Fate Shirou
Alternate Chapter Filler 3.5
The Path Of Becoming A Hero!
Welcome_To_The_Dead_End_Shirou_Emiya
[TIGER DOJO 1]
The Servant of the Sword looks up to the clock that hanged on the wall by the kitchen door. The time was almost midnight.
"Then perhaps it's time we head for bed, Shirou."
"R-Right," he yawns. The wracking pain all over his body was slowly dulling.
Walking up to the second floor of his huge old-style Japanese home, Shirou opens to the door his room and then stops.
"Ah, that's right, Shiroko, you can sleep in the room over there," he points to the room parallel to his, "Don't worry, I live alone so all the rooms here are free."
"Shirou," Saber calls, "You have had the most unusual luck of meeting four Servants besides myself today and survived. I would not be surprise if you met Caster and Assassin in your sleep before this day is over."
"Hey, what's that suppose to mean?"
"I shall be staying in your room to stand guard, of course."
"W-What?! No! You can't! Girls and boys aren't allowed sleep in the same room together!"
"I am a Servant, my Master, sleep isn't a necessity for me as it is for you. Besides, only you will be sleeping," a pause, "Or perhaps you do not want to sleep tonight, Shirou~?"
The young teenage boy turns crimson red at her tone, 'I need a way to get out of this! Something! Anything!'
His eyes dart at everything until, "Ah," it settles on his left hand; immediately he uses up his first Command Seal.
"I command you, in the name of Shirou Emiya, to never ever sleep in the same room as me, Shiroko!"
The red sword mark shines up and then dims out as a single portion fades away.
Saber looks at her Master with a neutral expression, "Are you an idiot, Shirou?"
"I don't care what you call me, Shiroko! A man has his principles and I'm sticking to it!"
The Servant of the Sword merely huffs before walking away to her assigned room, opening the door, entering, and then closing it shut. Despite it being done gracefully with regal bearing, Shirou could tell that Saber was really mad at him.
The boy sighs, out of relief or bother he could not tell, and goes into his room to sleep the night away.
[...]
The next day, after breakfast was served...
The meal was a very quiet affair. No thanks to the instigator known as Saber.
Taiga Fujimura had quickly devoured her meal and tried snatching the food out of Saber's bowls and plates out of pure spite. However, her chopsticks were easily repelled by Saber, who revealed that she was ambidextrous enough to use chopsticks in both hands along with amazing coordination and grace, as she defended and ate her meal at the same time.
Sakura Matou and Shirou Emiya ate their food quietly, though in the girl's case she took peeking glances between Shirou and Saber. The boy had only caught it once and responded with a smile that meant everything was okay.
With that all said and done, Taiga Fujimura spent more energy on trying to steal food than she actually gained from eating that breakfast.
"Shirou... I'm still hungry!" the teacher moans.
"I'm sorry, Fuji-sis, but that's all I cooked for breakfast. I can deliver you some later at school though."
"Yes, please that do that, Shirou! The school meals suck! They're terrible!" the woman huffs matter of factly.
"Ah, well, anyways, Fuji-sis, Sakura, you two should get going or you'll be late for Archery Club."
Immediately Taiga straightens up, "I REFUSE!"
"What?"
"School isn't important, Shirou!"
'Is it alright to have a person like this be a teacher?'
"I can't leave you alone here or a mistake might happen!" the teacher points to Saber.
"Huh? Mistake?"
Taiga speaks more feverishly, "Yes! That's right! A mistake!" She runs to him and grabs the collars of his shirt, "The greatest mistake of your life! As a man you won't be able to take it back!" she says as she shakes him, "You'll definitely regret it, Shirou!"
'Fuji-sis, I have no idea what you're talking about.'
"Nothing is going to happen," Saber interjects with a wicked smile, "That didn't happen last night."
If Shirou Emiya was a master at making magi palm their faces in frustration or give him funny looks, then Saber was a master at implying things with a tone that even the often thick-headed boy could feel.
The red-headed teen is blushing a furiously red. His imagination runs vividly wild before being promptly cut to pieces by imaginary weapons.
"E-Emiya..." Sakura Matou mutters silently.
Frozen cold. Taiga freezes at those words and goes pale from shock. She slowly creaks her neck as though she was a machine and stares at him with an accusing yet blank face.
"W-We didn't do anything last night!" Shirou quickly blurts out in his defense.
"That we can speak of in the company of others," his Servant immediately adds.
'Shiroko, you...! Are you still mad at me?!'
The guardian lets go of the boy's collar and her hands hang limply on her side. The temperature in the room drops as murderous intent emits from the being known as 'Taiga Fujimura.'
Quickly, Shirou shuffles backward and hits the wall, "F-Fuji-sis?"
An inhuman growl creeps out her throat.
'Has the sleeping beast of Fuyuki City been awoken?!'
"GRAWH!" roars the beast as she pounces forward to catch her prey.
Saber turns her head away as she lets the mighty beast maul her Master.
'Don't pretend that you don't notice anything wrong here, Shiroko!'
"HEEELLLLPPPPP!" the boy screams as he scuffles with his wild teacher.
Alas, the beast pulls out the deadly Tora Shinai, the Cursed Tiger Sword, from thin air and beats him to a bloody pulp. And Shirou Emiya was defeated within ten minutes.
"Huwha?" Taiga snaps out of her crazed trance and looks down at the injured boy, "Shirou?! What happened to you?!"
"You beat him within an inch of his life, of course," Saber replies coolly.
But unannounced to all that were there, was the fact that Shirou Emiya had fallen into a long coma. Because of this, he would fail to do the things he needed to do to reach the legendary Golden Ending.
[DEAD END]
Please teach me, Taiga-sensei~!
[...]
In a small corner of the Emiya Estate there is a small building separated from the rest.
It's name is the Tiger Dojo and it is a strange hint corner.
If you would like to reach the Golden End then please pay attention.
[...]
Polished wooden floor, an old respectable air of dignity, crisp morning air shines through the wooden.
On the plaque there is a picture of a golden sword and below it are the names of the many disciples of this dojo. Further below on the pedestal is a small sheet of paper with a single large red stamp on it.
In the center of this room lies a sleeping Shirou Emiya.
"WAKE UP!" a loud voice shouts and then something blunt hits him in the stomach.
"UGFUUU!" the boy blurts out as he jumps awake, "What?! What's going on?!" he looks up to see his guardian dressed in an unarmored kendo outfit, "Fuji-nee?"
"That's right, Shirou, it is I, Taiga-sensei! The instructor of the Tiger Dojo!"
"Tiger Dojo?"
"It's the awesome place where you get a second chance at the Golden Ending, Onii-chan~!" calls out a sweet bell-like voice.
Turning his head Shirou spots Illyasviel von Einzbern suddenly standing besides Taiga. She is dressed in an old Japanese school gym uniform that is colored purple.
"I-Illya?!"
"Yep, that's me, Onii-chan. The first student of the Tiger Dojo, codename: Buruma~!"
"...What." Shirou flatly states.
"Mou, Onii-chan, can't you be more exciting?"
"...No that is... What is going here? Wait... 'onii-chan'?"
"Is something wrong, Onii-chan?"
"Why are you calling me 'onii-chan'? Don't you mean 'big brother'?"
"Get with the program, Shirou!" Taiga jumps in with a slash to his head, "We're in the Tiger Dojo now! The rules are different here! Who cares if we're suddenly going to be using Japanese honorifics from now on?! In fact, I hereby proclaim Japanese honorifics to be used in the main storyline starting from the next chapter onward!"
"Your outbursts are too insane, Fuji-nee!" the boy shouts, "Huh... 'Fuji-nee'...?"
She smacks him with her bamboo sword again, "That's 'Fuji-sensei' to you, you idiot!" she strikes the ground with her sword and poses like a lord, "Now then, does the accused Shirou Emiya know why he is here?"
The boy in question rubs his aching head, "I feel like I'm in my dojo, yet I don't feel like I'm at my dojo at all..."
"Wrong answer!" she whacks him once more.
"Stop that!" he complains.
"Onii-chan~" Illyasviel runs off to tug at his shirt, "You're here because you made a mistake that deviates from the elusive Golden Ending~"
"I still don't understand. Mistake? Golden Ending?"
"You fool!" Taiga strikes out again but this time Shirou rolls out of the way; she continues to explain as she lashes out at him, "The Golden Ending is the legendary ending attained after tons of hard-work, diligence, and sheer persistence! It's the happy ending that any true protagonist would strive for!"
Shirou dodges another strike, "Start using words that I can understand, Fuji-nee!"
"It means you must become a hero, Shirou," a gruff but kind voice answers him.
Shirou blinks. He couldn't believe it. It couldn't be him. He was just hearing things. And yet he couldn't stop himself from turning his head around.
There, standing by the entrance of the dojo was his father, Kiritsugu Emiya, alive and well.
"Dad...?" he reaches out a hand. This couldn't possibly be anything but a hallucination, yet it felt so real, he wanted to reach out. But before his hand could touch the image of his father, Tora Shinai lands a devastating blow on his head. "OOUUUCCCCHHHHH!" he shouts as his body slams onto the wooden floor.
Tightly he kept his eyes close and feels a presence to next to him. The smell of a light smoke drifts in the air. Shirou dared not to open his eyes and break the illusion.
"...is this really happening?" was all Shirou could ask.
"Yeah, it is. So pick yourself up, Shirou, or are you going to keep lying on the floor forever?"
Weakly, he opens his eyes to see his father kneeling in front of him with his hand out. The boy reaches out his hand once more and is then brought back up to his feet.
Shirou examines his father, "You've gotten shorter, dad," he says with a light smile.
"And you're not a squirt anymore, Shirou," he retorts back with his own smirk.
Illyasviel jumps in with her arms hugging the two men's neck, "Onii-chan~! Otou-san~!" and a gentle laughter from everyone present fills up the room.
It was a good moment.
But a cough and clanking noises interrupts them.
Turning around, the group sees a knight, dressed in all black armor with white-tron like lines and adorned with green capes, waving his hand, "Ah, sorry about this, but can we continue with the Tiger Dojo?"
There was silence.
"Aha! I forgot about you!" Taiga jabs her sword at the newcomer, "Shirou, meet the author and the sponsor of this Tiger Dojo, that Nasuverse illiterate fool who hasn't even played Fate/Stay Night or seen Fate/Zero; Shintouyu!"
"Ouch, self-deprecration already?" the avatar of the author responds by typing out 'the avatar of the author responds' instead of using 'I respond,' "And fourth wall-breaking too?!"
"Uh huh," the boy nods with a blank face, as he is not privy to the backstage information.
"But he's right!" the instructor shouts, "Let's get on with this Tiger Dojo!" she runs up and grabs the teen by the collar of shirt, "Do you understand now, Shirou?! Do you understand why you must aim for the Golden Ending?!"
Shirou turns his head to his father, "...To become a hero, right?"
"That's right, Shirou. If you've reach the Golden Ending then it means that you've become a real hero."
The amateur magus nods firmly, "I want to be hero like you dad, so I'll definitely reach that Golden Ending then! Just watch me!"
"Do you think you can do that by yourself, Onii-chan~?" Illyasviel wags her finger, "You're here in the Tiger Dojo because you already failed once."
"Yeah about that... what is going on here? Nobody has explained anything to me."
"Were you not paying attention at all, you idiot?" Taiga reprimands him.
"Don't blame me, your explanations are too strange."
"Basically, the Tiger Dojo is where Shirou Emiya ends up if he makes a mistake or mistakes that would lead him astray from the Golden Ending. Essentially, Shirou Emiya must correct his mistakes before he can move on with the plot," explains the author knight.
"That's... okay. So what mistakes did I make?"
The instructor lazily waves her hand, "By being an idiot, of course," she says matter of factly.
"...That's too vague."
"What? Do I have to explain everything to you, Shirou? Go back and read Chapters 2 and 3 and figure it out yourself!"
"But Sensei~!" Buruma pouts as she wiggles her body back and forth, "If we leave it to Onii-chan to figure it out all by himself, then he'll never spot out his mistakes!"
Taiga crosses her arm with a stern expression, "You're right, Student Number One. Shirou is such a big block head that we'll never get anywhere at this rate! What a conundrum!"
Shirou Emiya lets out a deep sigh, 'Maybe I should stop trying to understand this anymore...'
Shintouyu steps in once more, "Basically, the decision that lead to this Tiger Dojo was during the night of your talk with Saber. You used up a Command Seal to keep her away, which inadvertently led her to allowing Taiga Fujimura to maul you during breakfast the next morning. Essentially, you'll have to redo that night all over again and let Saber guard you while you sleep."
A bubble pops in the teen's head at his memories come flooding back in.
"FUJI-NEE! You killed you me!"
"That's slander and libel! I didn't raise you to be such a scoundrel, Shirou! All I did was accidentally send you into a coma!"
"That's still bad, Fuji-nee!"
The two continue to argue with each other as Illyasviel wraps up the segment.
"And that's all for Tiger Dojo 1, readers~! See you next time~!"
Two large sliding doors appear from nowhere and closes shut with a 'don' sound.
[...]
Yet some voices could still be heard over the credits.
"Well, there's no use complaining about it so much, Shirou Emiya," Shintouyu says, "Basically, you won't be remembering anything that happens here once you return to the main story. So you might make the same mistakes again anyways. Essentially, we'll be waiting for you to return to this particular Tiger Dojo several times."
"...What? WHAT?! WHHAAATTTT?!" the protagonist shouts out at the top of his lungs.
Shirou, you idiot!
[...]
"Hello there, readers and reviewers. This is author avatar of Shintouyu for Fate Shirou. Thank you all for reading, reviewing, favoriting, following, and other stuff," says the black knight as he somehow sips tea through his helmet.
The armored entity is sitting behind a table that has been placed in the Tiger Dojo, meanwhile the rest of the cast continues their unseen shenanigans off-screen. "This next segment is entirely dedicated to answering back to reviews. So just treat this as one giant Author Notes being unnecessarily expanded with speaking roles and minor worthless details."
The avatar puts down his cup of tea as he fiddles with the laptop on the desk.
"Okay, let's see... where to begin," he hums, "Let's start with some casual stuff."
"So why a Tiger Dojo? ...Why not? So there we have it; a Tiger Dojo," he pauses, "Er, next, well, the schedule. When is Chapter Four coming out? I don't know, I don't have a schedule for this story."
He puts a hand to his chin, "I've also done some revisions to Chapter One through Three but it's mostly just fleshing out stuff or rephrasing lines to be clearer/less awkward. Do I consider it necessary to re-read them? Personally, yes; the general outline has not changed, however, there has been plenty enough of new content that were added to all three previous chapters that should warrant a re-read."
The knight scrolls the wheel of his mouse, "...And that's everything I wanted to say, actually."
He begins tapping his fingers on the desk, "So the next section of this segment will be Q&A," the knight claps his hands, "So for those of you who don't care about Author Notes, please feel free to skip the next section; it will not affect your understanding or entertainment of the main-story in any way."
The knight moves the mouse and begins clicking, "As for those of you that are continuing to read for whatever reason... You can consider this a supplementary corner. Thank you."
[Q&A]
'Wait... doesn't Shirou resonate with Archer because they are basically the same person, and therefore his learning curve with regards to Tracing jumps through the roof, allowing him to utilize Unlimited Blade Works in some route? Now that there's ...nine... of him (or her...) wandering around, his skill level should get jump started like crazy. After all, there are no more heroic versions of Shirou on the planet than there are normal versions...' - Trascendent Oddity
"That's exactly it!" the knight raises a finger, "They resonate because they're basically the same person. Or, at the very least, the deviation from their time-line/world/dimension is so little that they're essentially the same person. Either works in my opinion."
He takes another sip, "On the other hand, it's hard to say whether his Tracing actually speeds up or not. No, actually, his ability to Trace should improve. However, his ability to use Unlimited Blade Works, or whatever Reality Marble, will most actually become skewed due to how different they all are. So, we'll just have to wait and see whether Shirou Emiya develops UBW or something else."
[...]
'Since all the Servants are versions of Shirou, shouldn't the soul resonance between them cause Shirou and the Servants to gain each other's memories and abilities? That means that all of them should gain a major boost to their power and skills.' - UNTensaZangetsu
"I can neither claim nor deny that. It's definitely a possibility."
[...]
'Is this the creation of the harem route? It does seem like it.' - dragon-cloud16
Shintouyu twirls around in his chair, "Yes, Shirou is aiming for the harem route. The Golden Ending, in other words."
And takes a sip of his tea, "The original line in Chapter One's Author Note was actually just a throw-away. I had literally discovered that all the Masters, besides Shirou Emiya, had ended up being female and that was simply me commenting on that startling revelation," he gives a thumbs up, "And there's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all; because Shirou Emiya is really going for gold now!"
[...]
'Is Shiroko born as a girl? If so then she's different from Shiroko doujin, where she is Shiro with Ilya's body. In this fic she acts more like Archerko.' - 5117
"Saber/Shiroko is an Original Character and was born a girl," the author hopefully answers clearly.
[...]
'The only thing I'd suggest you do is proofread. No major spelling problems, just grammar.' - Farmer Kyle
The knight approves of this comment, "Indeed. It's like every time I re-read a chapter, I keep finding out the littlest of mistakes that I didn't notice the first several times proof-reading."
[...]
'This, while crack, has some inconsistencies with the Nasuverse canon, but is pretty good. Anyway if you need too know anything about the Nasuverse you can ask me. You could also ask Logan Murderer of Crows, he would probably be glad to help.' - Grey Master of Ice and Muji
"I'll keep that in mind," the avatar answers.
[...]
'Wouldn't the synchronization of 7 Heroic Spirit Shirou make regular Shirou ridiculously powerful? In FSN Shirou gained an incredible boost just by being around Archer.' - ChaosConnor
The author hums, "It depends on what and how Shirou Emiya develops, but that should be the case."
[...]
'I figure having all the Shirous summon the same Saber despite being different people is a little out there.
Oh, if you really want to spice this up then think about this: Caster summoned a Servant during the 5th Grail War and all of the Servants in this Grail War are 'Magus'. Although having them summon yet more versions of themselves would be kinda stupid... and I don't think any Shirou (except maybe a truly evil one) would summon a Servant just so it would fade away a few days later like Fake Assassin did... then again, mana transfering... hmm... ah, well its an idea. Maybe have the Grail go 'F*ck it, you want heroes, here have the entire throne!' ...That was a joke in case you missed it.' - ShadowAngelBeta
Shintouyu refills his cup of tea before answering.
"In fact, that's more or less what happened. Well, a majority of them had Arturia Pendragon/Blue Saber," the knight takes a sip, "So it went like this: Lancer summoned a Black Lancer (who is Arturia). Berserker summoned a Black Saber. Saber, Archer, and Saver summoned a Blue Saber. Rider summoned a White Saber. Assassin summoned an Assassin Bloody Mary. Caster summoned a Saber Tomoe Gozen. And Avenger summoned a Lancer Karna. So out of the nine Shirou Servants, three of them didn't summon an Arturia Pendragon variant."
The author does a huge spit-take after reading the next part.
"This is genius," he declares, "Since this is a crack-fic, sarcasm will be treated as extremely viable options. That said, we'll just have to wait and see if any of the Shirou realizes this possibility first."
[...]
'Will Shirou train his magic soon as he knows what it does?' - kroz phantomville
"Eventually, yes."
[...]
'No, Archer can't freely reshape his swords, he just alters them to make them more aerodynamic, sharper, etc. Basically, he has versions of certain weapons memorized as pseudo-arrows to reduce the strain on his bow and to increase their effectiveness long range. It also makes breaking them much more convenient.
Anyways, if all of the versions of Shirou took different paths in regards to how they developed their talent, then wouldn't the resonance effect start to impart all of these different paths to him?' - Transcendent Oddity
Taking of sip of his tea, the author reads this review.
"To clarify, I believe that Unlimited Blade Works allows Archer to interfere with the design-phase during Step 2 of Tracing, so he can reshape weapons as he pleases, however he tends to create arrows because he favors his archery skills. That also means that just because he shape x into y doesn't mean its a good idea, and it takes a considerable amount of experimentation to find the right shape for each particular blade as to not compromise their strengths."
He cups down his cup of tea, "Of course, that's just my take on making UBW more unique/flexible from the other reality marbles that these Shirou will possess. But whether Archer takes advantage of this... The answer is no; he is definitely not a character who tries to overstep his boundaries and will instead play to his strengths and experiences that he already spent his lifetime to perfect."
The knight nods, "Yes, that's right, the differences in resonance will produce entirely unexpected results for Shirou Emiya. Well, that's assuming I make good plot-twists..."
[...]
'I'm a little worried about the antagonist of your story since you already killed Zouken and so a lot of potential tension is gone, but then again this seems to be more comedic so maybe that's a good thing.' - Splout
"...Chessmaster Zouken is dead?" the author does a spit-take and responds incredulously before wiping the screen with a napkin, "Anyways, Zouken Matou technically only mattered in the Heaven's Feel route; the most devious one of them all. So really, only one route is gone, and that's assuming that this story will be following one specific route.
With that said, this story will have plenty of comedy... however to achieve the Golden Ending, Shirou Emiya will have plenty of hardships ahead of him, and it will definitely involve more than just making sure the girls get along with each other.
So expect drama! Or something."
[...]
'It would be better if you switched to Japanese honorifics.' - kroz phantomville
"Duly noted," the knight approves, "Chapter Four and onward will be using Japanese honorifics."
[...]
'Indeed, Sakura called Shirou as 'Emiya' felt weird. Like they were just merely acquaintances.' - Liddle
"My original choices were 'Emiya,' 'Senior,' or 'Upperclassman,' and the closest one was in tone was Senior," the author notes, "Though I choose Emiya because of the formality aspect, and also because senior might be confused for the other senior."
[...]
'Why do people take the easy way out by killing Shinji all of the time? He is just as much a victim as Sakura, while Sakura is an actual monster/abomination.' - dragoon109
The author knight takes a sip of his tea, "That's pretty much true if we get down to the very core of the issue. However, the amount of sympathy and respect that Shinji invokes is generally very little," and clasps his hand together, "As for whether killing Shinji Matou constitutes as taking the easy way out... it probably is. There is always a chance for Shinji to be reformed, but, unfortunately for him, he had to meet Rider..."
[...]
'I'm kinda sad that there are so many male Shirou. It reduces the harem count. The Shiroko better be in the harem. These Fake Servants and Masters are also intriguing. Will there be more Shirou or some of the normal Servants? Will they hopefully all be female, Master and Servant alike?' - nonwritten
The avatar puts a hand to his chin and has a contemplating look about him.
"Well, they couldn't all be female Shirou... As for whether any of the female Shirou are part of the harem, well, Rider and Saber are probably off-limits. Avenger and Caster are a maybe.
As for the other Masters and Servants, I will declare that no more alternate Shirou will appear unless Ruler somehow gets summoned by the Greater Holy Grail; and that would be it, really. Any other summoning by the Shirou themselves or the Illegitimate Grail will result in our normal Nasuverse Servants... or 'Fictional-types' like Fake Assassin was.
Anyways, it would be indeed amusing to make another group of all female pairing, but I'm not going to do that."
[...]
Shintouyu waves his hand, "And that's the end of this Author Note. See you all next time!"