Prologue: Worlds collide


The hill that Shirou stood on was covered in grass and trees, it was peaceful.

Shirou knew that he was working with Rin on a project involving the Jeweled sword, a mystic code with the power to access multiple dimensions. Was that where he was now, another world? Another possibility is that he was somehow blasted away, he still might be in his own world just very far away. That theory had problems of course, mostly the Mana he now felt, if anywhere on earth had Mana this strong, mages would have tried to obtain that power for themselves.

He still felt it, the burning sensation from this place's Mana. It still amazed him how strong it was, the air was more thick with Mana than the chamber of the greater grail. it played havoc with his magic circuits, they simply were not designed to channel that level of Mana easily.

Shirou decided that he would stay on this hill for a while, long enough to try and get used to the higher level of Mana. As he sat and meditated he realised that the Mana wasn't simply everywhere, it flowed outwards from some point far in the west. That source of magic would have to be hundreds, maybe thousands of times larger than the Holy grail.

After an hour or two had passed, Shirou decides to test his circuits, to see if they are acclimated to the higher magic level, something simple first; Reinforcement.

He pulls a branch off of a tree and pictures the stick as a club, he then prepares to activate his magic circuits. with great care he allows the Mana to flow, in a moment he feels the pain he feared. luckily it is nowhere near as bad as he thought it might be, instead of a rush of liquid fire the pain is closer to trying to swallow a too hot soup or other hot drink, surprising but not too bad.

In his hands the stick is Reinforced, it becomes not merely a stick, it becomes more stable and the other side of the club becomes heavier, making it a good weapon to bruise flesh or maybe break bones. while his speciality is swords anything that could be a weapon can be made more like a weapon.

Shirou lets go of the Reinforcement and sits down, his back to the tree he took the branch from. soon the pain leaves him as he rests, drawing in the Mana to fill himself.


A few hours later Shirou sees the sun high in the sky and decides to look for some food, as he walks through the forested hill he sees rabbits that he can hunt.

A few minutes and another club Reinforcement later he has a rabbit ready to eat. He then has to prepare the rabbit but he doesn't have any tools, Shirou realises he then must Project some tool to aid his preparation.

He again prepares himself to use his magic, His future self had taught him the proper way to do Projection so he looks within himself. After a moment of searching he finds his kitchen knives.

For such a simple tool he doesn't need much Mana but he does need focus

"Trace..."

Judging the concept of creation

Hypothesising the basic structure

Duplicating the composition material

Imitating the skill of its making

Sympathising with the experience of its growth

Reproducing the accumulated years

Excelling every manufacturing process

"..On"

In his hands appears his kitchen knife, created in perfection.

With that out of the way, Shirou uses the kitchen knife to finish preparing the rabbit, to create a fire to cook it with he simply does the old "Rub two sticks together hard enough" trick to create a small campfire


While that rabbit was not the nicest thing he has ever cooked it was still filling

A few minutes after he finished eating he hears some branches snapping in the forest, someone failing at stealth. Shirou stands up and calls out "Who goes there", suddenly there is a rush of movement as someone with shabby clothes rushes at Shirou with a knife

With only a few moments to respond, Shirou reflexively calls his favourite weapons; Kanshou and Bakuya, the Chinese twin swords. Projecting a noble phantasm is more costly than calling out a simple knife yet with these weapons he is very likely to win any fight he becomes a part of.

As the bandit charges at him Shirou takes a defensive stance and strikes at the bandit as he approaches, a large cut is the result, running from the man's side to his shoulder. The bandit cries out in a strange language and falls back bleeding profusely. Shirou then turns to leave and as he does so he sees a commotion below, it appeared to be a large crowd of people with weapons facing a carriage surrounded by guards.

Recognising the clothing of the large force, it looks just like the man who attacked him, Shirou guesses that they must be bandits attacking some travellers.

Shirou quickly comes to the decision to help the travellers, he walks back to the dying man (Killing him quickly, to end his pain) and takes the man's bow.

From this distance it will be hard to land a targeted shot but Shirou is talented, He projects a weapon from the memories of his future self, a weapon that was originally a sword but was modified into an arrow by his future self. "Trace... On!" Shirou raises Hrunting to the bow and takes aim, Hrunting was a sword that hunted blood, as an arrow it was turned into a homing projectile, in theory if the user can see their target they cannot miss. A normal bow couldn't take the full power of this weapon, he would not only need to reinforce the bow but also he had to project the blade at less that 15% of it's true power.

Shirou Reinforced his eyes next, improving his perception. He looked out over the attacking bandits, picking out their leader as the one that was speaking to the lady from the carriage. within a breath, Shirou fired Hrunting.

The bandit leader was caught in the back by the sword/arrow, and fell to the ground. Shirou also felt a little tired, the Mana in this place was stronger but it seemingly required more work to Project, it was tiring him quickly.

With but a moments thought, Shirou ran towards the carriage, they would need more help and Shirou didn't have the power to do that again multiple times.


And this ends part 3 of the prologue,

there is a part 4 coming later today as part 3 ran on longer than I thought it would

please tell me if you have any suggestions to make or corrections, that has already needed to happen once or twice, just for clarification

I do have a while into the future planned but any ideas could be fun to hear

If you are enjoying this then thank you, for the first story I am writing I hope it is better than I fear it might be