Chapter 1: Rebirth
Shirou woke up in a plane of darkness. He looked around, but only saw the eternal void no matter where he turned.
"Rin?" He called out. The last thing he remembered was standing around a birthday cake with his closest friends.
That's right. We were celebrating my 31st birthday, Shirou thought. 2018 was a rough year for both Shirou and his wife, Rin, but they pulled through and were celebrating that fact. But something else flashed in Shirou's mind. Fire. He remembered that for a split second, fire consumed everything. Then… nothing.
"Creature of Steel," Shirou heard a voice. It was deep and commanding and the sheer volume shook the magus to his core.
"Who are you?!" Shirou shouted.
"Who I am does not matter. But what does matter is that you have been chosen," The booming voice replied.
"Chosen?" Shirou asked. "Chosen for what?"
"Good luck, Creature of Steel," The voice ignored his question. "We wish you well in your new life."
"Wait!" Shirou shouted as light started to fill Shirou's vision. Before long, his world went completely white.
"Oh, he's beautiful!" The delighted voice of a woman caused Shirou to stir. He opened his eyes to see a woman looking down at him with the biggest smile he had seen in a long time. Her hair was a deep burgundy and she had glowing brown eyes.
"I bet he's going to grow up big and strong someday," Shirou craned his neck to see a man standing at the foot of the bed. He was muscular, with broad shoulders and defined muscles, but he wasn't exactly huge. He wasn't lean by any means, but he was definitely bigger than an average man. He had brown, unkempt hair and green eyes.
"What should we name him?" The woman asked.
Wait… name? Shirou tried to look at himself. He could barely move his head, but what he saw shocked him. It was the body of a baby. Instantly, the dam broke. Shirou started to cry.
"Aw, how cute," The woman cradled him gently. The amount of unspoken love in the woman's eyes was enough to bring Shirou pause. "But my, you're so pale!"
"Maybe we should name him… Shiro," The man said, putting a finger on his chin.
"That's a wonderful idea," The woman looked back down at Shirou. "Welcome to the world, little Shiro."
It had barely been a month since Shirou was born when he decided to do something very risky. He was alone in his cribs as his parents went to bed roughly an hour or two ago.
They're nice people, Shirou thought to himself as he turned to look at the small room he had from the confines of his crib.
Akane, his mother, was a surprisingly strong woman. Despite acting motherly around Shirou, he sometimes caught her with a stern look that reminded him of Saber. One time, a soldier showed up at their door and Akane reprimanded him not unlike a drill sergeant reprimanding a young private.
Kenji, on the other hand, was an easygoing, cheerful guy. He would always greet Shirou and Akane with a warm smile. He also seemed to brute force his way through problems in his daily life. Shirou had originally thought he was a musclebrain, but one night when Shirou was supposed to be asleep, he heard his parents in the other room discussing politics. It was then Shirou learned that Kenji was a sharp and intelligent man.
The two made a great couple, and they both treated Shirou with all the love and affection a baby could need.
Which was why Shirou was so uneasy to do what he was about to do.
I know I promised Rin I wouldn't do this anymore but… Shirou thought to himself. He closed his eyes and braced himself. He felt a hot rod press on his developing spine as he pumped prana through one of his nerves. The infant screamed as the pain continued.
Trace… on…! Shirou thought, pumping the prana through his body, forcibly opening his circuits. He instantly stopped pumping prana into his nerve, but the pain still remained. Shirou forced his mouth shut and analyzed his body.
50 magic circuits… all good quality. Rin would throw a fit, Shirou barely forced a smile. He was caked in sweat and he still wanted to scream out, but he forced himself to stay quiet.
"Shiro?!" The baby didn't have enough energy to turn, but he heard two sets of footsteps before feeling himself being gingerly picked up by his mother.
"It's okay," the woman cradled Shirou. "Mama's here."
Something about those words caused an ache in Shirou's heart. He stopped resisting and cried in his mother's arms.
The first two months of Shirou's new life were… interesting to say the least. Thankfully, his name didn't change too much, having only one letter removed from his name when writing in romaji. His new parents spoke two languages. Whenever they were alone, they spoke a dialect of Japanese but when other people showed up, they spoke a language that Shirou couldn't discern. He saw that they wrote with western characters, so he realized that his parents probably moved here from someplace else.
It didn't take long for Shirou to realize his situation, either. Sometimes, his mother and father would take turns taking care of him while the other went to practice sword fighting. The only thing was, they seemed to be casting spells as they did.
"See Shiro?" Akane pointed at Kenji as he swung his sword and an arc of fire was sent flying at a training dummy, burning it to ash. "Isn't your father's Sword Arts amazing?"
Shirou could only make a sound of approval as he forced a smile. When he analyzed the swords, he was forced to come to terms with the reality that he was in another world.
He still didn't have a grasp on this world's magecraft, but it seemed to be focused around swords. The swords that were used by his parents were sitting comfortably in his reality marble as Shirou had analyzed them as soon as he could.
The info he obtained from the swords, however, was more valuable than the swords themselves, despite them being powerful in their own right. Apparently the sword is summoned during a ritual when a child turns eight. The sword makes a link with the user's soul and grows in power as the user grows in battle.
Sword Arts, or the magecraft they utilize are abilities the sword can use, utilizing the link the sword has with the user as a makeshift magic circuit to cast spells. The abilities themselves are stored within the sword, however. Shirou didn't know if someone could use the Sword Arts of a sword that doesn't belong to them, but it seemed feasible.
What concerned Shirou, however, was that by using od by making a circuit that directly connects to the soul rather than one of the existing magic circuits, overusing Sword Arts could have much a much more severe backlash if a user isn't terrible.
"Did he see it?" Shirou was snapped from his stupor by his father's voice. Kenji was holding his sword, a longsword with a wide blade over his shoulder with a stupid grin on his face.
"He really seemed to like it, dear," Akane then looked down at Shirou with a smile. "Isn't that right, Shirou?"
"Aah!" Shirou smiled and played along.
"See honey? He loves it," Akane said.
"That's my boy," Kenji bounced over and gently placed a large hand on his head.
Shirou had to admit, it was strange having parents that doted on him like this. While he still loved Kiritsugu, he wasn't exactly the most present, and Taiga… half the time he was taking care of her. He didn't mind, of course, but for the roles to be reversed like this… it was weird. Thinking about his old family caused him to tear up.
Crap, Shirou thought to himself. Being this young really messed with his emotional stability. Even thinking about sad thoughts would cause the infant to start bawling.
"Oh? Are you hungry?" Akane smiled down at Shirou. "Then I guess it's lunchtime!"
Shirou paled as he remembered why he hated being in this body so much. He then started to cry louder.
"Say ahh," Akane said as Shirou saw his impending doom approach.
That's hell you're walking into, Shirou could hear Archer's voice ring in my head.
Damn it, Shirou acquiesced as he closed his mouth and started to feed. Damn his E-rank luck.
It had been a year and a half since Shirou was born. He was able to walk and speak now. Well, that would be a bit of an exaggeration. Shirou has to reinforce his legs to walk more than a dozen steps and his speaking still sounded like babbling.
"Shiro, it's time for bed!" Akane called over.
"But mom!" Shirou shouted. It wasn't hard to act like a baby. He just had to act like Taiga.
"None of that Shiro," Akane walked over from the other room and picked the little boy up. "I'll tell you a bedtime story, okay?"
"Yay!" Shirou threw his arms up. Akane's bedtime stories were really the only way Shirou could learn about the history and mythology of the world he was in. She was still piecing the language together from what he knew from learning English and German, so he couldn't just read up on it.
"Let's get you to bed. I have something very special planned for you," Akane said as she entered Shirou's room and tucked him in. She then left the room and came back with a small book. Shirou couldn't read the cover, but there was a sword stabbed into the ground atop a hill on the cover.
"This is the story of Queen Artoria Pendragon, the greatest knight in history," Akane smiled as she opened the book. Shirou felt the blood drain from his face.
Saber… It took all of his willpower to force back the tears. He still wasn't good at regulating his emotions and mentioning his first love always dampened his mood. Another thought then crossed his head. She didn't have to hide her gender?
"This is my favorite bedtime story, actually," Akane looked at the pages fondly. "I remember when I was a child. I wanted to be just like her."
Shirou couldn't help but smile at that. He still strives to be more like Artoria every day.
"Well, let's get started," Akane turned the page and started to read.
Shirou took a deep breath as Akane left the room. That particular bedtime story had the exact opposite effect of what Akane had intended it for. Shirou couldn't sleep throughout the entire story, and he doubted he could sleep at all that night.
The story was quite different from the one in his original world. Caliburn never existed, due to Artoria summoning Excalibur in the summoning ritual. Instead of being a prophesied king, she had to fight her way into royalty. Merlin, instead of being a wizard, was a knight whose sword focused on ranged magic instead of physical swordfighting. That, however, didn't affect his status as a wise sage.
One of the more concerning details of the story were the monsters. Instead of fighting the Saxons, Artoria fought a horde of monsters led by a demon king. Artoria's final battle was against her daughter Mordred. The demon king had taken advantage of Mordred's jealousy and used it to possess her. The two ended up killing each other in the final battle, Artoria making the ultimate sacrifice for her kingdom.
Shirou didn't know how much of it was true. Even though it was a bedtime story told by his mother, he had to take into account the possibility that most, if not all myths were real at one point, just like Shirou's original world.
I wonder if she's still waiting for me, Shirou thought. He shook his head. He was in another world, but that didn't matter. Whatever world he was in, whether she was waiting for him or not, he would find her.
Welcome to my self-indulgent Shirou isekai fic! A few things before we continue. Although Shirou still identifies as Emiya Shirou, his parents see him as Shiro, their son, which is why I changed the spelling up. During the fifth grail war, Shirou falls in love with both Saber and Rin, but when Saber leaves, he gets together with Rin, despite still loving Saber. This is also UBW Shirou. Another thing, since both men and women can summon swords, they were treated equally as knights, which is why Artoria and Mordred didn't have to hide their genders.
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