The Steel Dragon – Chapter 2: Father, Mother, Sister
+ 1 Year post-Fuyuki Fire
"Shirou!" Kiritsugu called out from the dining room to the shed behind the estate. "It's time for dinner!"
"Coming Dad!" The young magus-in-training called back. "What's for dinner?"
"The Chinese place a few blocks west."
"Dinner time!" The retired Magus Killer called to his adopted son.
"What are we having?" Shirou asked.
"Burgers from the new American joint that opened in the shopping center."
"Dinner! We're having Ramen tonight."
"Come on Shirou, we're going out for steak tonight!"
After a pleasant meal at the Copenhagen Bar and Grill, the small Emiya father and son walked the lamp-lit streets of Fuyuki on their way home. The two Emiya males walked in a relaxed silence while their thoughts drifted in very different directions.
Shirou's mind was considering his next project to work on with the blacksmithing tools Kiritsugu had presented to him for his first birthday in the man's care. All the metals the boy had worked with so far had felt… lacking to some extent and that thought had gotten him considering a new branch of magecraft studies that his father briefly touched on, namely Alchemy.
Kiritsugu was also thinking about Alchemy… in a fashion. For in his mind's eye, Kiritsugu Emiya couldn't stop visualizing the last time he had walked this particular lamp-lit street, and how he had done so in the company of the love of his life. Irisviel von Einzbern-Emiya had been so happy in the days leading up to the real beginning of the Holy Grail War, and even through the pain of her role as the Lesser Grail she continued to smile and talk about bringing their daughter to live with them in Fuyuki.
Illya… oh, Illyasviel. The first of his children that he had failed.
"Dad?" Shirou's confused voice interrupted the man's thoughts. "Why are you crying?"
"Oh…" Kiritsugu exclaimed as he felt small streams of salty tears running down his face and he wiped them away. "It's nothing Shirou. Don't worry about me."
If the retired assassin thought that his response would have been enough for his adopted charge, then he was very wrong. Instead of putting the incident out of his mind, Kiritsugu could feel his son activate his magic circuits through his mystic sixth sense, and just by the sudden increase in temperature around them. Despite how obvious it was; however, the older man could tell that his son had not reached for his prana consciously and that what was happening was a reflex on the boy's part. Of all the magi Kiritsugu had met (and killed) in his life, his adopted son had the most active magic circuits of anyone he had ever met including homunculi who were considered walking masses of magic circuits. It was only too bad that he lacked the proper contacts to get the materials necessary to perform a ritual that could determine an accurate number of the circuits that his son had access to.
"Dad, I can smell the salt in your tears. Please tell me why you are sad. Have I done something wrong?"
"No Shirou," Kiritsugu stopped walking and sighed as he stared up at one of the streetlamps. "You've done nothing wrong. I never told you this but before I adopted you, I was married. My wife Irisviel passed away in the same fire that I found you in and before we came to Fuyuki we lived in Germany without daughter. I just miss her quite profoundly."
"You have a daughter?" Shirou's golden eyes went wide. "Why doesn't she come live with us then?"
"Her grandfather; my late wife's father, is the head of a powerful magus family," Kiritsugu admitted with a frown. "I have tried to contact him, but he has never responded to any of my attempts of communication, and I believe that he has lied to your sister to make her believe that both myself and her mother are dead. And as much as I would like to try and break into the Einzbern Castle and bring my Illyasviel home, I don't think I'll ever fully recover from what I experienced in the Fuyuki Fire. I'll never be strong enough to beat all the Einzbern security measures and Old Man Acht."
"What was she like?" Shirou held out a hand to catch a falling snowflake and watched as it immediately melted after contacting his skin. "Your wife I mean… do you think she would have liked me? Would she have been mad with you for taking care of someone like me when her own child deserves your time more?"
For the first time since he adopted the boy, Kiritsugu was at a loss for words. He was not struck speechless because of what Shirou said but because of the underlying message that the boy meant and looking down into his son's now expressionless gold gaze, the retired merc realized something he had failed to notice before. Shirou Emiya, the boy he had saved from the cursed ending of the Fourth Holy Grail War blamed himself for surviving when so many others had perished.
"Irisviel would have adored you Shirou." Kiritsugu dropped to a knee despite the snow and drew his son into a hug. "Our one daughter was a True Miracle unlike any other, but she was always so enthusiastic about anything involved being a mother. She would have loved you from the moment she knew you needed a mother and she, like myself, are so grateful that you survived the Fire to be a part of our lives."
At this point, Kiritsugu was openly sobbing as he tightened his hold on his remaining child and, while Shirou's face didn't budge from its stoic façade like his father tears began to drip down the boy's cheeks as well.
"Could… could I call her mom?" Shirou asked tentatively.
"She would have been overjoyed to have you call her that." The older man smiled sadly. She would have insisted on taking you for a car ride to celebrate… It would have been terrifying, believe me, she was… she drove extremely recklessly."
"Really?" Shirou questioned his father as the man wiped his eyes and resumed leading the way home, only this time he kept the boy's hand clasped in his right.
"Oh yes," the older Emiya barked out something that was between a laugh and a sob. "Your mother was extremely reckless behind the wheel of a vehicle and hated traffic regulations. She was also a far better magus and teacher than I. You would have a much easier time learning magecraft if she was the one teaching you."
"Did you go out for meals with her a lot?" Shirou questioned.
"We did," Kiritsugu admitted. "Though before she passed, she expressed a desire to learn how to cook herself. She wanted to make meals for our family to enjoy together at the dinner table."
Shirou was quiet the rest of the walk back to the Emiya estate, he just listened to the man that adopted him as the man reminisced about his late wife and his separated daughter with a depressed wane smile. The boy listened and absorbed all the knowledge his father presented him about the mother that had been taken from him before he could have met her and the older sister he should have in their life. He contemplated the name and existence of Jubstacheit Von Einzbern; Old Man Acht, and his role in splitting the Einzbern-Emiya family, and his prana reacted by reflex. It turned from a comforting warmth meant for creation into a burning flame that desired the destruction of those that earned his ire.
'This… this is Anger.' Shirou contemplated his rage. 'I want to kill someone. I want Old Man Acht dead. I want to help Dad; I want to reunite him and his daughter. I will save Illyasviel, and I will burn the Einzberns to ash if they get in my way.'
Kiritsugu let go of his son's hand out of instinct just outside the front door of their home as he felt the boy's naturally warm body temperature suddenly flare until the skin of his hand was nearly scalding to the touch. Alarmed the older Emiya spun to question his son only for his words to get caught in his throat at the sight of the boy. Before his eyes, his son was confirming Kiritsugu's theory about his nonhuman lineage.
"Dad," steaming scales began to replace the skin around Shirou's closed eyes. "I need to learn more magecraft; I need to get stronger. I will get Illya away from Acht and you will see her again. We will be a family together."
Shirou opened his eyes and, while still dull gold in coloration, the shape of the child's pupils had shrunk and stretched into a diamond shape. It looked like the eyes of an enraged reptile.
After that night Shirou Emiya doubled his efforts in his magecraft training. Speeding through the lessons Kiritsugu presented him, not by way of natural talent or skill but by pure stubbornness and by the virtue of having more than enough prana to continuously attempt to utilize the Mysteries that his father and teacher presented to him until he finally got it. Yet, despite the brute force methodology that Shirou employed in his studies of mystics, he was quickly speeding through the material Kiritsugu could teach the young magus. Soon he would have nothing else to teach Shirou.
At the same time as his magecraft lessons, Shirou had also begun to receive tutoring in self-defense and martial arts by way of the Fujimura Family. The boy had approached young Taiga and the young woman had immediately agreed to teach the boy swordplay with kendo lessons, and word must have reached the girl's grandfather (likely from an off comment from the girl herself) as a few days later Raiga Fujimura had contacted Kiritsugu and offered to find young Shirou a self-defense teacher, an offer that the boy had begged his father to accept. So now, when Shirou wasn't at the primary school he began attending he was either practicing magecraft in the Emiya 'workshop', training in the kendo hall with his 'Fuji-nee' or attending training with 'Tatsu-sensei'.
It was a very full schedule for a nine-year-old boy but according to the child in question, he preferred his days and weeks busy, though Kiritsugu worried about his son's lack of friends around his age.
In addition to his increase in lessons and training, Shirou Emiya also took up a new hobby in those weeks; namely cooking.
It started when Shirou and his father visited a bookstore a week before Shirou was set to begin his first day of school for the purpose of purchasing the materials the boy would need. While there, at his father's suggestion, Shirou had wandered the store looking for anything that might catch his eye. It turns out the title that did that was "Cooking for New Wives and Mother's: Meals for a Happy Family". Kiritsugu had not known what to think at first but didn't question his son's first sign of interest outside those he sought out better face the Moonlit World and bought the large cookbook.
The boy's first few attempts were not quite edible, though even at nine and new to the art of cooking Shirou proved himself more competent in the kitchen than his father, something the man found quite hilarious. So, the Emiya Family continued to eat out at different restaurants until the elder Emiya picked up a "Cooking for Beginners" book for the child one night when he was also shopping for foodstuffs at the shopping center. Two days after that, however, the Emiya Family ate their first homecooked meal in the comfort of their own home. The miso soup and beef that the younger Emiya prepared wasn't much and didn't stand out taste-wise, but it was a healthy and nutritious meal that the boy had prepared himself and the act of eating a homecooked meal in their home even brought slight wetness to the corner of the older man's eyes.
Following that night, Shirou Emiya's culinary skills only increased and as a result, the Emiya Family went out for dinner less and less. The one time that Kiritsugu questioned his son about his desire to learn the culinary arts, Shirou's answer nearly brought him to tear.
"I want to give Illya the perfect Welcome Home dinner."
Hey everyone, sorry that this chapter is so short but I promise the upcoming ones will be both longer and more eventful. The next chapter will come out in 3 days like normal but for chapter 4 I'll likely take some extra time to write out an Omake or two. Hope you look forward for it, have a nice night.
Glader signing out.