Sword/Hogwarts
A lot of people are complaining about what the hat said. Remember he never saw his life BEFORE coming to this world, only THAT singular piece (the fire), otherwise he might have sent him away as he would be deemed mentally unsound, also he was fearless true, being fearless IS bravery, but he did not have the knowledge of what would happen, ignorance and bravery go hand in hand and are hard to separate, and knowing when to let go is also a form of wisdom, true, it was too late when he did, but on this second life of his he has the wisdom he didn't back then, and also his fighting style revolves on learning his opponents weaknesses. While I wholeheartedly agree that he SHOULD be in Hufflepuff, in the end it is also up to the person in question, remember how Archer died? He was betrayed, so obviously he wouldn't be too loyal to anyone, he is, after all a pragmatist and the second he smells danger he would cut ties, specially if that person is trying to backstab him or it would suit him, like he did in UBW with Rin to go to Caster, in order to get a shot at Shirou.
He sees in Iris as someone who is both similar and different from him, he is trying, in a way, to forgive himself by saving her, sort of how Kiritsugu did, only without instilling that cursed ideal. In my story Emiya is doing it unconsciously, also the chant is not really HIS chant, do remember that his arm is still grafted to Shirou Emiya. Also it kinda suited the mood so bite me XD.
Also tbh it felt very offensive by the user who said he was unfollowing me for my story not being how he expected, that's fine, you are entitled to do so, but there is no need to post that, honestly I don't care for it, but I expected this user to have a bit of common sense and some respect to the author (me), please don't do that to other writers, it is in bad taste and form.
And to add as I said in my previous chapter if anyone wishes to help me with my pet's treatment you are welcome to donate on my ko-fi, my username is on the previous chapter any bit helps.
Chapter 3: Cooking goes in hand with Potions
It was the day after the feast, and Emiya had to say, this place was actually… a let down, their defences were well thought and implemented, but they had so many glaring holes that it hurt his sensitivities. Muggle repellent charms? Why not just surround the place in a bounded field that made anyone without magic simply get lost? It would be more efficient, and said energy would go to the inner defences, armor golems and living pictures, both can be circumvented quite easily, simply rusting the armors, or cutting the connection between them and the circuit that provides them with the magic to function.
The paintings, it would be slithgly more difficult due to their autonomic and ability to move to other nearby paintings but with invisibility potions,or just using spraypaint cans to paint over them or a dark fog spell… it was far too easy to plan around them, there were no curses, wraiths or evil spirits to attack and defend. As someone who had to kill a lot of rogue magus who became philosophers and had sealing designations, he was used to the insane amount of thought AND forethought placed into the defences of their workshops. An academy such as this, nurturing the future of the UK's next generation of wizards and witches… their defences left a lot to be desired.
Regardless he went down to breakfast, he was looking for seriously important information, information whose weight could be considered in gold.
He wished to know where the kitchen was located.
His sense of smell was a bit disoriented, as the many magical scents combined and made looking for the smell of the kitchen a lot trickier than it should be.
He asked a few of the upperclassmen, until he found his golden gacha ticket.
"Oh? A firsty asking for the kitchens?" Fred said.
Fred and George Weasley, the twins in the Weasley family, thought they were clever using their twin speech and mixing their names around to prank people, however each one had a deafening scent that made Emiya know who was who.
"Please Fred, I would honestly like to know, to be honest, the meals are… kinda lacking" Emiya said.
"Hey George, I think Emiya saying he can compete with the house elves"
"That he did, brother of mine, reckon he has a shot?"
"Dunno, could be, who knows? For us the food is rather good, but if he says he can make it better…"
"Is such a thing possible? Wouldn't that violate many laws of magic or something?"
It was clear that the twins were toying with him, but they were taking his words with a degree of seriousness.
"Ok, listen up, we will take you there and show you ourselves, but on one condition" George said.
"Go on" Emiya said.
"Let us have a taste too!" The twins said in unison.
"That should not be much of a problem," Emiya said.
An hour later
It had become QUITE the problem.
Emiya had decided to commandeer the kitchen, however the house elves, little strange creatures that looked like malformed elves, took a stand against, as it was their duty to serve. Since they were rather forceful they decided that they should hold a competition. Emiya made a traditional American breakfast, carefully using oils and the like, while adding vegetables and fruits while making oatmeal with apples and orange juice, all without the help of a wand.
The twins whistled appreciatively at his skill and how he handled the knife like an old pro… as he sliced the bacon very thin, but thick enough to be filling.
He put a serving for the twins, along with some toasts. The twins decided to be judges.
They were the same dish, but Emiya's had then beat in both flavor AND presentation.
The eleven tasted the meal made by Emiya, just to make sure.
"Can someone PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Professor Mcdougall shouted as the head chef house-elf was trying to commit seppuku via a kitchen knife and Fred and George pinning him down and grabbing his hand to stop him as he kept summoning back the offending implement.
Emiya was taken back, he did NOT expect such a strong reaction.
After the head chef house-elf was placated she turned to the twins who were just as bewildered.
She sighed.
One explanation later
Professor McGonagall had to sit down, it seems as Emiya had inadvertently harmed the pride of a house-elf and beaten, it was not done out of malice, rather he wanted to make food better, this insulted the pride of the head chef, and then was forced to concede, due to his position being held by his ancestors he felt he had shamed them and thus… that.
Still, professor McGonagall had to admit, the boy definitely had them beat, and according to the twins, was done wandlessly and without magic.
He had beaten an experienced house-elf in a muggle way, he did it so effortlessly that left the twins mesmerised, as they saw Shirou move around with supreme confidence as he sliced and diced.
"Due to this incident being done out of ignorance and not out of ill will I will not punish you, however, you must understand why you are not to be allowed here, correct?" Professor McGonagall said.
This was actually more painful to him than when he got hit by Berserker… HIS AVALON! It was being taken away. To be so infinitely so close yet so far.
He hung his head in defeat.
However a female house-elf threw him a bone.
There was talk about the come and go room, a place that changed according to the needs and wants of the person, but it was hidden.
The twins heard of it and excused themselves… If rumors were to be believed they perhaps were looking for it in order to plan their pranks, develop the items needed, and use it as a place to lie low till the heat is off.
He thanked the female house-elf as he was escorted out.
Emiya entered the great hall in order to get breakfast, it seems they took to heart how he cooked and made the meal more balanced.
The over abundance of oil was reduced quite nicely, and the vegetables were steamed just right, still quite a few things needed tweaking, but it was a start.
He was NOT gonna give up this easily, and thus after classes he would search for that room.
He was given his schedule, double potions with Slitherin…
There was a young girl he felt he recognized before.
"Sheroo! Don't go!"
It felt like a lifetime ago.
The girl had been a close friend rival of her master…
"The most elegant hyanna under the sun"
To see her as a 11 year old self, from what little he could remember she still had that same personality, it seems some people never change, even across realities.
This girl, she was of Finnish roots, it was quite a shock due to how… intense her personality was.
So it was etched quite firmly in Emiya's mind.
They entered the dungeon where classes for potions was to be held.
The professor came in, silent as an assassin, his robes fluttering from an unseen gust of wind.
He had oily hair and a rather large nose he had a sour expression as he looked at the new students with what could be only be called disdain at best.
However, Emous had to admit, he sure knew how to motivate students, his speech at the beginning, as to mock them in order to push them to work harder, it was similar to how military trained their soldiers, of course, due to them being kids, most of them would undoubtedly break under the pressure, save for a particular duo.
Hermione was looking ready to answer any question send her way, and concoct any potion she could be asked, and Emiya was just smirking, having analyzed the teaxher's own potion making tools, such as a silver knife and the like and some memoribaly from famous potioners he actually gleamed and got more information than he could need. Actually, if he traced paracelsus blade, the original Azoth blade, he could, in theory, make the best potions with its knowledge.
He was pleasantly surprised, however to see that potion making had more similitutes with cooking than anything else.
He were asked to prepare a bill cure potion.
I looked at the ingredients and preparation method.
Wait… if we do this different, shouldn't the resulting mix become even better?
Emiya began to revise the method and tweak it as he read the interactions of certain ingredients under certain conditions.
He noted that Neville was a bundle of nerves and discretely passed notes to help him, which he was eternally grateful, while not as good as the example the professor Snape had shown, Neville was on the right track.
Shirou was on the second boiling on the solid ingredients, he took then out and bathed them in a secondary reagent, while adding certain plants into the mix, it was supposed to be sky blue color, but his had a special "shine" to it.
Professor Severus stopped and took a discreet look, it was the best one he had seen, even by his standards, there was no flaw to be seen, if anything it exceeded any expectations.
He felt frustrated seeing his own house being subpar or mediocre, even Longbottom was doing better than Lucius's spawn.
The timer run out.
He walked by each table, most were… acceptable, the young mudblood girl… Hermione was more than acceptable, mostly due to her being a perfectionist, however unlike Emiya's potion, she had no creativity, she followed a set path and reached the end, there was no art in it.
Emiya had enhanced the potion's effectiveness 2 fold by going against convention, that was using creative thinking. He took control of the heat and lowered and raised it at set times, he hated to admit it, but the boy was good.
After discounting some points due to some… less than stellar potions from Griffindor (though they where fine, he just did not wish to allow them to get cheeky and learn their place with him, he would only help his house and hinder all others, specially Griffindor) and begrudgingly gave 20 points to Emiya, he said his potion went against conventional means, yet the end product was twice more effective. It's quality could be seen by the shine it gave of, while he sounded less than happy about it, he did gave credit where credit was due.
As Emiya was about to leave he felt it again, it was different but someone just casted a spell on him.
It was one to read his mind. He flushed his mana quite fast.
The feeling was gone, but someone else wanted to see his memories, he should be more careful, the feeling, however, was much different from the one at the Feast.
As Emiya left the dungeon Severus Snape took a handkerchief, he coughed and some blood came out.
Emiya Shirou… was terrifying.
He only had a few seconds in… yet what he saw would forever be etched into him.
A wizard or witch, any creature really, had a mind scape, a representation of their inner self.
However, Emiya's was a barren land were blades laid blade first into the ground, giant gears floating in the sky in a land were no life could grow… and then it came.
Sword after sword rained down on him. He was brutally stabbed by the raining blades that appeared from the sky, destroying his connection and causing a nasty rebound.
He was used to being kicked from a person's mind scape, some people were strong to resist intrusion… but at this level and by someone this young?
Said thing requires strict discipline and focus, no way a 11 year old could have that, let alone at this level where his body had convinced itself that the mental damage he got was real.
He was a Death Eater he was feared until he decided to cut ties and work for Dumbledore as a double agent, so he had experience and skill to confidently say that he was strong.
This was a real wakeup call.
"I really should take points from him for attacking a professor" he said as he looked for a few potions to help with the phantom pains, becoming a pincushion for swords was not the same as acupuncture.
Iris, Hermione and Emiya decided to rest, they had a free period, so he decided to use it to train.
He went close to the lake and traced a practice sword, then another.
He begun to swing the swords testing them.
He then begun to change his movements,each strike fluidly following the next.
Iris and Hermione looked at him, it was like he was fighting someone.
In a way, he was.
He was sent back flying, the two girls were shocked. Hermione did a spell that showed any being in the vicinity.
It was only them 3.
Emiya continued as he kept attacking the invisible enemy, they could see the strain in his body, how his eyes dilated and contracted.
Yet, he was smirking.
Allways looking forward.
The enemy in front if him was one of his own imagination…
Who best to fight against than the King of Kights?
Arthuria Pendragon… the imaginary opponent charged.
Using his small stature he managed to dodge her attacks, but it was not enough, as she was short of stature as well, but not as much as him.
The practice sword swung with speed that made cracking sounds, each swing was enought to create miniature sonic booms.
His eyes concentrated in order to seek "victory"
Mind of the eye, he looked at any probability to seek "victory".
There was no victory to be found in here, more than 60 percent of his circuits needed to be opened and he had to train them to be able to handle the abuse.
By then a few more begun to look as they were curious about the strenuous sound, a pair of young female looking down from different towers.
It was a girl with long black hair in twin tails, she had blue eyes, while of Japan she had European ancestry, the reason of her blue eyes.
She looked at the young boy trainig as he was seriously fighting an opponent that flung him around, she got scared when she saw him actually bleeding from the nose, she thought there was an unseen assialnat, however the other girl, Hermione, if she recalled correctly casted the homun revelo spell, she looked confussed as it showed there was only them down.
Image training.
She heard it before in Japan, where warriors could visualize an opponent with such realism that it could harm them, an ideal opponent to train.
However the level of this was unheard of, as he was receiving phantom damage, there were no physical wounds but his body reacted as if they did. You could see the narrowing of his eyes as he studied the invisible opponent to all but him and rushed in, his body tensing as he was pushing something, most likely an imaginary attack, and the way he parried and countered in a single fluid motion.
Each swing of his practice weapons flowed into the next, it was beautiful. Like seeing a machine perform a complicated dance to perfection.
Yet the opponent had a reply for each move that he did.
Not far in another tower where Astrology classes were being prepared for at night, a lone Slitherin girl stayed behind to earn a few points for her house helping set up, she decided to take a breather and saw Shirou Emiya doing his own training. It was in her nature to obtain any and all advantages while being graceful. However even she could not help but be at awe at the spectacle bellow.
She was taken back, as she was not used to seeing wizards actually train their body, why should they when there was magic that made things convenient.
However, it seems they forgot that if the body was strong, physical enhancement spells would boost even more. In other words if a normal person used it with a base level of strength of 3, the spell could raise it by doubling it… however if your base was higher, the spell would double over THAT.
Still, for a kid in the same age bracket he was quite skilled.
"That Sheero boy/that Shirou boy… is interesting" both Luvia and Rin said in unison, separated by the distance between the towers they currently were in
While the students gathered to see this, they slowly began to see, due to the negative space, the kind of person Emiya was fighting.
It was a humanoid being, a few heads taller, it was no taller than maybe a teenager in the 3rd year… but the attacks and ferocity of each strike was breathtaking as it was horrifying, and yet Emiya parried or dodged.
Then, the self imposed time was up, and the pressure that was felt suddenly all but vanished.
Emiya sighed as he stretched a bit.
"I got 10 minutes… should get a quick shower" he said to himself as the gobsmacked students looked at him.
"W-what was that?!" Hermione sad in shock after Emiya left.
Many of the ones watching were Griffindor, at least the ones who were open, besides a few Ravenclaws and the sole Slitherin.
Emiya took a shower, his white hair going down due to the weight of the water, he washed himself and dried up.
"Maybe I should let my hair down, I kept combing it back out of reflex… but I am not Archer anymore… I should just start living as a person" he said.
Still old habits die hard, like his training… he felt a small pang of pain, he still remembered her… his own servant when he was alive.
It felt both, good and painful to train with her again, even if it was in a shadow boxing like way.
He got dressed and proceeded to join his classmates to the class of transfiguration, he figured he would have trouble with it until the teacher told then it was changing something to something else.
Emiya blinked.
'Hold on… isn't this this like an alternate application of alteration magecraft, albeit on a wider scope?" He thought to himself.
The teacher gave a demonstration turning a teacup into a mouse. As she did Eniya reinforced his eyes to capture every minute part of it.
Interesting enough, he was right, wand moments worked not unlike the arias, except in this world were established, they worked like the church's sacraments that belief garnered the power of the spell, rather than being weakened by sharing, as this world has no concept of "mystery".
Each movement was like a command prompt given to computers, the magic a wizard or whitch used was the energy needed to operate the command, and the chant was the acess key to grant priviledge and enforce the effect.
This shouldn't be a problem, as this was not an element geared magic, he figured his element and origin would not hinder him, or that, God willing, it would be ignored and be able to use actual spells.
He took a deep breath.
After classes
Emiya was pleasantly surprised, his hunch proved right, the combination of his knowledge on alteration, coupled with his knowledge and use of magecraft, meaning being able to concentrate to effect the desired result, made this class a breeze ass he had used alteration quite a lot to make his weapons more aerodynamic. The only other person who did great, to a degree was Hermione, but that was due to her eating the book and memorizing the theory, as well as her ability to concentrate on a given task. Must be the perfectionist side of that girl, and that ravenclaw girl…
To think there would be another…
Tohsaka Rin, a genius child from Japan, she apparently had asked her parents to allow her to go to an European school to further her education due to the lack of good wand based knowledge, it was the same with english teachers in Japan, the teaching aid books were not translated properly and thus made it harder to teach, not to mention many saw English as just a "cool" language and thus did not actively made changes to teach it better.
The same was happening with wand based magic, it was rather watered down, and the teachers could not offer good explanations when asked about certain things pertaining to this magic system making learning an uphill battle.
Also, with her home life having an unexpected turn, she decided that this would help keep things at a distance.
She was taken back at his ability, he had advanced much faster than herself. Emiya was half into the first year curriculum while she was 3 weeks, Hermione following close by 2 weeks.
She had to investigate the enigma that was the Emiya boy.
Later that day
It was rather irritating…
Rin Tohsaka was working with this Slytherin girl who apparently happened to have the same idea, during their free time they both began to trail after Emiya.
Emiya could feel both of them, as they were not as sneaky as they thought they were. He felt their stares as they both looked at him from behind walls in covers and the like as they carefully tried to analyze him as he walked around.
Key word being tried as they began to fight each other and loose sight of the goal, or just start sabotaging each other.
It was maddening, as they tried to trail him, he would lose them both with ease, he would walk up a flight of stairs, and as the duo were going to follow him, the flight of stairs decided to change positions and move to another hall.
The only times they actually could study him was during classes and when eating in the great hall.
This made Rin bite her nails in frustration, while Luvia decided to dig deeper, due to her family she decided to ask if they could find any information on the Emiya family. As they did not know that he was actually an orphan.
Emiya was in fact feeling irritable, he did not mind them, but they were so bad at stealth that it was obvious, as many of the other boys asked if he did something to them or if they were… a thing.
Emiya denied it but their antics did not help his case.
He was trying to find the room he was told but the two of them following him made it hard.
He managed to find a flighty scent on the 7th floor.
However he also caught a whiff of something that set him on edge.
Divinity.
The scent of a being that held a no small ammount of divinity was in one of the floors of the castle…
"Could it be what Dumbledore warned about int he opening feast?" Emiya trought to himself.
He followed the scent and went to the forbidden corridor and slowly opened the door.
"Emiya? What's wron-" Iris said as she had followed Emiya, close by was Hermione who was burning with questions, but was not as "subtle" as the slitherin and ravenclaw duo.
She liked direct.
However both girls were shut quiet as they saw what laid on the other side of the door that Emiya had opened..
Hermione was about to scream in fright, but Irish put her hands on Hermione's mouth and she did the same to herself, cause she did not trust herself to not scream either.
A 3 headed dog.
The guardian of the Greek/Roman mythos underworld.
A root be dammed Cerberus.
Emiya reinforced the hinges of the door to avoid waking it up and slowly closed the doors each second felt infinitely painfully slow as he slowly closed the door.
"Who… in their God dammed mind, put a LITERALL HELLHOUND in school grounds?!"Emiya shouted, enraged at the obious and present danger.
They felt movement.
"Oh miss Norris I can smell them, troublemakers… go and find them my sweety" Filtch, the caretaker said.
A pair of hands pulled them away.
"This way" Fred said as they rushed with the two girls and Emiya following close by.
George pulled both Iris and Hermione to escape Filtch.
After running up, then down, and a few hallways next they stopped to take a breather.
"Seems like you saw the pooch too uh?" Fred said as be pulled a bottle and opened.
It was a wizard's non alcoholic drink called Butterbeer, he gave a bottle to Hermione and Iris and offered one to Emiya, but politely declined.
"Yeah, you better be careful, forgot to mention that, we linda found out early but did not get the chance to say anything yet" Fred said.
"Cause we were mesmerised by that little stunt you pulled, it was completely wicked, never seen muggle fighting much, on account of magic and all" George said.
"Figured… you two do seem to be the type to be kept abreast of any trouble, in order to find a way to enjoy something out of it" Emiya said with a smirk.
"Oh how you wound us" George said gesturing dramatically.
"Jokes aside, you lot best be careful, if we haven't been scoping the grounds for our future pranks, you two might be toasted… or worst…" Fred said.
"Detention with Filtch" George finished.
"He is a madman"
"Hates childred"
"Allways tries to use severe punishments for the smallest infractions" the twins begun to speak finishing each others sentences.
"Are you sure it's not only with you two?" Emiya siad with a raised eyebrow.
"Fair point, but no, he is an equal opportunity arse" the twins said in unison. "You can ask Haggrid for confirmation, the old bloke will probably tell anything, specially to young iris here"
With that said they left after wishing them luck in future exploring the castle.
There was one thing that bugged Emiya.
They had said they were scoping the area, however their scents came from 2 floors down and at least 4 hallways away, unless they used a scrying spell… they had no way of knowing what was going on.
That could wait, he now had 4 things in mind, find the EXACT location of the special room in the 7th floor, evade the two girls that were obsessively tailing him, open the rest of his circuits and deal with the cerberus.
"Is it me, or was my time as a counter guardian or a servant actually less complicated?" He tought to himself. "Must be my damn E rank luck following me even here"
The girls wished to ask him some questions, but proffered to leave that till later, they had magical botany classes next.
Chapter end.