Ichigo was exhausted. But overall he was pleased with himself.
He had finally managed to do something that everyone said was impossible...he had changed the nature of his Mystic Eyes after gaining them.
Though the way he had done so was a complete accident, one that he was still less than happy about.
On Ichigo's left wrist was a charm his father had ordered to hide his true nature from anyone who had shinigami or hollow powers. It was a combination of magecraft and some soul reaper research. It was also completely ordinary looking.
A few days before he was able to switch his eyes, his bracelet had gotten caught on something and had twisted rather painfully around his wrist. The multiple loops refused to come undone, and he realized with irritation he would have to cut one of them in order to free himself. The thing that bugged him the most was that the only thing with a sharp enough edge within reach happened to be Zelretch's infamous jewel sword which allowed him to draw from any number of alternates at once through his mastery of the Kaleidoscope.
Which meant he either picked up the sword and cut one of the loops, or he remained stuck for another hour before the vampire came back.
He only intended to use the sword as a cutting tool and nothing else, so he reluctantly picked up the blade and cut one of the loops, accidentally nicking himself with the knife in the process.
He cleaned it off and bandaged the area...and when Zelretch came back told him upfront what happened.
It wasn't until he went to channel his spirit energy into his eyes that something...odd...happened. He still had no idea whether it was because the loops were broken (there were seven, each with a similar effect...he had to add to the loops each year as his power level kept rising to avoid becoming hollow bait) or because he had managed to bleed thanks to a cut from the special sword. Either way, his eyes suddenly became the same color as his spiritual energy (a blue-white color) and he could tell something was different.
He carefully removed his glasses, and he sighed with relief.
The lines were gone.
"So it worked?" asked Zelretch.
"Either it was because of the loops or that sword of yours. Either way the lines are gone."
He cut off the energy, and winced. Putting on his glasses quickly, he found that the lines weren't gone...the effect was just being overpowered.
"Shall we test to see if that effect is sustainable?" suggested Zelretch.
Ichigo walked around Clock Tower without his glasses and with his spirit pressure centered around his eyes. It was an...amusing...experience to say the least.
However he did notice an odd side effect of his new eyes.
Every time he looked at a person, he could see some sort of mindscape. Usually it was blurry, other times it wasn't focused at all. And there was a relation between whether or not it was focused or not.
Those with the focused mindscape usually had very organized minds, and used Thought Acceleration and knew how to shield their mind. Those with unfocused or very blurry minds were usually clutterbrained and very poor students.
When he went to Fuyuki to meet with Rin for their usual study date, he ran into a boy with rust red hair and amber eyes. It was all he could do to not stare.
The boy was a magus, and a poorly trained one at that, but he had the clearest mental scape he had ever seen in a living human! The only other time he saw a mind that detailed was...
Was when he ran into the only Magus in Clock Tower who dared to research Reality Marbles. The only reason he had yet to have a sealing designation slapped on him was because it was all theory and nothing practical.
It was only a matter of time though.
"Hey Rin."
"Hey Ichigo-kun...Ichigo, your glasses!" she said in shock.
"Finally found a way to overpower my Mystic Eyes. I still wear the glasses, because it's less of a hassle. That reminds me...how many male Magi are in the city at the moment?"
"Well there's Kirei and possibly Gil...then there's the Matou clan, but the only one who qualifies is Zouken. Other than that there's one other Magus in the city... Why?"
"I think I ran into a self-trained Magus by accident. It's possible he doesn't know about this being your territory, and if that's the case I'll act as mediator so we can clear that up," said Ichigo.
Rin beamed at him. There was a reason why she liked Ichigo...he believed her fully capable of kicking his ass and acknowledged she was a good Magus without rubbing it in that he had a rare set of Mystic Eyes. Ichigo fully planned to become a doctor later on, possibly an optometrist so he could give out prescription Mystic Eye killers.
It took Ichigo the better part of a week to find the mystery Magus. And an hour to explain the situation.
Shiro Emiya, the adopted son of the infamous Magus Killer, honestly had no idea that he was living in the known territory of another magus. And from what he told Ichigo, he had no idea how to use his natural circuits at all, which was baffling.
So Ichigo brought Shiro to the Tohsaka house to clear this mess up, and hopefully get the boy the training he desperately needed.
If nothing else Shiro could join Karin and Yuzu for the magic lessons Ichigo shared with them.
"YOU!" shrieked Rin.
Clearly she recognized him.
Shiro winced at the shriek.
"Who is he?"
"He's considered one of the janitors! I had thought he might be related to the Magus Killer, but when he didn't show any magic I just assumed he had a similar name!" said Rin.
"It gets better. Kiritsugu gave him Magus training, but he has no idea how to use circuits properly," said Ichigo.
Rin winced. That wasn't just bad, it was a nightmare. A magus who was trained to use prana, but had no idea how to use their circuits?!
"How did you know I was a magus anyway? I've barely been able to use Reinforcement," said Shiro.
Ichigo tapped his eyes.
"I have a special set of Mystic Eyes I've been trying to alter, and when I finally managed to pull it off I was able to see the mind scape of everyone around me. The only reason I realized what was going on was because your mind is far too detailed to be a normal person, and the only other person like that was someone who was looking into the theoretical aspects of Reality Marbles."
"Have you come up for a name for those new eyes, or has the bloodsucker found one?"
"I call it Soul Sight. Zelretch said they're called the Eyes of Soul Perception, a type of Pure Eyes. According to what Urahara said, apparently channeling spirit energy instead of prana altered the sight, allowing me to see inside people's inner worlds, whatever that is," said Ichigo.
When told of what his new eyes did, Urahara had been torn between being absolutely horrified and a desire to research. He was the former Captain of Squad Twelve and the one to create the Shinigami Research Institute.
He was also the one behind the loop system that hid his spiritual energy from most spirit-based beings like shinigami and hollows. He could be seen by them, but they wouldn't register him as anything but a normal spiritually aware human. If they got too close, his Finn Shot would dissuade most of the curious.
(He learned it from Rin.)
Shiro was given a basic run down on how circuits should be used, and after a brief discussion with Rin, Ichigo took him aside to wake them up properly and find out why he had a Reality Marble when he could only use Reinforcement, according to him.
What he found explained quite a bit. Shiro was an Incarnation, meaning both his Element and Origin were identical. And coupled with the incident during the last Heaven's Feel Tournament, created a hellish Reality Marble.
Shiro had no problem with being Rin's guinea pig when it came to new spells in exchange for her not chasing him out. And he was perfectly happy to help around Ichigo's house as payment for basic magic lessons, though he had a lot of catching up to do.
If he was really lucky, he would survive long enough to be labeled a Magus and avoid a Sealing Designation if the Association got wind of his existence.
Shiro was in the small unused room in the back of the Kurosaki Clinic. Next to him were the twins Yuzu and Karin. On the side was Arcueid, the True Ancestor who was there for her bi-monthly blood transfusion. She often chipped in or corrected Ichigo in his lessons as payment for the blood, since Zelretch often paid off Isshin for the trouble he went through.
Rin had 'graciously' donated one of her worst jewels from her stock in exchange for another of much better quality. Since Shiro had been 'forging' a new circuit each time he reinforced something, Ichigo had noted that the circuits had deteriorated. Hence why he had traded a jewel he had gotten from Zelretch as a joke to Rin for another that was less valuable and gave it to Shiro to swallow.
It hurt like hell, but his circuits were now fully opened and at their proper size.
Ichigo was very, very glad he had given the jewel to Rin later when he found what it was loaded with. Zelretch had somehow managed to booby trap the jewel to prank whoever was foolish enough to use prana on it. As a result Rin ended up with red eyes for a week, to her immense displeasure. The fact she used Shiro and Ichigo as target practice later only proved that much, though Zelretch got a good laugh when he heard what happened.
As Ichigo taught his sisters and Shiro about magecraft, he was unaware of a new presence that was slowly settling over his town.
Because Shiro was often in close proximity to Ichigo when he was using Soul Sight, he was developing spiritual awareness. As such he was seeing more and more spirits of those who had died, though surprisingly none of them from the Fuyuki fire.
When Ichigo investigated the area, he found a large amount of something foul...it was so horrible that mere words couldn't possibly describe how bad it was. He mentioned it to Rin, and when she did a basic analysis she looked like she was about to throw up from a brief amount of contact with it.
Which begged the question...why did the site of where the Grail manifested feel so evil in nature?
"The Grail? Why do you want to know about that?" asked Waver.
Ichigo told him about the park where the Grail supposedly manifested and the foul sensation that both he and Rin had felt.
Waver shivered, as a memory of that horrific fire came to mind. He had been in Fuyuki longer than required, as he wanted to see how it would end...and partially to protect the old couple who had unknowingly taken him in as their 'grandson'. He had felt something sinister and absolutely disgusting pass by him and briefly touch his command seals during the fire.
What if something was wrong with the Grail?
"I'll help you look," said Waver after a moment.
It took them two weeks, and it was nearly May, but they eventually found something worrying.
"Here...the Third Heaven's Feel tournament... the Church recorded an eighth Servant was summoned by the Einzbern family which was destroyed very quickly. According to this, it was the first recorded presence of an Anti-Hero in the war. After that there was Caster, which you already know about. I don't think he would have been summoned if something hadn't happened earlier," said Ichigo.
Waver had managed to get his hands on the list of Servants drawn in previous wars. They didn't have names, but they did have basic stats at least.
He had given Ichigo almost all of them, barring one.
Iskander, Rider's stats from the Fourth Grail War. Ichigo let him keep it, as it had a set of actual photos of Rider during the war. Who knew that the Church took pictures of the events before and after clean-up as a reference?
"Wait a minute...King Arthur was a woman?" said Ichigo in surprise.
"Alturia Pendragon was her real name apparently. There was even a record of Merlin actually giving her working male genitalia...as a joke," deadpanned Waver.
"Explains Mordred," said Ichigo.
Reading up on the Servants was fascinating, and it lead to Ichigo researching various legends and then backing them up with books from Clock Tower. It was a nice way to kill time in between lessons.
It also lead to a rather startling realization when he recognized the description of the 'Golden King of Babylon', someone who worried Waver greatly.
Gil, the other person who lived in the Church with Kotomine...was Gilgamesh, King of Heroes. And according to the papers Waver obtained, his original summoner was Rin's father.
Oh boy...Rin was going to be pissed when she found out Kirei had taken her father's Servant.
"HE WHAT?!" shrieked Rin so loudly that birds took off from their perches.
Shiro and Ichigo winced.
Ichigo handed her the papers from the last Grail War, and the second she saw the picture of Gilgamesh both in and out of armor, she became livid.
"That utter bastard! How dare he steal my father's Servant!" she said angrily.
"It gets better. Remember that awful feeling around the Church during our lessons? Well I had Arcuied walk past it and she said that the stench of blood is prevalent from the lower catacombs. I checked the police reports, and the number of children that have gone missing is high, and it's happening on a regular basis."
Shiro grew cold.
"You mean he's..."
"He's clever, and if we can pin the blame on him it'll draw the Church like apostles to blood. The problem is that he's only a secondary threat. The real problem is Gilgamesh."
"Why?" asked Shiro.
"It's clear Kotomine kept him around after the war, though how he became flesh and blood I have no idea. Anyway, the problem is that Servants are so far beyond a Magus that it's not even funny."
"And Gilgamesh would go through anything we set after him like tissue paper," said Rin in annoyance.
"It gets better," said Ichigo sarcastically.
"Oh god, what now?" asked Rin.
"Apparently whatever happened to end the last war caused the lands to become spiritually charged much faster. The war will restart in a few years, possibly by next year at the very least considered I come here regularly. Something was leeching off my spirit energy every time I came here and now I know what," said Ichigo.
Rin groaned.
"On the plus side, we do have an advantage. If Kirei really is up to something, we have a chance to keep him from being picked as Mediator for the next war," said Ichigo.
"Oh?"
"He was a Master in the previous war right? Well it wouldn't be that odd if, as Master of the lands, you asked that he be removed to insure that the Church remains impartial as he was your father's apprentice," said Ichigo smirking.
"That is evil. I love it. That does it, you two are helping me get my Family Crest early so we can get rid of Kirei legally," said Rin flatly.
"If we all get picked as Masters, let's team up and wipe out the competition, at least until Gilgamesh and Kirei are dealt with," said Ichigo.
"Deal," said Rin.