Answers, Explanation, and Fun Things

Before I get into everything, I forgot to include the NP of the Shirou from Demon Slayer, which is more like Sasaki's, being a technique. Then she has one more, that won't be a spoiler, since when I get around to that story, it'll be in the first chapter. Her first NP is Fairy Breathing-Twelfth Form-Fairy Song, Nine Lives. A modified version of Heracles nine lives meant to completely amputate and decapitate the opponent.(does require set up and drains her stamina completely) Then she has, Blood Demon Art, Field of Blooming Blades, where blades from her UBW will materialize in a set boundary around her, impaling whoever is caught in it.

I want to say, that the reason everything seems to come out fast, is partially because I have a decent amount of the story already mapped in my head so its quite easy to go about. I will say it may slow down in the future, but not for more than 3-5 days at most. Also, Shirou regressed to age 15-16 when he fell into the world. He'd be about 17, about to turn 18 at the moment. He looks similar to his normal self from Fate/Stay Night, but a bit more filled out because of his training, which is why he wears long sleeves, even if he rolls them up a lot.

Florent will be Shirou's sacred gear, though he'll get a artificial one later because of something mentioned by Florent this chapter. Yes, Florent does have someone inside it, which is why Arthur couldn't get it to do anything. It won't react to just anyone, and it won't bond with just anyone. Also, I want to compliment one of the reviewers for pointing out the poetic "bloodstained flowers" line, considering I was going to mention something like that, though not as poetic.

Also, Shirou has met and reacted with a few different characters in his two years in the world. However, he has yet to meet an angel, which has disappointed him a bit. He hasn't met any dragons either. But he will meet one soon, a real one, not sacred gears. Vasco and Griselda being the main ones. Though he hasn't met Xenovia or Irina yet. Also, the hero faction has sent out some people to seek out the excommunicated Knight of St. Martha.

In reference to a question about one of the alternate Shirou's, there is one who did love Arturia. Who sees another world as another step towards Avalon.

I also want to bring to attention that my girl, Medea, just got a Don't Sleep on Medea video made, by Tsiah IV. Check it out on youtube. It's crazy how good she actually is, kind of weird that I see some people underrate her so bad. Probably because she always gets jobbed out in each route. Wish we got that rumored Medea route.

Next, we see a teaser of Vandals Shirou, just the beginning though. Just to show his mindset.

Now, on to the story

Chapter 7

Alright, I wasn't expecting a devil to come seeking me out. Nor did I think said devil would be such a elegant lady. Then again, the only exposure I've had to a devil was Kuroka, so I supposed my views are a bit skewed. Still, the offer for a chance to send Asia and Shirone to school was a bit to good to pass up. So, here I am, inside of a school. It is a bit weird I'm talking to her about attending and not the principal or whoever else.

Everyone was a bit worried about me going with her, but I was able to reassure them by wearing my Raiment. Shirou let out a sigh, the food Le Fay made smelled really good, but now he'll have to wait until he gets back home to try it. Even though he would end up being hungry soon, it was actually a secondary worry. The first thing on his mind was his new sword. After Le Fay told him about the sword, something caused his tracing to go haywire. Unlike Ea, which nearly caused him to have a stroke, this one was more like it was tracing him in reverse.

He panicked after he regained his faculties, causing him to rush to his room. As it turns out, his sword was a lot more than it appeared. Once in his room, he tried tracing the sword again, but holding it with both hands, hoping physical contact would help. What he didn't expect to happen, was being pulled into Unlimited Blade Works.

When he arrived, he noticed that there were patches of moonflowers. Some of the swords had vines growing around them, different flowers growing on each sword. He knew the only time such changes occurred within his world was when something drastic changed him. Seeing as the only thing that happened since his last use of it was receiving Florent, he had a pretty good idea what was causing it.

He looked around, searching for anything else out of the ordinary, when he finally caught sight of something that should be impossible. A long, red haired woman with a crown of flowers atop her head was inspecting the hill that housed his most treasured weapons. Shirou decided to confront the woman, walking up the hill. He noticed she was wearing a long, white dress with frills and a silk sash with flower designs covering it.

When he reached the top, she had just finished inspecting Clarent, more flowers growing around the sword. "This inner world is truly unique, so full of steel, yet my flowers can grow with such ease. You are an interesting existence Shirou Emiya. The things you have seen, experienced, and fought. Even your beliefs and abilities, a hero yet selfish enough to let the world burn if it meant saving those you love. You house and wield both holy and demonic blades. A soul forged by flames, filled with steel, yet, you have the love of nature within you. You are of this world, yet not. A living contradiction."

Shirou's eyes narrowed at the woman's words. "What are you?" The woman turned around, a small smile on her lips.

"My name is Flora, Roman Goddess of Flowers and Spring." Shirou's blood ran cold. He tried to maintain his calm facade. The only weapon he had that could potentially kill a god was Harpe, maybe the Spear of Longinus. He was bout to call them when Flora continued, "There is no need for that, Shirou Emiya. I am here because of you after all. My new wielder and host." She kneeled down, holding out her hands, Florent appearing.

"Wielder and host? I don't understand, goddess." Shirou's voice was clearly puzzled. For a goddess to kneel down in front of a human, such an action was so incomprehensible to him.

"Long ago, when the world began to advance, many gods were afraid of losing their divinity. I, myself, had no real worry, for as long as spring arrives and the flowers bloom, I shall continue to exist. However, I no longer wished to wander the world alone. I wished to find someone whom I could bond with. So, Florent, whom I placed my blessing upon long ago, was the vessel I chose to inhabit. Awaiting a day when I would find someone whom I felt such a connection." A sad smile graced her face, Shirou noticing the flowers around her to droop slightly.

"None who ever wielded Florent were capable of forging a connection. They used the sword I blessed to instead bring death and despair. Staining her once blue blade red. Until you. You are loved by nature, yet born of fire. You, who was able to give love to those who have stained their hands red, the unloved or the loveless. You are a hero of hope, of miracles. You are the embodiment of spring. You make flowers bloom, for you, someone who blossomed among death, only feel whole when protecting the hope and dreams of others. Never stopping, until those hopes and dreams are fulfilled."

Shirou wasn't sure what to say about what the goddess spoke of him. He never viewed himself as such. He wished to be a hero, to give hope to those without it. Once, maybe her words would have been different. Back before he learned of what being a hero of justice looked like. It was objective. He was not. He fought monsters and heroes to protect the smile of the one he loved. He faced death from a mere touch to see a smile on a featureless face. He trusted someone who was untrustworthy. He calmed someone who was seen as a berserker.

But none of that was virtuous, it wasn't done for a selfless desire, for the goddess was right. He felt whole during those times. He was selfish, yet, was it selfish to protect the dreams and smiles of others? Shirou always knew he was a hypocrite. To protect Asia and Shirone, he ripped away any hopes and dreams the ones who took them may have had. But even so, he continued forward, for that was his promise. Yet, there was one thing he didn't understand.

"What do you mean I am loved by nature?" Shirou spoke, attempting to remain impassive to the goddess's words, though by the look on her face. It wasn't working as well as he hoped.

"I can feel it within you. It heals you when you are injured. An object, yet, if that object was removed, the protection would remain. From where you come from, the ones who made it, were tied to the world. The object has become a part of you. Have you not noticed the two nekomata spend most of their time close to you?" Now that he thought about it, they did tend to be rather clingy. He thought it was a cat thing.

"Within a small radius, you purify nature simply by existing. Those tied to nature would find it hard to resist being close to you. Hence, why I have chosen you to be my wielder. I do not seek to deceive you. Only to bond with the one closest to my existence, so that I will no longer be alone." Her words were tinged with sadness. A sadness that Shirou found himself not liking one bit. He walked forward, stopping in front of the goddess.

"What will happen if I take this sword? Will I be changed in any way?" Shirou asked, not wishing to become any less than what he was. He did not wish to be used or manipulated like many who were associated with the gods.

"Fear not, you shall remain as you. We will simply be bonded together. Think of me as a sacred gear." She spoke with a small bit anticipation in her voice. Shirou looked down at the goddess, taking note of her olive colored skin and rose red eyes. For a moment, he could feel the loneliness she felt, the hope of finally finding someone to wield her, and even now, he could feel the fear she was feeling. It seemed like he had already made his choice.

Shirou reached down and took the handle of the sword. The sword's red edges brightened to look more like a rose red, rather than the deep blood red it had been. The flower on the pommel blossomed, changing from the red lily, to a red rose. The designs running up the blade looking more like vines, with a variety of different flower designs appearing. The handle itself changed, from the red color to a purple color, with four jewels emerging on the guard. A moonstone, a ruby, an obsidian gem, and a sapphire all appearing, while the rings on his necklace disappeared.

Unknown to Shirou, a slight red color entered his eyes, unnoticeable unless you were looking closely. Shirou could immediately feel the connection to Florent and Flora taking hold. No noticeable changes occurred within his reality marble, though he supposed that Flora's flowers would more than likely be those changes. As he looked back to Flora, he noticed she was gone. Hearing only her voice, "We are now one, I shall protect you from this day forward, my chosen wielder. Call on Florent, and we will answer."

Then he was back in his room, Florent nowhere to be found. He looked down at his hands, calling it forward like he did his other blades, unlike his other swords, it appeared in a red light and without any cost. He simply wished it to be sheathed and it was gone. Then, he heard Kuroka freaking out, before someone knocked at the door. That led him to here. Sitting in an office with a devil, talking about school of all things.

He let loose a sigh. When he was in the Grail War, he thought his life wouldn't get any crazier, then fate comes along to prove him wrong. 'Still, nothing trumps fighting yourself from the future I guess.' A small smirk emerged on his face as the door opened, Souna Shitori returning to the room with some documents. 'She does to be a diligent young lady, hardly the kind of thing I'd expect from a devil. Now, if only I can get Kuroka to be a little more like her.'

"I apologize for the wait, it took me awhile to find everything. Now, all I need you to do is sign these applications, and to come in in a few days to take the entrance exam and all will be in order." She said with a small smile. Shirou idly wondered how many boys must be in love with this girl. If she was anything like Rin in high school, he would bet it was just about everyone. He reached out and took the papers from her, before stilling.

"Um, I'm sorry, but you gave me three papers. I only needed the two." He replied politely, taking out the extra paper. He noticed that she quirked her brow at his words.

"I'm afraid there's no mistake Mr. Emiya." Shirou slightly winced at hearing that. He felt slightly guilty about not writing his full name down, but he supposed it'd be odd to say that he was once married. Speaking of, he supposed he'd need to start wearing his ring on his hand considering the one on his necklace was now embedded in Florent. "You listed you were 17, and even if you are close to 18, the law does require you to be in school. If you do well in the placement exam, you may only need to be here a year at most."

Shirou inwardly groaned, he hated his young appearance sometimes. He should have lied, well, told the truth but who would believe he was older than 17. "I see, then I suppose I'll take these back home and have everyone return in a few days." As he was about to stand up, he noticed the chess set in the room. He was a bit perplexed about the strange colored chess pieces. They almost looked to be made of some kind of ruby.

"Do you play?" Shirou was knocked out of his thoughts by the slightly excited tone in her voice. At her question, he remembered the strange fixation on board games Kagetora, Mordred, and even Medea had. Personally, he didn't get the appeal, but Illya and Taiga enjoyed the games and wanted him to learn.

Though, Taiga was a bit of a sore loser.

"I suppose you could say that." A small smile of remembrance emerged on his face. "It has been awhile though." He walked over and picked up one of the knight pieces.

"Well, if you have enough time for a game, I wouldn't playing a match with you." He looked up at Souna, wondering if she was like Illya and Medea. He preferred Kagetora and Mordred, since they always played fast. Eh, at most, it'll only be a thirty minute match, he could manage that.

An hour later, and he had just finished up the game. He would admit that he had fun. Geez, the girl played like a mix between Kagetora and Medea. Hard and fast, but with immensely tricky and well thought out moves. So, he just copied Mordred and played by instinct with a bit of Martha. 'I still think she was cheating by using miracles.' He thought idly. He looked up at the clock and stilled. His eyes widened and he slightly panicked.

"Eh, sorry, I have to get going otherwise someone's going to send a search party after me." He said it as a joke, however, he knew that it was no joke. "I appreciate your hospitality and for the fun game. It's been awhile since I was able to win, anyways I should get going. I'll see you around Ms. Shitori." He said with his usual smile. He quickly stood up and exited out the door not waiting for a reply. She seemed a bit shocked, but he didn't want to be around for the Illya outburst that usually happened when he won.

As he was walking home, he smelled a strange presence within the city. Though, he couldn't seem to pinpoint it. Usually the smell was close by, but now it was unusually far. "Oh, that's my doing, Sir Shirou." Flora's voice said inside of his head.

"What do you mean by that? Did you enhance my senses or something?" Shirou asked, a bit worried.

"Oh no, but with us being bonded, you have a stronger tie to nature and flowers. So, it's more like some flowers are relaying the sense to you. They feel a strange aura coming from someone, so with your tie to me, you sense the same thing. I'm guessing that because you use your sense of smell to identify these things, that is the chosen form of information your receiving."

That was a bit odd, though he guessed it was handy. "As long as they stay away from us and don't cause trouble, then it's none of my business. Let me know if anything strange happens." He spoke quietly. He didn't want to look like a crazy person talking to himself. It was a bit weird knowing that he had a connection with flowers and nature. Though, he supposed it was useful. Maybe he could get Kuroka to tell him about about senjutsu. If it'll help him with Florent, then he supposed it was worth a shot.

He finally reached the house, noting that he still needed to add a bounded field to the property. As usual, he entered and announced he was back. He had barely managed to take off his shoes when Asia, Shirone, Le Fay, and even Kuroka appeared in front of him. "I thought you said you wouldn't be gone for too long? We were about invade the school to retrieve you." Oddly, it was Kuroka who seemed to be the most upset. The others just seemed to be relieved he made it back. Not allowing him a chance to reply, Kuroka huffed before continuing, "Well, you don't feel like a devil so I suppose that's good. So, what did she want?"

'Geez, she was worse than Medea. Okay, maybe not, but still. She was getting there.' He let out a sigh, reaching into his hoodie pockets and holding up the three folded papers. "She wanted us to attend Kuoh for whatever reason, and because I was already thinking of sending Shirone and Asia to a school, it worked out. Though, I wasn't expecting to be given a form to attend too. I know I didn't talk to you about it first, so I suppose we could do it now. Would you like to attend Kuoh?" Shirou gave them both a smile when he asked his question.

Rather than stay in the doorway, he began to make his way to the dining room, idly patting Le Fay on the top of the head. "Sorry I missed eating with everybody. Is there anything left." Le Fay looked up at Shirou and smiled, nodding her head. Quickly running into the kitchen to grab the plate she made for Shirou.

The four girls sat opposite of Shirou as he began to eat Le Fay's stew. He didn't understand how she was able to make it taste so good, though he had to guess she was able to use magic to enhance some of the ingredients. He sighed, 'I guess this one's a win for Le Fay'. "So, what you do you two think? If it makes you both uncomfortable, we can turn it down." The girls in question both looked at each other before nodding with resolved looks on their faces.

"We'll go. I'll admit, it is a bit scary, but if you'll be there with us, I know that it'll be a lot easier." Asia said with her sweet voice. Shirou noted that it was the same look she had when he offered to train Shirone, before Asia came and told him she wanted to have some training as well.

Shirone nodded her head, a faint smile on her lips, "Yes. It could be fun. As long as Asia and Shirou are there, I can do it." Shirou noticed that her voice sounded a bit more excited than usual. Though he did note that you needed to be around her to really tell.

"Oh sure, go to school in an area controlled by two great devil families, nya." Kuroka said, a pout on her face, "I suppose nothing I can say will change your mind. Though, I suppose it will be a good change of pace for Shirone, nya."

"Oh, going to school with everyone sounds so fun, I wish I could go with you guys." Le Fay added, though Shirou knew that Arthur may be a bit worried about letting his sister go to school in a devil controlled area.

"I tell you what Fay, if your brother says you can go to school with us, I'll see about getting you a form too." Shirou said with a gentle smile. He figured if Le Fay really wanted to go, Arthur would cave. But, he also knew that Le Fay was one of the best magic users in the world. He wondered what she would be like if Medea taught her some of the spells she knew. He shuddered at the thought. Though he did imagine what Medea may look like in Fay's big witch hat.

He let out a laugh, which caused the girls to look at him with strange looks. He finally managed to calm down, "Well, I suppose it's decided, we'll all be heading to take the entrance exam to Kuoh. Well, barring Fay and Kuroka." He said as he decided to finish his bowl of stew.

Elsewhere, three people were making there way to a hotel. One was big and muscle bound with grey hair. The other was a beautiful blonde haired girl. Finally, the last one had dark purple hair with red eyes. Each one wore a type of school uniform, though they all had slight variations except for the girl with dark purple hair. The girl with purple hair wore a fur collared purple, short sleeved shirt with two straps on the top. A dark blue sleeveless cardigan revealing her toned stomach and short denim shorts with brown boots and thigh high socks. On her back was two green spears inside of a black covering.

The purple haired girl was looking at the picture of the one they were looking for. The picture showed Shirou Emiya, wearing his blue jeans and red hoodie. A small smile appeared on her face. "Perhaps this one is the one I am looking for." She quietly spoke to herself.

At Kuoh, as the student council was beginning to head home for the night, Rias Gremory made her way to see her friend Sona Sitri. Upon opening the door, she saw her friend sitting at her desk, her face deep in thought. "Hello, Sona, you're looking pretty troubled, anything you need to talk about?"

Sona stiffened for a moment, finally registering Rias entering the room. "Ah, Rias, yes, something did happen today." She said as she looked at her chess board. "It appears I have finally met my match today."

And there it is. A shorter chapter than usual, but things will start speeding up soon. Shirou's legendary luck coming into play this time around.

Teaser 2: Lord Marksman and Vanadis: The Sword Wielding the Black Bow

Shirou was pretty sure he had saw hell once before. In another life, he watched countless people die, burning in the flames of the grail. He had witnessed wars and even protected his home from an invasion. Ayako often helped him get through the nightmares of his younger years, telling him there was nothing he could do. He really wished she was waiting for him back at home in this world. Alas, he knew that was not the case.

Death surrounded him all around. He fired arrow after arrow, using quiver after quiver, until he was knocked off his horse. He had to rely on what he learned from Archer, unsheathing two swords of black and white. They were altered to look more like short swords, knowing that they wouldn't look natural in this new world. He fought on and on, rescuing anyone he could. He tried to get as many as he could to retreat, though there was just to much death.

He had a bad feeling about this battle, even before it happened. He figured the only thing he could do, was try and take out the war maiden leading the charge, but he wasn't completely sure if he'd win that battle without using up all of his reserves of mana. So, rather than take a gamble, he decided to save as many as he could. Hour after hour, he fought and killed hundreds.

It wasn't until the morning had come that he found himself alone, surrounded by a pile of bodies, his green tunic stained red, like archers clothes from so long ago. He used a little of his reserves to trace some arrows, sheathing his two swords in the process. He began to walk around the battlefield, searching for anyone left breathing. He heard the galloping of a horse approaching. He turned, immediately knocking an arrow, a second resting in the other hand.

He let one loose, hitting the horse in the eye, then knocked and released the other, piercing the knight through his helmet. Shirou immediately began to feel the fatigue from fighting for so long. He continued forward, resting against a large boulder. Where he saw a group of knights, the beautiful war maiden in the middle of the formation. He let out a sigh, he supposed he might as well attempt to take her down. Five swords formed around him, planting into the ground, altering themselves into arrows of twisted metal. He took the closest arrow, and took aim.