Sorry for the wait, I had some problems with characterization so it took a while to get the characters to my liking. It also turned into a bit of info dump.
Checklist Item 3: Arrive at Your Shifts in an Orderly and Timely Fashion.
Chaldea, Antarctica
Shirou slept soundly. When he awoke, the familiar bright lights and small sounds, the sleepiness clinging to every part of his mind and the comfort of a good bed was almost enough to lull him back to sleep again. Breakfast could wait.
The pain and bladder wouldn't. Groaning, Shirou opened his eyes to see a massive ceiling of electric lights all above his head. His mind sleepy from just waking up, he slowly grabbed the blanket covering him and pulled it off, even as he sat up in bed. Blinking as he looked around, he saw the yellow curtains surrounding his nice, warm, comfy bed.
The set-up was familiar. Was he in the hospital again? The bed was a little too nice for a hospital but the abundance of light, the sanitized smell from the cleaning agents, and the curtains fit the image.
As Shirou shuffled out of bed, he winced as a burst of pain came from, well, everywhere. His hands, his arms, his feet, his lungs, all protested in unison. But they faded as he stopped, only for his bladder to continue.
Shirou rose to his feet, stoically riding out the pain. He hoped the bathroom was close nearby. As he parted the curtains, Shirou took in the rest of the room. More yellow curtains surrounding beds, one unoccupied bed, more lights, and at the front of the room near the door was a small dark desk with a mirror on the wall next to it.
Barefoot, Shirou walked over to the door. He noticed the security panel and extended his left wrist to tap his identification bracelet against it. The door opened and Shirou heard the distant mutter of conversation.
"… going to check the vital signs of the wounded, so I'll be back in a bit. Keep on fixing the control room and make your best judgement if something happens. I shouldn't take too long…"
The red-haired, white coated Doctor Romani turned the corner and stopped as he stared at the red and white haired, tanned Shirou Emiya.
"Sorry to interrupt you doctor, but could you by chance direct me to the nearest restroom?" Shirou asked, a little impatiently. He really needed to go.
"So, you're one of the engineers, right? Hiro Emiya? Piro Emiya? What was your name again?" Dr. Romani asked, leaning against the wall outside the restroom, browsing through some documents on his communicator.
"Shirou Emiya. And I'm one of the technicians." Shirou spoke over the running water as he washed his hands.
Shirou glanced up to the mirror. He looked more different now compared to how he was a little over a decade ago when he went through, no, survived the Fifth Grail War. His hair had mostly whitened, probably due to all the stress he went through on his journeys and his research. Oh sure, there were still strands of red scattered throughout his hair, but white was definitely the dominant color. His skin was tanning, albeit by looking like a child was painting him by swiping him with random strokes of dark tanned skin. His small growth spurt had boosted his height by more than a few centimeters. He looked more like the mysterious Archer now. Huh, maybe they were related? Which would suck but he never had learned Archer's name…
"Shirou Emiya? Well, it is nice to meet you, Shirou Emiya. I am Doctor Romani Archaman. You can call me Dr. Roman though. Everyone does." Dr. Romani introduced himself, still flipping through the medical document for his patient. "Sorry for the rudeness, but how are you up right now? Your injuries were so bad that I would've expected you to be out until next week, not today and that would be if you survived. Two pulverized legs, two punctured lungs, a scrape along the skull, intestines had a hole through them and scars all over your chest, legs, and arms, even some on your head. You're lucky that your magic circuits were still open and working, as they helped keep you alive. We had people who took fewer and less severe injuries and expired before we even found you."
In the middle of washing his hands, Shirou stilled. Last night's First Order, the power plant, the inferno, Denis Flowerchild!
Shirou rushed over and slammed the door open, startling Dr. Roman such that he nearly fell over. Dr. Roman caught himself in time.
"Denis! Is Denis Flowerchild all right?" Shirou urgently demanded.
"Denis? Oh, the body we found with you." Dr. Roman grimaced and bowed. "Sorry to say but by the time we sent someone down to the central power plant, he had already expired. I am sorry for your loss."
"Tsk," Shirou clicked his tongue in irritation at his failure.
He had failed. He had tried to save someone and almost succeeded.
But it had been a long shot. He had to move on.
For the sake of those still alive.
For those who still can be saved.
A thought popped into Shirou's head as he turned to Dr. Roman.
What of everyone else? If the central powerplant had an explosion and no one had been able to help, then there must have been something else going on.
And for an organization like Chaldea which depended on power in order to continue functioning, there was no way that an explosion that ruined the central powerplant would have gone unnoticed. Especially as the command center also served as the security center for the entire base.
Shirou rushed forward to grab a hold of Dr. Roman, almost physically shaking the man. "What happened? Is anyone in need of help? Who is hurt or in need of rescue?"
"Hey, stop that!" The doctor squawked as he grabbed Shirou's arm to try to get it off him. Weakened as Shirou had been, he didn't offer much resistance. "I don't know what mystery you used to further accelerate your healing, but you should avoid anything strenuous for at least several more days. Your internals are still healing and I don't want to stitch you back up again."
Shirou's concern ebbed in embarrassment. "Sorry," he apologized. To the doctor, Shirou couldn't have been the only patient and the doctors was just trying to make sure that Shirou wouldn't end up back in the infirmary again. Shirou could understand the mind frame of a doctor, even if he didn't need or deserve the concern. "I'll be fine though. I had a healing artifact in me when I was young and I just got used to healing faster than normal."
It was true. Shirou does heal faster than the average magus when healing magecraft was applied. It wasn't as fast as when he had Avalon but apparently his body had adjusted to Avalon and as a result, found healing magecraft as a normal state of being. At least, that was what Rin had said, scolding for his idiocy excluded, a few years ago as she had healed him after a hunt.
Dr. Roman frowned, "So, a natural adjustment over an extended period of time increased your bodies efficiency in utilizing healing energy? Would that be a continuous exposure? Except wasn't proven to be detrimental…? Never mind. I was hoping that you could apply it to the other victims, but if it is just a natural adjustment, there's nothing we can do. What about the automatic projections inside your body? They saved your life you know. They acted as remarkably effective first aid which kept you alive until we, well, found you. If you could apply those projections inside of others…"
Shirou winced. All those people injured while he lay unconscious. How was he supposed to be a hero of justice if he was asleep when people needed him?
"Sorry," he said, "that is a Mystery uniquely suited to me. It doesn't have a very good success rate when applied to others." Regrettably, that was true. His body and Reality Marble projected swords to stitch itself together, but swords weren't exactly the best materials for anything but surgery and amputation. Only unkept, unsanitary hospitals in 3rd world countries had a lower success rate than him doing medical magecraft with his swords. His body was okay with it but that was because his body didn't resist his Reality Marble or his magecraft. And, unfortunately, his projections that weren't swords don't last long enough. He had found that out the hard way only in 2006. Those poor victims of the tsunami on Java.
"Too bad. We have a large number of wounded and injured. Almost everyone who wasn't on the night shift or the cafeteria ladies and janitors, was injured or killed in the explosions. If you could have done those projections inside the bodies of others… Well anyways," Dr. Roman stretched and yawned before continuing. "You need to get some food and water before heading back to bed. You haven't eaten a thing for the last two days and all the IV packs are in use by other patients." His voice dropped as he muttered to himself, "Prepared for anything, my ass. We only have enough critical care medical supplies for three quarters of the survivors, and we can't move the Masters from the Central Control room until we know who is Rayshifted and who isn't. With all the Spiritron Chassis destroyed, who would even know if a person died in the shift! Who proposed this crazy place anyways?"
As Dr. Roman ranted, Shirou paused as he turned to examine Dr. Roman a little more carefully. The man's hands occasionally twitched and shook as he threw them around, there were dark circles under his eyes and his eyes were bloodshot red. He looked like he hadn't slept in days.
Shirou felt a twinge of sympathy. How long had this man worked to save lives? How many patients had expired under his hands even as he did all he could to save them? How many meals and hours of sleep had he missed in order to spend a few more minutes working on a patient about to slip away into death's hands?
Shirou gently placed a hand on the good doctor's shoulders. "Hey Doctor, why don't I help you out for a bit and you can get some sleep."
Dr. Roman shook his head. "I can't. We still have to repair the circuits in the control room so that we can get communication with the Masters up."
"Doctor," Shirou repeated, "You are exhausted. If you don't get a good meal and some sleep you will make mistakes on your patients before you collapse. I have some first aid experience so I can help a little with the patients while you rest."
Dr. Roman raised an eyebrow, "You are a technician, a magus, and a nurse? How did you end learning all that?"
Shirou barked a humorless laugh, "I lived an interesting life. But, I'm more of a first-aid responder than a nurse."
"Oh, shame." Dr. Roman shook off Shirou's hand. "Well, you need to head down to the cafeteria. You should" Roman yawned "sorry about that, you should know how to get there right?"
"Only after you get some sleep. You won't do anyone any good if you don't get some sleep."
"I'm fine. I'm fine." Dr. Roman waved off Shirou's concerns. "More importantly, you need to recover. Don't do anything strenuous. Actually, don't move fast, don't rush, and don't do any lifting. Ask a cafeteria lady for a light, and I mean light, lunch. Preferably soup. Eat slowly. Your intestines should still be recovering. Drink fluids but not any more than a fraction of a glass per minute. Then head back to sleep. It would be better if you slept in the infirmary. We have a permanent Bounded Field in there that increases healing speed up there."
"No, seriously Doctor, you need to sleep. You are shaking." Shirou insisted. "As in physically shaking. You need sleep."
"I'll get some later." Dr. Roman took Shirou by the shoulders and started pushing him down the hall. "Get some food and sleep. You are one of the last technicians we have so once you recover, we'll put you to work."
"If you can get some sleep, then I'll get some food but you need sleep for the sake of the patients." Shirou argued over his shoulder before stopping. "Wait, I forgot to turn off the water."
"Water? What water?" Dr. Roman blinked as Shirou slipped around his hands and back through the restroom doors. Shirou walked back over to the sink and turned off the fountain. Stopping to grab a paper towel and dry his hands, Shirou walked back out to Dr. Roman.
Dr. Roman was pacing in the hallway, muttering to himself. Apparently, he wasn't the type to take being sleepless by getting lethargic but got instead a weird form of restlessness. It reminded Shirou of Illya the one time she decided to stay up till midnight on the New Year. He bit back a smile. She and Taiga had been … interesting that night. May the world, and more importantly Sakura and Rin, himself as well wouldn't be bad, forget the fate of those poor rubber duckies… and the teddy bear.
Shirou shook his head. He could reminiscence later. Until then he needed to make sure the patients were in good condition and use that to send the doctor to bed.
"Hey, Doctor."
"It's Doctor Roman."
"Doctor Roman, why don't you come with me to the cafeteria and we can talk" and rest and let you potentially doze off into a nap "for a bit before heading to bed and getting some sleep." Shirou had learned subtlety over the decade he has been graduated from high school.
Doctor Roman snorted. "I told you! We're too busy for me to take a rest." Shirou never said he learned how to be good at subtlety.
"Now get down to the cafeteria for a light lunch like soup. Is soup good, yeah soup is good." Dr. Roman mumbled to himself before continuing. "Make sure that you drink and eat slowly. You'll need to be sure about the water. Drink too fast and you will be back in the infirmary room as soon as the cafeteria ladies get you up here."
Now Shirou was determined to get the good doctor back to bed. He was never the best at tact anyways. "Doctor, you just repeated your instructions. You need to get some sleep."
"Now, now. What is the ruckus here?" A musical voice rang down the halls.
Shirou started. He hadn't even sensed her approach and now that he focused on her, who looked faintly familiar, he could smell something he hadn't smelled in a decade. Power. Power of a Heroic Spirit. The power of a Servant.
Dr. Roman wasn't fazed by her aura. "This idiot won't go down to the cafeteria. He just woke up from the infirmary and is capable of walking around and he is bothering me over something pointless!" The man appeared to be pouting.
Shirou snapped out of his shock and shot back. "He is devoted to the concept that if he collapses while taking care of patients, it will improve their health rather than potentially kill them! He needs to sleep."
"Ah, one of the ground zero survivors woke up. Nice to meet you. I am Leonardo da Vinci. You can just call me Leonard or Da Vinci though. Now why don't we let the doctor run along to his patients and you and I can take a quick lunch break," the Heroic Spirit said.
Shirou frowned. "No, the doctor needs to sleep. Look at him! He is barely even awake, he doesn't even remember what he said a minute ago, and he looks like he hasn't slept in days! He needs to sleep or he will kill someone."
Leonard sighed before grabbing Shirou and pulling him aside. Looking at him head-on, Shirou became aware that he was being stared down by a black-haired young woman not even up to his shoulders, a delicate woman who could probably bench press him by sheer strength she possessed by the virtue of being a Servant.
"Now, young man, you are right. Roman has been awake running the place while trying to save as many lives as he can. He does need sleep and I am planning to take care of that. You on the other hand, just woke up from the infirmary full of the badly wounded and dying. You are still injured and you shouldn't be stressing yourself in any way. If Doctor Roman has patch you back up, he won't be able to rest and will just spend more time awake. With that in mind, why don't you spend some time with the glorious Da Vinci and I can help us all?"
Shirou hesitated. The doctor needed to sleep. But if Doctor Roman thought that Shirou would hurt himself then he would probably just force himself to stay awake. But if Shirou went back to bed quickly then the doctor would also sleep. And arguing here in the hallway just prevented Dr. Roman from sleeping and took up the time of a Heroic Spirit.
Shirou slowly nodded. If it saved a life or a few then he could take it easy. He ignored the voice in the back of his head that really wanted to ask how often had he found himself in the situation where taking no action resulted saving more people.
"Alright. I'll just get a small meal and head back to my room."
The woman Hero gave him a look proclaiming him an idiot. Why is it that most women gave him that look? "No, you will sleep in the infirmary tonight. The sooner you are healed, the sooner we can all get back to work. We can't get a reading on the Singularity but I doubt that it has gotten any better."
Shirou sat down at a table in the cafeteria looking at the simple stew in front of him. No side dishes, no chopsticks, just a simple vegetable stew. Sighing, Shirou grabbed his spoon and took a sip. Too much salt but it tasted like there might be some beans, beef, carrots, and corn used in the stew. Well it wasn't a vegetable stew then. Magi weren't fond of cheap food substitutes. Well, it could have been worse. We could have had an explosion in the pantry too.
His thoughts returned to Leonard. Funny but his Reality Marble didn't seem to have any weapons used by Leonard. Sure, there was a spatha, and a Noble Phantasm doru or spear, and a shield that had been reputedly wielded by Leonidas, but he didn't have a weapon for Leonard or Leonardo da Vinci. Which meant either Leonardo was a Caster Servant who didn't use weapons or she wasn't carrying it on her. Or had she concealed the weapon? But wasn't Leonardo da Vinci a male? Or had Leonardo masqueraded as a male like Saber had?
His head hurt so he took another bite of stew. The more important issue is how? How did Chaldeas manage to summon a Servant of all things? Was there another Grail War going on? If so then he better be careful. But if he could get involved and summon Saber again…
Shirou took another bite. Saber. He hadn't seen her for 11 years. 11 years since the 5th Holy Grail War of 2004. It seemed so long, but if he closed his eyes, he could still see her standing in his shed, moonlight highlighting her golden hair, gleaming off her armor. And he could still hear her last words of "Shirou, I love you" ringing through the morning light as if she had just said them.
Shirou continued eating. Saber, Saber Saber.10 years he had searched for her. After Rin brought him to the Clock Tower, Zelretch had told him to search endlessly for her and that if he did and she waited continuously then possibly a miracle could happen and they would meet again. Then he had thrown a paint balloon at him and laughed. Sometimes, Shirou wondered what was going through the master of the 2nd magic's head.
Well, it had been a long 10 years. When he had tried to get to the archives of the department of the Third Department Spiritual Evocation, they had kicked him out due to his father's actions in the 4th Holy Grail War. So had the department of Sixth Anthropology. And the Fifth Zoology. The First General Fundamentals had refused him access on account of him not being a member of the Mage's Association. The Second Individual Fundamentals had refused to even allow him onto the grounds. The Twelfth Modern Magecraft Theories had, rather politely, asked him to leave. And then someone tried to hit him with a lethal mystery from a window as he left. Lord El-Melloi II had sent a letter apologizing for his subordinate afterwards. That was nice of him. The Ninth Creation had been ruder, with someone ranting about his father ruining a work of art. Someone still tried to shoot him in the back as he left but he got no apology for that. In fact, as Shirou thought about it, the only departments that he could even visit were the Fourth Mineralogy, if only because of Rin and Luvia's influence, the Seventh Botany, The Ninth Curse, the Eleventh Archaeology, and only recently the Eighth Celestial Body thanks to Lev Lainur pulling strings with the Animuspheres. Although, trying to visit Curse nearly got him slapped with a Sealing Designation as one of the Bounded Fields detected the residue of Angra Mainyu's curses. He was so glad that Rin fast talked them into thinking that the Bounded Field was faulty for saying that it detected a Divine Spirit level curse. Rin didn't allow to go back though. And she forbade him from even going near Policies. Too many Lords that would love to kill him for his father's murders and actions.
In fact, it was Archeology that he went to the most. They had a lot of information about ancient faeries interacting with England, even if they didn't have a lot about the Fair Folk or their side of the Reverse World called Avalon. But they have some faerie artifacts recovered from archeological digs and a list of faerie monuments across England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, France, and even some in Asia too. He had spent the last decade investigating each site, hoping to find some clue about how to enter Avalon. He still hadn't finished the list as he had spent all of his savings on travel and trying to learn some of the secrets and mysteries of the Fae.
Which was how he ended up here in Chaldeas. Lev Lainur had invited him here after observing him fix a car that had broken down about a block away from Sir Flauros research building. Apparently, they need people who could fix machines. Considering that the average magus wouldn't be able to handle a multi-tool much less fix a machine, there was an astonishing lack of candidates for the technician positions needed to keep Chaldeas running.
It paid well. He had been working here for over three years now and had managed to make good progress on the list. Just a few more years and he could finish off the list of sites. Perhaps he could find a gate to Avalon. He had already found a few weapons and pieces of armor made by and left behind by the faeries besides Saber's Caliburn, Excalibur, and Avalon.
In his workshop back in Fuyuki, he had a lot more data about Faerie magic. It was difficult for him, since he was human and they were Fae, but he could replicate a mystery or two of the Fae. Namely, elf-shot. An annoying flint arrow that inflicted a curse upon anyone hit by it. Unfortunately, he had no success in ramping up its size or potency up to anywhere near either Rin or Luvia's ability with their Gandr shot or Finn shot. Elf-shot was not of much use considering how expensive it was in terms of prana and how weak it was. Excellent for Zelretch, not quite so for Shirou.
However, that was his workshop and this was here. Here, he could only work on analyzing his Reality Marble's faerie weapons and armor again and again and again while hoping for a breakthrough. It wasn't happening anytime soon but what else could he do? The faeries weren't just going to pop up out of nowhere and bring him to meet Saber. He couldn't waste time.
Shirou finished his stew and stared into his bowl. He was still a little hungry but Dr. Roman had told him not to strain himself. He sighed and got up, taking his bowl and spoon to the counter. Nodding and giving a brief greeting to the lady washing the dishes, he left them behind.
As Shirou left the cafeteria, he decided to investigate a little. He knew that there were Master candidates here. He himself held the potential to be a Master, if not the reserves to do so.
It was the Rayshift that was problematic. His results were crazy. Abnormal, the outlier, not even on the scale. All that Shirou got out of it, was that the magi that tested him for Rayshift ability had no clue what the results meant. So, they had called their boss. Who scratched his head and called his boss who told him to run a diagnostic on the machine and try again tomorrow.
The next day, the results were the same. So, they called their boss again, asking to start a study on what was causing it. He in turn called his boss, telling him that the results were the same insane results as yesterday. His boss scratched her head, gave permission for them to start tests and then called her boss to report that they had a weird result for a Master trial and asked for them to get in touch with Atlas. Eventually the results made it all the way up to Olga Marie Animusphere herself, who took a look at it, took a look at him, took a look at the researchers surrounding her, and declared that they would examine him after the Singularity had been dealt with and the light of CHALDEA restored but until then they had to make sure that humankind survived! But until then, Shirou was banned from being a Master because due to all the ambiguity in results, they had no clue what would happen. He was just as likely to create a new singularity as he was to arrive safely in one. Now get back to work!
Shirou remembered being very grateful and very disappointed that night. Rayshifting involved transporting the soul through time by creating a body made of Spiritrons, the quantum particles that made up the soul, and attaching it to the human soul. Then the Spiritrons were sent back in time and the soul followed along with it. If they didn't make it safely or Gaia, the soul of the planet that enforced the laws of nature on Earth decided to destroy the Spiritrons, the person's soul might not make it back to their body.
But Shirou's soul was different from the average person or magus. His soul had a full-fledged Reality Marble, or his own world, inside of it. If the researchers had known that, the report to their boss would have been about how they were already vivisecting him which would be rather painful. But if he could have been a Master then he would have already gone back to the Fifth Grail War, be meeting Saber right now, and be about to save the world.
Now that he considered it, Shirou remembered Roman mumbling something about the Master candidates. Did something happen to them? Had the bomber hit them with the explosions? He hoped they were alright.
Shirou reached the infirmary and pressed his identification to the panel. It wasn't needed at the infirmary since it was open to everyone but he had gotten into the habit of pressing it to every door before opening it.
As he entered, he paused. Dr. Roman lay flat out on top of the bed that Shirou had woken up on this morning. His shoes and coat were still on and he lay sprawled over the bed, head on one side while his feet hung over the other side. Shirou could smell a bounded field with a damp scent like that of wet, rich earth, which probably was the healing Bounded Field that Dr. Roman mentioned. But there was also a heavy scent. Shirou yawned as he walked towards another unoccupied bed. A heavy scent remarkably similar to one bounded field that he had encountered while chasing down a Dead Apostle that liked to use sleeping inducing Bounded Fields to weaken living humans. But this didn't smell nearly as bad as the Dead Apostle's Bounded Field had.
Clever. Shirou Emiya thought to himself as he slid under the covers. Leonard had placed a Bounded Field that encouraged Dr. Roman to fall asleep.
I now know one thing though. Shirou Emiya thought to himself as his eyelids drifted shut almost of their own accord. Leonard is definitely a Caster Class Servant.
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