I do not own fate stay night.

When Raiga and his men had arrived they saw the whole abandoned factory had caught fire. He could see that the thugs were out while they were also beaten and bruised. Raiga raised his eyebrows at that and gestured his men to capture all of them. One of his men dragged one of the thugs,

"What happened here?"

The thug seemed to be scared and was incoherent while speaking.

"A...girl ...no demon...steel pipe...all of us….!"

"What..."

Not only Raiga was confused so was his men. A girl was there and she seemed to have instilled greater fear into this man that he was turned into an idiot? Was she an assassin sent to kill the thugs? Or was she contracted to kill the ones behind them? He could hear one of the calmer thug saying.

"Oh don't mind him. All of us were beaten up by a single girl. Damn, that girl did say to contact the ambulance once we all got out."

Raiga turned to him and . The thug just shrugged his shoulder and replied,

"We all 67 grown ass men got manhandled by a girl who did not even enter into puberty. They all knew they were useless member of the society but the fact that they all got beaten up by a small girl seemed a little too much to handle. Now that I wonder about it, what kind of fucked up upbringing caused her to be this skilled?"

Now Raiga was confused. Really? A girl who had yet to reach teen age literally decimated them? But he still had one important thing that he and his son-in-law had come for.

"Where is the fat boss of yours? I'd like to speak with him 'personally'."

That man pointed out to the raging inferno that was in front of them. Raiga clicked his tongue in annoyance. He still had another objective he had promised to his granddaughter.

"Then where's the injured girl you had taken along with my granddaughter?"

That thug seemed to look at him incredulously and again pointed towards the fire. WHAT? They left an injured girl in that raging fire? No wonder why they're the scums of the society. Even his son-in-law seemed to be frowning,

"So you left an injured girl inside the fire while you saved yourself, you scums!"

That thugs around did not know whether to laugh or cry. On one hand they were destroyed by the same girl, on the other hand she was handicapped as well now they thought about it. If she was not then what more mayhem could she cause?

'Hey hey hey! That girl was the reason of this mess! Not me! She was the one beating us all up, except me, as I was the gopher boy that was ordered to drag these sorry asses out of the factory!'

But before he could say anything he heard ...girly screams emanating from all the thugs. He was surely making 'what the fuck' face because one of them was looking at him and pointed towards the direction of the fire. He saw and he went 'kyaaa' screaming as well. As all the Fujimura men along with Raiga was looking at him they all did not know what was happening.

Then they saw why they were screaming like little girls.

Because from the depths of the fire a figure of a girl could be seen. She was slowly but surely advancing towards them. She was covered in blood on some parts of her body as well as sporting bruises but her eyes contained a calm gaze. She was dragging something behind her. It was a figure of a fat man.

Raiga looked on in shock before he commanded them all.

"Put the fires out!"

The men got out of their funk and helped clear out a path for the girl. As she got near to them the girl took the man and flung him towards them.

Thud

Then she promptly face planted on the cool dirt and fell unconscious.

Arturia woke up in what looked like the wooden ceiling. She was surely not in a hospital. She was covered in lots of bandages and she was resting on a futon. Her magic core was fine. The curse was still suppressed. She then checked her body to find that it was almost healed. She clenched and unclenched her fist.

'How? This recovery rate is pretty abnormal. Not as fast as when I had Avalon but still. It feels like I am near to Avalon somehow.'

Then she felt someone at her side and saw it was the sleeping matron as well as the young girl she met, Taiga. The matron stirred up and looked at her.

"Good morning, Matron-san."

Before getting whacked with a knuckle on her head.

Tonk!

Arturia winced in stinging pain and so did the patron who caressed her hand.

"Ow, I guess... I deserved that."

The matron seemed to be seething in anger as she kept her hand on her waist and pointed towards Arturia.

" You! You are in a lot of trouble young lady!"

Arturia winced at that.

'Really I seem to get tangled into trouble despite my best efforts to remain uninvolved.'

Then Arturia was chewed on by the matron for half an hour while sitting in a seiza position despite being injured. It seems her neighbor had awoken in the middle of being chewing out and tried to make herself as unnoticeable as she could. It seems that even the Tiger seemed to be afraid of the Alpha female.

After the Matron-san had chewed her Arturia looked dead inside with a little drool hanging out of her mouth with a twitching eye. It was undignified as a knight to look like that but Arturia did not care one bit.

Then a familiar old man had appeared, the one she had seen before she had passed out. He seemed to be smoking a bit from the smoke pipe. The Matron had bowed a little to the old man.

"Good afternoon, Raiga-san."

Raiga just bowed a little, acknowledging her.

"Good afternoon, Fubuki."

"Afternoon Gramps!"

Raiga looked at Taiga surprised.

"Eh Taiga, you are here?"

Taiga huffed and puffed childishly.

"Obviously! She saved my life so the least I could do was to wait till she was conscious."

Raiga nodded at the sentiment but he wanted her to go to a therapist for trauma. After all, it was the first time she was so involved in an incident. Before he looked at Arturia, raised one eye brow in amazement.

"Hoh? You have basically recovered in a day already. That is some... good healing factor."

Arturia just nodded without giving out anything and plainly replied.

"I just have some good metabolism."

Raiga just nodded.

"Well, now that you have healed I would like to extend some... proposal, if you are willing to listen."

Arturia quirked an eye at that. Fubuki also seemed to be confused. Raiga continued,

"Well I would like to adopt you as my granddaughter."

Everyone froze. Taiga, Fubuki and even Arturia herself. Arturia was skeptical about it.

"May I ask why? Surely it's not only because of that I saved your granddaughter, is it?"

Raiga just shook his head and sighed a little.

"As you can see that the attacks led by these 'riff-raff' thugs were led by the people who were involved behind one of the biggest and goriest gang wars that happened almost 10 years ago."

He sounded grave.

"From the ashes of the gang war, we Fujimura group rised. We vowed that we will NOT let any major events on the scale of the war happen, which we failed a year ago due to the disappearance of many children and the Fuyuki Fire. We are ashamed to say that we still haven't have a clue how it happened."

'That's because it was a secret war led by people who would do anything to keep it a secret'

Arturia thought.

"Believe me, we have done a lot of work for the peace. It ranges from mostly squashing any gang that rises in Fuyuki city to stay as a neutral party in any political endeavors. We help as much as we can to people. That is why such peace is still maintained till today."

Then the atmosphere around Raiga changed.

"However the people behind the gang war are eyeing the underworld of the Fuyuki city. For reasons we don't know. It was the Intel extracted from that... pig-"

Raiga spat venomously before looking at Fubuki.

"-nothing noteworthy could be found for except one. We may believe that the group is also the one supporting the opposing member of the mayor of Fuyuki city. It has been confirmed that they were also behind the murder of your husband, Fubuki-san."

Fubuki trembled for a bit and hung her head down. Arturia nodded calmly but inside she was a bit angry. She already knew what Magi were capable of.

'Those...magi! But to be fair what was I expecting?'

"Some of them had already opposed the idea of Fujimura clan supporting the wife of the late politician to open an orphanage and they will try to do more harm from now on... Because they may have information that it was because of a young girl that their whole operation failed yesterday."

Arturia was surprised. She had only killed the magi and captured the sorry excuse of a human. How did she get involved in all this mess? Maybe the pig was a big shot of the operation or it could be that some thugs filled her description to the other magi. The only conclusion Arturia could reach was that.

Even Taiga and Fubuki was surprised.

"Ah Gramps, how did...uh...she gained the notoriety?"

Raiga sighed. It was not his style to babble to his granddaughter but his granddaughter was surely as stubborn as his daughter was. He looked at the understanding in the eyes of Arturia and nodded.

"Yes, the 'pig' you had captured was behind this whole operation."

Taiga seemed to be surprised.

" But...but I thought he was only some leader of the gang."

Raiga again sighed but it could be understood that his granddaughter was not there when all over the place riot had started.

"As he was behind the scene puppeteer, the riots all over Fuyuki was stopped once she whacked him, beating him up to the inch of his life. We can say that he won't be siring any heir for the rest of his life now."

Raiga shuddered and Arturia smirked.

Arturia clearly remembered that she had stomped his 'nuts' by using reinforcement after she had her fight against her foe. She had made sure to twirl around for a bit as well before dragging his bloody ass off the factory. She was not the one for such deeds but sometime there was a call for releasing pent-up stress. Not honorable at the least but meh- she wasn't who she was in the past.

Taiga seemed to be impressed. She loathed that pig from the bottom of her heart which was the first time for her to hate someone so much. But anyone would have been angered, no they would have murdered him then and there.

"Some of the men may have escaped in the chaos so they could have leaked the information about you. You could be a target for their revenge. Possibly even the orphanage. So we decided the best course of action would be to adopt you as our granddaughter and take the heat."

Arturia narrowed her eyes.

"How can you make sure they won't attack the orphanage?"

Raiga's shoulder sagged.

"We can't but it could take their eyes off of the orphanage and focus on you, Arturia of the Fujimura clan. We will however put guards all around the place to keep an eye on the orphanage as well as the children if need be."

They looked at each other in the eyes before Arturia gave up.

"I accept your offer, Raiga-san"

Before she was promptly glomped by Taiga who started saying in a rapid manner.

"Whoooooaaaa...I have a little sister now? Guess we will hangout together, polish our nails...nah that's boring. Maybe I will dress you up in all the clothes I won't fit in, click only some cute photos. Maybe we'll talk about kendo and so on. Oh wait, we will be partner in pranks and will prank the hell out of Shirou."

Arturia just gestured with one of her hands to stop and said in deadpanned voice.

"Stop...just stop please."

Taiga just slumped in defeat. Muttering about how her cute little sister is becoming... rebellious?

It still amazed to Arturia just how Taiga's mood swings so much. She was even more eccentric than some of her eccentric knights.

Looking at Matron-san who seemed to be looking at her in some unknown emotion. But seeing the look on Arturia she seemed to have given up in convincing her to stay. It would be better this way as well.

Just then Arturia's curse seemed to have flared up suddenly. She clutched her hand over her head where the pain was located. This time without any words she used all of her prana to barely suppress the curse. It was as if it was trying to destroy her magic core. Sweats could be seen forming on her face as she suppressed a groan of pain. It had caught Arturia by surprise so she was ill-prepared. But her fast action may have saved her core from being destroyed by the curse. Now it seemed that it took about most of her Prana to keep it down.

'This one's new. What caused it to go haywire?'

All the people around her seemed to be in a worry.

"Arturia, what happened? Is it some injury that is left to heal?"

But before she could say anything the door slide opened to a man. Her eyes opened wide as a man she wished she had never seen again for the rest of her life appeared before her. The loathsome man Kiritsugu was in front of her. Maybe this was not Kiritsugu. Maybe this was just someone with the same face only. But that notion was squashed by Raiga's claim.

"Ah, Kiritsugu? Back from abroad?"

No doubt, he was the same man. However, he looked haggard, lethargic. His presence was almost nil and had almost no prana on him at all. He seemed to be focused on Raiga. He talked but his voice was hollow. It surprised to Arturia to see a man change so much that he actually looked so harmless.

"Raiga-san, I just came from abroad and heard what happened yest-..."

Before looking at Arturia. A hint of recognition and then confusion seemed to be present in only his eyes before extinguishing it so that nobody would notice. It all happened within a fraction of a second so Raiga did not notice but who was Arturia?

She was a king, a failed one in her opinion but still a king. She was not only trained to fight in physical battles but also political ones. Those expression did not go unnoticed to her and she knew he was the one and the same. Curses filled her heart and rage bubbled up. The scene where she pleaded him not to destroy the grail played out.

"Why Kiritsugu?!"

Then she looked down to calm herself down lest she jumped to attack him. Arturia grabbed the blanket tightly, so tight that cracking sound of the knuckles could be heard. Even so, the failure of acquiring the Holy Grail came to her mind as it replayed again and again in her mind as she stood stop the tower of corpses. Everywhere she looked she could see corpses of her knights as well as the rebels. It was her fault that this happened.

Flashes of her current life passed through her mind, the smile of her Matron, the smile of the children.

'Do I deserve such happiness?'

A dark voice rang out.

'You do not.'

'Yes... I do not...My Kingdom fell... I don't deserve such happiness. I am a king. It is my duty to protect my subject yet I did not understand them.'

The dark voice rang out.

'Make amends. Whatever the cost... burn them... destroy them...be a tyrant that ruled over them.'

'It... It is my duty to make amends... whatever the cost... Be... a... ty-'

Her inner voice screamed that something was wrong. She got out of her dazed state and now she could see her arm plate slowly blackening with red trails. Curses oozing out of them. For the first time Arturia was scared. She looked here and there.

There was no corpses.

There was no hills.

There was no land.

It was darkness all around. As if she had fell into a sea of darkness. Then she felt something behind her and when she looked her eyes widened. There was another... version of her. It seemed to be incomplete or so because half of her body wasn't there. Only the left side. Pale lustreless golden hair. Pale golden eyes. Donning black and red armor and the aura of an oppressor. A tyrant. And the tyrant smiled looking at Arturia.

Then Arturia woke up with cold sweat as the Matron jerked her awake.

"Arturia?"

She sounded worried. Why? Because she could see that Arturia was sweating much as well as shaking a bit. It was a first time she had seen Arturia so unsettled. Arturia smiled weakly.

"It seems I have yet to recover fully matron-san."

Before looking sideways at Kiritsugu who seemed to have no reaction however he seemed to have recognized the name the woman had said before. He coughed a bit as he said.

"l will be at the living area then, Raiga-san."

Raiga just coughed in turn and said.

"Well I will be there in a minute. Nevertheless, Kiritsugu meet my future adopted granddaughter Arturia, Arturia Fujimura."

Kiritsugu nodded and left. Raiga just looked at them and said.

"It seems I have friend to entertain. I hope you will have steady recovery Arturia. After all there is a party waiting for you. I will be leaving then."

He too left the room. It was an awkward silence that reigned in afterwards. Taiga was the one that broke the ice.

"So well, that happened. Yahallo! I will be going as well!"

Taiga left. Then the matron asked in a small voice, worried about the hollow vacant look Arturia was giving.

"Are you really alright, Arturia?"

Arturia just nodded a bit. She smiled a little but Fubuki had seen that the vacant look had yet to abate. Arturia just replied albeit her hand still shaking a bit.

"I just need to rest a little matron-san. I will be all right. Could you please go back to the orphanage and let the kids know I am all right?"

Fubuki was still worried. Arturia had already all but abandoned her formal way of speaking. You could still hear her slip in a few times or so out of habit but now she was speaking very formally. It worried her but she respected her wish. Back inside Arturia scowled as she kept the curses flowing through her at bay. It seems to lessen as 'that' man had gone further away from her. It told one thing to her that she knew from Merlin.

"It seems he too is afflicted with the same curse… Merlin did say that some strong and rare curses with the same origin has the capacity to resonate and become stronger if in vicinity of each other. It could explain why the man had no magical presense."

Yes, if Arturia, with a degraded magical resistance and Magic Core was reduced to such state by the curse then there is no telling what it would do for the mages of today. Like she had explained earlier, all such phantasmal creature were in the 'Reverse side'. And there would be no way Gaia would let her live in peace if she had the same powerful blood without trying to erase her existence. But still her Magic Resistance could be at least a grade or two lesser than which she had in her optimal state.

She smiled vindictively. She would not mind for that man to die in agony, maybe she would…. before gasping.

"What was I thinking?!"

Deep down she knew. She knew that the curse would amplify the negative emotion which meant that deep down she wanted to kill the man. It was the first time she had felt such desire to kill the man, not even Vortigern the Usurper inspired such feeling. It worried her that such emotional wound would fester the longer she stayed silent towards it. She wanted to know the reason why and what was the reason for such a betrayal though Arturia had some doubt as well which she wanted to be proven as false. She just sighed.

"Maybe I really need that rest."

Arturia woke up. She could not see Matron nor Taiga in the room. But it seems that the place was bustling with activities if the noise outside was any indication. She carefully got out of her futon and slide the door. What she saw? She did not expect it. Big burly men carrying children's toys and materials. They too seemed to be preparing for something. Then she saw some men playing around with kids she was familiar with. They all cheered when they saw her and practically all the children of the orphanage dog-piled on top of her.

"""""Arturia-neesan!"""""

She barely got out after few minutes. She glared at them playfully.

"You people do know I am sick right?"

But nobody seem to mind it as they cheered and hooted.

"As if! Our nee-san is as strong as a gorilla!"

Now that was uncalled for! She knocked the one who made that comment in the head. They just pouted and stopped commenting on her strength. She too pouted.

Strangely in this new incarnated life she didn't feel the pressure of having to lead the Dark Age all by herself. Maybe that's the only difference why she could enjoy her life. If only that loathsome lerson was not there then everything would be perfect.

Next chapter will be introduction to Shirou.