Realization/3

Review, seriously. I'm not as hung up on reviews but I do enjoy seeing them.

The chapter would have been out sooner, but I got caught in reading a bunch of manga and light novels and watching anime. plus I finally got my first part time job plus the two FGO servers(single ticket drake spook instead of tamamo plus Marie spook instead of Hikki-hime)...so let's just say writing hasn't been my priority. Then when it was my priority some assholes fucked up my internet and the back of my car which kept me even more busy. Now if I knew how to type words with my mind I'd have more chapters out faster and longer.

I even planned to have a Shirou and 'ruler' spar since it's been a long time and I wanted to give something special, but I realized it would be useless since there was no reason to make it a big deal when 'ruler' approves of him and even with the class cards it was impossible for Shirou to win.

Also Damn auto correct on phone and my mind automatically fixing mistakes.

Btw If you look closely and analyze Manaka and Shirou's interactions, you'll see what I have planned for both of them. Same goes for everything else in the story, something you thought was just me filling up space with an interaction could have been a foreshadowing.

Realization/3

"How has business been, Shirou-sama, Miyu-chan?" Manaka asked with a kind smile. Her blue dress was slightly frilly, it was what she usually wore.

Shirou responded with a shrug. "Better than usual. With more workers besides me things go a lot smoother and faster."

"Ah! That's good. With more workers, then you'll also have more time off to spend with me." She said delightfully.

Shirou just chuckled, a sight Manaka watched with a pink heart pupil in her light blue colored eyes.

As for Shirou himself, he had no hard feelings to Manaka himself. He was somewhat embarrassed by her obvious attention to him, but he enjoyed her presence.

"You know Manaka, you don't have to spend every day with me. You should spend time with your other friends." Shirou said smiling lightly.

Manaka shook her head. "I'm just fine doing this Shirou-sama. All those other people are dreadfully boring. Besides, isn't it fine to spend my life with the man who stole my heart?"

Miyu, who had to get refreshments for the customers, had a blank look on her face.

"We're not married Manaka." He said chuckling.

The blonde girl sighed morosely. "You've rejected all one hundred and ninety six of my proposals to you."

"One for each day we've known each other."

"Fu. Just wait. Soon enough it'll be me counting each and every time we confess our love to each other."

Miyu, who still looked blank, twitched. If not for the customers deciding they had to ignore Shirou whenever Manaka came by due to the latter's scary smile, she would have been free to push the needy girl away.

"Speaking of confessing, where's Ayaka? It's rare for her to be behind you."

"Oh don't worry about her Shirou-sama, she's just spending time with a new friend of hers."

"Ah, that's good. She's so shy that it worries me. It's nice that she can have more friends."

"To see you so worried about my sister, it makes me so jealous, yet so happy!" She said closing her eyes.

Shirou, more than used to her oddities, ignored the harsh blush and the fact that she was biting her lower lip.

"It's not like she's the only one I'm worried about. I care about you too Manaka." He said ignoring the silent pout of Miyu.

The younger girl seemed to emit happiness at his words. Shirou was always amused at how she tried to steer conversations in a way that would get him to compliment her in some way.

Of course he was more than happy to oblige. He enjoyed seeing happy and blushing faces. The way people were flushed when he teased them was entertaining.

He already knew Manaka always enjoyed bragging at whatever he said to her sister, and he could already picture the younger sister's face turning red when Manaka poutingly reveals that he said he cared for her.

"Shirou-sama, after hearing those words, I can't hold back anymore. Won't you come to the back with me? You shouldn't force a maiden to confess in front of a crowd." Manaka's blush calmed down, but it was still there.

Shirou rolled his eyes behind her back. Depending on her fancy, she would confess in the restaurant, the streets, or anywhere they would happen to be. Shirou himself had stopped counting how many times she would confess, realizing she really would never stop.

He never understood why she liked him, though both her and Ayaka had dropped some hints, and the realization he came to made him decide that there was no harm in letting her fawn over him.

Since business was currently at its average, and the fact that there were two more helpers, he decided there was no harm in following her. After all, he knew how this was going to end, so where was the harm in going?

Meanwhile Ruler, who was watching from the kitchen, could only shake his head.

Just his luck, or should he say his luck, that a psychotic young girl would be enamored with him.

He knew of Manaka, having been summoned to her worlds every now and again. A world where King Arthur is simply King Arthur. Although he only began being summoned there after meeting the blonde king on a mission to save humanity.

The young girl was dangerous, and also obsessed. Knowing of her past, the present, and her possible futures, he was reluctant to let Shirou follow her. But he decided to give her a chance. After all it was a world where she and her sister were the same age and in Fuyuki rather than Tokyo. She could have been born different similar to how Shirou and Miyu were different from Ruler's world.

Still, He's had enough relations with women to know how this was going to end.

But he knew his younger self could take care of himself.

"Why exactly are we doing this again?"

Shirou and Ruler were at a local temple in Fuyuki. With Medea working her magic they didn't have to worry about stragglers or notifying others of their presence.

"I have to see how skilled you are somehow. Besides, this will have the added benefit of allowing you to absorb some of my experience without your soul collapsing on itself."

"Wait that's a thing?"

"A magic that allows one to acquire skill by possessing oneself with a previous self...of course, having connected on such a deep level with the class card, I'm certain you absorbed more than if we had simply fought. However by sparring, you'll be able to take in my experiences and this will also allow you to trace the weapons you weren't able to connect to before. This is simply insurance that you, in some way, get on my level."

"Ehhhh." Shirou was dry. "Your level huh. Well, I won't deny that. While I try to plan out my enemy's moves at least ten steps, you could definitely do better than that. Given that I was in the middle of battle after battle I had to make due with my level of tracing as well. It could only increase so much."

"I'll tone down my strength as much as possible, can one of those class cards raise your Strength and keep your tracing?"

Shirou thought for a second. "Well Caster could work, but it only really enhances my magecraft since the strength enhancement isn't really worth noting. It might work with Berserker since it doesn't drive me insane."

"Then we'll go with that. Even a watered down portion of Heracles's strength is a boon for a human."

Shirou installed, being dressed in a brown skirt armor. As he composed himself, Ruler spoke.

"Then let's start. Follow my lead."

""Trace, on.""

Kanshou and Bakuya. The favored swords of Ruler.

The two threw both their swords at the other, tracing another weapon to fight with. The Married Swords bounced away from the others.

For Shirou, the swords' magnetism only hampered him, evident by how they both threw the swords despite it being the first thing they traced before battle.

And so he chose Crocea Mors, the Yellow Death.

Not even half a second after Ruler traced the same thing.

They clashed equally, or about as equally as they could as they didn't intend on hurting each other.

"Tell me, how have you been sleeping lately." Ruler asked while changing weapons to Durandal, the Peerless sword. Shirou traced the same thing.

"?! Urgh. What's with the random question." He gritted out. He switched to Gram, Sword of the Sun, and Ruler followed.

"It's only as random as you believe it is." This time, Ruler chose Merodach, the Original Sin. They clashed with the same, but unequal Swords.

"Just fine." He murmured annoyed. He switched to Arondight, the Unfading Light of the Lake.

"That's good." Balmung, slayer of dragons.

They traded blows and swords more and more.

Sword of Unpromised Victory.

Blessed Sword by which Force is Slain.

Hound of the Red Plains.

"We never spoke on how we knew each other did we." Harpe, the Immortal Slaying Scythe.

"Why the hell does it matter! We're the same person!" Dainseif, sword of Destruction.

"Well I'm sure you're a little curious. It just so happens that when you linked yourself to the card, it happened to catch my notice. Unlike the other cards, there was never an ego to remove, so I chose to help you out since you were so desperate." Naegling, the Iron Sword Hammer.

"Then thanks." Durindana, Ultimate Unbroken Hallow.

"You know. I would've never done so if the link didn't go both ways. While your soul was gaining too much information from immune, I gained some of yours. I'm sorry you weren't able to protect your Sakura." Brionac, the Five Roaring Stars.

"...!" Caladbolg, the Rainbow Sword.

"There plenty of things I was never able to protect myself, however you already knew that. And even as your actions went against Kiritsigu's ideal, I still lent you my power, do you know why." Clarent, the Radiant and Brilliant Royal Sword.

"...no..." Usumidori, the Tailed Sword.

"It's because you made a decision I wish I would have made. I never had the guts to be selfish. I remained fake, chasing after an impossible sight." A katana Sword one with Zen.

"So what, you think I shouldn't have done anything differently!"

"Do you think you should have!"

Shirou's eyes showed his answer, and he traced a large stone sword and clashed with Ruler's.

They glared at each other and chose Mystletainn, the Piercing Sword.

"Do you believe yourself a greater villain than those like Mephistopheles or Jack the Ripper?" Monohoshi-Zao, sword of a Nameless Farmer.

"!" Shirou roared and rushed with Caliburn, Sword of the Victorious.

No more words were spoken until finally the Sword of St. Catherine ended the spar.

Shirou ejected the Berserker Card, he was losing himself in madness. His body was caked in sweat as he frowned at his lost.

Each and every one of his weapons broke first. And yet they were as perfect as they could be.

"Let me tell you what you need to know. Our battles are not just with the world, but with ourselves. If Emiya Shirou cannot do something, he must first change himself."

"And how do I start to do that."

"It'll come to you. Just know this."

"What you did was evil, but it was certainly not wrong."

A feminine yelp took his attention from the matter. It seemed his fellow servant was beginning to burn the food. Amateur. Guess it was time to be a Hero of Justice again.

Kirei Kotomine was a stoic faced man with short hair and a strong build hidden under a priests clothing. Later, there would be a time where he would laugh at such irony, but as he was now, he simply had no feelings toward it.

He was the master of Assassin, or should he say Assassins, as his servant had the ability to split into different bodies, each for a different personality of the original.

He had no wish, no desire of his own. And thus his plentiful of assassins were at the disposal of his father and his master.

Currently he was hiding at his father's church, and he hadn't seen his master since long before they sacrificed one of the assassin's bodies. The archer under Tokiomi Tohsaka, his master, seemed to have a grudge for the two masters in cohorts, though neither seemed to understand why there was so much hostility.

While they were certain of their victory, holding the strongest servant and the sneakiest servant, Kirei held his doubts due to Kiritsugu Emiya, a man that held his interest.

At the moment however, he was putting aside his thoughts of Emiya and found himself curious at the unexplained events that could only be caused by a magus and their servant.

One of these events were of Fuyuki's prisons, the prisoners inside were found unconscious and lethargic when awake. He could only assume that there was an inadequate master who did not want to prey on the average civilian, or much more likely was that there was a master who wanted to cause suffering to sinners and get a bonus from it. This is what he assumed as the previous serial kidnappings and murders had also now continued after a brief pause.

The second event was of the collapse of a parking building. Given how the building was originally fine and showed no sign of falling apart, the now ruins of the structure had to have been caused by a servant as well. However this was not the first occurrence of ruined buildings.

While he was pondering upon which master could have caused these events one of the assassins flickered in. It was a female with blue hair wearing the same cloak and mask that all Old Men of the Mountain have.

"Master, I'm here to report the findings of what I've asked."

He motioned for her to continue.

"We've concluded that Kiritsugu Emiya has no chance of being related to any of the events. However, we do have something strange to report."

This actually made the fake priest raise an eyebrow.

"As you know, there's been strange energy fluctuations throughout the city, while we can't be certain, those fluctuations are likely from Caster, and there is a chance that another servant may be like us as we've felt the presence of many servants all over the city at the same time. As the number does not match up to the five enemy servants, the Noble Phantasm of a servant has led to it splitting at least seven times."

"My, that is troubling, yet I see no reason to care for it."

Assassin would have frowned if possible.

"In any case Assassin, keep an eye out for Emiya."

"...yes master."

"Tch. How boring. To think I would be summoned by this one again. Those two mongrels should be grateful I haven't punished them for their grievances already."

A blonde haired man in black clothes said. He shook his bangs and closed his eyes in disappointment and anger.

"But I must say...that one at least holds merit even if the latter is worth nothing." He reasoned with themself.

"Indeed...ha...hahaha...Hahahaha-KYAHAHAHAHA!"

He swung his head back in hysterics. "Indeed, the entertainment value is still nothing in comparison to the only one worthy of being called my master, yet it's entertaining nonetheless."

Had he not been in his room with technology ten years too early, he would have gazed out the window.

Instead he settled for showing why he was the King of Heroes by completing one of humans greatest challenges by ensuring he wouldn't die, to think it was hard for most modern humans to dodge roll at the right time made him laugh and weep. But perhaps he wasn't giving the challenge enough credit, after all he was the Hero among Heroes.

"Show me a good show Faker, or perhaps I should come up with a new title for you?"

"Why did you bring us over here?"

The big brother and big sister had walked over to an alley near the restaurant.

"Shirou-sama, did I ever tell you why I love you so much?" Manaka ignored the question.

"No, but I've had my guesses."

She had placed her hand in his to lead him deeper into the alley. Her hands were warm, different from the cold hands that he reached out to.

"Shirou-sama, you have no idea how happy it is that you've never denied my love, even if you never accepted it."

That would certainly be the normal response if a pretty girl out of nowhere confesses to you.

Then again some guys who have just accepted it.

Those guys never lost someone they could have loved.

"I've lived a colorless life. I was the very definition of Apathy. There was nothing in this world that I could care about."

He's spoken to Ayaka a lot about the two sisters, and she was always hesitant to speak of her sister's past, but she always spoke, believing Shirou needed to know.

"Has that changed?" He asked her seriously as they stopped.

"Hm. Perhaps it has. Or maybe I simply decided to pretend." She said facing away from him.

"And why would that happen?"

"Fu. It's because I've fallen in love with you silly Shirou-sama. For you we're the one thing I could not understand."

Shirou never thought himself hard to understand, so he wondered what made her so confused.

"You needn't hide from me Shirou-sama. I know. That you and your sister are from another world." His eyes could only widen before she continued. "You may forever confide in me. Despite the weight behind your decisions, you chose one being over the world. Shirou-sama, of everything in this world that I could understand and predict, you were the one thing I could not see."

Shirou tensed, but his blood did not chill like he thought it would.

"Despite how you believe yourself a villain, I see only a righteous hero wronged by the world. Once, I idealed a meeting with a heroic king, but upon seeing you I realized that a perfect Knight is not what I need. What I need is you, and I will forever dedicate myself to what you need."

Shirou could not think. Unlike her previous confessions Manaka was really going all in. Yet he could barely understand why she was able to say such things.

"H-hold on Manaka. You're saying a bit too much at the moment. Let me think."

She placed her arms on the wall he was leaning against, trapping him in. This was the reddest and most embarrassed face of the normally composed Shirou. And she was purely mesmerized by it. And unconsciously she leaned in.

"You never once accepted my love, not wishing to hurt my sister, and not being ready yourself. Nor have you denied my love, perhaps because you understood it in ways I haven't."

"The selfless Shirou-sama I know would push me away...but don't you know Shirou-sama? It's okay to be selfish, not even the world should convince you otherwise..." she leaned upwards to the taller male on the very tips of her feet, wrapping her arms around his neck.

In a way, he could understand the surface of what she was saying.

How could he, who lived where others could not, enjoy himself luxuriously.

How could he, who could not succeed where his father wished him to forever abandon such a beautiful ideal.

How could he, who damned a world from its salvation, keep it to his chest.

"What you did was evil, but it was certainly not wrong."

Manaka placed a chaste kiss upon his lips. Feeling a warmth spread throughout her body, she kept her position despite it being so uncomfortable.

He did not put her away. He merely closed his eyes, as something pooled in his chest.

She leaned back down, moving her hands to his cheeks.

"Shirou-sama, I know that deep down, you're still hurt by your past, tormented greatly, but despite that you wish to live to reclaim that which you've been abandoned by. You are too kind to willingly hurt another...so I will happily do so in your place to keep you from hurting any more."

She slowly caressed his still cheeks, gaining a look of sadness and resolution at what she saw.

He was surprised at something.

Because she moved back, he realized that in the time she was turned away from him she unbuttoned the upper part of her dress.

Normally that would have made it more difficult for him to move around and embarrass him, but his attention wasn't on her chest.

But what was on her chest.

A Sword with Seven Red Wings surrounding it.