Shirou curled his fingers into a fist, touching the familiar leather grips of Kanshou and Bakuya. Then, he quickly slammed the butt of Bakuya into the boy's stomach, loosening the grip around Shirou and allowing him to get free. Instantly, he pointed his twin blades towards the boy who was now crumpled on the ground, moaning.

Shirou instantly widened his eyes. He... had not meant to do that. The goat boy putting a chokehold around him had somehow triggered a reaction within him. He was so used to simply retaliate using his blades after the holy grail war that it had almost become second nature to him.

Just how much it had become second nature to him, was something he hadn't realized until now.

"Man, what the hell? I've never seen a monster like you..." Shirou sighed and opened his mouth to apologize, genuinely guilty about his rather sudden outburst.

"Sorry for doing that. You... triggered something like a sixth sense inside of me. But in my defense, I've never seen a guy with goat legs before, and this is all kind of new to me." Shirou apologized exasperatedly. He had really screwed up.

"Now, can I ask a few... Questions?"

...

"So, greek mythology is real, and you thought I was a monster?" Shirou asked, confirming with the cowering boy one more time.

"YES! Now can you put the sword away?" The boy pleaded, making Shirou's eyes widen. He had completely forgotten that he was still holding Kanshou and Bakuya over the guy's throat. He suddenly felt extremely guilty. He had simply wanted him to answer some questions, and now the boy probably thought he was some sort of serial killer.

"Oh! I'm really sorry for that, I completely forgot about the swords." Shirou quickly apologized, dissolving Kanshou and Bakuya, returning the prana towards his body.

'Nice way to be a real hero of justice, Shirou. Good going...'

"Jeez, what sort of demigod are you? I've never seen anyone with powers like that..."

"I'm... pretty sure I'm not a demigod." Shirou sheepishly responded. In response, the goat boy practically yelled out, "WHAT?"

"I'm... not a demigod. Ok, to be honest, I might be, but I just don't know right now. I woke up today knowing nothing about where I am, and the last memory I have of where I come from is my death."

"Jeez, doesn't sound pleasant." The goat boy stroked his chin in thought. "Well, that does explain why you don't have monsters all over you." The goat boy said, before standing up. "I'm Gordon, a protector Satyr here. I suppose I should say sorry for putting you in a chokehold... But in my defense, you did point a sword at me for 10 minutes straight afterwards, so we're kind of even."

"Protector satyr? Do you... protect things?" Shirou asked in curiosity. In response, Gordon simply scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well... one thing in particular actually..."

"What... thing?"

"A protector is usually sent out to help a young demigod get to camp half blood, which is the only safe place for demigods in this world. Right now I'm assigned to Josh, or Joseph or whatever, the kid with the glasses and the grey eyes."

"Wait, then why aren't you supervising him? What the hell are you even doing in the kitchen?"

"Well, you see... I'm a bit of a bad protector to be honest. I can fight for sure, I've taken down multiple monsters single handedly at times using only my good old hoofs." Gordon raised his hoof to show in response. "But... I ain't a babysitter. I just can't do it! I'll make sure the demigod gets safely to camp, but after that, I'm done. I look after my own skin already, it's too much for me to look after another."

Shirou narrowed his eyes. The goat boy... Was almost the opposite of what he was. Shirou had always been someone who had wanted to help people simply for the sake of helping them. On the other hand, Gordon was someone who looked out only for his own skin, because he was either lazy or too irresponsible to handle more people than himself. However, he supposed it was too early to judge him based on one fact, even if it was hard not to. After all, he had no idea what Gordon had gone through in his life, and in the Satyr's defense, at least he admitted his flaws.

He seemed like a good enough person. Certainly not a good 'protector,' but he wasn't on the bad half of Shirou's list of people. He didn't seem particularly greedy either...

"Shirou? You've been staring for a while now." Shirou widened his eyes, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

'I've been doing that way too much lately.'

"Gordon...? I'd like to offer you a proposal."

"Hmm? Whatever you're gonna say, my answer's probably gonna be a no. I guarantee it." Gordon responded. Shirou smiled.

"I want to take care of the demigod instead of you. Once you get to your camp half blood, you can take all the credit if you want. I don't care. But let me make sure the kid is safe, at least." Gordon looked at him with a face of shock.

"That's it? There's no catch, or anything?" The satyr asked him.

"Nope. I'll protect the kid, you... do whatever you do. There isn't a catch. I... just don't like to see people hurt."

"Huh? Then, I guess I'll have to accept. I'm a bad babysitter, and you're a good fighter. As long as there isn't a huge catch to it, I'm completely fine." Gordon said. Shirou raised his hand to shake the satyr's larger one.

"We have a deal."

Shirou prepared to leave the kitchen, before Gordon stopped him one last time.

"Shirou?"

"Yes?"

"Don't you have to do breakfast or something?"

Shirou mentally facepalmed. Ms. Burns was probably pissed.

...

Shirou crept out of his room door while everyone was sleeping. It was midnight, and the room's dusty bunk beds were now occupied by people, often children younger than Shirou. It was both comforting and sad to see the children so peaceful. It was a tragedy that someone had to go through such a thing like losing their parents at such a young age. And yet, they struggled on, and kept persisting, and eventually found peace, even if it was in the strange realm of sleep. Shirou took one last look at the children before creeping out of the door silently.

He wasn't about to sleep so quickly. First, he needed to do some things.

He made his way down to the front door of the orphanage, and quickly exited the old dusty building, being greeted by a beautiful night sky hovering over a short hill of grass. These stars... They were so similar to the ones he had seen when he died. They practically gave him flashbacks of the events that had transpired in Fuyuki city. He felt his eyes starting to slightly water over the notion that he would never see Rin, or Fuji-nee, or Sakura, or Issei or even Archer again, before he wiped the tears from his eyes with a single swipe of his arm. Now was not the time for crying. Right now, he had a boy to protect. And if he was going to protect him, he wasn't going to do it the way he was right now. He was simply worse than his 17 year old form in every single way, and if he wanted to pursue the path of a hero of justice again, he needed to start putting some things into routine.

And Emiya Shirou had no plans to stop becoming a hero of justice. That bit was settled ever since his fight with Archer. Even before that, his ideals had been rock solid, but if anything, his fight with his future incarnation had embedded his ideals in even further, if that was even possible.

He snuck around to the back of the orphanage, surprised to see that there was forestland there. If he simply went deep straight into the forest, he would probably be able to train without alerting anybody in the orphanage.

Shirou lightly jogged towards the forest, hesitating before diving straight into the dark woods. He kept running until he reached a clearing about 20 meters away from the orphanage building. It was a good location. Far enough not to disturb anyone, but close enough so that he could find his way back.

Shirou began his old routine.

"Trace... On." He whispered, feeling the familiar grasp of Kanshou and Bakuya settling in his hands. Next, he focused on the air around him, summoning one more copy of the twin blades. Immediately, the second copy of Kanshou and Bakuya dropped to the ground next to him. Shirou proceeded to repeat the magic for a third pair of swords, starting to sweat from mana exhaustion as the final pair clanged to the ground colliding with the second pair.

Shirou's mana was nearly gone now.

He dissolved all three of the twin blades, feeling his prana return back to him. Now, on to the next bit. His "other" quintessential spell.

"Rho Aias!" He whispered, forming a pink shield around his body.

From this alone, almost half of Shirou's prana disappeared. The boy gasped in shock. His 15 year old self was seriously lagging behind in well... Everything. His mana exhaustion was a problem that he would have to solve, quick. He already knew that his mana was a problem ever since he felt his lack of prana in the bathroom, but he had no idea it would be this bad. Two Rho Aias's and he would practically collapse out of mana exhaustion. It was a scary thought to have.

But now, he couldn't do anything about it. Increasing his mana effectiveness was not something that could be done in a day. He would simply have to do routine practices until he finally made his mana effective enough to last him longer in combat. He was only worried about exactly how long that would take. He had vowed to become a hero of justice, and that fact remained the same in any time or place. But this time, it was more urgent. The holy grail war only happened once in a few dozen or hundred, or even thousand years. Demigods in this world like Joseph were constantly endangered by monsters. If he was going to protect the boy, he needed to get better much more quickly than he could realistically achieve. It was an impossible milestone. Shirou sighed in hopelessness.

His mana wasn't the only problem. Shirou could instantly tell that his body wasn't nearly as physically fit as before. His stamina was lower, his strength was weaker, and he was nowhere nearly as fit as he was before. Thankfully, his fitness was a problem that could be solved more easily, but his mana on the other hand was much more tricky. Shirou was never a good mage. He already knew that. Although he had somehow constructed a reality marble, something only a few mages in the world could do, it was literally the only magic available to him. His manipulation of his prana, his mana, and his general magic performance was weak. He was a fighter, a swordsman in nature, not a magus. Making his mana more effective would be... Tricky, to say the least. Not to mention tiring and tedious.

Shirou sighed.

He really had a lot of work to do.

...

This chapter is a bit short... Actually, all of the "pre" chapters will be a bit shorter than normal ones, since they serve more as a second prologue than anything.

Anyways, please review! I would definately appreciate criticism on the story. Is Shirou being OOC? Am I getting something wrong with the lore? Any... more personal issues? I want this story to be the best it possibly can be, and I can't do that without criticism. So please review your thoughts on what I do well, and what I need to work on!

Also, I finally decided the structure I'm going to be using for my story! In short, it will be a format where I go through one more original plot arc that isn't part of PJO canon, and then do a PJO canon story. In short, Shirou's gotta do something in the time he's not around questing with Percy and Co. So I'm going to add in additional plot lines in between the chronological events of PJO. There's one in particular that I'm REALLY excited for, set between the battle of the labyrinth and the last olympian plot lines, and my only hint about it is that it's going to answer the question on whether Shirou was simply brought back in time to a new body, or he's straight up in a different universe.

Finally, about nerfing Shirou... I'm not nerfing the poor dude forever. I'm going to gradually make him stronger as the plot goes on.

Thanks for reading, and remember to review! (I'll even take flames lol)