Episode 1 - "Eyes Forced Open"

Shirou didn't understand what was going on. Everywhere he looked, all he saw was fire. No matter where his small legs tried to drag him to, he couldn't escape it.

The fires that burned so bright it blinded him.

The smoke so thick it strangled him.

The screams so loud he wished it would deafen him.

But he kept walking. He had already left everything behind, everything except the motion of walking forwards. He was sure he was already dead, and that this was just a hell built specifically for him for leaving them behind.

But that didn't matter. He had to keep moving. Keep walking.

He didn't want to die.

But eventually, his legs remembered their own weakness and he collapsed onto the broken pavement.

He was going to die.

He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die.

He reached out, not expecting anyone to take his hand, before life starting to leave him as his arm too went to fall to his side.

But someone did take his hand.

It was a hooded monster with a long horn...no wait...it was a man with dark hair, who looked so overjoyed to see him alive, as if he had been the one saved instead. And he wondered to himself as consciousness left him, replaced by a safe warm feeling.

Could he be that happy?

Kamen Rider Ghost/Stay Night

10 years later

"..ai.."

"...npai…"

"Senpai..."

Shirou Emiya woke up from a dream he hadn't had in many years to a familiar voice as he was shaken gently. Groaning as he propped himself up from the hard ground he had been sleeping on just a moment before, he turned to face the person who had woken him up.

"...Morning Sakura…" Shirou muttered as he blinked the tiredness out of his eyes.

She was a young girl who was a bit younger than him, crouching down to be at eye level with him while he was on the ground still, with long straight purple hair, styled with a red ribbon on the left side, and matching purple eyes, and dressed in a school uniform consisting of a white sleeved shirt with red trim and ribbon under a light brown vest with a black skirt finishing the look.

She smiled gently at him, brushing her hair back with her hand, "Good morning Senpai. We still have some time, but if you sleep here Fujimura sensei will get mad again."

"Agh...that's right...sorry for the trouble Sakura."

"I wouldn't say it's trouble Senpai, you typically have pretty early mornings, I don't have to wake you up like this very often."

"Oh really...?"

Glancing to something behind Shirou, Sakura asked him, "Is that what you were working on Senpai?"

Turning back to see what she was talking about, memories of the night before starting coming back to Shirou as he seemed to truly wake up. Standing up and resting a hand on it, he turned to her and smiled, "Yeah it's just something that used to belong to Kiritsugu from before he adopted me. I found it recently and decided to try and fix it up."

While it wasn't in the best of shape, and had clearly not been used for years, it was reconizingably a silver motorcycle.

The motorcycle had been heavily modded, with sharp edged plating covering the front of the motorcycle and the engine all pointing forwards as if it were forming a sword. However, due to unknown circumstances and years of unuse, it had been beaten up fairly badly, with large dents and deep slash marks throughout the bike, with the left handlebar bent at an uncomfortable angle.

However, Shirou's work from the night before was evident, with most of the damaged parts of the engine and piping replaced, the damaged ones laid off to the side of the shed and leaning against a pair of flat tires that had more than likely also came from the bike, if the brand new tires on the bike were any evidence.

"I still have a decent amount of work to do, but it at least runs now, but I still need to fix the handlebars for it to be really functional at this point." He continued, indicating to the bent handlebars.

"I see, I guess you were working pretty hard last night Senpai? Be sure to take it slow this morning." Sakura said, her eyes trailing away from the motorcycle and back to Shirou, who shook his head as he stepped away from the motorcycle.

"As if I could, anyways I'm already awake now, so let's head over to the kitchen for now."

"But Senpai, wouldn't it be better if you changed before we went in?" Sakura pointed out, referring to the fact that Shirou was currently dressed in an old grease stained jumpsuit.

Glancing down towards a particularly large stain covering his left sleeve he relented to her point, "I guess you're right. Alright, you go on ahead and I'll catch up Sakura."

"Okay," Nodding her head Sakura walked towards the shed door, turning back before leaving, "I'll be waiting Senpai."

Smiling lightly as she left, Shirou glanced back towards the motorcycle, patting in lightly before reaching into his jumpsuit's breast pocket and pulling out a small sphere-like object. It was a plain white in color and fit comfortably in the palm of his hand, with two large button like protrusions on the sides of it, and a faceplate like cover on the top. Across its face were black engravings that formed a circular almost eye-like pattern.

He stared at the orb, as if something about it would change, turning it over in his hand a few times as he muttered, "But what exactly are you? Something else he left me? But why with the bike?"

Sighing again, he repocketed the object, before going off to change back into his normal clothing.

"Alright, let's give it my all today too!"

Shirou walked down the empty streets alone and with his school bag held up to his shoulder, the night sky leaving dark shadows hiding much of the street. He had been held up for quite a while cleaning up the archery range for Shinji, but it hadn't been any trouble.

No harm no foul after all.

He just cleaned the room up, and left the school with no incident.

"...gggh…"

He suddenly stopped at the pained moan like sound. Turning sharply to the side, he was met with the sight of what appeared to be a person, almost completely hidden by the night's shadows, laying across the ground. If he hadn't heard their groan, he might not have even seen them in the first place and had kept walking past none the wiser.

"What the?" He muttered to himself, stepping towards the figure quickly. He might not have known anything about this person, but there was no way he was just going to ignore them when they were obviously in some sort of pain.

Crouching down next to them, he gripped their shoulder, shaking it lightly as he got a good look at them, or her. She was a girl who appeared to be about his own age, with short blonde hair that reached just past her chin, and was dressed in an incredibly frilly white dress that seemed to fit more for a fairy tale than anything in real life.

More disturbingly, was the thin trail of red leaving her. She was bleeding somewhere. He wasn't sure how much or where, but bleeding was hardly ever a good sign.

"Hey, hey! Are you okay? What happened?" While she would still groan, his shaking and his questions would otherwise go unanswered.

His brow furrowing, he came to a decision. He might not have known her, but he wasn't going to leave her there. Stopping his attempts at waking her, he slung his bag over his shoulder before scoping her up into his arms, holding her delicately as to not hurt her in any way.

He might not be able to help her here, but he might be able to do something more for her back home. And even if he couldn't, her being inside was certainly better than laying on the pavement until he could get her to a hospital.

With her secure in his arms, he made his way back to his house with a quickened pace, being careful as to not shake her too much less he upset some unseen injury.

In his rush to leave the area, he didn't notice it when the pavement the girl had been lying on quietly cracked open. Dark red light poured out of the ground as the symbol of a closed eye formed through the cracks, before opening with a zigzagged line leaving from the center of the eye towards the top.

As the eye symbol glowed brightly, a figure started forming in its light. Its pointed maw stared down at Shirou's back as he left down a corner at the end of the street, carrying the girl with him, its glowing eyes narrowing into a sneer as it began to slowly materialize with the sound of shattering glass.

All of this went unknown to Shirou, as he maneuvered to open the gate's door to enter his home without disturbing the girl still in his arms.

After spending an embarrassing moment moving her in his arms in a way that wouldn't potentially hurt her while also letting him be able to open the door, he quickly made his way inside and to the door of his house, opening it far more easily.

Moving swiftly through his house, he brought her to a spare bedroom that had remained mostly unused for years, save for his routine cleaning of it along with the rest of the house, laying her down gently before moving to turn on the lights so he could more easily check up on her.

Now that she was in light, he could see the large spot of red on her chest through her dress. His brow furrowing, he pulled out a first aid kit that had been kept in the room, before moving over to her.

He wasn't a doctor, but he wasn't a complete stranger to treating injuries. And in the time it would take to get her to an actual doctor, it could be too late. It was better for him to cover it now, and get her to a doctor when it was less potentially life threatening.

Not even considering the more suggestive nature of the act, he quickly went to unbuttoning her dress, before opening the first aid kit as he checked over her wounds. She was covered in multiple smaller cuts and bruises, but the main cause of the blood was a thin but long gash running from right below her right ribcage to her left hip.

Eyes widening at the wound, he quickly went to treating it. Dabbing alcohol onto a cloth, he first wiped away the blood before going to disinfect the wound. Not slowing down, he pulled out a roll of gauze as he lifted her up slightly, wrapping the gauze completely around her torso multiple times, making sure it was tight enough to stop the blood.

After treating the wound and wrapping it, he sighed as he collapsed down into a sitting position next to her. Sighing to himself, he muttered, "What happened to you?"

Expectedly, she didn't answer him directly, but her breathing, which had been slightly jagged since he had found her, was now more calm and steady. Smiling lightly at the sight, he pulled out the orb from his jacket pocket, fiddling with it as he sat next to her.

He doubted she was going to react completely positively to waking up in some strange place, even if her wounds had been treated. It would be for the best to stay with her until she had woken up.

So he sat there with her, listening to nothing but the sound of her breathing and of the orb being moved around in his hand.

He still knew nothing about her, but he was trying to figure out what had happened to her even without being able to ask her himself. She could've been a runaway or simply an abuse victim. But with that slash mark, he doubted that it was something as simple as that.

Shinji had mentioned those murders that had been happening in New City recently that day. Could she have been a survivor of one of those attacks? It was a strong possibility, with the slash mark easily being a possible knife wound. But he wouldn't be able to know until she was awake.

And that was if she decided to tell him anything.

Sighing, he began lightly tossing the orb in his hands as he mused over the situation.

"...Eyecon...you have an Eyecon?" A quiet, and almost weak voice broke the near silence, as the girl tried to sit up, obviously still in pain, and barely staying awake.

Fumbling with the orb, he set it down next to him as he went to stop her from sitting up, "Slow down there, you're injured."

Unable to fight against him, she collapsed back down, but her sharp blue eyes were now open as she stared at the orb he had laid down next to him, "...You have an Eyecon…"

She didn't seem to care at all about her injuries, completely fixated on the orb he had found just a short while ago. Reaching down to pick it up, he held it up in front of her, her eyes following it as he lifted it.

"You mean this? This is an...Eyecon?" He spoke almost hesitant about the term. He wasn't sure what an Eyecon was supposed to be, but it must have been important, at least to her, if it was the first thing she cared about even while injured.

Still lying down, she reached up to the eyecon, but instead of taking it like he had expected, she wrapped her fingers around his hand, closing it around the Eyecon. "Keep it safe...it will protect you…"

"It will protect me? What's that supposed to mean? How can a little ball protect me?" Shirou asked, but he went unanswered as she closed her eyes, going back to sleep as her hand went back down to her side.

"So you got yourself an Eyecon? A bit surprising considering you're still alive. But I can help you with that." A sinister voice sneered from behind him.

"What the?!" Shirou shouted as he turned around, however he was met with a crushing force smashing into the side of his face flinging him into the wall. Shouting out in surprise and pain as he smashed into the wall, he slid back down into the floor.

Groaning, he looked up to see what had hit him as he attempted to stand back up. Standing where he had been sitting just a moment before, was a hulking black and blue creature covered in dark red tattoos. It was a wolf like creature, yet it stood on its hind legs like a human, and dressed in pieces of black and silver armor and held a long dark red and barbed spear in its paw like hand.

It grinned wickedly at him as it spun the spear in its hand, "Oh hey, you're not dead yet. Guess you're made of slightly tougher stuff. Unfortunate for you, amusing for me." Turning down to the sleeping girl it grin widened, "I'll be back for you in a moment sleeping beauty. First let me deal with the outsider."

And then he disappeared, and Shirou realized he needed to move. Lunging forwards, he narrowly avoided the spear as it embedded itself where he had just been, the wolf creature glancing back at him as it ripped the spear out of the wall and he sprinted out of the room.

"Decent enough instincts too. Looks like this might take a couple swings."

Shirou ran through his hallways, desperate to both lose the monster, and lead it away from the girl, as his mind raced trying to catch up with what was going on. A girl covered in wounds and blood who called his orb an Eycon, which seemed more important than he had even considered. And a wolf like monster carrying that barbed spear as large as he was. Staring down at the Eyecon still held tightly in his hand he complained to himself, 'So much for protecting me!' as he ran.

Running round a corner, he glanced out towards the windows leading out into the inner courtyard, coming to a split-second decision. Smashing his shoulder into the window, he broke it and leapt out into the courtyard, stumbling as he landed and broke into a sprint towards the shed.

If this Eyecon thing was actually important, then maybe there'd be something useful Kiritsugu left in the shed.

"Going for the shed aye? How about I help you?" The voice of the monster suddenly spoke directly behind him. His eyes widening, he didn't have any time to react before the monster's foot slammed into his back, blasting him towards the shed.

His body smashed into the half opened doors and landed painfully inside it, his body tumbling across the floor and into the motorcycle, knocking it down. Groaning loudly, he tried to lift himself up from on top of the bike, no longer noticing the eyecon gripped tightly in a now bleeding hand.

As he lifted himself up, a sharp pain stopped him as it dug itself into his shoulder. Looking up, he was met with the sight of the wolf monster, grinning down at him, its spear being slowly stabbed into his shoulder.

"So much for whatever your plan was kid. Well this has been fun, but I'm a busy man, I have places to see, people to kill, certain girls to bring back, you get the picture." The monster droned on, pulling the spear away from Shirou, leaving nothing but a small wound in his shoulder.

Before suddenly stabbing him through the heart. "Unfortunately for you, no witnesses. Especially those with Eyecons."

The barbed spear tore through his chest, shredding muscle and organ like wet tissue paper. Shirou gasped, his mind not catching up to the pain until a moment later as he gripped the spear that was now stabbing him, blood pouring from both the wound and his mouth as his body collapsed, held up solely by the spear.

Cruelly twisting a few times in his chest for good measure, the monster ripped it back out in a motion that was as swift as when it stabbed him.

Shirou's body, now without the support of the spear, collapsed back onto the knocked down motorcycle. His mind moving faster than it ever had before, an instant crawled by like an eternity, but his body moved at the same speed it always did.

'I'm going to die.' Is the thought that planted itself firmly in his mind as he felt himself slowly fall, watching the monster slowly turn its back to his corpse. And yet, he couldn't bring himself to care, as the light slowly faded.

Because another, louder thought firmly engraved itself into his mind.

'He's going to hurt her.' He still knew nothing about the girl, but he couldn't allow her to be hurt. He was going to be a hero of justice after all! And a hero can save anyone!

And yet...here he was.

Dying.

And as the world faded away, time moving by at a crawl for him, he never noticed the blood on his hand, oddly still gripping the Eyecon, moved swiftly like a snake. Curving across the orb's smooth surface, forming the shape of the large iris of an eye in his glowing blood.

"...y…..k...p"

"...H...y…w...k...p."

"...Hey…wa...e...p"

"HEY! You gonna wake up Mister Hero Wannabe?!" A girl's agitated voice shouted at him.

Jolting forwards, Shirou Emiya looked down at his chest, touching where he could have sworn he had just been stabbed with his hands, the only sign that it hadn't been a dream of some sorts being the massive amount of blood now where the wound used to be, and the hole in his shirt, before looking around him in confusion.

He was sitting on a black fine leather couch, in what appeared to be a study.

The study was a large circular room, the walls completely made into bookshelves and filled with thick books that appeared to be older than anything else Shirou had ever seen, with old wooden floors with a large thick rug positioned in the center of the room.

Laid out around the room were various pieces of furniture, glossy wooden tables and chairs as well as another leather couch on the other end of the room. Reclining in said couch was an older man with a large frame, dressed in fine dark clothing and white gloves, with brushed back silver hair and beard. He had an amused expression on his face as he read through a particularly ancient looking red book.

A confused look on his face, Shirou looked around more, turning to his side and coming face to face with a girl sitting in a chair pulled up next to the couch he was sitting on, and whose expression seemed to be getting more and more agitated as time passed.

"Finally noticed me huh?" She spoke in a sweet tone, but her expression gave away her true thoughts. She was a girl who appeared to be about his age, with wavy red hair stylized with long twin-tails tied by black ribbons. Matching her hair, her clothing was primarily red in color, with a large red sweater covering her upper half, and a short black skirt and thigh high socks and boots covering her lower.

"I-I'm sorry?" He said almost hesitantly. What was going on? Nothing made sense anymore. Just earlier that day his biggest worry was being able to fix an old motorcycle by the end of the day. And now…"Am I dead?"

"Practically. Luckily for you, you have a bit longer to be here." She said with a grim smile on her face, "Be thankful you have yourself that special ticket."

She then indicated to his chest pocket.

"Special ticket?" He asked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the familiar orb, which had somehow found its way into his pocket from his clenched hand. Except now, it looked far different than before. The back and sides of it were now covered in black mechanical detailing, the protrusions from before now standing out as actual pegs and large buttons. The front of it was still a glossy white, but now with a large hole in its center in which a red glowing liquid flowed and spun around forming strange patterns.

"Eyecon…" They both said at the same time, Shirou more hesitantly than her.

Turning back to look at her, now holding up the Eyecon between them, he asked, "What is this thing? That girl said it'd keep me safe, and you said I should be thankful to have it, but what exactly is an Eyecon?"

"An Eyecon is nothing less than a container and amplifier for the soul. That one in particular now containing yours."

"My soul?" He asked with a shaken expression, staring down at the Eyecon. Something that looked so fragile contained his soul? It was enough to shock anyone.

"Yes, your soul. Now contained within the Eyecon. Enjoy not being dead. Cause without the Eyecon, that's what you'd be by now."

Still looking down at the Eyecon he wondered. Why did Kiritsugu have this? But more importantly…"Can it help me save her?"

For the first time since the start of their entire interaction, she actually looked confused at his words, "Save who?"

"The girl. That monster that got me wanted her for some reason. I can't just leave her behind." He said, gripping the Eyecon in his hand.

A smile creeping onto her face she spoke again, "It could help you. If, of course, you're okay with making a contract with me."

"I'll do it." He spoke immediately, without any hint of hesitation in his voice. He stood up, staring at her expectantly as she stared back at him in shock.

After a moment, she shook her head, and her confidence and grin were back on as she too stood up. "You sure about that Hero Wannabe? After all, I could ask for your soul in return, maybe task you to do all sorts of evil things for me in the future."

He shook his head still staring at her, "I don't care what happens to me, but I don't think you're a bad person. I'll trust you with this." He had to if he wanted to save that girl.

He could have possibly asked the old man across the room, but something told him that approaching him was more dangerous than anything else he could have done. And besides, he truly did think she wasn't a bad person. He could've been wrong, but she hadn't given off that sort of impression so far.

Shock came back to her face, as she turned away from him quickly for a moment for some reason before saying, "I-Is that so? J-just don't regret this okay!"

Nodding, Shirou Emiya gripped the Eyecon tightly. "Don't worry, I won't regret this. What do you need me to do?"

Taking a deep breath, she turned around to him, light flooding around them. Glancing down, a sigil of an eye, with a ghostly iris trailing over the upper eyelid burned itself into the ground. Wisps of light trailed upwards and danced across his body, bouncing off of him before coming back towards him.

She raised a hand from her side, pointing at his waist with her finger before tracing a circle in the air, light trailing behind her finger. Before he could ask what she was doing, she brought her finger to the center of the circle and drew another smaller circle, forming an eye symbol in the air that slammed into his waist.

He almost expected some sort of pain to come, but instead he only felt a warm feeling as it condensed around his waist, forming a band like structure, before materializing in a shower of sparks.

A bulky device was now attached to his waist by an orange strap, in a fashion similar to a belt, with a ghostly nearly clear appearance, and a wide toothy grin with a single large single eye socket planted firmly in the middle of, as well as a large orange gripped lever on its right side.

"What the…?" He muttered, placing a hand across the device, accidentally removing the entire faceplate, it swinging down by a hing on its bottom base, revealing a large amount of mechanical detailing, and a circular space where the empty socket had been covering.

"Your Ghost Driver. Load the activated Eyecon into it, pull the lever, and you might stand a chance against the Corrupted Spirit." The red headed girl said as she reached over and closed it back up, "Open it up, activate the Eyecon, load it in and close it back up, and use the lever. Simple. You understand Wannabe Hero?"

He was now noticing that she was fairly shorter than him, with her craning her neck back to look up at him, giving him a better look at her face, including her unnatural looking aqua eyes.

Nodding his head again he held up the Eyecon so that she could see it from where she was standing, shaking it lightly in his hand, "Got it. Thank you for the help."

"I-I'm not doing this for you Wannabe Hero! I'm doing this because you're my contract now, understand?!" She for some reason spoke in a tone louder than before, not looking him in the eye.

"Anyways get out there already and purge the Heroic Spirit from the Spirit using it!" Before he could get a better look at her face, the still glowing sigil beneath him lit up violently, its light blinding him.

When sight came back to him, he stumbled back, but stayed on his feet. He was standing in the shed now, his blood splattered across the shed, but he still wasn't injured.

Held in his hand was the Eyecon, still looking as it had in that weird study with the girl and the old man. And still attached to his waist was the Ghost Driver.

The Corrupted stopped from its departure, turning around slowly to face Shirou, obviously having heard his stumbling and lack of falling to the ground.

"What the...didn't I just kill you a second ago boy? How'd you do…" Its eyes trailed down to the Ghost Driver attached to his waist, growling as it spun the spear in its hand as it spun around to fully face him on its left foot, crouching down before blasting towards him.

Clicking the button along the side of the eyecon, its iris shifting from a blank black to a large white G symbol, and he loaded it into the driver, closing its faceplate that let out a small malicious giggle.

"EYE" The Driver screeched out, black and orange tatters of fabric flying out of the Driver's now filled eye socket, forming what a short sleeved and hooded black jacket that moved shakingly in the air around him as it intercepted the charging Corrupted, throwing it back and away from Shirou.

"WATCH THIS" It screamed repeatedly in beat to music that seemed to come from nowhere, as Shirou gripped the lever of the Driver.

"DON'T USE THAT!" The Corrupted screeched, charging at him and launching a barrage of spear jabs at him, each one deflected by the dancing jacket.

He pulled back the lever. And he slammed it back in.

"Henshin."

"EYES OPEN! IT'S ME!"

Black form-fitting armor materialized around his body, jagged pieces of dark metal, with glowing orange engravings running across his body. Symbols of eyes engraved themselves on the back of his hands, with a large white one burned into the center of his chest. His face was covered by a blank black shell with no features, save its slightly protruding jawline.

"LET'S GO! DEAD SET! G-G-G-GHOST!" The jacket glided down towards his body, attaching itself without issue. It was a black jacket, with short sleeves and a hood, with orange trim covered in detailing that reached down to his waist, covering the belt's strap.

"GO! GO! GO! GO!"

Pulling the hood back from his head, an orange faceplate covered most of his face, save for its massive pits for eyes, with a jagged silver horn now settled in the middle of his forehead.

He stepped forwards, looking down at his hands as he opened and closed them. He felt...strange. Almost detached. As if he had been ripped out of his own world and dropped into another.

And in a way, he had been.

Just before, he had only been worried about fixing old junk and somehow becoming a hero like Kiritsugu. And now? Magic, monsters, mystery.

And the chance to actually be a Hero of Justice.

"Don't think using a Driver will help you human! There's no way a mere human's soul could possibly beat a Heroic Spirit's!" The corrupted shouted, interrupting his thoughts as it attacked him, lunging towards his side and slashing at him at a wide downwards angle.

He could actually see its attack, it no longer blindingly fast. If anything...it was slow. The Corruption couldn't put its Heroic Spirit to use he realized.

He could work with that.

Bending his body at an angle that shouldn't have been possible, the spear narrowly passed past him, leaving him otherwise unharmed.

Before the Corrupted could react properly, he repositioned himself in a singular motion, now crouching as he reeled his fist back before slamming it into the gut of the Corrupted, pushing it back towards the gaping door as it gasped for air.

So it could feel his hits too. And it was in an enclosed space where it couldn't as wildly swing its spear without care. He could beat it.

Not letting up his advantage, he pushed forward, swinging a high kick at its head from the right, forcing it to move its spear to the other side of its body to block the attack. As his foot bounced off of the spear, he used the force of the movement to build momentum for a swing kick towards its feet, which it was unable to react in time, knocking it off balance.

Before it hit the ground, it struck the floor with its hand, pushing itself out of the shed with a handflip, spinning in the air before striking the ground of the open courtyard and swinging its spear wide in a threatening manner.

Well there went keeping it in the shed.

"What's the matter human!? Scared of facing me in a fair fight?!" It shouted at him tauntingly as he stood in the entranceway of the shed, completely enveloped in shadows if not for the glowing engravings running along his body.

Not answering the Corrupted with words, he bent down, grabbing a pipe that had been lying on the shed's floor, running out of the shed leaning forwards with the pipe held in hand.

The Corrupted growled as it swung the spear down on top of his charging figure, but he tilted his body to the side to avoid its strike. As the spear smashed into the ground, he raised the pipe before smashing it down on the Corrupted's hand holding the spear.

It roared out in pain as its large fingers were struck, but held onto the spear tightly as it brought up back up in a swing, striking Shirou and sending him flying into the courtyard wall.

His back slammed into the stone wall, and he fell to the ground on his side.

Okay, he still felt pain too then. Good to know.

Pushing himself off of the ground, he leaned against the wall as his hand slipped to his side. This would've been a lot more simple if he just had a weapon, he groaned to himself.

As the thought finished processing in his mind, he suddenly felt an increasing weight in his hand as he looked down to a large blade materializing in his hand. It was a wide blade, covered in black circuits and piping that all lead to a familiar eye emblem in the center of the crossguard, with a mechanical handle covered in orange armor pieces.

The Gan Gun Saber.

He didn't know how or why he knew this weapon, but it felt familiar to him, like an old friend he had forgotten and had only just remembered. It was...strange. The sword looked so ridiculous yet...to him it held an air of dignity. A weapon that had been forged as a multi-use tool.

He wasn't completely sure how exactly...but that's what he thought about the blade as he raised it up, readying himself to fight. He knew it would be more than enough to deal with the Corrupted Spirit and its barbed spear.

Gripping the sword tightly, he felt energized as he charged again, the Corrupted mirroring him. It swung its spear in a slanted upward angle, trying to slash him into pieces quickly. However, he was easily able to block it with his blade, smacking the spear away as he followed it up with a thrust at the Corrupted's chest, aiming to end things there.

As the sword nearly pierced through the Corrupted, it leapt back, stopping it from being seriously injured with just a shallow wound.

"How?!" The Corrupted growled as it placed a hand over its wound, still aiming its spear at him, "How could some pathetic human be so strong, even with a Driver?! How can your soul possibly compare to a great hero's?!"

Shirou didn't know that himself. After all, he was nothing more than a normal person. He might've been more athletic and better with a bow than most of his peers, but he was still a regular teenager. And if this power really was his soul, then how could he match someone using the soul of a great hero?

Surely someone like that would have a stronger soul, and require someone of a similar scale to hope to match.

But it didn't matter.

It might not have made any sense, but he wasn't going to complain. After all, he needed to be able to beat this monster if he wanted to save that girl.

And he wasn't going to fail.

Raising his sword again, he charged again at the Corrupted, holding the blade with his other hand, forcing it to slash at the Corrupted faster than before. As the blade approached it, the Corrupted leaned its head back to dodge the blade as it sailed past it.

NOW!

Shirou screamed in his head, his hand that had been holding onto the blade moving away from the blade, and separating it, revealing a secondary sword having been attached to the main blade.

Swinging in the opposite direction than before, he brought the smaller blade into the Corrupted's throat, slashing deeply and leaving a blood mark as it trailed through sludge-like flesh and fur.

The Corrupted roared in pain as it leapt back, the blade being torn out of its throat leaving further wounds that it held its hand over, coughing up black blood as it held its spear in its other shaking hand.

"Y-You Bastard!" It screamed at him, raising its shaking spear at him, "How dare you injure me so much! I'll kill you!"

Reeling its spear back, it growled as red light erupted out of the weapon.

"S-See if you can survive the Noble Phantasm of a legendary hero!"

Shirou didn't know what a Noble Phantasm was. But it didn't sound good for him at the moment. He couldn't let the Corrupted use it. Pushing himself forwards, he darted towards the Corrupted, both swords drawn back, ready to hack off the arms of the creature and stop it.

"GAE-" The Corrupted didn't get to finish, its words cut off as Shirou darted past the raised spear and slashed at its throat, this time taking its head clean off. As the headless corpse collapsed forwards, the armor that adorned it disappeared in sparks leaving nothing but a mud-like body that splattered into a black puddle along the ground. Its spear clattered to the ground, slowly disappearing from this world.

He crouched down to the spear, picking it up as it slowly faded away. Gae Bolg. The spear of Cu Chulainn. He didn't know why or how, but as soon as the Corrupted faded away he knew the weapon's name. Did it have something to do with the Ghost Driver?

It was the best explanation he could come up with.

"You gonna summon that Heroic Spirit?" A familiar voice asked from behind him.

Turning around, he saw the red haired girl in the sweater staring at him as she sat on his porch.

"What do you mean by 'summon that heroic spirit'? Why would I do that if I just destroyed it?"

Sighing, she stood up from her seat and started walking over to him, "No, you destroyed the Corruption, a parasite that uses the power of Heroic Spirits to do their bidding. Now that the Corruption is gone, you can put the Heroic Spirit to use yourself."

"What do you mean by 'Put to use'? Do the same thing that 'Corruption' did to it?" Even if this thing could give him a power boost, he wasn't too keen on enslaving someone, if this 'Heroic Spirit' was even conscious.

An insulted expression on her face, she shook her head, "Don't even compare what those things do to Heroic Spirits to what Kamen Riders do. What they do is enslave the power of heroes to their will, turning them into little more than weapons. We work together with them as partners who lend us their strength."

Nodding his head, Shirou looked back down to the fading out spear in his hands, "I'm assuming I don't have much time left to do it then, so what do I have to do?"

"Trace the eye symbol I did earlier over the Noble Phantasm, doing so will summon the Heroic Spirit partially and allow them to form an Eyecon to inhabit, allowing them to stay on this plane and become your power."

Nodding his head again, he released his grip on the spear with his right hand, bringing it up above the spear as he traced the symbol, an orange glow trailing behind his finger. As the symbol solidified in the air, the spear shattered in sparks of orange and blue. Right as he began to think that he had done it incorrectly or too late, the sparks swirled together forming a humanoid form.

He was a taller man, with long blue hair tied back into a long rat tail and sharp red eyes, dressed in form-fitting dark blue armor with silver pauldrons and earrings, but even if he was clearly human, Shirou thought, this one gave off the presence of a wild beast far more than the Corrupted that had been using his power before.

"So you're the one who got that pest then? A bit amateurish I gotta say, but it was enough to get the bastard, and you do have some potential." He said with a grin, stepping over to Shirou, "So Kamen Rider aye? From what I've heard, it'd be interesting to work with one at least."

"Try not to disappoint me kid." smirking, he lit up in bright blue lights, disappearing as an Eyecon formed in his place, floating in mid-air. Reaching over to grab it, Shirou clicked the button along the side of the Eyecon, the iris shifting to the number one, as a spiral of light blue and white tatters flew out of the Eyecon, forming a floating jacket similar to the one he was wearing, but blue in color with white trim. The floating jacket, Cu Chulainn, nodded to him, before fading away, returning to the Eyecon.

"Congratulations Kamen Rider Ghost, you've obtained your first Eyecon. Fourteen more, and you'll be able to come back to life."

Eh?

"Come back to life? But I thought I already had?" He asked, turning to face her, moving a hand down to the Ghost Driver, opening it and retrieving the Eyecon from within, cancelling his transformation as the armor around him shattered in bits of light.

"And practically you have. For Ninety Nine days. Then your time is up. Unless of course, you get fifteen Heroic Eyecons. They'll bring you back to life for real. Good luck." She said, turning away from him and walking into his house.

"Excuse me what?!" Shirou Emiya shouted as he followed after her.

While neither of them could have possibly known, this was the start of a truly strange and wonderful adventure

Author's Notes) And there we go, first chapter. I know the idea in of itself is kinda out there, but I hope you've found some enjoyment in my crappy writing. Any and all criticism is appreciated, as I want to be able to become a better writer and make this god forsaken story the best it could possibly be.

While there are certainly multiple questions left in this chapter (Why are so many things unexplained, especially multiple seemingly important characters going unnamed) some of that is intentional and is being left for future chapters...and others are just me being stupid.

My current goal is to get a new chapter out every 2 weeks - 1 month, but life might happen so idk

Thank you for your time and have a nice day