Another day, another idea. I swear, guys, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has been both a blessing and curse for new ideas. On one hand, I got 3 ideas prior to this one, two of which based on events from the anime, and another one just based on the game. This one, if you read the header, it's based on the anime again. So, what exactly do I have in store for you today?

Well, as you know, Edgerunners ends on a... sad note. Yeah, sad. (This is the flag to bookmark this entry until you've been able to watch the 10-episode series, then come back when you're done. There be spoilers ahead). There are no happy endings in Night City, you either become/are the top dog or the city consumes you and leaves nothing left but dust and echoes if not broken people if they do escape for the most part. But before we get to the primary setting for this story, what about the other side of the coin? As you may have noticed, I've been on a bit of a Fate binge lately. Considering I've covered Fate before in this repository, I'll keep it short on that. But as I've been on that binge, another idea came to mind thanks to another idea or two I read on the site here. This idea was heavily inspired by "Into the Night" by eppelMax (id: 12218869) which follows the ending of Fate/kaleid: Oath Under Snow where Shirou doesn't die and is sent to the Remnant of RWBY. As you can tell, this is not RWBY. This is Cyberpunk. How do I want this to go?

After his battle with Angelica Ainsworth, Shirou gets transported by the Grail to a world opposite the one that Miyu got sent to. Where the one she was sent to was hopeful and bright, the one he gets sent to is dark and depressing; although the citizenry is very fashionable. After all, the Grail is a Monkey's Paw in almost every timeline. In other words, Shirou gets sent to the depressing dystopia of Night City in Cyberpunk 2077. But not just time in this part of the universe, but specifically the Edgerunners timeline. Why? Because I can. It has totally nothing to do with saving Rebecca, alright?

(It has everything to do with it).

So, with that being said, let's get this show on the road.

Title: [undecided].

Rating: M, very hard M for graphic violence, language, and sexual content both implied and explicit.

Pairing(s): David/Lucy for now, any others unknown.

Summary: Shirou finds himself in a new city after his battle with Angelica Ainsworth and must start a new life as he tries to find a way to his sister. In doing so, he ends up crossing paths with a group of mercenaries, the Edgerunners, for extra work. It turns out EMIYA's time as a Counter Guardian will come in handy dispatching many a foe with the power of the Unlimited Blade Works.

Disclaimer: I own nothing other than my copy of MS Word and my desktop. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners belongs to Mike Pondsmith, CD Projekt Red, and Trigger. Fate belongs to TYPE-MOON. See the foreword for the full disclaimer.

XxXxXxX

Chapter 1: A tale of two heroes.

To say that David Martinez's day was going to shit would be an understatement. He first had gone to his local ripperdoc for some components to upgrade his Wreath so his mom could spend money on more important things, such as their food, rent, and his ungodly tuition cost. It did not help that his peers at Arasaka Academy hated his guts. Contrary to popular belief, his hated rival of a student, Katsuo Tanaka, did not admire those who worked themselves up from the gutter to glory by the work of their hands. If he did, he wouldn't bully David day in and day out alongside his friends. He only held himself back to keep himself from getting expelled. Katsuo would get a slap on the wrist considering who his father was, but David? A street rat like him would be expelled in a heartbeat, breaking his poor mother's heart. All he had to do was survive long enough to graduate, one more year, and he'd be guaranteed a job somewhere in 'Saka, probably Intelligence considering his skills and grades, and he could start paying his mother back for all the monetary strife she had to suffer through. Maybe a vacation? Somewhere far away from the troubles of Night City, even if it was for a weekend. That'd be nice.

To make matters worse, his upgrades to his borderline functional Wreath had malfunctioned and damaged various systems of the Arasaka Academy, damage that his mother now had to pay on his behalf as he was still a minor. And to make matters worse, even more, he was getting chewed out about it.

"What happened? Didn't I tell you to get the upgrade?" Gloria chastised her son. They were driving the 'family car' down one of the many overpasses the freeway went over.

"Yeah, Doc's damn fault. Gave me a borked drive," David tried to shift the blame, looking out the window and attempting to evade his mother's side glances as she drives.

"You tried to get around the system, didn't you?" Gloria correctly surmised. "Now it costs us ten times more!"

She was right. A decently new Wreath, even two model years older which was more than compatible was only a few hundred Eddies at most, and most new shops that worked with the manufacturers offered payment plans in installments if one couldn't pay the entire amount upfront. Now instead of a few hundred, now they had to pay a few thousand Eddies for repairs. Repairs that were most likely for the time of the IT teams on staff as parts would be easy enough for 'Saka to have stockpiled for situations like this – albeit from other Netrunners and not a student jury-rigging his own Wreath from sketchy parts.

"Sorry," David admitted, though he wasn't as sorry as his mother should have thought he should have been.

"If it's something you gotta apologize for, maybe don't do it in the first place, 'ey?"

"You said you didn't have the Eddies when I asked, so…"

"I was waiting for payday!" Gloria all but shouted. "You know we don't got that kind of cash just lying around." She paused for a minute as she was getting annoyed by her son's leg tic. "Can't you sit still for a minute?"

He did and the awkward silence was broken just as quickly. "You know, I've been thinkin' lately."

"About what?"

"Maybe I drop out. Find some work or whatever."

"Do you hear yourself!?" she shouted again.

"C'mon, seriously. You know we can't afford those repairs," his leg started tapping again. "Plus, you got no idea how bad I stand out compared to all of them. Anyone 'sides a true blue corpo gets shit on. Even if I do graduate, they'll never accept me. No kid from Santo will ever be a suit. I don't wanna be one anyway."

The silence was palpable. David stewed in his angst while his mother was dead silent for what felt like forever, but lasted but a moment. "So, you tell me. What have I been busting my ass for then, huh?" she asks. David looks over to see her stalwart expression starting to weaken. "Everything I do, I do for you, D. Don't you see that? You're breaking my heart, mijo."

"Wait. What?"

"My sweet baby boy. So smart, so talented. You're everything to me," she said as her voice started to crack and tears leaked from her eyes. "I want to give you a fighting chance in this city and a good education. It's why I put in all those hours. Why I'm never home."

David looked away, he knew he was in the wrong. He knew the long hours his mother pulled as an EMT and what he suspected were side gigs too off the clock. While there weren't any unions, the corp that ran her agency did have hour quotas and limits that couldn't be exceeded. There was always a stiff needing transport and only so much money they were willing to allocate.

"Uh, I'm sorry. Shouldn't have brought it up. Don't cry, mom."

"Think I don't know how they treat you? Think I don't get treated the same way? But that's why you gotta prove them wrong. You gotta work hard and rise through the ranks." She raised her hand to emphasize her point, "My son at Arasaka Tower top floor! I can just see it." She looked over to him as she held onto the wheel again. "You've got this, D. You're my son."

"Yeah, well, easier said than done…" he looked over to the car he could see out of his periphery. The person crawling over the driver held a belt-fed machine gun. "Huh?"

"Fuck 'em up!" a man's voice shouts.

Before he could comprehend what the other occupant of the road was doing, they opened fire to shoot at the occupant next to them in a Villefort Delegate. Shots rang out in repetitive concussive beats which blew out his eardrums being this close to the muzzle. The Delegate sped up taking them away from the Animals next to them. It was hard to miss the gang of brutish, augmented criminals. All the while Gloria shrieked and David groaned from the blasts.

"Don't let 'em get away!" one shouted.

"Suit's limo is titanium plated!" another shouted.

The pink car shoots in front of them. And the man on top of the vehicle holds a rocket launcher and shouts, "The hunt is on, my beastbros!" right before firing the rocket at the car.

Unshockingly, it explodes and the Delegate's heavy front end rocks forward on its grill and slides slower. Right into their way.

"No one fucks with the Animals!" the same man hoots and hollers as they pull away. The tires fell off of the Delegate and bounced off of their car.

"Ara-suckers!" another shouts.

"Mom! Brake! Brake hard!" David shouts what to some would be obvious. Gloria shrieks as David shouts, "Watch out!"

The Delegate slammed down on them and David blacked out from the impact.

XxXxXxX

Meanwhile… somewhere else.

Shirou had done it but at the cost of his own life. He lay against the wall that led up to where the Grail had been as Angelica strode towards him. She looked up but couldn't see the Grail anymore. "The Grail, where is it!?" she demanded of him.

"Gone," Shirou admitted. There was no reason to hide it anymore. Anything that Angelica could do to Miyu would be impossible. She was whisked away by the Heaven's Feel. Sent away to a place where she could be happy.

The woman looked down at him, realizing why he had gone through that fight despite losing. "You never intended to win," she revealed.

"Just had to keep you occupied long enough for the Grail to finish fulfilling my wish."

He could feel himself starting to fade away. Seeking her own sense of closure, she asks, "Was it worth it? Wasting the Heaven's Feel like that?"

"If it means my sister is away from magi like you? Yeah, it was worth it."

Before she could make any glib remarks or insult his choice in wish upon the Heaven's Feel, he started to glow gold and disintegrate into gold particles. Angelica was befuddled at what she saw. Had she been in another timeline where the Grail Wars operated differently, she would have come to a much different conclusion than what she was currently hypothesizing. But here she was, alone in a cavern with a Class Card and no Grail to wish upon.

But as for one Shirou Emiya?

Well, his story didn't conclude there.

Shirou felt himself become warm as the golden glow overtook him. Feeling like this was the end, he closed his eyes in satisfaction. He had saved his sister's life. Miyu would be sent somewhere by the Grail where she could be happy and thrive. That was his wish for her, after all. The warmth reached a fever pitch to the point where it felt like he was once again near a fire. He opened his eyes to see that he was near a car wreck with vehicle models he didn't recognize. There was fire surrounding the one and the other was completely overturned.

He stood up and felt tired but relatively uninjured. Which was odd, considering that Ea had knocked him completely out of his Reality Marble and he had life-threatening injuries that he knew he had. Before he could dwell on the state of his body, an ariel vehicle that would have been not out of place from a science fiction film came out of the sky brandishing the unmistakable icon of the universal paramedic's symbol. It landed and the side opened where three men stepped out heavily armed and armored. They wore helmets to conceal their identity as much as it would protect them. They walked over to the overturned car not surrounded by fire and he could overhear them state something that chilled him to the bone.

"Mom? Mom!" a boy that sounded around his age called out in English from the overturned car. And not the heavily accented English he was used to in school, but fluent. He was in an English-speaking country which raised so many questions. "Is that the Trauma Team? Oh, thank Christ."

One of the men knelt by the car and held something to the boy. "He's not a client," one man reported.

"Neither is she," the man's partner reported.

"Hey, wait!" the boy called out.

"Secure the policy holder. Leave them to the city's meat wagons," the first man reported.

"Copy that," the partner replied. The third man retrieved a heavily injured man from the burning car and took them into the ariel vehicle and left.

"What?" was the boy's only expression of disbelief. This was echoed by Shirou silently. Paramedics? Leaving people to die? What had this world come to? "What the hell? Hey! Where are you going?!" As it flew away, the situation dawned on the boy. "No way. Just gonna leave us here?" Shirou started to walk with a slight limp towards the car and saw the other person that the men spoke of. She was a woman, late twenties, or early thirties by his guess – though he wasn't the best to guess at ages – dressed in boots, jeans, and a yellow jacket. "Mom! Momma!" the boy continued to call out, completely oblivious of this new onlooker. "Mom! Wake up!" He proceeded to struggle against the seatbelt he had on. "Fucking piece of… Mom! Dammit, get off me!"

Shirou couldn't stand it anymore. He wasn't a Hero of Justice, never would be. But at least he could help here. He stumbled over and knelt next to the woman. "Trace, On!" Shirou said as he flooded his Circuits with energy. Immediately he scanned the woman's body.

"What are you doing!?" the boy finally realized the newcomer continuing his struggle with his seatbelt.

Shirou ignored him, he needed to know just how bad of shape the woman was in. Broken bones. Lacerations from glass. Internal bleeding. Several organs were punctured. Concussion and most likely brain damage to some extent from the impact and blunt force trauma. He wasn't a doctor and didn't know all the intimate details of the human body, but he knew that this one was on its way out and that it'd be a very expensive procedure. Upon his Hill of Swords, one blade came to mind. It was a paradoxical blade, it helped after hurting. And it belonged to a very famous woman of medicine despite the blade not having an official name.

"This body is made of swords," he said the first line of his aria. He went through all eight steps of his Projection and from an orb of golden light came a small, unassuming scalpel.

"Hey! Don't you dare!" the boy called out again.

"I'm helping," Shirou said in a blunt reply as he stabbed the precision blade into her thigh, missing all vitals, and poured prana into it. His first-generation Crest appeared with circuits lining his arm as it flowed into the scalpel. He kept the Structural Analysis going as he saw bone set and knit itself back together and tissue mending itself to stop the internal bleeding. While the skull no longer had a hairline fracture, he didn't dare mess with the brain outside letting it heal any potential bleeds that may have been there. With her life no longer in mortal danger, he withdrew the scalpel and let it disappear once more. He could feel that the blade was slow to disappear, Gaia's influence appeared to have waned over time and it made little sense to him. It would be something he'd need to look into later as he turned his attention to the boy who was still struggling to get out of the overturned car.

He walked over to the similar-aged boy and knelt down. "Y-you stabbed my mom!" he spat. "I'll kill you!"

"She'll live. Also, people more powerful than you have tried and failed," Shirou replied in accented but clear English. It wasn't a bluff. The only person that could kill him was Angelica using the Card of the King of Heroes. If it wasn't for that, she would have fallen to his Unlimited Blade Works. Shirou proceeded to trace a nameless K-BAR knife in plain view of the teen. "Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to free you and you're going to answer my questions until emergency services arrive. Do we have a deal?" The teen looked at the knife, then his mother, and nodded. "Good, then we have an accord." With a flick of the wrist, the seatbelt that held the teen in place was severed with ease and the teen fell to the ground.

"Ow," the teen groaned as he pulled himself out of the wreckage. He then ran over to his mother and knelt next to her. "Mom!" he called out as his hands checked for blood or other injuries only to see that the stab wound that had been inflicted mere minutes ago was gone. The only evidence that she had been stabbed was the small pool of blood soaked into her jeans. "What did you do?" he asked as he looked at Shirou with disbelief.

"Like I said, she'll live."

"W-who are you?" he asked in confusion.

"My name is Shirou Emiya," Shirou rearranged his name to be more Western-friendly.

"D-David Martinez," David introduced himself in turn. It was decent to be polite, at least.

Shirou walked over to the highway divider and sat down. "Now, David, you're going to answer my questions as promised."

"Anything."

"Where the hell am I?"

XxXxXxX

Preview…

Night City wept.

Not literally.

The downpour from a monsoon storm filled the air and flooded the streets as a Maelstrom member ran down an alleyway. He had seen a boy, a mere boy barely old enough to not be sucking on his mother's tits, slaughtering his compatriots in a gruesome way that he didn't even think was possible. He was the only escapee. He heard slow, methodical footsteps at the beginning of the dead-end alley and turned around to see the red-haired boy standing there. He wore an all-black attire; a black collared shirt and tie, a black suit coat in the old 20th-century style, and black slacks and shoes. In his hand was a Thompson Contender. The gang member had seen what this ancient gun had done to his compatriots. He drew his Lexington in reply and tried to fire a shot, but the boy pulled a sword out of nowhere and deflected it.

The gang member limp-wristed his shot and stove-piped the spent casing. He tried to clear the malfunction, but the same sword that was held in the boy's hand was flung at unnatural speeds and sliced through the slide and barrel leaving a useless frame and half a slide on the Lexington. He threw it aside and got on his knees.

"Please! I'll do anything! Don't kill me!" he pleaded.

"Did you show the same mercy to those you abducted and chopped up for organs and parts?" the boy asked darkly. "I thought not." He raised the Contender and fired a single round which impacted the gang member in his abdomen.

Immediately his body started to morph and distort. Pain filled his every nerve ending as what felt like hot blades pierced his every cell. It was slow and excruciating, but he couldn't move to seek help. Only scream in pain. After what felt like forever, swords in what some would describe as a melded-together mess of jagged blades pierced everywhere splattering every surface around the now-deceased gang member making him look like an inverted porcupine, but with swords instead of quills.

The teen holstered his Contender and left the alley taking nothing from the man's remains. Not even approaching him in any way.

He pulled out his Agent and called his contact as he walked. "The deed is done," he reported curtly.

"The agreed-upon sum will be sent to your account, mister Emiya," the voice on the other side replied before hanging up.

Shirou returned to the apartment he kept near David's. The occupant next to his unit had left suddenly which meant he could scoop up the unit in seconds with a stack of Eddies paying off an entire year's rent in a single payment. The landlord didn't even ask any questions. He undressed and took a hot shower and when done took a nap. When he woke up, it was still early morning. He turned on the TV to see a news report.

"This is the twentieth wanted criminal killed in such a way," the anchor reported as the feed showed the gang member's mutilated corpse. "Some are questioning if Night City has a new prolific serial killer or a new vigilante." Shirou laughed in amusement at that thought. The skinner was just another job that took another piece of scum off the streets. Streets that would be filled again soon enough. His Agent began to ring and he picked it up. "Emiya," he reported.

"Choom, you have to be less corpo in your answering," an excitable girl's voice came from the other side.

"I have my style of business, you have yours," Shirou countered.

"True. Maine has a new gig lined up, bring David along with ya."

"Did he say what it was about?" Shirou asked as he walked to the blinds and opened them revealing the futuristic dystopia of Night City below him.

"Nope, said that he'd give us the deets when you get here. So, hurry the fuck up! See ya!" she said chipperly as she hung up.

Shirou looked down and confirmed the caller ID was, in fact, Rebecca. Shirou sighed as he got dressed in less… professional attire.

What a troublesome cast of characters he's involved himself with in attempting to find his way back to Miyu.

To be continued…?

XxXxXxX

And with that, I can call this pilot to a close. Now, there are some things that need to be discussed and they have to do with the two endings. The first is the primary portion's ending. The first question that arises is how will I have Shirou interact with the eventual formation of the Edgerunners crew. The first thing to note is that the Shirou from the Oath Under Snow film for Fate/Kaleid is not like his Stay night counterpart. FSN Shirou knew little about magecraft from Kiritsugu before he passed and pretty much had to relearn how to be a magus from Rin and co. and FKOUS Shirou learned a lot more and has a completely different personality and mindset where he pretty much bodies everyone in the Grail War. This leads into the "preview" ending where I show him dressing like Kiritsugu and using his signature weapon the Thompson Contender with Origin Bullets of his own making causing for some quite gruesome deaths for any gonks that get in his way.

Obviously, this will play an interesting paradigm with David and the rest of the crew when they do meet. Speaking of the crew, Gloria's death has been prevented from the crash, but has it truly stopped her from dying? Well, one of the ongoing conspiracy theories from the anime is that Gloria didn't die from her injuries, but from organ harvesting as hinted at later when David meets Lucy in the meatwagon. Obviously, since it was never confirmed (and likely won't be), we have to go off this very spicy theory that gets real dark for our protagonist. Lastly, the thing I want to explore is Shirou's Unlimited Blade Works. As many know, Shirou's aria has evolved several times between Archer, FSN Shirou, and FKL Shirou yet the first three lines have always remained the same. So, it's my hope that by the end of episode 10 of Edgerunners' events I will have constructed a journey that makes him append his aria based on his experiences in Night City. On top of this, I'd like to have his Reality Marble evolve to include firearms to an extent reminiscent of EMIYA Alter's Unlimited Lost Works primarily due to the many Legendary Iconic weapons in the world of Cyberpunk. There are very few swords that he'd run into during the timeframe of Edgerunners as it may be limited to Byakko (Wakako's sword) as it lay on her desk as a "negotiation tool," maybe Tsumetogi as it's out in the open in the Tyger Claws boss's office, but that's about it. All the other cool, bladed weapons are locked behind V's journey against Arasaka. So, the Butcher's Cleaver, Caretaker's Spade, Cocktail Stick, Jinchu-Maru, Satori, Scalpel (maybe?), and Tsumetogi (for sure this time) would be unknown to Shirou (the coolest of the bunch being Satori). So, it may be a necessity that Shirou has to evolve his Reality Marble to include firearms as well, but we'll see about that. While his origin and element may be Sword, it doesn't mean he's not intelligent enough working with Kiritsugu to learn how firearms and munitions work. It may be difficult to project, but he's not dumb.

I'm currently experimenting with outlines to see how I can make this story work. The first is that when Shirou jumped worlds Class Cards came with him and now random holders in the city, with even some being in the hands of cyberpsychos, holding them causing havoc to where he needs to defeat them and recover them to summon the Grail again. That's idea #1. The second is this universe is the same one that Fate/Extra takes place in and he needs to gain access to the Moon Cell to get to Miyu. The third is that this universe never had magecraft after the Age of Gods and people never figured it out ergo there's plenty of energy for him to use which makes him a bit OP. Again, this is all in the planning stages right now and nothing is concrete. But with that all being said, let's get on to other projects.

I haven't come up with any new projects in the time since the last chapter. So, all the previous ideas in the previous chapter are still being worked on in some capacity. I have been thinking of taking up a Pokémon idea where a male OC wants to be a gym leader and since gym leaders network with each other gets involved with Nessa from Galar. Nothing written at this time with that, but this was inspired by the romHack of Fire Red/Leaf Green where you become a gym leader instead of a trainer. Sounds like an interesting idea. Other than that fleeting idea, nothing new. On to IRL stuff.

So, my bipod came in, so I finally need to make it down to the one range that allows for long range shooting so I can sight in my rifle and get prepped for hunting season. I'll probably do that next weekend. I made some spicy purchases since last chapter, got myself a nice Figma 2B statue and a Joan d'Arc Figma from Fate/Grand Order. They're neat. Obviously, in the space since the last chapter came out Persona 5: Royal came out on PC and Xbox Game Pass so I've been playing through it. I'm still in Kamoshida's palace right now on the first day and one of the new changes I like is being able to continue leveling without leaving after finding the treasure (I don't know if this is truly new or I just needed to tell Mona I wanted to keep exploring after finding the treasure in the original game). So, I've been playing that. I finally caught up on Uzaki volume 7 and I recently just got Komi volume 21. By the way, did you know that Black Lagoon finally released another volume? Volume 12. Dude, this manga came back from the dead, I'm telling you. I've also been collecting more volumes of Nagatoro too. Still need to finish the Yakuza series, still on 3 Remastered.

That's all I have this time around. If you like what I do, let me know what you think in the usual places. If you want to support me monetarily, I have anon donation addresses in my bio. I'll see you in whatever I decide to put out next.