Chapter 1: Emiya's Daily Life

Delusions/Thoughts "Speech" "Emphasis"

Three Years Later:

Emiya Shirou lay on his back, he was sleeping quite peacefully on a single mat in the dusty storehouse, but that was soon to be interrupted as it was already the morning.

"Senpai, it's time to wake up!" Sakura, Shirou's junior friend who visits him regularly shouted. Shirou's eyes snapped open, and he looked at the time.

"Sakura, I'm sorry, I was supposed to get breakfast ready wasn't I?!" Shirou rushed for the main building, the outhouse which also functioned as Shirou's training room was disconnected from the main building, so he had to cross the garden to get there.

"Senpai, wait! I already prepared-" Sakura shouted, it failed to reach his ears as he was half way to the main building. She sighed, her senpai really shouldn't need to worry about these things, if he didn't do them she would just do them, as she was a member of the Emiya household, but her senpai shouldn't be too lazy of course.

Sakura then decided to leave for breakfast.

When Shirou reached the dining room he saw Taiga munching on her steamed rice, as soon she noticed Shirou she looked.

"Don't worry Shirou, my lovely Sakura-chan cooked this great meal for me! Sakura-chan's going to make a great wife to someone someday." Taiga nudged Shirou several times, but was ignored as Shirou promptly sat down, and began eating. Taiga was Shirou's guardian after Kiritsugu died, not a very useful one though, all she did was come to eat Shirou's or Sakura's food, watch television, and sleep. She was the very model of a dependent person.

"Fuji-nee, aren't you going to be late, don't the teachers have this meeting they that they have to attend before school?" Shirou reminded Taiga, Taiga looked at the time, and then panicked.

"Damnit Shirou, couldn't you have told me earlier?!" Taiga dashed out of the doorway, leaving her half-finished bowl of steamed rice with curry, Shirou sighed, Taiga was definitely a handful to take care of.

Why do you take care of her in the first place? Just be rid of her! Get rid of that burden!

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!" Shirou clutched his head and shut his ears, he began to shake uncontrollably, he failing to notice Sakura right next to him.

"It's okay senpai, it's okay senpai, calm down, what you're hearing isn't real. It isn't anything but a part of your imagination." Sakura patted him on the head, Shirou relaxed and stopped shaking.

"Thank you Sakura." Shirou was grateful for the help, Sakura just smiled at him, and began to eat her food. When they were both ready, they began to walk to Homurahara Gakuen, the high school they attended.

It was a rather long walk from the Emiya household to school, but neither Shirou nor Sakura minded walking for thirty minutes. Shirou tended to see things, or hear things, odd things that actually didn't exist. Only Sakura and not Fujimura knew about this, because Shirou honestly didn't feel comfortable enough to tell his guardian about it. While Shirou was busy daydreaming in the middle of the road, putting his body on autopilot for most of the way they met Shinji who had a rather furious look on his face.

"Sakura, why didn't you come to archery practice today? Where were you?!" Shinji yelled at Sakura furiously, he began approaching her, sticking his face in her personal space. This snapped Shirou out of his daydream and he went to her side.

"I was at Senpai's place, I was helping him-"Shinji raised his hand to slap Sakura, who shrunk in fear, as Shinji moved his arm, Sakura braced herself for the pain, but it didn't come.

Kill him, he's hurting Sakura!

She waited, it still didn't come, when she looked up, she saw Shirou in front of her, and Shinji's attack had hit his shoulders instead, Shinji got even madder, his face twisted into a wicked frown, and his eyebrows burrowed into his skull.

"Emiya… you'll regret this!" Shinji screeched as he ran away like a coward.

"Senpai…" Sakura stared at Shirou's back, his muscles stuck out of his body, it was well toned, if he wanted to, he could probably have half of the girls of Homurahara drooling if he took off his shirt. He looked back at Sakura and smiled.

"Tell me any time Shinji gets annoying, I'll put him in his place." Shirou told her, all while giving her a reassuring smile. Sakura smiled back, she was happy to be with Shirou, and happy to be a member of the Emiya household, she didn't want any of her happiness to be ripped away by anyone, she would protect her daily life.

They finally neared Homurahara Gakuen, seeing many different students approach, Shirou was kind of a loner in Homurahara, as he didn't have many friends. The only people he actually considered friends were Sakura, Ryudo Issei, one of the monks at Ryudo Temple and Mitsuzuri Ayako who was the current captain of the Archery club. He liked it that way. He feared his 'condition,' he knew it was a genuine condition, but he couldn't find it on the internet, because he had forgotten its name. That was probably the reason Kiritsugu looked at him with those worried eyes.

The bell rung around the time they reached school, it was a day like any other, and school was dull, boring and easy. He usually got into the top 5 of the year every time they had exams, his other competitors were usually Tohsaka Rin, the class idol, Issei and Shinji. Rin was a mystery to him, she was clearly hiding something, she didn't act arrogant like Shinji, despite being amazing at pretty much everything she does, she just barely interacted with anyone apart from Mitsuzuri. Issei somehow was instinctively suspicious and called her a witch, and while he didn't agree with that, something was definitely off about her.

During lunch break he and Rin didn't manage to notice where they were going and as a result bumped into each other, dropping their lunch boxes. Shirou quickly found himself on the floor, he quickly backed away from whoever he bumped into and quickly got back up on his feet again. When he looked up he saw Rin bending down to pick her lunch box.

"You should watch where you're going Emiya-kun." Rin scolded him, once she lifted up her head.

"Sorry about that." Shirou scratched his neck sheepishly, a crowd quickly gathered around them and started make a big fuss, they were all hating on Shirou for bumping into their precious school idol, the two of them barely managed to escape the huge crowd. Rin retreated to her usual place, the rooftop, while Shirou went to eat outside.

After school ended Shirou had to do his part time job, while Rin hurriedly rushed home, there was something important she had to do, in comparison any school activities she had were pointless. It was time to do her job as the Tohsaka heir and participate in the Fifth Holy Grail War. The moderator, Kirei Kotomine (and her guardian) had told her that five servants had already been summoned signaling the start of the Holy Grail War. She had to do her best and summon a servant tonight.

Tonight was the night she had to do it, when she was at the peak of her magical powers, exactly at 2:00AM. She wanted to summon Saber, the most powerful servant, apparently there were only two servants left, so she would have a fifty-fifty chance of summoning Saber. There was probably no better master for Saber than herself after all, and if she got what she wanted, with their combined capabilities she would have a much easier time dealing with the Holy Grail War.

A sound of footsteps approached Tohsaka, was she being followed? She turned around, there was nothing there, absolutely nothing, the wind seemed to split, as she noticed something coming towards her, some syringe of some sort. She easily dodged it and instantly got suspicious. But no matter how hard she searched, the culprit remained undetected. Her time was being wasted so she hurried home.

Guess I'll have to watch myself, someone's out to get me. Tohsaka frowned, she didn't have time to deal with small fry who couldn't do their jobs.

She rested for the last few hours of the day until it was time to do it, as she needed to be in optimal condition to summon Saber. Why was she participating in the Grail Wars when it could potentially get her killed? Well that's because she wanted to win, she wanted to win no matter what challenge she faced, and it was her duty as the current head of one of the founding families to participate in the Grail War.

When it was finally time, and everything was prepared in the murky dusty basement of hers she was shook nervously. All the other times someone was summoned there was a catalyst. In her case, however, she lacked that essential component and had to make do without it. Her books had told her that if there was no catalyst, the possibilities of what servant you could summon were pretty much infinite. She just hoped she could get the strongest one, she just hoped she would get Saber.

She began to chant:

"I command thee...
Thou shalt come forth to my side;
Thy sword shalt control my fate. Abiding by the Holy Grail's haven,
If thou accedest to this will and reason, then answer me
The oath set forth here.
I am the embodiment of good in the eternal world.
I am the disposer of evil in the eternal world.
Thee, the seven heavens that bear the great trinity,
Come forth from the circle of constraint..."

The summoning circle began to glow a blood red colour, it gleamed with an ever present brilliance, and a great magical release occurred that completely ruined all of the other things in the basement by blowing them away with its intense power. Rin could feel herself smilling happily as she was sure she got a servant. But then what happened? The summoning circle's glow faded, and Rin was left dumbstruck, there was no servant! There was no servant there! Why wasn't there a servant there? Maybe she had failed to summon one. Then what would happen to her? The Tohsaka family had been in every Grail War before this one. Did that mean she was a failure? No that would be inconceivable, she knew she did everything right, but then she noticed command seals burn on her hand.

She knew it, she knew it! Now just to find her servant…

CRASH! Rin heard a loud noise in her dining room, she hurried there as soon as she could.

The Previous Day:

Shirou hurried home, it was getting late, he really hoped Sakura hadn't started preparing dinner that would be the second time he made her do cooking because he was irresponsible on the same day. He continued to walk en route to his house until he reached the bridge.

On the bridge there was a girl with long white hair that stretched to her back, she was a lot shorter than him and hand a childlike appearance. As soon as they were right next to each other she leaned closer to his ear.

"If you don't summon it soon, you'll be killed onii-chan." She whispered threateningly, Shirou flinched.

What could 'it' be? Summon? She obviously isn't normal, and she looks like a foreigner, maybe its something foreign, no It can't be. Death in relation to summons, which means magecraft! Wait, red eyes and white hair? Those aren't normal hair or eye colours.

Shirou was suddenly hit by a memory.

"Tou-san, did you ever marry before?" A young ten year old Shirou asked Kiritsugu

"Yes I did, but my wife died, because of…" Kiritsugu turned away, he couldn't say it, it was too painful.

"What did she look like?" Shirou asked

"She was very beautiful, she had long white hair and amazing red eyes."

Shirou turned around as fast as he could, but no one was there, the bridge was silent, not even footsteps could be heard, the sweat on his face was an obvious indicator that he was tired as all hell. Today was a tiring day, Shirou knew he needed to sleep, he needed to take a break from life. He made the short trip home as fast as he could, he really didn't want to look irresponsible in front of Sakura.

He made it home just in time to see Sakura, who was beginning to prepare dinner.

"Sakura, don't worry about dinner, leave it to me, I don't want to make you do two meals in a row, while I act lazy and irresponsible." Shirou said while gasping for breath.

"Senpai, are you okay? You returned awfully late, don't make me worry about you like that." Sakura rushed to Shirou worriedly, she had definitely been worried that her senpai had been dragged in by his delusions, they often kicked in when he was tired. If it were a normal person who had been affected by a mental disease like this, than they most likely wouldn't be allowed to interact with the general populace very much, and they would be isolated from society or they would go crazy, but Shirou didn't seem to have that kind of problem, he may have talked to himself quite a bit when he was younger, but otherwise he could mostly differentiate between illusion and reality.

"Sorry Sakura, I'll try not to worry you too often." Shirou apologized sincerely, he really didn't want to worry Sakura, she had done a lot for him and he would rather that he didn't trouble her.

"Okay senpai, just be sure to be careful at night." Sakura decided to end the conversation over there, it was getting late anyway, and Shirou still had to prepare dinner.

Several hours later, Tohsaka Residence:

Tohsaka rushed to her dining room as fast as she could, her vision blurred as she sprinted through the hallways. Her body was shaking with anticipation.

Saber, please let it be Saber… Rin's thoughts blurred out as the dining room shifted into view.

Or what was left of it…

A tall white haired man wearing red clothing that you might see on a knight was sitting on the rubble consisting of her tables, chairs, wardrobes, and other pieces of furniture. Rin clutched her skull and fell to the floor in shame of her unorthodox, destructive summoning. She suddenly realized that all the clocks in her house were one hour ahead.

It must have been that damned box with the smashed up catalyst, I should've been more careful. Rin berated herself inwardly, it was probably a trap set by her father to test whether she was ready, and she failed miserably.

"And you, what are you supposed to be?" Rin rudely asked the annoyed man who was still sitting on her destroyed furniture.

"That's the first thing you say to me? Seems I've been drawn by quite an unusual master." The man replied in a condescending tone, it contained annoying amounts of confidence that Rin was really annoyed by, her head was already steaming from all the stress she was going through.

"Or did I draw the short straw?" The man's tone didn't change, and neither did that arrogant look, or the ever present smirk on his face. Rin was now visibly losing her calm, her eyebrows dug into her skull as she stood up to confront this unruly man.

"Just to make sure, you are my servant right?" Rin retained a firm voice, like one that you would use to conduct a business transaction, this man's foolishness had not completely obliterated her patience, not yet anyway.

"And you're my master, you weren't here when I was summoned." The 'unruly' man stated

Rin sighed, she didn't want to think about her botched summoning, she just wanted to bury it.

"Don't make it sound like you're a baby bird and you imprint on your master when you first open your eyes, that's just ridiculous." Rin answered the man who was annoying her more and more, she was slowly but surely losing her temper. The man had no response to that, but his smirk didn't leave his face, the jewel magus decided she was tired, and began to aim to end the conversation quickly.

"Master-Servant Relationships should be laid out right off the bat." Rin informed Archer, who's smirk grew wider, Rin frowned, that stupid 'servant' was messing with her.

"I'm in complete agreement." The unidentified servant stood up and stared Rin right in the eyes.

"But where is the evidence that you are my master?" Rin smirked, thinking that the servant was ready to stop acting unruly and act like a servant, she was sure that her command seals would persuade him to stop acting like such a jerk. She lifted her arm to show her command seals imprinted on her hand, but the servant frowned and then shook his head.

"I didn't want to see those worthless seals, I wanted to see if you are worth my loyalty." The red coated man sighed, Rin was puzzled, she didn't understand what her servant was saying. What was he doing, making all of these worthless conditions? Didn't he understand that she could cut him off at any time?

"Then do you not acknowledge me as your master?" Rin's piercing gaze was directed at the white haired man.

"I am very unsatisfied, however I do acknowledge you as my master, provided that you find a good place to hide yourself, and allow me to make all the decisions regarding the war, including but not limited to battle decisions, tactics, and targets." The white haired man smirked his widest smirk yet, which only served to piss Rin off even more, she was at her limit.

Rin could no longer stand this fools arrogance, he dared to insult her so badly when he was supposed to her servant, her slave, she slowly began to roll up her sleeve.

"You acknowledge me, but won't listen to my orders, is that what you're saying?" Rin gave the white haired servant a big smile, who in turn took a step back, he had no idea what this girl was planning, but she was getting creepy, she had just took her pride and stepped on it, so why was she smiling?

"I've had enough of your insolence servant, I think I'll have to teach you a lesson. You're going to disappear from my sight forever, I wouldn't be able to work with a lousy servant like you anyway, your stats and skills seem to suck from what I can see." Rin raised her hand and showed him her command seals.

Archer began to shake, this girl was preposterous, if she ordered her own servant to commit suicide at the start of the war, than what chance did she have of winning the war? No she wouldn't be able to do it, she wouldn't dare.

"Oh and in case you're wondering, I don't really have a wish, and if I enter the war with you, then I'll probably lose anyway, so if I had no chance of winning in the first place, why should I have to deal with a stupid servant like you?!" Rin yelled out, her command seals began to glow as she began chanting.

"Anfang! Vertrag… Ein neuer Nagel… Ein neues Gesetz… Ein neues Gesetz…"
Archer paled considerably, he couldn't let his goal be snatched away because he was forced to commit suicide by his master, he had to do something fast, or he would miss his great chance. He was finally summoned into the correct time period if Rin was still alive and young, he just had to fulfill his goal, everything else was secondary.

"Are you crazy master? Are you giving up on the Holy Grail before you have even tried to win it, you'll never get an opportunity like this again, are you serious?" Archer panicked, he tried to think of ways to stop her, but couldn't find any, except one. He gulped down every substance in his mouth. This was going to be humiliating

"Ein neues Verb-"

"Stop it girl! I'm sorry, I'll consider your orders when they are issued to me. I apologize for any disrespectful behavior that I showed earlier." Archer fell to the floor and bowed down in a knight's pose, Rin stopped her chant and began smirking, looks like it had worked, she never planned to make him commit suicide, because forfeiting the Holy Grail War was ridiculous to a Tohsaka. She had only really planned to either make him so scared that he'd do something like he was doing now, or he'd just continue with his ever present smirking face, and she'd use one to do absolute submission. Well this was way better, because she still had all her command seals.

"Then first we need to establish some ground rules here, first my name isn't girl, my name is Tohsaka Rin, you can call me what you like. Second, you will never act in such an insulting manner again in my presence, as I am your master. Third, clean up all messes you make in my house, including this destroyed dining room. Here take the broom and leave, go clean up." Tohsaka glared at the man all while she ordered him.

"Very well Rin, I shall clean up my mess." He began to pick up the broken and destroyed pieces of furniture, he noticed Rin's gaze on him and turned his head.

"What?"

"I was just wondering, are you Archer or Saber?" Rin had calmed down significantly and instead stared at him with interest. Archer almost dropped the side table he was holding, he scratched his head.

"I'm an Archer class servant." Archer answered honestly, Rin sighed, well this was to be expected since she botched the summoning, it was her fault after all.

"I guess I'll just have to make do, I'm going to sleep, you better have the whole mess cleaned up by morning!" Rin scurried to her bed, her mind was threatening to shut down, at least she had summoned a servant. She was too tired to think about anything else but that, as soon as she reached her bed she collapsed on top of it.

About Three Hours Earlier:

Shirou was in the storehouse at the most isolated point of the Emiya household. It was dark, dusty and smelled bad, but Shirou didn't care about that, all he cared about was one thing, nothing could possibly destroy his focus. Only one image flared into his mind, his hand was holding a rock, his hand could only be holding a rock, nothing else. He was grasping a rock in his hand, not air. Each of his twenty seven circuits flared to life, he hypnotized himself once again.

"Shatter reality!"

He could feel his fingers burning, he could feel his prana leaving him. The greenish energy began to leave his fingers and manifest into the world. His mind stayed in deep concentration.

"Current reality: denied, Rewriting reality..., Positioning reality distortion, Reproducing exact image of target object, Reproducing accumulated years, Imitating exact creation of object, Excelling at every manufacturing process, writing the concept of existence into the world!"

Sweat trickled down Shirou's forehead as he looked at the rock, the completed rock, the perfected rock. Still he did not feel satisfied, as his eyes were threatening to close, the time it took to make one rock was too long for a fight, it took him a full 30 seconds to make the rock, by then if he was attacked in any way, he would already be dead. It would be too slow to make one during the battle. From what he understood, the segments that took a long time were reproducing history, imitating the exact creation, and writing the concept of existence into Akasha. So for things with a shorter history, and simpler creation process, it would take less time to bring them into existence.

His father had told him Akasha was the root of all things, of all knowledge in this world, but the only reason he knew that line of his aria was it came to him naturally, he almost instinctively could discern what was missing.

Shirou always toyed with the idea that his failures weren't really failures, while he sucked at reinforcement, he could break things he previously couldn't with his bare hands, he took the rock he made and grabbed it.

"Trace on!"

Shirou's mind purposely wandered as soon as he got halfway through his reinforcement, causing the rock to combust in his bare hands. This was how useful botching up reinforcment was, he could probably make the entire wall break with just a little prana if he messed up his reinforcement. The number of times he actually succeeded with reinforcement were low, he could probably say that his chances of succeeding at any reinforcement magic were around 10%. He couldn't use such unreliable magic in the middle of any situation, so basically the only thing he could actually do with his magic was understand structures, and blow things up, any 'real' magic was far out of his reach, he wasn't a hundred percent sure what his 'denial' and 'affirmation' magic did, and he wasn't sure of his limits, but he knew it was dangerous to use it, really really dangerous, and he knew it was very powerful.

Shirou was really tired, now, he wasn't feeling very good, he had to rest, he really had to rest. He dragged himself out of the storehouse and moved to his room in a very sluggish matter, he thought he saw a dark shadow in the corner watching him, but he dismissed it as an illusion, he was too tired to deal with these illusions now.

END

Response to reviews

Guest: I'd like you to clarify what you mean by "it is a fake... sort of," Everything that happened as of Chapter 0 was not fake at all, it was part of reality. Shirou just wants his mind to be tricking him, he's denying the reality in front of him.

BoxFanatic: Nope, I didn't take any ideas from Medaka Box, what Kumagawa does is turning things into nothing, what Shirou does is different.