Chapter 1: Acclimating

1 week.

That's how long Shirou had been trapped in this world, sure enough the directions on Zelretch's map and the few funds he had provided Shirou were enough for him to find an affordable apartment complex with just enough to last him until he found a job.

Which he had, with rapid ease which surprised even him he had found a vacant job position at a local pub near an office bloc. Thus Emiya Shirou, self-proclaimed Hero of Justice and third-rate Magus once again found his temporary calling.

As a handyman and cook.

The owner was relatively quick to hire Shirou due to his skill at cooking and positive work attitude. Whatever the request be it cooking, cleaning or repair work Shirou would happily comply. It was also through relative coincidence that his new Neighbour would frequently visit said pub along with her co-worker.

First impressions of Kobayashi went well. They introduced themselves to each other and little else. Their similar work schedules meant that they would often leave around the same time and walk in the same direction, giving them the opportunity for small talk.

Over the course of the week Shirou felt he had gotten a better understanding of Kobayashi as a person. She was, in essence, the anti-Taiga. Where his legal guardian was eccentric, immature and somewhat unreliable Kobayashi was more reserved, pragmatic while also being somewhat kind hearted to others. Of course such an impression was quickly turned on its head during his third day where during the late hours of his shift at work he found a drunk Kobayashi ranting about her work life in a way which he found eerily similar to Taiga although rather than be disappointed in her Shirou found a somewhat nostalgic smile on his face as he was reminded of his guardian.

All in all he found himself somewhat at peace with his temporary stay here and determined that there were worse places to be stranded. He didn't fool himself into an unguarded state however he still knew that Zeltretch wouldn't send him here unless the old man was certain he'd get some entertainment out of it and Shirou was certain that said entertainment would mean a headache for him.

Although he couldn't quite predict how much of a headache he was in store for.

Shirou POV: Present time

'I'm back later than I expected' I thought to myself and really I hadn't intended to stay as long as I had at work but the owner said that the air conditioning was broken again.

How was I supposed to know that it would take nearly 3 hours to repair.

Coming to a stop just in front of my apartment door I went for my key to unlock before a particular smell caught my attention.

Alcohol.

'It would appear that Kobayashi-san has indulged herself again, honestly she's nearly as bad as Ta-'

I stopped myself when I detected another smell hidden just underneath the stench of beer. This new smell was certainly not human.

It smelt of Fire and…

Taking a second sniff to try and confirm and then a third to make certain I found myself paling at the result.

Just underneath the smell of Alcohol coming off of Kobayashi-san was the smell of Fire and something else decidedly not human.

I found my mind racing as I quickly unlocked my door and all but bolted inside before swiftly locking it behind me. Taking of my shoes I marched through the apartment to the sofa before seating myself down to mull over what I had just discovered.

Fire and potent stench of something else. What could that mean?

In the time I had known Kobayashi, albeit rather brief that it was, I was certain she was human so it couldn't be her that was the direct source. She had to have interacted with something tonight, something decidedly not human and she had to have been fairly close to it for the smell to stick to her that strongly.

The question was. What was the It?

What could possibly produce such an odour of fire and power like that?

Some form of Chimera? Possibly but then why was Kobayashi even still alive after encountering it? I very much doubted that she was a Magus as she lacked a certain pride that one would associate with it and if she were capable of experimenting with animals to such a degree she very likely would have confronted me about me own magical abilities, it wasn't like I was making a conscious effort to hide them at my place of work beyond making sure I was out of sight..

A phantasmal beast? Even less likely because then we'd all know about it they had a particular dislike for humans.

'Well, no use on conjecture right now' I thought.

I was beginning to feel tired and keeping myself up with endless thoughts about monsters coming to kill us all was the last thing I needed on my mind. I'd have to wait until tomorrow before I did any real investigation into that.

I picked myself off the Sofa before making my way to my bedroom.

My final thoughts before drifting off to sleep were that at the very least I might be able to do something of real use if there was a danger to people.

The Next Day

The transition from myself being asleep to being awake and alert was instantaneous and with good reason.

The subtle inhuman smell I had detected on Kobayashi was now permeating through the area to an almost unbearable degree. Beyond there was a strong concentration of magical energy just outside my door.

Not, there's a strong magus not even bother to hid their presence strong, but rather there is a something exuding a ridiculous level of Magical energy outside my door strong.

Instantly my mind was working on possible counters to this.

'What the hell is that thing outside and how did it find me?'

I felt the familiar hum as my circuits sprung to life and the blueprints of Kanshou and Bakuya were prepared for combatwith my hands already in a position to clasp their non-existent grips.

At an almost deathly slow pace I made my way to my door and ever so gently unlocked it and opened it.

I instantly regretted that decision.

Directly to the left of me was my neighbour with her door wide open and staring straight ahead, eyes wide and colour drained from her face.

But that wasn't what concerned me.

What concerned me was the large green Dragon that was directly in front of her.

I froze instantly and found myself in a similar state to Kobayashi-san.

There was a dragon. A real life dragon barely a few metres from me. The highest level of phantasmal beast which would require a warrior of legend in the same vein as the dragon slayers of old like Seigfreid to even think about survival.

I was not Seigfreid.

I instantly combed through my reality marble searching for the sword that would best suit me in this situation and I found the perfect one.

Gram. The prototype of the sword of Siegfried the Dragon slayer. A truly legendary weapon and powerful too and Gilgamesh had flung it at me with all the care of a person skipping stones across a lake. Still wasn't my concern.

As I was preparing to project the Noble Phantasm the dragon's body suddenly turned a bright orange as the mana in the air began to intensify.

'Damn! I'm not ready and I can't hope to fight off a dragon wh-' My train of thought halted and my mind promptly stopped functioning as the Dragon's body began to rapidly change shape into something decidedly. Smaller and more familiar.

Instead of a Dragon there was now a human looking woman standing a little shorter than me directly in front of my neighbour.

She had vibrant golden hair which turned pink toward the end and was done in a twin-tails style which extend to around her waist, a pair of flat ended horns atop her head which extended about 20cm up and she had red slitted eyes which reminded me a little of Gilgamesh's although hers seemed to lack the arrogant spark his had. All in all it wasn't a bad copy of a human form although the horns and the tail which appeared to extend just underneath her clothes were quite the eyesore. Although what really caught my eye and left me perplexed beyond any words was the Dragons choice in clothing.

A maid outfit.

That made me do a double take and seemingly broke both me and Kobayashi out our respective trances.

Although at this point my mouth moved faster than my brain and I virtually exclaimed the first words which came to mind.

"What the Heck!?"

It was at this point that both Kobayashi and the dragon became aware of my presence and inwardly I was cursing myself and suddenly realised why Zelretch sent me here.

'Dragon girls in maid outfits. I just know Archer is laughing at me'

AN: Well. We now begin.