Disclaimer: I do not own Fate stay night, Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the heroes of Olympus and other works.
Author's note: First of all, I like to thank you all for your reviews and to tell you that I have been reading a lot of works lately and a lot of them have inspired me in a lot of ways that I could have possibly imagined. So before we get on with the story, I like to thank the various authors and Writers who have inspired me and helped me get various ideas for this chapter.
I'm also going to thank various authors and fellow-would-be writers who work hard for their projects and tell them that I respect their works and have been inspired by their writings and Chapters. I recommend anyone to go their respective profile-page in the site and read their stories and works.
Also, here are stories that I would recommend for everyone to read and take a look at.
Chiaroscuro (by boomvroomshroom)
(A short summary about the respective story: it is a Naruto Fan fiction which focuses on the life of a certain shadow-wielding genius called Shikamaru Nara, It is both realistic and balanced when it comes to comedy, Action and mystery. If any of you are fans of Naruto and want to see one of the most ultimate Projects within the site, then go and read the story. I recommend it for anyone. Just read the first chapter and I guarantee that you will add the story to your favorites and followers within Minutes.)
A world full of monsters (by Fahad09)
(A short summary about the respective story: a world full of monsters is a Naruto Fan Fiction which is Au and the main Character is a Hyuuga Male Self-insert OC Who his goal is to ascend into god-hood and take away a certain rabbit goddess's Eyes. It's an Anti-hero Main Character story and is heavily AU. If you want a big dosage of Realistic thinking, Best comedy and action story, Then I recommend that you read this story.)
Why me? (By Marcus Galen sands)
(A short summary about the respective story: it is a Self-insert story of familiar of zero X-over, the story has inspired a lot of people and I can proudly say that I have learned a lot of things here and there from the respective author and his works. The theme of the story is Mystery, action and adventure, along with a little bit of a realistic thinking. So I recommend you go and read it people and you'll see what I'm saying.)
And now about the story: Now, I have been reading a lot of Fate Stay/night works and crossovers lately and I'm honestly a little bit of disappointed about some works and their respective authors (no offence, I respect you're works and I won't comment about them)and lately, there have been a lot of works where Shirou Emiya (somehow) manages to defeat everyone of his opponents and then somehow become Over-powered through the use of his Reality Marble.
Really, I humbly request that you all go to Fate stay/night wiki and look into The Shirou Emiya's Page and read it to the end. Shirou Emiya might have his reality marble, but he doesn't have the energy to utilize it properly! Ex-ranked Noble Phantasms are impossible to be projected into the world (due to the lot of energy that is needed, and their powers), and A-ranked Noble phantasms do have a lot of conditions set into them which makes them nearly Impossible to trace Noble phantasms of that caliber. Not to mention that every noble phantasm within the unlimited blade works, is a copy of the original one which means that it goes one Rank-down then the original ones.
So could someone please tell me, how the hell, Shirou Emiya is able Trace Enkidu (Gilgamesh's chains) project Gae-Bolg (lancer's spear) and use it with the power of the original one? Oh to hell with it, how is he able to project EA?
I don't know what to say anymore, because honestly, I'm out of words about this. So I'll leave it here at that and let you respective readers to be ones who will think about it.
(Because I really don't know what to think about this)
So about my ideas about how to continue my story, let's start with the original plot of the fate stay night. Shirou Emiya is a third-rated teenage magus who ends up into joining the Holy Grail war, due to various circumstances out of his reach. And then you know the rest about what happens to him and his future (depending on the Route and the plot)
Well, I'm going to be straight with everyone and say that this is not going to be that kind of story.
I don't want a main character that is nothing more than a teenager who dreams about being a hero or his ideals. I don't want the Shirou Emiya who is as green as the grass; I want The SHIROU EMIYA who is at his peak, with skills and abilities which he has mastered through time, experience and hard-effort. That is the reason why I put a battle-hardened Demigod in the plot, because this way, I'll have the Room to expand the character and his abilities or Personality. He's not Shirou Emiya and nor does he wish to become a hero; he's a survivor who has fought his way in a world full of myth and legends. He's a Soldier who has fought and killed, not the Naive Idealist and optimistic hero who is used by everyone around him and then discarded at the end of the life. He's a man who had to survive in an environment full of monsters that constantly hunted him or immortals who sought to use him. He's doesn't help strangers who he doesn't know nor does he care about the faceless masses or those who don't care about him in return and are not close to him. He's not a Teenager; he's an experienced adult and is Realistic.
I want the Rin Tohsaka who is at her peak of condition, a Magus who has affinity for the main primary elements and the skills and spells that allows her to be a Real-opponent in the Holy Grail war. With her mind and experience as a real-magus, being something which allows her to be able to outmaneuver and out-smart her opponents. She's not naïve enough to think that she can out-smart or out-power everyone; this is the Rin Tohsaka who is tempered and hardened in a world full of Ruthless Magi and cutthroat Mages who won't hesitate to use her for their own ends. This is the Rin Tohsaka who had to face such a world as the only member of the Tohsaka Family, as the only surviving member of the Tohsaka Family.
I want the Sakura Matou who is not the 'poor-used-victim' of fate stay night; I want the Sakura Matou who has the mind and the experience to back-her up. The sakura Matou who knows how to play the game and has saved herself, Rather than waiting for someone to come and help her, The sakura Matou who has a wish, Dream and conviction to reach it like anyone else. Have her abilities and merits that she can use for her gain and purposes.
I have made it as simple as I could, and if you still don't get it, then send me a PM or a Review and I'll try to explain it in a more 'Detailed' way. And by the way I won't reveal much about the story anymore. Seeing as it would spoil the story, the plots and the elements within it.
So ready you're selves, because this chapter is going to close a lot of plot-holes. Change a lot of things and reveal so much about the Future of This fate-stay night. And the secrets which have been buried in the past, now here we go:
XX~XoX~XX
Chapter 1
One of the most dreadful things that any demigod fears is Sleeping.
You would think that someone who has fought against legendary monsters and immortals wouldn't be afraid of just lying down on his bed and closing his eyes. But the thing was that sleeping never really did ended-up well for a half-blood.
Demigod dreams and Nightmares were not something that could be taken lightly. Most of the time, they were a very terrifying combination that showed you things that you either didn't want to know or see.
Some wounds never truly heal, and all that it takes is a few words for them to be reopened and start bleeding again. Some things are just better to be left forgotten, rather than be remembered.
The Scene that I find myself in was something that I had seen a lot of times. It was a Dream that reminded me of who I am and what kind of blood runs in my veins.
This body, the former body of Shirou Emiya, has changed.
At first it had been the reappearance of a few scars here and there, but then it had slowly started with my blood and then with my hair and skin. If I could, I would have asked and Researched about it from within the Mage-association's libraries and occult books, but I didn't dare to take a chance for someone connect the dots and Suspect that I'm a Reincarnated Demigod.
It was a rule of the world that no matter how Powerful or experienced you think you are, there are always those who are more powerful and smarter then you.
I was no son of Hades, neither did I knew much about reincarnation. But I knew that my body was slowly changing and adapting to the soul that is within it, and with it came a lot of things that I had wished that could have stayed back in my previous body.
My ADHD, Dyslexia and Demigod dreams were among those, along with a few extra things that I suspect that had come from the 'puppet master' who I knew was pulling my strings.
It was normal room, one that you would normally see in one of those western movies. There was a normal bed along with a TV in front of it. At the middle of the room, there was a wooden chair and a wooden table. The curtains covered the windows and the only source of light was from a lamp near the bed.
Sitting on the chair, there was a man who was wearing a black color business suit. He looked to be in his thirties and had black color hair and beard. His face was down and covered by the shadows. But I knew this man, he was the one who had worked himself to the bone and provided for me.
My Father, Reza Dastan.
One of the best things that I had ever had in life and had been taken from me, the man who had Taught me many things and had became the foundation of who I am and had stood against legends, in order for me to live.
This man was a fighter who fought to the end, not just for himself but also for his family.
"Why?" His face was wet with tears and his eyes were red because of crying, his fierce gaze was aimed towards the 'women' who was standing on the other side of the table. Her whole body was covered by a dark black cloak while a Weasel was sitting beside her feet.
"Why did you lie to me Hecate?" his voice was cold and had a dangerous edge to it. "Why did you do this to me?"
There was a moment of silence before my Father shot out of his chair. His warped, twisting Shadow towards over my Immortal mother and stretched across the Room, where it moved across the wall behind my father and took on the appearance of a twisted shadow like being that seemed to be ready to attack the immortal at any given moment.
Seeing this, the weasel instantly moved behind my immortal mother and made itself look as little as possible.
My father had been a patient man who could tolerate a lot of things. I had seen him being annoyed, irritated or angry at me. But I had never seen him being this much furious at something. I could count the times where he had been this much angry on one hand, and I counted myself lucky that I had never truly been the target of his fury.
The man, who was standing in front of my immortal mother, was something else entirely.
Something that I could not, for all of my expanded adult vocabulary, figure out how to describe. But What I did knew, was that this being was clearly dangerous – and every time that I saw it, my mind finally grasped the true meaning of Fear.
Somewhere underneath my father's laid back attitude, the man who had killed his way to survival through a whole world full of legends and Monsters was finally resurfacing, scars and all. The deep streak running down his face, the lumpy layer of skin that I always used to have fun poking at as a baby while he chuckled – that was nothing compared to the scores of pain and fury that was now radiating from his eyes.
Even after fighting and facing beings which are considered to be myths and legends; for all of these years of constant danger and survival, I can't stop myself from being terrified of the man who is Reza Dastan. I had seen this scene a lot of times and every time, and I always shivered when it came to this part.
There was something to be feared about the fury of a patient man. And if there was one thing that I knew about my father – it was that while he could tolerate a lot of things from me and let me get away with little more than a relatively painless scolding and a few minutes in the corner, driving him to his breaking point was a very unwise course of action and most likely the last thing I would ever do.
It took a lot of courage to face the immortal that has domain over Magic, and it took a lot more to even look to her in the eye and demand answers from her.
"I haven't done anything to you or our child." My mother said with a neutral voice that was devoid of any emotion. "You should be proud of him, yet you're here, Crying and broken as if you're seeing his death."
Tears were now visibly falling down on my father's face; it was a scene that always made me feel like as if someone had punched me in the face. Reza was man of focus, sheer will and commitment. I had grown-up with seeing him as a fighter who always got up, no matter how many hardships and pains he had to endure.
With each time, learning from his mistakes and grow stronger as he moved on. But even Reza Dastan had his limits, and the line was drawn when it came to the life of his only child, namely me.
"My son is a demigod." My father said with shaking voice. Not caring how loud his voice becomes with each words passing from his lips. "Do you know the average life-span of a demigod?! No!? Then let me tell you that they'll be lucky to even reach the age of 18, before they end up dead in some monster's stomach or become another lost pawn in the schemes and games that you immortals play!."
My father then started to mercilessly name the ancient legends of heroes who were known to be half-bloods. His voice dripping with power and so much fury that I could easily hear the roof slowly starts to crack under so much release of his Power and magic. He didn't even seem to care about the fact that he was yelling towards a being that could kill him with just a snap of her fingers.
"Jason the Argonaut – Setting sail to claim what was perhaps rightly his until he ended up in the scheme of immortals and Losing everything that he had because of his own actions and choices, dying alone in his own Freaking ship, which became his own tomb," With each sentence, his voice rose exponentially. "The Great Heracles – praise – greatness – bestowed with so many nicknames and titles you'd be drown in ink if you write them all down! And what was his life? His entire life spent on quests after quests; doing this and that until later he died, screaming in agony because of the poisoned shirt that his own wife gives him!" He just kept going and going and going and would not stop. "Jack the Ripper – so completely screwed up in the head that it's not even funny– The son of Ares who killed who knows how many poor men, Women and children! And don't even get me started on others like Vlad the Impaler or The Great Khan! Because we both know that there are far worst half-bloods out there that even make them look like normal and civilized, when it comes to cruelty or the things that they have done! Because that is the fate of demigods who end up losing themselves and warped by the supernatural world and eventually turning into things which they constantly fight against! Becoming Monsters who walk around in human flesh, their mentality twisted and Morals broken because of the constant death and pain which follows them wherever they go."
With each word; I felt like the darkness around the room become darker and darker. And the Sad Thing was that every word that my father was saying was nothing more than cold hard truth.
Words can cut or pierce deeper than any sword or bullet, and the truth pierces even deeper.
The life of a demigod was not rainbows and sunshine. You can't expect you're mentality to remain intact when you're constantly hunted by legendary monsters that come back with the passing of time.
The world of the supernatural world was a world of bloody evolution. To survive you would have to pick up you're sword and fight to see the next day and even then, you're survival was not even guaranteed.
Percy Jackson the greatest hero to ever live, Jason Grace the son of Jupiter or Thalia Grace the Lieutenant of the hunt. There are Demigods who their lives are far darker and more messed up then the trio who can be considered to be among those who had dealt with the supernatural world for a long time and had been in a lot of life-threatening situations that always seemed to find them wherever they go.
Demigods who didn't have a mortal parent that would be there for them when they are celebrating their birthday, Demigods who their lives were even harder than even Luke Castallen, Their desire to survive in an unending cycle of war and death against legendary monsters is the one thing that pushes them forward to improve and train. To live while a world full of myth and legends, is seeking to either kill them because of the fact that they had been born as a half-blood or to manipulate and use them for their own gains and whims.
Survival can bring out the worst out of people that you would probably never expect. Combine that with the environment that we half-bloods find ourselves in… well, let's just say that the results were not good for our mental health and choices.
"Enough!" my immortal mother's power flows over the room and returns the darkness to its normal state and return my father's shadow to its normal form.
My father let out a tired breath and sat back at his chair. His face and eyes looked so old that you would think that he's an old man, rather than a man who is still in his thirties.
"You told me that you would watch over our son. That you would protect him," He said with an old withered voice. "But do you know what I saw today? I saw my son Create his very own Magical Rune. At the age of six no less! My very own son accomplished something that I only managed to do at the age of twelve! And do you know what kind of Rune he created? The Shadow Manipulation Rune! A Magical Rune that focuses on the caster's shadow and combines it with the target's shadow and binds it to the caster's Will and provides control over the target's physical body! And do you know how he used it for?! He used it to kill a fucking hellhound that had attacked him when I was at work and he was staying home! Used it to stop the monster from charging towards him and then used another Magical rune to manipulate his own shadow and turn it into a hand like shape which he used to chock the damn thing to death! And do you want to know the scary thing? He had said that he had been inspired to create his first magical rune, based on something which he had seen in some TV Show. My son is not even seven yet and He used his creativity and imagination to create something that can be used to kill a legendary monster or possibly another magician. And even then he still considers it to be incomplete and inefficient, I had seen that look in his eyes and I know that he won't rest until he has managed to master the use of the Rune Completely. Do you see why I'm crying right now? It's because my son already has taken his first step into the supernatural world, and god only knows what he'll become at the end of the Road."
And here comes the reason why I am considered to be a boogeyman in the world of myths and legends. I was not the smartest tool in the box; neither did I have much talent when it comes to other things like cooking or cleaning. But there were other things that I excelled in.
And one of those things was my determination to fully master and improve my abilities. I was not the most powerful demigod of Hecate, that title belonged to someone else, but when it came to mastering my abilities and using them with lethal efficiency, I was perhaps one of the most dangerous demigods within the supernatural world.
And that is not a boast, it's a fact.
I analyze my enemies, study their behavior, and learn their weaknesses, Skills and techniques. Modify them for my own purposes and aims, and then use them to destroy them.
It was something that my father had seen, before I had even known that it was there in the first place. And it had scared him to the bone, knowing that his son was capable of such things before his age had even exited the single digits.
"Being a demigod doesn't necessarily mean that one will become a monster." My mother's words cut through the air like a sharp knife, I had heard those words a lot of times in my dreams and each time I couldn't stop myself from holding on to them as if they were my life-line. "Our son will walk with the shadows and will face many hardships like any other Half-blood, of that there is no doubt. But why can't you believe that he will one day Emerge from the shadows and walk into the light?"
"It's not about what I believe in; it's about what is going to remain of my son before the supernatural world is done with him." my Father looked down to his own hands. His anger and pain had long gone and had been replaced with an old withered feeling as if he was feeling empty.
And then he said the words that had hunted me throughout the years to come.
"Those who walk in the shadows may as well become one with them." he said before leaning back on his chair and covering his face with his hands. "But tell me Hecate, What fate is in store for this one? Will he become The Boogeyman himself? will his life be viewed as The cautionary tale of a demigod, who treaded and walked in the shadows for so long that he end up becoming one with them himself?"
It was then that I felt myself waking-up, before I looked down on the shadows and watched as the dark silhouettes on the wall curl into a most familiar shape that I knew.
It was a dark shape that would follow us since the day that we are born and until the day that we all die.
It was my shadow.
XX~XoX~XX
Opening my eyes, I gazed to the ceiling of my room.
My emotions were all over the place while my mind was running and processing one thought after another, looking to one question and then to the next one. With each one coming and going, The Riddles that stranded my life seemed to grow and grow, despite the fact that I solved one after another. With each question that I answered, or with each riddle that I solved, there was always another one that would take its place and leaving me with more questions and riddles then I could care to count or answer.
Normally you can ignore the riddles and the secrets and continue you're life, if not for the fact that those said secrets and riddles will always find a way to punch you in the face and step back into your life.
No matter how hard you try, the past always finds a way to –somehow- affect the future. And most of the time, it did not end well for you. I had made peace with my past and had moved on, but there were things that I certainly wanted it to remain in the past.
And that damned dream that I just had, was among them.
"Shit," was the only word that came out of my mouth before I got up from the bed and moved towards the bathroom. I had my own fair share of nightmares and demigod dreams, and this was not the first time that I had to deal with them in the morning.
Opening the bathroom's door and closing it behind myself, I washed my face and then looked towards the mirror.
The face that gazed back towards me was not the one that I had when I had found myself in this world years ago. Instead of having light auburn hair and light skin, I now had white hair, and Light tanned skin colour. Stormy gray eyes looked back to me, and if I didn't know any better, I would have thought that I was a son of Athena Rather than a son of Hecate. Additionally, I was a lot taller than I had been before, possibly 20 Cm. with an athletic body that came from many hours and nights of intense physical conditioning and exercise.
The ironic thing was that I knew this face; it was the face of the man who would end-up becoming a machine of death and destruction that is a counter-guardian. A man who made a contract with the world itself so that he could become a hero who is capable of producing miracles and save everyone, ending up betrayed by his own allies and then executed for the crimes that he did not even do.
What was his goal and aim? To become a hero who would save everyone, to end a war and stop the loss of lives and destruction. And look where it got him, it turned him into a counter-guardian, a being who has to kill the human at 'one location' to save the humanity as a whole. Trapped in an endless cycle of death and slaughter, with him being the destroyer and the butcher who would have to do the slaughtering and the destruction, betrayed by his own dreams and ideals and forced to face and oppose them for countless times.
Sometimes I wondered how I should feel about the face that I see every time that I look into the mirror. Should I pity Archer who end-up getting the text-book end of a hero? Should I Respect him for going so far for the things that he had believed in? Hate him for not knowing when to let go of his ideals and accept the fact that you can't save everyone?
Life was really a bit messed-up sometimes, and to think that I would get archer's face was possibly another twisted sense of joke that was in my life.
My current appearance was the result and side-effects of my use of magecraft. It was known that the extended use of magecraft and doing various experiments could have various side-effects on a Magus's body. Be it either physically or mentally. Magi hold them as a mark of pride that shows how serious they are in mastering and perfecting their magecraft and how experienced they are.
It was disturbing to know that how I had ended up with this face, even with the notion that my body had changed to the one that I had before ending up here, it was no coincidence. Seeing as how my own abilities and 'affinity' had even changed and how many obstacles I had to overcome, in order to master my abilities and even develop new ones.
The only positive thing that I could see from the face that I now had, was that I was no longer a third-rated magus who didn't knew how to even properly defend himself. I was now Leagues above of what I had been years ago.
And I was proud of it.
Finishing my morning Routine, I opened the door and started to walk towards the Emiya household's kitchen. I was not a talented chief like Emiya Shirou, but I could make the most basic meals and foods. Years of living alone had made it an important Skill for me to learn and improve upon. I could follow a normal cooking recipe as much as the next man and make a few dishes and meals here and there but that's it.
Cooking may have been a necessary skill for me to learn, but it wasn't my strongest suit and it will never be.
Cleaning and washing the dishes, I put on a blue color jean along with a normal black color shirt and a Leather jacket. Putting my black shoes on, I opened the door and started to walk towards the destination that I had in mind.
It was an early hour in the morning and I could see the students starting to leave home and on their way to school, likely to a certain school called Homurahara, if I had to guess based on their uniforms.
The atmosphere of the city was normal and a little bit rich with Paraná, thanks to a few leaks coming from the leyline.
Fuyuki was the image of a normal mundane city and it was hard to believe that this city had been in all-over the international news and every News channel within Japan many years ago.
In the show, there isn't much attributed to the incident known as Fuyuki fire, other than the fact that it was the turning point of the life of a boy called Shirou Emiya. But in the real life, the incident known as the Fuyuki fire was a clusterfuck on so many levels that I can't even care to count.
Before the fourth holy-grail war, the Mage association and the Church both had agreed to supervise the Grail wars and enforce the rules. Both of the organizations were powerful and had lots of influence both within the supernatural world and the mundane world, so hiding a murder here and there along with other 'casualties' of the holy grail was not impossible for them.
The church might officially supervise the Holy Grail war but everyone within the supernatural world knew that the mage-association also made sure that the rules of the Holy Grail war are followed. This system had worked well from the first Holy Grail war and then to the second and the third, and it had been well-enough in both the church and the association's opinion But then came the fourth holy-grail war and it was a disaster beyond imagining.
Death-tolls, casualties and incidents that had been inflicted were simply beyond what it had been during the previous holy-grail wars. Never before had servants unleashed their abilities and powers in such environments full of population and witnesses, the masters had always made sure to pick their battle-fields carefully and away from the locations where there could be any witnesses or bystanders, including locations with heavy populations and residents, they also kept a iron-grip on their servants and where extremely careful when it came to them using their abilities to the full-effect. This was something that the church supervisor made sure that every master knew before officially acknowledging and recognizing them as a master.
No one could have really expected the fourth holy going as it did.
Reports of missing children, murder, sightings of strange actions and suspicious activity had been so high that the church supervisor had to send messages to both the mage association and the church, informing them that the situation had become so dire that it was simply beyond his capabilities anymore.
And as if that was not enough, the association had informed the church about an incident with a pair of 'military jets' due to battle between servants which had drawn the attention of the military to the Fuyuki city.
Naturally, the association started to act and come up with a good excuse that would justify the incident and work to make sure that the military doesn't find any evidence about what that had really happened to the two jets and their pilots.
And then the fuyuki fire happened and everything went to shit.
Covering an incident or two is one thing but a whole city being drowned in flames and so many dying and losing their lives? Nope, there was no way that was going to go under the rug or in the closet.
The governments took notice, The News were shot into the air like a rocket being released from a rocket launcher, The Japanese government quickly acted in order to send aid, medical supplies and personal to aid the hospitals and the injured. The military went to full alert, bringing up the possibility that the fire and the incident before it had been the acts of terrorism and terrorists.
And don't even get me started on the politics, politicians and other vultures that saw the incident as an opportunity for themselves and their aims/goals. The church and the association had to combine their resources and efforts and even then they barely dodged the bullet. The amount of favors that had be called in, the palms that had be greased and the bribes that had been given, were not a small matter either.
At the end, the fuyuki fire went down the history as the most dangerous point where the existence of the supernatural world had almost been discovered. I can't even begin to stress the fact that how many lives had been lost and how many more had been ruined or affected by it.
And more importantly, it had been decided by the association that the Holy Grail war would not be hosted within fuyuki. Realistically, the entire plot of the show had been just that. A plot that had been created for entertainment and the audiences, it couldn't have really happened because the risk of supernatural world being discovered by the governments was just simply too much.
If something happened, then not even the association and the church could hope to cover it up. Not after all of the things that had happened, not after the fuyuki fire.
That alone should be enough to tell me how much my 'Canon knowledge' was exactly worth. How many details and how many events had been changed in the fate stay/night? How many things were exactly different?
Those were the questions that I had asked myself a lot of times when I had seen events which were a lot more different or had different outcomes then from the ones that I had seen or knew from the show.
Having a good deal of contacts and a bit of perks here and there within the mage association, was enough for me to get my hands on a few classified information, and the fuyuki fire and the events that had happened after that, had been the first things that I had researched within the association's archives.
Still, there had been a lot of gaps and questions that I still hadn't managed to figure out.
The Ryuudou Temple was a normal Japanese temple which you would normally see in the Japanese cultural or religion. And if not for a certain event which included a certain caster-class servant and her 'master' in the show, I would have normally saw it as a normal temple and moved on.
But I had learned a long time ago that the shape was always different from the nature, so I had investigated it and had learned a lot of certain advantages to it. And if I was to describe the temple, be it both strategically and tactically, I would only say it in a short sentence:
Ryuudou temple was a fortress.
The shape of its structure might not look like much in terms of modern warfare but in terms of Magi and supernatural battle, it was the perfect ground that yielded a lot of advantages. The first advantage was that the temple had a deep connection with the Leylines deep within the fuyuki city, so it would naturally be rich with Prana that any skilled or tactful magi could use to perform their magecraft and abilities.
The second advantage was that the location that Ryuudou temple had been built was easily defendable both in terms of defense and counterattack. The higher ground made sure to give you a clear advantage against any incoming enemy or give you a good vantage point that gives a good chance to see any opponent that tries to approach you stealthily.
All that it took was a skilled team of snipers, a good sniping position and you could basically hold off a large amount of forces, or kill any master who was foolish enough to approach the temple.
The third and most important advantage was that the temple was a natural fortress against spirits and such. So no servant could hope to set foot in it without coming through the front gate of the temple.
There were only three servants whom I could guess to have the ability and skill to get through the temple's gate without being noticed. The assassin class servant that has a class-skill called the presence concealment; it allowed the servant to being able to remain hidden against the sensory abilities of the other seven servants. So assassin did have a chance at being able to infiltrate the temple and possibly kill the enemy servant's master. The next servant from the show who could get pass the temple's defense and walk straight through the main gate, was berserker who had a noble phantasm which operated as basically a 'adaptable defense' that can overcome a lot of things.
Noble phantasms were the crystallization of a heroic spirit's legend and power; they could be many things from abilities, items, curses or even a form of attack or defense. And in the show, berserker had been among those who had the most dangerous noble phantasm that made him a very serious/lethal opponent who had a chance to win the Holy Grail war, too bad that not even his noble phantasm was able to stand against a certain king of hero's ultimate noble phantasm.
The next servant, who could possibly hope to stand a chance of being able to breach the temple's defenses, was saber. The magic resistance class-skill did give the king of knight's the chance to being able to ignore caster's highly deadly attacks and facing the servant head on with a clear advantage against her.
So how could archer possibly get pass the temple's defenses, get pass the gate's 'guardian' and save Shirou Emiya from being killed by caster? The answer was as clear as the sun in the sky, archer hadn't gotten pass the temple's defenses through infiltrating it.
He had been allowed to pass through the gate's guardian's will and want, either be it for entertainment or for throwing a ball in caster's well-made plans.
One way or another, Shirou Emiya had been saved and so we learn that protagonists have the survivability of a cockroach, being able to survive despite all the odds that had been stacked against them through some absurd reason, logic or even impossible events.
But turns out that this world's version of Shirou Emiya hadn't even lived long enough to reach the point of joining the fifth holy grail-war, all of it because of one act that had sealed his doom, something that had been done by the same Person who had saved him and adopted him as his own son –Kiritsugu Emiya, the magus killer who his act of giving Avalon back to the Einzbern family as a way for his adopted son to live without being directly targeted by the ancient magi family, had been thing that had killed the Shirou Emiya of this world.
It all comes down to Shirou Emiya's self-made magecraft called tracing. Tracing is a magecraft spell which allowed one to review the past-history of an object. It collected the information from the object and then gives it to the human brain in order to process and understand that information.
It was similar to structural analyze, with the difference being that it was more through then that. And it also had a Dangerous Risk, seeing as the human mind had not been meant to process that kind of information at such a short notice. If you think about it rationally and logically, one shouldn't be able to normally use that spell without the human mind being put into too much strain and information overload which then would cause Lethal brain damage.
So how could one exactly use tracing without becoming brain dead? That's simple, it's by using reinforcement magecraft which focused on temporary enhancing the human body and physical capabilities to a certain limit.
To put it simply, tracing was a suicide spell, even by the standards that Magi abide by. And only a distorted fool like Shirou Emiya who couldn't put a value on his life, would dare to use such a spell.
I had thought and think about it a lot and I had come to the conclusion that the Reason why Shirou had practiced reinforcement to such extent and intensity, Was because of the fact that it was the only way for him to perform his magecraft, the only way for him to keep his progress with his magecraft going.
Except for one big fatal reckless mistake that he didn't even care look at because of his distortion of being incapable of valuing his own life.
Shirou Emiya didn't have someone who could teach him how to properly use magecraft and warn him about the lethal and fatal mistakes that were on the way, so he was defiantly bound to make a fatal mistake sooner or later. And the only way that the Shirou Emiya from the show hadn't ended up going brain-dead before the start of the holy-grail war, was because of Avalon.
The legendary sheath that was said to have the healing and regeneration ability that can heal a shattered heart within moments, so why shouldn't it be able to heal and repair brain damage –this was the reason that how Shirou Emiya of the show had lived long enough to become a master within the fifth holy grail war.
But the Shirou Emiya of this world no longer had Avalon and so he went brain-dead, the protagonist of what had been an anime show within a parallel world, died because he had decided to practice his magecraft one last time before going to the bed. I had seen the memories of this world's Shirou Emiya and I knew it had happened only an hour before I had found myself in his body.
But even with all of the things that I know, I still wasn't able to gain a single clue about who had thrown me into the body of a brain-dead boy and then possibly healed the said body. What were their motives, their aims and their gains?
Why me and not someone else?
Either way, I hadn't managed to gain an answer for those questions and somehow I had a feeling that I will possibly never will.
"Hello Shirou," a sudden Feminine voice stopped me in my tracks, one that I was very familiar with. "I'm surprised that you came."
Looking to the source of the voice in front of me, it took a lot of effort not to turn around and run back to the house and lock the door behind myself for good-measure.
Standing in front of the three graves, there is a woman who looked to be a year younger than me. she has dark violet colored hair along with piercing violet color eyes. She is wearing a dark-brown coat along with a white shirt and a long black skirt, black socks and dark brown shoes.
"Hello Sakura," I mentally ready myself for possibly a long day, and a tiring one at that.
XX~XoX~XX
The long traditional Japanese cemetery near the Ryuudou temple was not the place that I would want to go. After all, if you did not count my 'condition', I should basically be a Dead-man. Buried deep underground and within a coffin, just like everyone else. But yet for all of the hesitations that I had when it came to going to the cemetery, I sometimes find myself going there with my own legs and then stand in front of the three graves that are now in front of me. Where others would be respectful and silent, I would simply find myself…
Suddenly laugh or chuckle. And this is a laugh that comes with an urge to suddenly jump in joy and start dancing as if I had won the world's greatest prize.
And the reason for this sudden feeling was because of the names that had been written in front of the three graves in front of me.
Zouken Matou
Kiritsugu Emiya
Kirei Kotomine
If there ever was karma at its finest, it would be this. Three men, one is a protagonist while the other one is an antagonist and the last one is nothing more than a third-cliché villain and worm. Kiritsugu tried to kill Kirei while the sadistic distorted priest had tried to kill Zouken, now all three of them are dead, And buried right next to each other with Kiritsugu being at the middle, Zouken to the left and Kirei to the right.
And the best thing was that I didn't have to do anything, no schemes or plans, taking no actions and doing nothing.
Kiritsugu Emiya was someone that I knew how he had died; his body cursed from top and to the last bone. The curse that had killed him was something that came from his enemy Kirei Kotomine or from his contact with the Angra Mainyu, just like the Kiritsugu Emiya that I had seen from the show, but zouken Matou and Kirei Kotomine?
Now those two were different stories.
"hey Shirou," Sakura Matou was standing beside me as we looked to three graves in front of us, with her head Resting on my right shoulder and her arms around my arm, like a wife who is standing beside her husband.
"Have I ever told you how I did it?" she said with such a Casual and normal voice as if she was going to talk about something as trivial as the weather. "How I manipulated those two into killing each other? How I beat them at their own games and schemes?"
"I have my guesses," I admitted, "though I'll never ask you that."
I was not one to put my nose where it doesn't belong; curiosity could be as dangerous as any other weapon and all that it takes is one event to throw you into one big mess and with a lot of strings attached.
It is said that curiosity had killed the cat; nothing said that it couldn't do the same to a demigod.
"Are you afraid of what you might hear?" Sakura asked "or are you scared that you're image of 'sakura Matou' might be shattered into pieces?"
And then promptly, she answered her own question. "But what am I saying? You're the Steel Wrought Magus, the conman who has manipulated and tricked both Magi and alike. How can a liar and a trickster be afraid of lies and truths, when you manipulate them both for your own benefits and gains?" She shook her head before continuing. "But then again, to call you a trickster is wrong, the death dealer is a lot more preferable. Wouldn't you agree?"
"What can I say?" I shrugged, "I Have a certain flair for dramatics."
As Shirou Fraga the Magus, I can be killed and forgotten like any other magus who was in the mage association but as Shirou Fraga the steel wrought magus, the Conman who had tricked and manipulated many? No, that was not a person who you can destroy and kill. You can break a man's body from head to toe; you can kill him with swords, guns and bullets but an ideal? You can't kill or break something like that, no matter how many weapons and tactics you have at your disposal.
Shirou Fraga the steel wrought magus, the man who his words are as dangerous as any other weapon at his disposal. The one who deals in death and destruction, this was the image that the world of magi and supernatural had made of me.
And the funny thing is that I never had wanted the damn thing to begin with, at first I had set out to put a good reputation in the mage association along with the supernatural world, someone who is both feared and respected. It was purely just to protect my life and reach my goals, nothing more and nothing less. But instead I somehow ended-up becoming this world's boogeyman.
…it was really strange how a trick here and there can suddenly make others around you cautious and fearful that they might be manipulated and dancing with the meaning of your words and the tune of your voice.
"So Do I," she looked towards the graves. "It had come from the theatric and story books that my 'mother' used to read for me before I went to bed." She said the word 'mother' as if it was the most disgusting word within the world. "In the school, they told us that our parents always love us, that they would protect us and be there for us when we would need them, and I used to believe all of those words. I believed that my mother would always there where Tokiomi Tohsaka should have been. He was the head of a Magus family, so I knew that he couldn't possibly be there for me. Not once did he spend time with me when I had been the top of my class. Not once did he come to my birthday, just a wrapped gift with the words 'happy birthday' had been there in his place.
"But when it came to my sister? He suddenly had all the time within the world, giving her a pat on the head and a kiss on the forehead, each time that she succeeded in something. And do you know how I felt? I felt jealous that Rin could gain our father's time and approval while I had to work myself to the bone and not be given even a second of his time. Every time that I saw something like that, I would ask myself that what did she have that I hadn't? Was it because she was a bit older for me? If so then why should Tokiomi treat her differently? Both of us had been average ones, Magi who had affinity for all of the primary elements. And the magus families would kill to gain such heiresses like us. So why did he consider her to be better than me? I asked myself those questions every time. And somehow, despite the odds, my mother would always see that look in my face and give me a hug and put a kiss before telling me that my older sister is the heir of the Tohsaka Magus family Crest. She told me that no matter who I or Rin were, she would always love us and would want the best for us. And I believed every word that had came out of her mouth with my every being. Until the time came I had been given into the Matous like some glorified Piece of furniture."
She spat on zouken Matou's grave, glaring towards it with absolute loathing and hate. But surprisingly, her voice remained casual and calm.
"When Tokiomi had suggested sending Rin Tohsaka to a boarding school, Aoi Tohsaka had instantly set her foot down and told him that she wouldn't allow it. They had this fight for at least a week before my father finely agreed not to send his eldest daughter to a boarding school outside of the country but when he had suggested sending me to the Matou family? Aoi Tohsaka didn't even raise her voice. She just cried and shed useless tears that didn't even help me to begin with, and do you know what she told me? 'You're going to have a bright future and will no longer need to look to Rin like that anymore because you're now also a heiress to a magus Family'. So tell me Shirou." The last living 'Matou' turned her head and looked to me, her gaze as sharp as any sword and piercing as any arrow or bullet that I had used. "What do you think about my life so far? What is your opinion about Tokiomi Tohsaka action, His motive and his reasons for sending me into the Matou family?"
"if you're looking for my sympathy or the words about 'I'm sorry about what has happened to you' or some 'I'm sure you're parents loved you and wanted the best for you' bullshit then I apologize that you're looking for it in a Wrong Person." I said bluntly before shaking my head. "Besides why do you ask the question when you yourself have the answers? You and I both know that the reason that Tokiomi Tohsaka send you to the Matou family, was not because of some crap about dreaming of seeing you growing into you're full potential." In another world that had been made of fiction, that reason might have been the real cause of sakura Tohsaka going to the Matou but in the real world? That was not the case.
"The real reason that he send you to the Matou family, was to unite both the Matou and the Tohsaka family into one magi family." I looked towards a certain old worm's grave, "and with it, secure the Holy Grail war, should he fail at winning the fourth Holy Grail war. Then he can at least be certain the Tohsaka will have the upper advantage in the next war, with this move he would been able to not only take out one of the three families who had rightful claim to participate in the holy grail war, but he would also gain all of their assets which includes their rightful command Seals, Increasing the chance of winning the Holy Grail war for the Tohsaka family by gaining another servant who would fight for their claim on the Holy Grail war."
I had to admit that it was a genius move and tactic; you had to hand it to the previous head of the Tohsaka family. Tohsaka Tokiomi might not be an average magus like his two daughters but he really was a genius.
"As perspective as ever," the violent haired woman put her head back on my shoulder once again, the act alone seemed to have calm her. "Though that plan didn't even have a chance to bear fruit, because unlike what Tokiomi Tohsaka had thought, the head of the Matou magi family, Matou Zouken, that disgusting worm-wasn't looking for an heir that would carry out the Matou family after his 'passing'. He was looking for a sacrificial piece that was valuable enough to use for his own ambition. And Tokiomi handed me right to him on a silver platter."
…I take that back, Tohsaka Tokiomi was the idiot of the century. He's lucky that he is dead; otherwise I would have killed him myself, with a fork and a spoon no less. Or even with a spatula, I have killed men with brooms before, so it shouldn't that hard, right?
"And do you know what kind of an ambition Zouken Matou had? It's actually funny that an old worm who has possibly lived for who knows how long, had been looking for something that is considered to be the most powerful force within the universe: Love"
"love." I repeated the word incredulously as if it was a foreign thing before suddenly I remembered the image of a woman who is wearing white color robes and has snow-white hair and red-colored eyes.
justeaze lizrich von einzbern...
The homunculus who had played a key-role in the creation of the Holy Grail, the homunculus who had aided Nagato Tohsaka, the ancestor of the Tohsaka, and Zouken Matou. The Tohsaka provided the land that is rich with Prana while the Matou had created the system of the command seals, and lastly, the Einzbern who made the homunculus who became the heart of the grail itself.
Zouken Matou, the thing that had been once a man, had been in love with a homunculus who was meant to become the core of the device known as the grail itself, the ritual which is called the heaven's Fel needed a stabilizer, something that made the summoning more reliable and more stable. And who is better at doing that then the one who had been born for that single task?
"It's such a strange thing you know," sakura let out a tired sigh as if she was suddenly tired. "When I had become sakura Matou, I had thrown away everything that had made me sakura Tohsaka. My pride, my feelings and my hopes, Zouken made sure that there was nothing left for me but the path that had been made by him. And so I kept going, knowing that there was nothing left for me when He had implanted the shards of the fourth Holy Grail war. Piece by Piece, until there was nothing left of sakura Tohsaka. My bright future and potential as an average Magus was gone, my hopes and dreams had been smashed into pieces. My memories of my previous family had become nothing more than a torment for me who did'nt even have a single motivation to live anymore, each time I prayed that It was nothing more than a nightmare. A bad dream that I would soon wake-up and my mother would be there to hug me and tell me that everything is alright. I prayed that one of those so called heroes that my mother had read for me in those story books, might suddenly appear and take me out.
"But no one came, and as time passed. I learned the most valuable lesson that I had in my life. Heroes are nothing more than images that have been created by those who want to see world in some black and white color. In the real world, there are monsters that have two hands, walk on two legs. Hear the word through two ears and see it with two eyes. Those monsters were the ones who win most of the time in the world. And the reality was that no one cared about the life of sakura Matou who had been formerly sakura Tohsaka. Life went on and on until I meet someone who I thought that I would never meat, a red haired wannabe hero who couldn't even say no to those who looked to use him for their own gains.
"Shirou Fraga, the name that I loathed from the moment that I heard that you were dreaming and wanting to become a hero of justice. Another fool that thinks the world is nothing more than a few black and white colors. Unable to mature and see the truth that is in front of him, to comprehend that no matter how hard you try, you can't save them all. And then one day I saw you walking down the hallway when a student asked for you help and to my shock you answered with only a single word 'No'" she repeated the word as if it was something that she was proud off, something that give her something whenever she said it.
"It was then that suddenly everything started to make sense for me, Shirou Fraga the wannabe hero, was nothing more than a Mask that you had created In order to fool those around you into thinking that you're something that they can figure out. After all, you're the only survival of the Fuyuki fire. It was natural for you to be careful about making bonds with others around you. I had done the same for myself. I don't know why or the reason that you suddenly decided to do it but the moments that you throw away you're mask, it was like my life had suddenly changed. At first it was a hello here and a conversation there or two but slowly you started to change-the reason? It was because you saw through the mask where others only saw the shy and helping sakura Matou."
When I had been watching the show, among the supposed 'main characters' of the Fate Stay/night, there had been one character where I always found myself being unable to understand. It was like an irritating annoying mystery where you could feel that you had the answer at the tip of your lips and yet not being able to say it.
The girl named Sakura Matou was that Mystery. A mystery full of questions and un-solved puzzles, and it was when I had watched the anime Fate/Zero that I had started to develop my theories about 'sakura Matou'.
At first I had to wonder why the girl wasn't angry at Rin Tohsaka. She had become the heiress of the Tohsaka Family Magus crest while sakura had been given to the Matou family like a second hand-out. Every inch of her body had been defiled by hundreds of worms while Rin Tohsaka was reading books and practicing the Tohsaka Magecraft.
So how could sakura Matou smile and have a crush for a distorted idiot who couldn't even properly see and comprehend her life? How could she not hate Rin Tohsaka and treat her like a normal friend while she had been chosen over her?
Why did sakura Matou have a shy and pleasing personality while technically/logically she should have been a cold-apathetic individual who had been 'raped' by the one that should have been her 'own brother' no less?
How could so many things happen to someone and yet they still have a shy and pleasing personality and not have serious mental problems or issues?
And now, hearing those words and possibly finding more pieces of the puzzle that was the fourth Holy Grail war; I could do nothing but to review all of the theories that I had forgotten a long time ago, Theories that just suddenly made more sense and now had a lot more clearer answers to them.
The shy and pleasing sakura that everyone saw in the show, it was just a Mask. Something that she had created, in order to hide her true-self under it, to Remain unnoticed.
"You emulated me, didn't you?" the answers hit me like a train hitting a car, "you knew that I was the only survivor of the fuyuki fire and so you had wondered why I was able to throw away my Mask, to overcome something that I shouldn't have been able to in the first place. It had been the first motivation, the first step that you needed in order to overcome the mental conditions that Zouken had put you through."
"That had been a first step for me." she admitted, her eyes looking to me with an evaluating gaze. "For all of our differences Shirou, you and I are the same. Both of us had been nothing more than empty shells, husks that didn't have any kind of Dream or Motivation that they could theirs. With no past or Life to call our own, both of us had been empty since the end of the fourth Holy Grail war. That is, until you somehow managed to throw away the mask, which had become you're face, and be who you are now."
It was said that the flapping wings of a butterfly can be the cause of a tornado. For not the first time, I wondered how many changes my actions had really brought forth into the world. The day that I had went to the Japanese school called Homurahara, I slowly started to act differently then what Shirou Emiya would do.
At first it had been a thing here and a 'no' towards a certain seaweed arrogant boy who wanted me clean off the archery Dojo while he went chasing after girls, but now? I really started to think about how much consequences my actions had towards my future and those around me.
I had accepted that there would be changes, which is an inevitable fact that couldn't be changed, but to be the cause of Zouken Matou's and Kirei Kotomine's death?
And there was only one thing that I could say about that change: Couldn't have happened to better men. Those two really deserved each other, and looking on the brighter side, they killing each other meant that I wouldn't have to worry about any headaches or schemes from their parts.
"Of course, Zouken found out." Sakura's voice brought me out of my thoughts. Somehow, I had a feeling that I was missing something here. "Thanks to certain, or perhaps I should say former, brother-of-mine. And his action was as clear as the sun rising in the day. His solution was something that would make sure that something like that never happened again, by eliminating the problem from its root."
I didn't need to take guess to know that said 'Root' was defiantly me. If what sakura said is true, Zouken Matou wanted to get rid of me, so that he could regain full control of his 'pawn'.
"Naturally, I couldn't allow that to happen." She put a hand on my check, "I wasn't going go back to the 'sakura Matou' that I had been for many years, I wasn't going to allow my chance of taking control of my own life to slip away from my fingers because of some old-worm who should have been dead a long time ago."
"So how did Kirei Kotomine factor in all of this?" I decided to spare myself the headache and just ask the question that I had been thinking about. "how did he enter the picture?"
"Why bother fighting an enemy when you could use his own enemy against him?" she said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Really, all I had to do was to go to the priest and show him what zouken had been doing right under his Nose. You should have seen his face Shirou, I almost wished that I had a camera with me and taken a picture of it."
Kirei Kotomine's face when he had found out that he had been outmaneuvered by his own 'Arch-nemesis', now that was something that I would pay to see.
"What that next came was a group of exorcists and Magi who were sent to fuyuki, in order to 'apprehend' Zouken and bring him to the clock-tower. Though I wonder how they found out about the secret of Zouken's worms" she said innocently as if she was not the one, who had told them in the first Place. "And do you know the best thing? The Deal that I had made with Kotomine, in order for him to remove the crest worms from me and repair the damage using a certain number of his command seals, ended fully in my favor. With Me gaining what I want and the sadistic priest getting to be that worm's companion to the other world."
"And the fact that these three are buried next to each other," I freed myself from women's hands and stood a few steps away from her. "How did you manage to bury the two of them beside Kiritsugu?"
"Misery Likes Company, right?" she smiled like she was telling a joke. "I thought that it was fair that I burry the two beside their good-old Friend. Can't have them going to the next world without having someone familiar with them now, can we?"
Somehow, I had a distant feeling the said three were going to be causing a lot of problems and troubles in whatever world they end-up with but look on the bright side, they were someone else's problem now. Good riddance I say.
"Good story sakura, but I want to ask you something." I looked towards her and mentally ready myself for any kind of minefield that I might step in, "what's your motivation for seeking the grail? Because as far as I could see, you have everything now, the wealth and resources of a ancient Magi which can allow you to live happy for the rest of your life in any luxury that you want and with zouken gone, you now have the full control of your life and choices, so why do you want the grail when you have everything that you want?"
"There are two things that I want Shirou, the first thing is that I'm going to destroy the Tohsaka family." Her words were laced with such conviction and will that it nearly caught me off-guard, "and then I…" she paused for a moment before quickly walking towards me, her hands grabbed my neck before I suddenly found a pair of lips on my own and then a tong suddenly violated my mouth before I quickly came to my senses and forced us apart by grabbing my unexpected kisser's shoulders and push her back, "Want you." she finished while she looked to me with a longing look.
I couldn't stop myself from letting a frustrated sigh before I patiently took a deep breath to regain a bit of my composure.
"Do you remember that night? When it was raining and you came to me?" I didn't let her say anything, doing my best to suddenly ignore the image of a man getting a spear shoved into his chest. "Right there, in my own home and in front of Bazett, you confessed that you love me. And I told you, Explained to you, that I can't return your feelings."
"You rejected me," she said, as serious as I have ever seen her. "And I told you that I Refuse to accept that. All of your rejections and denials, I Reject all of them." I shake my head as she continued, this was going to hell in one hand-basket. "I have lost a lot of things in my life but you won't be one of them. Why? Because if I lose you then I will be no different than from the sakura Matou that I had been years ago, I Refuse to let you go Shirou, because the moment that I do, I'll be nothing more then a empty husk, a blank slate that doesn't even have the control of her own life. I Love you Shirou so selfishly that I refuse to let go, it doesn't matter how many times you reject or refuse me. You will be mine Shirou. I'll wait as long as it takes, until the day that you look to me with the same eyes that I look to you. That's why I won't hesitate." Her eyes blazed with determination as it bore into mine. "This is my second chance, one I waited for so long and I will not let it slip by. I won't make any mistakes this time by allowing others take away my choices and dictate my life, by hesitation or by being cautions. I'll run full speed ahead until I have finally caught you."
"That's not love, that's an obsession." I reasoned while trying to find a solution to the problem that I had thought had been fixed a long time ago, "besides, what I have ever done for you? Why did you think that you're in love with me while you don't even fully know who I really am?"
"You're Shirou Fraga, the man who visited me every end of the week when I was spending my time in the mental hospital. The man who brought me to a physician and stood behind me while I recovered from years of psychological trauma and abuse, you're the one who did more for me then even my own family. And I refuse to lose you to that damned 'Mrs. Perfect' or that Edelfelt Bi…"
"Don't drag them into this," I quickly cut her off, wondering how the hell it ended-up like this. "First of all, Rin hates my guts and wants to have nothing to do with me while Luviagelita and I maintain nothing more than a normal Professional Relationship between two Magi. That's all there is nothing more."
In the show, Rin Tohsaka didn't know about Shirou status as a Magus. That's why she had reacted so differently when she had found out that he was a Magus but here? Well, the real-world version of Rin Tohsaka was not on good-terms with Shirou Emiya because of one single event.
Tracing back to the fourth Holy Grail war, I can see a little bit of hidden plot holes and one of those said holes was Tohsaka Tokiomi's death. I didn't know about this world but from what I knew from the show, it was Kirei Kotomine who had killed his former master and formed a contract with the king of heroes during the fourth Holy Grail war.
Take a guess about who he framed for the murder of Tohsaka head's death: Kiritsugu Emiya.
The Magus killer was known to use brutal and lethal tactics when it came to his own expertise of killing Magi, and shooting and killing a Magi while pretending to be in negotiations with him was among those tactics that had been used more than once. Not to forget that it had been the word of Tokiomi's former apprentice against the man who was known to look at civilian causality as nothing more than just 'statistic'.
The choice between believing which one of them was as clear as the day itself, though I also suspected that Kirei's position as a supervisor for the holy-grail did help turn the tides for him a bit more.
Either way, Rin Tohsaka saw Kiritsugu Emiya as the one who had killed her father. And needless to say, she did not like anyone who is/was under the name 'Emiya', me being included.
"Rin was always the one who would deny and hide her emotions," She said mockingly. "Oh believe me; I know how she acts towards such things. She acts like she hates you for Tokiomi's death, and that is true regarding Kiritsugu Emiya, but the one simple hidden truthful fact is that for all of her bravado, for all of her boasting and efforts. Rin Tohsaka is not the Ideal heiress that our father wanted her to be. Don't get me wrong, she has prodigies talent and is an average one. But when it comes to having the mentality of a Magus? No, she is not like that and will never be like how our father wanted her to be. To be willing to manipulate others and use them for your own gains and efforts, that is the mentality of an ideal and perfect magus, and she never had that kind of a thing, and to be honest neither did I."
Suddenly, I felt a sudden sense of Déjà vu.
Unknowingly, Sakura Matou had solved one of the riddles that I had been holding in my head for many years. A Riddle that could have changed the course of the Fifth Holy Grail war and the make things turn out a lot more differently than the Anime show that I had seen from my computer.
Why didn't Rin Tohsaka use Shirou Emiya and manipulated him for her own advantage? She had been trained by a Magi family since childhood, and she knew an opportunity when she sees one. So why didn't she act on it and gained a large advantage in the Holy Grail and even possibly secured her victory?
She could have done it in a lot of ways and would have been the victor in the grail war. All she had to do was to gain Emiya Shirou's command seals or to possibly manipulate him for her own gain.
It wouldn't have been hard, especially with Shirou's 'want to be a hero of justice' mentality. Have control of one of the knight-class servants within the holy-grail and then have the most powerful servant-class as an asset. A lot of things would have turned differently, if Rin had done that.
She could have overcome all of the obstacles and reach the grail. All she had to do was to use her new-found advantage and asset to the full extant. She could have saber fight berserker and keep the mad-servant occupied while Archer would take Position on a rooftop within a few kilometers away, and then shoot Berserker's master and possibly defeat one of the strongest servants within the holy-grail.
The mad-servant might have the Ultimate defense noble-phantasm, but her homunculus master didn't have such a thing. All that it takes is a well-placed arrow and then suddenly the force of nature that is Hercules, the berserker-class servant, would be stopped and dealt with once and for all when his master dies.
Then Rin could move down towards Either Rider or Caster, and both of them can be defeated with a good tactic and strategy. She can use saber's superior close-quarter fighting abilities and fight rider while Archer waits for the moment when rider tries to disengage from the saber and put some distance between themselves in order to use her noble phantasm and then it's the time when archer would attack from a long-range distance and kill rider using the element of surprise.
The Archer-class servants are known for their skills in the use of long-range weapons and Archer was a master-marksman and surprise was one of the most dangerous weapons of a Marksmen.
And then next is caster, Rin could have had saber fight caster. To call it a battle would have been an understatement, it would have been a slaughter. Because no matter how much magical energy caster has at her disposal, she can't harm saber because the king of knight's magical resistance easily stopped her attacks. Leaving her with no choice but to retreat or to possibly teleport away, and then when the servant of Magic appears in her location, archer would use a certain spiraling sword and shoot caster from a long-range.
Caladbolg would have distorted the air as it was approaching caster and the servant wouldn't have any other way of teleporting away unless she wanted to be twisted into pieces by the same sword's properties.
Rin could have used many other ways of defeating the rest of the servants by using Archer and saber for her own advantage, she could have even dealt with the blonde king of heroes by using his interest into saber as a weakness and trap, so why? Why didn't she grasped the golden opportunity and secured her win in the war?
My first guess had been that Rin hadn't done that because of Shirou stopping saber from killing archer by using one of his command-seals, thus feeling of being in debt to him. My second guess was that because Rin had a crush on Shirou, she wasn't willing to manipulate him. But now, I had suddenly had an answer –from the most unlikely source- as to why the holy-grail war hadn't gone the way that it could have.
Rin Tohsaka was a magus with prodigious talent and abilities but when it came to having the thinking and ruthless mentality of a Magus who lives in this world and age? She didn't have it, unlike me.
"Are you saying that Rin Tohsaka, the apprentice of Zelretch, has fallen in love with me because of something like that?" I didn't really knew what to think anymore because even after all of these years, I was still caught off-guard by the sheer difference between this world and the one that I had seen as a anime entertainment. "That just…ridicules, it's Insane."
"Nothing about love is sane, Shirou." The Matou shook her head as if it was something beyond her comprehension, "from the moment that you set your foot into clock-tower, you proved you're self to be a prodigy like me or Rin, with the difference being that you were not a average one but that still didn't stop you from mastering you're abilities and even create new-ones based on your twin-origins, a rare-thing I might add, and then you started to climb to the top of the mage-association. Where Rin had gained her apprenticeship to the wizard marshal through her potential, affinity and talent, you gained yours through manipulation, efficiency and effort. Who would have thought that you, Shirou Fraga, would become Lorelei Barthlemeloi's apprentice?"
Instantly I remembered a sudden memory about the first time visiting London within this world. It reminded me of a half-finished honey-moon plan that I had made for myself and my would-be-wife. Going to London, see a few sights here and there and then have a few 'quality' times. I had even planned and made reservation for a good-hotel and restaurant. Of course that was before getting a spear into the chest.
Who would have thought that I would get to see London once-again in another world, the fact that possibly one of the best moments of my life had been turned into the most hateful and spiteful things within my memories and life, was just salt on an old-wound.
Memories were cruel things, you can turn them over and over again and you'll still find some edge that will cut you.
I was no different from any other human being when it comes to holding-grudges and avoiding painful memories. I may have been born from an immortal mother but I was still capable of feeling many emotions and feelings like insecurities, guilt, nervousness and Fear.
And seeing London and being reminded of a memory that was now nothing more than an old wound, was a hard-thing for me. And if I were to be truthful with myself, I never wanted to see or set foot into London ever again.
Naturally, at first I decided to occupy my mind and thoughts about my work in the mage-association and my goals before I decided to change tactics and do something which at least guaranteed that I didn't end-up bottling-up all of those negative feelings and emotions and then lose control over them.
It was funny that the most effective and successful solution to a problem was nearly always the most simple ones. Like going into your hotel-room and let all of your tears come out from your eyes.
You can ask every doctor who has studied in the field of psychology and they would say that we always choose to ignore our feelings and bottle-them up until there comes a time where we simply just can't carry the weight anymore.
I had a colleague who studied in the human psychology in my previous life and she told me to never underestimate the power of Tears.
And it was there, sitting and crying in my room that I resolved myself to face through my emotional problems and then get on with my life, because what else could I do? I couldn't exactly go to some physician and tell him that I was reincarnated into a world that I seen from the monitor of my computer. That kind of talk would have ended-up with me going to a mental asylum at best or dealing with The Magi of mage-association at worst.
Crying and empty myself that was the only thing that I could do regarding my condition And it was only after dealing with all of my emotional baggage, that I found myself being able to fully concentrate on my work and Magecraft.
And the first thing that I did was to discover my Twin origin.
Blade and Rune, those were my twin-origins and my affinities. I had my own theories that I had gained the blade-origin because of reincarnating into Shirou Emiya's body while Rune was an affinity where I always knew that I had.
Being a son of Hecate doesn't mean that I'm able to use every kind of magic and spell without consequences. Using magic was like bartering, where you have to pay the price in order to cast a specific spell or ritual.
'Magic always has a price', my father used to always say to me. 'Be careful when you use it because sometimes the price is more costly than you might possibly know'
Runes were something that I had mastered in the previous life, spending years of hard-work where I perfected it and fully mastered it but blade? That was not something that I had worked with before and I knew I had to invest a lot of time and effort, in order to work with something that I have.
It was almost like having twin origins severely limited you're field of magecraft and advancement in the use of other spells and magecraft that are outside the reach of your twin-origins.
Naturally, I had worked hard to bypass that wall by looking into the resources that are at my disposal. I went and studied the history of the mage-association and the advancement of the common magecraft, analyzing and studying every spell and ritual after another and it was then that I ended-up stumbling on the answer by pure chance.
An image had formed in my mind, the picture of a long-spiky haired blonde man who is wearing dark-blue pants, a green vest with six-pouches in front of it and a long-white coat with the image of flames at the end of it, holding a tree ponged Kunai in his right hand and a spiraling sphere of energy in another.
It was the memory of a man who I had thought to be nothing more than fiction, a man who was said to be faster than lightning itself. So fearsome and terrifying that his mere presence alone was enough to make the enemy sound the retreat and flee. Regarded as a Genius and thought to be Unrivaled at his speed at killing.
Speed, it was my answer at becoming a Powerful Magus. Speed that would allow me to kill a Magi before he can even use his magecraft, speed that will let me dodge and fight against vampire-alien like beings who are considered to be the pinnacle of their Race.
The White-flash, now that was defiantly a title that I would take pride in. it took years of hard-work, effort and progress but I finely managed to prove every Magi within the cloak-tower wrong. Rune magecraft had been something that they looked at as a 'Basic art' that can be used for a wide variety of applications and rituals but I proved them wrong.
I took what they considered to be a limited basic magecraft, into new heights and possibilities by proving that Space and time itself could be manipulated use the said basic magecraft. I created the flash teleportation Spell and even though my teleportation ability/spell was still nothing more than a pale imitation compared to the original one that I had in mind, and also had a lot of limitations and conditions set into it, it had been enough for me to prove myself a genius in my own field of work and defeat opponents and Magi who I wouldn't even have had a chance of beating them in the first place.
The White-flash had only been the beginning for me.
"Food for the thought, isn't it?" the Matou's sudden voice brought me out of my thoughts, "here you are, thinking that you have your life figured out, until you suddenly find-out that you didn't even knew squat in the first place, It's really Annoying."
'Woman, you don't even want to know.' were the words that I had wanted to say, but instead I choose to ask my last question and end the conversation, along with hopefully returning to my home and eat something. Even squeeze in a few hours of rest before I have to get to work about how exactly I'm going to gain the command seals while the nearly all of the magi within the world were scheming and planning to gain them for their own.
Whoever said that life was easy deserves to be punched in the face because somehow -and despite all odds- I had a feeling that today was not even close to be ending yet.
"Sakura, what is the real reason that you're telling me all of this?" It took a lot of effort for me to not let out another tired sigh, "and not Some 'I love you' nonsense, because I know that can't be the only Reason that you're telling me all of this."
"I said all of this to you so that you could understand."
"Understand what?" My patience was slowly crumbling into pieces and was nearing its limits.
"To understand what I'm going to do you," I froze when I suddenly felt my body freezing like statue. "You see Shirou, I already have enough opponents and enemies in the upcoming holy-grail war, I can't exactly Risk the chance that you might gain access to your own command seals and then summon your own servant and enter the war."
I tried to move my limbs but to my dismay, I found myself frozen like a statue. It was like that you're suddenly imprisoned within your own body and couldn't even perform the simplest task of moving your own physical body.
Something that even infants could do and I knew only one Person who could do such a thing, Sakura Matou, also known to the supernatural world as the Shadow Queen.
To compare Rin Tohsaka versus sakura Matou was like comparing the concept of quality against quantity. Rin was an average one who had the primary affinity for the main elements, something that sakura could not hope to match but against her former-sister, the Tohsaka-turned-Matou had an advantage that basically made her a Force of Nature.
Sakura's Magical energy Reserves and her body's ability to process them, dwarfed mine and Rin's by a lot of grounds. The shards of the grail that had been implanted into her by zouken Matou's machinations, had been the reason why her body had gained a supernatural level of Magical Reserves and procession. Combine that with someone who has an affinity for shadows and you have a powerful magus who can throw a very serious fire Power against her enemies.
She can cast and use Spells, which would leave Rin exhausted, multiple times before she even feels the drain within her Reserves, Spells that I can't even hope to cast without killing me in the processes.
That means that the only thing that I could use to break free from a technique that is said to be able to even trap apostle ancestors.
I had to use my trump card, the one very advantage that I had kept hidden in the fear that I might gain a sealing designation.
"What makes you think that I even want to join the Holy Grail war?" I stalled, mentally analyzing my situation and looking for a way that would allow me to keep my trump-card secret and hidden.
"Don't play coy Shirou," sakura brushed my attempt aside like it was nothing, "you might hide it very well but I could easily see your desire for joining the holy grail-war, you're driven by it. You want it because you want to do the same thing that I want to."
"And that would be?"
"You want to end the Holy Grail war," she concluded, "you want to end it once and for all. You want to destroy that damned thing because its mere existence has caused you nothing more than pain and suffering. You hate that thing with all of your being because it has cost you everything within your life." she then made a show of counting the fingers on her right hand. "You're memories and past along with your biological family, dead. You're adopted father who went through the flames to save you? Also Dead because of the stupid grail war and let's not forget about the future that you may have had before the fuyuki fire –all of it are now just Dust, forever to be out of your reach and Gone."
"And if I agree to come with you, then you would do it for me?" I put a thinking frown on my face while pretending to consider the notion, "would you destroy the grail if I don't join the Holy Grail war?"
"I promise." Sakura answered, "I'll destroy every last piece of it Shirou, if only you would agree to sign a Gias contract that you wouldn't join the fifth Holy Grail war."
And just like that, I dismissed any kind of notion of lying by saying 'yes'.
A Gias was a magical contract which bounded a Magi's Magic circuits to the words and letters of the contract. Magic circuits are the bridge between the physical body and Soul, to sign a Gias would be like agreeing to an oath which could strip you of your ability to use Magecraft or even you're health.
There was no way in hell was I going to be agreeing to sign a Gias contract.
"There is no way that I'll be agreeing to sign a Gias contract," I stared flatly into her eyes before closing my eyes and focusing on my inner world.
"Then you leave me with no choice Shirou," sakura said with an honest regret in her voice. "I really wish this could have gone a lot smother."
Instantly I opened my eyes. "I am the creator of my Sword"
Sakura was instantly alarmed by the sheer force of Prana that was slowly being released from within my magic circuits. "Stop it; you can't hope to overpower me…"
"Steel is my body, fire is my blood"
I could instantly feel her hold through her shadow grip tightening on me as she no doubt readied herself to brace for whatever spell that I might try to cast through my Magic circuits. Though that was impossible, seeing as the only way for me to break the shadow hold, was to either overpower the Matou or to severe the connection between our shadows.
And I knew just the thing that could help me.
"Death is my shadow, Destruction is my light."
The large wave of Magical energy that starts to engulf me like a cloak vibrates the air with energy and heat.
"I have forged thousands of blades."
A smile forms itself on my lips as I ready myself to cast the die because after this, there will be no turning back.
I was in for the keeps now.
"And Here I call forth: Infinite blade Works"
Instantly a large wave of light Engulf both me and sakura, the connection that she had between us through her shadow hold, was instantly severed. When I opened my eyes, I looked towards my own inner world.
A world full of infinite blades; the sky was covered by black-gray clouds and the ground full of small veins of lava that went through the ground as if they were a man's life-blood. There on the ground, countless Weapons pierced the ground like grave-marks. Each one of them was created by my own efforts and Works, each one of them were a tool of killing and destruction. Etched and carved by Magical Runes that I had placed on each one of them.
From daggers to swords and from spears to Axes, every kind of ancient bladed weaponry that mankind had stopped using since the day that it had created the first Gun; was there.
These blades were not the noble phantasms of heroes created through the core of humanity's imaginations or beliefs. They were not the forgeries created through a faker's magecraft, in order for him to be able to stand against the ancient king of heroes who possessed the ultimate noble-phantasm.
Yet, even with their inferior status to noble phantasms. I took pride in my own work and the things that I had created through my own efforts and hardship; I took pride in the fact that I was the true owner of every blade within my reality marble.
The infinite blade works was never going to be able to compete with the unlimited blade works when it came to quality. Shirou Emiya's reality marble was superior to mine due to having noble phantasms within it, even if they are forgeries that pale in compression to their original counter-parts.
"…A reality marble." sakura Gasped, something that I took a very great satisfaction into, "How…When…Why…"
"Let me tell you a secret, Sakura Matou." I put my hand on the handle of a sword and leaned on it like a crutch, "Do you know how I managed to distinguish myself in a world full of monsters and Ruthless killers like Magi and exorcists?" I grabbed the handle and then pulled the sword out of my reality Marble's ground; the sword looked to be nothing special. It was a saber with a golden like handle that had a hand-guard on it. Its blade was covered by small rune like words and made its edges very faintly glow with an unnatural sharpness as if someone had spent countless times sharpening it. "I don't have Rin's average one's affinity and talent when it comes to use the primary elements, neither do I have your body's supernatural ability of being able to process Prana at huge quantity. So how do you think I'd manage to become who I am today?" years of mastery over The Reinforcement magecraft allowed me to be able to temporary enhance and augment my body both physically and mentality.
Reinforcement magecraft was a type of magecraft that focused on reinforcing an object's durability and qualities through the use of careful manipulation of Prana. However, the effects were only temporary and over-reinforcing an object could cause the said object to shatter or explode, due to being unable to hold too-much amount of Prana. The risk was even greater when it came to using on your physical body and mental capabilities but the reward was defiantly well worth it.
It could allow you to perform physical and mental feats that no other ordinary man is capable through. Such as being able to jump higher then what is normally possible for any man or to being able to move faster than the speed of a motorcycle or even have the strength to shatter stone with your bare hands. Of Course, when it came to me, the advantages were a lot better then what any other magus in this world could use.
The body of a demigod was not like the body of a normal man, our bodies were already superhuman. From what I knew about other demigods, some of them have already shown these traits.
Percy Jackson had been able to break the Minotaur's horn when he was only twelve while piper MacLean's body was durable enough that the daughter of Aphrodite was able to avoid getting all of her bones broken when she fell from a dangerous height.
So you can obviously expect that reinforcement magecraft did give me a lot more advantage then other Magi. Such as temporary enhancing my already superhuman traits into new heights, enabling me to process information at a accelerated rate or even being able to move and react quicker than even a Magi who has already mastered the magecraft and has reinforced his body to the limit.
Needless to say that reinforcement magecraft was among the few thaumaturgies which I had spent years to fully master and understand. Seeing as the advantages that it gives me was worth the time and efforts.
And it was the reason why my already demigod-enhanced senses and instincts, made me feel the presence of an individual who was near me.
"Fear and destruction," Sakura answered my question; I could already feel her air around her starting to become Crack faintly with Prana. "It's not just because of your tactics, Experience or resourcefulness. You've earned you're title and name not because of your magecraft which focuses on projection of swords into the World, or you're Skills and other abilities. They might have been among the some of the reasons why others started to call you the steel-wrought Magus but the Real and primary reason was because of the fear that you inspired and the destruction that you brought. That's why you were Bartalamo Lorelei's apprentice; you did things that not-even magi even dared to do, Crossed lines and morality that not even the hardened exorcists and fanatics ever did."
I could feel the presence slowly and carefully approaching me, but I give no indication that I already knew about it. "I have met a lot of people who keep boasting about their 'honor' and 'morals' Sakura. They judge me and my actions while also cursing me with the same voice, always saying that I'm 'Evil' and that I'm the monster. While the simple truth is that I'm not a monster, I'm the one who sees what needs to be done and what is necessary while they decide to hide behind their walls of honor and morals."
Many have judged my actions and called me a monster both in this world or the previous one, they all singed the same song but albeit with a different voice.
'You're a killer,' they called me because I had killed a group of mortal-mercenaries during the battle of Manhattan that would have killed the half-bloods, Men that had been promised with fortune or many other desirable things by the king of titans. If only they were to flank the defenders and kill them, regardless of them being the ones who were fighting for the survival of humanity.
'You're a Murderer!' they said to me because I was willing to put a bullet between a girl's eyes when she had fully lost herself to the immortal within her and had become a unwilling host that would have killed hundreds or perhaps thousands with her uncontrollable Powers and the urging of the Chaotic Demons within her that had turned her mad.
There were those who agreed with me and understood the facts and reasons about why I had done something that needed to be done. They thanked me that I had done something that they didn't have the stomach or the ability to do and there were also those who labeled me as a monster and hated me because of it.
Despite what others might say, the end did justify the means when the life of thousands and many more hanged in the balance and where in danger. But that didn't mean that I resorted to 'Killing' Lightly.
Killing was a necessary thing but it was still not something that could be taken off lightly, I made sure of that by exhausting every choice that I had before resorting to that option. That was why I had something that kept me straight and narrow, a code that I had made for myself, in order to prevent myself from stepping too far over the line.
Rules were what that separated us from animals and mine was something that I followed to the last word. Because Like my father, I was also a man of focus, sheer will and commitment.
This was why that when I felt the presence lung at me, I did not activate my saber's magical-Rune function and so avoided delivering a lethal blow that would have left a deep-cut wound that would cause someone to bleed to death.
'Windbrynger' was my most useful sword when it came to slashing and stabbing because of the runic arrays that I had created and made for it, enhanced its edges with the sharpness of the wind itself. Because no matter how hard a material is, it is always vulnerable to a force of nature which is the wind. Its sharpness can cut the hardest material or even Prana reinforced ones, including flesh and bones.
The moment that I felt the telltale sign of blood-red falling down on the ground, I instantly saw the figure jump into the air with inhuman-agility and speed before landing in front of sakura with her back towards her. She has long purple hair and is wearing a black color dress with black color shoes that fully covered her legs while her eyes are fully covered by a dark-purple eye cover. In her hands were twin needle like blades that she was holding in reverse grip and on guard in front of her like a X shape.
"Drawing my attention to yourself while you're servant takes up Position and Lunches a Sudden surprise attack against me. Very cleaver of you Matou, though you forgot who you're dealing with here." I pointed the tip of my now bloody Saber towards the servant standing between us, "I'm a former-enforcer, Did you really thought that an ambush like that is going to work against me? Clearly you have severely underestimated me and overestimated you're self at the same time."
"It seems I have," the said Matou admitted reluctantly with a frown, "If you can wound a servant, then I must have made a mistake when I was analyzing and evaluating you as a Threat. Perhaps I should I have proposed an Alliance Rather than trying to stop you from entering the war" She finished, looking to me expectantly, probably waiting for a clear and straight answer.
"You just attacked me with your servant," I give her a flat-look, "do you really expect me to believe that you're now offering me an alliance?"
"Who could have foreseen that you have a reality marble and able to wound rider? And while I admit that I had planned for a lot of things, that factor was not one of them. And more importantly, you don't have choice but to accept my offer, because if we don't join forces, then Rin will overwhelm us both."
At the mention of her now former sister, Sakura's face soured as if she had just swallowed something awful.
"What do you mean?" It took a real herculean effort for me to not face-palm, it was not even near dinner and I already have enough bombs fell on my lap that I don't think I could tolerate any more surprises. But it seems that my demigod luck decided to rear its ugly head and prove to me that, once again, I'm not out of the woods yet.
"The Ore Scales," she clarified, even saying the word was enough for me to guess that what had happened. "Rin has made some-kind of an alliance with the Edelfelt and somehow, has managed to use their sorcery trait to summon two servants. One for herself and the other one for The Edelfelt heiress; And as if that is not enough, both of them are of the Saber-Class Servants."
There were a few moments of silence before I managed to organize my thoughts and recover from possibly the biggest surprise that I had since coming here an hour ago. And this was not the surprise that I had expected to face when I had woke-up since this morning.
It was not one that I could roll-over with, and it was not a pleasant one either. This was a surprise that came with a fat-pile of Lethal Dangers and very dangerous Consequences.
"Well shit," were the two words that I could only say regarding this disaster that Rin and Edelfelt had managed to bring down on not only themselves but also on me. Those two don't even know the can of worms that they have just opened and they won't defiantly like what came next.
Even thinking about it made me feel as if a knot of fear had decided to tie itself within me. It is said that history has a way of catching up to you, and Rin Tohsaka and Luviagelita Edelfelt just brought back mine from the grave.
Something that could shake the world of supernatural to the Core, it was a Nightmare that I had made and silenced in the crib and those two just revived it.
Sakura might not know how Luvia and Rin managed it but I sure as hell knew, and I also knew that shit had now officially hit the Fan at twenty five kilometers Per-hour.
"Does anyone else know about this?" the urgent look that I give the Matou was enough to take her by surprise, "Please sakura, just Answer… my… question." I gritted my teeth and tried stop myself to curse so high that would make even a sailor's grandma blush.
Forget the holy-grail war, if I don't take care of this then not one of us will be even alive to even think about joining the Grail war; Rin, Sakura, Luvia, Me. We were all now buried deep to our eye-balls and there won't be a shovel between us and a very unpleasant grave.
"I found out about this only a few-hours ago," I sighted in relief with those words, because it meant that I had a small window of time before the results of Rin and Luvia's actions catch-up to us.
Why did you do this Rin, Luvia? I could help but ask myself the now million dollar question. Were you so desperate to win the grail war that you were willing to bring down the wrath of the clock tower's vice-director on our heads and risk the destabilization of the supernatural world?... do you even know what kind of a mine you have just stepped on?
I was now really sick of surprises for today, because once again they really showed how much dangerous and lethal they can be. Barthlemeloi Lorelei, the vice-director of clock tower and my former master, would defiantly be coming down on us with a lot of dangerous questions and heavens forbid if we don't have a satisfying answer for her.
And that was if we were lucky and she decides to hear us before sending an extermination Op for us.
Rin and Luvia might think that they have managed to secure themselves a clear advantage against other servants within the Holy Grail war–and in some way, they might be right but the cost of that supposedly advantage was that they had unknowingly or not, signed every Magi's death-warrant within fuyuki city. That includes me and sakura.
'two saber-class servants, another master and now the vice-director and political backstabbing of the clock-tower along with who knows how many vultures that are now working from behind the scene' I rubbed my forehead with my free-hand. 'Just wonderful, anyone else wants a piece of this pie?'
And as if the universe had suddenly decided to add more to my already over-filled plate, by giving a call from my phone.
"Do you mind?" I asked, seeing sakura Shrug, I brought out my cell phone and looked towards the Number…
And to my dismay, I felt the sudden need to bash my head against something when I saw the image of an old man who has white-ashen hair and beard. Wearing old-fashioned European aristocratic cloths, black pants along with black colored shoes and a vest while his shoulders were covered by a short-black cape, in his right hand he was holding a cane that had a Circle-Diamond like handle while the other one was up with the thumb-being up towards me.
"Hello," I answered while trying to ignore the sudden miserable-tone that came from my voice.
"Shirou!" I tried to avoid wincing from the cheerful voice that I heard from the other-side of the phone, and the sudden influx memories of my time in the clock-tower that I don't even wish to remember. Least I want to Risk losing what remains of poor psyche and sanity. "How are you doing my boy? Did you like the surprise? Things are now finely looking up now that you have two sabers to deal with, don't you think so?"
It took a moment before I suddenly knew the cause of the current mess that I had found myself in. "You did this didn't you?" I could stop myself from imagining using Windbrynger to stab into a certain insufferable Pain in my life that was the cause of most of my headaches and near-death experiences.
If I could have killed him; I would have done it a long time ago, Consequences and costs be damned.
"Guilty as charged!" the voice on the other end of the phone admitted without an ounce of hesitation, it was like he was proclaiming and taking pride in his accomplishment. "All that boasting and nonsense about the barthlemeloi vault being impenetrable, it took only one minute for me to go inside and leave with a Folder. Ha! Take that Granny barthlemeloi."
I was not surprised hearing those words, I really wasn't. Because this thing could enter dimensions as easily as I can walk through a door, it wasn't exactly hard to believe that one of the most considered secured vaults belonging to one of the most powerful and dangerous Magus Family within the mage-association, has been breached and stolen from by him.
At least now I had a chance of convincing Lorelei to not put an enforcer-contract on our heads, now the only problem was contacting her.
"I'm sure she'll be…" I trailed off for a moment–searching a word to describe how much exactly pissed off the matriarch of the barthlemeloi would be, before coming up with noting and deciding to settle for something appropriate and vague, "quite surprised."
"Oh! She'll be surprised all-right. I'll pay in gold to see her face when she receives my gift." I knew that the former head of the barthlemeloi would blow-up more than just a fuse but hey, she's not my problem. If Lorelei can handle the clock-tower and the vicious cutthroats within mage-association, then I'm sure that she can do something about her grandmother. "Anyways, I just called to check-up on you and say to keep things spiced up and interesting. Otherwise, I might have to take things in my own hands and I'm sure that you don't want that to happen now, would you?"
"Of Course not!" I quickly answered, "I'll keep things interesting and…. Entertaining, but before you hang out, can I ask a question?" I knew that I was probably tempting madness but I needed to know if Rin and Luvia had done it willingly or were caught in this dead apostle ancestor's Web of madness and Prank.
'Sure, ask away.'
"How did you convince Rin and Luvia to go along with this?"
'Oh,' there was a moment of dramatic silence which I knew he was purposely doing in order to irritate me and being his usual annoying quirk of personality. 'I didn't. So good-luck dealing with them, believe me when I say that you're going to needing it.'
And then the call ended with a simple-click.
"Yeah," I lowered the phone and then let out a very tired sigh, "but I'm sure I'll defiantly need more than that."
With Mental-command, I watched as my entire reality marble quickly disappeared along with Windbrynger, Leaving me and sakura along with her servant to stand once again within the Japanese cemetery of Ryuudou temple.
"So," sakura decided to be one to break the silence. "Care to share, who was it?"
I allowed a thoughtful expression appear on my face while ignored the servant who was crouching between us and was ready to strike me at a moments notice, there was no way to soften the blow, so I decided to give it to her straight. "Zelretch Pulled a Prank on all of us."
Not a moment after saying that that, Sakura's piercing violet color eyes widen in plain fear while her hair stands up so straight as if someone had put her finger into a power-socket. I didn't envy her one bit because I was on the verge of panicking too.
Zelretch the wizard marshal, the chaos and madness incarnated, was now involved in our lives. And we had all learned a long time ago that whenever he's involved in our affairs, we will always find ourselves in such insanity and chaos that we'll be barely be hanging by the seat of our pants.
Sakura, Rin, me, Luvia. We all had our own fair share of experience with this bringer of chaos and it seems that he has come after us once again. And it will take every ounce of our sanity and every trick that we have in the bag, in order to get ourselves out of this Clusterfuck.
Feeling a vibration from my phone, I looked and saw a newly send text.
I'll be coming to Fuyuki city within the next week, inform all the Magi within the area that I wish to meet them all at the Regional Magus family's house.
Lady Lorelei barthlemeloi,
The Vice-director of mage association
"I hope you have a nice pair of Iron shoes to wear," I could resist the sarcastic comment, "Because this is going to be very long week."
I considered myself a patient man who could tolerate a lot of things but my patience and tolerance was now gone and I was furious at two Women who were now the Reason why I had to scramble to make sure that I can convince my former master to not off us permanently.
Sure, they were tricked and probably desperate but that still didn't change the fact that I was now forced to clean-up the shit that they had suddenly thrown into my Face. I was a firm-believer in the iron-clad rule that if you made a mess somewhere, then you were the one entitled to clean it up.
You didn't drag other people into you're mess and force them to clean something which is considerably you're fault to begin with.
I knew that people would do many irrational and foolish things when backed into a corner, and I also knew that Rin was desperate and at her wits end to win the Grail war which had been looming over her like a haunting shadow but Luvia? What reason did she have to do something like this and let Rin Gain access to her Family's sorcery trait?
Either way, those questions wouldn't change the fact that we now only had a few days to get our stories straight and come-up with something that could save our hides and convince a women who was known to be as hard as stone and cold as ice.
If not, then we'll be staring death in the face.
XX~XoX~XX
Every big thing comes from a smaller thing and the nightmare that would later be codenamed 'Lazarus' had first been born from an idea –my idea.
It was inspired by the concept of sorcery traits. My fascination with the advantages and abilities that they give to their bearers; some of them being heredity while there were others who are/were unique to each individual through various means and reasons.
Sorcery Traits are considered to be special side-effects that come with the use of Thaumaturgy. The most general term given to special abilities that are somewhat related to Magecraft.
To a lineage of magi, their Sorcery Trait is a treasure as valuable as -or even more than their Magic Crest. Although a Magi family or clan has or possess inherent Sorcery Traits as the more common kind, those that are unique and innate of a single individual are not unheard of. Mystic Eyes are considered to be such Sorcery Traits.
My idea was that to create a special-rune made ritual which can copy those sorcery traits and give them and modify them for my own use and aims.
I didn't just use Runes for creating weapons and battle-purposes. I also used them for many scientific aims and researches such as genetic Manipulation and engineering or even medical purposes and enhancements.
The possibilities of the use of Runes were endless and I was the authority of the subject when it came to it at the mage association.
Project Lazarus was not just meant to be a way for me to gain advantages which I could use to destroy my enemies or to even develop my very own brand of sorcery trait. It was meant to be the revival of the Magecraft and the opening of whole new fields of research and Magecraft.
Because if I could create a way to replicate and gain the sorcery traits of other magi and even modify them for my own purposes, which is-was considered to be impossible, then what else can I do with it? Can I modify Lazarus to give me the traits and abilities of other supernatural creatures such as werewolves or even dead apostil ancestors, can I modify the ritual to somehow siphon/copy their Memories and allow myself to gain access to their knowledge and experiences?
The possibilities were just endless and the scopes of magnitude that the result could give were just beyond comprehension. And its creation challenged every resources and knowledge that I had from my Rune mastery to medical and scientific expertise.
I had lost count the amount of times that I had hit a wall or had to back-track and find a way to bypass the obstacles and problems but I had finely managed to create it.
I created the ritual called Lazarus, and it was only when Lorelei had slapped some senses into my head, did I found out what kind of a nightmare I had made.
In my haste to find a way for myself to become powerful, I had accidently created the worst possible Nightmare –something so dangerous and terrifying that not only will it shake the core of the Supernatural world but to also give way to horrors and nightmares that had gained a chance to become reality.
Greed and ambition were a very dangerous combination and every Living Magi had them, they all wanted to advance their Magecraft and reach their ultimate goal and Lazarus offered them something which they would kill the whole-world for.
Unlimited growth and possibility, those were the two ultimate rewards that Lazarus would offer; because if you can steal and modify things like sorcery traits which are considered to be impossible then what else can't you do. Can you create a whole new branch of sorcery traits and modify each of them to suit your needs, give you new abilities and augment you're magecraft? Can you steal the abilities and traits of other supernatural creatures and gain access to the immortality of apostle ancestors, take away their centuries of experience and ages of knowledge for yourself and use them to ascend you're magecraft into the realm of true magic or even to try becoming a being who possesses the power of a living-Prana being like A Dragon?
The growth and the possibility were just endless and I knew what had to be done. I was not perfect and I made mistakes and bad-choices like anyone else, and Lazarus was perhaps one of my greatest mistakes of all times.
Even though it was finished, I wouldn't dare to use it because there was always the possibility that others could connect the dots and ask questions which can end with the revival of Lazarus.
I knew Lorelei barthlemeloi very well and she was not a woman that you wanted to give a reason to be angry at you, she's the vice-director of an organization that is full of ruthless men and women who can perform extraordinary feats that no ordinary Person is capable off. She had dealt with the most scariest and dangerous of them all in daily bases and it was something of a terrifying experience for me to see that how well Lazarus can make such a women feel Terror.
I could still remember it; her face was emotionless and neutral as it had always been but her eyes? Those were not the same. Because no matter how you try to conceals you're face with a mask, you're eyes are always the open windows that let others see into you; If they had the experience and the skill to do so.
And for the first time since coming to clock-tower and joining the mage-association, I had seen fear in the eyes of the head of the barthlemeloi Magi Family. And I knew what exactly the cause of that fear was, my experience and years of politics made sure of that.
The barthlemeloi were considered to be amongst the most prestige and ancient Magi families within the mage associations. They had enough influence and power to keep their hold on the seat of the vice-director and keep their enemies and those who sought to usurp them back. Because it was common sense that the more powerful and successful you where, the more enemies you will have.
It says enough about what kind of a nightmare Lazarus was, if it could threaten and easily bypass the centuries of political power and hold that the barthlemeloi Magus family had on the associations, it threatened their control and whole Magi family's existence. The ritual's existence alone promised glory, Power and even the root itself.
The barthlemeloi were powerful but not even they can stand the onslaught that the countless Magi families both old and new along with every Magus within the association would wage to get their hands on Lazarus. And that is before taking the other supernatural creatures into the equation who would want to use Lazarus for their brands of Aims and goals.
So at the end, before Lorelei could act and 'confiscate' my research and Lazarus, I Destroyed Lazarus Down to the last word and note. Because for all of her willpower and nerves of steel, not even Lorelei barthlemeloi was immune to temptation and greed, just like me; so the only way for to make sure that the nightmare was permanently silenced in the crib, was to destroy every last traces of it and replaced it with a fake-decoy.
Once the vice-director had 'confiscated' her apprentice's Forbidden research and notes regarding the ritual called Lazarus, she put them all in her family's most secured vault and put the key right around her neck like some sort of a necklace; Unaware that the thing that she had taken was nothing more than a bunch of fake decoys that I had made so that to avoid Lazarus ever being used or re-created by someone else ever again. Sworn and even threatened with secrecy, both she and I agreed to one condition which both of us could never ignore or break: Lazarus Never happened.
It was a question that was never going to be answered, a nightmare that was silenced forever and never to be spoken about again.
Although Lazarus died, it still affected my life and set in motion the event that led to my name entering the black designation list.
In the world of supernatural, there are individuals who are considered to be extremely dangerous and Destructive, Either because they are powerful or because they are/have something which threatens the stability of the supernatural world. When you're name enters the black designation list, then you are considered to be someone who is going to be closely watched and regarded not just by the mage association but also from other factions.
The association's first regard towards such individuals is elimination with extreme prejudice, but there are still those who their deaths are considered to be far more dangerous than them breathing and living. So they are left alone with the exception of their movements closely watched and under-surveillance. And there are even those who are willing to work with the factions and provide valuable services that other Magi, Enforcer or not, can't provide.
When my name entered the list, I knew that I had to change my policy to being Neutral (least I'll be ripped apart by vultures or sharks) and Lorelei offered me that chance to fully end my apprenticeship and set my policy as a neutral entity.
She offered me a job that was fit with my expertise and no one else could have pulled off, and I accepted it for more reasons than I could count. The bodies that I buried that day and the faction that I created through using nearly all of my political power –laid the foundation of what is now called the New Yggdmillennia.
The favors that I had amassed along with the resources at my disposal were nearly all spent to the last penny and drop.
This was the extent that Lazarus, a creation of my own making –had affected my life and had made my name known as the boogeyman and now it seems that the nightmare was back. Trust Rin and Luvia to manage to create their own version of 'Lazarus' through The Research notes that were just decoys and fakes, Speculations and theories.
The question that repeated itself in my head when I was walking towards home, as if someone had grabbed the controls and was constantly playing the 'repeat' button; was that how much was it going to affect my life this time?
Lazarus was the reason that Lorelei had entered my name into the black designation list in the first place, was it going to become the catalyst for another coming of the boogeyman?
'Only time will tell', a dark voice whispered in my head as I opened the door to my home before stopping as I saw a figure standing there in my home. She is wearing a hooded bluish-purple rob, her chin and mouth are the only thing that I could see from her face along with strands of light-blue hair.
"Greetings, Lord Fraga." her voice was smooth and delicate though it held an edge of hidden cunningness to it. "I am caster, and I wish to ask for an audience."
XX~XoX~XX
I have heard a lot of people complain about the boring days, the days which they had nothing better to do then to sit in their homes and watch Television or try to keep themselves entertain and pass their free-time in some way.
For a half-blood, the boring days are considered to as valuable as diamonds. Because those were the days where you can close your eyes and take a deep relaxing breath while lying down on your bed, without having to worry about the troubles of supernatural world; the schemes of immortals or the vengeance of the legendary monsters.
Since finding myself in this world, I had found myself missing the days which I could live in camp half-blood and having a good time with the rest of my kind. I missed the two certain sons of Hermes who pulled Pranks on nearly everyone in camp and managed to find themselves in a lot of troubles.
I missed Chiron's lessons and Grandfatherly voice that instructed the new generation on how to survive in a world that was out to get them or provided me with advices that had helped my life more then once, I missed a lot of things from my old-world, but what I didn't I miss was the frequent encounters that I would have with the ancient figures of myths and legends.
Piper McLean had once told me about her encounter with the sorceress called Medea and how it exactly well it had ended-up. And now, I find myself sitting in front of the figure which can be said to be the ancient 'Medea of cloches' of this world.
With the difference being that she was a heroic spirit rather than a figure that had been brought back by the primordial of earth from the doors of Death. And looked to be a lot more different than the one that piper had told me about.
Don't you just love how flexible my luck is?
Here I am, sitting in front of a heroic spirit who I had hoped to never have met without having another heroic spirit watching my back, because while I might have forgotten a lot of details about the show and the events, I still remembered about the Servant called 'Caster'.
I couldn't exactly risk writing my 'canon knowledge' in something, because no matter how many locks and precautions is taken into account. There is always a chance that someone might able to bypass them all and gain access to the knowledge that I shouldn't have even possessed or know about in the first place.
And then the uncomfortable and dangerous questions would be hitting me like machine-gun bullets and then my life would be forfeit. The only safe action was that I would have rely on my own memories and hope for the best, I counted my stars that I at least knew a few things about the servant sitting in front of me with a Japanese table between us and two worm cups of tea in front of us.
"So," I decided to break the silence that had settled between us, "how May I help you Caster?"
Those words were the only thing that I could come up with that didn't Risk rising the ire of the servant in front of me. Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn and having a woman who can use magic and lived in the lost passed age of the gods angry at you, was not exactly a good insurance for your health.
"Hmm," castor took a sip of cup of tea before putting it on the table, I couldn't exactly see her eyes or her upper face because of the black cowl that covered her upper face but judging from the polite tone on her voice, I would say that I at least managed to make a good impression on her. "So Cautious yet polite and humble, an interesting combination for a Magus, especially one with you're kind of reputation."
"I'll take that as a compliment," I replied before another moment of silence settled between us. Taking a small sip of my tea, I patiently waited as another minute of silence passed between us and then another one and another one until caster decided to be the one who will break it this time.
"Well," this time she said with an expectant tone, "aren't you going to ask the reason why I am here?"
"I want to ask but I'll be a terrible host if I were to rush my guest, by all means. Please Take your time." And give me enough to time to think that how the hell did you end-up in front of my house and sought an 'audience' with me. I took another sip of my tea before thinking about how this encounter could move forward.
When you're a half-blood who has fought in wars since he was no older then twelve and had enough life and death experience under his belt, you're mind tended to work around a lot of principles with most of them being battle and survival.
The mind of a demigod was hardwired for war and battle; we were the perfect tools of war and survival. Our ADHD and DYSLEXIA might give us problems when it came to performing academically within the school but when it came to war and battle? The deal just simply changed.
We were able to keep track of information and process it more quickly than the average human, The ADHD and dyslexia that we had not only give us that ability but it also Made it a lot easier for us at multitasking. Add our superhuman physical and mental conditions along with fighting skills and throw Demigod Powers/Abilities into the fray and one easily learn that we were not simple opponents.
My strike against rider and wounding her had proven that fact quite well, but unfortunately it was not a feat that I thought I could replicate. When rider had attacked me, I had the advantage of surprise and her underestimating me. Because by what logic should she take me seriously when she was a 'heroic spirit' and I was a 'Magus' far away from the ancient age of heroes and gods?
She had underestimated me and I had managed to intently deliver a shallow wound on her, but she won't be making that mistake a second time –Because even with all of my advantages, I would defiantly die if I were to directly fight against a fully-powered servant.
The next time that rider attacks me –she'll be doing it without holding anything back, and I'll be overwhelmed if I were to even entertain the notion of fighting the servant who her class was famed to have the most versatile noble-phantasms within the holy-grail wars. And while the servant in front of me is a lot different from rider, she still was a servant. And every servant had their own set of advantages and weaknesses; I knew this because I was not like some Idiotic Magi who thought that only the three knight-class servants were the most powerful servants within the Holy Grail war.
Every servant of the seven-classes had their own set of aptitudes, abilities and Weaknesses. You just had to know when, where and how to use them. And a castor-class servant's advantages where in the use of Magic and Perpetration.
Close-quarter combat and direct-confrontation, those were the Glaring weaknesses of a castor-class servant. It's very difficult and hard to cast spells and use magic when you have an opponent breathing down your neck with a weapon. Not to even mention that castor class servants were not exactly known for their battle-experience and tactics.
It was just simply the age-old question all over again: don't accept a work which you don't know how to finish or complete.
And if it came to a battle, I would have to keep it to close-quarter and avoid giving caster the opportunity to focus and using her Magic. And I had just the thing that could help me with that.
"And also Patient," Again the servant decided to be the one who breaks the silence. "So Far –you are proving to be a pleasant oddity from my previous master, and I suppose that I could work with someone as well-mannered like you"
"I'm sorry," I put my cup on the table. "But you just lost me there, could you please explain a bit more?"
I defiantly did not miss the words 'previous master' and 'work with someone as well-manned like you'. But I decided to keep quiet and hear her explanation regarding the words that she had just said a moment ago, there was a lot that you could learn by knowing when to keep you're silence.
"Ah, forgive me." she apologized with a polite tone, "I Suppose I should cut right through the chase and explain the reason why I am here." she then took a deep breath, "Lord Shirou Fraga, I wish to offer a alliance with you, As a contract between a master and a servant."
At those words I blinked a few times before raising my eyebrow, I could already guess what had happened. "let me guess, you're previous master tried to get-rid of you and stepped over the bounds of the contract between you and at the end, you simply just decided to get-rid of him or her before any-other complication could Rise. Am I correct in my prediction?"
I couldn't see it but I just knew that castor was now looking to me sharply. "Patience is a virtue that I am well-acquainted with" castor's voice was now frosty and cold as if the words that she was going to say angered her on so many levels. "I have dealt with the foolishness and idiocy of men for so many times then I can care to count but when the man who summons me not only treats me with mistrust and a glorified 'familiar' but also dares to raise his hand against me and then sell my contract and loyalty as if it was nothing more than words as empty as air, Then Yes. You're prediction correct."
I could nod my head and at the same time, wonder what kind of a audacity did you had to have to treat a individual -who is a summoned heroic spirit from the age of gods no less- Like this.
It was not the first time that servant has abandoned or killed their master because of a slight or an action that came to a direction violation of either their contract, Personality and ethics. Servants might be copies of their original counterparts who were in the throne of heroes but there still was a time when they were like any other men and women who were born and made of flesh and bones.
The throne of heroes was a place that was outside of the boundaries of time, it was a place that these men and women had ascended after their deaths, because of their deeds and name becoming legendary for one reasons or another.
Servants might be copies of the original ones but they still had their own emotions, Feelings and Personalities. And sometimes some idiotic Master decides to step on them just because they can by using their command seals and forcing their servants to do things which they wouldn't want to do.
A Person can only be pushed and take so much before they snap and needless to say that those kinds of magi had gotten what became of them.
Einstein was right; there were two things that were infinite: the universe and human stupidity. And the last the one seems to be universal to boot, good thing to know.
"And now you're here, offering an alliance to me." I concluded before bracing myself for an answer that could probably decide and shape how the rest of this conversation will go. "Though I'm honored and flattered, I still want to ask why me and not some other Magi? There has to be other candidates that are more than willing to accept such an alliance with a heroic spirit."
"You're reputation with your subordinates and you're Pragmatic Methods are the primary reason why I considered you to extend this offer to you."
"Care to please elaborate a little bit more on that?" I asked while putting my left hand under my chain and mentally preparing myself for an explanation and debate.
"Certainly," caster replied without a pause, which was enough to tell me that she had done her Research on my 'Past', either getting the knowledge through her now dead master or through other means.
It was hard to guess, seeing as there were a lot of ways of extracting information from someone.
"Though I believe this will explain more thoroughly than any words that I might say," she brings out a Dark-black folder from her robes and puts it in front of me. The folder was as black as the night and on it was the Silvery-white image of a Cross with two swords under it, written under it in silvery-colored words were 'vigilantia fidei cognitione'.
Faith through knowledge and vigilance, I Mentally translated the words to English in my mind before carefully opening the folder…
…and saw a 3x4 size picture of a man who had light-tan skin along with silvery-white shortcut hair and gray color eyes, written beside the picture there were neat line of words written under perfect order and delicate-care.
Name: Shirou Fraga (formerly Emiya)
Codename/most known frequently title: Steel Wrought-Magus
Hair color: silver-white (believed to be the result of long-term use Projection Magecraft and reinforcement)
Eye color: Dark-gray (also believed to be the side-effect of the use of projection magecraft and reinforcement)
Current Age: unknown (speculated to be in twenties and near thirties)
Current health status: Alive (at the peak of health-condition due to medical reports and analyzes)
Registration code: sierra-626047117 (mage's association, former high-ranking freelanced enforcer)
Current whereabouts: Fraga residence within Fuyuki city, Japan.
Blood-type: B+
Written Reports upon full analyze of abilities and background checks, based on data gathered from the mage association and various other sources: Shirou Fraga (formerly Shirou Emiya) is a former-enforcer and apprentice of the vice director of the mage-association (Lorelei of the barthlemeloi Magi Clan) known for joining the mage association at a extremely young age as a enforcer-in-training and then later being chosen as a apprentice by the current head of the barthlemeloi because of his prodigious shown skill and intelligence.
Spending years as an indirect and unofficial assistant of the vice-director, Shirou Fraga gathered various political power and Resources which has been used for various aims and purposes, from sponsoring newly joined Magi Family to Investing a highly considerable amount of capital into various industries (mostly scientific research, military industries and various other trades) which allowed him to establish himself as a 'businessman' within mundane world. Known for his highly sense of business intuition and work, Shirou Fraga managed to establish a new department within the mage association known as the 'the association's logistics industrialized division', creating what many economic associates would call a 'modernization of trade and business establishment'. The successes caused the association's involvement with the mundane business world to become more direct and brought forth more stabilization to the association's finesses and economy.
Shirou Fraga's next notable act was the creation of the association's military Contractors, A division of corps which focuses on the use of mundane military private controls and mercenary units as 'problem solvers for normal problems'. Although not as successful as his first act, he still managed to gain the approval of the vice-director for its creation and the vote of confidence.
The next significant action of Shirou Fraga (which is considered to be one in the eyes of the supernatural world) was the Creation of the Steel Legion. An army of highly enhanced homunculi which have been trained in the use of modern warfare and combat from creation, Armed and armored with various technological and military weapons that had been redesigned and re-created for the sole reason of being more lethal and combating dead apostle ancestors, should in event they suddenly decide to join forces.
'A notion that was considered to be impossible and unlikely at best', again a dark voice spoke from the back of my mind, 'Until the start of the apostle war.'
Ignoring the voice, I decided to continue, if only to give myself a distraction against the damnable thing.
…during the climax of the apostle war, Shirou Fraga directly led the steel-legion to the Ritual Island (located within a highly classified secret location within the Bermuda triangle), The resulting battle between the legion and the Defector's Faction, Ended after six-hours of brutal fighting where victory was archived with the full destruction of the defector's faction. (Various sources within the association, departments and divisions, believe that the homunculi survivors of the steel-legion have gone under-ground in order to replenish their numbers, whether this is true or not has not been confirmed.)
At an unknown time and for reasons unknown, Shirou Fraga's connection with the vice-director of the mage association Became cold and evenly questionable at best, either due to the confiscation of part of his magecraft research or an incident unknown. It can be only speculated and guessed at best that this could be because of his half-sister's success of taking control of the ancient Germanic magus family, the Einzbern. By staging an uprising (again, speculation and rumors have been analyzed that Shirou Fraga was the supporter of the homunculi uprising within the ancient castle of the Einzbern) against the Magi family from within.
Shirou Fraga's last act as the apprentice and assistant of the vice-director was to fully take direct-control of the Yggdmillennia through the elimination of the head of the Yggdmillennia faction called Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia and most of the old-faction.
Using nearly all of his resources and political power, he managed to re-assimilate the faction into the mage association. As a newly political faction that provided sponsorship, scholarship and political support to newly joined Magi families who wish to join and become part of the mage association.
Today, the new Yggdmillennia boasts a considerable amount of political power and influence within the mage association, including financial Superiority then even some of the higher echelons of the association can't boast. While technically not among the elite families of the clock-tower yet, it is believed that the faction will join the upper echelons within a decade or more.
This concludes the current information which has been gathered through the various sources, more information and data shall be added upon discovery and analyzes.
Current Threat Level: EX-Ranked(Extremely skilled and dangerous, Name has been entered into the mage association's black designation list archives, for more information regarding the subject's abilities and skills, please visit the deep-archive administrator.)
Recommended Method upon the need of elimination: approach with extreme caution and the use of overwhelming Force, highly recommended use of at least four burial agency members.
Exterminatus order: inactivated
Closing the folder, I looked to the image on the front of it before mentally shaking my head. The previous master of caster defiantly knew how to do his research, though how did he gain access to this much information and from the church no less?
While there are some Magus families that have connections with the church, not even they can get their hands on a file like this. The church prided itself as a neutral entity and front; there was no way that they were going to risk ruining their image and political face by allowing any Magi family regardless of the name and influence, to directly gain access this amount of information and deep archive files.
If the information in front of me got out, then a lot of fires are going to be lit under many chairs and none was going to be good for the political face and reputation of the church. And while some might claim that this was a fabricated attempt to attack the church's PR, the sigil belonging to the church's deep archive administrator could easily counter that argument.
Normally, I could use this to carefully maneuver and earn myself a few favors from the church but the fact was that this was my file to begin with. I couldn't risk the information in it going public in the supernatural world, least I'll be forced to deal with a lot of wannabe-opportunists Magi who think that they can use this against me.
"I fucking hate Tuesdays," I couldn't stop myself from uttering those words, "Shit always gets complicated."
Never the less, I decided to make the best of what I have.
One such thing was earning caster's trust, I Wouldn't make the same mistakes that her previous master did and right now, I had my work cut out for me.
"Let me be frank with you caster," I decided to carefully choose my words, "I have decided to accept you're proposal for an alliance, however I have to make things a bit more clear, least we risk having a misunderstanding about our contract." Seeing having her full attention, I decided to start with the most delicate subject.
"First of all; if we are to have a chance to win the war, then we'll need to trust each other and that takes a considerable amount of time and effort. I'm not going to start some bullshit speech about the importance of corporation and teamwork, because we both know that you're previous master has all but ruined you're trust regarding having another master, so I'm willing to make a compromise and become you're anchor to this world and even settle for one command seal if you're Willing to agree to it."
Trust was a two-way street, if you wanted someone to trust you then you'll also have to take the steps when it's your turn and seeing as caster didn't exactly have a good-memorable experience when it came to having a master, I decided to take the initiative.
I'll also have to make a few precautions, if the servant in front of me decided to abuse the opportunity and trust.
"The next thing that I should make clear about our contract is that I won't be treating you as a servant." I raise my hand and stopped her from speaking before I lowered it and continued. "You're an individual who has become a legend and ascended into the throne of heroes, to even call you a 'servant' is a direct insult and we both know that we can't have that when were against other heroic spirits and their 'masters.'" I said the word 'master' with distaste, let other Magi call their summoned heroic spirit's 'servants' and themselves 'masters'. I'm not gonna risk stepping into that trap and then having an angry servant to deal with who thinks that I have insulted their pride directly or even indirectly. "I'll be treating you as an equal, value you're talents and opinions and listen to your words. If we're going to take any action when it comes to the war, we'll be doing it together. That means that you and I will be devising our tactics together. Are those conditions acceptable to you caster?"
There was a moment of silence and it honestly felt like a eternity for me before caster broke it like the one before, though rather than using words, she decided to use action. Moving her right hand forward, she put it on my right and then I felt a small faint burning sensation on my hand.
"I, caster, accept you're conditions." She lifted her hand and I saw a red 'I' like image on my hand.
It was a command seal, my very own one.
"It formerly belonged to my previous master, but I believe it suits you far more better than him." caster nodded in what I guessed to be approval before her body slowly started to dematerialized in a wave of dark-blue mana, "I'll be looking forward to working with you, Shirou Fraga."
"Me too Caster," I Watched as the servant vanished and I felt a sudden connection at the back of my mind, it was a bit destabilized but I managed to make it a bit more stronger by slowly and carefully feeding mana into it.
"Me too," I repeated the words and looked towards the file in front of me, now how can I use this to my advantage and with maximum gain?
XX~XoX~XX
With a sigh, you leaned back against you're chair and let out a deep breath.
Despite what others might say, writing a time-skip and filling those nasty plot holes was not a easy thing to do, you had seen other authors and fan fiction writers make their own share of mistakes and such but you suddenly couldn't stop you're self from respecting them for their efforts and Their iron will of not giving up.
It had taken you writing and changing this chapter for at least three times, before you were even satisfied with the outcome and now after re-reading it for possibly the second time; you could defiantly say that you were proud of it. Not all authors could say that they had written a chapter this much and put even so much effort into it, if you didn't count those who by now probably had twice the experience and work-ethic then you had.
You're first fan fiction had not been successful so you had decided to erase it and instead replace it with the reincarnation cycle. It was a hard and tough choice to make but it was certainly worth it and there was no way that you were willing to give-up on this work.
You had put your soul and time into this and you were proud of the fact that you had written you're first possibly longest chapter which reached 25,000 Words. There was still a very long way to go but you couldn't ignore the feeling of suddenly managing to take the first-step of becoming a successful and professional writer.
"Are you finished?" you couldn't stop you're self from flinching when you heard the old-grandfatherly like voice. "Because if you are, then we can finely finish this business and I'll be on my merry way until the next time."
You looked to the source of the voice, sitting there on your bed as if he owned the damn thing. You still couldn't believe that he was Fucking-Real.
"Yes, Lord Zelretch." You took comfort in the fact that you're voice did not sutured because honestly, Zelretch was a character who was a work of fiction. He shouldn't be real, yet he's sitting there on your bed as if he had been there all time.
When you woke-up this morning, you nearly had a heart-attack when you saw him standing beside you're bed with a bored expression. Naturally, you had tried to punch him and then call the police, if it wasn't for the fact that you had screamed in pain at the top of your lungs when you had hit his jaw with your fist and felt as if you were punching a wall-made of reinforced titanium steel.
All the logical parts of your self are telling that you had probably eaten too much last night and were still sleeping and dreaming in the bed, but the pain in your hand the details of this was… just too real to be a Dream. The Details were clear like a crystal, and while you knew that you had a good sense of imagination, you didn't think that it would possibly be this much.
Eliminate and analyze the facts and suddenly you had the truth thrust upon you. Comprehending and understanding it, now that was a whole different matter.
"Are you finished dealing with your inner dilemma?" Once again Zelretch's voice brings you out of your thoughts, "I'm a busy individual, and I have places to be and things to do. So pay attention or face the consequences because I don't enjoy repeating myself."
This time you just knew that you were treading on a thin Rope, and there was no room for error. Being born in the Middle East and within a third-world country, had taught you a lot of lessons.
There were four iron-clad rules that no one had ever told you about but you could simply just pick-them up like everyone else and they were simple. They were the rules that you had to follow not just because of necessity but also because of self-preservation.
Be adaptable, flexible, know when to keep your head down and you're mouth shut.
Those were the rules that many would easily learn when they were born in the Middle East (those who didn't learn, ended up paying a lot of prices.) and you knew those lessons quite well. So you give the thing that was now sitting on your bed, the undivided attention that he wanted.
"Good, at least you learn faster then some." Zelretch complemented before continuing, "Now listen carefully, the information that I'm going to reveal to you is highly sensitive and can cause a lot of changes to your life. How do you deal with it is up to you and only you. I wouldn't recommend revealing it to others. Least you want to be branded as a lunatic or end-up in some other unsavory places."
You didn't trust your voice, so you decided to answer with a nod.
"Now that's a good head that you have on your shoulder, hopefully you'll keep using It." he clapped his hands before taking a deep breath as if he was going to lecture a student, "now, let's start with a simple question. What do you know of the multiverse theory?"
"That there are unlimited worlds and dimensions out there that are either parallel or alternative to our own?" you carefully chose the words and leaved a lot of rooms for yourself to change your answer, a vague answer was always the most very flexible and changeable answer.
"Precisely," he nods in approval, "The Multiverse is filled countless worlds, each of them different and unique from each other. Now, between these dimensions and worlds, there is a place that is outside of the limitations of reality or the boundaries of physical world. That place is called the multiverse Gap; do you understand me so far?"
Again you could numbly nod you're head; you pushed any doubt or answer at the back of your mind and kept them to yourself. You left hand was already within a bucket filled with ice, you didn't want to know what else can be put there.
"Good, now the multiverse gap is a very mysterious and special place. One that not even I Am fully aware of its effects and capabilities but what I do know is the existence of World seers, People who possess a subconscious connection with the gap" he points his finger towards you, "People like you."
You blinked a few times before carefully pointing it at you're self, Zelretch must have heard you're un-asked question.
"Ideas suddenly forming within your mind, pieces of information that you shouldn't have possessed in the first place," he waved his hand as if he was explaining a simple concept to a child. "Surprise, It's not your imagination at work, it's you connection with the multiverse gap that keeps you these ideas." He then pointed towards your computer, "that chapter that you just wrought along with the previous one, they were inspired by your ideas, imaginations and the information flowing into your mind, thanks to the gap."
There was a moment of stretched silence between you two, you're world was suddenly just turned upside down and didn't make an ounce of reason and sense. Nonetheless, you managed to bring out the words out your mouth, if not barely.
"So 'world-seers' are people who have a connection with the multiverse gap," you said the words as if they were the most foreign thing that you had ever seen to begin with, "The Connection gives them ideas, inspirations and information which is possibly Real in some other Dimension or world…" you trailed off as the effects and revelations of Zelretch's words suddenly hit you with the speed of a Train.
If the multiverse gap and the multiverse Theory were real, then did that mean that the worlds that you thought to be nothing more than fictions and works were probably real and somewhere out there within the multiverse?
Instantly, the name of anime, books and movies that you had seen/read before, started to come to the front of your mind.
Worlds like Naruto, fate stay night, Percy Jackson, John wick or even Warhammer 40k. They were real and somewhere out there in the multiverse. And you had a sub-conscious connection with a place that could give you constant information about it.
"God help me," you're voice was faint and you had a feeling that you're skin was now as pale as it could get, "I'm so fucked."
"that you are," Zelretch confirmed it with a smile on his face as if he was watching a first-rate comedy show, you would have punched him in the face if it weren't for the fact that you're left hand was now in the ice. "Who knows how many side-effects the human brain can suffer due to connection with the multiverse gap, which is before mentioning the un-healthy attentions that you can gain because of other beings."
"Okay, time-out." You put your hands up as if to signal 'full stop'. "What do you mean by 'other beings' and their attentions? And for the love of god, please tell me that there is way for my mind to remain intact and not…" you didn't want to finish the sentence, because you didn't want to think about it for now. Desperation and hope were the only things that were clinging to your voice now.
"I'm not the only one who can travel between dimensions and the multiverse," Zelretch's voice was now grave and serious, devoid of any mirth that it had a few moments ago. "You should know this by now; there are always things that are more powerful and terrifying then you. And the only thing that you can do is to keep your head down and pray that they don't pay attention to you. And as for your second questions…" he once again waved his hand towards your computer, "the solution is right in front of you." looking to you for a moment, he then shock his head and decided to elaborate.
"The information that you're given through you're connect with the gap, it's special and dangerous at the same time. You can't forget it no matter how much time passes and how many times you try to. The only way for you to avoid becoming mad and you're mind being broken by the sudden influx of information, is to write it down. Such as the chapter that you had just finished," he leveled a serious look to you, "trust my words when I say to you that you absolutely don't want this information within your head for too long, many have tried before you and it had never ended-well for them." he shook his head before his infatuating grin suddenly made itself back on his face, "on the other-hand, you started a very interested thing here. I'll by lying if I say that I wasn't interested in seeing how it goes."
You winced at the pain that shot throughout your arm from you're injured hand before you suddenly had an idea. "So I Just have to write it all down on a paper and then burn it, that way I'll be safe, right?" taking Zelretch's silence and now blank face as a answer, you nodded to yourself…
…Before you suddenly felt a hand on your shoulder and found two blood-red eyes looking deep to your eyes.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find entertainment and something that interests you when you're an immortal?" it took for you a moment to know that the voice belonged to no one else but Zelretch, his face was uncomfortably close to yours. "Do you?"
"N-no," you answered while trying to make a few space between you're self and the monster that was now in front of you. Unfortunately, the hand on your shoulder kept its steel-grip and prevented you from doing so.
"It's insanely hard!" you flinched at the shout, "it's harder and even rarer as you want it to be, do you know how maddening it is to find something that can get you going and moving when you have all the time in the universe and the multiverse? Here I am. Warning you about the dangers that you're status brings, and you repay me by taking one of the few sources of interests and entertainment within my Immortal life!?"
"C-correction, Correction!" you quickly say and listen to every instinct within, "I'll W-write it all down on paper and Th-then make it a chapter!" You quickly nod, "I'll even throw in a lot of extra words and scenes just for you!"
"You'll continue the reincarnation cycle?" Zelretch deadpanned, which you quickly, you're neck is going to have a moving-problem at this rate.
"To the last chapter and word!" you quickly answer.
"You'll tweak the words and make it more entertaining and interesting?"
"I-I even have special projects about it!" you were grasping at every straw, "Inspiration for more works, Projects or even more plots, other characters or even other reincarnation cycles!"
"Hmm," Zelretch rubbed his chin with his free hand before nodding. "Glade to see that we can come to an understanding." He then took his hand from your shoulder and got up, "now could you please turn around?" without hesitation, you turned around and waited…
Moments past before you hesitantly turned around and blinked a few times as you saw no one standing in your room but you're self.
"Um… Lord Zelretch?" you hesitantly called out and waited for an answer, getting none, you let out a deep breath.
Feeling something wet between your legs, you looked down. Somewhere down the line, you had lost the control of your morning bowls and the results were now in front of you.
"Just fucking perfect," you muttered and looked to your injured hand and now you're wet pants. The evidences that you were not sleep and were fully awake.
Getting up and grabbing the bucket full of ice with your healthy hand, you left the room and looked towards your computer which still was showing the chapter that you had just finished on the Microsoft office word program.
With your mind full of questions and claims of insanity, you resolved you're self to add you're now 'recent' conversation to the chapter that you were going to post for the reincarnation cycle. If what you had just heard from Zelretch, was not the result of your Imagination then there were other 'world-seers' like you. And as much as you want to avoid the risk, you couldn't live with yourself if you didn't at least warn them about the consequences.
I'll put it all at the end of the chapter, you thought before closing your eyes and taking a deep calming breath, then it's out of my hands and it's up to them to believe it or not.
Opening your eyes, you left your room. You had underwear and pants to change, a doctor to see and painkillers and aspirin to buy, not to mention a lot of things to think about.
