Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Please don't sue me…
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…..When he was alive, he doesn't remember smiling like that….
The only time he remembered something similar is when he was being executed…
…..Maybe it felt like this…
He looks at his Master and his younger self, he felt a sense of relief..
I felt at peace, that maybe the same mistakes will not be made again…
He felt hope in the idea that not all of him will be cursed like him..
To find meaning in his own existence….
He couldn't help but laugh at the irony at what had to transpire for him to realize…
"I am such a fool."
He couldn't help but think that, yet he could feel something akin to joy.
His body slowly disintegrating to particles he tried to keep every feeling he could as long as he can.
As a Counter Guardian Heroic Spirit he is merely a copy of the original who is outside time and space.
Every copy is sent through the ages by Alaya. Once their job is done they vanish and all they experience is sent back to the original as memories.
Like waking up in a dream….
It was also why his original broke, as he saw countless upon countless of deaths. The destruction Alaya made him bring, and also seeing countless ages of humanity's evil. Yet…
He hopes what he sees in this timeline, in this experience, will help the original realize, that it isn't everything….
He looks at his master and his old self bicker like a couple, he couldn't help but to smile. Rejecting his master's offer to stay. His time here was done.
He tried to feel everything and remember as hard as he could. So even as a memory….he can fulfill his promise..
"I'll do my best Tohsaka!"
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Part 1
Darkness is all I can see….
Which makes sense as he is keeping his eyes closed currently. Laying down in his Reality Marble; a world of ash and weapons, he doesn't really have much of a view. As he is removed from time and space he practically spent an eternity already touring his endless world, which in practice completely unnecessary, as it his mental landscape, he doesn't need to tour his world as the world is all in his very being.
An eternal view of war and ash, clouded and devoid of hope, with an eternal sunless dusk with a clouded sky with gears the size of mountains, as if to represent his very being comparable to a machine.
So as he waits for the next job from Alaya, he simply lays there. Eyes closed. Remembering….
Dreaming….
Trying to recall that memory… that smile...that promise….
The feeling my other self wanted me to experience. The promise to her…
"Ahh there it is…"
His consciousness locked on to that emotion, and dreamt.
Or the closest thing to it.
He simply dreamed in that eternal landscape, his own personal hell, yet even in such a hopeless world, he found solace in a simple memory.
In a world outside of time, he chose to dream and see that memory eternally..
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Part 2
When I woke up I felt like I was being crushed.
Pressure all around me, I couldn't move my body. I open my eyes yet I see nothing but darkness.
"This is a first."
While living an eternal life of combat and death, there were many times where his copies died horrible deaths. Some of my opponents even succeeded trapping and torturing me, all experiences from being a Counter Guardian. So the constant pain the pressure around me is not really anything to cry about.
Yet being this helpless was truly a first.
I couldn't do a single thing. While that isn't rare, me being unable to use magecraft is a first. His magecraft is tied to his very being, as a man who created a Reality Marble. Even my Structural Grasping, after an eternity of being a Counter Guardian, became practically instinctive. I would grasp entire areas around me without even a command, using almost no mana. Although I was a third rate mage, with only a few spells I can use due to my dual element and origin. But due to that, normal means of blocking my magic was next to none.
I myself am the very core of my magecraft.
But now he cannot feel anything. Only the pressure around him and a sense of mana. It was different from how I normally sensed it through smell. Like it was being fed directly to me.
This was different from when Alaya usually sends me for a job. Every heroic spirit of his gets manifested with the knowledge of what and why they were there. Only exceptions were when I am summoned to a Grail War.
"Maybe the world ended?"
I couldn't help but think that. Maybe this is the void of nothingness after the world ended and Alaya the Will of Humanity destroyed with everyone. Although that would contradict the memories he experienced as a Heroic Spirit with Chaldea.
"I guess nothing to do but wait."
Set on a decision, there really wasn't much I could do. Strangely he doesn't really feel uncomfortable anyways.
"Not feeling the contract of Alaya is also a plus, so whatever strange situation I am in, can't be too bad."
It really was weird, but unlike his usual self he can't help but enjoying his own helplessness.
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Part 3
After a long duration of time..
I woke up to a crushing pressure. This was different from the pressure constant around his body. It felt like someone was trying to turn him to spaghetti. With probably the strongest headache I have ever experienced.
Honestly was someone trying to tear his head off?
The pain kept on going until finally it ended. The pressure around him completely gone.
"Lets see what the hell is goin on."
While I thought that I open my eyes and I was blinded.
Filling my vision I had to narrow my eyes in discomfort. Slowly adjusting my eyes, I found a brown haired man gazing at me.
He was gigantic, using my eyes to judge, at least ten times my size, with an impressive physique. Looking at the gigantic hands that seemed to hold me with no effort as he lifted me in the air.
(What the hell are your doing?!Who are you?) "Ah, Ah, aahhh-"
I tried to say but some weird gurgle noises came out. Are my lips and tongue still not functioning properly? Trying to turn his head, the weight of it seemed to move my body back with it, with the giant having to hold my head steady like an infant.
Huh? Huuuuuhhhhh?! That can't be….
Moving his eyes to look around he saw a beautiful brown haired woman breastfeeding a baby.
This can't be happening…
While I was having an existential crisis the man lifted me, a man whose fought divine spirits above his head while making baby faces at me in a language I cannot comprehend. The man slowly moved his body toward his face making from what he can understand were kissy faces.
"FUCK!"
As if to give a reaction to his honest thought. He started to cry loudly.
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A month passed by. After some thought, it looks like I was reincarnated. Taking out every possibility with Alaya, this is the only conclusion I can think of.
After all I had become a baby.
I confirmed it when I looked at my hands, and toyed with 3 different adults, and then taken to a crib.
The man I first saw seemed to be my father, and the woman with baby my mother and twin brother.
Probably around their early twenties, about my age when I was executed.
I also noticed that we seemed to be in a place with no electricity. Everything around me seemed to be made of wood and light fixtures were strictly sunlight and lamps. Perhaps a poor family in the countryside?
Thinking about it not a bad second life. I was always self sufficient anyways, and although not having electricity is inconvenient, I am sure I can handle it. Though I did find it quite weird that we were poor enough not to have electricity, but found a woman working as what I could assume a maid. Judging for her attire of course.
It wouldn't be strange if it was a sister of one of my parents either.
Either way, I have a feeling I am going to enjoy this slow life.
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Half a year passed by…
Listening to the adults conversations during this time, I had started to understand things more thoroughly.
While he was no genius or scholar, he had to learn multiple languages when he was a mercenary, and even ancient languages when he had to crawl into a particular mages workshop. So I knew the tricks to learn a language quickly yet it seems his learning capability still surpasses that learning faster than I predicted. Maybe it was because he was still young?
By this time me and my twin brother became able to crawl.
Being able to finally move is great. There is only so much I can observe in that tiny room.
"Both kids will always disappear when you take your eyes off of them."
"Isn't it good both boys are active? I was so worried when Rudeus didn't cry, and Archer didn't even cry till I kissed him."
"He doesn't do that anymore when you do it though?"
My parents had discussion about me and my brother when we crawled everywhere. I was an adult so I simply made sure my curious brother didn't get into anything bad or get hurt, surprisingly while always moving, is quite smart to avoid anything dangerous. Not once with all that movement did my brother ever break anything, and once I saw him stop a falling vase after he accidentally grazed it.
I could only conclude my brother is a genius. Or at least quite smart for his age. So with nothing better to do, I simply crawled to wherever my brother seemed to be interested next, following him to see what he would do, making sure he doesn't get to anything that will hurt him.
Through all that observing I found out some interesting things.
First, my family is actually well off.
The house was 2 stories, and there were over 5 rooms. They had one hired maid.
The area was in a village. From what I could see from the windows, it was tranquil plain with farming plots. Other houses made out of stone and wood were throughout the countryside. Definitely rural. No electric poles, or light fixtures, and roads made out some stone and mostly paved dirt.
I truly didn't mind it, but for some reason his brother would seem to release a sigh of disappointment when he looks outside the window. I wasn't surprised. Even to a baby I guess you can still get tired of the same boring view.
Though that changed when we saw our father practice.
He was waving around a sword in the courtyard. Distance really too far to make details on his weapon.
I truly hated the fact that I cannot use magecraft. Although he can sense mana in himself and smell the mana around him he cannot use it. I couldn't sense nor feel my circuits. I can only feel the mana. He wanted to enhance his eyesight and grasp my fathers sword to see its history.
But I cannot so I could only try to squint and focus my eyes on my fathers technique. It truly shocked me. His technique was sublime, going from fast like lightning, to smooth like water, and even violent like an animal. His techniques doesn't seem to be in the same school yet seems to flow out of his body naturally, going from one motion to the next.
I was so captivated that I didn't see my brother next to me fall off the edge of the chair.
"Kyaa!"
I heard a scream and found that Rudeus on the ground clutching his head.
I spotted my mother dropping washed laundry as he ran over to him with a scared face.
"Rudi are you okay?!"
I berated myself for not paying enough attention, and simply watched my mother carry my brother to a table to inspect his head. Right choice as babies heads are quite fragile. Looking my brother in the eyes, breathing out looking relieved.
"You seem good I think?"
While saying that their mother seems to keep looking over Rudeus to see only some swelling in the back of his head. I tried to crawl over closer to see if there is anything else wrong with him when she put her hand on his head again.
"To be safe…...Let the power of God be converted into bountiful crop, and bestowed unto those who have lost the strength to stand once more, [Healing]"
(What the hell?!)
I couldn't keep my mouth closed as his mother's hands emitted a dim light and in an instant, the swelling on his brothers head shrank. Seems my twin brother was also surprised at the pain disappearing, and kept looking at their mother with an expression that I think would be similar to mine.
Thinking about it though I should've expected it. Mana was so dense all around him. I only knew as it seems my supernatural senses was carried over in this seeming reincarnation. I should've questioned the density in the first place but lacking his original magic circuits he gave up learning to use magecraft and just considered I was born in just a rural area with an unusual mana density.
To think my mother would be a mage, and her seemingly not caring that the maid Lilia was around when she did it, then it must be a pretty common sight. Her mother seems to be happy with what she did and said, "See, its okay now. After all, your mum was a renowned adventurer," in boastful manner.
I simply sat listening, watching my mother. Dissecting everything I saw, wondering how it was done, as I didn't see any magic circuits glowing on her arm, I can only assume the magecraft she uses was different from what I saw in my past life. As I kept on thinking on everything his father knocked loudly at the window behind me and opened it.
"Whats wrong?"
He seemed to hear our mother screaming from outside. His whole body sweating from his sword training. I couldn't help admire it, as he could give his past life's body muscles a run for its money.
"Listen to me, dear. Rudi and Archi both climbed on top of the table…..and nearly got injured."
"Well well, it's not good if boys aren't active."
His father to show his nonchalance patted my head from the window.
A worried mother, and a father who didn't treat it like a big deal and placated her.
A common family event that I never thought I would be a part of. Something I could have never imagined cursed as a Counter Guardian.
(It felt nice.)
I blame my young baby body, but he couldn't help but enjoy his fathers touch. So much so that I even closed my eyes just to focus on the sensation. It was short lived as fathers nonchalant answer seemed to anger mother.
"Just a moment, dear. This child isn't even a year old. Would you worry more!"
She was red with anger, but their father seemed to know what to do, immediately getting inside the house, and embracing her, she became even redder but for a different reason.
"I was worried when both boys didn't cry when they were born, but if both are so active, now I'm kinda relieved…."
Our dad kissed our mum.
In my past life he would enjoy watching people in their own world, happy and without worries, but maybe it is my past experiences after being a Counter Guardian. I couldn't help but gag when hearts seem to just appear out of nowhere and both ignoring everything around them.
(Get a room you two seriously!)
I couldn't help screaming in my head in cringe.
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Later on, I started paying more attention to what they talk about on a daily basis. Hearing a lot of words and places not in his memories of Earth. Countries, districts, magic and way of life etc.
Maybe this place is…..
No he was certain of it, after all he knew it was possible due to being acquainted with Zeltretch; Sorcerer of the Kaleidoscope.
This was a different parallel world. It was the only logical conclusion.
At this moment, he had a flash of inspiration.
…..maybe here I can achieve it.
To live normally, to work hard normally, and to have a life of my own. To finally live a life that I can call full, and not just for others.
I thought I was cursed to have a life full of regrets in eternity as a Guardian.
Even with all his strength and skill I had in the past accomplished truly nothing for myself.
Full of burning restlessness over my past self's powerlessness and ignorance, I decided I will do it.
-Not for others, but…...
-To live on seriously for myself!
Authors Note: If anyone read the original novel, you can notice it is very similar to style and layout. I want to follow the events of the first few chapters to be almost exactly the same as the novel to help with the world building as it did in the original. I've always wanted to write about what Archer's POV would think about a new world and new family. Like the original Rudeus both had a lot of regrets in their lives so it really makes sense to me.
As this is my first time writing, please go easy on me. Once I get past the Buena Village arc it will start to be really different as I will be mostly writing about Archer after the Teleportation incident.
Had to edit this. Don't know why the separators aren't showing after publishing.