The Test
~Day One.
"Excuse me?! You want to what?!" The father burst out incredulously.
"We will test the boy according to church standards. Should he be deemed exceptional, he will be sent with a group of others for advanced training." The man droned calmly.
Father Maxim sighed and brushed back his mop of brown hair. The instant he had mentioned that Kiritsugu had a crest; the representative had pounced, spouting nonsense about testing the boy. He was still a teenager for Christ's sake! Though magical talent after all was commonly snapped up in a heartbeat by the magus association he thought grudgingly, so it made a little sense. But still!
"He's just a boy!" He protested.
The man sitting across the desk narrowed his eyes. "You have no other choice. Should you refuse this test he will be sent to the Magus Association. I've heard reports that they are curious about the recent dead apostle outbreak in the Philippines. I'm sure the boy has some interesting tales to relay…"
Father Maxim blanched. The instant they saw Kiritsugu's crest, he would be extracted of any relevant information, then killed. Emiya Noritaka, as he knew, was not the type of man to care what laws he broke to further his own research.
"Very well." Father Maxim said after a pause, resigning himself to the fact. His fingers gripped the armrests of the chair. He hated being coerced but what choice did he have?
The other man remained seated. He knotted his fingers together and set them on the walnut desk in front of him. "Inform him that he will proceed to the atrium for testing. That will be all." He said in a clipped voice.
Father Maxim sighed and stood. He had no doubt that Kiritsugu would pass. The boy was exceptional, even at a young age he had always won the children's little games, completed dares that many thought were impossible, and had been uncannily quick to catch the smallest details. Yet this wasn't the sort of test one wanted to pass.
Father Maxim nodded and walked out of the room into the awaiting reception area. He scanned the seats and said quite simply. "Kiritsugu." His heart clenched at that, he had just condemned this boy to the path of bloodshed and pain. How could he still call the boy's name so calmly, so easily.
The boy looked at him blankly. Obsidian black eyes empty and hollow met his own. Where there used to be a light glimmer and shine, there was nothing. They were the eyes of a person who had lost everything and found nothing to live for.
"This will very likely be the last time I see you." Father Maxim continued, looking down at the boy. He knew this to be true, once the lad became part of the church he would likely be sent to some remote region to preach, or purging the world of sin as the cardinals put it whenever executors were mentioned..
Kiritsugu looked at Father Maxim and this time, a shallow light lit up those black orbs. He stumbled to his feet. A bandage still wrapped around his chest from the hospital. "Tell me father."
The voice was empty. It rasped like the boy hadn't taken a drink in a week.
"What is a hero?"
Father Maxim paused at that. He looked up at the ceiling of the cathedral they were in with a reflective expression. Was this his last chance at redemption, to give the boy some measure of hope? Some measure of peace for the future?
"You know, that's a good question Kiritsugu." Father Maxim said after a moment.
"Personally, I don't believe in heroes." He started, Kiritsugu started at that. "But if there were heroes, then they would be people who did the right thing. No matter what." He finished softly.
Kiritsugu nodded a inscrutable expression on his face. "Thank you, father." He said, bowing low in the style of the Japanese.
Father Maxim smiled benignly, "Kiritsugu, before you go, I have a gift for you." He said simply, bowing back in return.
He extended from his hand two leather bound tomes. Both looked considerably worn and dusty.
Kiritsugu accepted the books with a cursory glance. The Canterbury Tales and the Holy Bible stared back at him. He tucked the worn tomes under his arm.
"The bible I understand, but why the Canterbury Tales?" He asked.
Father Maxim gave him a piercing look, "My last lesson to you, never question gifts boy." He admonished, ruffling the boy's hair affectionately. He smiled mysteriously "Good bye Kiritsugu, may God light your path."
Kiritsugu said after a pause, "And he yours."
"Head to the atrium Kiritsugu, you don't want to be late now do you?" The Father said gently, nudging him along.
Kiritsugu nodded. "Goodbye Father Maxim." He said and he turned his back, shoulder's square and set. He took a step. And then another. Each step took him just a bit farther from his old life and like a snake shedding its skin, he stepped out of his old life and into the world.
Never once did he look back. There was nothing left for him in that old life of his after all.
Had he turned back, he would have seen Father Maxim, with his hands held in a silent prayer, a lone tear dripping down his cheek.
Kiritsugu made his way to the atrium. It wasn't hard to miss, a massive stained glass dome covered the open area and exquisite carvings and statues dotted the walls. It was an opulence he had little opportunity to enjoy back at the island.
A stab of pain shot through his heart at the thought. How she would have loved the opportunity to visit this place. She would have delighted at the opportunity to be at a place of learning such as this.
He pushed away the lance of pain. That was his old life.
A Hero is someone who does the right thing, no matter what.
That had been Father Maxim's definition as to what was a hero. Someone who does the right thing…. Well then what was the right thing?! It was infuriating as hell whenever he tried to pinpoint the answer that had been plaguing him ever since he was in the hospital bed.
The image of the black clad man in a suit drifted to the front of his mind. Even though he was convinced he had been hallucinating, the words still burned in his mind.
That conundrum tore at his head as he made his way to the atrium. There in the center of the massive opening of space, stood a couple hundred similarly aged teenagers. He predicted the youngest was 12 while the oldest were around 20.
At the moment the massive conglomeration of people were talking. Occasional bursts of laughter and shouts punctuated the noise as he made his way to the crowd. He took to the outskirts of the crowd and stayed there, examining the rest of the trainees.
Ethnicities? Generally European.
He caught snippets of Italian, Spanish, and French, along with the ever dominant English. The conversation topics ranged from everyday gossip such as sports and politics, to musings about what the current test was going to be.
Kiritsugu sighed and closed his eyes.
"What is a Hero?" He muttered unconsciously. The words came to his lips without thought.
"A Hero is someone that works for his own idea of Justice. Who seeks to right every wrong that he comes across. Does that answer your question?"
Kiritsugu looked up.
Pale lavender, almost silver, shoulder length hair swung in his face, and bangs covered her eyes. She was dressed roughly in a black coat and a white tank top underneath. If he encountered this woman on the streets, he would have labeled her as a thief or a cutpurse. The way she held herself however, that air of confidence and lethality said something more than just a common thief.
The woman caught his glance and gave a short chuckle.
"Good eyes, appraising me before I have a chance to introduce myself. My name is Natalia." She said extending a single glove covered hand, "I'm one of your examiners for this little test the higher ups have set up."
Kiritsugu took the hand cautiously.
"Emiya…"
"Kiritsugu. I know." The woman said curtly. "Max asked me to look after you."
Kiritsugu blinked at that. "Father Maxim?"
"The one and the same. That man had the nerve to call me up right before leaving for the Bahamas." Natalia said smoothly, languishing back on a ornate marble column. "Damn church…. Loves taking its time on things doesn't it?" She asked rhetorically, taking a drag on a cigarette from her hands.
"I suppose." Kiritsugu replied quietly staring straight ahead.
"What's with that attitude?" Natalia said with a smirk, "Never been laid or something?"
Kiritsugu gave her the flattest stare he could conjure up at the moment. "I'm 14" he said.
Natalia chuckled. "Old enough to kill, old enough to fuck I'd say." She said easily.
Kiritsugu looked straight ahead. "What makes you think I've killed?"
Natalia smirked, "The same way you thought I was someone untrustworthy."
Kiritsugu acknowledged the point. They sat in an awkward silence for a while.
Natalia sighed and stood up from her reclining position against the column. "Well the tests are starting soon, so catch ya later boya." She said lightly, sashaying out, the crowds parting like a school of minnows as she pushed her way through the crowd.
Kiritsugu closed his eyes again. Natalia huh? Well if the father felt like it was necessary… yet he also had to wonder how the father knew someone as apparently unrefined and blunt as Natalia.
"Attention! Your testing session will begin in one hour. I suggest you get ready." A black robed priest announced from a balcony overlooking the floor of the atrium.
The crowd burst into excited murmurs. Kiritsugu leaned back against the same marble pillar that Natalia had been leaning back against earlier. The majority of trainees conglomerated in the center into one large mass, the previous babble now even more heated with the injection of the news of the upcoming test.
He guessed it would be a routine physical and then general knowledge. At least, he had garnered that much from listening to some of the more intelligent trainee's conversations.
He took out his books after another moment of doing nothing. He pocketed the holy bible and took out the Canterbury tales with a sigh and flipped to page one. It was going to be a long wait wasn't it?
Ten minutes before the test.
A dull rumbling filled the room.
The previous unending chatter of the crowd slipped to a halt as the rumbling grew louder.
Kiritsugu pocketed his book. Around the outskirts, he saw numerous trainees fingering handles underneath their robes. He could only assume what they were covering. Kiritsugu strained himself and started to edge himself toward one of the hallways of the church, needless to say, he had a bad feeling about this. His gaze was drawn downwards. The ornate designs engraved on the churches floor seemed to almost glow…
Click.
Darkness shrouded the atrium.
At the same moment, runes cleverly embedded into the carvings on the atrium's marble floor blazed to life. About half of the trainees froze and were trapped by the immense magic circle engraved into the church floor. The other half were either lucky and had thrown themselves to the very edges of the atrium, or had done something similar to Kiritsugu.
He had instinctively pumped od through the crest on his back. The accessed knowledge flooded back, telling him the exact parameters of the seal, the active runes, and more. His latent prana flexed and he felt the relatively weak paralysis spell dispel as his surge of prana flowed through his circuits.
The other surviving trainees had either forced their way out of the circle through pure force and effort, or had jumped to the slightly raised Dias where a priest would have given seminars.
"Congratulations to the 153 of you remaining, you have passed the first portion of the test. Proceed to the hallways for the next portion of the test." The voice droned out from somewhere. In the pitch black darkness it was impossible to discern the source "Should you remain, the doors will be sealed. You have 5 minutes."
The sound of vanishing steps echoed through the room.
Then everyone burst into motion.
The lights flickered back on.
153 trainees massed at the entrances to the hallways. Kiritsugu immediately discarded rushing through the two main exits. They were rather narrow and in 5 minutes there was no way that he could make his way through and out.
His eyes caught a glimpse of movement.
It was a brown haired boy. He was sprinting incredibly quickly toward the back end of the room. With a hop of one of the marble columns dotting the edges of the room, he was soaring through the air. With an inhuman grace the trainee nimbly grasped the edge of the balcony where the first priest had made the announcement and vaulted over, vanishing into the exiting hallways above. Clearly he had been trained before.
Kiritsugu assessed the situation. There was at the very least 10 feet of height he'd have to cover before he could even think about touching the edge of the balcony. Some trainees were following the same method, climbing up one of the marble pillars, or attempting to imitate the first brown haired trainee and sprint and hop to the balcony. Needless to say, they failed.
Kiritsugu sighed and trickled od into the seal on his back, activating the mass of circuits. "Turns out Tou-san's gift was useful for something." He muttered as the library of spells came to mind. Fire, water, Wind, Earth, he immediately discarded those. He kept on browsing through his mental list before he reached a certain spell.
Remember Kiritsugu, time is like a piece of string. When altering it, there are two critical components, the alteration then the application, the change then the impact, applying the principle then repairing the damage. In your case…. I think it's best to refer to it as cutting and binding the string of time.
He reached into his prana reserves and pulled the energy to the surface, his circuits blazing to life as the Emiya crest fed him the necessary information for the spell.
"Time Alter: Double Accel!" He hissed as he began sprinting toward the column. It was a gamble, if his muscles ripped themselves to shreds before he got to the necessary height then he wouldn't be able to continue.
Cut the string. Pain flooded his body.
Apply the alteration.
Retie the string and force the concept into being.
Time blurred and a small reality marble blinked to life as that small stretch to the string of time began to manifest itself.
His muscles were on fire. His heart rate immediately doubled and his breathe ceased as his bodily functions operated at two times their normal speed. It was terrifying. Using the spell on himself was far different than using it on flowers.
He was sent flying. Before his muscles tore themselves to pieces, he righted the wrong, cutting the string of time and removing the alteration, then binding together and forcing the concept into life again.
His heart rate immediately dropped down to its normal level, and his muscles screamed in protest as he seized the edge of the banister. He attempted to pull himself up. No good, he wasn't strong enough to pull up his own body weight with one hand.
There was only one option left to him. Clattered murmurs filled the room as they witnessed his feat. How odd it must have looked, a teenager jumping, then suddenly sent flying like he was sent from an invisible catapult.
"Time Alter: Triple Accel!" he recited, activating the reality marble for barely a second, the instant his muscles began flexing. The momentum of his pull sent him tumbling over the banister. The effects of the reality marble set in. A pain so great in his right arm that it hurt to move.
He kept on stumbling forward. Why was he even trying on this test?
That thought came to mind. Then an image of a smiling Father Maxim bloomed in response.
He had an expectation to live up to. The father had brought him to the hospital to be saved. That effort would not be wasted.
Let it be known that Emiya Kiritsugu was never one to disappoint.
He kept on walking.
There had been two other tests. One had involved maneuvering pass various hidden runes as they tried to get to the exit in time.
The next had been a basic strength test. Forcing stone doors open and ramming wooden barricades to progress. That had then led to an immense series of halls, with various twists and turns strewn throughout along with passages that branched out like the spokes of a bike wheel.
He had found his way through the mazelike halls with the oldest trick in the book. The one that Shirley had mentioned once. His crest had provided a dozen more options most of which involved him expending his remaining prana supply and more. He could have returned the marble walls to their origin, and in doing so removed all the walls. He could have melted all the walls into molten magma with an aria that almost seemed like a poem. Another suggested changing the properties of stone until it became liquid. The down side was it probably would have killed him a hundred times over.
"Whenever you're in a maze, turn right and you'll make it to the end. Eventually…" Shirley smirked teasingly.
The memory flickered to his mind.
That was his solution and even though he was the last to enter the room. It worked. The door behind him sealed shut with the buzz of an electronically armed lock.
His entrance was greeted with speculative stares and curiosity. He ignored them all and focused on not breaking down on the middle of the floor. His right hand throbbed painfully. His knees were close to buckling.
There was now only a group of at most 30 trainees. It seemed the rest hadn't made it into the halls, or hadn't found their way to this room before the doors had sealed.
Most of them looked rather ragged. The brown haired boy he had first seen sprinting up the side of the column had the left side of his sleeve torn off. Most of the others, he noted curiously sported what looked like various cuts and bruises. Clearly, fighting their way through the brunt of the crowd had not been kind.
"Congratulations. You thirty have passed the 4th test, demonstrated cunning, reflex and skill, and automatically qualify for executor training." A soft voice said. The voice belonged to a well built man with rippling arms and chest. It was a surprisingly soft voice for a man that looked more like a bodybuilder instead of a priest. He was clad in the usual black robes of the church.
"However, you have the option of taking one final test." The man continued.
The rest of the trainees listened attentively. The times of amiable chatter and gossip had ceased the instant the magic circle had blazed to life in the atrium.
"Should you pass, you will be assigned your own instructor and advanced placement and positioning as an executor."
He must have seen the resolve on some of the trainee's faces.
"Be forewarned. The test is not easy. It requires strength of mind, body, and an unshakable will to succeed." He warned calmly. "Should you insist on proceeding, exit through the doorway behind me. Your final test lies through that doorway."
All of the trainees wordlessly exited the room.
As the last one trickled through the door. The heavily built man sighed. "Kids. They never learn, right Natalia?"
The silvery haired woman stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the room. Her eyes were narrowed intently before her face relaxed and a jaunty grin appeared on her face.
"How many?"
The man shrugged absently as he leaned against the doorway.
"There are only 5 people. At most 5 will pass."
"You don't think the church is being a little harsh with this test of theirs?"
"Not at all."
Natalia sighed. "I don't envy them. My first was done in an alley way in London. I was scared for weeks after that. When you actually know what you're doing… that's a whole new ballpark." She said.
The heavily built man, named Ned shrugged again. It was a habit of his.
"We'll see. We'll see." He murmured.
Kiritsugu entered the room with the rest of the trainees. He was expecting another physical or mental challenge or even an actual opponent to fight.
Instead, in the center of the simple black room were 5 chairs. In those five chairs were five people gagged with arms tied behind their backs sitting in the chairs. In front of each was one thin rapier like sword stuck into the ground.
A blue hilt, a white hilt, a brown hilt, and then a burgundy red, then finally a jet black hilt. Each of the blades were black and narrow, the edges razor sharp.
Silence.
The implications of the test seemed too had reached the majority of the trainees by now. Thump. Thump. Kiritsugu's heart beat thudded in his chest.
Then the first, a heavy set trainee with dark blond hair walked out of the room.
Others followed. Over the span of 30 minutes trainees slowly trickled out. Some had picked up the swords and then instantly set them down and left. Other just vomited after inhaling the dense scent of fear and dismay and left.
Killing after all, in cold blood took a special type of person to accomplish.
After the tenth person, Kiritsugu didn't pay attention to the trainees.
He was empty. That was his life as of now. He had lost everything that had ever mattered to him. He had killed his father, his first love, all for the sake of the island. His own hands had shed the blood of those he had loved for the greater good. It had sickened him.
To save someone, you have to sacrifice someone. The image of a man clad in black burned in his mind. Memories of lying in the hospital bed came back. If you demean things as nasty or repulsive then do as you wish. Justice cannot save this world… I have no use for things such as that.
One line blazed in his mind above all else.
In the end, Killing is a necessary evil.
The words wrapped around his mind. There would always be conflict in the world. There would always be death and pain so long as humanity existed.
He looked at the man before him.
Yet was he, to decide whether this man lives or dies? Would he assume the mantle of God, deciding who deserved punishment and reward?
Shirley came to mind once more.
"Nee, Kerry, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
A beautiful smile accompanied the moon that hung in the sky like a chandelier.
His finger closed around a hilt.
In the end, Killing is a necessary evil.
Necessary evil.
Necessary evil.
Necessary.
A hero is someone who does the right thing, no matter what.
A hero is someone that works for his own idea of Justice. Who seeks to right any and every wrong they come across.
Such idealistic, simple answers.
He took a deep breath.
The look in the man's eyes was that of fear. Of resignation. Yet one emotion shone out above all the rest. It was pity. It was a life time's worth of sorrow contained into one gaze. Pity for him.
He paused for a moment.
Killing is a necessary evil.
All the parting words he often heard repeated came to mind.
"Rest in peace." A twisted smile. "When you see a man called Noritaka Emiya. Tell him I'm sorry."
The man's blue eyes glimmered.
The black blade descended.
"Congratulations, Emiya Kiritsugu." Ned said finally as he looked at the youth in front of him. "You along with 4 others have passed. The church gives its thanks for your service, your talent, and your service."
An empty nod.
"That black key is yours now. Guard it safely."
He made his way past the other trainees, ignoring their hushed murmurs and joined the other 4 that had passed the test. They gave him a blank stare and looked blankly out the window.
"Hey boya."
Kiritsugu stopped.
A moment of silence.
"You did well for your first." The silver haired woman said finally.
He gave her a twisted, melancholy, smile. "That wasn't my first." Images of a girl clad in white came to mind, a knife with a handle like a cross, sunlit beaches, and the joys of childhood love.
Images of his father, the crest that he had been given, the lessons he had learned, the pleasure at achieving the assigned task to perfection.
His fingers closed tightly around the black sword hilt in his hands.
And he stepped into the room and took a seat next to the same brown haired boy that had sprinted up the column. The burgundy red hilt was in his hands.
That pitying look the man had sent him flashed through Kiritsugu's mind. A tear dripped from the corner of his eyes.
He was an executor now. One who was destined to wander the path of bloodlust and hate on the whim of the church.
His old life was no more. He had seen to that with his own bloodstained hands.
Someday, these hands will forge a world of peace. I swear it.
AN: So how'd you like it? Its basically executor Kiritsugu, except for one major difference. In this, Kiritsugu isn't driven by his experience with Shirley, where in the anime he failed to kill her, and doomed the island. This Kiritsugu is lost and empty.
That last line, while it may seem similar to Kiritsugu's canon dream, its different because his peace isn't built off of costs and benefits, it's simply a honest hope that no one in the world will have to do what he had to do.
Ohh, the brown haired trainee is Kirei. Thought you guys should know that he just wasn't some random OOC.
Later.
REVIEW! I need to know what I can do better and improve on.