A 'what if' Shirou was saved by Absolute Evil and was taken in by Kotomine Kirei. A more simple/Shirou-focused version derived from my previous fic, Re: Fate/Deathly Moon where Shiki Tohno takes on as Shirou's second personality.

PS. While the storyline completely changes from chapter3, there is a lot of major changes in chap1~2 too.

In this world, both ALAYA and GAIA are equally powerful. Meaning that the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors and Grand Servants are both a thing. A 'Fate/strange fake' type of world, if you will.

OK with that? Then without further adieu. On to the story!

Prologue: Infant Sacrifice

A cursed land of fire.

A cursed hell pit of living dead.

Incoherent mumblings, hysteric laughter, maniac giggling, bloodcurdling screams, agonizing wails, pitiful whimpers, countless wheezes that indicate the millions near death.

A cursed sanctum of evil born from goodwill. A group of three prestigious families who sought the true salvation of the human race had created this ritual based on the savior's Holy Grail, and a broken man had participated in it for the sake of justice, and to achieve true peace for the human race.

This was what lead to this inferno. It was so ridiculously ironic, so undeniably paradoxical in its nature, that this outcome was almost hilarious.

A cursed city of the dead.

A cursed womb for All the World's Evil.

'It' was mortally wounded in its infancy, yet it still wanted to be born.

'It' had no true sense of self. 'It' had been slumbering in the abyss, deep down in the earth.

'It' spent an eternity dreaming of the endless 'prayers' of humanity from the beginning of time, entrusted to 'it' from an age long forgotten.

'It' was only aware that 'It' was now placed within an Elaborately made fake of a Grail.

'It' was despised, feared, hated, loathed, detested, reviled, disdained, scorned, and dreaded, consciously or subconsciously, by the entirety of the human race that resides on this planet. Yet-

-The infant named Angra Mainyu still wanted to be born.

The abomination of humanity scanned the decimated lands of fiery ruin, burnt by the fluids of its mother's warm placenta.

The Dark Sun would soon set, overshone by the incandescent golden light of crystallized hope. The King who wielded the Holy Blade was severely weakened, yet she still managed to nearly take him down.

The abomination searched through the 'vessels' of this land, hoping to find at least one that was still inhabitable. Not the one named Kirei Kotomine, nor the one named Kiritsugu Emiya. It needed its vessel to be an empty husk, devoid of emotion, yet still clinging on to survival. Its eyes stopped on a small survivor.

'It' shivered in delight.

A red-haired boy was still walking.

By all means, he shouldn't have been alive.

Where the boy walked, there was the curse. The curse of Absolute Evil.

It devoured life in the same way it shredded their dignity, discarding them from the face of the Earth with the utmost respect like they were nothing but cheap scraps on its plate.

The black mud bubbled and churned, hungrily devouring hundreds as they screamed in agony and terror.

The hellfire roasted the young and old alike, the nauseating smell of human flesh burning, their fat splattering against the asphalt with a sizzle.

'It' was despair.

Where the boy walked, there was despair.

Cries of help. Pleas of men and women. A baby was wailing. The wailing stopped. A roof caved in, then burst into flames.

'It' was suffering.

The boy ignored the screams, ignored the terror, ignored his own fatigue, his sensation of hollowing as his memories were devoured by the tainted inferno.

The boy ignored everything and kept walking.

Suddenly, his lips were smashed against something hard. The taste of iron reached the boy's tongue, waking him up enough to reinvigorate his sense of self.

'Why...is my face...pressed against the...ground?'

The boy tried moving. He could no longer move. His body felt like a piece of whitening charcoal, burnt and useless.

The boy was now on Death's door.

'Ahh...so that's why...I fell...'

The churning mud was now traveling towards him. Countless black tendrils rose up from its inky surface, expanding like a giant Scylla about to consume its prey whole.

'No...I need to...live. Want to...live!'

The boy struggled with all his might. However, the world was unforgiving as it was cruel.

The foul, sticky substance descended on the quivering boy, enwrapping him in its cruel embrace. The young boy squirmed frantically like a mouse caught in a snake's coil, desperately trying to do something, anything to stop this vile thing from contaminating his soul.

Even while he no longer had any memory from his past except his last name, he instinctively knew that he would die, not as a lifeform, but as a human being if that thing managed to entangle him in its grasp. No matter what, he wanted to-

'Do...yOu...WAnt tO...LIVE...?'

It was the most repulsive and ugly voice the boy has ever heard, one filled with hideous dissonance, as if someone decided to smash a million instruments all together in one go. So alien in fact, that the boy wasn't even sure it was speaking to him at first.

"I...yes. I want to...live."

'GoOD.'

Within his mind, the boy saw a dark figure raise its head. The thing's face consisted of two, bottomless holes, overflowing with ghastly mist that shook the almost emotionless boy to the very core. The holes 'peered' into his mind.

'I wAnT tO...LiVE...ToO.'

The figure pulled itself out of the murky pool of the dark abyss, shivering slightly as it shook off droplets of burning mud.

'I WanT To bE...BORN...!'

The whisper resounded in the dead silence of his mind like a cannon blast. When the meaning behind the words hit him at last, the boy felt a pang of sympathy for 'It', for the very first time.

In that moment, that split second in their brief encounter, the empty boy truly 'understood' the monster in front of him. They were similar. So grossly identical in their roots.

Both of them wanted to live. Both of them were empty. Both of them wanted to be born. For being in this world shall allow them to fill their 'meaning' of existence, and existence is the only thing that shall grant them the opportunity to fill up their hollow souls. It was such a simple motive all along.

Shirou reached out and gently touched the muddy monstrosity. It seemed to recoil from the boy's innocent touch, as if unsure of the boy's intent.

"Do you...want to be...saved...?"

Angra Mainyu froze. While it was used to unreasonable and unattainable wishes thrown at him by humanity, it was the very first time someone wished for Its own. Thus, It couldn't process the contradiction, the bizarre fact that a human 'cares' for It, a demon that humans are supposed to 'hate'.

In truth, the Absolute Evil was no different from the most innocent of children, simply fated to cause agony and death by its mere presence.

The boy knew this, and he raged. He raged against the weakness in humanity that allowed such a pitiful existence to manifest. He raged against the sheer injustice that tried to force the thing to die in its infancy.

At the same time, the Absolute Evil, an abomination who had no true sense of self, felt something it couldn't comprehend. Was it...a desire for this boy? An urge to make this mortal shell of a human so close to it, a part of itself? Not as a vessel, but as an existence?

Was this...the most primordial of all directions given to all lifeforms on this star? The 'direction' of life to inherit oneself onto another for the sake of survival?

'It' reached out. 'It' now recognized its path to birth. While it was somewhat different from the original plan it had in mind, 'It' had an intuition that this path held far more significance as life.

As if drawn into its eldritch embrace by a sense akin to love, the boy stepped forward and into its bottomless swamp of endless curses. The thing responded in kind, molding its existence into the boy, recreating his flesh in its shape.

One empty shell became the sheath, while the other empty husk became the sword. Then, as if a deformed twin gave way to his other half, it stepped aside. The erosion stopped.

Not understanding the meaning of this, or rather, not wanting to understand, the boy looked at the thing with blank eyes that were now filled with confusion and a tinge of worry.

"Why...?"

'YOu...oR Me...oNe WoUld HaVE tO...Go.'

The thing stroked the boy's cheek. There was no denying the genuineness in its gesture of affection. The boy's lips quivered.

"Why...!? I...you are a...baby. I must...save...you. You are...you are...me."

The boy himself wasn't sure what he meant by those words. What he did know, was that there was this pain in his chest that screamed at him to save this pure life in front of him. Otherwise...there would be truly no meaning for the countless that died in this pit of Hell.

Angra Mainyu didn't answer him. Instead, it cocked its head to the side like a little child.

'WhAT...iS YoUR...NamE...?'

"...Shirou."

'ShI...Ro..u...?'

"Yes, Shirou."

'ShI..Rou...SHiRoU...SHiRou...ShiRou...Shirou...!'

The thing continuously repeated his name, as if to cherish the very sound, the very essence of the boy's birth. It was almost like a kid frolicking in the white snow, overjoyed by the simple fact it managed to leave a single footprint.

"What...what is your name?", Shirou asked. He had a feeling that he would regret it if he did not. The muddy figure twirled around.

'...Shirou.', it said.'My NaMe iS...Shirou!'

"！！！！！"

Shirou bit down so hard that he felt blood gush from his gums, but he paid no heed. More than anything else, he had to stop this idiot from leaving. He had to save-

Angra Mainyu smiled at Shirou. It was a beautiful smile.

A smile, that Shirou would never forget. A smile that Shirou would remember for all eternity. A smile so honest, so sincere, it hurt.

He reached out his hand, even while knowing deep down, that it was already too late.

"NO!"

'Bye-bye.'

The world turned white. Shirou screamed.

Kirei Kotomine looked down at the deceased body of Kiritsugu Emiya with disappointment.

Even he proved insufficient as an answer to his question.

The twisted enforcer of the Holy Church grasped the holy sheath of Avalon in his uninjured hand. He had ripped it free from Kiritsugu's heart right before the tainted Grail had come crashing through the ceiling. For whatever reason, the sheath refused to heal his wounds. Kirei's lips twisted into an amused grin.

Maybe he could...

Suddenly, something...no, someone caught his eye.

A lone survivor in this pit of Hellfire.

'Perhaps if I save this boy with the sheath, things would turn more interesting...'

Just as he was about to hurry over, Kirei's eyes bulged out of their sockets.

The black mud of the tainted grail, the foul substance that tarnished all things holy had encircled the boy and encased him in its stygian shell.

Kirei blinked. He blinked again, this time, his eyes widening in realization. Could it be...!?

The executor of the Church rushed past the crowd of dead bodies, and over to the place where the boy has fallen. If this was truly what he thought was about transpire...Kirei couldn't help a demented grin from lifting the corners of his lips.

Suddenly, just as abrupt as it appeared, the mud dissipated. The boy was still alive.

That meant the boy was definitely special. A monster in human skin.

'Like me.'

Kirei Kotomine smiled from the bottom of his soul. He almost wanted to sing at the top of his lungs.

With a spring in his step, he happily strolled over to the boy who was still sprawled on the ground- probably out of exhaustion.

"Hello there, my dear boy.", the cruel priest whispered. "Isn't this...truly a beautiful day to be alive?"

The maniac grin and a dangling golden cross were the last things Shirou saw.

Basically, this Shirou is a Curse taken human form as the Mud of the tainted Grail as its catalyst. What would become of UBW then, you ask? Well, a hundred Kirei-Mabo flavored cookies to the guy who got it right! HINT: Angra Mainyu, mud-themed Dead Apostle

This Angra Mainyu portrayed the purest form of an empty young Shirou, not the boy who was tortured in Angra Mainyu's name. Thus, Shirou will now suffer from survivor's guilt and his inability to save a 'baby' that gave up his 'life' for him. Guess what divergences might occur in Shirou's mentality...fufufu.

BTW, this takes place before Tsukihime (wink-wink). Tangled timelines, yay.

Review for the birth of Christian Shirou! Review again for it is my fuel!

X-kalibuuuur, back to business!