Chapter 3

Shirou meets two interesting young girls and learns a bit more about the Kotomine family.

"Come on Shirou-kun you have to do better than that." Kirei Kotomine said as he blocked yet another punch from his son.

"Right" Shirou said as he went for a kick to the man's side, only to be dodged when his father stepped back. I had been about two weeks since Gilgamesh had basically threatened Kirei to train Shirou, and even Kirei had to admit that the boy's progress was remarkable. He had managed to get the basics of regular balquin down in less than a week and Kirei was now teaching him some of the more advanced moves before he began to teach Shirou how to add magecraft to his attacks to make super balquin.

The golden king herself was off on what she called "A short trip see what this new world has to offer". She hadn't been clear about when she'd return, but judging by how she said she was planning to observe Shirou's progress upon her return, it wouldn't be extremely long. Shirou seemed to be sad at her departure, but the brown haired man couldn't be sure.

Kirei would probably be the first to admit that he did not truly understand how his son thought. The boy just didn't seem to have too much of a passion for anything. It was different than how Kirei used to be. Kirei had always known to some degree what had made him happy and simply didn't fully accept it until recently, going out of his way to try and find some other way to find joy. Shirou on the other hand seemed understand what gave him joy and consciously decided not to care. Whether it was that the young redhead felt like there were better things to do or he just wanted to see what else could fill the hole, Kirei had no idea. Shirou was a very confusing boy. The brown haired man still remembered how easily the 7-year old accepted the existence of magecraft and the truth surrounding the moonlit world:

*Two Weeks Ago*

Shirou was sitting in one of the church pues, reading The Bible. Shirou figured that if he was going to be living with a priest, then he would at least need to have some opinion on the book that his father's religion was based upon. So far, he found it mildly interesting. He was in no way going to become a devout follower of god, but he could at least see how others could "find God".

The redhead wasn't just interested in Christianity, no, Shirou wanted to learn everything he could about all religions. With each religion came different myths, different gods, and different heroes. Shirou had no idea about how much of each religion or mythology was true, but it didn't her to know a little about everything.

Kirei walked into the room, his normal smile plastered on his face. "Hey Shirou-kun, what would you say if I told you that I was a magus and that I could teach you how to use magecraft?" The older Kotomine suddenly asked his son.

Shirou allowed his eyes to leave his book and looked up at his father blandly for a second before responding. "Even though I have amnesia, I can say with the utmost certainty that you are the least preist-like priest that I have ever met." Shirou then lowered his head and proceeded to continue to read his book, as if the last several seconds never happened.

Kirei looked at his son oddly, not expecting that reaction. "So, would you like for me to teach you?" The brown haired man asked.

"Gil-chan did mention that magecraft would be a useful skill to learn." Shirou said as he turned a page. "I have no real reason to refuse."

"Perfect," Kirei said, "but let me warn you, your life will be in danger constantly. As the expression goes, "A magus walks with death"". Kirei warned.

"I see no problem with that." Shirou said bluntly. "Gil-chan said that I should never give up an opportunity to learn something new, so I will learn magecraft and use it as I see fit. If I see something that can be useful to me, I'll make an attempt at learning it, it not, then why should I concern myself with it?"

"I see," Kirei stated, "So you wish to be a spellcaster then?"

"Whatever you call it is irrelevant. As long as the result is the same I don't see any real importance in the title."

For the most part, Shirou seemed to be the kind of person that did not do something if he didn't see the point in it. The glasses wearing boy also appeared to have an extremely high opinion of the King of Heroes, even if they had only met once. Well, that's A+ Rank Charisma for someone like Shirou who didn't really have a role model, Gilgamesh fit the part perfectly. The boy was also extremely blunt, having no problem making his opinions known, no matter how derogatory those thoughts were.

To be honest, Kirei was actually slightly worried about the inevitable meeting of his son and Rin Tohsaka. One disrespectful student at a time was more than enough in his opinion. He was so distracted by his thoughts that he almost didn't notice his son's fist going for his stomach. Almost.

The man quickly caught his son's outstretched arm and used it along with the boy's own momentum to pull the redhead in closer before kneeing the him in the chest. He didn't hit Shirou hard enough to cause any permanent damage, obviously, but it was still hard enough to leave a good sized bruise along with a cracked rib or two. Due to his proficiently in healing magecraft and Shirou's natural resilience, Kirei could afford to be a little rough with the kid as long as he did not cause too much damage. "Good plan," he calmly spoke to the boy who was currently on all fours on the ground, gasping for air, "attacking while your opponent is distracted, but next time try to do something a little less obvious. Now come over here so I can heal you, we have somewhere important to go today."

Shirou, still panting, got up and managed to limp to the man before falling on his butt. Kirei took his shirt off, exposing a nasty looking purple bruise beginning to form, and proceeded to begin healing it. When the boy could finally speak again, he began with a question. "You said the "we" have somewhere to go today right? Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first time that you've taken me anywhere since I was adopted. What's the occasion."

Seeing that his son was in decent condition again, the man stopped healing him. "Well, you see, I am in charge of two funerals today." Kirei began. "While I normally wouldn't bring you along with me for something so tedious, these two are somewhat special."

"Special?" Shirou inquired.

"Quite" The older Kotomine said. "The first is for my father, your grandfather, Risei Kotomine. The second is for my teacher, Tokiomi Tohsaka."

This surprised Shirou. The casual tone in which he spoke about the funerals would not lead one to believe that they were for people that he knew. The only indication that these two people were in any way different to him than all of the others amongst the dead was his smile. His normal smile seemed to fall slightly at the mention of his father, but came it then back with renewed vigor as he spoke of his teacher. Despite noticing this, Shirou didn't understand the meaning behind it and decided not to bother asking. The best that the boy could guess was that his relationship with his teacher must have ended on a somewhat low note.

"We will be leaving in about an hour." Kirei started. "I already have some formal clothing prepared for you in your room." The man began to walk out of the training he reached the door, he slightly turned back to his son. "Oh, and Shirou-kun, please do be on your best behavior."

*One Hour Later*

'This suit is uncomfortable.' Shirou thought to himself as he walked with his father into the cemetery.

"Now, Shirou-kun, I have to go and prepare the finishing touches, so feel free to walk around and interact with people. And remember, be nice." Kirei spoke to his son before walking off.

"Well I suppose that this is a good opportunity to try and find some people who knew my apparent grandfather." The redhead said to himself. He walked around aimlessly for a few minutes. "This is getting me nowhere." He decided. He then turned around to begin walking back, only to bump into someone. "Oh my apologies." He apologized.

"Oh, no, it's entirely alright. I should have been looking where I was going." The man stood out quite easily among the other people there. He had stark white hair that pointed upwards and a deep tan. He wore black priest attire not too dissimilar from Kirei's and the ensemble was completed by a golden cross around his neck. "Though I admit that I am surprised. I did not expect to run into someone so young here, have you lost someone as well?" The man inquired bluntly.

Shirou shrugged. "I guess you could say that. He was apparently my grandfather, but I think that it would be more accurate to call him my father's father.

"Hmm" The man hummed, clearly amused. "Well, why is that?"

"Simply put I got adopted recently, so I never even heard of the man until today. I don't particularly care about his death, but since I'm related to him, it would be disrespectful if I didn't at least show up."

The man nodded his head. "Fair enough. Well it was a pleasure speaking with you…."

"Oh thats right, I never introduced myself, my name is Shirou, Kotomine Shirou."

The man's eyes seemed to widen slightly at this, before the settling back into his calm, amused look. "Well that's interesting. My name is Kotomine Shirou as well." the man said, genuinely surprising the boy. "You said that you were adopted, was it Kirei-kun who adopted you? I don't recall Risei-san having any other relatives."

"Umm, yes," Shirou responded, still a bit surprised by their shared name. "Kirei is now my father, but I'm curious, what exactl-"

"Shirou-kun," a voice said. Both Shirous turned to see Kirei walking towards them with his signature creepy smile. "The service is about to begin, you should get ready." The brown haired man the noticed the white haired one. "Well, Shirou-san it has been quite a while."

The tanned skinned man seemed a bit surprised by Kirei's smile, but nonetheless returned one of his own. "Yes, it truly has. As you can see, I already ran into Shirou-kun here. I was quite surprised that you went as far as to name child after me, considering how little time we have spent together."

Kirei chuckled. "No, no, that was merely a coincidence. Shirou was already his name the only change that I made was giving him the surname "Kotomine"."

The two spoke back and forth calmly enough, but Shirou could feel the slight tenseness in the atmosphere. Finally, he had enough. "Not that I don't enjoy hearing about the ironic nature of my name, but would either of you please tell me exactly what your relation to each other is."

The older Shirou looked down at the younger on with a smile. "Well, Shirou-kun, it's quite simple. I am Kirei-san's older brother. Risei-san adopted me many years ago. I suppose that that is something else that we have in common."

This surprises Shirou. 'This man is the older brother? He looks younger than Kirei. Also that fact that they're brothers. Just how much of the old man's past don't I know. But more importantly, ' the smaller Shirou turned his head towards his newly discovered uncle. 'what's with his presence? While certainly not as overwhelming as Gil-chan's, it's definitely similar.' They stood there in silence for a moment before the youngest Kotomine decided to speak again. "Alright then, later." He then walked away.

Kirei sighed. "That boy, not even waiting for his father." He then followed after the boy.

The white haired Shirou stood in silence for a minute before frowning. "So, it seems that Kirei-kun has become aware of his distortion. That's unfortunate. I wish that young boy luck."

*An Hour and ½ Later*

The funeral had been pretty boring, in Shirou's opinion at least. He really didn't see the point. Don't get him wrong. He understood that the funeral was more to give family and friends closer, but some people just went on and on. He didn't need five people going to the stand to say the same things: "He was a good man", "He was very reliable", "I wish him luck on the other side". It was so irritating. If you have nothing new, contributive, or interesting to say, then you're wasting your own and everyone else's time.

Anyway, Risei Kotomine's funeral was finally over. Kirei said that Shirou had two hours to walk around before the other guy's started. So that's what he was doing. He wanted to look for someone anyway. He had noticed her while sitting through the funeral. She was the one other person his age that was there. Shirou felt like that was enough reason to talk to her.

After about 5 minutes of walking around, he saw person of his interest. She was a cute girl. Her hair was a long silver and her eyes were a dazzling gold, just slightly lighter than Shirou's own. "Hello there" The redhead spoke in attempt to garner her attention. His attempt was successful.

She turned towards him and looked at him with a bored expression. "Yes?" She responded.

"I noticed you at the funeral. You were the only other person there who wasn't fully grown. You didn't seem that interested in talking to older people either, so I figured I might as well say hi."

The girl stared at a shirou for a minute before responding. "So the lonely little boy wanted to talk to the girl cute enough cute enough to happen to draw his attention because he didn't fit in." She stated bluntly.

"Essentially" Shirou responded. The girl's eyes widened slightly, surprised that he wasn't at all put off by the obviously demeaning comment. "I'm Kotomine Shirou by the way. I believe that it's common courtesy that you introduce yourself now."

"Caren, Hortensia Caren." She responded. "So, you're a Kotomine? Are you perhaps related to the latest corpse in the ground." She asked again trying to irritate the boy.

Shirou shrugged. "You could say that. One of his sons adopted me a little while ago. What about you? Why are you here?"

Caren looked at him for a moment before answering. "Like you, that man was my grandfather."

Her answer caused Shirou to think. 'So he was her grandfather too. She must be the daughter of the other Shirou. They have similar hair and eye colors. Though their skin tones are completely. Different.'

"So is that it or do you still wish to continue this unnecessary conversation and waste both of our time." Caren asked.

"Well unnecessary and time consuming as this conversation may be, it at least does at least seem somewhat pleasurable, doesn't it?" He responded without skipping a beat.

A small smile adorned the silver haired girl's face. "Well, I suppose that it does."

The two spoke to each other for a solid hour and a half before Shirou realized that he needed to go back to the funeral and departed, leaving the girl to her own devices.

*Two Hours Later*

'Finally, I'm done. That was so tedious.' Shirou thought to himself as he walked around the cemetery in an attempt to find his father. After looking for several minutes Shirou found Kirei. He was talking to a young girl about Shirou 's age. The first had blue-green eyes and black hair that was tied up in twin tails. Shirou decided to walk towards them and see what it was that they were talking about.

"I'm telling you you fake priest!" The girl yelled angrily, "I don't need your help to learn magecraft. I can do it all on my own."

"Yes, Rin-chan, you keep saying that." Kirei said to the now identified Rin. "But your father entrusted me to be you magecraft instructor if anything ever happened to him. I was his student after all." Kirei then seemed to notice Shirou's presence. "Oh hello Shirou-kun."

"Hello," Shirou responded. "Might I be inclined to know what is happening right now?" He asked.

"Oh, that's right, you two haven't been introduced yet. Shirou-kun, this is Rin Tohsaka, her father is the man who we just had the funeral for. Rin-chan, this is Shirou Kotomine. I adopted him as my son a few weeks ago. Please do try to get along." Kirei said.

Rin looked towards Shirou with a scrutinizing expression. "So the fake priest adopted you huh. I feel bad for you."

"Thank you, I suppose." Shirou said. "But why do you call him a fake priest?"

"Oh come on." Rin said irritably. "Can you see the guy? Aside from his clothes there's nothing about him that's priest like."

"That may be the case," Shirou countered. "But he is still recognized as a priest and fulfils all of the duties that go along with that title. All because someone might not fit into the role that they play in life very well doesn't mean that they aren't actually playing that role."

'I'm not sure if he's standing up for me or insulting me.' The elder Kotomine thought to himself.

"Besides," Shirou continued, "you seem to be somewhat brash and hotheaded individual, yet if you're a Tohsaka, then you're a practitioner of magecraft, something that requires much patience and a calm mind. That doesn't make you a fake magus does it?"

The twin tailed girl stood in silence for a moment before she finally found her voice. "Who are you calling brash and hotheaded!? And fake magus!? I'll have you know that I am an average one and am extremely talented for my age! Who the hell do you think you are!?"

"Calm down." Shirou said calmly. "I wasn't trying to insult you. I was simply attempting to….."

Kirei watched the children interact. His son had urged an amusing reaction out of Rin immediately. He could tell that it was going to be interesting watching these two interact. It might also be bad for his health.

And that's it

I hope you all liked it.

Remember to leave comments.

Next time, Shirou does his first job and makes some new friends