Chapter 1

Part of me wants to skip straight to the grail war, but I feel like this story would lose some quality as a result.

Also I've hit kinda a writer's block lately. I am sorry. It's especially annoying when you're already halfway through a chapter before you hit that metaphorical wall and start thinking to yourself, "Okay I know where I'm going, but how do I get there from where I am without taking crappy shortcuts.

I was also planning to make this longer, but I'm too happy with the how it ends. And I got everything I wanted too in the chapter, so what's a man to do.

Anyway, this chapter is basically split into three different parts. I wanted to write more about Shirou's time with the Einsberns, but I couldn't really figure out what exactly I would have put, so that is probably going to be in an omake at some point.

It's been about a week since Shirou and Kiritsugu officially moved into the Einzbern residence, and things have been going pretty well for them. Jubstacheit made true on his promise to arrange Shirou a room. It was in a good location too, sitting next to his sister's and across from his father's.

Kiritsugu had spent great majority of his time in the mansion catching up with his daughter. After being separated from each other for so long some quality time was to be expected. What Shirou didn't expect was for Illyasviel, or Illya, as she liked to be called, to insist that he tag along. Ilya had immediately taken a liking to the red haired boy. The idea of having a brother simply thrilled the young Einzbern and she spent almost every minute she could with her "Papa" and/or "Onii-chan". Shirou for his part was a bit more calm. Personality wise, Illya reminded him a lot of Taiga, which is to say that she had the personality of a child: curious, selfish and trying to make everyone smile. The difference was that coming from an actual 10 year old instead of a girl instead of of a girl halfway through high school, made it more endearing than bizarre.

Well, anyway it was time for shirou to begin his first day of magecraft training under Kiritsugu and Acht, and he was as excited as could be. He had to be trained separately from his sister due to her already having basic training, but he was overjoyed nonetheless.

"Alright Shirou-kun, Since I've already given you a basic explanation on how magecraft works, today we are going to start by seeing how capable you are for performing it." Kiritsugu said," So for this part I need you to turn around and remove your shirt." Shirou listened. The black handed man then put his hand on the boy's back and began to perform one of the simplest mysteries, structural grasping.

After a minute Kiritsugu stopped and told Shirou to put his shirt back on. "Okay Shirou-kun, you have 27 high quality magic circuits, which is pretty amazing considering, to our knowledge, you don't come from a mage family. It seems like your circuits have already been activated for some reason. If I had to guess than you probably did it subconsciously during the fire" He then looked towards Jubstacheit, knowing that he would be better at explaining the next part.

The old man walked up. "Since your circuits have already been activated then we just have to make sure that you know how to properly channel prana through them. This is normally done with the use of an aria, a word or phrase one uses to hypnotize himself or herself into performing a certain act, in this case magecraft. Say whatever comes naturally and wait for a feeling similar to fire flowing through your form."

Shirou closed his eyes in concentration. 'An aria.' He thought, 'Say whatever comes naturally.' In his mind, an image appeared. He pictured a gun being cocked, the trigger being pulled and finally the bullet being fired. "Trace on" Shirou spoke instinctually. Suddenly his body felt as if his blood had been replaced with hot water. The change was notable, but not unpleasant. Shirou opened his eyes and turned his head to look at his body. He could see faint green lines like wires glowing over several sections of his skin. He then allowed the feeling to fade as he looked towards his father and…...grandfather? He should really ask what exactly his relation to Acht was at some point.

"Good job Shirou-kun." Kiritsugu began, "Now that you know how to properly open your circuits, we need to work on getting you able to open and close them faster. So what I want you to do is-"

*Two Years Later*

After two years, Shirou could say that he was happy with his progress in magecraft. His lessons were still for the most part separated from Illya's, but not because he was still behind her, on the contrary he had caught up to her rather quickly. Their lessons were still separated due to each of them having different limitations with magecraft, but not necessarily in a bad way.

A few months ago Shirou had discovered that he was a sword incarnation, meaning that he had sword for both his element and origin. While extremely rare, this severely limited Shirou's capability in magecraft. He was able to perform structural grasping, reinforcement, and a personalized version of graduation air that the young Emiya heir referred to as tracing. Luckily for Shirou while he had major trouble with most anything outside of these three mysteries, his talents for his skills were astounding. He could reinforce his body to roughly 3 time his original strength. He could also fully understand bladed weapons with a mere glance and immediately trace near identical copies, ones that possessed the same abilities as the original. Jubstacheit had tested and confirmed the capabilities of tracing with more than a few Mystic codes.

Luckily for Shirou, today was his day off and he was using it. He decided that today would just be a simple do nothing kind of day, so he intended to do as little as possible. That included lying in his bed and sleeping in until noon.

"Onii-chan" a soft voice said next to him.

Or at least trying too. Shirou looked to his side to see Illyasviel sleeping next to him. It wasn't particularly strange anymore. About a year back, Ilya had developed an odd habit of sneaking into her brother's bed when he was sleeping. While annoying at first, he didn't have the heart to make her stop and the red haired boy eventually got used to the feeling. It didn't really help that Kiritsugu thought it was cute and actually found it somewhat amusing.

Kiritsugu was another issue of Shirou's concern, but for totally different reasons. Over the last two years, the elder Emiya's health had been getting worse and worse. It was clear to see that Kiritsugu only had another few years left at best, and that was if he was pretty lucky.

"Onii-chan" Illya said quietly in her sleep. "I love you, Onii-chan." Her words caused Shirou to smile.

"I love you too, Nee-chan" The boy said.

*One Year Later*

Shirou and Kiritsugu were sitting in Kiritsugu's room enjoying some tea. Ilya would have joined them, but she had lessons with Acht. While they were sitting in silence. Kiritsugu looked out the window into the snowy tundra. Shirou found it weird that it snowed year round, but Kiritsugu explained to him that it was part of some sort of defense set in place by the bounded fields. "Hey Shirou," Kiritsugu started, not taking his eyes off the window, "do you want to hear the story of how I met your mother, Irisviel?

"Sure," Shirou replied, "I've been wondering about that anyway."

Kiritsugu smiled. "You see, I once wanted to be a hero."

"A hero?" Shirou asked not being sure why he meant.

"You see, to fully understand, I have to start from the very beginning. The story starts with a young boy living with his father on an island."

And so Kiritsugu told Shirou of his past. He told his son of his father, Norikata Emiya, who infected their entire island home. He spoke of his foster mother, Natalia Kaminski, who saved him and took him in. He spoke, Shirley, his first friend and arguable first love. He about Miaya Hisui, his partner and lover. And he spoke of his wife Irisviel von Einzbern, birth mother of Ilya and Kiritsugu's biggest regret. But he didn't stop there.

He spoke about the grail war to. He talked about the Masters and servants. He talked about the arrogant Tokiomi Tohsaka and the even more arrogant golden Archer. He spoke about the foolish Kayneth Archibald and the noble Lancer. He recalled the childish Waver Velvet(or Lord El-Melloi II if the latest information from Clocktower was to be believed) and the kingly Rider. He spoke of the desperate Kariya Matou and the mysterious berserker. He talked of the the deranged Rennosuke Uryuu and the disturbed caster. He told of the frightening Kirei Kotomine and his many obedient assassins. He spoke of saber. He spoke of the fire.

The story of Kiritsugu Emiya was one of pain, loss, and regret. Truly a sad story about a man who just wanted to help people.

"Shirou," Kiritsugu spoke, tears coming from his eyes. "I don't want you to turn out like me. A man who sacrificed so much dear to him in order to follow a childish dream. Please promise me that you won't follow the same path that I have."

Shirou looked at his father. "I promise. I'll look after Ilya. And I'll make sure that the grail's taken out for good this time. You don't need to worry. You can relax." He finished slowly, as if knowing what would come next.

"I see" Kiritsugu said. A smile graced his face. It was a pure, honest smile that one would normally only see on a child who hadn't seen the unfortunate truth about the cruelness the world yet. "I'm glad." He said as he eyes slowly began to close.

"Hey Dad," Shirou said to his father. "Say hi to mom for me, alright."

"Don't worry" Kiritsugu said softly. "I will". With that Kiritsugu closed his eyes. Small tears trailed down Shirou's face as he looked at the body of his father. The boy didn't get up from his chair as he just sat there in silence, crying. There was no need to check.

Kiritsugu Emiya was dead.

So that's it.

Kiritsugu's dead and he gave Shirou a lot to think about.

Sorry I didn't have much of Ilya in this chapter, but don't worry, next chapter will feature a lot more of her.