* AN: This story stub has not been beta-read
Disclaimer: I DO_NOT own "Fate/Stay Night" or "Mushoku Tensei". No profit is being made.
Fate/Stay Night & Mushoku Tensei x-over :: The Bladesmith Emperor
Emiya Shirou let out a small groan as he snapped back to consciousness. Opening his eyes he was relieved to see that there were no holes spilling cursed black mud anywhere in the skies. That relief was rather short-lived, however, as a few moments later the red-haired teen realized that he couldn't see lights of Fuyuki city either… Or familiar stars on the darkening skies for that matter.
Apparently, that massive pulse of Magic that the corrupted Grail had released just before Saber's Excalibur obliterated it did more than just knock him out. It also sent him somewhere. But where to? Sitting up, Shirou looked around in an attempt to find any clues about his current location.
He was on the edge of a forest with some grassy hills interspersed with patches of trees on the opposite side. And no signs of civilization. No city lights, no highways, no power lines, nothing. The cursed Grail had sent him into some real wilderness. Still, Shirou wasn't giving up just yet and, after applying Reinforcement to his eyes, he looked about again.
This time, thanks to his eyesight being pushed to superhuman levels, he could see a small village far in the distance. Too far too see it in good detail even with Magic boosting his senses, but it looked distinctly medieval European. A lot like what he had seen in Saber's memories, actually. And there still were no signs of modern civilization anywhere.
Quickly deciding that asking the people in that village for help would be his best bet for finding a way home, Shirou got on his feet - but before he could make more than a couple of steps, there was a loud, animalistic howl that made him freeze in place for a moment. Then the instincts he had developed throughout the Grail War kicked in and the redhead swiftly rolled to his right while summoning Kanshou and Bakuya despite the protests of his abused Magical Circuits. A second later a huge, demonic-looking wolf-like beast with four glowing red eyes landed in the spot he had been occupying previously.
The creature turned its ugly head to look at him and let out a loud howl. A few seconds later, a couple of its brethren ran out of the woods, forcing Shirou to move again in order to avoid being bitten in half by those massive jaws.
The beasts attack again, but they aren't anywhere close to being as fast or as strong as Heroic Spirits so, thanks to Reinforcement, Shirou is able to dodge and overpower them with relative ease. The pair of Chinese blades he had created also found no trouble cutting through the demonic beasts and within a minute the red-haired Magus stood victorious.
The nature of his 'opponents', however, made the teen wonder whether they were created by the curses that spilled from the corrupted Grail. They certainly looked the part.
Alas, being the third-rate Magus that he was, Shirou had no way of determining what the hell was going on except for finding some other human - hopefully, one aware of Magic - and asking them. Thus, dismissing the swords and releasing his Reinforcement, he began walking towards the village he had seen in the distance - he remained on high alert in case more of the beasts tried to attack him, though.
~/ *** \~
Paul Greyrat slashed yet another demonic beast with his sword. It was the second time this week he and his fellow men had to go into the woods and kill any creatures that wandered too close to the village. The beasts were getting more numerous and more daring in the recent months and the blond ex-adventurer couldn't help but wonder what was going on. He was quickly forced to kick those thoughts out of his head as another beast tried to attack him.
"Paul!" One of the younger men he had recruited into his 'party' called. "A group of beasts managed to push through our ranks. They are heading for the village. There was a cer-boar among them."
"Fuck!" Paul swore. This was bad. Really bad. "I'll be taking Igor, Tom and John with me. Cover our backs." He shouted back while kicking away the carcass of the demonic beast he had just beheaded.
"Yes, sir!" The man replied while the whole group began tightening their ranks.
"We must stop those monsters before they can reach the village. Let's go!" Paul called before taking off towards the village at the fastest pace he could manage without tiring himself out too much. The trio he had chosen - the best fighters in their little group - quickly followed him.
~/ *** \~
Shirou was maybe a mile away from the village when he saw five of those wolf-like demonic beasts moving towards that same village at his ten o'clock. And trailing some distance behind them, was another creature - one greatly more terrifying. It was about two stories tall and could be best described as an armored boar-Cerberus with mouths full of sharp, sword-like teeth.
If those things managed to get into the village, they could easily kill someone. And Shirou was not a person to let something terrible like that happen if he could help it. So, ignoring the protests of his Magic circuits, he Reinforced his body as much as he could and began running to hopefully intercept the beasts before they could reach the village
A minute of frantic running later, the young Magus finally got close enough to the wolf-like creatures to be noticed by them. The three-headed boar-thing in the distance probably saw him as well, but Shirou couldn't be sure about that. And with the 'wolves' going at him, he had to take his attention off the giant beast.
Summoning Kanshou and Bakuya, the red-haired teen quickly stepped out of the way of the apparent pack leader before stabbing the married blades into the next creature to come close to him. Kicking the fatally-wounded beast away, he rolled away from the jaws of the third 'wolf'. Dodging the fourth beast as well, he cut the side of the fifth one open.
Not discouraged by the swift death of their brethren, the surviving creatures fearlessly attacked again. Beheading the charging 'alpha' with an outwards slash of his blades, Shirou sidestepped the pounce of the other beast before impaling the third one through its chest. Throwing the carcass aside, the red-haired Magus threw Kanshou at the last demonic 'wolf', nailing it right between its four eyes.
This left him with only the three-headed 'boar' to deal with. And seeing the sheer size and armor-like hide of that thing, Shirou had his doubts that his current weapons would do much good against it. He needed something more powerful - something that could kill this monstrous creature in one hit. And Unlimited Blade Works had the right weapon for the job, even if the red-haired teen was a bit uneasy about using it. Understandable given how the first time he had encountered it ended up with him being stabbed through his chest.
Letting out a deep breath, Shirou called upon whatever prana he still had and projected a blood-red spear. Wincing slightly as the weapon began assaulting his mind with bloodlust, he focused on its recorded history and drew upon the skills of its original wielder.
Unsure about the range of the attack he was about to execute, the young Magus allowed the gigantic to get a bit closer. Then, once it was about twenty meters away, he pointed the tip of the spear towards the charging beast and pushed all of his prana into it.
"Gáe Bolg!" For a moment the world seemed to freeze as the spear turned into a beam of crimson light staring from the beast's chest and ending in Shirou's hands. Then everything reverted back to normal. The demonic beast managed a few more steps before its legs gave out and it crashed onto the ground. Inertia carried it for some distance yet, but it was most certainly dead at that point.
His 'job' done, the red-haired teen finally allowed himself to relax. Immediately his exhaustion, physical, mental and Magical, caught up with him and he collapsed onto the ground unconscious.
~/ *** \~
Paul wanted to curse as it didn't look like and his men would catch up to the demonic beasts before they got dangerously close to the village. Then he saw something completely unexpected: a man he was sure he had never seen before was running towards those same beasts with a clear intention of intercepting them.
"Hurry up!" He called to his fellow fighters. "We need to help!"
Much to his surprise, it looked like the mysterious warrior would be able to deal with all of the demonic creatures on his own. And while the 'wolves' weren't really that dangerous even to a half-trained adventurer, the speed with which the unknown man was killing them was something that left Paul in great surprise.
Then, once all five lesser demonic beasts were dealt with, the young warrior switched from his double swords to some sort of a polearm, a spear judging by his stance, and got ready to fight the cer-boar… Except it wasn't really a fight. There was a flash of red light and a second later the mighty beast just dropped dead.
A few seconds later, much to Paul's surprise, the mysterious teen collapsed as well. And feeling indebted to the boy for protecting his home and his village, the blond adventurer pushed forward in order to render him his assistance as soon as possible.
Upon finally arriving at the site of the 'battle', the Greyrat swordsman quickly discovered that the young redhead didn't appear to be badly hurt and had just fainted from exhaustion after whatever he did to kill the cer-boar in a single attack. Still, the young man had a number of recent cuts and bruises that couldn't be from his last fight.
Satisfied that the mysterious warrior wasn't going to die on him, Paul allowed himself to study him in more detail. And he was more than a little surprised by what he could see. The young man was, well, young - he probably entered his adulthood just a couple of seasons ago - and while definitely a human, his facial features were quite different from what the retired adventurer had seen. The redhead didn't have any armor or holsters or sheaths and there were no signs of the two swords he had used against the wolf-like demonic beasts anywhere. The strange spear he had used to slay the cer-boar still laid at his side, though.
The young man's clothes too were quite strange. While made of materials that were rough and simple and not something almost any noble would wear, their quality was beyond anything Paul had ever seen. They were also dyed with some incredible dyes that gave them vibrant and consistent colors. Those alone probably cost a small fortune. Thus, Paul couldn't help but wonder, why someone able to afford clothes of such outstanding quality would settle for such simple materials? He had no answer to that question.
Anyhow, even if the red-haired youth was in no immediate danger, just leaving him out there lying on the ground was unacceptable. Especially since he had found to protect the village he wasn't even a part of. And Paul fully intended to repay him for his services. For now that meant providing him with shelter and food.
"Our hero seems to be alright, just unconscious. Let's bring him to my house." He told his men as he picked Shirou up. "Can someone grab his spear?" John the lumberjack - a large, stocky man in his late forties - nodded and tried to pick up Gáe Bolg. The moment he touched the spear, though, he got hit with its powerful bloodlust. Shocked, he immediately dropped the cursed weapon. "What happened?" Paul, for whom it looked like John dropped the spear for apparently no reason, asked.
"That thing, it's evil!" The lumberjack replied pointing at the blood-red spear. "Touching it made me want to fight - monsters, other people, it didn't matter." The blond adventurer let out a low hum as he considered this development.
"Try wrapping it in something before you pick it up." He finally suggested. Without saying a word, John took off his vest and used it to pick the weapon without directly touching it.
"I can still feel it, but it's not anywhere as bad now." He finally commented. Paul gave him a brief nod before taking off towards his house. The lumberjack followed after him a moment later.
~/ *** \~
The first thing Shirou noticed when he regained consciousness was that he was lying on a bed. Someone must have moved him to a house since the last thing he remembered was using Gáe Bolg to kill some huge three-headed boar-like demonic beast out in the fields. Some seconds later he became aware of sunlight shining upon him through a window. So he had been out for at least a few hours: it was nighttime when he 'fought' the aforementioned creature.
Using Lancer's spear must have been more taxing than he had anticipated.
He felt fine, though. Rather hungry and still recovering his prana after fighting to stop the corrupted Grail from (fully) manifesting and then from dealing with demonic beasts in wherever that flash of light had transported him to, but fine.
Shirou allowed himself to just lie there for another minute or two. Then he finally opened his eyes, and was immediately greeted with a sight of a young girl, probably around ten years old, watching over him. The said girl had short green hair and pointy, elvish ears. It made the red-haired Magus wonder if she was somehow related to Caster.
Upon seeing him wake up, the girl said something, but Shirou couldn't understand her since she was speaking neither Japanese nor English. Nor any of the more widely-spoken languages he could at least recognize… Seeing his confusion, the girl tried again, but the result was the same. Shirou couldn't understand what she was saying at all.
"Uhm… Hello?" The young Magus said in Japanese in hopes that this might somehow help deal with the language barrier. Alas, it didn't work and the elvish greenette couldn't understand him just like he didn't understand her. The two of them then just stared at each other for a few long moments. Then, the girl let out a small sigh and left the room quickly - probably to bring someone else to try to talk to him.
And while she was gone, Shirou decided to take a look at the room he had found himself in. It wasn't particularly large, but it couldn't be called tiny either. The furniture there consisted of the bed - obviously - a table, a pair of stools, a large chest for storing things… and that was all. The wooden walls were jack-planed but lacked any form of decoration. The wall with the room's single window also looked like it had been rebuilt at some point in the past after something blew a large hole in it. Anyhow, there were no photos or framed pictures of any kind in the room, no clocks either. Not even electric lighting. It was… medieval?
As he finished studying the room, Shirou's gaze fell upon Gáe Bolg resting against the wall not far away from the door. And seeing the projected spear still in one piece made the red-haired teen wonder about how it was possible. He had been out for at least a few hours, so Gaia should've broken the Magical construct by now. Especially since he wasn't feeding it prana to stall the process. Yet the spear was still there, looking just like it did when he had projected it.
His further thoughts on this oddity were interrupted when the elvish girl returned, bringing a maroon-haired bespectacled woman in a conservative maid's outfit with her. The maid then tried to speak to him - and the Magus could tell she was using a different language - but he still couldn't understand a word of what she was saying.
Shirou couldn't help but let out a sigh. It looked like he was stranded in a strange, foreign place, possibly in the past as well, and he couldn't even communicate with the locals. Just great.
~/ *** \~
The next several weeks were quite frustrating for the red-haired teen as he did his best to learn the local language. Which was simply called 'Human Language'. The three adults of the house he was currently staying at also spoke the 'Beast God' language a little, apparently because they had worked with a beast-woman in the past.
And, yes, wherever the Grail has sent him, it wasn't Earth Shirou knew. Instead, it was either some very alternate version of it, or an entirely different world.
Probably the latter as the landmasses on the map of the realm looked nothing like the continents of Earth. Local Magic was also so very different from his Magecraft that even a completely amateur Magus like him could see that. Furthermore, Magic was not a secret here and potions and enchanted items were openly traded on the markets. For a good price, of course.
It was probably a good thing he learned that before telling these people his story, too. It gave him some time to sanitize it. These people lived in the pre-block printing era and, at best, they would have zero idea what he was talking about if his story included things created in the late XX century. At worst...
Also, as soon as Shirou gained a rudimentary understanding of the local language, he insisted he started working around the house to continue earning his keep. The adults weren't too opposed, though the maid - Lilian - didn't allow him anywhere near the kitchen. He could understand that, though. After all, Sakura was the only one he would allow into his.
Soon afterwards he also started joining the cullings of the demonic beasts whenever those expanded too close to the village. Even if the locals didn't trust him - a stranger - completely, his skills with blades were greatly appreciated.
~/ *** \~
"Shirou." Paul Greyrat called one morning as the redhead descended to the dining room. "Can I ask you to do one big job for us?"
"What do you want me to do?" The red-haired Magus asked back.
"My son's tenth year birthday is coming and while I may have told him that he must learn to stand on his own when I sent him to the Boreas branch of the family and haven't sent him a single letter since then, ignoring this is not something I, as his father, can do." The retired adventurer said. "So, I would like to ask you to deliver our gifts and letters to him."
"Alright." Shirou agreed almost immediately.
"Are you sure?" Paul asked him. "It might take you over two weeks to travel there. And the roads aren't truly safe, especially now that the wildlands are crawling with the demonic beasts.
"I'll do it." The young Magus insisted.
"Very well." The blond man said. "I'll start packing things for you then. You can depart next Monday morning." Shirou merely nodded before turning his attention to the breakfast Lilian had cooked for them.
~/ *** \~
Shirou's journey to the Citadel of Roa, much like Paul had said, took a little over two weeks. And, thankfully, the only trouble he had run into during his journey was a pack of demonic beasts. He killed those 'wolves' with ease.
And since Roa was a town that was largely dependent on trade, getting in was not all that hard. Nor was finding the Greyrats' house there, seeing how Sauros Boreas Greyrat was the liege lord of the region and lived in an appropriately-impressive stronghold near the town center.
That said, Shirou decided not to go there just yet. Rudeus's birthday was still two days away and Paul had insisted that the messages mustn't be given to his son until the big day. Thus, the young Magus decided that it was alright for him to waste the afternoon wandering about the city and visiting its market.
A couple of hours later, having explored the marketplace, which turned out to be far smaller than it's grand name would suggest, the red-haired teen finally made his way to the Greyrats' stronghold. And as he approached the gates, he saw a pair of kids practicing their swordsmanship in the courtyard, supervised by a tall, dark-skinned beast-woman. Well, their 'practice' actually consisted of a blond boy - likely, Paul's son, Rudeus - doing his best to not get beaten into a pulp by a fiery redhead a couple of years older than him.
Before he could make another step towards the gates, the woman raised her hand, silently telling the kids to stop, before turning her attention to Shirou.
"Who are you and what do you want?" She growled as she slowly made way towards the dimensionally-misplaced Magus. The said Magus, meanwhile, was having trouble keeping his eyes where they should be. Being a hot-blooded male, the fact that the beast-woman was well-endowed and all but flaunted that with her choice of clothing didn't escape him. And then there was her sword, Hiramune: a masterfully-crafted katana-like blade that had been wielded with incredible skill in great many battles.
"My name is Shirou Emiya. I bring letters for Rudeus Greyrat from his family." The young Magus replied truthfully. The beast-woman, Ghislaine Dedoldia, remained skeptical.
"And how do I know you're telling the truth?" She asked then. Shirou reached into his bag and after rummaging through it for a few seconds pulled out a small-ish scroll.
"This letter should explain it." He said. "Paul told me that I should ask Rudeus to read it."
"I can read it myself now." Ghislaine said, sounding a little annoyed. "Give it here." She then took the scroll from Shirou's hands and opened it. And as she read through the letter, her face made it quite clear that whatever Paul had written in there wasn't especially to her liking.
"That bastard!.." The swordswoman growled. Taking a moment to calm down a little, she returned her attention to the young Magus. "Looks like you really are who you claim to be. I shall inform Master Sauros of your arrival. I'm sure he will let you stay in the house for a few days."
"That will be most appreciated." He said in response.
"Just remember that I'll be watching you." Ghislaine said then. "One wrong move and your head will roll." With her threat delivered, she turned around and headed for the main house of the little keep, presumably to notify lord Sauros of his arrival. And as she passed by her 'students', she gestured for them to leave the courtyard as well. Shrugging, Shirou moved to stand under a large tree as he waited for a proper invitation in the Boreas Greyrat stronghold.
Some twenty minutes later, a brown-haired man of about thirty years old came into the courtyard, accompanied by Ghislaine.
"So, you're the messenger from Paul?" The man said as he walked up to Shirou. "Do come in. A room will be arranged for you before the nightfall. You're free to stay there for the next week. Just don't cause any trouble." The young Magus nodded.
"Thank you."