Disclaimer: I own no characters or content in Fate or in Fairy Tail.

If there was one thing Shirou knew about himself, it was that he wanted to be a hero. That, and that he was an idiot.

His ally and good friend in the 5th Grail War, Rin Tohsaka, had said as much. She'd even gone to extreme lengths just to impress on him just how much of a klutz he was. If she'd been here, Shirou thought sadly, she'd definitely be laughing her head off at his utter stupidity-namely, that he'd chosen to follow a pink-haired guy with a talking cat onto Salamander's ship.

"Alright, Shinji-"

"The name's Shirou."

"Here's the plan. you go in and rescue Lucy, and I'll beat everyone up."

"That's it!?" Shirou gaped at Natsu's triumphant fist-punch.

"How do you know you can beat that guy, Natsu? He's the famous Salamander, and he's a member of the strongest guild, Fairy Tail!"

To his horror, it was not Natsu who answered, but his talking cat Happy. "Natsu is in Fairy Tail," he chirped happily and grabbed a bite from the fish in its hand. "That other guy isn't."

"I'm going to beat him up for using Fairy Tail's name like this," Natsu insisted. "I won't let that fake sully my guild's name." His fist burst into flame and he drew it back, ready to tear a hole in the ship's canopy. Shirou followed his example; in a split second, the imge of a cocking hammer drawn back and ready to fire materialized in his mind, and the blueprint of his chosen weapon flooded through his circuits.

"There's no way I'd let you do that to me," Lucy huffed. "I want to join Fairy Tail, but I'd never do anything like this!" She pointed an accusing finger. "You're using sleep magic on this ship. Just what do you think you're trying to do?"

Salamander drew his royal purple cloak closer and smirked. "I see you're not quite as gullible as I thought. Men!" At his command, several scruffy ruffians with swords in their arms rushed into the room. "You should've been a good girl, Lucy. You wouldn't have to get hurt then." Several more men marched past them with unconscious women in their arms, smirking at the cornered mage. "Welcome to my Slave Ship!"

"I'm not joining your slave harem, pervert!" Lucy cried. She brandished her keys, but Salamander was already there before her, and he grabbed the keys out of her hands.

"Celestial Keys, huh?" Salamander twirled the key around his finger. "They only work for people with whom the spirits have formed a contract, which means they're pretty useless to me." With a casual flick, the keys flew out of the room.

To any other person, the keys were mere tools, used to achieve a certain end of their choice.

But Lucy had grown up with each of her Celestial Spirits, and they meant something entirely different. To see her contracts, the marks of her hard-earned friendship, be so casually tossed aside... it was just too much for the young Celestial Wizard. "I hate you, Salamander!" she cried. "You're the worst kind of wizard! And to think that there's a whole guild of people like you... I don't want to join Fairy Tail anymore," she finally managed, tears in her eyes.

Salamander barely batted an eyelid. "Take her away." He waved a hand. The sailors advanced with hungry looks in their eyes-

WHAM!

-and all hell broke loose.

Just as Natsu prepared to break through, Shirou saw a glitter of light fly out of the window.

"Wait a minute," he ordered Natsu. He couldn't recall where he'd seen the strange shiny object before, but he had a feeling that whatever it was, it would be very important.

"I'm going to fetch that."

Trace, on!

The blueprints of all the swords he'd seen in the Gates of Babylon flashed through his mind. Even if he didn't have time to project all of them then, his Structural Grasp had practically went on overdrive, dutifully engraving the existence of each weapon in his heart. Thanks, Gilgamesh, he thought, as the sword most suitable to his use sprouted to mind.

The cocking hammer slammed down, and his circuits powered up. With a flash of light, a dark, light saber materialized in his hand, its edge glowing in bloodlust. If he threw it in just the right way...

"HRUNTING!"

The cruel weapon hurtled down and caught the key ring just as it entered the water. At his command, the weapon circled back into his hand, where it faithfully awaited its master's call. He looked at Natsu to judge his reaction… and found himself very, very horrified.

"Shirou has a boomerang!" Happy quipped with starry eyes. Natsu oogled at the weapon in his hand and gave him a pleading look. "That is so cool! Let me play with that later" he begged.

With a sigh, Shirou tossed the Noble Phantasm to the eager Dragon Slayer and examined the object in his hand. He gasped as he realized just what the objects were.

Celestial Keys.

6 Celestial Keys in his hand, three gold, three silver. Among the Silver keys, one had the mark of Canis Minor- the very same mark that Lucy fawned over several hours ago. Shirou knew just how important each key was to Lucy, and if they'd been thrown overboard...

...then Lucy was in danger.

Save her.

He had to act. NOW!

With a wordless war cry, Shirou projected his weapon and slammed it into the roof.

The boat shook violently as Caliburn- and Shirou- blasted through its ceiling and landed foot first on a purple-shirted goon. He looked around pensively; the room was littered with sleeping women, both young and middle-aged, and he was surrounded by wary pirates. Lucy sat helplessly behind him, her reddened eyes looking askance at his back. Before him stood a handsome man in a purple robe pinned with a fire emblem- likely the master of fire magic he'd heard so much about.

He had no doubt, now. Only one guy could have thrown those keys out- the guy who, even now, smirked at him with the arrogance of a certain Golden King.

"I believe these keys are yours, Lucy." Without taking his eye off the Magus, he tossed aside the ring of keys and turned to face the troublemaker. "I thought you would be a good man, Salamander," he seethed. "And yet, here you are, bullying a young girl with your magic powers."

He looked mournfully at all the unconscious women around him. His rage burned, simmering below his deceptively calm exterior, as he watched them get carried away against their will.

Then save them.

"You're done here, Salamander," Shirou said murderously.

"What I do is my business, boy." Salamander smiled in condescension. "Get him."

"You're dead meat, boy!" The goons grinned, a predatorial grin as they bore down on him with their swords raised, ready to divide the budding hero into a million pieces. Shirou stared them down and raised Caliburn, his eyes glued to the movement of each opponent.

"Trace, ON!"

The vigour of a young warrior king flooded through his limbs, even as the experience of Caliburn's previous wielder wrote themselves into his memory. The swords that closed on him slowed in his mind's eye until he could see each of their paths as they tried to cleave him apart, but the King of Knights would never fall to such a blow, and neither would he!

With a wordless cry, Shirou reinforced his limbs and slammed Caliburn into each sword as it passed.

"Woah!"

"H-How?"

"Impossible!"

The young boy should've been cleaved into pieces as each sword strike bit at him- there was just no way that a man could move so fast, so skillfully with a sword. And yet, the young boy swung away, his sword going back and forth between each thug's blade consistently and forcefully, turning each strike with two-handed swings almost too fast for belief!

I'll save these people, Shirou thought. His arms moved on their own, his sword parried every blow. I won't let these thugs get close!

Bora growled. "I've had enough of your interference, troublemaker. I'll just deal with you and leave." He swept his hand and a purple magic circle burst into existence before him, spewing column after weaving column of continuous flame.. "Prominence Whip!"

"As if I'll let you!" Shirou disengaged from his opponents with a powerful swing, only to be tossed back by a… solid ribbon of flame? The columns devastated the ground he stood on as he leapt away, brandishing his holy sword. Damn, to be beaten like this when he was so close to his goal...

But a hero would not give up, not even if he was outmatched, and neither would Shirou!

"Trace, On!"

Neon circuit patterns wrapped themselves over Shirou's shirt as he took it off and put it between him and Bora. He charged, the shirt upon his exposed shoulder tearing under column after hungry column of blunt fire- it wouldn't last forever even with his Reinforcement magic, certainly not under such strong fire. But to cover several metres between him and this fire mage…

"WHAT!?"

… it was enough!

Caliburn burst through the remains of Shirou's shirt. The man who called himself Salamander barely ducked in time, only to find himself one haircut short.

"That's enough!" he said hoarsely. "I'll show you what I'm really made of!" A second magic circle appeared before his chest, ready to blast Shirou into oblivion-

"HIGH PUNCH!"

-and disappeared as a fist wrapped in red-hot flames slammed into Salamander's chest.

"Salamander, huh?" Natsu demanded. "You say you're from Fairy Tail?" he glared down at the semi-conscious wizard.

"What's it to you-ooof!"

"Your days of fraud and slavery are done, monster." Shirou projected the blunt sword, Cortana, and slapped the fire mage across the face. The flame-haired tracer turned to Natsu and smiled. "I guess we make a pretty good team, huh."

"Yeah, totally!" Natsu grinned. "We caught him, and we didn't destroy anything important!"

His good mood was instantly ruined when Happy pointed out helpfully that he'd wrecked the boat.

"That was all Shirou's fault!"

The orange-haired teenager looked up at the duo sleeping before him and sighed.

It wasn't the Salamander business that had him on edge. Once the local enforcement officials had identified the Fire mage as Bora of Prominence and arrested the lot, they'd been handsomely rewarded for capturing the criminal. They'd even gotten a hefty bonus for not destroying the town while apprehending him, something that made the Saber incarnate raise an eyebrow as he accepted it from the grateful Hargeon governor. The captured girls had been safely returned to their families, and those who didn't wake up in time were safely under the custody of local law enforcement.

It was Shirou's first experience of saving people in this world. Thinking of it brought a smile to his scowling lips. Their happy, peaceful expressions as they left the police station for home warmed Shirou's heart, strengthened his resolve to defend them when the need so arose. He'd even discovered just how laughably easy it'd become to trace anything that wasn't a B-ranked Noble Phantasm. Thanks to the abundance of mana in the air around him; in this world, energy shortage would not be a problem.

No, Shirou thought, the problem was Saber-no, Lucy.

Moments after Lucy and Shirou had both expressed interest to join Fairy Tail, the Dragon Slayer had positively dragged them aboard a train bound for Magnolia Town- no small feat, considering that he'd left Lucy-and-Shirou-sized trenches across half the port-town's roads while doing so. It was only when the train had begun chugging toward Fairy Tail's hometown that he'd realized- he'd be around Lucy a lot more. In many ways, the sleeping Celestial Wizard wasn't exactly Saber; she was flirty, fussy, playful, vain. But whenever he laid eyes on her…

… the image of Saber in her white blouse and navy blue skirt, waiting for a partner who'd never return from his journey, leapt into his mind.

Shirou had resolved to meet her in Avalon, and he knew that she'd be there, waiting for him too. They were sword and scabbard, inseparable in their shared dream for a distant Utopia. But just the thought of leaving her alone in her anxiety and grief poured hydrochloric acid into Shirou's chest and wracked his mind with guilt. And now that he and not-Saber were going to join Fairy Tail…

… he'd be reminded, day and night, of the very painful way he left her behind.

"Shirou, are you okay?"

Ah, Happy. The teenager managed a grin. If there was one person he could talk to about this, he reckoned it'd be Happy.

The cat was perceptive, wasn't he?

"Not exactly, I guess," Shirou replied. "There's someone I love who's gone, and I didn't even get to say goodbye to her."

"Well…" the cat wondered aloud. "Natsu can't find his dad, either. We came all this way thinking that Salamander would be him, but…" he chewed dejectedly on his fish.

Shirou glanced thoughtfully at the pink-haired guy. There was something common between them, definitely. For one, Natsu had close to nothing between his ears when it came to social propriety; Shirou could literally imagine Rin going "I know it's impossible, but somehow you're even more stupid than he is!" on the pink-haired guy. Even so, they made an impossibly good team against Bora and his goons. It was as if Natsu had known exactly where Shirou would falter and stepped up flawlessly to cover his gaps. And if anybody could hold the same naive ideals as he did…

... Shirou was pretty sure that'd be that young firebreather.

Though, Shirou thought with Rin-worthy devilishness, he'd probably tease Natsu to death about his blunt stupidity.

"Magnolia Town!" the announcer declared.

"Wake up, Natsu." Shirou shook him gently.

"Gyahh!" The young man leapt to his feet with impressive vigour, only to turn green as he realized… he was still on a train!

"He's really bad with trains, isn't he?" Lucy wondered with a yawn. Shirou shrugged, looked away from the blonde and offered Natsu a shoulder. "Let's go, Natsu. It'd be terrible if you missed your stop like this."

"Natsu knows all about it!" Happy yelled jovially behind them.

"This is Fairy Tail's Guild Hall!" Happy announced proudly.

Shirou and Lucy gasped. He'd heard about Buckingham Palace and the Clock Tower from Rin's frequent letters. That wasn't to say that Fairy Tail actually competed with them; contrary to their exquisite glory, the Guild Hall before him looked far more stable and dependable- like a white bastion of justice upon a peaceful land.

Not that the city was anything to laugh at, but even Magnolia City's majestic presence couldn't quite compare with this guild hall… could it?

"I'm back!" Natsu announced with a kick to the guild door. As the mighty guild hall appeared, Shirou found himself looking at… a tavern?

A wood-furnished tavern so large that easily hundreds, if not thousands, of wizards occupied every table and chair beneath its cathedral ceiling. And man, what wizards they were! He could smell each and every one of them, the overpowering scent of their mighty magic seeping through him with the richness of a seafood hotpot.

"Hey, Natsu, welcome back!"

He walked in, speechless as table after table of wizards turned to welcome his pink-haired companion. Sure, they looked like ordinary tavern folk, but his sensitive nose picked up each and every piece of their magic and told him that they were no pushovers. "Wow," he heard Lucy gasp. "I'm finally within the Fairy Tail Guild!"

"Hey Natsu, I heard you went to Hargeon and caused a ruckus-"

WHAM!

Shirou turned just in time to see Natsu's feet connect with the wizard- who promptly slammed into the wall behind him. "Hey, you lied about Salamander!" Natsu accused. "I'm gonna kick your butt!"

Of course, he completely ignored Lucy's protests at his violence.

"I'm just passing about the rumours…" the wizard said weakly.

"What!? You fed me rumours?"

Shirou couldn't help but feel bad for the wizard as his companion strode toward him. He stepped forward to help the man-when the entire bar table flipped and sent him sprawling into a corner. The battered Shirou looked up to find that an entire table's worth of wizards had just shared in his fate. "BAR FIGHT!" Natsu declared victoriously.

Now he'd really done it!

"Now now, Natsu," Happy consoled nonchalantly. "I think you need to calm do-"

The tiny cat's peaceful act was swiftly ended by a punch to the face.

Shirou looked up to find the entire hall in an all out food fight- complete with people grabbing people, people slamming people into tables, and people burying other people in wine kegs. He'd heard of warrior mages before, but to get into daily fights like these… just how durable were these people?

"So Natsu! You finally made it back, huh!?"

The teenager turned in the direction of a very furious voice. There, before him, stood a handsome young man with messy brunette hair and… did he forget to wear his clothes? The logo of Fairy Tail emblazoned itself proudly across his left pectoral, as if to declare that "GRAY FULLBUSTER THE FAIRY TAIL MEMBER WILL NEVER WEAR A SHIRT!"

"It's time we settled things once and for all!" he declared, walking menacingly toward the tangle of limbs and hands that was Natsu's fight-

"Gray, your clothes." A husky voice declared, and the very gruff wizard Gray Fullbuster stopped short and declared proudly- "I don't have time for that, Cana!"

An increasingly bewildered Shirou turned his attention to the speaker. It was a woman at the bar, and she was in… trousers and a bra top? The woman clearly didn't give a damn about the wine glass in her hand, because after a nonchalant comment about "not taking a man here because they don't have class" she picked up a keg and began drinking from it like nobody's business.

"Come here and fight me, Natsu!"

"Not until you put some clothes on!"

"It's only noon and you guys are already whining like spoilt brats!"

Shirou barely moved out of the way of a very large, tan man in spiky white hair. The musclebound Not-Archer crossed his arms and looked on at the fight, unimpressed, before striking a crab pose in his navy blue suit. "I'm a REAL MAN!" he declared with a straight face. "Want me to prove it to ya?"

"Shut up, Elfman!"

Shirou's eyes popped as Natsu's and Gray's fists connected simultaneously with the buff wizard and sent him out of the fight in two seconds flat. Yep, he thought sarcastically. Definitely a man who believes that he can solve problems with two good fists.

"Jeez, it's so noisy around here."

"Kyaaaa! You're so cool, Loke!"

Shirou turned over and immediately regretted it. The man named Loke had each arm wrapped around a woman; he was exchanging suave glances between them and his blonde companion. Shirou decided to ignore him anyway and walk away from the mess-and nearly ran into a white-haired girl in a pink dress.

"Hello, people!" the girl smiled. "I'm Mirajane. Are you two new here?"

"I guess," Shirou scratched himself self-consciously. Behind him, Lucy turned almost crimson in excitement. "It's Mirajane! IN THE FLESH!" "Are you some kind of celebrity?" he asked, a little confused.

"Guess I am," Mirajane replied casually. "Don't bother stopping them, they're always like this around here. I'll just leave them alone. Besides-"

"TRACE ON!"

Shirou brandished the newly traced Cortana in his hand and sent a senseless Elfman into the wall.

"It's pretty fun like this, don't you think?"

He wasn't quite fast enough to stop Gray Fullbuster crashing into him, though. One thing he noticed right before the cool mage's body buried him was just how STARK NAKED the ice mage was in this public place. It was almost too much to ask Lucy to take- he could see her turning bright pink in his presence. And the insensitive guy even had the nerve to ask her for underwear!?

A giant black man stomped into the room, and Shirou knew he'd reached his Insanity limit. He passed out across the floor, utterly unconscious.

Swords.

The barren landscape before him was filled with swords. Swords that served both good and evil, swords of all shapes and sizes, swords that painted the ground with the dull colour of their rusting steel. He could feel each sword's history coursing through him as he laid his eyes on each of them, and he wondered if he'd been a sword just like them.

It was foreign to him. The world of rusted swords, lying unused on the ground, galled Shirou. Swords did not like being planted on the ground. Each sword here would rather be in the hands of a skilled swordsman, carving a beautiful future for his peers and defending them from harm.

Thus, then, the power of each sword rested on the desire of their wielders, to achieve peace for their family, peace for their nation, and peace for a safe world- to give the promise of Avalon so that the people could enjoy Utopia.

His thoughts seeped out and emanated in every direction. He could feel a subtle change, a small but important shift in the wind that swept through the landscape.

The swords stirred in the barren ground, struggling to break lose. The amber clouds above him parted, and the first rays of a powerful sun shone down upon the world of swords.

"-rou! Wake up, Shirou!"

Shirou blinked. Happy stood on his chest and prodded his mouth with a fish. "Get up, Shirou!" he urged in his tiny voice. "Natsu's going on a mission!"

The orange-haired teenager turned to his pink-haired companion. Natsu walked out of the guild hall as if he had something very important to do and no one to talk to about it. It was awkward, really, that someone as brash and spontaneous as Natsu would just leave without a word… unless he had something to prove.

"What's up?" he asked Mirajane over the bar.

"Makarov sent Macao to Mt. Hakobe to hunt Vulcans a week ago," Mirajane explained. "He hasn't returned since. He told the Macao's son, Romeo, that his dad would be fine, but the Romeo ran out, crying." She looked thoughtfully at the drinking glass in her hands. "Natsu's decided to find that missing wizard. Perhaps it's that Natsu sees himself in Romeo, and he really wants to help."

Natsu wants to save the kid because he wants to be saved too, Shirou thought.

"I'm going." He grinned, a confident grin that he hadn't used since he'd last been with Saber.

"But what about your guild symbol?" Mirajane asked after him, but it was all in vain- Shirou was already gone.

"Hey! Put me down!"

Natsu and Shirou ignored her and hefted the giant clock onto their shoulders. "It's definitely warmer inside the clock," Shirou thought aloud. "But if you're going to turn back just because the weather's too cold, you can't save anyone."

"I'm liking you more and more, Shirou." Natsu flashed the budding hero a grin. "You know what? Let's make a team sometime. You, me, and Lucy back up there-"

RUMBLE!

A giant flash of white charged past Shirou and Natsu, and suddenly neither Lucy nor clock was there anymore. Natsu turned with a burning fist, but it caught only thin air.

"Was that the Vulcan!? What speed!" Shirou turned to see a giant white Gorillamonster with a face that looked just like that old man in that Hargeon magic shop. "Wait. That's a yeti!"

"Nope," Happy countered. "That is a vulcan."

"Me like human woman!" the yeti declared with his face plastered on Horologium. He threw a punch in Shirou's direction. The budding mage barely stepped aside on time, the shock of the punch sent him butt first into the snow. If anything, the Yeti was stronger, faster than he was, and he couldn't fight it- not as Shirou.

Emiya Shirou is not a fighter. But if you cannot beat your enemy, imagine something that can.

"Trace, on!"

The sword that he'd just traced belonged to a nameless swordsman. Nearly as tall as the lank swordsman himself, the five-foot-long Monoshizao bore upon it the mark of a life dedicated to swordsmanship, a single technique honed to such perfection that it could cut down a swallow in just three swings. Right now, that experience and familiarity surged through his body, and Shirou knew that the Yeti was no longer his match.

"So he can talk, huh?" Natsu cracked his knuckles.

"Don't just stand there. Hurry up and save me! she demands," Lucy's Horologium said with dignity. Without a second word, the Yeti hefted him up on his shoulder and marched off- right into Shirou's blade.

"Me no like man!" The yeti drew back his fist. "Go away!" The punch slid past Shirou's traced blade, but even with his limbs reinforced Shirou could feel the inhuman strength behind that punch. With Sasaki's peerless sword skills, he managed to block all of the punches, but the effort left him reeling on the mountainside.

Luckily for him, help came soon in the form of a giant fire kick from Natsu. The vulcan slammed against the mountainside and slid down, winded.

"Every one from Fairy Tail is my friend, including Shirou over here- which is why I'm not leaving without Macao! Now tell me where he is, or I'll-"

His words were lost when the Vulcan slapped a punch on his head, or tried to. The Dragon slayer lifted an arm to block and the mountainside crumbled beneath him, but he took the blow against his forearm and stayed standing. For a second, the Vulcan was stunned, his form stuck right above Natsu.

"Hidden technique."

And that was all the time Shirou needed.

"Swallow Reversal!"

A single sword cannot cut down a swallow. But if you can scare the swallow with the first swing and cut off his escape with the second, the third will allow you to strike down the agile bird. All three swings would have to be executed in a single breath, and the swordsman practiced swing after swing tirelessly, diligently, if only so that he could manage the one attack that was denied to mortal ken. Eventually, the swordsman managed a swing that lay beyond the ken of mortals- a refraction of multiple dimensions, such that all three swords, all three swings, existed within that single instant.

Shirou was a mortal, and the closest he could manage was one swing after another. But if he could swing the blade around fast enough-

WHAP!

-Even the Vulcan could not dodge it!

The first blow cut a line beneath the Vulcan's feet. As he took to the air, the second blow swept past his shoulder, leaving him dead in the water for the third. Monoshizao caught the giant monster right in the stomach and sent him into the wall.

"Unbelievable…" Natsu mouthed.

The monster lay unconscious, his form buried against the mountainside. Shirou felt a sudden wave of pain ripple through his forearm, and his focus split; the long katana in his hands broke into a million glittering pieces.

"That purple man…" Happy echoed, just as shocked. "So strong!"

Purple man?

Long, flowing lavender robes adorned the lank swordsman. His lavender ponytail fluttered behind him as he raised his long katana and swung. In that brief moment, the swordsman swung not one sword, but three.

But even if they'd seen Assassin, it was definitely Shirou who swung the sword, Shirou who struck down the Vulcan, right? Shirou thought furiously. He couldn't have just summoned Assassin so easily, not in Fiore!

His train of thoughts was interrupted by a nasty groan. A man now lay where the Vulcan had been, his clothes torn and his body battered. Natsu rushed over anxiously. "Macao!" he called. "You can't die here, Romeo's waiting back home for you. Wake up!"

"...Natsu?"

Lucy's eyes popped. "Could it be that Macao was that perv all along?"

It turned out that Macao had been possessed by the Vulcan's take-over magic. He'd valiantly beaten nineteen Vulcans alone, only to be subdued by the twentieth. After they'd returned from Mt. Hakobe, Shirou watched both Natsu and Lucy bid a happy farewell to Romeo and his dad, but his mind remained stuck on the inhuman monster he'd faced.

What if he'd taken Macao's job instead?

Against just one of the monsters, Shirou had to use everything in his arsenal. He'd even pulled out Assassin's sword and mimicked his Noble Phantasm. But there would be times where he had to save people from up to twenty of those monsters at once, and when the time came, he'd find himself utterly and thoroughly beaten.

No, Shirou thought with resolve. Saving people had never been easy, but that just meant he had to get stronger to do it. If he wanted to save people, then Shirou Emiya had to get much stronger than this.

"Hey, Shirou, you're strong!" Shirou turned. Natsu was standing at the horizon with the guild hall next to him, his fist raised in the air. "When we get back to the guild, I'll fight you!"

At least he knew where to start.