The sound of wet fabric reached Shirou's ears as he practiced a simple washing spell on some clothes.

It was the last week of his recovery, the month had passed by peacefully.

Or as peacefully as it could've been.

He found out that the two sisters introduced themselves as travelling healers. Apparently, they "accidentally" came upon him injured and brought him back.

The village opened them with welcoming arms for "saving" him. They requested to use the same house which they stayed at last time, and the villagers were eager to help. At first it was only the men, for obvious reasons, which Shirou felt disturbed at.

These men were falling head over heels for two dangerous girls. He couldn't blame them, as far as they were concerned, they were meeting some very beautiful sisters. Even the girls in the village deflated when they tried comparing themselves to Heinrich and Eugen.

They were just that gorgeous.

Thankfully, Shirou was still a child, and didn't have to deal with hormones. Not that it would be a problem he thought. The memories of being absolutely crushed by Heinrich made sure to carve a warning in him.

There was no way he would ever see them in an attractive light ever, right?

Right?

Shirou shuddered at the thought. The day he saw them that way was the day he threw away his sanity.

Beauty be damned. He was risking his life just being near the pair!

Considering what he knew, the girls were used to dangerous situations, judging from how calm and experienced they were during the fight. Even when caught off guard, they didn't panic, and immediately reacted to face the problem.

Now, their current dilemma was his recovery.

Technically, the healer part was true. Eugen's magic specialized in controlling bodies. It was easy for her to boost a person's ability to recover. Meanwhile, Heinrich's expertise was spiritual control. Which she used to incapacitate and eliminate targets without limitations.

It made sense. Souls were non-magical objects. Magic may be used to attack souls, but generally, they needed to be transformed into a type of medium that could harm the soul. Heinrich's power just skips the entire process, and hits directly at the source.

Coupled with Eugen's ability to control bodily functions? They were practically invincible together, attacking both body and soul. Shirou doubted many could even survive, much less put up a fight against the two sisters.

What a dangerous combination. No wonder Lunulupae succumbed to them despite being stronger.

As a phantasmal beast, their bodies and souls were combined in one form. Purely because they were made out of Gaia's energy. Which meant working together basically doubled the effects each sister had.

Shirou theorized that Eugen and Heinrich had given him the shortest rundown of their abilities. After all, it made no sense that Eugen's bodily control could affect the mind, erasing the memories of people.

So why couldn't they erase his memories of Lunulupae and Lunea instead of killing him? Simple, it was his bond with them. Especially with the Beast Tongue blessing, making it harder to erase.

Recent memories were easy, but they increased in difficulty the more valued each memory was.

It didn't need to be said that trying to erase the memories from his soul was impossible considering specific factors.

Shirou still didn't understand what his soul was meant to be. Wasn't a soul just a soul? But the way they described his soul was…confusing to say the least.

'You saw my soul….can you describe it?'

'A disaster.' Heinrich shook her head.

'I'm surprised it hasn't broken down yet.' Eugen uttered in disbelief.

'It was amazing! Can I go again?!' Lunea excitedly yipped at him, after he translated the question for her.

Nonetheless, Shirou came out even more confused than ever.

Heinrich and Eugen kept what they saw to themselves, and Lunea's version of the events were rather hard to understand.

'There was a magical forest! Pointy things were everywhere! Even a scary big black pointy thing far away!' Lunea was jumping around him excitedly, talking about her adventure in his soul.

Yeah, he wasn't going to get much out of her yet. Lunea was essentially still a baby of 2-3 months old. It was already impressive that she was able to communicate at all.

Shirou returned to the damned batch of clothes he was meant to wash. The first thing the sisters did after he recovered enough was to learn simple magic spells that would simplify his life.

Gone was the traditional way of washing clothes in the river. Shirou was now being forced to cast a cleaning spell on them. Except, Shirou who thought he was doing well considering his other magical skills, completely stumbled on the simple cleaning spell.

Apparently, the cleaning spell had no elemental alignment, and was easily done by even common folk.

Then again, his origin and alignment were both "sword". As such, even the most basic of spells would become a challenge to him.

Why wouldn't they just let him wash the clothes like normal?!

Shirou tried to cast the spell again, and failed. Not because of incapability, but rather, because his focus kept returning to what Heinrich and Eugen had been doing the past month.

The both of them had been "making" friends with the villagers, successfully getting on their good sides. Shirou attributed it to their natural beauty, that friendly facade, and Eugen's provocative attitude. He knew exactly what they were playing for.

They were trying to convince everyone that Shirou was in safe hands. The only people left against his "decision" to join the girls in their travel to the city were Taiga and Yamashiro. Shirou had already planned to catch the roaming trading caravan when spring arrived, hitch a ride for the cities, and work his way from there. Looking for work in exchange for joining the caravan was the original idea, but that was thrown out the window now that he was stuck with Heinrich and Eugen.

Now, he was going to join them in becoming a "mercenary" as the sisters described. Shirou didn't trust them one bit. What kind of mercenary carried around as much firepower as they did? Really, it was insane. That kind of firepower was illegal right?

Shirou had a very bad feeling about this "Akatsuki" thing.

He had no choice but to go along with it. Lunulupae was kept in a pocket dimension artifact that the girls had, and Lunea was allowed to visit once a week. The rest of her days were spent with him in the outside world. Plus, Lunea still had to get over her fear, and Shirou was the only one that could help since her mother was only allowed to meet once every week.

During the first few meetings, one of the sisters had to keep guard over Shirou. He could interact with Lunulupae and Lunea, but he was always kept at a distance, forbidden to move closer.

They were afraid he would break Lunulupae's seal again.

Then, Eugen pointed out that if he could unravel the seal's foundation, what if he could disturb the stability of the pocket dimension?

Shirou was promptly banned from ever visiting right afterwards.

A wise choice really.

Pocket dimensions relied on manipulating the space of a specific area, condensing it into a smaller form to create an illusion of another space. Like folding a piece of paper, pocket dimensions are formed by taking existing space from somewhere else. Space wasn't created, it was simply moved.

From a visual perspective, a folded flat piece of paper basically looks like a normal piece of paper, the layers underneath being invisible to the naked eye. The same concept applies to pocket dimensions. Visually, the space looks the same, but hidden behind that front, was layers of spaces woven together.

That was the concept behind spatial rings. Layers of space, folded together to create invisible storage pockets.

Pocket dimensions were simply a larger form of spatial rings, capable of containing entire pieces of land.

Heinrich and Eugen didn't want to imagine what would happen should Shirou manage to somehow destabilize the pocket dimension.

Being inside a rapidly expanding space would be the equivalent of being in the middle of an explosion, and none of them really had any defensive magical spells against literal space-time.

The result would be very messy.

Heinrich and Eugen had no plans to die yet.

On the topic of rapidly expanding objects….Shirou found himself a new problem.

Rapidly expanding memory.

Or rather, the complete and utter nuke his soul just dumped on his body.

His first week was spent in a coma after the battle. Not out of injury, but because his young brain was suddenly assaulted by all the memories from his previous life.

Awakening Unlimited Blade Works completely had both its advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage? Shirou recovered his memories.

The disadvantage? Shirou recovered his memories.

Now, getting back your memory was good and all, but not when it came to how it was packaged. Shirou lived 27 years in his previous life, and while 7 years were lost due to the tragic Fuyuki Fire incident from the Fourth Grail War's end, receiving the remaining 20 years in the brain of a 10 year old child was explosive to say the least.

The sheer memory overload would've killed him if not for Eugen.

She was the first one to notice as the problems arose due to her special ability involving bodies, which Shirou didn't understand, but was thankful for. With her help, his mind was able to stabilize from the influx of information.

So now Shirou owed her his life, something which he didn't want to consider.

No doubt, she would milk that favor for the rest of her life.

Out of one grave, and into another one.

Shirou wasn't going to die from his own stupidity now, no, no. Instead, he was going to die from the risks involved of working for the saviour of his life.

At least, memories of his experiences would help him in that regard.

Kiritsugu saved his life for the sake of saving.

Eugen saved his life for the sake of pretty much everything else.

And the seductive minx knew it, judging from her realisation during the second week of his recovery. Since then, Eugen had been asking for "favors", from bringing her food in bed, to even asking for her clothes washed.

Was she that lazy!? It only took one cleaning charm to wash her clothes!

One spell, which Shirou was currently struggling with.

Wasn't he supposed to be recovering? Still, that wasn't enough reason to stop Eugen from seeking amusement.

And seeking amusement, she did.

When Shirou was handed his first batch of laundry to practice on, it had been Eugen who asked for him to wash her clothes. She gave no warnings and didn't act like anything out of the ordinary was in the assortment.

It was not until Shirou began working that he glimpsed a small lace piece hidden amongst the clothing. With his memories restored, it was easy to recognize that such material wasn't normally found in the current era of this world.

Which could only mean one thing.

When the batch of clothes returned to Eugen, she was holding a sly grin, causing Shirou's blush to darken. Luckily, he had made sure to practice the spell on the entire group, rather than doing it on each individual piece.

"Please don't do that again next time." He warned the sister.

"Ara? What do you mean Shirou~?" Eugen asked with one eyebrow raised, her grin irritating him.

"You know exactly what I mean." Shirou's eyes twitched.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Unless…" Eugen pulled out the lace….handkerchief.

Shirou's eyes widened at realization. Eugen had been planning it all from the start, and he fell right into her trap.

"My my, what a naughty imagination you have, Shirou." Eugen smirked slyly.

Shirou's blush darkened. He swore. Women were troublesome. In his world, and the next.

"Now now Shirou, who taught you such dirty language?"

He didn't even notice that he had cursed out loud.

Shirou was already fearing what the future would hold.

On the other hand, the advantages he received were immense.

Getting all his memories back pretty much returned Shirou's understanding of his magecraft. He now knew why his reinforcement failed on other objects, and rectified his mistake. The new skills he learned from the prior two years also received a jump in performance, now that he knew what to build towards.

But relearning all his skills would take time. While he had the memories now, putting them into practice was different. When the sisters weren't around, he tried to trace a simple sword, and found that his usual output was out of sync with his intended result.

He was putting too much power into manifesting basic weapons. Shirou was using the normal amount he used from his previous life, but this world had a higher quantity and quality of mana, which led to him tinkering around to balance consumption and output for an efficient result. But one thing was for sure, his prana capabilities were more efficient than before.

And that was not counting how his traced weapons basically became permanent constructs, due to his Beast Tongue blessing that marked him a friend of the world.

That was another can of worms that Shirou planned to tackle.

He could study Beast Tongue and break down the magical blessing to its rudimentary foundations, but that was after he mastered Mana Analysis to the level of his old Analysis level. Shirou knew that he had a chance, considering he was able to perform a magical analysis on the seal used on Lunulupae.

Now, the only way he could study Beast Tongue was if he had access to his soul. Another problem that Shirou found out after trying to enter.

His soul had changed. A lot.

Shirou's old soul would've looked similar to Archer's aside from minute differences. But now? It was practically and literally worlds apart. He used Lunea's descriptions to paint a picture of his soul, but found it too hard to comprehend.

Plants and trees? They never grew on his soul last he checked.

A night sky? His old sky was an eternal dawn, which represented hope. Hope to find Saber. Then what the hell was a night sky supposed to represent for him? Eternal failure? That couldn't be right.

But it could be possible. This world was new, which meant that Saber could have never been around. Still, Shirou knew that the Throne of Heroes was capable of breaching dimensional boundaries, so there was always hope.

Lunea also described a dark evil malevolent power residing in his soul. Good to know dear old acquaintance All The World's Evil was still there, instead of appearing wherever in the world. Shirou did not want to picture a scene of the rampaging power corrupting anyone.

Still there were some questions Shirou needed to find answers for. Lunea described two more powers that he didn't understand.

One, some magical artifact held by All The World's Evil. Shirou had a clue that it was the Holy Grail, but the last time he checked, they were only fragments that enabled him to form the minor grail. So something must have happened for them to congregate into a stronger form.

Two, valleys of phantasmal beast energy, from a being far more powerful than her mother. The only other phantasmal beast he had ever met was Primate Murder. The question was whether this energy inside him really was connected to the beast of Gaia.

With all the changes happening within his soul, Shirou had no way of entering unless he completely understood himself. Just like when he met Archer, he had no way to access his reality marble until he had learned enough.

He had memories of the weapons, and could probably summon them, but didn't want to try until he was sure that he mastered Tracing and Gradient Air in the new world.

Pulling things out was easy, but entering was difficult. Clearly, Shirou was back to square one when it came to his soul.

Little did he know that the changes in his soul were also a result of his upbringing in the new world. For 10 years, he was able to live like a child. In those 10 years, he lived with the humanity that he threw away from his previous life, and it changed him. He was no longer the same Shirou Emiya from his previous life.

He was a new Shirou Emiya, one that did not see himself as a weapon up until his Unlimited Blade Works completely awakened, returning previous experiences and blending them together into a disjointed form of both human and sword. Which is shown by how his reality marble has changed so much, reflecting the confusing state his soul was in.

Shirou still believed that he was distorted, the same distorted weapon from before. Instead, he was now another form of distortion, one equally just as terrifying. After all, what kind of human-slash-sword abomination would suddenly gain a conceptual alignment with Gaia, courtesy of Beast Tongue.

Shit was bad before, and it's just as bad as it ever was, just in a different form.

No wonder he wasn't able to access his reality marble, he was trying to access his old soul which had long been gone, it was practically a new one in its place. Luckily for him, Unlimited Blade Works wasn't dominated by one of the fighting entities within, or else Shirou would've long been influenced by whichever one won.

Just your everyday Shirou Emiya, if it wasn't an outside conflict he was dealing with, it would be one inside instead.

So his current priorities in life were as such: search for Sakura, protect Lunulupae, survive working with Prinz Eugen and Heinrich, and find a way to somehow manifest or enter his reality marble and solve the problems.

Not so hard right?

Wrong.

The second and third priorities were going to be a problem. At least the first and fourth could be undertaken during the off time from the other two.

Protecting Lunulupae while working as a "mercenary" would need a lot of planning and effort on Shirou's part. He would need to somehow teach Lunea how to survive and act accordingly should the worst case scenario happen, or if he wouldn't be able to come to her aid.

Shirou was already grimacing at how he would be practically teaching a newborn phantasmal beast how to live like a mercenary from his own experience back in his previous life, something that even he had to learn the hard way, seeing as Kiritsugu never taught him anything.

Good thing he was lucky to have recovered his ability to read and write, and coincidentally, the local language was oddly Japanese. Now, all he had to do was somehow teach Japanese to Lunea using Beast Tongue.

That was going to be a pain.

A few days later, they were prepared to leave.

Shirou had completely recovered. The aches and pains from his muscles and bones had long dissipated, but Eugen's magic allowed her to examine his status better than he could, and deemed it necessary to rest longer. Heinrich trusted her sister, but Shirou assumed that the both of them just wanted to extend her vacation.

The door of the cottage opened, followed by the sisters carrying some last minute food generously given by the villagers.

Shirou suspected that they came from the same group of males again. Really, this was becoming such a hassle. Each time he had left the cottage for a walk with Lunea, he would receive glares from the men. Then when Eugen or Heinrich accompanied him, they would smile for the ladies, followed by intense burning stares targeted on his back.

They somehow managed to increase the tenacity behind those eyes whenever he was with any of the sisters.

It's not like Shirou was actively trying to gain their ire! Several times, he would try to sneak away from Heinrich or Eugen, but the girls were scarily perceptive, and nipped at his escape plans before he even enacted them.

Nonetheless, it was time they left.

Spring had arrived, trees and plants reviving into bloom.

"Shirouuuuu!" Taiga cried as she hugged him. "They're stealing you away from meeee!"

Heinrich and Eugen stood to the side, whistling innocently. They hadn't been successful with changing Taiga's mind at all.

Yamashiro was nowhere to be found, having decided to stay at other villages while the two sisters were around, but he had sent a message wishing Shirou good luck in his future endeavours.

To Shirou,

I have taught you for two years now, and I am proud of what you have achieved. Now that you are leaving, it was time I gave you your final lesson. One you would have to undertake alone to learn.

When facing women, the best option is to retreat.

I wish you good luck in your travels.

Signed, Yamashiro.

Shirou crumpled the paper with a nerve twitching on his head. His teacher had practically ditched him to his doom. The contents of the paper were pretty damning.

The last time he had been left to the wolves, Yamashiro had been with him. This time, he was alone.

Shirou returned the hug, responding to the wailing girl. "I've always planned to leave this spring. If not them, I'd be leaving with the trading caravan instead."

Even before he regained his memories, Shirou had believed that he had grown strong enough to try to make his way into the world. He didn't think staying in the village longer would prepare him any further for the task he was undertaking.

Taiga sniffed. "Make sure to stay safe and keep in touch alright? Don't drink, don't travel alone, and make sure that you always stay safe!"

Yeah…Shirou was going to have to lie about the last part. But that didn't mean he wouldn't try his best to keep out of trouble.

"Yes Taiga, I promise."

Taiga double-checked whether Shirou and the girls had enough supplies to last a month. She was very worried about any accidents that could occur, and divided their food accordingly for the duration. At least the sister's admirers all pitched in when it came to providing the food.

And since Shirou had magic to aid him…the slack was thrown on him to carry for the trio.

Lunea wasn't a part of the consideration because none of the villagers knew about her. Shirou, Eugen, and Heinrich kept her a secret from the others. Right now, she was in the pocket dimension spending time with Lunulupae.

"Don't worry Ms. Fujimura! Shirou is a strong boy. He's going to protect all of us!" Eugen remarked from behind him.

Shirou's eye twitched and a nerve throbbed on his head. The nerve of this girl, he swore. She's practically in another world when it comes to power and she's acting like a defenseless maiden. No, calling her a maiden would be delusional, Eugen was more like a succubus.

"He better! No girl should ever get hurt around you Shirou! It's your job to protect them!" Taiga switched from crying to lecturing him.

He could only gape at the sharp switch in character. Taiga always lived on her emotions, and Eugen was playing her like a flute. Seriously, how good was she at manipulating people? It was a wonder how strong Taiga's conviction had been if she wasn't convinced by Eugen that he was ready to travel.

If Taiga had her way, he would still be staying at the village. But Shirou needed to start searching, and with his memories returned, it would be better to start early.

"I-I will, Taiga. I won't let them get hurt." The words came naturally from his mouth, an effect of how his memories were starting to affect this new life he had. But he still saw them as powerful girls, capable of wiping him on the floor if needed.

It was worrying that he was starting to think that they needed his protection, just like how he naively believed for Saber back in his previous life. Those memories were starting to really change his view of things. It didn't help that he would spend the nights dreaming of his old life.

Taiga rubbed Shirou's hair, the last time she would do until the next time she saw him.

"Be a good kid Shirou, remember that." He smiled at those words. Even in another life, Taiga really cared about him. It only made sense for her to be running an orphanage and taking care of children. Another universe it may be, but Taiga was still the same here.

Then, it was time to go.

Eugen and Heinrich started walking, their admirers all watching them go sadly. Shirou followed behind them slowly.

One step, two steps, three, then ten, then twenty. He looked back one last time and saw Taiga waving goodbye with a smile. She was crying, but they weren't tears of sadness, to which Shirou smiled at. He waved back one last time, then caught up with the two sisters.

The path ahead was long, hard, and dangerous. But Shirou couldn't hide the smile that broke on his face.

He was finally leaving the village and was on his way to the wide open world. Sakura was out there somewhere, and he would certainly find her. With all his memories, it was only a matter of time for him to find a clue to what may have happened to her.

He was determined not to break his promise for a third time.

Despite what challenges lay ahead, and his dubious situation, Shirou would surpass them all.

After all, he had always been chasing after others, repaying for his shortcomings.

For Kiritsugu, a hero.

For Saber, searching forever.

For Sakura, her last few years.

For Illya, her family.

This time, he would not fail.


Shirou stood in front of a large medieval castle in the mountains of Germany. The castle looked sturdy for its age, a result of the various efforts of the magus family to keep it maintained for hundreds of years. A representation of their might and renown in the magical world. Old, firm, and powerful.

The gates in front of him opened, a group of maids flanking both sides of the entrance. Upon seeing them, Shirou recognized the telltale signs that betrayed their status as homunculus. Their eyes were empty, a result of being trained as tools for the Einzbern family.

In their midst, one Einzbern envoy greeted him.

"Lord Emiya."

His eyes revealed his true character. Behind the veil of respect and impassiveness, was an angered member of the Einzbern family.

Shirou could not blame them. His father didn't exactly leave the family on good terms. Kiritsugu was hired to collect the Holy Grail for them. Instead, he abandoned the job, got their minor grail killed, and took the noble phantasm Avalon away from them.

To the magical world at large, it was a stain on the status of the Einzbern family. But to them, they were small things really.

What pissed the family off the most was the delays Kiritsugu's failure had. 50 more years of waiting just to have another chance to acquire the artifact of the Third True Magic.

"If you would follow me to the meeting chambers…"

Then it was gone, hidden as the envoy pivoted and marched ahead, leading Shirou to where he would meet Jubstacheit, the head of the Einzberns.

Shirou had reached out to the Einzberns in hopes of scheduling a meeting with them. He was here to repay for the actions of his father, and to help the homunculi, a duty his late sister Illya would have no qualms about.

At least, it was the first step to his atonement.


Author's Note

Yes! First time meeting my personal deadline after so long. I'll try to get ahead of my own schedule but I'm still hashing out some ideas for volume two, including a few episodes to continue Sakura's journey. Also, I just remembered how broken the timeline seems so I'll just note it down here for now.

8 years old, Shirou's birthday and first memories from UBW. Sakura is 7 here.

9 years old, Shirou's appraisal and awakening. Sakura is kidnapped at 8 years old, she becomes the student of Garamm El-Melloi Archisorte.

10 years old, Shirou meets Lunulupae and Lunea, followed by getting dragged by Prinz Eugen and Prinz Heinrich to Akatsuki.

Don't worry, I'm not going to do the cliche Naruto events for the next volume. But prepare for some pure chaos!