DISCLAIMER
The following is a fan-based
FICTION
F/SN, F/Z, F/KPI and other products related to the Fate Series are all owned by TYPE-MOON, Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi.
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Chapter 11: Memories of Flames
Shirou woke up with a start.
Darkness had completely taken over the room and Shirou felt claustrophobic at the realisation that he had woken up somewhere else than his hotel room.
The first clue was that under him he could feel a bed of hay, the second hint come as quickly as the former as shackles were blocking his hands together.
Screams and yells were possible to hear in the background as the door opened forcedly.
An alarm rang in his mind as the intruder had armour, elmets and lance akin to a medieval knight.
"It's your moment to die, witch!" His words felt foreign to Shirou, yet surprisingly those came easy to understand.
Seeing Shirou not moving, the Knight grew impatient and harshly pulled the young Emiya from his arm.
The hallways were illuminated by torches but it was still dim to the Gamer's eye.
Finally the man pushed a door open and pulled Shirou out of the structure.
Covering his eyes as they adjusted to the sun rays, Shirou looked at the group of people on the side of the road.
Not a single person showed positive emotions, they all ranged from anger to greed.
Few letters appeared in front of him as he was pushed to walk through the road.
Rouen, English-controlled France, 1431
The more Shirou walked, the more he felt sweat forming in his forehead.
Something was wrong.
His paranoia worsened as at the end of the street he sighted a pile of wood planks.
Roughly, he was pushed in the only vertical plank and his hands were tied around it.
A masked man walked in front of him, holding in his hand a torch.
"This shall be your punishment for your heretic ways, you witch!"
Shirou's yells died in his throat as the fire started consume his body.
-flames tinged his clothes- He could feel the heat, IT WAS REAL -the voice telling him to give up and surrender to the pain- an horrible pain echoed in his body -eyes started to close, unable to keep up with so many painful sensations- Please! Someone! - It's all over now.
Before blanking out a feminine voice, broken and tired, asked.
"Why did you abandoned me, God?"
Shirou jumped out of his bed and, looking left and right, he recognised he was back in his hotel room.
To avoid any weird situations, Sella had ordered for him to have a room only for him as a mean to "avoid any disgusting behavior towards Illya."
Lowering his head in the pillow, Shirou started to breath more slowly and so started to calm down.
W-What had just happened?!
It was the first time he experienced something like this and it had painfully reopened memories he would have preferred to have sealed away forever.
A blue box appeared in front of him and he froze.
[Synchronization of Class: Avenger completed!]
Several connections related to the newly-aquired Avenger Card have permitted the Synchronization of Avenger's abilities.
Skills Unlocked:
[Fire Manipulation] (LVL. 1/100 Exp 0%): Fire is one of the strongest elements existing. Being touched by the darkest of the fire and Synchronized with Jeanne's (Alter) peculiar affinity to the element, you are now able to use the following attacks:
1) Fire Manipulation: Fireball! A small fireball; DMG 20, Crit 50!
2) Fire Manipulation: Wall of Flames! A defensive Fire spell; Drain 2MP per minute; DEF 10.
As Shirou finished reading the text, a warm sensation started to spread in his left arm.
Slowly, his head turned to the cause of this new feeling and his eyes widened as he saw his arm now had a magma-like appearance.
...
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"That was.. interesting."
While comunication between Servants and Shirou was possible only using the Mystic Hero form, the group of heroes and anti-heroes were still capable of seeing what their owner was doing.
"I-I think that was outright scary, Jeanne-san." Atalanta stuttered as she tried to not explode upon the laughing Saber.
"Hehehehehe. I-I-It was extremely funny, Atalanta. Hehehehehe."
Mordred's voice was muffled by her own laughs as she continued to stare at the funny scare the young Emiya had just experienced.
"I don't know why but it oddly terrify me the sight of fire in the hand of someone so much young."
Balilla patted the shivering Caligula. "Don't worry, Berserker-kun. Shirou is capable of using this new power." She turned to the smiling Avenger to whisper "Am I right?"
Jeanne merely continued to smile at the panicked look of her new interest.
Yes, she thought, she was going to enjoy this situation the most possible!
Diamond stared nervously at an heavily restrained Ruby as Sapphire assured him of his safety.
"Ruby-neechan is not going to free herself anytime soon, Otouto."
"B-But-!" "But nothing, Diamond. It is time to face your fears and confront Ruby."
The three Mystic Codes had found haven in an unused room of the hotel.
Diamond and Sapphire were sitting in an old sofa while Ruby was stuck in a small cage in the table in front of the two.
"Let me out! Mine is a mission of love!" A series of consecutive hits started to move a little the small, boxy cage but the trap held together at the relentless assault from the Kaleidostick.
Diamond stared a minute at the moving cage before returning to face his sane big sister.
"Ok, did that, CAN I GO NOW, Sapphire-neechan?!"
She seems to think deeply before saying something that made the Kaleidoband pale.
"Why, Diamond-kun, wouldn't you like to stay with your Oneechan a little longer?"
Slowly Diamond started to back away from his big sister as she seemed to be looking at him quite intensely.
"You are the only male-like Mystic Code I ever met and I feel myself compelled to experiment in a relationship with you, Otouto."
She moved a bit closer... "Sapphire-chan, don't steal Diamond-kun from me!"
The kaleidoband sweatdropped at the horrible predicament he had just been trapped into.
"I-I don't want to pursue this kind of relationship, neechan.."
Sapphire merely giggled at the now shivering Mystic Code.
"Who ever told you that you had to consent for this experiment?"
Shaking his head and backing away even more, Diamond found himself at the end of the sofa.
"Please Diamond-kun, let Sapphire-neechan help you with your problems."
Diamond wanted to scream but no words left his mouth and soon started to brace himself as Sapphire prepared to pounce on him.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The familiar scream seemed to surprise the two and with a final hit Ruby tackled her twin away from the sofa with a battlecry. "DIAMOND-KUN!"
Without hesitation, the Kaleidoband took advantage of the brawl between the two Kaleidostick to run away from the room and possibly back to Shirou to try and discover what had happened.
Today he had discovered that his family was crazier than he thought possible...
AN
Another Exam passed with excellent grades!
Also I wanted to ask you all if you actually disliked last chapter as I received the lowest feedback in a while.
Anyway let's move to the Review Q&A!
MWkillkenny84: Possibly. I mean, the plot of the spinoff is similar but I would say that there are some major and radical differences, like the death of one of the main characters in Past Mistakes-! Whoopsie! Also no, the antagonist is inspired by another character.
AmethystPone: Surprised at the effort put in those questions. Alas, GODSPEED!
1) The Grail needs to be active to summon a Servant. Or Shirou would have summoned Arturia way before FSN Canon Timeline;
2) I fancy myself a comedian once in a while :)
3) Dead Apostle are those that fall in the Vampiric Genre, different from classic Vampires. Also no, Moon Vampires are True Ancestors only as they were the original Dead Apostle. Example Nrvnqsr Chaos is a Dead Apostle in Tsukihime, yet he was human earlier in his life; My excuse for Zolgen being classified as Dead Apostle as he fit in the category. He prolongs his lifespan by draining his own family members of their Od via his worms. It is never stated when Zouken decided to put much of his soul in Sakura and so I used this little opening to say 'He does that years later Fate/Zero as Sakura's body was not ready for that and a failure would have put most of his soul in jeopardy.'.
4)I apologise for that error as I mixed English and Italian for a moment. Gomenasai!
5)This is a question just another person had asked me and the answer is.. Shirou is a young human being. As such he is indeed more easy to manipulate on the idea of Heroism Kiritsugu's moral compass worked with. Yet two major changes happens to Shirou, the first being Kiritsugu's earlier death than in canon and the second being Illya. What truly Shirou missed in the whole Hero of Justice dilemma was someone he could truly care about. Yes, Taiga he considered a big sister but she was largely absent because of studies and work. Illya is Kiritsugu's biological daughter and she would have been around Shirou in his everyday life. It's not an excuse this one but... I think of this as a very odd Illya Route as Shirou would sacrifice himself if harm was to come to his oneechan.
6) I almost died of shame as I read that comment as I was unable to remember that kind of error in that chapter. I checked with extreme detail the whole text and I found a single mistake about that. If you wrote the sentences I could act more actively, yet I've analysed it and found no error about that other than the one cited above. Still thank you!
7) No, Shirou will not make a deal with Alaya NOR Gaia. Still, somewhere in the future he might have to 'collaborate' without any contracts like with Archer EMIYA. Shirou and Arturia chemistry is truly a masterwork and I truly love the pairing but it will not appear in this fanfic (Maybe in another one after Tales of Two Kings..). And yes, Rin is indeed a curious specimen but I think the cause of her bivalent sexuality is from Ruby as strangely enough, Illya starts to be attracted to girls after contracting with the Kaleidostick. (Coincidences? I believe not!)
8) Yes, Servants can be summoned even without Grail but there are more issues with that than the ones you have accounted. There's the need to find a way to the Throne of Heroes and that's not an easy task; Another problem is also the 'fake' body for Servants as they need to work in a way that let them avoid any backlash with Gaia's everwatching eye; Still good observations.
I hope to hear more about you as you seem the kind of person who truly love this franchise and I would love some more critic questions about my work. ;)
merendinoemiliano: Thank you!
Reishin Amara: Yes, she is :)
