Shirou

Shirou hated funerals. Unfortunately upon recovering Kiritsugu's body he had been forced to help arrange one. Luckily his dad's body had sustained miraculously little damage aside from being dead, most likely from the reinforced room he had died in. Fortuitously Taiga's grandfather took over most of the duties so Shirou didn't have to. Shirou had asked for as small a funeral as possible. Kiritsugu was immensely practical and he could care less about what Japanese culture had to say about the proper way to prepare somebody for the afterlife. Shirou despite deeply loving his father saw no reason to attend. It wasn't as if the priest was going to go and tell everyone about the various things that Kiritsugu did in his life.

He actually quirked a smile at the thought of the priest reciting Kiritsugu's life story. In fact now that he thought about it maybe he could write out an altered version of Kiritsugu's life story as a work of fiction. He could imagine his dad's response to that. He would most likely give Shirou the deadpan stare he did whenever Shirou did something that went against the common sense of man or spat on a normal person's sense of logic. Then he would smile showing that he never did regret taking care of Shirou.

Shirou had attended the standard cremation of course. He also made sure to take every single bone not even allowing Taiga or her family to take a single one. He got into a minor skirmish with Arcueid over one of the bones and it was only an expert suckerpunch and the assistance of Sumire that helped him momentarily fend off the White Princess and retrieve the final bone. Then he got home and made sure to completely and without fail destroy every single one of the bones till not even scraps remained. He also destroyed the rest of the origin bullets as Shirou wasn't going to use them because they went against his fighting style so he would rather they not exist at all. He could probably survive them as conceptual weapons were not very effective against him but he didn't want to risk the destruction of his magic circuits.

Besides the funeral the past two weeks was spent getting Illya settled. The girl was quite depressed for a few days after Kiritsugu's death. But it seemed she bounced back a few days later with the help of Shirou. The one thing that brightened up Shirou's day was seeing her constantly overwhelmed by the new people she was meeting. First it was the young sort of but not really dead apostle Satsuki, then the Dead Apostle Ancestor Sumire, then the True Ancestor Arcueid. Each time had led to a look of shock on his sister's face. He momentarily regretted the fact that he had already informed his sister that he was a magician and that he couldn't suddenly spring that on her.

Shirou himself was also recovering from the death of his father. Even though he was mentally prepared for Kiritsugu dying on this mission it had still hurt him. It hurt far more than he had ever been hurt before. The deaths of his parents when he finally remembered them were muted by time and the foggy haze that surrounds a child's brain. The death of all the Tohno's hurt mainly because it was a sign of his failure. That good people could die and that potential could be snuffed short. His dad dying was an acknowledgement that he would never greet his father in the morning, never cook for him, never sit down with him and hear his stories, never see his reaction when he went out and did something stupid. He shook himself out of that.

Truthfully he had also been busy during that time trying to decipher the Einzberns' research. Many nights he had stayed up late trying to understand the Einzbern's analysis so he could find out what was wrong with his sister. Unfortunately the results from the research weren't good. Illya had been tampered with in order to bring out the fullest potential of her body giving her even more magic circuits than himself.

This advantage came at a cost however. Her body was continuously breaking down and within four or five years it would break down completely. After sifting through the Einzbern's research he had found a log of the changes that were made to her. Unfortunately that was where the good news ended. The Einzbern were apparently disinterested in how to fix their alterations. Their method seemed to be that if the alteration didn't work to build another homunculus. He immediately ceased thinking about those scum.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts he moved himself through the ocean depths. Sumire had advised him to come out here as a way to calm his head and to get away from it all. Sumire was correct in this case. The ocean was black all around him and he pulsed minute amounts of prana as a form of echolocation. He adjusted his internal water pressure and moved gracefully through the haunting environment. There were small pinpricks of light from the occasional underwater creatures that performed photosynthesis. It was a place of stillness and it was intensely eerie to experience.

The notes were currently useless to him. While he copied them down into a digital format he had no desire currently to make a homunculus. However they probably had value to others. More specifically if there was a mage that was specialized in the creating or altering of human bodies then they would probably gladly take a portion of the Einzbern's research in exchange for fixing Illya.

He reached into the water that composed almost all of his body and shot out of the midnight zone. A normal human would get decompression sickness but Shirou had long figured out how to manipulate the pressure in his body to avoid that end. He let his mind work while he headed towards the surface. When he reached the surface and his body pressure damn near equalized he teleported into the living room and was surprised to see the sight of people clustering around a solitary visitor. Arcuueid was relaxing on the chair opposite the guest and Illya was talking to the man. Seeing who it was Shirou's face grew stormy.

In his dining room Gilgamesh sat sipping tea. Nine having evidently decided it was rude to let a guest go thirsty. Deciding against tactfulness Shirou walked forward and said what he was thinking. "Gilgamesh did you see that Kiritsugu would die."

Illya gasped at that and shot an almost betrayed look towards the golden man. Gilgamesh however ignored the look and set down his cup of tea.

"Yes," he said ignoring the look of pain and shock on Illya and the trembling hands of Shirou indicating his rage. "I also saw that you would die, that your sister would die and that your battle would cause Germany to be wiped out. I'm not a god Shirou. I am not omniscient and nor will I use my powers to dictate the exact manner in which everybody lives. Despite my advice and warnings there was still a chance that Kiritsugu would return from this mission alive."

Shirou exhaled in relief. He didn't want to hate Gilgamesh. He was one of the few people Shirou got on well with and Shirou genuinely liked him despite Gilgamesh's assurances that they would fight to the death one day.

"Wait a minute," Shirou said, "so why are you only coming to my house now. Does it have something to do with Kiritsugu's death?"

"Yes," Gilgamesh said, "Kiritsugu and I fought against each other in a war held here seven years ago. That very conflict lead to the Fuyuki fire and the destruction of much of Fuyuki. Me appearing before him could have lead to some awkward moment."

"Let me guess," Shirou said with a look of minor disgust. "A magus trying to reach the root."

"Yes and no," Gilgamesh responds. "While the war was started by three magus families it would not have been possible without the intervention of the wielder of the second magic."

At this Arcueid gasped, "Zelretch helped cause the Fuyuki fire."

"Again, yes and no," Gilgamesh picked up his tea and took a sip. "He helped create the system whereby heroes of the past could be incarnated into a servant container to fight over a wish granting device." Gilgamesh smiled ruefully, "however the system has been tried four times and four times has it failed. I can't tell you why the fire was caused specifically unfortunately. I am somewhat constrained at this point."

"However," Gilgamesh fashioned him with a stare. "You should be aware that the war will most likely begin again in a few years. During the war is when you and I will fight."

"Sounds somewhat inconvenient," Shirou joked. "With all those battles going on will we get any screen time at all?"

Gilgamesh snorted, "I'm sure you'll find a way. The other thing I came to tell you about was to give you a direction and a warning. First the warning is such. Magi today despite being weak and cowardly are not stupid. There are Einzbern at Clocktower and upon falling out of contact with the main house will try to track you down or incite the Clocktower to hunt you down. After all if you wiped out their entire family what is to stop you from hunting down others?"

"If the dogs of the magus organization come after me, they won't like what happens," Shirou replied earnestly. While he didn't like to kill, he also didn't like most magi and a group of magus targeting him and his family was unacceptable.

Gilgamesh drained the last of his tea. "Maybe I'm spending too much time with you if you're calling people dogs now. Anyway," Gigamesh said getting back on topic; the second is a way to fix the homunculus. Currently there is only one person in the world who has the skill to fix your sisters natural lifespan." Gilgamesh's hand disappeared into ripples and a moment later it was back with a folder in his hand. He handed the folder to Shirou and Shirou immediately started reading.

"You're joking right," Shirou said his face taking on an unreadable expression.

"I'm afraid not. Your best choice is the foremost expert in puppet creation Touko Aozaki," Gilgamesh replied and Shirou felt like he was smiling at him despite wearing an inexpressive face.

"I'm not a puppet," muttered Illya looking down on the floor.

"Of course you're not," Gilgamesh replied smiling at the girl. "Why some of my best friends were created rather than born."

Gilgamesh seemed to reminisce for a moment and then he stood up. "I'll leave you to it. By the way," he said. "I suppose I have held off introducing myself properly for too long. I am Gilgamesh. The King of Heroes. The first hero from whom all other legends flow." A horrifically intimidating presence filled the room and Shirou got the impression of absolute power. It was as if he was not facing a single man but as if the entire world had decided to make him his enemy. Illya was trembling a bit and even Arcueid looked a bit taken back. "You are still nowhere near strong enough." The presence faded. "Prepare yourself well Shirou. You have potential."

At that Gilgamesh exited the room.

xxx

Rin

Rin Tohsaka was having a bad day. She had woken up late and had to rush to school. Then when in school she realised that she had forgotten to pack her lunch and so had to spend the majority of her school day hungry. Then that ass Shinji had been up to his usual tricks and she had found herself annoyed and hungry throughout the schoolday.

Things hadn't gotten much better when she got home. She had broken a jewel that she had been working on and Kirei was also being an ass. So here she was sitting in her family's workshop reading through some of her families prior notes. One thing that she was thankful was that Inke left her alone again today. She immediately rebuked herself for thinking that. She had heard that his father was dead. She wanted to go and offer her condolences tell him that she also understood the pain of losing her parents but she had no idea of how to begin that conversation.

They both had an antagonistic relationship. Rin had no idea how it had started but he had become the one person that could make him lose her composure and constantly got under her skin. He seemed to enjoy needling her to the extent that sometimes she just wanted to punch him in his smug face. And his constant petty magic tricks were annoying he wanted to see what would ever happen if he met Zelretch or the Blue. How would his assertions that he was a magician hold up then?

She smiled and shook her head dismissing the humorous image from her head. Suddenly she felt somebody lightly tap against her bounded field as if to announce their presence. Putting the notes away she exited the workshop and headed to the front door. Stepping outside she was confronted by two magi.

Instantly she was on guard. The Clocktower very rarely sent any of its people here. Moreover the people appeared to be enforcers which meant that they only came if there was a clear and present danger. In the back of her head Rin silently hoped that she hadn't become the danger.

"Miss Tohsaka," the one on the left stated. "I am Cornelius Alba of the sealing designate enforcers. I bear the rank of brand in the clocktower. I have come to this land because I believe that living here somewhere is the new sealing designate Kiritsugu Emiya."

Rin swallowed her throat dry at the thought of a sealing designate hiding out in her city. "Excuse me," she said inspecting Cornelius with a determined look in her eye, "can you tell me what he has done to warrant a designation. I would like to know whether he is dangerous to the population and myself?"

Cornelius smiled wider, "Of course," he said, "after all you should know what this guy who might be living right in your backyard did." He paused, "He destroyed almost the entirety of the Einzbern family in a single day."

At that though Rin felt a deep pit form in her stomach and she barely noticed Cornelius and his partner walk off. She closed the door and slumped down into the nearest chair and just stayed very still.

Author Note Sorry this chapter is very short but I have board exams in two and a half weeks and thus I have to spend all my time studying. The many downsides of being an aspiring accountant. I'll probably only be able to have a new story out by the 27th.

Saitosa [ Š-šú-nu iš-te-niš] would be the actual inscription. The language is cuneiform the source of writing created by the Sumerians. It comes from the poem titled [e-nu-ma e-liš] or Enuma Elish as Gilgamesh pronounces it and the line describes the mixing of salt and fresh water at the start of the world.

EternityDragon2610 Yeah I dislike most purely crack fics. I try to mix humor and serious moments. That's why a lot of series have a straight man. If nobody takes anything seriously it just devalues the whole process. And yes Kiritsugu did die with a smile on his face.

Oblivion168 He has the crest. However Illya comes with a built in crest being a homunculus and Shirou isn't sure about implanting a new one.

Guest Yup soon

The Rupture I both love and hate it when reviewers are faster than me. On the plus side it shows that I have created a story that has sufficient narrative realism that people can guess where I'm going. On the other hand I live in fear that they are going to get a twist before I finished writing it. Carry on good sir and keep me on my toes.

Redripper666 Yeah that's always the risk. Unfortunately I can't promise that people won't die in future. My author integrity wont let me.

TJG Is that a reference to Haiyore!Nyarko-san. If it is I must say that while I like the show despite its many failings. The tone would be significantly off.

KRKing I'm sorry I don't give spoilers.