This is a story I found in one of my idea files when I was deleting old stuff. Thought I might share it with you lovely readers and see your reaction ;)
PS. I'm SO HYPED for the Witch of the Holy Night Movie! One of the best Nasu products of all time, that's for sure.
Synopsis: A world where Kiritsugu failed to find his salvation in Shirou. A world where Shirou was cursed by the Black Mud. A world where Shirou met the sisters of Sky Blue. (Shirou adopted by Aozaki sisters, Demi-Angra Mainyu Shirou, Dark Kiritsugu with Avalon)
Enjoy!
The boy didn't know how he came to be.
All he felt was pain. So much pain.
Agonizing pain. Incomprehensible pain.
Soul-wrenching, bone-searing, skin-blistering pain.
He may have walked for days, or he may have walked for minutes.
He didn't know which way was up and down.
He didn't know which way was right and left.
He didn't know if his legs were moving, if his eyes were seeing, if his ears were hearing, or if his heart was beating.
He no longer knew. He was just there.
He existed.
And he wanted to live.
The sense of time was convoluted, and his senses were tangled.
He knew not of where he was headed. He no longer had the mental capacity to care about such things in the first place.
Thus, the boy moved on, in his hollow, inhuman shell.
On, on, on.
...
...
Eventually, his legs stopped working. So, he started crawling.
Eventually, his arms stopped working. So, he started praying.
Eventually, his body stopped functioning. So, he wished.
And then, something answered.
At that point, what was once Shirou ■■■■■■■■ was dead.
However, he wished to live.
So, the thing that was torn from itself, a shard of the Blackened heretic Grail, found its purpose.
The dead wished to live. It wished to be born.
An eye for an eye.
A life for a life.
The cursed fire burned the boy's dead body.
His flesh was charred, broken, and dehydrated - drained by the inferno which raged.
Yet, for All the World's Evil, such things were trivial.
It...they wished to live.
He must live.
It will be born.
So, it was only natural that the boy's flesh started to twitch, quiver, and regenerate.
What was once still, started to beat once more.
His chest rose, up and down.
His legs scraped against the melted asphalt.
His fingers dug into the cracked ground.
Up. Up. Up.
Slowly, the boy stood.
Like a marionette hung from the puppet master's strings, he rose.
It...He opened his hands and closed them. Its conditions were hardly satisfactory, yet it remained functional.
It shall do.
His feet turned away, away from the Grail which burnt down his past and threatened his future.
No, It...Shirou no longer had any use for that empty husk.
Let it leak. Let it shatter. Let what all brought It to this world shackle It no longer.
Shirou wanted to live.
Yes. Shirou.
He wanted to leave this hell. He wanted to live without this pain.
Away. Yes, that was it.
Shirou wanted to go away. It was simple. Leg up, leg down. Arm up, arm down.
The boy who was once dead walked the earth once more.
It wasn't clear to him how much time has passed.
He may or may not have seen a priest made from His- No, that made no sense. Forget it.
He may or may not have seen a golden man born of- Forget.
The boy forgot and continued to walk.
Wait...was that a man...polluted by-
It doesn't matter. He must leave this place. He must walk on.
On, on, on.
...
...
The boy didn't know how there was no one in his way. He just kept walking...away.
Something hard and cold hit his body. The boy stumbled and fell onto his back.
He noticed for the first time that the scenery had changed drastically. He was no longer in the midst of that sweltering hell.
The suffocation he had felt has vanished without a trace.
For the first time in what seemed to be an eternity, the boy looked up.
'Misaki Town', the metal pole sign read. He must have bumped into it. Silly him.
Shirou felt a sudden relief set into his body.
The sky was inky black. It was nighttime. Probably midnight.
The cool night air felt liberating on his heated flesh. The moon was a bright blue.
A sky blue.
The moon stared down at him, casting its soft rays on his prone form. Shirou lay there, marveling at the beauty which hung in the night sky.
Abruptly, a shadow was cast over his face. Shirou scowled, irritated that something has blocked the light.
He opened his mouth to speak...and froze in place.
Red, vivid red filled his vision. It was long hair, cast over him like a curtain. Blue, beautiful blue eyes looked at him in great concern.
It was a woman who wore a simple white t-shirt and torn jeans. She had a briefcase in one hand, while the other carefully reached down and tenderly stroked his cheek.
"You poor, sweet thing.", she whispered in a mournful voice.
As if realizing her sorrowful expression, the woman shook her head once and smiled at him.
"Do not worry, I am here to save you."
And her smile was the most mesmerizing thing he had ever seen...
...Like the Sky Blue Night.
The Aozaki family had a prestigious lineage. Had, being the keyword.
As one of the leading magus families in Japan, Touko and Aoko's grandfather had 'opened' the path of True magic of 'Blue'...or in other words, achieved enlightenment.
However, no mages with a similar talent were born, ever since his awakening.
Aoko and Touko were two child prodigies who were born into that precarious time.
Their grandfather, who was a True Magic User at the time, chose Touko as his successor, separated her from her parents, and sent her to train in a secluded workshop hidden deep in the mountains.
During this time, her younger sister, Aoko, had nothing to do with magic and lived with her parents in a home filled with familial warmth.
Up until this time, the sisters saw each other frequently and were very close.
Alas, her grandfather suddenly changed the succession to Aoko, seeing that her biological potential was higher than Touko in terms of True Magic.
This, of course, infuriated Touko, who ended up in a dispute with Aoko over the succession.
Touko's eyesight was impaired due to her spartan training since childhood. As a young child, Touko preferred to work with more subtle magic, such as doll-making, rather than True Magic capable of warping the world, but she put up with her grandfather's impossible expectations, all to achieve his approval.
For Touko Aozaki, stepping down from the throne for the inheritor of True Magic was, truly, never an option.
The quarrel quickly escalated into a death battle, and as the result, Touko was defeated by Aoko's awakening in the True Magic of 'Blue'.
Enraged, heartbroken, and thoroughly humiliated, Touko killed her grandfather who cast her away like trash.
This caused an unrepairable rift between the two sisters.
After losing her position as a True Magic user to Aoko, Touko studied rune magic at the Clock Tower in London, and later, when she had her own laboratory, devoted herself to doll-making which resulted in her seal designation.
Their disagreement has continued since then. They never forgave each other completely.
In the future, Touko would make the mystic eye killer that Shiki Tohno wears to control his infamous Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, an eye so devastating, that it could grant even a 'phenomenon' certain death.
In another timeline, another world, she would also go on to make the artificial vessel for one Shirou Emiya's soul after his original body was eradicated by the Black Grail.
Nevertheless, this was not the same timeline, nor it was the same world.
There would be no Shirou Emiya, as Kiritsugu Emiya shall find no solace nor salvation in the sole survivor of the disaster he has contributed to.
Instead, that role fell to a different person, a different family.
And the name of the person whom Fate brought, was Aoko Aozaki.
For the third time, Aoko tried to rewind time and replace the boy in his past image by sending the few minutes of his past 'Death' into the far future.
Yes, it was a cosmic paradox, yada, yada- she heard enough from her sister already. She would pay the price later on.
For now, she has a tortured child to save.
"Aaaaaaargh! Why wouldn't it work!?"
However, for some blasted reason, the curses on the boy's body inhibited her True Magic or somehow diverted it in a way that it lost effect. It was almost as if the boy's soul was both here and nowhere, obscured from her sight.
Unknown to Aoko, the shards in Shirou's chest shimmered.
In some twisted, blasphemous way, the curses were something grossly similar to the divine authority of a prehistoric entity. An ancient curse that warps the principles of the world itself. And that was what was hindering the mages' process.
Shaking her head in frustration, Aoko quickly lifted the boy in a bridal carry and flickered out of existence with her magic. She wouldn't usually use a spacial warp in public, though desperate times call for desperate measures.
There was only one person who she knew might be able to help this boy, and for this once, she'll completely discard any shred of pride she has left in her chest.
Dignity can wait. This boy can't.
"Do you have any family?", she asked, just in case.
"...No.", the boy mumbled.
Already, she could feel the boy starting to drift into unconsciousness as his body temperature rapidly cooled down. She bit her lip and tenderly rubbed his head.
"Hold on, little guy. Hold on."
The door of Touko's residence was smashed open.
It happened so fast, that none of Touko's boundary fields were able to alert her.
Thinking that it was an assassin from the clocktower, she was both strangely relieved and irked by the silhouette of her sister who had, apparently, kicked down her reinforced door by sheer force. A door that could stand against a rocket launcher!
Aoko stood in the doorway with the moon on her back, and in her arms, she carried an unconscious figure. A boy.
"My my...dear sister, I didn't take you for a kidna-"
What snarky remark that bubbled up Touko's throat immediately shriveled up and died when she saw the extent of the boy's injuries.
'Malformed' would be a gross understatement and a disrespect to the boy who held out so long.
The boy was hardly human. His shape resembled one, but that was where most of the similarities ended.
His limbs were fused with dried mud, torn and twisted, burnt beyond recognition. His left eye was ruptured like a water balloon, and half of his ribs were broken in several places, puncturing the respiratory organs that lay beneath.
A large amount of his skin has peeled off, revealing the melted muscle fibers and the mud that seemed to seep inside.
Except...it wasn't mud. Touko's hands shook. Her eyes widened in shock behind her glasses.
"A curse took shape!? A curse that is so dense, so immense, it coagulated into a physical form!? How...no, Aoko."
Both sisters looked each other in the eye. A grim understanding passed through them. Touko took off her glasses. There was no hesitation in her eyes.
"It's a miracle that he's still alive from the poison the accumulated curses must have generated in his flesh...his body is barely holding on. Take him to my operation room, down the hall, and behind an illusionary wall! Hurry! I'll go get a set of potions!"
Aoko immediately complied and bolted through the house. Her steps left large craters on the floor, which would have angered Touko if it wasn't for the fact that there was a life she needed to save.
For a split second, she wondered why she wanted to save the child so much, not that she had anything against him. This...impulse of hers stemmed beyond her moral obligations. An urge to save him.
She blinked.
"Ah, but of course. He has nothing left. He was robbed of everything he had."
Just like I once was.
The words went unsaid, though there was a fire in her eyes as she snatched another bottle of potions that would've cost several cars.
After all, she couldn't buy back a life.
All of his limbs were remade, organs were implanted, and new skin was transplanted.
One by one, it was replaced by artificial flesh. The fingers, the toes, the hands, the feet, the arms, the legs, a part of his torso, half of his organs, and his left eyeball.
"This boy is what was inside the Holy Grail. Or at least, he was the host. A life that was ruined by whatever the thing is. Its will to be born."
"To be born?"
Aoko had just finished reciting what little she had managed to glean from the boy's past.
She knew from the news that a great fire was seen in Fuyuki city and combined with Touko's knowledge of recent events involving the Grail War, it was not hard to deduce that something went terribly wrong in the endgame.
In this case, the culprit who caused all this mess was inside the Grail. Both of them were convinced of this theory. No heroic spirit could have ever unleashed a curse so depraved and sinful.
Touko clicked her tongue with a tired sigh. She massaged her temple as she lit another cigarette.
"The curse is 'alive'. As of right now, the curse is the boy, and the boy is the curse. In a way, it lost its nature, its disposition, and its temperament as the curse. It lost it when it chose to be reborn as the boy. That was the only reason he was still alive. Ironically, the curse that nearly killed him was also the thing that revived him and sustained his life."
"Wait, then-"
"Oh, I doubt he would want to curse or kill anyone when he wakes up.", Touko cut in before Aoko could go all mother hen mode.
Aoko rubbed her chin in thought.
"If what you said is true...then the leftover residue in the Holy Grail...it would be nothing more than an aggregation of curses. An aimless force that would destroy everything in its path and everyone who seeks it."
"Yes, the corpse of what was...I would reckon as Angra Mainyu: All the World's Evil."
Aoko bit her lip and knelt beside the bed where the red-haired boy lay.
She ran her fingers through his short hair- the only place on his body that wasn't covered in gauzes, bandages, tapes, medical fixations, and life-supporting devices. He looked so frail, so small.
Aoko stood up and turned to her sister.
"Thank you for your help, sister. I will pay you back. I'll take him once-"
"No need for pleasantries, dear sister. You can take your money. I did this on my own accord."
Aoko blinked, confused by her sister's unusual display of generosity. This was definitely not something her sister would do. Well, she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"Oh, well, uh, then I'll take him when-"
"Only under the condition that you let me adopt him."
Aoko gaped. She looked at her sister as if she has suddenly declared she was pregnant and gay.
"Wut?", Aoko asked. Touko smiled coldly.
"The condition for you not owning me 7 million US dollars. I am adopting this boy and I'm not taking no as an answer."
Aoko gaped like a fish.
Kiritsugu held onto the gold scabbard. He couldn't give up. Not until he found a way to save Illya. Not until he found a way to kill Kirei...and Gilgamesh.
Hatred. So much hatred coursed through his veins.
Once, he was so empty. There was no one left alive in the fire. He searched for days, endlessly hoping for some miracle.
There was nothing.
What was left of his humanity was filled with rage and pain. Every waking moment was hell.
Yet, he shall persevere. He was sure of that.
He could NOT die, not now, not until he made sure the contaminated grail was gone for good, and his rotten adversaries were six feet under the ground.
"Wait for me...Kirei, Gilgamesh. I shall end you...and the Holy Grail. I shall end you all for good."
Thus, the magus killer went into hiding, clinging to what little time he has left. All the while, dreaming of a way to rescue his beloved daughter and the only remaining hope in his world.
"Yes...one last summoning. One last servant. This way, my body will hold. King Arthur...this time, there shall be no mistakes."
With that, the shadow that was once Kiritsugu Emiya disappeared into the moonless night.
Aaand rap. Touko Aozaki is Shirou's mom, and Aoko is his aunt. Kiritsugu gone in full Avenger mode.
Please review and review again! All is welcome!
X-kalibuuuur, over and out.