"Mortals are such flawed creatures, aren't they?"
In a luxurious room somewhere in an unknown location, a man in a fancy black suit leans against the plush leather of the couch he was sitting on. He stretches an arm forward to grasp a wine glass from a passing waiter's tray, taking a sip from the dark red liquid within it.
Sitting on another plush leather couch adjacent to the man's was a teenage boy. He had short, wavy blonde hair and blue eyes with a shifty look in them. He was wearing a casual light blue t-shirt with jeans. Strapped to his hip was the scabbard of a sword.
"Their lives are so short, yet they are not at all able to make a meaningful impact with it," the man says with a smile. "And on top of that, they are so easily misled by these foolish little slips of paper which hold no real worth. Wouldn't you agree, Luke Castellan?"
Luke doesn't respond. He just stares at the man.
"Though I guess you wouldn't really know," the man continues. "You are a sheltered, little demigod, after all."
"When is that goddess going to come?" the blonde demigod asks, his tone sharp. "You said that she's going to appear soon."
"She is, she is," the man says. "She thinks she's trying to track down a creature that she will prioritize hunting, but it will lead her straight into my trap. And then the creature will fall into my hands regardless."
"She better come quickly," Luke says. "This plan is moving on too slowly. Lord Kronos will not be happy."
The man smiles at that.
"Ah, is that really your concern?" he asks. "Or is your concern for the girl?"
Luke doesn't respond. He just stares straight into the man's eyes.
"Boy, have I not told you?" the man asks. "Unless you let go of your feelings for the girl, you can not utterly lend your allegiance to Lord Kronos."
"It is not that," the demigod says. "I just believe that she'll be a valuable asset. Not only do I have a bond with her, she is strong, brave, and cunning in battle. Her recruitment into Lord Kronos's army will only be a benefit to us."
The man chuckles at that.
"We'll see. However, what if she rejects? I am sure you know what will happen if she refuses to convert to our side?"
Again, Luke is reduced to silence.
"Well, regardless of the girl's decision, the gods will soon fall," the man says. "So when my dearest brother finally reforms completely, the throne will be his for the taking. Now, let us be off. We have business to take care of."
"As you wish it to be…Lord Atlas."
At that, the man, Atlas, stands up from his couch before walking off into another room. Luke just stares at his back for a moment. It isn't until he disappears past the threshold of the door that the demigod gets up and follows him.
So she claims to be a goddess of the Hunt, huh?
Shirou and Sakura were left alone in one of the Hunters of Artemis's many tents, which seemed plain enough for a tent. Hanging from the top of the tent was a small lamp, which seemed to give off a bit too much light for its size. Other than that and two sleeping bags on the tarp-covered ground, two of which Shirou and Sakura were sitting on, the tent contained nothing else.
A true survivalist's tent. It contains everything that a tent needs and no more than that…
He takes a look around the small tent.
Something feels weird about it, though. I can't analyze it since it's not a weapon, but still, something about it feels weird…
"Senpai, did you hear me?"
Sakura's voice snaps the redhead out of his thoughts.
"Huh? No, sorry, did you say something?"
"That girl earlier, she said that she was a goddess, right?" Sakura asks.
"Yeah, you're wondering about that too, huh?" Shirou says. "What does she mean by that anyways? Does she mean that she is some kind of pseudo-Servant or…?"
"Hmm, if I remember correctly from what I've read in the Matou mansion when I was younger, gods used to roam the Earth," the purple-haired girl says. "But their influence should have died out thousands of years ago. But then again, we are in a strange new place, so maybe…"
Shirou just nods in affirmation. He almost forgot about that.
Six months had passed since the end of the Holy Grail War. Shirou, Sakura, and Rider had agreed that they would live the rest of their lives in peace. Rider had decided to get herself hired as a police officer at a nearby police station, something that was practically effortless for her considering that she was a Servant. The wage that she made was enough to support herself and the two teens, at least until they finally finished school and pursued their own careers. At first, Shirou wanted to also try being hired as a police officer, but both Rider and Sakura shot that down almost immediately. Shirou was already forced to push his body to the brink in training both his physical body and his mana circuits just to make sure that Archer's arm doesn't kill him. Any physical exertion and his new body would probably break under itself.
Speaking of Archer's arm, It was definitely a nuisance, but for some reason, he just couldn't seem to get rid of it. According to Sakura, when Rin and Sakura transplanted Shirou's soul into a new body, the arm had just…appeared, along with the high amount of prana it gave off. Almost immediately, they, along with Aozaki, who was the one that created Shirou's new body, attempted to remove the arm and transplant it with a normal one, but almost immediately, the new arm had started tanning and soon, it pretty much became Archer's arm once again.
That baffled the magi. The most plausible explanation Rin could come up with was that Shirou possessed Archer's arm long enough for the Servant's soul to somehow meld with his. Again, it made no sense, but since Archer and Shirou were pretty much the same person, it was a possibility. However, they didn't bother to check up on that because, as Rin had said, it wasn't worth getting a headache trying to do something that wouldn't really change anything at all. So they left it at that. Rin went off to the Clock Tower to continue her pursuit for magecraft, coming back to Japan every couple of months or so to visit the three.
Thus Shirou continued life, getting used to having to live with Archer's arm. It was mostly a good thing though to him, as it gave him an excuse to train during an era of tranquility. Though he had the nagging feeling that somewhere, in a different universe, he wasn't forced to have to live with this particular predicament. It must have been Archer's E-Rank luck rubbing off on him.
Considering that Sakura was the only remaining Matou, the Matou inheritance was naturally left to her. Now that she had funds that were as, if not more, numerous than Shirou's, the two of them were pretty much able to go to college without having to bat an eye at costs. And of course, she was also given possession of the Matou mansion, but since the end of the war, she hadn't taken one step into it. Understandable given her earlier years of childhood trauma within the mansion's walls.
And that was pretty much it. The four of them were looking forward to living the rest of their lives out in peace.
But then one morning, the young couple woke up to find themselves not in their bed at home, but instead on a bed in what appeared to be some rather tacky-looking fusion of a medieval-age and a modern bedroom. A bedroom that was in a certain military school that looked like a castle. And apparently, within that military school, the two were employees that had been under the school's paycheck, and roof, for six months. Apparently, they had gotten hired on the exact day that the Fifth Holy Grail War ended, a fact that Shirou found hilariously ironic.
But other than that, everything seemed normal enough. Other than the fact that the two of them were somehow somewhere in America, everything seemed normal. Shirou and Sakura resolved to work hard and hopefully make enough money to at least travel back to Japan.
At least until that day came along.
It was the day of the end-of-the-year party. And since he was one of the school's impromptu janitors, that meant he was going to have to work overtime to make sure that the gym stayed squeaky clean. Thankfully though, the other janitors offered to take over his portion of the cleaning so that he and Sakura could just enjoy the party. Normally, Sakura would've been busy long into the afternoon, serving pretty much as an all-around private tutor for some of the children who needed help with their material, but since it was the last day of school, nobody needed any tutoring because there wasn't anything else to learn. So essentially, the couple were free to do whatever they wanted.
And so, they decided to just relax and enjoy the party.
But then, suddenly, Shirou came upon three strangers walking through the gym.
At first, he assumed they were brand new students since Grover, a friend of his, was leading them. But then one of the girls snapped her fingers and said that she and her companions were actually students for a while at the school. The redhead regarded that statement with a raised eyebrow. Maybe they were really students, as Westover Hall had a lot of students, but he had a feeling that he'd know if they were also Grover's friends, who he himself was pretty close to
Still, he didn't give it much regard.
At least not until he saw the vice principal dragging two familiar faces, Nico and Bianca di'Angelo, two students who frequently visited Sakura for their difficulty in understanding middle school math, by the collars through a door out of the gym, the two of them showing obvious signs of struggling. A minute later, one of the students he saw walking with Grover earlier, a boy with black hair, followed after him.
Around ten minutes later, he found himself in front of the headless body of some kind of monstrous abomination that he had never seen before out in front of a cliffside some distance away from the school. The thing that was once his vice principal had somehow turned into something that looked like a lion with a scorpion tail. And it seemed that the three he had seen with Grover earlier were initially in combat with him.
But that wasn't all.
All three of them had a weapon in hand: the boy had a sword, one of the girls a spear, and the other a knife, all of them made out of some kind of bronze alloy, an unusual metal for weapons. But although it was weird enough to see young teens such as themselves wielding weapons, what really caught his attention was the sword in the boy's hand.
He couldn't trace it.
The moment he laid eyes on the bronze blade, instead of his eyes "analyzing" the weapon like he had expected them to do, all he was met with was static. It was the same for both the spear and the dagger, which seemed to be made of the same metal that the sword was.
It was the first time that Shirou had ever come across something like this. Even with all of Archer's past memories and experiences, his mind couldn't seem to "recognize" the weapons. What did it mean for them? Were they made of some kind of metal that he hadn't ever heard of?
Then his day only got weirder when a bunch of teenage girls in silver parkas wielding bows suddenly appeared out of the woods. Oh yeah, and there was the deal with that girl who called herself the "goddess of the Hunt," which was the current topic of their conversation.
"Well, she definitely didn't feel like the other girls around here," Shirou says. "If anything, she actually sorta felt like a Servant."
"Hmmm…no, her aura didn't feel all that much like a Servant's," Sakura says, cupping her chin in thought. "It's…brighter somehow. Definitely much more powerful than that of any Servant I've ever laid eyes upon, but different."
Shirou just nods thoughtfully.
At that, there is a fwoosh as the flap of the tent is pushed aside. Shirou and Sakura turn to see one of the Hunters, as Shirou had remembered the blonde girl from earlier dub them, peek her head into the tent.
"You two, thy lady would like to talk to you," she says. "Hurry up. She doesn't like to wait."
With that, the Hunter withdraws her head.
"Geez, that's rude," Shirou mutters, slowly standing up. "Well, guess we'd better get going then. Maybe we'll get some more answers."
Sakura just nods with a smile, getting off the tarp-covered ground and brushing off her skirt before exiting the tent.
"Well, it seems my main attraction for the day had finally arrived."
Zoe Nightshade watched as the two mortals walked through the flap of her Lady's tent. She hadn't been there to lead them to the tent, but it seemed pretty obvious which of the tents was the goddess's, as it was not only the biggest but also smack dab in the middle of the camp.
One of them, a tall boy with red hair, rich golden-brown eyes, and distinctly Japanese features, took a look around the walls of the tent, where trophy heads of various animals were attached to the walls. Her eyes were drawn to his left arm, which was wrapped, from his shoulder to the tips of his fingers, with some kind of red cloth, a detail that she had noticed multiple times already but still questioned. He was noticeably handsome with a warm, inviting feel to him, but she still vividly remembered the cold, hardset look she had seen in his eyes not an hour ago when she had first laid eyes on him, strange black and white falchion blades in each of his hands as the headless body of a manticore slowly dusted away beside his feet. Blades that seemed much too small to behead something such as a lion. How he had managed to even get close enough to it to execute the killing strike was already questionable on its own.
The other was a girl, also distinctly Japanese, with unusually violet purple eyes and hair. On the outside, she seemed like the perfect model of femininity. Her face seemed almost oddly, but perfectly proportioned. And although Zoe couldn't quite determine her figure through her loose-fitting white dress and long purple skirt, it was obvious that her chest was…well-proportioned to say the least. Everything from her posture to her figure reflected an almost womanly character, one that seemed much too mature for a teenage girl. However, as her eyes darted from Zoe to the goddess, the lieutenant couldn't help but notice that there was something coldly analytical in her gaze.
Then she sees something flicker ever so slightly in the corner of her field of vision. Her eyes dart to the small movement, but all she sees is the shadows of the tent's four occupants against the wall.
"Come, sit," Artemis says, gesturing a hand forward at the spot in front of her.
"I apologize, miss Artemis, but I'd rather stand," the redhead says.
The girl repeats the statement.
"Of course, whatever suits you best," the goddess says. "It matters little."
Zoe, who had decided at first to sit, changed her mind.
"Well, let us start with introductions," Artemis says. "First, may I have your names?"
"My name is Shirou Emiya," the boy, Shirou, says. "And this is my companion, Sakura Matou."
"Well, I've already introduced myself as such, but I am Artemis, the goddess of the Hunt," Artemis says. "As well as all natural wildlife and vegetation. This is my lieutenant, Zoe Nightshade. I've had the privilege of having her as one of my Hunters for a very long time."
Zoe felt a bit of heat rush to her cheeks at that.
"No, it was my pleasure, my Lady," she says respectfully.
"With that out of the way, I would like to ask, who are you two?" the goddess asks.
The boy, Shirou, blinks at that.
"Well, my name is Shirou Emiya," he says. "And this is my comp-"
"I didn't mean your names. Perhaps my question was too vague. I meant to ask, what are you?"
Shirou raises an eyebrow questioningly at that.
"You two may feel like them, but it is obvious that none of you are mortals," Artemis says. "I can tell just looking at the two of you. Most likely demigods. But that's strange. The two of you don't feel like demigods either, but it is the most plausible explanation. After all, it has been a few millennia since I've made a mistake, but it is not past me…"
Shirou and Sakura just stare at the goddess as she cupped her chin in thought, silently thinking about something.
"Hmm, yes, probably demigods," she says, as if confirming something.
"Um, miss Artemis, we aren't demigods," Sakura says. "I know my parents and they are both normal humans."
"Both of my parents died in a fire," Shirou says. "I don't remember anything about my childhood."
"Oh? Is that so? Then, boy, how can you explain the feats that you have performed little more than just an hour ago?"
Shirou turns to look at Sakura. The purple-haired girl just shrugs and nods her head as if to say "I guess so."
"Miss Artemis, that was a product of my magecraft," the redhead says.
Artemis raises an eyebrow at that.
"Ah, so it's magic," she says. "So that must mean you might be one of Hecate's spawn."
"No, miss, there is a difference between magic and magecraft. They are two separate things. As a goddess, shouldn't you know this? Magic is the most pure of any form of magecraft."
"Oh? Is that so?"
Zoe's eye ticks slightly. She almost takes her bow and shoots an arrow at the boy for talking back so vehemently at her Lady, but she stops herself after hearing the utter confusion in his voice. Plus, she was curious as well. Over the ages, the word that is "magic" in this day and time had been renamed multiple times. Witchcraft, sorcery, etc. However, it was all a name for the same thing.
She notes that Sakura's eyes widen, as if realizing that she was about to hear some very bad news.
"Because I've been alive long enough to see humanity itself be born. And never have I ever heard of magic and magecraft being two different things. So that must mean you're not of Hecate. Perhaps Hephaestus then? That would explain the swords..."
Random A/N: Tried a new cheesecake recipe at eight at night. Bad idea.