Who was Thor?

Kurata Shojiro was grinding his teeth in suppressed anger and frustration. It was all he could do to not explode in rage, for if he did so, he would surely sprint into the city and shoot the people around him in a Berserker-like fury. That was how angry he was, how furious he felt towards those who treated him so unfairly.

Kurata was wholly convinced his cause for anger was a valid one. Many would not have agreed with him though, and absolutely no innocent citizen would ever feel any kind of sympathy towards him even if he had been right in getting himself worked up like that. Rather, they would all agree that all the bad things that were happening to him right then were the very least of what he deserved.

Kurata was currently standing near a decrepit, seemingly deserted apartment complex that he was supposed to guard and protect. Specifically, in an alley directly across from the building. He had been put on guard duty today for the fourth time in a row, which would have been enough to irritate anyone, if you asked Kurata himself.

After all, it was winter, and not one of those weak winters with a few rainfalls and temperatures above ten degrees Celsius either. For all of those four days he had been outside, it had been freezing and raining the entire time. Kurata had been miserable and wet for three whole days now and today he would be again. Hell, he already was.

It didn't help it was the dead of night, without a single ray of sunshine to provide some warmth or even only some light to poor Kurata. He was just standing there in the dark, being wet and cold. The only light sources were some streetlamps and Kurata's own lamp, and the only means of staying warm were the heat coming off said lamp and the coat he was wearing. A downright hell in his opinion.

Now, a normal, law-abiding citizen might wonder why he was standing guard somewhere in an alley in the middle of the night, and why it had to be outside in the rain and the cold, instead of just warmly inside of the building he was supposed to be guarding at the moment. The answer to that was quite simple. Kurata Shojiro was a crook. A criminal. A member of one of the numerous small gangs that called Fuyuki-City their home. His purpose was not preventing thieves from taking his employer's property, something he would have been able to do while inside. He had been tasked with watching out for cops and members of other gangs, which required him to be out of the building itself.

Kurata had always been destined for that line of work. Being a criminal that is, not guarding. He was never meant for guarding things, only taking them.

Already from a young age he had been rebellious, troublesome, and lazy. Despite growing up in a fairly well-off family who had tried to keep him on the right path with all they had, he had never bothered to put any effort into his studies or the learning of a useful trade. He considered his family's concerns mere nagging at his head. He had much preferred hanging around with his similarly criminal buddies during his school time, which they of course did not spend at school. Instead they were using drugs, extorting shop owners, and more.

Eventually, his family had seen he was not redeemable, and had subsequently cut ties with him, threatening to call the police if he ever showed up anywhere near them again. It had left him homeless and largely penniless, but fortunately for him and unfortunately for all others in his life, he had not been out of possibilities.

He and his friends had started a real criminal gang, doing much the same as before, only now full-time. That had actually gone well for quite some time, as the city they had operated in had had both a lousy police-force and also no other strong gangs in their neighbourhood who would have seen them as rivals and would have forced them out of business. Life had been good for a while.

The gang had been involved in their usual business at first; drugs, extortion, muggings, and the like, sticking to what they knew. After a while though, they had started aiming higher. It hadn't been long before they had started kidnapping and ransoming people for money, murdering others as hitmen for hire, human trafficking, and all kinds of other things that were way over the line of forgivable.

Despite Kurata having been lazy for all of his life, he had truly seemed to have found his calling as member of the criminal underworld. He had actually worked hard for the first time in his life, which had led to him being named the unofficial leader of the little gang.

The gang had started out small, but it hadn't stayed little for long though. It had grown, from a few childhood friends to a couple hundred men in only a few years' time, with Kurata and his buddies sitting at the top of the food chain. They had begun rivaling with even the biggest of criminal organisations already present in the city, fighting over domain and influence.

Honestly, no one had expected them to come that far, least of all Kurata himself.

They simply hadn't have the drive, the intelligence, or the sheer tenaciousness required to make it to the top. Sure, Kurata himself had put in actual effort, but the others hadn't, and Kurata had not put in enough work to make up for that. What little natural talent they had besides that would never have been enough to prosper so much in such a short time.

So the question was: how had they ever made it to the top then?

They had managed that because of one thing they had going for them: A loyal customer.

Back when they had been a small group, they had been approached by a mysterious individual, who had requested them to kidnap people for him. There was no specification on who that had to be, the man had just needed victims who were unimportant enough to not be pursued too much by either their families or the police.

Not seeing any problem with that, Kurata and co. had done as the stranger had asked, kidnapping random homeless people and members of rivaling groups until they had collected a reasonable number of them. The stranger had been satisfied and had paid them a large sum of money, while simultaneously asking to abduct even more people for him, and even more after that.

That had continued for a few years. The money, along with some very fortunate occurrences, had paved the way for Kurata's gang to rise to the top, where they had remained for quite a long time, relatively speaking.

Of course, despite rising so high, they never forgot to pay the man his due. Even though there had been times he had contemplated telling the man to go fuck himself, every time he had met the stranger in person he would find himself again doing what that man asked of him. Even if he had planned against it beforehand.

He had not let it bother him though, and had just enjoyed the good life. Stressing over an unnaturally charismatic man would have driven him into an early grave, and he much rather had spend his time abusing prostitutes or the like.

Life had been perfect, but Kurata had forgotten the one thing his father had told him that actually stuck with the crook, even into adulthood: 'If something seems too good to be true, then it almost certainly is.'

Their empire had been mighty in their city, but it couldn't last forever, or even just longer than a few years really. Being as unprofessional as they were, they had made a lot of mistakes over the years. Such as revealing their identities, their hiding places, the plans and plots they had made, their associates, and more. Eventually, the police had been able to just step in and roll up the entire gang without the slightest effort.

Only Kurata had escaped from the mass-arrest that had followed. He had fled the city, abandoning his comrades and leaving behind everything that might incite the cops to chase after him. He had been poor before, but never dead.

His flight had taken him to one of the most inhabitable cities of the area. Well, inhabitable for criminals at least. And if he'd had any other choice, he would have avoided it. No one ever wanted to go to Fuyuki-City.

It wasn't that the police were so efficient here, rather, the opposite was true. They were even more hopeless than in Kurata's old hometown, and that was saying something. No, it certainly wasn't the police that had every gang in the city on their toes.

The problem for criminals in this city was that it already had a large organized criminal presence, that being the local Yakuza. This particular branch was led by the infamous Fujimura-clan. Tenacious bastards if you asked Kurata.

Because of them refusing him entrance to their organisation, he had been forced to join a small-time drugs gang to obtain food and shelter, a gang with barely any influence or reputation.

Worse, the Yakuza had turned out to be very allergic to any rivals, no matter how small or insignificant, forcing the other gangs to either leave the city or go into hiding. His gang had chosen the second option, squatting in abandoned buildings on the edges of town, producing the wares as sneakily as possible and selling them clandestinely on the black market.

It was a big setback for Kurata. He had gone from one of the leaders of a big, up-and-coming gang to one of the lowest stooges of a no-name, tiny gang. They had no more than fifty members for Kami's sake. The only reason he wasn't bolting again was because none of the other gangs in this city were any better, rather they were often even worse, and because he had no guarantees he would find nicer prospects in other towns.

Besides, despite his grousing just now, it wasn't all bad here. Sure, the gang might be small, but that also meant he had less competition in extorting the local shops. They might not have a lot of money, but he was used to that and actually worked best when his resources were limited. The gang might not have a lot of influence, but he would fix that in time, he was sure of it.

He was still holding out hope that the mysterious stranger that had made his original group so big would approach him again. That would help him immensely to get started properly with this rabble in Fuyuki-City. He had frequently wished he himself possessed a means to contact the stranger, but he didn't.

It was very strange in fact. Despite having met the man several times, he could remember nothing distinctive about him. In his memory, no matter how hard Kurata concentrated, the stranger remained a blurry form with a distorted voice.

Heck, that hadn't been the only strange thing. The stranger had somehow managed to get even the most hot-headed people of the gang to work for him, sometimes even by only staring them in the eyes. It was so weird.

Kurata huffed. Reminiscing about the past had cooled his rage quite well, he noticed. Enough for him to settle down again. That didn't mean he wasn't angry anymore, because he still was. It was outrageous for him to be on guard duty again, while he could be spending this time extorting shop owners, visiting the whores, or even searching for new avenues for the gang as a whole.

But no, his superiors had ordered him to stand guard again, together with no less than four other members. An enormous number if one took into account the small size of the gang, and not something normal for them at all. A mere week ago, they would have been satisfied with only one sentinel, or none at all, as the need for surveillance hadn't been this high back then.

But ever since last week, the small gangs of Fuyuki-City had been dropping like flies. Somehow, more and more of them had gotten arrested, one by one. Kurata had feared at first it was a sign that the police were getting more competent, that it was another mass arrest like the one in his hometown, but the cause had turned out to be something else entirely.

Contacts within the police had revealed that the arrests had been possible, not because of the work the law-enforcement might have been doing, but because of a new vigilante in town. Every night, the police would be called one, two, maybe even three times, by someone requesting them to come arrest a large number of people.

Upon arriving at the designated spot, the police would always find the entire gang unconscious and restrained, with enough evidence scattered around to make any charges stick. The cops had of course immediately made use of that, taking in the criminals and pretending it was all their work.

The emergence of the vigilante had made his superiors very nervous, which is why he was standing out in the rain like this, instead of sitting somewhere warm and comfortable. He had to watch out for the supposed hero and pump him full of lead if he showed himself.

Waste of time and effort if you asked Kurata. That punk wasn't going to hunt them, they were with much too great a number for that. They had like fifty members after all. With that and also five guards standing around looking for any sign of the vigilante and eager to shoot something, there was no way he'd dare to attack them.

Nodding to himself, Kurata turned towards his closest fellow guard, hoping for a conversation about something or the other, knowing that man was most likely just as bored as he was. The man was supposed to be located in another alley across from his own. That man was a lucky bastard, having an overhanging part of the roof to take shelter under.

However, upon turning his eyes towards the place where the man was supposed to be, he saw only an empty spot. No sign of life visible at all, in stark contrast to the smoking, coughing, and cursing man that had been standing there only minutes ago.

Being an experienced back-stabber himself, Kurata immediately assumed the man had ditched him and the other three guards to go do something else. It was what he would have done after all had he even gotten the slightest of chances.

That wouldn't fly with him!

If he didn't get to slack on this accursed job, then no one would. He would tell his superiors about this insubordination at once upon returning inside. He would get that slacker punished heavily, his superiors would see to that. Oh yes, they'd no doubt appreciate a helping hand in keeping everyone on their toes. Maybe they'd be grateful enough even to get him off guard duty for the coming weeks.

He sprinted out of the alley, in search of the three other watchmen, to tell them they had been ditched by one of their own. Perhaps they could group together and complain a bit for the rest of the night, to make this job a bit interesting at least. He knew he certainly had enough to complain about.

A twinge of nervousness entered his mind though, upon discovering they too were nowhere in sight.

This was getting weird. One stupid idiot slacking on duty he could understand, but all four of them at once? Something was wrong here. Had he missed a call to come back inside when he had been reminiscing the past?

He now sprinted towards the spot where he had last seen his fellow guard. The one who had been located in the alley across from his. The alley really was empty though, except for a couple of boxes laid smack down in the middle of the alley.

Boxes that had been to the side only a few minutes ago, and were now perfectly placed to hide something human-sized from view, Kurata realised, feeling like his heart had just sunk into his shoes.

It was with a horrible feeling that Kurata approached those boxes, as he had seen enough horror-films to know where this was going.

Stopping just in front of the obstruction, he contemplated running to the apartment complex as fast as he could. Being outside in the dark, alone, with his comrades having disappeared, was doing nothing good for his courage. But he knew he couldn't flee, despite the fear he felt. If it turned out he had been panicking for nothing, running away like a little girl at the first sign of trouble, he would be put on guard duty for the rest of his life.

With a gulp, he took the last step… and looked behind the boxes.

He whimpered as he saw precisely what he had been fearing. The downed body of his fellow guard. The situation was clear to him at that moment. He was alone, at night, with something lurking in the shadows, next to the body of a victim. There was no doubt he would be next…

His budding panic was interrupted though, by an unexpected sight. An item was laying right next to his downed colleague. A very suspicious item in fact. Upon closer inspection, the object he saw was revealed to be a blunted arrow. It took a while before Kurata was able to make the correct conclusion, but when he did, his eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to yell out to the men inside the apartment complex.

It was too late though.

"Please don't scream, you'll wake the neighbours." A voice suddenly said from behind him.

Kurata turned around in a flash, just in time too see a man, clad in black clothes with a mask hiding his lower face and a hood over his hair, with his arm drawn back. "You really shouldn't have walked out of my sight; those arrows would have hurt a lot less in the morning than this will."

Then the crook saw a fist coming for his face, much too fast to dodge. He had but a moment to swear in his mind, before the blow struck him full on. His head exploded in pain, and he knew nothing anymore.


Shirou looked at the criminal he had just taken down with a mildly pitying expression on his face. He had taken the other four out with his arrows, but the man's sudden sprint to the other alley had forced him to come close to finish the job before the man could sound any alarm. Shirou had to hit him personally with his fist, and he knew this guy would have a far larger headache in the morning than the others would have.

Still, this was a good start. All that was left now was taking down the actual gang inside and then calling the police to put these criminals behind bars. Just like he had done several times before during this week. Nice and easy.

Or at least, that was what he had thought at the beginning of this crime-fighting spree. By now however, one week into his mission, he had discovered that even easy-seeming activities could bring unexpected problems with them.

He had indeed easily taken down every bit of opposition the gangs had thrown in his way up until now, and the police was only too happy to cooperate with him, as long as they could claim the glory, but he had ran into an unexpected problem.

During a few of his self-imposed missions, he had stumbled upon a few crooks with a weird smell about them. No, Shirou didn't mean they stank, though they did also stink, but that wasn't what he meant at all. Rather he meant he was smelling something on them with his other sense. He had been smelling magic on those people.

And now he did so again. The man laying on the ground here also had a very faint trace of Magecraft on him. Much too weak to suggest he was a Magus himself, just like the others, but potent enough to suggest he had come into contact with Thaumaturgy a lot more often and more intimate than most people. Again, it had been the same for the other crooks.

Shirou did not know what to make of it. The traces were so faint he suspected their contact with the Moonlit world had been years ago for most of the criminals, except for the one in front of him, he'd estimate it had been about one year for him. But why would any being from the Moonlit World interact with these people, without just killing them?

A possible explanation was of course that they'd only had their memories altered by a Magus at some point in their life, but the smell indicated contact over a much longer period of time than just one altercation. It suggested months, or even years of contact for the smell to build up.

The reason he was able to smell this with such precision was of course Mjolnir again. The hammer in his head had made his already so precise sensing-ability skyrocket in terms of sensitivity and range, to the point he could pick up traces from years ago, like he was doing right now.

And those senses were now telling him these crooks from those gangs had something in common.

He would have to look into what connected them then, as it frankly made him very curious. They had not shown signs of any talents that might make them interesting targets for beings from the Moonlit World after all, but they had still been singled out for some reason.

Shirou inhaled deeply, committing the smell to memory. Now that he was actively paying attention to it, he noticed the smell was the same as the one on most of the other criminals.

There had been two smells in total up until now, as far as Shirou knew. The one he was smelling now was one of them, and as said, also the more frequent of the two. The other smell had been less frequent, only two crooks had had it on them.

Though he did not think it would yield any results, he intended to look into the smells a bit more to see if he could find the source. Seeing as that the all of the men had been in relatively good condition however, it did not have a high priority.

For now, having memorised the smell, he would continue taking down the gang in the apartment complex before him. Quickly calling the police ahead of time on a burner phone to alert them of his actions, Shirou jogged towards the building and leapt through the open window on the third floor. Once inside, he made for the nearest wall outlet, which he promptly overloaded with a dose of lightning.

All the lights inside the building went out simultaneously, eliciting shocked cries from all those present except Shirou. The red-haired hero did not waste a second. He opened the door of the room and rushed into the darkness, where his improved and reinforced eyes allowed him to see far better than any ordinary human could.

Quickly reaching the occupied floors and once again easily taking down the flailing crooks with mere taps, Shirou thought back on the past week so far.

After the fateful dinner during which Fuji-nee had exposed a metaphorical goldmine of practice to him, he had been up and about for every night since then, hunting down and catching criminals. Finding them was no problem, nor was taking them down. His new ability to fly coupled with his old ability to reinforce his eyes made tracking down suspicious activity very easy, almost too easy really. He had busted about twelve small groups in the past week, thirteen when including the one he was subduing now. 'To the great delight of the Fujimura-clan', Taiga had later said.

Being a successful vigilante was far from the only thing he had done though. Seeing he needed a mere three hours of sleep or less per day ever since his enhancement, he usually spent the rest of the night hunting evildoers, leaving the day free for other activities.

A large part of that time was taken by his daily visitors, Taiga and Sakura, who were spending the largest part of the holiday at his house. Contrary to what one might belive, he didn't mind their presence in the slightest, only too happy with the company they provided him with. The meals of the day were eaten with the three of them together and the morning were spent either in kendo matches with Fuji-nee or playing boardgames with both her and Sakura.

The afternoons he had for himself though, as the two girls had their own things to take care of at home. During those hours, he worked on his Magecraft and tested his new abilities. He had been making steady progress with both of those in fact, even though he still did not properly know the limits of his new strength.

He had been taking it easy with his Thaumaturgy however, choosing to first properly process his already-made findings in his already almost-overloaded mind, before he would try to make any new discoveries on top of that.

He had however slowly been picking up on his studies into his new capabilities again, as well as working on his already learned skills to make those even better. Shirou had even begun experimenting with the mysterious power inside of him, though with as much caution as he could of course. He was still only capable of generating lightning, but he did have excellent control over that, even being able to shoot small bolts of it at targets of his choice, instead of only having it sparkle around on his hand.

He had not used Mjolnir yet for any fight or training session however. Shirou had been absolutely sure the hammer would do something that would completely astound him yet again, and he simply hadn't thought himself able to handle more surprises at that time. It had just been too much in too short a time.

Now though, after a week of practicing and experimenting, he was ready to be shocked speechless again. Tomorrow night, instead of hunting criminals like he normally would, he had promised Mjolnir that he would train with the hammer itself.

Mjolnir gave an excited thrum from inside his head at that thought, at the prospect of doing something again. Up until now, Shirou had only used the hammer for transportation, and while the hammer had patiently waited until Shirou was ready to use it for something more, it was clearly ready for the next step as well. It had been since the beginning really.

The golden-eyed magus then came out of his musings to find he had defeated the gang. Well, actually, he had defeated it after the first two minutes already. After those, he had just been standing around, lost in thought for a little while longer, staring at nothing in particular.

Now it was time to leave though, before the police could show up and catch a glimpse of him. Call him paranoid, but he would rather have the police had absolutely no clue what he looked like, save for the no doubt vague descriptions the criminals could give them, than have the police know his general appearance. A secret identity was something that could never be retrieved once lost, that was the first thing his dad had told him back when training had begun.

Calling Mjolnir to his hand, Shirou spun the hammer in a by now quite familiar motion, before launching both it and himself into the sky. As he flew over the city, unseen by those below, he managed to pick out his targets for the next time already. You would think those gangs would try to hide themselves when squatting in a normally deserted area, but no, they just walked around, in full sight of anyone who would pass overhead. Lamenting about low intelligence levels, yet slightly grateful at the same time, Shirou memorized the locations and then continued his way home. While he would have preferred taking those people down right now, they did not pose a direct threat to anyone, so immediate action was unneeded. He was done for tonight.

He came down neatly in his own backyard, precisely in his now-customary landing spot. He produced nary a sound, nor did he feel any strain on his legs when he touched the ground. He almost dared say he was getting good at this. Now if only the rest was as easy as flying was to him.

He jogged to the shed, where he had taken to putting away his equipment during the day. And no, he did not mean his armour, as he could just dismiss that, and neither his bow and arrows, which he had traced before the outing and could dismiss at any time as well. What he stored in the shed was his customary outfit.

Shirou had decided, after his second night of catching crooks, that the armour was much too impractical for a vigilante to wear. It was too bright and eye-catching, it had too much of a presence. For all that it provided fantastic protection, it was utterly unfit for stealth and surprise attacks. Eventually, after some thinking, Shirou had opted to wear the armour only when going to fight in open battles and during emergencies. For his self-appointed missions in the dark of the night, he would need another outfit.

What he was wearing currently was an all-black outfit, consisting of tight pants, a form-fitting shirt, a long-sleeved jacket with hood, black gloves, black boots and a mask in front of his lower face. It was quite simple, but it worked just fine. Reinforcing it made it as hard as Kevlar, so it was even enough for protection against bullets, punches and knives. Not that he had been hit even once since that first time though.

"Trace on." The familiar aria was spoken softly, as Shirou altered the composition of the outfit, reducing it from whole pieces of clothing to lose shreds of cloth, wrapped in a bundle. This process could be reverted with another altering, making it very easy for Shirou to hide and take along his outfit wherever he went.

After putting the bundle on one of the shelves in the shed, Shirou went to check up on a few of his ongoing experiments. One of them was a sword he had traced during the second night after he'd found Mjolnir, with the explicit purpose of finding out how long his projections would last. Up until now, it was holding on just fine. Despite him not adding any more Prana to the construct, it was still present and in fairly good condition, even after a week. He'd estimate it had another three weeks to go before it would disappear. Considering a normal projection done by another mage would barely last a couple of hours, that was amazing.

Another experiment were the Runes he had drawn in the shed. Their purpose was to hide any Prana traces and provide extra defenses for the small building. Shirou did not expect them to be needed any time in the near future, but if this experiment went well, he might be able to use these Runes to upgrade the defences of the entire estate.

It had been quite the shock for him when he had first attempted to use a Rune after the fateful night of Mjolnir's arrival. Intending to test their potency now that he had greatly improved reserves, he had drawn one of the simplest of them all, the Rune of fire, Sowilo, adding but a tiny amount of power to the drawing. He had been expecting a small spark to appear, just like every other time he had used this particular Rune.

What he had gotten however was a large burst of very hot and potent fire springing forth from the drawn sign. In fact, if it hadn't been for him cutting of the power behind the spell right away, it might have burned down the entire estate in minutes.

He had been momentarily stupefied at this development. It made no sense for the Rune to be so powerful, he had only added a tiny bit of power after all. That confusion hadn't lasted long, only until he remembered the prominence of Runes in Norse mythology. It would stand to reason that Thor would be unusually skilled with them.

Whacking himself on the head, since that was what Kiritsugu would have done, he opted to be more careful with Runes in the future. His aptitude had improved greatly, and boldly using Thaumaturgy when he did not know the outcome was stupidly dangerous.

That had not stopped him from studying that particular branch of Thaumaturgy more extensively in theory though. If he had gained a high aptitude for Runes through Mjolnir, then he would not let that go to waste. Runes were much too versatile and useful to be ignored, especially by Shirou, who did not have much talent for any other thing. Or, used to not have much talent. He was pretty sure he could do a lot more than before now.

Still, Runes were excellent if you had any talent for them, as the infamous Fraga-clan often proved, so he had immediately set out to look into the subject and gather as much information as he could.

A few days of studying had not yielded much result. The books he possessed were too basic to provide anything beyond the simplest of Runes and the most general of information, all of which he had already memorised and mastered. His dad had not been able to teach him much either, so it appeared he was stuck for the moment.

That is, he had been stuck, until Mjolnir had suddenly started vibrating in excitement. Shirou had been puzzled by that, as he hadn't seen anything to be excited about. As such, he figured Mjolnir had something to do or to tell him again. It had turned out to be the second.

The images he had learned to expect every time Mjolnir wanted to convey something had started entering his mind. In front of his mind's eye, Shirou saw knowledge and Runes flash by at great speed. Too fast for him to make sense of. This whirlwind of information had continued for a while, until the flow had stopped, and he had received knowledge about three new Runes.

One that would hide any magic cast in an area, one that would keep away decay in a house, and one that would hinder any and all Magecraft cast against the estate and anyone within.

Those had been quite useful, if slightly underpowered Runes. Very fit to be used by a beginner, as Mjolnir had no doubt intended. Shirou had promptly cast them over the shed the same afternoon, to test how well they would function.

By now, he could conclude that they were both hidden from others' senses perfectly well, and very much effective at what they did, making them excellent for him to use on the estate. Save for a few bounded fields that kept Prana and sound contained, as well as one that would inform him of intruders, there wasn't much defending the Emiya-estate, nor were any of the spells particularly strong. Improving them with other Bounded Fields would have been difficult for him though, and that would leave traces, and he couldn't have Tohsaka-san picking up any traces of Prana.

These Runes provided a solution. By weaving them into the field surrounding his house, he could strengthen the defensive capabilities while also keeping it hidden from any prying eyes. A godsend really, quite literally.

Beside those Runes, Mjolnir had refused to give him anything more, as these had only been given to him to test his new talent. Shirou would have to progress in ability and power himself, through training and battle, before Mjolnir would show him any others beside those. Shirou had understood the hammer would not budge on this, so he did not try to convince it otherwise.

Having checked up on his projects now, and with his outfit stashed away, Shirou walked back into the main building of the estate, went up the stairs and went to bed for a well-deserved rest.

Before sleep overtook him though, a question popped up in his mind. A question he should have asked himself sooner perhaps. He had received Mjolnir, along with some amazing powers and abilities, of which he probably hadn't even discovered a tenth yet. But he was wondering now, a week after he had received all of this; who would give away such power? And why give to someone like him? A by all means untalented magus with no importance in the greater whole.

Even the weapon itself had not behaved as Shirou had expected it to. Mjolnir had been supportive of his choices from the very beginning, giving advice and being very enthusiastic at helping him whenever he required aid. It seemed to be a kind hammer, indicating perhaps that the previous owner had been that kind of person as well.

That didn't correspond with this world's Thor at all. He, and the rest of the Gods, had been jerks. Now, he had already established that this Mjolnir was from another world, different from his own, but it would seem now that even Thor himself was very different on that world, not just his hammer.

Matters like this filled Shirou's head, making him wonder at last about the past of the hammer which now resided in his head, as well as about the previous wielder who had left such an impression on Mjolnir. All of those matters eventually came together in one question, the one now so prominent in his mind.

'Who was Thor?'


The next afternoon Shirou found himself not in the shed practicing Magecraft for a change, but rather behind his laptop at the dinner table. He had just said goodbye to the girls again after another morning spend together, and was now wrapped up once more in improving his most recently gained abilities.

He wasn't doing so through training or exercising however, not today. He had done that aplenty during the past days. This afternoon, he wanted to learn about Thor himself. To go over all sources to discover the kind of man (god?) the Odinson had been, at least in Shirou's world. And of course, to learn of Thor's abilities as well, since those could very well be Shirou's abilities now.

As such, this afternoon had become a long study session, during which he spent the time looking up information from all kinds of sources. Books, articles, websites both official and not, it didn't matter for now, as long as the subject was the God of Thunder or something closely related to him.

Most of the information was utter nonsense, as was to be expected on the Internet. Most people just made things up to sound knowledgeable, others misquoted the actual sources, and again some others wrote modern stories with Thor as the main character, but had their Thor often not matching the original one. Informative sites often did hold true and useful information, but it was nothing he hadn't already known before.

He was one of the few people on this world that knew Thor had really existed once after all. The books from the Moonlit World were a great deal more informative than any other source the Golden-eyed Magus had access to, that was something Shirou had to admit. He had already read those books however, and none of them were really helpful on what to do if one found themselves with Mjolnir in their head.

It was good however to brush up a bit on the information those few books offered, even if all the knowledge would not really apply, as he had already determined that this Mjolnir was not from the Thor of this world. From what he seen until now however, he could say there were plenty of similarities between them, at least when it came to power and abilities. The lightning for instance was a big point of comparison, as well as the storms that went with that lightning. And the super strength, don't forget the super strength.

The Runes had been another. The Thor of Shirou's world had been a Norse god, so some proficiency with the Script had to be expected. Other Thor also seemed to have talent for them, if Shirou's own greatly improved aptitude was anything to go by. And it seemed a lot of knowledge concerning many Runes was stored inside Mjolnir itself, just like other Thor's powers had been stored inside that hammer. It almost made Shirou wonder what else Mjolnir could be hiding.

Shirou knew the gods in his world had possessed powers far beyond the might of modern Magi, maybe even beyond the True Magics. Not much was known though, as the gods had never been studied properly by objective and dedicated researchers who bothered writing their findings down for the next generations, leaving Shirou with barely anything to go by.

There were some half-hearted theories however, that the immense power of the gods had had something to do with Authority, the ability to command the world to be as you wanted, and some version of a Marble Phantasm slash Reality Marble, but that had never been confirmed by anyone.

He hadn't noticed any of the sort inside himself though. He had gotten the boost in his old abilities as well as the mysterious power, but nothing more as far as he'd seen. But maybe it was for the best that he hadn't gotten the other skills. It wasn't like he needed a Reality Marble after all.


Sword?...SwORd!...


After shaking his head to lose the sudden buzz, Shirou refocused on the information he had gathered today. There was still plenty he would have to test, concerning Thor's feats and achievements.

He would have to take some of the stories with a grain of salt though, as he sincerely doubted most of them had happened exactly like they had been written down. And even if the stories had gone precisely as described, with nothing added or taken away over the years, he wouldn't be able to copy the skills Thor had shown in those stories.

There was no way Shirou would be able to lift a snake so big it could wrap itself around the world. Nor would he be able to face the Fenrirwolf when it came down to it. Not the mention the thousand other feats Thor had managed that left Shirou's head spinning now that he really thought about them.

Too focused on the impossibilities of him performing such acts, the golden-eyed teen completely missed the sense of amusement that came from Mjolnir. The kind that one felt when looking at a child that insisted something was impossible, while you yourself knew it would be very easy once the child had grown some more. Mjolnir was looking forwards to the day its new wielder would find out that he could do all of the above, and much more.

Shirou, after getting his head to stop spinning, then searched some more on the internet, but eventually had to call it quits for the day. There really was nothing concrete to be found with the means he had at his disposal. Once again it seemed that for better information, he needed new, better, and more specialised books from the Moonlit World. Rather annoying then that such books were always hard, if not downright impossible to find, as any Magus worth their salt would never willingly part with their priced knowledge.

As for the myths he had found, largely on the internet again, it was nice to know some things he could potentially do now, but all of it was so vague. Then again, expecting detailed descriptions of everything Thor had done in his life was probably too much to ask for, he could acknowledge that. People in that time weren't very literate, and it was over a thousand years ago by now. That coupled with the gods' tendency to not give anything away about their power made for vague stories in the end.

A slight disappointment, but not an insurmountable obstacle. If there were no instructions left for him, he would have to find out for himself then. It would be a tedious task, but the red-haired hero could not deny it filled him with slight anticipation as well. A curious need to discover more about these unknown aspects of himself.

If this was what other Magi felt every time they did research, then perhaps he could understand their drive to reach their goals somewhat better now. Even if many of those Magi went much too far while chasing their dreams. Killing the innocent was never, never acceptable, even if it was an easier way to victory or accomplishments.

Now that he was done with the theoretical part of today's research, even if it hadn't really yielded any concrete results, he was free to move on to the practical side of the matter. After dinner, when Sakura and Fuji-nee would be gone, he would go out to the forest, maybe visit Issei while he was at it, and see for himself what Mjolnir was capable of in a secluded area where no people would show up to interrupt his session.

As expected, the hammer inside of his head could barely suppress its excitement during dinner. Its anticipation and eagerness radiated off it, to the point Shirou himself was influenced by it, making him fidget and shift where he sat, only barely managing to clamp down on the desire to leave for the forest already. Something that was noticed at once by Taiga, who once more showed that she was far more perceptible than most would think.

"Oi, Shirou." She said, looking at him with uncertainty and worry in her gaze. "Are you alright?"

The question was asked out of concern, but Shirou still found he would rather have had that she hadn't spoken to him at all, as he had hoped that his unusual behaviour either would register with the girls, or that they would ignore it. But again, no such luck.

"Ah, yes of course, Fuji-nee." Shirou assured her. "I just find it difficult to find a comfortable position here today." As if. Mjolnir was just being difficult. But he couldn't very well tell Sakura and Taiga that, it would not go over well.

"If you're sure." Taiga said, sounding at least somewhat mollified. Sakura was less so, Shirou noticed, as she kept sending him discreet glances during the whole meal. He made a conscious effort to keep himself still from then on though, so she didn't see anything that could be wrong with her Senpai.

Though he kept smiling serenely on the outside, Shirou was already planning in his mind to give Mjolnir a stern talking to when they were in the forest if it didn't stop radiating excitement like that. It couldn't compromise his control so much when he had company.

As if sensing his intentions, Mjolnir toned down a lot the very next moment, almost appearing sheepish. That was a lot better for the red-haired teen, as he finally settled into a truly comfortable position.

When dinner was over, Shirou's unofficial big (or maybe little) sister and his (according to a certain Tiger) soon-to-be-girlfriend left the estate, promising to be back the next morning. Assuring them one more time that he wasn't training himself too much, as they had been fearing for the entire holiday by now, Shirou then went back inside; Of course, he only stayed there for precisely the amount of time that the girls needed to walk out of sight. The second Taiga had entered her home and Sakura had gone around the corner, Shirou walked out of his house and called Mjolnir to his hand.

Without witnesses around, as it was evening already, and well past dinnertime, Shirou was free to use his hammer's flight-granting ability to shorten his travel time. He had been doing that a lot lately, as it left much more time free for the important things, such as catching criminals, if he shorted his travel-time.

Soaring through the air, he reached the borders of the forest next to the city in mere minutes, if that, as was to be expected, since the forest was at walking distance from his house. Mjolnir could probably have gone a lot faster, but Shirou had set a maximum-speed for himself for now, and he was keeping to it.

As he had planned that afternoon, he first made his way over to the Ryuudou-temple, in order to visit his potential new friend: Ryuudou Issei, the son of the owner of said temple.

The first time the two teens had talked with each other, when Shirou had come by to visit his father's grave, they had gotten along perfectly fine, so they had kept contact ever since. The contact was of course made easier by the fact that Shirou's father laid buried at the temple, which gave the red-haired hero a reason to visit every once in a while.

Arriving at his intended landing spot, Shirou came down on the ground smoothly and softly, soft enough that no ordinary human would ever have been able to perceive the sound he made, even from mere yards away.

He had of course made sure to land a fair distance away from the temple anyway, ensuring no one would see him either or hear him anyway, but landing softly was still the better option. Kiritsugu had not taught him paranoia for nothing after all.

After he'd dismissed the hammer, the rest of the way to the temple was covered by foot.

Arriving at the temple after climbing the long flight of stairs, now feeling the Bounded Field surrounding the place better and clearer than ever, this being the first time he had visited since Mjolnir's arrival, Shirou had an easy time picking out Issei from the present crowd, as the black-haired teen was the only non-adult around at this late an hour. When asked about the other children, Issei had replied he was the oldest, and that the rest had early bedtimes, often leaving him the only child around in the evenings.

Walking over to him, past all the older people who shot him curious glances, Shirou called out a greeting to the one he had come to see.

"Oi, Issei! Over here" He called, in an attempt to draw the teen's attention.

He had not told Issei of this visit in advance, as it had been a spur of the moment decision, so he would have to see whether the other boy was free to talk for a bit. If he was, then they could chat and catch up with each other. If not, then Shirou would have to come back another time to try again.

Shirou assumed his friend would have time to talk though, as Issei always had time to spare for friends. Or at least that was what the young monk always said, and his behaviour until now had not disproven that.

Indeed. Upon looking up from his chore of sweeping the floors at hearing his name called out, Issei gave him a surprised smile as the hard-working teen straightened up his back.

"Good evening Emiya-san. How are you doing this fine evening?" He responded, setting aside his broom for the moment as he turned fully towards Shirou.

"I am well, Issei. Thank you for asking." Shirou replied, crossing the distance between them until there was about two feet between them. "How about yourself? Has anything interesting happened since I last was here? Or do you have anything else you feel the need to tell me?"

"Nothing much had happened, so I do not really have anything to tell you about." Was the calm answer from his friend. "People come and go, everything is nice, peaceful and quiet as it is supposed to be. I did get started on the karate lessons I had been planning to attend, so I suppose that's news."

Shirou smiled at that, as signing up for karate lessons had been something Issei had intended to do for months now, so it was good that he had taken the last step at last. After he had congratulated the young monk with his new hobby, they talked further about topics that interested the two of them. Seeing that both of them were rather mature for their age, they did not talk about games, television shows or the like, but about the recent developments in the city, the upcoming events in the temple, and of course school.

Next year both Shirou and Issei would be progressing to high school. As it turned out, they had both chosen the same school already; that being Homurahara high school. Homurahara had an excellent reputation, being one of the best schools in the city. It was also conveniently located for Shirou and Issei, reachable by foot from Shirou's house and from the temple as well, which was a boon, as the two boys often walked to their destinations, neither of them officially allowed to drive yet. 'Officially' being the keyword for Shirou here.

The discovery of them both going to the same school caused the boys to spend another half an hour talking about the things they expected from Homurahara, as well as discussing any clubs they wanted to sign up for.

Issei wanted to join the Student Council as soon as he could, while Shirou was looking more into kendo and archery. The golden-eyed magus did not doubt that both Issei and he would flourish in their chosen fields, so he had only words of encouragement for the young monk, words said young monk readily returned.

After a while though, the two had to end their conversation, as Issei's father ordered him to continue his chore. Issei himself apologized for cutting their talk short so bluntly, but Shirou didn't mind. Issei simply still had a job to do and he was intruding on it. Issei's father was in the right to send him away, as he was distracting his friend from his work. It was actually quite convenient for the red-haired hero, he had more to do this evening after all.

As he walked out of the temple, down the stairs and out of the Bounded Field, in a firm yet calm stride that covered the distance swiftly but did not give the impression of hasting, Shirou scanned the surrounding area for any place where a lot of lightning, fire, and violence would go unnoticed by the people of the city. Such a spot was not easily found near the town itself though, and he realized he'd have to go deeper into the forest to find such a convenient place.

Continuing his brisk pace until he was well away from the sights of anyone within or around the temple, Shirou mentally made a check-list of things he wanted to test about Mjolnir once he had found a quiet spot for himself. After once more making sure no one was within sight, Shirou summoned Mjolnir from his head and took to the skies again.

Shirou had practiced with his Magecraft in this very same forest before. Those times however he had not gone very far into the woods, as there had been no need to. Reinforcement, Projection and Alteration weren't very flashy or loud skills after all.

This time though, as said before, he was planning to unleash the power of a divine weapon. That would be both flashy and loud, so he'd have to be a great distance away from any kind of civilisation in order to remain undetected. Then he'd cast the Prana-hiding Rune around him, just to be safe, before beginning with his tests. A little paranoid maybe, but the red-haired magus saw no use in taking any kind of risk.

After another few minutes of flying and searching the ground under him, he arrived at a spot that seemed made for the purpose of practicing powerful Thaumaturgy in secret. It was a fairly big clearing, with a small pond next to it. It was very deep into the forest, far away from any official and unofficial paths or living areas. Trees surrounded it on three sides, with the lake bordering it at the West side. The clearing itself was about a hundred yards long and wide at the minimum, so there was plenty of space to move around and cast spells in. There even was a small rock-formation in the middle of the open field, where Shirou could aim his more destructive Magecraft at to see what kind of damage it would do. In the clearing itself was only grass, clover, and a few flowers. No bushes and roots that could potentially be a hindrance to him anywhere in the open space. It was perfect. Almost too perfect.

The golden-eyed magus would have been suspicious that he had stumbled upon a place like this after only a couple of minutes of searching, if it hadn't been for the complete lack of any smell, aura, or visual sign that would indicate the presence, past or present, of anything unnatural. Neither was there any sign of mundane human intervention. He was not completely sure of course, but Shirou was fairly confident in saying this place was created by nature itself, and as such relatively safe for him to use to work on his secret abilities. The only thing that might have convinced him otherwise was the strange crack in the biggest rock of the formation in the middle of the clearing. It was shaped precisely in the form of a capital B. This could just be a natural phenomenon however, so Shirou didn't worry about it too much. If people or beings other than human would come here, he would sense them from miles away and he'd be gone in the blink of an eye.

After he landed in the open place, he did not dismiss Mjolnir this time. He kept it in his hand, lifting it to eyelevel to observe it closely once more. It hadn't changed at all in the past week, but Shirou hadn't expected it to change anyway, so that was okay. Examining it closely like this, he had to admit that the craftsmanship of the hammer was extraordinary; with no sign of damage, lack of maintenance, or even a single mistake during the process of its creation. It was smooth, pristine, powerful as hell, and above all, very much sentient. Its durability must be off the charts as well. Whoever made this weapon must have been an absolute master at forging to be able to create something like this. Absently, Shirou noted it was a little strange he was getting so worked up over the craftsmanship of Mjolnir, but he couldn't help it. He'd always been like that, admiring of the old masters who had crafted weapons with their own hands. Maybe he should try his hand at crafting somewhere in the future, especially forging seemed interesting enough.

Filing it away in his memory, Shirou smiled at the weapon.

"Thank you for your patience, Mjolnir. I know the wait must have been boring for you, but I appreciate that you remained patient until I was ready to start testing my and your capabilities. I suppose the time has come at last, so let's begin."

The weapon gave a hum in response, from which Shirou could decipher two meanings. One that said the hammer was glad to have helped with anything Shirou was doing, even if that meant remaining inside his head for most of the time. The other however said to cut out the mushy stuff and start wielding it properly already.

Electing to stop stalling and listen to the second meaning, Shirou stretched out his right arm, Mjolnir still firmly gripped in that hand, the hammer pointing forwards at a slightly upwards angle. Shirou took a deep breath, and then another one, bringing down the rate at which his heart was beating and making his mind as peaceful as he could.

The red-haired hero then closed his eyes and reached inside himself, into his soul, where the mysterious power laid waiting for his commands, ready to come forth at the slightest of mental nudges. That was good, because tonight, Shirou wanted it to come forth with a vengeance. Mjolnir was aimed at the rocks in the middle of the clearing. With no living creature that might get hurt from the coming violence nearby, now was the time to truly see what the divine tool was capable of in Shirou's hands, even if it was only a glimpse of the weapon's true potential.

Shirou took hold of the power, letting it spread through his entire body, where it once again gave off the pleasant warmth he felt every time he used his Magecraft. Then, when he felt he had a solid handle on the power, he pushed a tiny little bit of it outwards from his right hand, sending it through the hammer, which was still aimed at the rock formation.

A mere week ago, the only thing he could have done was blasting the rocks with raw power, hoping for a good kind of result, as he was unable to make the mysterious power do what he wanted it to do. All that was possible for him back then was to aim for a bit and then pray for the best. But he had learned a great deal in that past week. By now, he had realized the mysterious new power could do many different things depending on what Shirou wanted it to do. It could manifest at as lightning, fire, or just energy. It could empower Runes, and reinforce and improve Bounded Fields. According to Mjolnir, it could do even more than that in the future if Shirou was willing to practice and invest much of his time into it. There was no shortage of possibilities to choose from if Shirou wanted to do damage. The golden-eyed magus however wanted to test one thing before anything else.

Before he would experiment with the more esoteric abilities the hammer could display, he would like to see Thor's most basic attack for himself, a variant of the first spell he had cast using the mysterious power, back on the second night since the one when he had obtained Mjolnir.

He made sure to concentrate hard, directing all of his focus towards shaping the energy, forcing the power to come out in the form he wanted it to. Thor's primary attack; Lightning.

And lightning indeed sprang forth. A full blast of it was fired off from Mjolnir, travelling at insane speeds towards its target, reaching it in milliseconds at most. It was only because of his enhanced speed and perception that Shirou was able to follow its path at all. It was a lightning bolt that would have been right at home in the greatest of thunderstorms. Any mortal standing in its way would be obliterated without a doubt.

The stone that bore the brunt of the attack did not fare much better than said mortal would have. Upon being hit by Shirou's lightning, the rocks at the front of the formation were pulverized, a deep crater struck into the small hill made of stone. Little fragments were being send in all directions from the force of the explosion caused by the sheer power of the attack. Unfortunately, 'all directions' included Shirou's direction.

Stupefied by the sheer destruction he had wrought with only a bit of power, Shirou was too late to lift his hands to protect his face, or generally take any other action to shield his more vulnerable parts against the onslaught of stone fragments coming his way.

Now, if Shirou had only received the hammer, and nothing more, at the beginning of this story, the hail would have been a large problem. However, as you have all read, Thor had seen it fit to send his own essence along with Mjolnir, to be used by the next wielder of the hammer. And when Shirou had picked up the hammer from where it had come down, the essence had been absorbed by him. And though it was still largely unused and dormant, it had by that time already increased the red-haired Magus' durability enough to defend him against simple shards of rock.

The red-haired hero saw and felt to his astonishment that the fragments send at him just bounced off his skin. Fragments that should have torn into his flesh with ease were now being deflected as if they were ping-pong balls thrown by a child.

This would have been understandable if he had been wearing his proven-to-be-bulletproof armour, but he wasn't. He was just wearing normal loose-fitting clothes, the same as he'd worn all day, as he hadn't seen the need to put on his vigilante-apparel for a secret outing with the purpose of training alone. Besides, he could summon his magical armour at any time he wanted, should he ever need it.

The shirt he had on was indeed torn to pieces by the shards, as it was but a mundane shirt of cotton, but his skin was completely unmarred. Shirou mulled this surprising development over in his head for a few moments, unsure what to think of it, before chalking this up as another enhancement granted to him by the divine weapon in his hand. It wasn't that farfetched, seeing that Mjolnir had also improved his strength and speed by a lot. It stood to reason that his durability was included in the list.

Now the matter of the deflected stone fragments had been settled, he continued with his primary objective of the night, that being testing Mjolnir, not himself. He could go over this newly discovered enhancement later this week.

So for now, he would be checking the damage the lightning bolt had done to his targets, instead of examining his skin closer. Walking over to the small hill, Shirou took note of the lack of rocks at the place he had been aiming at. There was only empty space, at a place where he was pretty sure had been rocks only minutes ago, before he had fired the bolt at them.

Well, at least now he knew where the shards had come from.

'To think I completely obliterated them.' He mused to himself, his surprise increasing yet again. 'I guess restraint is going to be even more important from now on, if this is what a tiny bit of power put into the most basic attack in Thor's arsenal is capable of.'

Nodding once, Shirou decided to not let this unexpected development stop him. He would conduct his experiments now and he could work out any surprises and sudden happenings later, when he was back at home. That went for his unexpected durability, the sudden destructive potential of Mjolnir, and everything else he might stumble upon from now on during the testing. Tonight, he would go through a trail run with the hammer. Basically, act now, think later.

And so he did. After having tested his ability to shoot lightning out of his hammer, Shirou moved on to the usage of simple brute force. Thor was said to have been able to create valleys and break mountains with his punches alone, and Shirou wondered whether he had received a bit of that enormous strength. He hadn't thought so in the beginning, believing he had just been enhanced a bit, but seeing for himself that he had increased durability, as well as having Mjolnir's word to the contrary, made him think twice about that.

Just to experiment, he put Mjolnir aside for a moment, drew back his fist again, and then punched the rocks in front of him with said bare fist, all of his not-inconsiderable strength put behind that one blow.

That one blow proved enough to shatter the boulder he had chosen to punch, proving to Shirou once more that calm taps were the absolute maximum of what he could dish out when fighting mundane criminals. His fist had broken the stone as easily as if it were a breadstick. Even with reinforcement, he wouldn't have been able to do such a thing so easily before. It was amazing.

Picking up Mjolnir again, Shirou moved towards another boulder, planning to test the strength of the strikes he could deliver when using Mjolnir as it was meant to be used, as a hammer. So without further ado, he swung the hammer leisurely, not seeing any reason to put much strength behind it for now, aimed right at the poor rock in front of him, suspecting it too would shatter into pieces upon being hit by the weapon, just like the other boulders had shattered when hit by his lightning and his fists.

'BOOM'

And as it turned out, the rock did in fact shatter. And so did most of the boulders surrounding it. Oh, and the ground cratered as well, cracks appearing in a circle with Mjolnir at the very center. The earth also literally dented, as if another rock weighing ten tons had dropped there from fifty miles high.

Yet another mind-blowing testament to his strength, but Shirou did not stop to stare and gape, as he would have done normally. He did not have the time to waste on that, as he wanted to get at least the simplest techniques done with. Preferably before the hour grew too late.

Next up was the hammer throw. Mjolnir had shown him enough images of the procedure to know how he was supposed to execute such a technique. As such, he drew back his arm, aimed for the pond next to the clearing, and threw the hammer with all of his might. The reason he had chosen the pond to aim at was because the water would absorb most of the force behind Mjolnir quite efficiently without there being overly much destruction.

Still, the result of casting a divine weapon at a simple lake turned out to be quite noticeable and apparent. The explosion of force at the point of contact between the hammer and the lake's surface sent half of the water flying thirty feet up in the air. It also made the lakeshore nearest to the place where Mjolnir had hit crumble like a dry cake. This was because the throw had caused a small Earthquake to occur around the place of impact.

Now the hammer laid at the bottom of the pond. Not fancying a swim at the moment, the golden-eyed magus then held out his open hand and, in accordance with the divine weapon's instructions, called Mjolnir back him;

"Mjolnir! To me!"

The command could of course have been given mentally, but Shirou just wanted to vocalize it since it was the first time he had used the technique, it also sounded pretty cool. He would definitely shout out something like that if he wanted to make a good impression in a fight. Maybe he could use those catchphrases he had floating around in his head somewhere in the future as well?

A scant few seconds later, Mjolnir had returned to him, as had been commanded. The hammer burst forth from the lake, flying towards its wielder at a speed comparable to the speed it had been thrown with a minute earlier. Shirou however had no problem at all catching the weapon and absorbing the force behind it.

Upon feeling Mjolnir's handle securely in his hand again, Shirou lifted the hammer and used it to draw the Rune of fire in the air, making sure to point it upwards so he wouldn't burn down the forest, or himself.

It was a good thing he had chosen to do so, for the fire storm that roared into existence at the completion of the Rune would have turned the forest into an inferno right away if it had been aimed at the treeline. Even aimed towards the sky it was almost enough to set fire to Shirou's surroundings through sheer heat alone.

Despite the risk of immolation through forest fire though, not that it was a real risk of course, he was both reasonably fire-proof and he could fly away at any time, Shirou felt a grin come to his face. All of this power, of which he had been using mere drops, was now at his disposal. Being a hero had never been this close for him. Soon, he would be able to go out and help people, to actually save everyone, as he had promised both himself and his dad.

For now though, he needed to sit down for a bit.

The excitement and extensive power use of the last few minutes were catching up to him, as he had used more of the mysterious power in these few minutes than he had during the instances of the past week combined. He had to rest for a few moments, to catch his breath. Though what he had done wasn't very draining or exhausting, as he had been keeping it relatively calm and easy, this was still the most power he had ever channeled in such a short time, even when taking the years before Mjolnir into account. That coupled with the constant shock he felt at the scope and intensity of his powers did take a lot out of him.

He was very satisfied with the results though. As said before, being a Hero of Justice had become an attainable goal for him now, instead of only a distant dream.

Okay, admittedly, it had always been an attainable goal, as he would have worked, trained, and struggled, until he had become a hero, but now he could almost say he already was a Hero of Justice. All thanks to Mjolnir.

Grinning down at the weapon still held in his hand, he praised it in a soft voice, yet with an undertone that belied his satisfaction: "This is awesome, Mjolnir. I still do not know why you choose me of all people, but I will strive to be worthy of wielding you. That I guarantee."

Then, after hesitating for a few seconds, he continued, his voice lowering even more, as he almost looked away from the hammer in demureness. He would now ask a question he had been walking around with since the beginning, and he had to admit the answer unnerved him:

"Do you know, perhaps, what Thor would have thought of me?"

It might not actually be all that important what the opinion of hammer's previous wielder would have been, but seeing that he was using Thor's weapon and power now, he still wanted to know if the god would have approved of both his actions until now and of his plans for the future.

After he'd asked his question, the hammer remained silent at first, though Shirou could feel it having an internal debate with itself.

Eventually, the hammer seemed to come to a decision, as the debate stopped. The first thing the divine tool did then was send him an image, of Shirou himself laying against a tree at the edge of clearing.

It appeared that Mjolnir wanted him to sit down for this.

Seeing no problem with that, as he had been planning to take some rest anyway, Shirou turned around on the spot, walked to the edge of the open field, and then sat down against a tree, leaning back against it. In this position, he was looking at the sky, filled with stars, far more than he could have seen from inside the city.

Air pollution was such a terrible thing. All pollution was horrendous, period. It was one of the main causes for Gaia to try and extinguish humanity in fact, as it was one of the ways humans were rapidly destroying Earth as it was now. Shirou actually wondered what Gaia was thinking right now. Murderous thoughts? Regretful thoughts? Was she suffering?

...

Discarding the morose train of thought that had sprung up from the depths of his mind, Shirou focused on his surroundings again. It was very peaceful here, despite the immense violence just displayed by him in the near vicinity.

It was quite relaxing to sit down like this as well, but he still had something to do. Mjolnir must have ordered him to sit down for a reason, so he redirected his attention towards the mighty weapon he held in his right hand.

"Is there anything you wish to show me?" He asked, no hesitation in his voice. If he had to sit down before Mjolnir would take actions, then it was probably the case that the hammer had something to say. It probably wanted to tell him something, something big.

A feeling of agreement came from Mjolnir, followed by a sudden harsh thrum that took Shirou by surprise somewhat. The thrum soon ceased however, and the hammer went still again. It didn't last though, as sparks of lightning started to dance over the hammer's surface and the inscription on the side lit up blue. And then, without further warning, a tidal wave of information flooded Shirou's mind.

It was far too much information at once to be able to remember it all, or even most of it. The largest part of the info just slipped his mind again. Yet, Shirou saw and remembered enough to get at least somewhat of a coherent picture of what he was now being shown.

It was someone's life he was seeing, that much he could determine from it. And not just any life of any random being, living a comfortable eighty-years long life. This was the life of a god, a life lasting thousands of years.

He saw a young boy, full of dreams of glory and righteous battle, wanting to protect and save as many people as he could. A dream supported by his mother and approved of by his father. He watched as the boy grew older, gaining a new brother and many friends, but forgetting himself in battle-lust and the need for mere glory as opposed to saving and serving the masses.

He could see the boy being punished for his hubris by his father, how it humbled him and brought him back on the right path, the man once more remembering who he truly was. He saw the man make more friends, find enemies, and gain fond memories of them all.

Shirou saw the man experience happiness and hope, sadness and loss, grief and despair. The man lost many things, coming close to losing it all, but he persisted and fought for what was right, at the side of those who were his family. He saw how the tenaciousness brought the man supreme power, used only to protect and save.

Shirou realized this could only be Thor himself he was seeing. Thor, who had not given up even when all seemed eternally bleak and dark at once. Even when everything around him came apart at the seams, Thor held on to what was right, he fought, and eventually, he won.

Shirou did not see much of the ending of Thor's life, but he could feel, somehow, through Mjolnir, that it had been a happy ending. Just like the Odinson had deserved at the end of the long road he had traveled to become as great a man as he could be.

Shirou must have sat there for at least an hour, and still he had seen only flashes and shards of the total memories of the hero that had wielded Mjolnir before him. Very low on details, it did not give Shirou anything new to work with in training. It had been more of a set of emotions and learning processes than actual words and images really. He had seen only Thor, not the friends and enemies Thor had made and not the locations where Thor had been in his life. Mjolnir had only conveyed great moments and happenings, not things useful for training or even any real information about Thor.

Instead, it had given him something far better. It had shown him the sheer conviction and tenaciousness that Thor had possessed, the drive he'd had to improve himself ever more in order to protect everyone and everything around him. It had shown him that heroes could in fact have a happy ending where they saved everyone.

Seeing the extent of Thor's heroics, how he saved people everywhere and under any circumstances, made Shirou realize he was being very short-sighted in his own actions. He had limited himself to the small gangs of Fuyuki-City, never going beyond the borders, never even thinking about going further than just his home-town. He had received a divine weapon and he was only using it to hammer in nails, so to speak.

That did not mean of course that stopping and apprehending the gangs was an unworthy pursuit, it was more that the red-haired hero had not made any plans beyond that, for when all the gangs had been stopped. A big oversight on his part really. What had he been planning to do after defeating all gangs in the city? Just hang around waiting for more of them to come to him?

Even before Mjolnir had arrived he had been making plans about stepping up his game, about entering the Moonlit World even. Why had he not developed those plans further with the new additions to his arsenal? He could now see that just staying in Fuyuki-city was an enormous waste of his potential. It seemed that receiving the hammer had made him lax in his ambitions, too distracting from the planning that had been drilled into him by his father. There were many more people to save everywhere around the world, they were just waiting for him. And not only in Fuyuki-city were enemies to defeat.

There were more gangs to stop in other cities, criminal king-pins to catch, kidnapped people to save, fights between opposing factions to break up. And that was only in the Mundane World.

Yes, Shirou had now seen that his insistence to not get involved with the Moonlit World for the coming years was contrary to his dream to save all. There were so many people to save and true monsters to battle in that facet in the world, and he, Emiya Shirou, would no longer stand aside. He had had a reason to not get involved yet, as he hadn't been strong enough, but he didn't have that excuse anymore.

He would get stronger, master the abilities he had gotten from Mjolnir and unlock new ones. Before Mjolnir had arrived, he had been training himself to the absolute maximum with the little amount of talent he had. There was no reason to stop doing so now that he had more power than he could have ever dreamed. He would be the best he could, not allowing himself to slacken.

He knew it would be a while before he was mighty enough to truly make a difference, to successfully save all people involved, but that didn't matter at this moment. Even if he could only save one person for now, that would be worth it. Not that he intended to be satisfied with only that of course.

He had seen it in Thor's memories; it was in fact possible to save everyone. All it took was tenaciousness and power in great quantities. The first of those he had always had and the second he would obtain soon when mastering Mjolnir. No more excuses, it was time to go forth and accept the responsibility that came with the power.

It was his duty to save people. He had to do so. He, Emiya Shirou, who had been saved were everyone else died a horrible death. He had had no right to live on, it was only sheer coincidence that had led Kiritsugu to him. He was guilty of abandoning them all, when he walked passed the other victims to live a moment longer. There was no reason why it had been him that survived, but he would work as hard as he could to redeem himself for his sins.

But his question had not been answered yet. He had asked Mjolnir what the Thor of Mjolnir's world would have though of him had the god been able to see him. The weapon had responded with the memories, but could he really draw a conclusion from those?

An amused hum at his side gave the answer. He had already thought so based on the fragments of memory, and the hammer itself confirmed it once and for all now.

Thor would have been proud of him.

Shirou rose the hand holding Mjolnir in the sky, in both a firm pledge to be the very best he could be, and in an attempt to unleash a technique he had seen Thor use in the memories, the last thing he would try today. He channelled the mysterious power through the hammer, calling upon it to create that what was always associated with Thor, that what Shirou had always admired ever since he was young.

A thunderstorm.

And before his eyes, as he channelled more and more of the power, massive, dark thunderclouds gathered overhead. The wind picked up, blowing through the clearing with great force. And as Shirou kept adding power to the storm, rain began pouring down, soaking everything in sight.

The wind began spiraling, taking the clouds with it in its path, with Shirou in the very eye of the storm. Said storm, though not spread over a large area, was raging and powerful, the gales of wind now tearing the branches of the trees.

And in the middle of it all, Shirou stood, proudly upright with Mjolnir still pointed to the sky. Then, as a coup de grace, lightning came down from the clouds, striking Mjolnir and going through it to Shirou, flooding his body with its power.

Yet Shirou was not hurt by the lightning, he was only empowered by it. Lightning was a part of him now, it could never hurt him, only strengthen him. As lightning bolt after lightning bolt came down on him in a display that would have baffled even the greatest of Magi, Shirou suddenly realized one very important thing.

'I forgot to draw the magic-supressing Runes.'

Indeed, in his eagerness to begin experimenting, he had completely passed up on making sure no traces of his magic use would be apparent. He had just started experimenting right away without remembering to hide himself and his magic from anyone outside of the clearing.

The wind fell down immediately at that, and Shirou just stood there, feeling very idiotic altogether. Now everyone with some potential in Magecraft in the near vicinity, including Tohsaka, would have felt him doing all of this.

A great oversight, and a source of embarrassment for the teen, but no fatal mistake just yet. There was no one around after all, and he had not used Prana here today.

If he had used Prana, forgetting the Runes would have been disastrous, but he hadn't. He had used the mysterious power, and from own experience, he knew it was still far enough removed from the normal powersource that there was a rather large chance that most people would actually write this off as 'just a strange happening'.

At least, Shirou hoped they would.

Still, he would have to remember drawing the Runes next time he did something like this. Especially if he was ever going to use magic while actually being near civilisation.

Redirecting his attention towards the lightning after committing his own advice to memory, Shirou felt a small grin come to his face. Really, he had been smiling and grinning more in the past week than he'd had in years.

"Mjolnir." He began, feeling he should make this moment somewhat more memorable, and wanting to make a promise to the hammer. "Once more I thank you for choosing me for the honour of wielding you. I promise you that I will not squander the power. I will get stronger and wiser, until I can make my dream come true. I will protect all those around me, I will fight against evil, and one day…

…I will save everyone!"

And with those words, a massive thunderclap filled the sky, a lightning bolt of epic proportions striking directly into Mjolnir from the highest of the heavens. And as the golden-eyed soon-to-be-god took towards the sky, a great Being, present yet not at the same time, felt pride fill its old heart.


And done.

Well then, that was hard. I wanted to introduce Shirou to Thor, so our favourite hero and third-rate magus could see for himself what kind of god he was. It was difficult however to convey that information without showing Shirou too much. I didn't want him to know about the other universes yet, or about the numerous aliens, or the cosmic Multiversal beings that are so widespread through the Omniverse, or about Thor not being a god, but more of a highly evolved alien. So I tried to do it this way, with mainly emotions and small shards of memory being shown, but I don't know if it's any good. Your thoughts?

Of course, if you think this was all nonsense and annoying, feel free to call it as such, but take from it that Shirou's ambitions are now higher than before and he knows a bit more about Thor.

Shirou has now been spurred on to undertake some real action. I wanted to make clear that it really was a change of minds for him to go from 'slight beginnings with heroics' to 'let's save all the people world-wide'. So I wrote the turning point for him and let him train with Mjolnir for a bit. Perhaps I can now start going through everything faster without having to explain a lot of trivia, but no promises.

Our favourite hero won't go full Rune-King Thor anytime soon though, that would make for a boring story. So no brawls with Primate Murder or ORT the next chapter, that will occur somewhere in the future. Not sure when precisely.

I also started an arc in the beginning of the chapter, with the whole criminals smelling like magic business. That should occupy some time, allow Shirou to get some real battle experience and will show him what a monumental task it is to save everyone. Oh, and it will have a magical ending.

I hope I can have a moment soon where I make Shirou realize that bad guys are sometimes beyond saving, but as he is still a young Shirou now, he'll be trying to save those guys too. I hope to change that very fast though, in this arc if possible.

And yes, I am planning to have Shirou save Sakura before the Grail War, but it can't be now, he has to learn some cleansing magic first and get powerful enough to kill Zouken quickly, efficiently and completely. He is well on his way though, and it shouldn't be very long now.

And I have one more question. Should I include Gaia herself in this story? And if yes, how? As an antagonist? An antagonist that becomes a good girl when realizing that Shirou is now sort of her son and can help her a great deal? (remember here that the Odin Force/Shirou Force can also fix planets rather easily. Cleaning up pollution and bringing back forests and all that should be no problem for a Skyfather from Marvel.) Maybe I should make her a mother hen from the beginning?

I myself am leaning towards the second option if I have her appear at all.

Keep in mind here though that even as full-on antagonist Gaia can't do much to or against Shirou, as the Beyonder and the Living Tribunal are still keeping a close eye on things after all.

Ted says goodbye for now.

Edited later for better flow and choice of words.