Updating the School?
I don't know. Is my muse here?
As far as the questions, I'll try to answer some in the chapter below, but those that I cannot without breaking the 4th wall, I'll talk about it at the end.
Shirou stared down at his sword.
This sword which lay before him in his laps was the one hundredth eleventh sword that he had created with his forging skills and his Blood Magic.
It was also the first sword that he had infused malicious intent into.
The sword looked plain like anything else he had created before. Forged into a class of swords that are called zweihander, it was a longsword that was taller than he was.
Into this sword, Shirou forced into it his bloodthirst.
Now, to say that he was a bloodthirsty man would be saying that the Earth had three moon; it wasn't true. However, all men and women are capable of being bloodthirsty. Shirou merely worked himself up using fictional images and allowing his body to react naturally as possible.
Into the sword, he bestowed it a single concept.
"Anything this blade cuts rots."
He had already tested it upon several things. Wood, bricks, and even fire.
Wood rotted away where it was cut. Brick turned to dust where it was pierced. Fire died when it touched the blade.
And now, after all of the testing was done, Shirou found himself scared with his own creation.
He didn't revel in the fact that his sword was capable of reaching the heights of Noble Phantasm in the right hands or that he had been the one to create such a sword.
Nay, he was scared of the fact that it was possible for his own family to be targeted by his own blades. That his swords could be turned to be used against his family.
He stared at his blade, the Rotting Sword, and thought.
'I have to protect my family from my own blades.'
He sat there for a while before he decided to follow through with that thought.
He stood up and placed the Rotting Sword upon the anvil.
He was going to reforge every single one of his swords until he could place the concept of "no harm to Emiya Alliance" into every single one of them.
It was the fourth day after Shirou made such a decision that the rest of the family found him.
On the third day, Shirou had collapsed from tirednes, and it wasn't the fourth day that he was found by the rest of the family.
When asked, he would only reply by saying that he was doing what he should've done, and went right back to work.
This time, though, Tamamo stood by his side and made sure he slept and ate.
Illyasviel on Einzbern, or rather now called Illyasviel Emiya by the rest of the Emiya Alliance, worked on improving herself as well.
While Shirou spent weeks fixing what he considered to be one of his biggest mistakes, Ilya enjoyed learning new magecraft and wizard magic.
She improved upon the wire magecraft. Now, we can create constructs bigger than herself, but she still needed to work on her constructs durability.
She just got herself a wizard's wand, because she didn't know how to make a mystic code specific to wizard's magical core. She would learn about that later.
So far, though, she was finding out that wizard's magic was different from a magus magecraft.
Magus magecraft took a lot of power and very little control. Comparably, all of the wizard magic spells took much more control and a lot less power.
She was by no means straining herself. Hell, she couldn't get herself to strain after casting the most "powerful" 1st year charms over and over again for an entire day!
However successful she may have been for a few days, Ilya failed spectacularly on her fifth day.
Deciding that she was hampered by the fact that wizards weren't the most creative bunch and were very slow on creating new spells, she decided to create her own spell after seeing how easy it was to cast wizarding magic spells.
She had a goal in her mind. She was going to create a spell that would implement the design within her mind's blueprint onto fabric in real life.
All she got in return was an explosion.
"KKYYAAHH!"
Another failure. That was the fifth explosion.
Kiritsugu listened to the sounds of metal beating on metal and of explosions throughout the house.
He sipped his tea before sighing.
They needed to move fast before this cabin was blown away by either Ilya's explosions or burned by the fires of Shirou's forge.
Ding dong
Kiritsugu set his newspaper down and stood up from his rocking chair. 'I wonder who it is this early in the morning,' he thought to himself as he walked over to the door.
He opened it.
To his surprise, it was the Matou girl that he saw several times in Fuyuki City. The one that liked to follow Shirou around in the mundane school when Shirou attended the high school in question for a short period of time.
Wasn't she the Matou heir? Zouken would never let his heir be so far away from him, so why was she here...?
His eyes widened in realization and he jumped back. "Sab-!"
Another woman just popped her head out, and Sakura waved. This caused Kiritsugu to stop even as Saber rushed into the entrance of the Emiya Cabin with her armor on and her sword in her hands.
"Hi," she smiled. "We're not here to fight."
Saber raised an eyebrow and looked to Kiritsugu for orders.
In the end, Kiritsugu allowed them entry to his home, but told the duo that their presence was to be limited to the living room, which they agreed to.
With all of the Emiya Alliance servants in the room along with Shirou and Rin, Kiritsugu was ready to explain what happened in the Fifth Holy Grail War.
"I assume you are Rider and Sakura here is your Master?" Kiritsugu asked.
Sakura nodded even as Rider took a sip of the tea that Shirou and Tamamo had prepared for them.
It was an excellent tea.
Sakura took a sip as well before she set the teacup down and looked at Kiritsugu in the eyes.
"Wait, but I killed that blue haired kid," Assassin, aka Kakashi Hatake, said as he raised his hand without taking his eye off of his "novel."
Sakura's smile brightened. "Then I have you to thank for killing off that useless son of a bitch. Thank you," she thanked sincerely.
"Umm, right. Sure," he replied.
"Matou-san," Kiritsugu spoke up. "Why are you here?"
Sakura smiled again. "To marry Shirou."
A spit-take.
Shirou gawked at Sakura with a heavy blush.
Tamamo glared at Sakura.
Sakura just smiled.
"...Would you mind explaining?" Kiritsugu asked after he dropped his face into his waiting hands.
"I've always admired senpai" was the start. The explanation ended with "...that's why I decided to follow him and marry him."
It took her an hour to reach that conclusion.
By the end of it, Shirou looked very embarrassed, Tamamo nodded in agreement with Sakura's reasoning, and a blushing Rin realized that Emiya's were blessed with rather large dicks.
A ten-incher? Dear lord, that was extremely long for an Asian!
"Dad, when's dinner?!" Harry shouted as he ran into the living room. Then he spotted Rider and Sakura. "Ah! Candy lady!"
Out of nowhere, Sakura pulled out a small pouch of candies, and before anyone could object, Harry took the candies and were eating right in front of them.
"Harry, you're not supposed to eat candies before dinner," Tamamo chastised.
Harry pouted after swallowing his third mochi.
"What are you doing here, candy lady?" he asked Sakura, changing the topic as bluntly as one would strike a hammer.
"I'm here to marry your older brother. We talked about this before, yes?" she smiled as she raised up a finger.
Harry blinked. "I thought you were joking, candy lady!"
"You knew about this, Harry?" Shirou muttered. "No, why am I questioning this? Harry knows about everything."
Sakura chuckled, ignoring Shirou's resigned form. "I wasn't joking. Why else would I be here?"
"Does this mean I get to eat candy everyday?"
"Well... probably not. You would have to eat regular food before candies."
"But you just gave me candy!"
"Today's an exception. I did promise to give you more candy next time I saw you, right?"
"You did," he said as he nodded. "...Then are you going to be my sister-in-law?"
"Exactly!"
"Do I get a say in this?" Shirou asked weakly, too resigned and tired from all of the bomshells he'd been receiving the past hour or so and the fact that he was still tired from five or so hours of merciless blacksmithing.
""No,"" Sakura and Harry replied at the same time without even looking at him.
He dropped his head in dejection.
In the end, on May 11th, 2007, Sakura Matou and her Servant Rider joined the Emiya Alliance.
They were pretty shocked to find out that Rider was Medusa.
With the failure of being unable to oust the Clock Tower magi, the Dark Lord Magnus lost a significant amount of his support among the purebloods and his other supporters. However, this is not to say that he was completely without support or that he lost more than a quarter.
In fact, his bold attack upon the Clock Tower magi has resulted in his loss of pureblood supporters with recruitment of angry wizards and witches who had once suffered at the hands of the magi. Their numbers swelled his ranks considerably.
Perhaps this had been his plan all along.
The unaccounted for fourth party to the four way struggle for the Wizarding England: the Magus Victims.
The first party were the Purebloods.
The second party were the Lights.
The third party were the Neutrals, or the Moderates.
And the last party, the Magus Victims. They were wizards and witches who had suffered at the hands of the magi, but the lack of action from any of the wizarding governments had caused them to disassociate themselves from their own government. Before today, they lived in secluded communities of their own, festering in their own pity, anger, and hate.
Dark Lord Magnus' bold attack on the Clock Tower magi had drawn this untouched pool of manpower and leaders into his ranks.
While this party was not significant in size or skill, they easily replaced all of the deserters and more.
This also had unexpected consequences of its own.
The moderates, seeing that the Dark Lord was becoming too strong within the Witengamot to fight on their own, joined the Lights on the political stage.
There was now a clear divide between the active wizards and witches of the wizarding England, an "us or them" situation that split the entire nation in half.
Meanwhile, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore saw Harry Potter's name on the list of upcoming students and nodded happily.
Back in Emiya Cabin, two months had passed since Sakura and Rider joined the ranks of Emiya Alliance and Emiya family.
Just as she said when she first came in, she was still in love madly with Shirou.
This, of course, made her a rival to Tamamo.
Tamamo did not consider as such. While the purple haired girl was good at housekeeping, her own brand of magecraft, and oh so perfect massaging, she was still just another girl.
Tamamo was much more than that. She was a piece of a deity, she shared with Shirou his own magic, which was used to bring her back to life, and she had definitely been more proactive in her approach to him than Sakura ever had!
But still, Tamamo was a woman from medieval Japan, even before the turbulent times of Sengoku Jidai.
She was a woman who had come to accept early in her life that men of high quality ... liked having more than just one wife. It was a general trait that the human species had.
Tamamo was willing to accept that Sakura would one day become Shirou's wife just as she would be, but there was no way in hell she would let Sakura become the First Wife!
Shirou didn't get a say in this.
Oh, he grew to love both Tamamo and Sakura in the two months. They loved him, and he couldn't help but love them back when they were so adamant and expressive.
Such was love.
But still, he would appreciate it if he got a say in it!
Harry didn't care. Candy lady gave him candies, and that was that.
Ilya didn't care. "Candy lady" gave her candies too, and that was that.
Kiritsugu really appreciated the massages. While Avalon kept him from aging, it did not help him with his already existing phantom back problems and tense neck muscles after hours of paperwork.
Vlad liked the new brew of teas she brought, although he was still more partial towards Tamamo's cooking.
Berserker didn't care. He was a Berserker, not a cuisine critique.
Artur-Lily- just appreciated the fact that there were more capable chefs in the family.
Kakashi didn't care. Food was food, and the two new girls didn't appreciate his literature like the rest of the family. No changes.
Archer was fine with everything as well, although his reason may be different from everyone else.
Rin was just happy her sister was with her now rather than forbidden to converse with her as she had been before under Matou's thumb.
The fact that Sakura brought Matou family tomes was just a bonus.
But ...
But ...
But ...!
There was someone that did not appreciate Sakura's presence, but that's a story for another time, for while that someone did not appreciate her presence, that someone was willing to tolerate her. For now.
At the end of that second month, Kiritsugu managed to find a new recruit for the Emiya Alliance.
This person was neither magus nor wizard.
Neither a Dead Apostle nor a human.
Neither a deity nor of Gaia.
He was taller than Shirou and Kiritsugu, but no taller than Berserker by any means. The boy was still two heads shorter than Berserker.
He had orange hair and numerous scars along his body. He held within his hand a very big butcher sword.
And he appeared out of nowhere and dropped onto their cabin's poor porch in a bloody mess!
Kiritsugu made sure to curse Zelretch and give him a mean phone call.
Who else would drop a Japanese shinigami on their doorstep?
The Afterlife Outside of Akasha
It exists, I'll tell you that. The Biblical God, who is the progenitor of the magecraft used by both Mage's Association and Holy Roman Catholic Church, indeed has a heaven for those who believe and live in his way. Buddha's cycle of reincarnation exists, although this cycle of reincarnation runs too closely to the Root's own cycle that there is little to no distinction between the two.
In America, Biblical God and the shamanisitc afterlife guides are the most powerful. In Europe, Middle East, and many parts of Asia and Africa, the former dominates like nothing else.
But about about the rest?
In Japan, the Soul Reapers, or shinigamis in Japanese language, dominate the flow of life for those who believe, even slightly, in the Shinto religion, which is kind of funny considering that they are completely out of place religion-to-reality wise.
In Central Africa, the "Warring Spirit Tribes" dominate the afterlife. They are ...
None of you saw that coming. Anyway, did you enjoy it?
whitedorumon:
Yeah, that was a grammatical error on my part :P
To everyone:
I suppose the magi in this world that I created are a bit more lax than those in the canon.