Chapter 2

His eyes slammed open as he woke. A scream seemed to tear at the inside of his throat, threatening to escape his lips until the sensation of endlessly falling faded into the back of his mind. It took him a minute to calm down, and even then, the world was blurry.

Soft white light reached through fluttering curtained windows, brushing gently against his cold cheek. The faint morning breeze carried with it the scent of morning dew and flowers, a scene of tranquility that was only slightly interrupted by the beeping of nearby medical equipment. There was a very noticeable thump that seemed to beat against the inside of his head that only seemed to worsen with each beep. His sight flickered in and out of his grasp, the harsh pounding of his head dictating how much his tunnel vision threatened to blind him.

"Good morning."

It was a familiar phrase, one that he was familiar with. With what can only be explained through habit he raised his fist, and found that he couldn't. He was probably exhausted, and had slept in; it was a habit that was inevitably brought upon by Saber's training sessions, meaning he would have to inevitably apologize to Sakura for breakfast for him again, no matter how many times she asked him not to.

"Good morning Sakura."

He didn't notice that the voice that escaped his lips seemed to be slightly higher pitched, nor the slight yellow hue that everything seemed to appear in. Instead, his attention was taken by the figure that seemed to sit next to his bed. The rise and fall of the torso made it seem as if it was chuckling.

"Indeed, it is a good morning, isn't it?"

"Huh..?"

Still groggy, Shirou tried and failed to clear the fluff that filled his brain. His arms still wouldn't move.

"Nice of you to join us."

He began to see a silhouette with white hair and distinct, green choices in clothing before a mental switch flipped.

That was definitely not Sakura.

"Wait, who are you?"

Multiple trains of thought burst into motion, and he tried to get out of the bed, stopped by straps that ran across it, trapping his legs, torso and arms. In a moment of panic, Shirou struggled against the bed briefly, before a cane leveraged firmly against his cheek and gently shoved his head forcibly back into the pillow. Shirou tried to get a clear look of whoever it was that sat beside his bed. The man in green just gave him gave him a single, disarming smile while raising a finger to his lips. From behind a pair of black-framed glasses, a pair of violet eyes gestured to Shirou's surroundings with a mischievous gaze, as if telling him to look elsewhere.

With a look that was a mixture of suspicion and confusion, he craned his neck to see a hospital ward, with curtained beds to either side. Heads turned towards him, the few surgeons and nurses that were walking up and down the ward glancing in his direction. He had never landed himself into hospital before, even despite how often he had injured himself in the Grail War. He always made it home some way or another, but if he was here, then…

He turned back and found himself only inches from the stranger's face. The man had leaned over such that Shirou could not do anything else but lean further back.

"Okay seriously, stop, what is up with you?"

"Hm?" the white-haired man replied. "Oh, don't mind me, I'm just a stranger finding interest in a fellow stranger."

He pushed his head a fraction of an inch closer to Shirou's, which drove him further into his pillow. The white-haired stranger's voice seemed to drift off, as if he was mumbling to himself.

"Weird guy.." was the only thing that really seemed to pop into Shirou's head. He mentally pictured himself sighing with his hand against his forehead.

How he landed himself in this situation eluded him. He tried to remember the night before, but images of brilliant golds and yellows flickered through his mind, plagued by flashes of what felt like static and a voice bent so low that it became distorted and unintelligible. The longer he tried to recall anything more, a noticeable headache sank in, causing him to give up, the pounding that had only receded moments earlier threatened to return.

"Hmm, interesting.."

Shirou blinked away the last of the pounding within his skull, looking hazily up at the person sitting next to him. "What?"

The man re-positioned his glasses as he leaned back, reaching for a mug on the table beside the bed.

"So I really don't know you after all.."

Finding himself more than a bit confused, and to a similar degree annoyed, Shirou tried to sit up, before remembering the restraints. Even flashing the stranger a Rin-glare required too much effort. He settled on an exasperated sigh that escaped his lips and let his head sink into his pillow.

"Clearly not, I'm sorry sir but I don't recall ever meeting someone who looks like you in my entire life." He felt a sharp pang in the back of his head, as if he was doubting himself, which couldn't be true, since whoever he was talking to was completely unknown to him.

Right?

"Okay, you know what, can I please just talk to someone who knows what's happening around here?"

The stranger's eyes seemed to sparkle, the sense of aloofness that Shirou felt from earlier was overtaken by a slight, mischievous grin.

"Oh, of course, of course! Sorry, I'll go fetch her immediately,"

Honestly not knowing how to react to the situation, Shirou tried to give the stranger a somewhat grateful smile as he picked up his cane, quickly shuffling towards the door without regard for his cane which he held in his hand like some decorated trinket.

"It was nice meeting you Emiya, may we bump into each other again in the near future."

Shirou nodded in agreement, hesitating briefly, wondering whether or not he heard the leaving stranger address him by his name, though chalked it up to perhaps a medical record or somewhere where his name was noted down. They were filles that a stranger should probably have no reasonable means of accessing but he seemingly let it slide, wanting nothing more than to escape the eccentricity that had already invaded his morning. He relaxed a bit further into his bed, He relaxed a bit further into his bed, noticing the mug that the stranger had forgotten to take with him. A rose petal lay beside it.

A half-hour would pass before another figure returned to his hospital ward, this time it was a woman with her face set in a stern, calculating expression, wielding a tablet that she held in her arm and a riding crop that hung from her side. There was already a duo of doctor and nurse attending to Shirou, who both quickly parted at her presence. Goodwitch quietly nodded to both in appreciation, informing them to help assist in taking care of whoever else was in the hospital ward. Rather than take a seat next to the hospital bed she stood beside the foot of the bed as she looked the patient up and down. There was a file that was displayed on her scroll, the face of the patient and several pieces of information, including name, date of birth, medical information.

"Hello, Shirou Emiya, was it?"

The patient nodded in acknowledgement, golden eyes reading her up and down, lingering briefly moment on her riding crop.

"Um, yeah, that's me."

"I see.." she replied, "Well, hello Shirou, seeing as you have finally woken up, are you feeling well?"

Shirou nodded twice, "Yeah, I guess I'm feeling well enough,"

"I see."

The text displayed on her scroll continued to scroll downwards, highlighting several lines that made her raise an eyebrow.

Allocated care units: Intensive care, Emergency aura support, Cryonic preservation.

Condition: Compromised aura, organ failure, Brain-cell deterioration.

Expected recovery period: n/a

'What in the hell...'

She double checked the document, ensuring that nothing was out of place and even looking through the profiles of several adjacent patients, double checking if by chance she chose the wrong patient profile. She hadn't. She slowly flicked back and forth on the scroll while Shirou eyed her with mild concern.

"Uh, is everything alright?"

Goodwitch looked up from her scroll, eyeing the person in front of her which was by all means, appeared to be in a perfectly healthy condition.

"Well, yes, it seems as if you have recovered quite well from your injuries, if nothing else you appear to be well enough to be cleared to leave."

Shirou finally found himself breathing a small breath of relief that he wasn't aware he was holding in. The morning wasn't necessarily stressful, the nurse and doctor duo who took care of him before were more than accommodating but the fact that he wasn't in a cast and there weren't any blood tests meant that the chances of him leaving sooner than he expected.

"That's good..." he sighed, "I suppose that I could get a chance to leave soon?"

Goodwitch looked back at the date of the profile dated to only 3 days prior, an impossibly short time period even accounting for the healing capabilities of aura capable individuals. She scrolled to the bottom, reading a line that opened her eyes in combined shock and confusion.

"I'm sorry to inform you about this but due to circumstances I'm afraid that you can't leave as of yet,"

Concern and confusion both lit up in Shirou's eyes. His voice was cut off by a very audible "Beep" that buzzed from Goodwitch's scroll, accompanied by a small notification that ran over the top.

Oops, there were some errors in the patient record, might as well re-read up on some of it~ Ozpin

Her face formed an expression of doubt before tapping the front of the scroll several times, pulling up Shirou's hospital record, and watched several lines of text slowly flicker. In particular, at the bottom of the document a single line read:

"Patient status: *$& %^&**~#a&g%"

...

"Patient status: cleared for discharge."

Goodwitch's face slowly contorted through a cycle of confusion, intrigue, and eventually what could only be described as a mixture of annoyance and a subtle eye-twitch that Shirou only barely picked up on. Her expression lasted for only the better half of ten seconds, before it was schooled into the expression of professionality that she had perfected over the last decade.

"...I stand corrected,"

Shirou looked confused, while Goodwitch hesitatingly gestured for several nearby staff towards his bed.

"She should be clear to leave, perform the aura and medical checks before release as usual."

"Uhm, is everything okay, what happened?" Shirou asked, concern lining his face as he watched Goodwitch fuss over her scroll."

"Nothing," She lied. "There were some errors within your file, it seems as if I was mistaken. You should be out before tomorrow afternoon, I'll have your belongings fetched before your discharge."

She glared to both the patient in the bed and at her scroll, beginning to wonder what sorts of unspoken, flowery language she would save for Ozpin later.

"Ozpin.." she snarled under her breath. "What in the world are you up to?"

The person who sat on the bed next to her gave a light chuckle. "Uhmm.. long day?"

Goodwitch just glared daggers at Shirou, shutting him up.

A/n

Finally posted a chapter 2 weeks late but heyo, at least it's not 3.5 years..?

I was going to post it two weeks ago but I refrained from doing so since I found 2 of my friends to beta the chapter, long story short..

1- Beta one was supportive of the new chapter, and actually edited some of the chapter for me, so props to Sam for actually helping me get this chapter out.

2- Beta 2 basically went "this is shit, your second chapter is not too bad (but still shit) but your first is dog-shit" which i completely agree with, but did not really point anything out in particular in favour of being completely unhelpful and just complaining

As a result I was stuck in between the writing limbo of wanting to completely scrap and rewrite everything and also being demotivated to continue writing, as well as being sandwiched between 3 simultaneous school assessments..

Anyways, Chapter 3 is being written, I might cut out half of chapter 1 and just merge this chapter with the last when I upload the next chapter, or maybe just completely re-write the first chapter at a later point when I develop my English skills into something borderline acceptable, I'll probably try upload once a month at minimum for the next year, and if I do continue further I will probably start uploading more frequently as my schedule becomes more open. (11 months until uni entrance exams).. yeah.

Anyways, I'll see you all on Christmas day then?

(25/12/19, planned upload date)