Chapter 4

One year ago

Shirou raced down the hillside forest, his face and body being smacked by the forest growth despite attempting to dodge the thick foliage.

He looked over his shoulder to see the man-turned-beast running right for him, the guttural grunts of the beast reminded Shirou of a large animal.

Quickly, Shirou stepped behind a tree to allow for the Beast to barrel past. Unable to turn quickly enough, the Beast felt his knee break as a reinforced kick struck the now twisted limb.

The Beast roared as it came at Shirou with a swipe of its claw. However Shirou was out of its reach and once the claw passed him he immediately delivered a right hook punch to the jaw of the beast, stunning the creature which allowed Shirou to continue his relentless assault.

If Shirou was any other person right now, he would have been red paste by now as the beast's strength was far beyond anything a normal human would be able to counter.

But as a kid his adopted father, Kiritsugu had taught him the basics of street fighting, a few martial arts and magic/magecraft, Shirou's best tool.

Kiritsugu always said there might come a time where he would need to use these abilities.

He said that he didn't know when or why Shirou would be in a situation where these would be necessary, simply stating that the world they lived in wasn't a merciful one and so it was pointless to believe that he would always be safe.

Perhaps in another world, another time, Kiritsugu would have been reluctant to teach young Shirou.

However this one tried his best to teach Shirou, even though he was limited in his ability to teach Shirou magecraft and unable to fully train Shirou as his life was cut short, he made the best out of what he could do.

Luckily, Kiritsugu imparted his most vital lesson to Shirou before he passed away.

How to survive.

As Shirou delivered a final blow to the beast's head, he rounded the beast to get behind it while it was still stunned.

Shirou then broke the knee of the other leg, fully incapacitating its ability to walk. Shirou then projected a simple odachi, one that he had seen one of the local samurai had used and stood before the growling beast.

He lifted the projected weapon sideways so that it was behind his head and was parallel with his shoulders in a form that was similar of that used in execution.

It was then Shirou hesitated, for despite now being a crazed and monstrous beast, he knew it was once human.

The man probably had a family, one that now would be torn apart as the man they once loved was brutally killed by him. He who dreamed of being a hero of justice, one that would save everyone.

As Shirou gazed into the beast's eyes he realised just how clouded they were, as if whatever was effecting him had literally clouded his eyes in madness.

However, despite the crazed look in the man's eyes there was something else. It was an ill and painful look as if the man was suffering in a nightmare he had no control of.

It was then Shirou remembered something his father once told him.

"Shirou, listen well. Saving and mercy are to different things yet uncannily similar. Saving is when you are able to rescue someone from danger." Kiritsugu paused and took a deep breath.

"Mercy on the other hand is giving relief to a person, even if it means death.

Of course always try to save someone but sometimes, they are beyond saving. Helping a person may sometimes be putting them out of their misery. Remember this, Shirou."

Back in the present Shirou clenched his teeth as he came upon his resolve. Looking into the beas-no man's remaining sentience as his muscle tensed to deliver the final swing.

"Sorry." Was all he said as the blade swung, ending the growls and howls of the beast for good.

Present time

Shirou world was one of darkness and muffled noises that sounded like voices. Unable to truly do anything, he tried to listen to what the voices were saying.

"-He's unresponsive because of the-"

"With the way he's -die."

"Shit, how about the -?"

"- we don't know what- and -!"

"We have no - it's - - blood."

"….Fine, do the -."

"Sorry Shirou, but it's the only way to -."

He then felt something enter his arm and inject something into it, after that the voices began to fade.

Shirou felt whatever was injected slowly crawl to his heart, the substance was a pressure, a force that had no other quality yet it felt like it strengthened his body and healed things that even he didn't know needed healing.

Then as it reached his heart it, it filled his heart until it felt like it was about to burst and then

BADUMP

The substance spread across his body, as it did so he began to see an abundance of visions

BADUMP

He saw a small house that had a vast garden, the scenery was filled with moonlight and a dream like presence.

BADUMP

He saw a beautiful scabbard that held an inhuman light, light from another world.

BADUMP

He felt, saw and read all seemingly at once as if it was seared on to his very mind.

Find the paleblood to transcend the hunt.

BADUMP

"Ah, so you've found yourself a hunter?"

Shirou awoke to the sound of bells as he groggily roused himself from sleep, slowly rising from the bed as he did.

"Where am I?" Said Shirou as he looked around the unfamiliar room.

The room was a quaint, rectangular room that had a small barred window that overlooked central Yharnam.

The building itself was made out of the typical stone that was seemingly used for all the structures in Yharnam but the floor was made out of rich, varnished timber which greatly increased the overall pleasantness of the room.

The bed was side-on to the window and next to it had a simple bed side table, on it there was a vase which had some strange looking sunflower in it. The flowers were white in colour and seemed to have been freshly brought.

As Shirou continued to observe his surroundings, the door to the room opened to reveal the same little girl he had help yesterday.

Violet, the daughter of Gascoigne looked at Shirou with wide eyes before calling out down the hall "Mum! Dad! Grandad! Shirou's awake!" and then entered the room as more footsteps followed close behind.

"Hello again!" Said Violet happily as she came closer to the bed. Shirou nodded and smiled

"Yes hello Violet." He responded. After the small exchange three people entered the room, Henryk, Gascoigne and a woman whom he assumed to be Violet's mum.

"Well you're up. Glad to see back with the living." Henryk said as he grinned, he wore a simple tunic with leather pants and boots. This, thought Shirou, was his casual attire. Henryk approached the bedside, Gascoigne and his wife following behind.

"How long was I out?" asked Shirou, curious on how long it took to recover from an explosion at point blank range.

"About a day. You are lucky to not have been killed in the initial blast." This was Gascoigne who responded.

He to wore casual attire, a wool knitted shirt with the words 'Greatest Dad!' inscribed in red wool on the otherwise beige coloured article and he wore rather baggy cotton pants and soft looking shoes. All in all, a very different look compared to the vicious hunter he was at night.

"A day? That's all?" Shirou was quite shocked to hear about his rapid recovery. Even though he was known to heal quite quickly, he didn't expect it to work that fast. Kiritsugu had told him he had certain magic construct within him that he had used to save him oh so long ago, but that due to certain reasons couldn't work at full efficiency when in Shirou.

"Well there's a reason to the fast recovery, we had to give you blood." Henryk said. Shirou looked at him in surprise. "Blood? By Blood do you mean the healing liquid used by the healing church?"

"The very same, we apologise for giving the blood to you but we had no other choice." Henryk explained how dire a state had been after the fight on the rafters. After the explosion, Shirou's body had been flung off the beams and plummeted down to the waters below.

When Henryk and Gascoigne reached him, he had already lost half his blood and his limbs and bones were completely torn and shredded. Knowing he didn't have much time left they injected enough blood to heal him, at the price of being infected with something potentially worse than death.

Shirou nodded and said there was no need to feel guilty. "I'm grateful for what you did, if you didn't I don't believe that I would be alive right now." Now with that out of the way, they began explaining Shirou's stay.

"After you're fully recovered you can stay my place all you want as long as you pull your own weight. And that means coming along on hunts ye understand?" Henryk said

"Thank you Henryk, but are you sure you want me along on your hunts?" Shirou said. "Of course! That magic biz of yours will come in handy when dealing with the bigger beast and more the merry when it comes to hunting I say!" Henryk proclaimed, grinning at Shirou while Gascoigne merely shook his head in exasperation.

"Well, it certainly also depends on how long your stay here in Yharnam is going to be. Tell me Shirou, do you know how long you'll be in Yharnam for?" Gascoigne asked.

Shirou pondered this for a moment before saying "Honestly, I have no idea how long my stay in Yharnam will take. It depends on what I find out about the blood and how that relates to the infection." Both Gascoigne and Henryk hummed at this, clearly in deep thought about what they had been told.

"Well that's good and all but how about we focus on the now?" Said Gascoigne's wife with one eyebrow raised, clearly amused by the three men's deep thinking.

"A-ah y-yes right, sorry about that dear. *ahem* Shirou, this is Viola my wife." Gascoigne awkwardly introduced. "She is also the mother of Violet whom you've met." Violet gave a little wave at that.

"So you're the magic Shirou I've heard all about." Viola mused, studying Shirou with a keen eye. "Well it's good to have someone who is blessed with ancient blood."

"Ancient… blood…?" Shirou question, not quite understanding what that meant. Gascoigne looked at him and seeing his befuddled face explained "Ancient blood or descendants of the pthumerians are what we call you with the ability of magecraft. It's believed that those with magic circuits are the result of pthumerians breeding with humans."

"Weren't the pthumerians humans?" Shirou asked as what he had read and heard of them all stated they were human.

"Yes they were, but their connection with the old ones changed them to the point where they were able to conjure phenomena close to that of the gods. But when Pthumeria fell, so did the people and they scattered across the land as remnants of their former glory. As time went on they mixed with the normal folk and thus the birth of people with magic circuits were born." Gascoigne explained.

"Why do you know all this?" asked Shirou, confused as Kiritsugu had never mentioned where magic circuits or magecraft in general originated from. But that was probably because Kiritsugu either didn't know himself or didn't think of it as important, with how much he emphasised efficiency it wouldn't surprise Shirou if he didn't care for the history of magic at all.

"Well as a hunter of the healing church workshop it pays to know who the strange people that are able to cause beasts to suddenly explode and whether or not you're next on the list." Gascoigne said almost in a sarcastic tone.

"You mean to say I'm not the only magus you've seen?" Shirou asked.

"That's right. In fact, do you know why they call themselves Magus?" Gascoigne questioned Shirou, this made Shirou look confused for a second before thinking about what the term magus meant.

"Magus… means priest or wise man, do you mean to say-"Gascoigne nodded in confirmation at his deduction. "That's right. Back when the healing church was first established many with magecraft came to the Healing Church in order to receive knowledge of old from the many tombs of the old ones that were buried long ago. Over time they created their own branch which still exists today and is-dare I say it-probably the only part of the church still properly functioning. The title of magus was given to those that could use magecraft, it was a status higher than that of the ordinary cleric as they were considered closer to the gods."

Shirou was left stunned at all the information he was given. Magus originally were of the Healing Church? Then did that mean so was Kiritsugu? Wait if so did that mean- argh damn he was getting side-tracked, now he finally understands the term of answers that lead to more questions. However there was one thing he had to ask.

"But my father told me that the magus were governed by the mages association and their seat of power was the-"

"Clocktower right?" Henryk interrupted this time, moving over to the window. Turning to look at Shirou he said "Hey boy do you see that large tower at the upper cathedral ward?" he pointed out the window. Shirou's eyes following the direction before seeing a large clock-tower.

"That right there is the base of the Mages association and the headquarters of the Healing Church's Clocktower branch." Henryk told Shirou.

"Yharnam is the base of mages association just as it is for the Healing Church. For they are one in the same."