This is a Fate Night and Re Zero Fan Fiction Only
Other Characters may show up from other franchises.
I was in absolute turmoil, one the one hand I had every single opponent of this final Grail War present in one location, so there is no need for me to search, scout, or do anything to find them, on the other even my wife has decided to form alliances with quite a few of these opponents, which makes no freaking sense, only a single person may use the Grail and have their wish granted.
I had been trained as a mage killer for so many years of my life, I couldn't help but think this world is diseased, insane, and corrupt, a decadent world where morality is rare, and yet I also want to find a way to either be free of it or try to help the more innocent among these people, as time progress, I find myself more and more distant from the concept of humanity, to some I might seem like a hero, but I couldn't be further from anything even slightly heroic, I am a cleaner, I take out the garbage that pollutes the world, and most often when I am needed, bloodshed and death are soon to follow.
This reminds me of my beloved wife, Medusa depending on where a person looks either in myths or fables, is nothing like what the real person is, in the fables and myths she is treated as a monster, that kills people for her sick enjoyment, with a cursed sight that turns anyone that looks at her eyes into stone statues
The truth is that she was the victim, of a heartless person who only wanted to sleep with her, even though she was an attendant to a goddess, this person's niece as a matter of fact, those eyes were not meant to hunt down and kill people for fun, but rather as a means for her protection, against people who wanted to kill her to obtain fame and glory.
The same is true with me, I am called by some a hero, but in truth, I couldn't be less of a hero even if I tried. For the world to continue and to safeguard life, some people simply must be eliminated, some can be convinced but those are so few, that in past cases I can count them with my fingers. The truth is that some people must die, if only for the greater good of everyone else. How could anyone call a person who thinks like this a Hero?
To me, this school is no better than a prison, dull, boring, and quite the hassle, I could pass any exam, any quiz and complete any task with little effort, which should be previously obvious since I quite literally have time on my side. An example, I could set things up so that upon command I will return to the beginning of the current week, at Friday a surprise test is given, I could read the questions and upon doing so activate my magic sending me back to the first day of the week, giving me more than enough time to study to answer the questions I know of.
Another example is a math teacher writes a problem on the blackboard and asks me to write the solution to it, I could intentionally fail it, as to make the teacher actually explain and write the correct answer, and upon him doing that I use my magic to return to the time before I tried to answer that problem, and with the knowledge I gained from his explanation, I can simply answer the right solution and nobody other than my heroic spirit or others that can sense magical energy would not even be aware of what happened.
I can turn basically my life into the plot of Groundhog Day, on command, I can literally become a master of many skills in what people think is a single day. If I spent a whole day learning to play the piano and did nothing but use one of my spells to go back to the beginning of that day, over and over again, I could be a concert pianist in less time than it takes a kid to learn how to ride a bicycle by themselves.
But even after saying this, I must admit, I am not omnipotent, there are things I simply can not or would never do. Things like making a person experience the moment they are going to die, over and over again, in an infinite loop, till the person's soul is crushed beyond recognition, and smile as they died because their nightmare is finally over.
I have complete control of my time magic, so that means I don't only can go back to preset points in time, with all my memories, which means I can rewind or even accelerate time, how about if a young woman was calling an older lady and ugly old hag, all I need to do is reverse time on the older lady so she is back in her late twenties and show the other one how she actually looked like when she was that age, I can also do the opposite and cause the young lady who was saying those insulting things to age at a pace that she would be just as old as the lady who she insulted, let's see how she likes being called an ugly old hag.
And that is not even the worst part, I can quite literally transfer the youth of the one insulting the old lady, into the old lady, turning her young again, while at the same time causing the idiot that was saying that insult to age to be as old as the person she insulted. These are some of the spells I will never do, but then again I do remember my father telling me to never say never to something.
If anything in this school is making me wish I could skip grades is the fact that all the lessons I had to go through are quite literally boring me to tears. As the time for lunch finally came and I went to the cafeteria, I was honestly shocked, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, delicious, nutritious, and the thing I couldn't believe affordable food. I honestly thought that school cafeteria food was generally so disgusting, not even a person's dog would eat it, and this is the animal that licks his own balls and ass clean.
So I decided to ask what is the deal with the food? One of my classmates simply laughed as he took a bite of his food, "It's quite simple, some people thought that making sure students eat, good, wholesome, and delicious food would help students develop better eating habits, you know healthy minds in a healthy body? Turns out the message caught on, and this school and many others receive donations in ingredients and other things they need to provide all these meals."
Another student called that rainbow bullshit, it was all stuff they bought for pennies on the pound, cheap abandoned, bad-looking ingredients, that wouldn't sell at the local grocery store, the real reason is, they figured if they keep the students healthy, they wouldn't have to spend so much money in drugs to keep those students healthy. The food isn't cheap, they are just selling it at cost with a little extra to pay the salaries of the people that work in the Cafeteria, they might not seem like they are making a profit, but believe me, they are, as the student laughed as he finished saying that.
"Well, at least now you got something to look forward to every single day, endure a little boredom and get to enjoy a nice meal. They also serve breakfast if you arrive early enough, granted I rather eat the food you prepare, but not everyone is as lucky as I am, to have tasted your home cooking." Why is Sakura saying this while seated right next to me, in the middle of a crowded cafeteria? It is almost like she wanted to either challenge some of the other female students, or I got the feeling that she just wanted to plant her claim on my ass.
As lunchtime was finally over, and having finished my drink, I put everything where it should be and grabbed an extra refill on my soda before I went back to my assigned classroom, but the strange thing is the halls were empty, I began to wonder where the hell did all of my classmates and some of my potential competition of the grail war go? It was a little too quiet and it was making me think I was somewhere other than the high school I was supposed to pretend to be a student in.
As I finally entered the classroom I was shocked at what I saw, I know that the classroom was nice and roomy, but not as big as the main chamber of a cathedral, not even kidding, stained glass windows, and pews all in a row, it made me feel like I was I should expect a priest and a whole bunch of kids for the choir to enter the place.
I was not completely wrong, two strange men were standing at the very back of the room, and as I walked I noticed that these two were wearing robes, one had white and the other had dark almost black robes. "Look it seems you actually figured out you are not in your world, good, I summoned you here because I have something to ask you and my friend is here because depending on your answer he might be of some help to you. I noticed that your element is darkness, but you hardly ever use it other than for the obvious, stealth."
His friend was simply standing there, almost looking bored at hearing his friend's monologue, "As such I came to offer you the chance to be my champion, don't worry, you don't have to tell me whether or not you accept till after the end of the last grail war. Why would you benefit from this, how about complete control and mastery over your element, that is right you will have complete control over darkness." The man pointed at his friend who was wearing white robes and smiled.
"Now this is my friend, I had to use up a favor he owes me, if you become my champion you will also gain several other skills and abilities, such as mastery of fire, light, and to some extent charm. My friend is a bartender at a bar in Los Angeles called Lux, he is also rather famous in Arcane circles, you might have heard of him as the light bringer, or the name most people know him as, Lucifer Morningstar."
I began to laugh almost in a hysterical fashion, till the guy who had told me all this asked if anything was wrong? I told him that he should count his lucky stars, had I been catholic, The very fact that I would gain anything from the actual Devil would make people want to refuse anything he had to offer simply because of association, a deal with the devil is hardly ever beneficial to the one accepting the deal.
The man that wanted apparently for me to become his champion began to laugh and smiled, "As I said, I don't plan to force you to do anything, and you can tell me whether or not you accept to be my champion after the last grail war is finally over. So relax as for where you are, no problem, we shall send you back to your classroom and everything shall go back to normal in due manner. Relax and at least think about what your answer will be, but I would like to remind you that after that grail war is over you shall go to another world, and you will need my help there."
I only had one question why would I need his or his friend's help at all, this person began to laugh like an absolute maniac, until he calmed down, "Why do you need my help? Because the things you will face in the world where you are going make the most brutal fights of any Grail War, seem like a warm-up by comparison. If you think about it, you are being sent to a place that could quite literally be described as Hell. The Grail Wars are nothing like that, it's just a graveyard, so you see that is why you will need my help, and why I called in a favor from the person you call the Devil. That is how desperate the situation is over there, and why we are not sending you right now, you need to be at your strongest if only for you to survive long enough to help that world."
So somehow if I manage to achieve my goal and put an end to these idiotic Grail Wars, that cause nothing but the loss of lives at such a massive scale, violates every law and regulation when it comes to magic, and threaten not only the lives of people but our very ability to use magic in the first place, and my reward is being sent to an even worse place, it is like being told that I had to stop a riot only after succeeding, the only reward was to be sent to stop a war.
Most other people would have simply said, fuck it all, and decided to give up that very moment, in fact in theory the church offers sanctuary to Masters who wish to surrender and get out of participating in the Grail War, nice sentiment, but I know this to be a fucking lie. The church has persecuted and condemned the practice of magic throughout the ages, it would take a real moron to believe the church would put aside such systemic and ingrained discrimination and hatred. Those who accept to enter the so-called Sanctuary are no better than lambs to the slaughter.
I looked at the man and I couldn't help but feel utter rage as he was treating me like an absolute moron. "Yes, but what am I getting out of this? The Holy Grail Wars might be horrible but in the end, the winner gets any wish they desire, what possible thing would I get in that other world, even when it is hundreds if not thousands of times worse than what I have to face in my own world? In other words what the fuck is in it for me?"
The man dressed in black was quiet for a few moments and said something utterly stupid, his only answer was that I got to be a hero like they know I always wanted to be. I was even angrier as I heard him, "Listen up and listen well, cause I will tell you one thing, I ain't no delicious sandwich or have ever considered myself a so-called Hero, I do my job, just happens that dealing with shitty situations happens to be part of my job description."
I told him that if they were expecting one of these holier-than-thou, white knights, save everyone regardless of cost, with no regard to the consequences, they better forget about it, 'cause that ain't me. "I have killed countless people, and I don't feel guilty about any of them, from old to extremely young, it did not matter, to achieve my goal I had killed entire villages if I had no other alternative to achieve my goal. The brutal calculus of battle is something that nobody can deny or ignore.
I heard the man I knew as Lucifer begin to laugh, "You can't really blame my friend, he is at fault for thinking you are one of these self-sacrificing, heroic people more akin to a paragon than it ever is actually can exist in reality. What is in it for you? How about becoming the savior of an entire world, possible immortality and a life of true happiness, a place where you can make that world into your ideal place, a place where magic is accepted and not hated, a place where you can live with the people that you love and that love you, you succeed and you can turn that Hell into your Heaven."
I told him a place called Hell how could that place become something akin to Heaven, he laughed as I told him this, and said it was not something easy, but with enough effort and hard work it could be possible after all, the place people called Hell where he came from is a much nicer place than most people realize, "Not to toot my own horn here, but what do you call a place, with great free housing, wonderful food, gym, pool, and entertainment options, not to mention free medical treatment which includes help with mental problems, and a library that contains every book that has ever or will ever exist."
I asked him how in the hell was that supposed to be possible, and he told me that, unlike most religious depictions of hell, very few have the right idea what the purpose of hell actually was, it was not a place for senseless cruelty where the souls of those that did wrong would suffer for all eternity, no, it was a place to make these wicked souls reflect, accept their guilt, and after paying for their wrongdoings, the souls are purified by doing so, once pure they would ascend to heaven where they more than likely would be allowed to return to life thanks to the souls being reincarnated. Lucifer simply said that the most problem he had was restoring hell back to its intended purpose, thanks to having friends and loved ones in the mortal realm however, he learned to improve it, so that is how Hell could become by definition a Heaven.
"So basically you do bad things because you are stupid, education, you do bad stuff because your nuts, counseling and some treatment for various forms of insanity, because you are greedy, again, counseling and education, all the problems were solved and all diseases healed, only to end up realizing what they did wrong, accepting they messed up, and after some karmic punishment, the soul becomes pure and they get to heaven only to be reborn on Earth all over again."
Lucifer told me that was essentially true, a gross oversimplification of it, but true never less, so I asked him if my reward was going to be basically inheriting the job of fixing a planet-size garbage dumpster container, that was constantly on fire. Lucifer's friend who I still don't know who the hell he is, simply laughed, and told me no, the job was to change that flaming dumpster into something better, and the reward was what my hard work produces which could be called my own Heaven.
Lucifer's friend looked at me and began laughing, he must have found something we talking about rather funny, "You have the wrong definition of hero, the sort of hero I am looking for is not your current definition, no, I am looking for one that would fit how heroes were in the past, they had virtues, true, they were heroic, but they also knew that sometimes they needed to fight and even kill other people, like Herakles, and so many others, a hero who is willing to do what he must, regardless if he has to get his hands dirty."
I told him that is more like an Anti-Hero, this person clearly hated the comparison and told me himself, that the only definition he understood for anything that is Anti, it is the negative version of something else, so the negative version of a hero would be a villain. He clarified that he rules over Darkness, so the only hero that would fit to be his champion would be a Dark Hero, he did not need a hero like what I and Lucifer described as a champion, but rather one that is willing and knew when killing was both necessary and the right thing to do, not a hero, he didn't need a White Knight, he needs a Dark Hero Assassin as his champion, and seeing what he has done in so many previous times he has gone into combat, it was clear that I was that sort of person.
True, I do not shy from having to kill someone, but thanks to my magic I am able to do something most can't give my enemy a chance to surrender, and do the right thing, but that has almost never worked, and upon meeting the same person again, all that would be left is death. I killed in the quickest and most efficient manner possible and used anything at my disposal to get the job done, but I am still wondering what the hell did they mean by me getting my own heaven.
Lucifer and his friend don't like the fact they have to be this blunt with him, but seeing that it was getting them nowhere, one of them decided to give him an example that would really make Shirou understand. "To consider someone my champion, I study that person's history, his relationships, his actions, I need to know this person will not abuse the power that I will grant my champion, and as such I know of your rather public romantic feelings towards one of the heroic spirits that participate in the Grail Wars. So there is no need to hide it, I was there when you used a bridal carry to carry her into the elevator of that hotel, I know, you two honestly love each other, and the fact that she is a heroic spirit also means to you that you two will never be able to have a family together. Any married couple at one point wishes to conceive a child, the fruit of their love, but you can't and it frustrates both of you to no end."
It must be so obvious since he was looking at me like he could see right through me. "If you go to that world and help save it, you both can live in that world and she will be able to have a child with you, your marriage will bear fruit, and you two can know the joys and pains of parenthood. Is that not something either of you would consider heavenly?"
With these last words I was speechless, I was that shocked, and so was Medusa, because even in spirit form she could still talk with me and she had said nothing after this guy told us that, what is even worse he wasn't looking at me when he said that, he was looking at the spot where Medusa was standing when he said that, almost like he could see her even in spirit form.
"The curse that changed her prevent that, and that curse was not cast on her body but her soul, so how is it that a curse done by the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy would not work in that world?" Lucifer simply told me, Olympian Gods have no power in that world, in fact, they don't even exist, so if somehow we managed to save and basically correct everything that is wrong in that world, Medusa and I could finally live as happily married couple till the end of time and even have children together.
"Like we said Shirou, if you managed to go there and save that world from everything that is trying to destroy it, and make it a better place, that world becomes a new home for you, your wife, and your children, where you and your family can have a happy life there, would you not consider that your Heaven? I know I would, if my wife was still alive." I didn't understand what Lucifer meant by this but I could feel the sadness in his voice when he said it.
I looked at them both and couldn't help but to smile, if what they said is true, yes that world could be considered our idea of Heaven, "Alright, I will consider it, I still need to discuss it with my wife, only a fool makes an important decision like this without first talking about it with his wife, and I ain't no fool. Like you said I don't have to answer till the end of the current Holy Grail War, at the slowest pace, that would be at least a year from now, at the fastest pace, it will be five to six months. Either of those gives us plenty of time to discuss our options, and when the Grail War is finally over, I promise that I shall give you an answer to this generous proposal."
