Sword of Earth

by epicgamer484

one was the lingering remains of a betrayed Keyblade wielder, the other was a distorted red head wanting to become a hero of justice. Two lives that normally would have never crossed, but they did, and now a new Keyblade wielder has arisen to become the light that burns away the darkness , Fate stay night x kingdom hearts crossover. Chapter 2 Rewitten

2. Chapter 2

Sword of Earth chapter 2

The following months after Shirou managed to unlock the power of the keyblade seemed to fly by, as the eternal struggle called life continued for the father and son duo.

First of these events was that Kiritsugu decided it was time for his son to go back to school, so that he could meet more kids his age and hopefully have a sense of normalcy in his life. After the magus killer finished all the necessary paperwork, Shirou was enrolled in the 1st grade at the nearest elementary school they could find.

Of course, the faculty offered to provide Shirou with special needs, when it came to their attention that the red head was a survivor of the great Fuyuki Fire and properly had lingering traumas that would affect his schoolwork, however both Father and son agreed that they didn't need special treatment, so Kiritsugu told the faculty that his son didn't need anything like that.

As far as fitting in, Shirou had a bit of difficulty fitting in at first due to his red hair causing a few raised eyebrows here and there.

However, this had changed somewhat after an event when he stood up to a trio of bullies that were attending the school and demanded that they leave a kid that they were coercing into handing over lunch money.

Of course, this left the red head bruised and beaten in the aftermath since he was up against multiple opponents and was forbidden from using his magecraft in public.

Since then, the red head decided that he needed to train his eyes and reaction skills, so that he could keep track of multiple opponents at once and trained vigorously with Fuji-nee.

However, Shirou never got to show the results of his training as Taiga Fujimura had heard of his little incident with the bullies at his school and decided that a little disciplining was in order.

The end result was the three stooges showing up at his front door in Japanese sitting positions with their heads bowed down and apologizing profusely for beating up the little brother figure of the Tiger of Fuyuki.

They then swore never to bully anyone at their school again before running away as fast as their legs could carry them.

When the youngest Emiya asked Fuji-nee what she did to them the brown haired girl sported a cat like grin and said, "it's a secret".

From there, school life seemed to be going all right for the Faker as he managed to keep his grades slightly above average due to him concentrating most of his spare time on magecraft as well as training with Fuji-nee.

His physical education on the other hand was great due to all of the physical exercise he does back home.

As for his activities back home, his training in Magecraft with Kiritsugu covered a number of topics such as reinforcement, alteration, bounded fields, and memory alteration.

Reinforcement was a technique that involved taking something that was already complete in the eyes of the word and improving it. It was considered as the foundation of all magecraft by pouring prana into an object in order to improve it.

This could range from filling in the impurities of an object to make it tougher and more durable, to improving an items concept like the sharpness of a knife or the nourishment of food.

Sometimes, reinforcement can also be used to change the physical structure of an object like turning a branch of a tree into a longbow, or repair the gabs in a football.

After Kiritsugu explained the concept of reinforcement to his son and showed him a demonstration, he went to collect a bunch of glass cups that he had bought from the local department store and placed them in front of Shirou so he could practice with them.

With that in mind, Shirou begun his first crack at reinforcement by picking up a random glass cup and examined it with structural analysis. After identifying the impurities in the cup, the trainee mage then put the glass down and placed his hand on it so he can begin with reinforcement.

"Trace on," he said. The circuits in his body flared to life giving him the prana necessary to fill in the gaps of an object and begun transferring the energy he created into the glass cup while making sure that he was filling in the gaps with his prana and nothing else.

Unfortunately, this ended in the glass cup cracking and finally breaking apart before the red heads eyes, marking the faker's first failure in performing Reinforcement.

However, the attempt wasn't a complete loss as Shirou figured out what he was doing wrong before the object cracked as it seemed he channeled a bit too much prana into the objects impurities causing them to expand and cause cracks in the glass that eventually cause it to shatter.

With that in mind, the red head picked up another cup and tried again now knowing what he had done wrong. However, it was more difficult then he thought as it was hard to find the right amount of prana to improve the glasses while making sure that they didn't break.

Eventually, Shirou managed to find the right balance of prana flow after breaking at least a third of the cups and begun reinforcing the rest while making sure that that they didn't break. When Kiritsugu came back a few hours later to check on his son's progress he was pleased to find that Shirou had managed to successfully reinforce the structures of over half of the remaining glasses without breaking them.

When the red head asked what they were going to do next his father said they were going to keep doing the same exercise over and over until Shirou can successfully reinforce every one of the set of glasses the magus killer sets up.

By this practice, the son of Kiritsugu would be able to guess correctly the right amount of prana needed to reinforce an object as if it was his second nature. This skill was necessary to master reinforcement, especially if the red head tries to reinforce his own body.

Eventually, Shirou managed to reinforce every one of the glasses his father set up for him without breaking a single one after two weeks of practicing non-stop.

With that out of the way, the father and son duo decided to practice reinforcing concepts next.

Since they didn't have a more physical presence within an object compared to imperfections it was harder for a novice magus to identify let alone reinforce them so that the object becomes better instead of inferior.

However, thanks to the previous training he did in controlling the flow of his prana, Shirou should be able to successfully reinforce an objects concept as long as he didn't screw up.

Fortunately for the boy, that didn't seem to be the case as when Shirou decided to reinforce the sharpness of the knives in his kitchen he was successful for the most part.

Of course, the rest of the bits and pieces he could get his hands on such as metal pots and pans and various junk that Fuji-nee leaves behind when she visits weren't exactly successes themselves as over half of his attempts ended up either deformed or in pieces.

However, if there was one characteristic that defined Shirou Emiya it was that he had a stubborn streak, which was why he kept challenging Taiga to sparring matches despite the losing streak he had at the moment.

With that in mind, the faker kept up with trying to perfect conceptual reinforcement until he got it right, to improving the sharpness of a knife, to the nutritional value of the ingredients he keeps in his kitchen.

A funny incident happened one time, as Shirou accidentally used the reinforced food he kept in the backside of the cupboard and fridge for breakfast one time, when he forgot to go shopping that weekend, so he ended up using them for breakfast that morning, by the time he had realized his mistake and choose not to eat the food, Taiga had already eaten her share and was already asking for seconds.

Because of the ingredients he used in making breakfast were twice as nutritious and full of energy as normal food, they ended up making anyone who ate them energetic and full of life.

This unfortunately included Fuji-nee who was already hyperactive and full of energy already become an absolute monster in terms of endurance, when Breakfast was finished they had accidentally unleashed onto the world an extremely energetic teen onto the world.

With too much energy in her 13 year old body the yakuza princess ended up in multiple scenarios that left her grandfather Raiga with multiple headaches and Kiritsugu making Shirou swear never to reinforce anything edible in the house again especially if Taiga comes round.

It was after this event that the red head finally mastered conceptual reinforcement after he was limited to non-edible object due to Taiga's actions. Seeing his son's progress, Kiritsugu decided that it was time to start doing Alteration.

While Reinforcement reinforces an object's structure and concepts that make it whole and Projection replicates its image, Alteration is considered the mid-way point between the two as it involves giving the object an effect or property it didn't have before.

However, there was a couple of limits to this mystery that prevent it from truly being effective. First was the fact that the concept added needed to be compatible with the object in question or it would collapse from its own unstable nature.

The second limit was that certain concepts added are only temporary if they were something like adding the concept of fire to a knife to set it alight. However, this limit is meaningless to magi as there are plenty of other mysteries that do the same thing.

Seeing the possibilities of such an art, Shirou looked on as Kiritsugu gave a demonstration of such an art by grabbing a bucket of water, putting his hand into the cold liquid and performed Alteration. This resulted in adding the concept of flammability to the clear liquid. He dunked his hand into the bucket, lighting a matchstick, and dropping it into the altered water before backing away from the resulting flames that appeared.

The magus killer explained that this was possible due to the components that made up H2O such as hydrogen and oxygen, which were both flammable substances on their own.

It was the main reason why many fire extinguishers never had any water in them, as the water would just maintain the flames depending on the intensity.

After the demonstration and explanation on how to perform alteration, the older Emiya gave the red head permission to perform his own experiments on using the art as long as they were reasonable.

With that conformation Shirou decided that he wanted to try with something simple and grabbed a metal pipe from the corner of the tool shed. Racking his brain on what he wanted to do, the red head eventually decided on giving the metal pipe the concept of softness.

With that decided he recited his activation aria and activated his circuits so he could use structural analysis to identify the concepts in the metal pipe, then used Alteration to add softness to its conceptual structure.

The end result of Shirou's experiment was a metal pipe that had the softness and elastic properties of rubber, which amused his father when he saw it; eventually the metal pipe went back to normal as his father explained that that level of alteration was only temporary.

A couple of weeks after that the magus killer decided that it was time his son learned about bounded fields, since it would be beneficial for Shirou to learn about them in his youth.

Bounded fields as Kiritsugu explained were long-term mysteries set up by magi in order to serve specific purposes ranging from protecting a magus's home or workshop, keeping mundane away from a specific location related to the supernatural and many others.

The magus killer explained that in order to create a bounded field you need to be at the location in which you want your field to be, generate high concentrations of prana from either your circuits or from a nearby source like a leyline, and then spread it over a large area that covers the area you want it to be at.

Some bounded fields are able to cover literal areas of space such as in the air, or have a barrier set up to keep intruders away from a specific location. However, these were beyond Kiritsugu's ability to teach so he apologized to his son and explained that they have to stick to the basics for now.

An example the magus killer gave his son was the bounded field he had set up around the Emiya residence property when he had adopted the red head.

While it didn't possess any obvious effects like torching intruders or magically binding targets to a specific location, it can detect whether an intruder entering the property was hostile towards any of the people living there and alerts the residents via ringing a couple of bells linked to the field.

After this explanation Shirou asked his father if there was any other bounded fields that he could teach the red head how to do. Unfortunately, the only ones that the magus killer knew how to do were a weak field meant to keep mundane people away from a specific location, as well as the field around the Emiya residence mentioned earlier.

The magus killer did, however, say that he was going to instead teach his son tricks on how to get past bounded fields instead since he had learned quite a bit getting past them during his days as a freelancer.

From there, the elder mage explained to the younger one the different types of bounded fields often employed by mage families. The key points around the field where they are weakest and how to identify them.

This continued on for at least an hour, before the magus killer decided that they had covered enough on the finer points of bounded fields and called off the lesson for the day, saying that they were going to cover memory alteration next.

Just like the name implies, it was a mystery meant to alter the mind of a target in order to erase a person's memories, as well as replace them with new ones at the casters leisure. The technique could also be used to view the memories of the target in clearer detail as long as the owner of said memories was willing.

Kiritsugu explained that it was important that Shirou learn this mystery, as magi use memory alteration in order to erase the memories of mundane people that might threaten the secrecy of magecraft. Of course, the magus killer further explained that most magi usually just kill any witnesses and dispose of the bodies in secret.

Not wanting to resort to such methods in order to preserve the secrecy of magic, Shirou agreed that he would do his upmost best to master memory alteration, so that he would be prepared in case an event happens that might expose magic to the world.

It was easier said than done. The red head had displayed difficulty in using this mystery, when his father tasked him with reading his mind. In fact, it had taken Shirou 5 whole days before he was able to gain a degree of control over memory alteration.

Then again, the target for Shirou's attempts in using that particular spell was Taiga, who to put it lightly isn't very bright to begin with, which creates doubts on Shirou's ability to use memory alteration if hit took the red head 3 weeks just to hypnotize Fuji-nee.

It another week just to master Command, which was a mystery that hypnotizes its target into doing whatever the caster wanted, as long as the order didn't conflict with the target's basic nature. The reason it took so long to master it was due to both Shirou's lack of talent in the field, and his reluctance to learn something that forces others to do stuff against their will.

Kiritsugu, of course, understood why his son didn't want to use this mystery, but convinced the red head to learn it anyway as it might prove useful in keeping mundane individuals out of harms way.

After a month of training Kiritsugu decided to evaluate his son's progress in order to determine what sort of magecraft he could do in the future. It was obviously clear that his son was no genius when it came to using thaumaturgy. However, what Shirou lacked in talent he made up for it in hard work and determination.

Time and time again he practiced what little his father taught him in the mystic arts until using them became second nature, but if the magus killer had to point down his son's strong points then he would have to narrow it down to Reinforcement, Projection, and Alteration, all three of which were the basics learned by magi.

Of course, the magus killer knew very well that the basics were very important for a mage as they served as the foundation for a mages skills, which were needed in order to learn harder and more complex mysteries later on in life.

The only thing left to do now is to figure out what Shirou's element is, so that the magus killer has a better understanding on his son's abilities and work their way up from there.

After the red head managed to gain a degree of control in using the memory altering mysteries he taught the boy. Kiritsugu said that he needed to leave on a trip in a few days, and instructed Shirou to practice everything that he had taught him, as well as the other projects that he was doing in his spare time, such as mastering the use of both his arnor and Keyblade, as well as trying to figure out the key point that was missing in Shirou's version of projection magic.

Eventually, Kiritsugu left the house a few days later saying that he might not be back for a month, with that in mind he instructed his son before he left to look after the house while he was gone and to not slouch in his studies both mundane and magical.

With his father gone the faker decided that he might as well start on his usual routine around the house, since it was not the first time Kiritsugu had left the house for some time as he had done it shortly after the man adopted him, leaving Fuji-nee to look after the red head until he came back a month later looking even more dejected then before.

Of course, Shirou was curious about what his father was up to overseas, but whenever he tried to get some answers from the retired magus he always got the same answer.

"It's nothing Shirou, so don't worry about it"

It was obvious that his father was hiding something since he was so defensive about where he goes during his trips. However, Shirou decided not to pry any further as it was none of his business, plus he wanted to wait until his father was comfortable with telling him himself.

With that in mind, the youngest Emiya of the two (redundant) walked towards the tool shed that serves as his workshop and stopped when he faced the chained up door with a lock attached.

Looking in all directions in order to make sure that Fuji-nee didn't make any surprise visits Shirou held out his hand and concentrated on his secret weapon, a second later the Earthshaker keyblade appeared in his hand.

During his spare time when he wasn't practicing kendo with Taiga, learning thaumaturgy from his father, or doing his homework, the red head decided to pass the time by practicing with the Keyblade in the courtyard at night.

During these experiments Shirou had learned two different abilities that he had discovered about his new weapon, first was that the red head can summon the sword to his hand anytime he wanted and dismiss it just as well, this would be helpful if he happened to be disarmed during the middle of a fight.

The second power was that the keyblade enhanced his physical abilities to superhuman levels in regards to his strength, endurance, and agility with a slight (slight and super human seems contradicting) increase in attack power. When Kiritsugu saw this, he compared it to a form of passive reinforcement, that didn't end as long as Shirou was still holding the weapon.

Since his power boost was coming from the keyblade, the faker could further enhance his abilities by applying reinforcement to his own body, after his father gave the boy the green light to try it out.

Needless to say, Emiya Shirou was a very happy boy that day.

Coming out of the flashback he just had, the red head raised the end point of his keyblade towards the lock binding the tool shed shut and tapped it twice causing a clicking sound that caused the lock to become undone.

This was a security feature that Shirou and his father thought up after reviewing the keyblade's main power to open any lock no matter how old or modern it was, by chaining the door to the tool shed up and throwing away the key to the lock, the two of them ensured that only someone with a keyblade would be able to open the door to Shirou's workshop.

So with that the red head dismissed the Earthshaker and picked up the chain that was discarded on the floor, before pushing the doors to the tool shed open and place the chain on a nearby table.

As Shirou looked around the stone and wood covered area that served as his workshop, he spotted the other tool in his arsenal that was sitting on a chair below the window covered in brass, gold and black metal plates.

Even after a year passed since the great Fuyuki fire, the faker still had no idea where that armor came from and how it ended up attached to the red head in the first place, even his father was puzzled as magi nowadays don't create full sets of armor as mystic codes since they stand out too much in public, which is why they use other mysteries in order to protect themselves.

However, there was one thing the red head was sure of. The keyblade he was using possessed a connection to the armor due to them sharing similar color themes, as well as the vision he had of the armor holding the weapon right before summoning the keyblade for the first time.

Of course, the red head wasn't about to just let it just sit there collecting dust as he had many plans in the future for it, such as dressing up in the armor in order to hide his identity while he combated evil wherever it may hide, just like the main lead in that kamen rider show which Fuji-nee often forces him to watch like normal kids his age.

Shirou put aside those thoughts of vigilantism and playing superhero as he had more important things to do, such as mastering his projection magic so the copies he makes don't end up empty and lifeless.

It had puzzled him for months as he couldn't seem to get it right no matter how hard he tried. He had got the shape down, as well as the composition, how it was made, and finished the final product to the best of his ability, but no matter how hard he tried the finished copy still didn't have nearly half of the originals substance.

There was something that he was missing, something the original possessed that separated it from all others just like it, but the red head had no idea what that was and it was driving him crazy.

"Damn it" Shirou shouted as he threw his latest failure on the floor in uncharacteristic anger. It was true that the red head wasn't the type to get upset over something like this as he had experienced failure many times before when training with his dad in Thaumaturgy.

However, his father was there to point out what he did wrong and went through the steps with Shirou so he could try again. But since the magus killer was on a trip at the moment the trainee faker was all on his own at the moment, plus the fact that the red head had absolutely no idea where Kiritsugu went and the built up stress was getting to the wielder of the keyblade.

It was then that Shirou realized that he was getting too emotional over this and decided that he needed to go outside, in order to take a deep breath and clear his head. However, when he got outside he was greeted with a familiar sight.

"Shirou" shouted the overly energetic 14-year-old Yakuza princess leapt towards the stunned 7 year old and wrapped her arms around his head. As the red head struggled to get his head free, he turned his eyes to the teen that was clearly more immature then he was even though the red head was half her age.

"Fuji-nee!?, What the hell are you doing here?" Shirou got out as he finally managed to wrestle himself free from Taiga's choke hold and addressed his older sister figure.

"Oh come on Shirou what kind of question is that silly? I'm here to make sure you're doing alright and eating properly since Kiritsugu is away on another trip again." Fujimura Taiga said out loud like it was the obvious thing in the world.

"Honestly, I still can't believe that your dad just left like that without even arranging for a proper caretaker to look after you while he was away. Fortunately, grandpa saw this coming and sent me here to check up on you every day so that you're doing alright." Shirou of course felt a bit nervous about this as there was a reason his father never formally asked Fuji-nee to look after him as she often caused more harm than good.

Of course, that only applies when she tries anything related to cooking as whenever the brown haired girl came round she insisted on wanting to use the kitchen to practice her cooking, as she was forbidden from using the one at her house for reason unknown to her.

These reasons for her ban from the Fujimura kitchen turned out to be reasonable to the 7 year old as Taiga somehow managed to set fire to the kitchen every time she tried to cook. However, despite her absolute inability to make edible meals, she was a great help in other areas, such as helping Shirou with physical training in order to polish his sword skills, and showed a genuine concern for the red heads well-being.

So as long as Fuji-nee was kept at least 10 meters away from the kitchen on threat of no home cooked meals for a week, she was great to have around the house.

Which was why Shirou quickly got over his nervousness and addressed his sister figure "okay, so what are you doing here Fuji-nee"

"Getting you away from that tool shed that's what. Honestly, you spent so much time in there that you didn't even realize that it's already 8:00pm in the evening and way past your bed time since you have school tomorrow." Taiga stated bluntly as Shirou checked the watch on his wrist to make sure that it was really that late.

Sure enough, the big handle was pointed at the number 12 symbol, while the smaller one was towards the number 8. With that he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and laughed lightly, he had been so caught up in trying to perfect his version of projection that he didn't even realize the time.

"Sorry about that Fuji-nee, I'm just going to go lock up the shed go to my room after I'm done, but thanks for letting me know" the red head thanked the yakuza princess who in turn nodded her head in agreement.

"That's alright Shirou, just make sure that you don't stay up too long, speaking of which, do you want to spend the night over at my house since your dad is away. I'm sure grandpa would be glad to have you round for the night." The brown haired girl offered only for the red head to turn it down by shaking his head.

"Thanks for the offer Fuji-nee, but I think I'll be alright for tonight. Besides, it's not the first time the old man left me alone to watch the house. Well, I best get started on locking everything up for tonight, see you tomorrow Fuji-nee." As the red head left the disappointed girl to go back home, he went back inside the shed and grabbed the chain by the door in order to lock up his workshop.

With that done, he waved good bye to Taiga as she walked back towards her house before heading back inside in order to go to his room and go to bed. On his way, he passed through the kitchen and stopped in order to look at the cooking knives that he often took with him into the tool shed in order to project.

As he thought this, the faker's mind wandered a bit to his failed attempts at projection and went over everything that he had learned over the months that he gained from practicing the art after learning it from his father.

It was clear that he was very close to finding out the secret component missing from his method of projection, but for the life of him he had no idea what it was. It had to be something that went deeper than just the materials or manufacturing process.

Suddenly, he noticed the clock above the TV in the lounge and noticed that it was getting late, meaning that he had better get going or it would ruin the timetable he had made for himself every day.

As he stared at the clock seeing the handle that measures seconds slowly rotate clockwise, the gears in his head suddenly turned after thinking about the concept of time. It was at that point that he realized the difference between an ordinary kitchen knife, and one of his projections, as it was the same difference between a cooking knife used by a veteran chef and one fresh from the manufacturer.

While trying to make a perfect copy of the original, he had forgotten to include the original's age and experiences, realizing that he was on the right track Shirou grabbed one of the knives that he frequently uses for cooking and performed structural analysis on it.

His mind was then filled with info about the knife that he had seen countless times from scanning it. However, that wasn't what he wanted right now as he needed to go deeper into the very core of the object. The red head was not used to that level of structural analysis and so was cut off.

It was clear to the read head that it was possible to view an objects history based on the small amount of info he was able to glean from the kitchen knife. However, his skill in structural analysis wasn't good enough yet to get a full grasp of the targets history.

However, Shirou wasn't about to stop there as he had finally found a way to perfect his version of projection, so if that meant he needed to spend time developing his skill in structural analysis then so be it.

After all, the son of Kiritsugu couldn't wait to show his father the results of his training when he comes home.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(One month later)

It was a cold winter morning when Emiya Kiritsugu came home to the Emiya residence in Fuyuki city after being gone for a month, trying in vain to get pass the Einzbern bounded field in Germany so that he could see his daughter again, and warn the aristocratic family about the holy grails corruption.

However, no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't get past the field due to the curse he got from Angra Mainyu eating away at his circuits, as well as his other bodily functions. Based on the rate of corrosion in his body, the magus killer calculated that he had at least 4 years left before the curse eroded the last of his organs and end his life.

Which was why he was so desperate to get inside the Einzbern estate, so that he could see his daughter one last time before he died, but it seemed that old man Acht wouldn't even let him have that final mercy due to the fact that Kiritsugu destroyed the grail instead of winning the war like he promised.

With that, the cursed magus sighed in defeat and walked towards the front door of his house. He entered the hallway and made sure to take his shoes off at the entrance, before putting slippers on as it was considered bad manners to wear your shoes indoors in Japan.

"Shirou? Are you here?" the Eldest Emiya shouted out loud in order to see if his son was still in. When he didn't get a reply, the black haired man assumed that the red head was at school since it was 10:43 am in the morning. Thinking that to be the most likely explanation, Kiritsugu entered the lounge area of the house and noticed something in the kitchen area.

It was an assortment of Japanese food on a tray that was covered with transparent foil with a note written in Japanese next to it. Seeing this, the magus killer walked towards the kitchen area and read the note since the curse hasn't taken his eyesight yet.

Dear old man

If you're reading this message then you must be back from your trip and probably pretty hungry since airplane food isn't exactly world-class cuisine, that and I happen to know from first hand experience that you can't cook to save your life.

But just in case you are reading this then welcome back and hope you enjoy it. I wasn't sure of the time you were going to come home so I made some food before I left for school and covered it with reinforced foil so that the heat doesn't escape, but just in case it it's cold just put it in the microwave and heat them up.

see you later tonight Dad

Shirou Emiya

As the magus killer read the note one last time in order to make sure he read it right, he smiled at his son's consideration towards the 32 year old man, truth be told he hadn't eaten anything during the whole plane ride since the plane food tasted horrible.

With that in mind Kiritsugu removed the foil coverings from the tray and noticed that the food below him was still hot despite the fact that it had been more than a couple of hours since his son probably cooked it. It seemed that Shirou's skill in Reinforcement had improved since he was away.

Deciding that it was time to dig in, the magus killer picked up the pair of chopsticks by the tray, then proceeded to consume the breakfast that his son had prepared for. After finishing his meal, Kiritsugu then placed the dirty plates and bowls into the sink so that he could do a bit of washing up. After all, he would be a bad example of a father if he just left the dishes to his son.

It was then that he noticed something that had caught his eye near the sink, the two identical knives that were placed next to each over. Normally, this wouldn't have been such of an odd sight to the magus killer as he was in a kitchen however things were different.

For example, some knives often have faint scratches and stains engraved into the metal that set them apart from each over based on the different tasks they were used for. However, the odd thing to Kiritsugu was that the two knives were identical right to the smallest detail, scratches and all.

Quickly deducing that his son must have practiced his projection Thaumaturgy in the kitchen and left them there the Eldest Emiya decided to examine them in order to measure his son's progress in using Gradation air.

What he found however was beyond shocking as the magus killer managed to find out through his use of structural analysis that the projected knife he was holding was a near perfect copy of the original that it was impossible to tell the difference between the two without some sort of mystery designed to find this out.

Even more was the fact that the projected kitchen-ware was such a perfect copy that the corrosion effect from GAIA was practically non-existent, meaning that it would take weeks and even months for it to fully disappear.

Kiritsugu wasn't a normal magus, but even he could tell that something like this meant that whatever method Shirou used to project this knife, he had managed to create something that surpassed normal thaumaturgy and was borderline sorcery since it resembled the Denial of Nothingness so much.

And that was without even mentioning the fact that Shirou had been learning magecraft at an astonishing rate, especially considering the fact that he was only in elementary school, at first kiritsugu brushed the fact of as Shirou remembering things that were taught to him by his birth family.

But this was something that most adults he knew wouldn't be able to do on their own and with so little time, after all thaumaturgy by its nature is a dangerous art that is focused on belief, this means that it takes years to master, as you need to hypnotize yourself into believing that what you are doing is possible.

But for some reason or another his adopted son had been able to grasp the concept of magecraft far quicker then other people his age, the only conclusion that Kiritsugu could come up with for this was that Shirou had an integrated knowledge of thaumaturgy in his head, similar to what was done to his daughter Illya, since she was altered to have instinctual knowledge of alchemy while she was in her mothers womb.

This meant that Kiritsugu needed to have a talk with his son after he came back from school.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(A few hours later)

"I'm home" Shirou shouted as he opened the front door to his house and took his shoes of at the entrance so he could get inside without dirtying the floor. He knew that his father was coming home today which is why he cooked some extra food for Kiritsugu so that he had something to eat when he came home, plus he wanted to surprise his father at finally managing to perfect his version of projection.

"You here old man?" When he didn't get a reply, he assumed that Kiritsugu was in another part of the estate and couldn't hear him, but imagine his surprised when he found his father sitting by the table drinking green tea.

"Welcome back son, I hope something didn't happen while I was away."

Upon hearing this, the red head shook his head and replied back (redundant). "Not really, although Fuji-nee kind of felt lonely since you weren't here but we managed alright"

"That's good to hear." The magus killer said before finishing his beverage and looked at his son with stern eyes. "Shirou, there's something we need to talk about"

"What is it old man?" Shirou asked, seeing that his father was serious, before deciding to sit down as well. He had a feeling that this would take a while. Soon enough, Kiritsugu put his hand into his back pocket and pulled out a pair of knives that were identical to each over.

As he put the pair on the table the magus killer addressed his son without looking away "Shirou, mind explaining what this is?"

As the red head took a closer look at the pair of kitchen-ware that his father put on the table, he immediately recognized them as a projected knife and its original that he had made this morning in order to make sure that his thaumaturgy was working properly.

However, it seemed that he forgot to put them away as his father found them when he came home from his trip, meaning that showing Kiritsugu his new skill was going to be sooner then he thought. With that, the faker sighed.

"Oh man, I wanted to surprise you about that my skill in Tracing later on, but guess I forgot to clean up after myself this morning." This caused Kiritsugu to nod as he could see his son wanting to show him his progress in using magecraft. However, there was something the red head said that caught his interest.

"Tracing? What's that?" Kiritsugu asked as he hadn't heard about something like that Seeing his father's confusion, Shirou decided to explain.

"Yeah, it's what I decided to call my new mystery since it operates differently than normal projection"

"Really? How so?" The magus killer asked, as he was curious about this new mystery his son managed to discover all on his own.

"Well, remember during our lessons on projection when I suggested incorporating Composition, and the manufacturing process to a projected object in order to make it sturdier and last longer, well when I tried it I decided to split the projection process into 5 steps."

"These included judging the concept of creation, hypothesizing the basic structure, duplicating the composition material, Imitating the skill of its making, and excelling every manufacturing process." Kiritsugu understood this as his son explained his method of gradation air to him shortly after that lesson they had.

"However, when I tried it this way all the copies I made were empty and hollow. They had the shape and composition but for some reason they didn't have the same soul" the magus killer blinked at this analogy his son made but after thinking it over it made a degree of sense.

Japanese culture believed that even inanimate objects had souls in them just like living things do; In fact the Samurai believed that their souls resided in the weapons that they used in life.

"For months, I tried to find some way to make my copies as real as the originals and it wasn't until you left for your trip that I discovered what I had been missing. Tell me, dad, do you know the difference between an ordinary kitchen knife found at any convenience store, and one used by a veteran chef"

At first his father was confused about what Shirou was getting at but as soon as he realized the answer to the red heads question his eyes widened in shock. "Did you mean that you…?"

"Exactly, I found that when I was tracing a copy of the original object using gradation air. I didn't take into account the originals age or experiences, which is why my previous attempts were so hollow, since I remember you saying that a person's soul is mostly composed of their memories"

In fact, he did remember saying that as a matter of fact. It was something that he decided to tell Shirou about one morning since magic circuits reside in the soul and not the body.

"Of course, when I tried scanning an objects history using Structural analysis, I found that I couldn't read it since my skill in that mystery wasn't good enough yet, which was why I spent the past month training my skills in using it until I was eventually able to do it a couple of weeks ago."

"After gathering the necessary info on that knifes history, I then went through the steps needed to trace it, only this time I added the process of Sympathizing with the experience of its growth and Reproducing the accumulated years between steps 4 and 5. This extra effort grants me a copy that is twice as stable as one made through normal gradation air"

Shirou then took a deep breath and looked at his father. "Well, what do you think, old man?" only to blink as he realized that he was just sitting there staring at his son in shock.

Kiritsugu knew, of course, that what his son did wasn't normal gradation air, but this was something completely beyond his imaginings, as Shirou had absolutely no idea of what he had created.

First off, the red heads ability in using structural analysis was impressive for someone of his age in using thaumaturgy, even though modern magi considered it a useless art. Heck, even his son's ability to scan an object, while amazing, wasn't something to brag about at places like the Clock-tower.

Then, there was his ability in using Gradation air, another useless mystery cast aside by mages in favor of more reliable spells and incantations. The reason it was considered this was because projected copies only last a few minutes due to GAIA considering them imperfect and eroding them out of existence. Most magi who use it prefer to project things that are meant to be sacrifices in various rituals, and even then they would often have materials on hand to overlay the copy when it was….complete.

Suddenly, Kiritsugu felt like whacking himself over the head with one of his guns as he didn't even realize something about his son's use of projection that he didn't even realize until now.

When Shirou had made those projected objects all those months ago, he had managed to create them without having other materials with him on hand to overlay their existences and make them more stable and last longer. After all, magecraft was built around the principle of Equivalent Exchange, meaning that when a mage uses projection or any other mystery that manipulates a particular element all they were really doing was summoning materials from somewhere else and shaping them to their needs.

However, what Shirou used was different, since the materials that made up his copies didn't exist anywhere else prior to when he made them, but the big question was how he did it despite the principle.

Then, there was his Tracing, which he made by combining his improved Structural Analysis and Gradation Air. Magi panned the two mysteries as being useless as there were more effective mysteries they could learn, but when used by Shirou they made traced objects that possess the age and history of the original.

Kiritsugu thought about what the Mages Association would think about his son's new ability if it were to be found out. Needless, to say it wasn't a pretty image.

"Em dad? Are you okay?" Shirou nervously asked as the magus killer finally looked at his son and eventually sighed

"It's nothing, Shirou. I was just thinking about the significance of what you just explained to me, and to be honest with you I'm a little uneasy about where this will lead"

"What do you mean?" His son innocently asked.

"Listen son, what you just explained to me just now could make life very difficult for you in the future should this ever get out to the mages association."

"But all I'm doing is replicating the history of an object in order to improve my skills in using projection. Even if I was the first to do it, I'm sure that others will be able to do so given enough time and money." In a sense, what Shirou said was true. While being able to scan a targets history is unheard of in the clock tower, it could technically be used by anyone with the right Element or origin.

"Maybe so, son, but other people won't know that will they, Especially if this tracing ability in theory enable you to replicate Noble phantasms," this was the main reason for Kiritsugu's worry given what he knew about the mythical trump cards of heroic spirits such as the Sword of Promised Victory, Excalibur. He witnessed his former servant, Saber, used it twice in order to destroy caster's summoned monster, and near the end of the fourth war when he forced the king of knights to destroy the corrupted grail via 2 command seals.

Seeing the puzzled look on his sons face at the mention of Noble phantasms, Kiritsugu decided to enlighten him. "Sorry about that, I forgot that we haven't gotten that far in our lessons yet, well to start with Noble phantasms are often legendary artifacts used by legendary heroes from across history, or concepts related to the various deeds they performed in life."

"You mean like the Kusanagi no Tsurugi used by Yamato Takeru, or King Arthur's Excalibur?" The red head curiously asked as he had read about such things in school.

Nodding his head at his son's insight, the magus killer continued. "Correct, you see, because these heroes are revered and worshipped by the masses during and after they lived, these men and women transcended their mortal existences and became heroic spirits, removing them from the cycle of Reincarnation and causing them to enter the throne of heroes. Naturally, since the weapons they wielded in life were recorded in their legends, they had ascended as well into noble phantasms."

"Some of these mythical weapons and tools still exist in the modern era even today. For example, there exists the Fraga clan from Ireland that has a noble phantasm passed down from generation to generation since the age of the gods. Many have even lost their physical shape and exist as crystallized legends in physical form." As his father explained the concept of Noble phantasms, Shirou thought about something that he had discovered in his body shortly after he finished perfecting his new and improved structural analysis.

It was then that he decided to ask his father about this mysterious substance in his body. "Actually, dad, there's something that I needed to ask you about." Hearing this, the magus killer listened in and waited for what his son had to say.

"You see, when I tried analyzing myself in order to improve my ability to reinforce my bodym I noticed something some odd golden lights that had somehow merged with my internal organs. When I tried structural analysis on them, all I could get was the image of a gold and blue thing. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?"

From there, silence ensued as Kiritsugu had been expecting this for a while now due to his son's progress in using reinforcement, but he didn't think it would be this soon. Eventually, after a few minutes of the two of them not saying anything the former master of the Holy Grail war decided to speak after carefully going over what to say.

"What you saw was something that belonged to a very strong and noble woman, as well as the scabbard of a powerful and ancient sword." Hearing this, the red heads eyes lighted up but then went into a thinking position as he tried to point down what his father was talking about.

"Do you remember those Memory alteration lessons we had 2 months ago?" Seeing his son nod in agreement, the 32 year old man continued. "Well, there is a particular memory that I want to show you. However, instead of putting an image into my head, I want you to instead focus on the memory and view it like seeing a movie. Do you understand?"

Nodding his head in agreement, Shirou mentally went over what his father taught him about memory alteration, before saying his famous catch phrase that activated his circuits and placed his hand on Kiritsugu's forehead.

"Remember, concentrate on the image I want to show you. Don't focus on anything else." His father reminded Shirou before he began and was flooded with a sea of memories that left him a little disoriented.

Eventually, the magus killer managed to guide his son through the memory he wanted to show, and soon the red head was witnessing a scene that left him a little bit in awe.

The image was a little fuzzy at first, but thanks to Shirou's training in both structural analysis and reinforcement he was able to concentrate on a much clearer image that consisted of an old church like building with glass stained windows, stone covered walls, and snow hitting against the glass meaning that it was snowing outside wherever the red head was seeing.

Eventually, he managed to make out some other things in the church that had caught his eye. First was a couple of tables in the center with what looks like a laptop on one of them, eventually he spotted a person near the table that had caught his eye.

It was a woman in her mid to early twenties that had blood red eyes and snow white hair, now since the red head was only 7 at the time he didn't have much experience with women other than Fuji-nee. However, even he could tell that the woman he was seeing was beautiful. Also, out of all the things that the red head saw in his father's memory this woman was much clearer than any of them meaning that she was probably important to his dad in some way. Shirou decided to ask Kiritsugu about her later before focusing on what she was holding.

It was a Golden scabbard ordained with royal blue lines and engraved in the centre were letters that didn't look like any form of language the red head was familiar with. Just like the snow white beauty that was holding it, the scabbard was beautiful in its own way….no on second thought he had to retract that as calling it beautiful would be an insult to its true value.

As he continued to stare at the memory of the scabbard through the eyes of his father, various information started to flow into Shirou's mind due to his ability with structural analysis. As various bits of info flowed into his head, the faker managed to identify several key points. First was that it was of considerable value made to be used in battle by a king.

Was that it? He thought to himself before assuring himself that it was the case, he didn't know why but he was sure it was the truth.

A legendary scabbard that served as the sheaf of an equally famous sword and was made not by the hands of man but by fairies. As Shirou gazed at the scabbard, he was able to identify its age, composition, experience, and more importantly its name.

As the red head cut off the connection in order to rest both his circuits and his mind from what he just witnessed, he still had the info from the dive fresh in his mind and looked at his father in both amazement and shock

"Avalon," the faker said as he knew the true identity of the mysterious light that resided in his body, finding this out was understandable that he was shocked. After all, this was the legendary scabbard of Excalibur, which belonged to king Arthur, a mythological figure whose legend was known even on the other side of the planet like in Japan.

"But…how?" This was the big question the red head needed to ask his father as he found it hard to believe that the legendary scabbard stolen from Arthur Pendragon before the battle of Camlann would end up in his body by chance. He already had enough headaches trying to figure out why he was carrying a magic suit of armor and a key shaped weapon on him for god's sake.

Eventually, his father decided to quell his son's confusion. "I…had managed to acquire it through some 'connections' a while back and placed it into my body so that I could use it for my work, which had led me to Fuyuki City about a year ago"

"When I found you alive amongst the flames of that disaster, you were badly hurt, so much in fact that you didn't have very much long to live. Since the scabbard was said to grant King Arthur semi-immortality I figured that it would be able to heal your wounds and keep you alive long enough for me to get you to the hospital, so I placed it inside your body so the healing effects would be strongest."

As Kiritsugu stared at his son's amazed expression as the boy placed a hand towards his own chest he decided to continue. "You're really lucky you know, since your probably one of only two individuals to possess a noble phantasm besides the Fraga clan, and besides this would defiantly serve a purpose in our training."

Curious about what his father had in mind Shirou decided to ask. "Really? What do you have in mind old man?" which got a reply as the magus killer smiled at his son

"Well, for starters we can add projecting Avalon as your final Tracing Project"

Hearing this Shirou had only one thing to say. "What?"

Tracing ordinary knives and forks was one thing, projecting something like one of those mystic codes his dad told him about might be difficult but manageable if he put some effort into it, but Tracing a Noble phantasm, especially something created by the fairies, using materials that don't exist in the mortal plane was so outrageous he wasn't sure he could pull it off.

It appeared that Kiritsugu had an idea about what his son was thinking and decided to ease his mind "I know what you're thinking and I'm not saying you should start right away. For now, just continue with what you were doing and try projecting stuff around the house for practice, though make sure to do it in the shed or in your room as we already get enough junk around the house when Fujimura san brings them over"

Shirou nodded his head in agreement as he remembered all the things that the Yakuza princess brings over, which mostly consisted of things that she broke by accident and had to hide them someplace before her grandfather found out. Of course, the two didn't mind at first since it have the boy things to practice his Structural analysis and Reinforcement on. Heck, the red head even managed to fix a few of them and hand them back to the immature teen when she came round.

Eventually, Raiga found out and after chewing his granddaughter out decided to give the boy a bit of spending money as payment every time the kid managed to fix something that the brown haired girl managed to break. Of course, being the helpful kid that he was turned down the payment at first but accepted it after some persuasion from his father.

After hearing what his father had to say, the faker left saying that he just remembered that he promised to fix up a busted VCR that was the latest of machines that the Tiger broke and told Kiritsugu that he wouldn't be long. With that, he left the lounge area and headed out to the front yard towards the tool shed that served as his workshop.

Using his keyblade to undo the lock, the red head undid the chain and entered the sanctuary that served as his place to perfect his skill in Thaumaturgy. Of course, if a true magus were to see this he would either laugh at it saying if this was a joke, or more realistically kill the boy and his father, and then finally torch the place for unintentionally insulting the craft of Thaumaturgy.

Shirou didn't care one bit what so called 'true' magi thought as he didn't see himself as a magus in the first place. Instead, he saw himself as a magic user who uses Thaumaturgy as a tool for self-improvement. Heck, he didn't even care about reaching the Root as that wasn't why he decided to learn magecraft in the first place.

Shaking those thoughts aside as they brought up painful memories, the faker decided to walk towards the armor sitting in the corner with his Earthshaker keyblade. Even though with his new prowess in Tracing, even he wasn't stupid enough to try projecting the blade he was holding as even he could tell that trying something like that would be beyond his abilities at the moment, plus his dad warned him that trying to use magic beyond one's abilities would end up killing the magus.

That also meant the brass armor plate as well but that didn't mean he couldn't use Structural analysis to find out how they tick, which was why he activated his signature activation aria and delved deep into the heart of his weapon via his mind's eye.

The attempt drew a blank in the red heads mind as he couldn't read what the keyblade was made of or how it was made. What he did manage to find out though was the objects history via images of a well-built man around 16 years of age swinging the blade in various formations. Of course, Shirou was unable to make out any other distinguishing features since the images were pretty blurry.

He then saw him perform various feats of thaumaturgy using the weapon as a focus, so far the red head was able to tell that the keyblade was used to manipulate 3 of the primary elements called Earth, Air, and Fire, while also the sub elements of Water and Wind like Ice and Lightning. There were also images of him using Gravity, and Magnetism in order to control the battlefield as well as plant magical mines.

There were also visions of him performing a form of healing magecraft, shooting bolts of different elemental energy, as well as cloaking himself into the same elements and charging at his enemies repeatedly. Finally and most shocking to the kid was the fact that the keyblade he was holding can be morphed into different forms like a hover-bike, and cannon.

Quite frankly, what the red found was amazing to his 7 year old mind as he wished he could do something like that. Due to his father's somewhat limited knowledge of practical mage-craft, the man didn't know much elemental mage-craft outside of his own elements, so the red head didn't think he would be able to learn them in future.

Plus they haven't even figured out the boy's origin yet meaning that they couldn't even start considering elemental thaumaturgy until they figure out Shirou's element is, though if Kiritsugu had to guess he thinks that it might be either Earth or Ether due to the boy's unnatural prowess with projection.

Of course, that still didn't mean Shirou couldn't perform a few experiments of his own as long as they were safe, but the red head was also nervous about it as it could mean the difference between life and death.

That was why the faker decided to see if he could replicate the feats he read from Earthshaker by using one of the spells its previous owner used through it. However, when he channeled some prana through it and said one of the spells he felt nothing happened. He had even went through the entire library of spells that he was able to gleen from the keyblade but still nothing appeared.

Eventually, Shirou decided to stop for the day as he had plenty of time to practice and dismissed his blade before heading back into the house to cook dinner.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(One year later)

It had been almost a year since Shirou learned about how he managed to survive the great Fuyuki Fire and had a noble phantasm placed inside his body that originally belonged to a legendary figure of Arturian myth. By then, some changes had been present in the Emiya household.

The first change that happened was that Kiritsugu took longer to get up than usual, so much so that the red head had to wake him up every morning so that he could help the boy calm Fuji-nee down whenever she came around. Also, it seemed that the magus killer's body had grown weaker over the past year as he seemed to get tired frequently. He didn't even make another month long trip in the past year.

The second change was something that confused the red head as the 33 year old man hadn't used his thaumaturgy for the past month during Shirou's magecraft lessons. When he asked his father about it the black haired man tried to move the conversation away to something else, but he wasn't about to let it happen. The apprentice had hardly saw his teacher use mage-craft for the past year now and wanted to know if Kiritsugu was all right.

The magus killer, of course, didn't answer and said that he was alright but Shirou pointed out that the man was also eating less, resulting in him losing a bit of weight, and Fuji-nee gaining some as she admitted that the man would give her portions of his breakfast to her.

Seeing how insightful his son was, Kritisugu decided that he might as well come clean with his condition. To that end, he called Shirou to his room one night at decided to tell him the truth about his condition.

That the magus, known as Kiritsugu Emiya, was dying.

The red head, of course, was so shocked that he was left in a state of denial saying that the old man was pulling his leg and that he probably caught something when he tried some of Taiga's attempts of home cooking. Eventually, the magus killer ordered his son to use structural analysis on the 33 year old man's body and tell him what the 9 year old saw.

What Shirou found was something that by all accounts should not exist in this world, as he discovered that his father was infected by an extremely powerful A++ curse that was on the level of a Divine mystery, and was eating away at the black haired man's body.

Kiritsugu told the boy during his lessons that Thaumaturgy was in a state of decline, since the age of the gods ended, taking many powerful mysteries with it. Of course, the fact that many magi keep any Thaumaturgy research to themselves didn't help either.

That meant there was something or someone out there, powerful enough to inflict curses that far surpassed anything that modern mage-craft was capable off. This was the conclusion that Emiya Shirou came up with in the hopes of finding who or what did this to his father and get rid of the curse.

Unfortunately, Kiritsugu shot this idea down quickly as the thing that cursed him didn't exist anymore. When his son asked what he meant, the magus killer decided to ask his son if he knew anything about the Holy Grail.

Shirou asked if he meant the ancient cup used by Jesus Christ during the last supper or the item featured in Arturian myth. The magus killer said that the thing he was talking about was neither of those, but was in fact an omnipotent wish granting device created through the joint efforts of three magi families named the Tohsakas, Einzbern, and Makiris, in their quest to reach Akasha, the root of all things.

However, the three families soon discovered that the grail could only grant one wish every 60 years. The truce between them to crumble, resulting in the Holy-Grail-Wars.

When Shirou asked what this had to do with his father's condition, Kiritsugu explained that the war only happens every 60 years, and the last one was 3 years ago. Suddenly, various pieces began to fit in the fakers head resulting in the red head realizing that his adopted father was involved in this Holy Grail War.

Kiritsugu confirmed his suspicions by explaining to Shirou that he was hired by the Einzbern family to compete in the war. His father then explained the concept of summoning Heroic spirits by placing them in prepared servant containers, and having them fight each over for control over the holy-grail.

He then explained the 7 servant containers meant to contain the heroes souls, these included:

Saber, the knight of the sword and usually the most outstanding of the seven,

Archer, the servant of the bow or any projectile weapon and master of the Independent action skill,

Lancer, knight of the spear, considered the most agile of the seven,

Rider, hero of the mount, uses a mount or a vehicle to cause destruction across the battlefield,

Caster, the magus, and uses thaumaturgy lost to the modern era,

Berserker, servant of madness, mindless beasts that trade power in exchange for sanity,

Assassin, hero of stealth and murder and a killer that targets masters specifically.

(I just separated the paragraph to make it visually easier to follow)

The magus killer then explained that the scabbard currently in Shirou's body, was the catalyst located by the Einzberns so that he could use it to summon King Arthur as servant Saber for the war. Now curious, the red head asked what the legendary king of knights was like. His father explained that the knight was exactly what the legends pictured him as, strong, chivalrous, noble, and one of the mightiest sword wielders in the land, except there was one key point that the legends got wrong.

The legendary king of Britain was in-fact a woman by the name of Arturia Pendragon.

Upon hearing this, Shirou asked his father to repeat what he said just to make sure that he heard that right. Kiritsugu admitted that he and Irisviel were just as surprised as the red head when they first summoned her. In-fact, it bothered the magus killer that not only had people let a little girl take the throne of kingship, but also that no one even suspected that she was masquerading as a boy to begin with.

Kiritsugu never went into detail about what went on during the war or his wife's role in the conflict, but he did reveal to his son about the true identity of the Holy Grail, which was a cursed chalice that only granted wishes through destruction. When the magus killer found this out, he rejected the grail, resulting in the omnipotent wish granting device infecting him with a potent curse that would cause his death in 5 years time.

It had been 3 years already since the Emiya adopted Shirou, meaning that Kiritsugu only had 2 years left to live, had adopted Shirou. At that point, the red head didn't know which was worse, finding out that his father was dying and there nothing they could do to stop it, or whether or not to break the news to Fuji-nee.

Shirou might a bit dense due to his young age, but even he could tell that Taiga had feelings for the older man despite the age difference, meaning that she would take the news pretty hard if they did decide to tell her. Heck, even he felt awful after finding this out.

It had been at least 3 years since that day at the Great Fuyuki Fire memorial event, which was held to honor the 600 lives that were lost in that horrific event. The red head would have been among those remembered had Kiritsugu not saved him by implanting Avalon into his body and healed his wounds when his life was nearly at its end.

As he stood there along with his father, watching the grieving parents, siblings, grandparents, lovers, coworkers, and friends as they expressed their feelings at losing someone dear to them, the adopted son of Kiritsugu Emiya made a vow that day.

He swore that he would become strong enough to protect those in need, so that he would never have to see those sad grieving faces ever again. It was stupid and childish as many people die every year, but if there was one thing that defined Shirou Emiya it was his stubbornness.

That was why he wanted to learn Thaumaturgy in the first place, so that he could gain strength needed to protect those closest to him, except now someone he knew was dying from an unbeatable curse and there was nothing Shirou could do to stop it.

However, even though his father was going to perish in 2 years, he managed to make sure that no one else suffers the same fate as him. Kiritsugu explained that the Holy-Grail War happens every 60 years, due to the Greater Grail located underneath mount Ryuudou absorbing mana from Fuyuki's ley-lines, which is necessary for it to punch a hole into Akasha and pull out seven servants from the Throne of Heroes, which are necessary to complete the ritual.

Except that the magus killer had planted explosives at key-points along the cities lifelines, which would detonate and cause an earthquake 30 years later. This unnatural act of nature would disrupt Fuyuki's ley-lines and prevent a Fifth Holy-Grail war from ever happening.

On a side note, Shirou's skill in Tracing had improved quite a bit over the past months. However, that didn't mean that he use his skills in actual combat yet. The only things he could use at his age were some kitchen knives, his keyblade Earth-shaker, and Reinforcement, which the teen uses to reinforce his body beyond his natural limits.

Of course, Shirou was still a 9 year old kid even though he was much more mature for his age, which meant that he still had time to iron out his skills in magecraft, meaning that if his kept up with his training regimen, then the magus killer predicted that his son might be able to handle a trained enforcer, or a weal dead apostle by the time that he enters high school.

However that was still a far ways away from here at the moment, so for now Kiritsugu decided to spend the remaining time that he had left giving his son guidance, and making sure that Shirou would be able to take care of himself when he passes on.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(2 years later)

"Hey old man, are you sure its alright for you to be out her so late, you could catch a cold you know" a certain red head said to his adopted father as he proceeded to sit down on the porch, and looked up to see the full moon shining down on the Emiya estate.

"Thanks for the consideration Shirou, but I'm not dying just yet" the magus killer said as he thought about the state that his body was in, it had already been 5 years now since he was cursed by the grail during the grail war and his body had already reached its limit, so with the remaining time that he had left, the former master of Saber thought about his life up until now.

While it was true that he had hurt a lot of people over the years, the fact that his actions while violent had managed to save many more brought some sort of comfort to the tired veteran, one of which was sitting down next to him.

As his mind drifted to Shirou, he had to admit that while Shirou's progress and insight were startling to the magus, it did come in handy in some cases as it allowed him to think of his actions before he took them, which was an improvement considering his earlier actions.

His skill with the keyblade had improved somewhat as he was able to gleam spells from the weapon thanks to his tracing, of course knowing how to do a spell and actually performing it were two separate things, but the red head was making progress as he was able to use fire and healing mysteries which the boy calls 'fire' and 'cure' respectively.

His tracing was at a slow start in terms of progress, as Shirou was basically creating a new art from scratch, as for tracing Avalon, well the red head admitted that it was an exhausting task since he had trouble analyzing the scabbards make-up and history for some reason, which was understandable since it was an EX noble phantasm created by the Fae.

Kiritsugu just hoped that it would be enough for what lied ahead for the boy when the magus killer passes away.

As the dying man stared at the moon, his mind drifted to a similar time to when he was living in the Philippines with his 'father' and Shirley and thought about what she said one day.

"You know I want to be a hero of Justice"

It was these few words that had set Kiritsugu on the path that few before him never even considered taking outside comic books and tv shows, since the real world was cynical and unfair by its very nature, which is why he adopted the policy of weighing all lives evenly and tipping the scales so the least amount of lives were lost.

It was both cold and ruthless, but it was the only thing the magus killer could do with the countless conflicts that seemed to plague humanity, so much in fact that he was willing to risk everything over a wish granting device that he wasn't sure would work or not, since Irisviel told her husband that the Fuyuki grail was designed to open a hole to Akasha using the seven heroic spirits summoned for the war as sacrifices.

But seeing Shirou's face have color return to it, as the magus killer pulled the boy out of the fire that destroyed the boys life, the man had to admit that despite all the suffering that he went through, he had to admit that hadn't lost faith in the dream just yet.

Which is why he looked to his son in hope, so that one-day he would succeed where he could not, so with that he looked at the moon one more time and hoped that his son had better luck then he had.

"You know Shirou, when I was young I wanted to be a hero of Justice"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(1 year later)

"Master Eraqus, have you gone mad"

He said as he dove down from the sky as he blocked a series of white chains that were aimed at a blonde haired boy who stood there in shock, with his blade out which Shirou recognized as Earthshaker, the boy noticed that he was currently seeing things through someone else's eyes as he glared at the man in front of him.

"Terra, this doesn't concern you, step aside"

"No, I won't" he said as he defiantly stood his ground against the man that was both his teacher and a father figure all in one, how Shirou knew this he had no idea but he did know one thing, his master had just tried to murder the boy behind him and he could let that happen.

"Why must you always ignore what I tell you to do, if you won't obay, then you will have to share Ventus fate" his master said in sorrow while shedding a tear, before charging at Terra while shouting a battle cry, as the boy held his ground against his teacher, Ventus shouted out.

"Enough Terra, he's right"

"Quiet" the wielder of earth shaker said before Eraqus saw an opening in his students guard, and launched a powerful strike that sent the two boys flying towards the other side of the courtyard.

As the keyblader got back up, carrying Ventus in his arm in the process, a great well of darkness erupted from the earth user, as the darkness inside Terras heart was released, if Shirou had to describe it was like a black beast made of shadows that attacked anything its master ordered it too, however the person had to keep a tight hold on the leash, or the dog would run wild on everything and everyone it came across, it was a force that was neither good or evil, but one that relied on instinct.

"As the darkness taken you as well Terra?" Eraqus said in disgust as he was forced to see his eldest student give in to the darkness in his heart.

"You may be my master, but I won't let you hurt my friend!" the darkness user shouted as he opened up a portal behind him with his keyblade and threw Ventus into it so that he could go all out without endangering Ven in the process.

"Wait Terra" Ventus shouted before the portal closed and left Terra alone to face his master all by himself.

While it was true that Master Eraqus was more skilled then his student due to his mastery over the power of light, Terra was the more powerful of the two as he unleashed the power of darkness to enhance the power of his strikes, then there was the fact that the boy had mastered the elements of fire, earth, ice, thunder, and darkness in order to match Eraqus's feats of magic with his own.

However Shirou wanted the fight to stop, as there was no need for the two of them to fight anymore, why had the man who was the pinnacle of keyblad masters try to murder his own student I the first place, why was Terra still fighting even though Ventus was safe, these questions were things the boy didn't know and quite frankly he had more important things to pay attention at the moment, as he was forced to watch as the painful fight was about to reach its climax.

As the master of light prepared another blast of light formed in the shape of chains, Terra saw it coming and side stepped the blast, before dashing towards his master with keyblade raised and landed a downward swing that leaved a large gash across Eraqus's chest.

Soon enough Terra came to his senses and backed away slowly as he stared at his bloodied keyblade in horror "Master Eraqus, what have I done?"

As the older man coughed up some blood from his injury, Eraqus made a sad smile as he contemplated his actions and realized that he made a terrible mistake that caused this tragedy "No, you were right, I failed you Terra, perhaps I've no one to blame but myself for the darkness inside you, and now I've done worse, raised my keyblade against you and ventus, my own heart is darkness"

As Terra approached his master, hoping to make amends, a jet black keyblade had erupted from Eraqus's chest, causing the keyblade master of light to fade away into flickers of light, leaving his keyblade behind as it fell to the ground.

Seeing this Terra fell to his knees "Master" he said in sorrow before Shirou realized that his vision was wavering before darkness enveloped him completely.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As Shirou Emiya opened his eyes, he realized that he was back in his room of the Emiya estate with the top cover of his futon over him, as he sat up in order to look around, the keyblade user thought about what he just witnessed.

Based on the design of the keyblade and armor that were present in the visions, it was clear that they had belonged to the keyblade wielder called Terra as they possessed to many similarities to be anything else, besides the fighting style that he was able to gleam from Earthshaker matched Terra's perfectly.

Which begged the big question as to why Shirou was suddenly experiencing his memories in the first place, perhaps it was a side effect of his tracing ability since the samurai believe that their souls reside in their weapons.

But for the time being, Shirou decided to think about it for another time, as he needed to get breakfast ready and head for school, for that reason he opened the slide door to his room and walked into the hallway, to be greeted with a completely empty house, which had been that way for the past year now since his father passed away.

After the funeral where only himself and the Fujimuras attended, the red head was offered to stay at Fuji-nees house since he was home alone now, Shirou of course refused the offer politely as he wanted to live in the house that his father and himself lived in for the past 5 years, Raiga of course was reluctant at first but eventually came to a compromise with Shirou to see if he will be alright on his own since he would have to do all the cooking and cleaning in the house on his own.

However Shirou proved over the months that followed, that he could handle himself since the red head found that he had a talent for house hold chores, eventually the Fujimura head agreed to let Shirou live on his own and served as the boys legal guardian, before passing that responsibility to his granddaughter Taiga while he managed the boys finances and the trust fund which Kiritsugu set up before he died.

Of course, there were benefits to Shirou's newfound privacy since he could practice his thaumaturgy and keyblade training in peace, then there was the additional bounded fields which Shirou added to the one attached to the Emiya estate, such as 'notice me not' compulsions that draw attention away from the compound when some of his thaumaturgy experiments get a little extreme.

His Thaumaturgy training had hit a dead end for now, since he couldn't ask his deceased father from beyond the grave to teach him something new, so for now he was stuck refining what Kiritsugu already taught him.

His Keyblade training had improved somewhat from experiencing Terra's memories, so far Shirou had successfully managed to replicate most of his base spells such as Blizzard, Thunder, magnet, Zero Gravity, and so on, then there was the fact that the faker managed to turn his keyblade into a hover bike like Terra did in the visions.

When he tested his weapons new form out, he waited until it was nighttime before hopping on while making sure that he had sufficient warm clothes on, as the faker soared through the night sky he was greeted with the breathtaking sight of the city it was covered in multiple lights that were visible from above.

Seeing that he had already stayed up long enough, the faker decided that it was time for him to go home now and get ready for school tomorrow.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Somewhere else in the multiverse)

Standing on a vast wasteland populated by dead keyblades was a lone figure wearing a brown coat, this person was Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, and the heartless of a man named Xehanort who was now reduced to just a heart as the price needed to traverse both time and space in order to fufill his goals.

However, the disembodied heart was currently in deep thought as he remembered what one of his minions at reported, from the sounds of it, it seems that a squadron of heartless that he had sent out in order to scout out new worlds to devour had not reported back as they disappeared.

When he sent a replacement team to check the area where the scouts had vanished, he was informed of the existence of multiple worlds identical to each over that were sentient, and did not take kindly to invaders, based on their descriptions and the area where the heartless disappeared, Ansem recognized the worlds as the multiple incarnations of GAIA, the home world of one of his old 'friends' Zelretch.

Now the former keyblade master turned heartless may be curious, but even he wouldn't be stupid enough to venture into GAIA's territory without proper preperation, as not only is the world a virtual deathtrap with a wide variety of things lurking in the shadows, but the world consciousness would crush both him, and any heartless that he happened to send there.

Of course that still didn't mean that he was willing to give up so easily, as there were many things in that world that would suit his purposes just fine in the long run, plus as it just so happens, the heartless managed to sense someone or something that would be able to serve as a back door into the world, allowing any heartless sent through to move around without being detected.

And as it so happens, one of his old friends living in that world had already prepared just such a gate for him to use, he could just imagine the look on Zouken's face when he is devoured by the very darkness he sought to control.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hello viewers, Epicgamer484 here

As you already have guessed from reading, this chapter is a rewrite of the previous one in response to some f my reviews.

After reading some reviewers saying that I was giving Shirou too many abilities, I realized that they were right, which is why I had to remove a fair chunk of what I already written and added new content in their place.

Also for those of you complaining about Shirou learning tracing early, I admit that I didn't want to include it at first, however the idea of tracing an extra keyblade to go with his initial one in order to duel weild, was too good to pass up.

So anyways please review, and have a very happy Christmas.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this fic, they belong to Square- Enix and Type-moon.