Sword of Origin: Reason

Louise glanced at the silver-haired man walking behind her and frowned.

It had been a few minutes since the end of the Springtime Familiar Summoning. The newly formed Master and Servant pair traveled alone on the grassy fields. Because of that, and because of Emiya's proclivity towards silence, the only sounds were those of the faint breeze and padded footsteps rustling the grass.

Louise's frown deepened, and she felt her stomach sinking. Is he angry at me for summoning him?

Footsteps lightly plodded along the grass and still, no words were spoken.

Louise bit her lips, glancing back at Emiya once again.

He maintained a calm and measured pace, moving directly in tandem with Louise's own pace. His eyes scanned the surroundings as he walked, occasionally flashing gold... though that might have simply been from the slowly setting sun's light. Either way, he made no signs of wanting to initiate a conversation any time soon.

Louise turned her attention back in front of her.

An open grassland. A field of green stretching out for miles before being interrupted by a stone castle. That castle? Tristain Academy, the prestigious center of learning for magical studies. Though, calling it a castle was only for lack of a better word. Its structure was actually a series of six interconnected towers, with one serving as a central hub, rising high above the rest, and the others arrayed in a pentagon around it. Each tower in that pentagon represented one of the five main elements: void, fire, water, earth, and wind.

Louise mentally recited that brief history, but found that it didn't help alleviate the pressure of the silence at all. Instead, she felt her heart start to race as she recalled what she had done and where they were walking to. How she had summoned another Noble as a familiar and was now taking him to a place that held the summoning ritual as sacrosanct and how he hadn't said anything and how by the Founder she didn't know what to do!

A pair of footsteps sounded across the grassy fields. One, calm and measured. The other, heavy and plodding. Erratic. This continued until the distance from where they began to Tristain Academy was cut in half.

Louise stopped walking and turned around.

Emiya stopped as well. The distance between them had closed to a single step.

At once, Louise realized that Emiya's attention was on her. Those intense silver eyes were locked on her own. Eyes that seemed to be able to peer into her very soul. She resisted the urge to look away and said, "So. You are my familiar."

For a while, Emiya didn't respond.

Louise's mind raced. Seeing those silver eyes and Emiya's expression that could have been either neutral or contemplating whether or not it was worth the effort to end her there and then, and remembering how he had conjured over a thousand blades in an instant, Louise suddenly found herself trying to recall if there were any cases of when a familiar had killed the summoner.

"It would appear so, Master."

"E-eh?"

Emiya's words were soft, spoken in a low and neutral tone. And after that, he said no more, instead turning his attention towards the sky.

Louise waited, but on seeing that Emiya didn't intend to say anything else, she said, "A-are... are you mad at me for summoning you?"

Emiya lowered his gaze. Once again, those silver eyes were focused on Louise.

Her breath caught in her chest. Faced with those eyes so suddenly, she could only stare back in shock.

"Why would I be mad for being summoned, Master?"

Suddenly, she could breathe. That's encouraging. It seemed like Emiya didn't have any intentions to cause a blood feud against the Valliere family any time soon.

The silver-haired man tilted his head, staring at Louise with a blank expression. As if he couldn't comprehend her question at all.

"W-well," Louise said. "You're a Noble, right?"

Emiya was silent again.

Louise froze and her heart pounded. Did he change his mind? What do I do?!

"In a way," Emiya said. "Yes. Though I have not held my title for some time now, Master." He frowned. "Will that be a problem?"

"No!" Louise's eyes grew wide at how loud she had spoken and then she said, in a lower voice, "No. Not at all. Just... does that mean that you are a fallen Noble then?"

"In a way, yes."

Louise sighed in relief. Though it didn't help her nerves too much, considering that Emiya was likely powerful enough to end her on the spot if she irritated him, at the least she didn't have to worry about having offended a major house by summoning one of their members.

Suddenly, the words he had spoken to her when she asked for his name came to mind.

"...You said that you were 'once known' as Emiya Shirou," Louise said. "Were you cast off from your family?"

Emiya's gaze took on a far-off look and he said, "It's been a while since I've been able to see them, so that statement is not inaccurate, Master."

Louise frowned. The 'Shirou' family was one that she was unfamiliar with, but it sounded vaguely Romalian. Perhaps Emiya came from a minor noble house in Romalia? But he said that 'it had been a while since he was able to see them' and not that they had disowned him. Could it be that his family had fallen?

Louise looked back at Emiya.

He was standing there, a young man with silver hair and matching eyes, staring off into the distance. A gaze that could only be found in those who had witnessed countless battles and lived through them. The same gaze that Louise's mother possessed when she thought no one was looking. Yet, Emiya couldn't have been more than a few years older than Louise.

She suddenly realized that Emiya's reaction to being summoned had been strange. Even if he came from a fallen house, the thought of serving another Noble as their familiar... Louise had to suppress a shiver at that thought. She knew that if it had been her who was summoned as a familiar and if her mother found out... well, Louise doubted that the contract or the summoner would last the night. Even so, the thought of being forced to perform any act for the summoner because of the familiar bond's enforcing absolute obedience-

Louise's mind came to a crashing halt. By Founder Brimir. The familiar bond ensures absolute obedience.

She had forgotten about it in her anxiety from having summoned Emiya and the thought of his extreme magical proficiency. The bond between a familiar and their master was a magic powerful enough to force even the mighty dragons to bend their knee to their summoner. The same powerful beasts that would have never deigned to look at a human, let alone obey them.

Louise had summoned a Noble for a familiar. A powerful Noble who had to be at least a Square-class Earth mage with some skill in Wind magic as well. A fallen Noble, true, but one that could raze a commoner army to the ground with a single glance.

Emiya Shirou. A young but powerful fallen Noble who had been nothing but subservient from the time of his summoning. Who had been willing to attack anyone and everyone moments upon arrival... all for Louise's sake.

"Master."

Louise flinched.

Emiya stared at her with his silver eyes, eyes that Louise now realized seemed to be lacking the light that an ordinary person should have, and said, "Is something the matter?"

M-maybe this is all a misunderstanding.

He could just be a person who was naturally apathetic. With what he seemed to have gone through, it wouldn't be a surprise. And maybe she hadn't actually performed the summoning ritual spell. Maybe it was a teleportation spell, causing Emiya to appear by accident. After all, there didn't seem to be any signs of the familiar markings being branded onto him.

Louise nodded. Right. A misunderstanding. Even so...

She had to confirm it.

"U-um, Emiya?"

"Yes, Master?"

Louise took a deep breath to calm herself and then said, "Are you really my familiar?"

Emiya frowned.

Louise thought he would deny it. She hoped he would deny it. That this was all a misunderstanding and she hadn't done the impossible, unthinkable, blasphemous act of summoning another Noble.

"Did you intend to summon a familiar, Master?"

"Ah." Louise blinked and then said, "Yes?"

Emiya smiled. "Then yes, I am your familiar."

"...Why are you not mad?"

Emiya's smile was sincere. There was no hint of disdain, no contempt, no negative emotion at all in his expression. Only a calm warmth, familiarity.

Louise shook her head and took a step back. "How are you not bothered by this, Emiya?! Is it the familiar bond? Does it really suppress the summoned being's desires so much that they're completely subservient?"

She took another step back, her eyes blank. "Did I really summon someone and enslave them as my familiar? But... the summoning ritual wouldn't allow that, right? No, but with how all my other spells have gone..."

"Master-"

Louise shook her head and then jabbed a finger at Emiya. "No! You... you should be mad! You should be angry! This... you shouldn't be like this!"

Emiya was silent.

Louise slumped to the ground and clasped her arms around her knees, hugging them close to her chest.

Founder Brimir said that to enslave another man was a sin punishable by death. If Louise's mother heard what happened in her summoning ritual... Karin, Duchess de La Valliere followed an unyielding rule of steel. No matter what, even if the offender was one of her own children, she would heartlessly punish them accordingly.

Maybe father... no, he won't help this time.

Louise's father would usually intervene, but this time he would be forced to act in his capacity as Duke de La Valliere. To uphold the family conduct.

"A slave," Louise muttered. "By Founder Brimir, I've taken away someone's free will and made them into a slave."

"Louise."

She looked up.

Emiya knelt down before her, much the same as he did during the summoning ritual. He smiled and said, "I believe we have a misunderstanding."

Louise laughed. "You're only saying that because of the bond. It's obvious. If you were in your right mind, you'd be angry. Furious. Anyone would be at being summoned as a familiar."

Emiya shook his head. "Like I said, you misunderstand-"

"STOP TRYING TO ASSURE ME!"

Emiya's smile vanished.

Louise immediately felt a pang of regret and said in a softer voice, "Just- don't. Please."

Emiya nodded, though a slight frown was on his face.

Louise felt a tinge of hope. Maybe... maybe he's really worried about me? And not because of the familiar bond? ...No. Louise shook her head. Don't be ridiculous.

For Louise the Zero to have summoned someone willing to support her was impossible. Didn't she already know that? Who in their right mind would want to support a failure like her? Would be willing to suffer being associated with a clown show of a Noble?

Even if Emiya was a Noble from a fallen house... he was a Noble. The indignity of being summoned would have made any Noble, even one from a fallen house, furious to the point of declaring a blood feud or attempting to murder the summoner.

From Emiya's neutral tone of voice, it was obvious that such thoughts were being forcibly repressed by the familiar bond. Free will, crushed by an absolute magic cast, even if accidentally, by Louise.

That's right.

Her fault. This was all her fault. Emiya being that way was a result of her hoping to change her fate. A result of wishing for a way to escape being a 'zero'.

Louise shivered. They were right. I am a zero.

Every single spell Louise attempted. Every single thing she tried to do. No matter what, they would all go wrong. Horribly wrong.

Louise buried her face in her knees and muttered, "...Why did I think this time would be any different?"


Emiya Shirou.

It was not his name, but rather the one that belonged to this body before he came to be. And it was still His name, the one who continued to persist in a higher plane of existence.

Emiya Shirou... in the Western culture that the Sword had been summoned to, he should have been called 'Shirou Emiya'. But Emiya Shirou... yes, that was an acceptable compromise.

The Sword had been born 'of Shirou', so that could truthfully said to be his family name. And Emiya... that was a name he took up for both his Creator and the Defender of Justice whose duties the Sword had taken after those he protected passed on.

Emiya Shirou, making his name Emiya.

Yes... the Sword could accept that.

Louise remained huddled against the ground, her head buried in her knees.

Despite lacking emotions himself, Emiya could still see that his Master was troubled.

A misunderstanding. The mistaken belief that Emiya was subservient against his will. Because of that, his Master was upset, disconsolate. Now, no matter what reassurances he gave her, they would be seen as nothing more than empty platitudes from an obedient familiar.

Emiya suddenly remembered his Master's expression during the summoning ritual. Of the brief utter despair he had seen in her eyes.

She must have wanted a companion. Something to support her, to validate her. To prove to her peers that she was not a failure. That she could succeed at least once. But instead, she had summoned him, and her actions were deemed a failure. A failure because it meant she had summoned a human being and turned it into a slave. And now, his Master was once again sent into the depths of despair.

As a Sword, Emiya felt no emotions. However, if he could, he believed 'rage' would be an appropriate term to describe what he felt.

His Master was young. A teenager, yes, but she was just stepping into adolescence. She was still in the crucial phase of her development, a stage where low self-esteem and worth could elicit dire consequences later in life.

Yet, Emiya had seen no one support her. When her summoning ritual had failed, only jeers and taunts echoed out. When faced with her peers, even that man who should have been responsible had remained silent.

He stared at Louise's huddled form and let out a soft sigh.

Her low self-esteem and the reasons for it were a problem for the future. For the time being, Emiya had to convince his Master that his concern was not artificial. That it was not the bond between them enforcing his actions.

But how...? Anything he said to reassure her would only affirm otherwise. Denials would be seen as lies. Then... she would simply have to convince herself.

"Louise."

She flinched and drew her legs closer to her chest.

Emiya felt a tinge of something that he would have called 'anger' pass through him. He ignored it and said, "I will not try to convince you of my sincerity. Instead, I would ask you to listen to a story."

Silence. Then, a short nod. Barely a response, but Louise appeared to be listening.

"...Once, there was a young girl. On a daily basis, she was ridiculed and taunted for not being able to do what was expected of her."

Louise slowly raised her head. Her eyes were still blank, but there seemed to be some light returning to them.

"She tried her best. Day after day, she tried. Yet, it was never enough. No matter what she did, she could never meet those expectations. And because of that, they called her a failure. A failure, when all she wanted was praise."

"...What was her name?"

Emiya ignored the question and said, "One day, the time came for her to prove herself. A summoning ritual had been prepared for her to call forth a familiar. Someone to stand by her side in conflict."

A story of a bygone era. One he learned of only by chance, long ago when he was accumulating memories.

Emiya shook his head and continued with the story. "They did not expect for her to succeed, but the girl's heartfelt desires brought forth a success beyond all expectations. One of the greatest warriors in the land had been called to her side, an invincible hero."

Louise scowled. "I told you to stop trying to reassure me! You're my familiar, so listen to my-"

"Her name was Illyasviel von Einzbern, the elder sister of the one that was once known as Emiya Shirou."

A tale of regret from the one who became EMIYA. One from that man's original life. At the time, had he known of it, he would have chosen to stand by her side. Instead, they had become enemies on sight. And even when amends had been made, he was only able to stay with her for a single year before she passed away.

"You have a sister?" Louise's voice was soft, guilt-ridden.

Emiya shook his head. "I have no right to call her that."

Ilya was the adoptive sister to Emiya Shirou, the one who had once inhabited this body and the one who went on to become a Defender of Justice from another timeline. She was also the one that eventually married that Defender of Justice after the Sword's creator ended his own Holy Grail War.

He sighed and said, "Even if I did, she has been dead for a long time."


Louise stared at Emiya.

His silver eyes remained focused on her, but she had the sense that it wasn't her Emiya was looking at.

...I was mistaken.

Emiya's actions weren't a result of the familiar bond forcing him to act that way.

He had a sister. Illyasviel von Einzbern... someone with a Germanian family name.

Suddenly, Louise understood.

Emiya was an illegitimate child from the Einzbern family. Perhaps the result of an affair by a house member when they were in Romalia. Because of that, he was raised without knowing his sister, or even knowing he had one.

Because the Einzbern line had sired an illegitimate child, all of the expectations had been placed upon her. The absolution of the sin fell upon the older sibling. While she succeeded, likely in the same way that Louise had today, by the time Emiya met her, it was too late.

Louise realized why Emiya was being so subservient.

Regret. Emiya must have regretted it. He didn't look much older than Louise, so if his sister had been dead for a long time, she must have passed away when Emiya was young.

So that's why he's so strong...

The inability to save his remaining family. The regret and despair at lacking the power to protect the one who should have been the closest to him. He must have spent every day since honing his abilities and body in recompense. To prove that her efforts weren't in vain.

But Louise had never heard of either the Einzbern family or the Shirou family. That could only mean one thing.

He failed.

Despite his grand abilities, despite his honed body, despite striving all his life, he had failed to redeem either the Einzbern family or the Shirou family. If he had, then Louise, as a member of the Valliere family, the Noble line closest to that of the Royal family, would have known of them.

We're both failures, aren't we?

The summoning ritual was supposed to call forth a familiar with the greatest compatibility, wasn't it?

A young man who failed to save his sister and failed to redeem the name of either one of his families.

A young girl who failed to complete her rite of passage and redeem herself as a Noble.

It made perfect sense. Emiya was granted a chance to make amends towards someone who was placed in the exact same situation his sister had been. And in return... Louise had someone who unconditionally supported her, empathized with her.

"...I understand, Emiya."

He patted her head and said, "I am glad."

A pang of guilt. Louise was only taking the place of Emiya's sister. In reality, the two of them had nothing in common, and he had no real reason to support her other than that. Still... this is nice.

Emiya smiled. The expression was warm and sincere, as if he was grateful simply to be able to help her.

Louise hadn't believed it before, but now she knew why that was.

Emiya got to his feet and held out a hand to her. "Shall we go, Master?"

Louise stared at him.

A young man who wore silver armor and a white cloak, prepared for conflict at any moment. A young man who had lost everything he held dear, despite all his abilities. A young man who had answered her call and now chose to stand by her side.

"...Louise. Call me that, not Master."

Emiya was silent, and then he nodded. "Louise it is."

She smiled and grabbed his hand. It was rough, calloused. The hand of a person who had gone through a difficult life.

It was also the hand of a person who would be more willing to face the world than let her fall into harm.

"Let's go."


A/N: Edited on 9/9/2017


Original A/N: Alright, now I know I said I wouldn't write anymore for this until I finished 'A Different Path'. However, the fact that I've only really got 1000 or so words of the actual story in the first chapter bothered me. Like a sliver you couldn't quite get out, or a thorn in the side that's irksome but not painful. Unfortunately, it was draining my creative resources, and so this is my way of compromising against that irritating muse's siren call.

At least there's nothing else really spoiler-worthy here... I think. Maybe?

*sigh*

Well, as you can see from Louise's reaction here, things are going to be quite different as a result of summoning this Shirou and his initial actions upon being summoned. Nobles aren't supposed to summon other Nobles, you see, even if they might be disgraced due to the fact that it's practically slavery. That, along with the lack of visible runes, are going to result in quite a different reaction from the cast when things get rolling.

There. That's absolutely it from me for this story until I've at least written the ending this comes from and published it.

I will finish the story, dang it! I refuse to be side-tracked any more, no matter how interesting this is!

*ahem*

I hope you enjoyed this unexpected update (believe me, I did NOT plan this. Stupid ADD brain) and feel free to leave a review.

Thanks for reading, and understanding. And please don't ask me to update this soon. The temptation is strong enough as it is. *_*