Oh man, I have so much stuff lying around my hard-drive waiting to be written and yet it's always tough to properly start it.
A prologue will do for now, I guess. Hopefully this will go places.
Summary: One day, Emiya Shirou dreamed of a world claimed by beasts and madness. He resolved to stay.
Chapter 1
Once again, he woke up to a familiar ceiling.
Brush teeth, wash face, get dressed for school.
He left his room and ghosted through the corridors of the large mansion he grew up in. Quick and without a sound, as he had been taught.
Memories of playing and tinkering, of family, growing up and happiness had been made here.
A cheery greeting came as he entered the dining room. He responded automatically as he slipped into his old apron. He had become good at that.
He talked, joked, socialized, went through motions he barely recognized sometimes. He tried to ignore the frantic way his surrogate sister would engage him in conversation and the lingering, worried looks.
Once the clock was done tickling, he set out to school, onto another day that was more of the same.
The colorful pink of the Sakura trees was dull and the rumbling of cars passing by seemed to come from a mile away. The aftertaste of his expertly cooked breakfast didn't caress his tongue as it once did.
Regardless, the walk there was productive. Strategies and questions - every night brought more of these - coursed through his mind. The mere thought of the battles ahead jolted him awake, and the world around him grew in detail. As if life had been breathed into the colorless palette.
Even if there was nothing to slaughter.
Then, the gates of Homurahara came into view and the spring on his step was gone as reality settled in.
In there, he familiar faces doing familiar things greeted him. People tended to avoid him these days (was it always like this?), but some stuck around. He humored them, out of a sense of obligation born from old friendships if nothing else.
He had said many times he was fine over the last couple of months. None of them ever seemed to buy it, but they never tried to push the issue either. Even so, he resolved again to put a little more effort in this life.
It was strange how they didn't seem to notice - more like realize - they were hanging out with a murderer. A naive person would think you can't tell apart a normal person and a murderer without obvious clues. Signals like a gun, a knife in hand, blood on their clothes, but he had learned how to recognize madness. That glint in the eyes (when they weren't covered), the hunch forward and the quivering hands, shaking with the urge to clench around his throat.
Maybe the insanity of that place hadn't poisoned him yet. He couldn't know for sure.
He used to enjoy this. The normalcy, the closeness, but duty called and made them seem unimportant. He had a promise to keep, after all.
A few hours ago, he had been in a tattered cloak, weapon in hand and no shortage of enemies in front of him to slash. Standing alone, victorious over a hill of corpses that weren't really dead.
He woke up in this sunny world time and time again, where none of these choices had been made. The many battles and the pain he put himself through nothing but distant memories. Like a dream, Yharnam and its tall, Victorian buildings, hunters and beasts vanished. In their absence, he resumed a normal life.
Back to his old surroundings and back to his old obligations. Far away from the withered world claimed by blood-starved monsters. A world where only monsters could thrive.
Maybe it was wrong. Maybe he was insane. It wasn't like he hadn't ever considered that possibility.
Even so, Emiya Shirou longed for the Hunt.