Prologue

"Dad! Mum!" I screamed in horror as I helplessly watched my beloved parents were burned away by the magical fire that had come out of nowhere.

Goddammit! Here I thought I could have a relatively normal life compared to my previous one as Tanya von Degurechaff and it was all destroyed before I could at least grow into adulthood. I sighed as I was once again an orphan at the age seven.

It seemed so stupid of me when I thought about it in hindsight. The sharp instincts that had kept me alive and elevated as Tanya von Degurechaff had rusted away in the relatively peaceful and normal life I had found as Shirou Muramasa. Maybe if I had maintained a strict and demanding regime that had made "The Devil of Rhine" then I might have had the physical and magical ability to save my parents of my third reincarnation.

Well, there was nothing I could do about spilled milk. I had tried to maintain a normal life so as not to spook out my biological parents of this third life. Any parent would be afraid if they saw a seven year old boy with the skills and wisdom of someone that had lived two lives into their middle-age years. If my true intelligence and knowledge had ever been discovered then it could have been dismissed as me being "talented" and "wise beyond a seven-year-old kid." Magic was another can of worms that was unlikely to ever be accepted by my now deceased parents.

There was no point in thinking about the matter anymore when my parents were gone.

I winced at the pain of the burns. It was nothing compared to what I had suffered in my previous life as Tanya von Degurechaff. In fact, as Tanya, I had suffered numerous wounds that would have killed many times over. Still, my pain tolerance must have dropped significantly in my peaceful and normal third life if these current burns caused me a great deal of pain.

I ignored the pain and focused on my burns. It was quite fascinating in a certain way the fire that had burned me and killed my parents. I thought I had returned to the Japan of my first life given that there hadn't been a single sign of the magic until the recent magical fire.

"It seems mages exist on this Earth," I muttered as I analyzed the magical fire that was still burning around me. "At some point in this world's history, they must have thought hiding magic was a wise decision. So, they used magic to erase any trace of the supernatural to prevent non-mages from learning about it. Their decision certainly seems to have paid off as everyone seems to think magic was ignorant nonsense of those that are not properly educated about scientific knowledge."

The pain caused me to snap out of my musing. I was thankful that despite my relatively non-exist magical training of my third and current life, I had been able to create a greatly weakened version of the Active Barrier magic spell to protect myself. Without the Active Barrier, I would have been burned to crisp like my biological parents had.

I might have survived the immediate danger of the magical fire, but it seemed like I wasn't out of the woods just yet. The magical fire still burned around me like a blazing inferno and I was trapped by the rubble that had once been my home.

"I don't think there is any chance of rescue reaching me anytime soon." I sighed in as I listened to the cries for help and sorrow helping all around me. "Assuming that I survive this, I am grateful that I will not be suffering from PTSD and panic attacks due to my past experiences as Tanya." I said to myself. "If I die here today then I don't think I can blame Being X for my death this time. There are no usual signs of his manipulation."

I closed my eyes and ears from my surroundings. The cries for help and sorrow started to irritate me after a while. There was nothing I could do to help when I myself needed help. Instead, I thought of my plans for the future. Assuming, I lived then I was going to kickstart my strict and harsh training regime to get back into shape.

Mages existed in this world if the magical fire I had just seen was anything to go by. I might not have any enemies in this world right now, but I was bound to in the future. Being X and any similar omnipotent being might be the cause or due to my actions that might offend someone. If I had possessed any amount of strength I had commanded as Tanya, be it my own personal magical prowess that made me the Devil of Rhine or the influences of loyal and competent subordinates like the Imperial 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion then people would think twice about harming me.

As I formulated my plans for the future, I heard footsteps close by. The fact that I heard the sound of digging, lifting and calls if there were any survivors let me know that at least one rescuer was nearby.

"I am here!" I tried shouting the loudest I could despite having rubble easily weighing over a hundred kilograms bearing down on me. I don't think he heard me. I thought as I heard the rescuer seemed to move away from my position. Fuck it. I will have to risk being discovered as a mage. I can worry about the consequences after I make it out alive here. I took a deep breath and activated the Voice Amplification magic spell with what little mana I had left. "HERE! I AM OVER HERE! PLEASE HELP!"

I was not surprised that the rescuer was able to locate my position immediately. The rescuer would have to be deaf if he couldn't hear my voice, which might be louder than someone shouting with the aid of a microphone speaker. What did surprise me was that the rescuer started lifting rubble that far surpassed most strong men could carry with ease.

Was my rescuer part of the minority of people that possessed the strength well beyond most strong men? I wondered as the weight being down on me quickly changed until I felt a pair of arms wrench me out of the rubble.

"You're alive! Thank god that there was a survivor." My rescuer cried as he hugged me.

I was too exhausted to bother responding to my rescuer. One Active Barrier and another Voice Amplification magic spell was beyond my limits of an untrained seven-year-old boy. In fact, darkness soon overtook me when I found that I was no longer in danger.

- O -

When I woke up, I was relieved to find myself in the hospital. It irritated me that the police and medical staff kept pestering me. I wanted nothing more than to sleep and grieve the passing of my deceased parents but I knew that the police and medical staff were all concerned for me and just wanted to help. So, I didn't give them too much trouble and answered any questions they had to the best of my ability.

I was very interested when my rescuer, spiky-black haired man with black eyes, came into my hospital room and started hypnotizing the police and medical staff to not bother us. The use of a magic spell I had never seen before as mana washed over me made it apparently clear that he was not just some ordinary hypnotist but a fully capable mage using magic I had never known about.

"My name is Kiritsugu Emiya." He introduced himself. "What is your name?"

"Shirou Muramasa." I replied. "I am perfectly fine and alive thanks to you. You have my gratitude."

"Muramasa?" Kiritsugu cocked a brow. "That kind of explains the burst of magical energy I detected from the area I had saved you if you're a mage. Where are your parents? Did they not survive or were they somewhere else during the fire?"

"My parents didn't back it." I shook my head sadly. "I was lucky to barely save myself."

"My apologies." Kiritsugu replied in a saddened tone. "Do you have another surviving family to go to?"

"My parents broke any ties with their families when they went forward with their unapproved marriage." I shook my head as I remembered my extended family of this life. "I will likely end up as an orphan." I added in my mind, Again.

"If you don't mind then I can adopt you." Kiritsugu said in a sympathetic tone.

"I would love to, if only because you're my only option." I smiled.

And that was how I was adopted by a man, who I would later learn had many nicknames but he was most well known as the Mage Killer. It was at that moment that I gained the Emiya surname from my adoptive father and the start of a legend of Shirou Muramasa Emiya. I also became a unique individual that baffled a certain Counter Guardian sharing the same surname as me but that was a story for another day.

Was this good, bad or meh? Please tell me what you think. I accept all criticism as long as it is no flaming.