A/N: Hey peeps, Here's the next world, and it's situated in the Nasuverse. There will be some significance to this in the Book 2 coming out in just two or three more chapters. Also, I reveal just what Shirou is going to do with the 'Major' and its parts, as well as just why he felt pissed off with Zelretch once again. Suffice to say, Zelretch is going to be hearing it from Shirou by the time Book 2 starts, as well as a special encounter with a certain fellow Sorcerer that will play a role in Book 2 when I get to it. Now for a quick Reviewer Review:
1.) To those thinking I use 'Root-damn' to excessively, keep in mind, my Shirou's Sixth Sorcery is basically the power to manipulate the Akashic Records to rewrite reality itself. It's only natural for him to swear to the Root, when the Root seems to like giving him the proverbial middle finger when he least expects it. Constantly ending up in Undead Outbreaks during his random interdimensional jumps being an example and source of said stress.
2.) Shirou could use the Throne to summon Arturia, true, but he doesn't have the catalyst needed to summon Medusa. Plus, there is no guarantee the ones he summons will be his Arturia or Medusa. Keep in mind, and Servant summoned and returned to the Throne has their memories purged upon being resummoned, and while Arturia is a bit of an exception to this rule since she was technically still alive, there is no guarantee the Arturia summoned is the same one he lost, as there are multiple Arturia Pentdragons recorded within the Throne of Heroes. Plus, there is a way for him to see them again, remember? After all, Shirou is the *censors the rest due to spoiler alerts*.
Now that that is out of the way, time for the disclaimer.
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own any of the franchises mentioned or referenced, as they are the properties of their respective authors, creators, publishers, and owners. This fic is a continuation of an AU to Marcus Galen Sands' own fic 'God Slaying Blade Works' used as the basis for the plot as an alternate timeline. This fic references other franchises credited as used to the best of my abilities, uses a meshing of canon lore in a manner that makes sense, and with my own original ides thrown into the mix. This if a FREE FANFIC of a FANFIC, as in an UNPAID FAN-MADE FICTION of a FAN-MADE FICTION that I wrote for ABSOLUTELY NUDDIN'. So if you paid to read this, then you got ripped off. And if you do not like it, then you do not have to read it. Nobody is making you.
And now...
STORY START:
World Travels of the King of Wrought Iron: Shirou's Parallel World Adventures
Fourth World: Two Swords, An Artificial Soul, and Kaleidoscopic Magical Girls-Part I
Fuyuki City, Japan
Shirou P.O.V.
To say I was pleasantly surprised to find myself where I was currently was an understatement. I was back in Fuyuki after all this time...but not my Fuyuki. I could already tell that much by the slight differences in the city layout, the subtle way the city's ambient air seemed slightly off from what I remembered of it. The fact I also saw a trio of very familiar-looking young elementary school girls following a high-school aged Tohsaka Rin and a blonde foreign girl, who, if EMIYA's memories serve me right, is Luviagelita Edelfelt, heiress to the Edelfelt family of Jewel craft magus and a family with a strong blood feud with the Tohsaka due to rumors of one of their members running off to elope with one of the Tohsaka heir at the time.
Curious, but careful enough to avoid drawing attention to myself, I managed to follow them to something that made me stop, and very carefully avoid the apparent Emiya household. I saw my fragment in this world...the aspect of my innocent naivety given form as this world's Emiya Shirou. He was very clearly NOT a magus, but given the fact I 'smelt' the latent talent on him, it was equally clear his talent was being left to waste away. Seems the Kiritsugu of this world was not only still alive, but dead set against his children following his footsteps as a magus, though I can't figure out why.
From using my sorcery, I knew the Holy Grail of this world had been dismantled, meaning there was no [Fifth Fuyuki Grail War], so why keep his children ignorant of dangers they could prepare for if forewarned of its existence? Sighing as I shook my head at the thought, I turned and made my exit before my presence was noticed by my fragment. Maybe not a magus, but just being in proximity with me could unduly influence him. Such is the oddity that is the existence known as 'Emiya Shirou'. All others by that name can resonant souls just by our proximity, resulting in both memories and experiences being shared. I already dealt with that with Archer; that's something I don't want to do to him if he's living a peaceful ordinary life.
Taking my leave, I also notice yet another familiar face. Caren. She apparently was following the five young magi girls. Simply frowning as my eyes narrowed, I knew this Caren was not the one I was married to, but one who was sent by the Church for reasons not too pleasant. Considering how my fragment in this world is not a magus, this means she's following Illya, Rin and Luvia. That changes things…
"And why is an executor following a quintet of schoolgirls home? Stalker much? Rather shameful for a supposed woman of the cloth, isn't it, Sister Hortensia?"
Caren turns to me in wide-eyed disbelief she could not sense me before now. Her masochistic spiritualist disposition causing her body to feel like a series of blades are manifesting and black muck to hack out of her mouth by my presence, before I reign my presence in. "W-who a-are you?" Her question is slightly stuttered before she gets her hacking fit fully under control. I'd say that's a rather impressive reaction, the fact she also seems to be wriggling somewhat is also telling. Yep, she's still Caren, even if it's one from a different world.
"I don't think an Executer of the Church of your rank is of position to demand answers when I just caught you snooping around the family of one Emiya Kiritsugu. What do you think the Magus Killer will do to you when he finds out you've been spying on his family like you have been doing?"
"You haven't answered my question either. Are you entitled to be so rude to a lady?"
"Are you in any position to insult a Sorcerer and live to tell about it?"
That shut her up. I learned a few things about how to get Caren's tendencies for having a sharp tongue to keep them to herself for the most part. It's part of the reason I developed my own snark, similar to EMIYA, but less unhelpful. More like [Muramasa]'s was. I decide to throw her a bone, however as I walked away. "Just a forewarning next time you decide to open your big mouth again, Caren. I may be more reasonable than Zelretch and less prone to wanton destruction like Aoko, but I can still erase you if you ever anger me. And I do mean erase. Such is the power of my Sixth True Magic, the [Sword of Akasha]."
I continue to walk away, Caren's face considerably flush as her legs gave out from under her, with an obvious damp spot forming on her groin area, and it clearly was not urine. I also give her a name to call me by. "Oh, and Caren-sa, the name is Emiya Shirou, in case you were wondering, so consider that family under my protection. Attack them, and you won't survive the failed attempt."
Her spluttering face of disbelief at the casual reference was enough to make her simply gawk as her mind had to reboot. Grinning at the victory over this world's version of the Sadomasochistic sister I called one of my wives in my world, I walked to one of the local hotels and checked in for the time being, renting a single two-person room as I set up a temporary bounded field via runes and got to work on what I intended to do for the next few days. I sensed some kind of disturbance in the ley lines the second I arrived here. As a sorcerer, and someone with strong ties to the world to boot, I could tell and feel something was not right with how off they felt to me.
Better prepare what I was working on in order to better ensure that nothing too serious happened. After ensuring the hotel room was secure for what I planned to do, I pulled the broken parts of the 'Major' out of the [Gates of Babylon] and began to analyze the soulstone I found as its power source. Yet another thing the trolling old bloodsucker owes me for. How the fuck in the name of Akasha the Nazis got their mitts on the remaining legacy left behind by the joint effort of the First and Third Sorcerers, wherever they are, is a complete mystery to me. Even my sorcery cannot tell me where they are, and I know everything.
As I studied the soulstone, I noticed the bastards tampered with it. No wonder 'Major' turned into a homicidal psychopath; the dumb-asses messed with something they should not nor knew what they were messing with when they did. They tampered with the soulstone, corrupting it, and imprinting upon it the ideology of the German Nazi Party. No freaking wonder he turned into such a scumbag. Using my limited use of the [Third Magic: Heaven's Feel], I directly interfaced with the soulstone, undoing the tampering, erasing the corrupted personality and mind, and wiping the soulstone back to a clean slate as best I could. I then spent the next few days repairing and remodeling the automaton's body, and modifying the personality it had to be self-learning based on what it saw me and others do.
My intention was to make the mechanical entity serve as both a friend and comrade in arms if the need ever arises for me to be unable to fight somewhere but this guy could. While I was at it, may as well give the guy a name. As I finished up the repairs and remodeling of its functions to be more productive and beneficial for the safety of others, I started to reactivate the guy, and decide to name him. He had the same dark hair the Major had, but his eyes took a more pale silver color, dull and glassy as it had yet to truly activate. He also had a young man's appearance, that of a teen of about seventeen or eighteen.
The special thing about soulstones are their capabilities to imbue false life into constructs, meaning it gives them the capability to be able to become artificial lifeforms if they live long enough. Automatons like this guy can eventually pass for human with how similar they become. He could even potentially become 'human' enough to possibly start a family of his own, from what I could gather of the true capabilities of this soulstone. The only reason why the 'Major' didn't though was simply because of the Nazi's stupidity in messing with it. Had they not, then the 'Major' would have become a living being with a core of mechanized parts. Basically, a bioroid, in sci-fi terms.
"Well then, time to wake up, Kurotetsu..."
Right as I said that, the biggest smile on my face in a long while showed as someone who later would become an irreplaceable friend and partner was born…
Scene Change-Outskirts of Fuyuki
Two Days Later
I was running with the newly dubbed Kurotetsu right by my side. After I woke him up, it would seem the repairs, remodels, and resetting of his soulstone caused a few deviances in what the Major was, and after seeing how much of his original personality and how much changes were caused by fixing the alterations to his soulstone, Kurotetsu became quite the reliable guy. The restoration to his soulstone also resulted in quite the interesting side-effect.
While he was purged of the original personality and programming, the soulstone retained the corrupted energy, but less malicious and more balanced out with the cleansed energy it was meant to have. This resulted in Kurotetsu being almost indistinguishable from a human in more ways than one, given enough time to learn some social cues. He was someone capable of both great good or great evil, just like a real human was. The most interesting part is the effect this had on the modifications I gave the guy for combat. It'll be one heck of a kick in the pants once he reveals this to others in battle, though I warned him to never speak of it in front of Aozaki Aoko if he didn't want to be scrapped. She'd probably destroy him without a trace if she found out what his [Overclocked Driver] did…
As for the reason as to why we were rushing, just like I feared, something occurred, as I could feel the ley lines being shifted unnaturally. It seemed that Rin, Luvia, Illya, and those two other girls did as well, as the five of them ran to the scene of the disturbance, yet when Kurotetsu and I got there, it was obviously a one-sided fight with the attackers winning. There were only two, but what I saw made my blood run cold as I recognized them from Archer's memories.
Beatrice Flowerchild and Angelica Ainsworth...well shit, now I know which Fuyuki in the multiverse I was in...and I saw what was tantamount to a kidnapping in progress as I rushed in to aid them, giving Kurotetsu the idea and nod of where I needed him to go without saying a word, as the sentient machine understood perfectly my intentions.
Kurotetsu's hands both morphed as metal appeared from within, shifting over the hands to form metallic mitts like a pair of gauntlets, yet with a pair of hidden retractable blades in the knuckles and gun barrels forming around the wrists for shooting mana bullets from range if he needed to. While he rushed to aid the injured young magi and defend them by absorbing the lightning from Beatrice's hammer to empower himself, I ran to the girl that Angelica was callously holding over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
I noticed that this world's Bazett was also lying on the ground paralyzed from the initial shock and surprised by Kurotetsu and my entrance. But before we could do much more, the two idiots then proceeded to do something pretty stupid. By using the tear in reality that was created by the corrupted Gilgamesh Class card, they went right back from where they came from, and dragged us all with them from the temporal-spatial distortion they created in the process. Suffice to say, I was none too pleased with the forced travel that was not using my own power to do it. After the distortion passed, I once again found myself in another world.
Luckily for me, no enemies were at my site of arrival. Unfortunately for me, the others were nowhere nearby, but I could both sense Kurotetsu and the unusual mana in the air. Taking one quick look at the direction I sensed him in, I simply nodded at the sentient machine's general direction as I traced [Tarnknappe] and [Carwennan] to sneak to the castle right smack in the middle of the bounded field at the bottom of the freaking crater in this Fuyuki City, which was snowing in the middle of Summer. Talk about messed up, especially given just what the fuck that meant in conjunction with the bizarre mana in the air. Needless to say I was even more pissed off by this than before when the realization hit me. I only got partial memories from Archer EMIYA, but this just made it worse what that idiot Julian and his ancestor Darius was doing to this world.
Sneaking through the Ainsworth Castle, I came across a rather stunning sight. There was a door barred and locked with a ludicrous amount of dead bolts of ridiculous size, with magical seals placed on them to ensure the prisoner sealed within was unable to escape. But that wasn't what got my attention, oh no. It was the red-eyed and golden-haired brat standing in front of the door, trying to get the one inside to come out.
"What the hell in Root's name happened to you, you Golden Bastard? Did you use the Potion of Youth in your treasury to turn yourself back into a brat?"
Gilgamesh turned to me in shock as I revealed myself to him, yet the 'brat' before me seemed to mask it well. The look in his eyes, however, were of intrigue, rather than anger at my remark. He simply gestured to the door before him, and I felt it. So that's it…
"Who's there?" The tone made me frown. That voice of complete self-contempt, the self-loathing and utter self-hate...yep, no doubt about it.
"Are you giving up?"
"What do you-"
"Are you giving up?"
"What else can I do?! I'm the worst of evils! Miyu is in their hands, and I couldn't stop it from happening! I fail as a big brother!"
I simply frowned deeper at the response filled of utter despair, and at his words. I had enough of this with Archer; I don't need this version to become a second EMIYA that fast. "...so the sword chooses to rust and rot in its sheathe, lying idle as it slowly breaks from throwing its own purpose aside. That is not the death that awaits you, Emiya Shirou. You still have yet to find your Hill of Swords to die upon, so get off your ass, quit your Root-damned one man self-pity party, and do something to change the situation. Your sister still needs you right now. Get up and help her."
I could hear the chains rattle, as my words seemed to start getting through to him. As I could feel his eyes seeming to stare at me through the wall, I could also feel the resonance between our souls by proximity to another 'Emiya Shirou', as I felt swords being copied from my inner world to his from the resonance between two swords named 'Emiya Shirou'…
"All has not been lost yet. There are those working to stop Julian, and save your sister. Her friends she made since you last saw her, the ones who cared for her in the world you sent her to in order to be safe from their stupidity, the ones who fought to save her, protect her in your place, only to be taken before their eyes as they got dragged along by the stupidity of the Ainsworth's foolhardy methods to save humanity, only to damn it to destruction for what they're doing to this world!"
That got the attention of one in the prison behind me and the Mini-Gilgamesh as I leaned against the wall while conversing with my fragment like this. The next words from his mouth made me smirk a bit as I decided to give him a helping hand as Kid Gil looked at me with interest at my next move to get this guy out of his funk.
"And who are you to question me?! You don't know me! What I've had to do, what I've been forced to do!"
"Oh, but that is where you are wrong…" I said while casually forcing the barred, locked, warded and heavily reinforced door open with a contemptuously easy flick of the wrist and a brush of my hand gripping the door edge, forcing the obstacle open by pure brute force alone which would have made Herakles proud at the casual display of physical strength, without reinforcement.
The enchantments as well simply winked out, whatever traps the Ainsworths set meaning nothing to EX-ranked magic resistance that resists even the Divine Mysteries of a God. I saw a young man in his late teens, with red hair prematurely turning white from the strain of overusing his tracing, his skin having patches of darker skin, while his golden eyes showed flecks of flinty steel gray color. His hands were chained and wrapped in oh so many bandages that were literally just dirty rags. The chains were simply there to prevent him from being able to leave too easily; if he really wanted to, the guy could break them and run out of here. The only thing stopping him was himself.
I simply sighed in disappointment at the sight of his surprise to see my face, the irritation I felt with Archer bleeding through with this guy. Then I walked into the room, took one look at the pathetic state of the guy who was supposed to be my fragment in this world, the future Counter-Guardian EMIYA, and traced a simple shinai sword, swinging it without warning as he traced and swung an exact copy of same said shinai sword to block, shattering both as they struck one another, and then it happened. The pain of the exchange suddenly shook him off his feet and onto his ass, as he released the remnants of the traced weapon, and I released my own. After all…
"Words need not be said between us to know what we wish to say; all we need to do is merely cross swords to know each others thought. Isn't that right, future Counter-Guardian Emiya Shirou?"
The look of shock on his face was quickly replaced with a newfound resolve as the boy, even with his wounds and crippling injuries, stood to his feet, a new resolve burning in his eyes as the memories he leeched from me finally sunk in. Good, he finally snapped out of his funk. "Even if they break you tens of thousands of times, betray you time and again, and send you to your death for countless centuries over, so long as our core of good iron and steel that is our purpose remains intact, the sword named Emiya Shirou can and will always be reforged anew. I know this as well as should you, one Emiya Shirou, to another..."
He seems to understand, as the two of us then say as one in perfect understanding, causing Kid Gil to look surprised by the exchange…
"I am Sword
For I forge my Iron upon my Hill
Taking pride in my swords
Satisfaction in self-sacrifice
For to be a Sword, is to be loyal and proud."
Without further word, my fragment and future Counter-Guardian counterpart walks forth with renewed resolve, while Kid Gil saw our interaction with curiosity at the interaction. He found it curious, but I don't feel like indulging the guy. He might be a kid now, but I've seen what he'll grow up to be like. How the polite and kind kid in front of my eyes becomes such an arrogantly egotistical asshole is beyond me. But I see no need to indulge in Kid Gil's curiosity right now. We got more important things to do.
The three of us then move on to deal with the Ainsworths, and frankly I strongly felt the urge to strangle Zelretch with [Mercy] while I start to gut him with Black Keys for this oversight. I get that Zelretch might not have caught on to a few of these things due to his noninterference policy and how many things are going on at once, but this?! How the fuck did he miss a world prematurely turning into a damned Lostbelt of all things?! There is no excuse for this one! The second I get this matter settled, I was going to head for the Clocktower, find Zelretch, drag his Apostle ass through the grinder, and skewer him on oh so many swords it wouldn't even be funny to say he was a pincushion when I was finally done with him!
For now, though, time to vent my frustrations upon the stupidity of a very foolish family of rogue magi from this world...and hopefully find Kurotetsu while I was at it. The guy's still only a few days old technically, so having him 'die' so soon would not be very good for my conscious. The guy is a friend and traveling companion, but also someone I intended to trust with my life if need be. If I am a sword that protects, then Kurotetsu is the shield who defends those I cannot. I can't lose the sentient machine just yet. Losing friends is never easy to deal with...
A/N: And that's the chapter. Just so you all know, This world Shirou arrived to in the Nasuverse is the Prisma Illya world and Miyuverse towards the ending of the second half of the second season and the beginning of the third season. Also, next chapter will have a few interactions from Kurotetsu, as he learns from Kaleido Prisma's Illya, Kuro, and a bit from Miyu after they rescue her about what it means to be 'human' from the sentient machine's perspective. Look forward to that next chapter in K.O.W.I. Book 1.5, Two Swords, An Artificial Soul, and Kaleidoscopic Magical Girls-Part II! Until next chapter, PEACE OUT!
