The trek to the Matou Estate was quiet and concluded without incident, but Luffy was on edge the entire time.
Kiritsugu had warned him about using inexplicable powers in public, and he was sure that the magic police had him on their radar now.
They probably had some magical artifact that circumvented his Haki and were biding their time, lurking in the shadows...
As he reached the property line he couldn't help but express his admiration for the architecture with a quick, "Wow, this place is huge!"
Up close, the 'house' that Sakura lived in was as large as any castle that would've been occupied by nobles in the Goa Kingdom. The exterior of the castle was a dreary brown color and the area surrounding held multiple dead and semi-rotting trees along with a paved path leading from the gate to the front door.
Eerie as the atmosphere surrounding the property was, Luffy approached without hesitation, securing Sakura on his back tightly with a slight shuffle.
As soon as he crossed the boundary line of the property he felt a minute pressure settle onto him. It was a feeling he had come to associate with the weird magic forcefield around the Emiya household. Kiritsugu had explained what it did to him once, but it went in one ear and out the other, finding little resistance in between.
Looking at the girl on his back, she didn't seem to register the change outwardly.
He noted absently that her countenance was an odd combination of resigned acceptance and slight sadness as they approached the front door.
Sakura fidgeted, signaling to him that she wanted to get down, and he let her do so carefully so as to not aggravate her swollen ankle.
He knocked on the door three times and waited.
Then he knocked again, louder this time.
Knock knock knock.
Nothing.
Knock knock knock knock knock knock knock.
"Um... The door is unlock—"
Whatever Sakura was going to say was cut off as he blasted the door off its hinges with a slight application of Haki. He turned to look at her questioningly as it flew into the foyer, through the wall, and then through the next wall.
"..."
When it became apparent that no response was coming any time soon, Luffy peered through the opening he had created.
"Man, this place kinda gives me the creeps... and what's with all these holes?"
Sakura made a strangled goat-like noise that Luffy ignored with practiced ease.
The only source of light in the entry room was from the windows and the decoration was tacky, but he had to admit that it pulled off the haunted house vibe pretty well. As long as there were no ghosts (*shiver*) then the décor didn't matter much to him anyway.
All of a sudden something, or rather someone from within suddenly caught Luffy's attention.
In the darkness, he wasn't able to see the form of this creature, but he could hear it, the voice of something not quite human that had appeared the moment he stepped through the doorway.
"Stand back, Sakura, I've got this." He whispered, and she found herself stepping back instinctively at his command.
Luffy turned back to the figure, "So, you finally decided to show yourself."
The magic police had made its move.
"You know of me, little Emiya?"
Luffy would not go to magic prison without a magic fight.
He gave a throaty chuckle, hoping it sounded intimidating, "My father warned me about you."
After a moment, the thing stepped out of the shadows.
It took on the appearance of an old man with a cane in simple robes... like really old, even the man's wrinkles had wrinkles.
Luffy would not be fooled by the paltry disguise clearly meant to evoke sympathy from him. In his mind, the creature before him was intent on silencing him for using mystery powers and no mere veil of senility would cause him to lower his guard.
.
Zouken Matou was rarely ever surprised these days, he had seen and experienced a number of things in his long life.
But he could not deny the surprise he felt when the adopted son of the Magus Killer blew open the door of his castle and waltzed in with his granddaughter in tow.
He knew of the boy vaguely of course, as he kept tabs on every potential threat in the city through the use of his familiars, but he had written the boy off as nothing more than a pet project for the retired assassin.
His appearance here begged several questions.
"So, you finally decided to show yourself."
"You know of me, little Emiya?"
The little orphan boy made a strange noise, reminiscent of a donkey, "My father warned me about you."
Did he now? That was interesting, Kiritsugu had told his protégé of him and yet the boy still came to face him in his own territory? The boy was either foolishly brave or...
He looked at his granddaughter and back at the small Emiya, and a gravelly laugh escaped his lips when he glimpsed the concealed sliver of fear in her eyes, not for herself, but for the boy. 'Perhaps the little Emiya may prove to be a blessing in disguise after all.'
"And yet you still intend to face me, boy?"
The boy in question stared back unflinchingly.
"If I must, I won't go back to prison!"
'What?'
"...What?"
The boy bent his knees in preparation.
"Do I really need to spell it out for you, old fart? The magic police will never take me alive!"
"..."
Zouken Matou was rarely ever confused these days, he had seen and experienced a number of things in his long life, after all.
But he could not deny the confusion he felt when the adopted son of the Magus Killer blew open the door of his castle, waltzed in with his granddaughter in tow, and decided that he, Zouken Matou of the esteemed Matou Family, was in fact a magic policeman.
"I can't help but feel we're both missing some context here."
The boy ignored him, kicking off the ground in a burst of speed that might be impressive to a normal human.
Zouken was not a normal human.
A plethora of worms sprung from his robes to meet the boy head-on to tear him to pieces.
Even if the Magus Killer had taught the boy some of his tricks, an experienced magus like Zouken would never lose to a little boy barely a decade into his life.
There was no way for him to know that the 'little boy' would weave around his worms as if he knew exactly where they would strike.
There was not a single indication that any form of magecraft was being used made apparent to his senses.
He knew all the little tricks that a magus might use if they knew they were outclassed. As a matter of fact, he had invented a few of them, and he was well aware of what the Magus Killer was capable of given enough time to plan.
He had expected bombs, snipers, and guerilla warfare from an Emiya.
Luffy used none of these tactics.
Perhaps Zouken should have known something was up when Luffy threw an open palm towards him, a telegraphed thrust from his right aimed at his chest, he might've had enough time to dodge, if he was so inclined, but it's not like any damage he took would matter in the end.
After all, with his crest worms, his body was easily reparable.
The strange aura surrounding Luffy's fist at the last second was simply his mind playing tricks on him.
.
Zouken Matou was rarely ever torn to pieces these days, he had seen and experienced a number of things in his long li—
Well, you get the idea. The point is, Zouken was introduced to Luffy's haki, and he was found wanting.
Luffy's mastery of internal destruction using haki caused the already weak bonds that held together Zouken's current visage to break and he exploded into hundreds of worm familiars.
It shouldn't have been an issue, Zouken should have been able to reform in a moment and kill the stupid boy who thought he was a magical police officer and then throw Sakura down in the pit for bringing the boy here in the first place.
But something was blocking him, whatever the boy had done was interfering with his familiars, and only the main body of the crest worm he was occupying responded to his command.
So Zouken Matou was forced to retreat to his workshop, angrily inching away from the little hellspawn, defeated.
Luffy Emiya may have won this battle, but he would have his revenge.
.
"Huh... That's never happened before." Luffy said, looking down at his still haki-infused hand in confusion.
He'd only meant to rupture an organ or two, not turn the old man into mincemeat, or mince...bugs?
Sakura looked at him, then at the unmoving worms on the ground in shock.
With the adrenaline wearing off, the absurdity of the entire day finally caught up with her, and she promptly fainted.
.
"...and then I figured she probably wouldn't be safe there if bug-guy was still lurking around in the castle, so I brought her back here."
Kiritsugu rubbed his forehead in a futile attempt to fend off his oncoming headache.
"So she can stay?" Luffy asked hopefully.
He looked at his son, then at the little girl who he was 99% sure was the Matou heiress thrown across his shoulder like a sack of potatoes before sighing, "Yeah sure, why the hell not."
This was his life now.
Sakura was living a dream.
For the first week, she refused to hold out hope that this would last, thinking that it might just be another attempt by her grandfather to crush her spirit.
For the first month, she never spoke more than a sentence at a time.
When her grandfather never made a reappearance, she allowed herself to hope.
When the crest worms within her body demanded more magical energy than she could produce by herself, she had been more afraid of what Luffy would think of her than anything in her entire life.
When she told him what was required for her to not be eaten alive from the inside, he hadn't looked at her in revulsion. No, he had simply told her to close her eyes for a moment, and then a pressure rushing throughout her body caused the worms to go silent, all the while muttering about 'stupid bugs not listening the first time'.
At that moment she was sure that of all the people in the world, she was the freest.
She still stood close to Luffy at all times, refusing to leave his side even when he slept, but she had begun to... not smile, but her lips would incline slightly more often, and her eyes had gained a faint glimmer to them that had been absent before.
.
"I can swim!" Luffy cried, shooting to his feet as if he just made a grand discovery.
Kiritsugu just gave Luffy an odd look at his outburst during the middle of their breakfast.
"Old man, we have to go to the beach today!" Luffy said, excitedly bouncing from one foot to the other.
"Well... I didn't have anything planned today, so I guess that's fine. Sakura, how do you feel about a trip to the beach?"
"I'd be happy to go to the beach Mr. Kiritsugu."
"Alright then, Luffy, can you go down the street to the Fujimura residence and ask Taiga if she wants to come with us?"
"I'm on it!" With those parting words, Luffy scurried down the street in record time with Sakura trailing behind him.
.
Raiga Fujimura, leader of the Fujimura yakuza group, was not a man to be trifled with.
He had not become the most feared man in Fuyuki by allowing people to trample over him... most of the time.
"Hey old man, is Taiga home?"
Let it not be said that Luffy was a shining example of proper decorum.
The man leveled Luffy with a searching stare for a moment, before his demeanor shifted entirely.
"Oh, it's just you Luffy, come right in and I'll get her for you." He said with a kind smile.
He was the most feared man in Fuyuki to many, but to Luffy, he was just a kind elder.
.
Raiga did not know what he was expecting from the son of Kiritsugu Emiya, a man who only recently he had come to call a friend, but it was definitely not what he got.
For a man with the body language of an experienced assassin to adopt a child was already curious, but for that child to be the polar opposite of his foster father was unprecedented.
Seeing the boy shift in his seat uncomfortably was so jarring that he couldn't help but laugh.
'Kiritsugu sure knows how to pick 'em.'
.
"You're like an anchor!" Taiga said, laughing exuberantly as she watched Luffy struggle to float in barely five feet of water.
"Shug urpp!" Luffy gurgled, flailing angrily.
Of course, this resulted in him sinking even faster.
Kiritsugu looked on at the scene fondly, chuckling at the duo's antics, before hoisting Luffy out of the water and onto his shoulders.
"Since you were so adamant about going swimming I figured you would be fine on your own, I guess I was wrong."
The sound of Luffy blowing a raspberry sent Taiga into a fit of giggles.
"A way for you to change yourself and things you touch into rubber? The only magecraft I know of that may be capable of something like that would be Alteration."
"Alteration?"
"It belongs in the same branch of magecraft as the Reinforcement you've been working at the basics of. Unlike Reinforcement, instead of enhancing certain aspects of something, Alteration allows you to alter the properties of that thing, though I have no knowledge of anyone being able to perform it to such a degree, especially on themselves."
"Ehhh, is that so?" Luffy was definitely trying that.
"Don't even think of trying it until you have a better grasp on Reinforcement."
Luffy was definitely trying that.
"You're not trying it."
.
Luffy tried it.
As he lay on the ground of the shed unable to move a muscle, he went over the process in his head again, trying to figure out where he went wrong.
Alteration involved visualization of what he wanted to happen, then the right amount of mana had to be distributed throughout his whole body, then came the actual change in properties within the mana that would, in turn, change the properties of his body.
Surprisingly enough, it had felt more natural than any other type of magic that he had tried before, and he knew for certain that his body had changed somehow.
'So why the hell can't I move?!' It felt like his own body was trying to compress itself, and it was getting hard for Luffy to breathe properly.
The change lasted until he stopped feeding it energy, and he took greedy gulps of air once he could move properly.
Kiritsugu had, of course, found out as he always did when Luffy did something stupid, and he was banned from the shed for a whole week.
It was late one autumn night when Luffy found Kiritsugu sitting on the porch looking up at the night sky.
"It's pretty chilly out here old man," Luffy said, walking up behind him, "you better not catch a cold."
His condition had worsened significantly since Luffy had turned 12, it had been almost five years since he was inflicted with this curse and at this point, even the prospect of a midnight stroll was daunting to the man.
"Come sit with me for a while, Luffy," Kiritsugu said, patting the spot next to him.
They sat in silence for a time, enjoying the beautiful night sky.
"When I was younger, I wanted to become a hero," Kiritsugu spoke up suddenly.
"Eh? A hero? With a cape and all?" Luffy said, tilting his head curiously, prompting him to continue.
He let out a wry chuckle at that. "Maybe that's what I was thinking of at first, but in the end, it was the idea of saving everyone that I held onto."
"Well, what changed? You talk like you gave up."
Leave it to Luffy to get to the crux of the matter right away.
'What had changed?' Kiritsugu thought back, back to the first time he had to make the choice of who to save.
"I won't burden you with the gritty details, but let's just say that I found out quickly that it was impossible to save everyone," Kiritsugu replied bitterly.
"Is that so?" Luffy hummed thoughtfully before looking back up at the sky, putting his weight on his hands behind him.
He didn't know what compelled him to speak, maybe it was to provide a cautionary tale for Luffy, to not repeat his mistakes. Or perhaps it was some fundamental desire to be judged for his actions, but he carried on nonetheless.
"I wanted to save everyone around me from evil, inspired by stories of heroics told through the lenses of someone who was saved. Of course, that didn't quite work out as I had planned. Unfortunately in this cruel world, to save one person there's a good chance you won't be able to save another." He sounded weary, even to himself.
"I wasn't quite able to come to terms with the idea, and it led me to the conclusion that it's simply impossible for a hero of justice to exist in this day and age."
There was another lull in the conversation as Luffy thought over his words.
"While I can't speak for anyone else, there's no doubt in my mind you're a hero, Dad."
Kiritsugu's eyes widened at his son's words.
He wanted to refute those words, to say that he didn't deserve to be thought of that way, but Luffy soldiered on.
"Hmm... how can I explain it? I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to be a hero... maybe it's impossible for you to save everyone, but so what? The act of trying to save people is heroic right?"
He laughed.
Not a chuckle or chortle, but a full-blown belly laugh.
.
The man knew, perhaps from the moment they met, that he was not a hero and that the boy was.
He knew...
That the person saved from the cursed fire that day was always him.
.
Later that night, Luffy openly wept, for Kiritsugu Emiya's voice had finally been snuffed out.
The funeral service was a quiet affair, few attendees showed up to honor the life of the man known as Kiritsugu Emiya.
Not many words were exchanged by the people in attendance, and one of the only sounds to be heard was the muted weeping of Taiga Fujimura, but even that was eventually drowned out by the pitter-patter of heavy rain.
Luffy had no tears left to shed.
He knew it was coming, and it still hurt something fierce.
Kiritsugu had been a constant in this strange world, something for him to come back home to after venturing out into the unknown, but now he was gone.
Seeds of uncertainty crept into his mind, without the old man here, what was he supposed to do now?
.
When Luffy eventually did turn his back to leave, he wasn't just leaving behind Kiritsugu, but also a piece of himself.
He returned to the Emiya home and later found himself in Kiritsugu's office.
On top of his desk, there was a letter waiting for him.
"Dear Luffy..."
AN: The whole Sakura needing s*x to function properly plot point is stupid and I'm not dealing with it, therefore: Conqueror's Haki bullshit powers make bugs go night-night.
Zouken is always a bit of a grey area in fsn stuff, everyone has their own kinda spin on him, sorry if I made everyone's favorite grandpa act OOC.
Also, the properties of advanced Armament Haki make the Zouken fight feel kinda cheap, but I hope it's somewhat believable. Rest assured that all fights won't be so one-sided, and Zouken will be back for revenge.
Thank you to all the people waiting for an update, your reviews help to motivate me, I wrote this chapter to be a bit longer than normal to make up for the time you waited, I hope you enjoyed it.
I started a fic for Blue Lock as well, if you like the series check it out.