My body is made of swords

I am the bone of my sword

My blood is of iron and my heart of glass

Steel is my body and fire is my blood

I have overcome countless battlefields

I have created over a thousand blades

Not even once retreating

Unwilling to break

Not even once compromising

Nor willing to be renewed

The pursuer forges on alone, striking cold steel in his heart

Withstood pain to create countless weapons, holding nothing in reserve

Thus, my life needs but one meaning

Though my path stretches on, I have no regrets

This body will always be made of swords.

So as I hope, Unlimited Blade Works.

Chapter 4

EMIYA coughed.

Shirou, his eyes closed, still smiling and holding Artoria said, "Shut up, Archer. Let me have this."

He felt Artoria pull away for a moment and he opened his mouth to ask-

She kissed him.

He was vaguely aware that EMIYA was yelling at the gathered Servants to disperse, somewhere in the small part of his mind that was not kissing her back.

An eternity later he was made aware of his need to breathe. The couple parted, their cheeks tinted red. He could feel the rest of the Servants having gone, only Alter and EMIYA remaining. Hans had left as well, but Shirou supposed he could seek him out later to discuss those cryptic words he had been given.

"I have long wanted to see the continuation of my dream," said Artoria. "But still some part of me wonders if I am even awake."

"I'm not a dream though," murmured Shirou.

She tightened her grip on his waist. "I believe you," she said lightly. "But how did you get to Chaldea?" A frown. "As a Servant as well?"

"It's a long-"

Shirou felt a force press down on him as if a full coat of chainmail had been thrown over his shoulders unceremoniously. He separated from Artoria and turned to its source.

Now that Alter had his attention, the prana subsided.

Shirou stifled the urge to swallow the sudden lump in his throat. He was well aware of how much raw prana Alter had just tossed around like nothing to achieve such an effect.

"Who are you boy, to capture this one's interest?" Alter asked with her chin raised arrogantly at Shirou. "I had hardly believed her capable of enjoying herself, much less initiating a kiss with a man."

"As I was saying," Shirou said cautiously, cutting off Artoria's indignant response by squeezing her wrist, "It's a long story."

Alter looked to Artoria, seemingly unimpressed. "Brevity is a quality I had thought you would appreciate in your partners."

"It'd be a long story anyway," muttered Shirou.

"It is not any of your business who my l-lover is," said Artoria, stumbling a moment on the unfamiliar word.

Alter arched an imperial brow. "On the contrary. You are not blind to the way our cohorts compare and contrast between us three Artorias. Anything meeting Lily's tastes is naturally assumed to be yours and mine. I have no wish to be tied together in any way with a man whose weakness sickens me."

Artoria's eyes narrowed. "Does knowing that you have the capacity to love shake you so?"

"What have I heard now?" Alter said softly. "Certainly not such plain nonsense. You and I cannot be further apart. I could never show such vulnerability."

But through that composure, a muscle in her jaw twitched.

Artoria gave her other self a small but knowing smile.

"Boy!" Alter snapped at Shirou. "Are you at least as strong as your other self here?" She gestured to EMIYA who had his eyes closed in deep thought.

He opened an eye to regard Shirou with seemingly lazy consideration. Shirou knew better.

"We won't know for sure until he gets to the training room and does the evaluation," said EMIYA calmly, before Shirou could say anything. "But how old were you when you died, Shirou?"

Shirou had a moment of confusion before he realized he had not explained his circumstances adequately. "I haven't died yet," he said. "I'm a Demi-Servant. Sengo Muramasa gave me his powers from a lack of interest on his part to participate in a Holy Grail War."

"Not bad...but that means then, that you can't astralize?" EMIYA asked, putting a hand to his chin in thought.

Shirou paused a moment, taken aback by EMIYA's insight, before nodding. "That's true. I can't feel the ability to do so."

"And a Pseudo-Servant like Lord Ell-Melloi the Second," continued EMIYA. "You still retain most of your personality then, as he did, but it was obviously more pronounced in your case as it seems you can remember your entire lifetime, as opposed to snippets of more memorable years."

"This has nothing to do whether he can face you in a fight or not," Alter grumbled, crossing her arms.

"You know that information is key in any fight, Alter," EMIYA said distractedly, making her scowl at nothing in particular. To Shirou he said, "And I suspect you've already fought me before in your version of the Fifth Holy Grail War? Other, ise you wouldn't be looking at me with your guard up like that."

Shirou nodded, thinking privately to himself that there were too many unnaturally perceptive people in Chaldea. Then again, all Servants could be said to be like that.

"He was not a Servant when you two fought," said Alter looking more interested now.

"Well if I know myself, then I wasn't trying very hard to kill him," scoffed EMIYA.

Alter narrowed her eyes at EMIYA. "Why do such a disservice to an enemy?"

"Well in the first place, a confrontation with yourself?" EMIYA asked rhetorically. "There's nothing decent about that. It'd be an act born of desperation bordering on insanity."

Shirou looked away.

EMIYA paused. "You're joking."

Shirou shrugged halfheartedly. "It was a different timeline."

The Counter Guardian looked bitter. "Damn. How pitiful." He glanced towards Alter, who was looking unimpressed. "Did you deal with Gilgamesh?" He asked.

Alter uncrossed her arms at that. I'm not sure it's a good idea to encourage her, Shirou thought, narrowing his eyes at EMIYA. Who gave him a smug, knowing grin in return. Damn him.

"Stalled him until Saber arrived," said Shirou shortly.

He felt a tug on his wrist and looked down into the eyes of a pouting Artoria.

"You do not need to call me that here," she said. "Have you forgotten my name already, Shirou?"

His eyes widened but he said, "Right, sorry, I have done that haven't I. Sorry...Artoria."

She hugged him then, resting a soft cheek on his chest. "That sounds better," she murmured, undoubtedly able to hear his heart racing at the gesture.

Alter groaned, and stood up. "I cannot take any more of this," she said, striding past the two lovers towards the exit. "I will watch your evaluation with interest, Shirou Emiya," She called back without looking.

EMIYA shrugged at the two as they separated. "I still need to do some prep work in the kitchen. Artoria can show you around Chaldea since she's been here since the end of Fuyuki. I suppose Gudao or Gabby will call you down to the training room for your evaluation."

"Any idea what I can expect?" Asked Shirou.

EMIYA smirked. "Nervous?"

"You should be," said Shirou blandly.

"Hah!" EMIYA headed towards the kitchen, waving with the back of his hand. He would have looked suave, if not for the apron he was wearing. "Play nice, you two."

Shirou and Artoria both blushed as the Archer's back disappeared behind the kitchen doors.

They looked at each other, each taking note of how the dress she was wearing highlighted her curves and how the lack of any dress on Shirou's upper body highlighted his well-toned body.

Shirou coughed and shifted his cloak to cover most of his chest, as Artoria quietly straightened out some of the wrinkles on her skirt.

Artoria looked up and managed some semblance of composure. "Shall we?"

It was the way she said it.

He knew intellectually that she meant to begin the tour now.

Still.

He could not help but hear in those two words...an invitation.

He stuttered and said reflexively, "H-Here?"

Artoria's eyes widened and she gaped and her blush crept down to her neck. "No!" She yelled shrilly. "I meant-" She cut herself off.

They looked at each other.

And they burst out laughing.

As their mirth died down, they smiled gently at one another.

"I think we shall have plenty of time for that after I respect our Master's request to show you Chaldea," said Artoria.

"I've waited for decades," said Shirou with a grin. "I can wait for that long I suppose."

She looked at him strangely as they walked out of the cafeteria. "Decades?" She asked. "But you look barely over twenty-five."

"That's a long story..." Shirou mused.

As he spoke to her about his experiences after the Grail War, they walked through Chaldea's halls. Occasionally, he paused so that Artoria could point out any relevant doors or so that he could speak to any of the few Chaldean personnel that were walking through the halls.

His conversations with those men and women were not long. They were all tired and on their way to do their respective jobs, so the most he got from them was a polite hello and a firm request to get out of their way. He obliged them, but made sure they knew they could ask him for help if they needed it, which earned him a few strange looks but no denials.

He met a familiar face as well.

"And this is the recreation room," said Artoria, gesturing towards a pair of glass doors, looking incongruous with the sleek white panel walls they were set into. "It has several different activities available, from the most current games of the video to rooms where one may play sports against simulated opponents or other players."

At that moment the doors parted and a man of English descent and long black hair strode out, wearing a black suit and red tie. An unlit cigarette was held between his lips and light glinted off his rectangular glasses.

"Lord El Melloi II?" Shirou asked, surprised.

"The Sec-" the older Waver Velvet paused as the words registered fully in his mind. "Correct," he said, his curt expression loosening ever so slightly. "I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage?"

"My name is Shirou Emiya," Shirou said, understanding from the lack of recognition that the man was from a different timeline.

"Never heard of your legend," the man said, though not unkindly. "Which likely means you're a Pseudo-Servant like me."

"Yes sir."

Shirou got a raised eyebrow from that. "I don't mind the respect but I don't think I've done so much for you to deserve that." He seemed to notice they were not alone. "Ah, Artoria. I believed it was Hans' turn to show the newer Servants around?"

"I relieved him of his duty in this instance," said Artoria, smiling at Shirou and taking his hand in hers.

Both eyebrows went up at that as Lord El Melloi II looked at Shirou with surprise. "I see," he murmured. "Well, if I may ask, how do you know me?"

"I was a student of yours in another life," said Shirou.

Lord El Melloi II nodded. "I do not remember much about my time as Lord El Melloi II but I do remember having many students while at the Clock Tower." He shrugged. "I hope you weren't as annoying as all the other ones I distinctly remember." the man then muttered something under his breath that sounded something like 'rat scardos'.

Shirou himself thought back to all the times Lord El Melloi II had to cover for his research into his Reality Marble, and decided to say nothing.

"So," Lord El Melloi II said, looking over Shirou with a discerning eye. "A Saber, eh?"

"And Caster," added Shirou. "Sengo Muramasa's powers for Saber and Caster from my own power."

"A Dual-class Servant? Hm. Formidable. Another form of EMIYA? You've taken a different path to your magecraft from him then?"

"That's an accurate assessment," said Shirou, at this point resigned to the fact that every Servant he was going to meet had extraordinary powers of observation.

The man shrugged. "I suppose I'll simply watch your evaluation when it comes then. Or a recording of it anyways." He nodded, starting to walk away. "Until later, Shirou Emiya, Artoria."

"Until later, sir."

Artoria looked at Shirou as Lord El Melloi II's back turned the corner. "I had not known you held Zhuge Liang's vessel in such high regard."

"My acquaintanceship with him came after the war," said Shirou. "He was a good man, if a bit prickly sometimes." He shrugged. "It seems becoming a Demi-Servant did not change him all that much."

"Much like yourself then," she pointed out.

"I'm not so sure about that," said Shirou with a frown. "He himself and EMIYA both said his memories were incomplete, whereas I can remember everything clearly enough."

"And I am eternally grateful for that," said Artoria with a warm smile, which Shirou returned, setting aside his thoughts on his former mentor for the present.

They walked around Chaldea with nothing else of note happening, until finally, Artoria showed him the section where the Servants resided in. Shirou thought he recognized the hallway but was still unsure given how uniform they were throughout the mountain complex.

"Why are there numbers along each room?" Shirou asked curiously.

"It has to do with the order we were summoned in," explained Artoria. "Rather than indicate any sort of hierarchy, it is a way for our Masters to call on other Servants when necessary."

"During Singularities?" Shirou asked.

Artoria nodded. "Especially then," she said. "Sometimes our Masters must change their stratagems as quickly as possible."

"Makes sense," said Shirou approvingly.

Artoria stopped at a room marked with an intricate number seven. And said nothing for several seconds.

"Artoria?" Shirou asked, recognizing the number. "Isn't this Hans' room?"

Her face was turned away from his, but Shirou could feel her hesitancy from her body language alone.

"I have misled you," said Artoria finally. "The corridor wing opposite this one is where male Servants reside."

She waved her hand in front of a door sensor, still not looking at Shirou, and walked quickly inside.

Shirou, not quite knowing what else to do, followed her.

The lights came on automatically, and a spartan room greeted Shirou, with only a well-made bed in the corner and a blue and golden carpet covering most of the floor. On the bed next to a plain white pillow was a small well-worn doll of a lion.

But what Shirou noticed most was Artoria's scent in the air.

She sat upon her bed with a conspicuously loud thump. "Some Servants request larger rooms," she said, looking straight into his eyes, her cheeks lightly flushed. "If they feel the need."

She patted the empty space next to her on the bed.

Shirou was aware of walking over and sitting down next to her.

For a long moment, the couple looked into each other's eyes.

Shirou reached out a hand and cupped her cheek in it. She laid her own hand on of it, and leaned into it with a content smile.

He leaned in with his eyes closed-

"Shirou?" Gabby's voice asked suddenly in his mind.

He froze in place, feeling Artoria's breath on his lips, suddenly trying very hard not to think murderous thoughts of his contracted Master.

"Are you there, Shirou?" the guileless and innocent voice came again.

He let out a shuddering breath and pulled back from Artoria, who was looking at him with confusion.

"It's Gabby," he said through gritted teeth. "How do I talk to her?"

A muscle under her right eye twitched, but befitting a king's composure she said simply, "Simply focus on your bond and transmit your thoughts through it."

Shirou closed his eyes and did as she said. "Yes, Master?" He thought.

"Oh, it does work! Well, anyways, we've got an evaluation set up for you in the training room now, if you can come over we can get started now!"

"Thank you, Master," Shirou thought without an ounce of gratitude.

"Anytime!"

Shirou opened his eyes and saw Artoria looking at him with a question in her eyes.

"My battle evaluation's been prepared already," said Shirou sourly.

She sighed, tucking back a loose strand of light blonde hair and standing up. "We shall have time for this later I suppose," she said resignedly. "Come then, I shall lead you to the training room."

Shirou gave a quiet little groan of frustration, and followed her out of the door.

"You look a little grumpy. Broken Phantasms?"

Shirou stood in the middle of the training room, large enough so that could have easily fit a football field in it, staring at his target a hundred meters or so away from him. Behind him, a large window was set in place for observers, or in case the training room was ever full, for Servants to wait. He could not tell just how many Servants were watching him behind that window. There were too many Servant signatures, not to mention any Assassins that might have the Presence Concealment skill.

Beside him, Gudao and his ever-present aide Mashu were directly supervising his displays of power, testing the limits and control of his abilities. It was dull work and felt too much like showing off for his taste, but he could have borne with it much more easily if not for the interruption of something a long time coming by Gabby.

He grunted in response to both Gudao's question and statement.

"Trace, on," he muttered darkly.

Above him, dozens of swords appeared in flashes of blue light.

With a violent swing of his left arm, they rocketed across the grey panel floor and skewered the human-shaped dummy.

With a snap of his fingers, the swords all exploded with the force of a B-rank Noble Phantasm.

When the smoke cleared, the scraps of the dummy were still floating down.

"Uh," said Gudao. "Right. Whatever it was that Gabby did, I'm sorry."

"What do you mean, you're sorry?!" Gabby's voice blared over a loudspeaker. "I barely did anything!"

The male Master sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Moving on...Now that we've seen most of your ranged capabilities, I guess we'd better see what your Noble Phantasm does. It's a Reality Marble like EMIYA's, right?"

Shirou nodded, frowning, but now for a different reason. "Doesn't his take too long to conjure during combat?"

"He can cut down on the incantation time," hedged Gudao. "And it has its uses."

Shirou inclined his head in acceptance. He raised his left arm, palm out.

"My body is made of swords," he intoned.

Under his boots, lines of magic circuits laid themselves onto the floor, setting the boundaries of his Reality Marble.

"My blood is of iron and my heart of glass."

His prana surged through his magic circuits, his cloak flapping in the gusts of wind he was creating.

"I have overcome countless battlefields."

Shirou felt something on the edge of his soul, the faintest ghost of foreboding.

He pushed it aside. He could not allow doubt now.

"Not even once retreating."

Something cracked.

Shirou froze.

He knew the words that came next in his aria.

Not even once compromising.

But he could not say them.

Slowly the flow of prana subsided. The magic circuits on the floor shimmered out of existence.

"Shirou?" Gudao finally asked into the silence. "What's wrong?"

Shirou turned to look at Gudao, looking utterly lost. "I can't use my Reality Marble," he said, his thoughts racing. Problems with the Tracing process? No, my circuits would feel it way before I was unable to get past the first verse.

"What?!" Gabby yelled over the loudspeaker.

"What?" Gudao asked, his eyebrows knit together.

"My soul," Shirou mused, staring down at his hands. "Now that I really come to grips with it, I can tell it's different. I can still use my Reality Marble in Tracing swords and Noble Phantasms alike. But I can't actualize it. I'm missing, no, overlooking something crucial."

Gudao put a hand to his chin. "Could it have something to do with your status as a Demi-Servant?" He asked.

"It's likely," Shirou said after a moment. "Muramasa said my soul was unique, but that doesn't mean it isn't able to be affected by his powers in a way he hadn't thought of."

"Can you remember the name of his Noble Phantasm?" Gudao asked thoughtfully.

He could only shake his head. "I expected to know it upon being summoned, but it doesn't look like the technique survived the transfer."

Gudao sighed. Surprisingly it was not from disappointment like Shirou had expected, but resignation. "It's alright, Shirou," Gudao said, running a hand through his hair. "We can still work around this."

"How so?" Shirou asked.

"Well, your situation isn't entirely unexpected given the power of hindsight. The circumstances of how Mashu became a Demi-Servant were similar to yours as well." Gudao nodded to the Shielder standing by. "She also had problems adapting to her new powers, including having to unlock her Noble Phantasm herself. ."

Shirou acquiesced in the face of prior experience. "I suppose that's a good explanation. How did she unlock her Noble Phantasm?"

Gudao smiled humorlessly. "She was pushed to her limits by a battle-crazy Caster we encountered in Fuyuki."

Battle-crazy Caster? "I doubt I'll have that opportunity though," said Shirou dubiously.

The male Master shrugged.

"We'll figure something out," Gabby said optimistically from the observation room. "We've got 60 legendary heroes of ages past all here in one place! One of them is bound to have at least one good idea. Heck, Hans and Zhuge Liang basically know everything already."

Words came unbidden to the forefront of his mind.

By the way, it does not matter how many burdens one carries, so long as one can go as far as they can with them.

Shirou felt something tug on the surface of his soul, whispering to be heard.

"Give me a minute, Master," whispered Shirou, easing himself down to the floor to sit cross-legged.

Without waiting for a response, he closed his eyes and shut himself off from the rest of the world.

He focused projecting something inside his mind, using the original eight steps of Tracing he had devised so long ago. It was not a sword he was creating, but the only Noble Phantasm he was capable of Tracing without it suffering a degradation in rank.

The sheath that had saved his life so long ago.

Judging the concept of creation.

Hypothesizing the basic structure.

Duplicating the composition material.

Imitating the skill of its making.

Sympathizing with the experience of its growth.

Reproducing the accumulated years.

Excelling every manufacturing process.

Binding the illusion into reality.

There, in the blank landscape of his mind, appeared Avalon as a concept, the purest form it could take as a conceptual artefact.

It helped bridge the gap between what his mind knew as real and the ineffable creation that was his soul.

Shirou opened his eyes and found himself once more in his forest of blades.

But there was a man standing before him, his hair as dark and crimson as the blood dripping off the blade of the katana he held over his shoulder in one hand.

He looked up at Shirou from his inspection of the fingernails of his off-hand and smiled cheerfully at Shirou.

"Took ya long enough," Sengo Muramasa drawled in rustic Japanese. "Was wonderin' when ah'd get a chance to kill ya."

A/N:

I love cliffhangers, don't you guys?

It's a longer chapter. Couldn't really decide on a suitable ending point.

I love that I can B.S my way through a story with only a semblance of understanding original Nasuverse rules. Fanfic writers like me are just the greatest, aren't they? Rhetorical question really, I'm the scum of the earth.

Further chapters are going to be a little longer in coming, I'm afraid, just like how this one missed the one-week period I had originally aimed for. School will do that for a student.

I think I'm spending too much time in Chaldea. Septem was supposed to come in the next chapter, but barring an extremely out of place time skip, that seems unlikely. Oh, and I'm rewriting the events of Septem, considering that chapter had not the greatest story and far too much UMU-wanking for my taste. Don't get me wrong, I like UMU as much as the next praetor, but Septem was just weird as a narrative.

I'm afraid that I'm making the relationship between Artoria and Shirou too fluffy. Meh. Fun things are fun.

Waver is in his second ascension form because it looks sharp. Hans was in his fourth ascension because that's amazing art too. Artoria is in her FSN casual dress because she's been in Chaldea long enough to get comfortable. Alter is in her third stage ascension dress. EMIYA is in his third ascension stage, without his jacket and...an apron. Because why not.

I always thought the EMIYA that we summon to Chaldea was a version that ultimately came to terms with his ideals betraying him, which is why he's super chill.

Caster Cu hasn't been summoned to this Chaldea yet. That reason being that I forgot he existed in the first chapter when Hans was talking about doppelgangers.

Musashi's summoning banner can't come soon enough.

Next time we see the story of a man misunderstood by history, who was betrayed by the one thing he held dear.