Shirou silently knelt on the forest floor. In his hands, a beautiful red longbow primed to be shot at a moment's notice. A couple dozen meters away from him stood a lone deer feeding on some grass from the meadow. This deer was the last target the hunting party found for the day. If they stayed for more, they would be arriving back at the village after sunset. It was unanimously agreed by everyone that it was best not to push their chances.
The reason was due to the news of a new roaming pack of wolves that had established themselves in the area. Unlike the other packs, these wolves were aggressive and wanted to stake their own territory. The usual packs in the area have long since learned to avoid the common hunting grounds of the villages to avoid bloodshed. Likewise, the villagers respected the boundaries of the canine packs and travelled around them.
Shirou, blanketed by the forest canopy, aimed for the eyes of the feeding deer. Despite his new-found skill with the bow, he didn't want to risk missing the shot and losing the last target of his hunting group. A few more gobbles of fine mountain grass and the deer jerked its head to the side. Alarmed, Shirou figured out that the direction of the sound came from another hunter on the other side of the forest glade. With no other choice, he immediately released the arrow at the large prey. A resounding twang accompanied the string's release of accumulated tension.
The deer's head snapped to his direction upon hearing the sound of the bow. Unfortunately for the deer, that moment was all it took for the arrow piercing through the air to penetrate the center of its skull. A few wobbly steps backwards, and the body crashed onto the forest floor. During the entire exchange between hunter and prey, the peace of the forest remained unperturbed at the silent murder of one of its inhabitants.
"Tamura! You nearly made the deer run, you clumsy idiot! If we didn't have Shirou, it would've escaped!" a shout came from the other side of the meadow. "Shut up Yogi! You're not the one who stepped on deer shit! This stench is going to stick to my boot until I find a stream to wash it on!" an angry reply echoed back. Shirou giggled as laughter exploded all over the clearing at the remark. Looks like someone's going home smelling like the forest had cursed him.
Yokoyama, one of the group's muscled hunters, was the first to emerge from the surrounding canopy. He trudged across the field towards the fresh carcass of the deer. More hunters started to appear after him, some carrying bows, others carrying swords and hunting supplies. The planned routine of the village hunters was to allocate the transport of supplies based on the strength of the person. Strong-bodied hunters carried the spoils, and the rest shared the responsibility to gather fruits and plants during their trips. Archers were exempted from these activities because they were entrusted to hunt down big targets for the group. They had to be swift and nimble on their feet to chase down wounded prey, while also being cunning to prepare traps and ambushes.
Shirou walked out of his hiding spot and requested for a wineskin filled with water from one of the other hunters. His wineskin had been emptied of water in the past hour and there had been no streams of water nearby to refill from. A leather colambre was handed to him, he twisted the cork off and a stream of nice refreshing water entered his thirsty throat.
"All right everyone, we have a few hours of sunlight left. Let's start heading back shall we?" Yamashiro, the leader of the hunting party asked. Answers of agreement resonated around the men. Yokoyama lugged the heavy carcass over his shoulder and the group started to travel in the direction of the village.
On the way back, Shirou wondered to himself. A year ago, the thought of him holding a weapon seemed strange. Seeing himself joining the village hunting party was even further from what he imagined then. Now, he was the poster boy of the hunters who provided the main source of meat for the village.
Shirou was snapped out of his thoughts when one of the hunters nudged him lightly. "Shirou, have you heard about the news recently? Are you perhaps interested in getting appraised?" Shirou looked at the hunter asking. There had been news going around the villages that a large caravan had come from one of the cities. The caravan was doing appraisals across each village they came across and offered to send the children to the cities for education. Nobody knew which clan they came from, but it seemed like the offer was real. A few children from other villages had joined the caravan.
"I don't really think magic is my kind of style…I'm happy to stay in the village. Moving to the cities doesn't interest me either." he replied honestly. Shirou had never seen magic in his life. He heard a little about it from Taiga, but casting magic spells like fire felt dangerous. Especially when he lived near a forest. "That's nice, we would definitely miss our best hunter if you disappeared off to the city." the man chuckled honestly.
The hunting party rounded the corner of the wide forest path and the comforting sight of the village appeared in the distance. Upon reaching the entrance, the leader started to organize teams to tally the bags of gathered fruits and plants, while barking at others to bring the meat to the village butcher. The group disbanded and split into smaller pockets going their separate ways.
Shirou tried to help with the fruit baskets but the other hunters assured him that they had it handled. This was mostly because they wanted him to rest. 9 year olds shouldn't even be hunting out in the wild, but here he is.
So instead, he walked towards the Fujimura clan dwelling to fetch Sakura. The sun was beginning to set and the horizon was a striking shade of orange that transformed into hues of red and purple that streaked across the heavens above. Clouds lazily floated in the sky, colored in the glow of the day's end. Shadows casted by the village homes stretched across dusty streets, local greenery and the cozy homes bathed in the rays of the setting sun presented an entrancing picturesque view of the village.
Why was Shirou fetching Sakura from the Fujimura clan compound? A year prior, Taiga managed to convince Sakura and Shirou to expand their horizons. She introduced him to the hunting party so that he could use his bow skills to gather meat for the village. For Sakura, Taiga just dragged the poor girl off to have her learn how to weave from the Fujimura clan women. Soft-spoken and meek, Sakura couldn't muster a fight and quietly gave up.
Taiga's master plan was going along smoothly. Poor Shirou and Sakura didn't know they were being led on from the nose. Little did they know that she was training them into becoming a perfect couple in the future. The Fujimura women were giddy with excitement about being able to actively participate in the future love story they envisioned.
Shirou arrived at the Fujimura clan compound after a few minutes of walking. Aged stone walls surrounded the small clan compound, built a hundred years ago by the very hands of the first Fujimura clan members. In no other area in the village would you see any sort of structure that would resemble the complexity of the walls they laid. Two guards stood in front of the steel compound gate, talking to each other. They spotted Shirou approaching and one of the guards went inside to notify of his arrival.
Shirou didn't need to wait long. The Fujimura family had long since become familiar with his after-hunt routine to pick up Sakura from the compound. Twice per week, Shirou would meet up with the hunter-gatherer party and Sakura would be off to the Fujimura clan estate to work on her weaving skills. Truly, the two were nearly inseparable.
The gate opened with a creak and Sakura strolled out followed by the second guard from earlier. "You're late Shirou! We still have to help Taiga cook for everyone at home. If we don't hurry now then supper will be late!" Sakura huffed at him. Shirou scratched his head. "It couldn't be helped, the hunt ended late today because a few managed to escape us earlier in the morning." Sakura grabbed his hand and started marching towards the orphanage.
Clangs of pots, pans, wooden plates, and the splashes of water reverberated at the back of the orphanage as Shirou and Sakura washed after supper. Taiga had cooked supper alone and had left them to wash while she went to put the other children to bed.
Shirou wiped down the last few plates with a cloth and returned them back to their places inside the cupboard. The old rotting cedar cupboard had been around ever since he could remember, just like many of the other objects in the kitchen. The only new items in the kitchen were the culinary set and pans he received as a gift the year before. Maybe it was time he started using his stockpile of money from hunting to replace the battered and ancient kitchen cabinet.
His attention was diverted from observing the cedar cupboard when Sakura asked him a question. "Shirou…I heard that the caravan from the city was coming to our village next. Is it ok if you come with me? I want to watch them appraise the others!" Sakura excitedly asked. Shirou smiled at her, of course he would come along. There were only a few times when the atmosphere in the village changed. It seemed that a lot of people were excited about seeing if their children had the talent to gain the interest of the city mages.
"Why not, watching them should be interesting. I wonder what magic would look like." This might be the only time in his life that he would see magic. So it seemed like a good idea. "Who knows, if we're lucky, we might see one of our friends be selected." Sakura smiled.
"It would definitely be a shock if anything. They certainly don't have the work ethic for it." Shirou joked lightly. The other children loved to play a lot, and while Shirou and Sakura joined sometimes, the chores needed to be done and much of it was left to them most of the time. Sakura pouted and softly hammered his back for the jibe while he laughed.
Shirou and Sakura watched the long line of children in front of the mage caravan. They had arrived a few days prior and begun to assemble a small weird looking room near the village. There were drawn circles and marks that glowed in light blue. Especially during the night, these markings appeared captivating to the eyes of the onlookers.
There were a few children with the caravan from previous villages. Apparently, these children had passed the requirements and they were invited by the mages, of course, with their parent's consent.
One of the mages approached the first child and they both entered the strange construction within the circle. Minutes later, they emerged and the child was visibly excited as he ran back towards his parents in the crowd. The next child was then called forth and appraised. This time, she came out crying. It seemed that the mages were announcing the results to the children whether they had passed the evaluation or not.
The line started to shorten as each child was called in to be examined. Many children came out unconcerned about the results, likely as they expected. A few came out crying, Shirou assumed that those children dreamed of being accepted as mage apprentices in the city. So far, only the first child had come out excited. Which meant that only he had passed their conditions.
The village only numbered in the hundreds, so there were only a fair number of children to be examined. By midday, the line had been finished.
One of the Fujimura clan members approached both of them. "Sakura, Shirou, neither of you have been appraised right?" Shirou shook his head. "They're asking to have all children examined. You two are the last ones left. I hope you both don't mind."
Sakura pulled on the hem of Shirou's shirt. "Can you go first? Tell me what they do inside please…" Sakura trailed off nervously.
Shirou nodded and the final pair of children approached the mage waiting for them. Shirou was beckoned and he silently followed the robed wizard.
Shirou sat inside the mysterious den. It looked rather plain from within. The black cloth blotted out the light from outside but didn't look like it was anything special. The only interesting thing of note was the glowing magical circle he was sitting inside of. It gave an ethereal glow that carried an unexplainable atmosphere of mystery. Aside from the slight prickle when he entered, he felt absolutely nothing.
That was the first clue Shirou felt. He checked by waving his arms rapidly inside the circle. Usually, there was a sensation of wind when one moved their arms around. A force of pressure, pushing against your limbs. But inside the circle, he felt nothing.
"Please lend me your hand, I will be appraising your potential starting now. Tell me if you feel anything and warn me if it starts to hurt. Don't be afraid, usually it wouldn't hurt unless your body is heavily against external mana entering your internal pathways, by then we would know that you have high reactivity to mana." Shirou didn't understand some words, but he received the general gist of it. The appraisal was about to start.
The mage sat across him and clasped Shirou's hand tightly with both of his, then proceeded to mumble an incantation.
"insert incantation here" (Still making one)
There was no effect after the incantation. Shirou sat there for a moment wondering if he would be told that he had no potential at all.
Then a tingle, from the edges of his finger tips. Indescribable to him, but later on he would come to learn the words that would explain the life changing event in front of his eyes. A slow wave of something washed over his body, beginning from the hand that the man grasped, and through invisible threads inside his arms.
The sensation confused Shirou. Not only how…but also why. His mind was split in two halves at trying to interpret what was going on.
One half was stunned. It was discovering an entirely new part of itself…one it never knew…or felt. But always happened to be there, existing since the very beginning. And the sensations scaled exponentially. Each prana circuit was like an entirely new world blowing up inside Shirou's mind.
His right arm only contained five circuits…and Shirou's mind was already floating in a galaxy near the equivalent of the Solar System.
Subtract Mars, Saturn, and Pluto. Then maybe you could explain the sensation…if you could somehow even put to words the very combined physical and metaphysical conceptual values of the rest of the planets that exists.
Under normal human circumstances, Shirou would've been in a coma. About a hundred thousand times or so.
Except, that was because the second half of his mind mitigated the damage that could've happened.
The second half welcomed a familiar and inseparable old friend. Like a million memories returning, the circuits awakened and thrummed at the prana-like energy coursing through them.
Don't misunderstand. These circuits had never felt mana in the nine years that Shirou had lived. But rather…
They were experiencing the millions of memories that Unlimited Blade Works had learned, copied, and stored away in the seat of his soul.
No…
Unlimited Blade Works was the very seat of his soul.
The two sensations clashed like ice and fire. One, burning the body. The other, cooling it.
The clash should've ripped Shirou's metaphysical consciousness in half…and yet, he wasn't dead.
The incorporeal soul guided the physical body, the myriad galaxy that the circuits projected into his mind…being controlled, and pushed to the very limits that his soul could maintain them at.
Like a glass containing more water than it should…and still avoid spilling.
The mastery and experience of the soul manipulated the equivalent of an exploding star, smaller than our fingers.
Still more than enough energy to vaporize the entire Solar System really.
All of this happened in a fraction, of a fraction, of a fraction, of a second. A hundredth? A thousandth? A hundred thousandth? Perhaps more.
Then the mana creeped up to his chest.
In an effort to limit the damage and cripple Shirou forever, his soul jerked control of his body, forcibly shutting down the seven circuits that existed in the center of his body.
Shirou had lived in a time where pure ether mana had long since disappeared. In an age where gods had ceased to exist. An age of humanity.
In that age, mana had devolved into a prana. A mere memory of what it once was. Mana, was an ethereal force of life…a thousand times stronger than mere Prana.
The modern era was really grasping at straws wasn't it.
To avoid any further disasters, Unlimited Blade Works had no other choice but to disable the seven circuits if it wanted to avoid death.
Shirou was floating in an ocean. Breaking above the water each time his mind felt a foundation of reality to cling upon. Then submerged back into the liquid, once it lost its grasp on that foundation. Like it was living both life, and a dream.
Then the stream of mana reached the core within Shirou.
And he promptly blacked out.
The proverbial red button pushed, and Unlimited Blade Works went "fuck this" and ran through a couple of plans to salvage the situation.
Plan A: Eliminate the cause of the problem. All it had to do was use a very minute amount of mana from the five activated circuits to project a simple sword and knock out the source of external mana.
Problem Numero Uno: Said circuits were currently high out of this world with mana. The memories they received of prana backfired and enhanced their sensations a thousand times.
Problem Numero Dos: Using a very minute amount of mana would still be a thousand times more powerful than any prana projection it had. Even if it was a simple wooden sword to the head. The equivalent could be from manifesting a living wooden sword with consciousness mirroring Unlimited Blade Works or creating a wooden sword so large, it leveled the entire village along with Shirou…
…and perhaps create a deep valley cutting through the Northern Barrier Mountains behind it.
That plan would result in so much death and destruction that both Shirou and Unlimited Blade Works would regret it for the rest of their existence.
Plan A was immediately chucked out the window.
Alright, let's see Plan B.
Plan B: Continue to work on manipulating the wave of mana to a manageable level that Shirou would survive the aftershocks.
How? By using a small amount of mana without alerting the caster, to duplicate a prototype time refraction sword from the golden king's armory from the Fuyuki Holy Grail War.
Don't ask me why this exists.
The prototype would refract each thousandth second of time into multiple waves of whatever to lengthen the amount of time Unlimited Blade Works could use to deal with the problem.
Followed by a prototype time acceleration sword that would speed up the rate of time within the seat of his soul.
Not that time was of value here, since the seat of Shirou's soul was unchanging to the winds of time, unless he, himself, changes.
So you combine time acceleration within the soul of eternity, and time refraction outside of it hundreds of thousands of times, to manipulate mana into a manageable level for Shirou.
Yeah this is going to suck a lot.
There were no problems with this plan because you would have an eternity to deal with any, if they would even appear at all.
And so, Unlimited Blade Works bunkered down and proceeded to work…forever.
Meanwhile, Shirou's consciousness managed to snag a stray memory from his previous life.
"You're an idiot. If magi like me walked with death, you would've been more than just dancing with it. You would be having a family with it." Rin Tohsaka snarled at Shirou Emiya.
Millions of Ereshkigals and Ritsukas across dimensions sneezed at the same moment.
A few moments prior, Rin offered to appraise Shirou's prana circuits after the battle between Saber and Archer at his residence.
From what she examined, Shirou has neglected from using his 27 original circuits in favor of creating pale imitations by altering the construct of his nerves into prana circuits. This led to them deteriorating over time into the pitiful state they were in.
Her analysis of his circuits had shown her that they were capable of producing a whopping 270 units of prana. The average magus could only produce 10-15 units at any given time. Notwithstanding the formalcraft circles that families passed down to their heirs, building and developing its foundation, while also engraving additional mysteries into it.
The state they were in now only allowed a paltry 30 units of prana. Meaning that Shirou lost 90% of his ability to produce prana.
"But I can still use magecraft right?" Shirou questioned. Rin had never wanted to choke someone as bad as she did him in that moment. "You've been doing it wrong, each time you forcibly alter your nerves into circuits, make one mistake and you would've been in a casket on the way to the cemetery."
Shirou gulped nervously. He had never imagined that he was that close to dying each time he practiced magecraft. His father clearly taught him the wrong craft surely.
"What fool taught you magic and where is he? I'm going to burn him alive for teaching this abomination!" Rin angrily paced in front of Shirou.
"Uhh…it was my father. But he's dead now so I can't imagine you digging him from the grave." Shirou replied honestly. He didn't understand why Rin was so angry. He was still alive after all.
"What was his name?! I'm going to make sure to review his family's history and write a review paper about you and what he has done to you. Even self-respecting magi don't cripple themselves to reach Akasha." Rin finished with a huff. She had also stopped pacing and started to mentally write a list of priorities of what to research about Shirou's mentor.
"Ah his name? His name was Kiritsugu Emiya."
When Shirou's consciousness returned to the world of the living, the mage in front of him was still grasping his hand tightly.
His memories of the beginning of the appraisal have been blurry, but he assumed nothing bad happened.
After all, his body felt normal.
"I'm afraid to tell you bad news, your mana pathways are extremely few. It's way below even the average person." The mage clarified. Shirou blinked. He wasn't expecting much, but was it really that bad?
"So how bad is it? I don't really plan to study magic, so just tell me everything." The mage released his hand and breathed heavily. It looked like he was about to announce the death of a friend. "Your mana pathways number at 27. The average person has about 100, and that is already way below the requirement of 150 that we wanted. Not only did you fail the test, you have one-fourth of what everyone else has."
Shirou tilted his head. If this was supposed to make him feel bad, then it was a good attempt. But he didn't care about magic and could live his entire life without it. Shirou uttered his thanks and left.
Sakura was drumming her fingers together anxiously when Shirou arrived. "How was it? Did anything hurt? Are you sick?" She asked quickly. Shirou shook his head. "It didn't feel like anything happened to me at all. But the man did say that the more you feel the magic, the more you are attuned to it."
Sakura blinked in surprise. Maybe the process wasn't so bad after all. A guard from the caravan nodded at her to enter the appraisal area and she quickly vanished into its dark confines.
Shirou waited patiently at the side. It perhaps took him a few minutes to go through the entire ordeal and Sakura should soon be out of there. A few minutes passed and a sudden commotion came from the appraising station. A shout, followed by Sakura running outside screaming.
Something bad had happened.
That night, Taiga and Shirou sat beside Sakura, trying to comfort the scared girl.
What happened was that the mage started acting insane after he had appraised her mana pathways. Sakura became scared because the man kept looking at her deliriously. He then grabbed her arm and started shaking in excitement, but by that point she was already unnerved by his actions.
The only words she remembered was that the mage kept repeating "two thousand" over and over again during the ordeal.
Shirou had a clue why the man acted the way he did. 2000 mana pathways? That was 20 times the amount any ordinary person had. If 150 was their target, then finding someone with 2000 mana pathways would've been finding a diamond not in sand, but in the sky.
If diamonds ever dropped out of the sky that was. Surely someone dropped it from higher up the mountain instead.
Taiga and Shirou assured Sakura that they wouldn't allow the man anywhere near her. She would stay at the Fujimura clan estate until the caravan left.
"But Sakura, what if you missed your chance to learn about magic? Are you sure you don't want to give him a chance? I'm sure the man didn't intend to act like that." Taiga tried to divert the topic to stop Sakura from crying.
"I don't care about magic! I want to stay with all of you instead! I don't want to leave everyone behind!" Sakura wailed loudly before bursting into more tears in Taiga's lap.
That night, Taiga convinced her family to take in Sakura for the time being. They would hide her in the clan estate, Shirou obviously was included as he was needed to comfort the scared girl.
In the following days, the mages asked the village people about Sakura. Nobody wanted to answer at first, but then they started handing out money to the people who did. The village people didn't understand the concept of bribery and happily traded information for goods.
The Fujimura clan stepped in after hearing several requests from her friends about the caravan people asking to meet with Sakura. Taiga had explained to her family that Sakura was scared of the mages. She didn't want to meet them and that was final.
The clan stated Sakura's stance about avoiding the mages, and the caravan gave up. They started packing their camps and moved out after a few days.
To reassure Sakura, the Fujimura clan ordered their trackers to follow the caravan until they were far from the village. Nothing unusual was spotted aside from the first carriage to leave earlier than the rest. After checking the area, the scouts informed the clan head that the first carriage had long since disappeared ahead of the others. All that was left to do was to keep an eye on the rest leaving.
It was a few days after the caravan had left that Sakura became confident enough to leave the safety of the clan compound.
Shirou sat on a rock, watching Sakura skip through the field of grass happily. The past week had been a nightmare for the poor girl. Normally, Sakura enjoyed being active outside. Being cooped up inside the clan compound felt like a prison and she had tried to distract herself by weaving. But her work reflected the state of her mind during the entire week. Sakura had struggled and made many mistakes in her sewing skills.
It was good that the caravan had left. Sakura really needed to relax outside after being stuck inside for so long. Today was a nice day to be outside. There were more clouds than usual, which blocked the hot sun. The northern wind was blowing down from the mountains, providing a nice cool refreshing breeze that made the plants and trees dance lazily.
Shirou moved from the large rock he sat on, and uncovered a basket of food that he brought. Sakura had cooked the food with him earlier that morning, she made excited plans to eat a picnic out on the fields after so long.
The food was simple, they had a jar of rice. The staple food of any villager. An egg roll with bits of beef mixed together before being fried and rolled. A variety of fresh fruit picked the day earlier, and even two chicken thighs, provided for free by the butcher. Apparently, it was also his form of thanking Shirou for the number of meat he provided to the butcher. Some of the last few objects in the basket were two wineskins of milk and water, along with their accompanying wooden mugs.
Two plates were placed on the smooth rock, followed by the jar of rice in the center. Shirou opened the wineskin of water and lightly washed his hands before he collected the fruits and slowly arranged them in a circle around the jar. Next, he opened the chicken thighs from the makeshift wrap of banana leaves and laid them, one for each plate. Then, the wooden spoons and forks were lined up on the right side of each plate.
Knives were too expensive as they were made of iron and finding an ironsmith was not an option as there were none within a week's ride of the village.
"Sakura! Lunch is ready!" Shirou waved at her to return. Sakura had been collecting flowers and had crafted them into a makeshift crown, just like the stories Taiga told about princesses and heroes.
Just another of her devious plans to pair the two innocent souls. That woman is mad, I tell you.
Somewhere in the village, Taiga was gushing about the special date the two were on…along with a few other women. Meanwhile, the men were pitying Shirou and the entertainment he and Sakura were providing to these women.
The two close friends gathered on the makeshift picnic table and enjoyed a nice lunch of rice, chicken, and fruit. After the meal, Shirou felt like taking a nap. A full stomach combined with a nice cool afternoon was too good an opportunity to pass up.
Shirou made himself comfortable on a pile of grass before laying on his side and then proceeding to sleep. Sakura stayed nearby, focused on creating a flower garland to pair with her crown of flowers.
Unknown to the pair, they weren't alone.
There were no adults in sight, and the only other person that could witness the act was sleeping. It was the perfect opportunity for any aspiring kidnapper to take advantage of. A few minutes passed, and the invisible group of men slowly surrounded the clueless target.
A hand slipped around Sakura's mouth and pulled her back roughly. Her panicked scream was muffled but it was enough to disturb Shirou from his light nap. He woke up and saw Sakura floating in the air, before a strong punch knocked him down.
"There's no point holding the invisibility spell, we've got what we came for." one of the assailants uttered. The three kidnappers shimmered before appearing in white garbs, similar to those worn by the caravan. Sakura's eyes widened in fear at seeing them. They were supposed to have left the village long ago!
Shirou tried to stand up but was kicked in the legs by the speaker. He fell back down on the ground. Pained coughs and a shaky breath was released before he grabbed the leg of the man.
"Damn kid is so annoying!" a powerful stomp crashed on Shirou's back and he cried out in pain. The man pounded his back a couple more times before his hand slipped back in fear. Then he was floored with a straight kick to his stomach that flipped him to his back.
Sakura screamed in despair at seeing Shirou curl in agony. Drops of blood spilled from his lips as he looked at her being dragged away. Her tears spilled forth and the sight triggered a crack in Shirou's mind.
A memory of another life resurfaced.
"Shirou…you will never…leave me…right?"
A pause.
"Never Sakura, never…"
Shirou's tears spilled from his eyes, like a stream that had been held back for so long. The dam, finally unclogged after all these years, unlocked an emotion that had been buried deep in his memories. Desperation, the last tool every person had.
A spark burst into flame in his body. 27 circuits ignited in tandem and a stab of adrenaline carried Shirou to his feet. The unfamiliar sensation sent electrifying shocks within his form. This was the first time his pathways had produced mana, and they groaned in pain at the sudden exertion of energy. But Shirou didn't care, he was already streaking across the field towards the assailants.
The trio of kidnappers approached the road and a carriage appeared. A ram, followed by a crash as one man was smashed into the side of the carriage. Shirou had body slammed straight into his back and the momentum forced the man to collide with the carriage.
A punch from another smacked Shirou back. Followed by a kick to his belly, forcing the wind out of him. He dropped to the ground and started coughing violently, some drops of scarlet liquid spreading on the road. But the pain was nothing compared to the fire that had ignited in his heart. An attempt to rise was denied after two hands grabbed his neck. Followed by more pain as his head was smashed into the ground. Meaty smacks echoed in the field as two of the men brutally punched and kicked Shirou.
Sakura's mouth was briefly released and her distressed cries reached the ears of Shirou. The last assailant threw her in the carriage and then entered himself. Her efforts to reach Shirou failed as she was pulled in.
"Don't handle her roughly you idiot, we'll get punished if we come back with any damage on her." one of the men reminded him. The two men abandoned Shirou and strode to the front of the carriage. They snapped the reins and the coach started riding into the distance.
**BGM: Hear my voice - KOHTA YAMAMOTO**
Shirou crept to his knees before standing on wobbly legs. The pain was immense but he could not give up. Not here…not again.
Sakura's smile appeared in his mind. From different lives.
He screamed as he ran behind the coach, trying to keep up. His circuits thrumming with mana to keep answering his demands. But for all his desperation, reality did not bend to his will.
As to prevent Shirou from putting himself at risk, his soul placed a handicap on his mana pathways. They had the memories of prana, and could utilize mana a thousand times more efficiently than normal. While the circuits carried the memories, the circuits themselves were newly awakened. They didn't have the ability to properly use their memories and could only exert a small percentage of their capabilities.
The physical limitation of the body, and the intentional limitation from the soul had allowed Shirou to control mana, but at what cost?
The pair of horses pulled the carriage faster than the speed Shirou ran at. Further and further, the carriage slowly sped away from him. His speed was greater than the toleration of his boots and they slowly peeled away as he chased Sakura and her kidnappers.
Shirou ran and ran on the road until his reinforcement wore off. His feet broke and bled on the rough unmerciful path but that did not stop him from chasing until the sun started to set on the horizon.
Then he tripped, his feet giving up below him. Throwing him into the dusty ground. A fist smashed into the soil and a guttural scream of anger and despair escaped from his parched throat. The wretched scream pierced the uncaring sky above. But nobody would hear the desperate plea Shirou had announced into the world.
In the rays of the setting sun…a promise was broken a second time.
Shirou wheeled Sakura onto the veranda outside the house that Rin bought near London, The capital of the British Isles.
Sakura appeared sickly pale, the last few months had taken a turn for the worst. The curse had started taking its toll on her much faster than what everyone expected.
She didn't have a year left like what was originally estimated, she didn't even have a month remaining. It was already a blessing that Sakura managed to even last this long under such intensity.
A frail hand slowly clasped his, and Shirou replied by wrapping it around his dear friend. "Shirou…you will never…leave me…right?" Sakura whispered slowly.
"Never Sakura, never…" a terse reply came.
Shirou and Sakura quietly watched the sun set over the peaceful British countryside one last time.
The next day, it was discovered that Sakura had passed away in her sleep.
Author's Note:
I'd love to hear what you guys think about chapter 2! I've been pushing to write harder since I felt like the previous two chapters were lackluster and dead to the world.
Yes, I'm a great person for leaving you all with a cliffhanger. Bow down on my feet for not leaving you with another one when Shirou got appraised.
Fun fact, I was looking up texts from different religions and other Fate fanfictions to create my first incantation, and I still have no idea how to write one. I was heavily inspired to use Batman's "random bullshit go" as a reference.