Yo, sorry for the late chapter. College just started and I want to get used to that before doing much else.
Don't worry, Chapters will still come, this is just an explanation for the periods of time I'm not writing. Though I estimate the longest without me posting to be a week at most.
So let's get on with the story.
School.
'What a strange thing.' Shirou thought as he walked beside his 'cousins' Shinji and Sakura to their elementary school.
It didn't make sense to him, whether it was because he didn't remember ever having gone to one before or because it was simply strange that someone would hand out knowledge so easily.
Still, he accepted his grandfather's command.
Not that he really had any choice though, even for him, spending more time than necessary in the worm pits was annoying. It stole time away from his experiments, and that annoyed him more than anything.
Of course, this would also steal his time away. But he had been forced to when his grandfather told him to be 'normal' and how integral it was to survival for a magus.
So he sucked it up, though he would definitely have put up more of a struggle if he didn't know that he would also be making connections with the other magus family in Fuyuki.
The Tohsaka, a clan of Magus who's specialty lay in Gemcraft.
Surprisingly it was revealed to him that Sakura had once been part of the family, but now she was most definitely part of his.
And he so hated giving away anything that might help him in his life.
"Shinji, do you know which gradr we're apart of?" Shirou brought it up rather abruptly, he had forgotten and no one told him.
The boy beside him clicked his tongue and turned his head, even despite all the time they spent together it seemed he didn't like him for some strange reason.
"You're in the 3rd Grade Onii-sama," Sakura said in his stead "I am in the grade below you while the Tohsaka Family magus is in the same grade as you and Nii-san."
"I see, do you know if I'm in the same class as Shinji or Tohsaka?" The pale red haired boy asked, a bit of curiosity in his eyes.
Unfortunately, the purple haired girl shook her head, "Apologies Onii-sama, grandfather did not tell me."
Shirou sighed but shook his head, "No need for apologies Sakura, I'm sure grandfather has already planned for us."
With that said, they continued on their walk to their new school.
Well, Shirou's new school anyway, he was pretty sure Shinji and Sakura had already gone to this school.
Either Way, Shirou at least enjoyed the walk, if only because of the sun shining down on him and the sakura blossoms in bloom.
It was during the Principal's speech during the orientation that Tohsaka Rin first met Makiri Shirou.
They were sitting next to each other when he released a small wave of od to indicate he was a fellow magus, suspicion immediately rooted itself within her heart.
Who was this random magus?
Why did he reveal himself?
Why did it look like his hair was prematurely whitening?
Why the fuck was he in her territory without her permission!?
It was these questions as well as a whole cavalcade of others that she was determined to have answered.
But unfortunately, a certain priest wouldn't allow her to use magecraft on normals without proper supervision.
'To make sure she didn't destroy the victim's mind,' He said.
Rin called it Kirei being an asshole.
Thankfully, or, unfortunately in the case of this rogue magus, they had been placed inside the same classroom.
"All right class, let's start by introducing ourselves to each other!" A cheerful teacher told her young class, "I'll start, I am Fukushi Haru, your new homeroom teacher. Let's have a fun school year!"
The students clamored for her attention as one went after another, until the student speaking was finally the new magus.
Rin scowled as he stood up, a thin smile on his face that would fool all but her. "Hello everyone! I am Makiri Shirou, I hope you take care of me!"
The other students welcomed him with smiles and the activity went on until it was her turn.
"I'm Tohsaka Rin! Hopefully we can all be friends!" But she wasn't foolish enough to have all her classmates be against her so early in the school year.
That could only happen after she proved her superiority to everyone!
This… Makiri would inevitably fall by her feet. There was no way she was going to let him run around unopposed!
It was around after lunch and during recess that they could finally talk unopposed.
She rounded up to him with a scowl on her face, ready for war against this new and strange mage.
"Who are you?" She said with a growl, a green gem hidden between the crook of her fingers.
The red haired mage had the gall to smile- smile at her. "I'm unsure what you mean Tohsaka. Did you forget my introduction already?" He said with confused tilt.
A thin sheet of red appeared on her face. "Tohsaka Rin does not forget anything! I meant you! Who are you and why are you in my land with permission!"
The other mage looked confused for a second, "Did your guardian not tell you? I'm the new heir to the Matou clan adopted by the current head, Zouken Matou."
She sputtered, "Wha- b-but the contract said that my sis-" She stopped herself, glaring at the new heir. "Sakura was supposed to be the Heir after my father gave her to our allies, the Matou!"
He gave her a thin smile, "My family has no recollection of this. Unless you can tell me you have a document of this contract we can only deny it." He put emphasis on the fact Sakura was his family and not hers.
Rin grit her teeth, "But- I-" She could do nothing but sputter as she looked at his infuriating little smirk.
Their brief glaring contest lasted until the bell rang, after which the teacher came to collect them back to their class.
Rin couldn't stop glaring at Makiri though, an irrational anger at the new heir of the Matou clan.
It didn't help that whenever the opposing magus saw it, he countered with his own insufferable smirk.
This meant war.
Shirou thought that was a pretty good meeting.
He smiled when he saw Tohsaka looking and even met up and talked with her. All in all it was a pretty good day.
He couldn't get closer to Shinji unfortunately, but that wasn't as high on the list as making friends with the other magus living in Fuyuki.
Shirou could even see them becoming friends if the circumstances were right.
"So, how did your little meeting with the Heir of Tohsaka go?" His grandfather suddenly asked during his experiments, he didn't know how he got there, but he didn't worry too much about it.
"Well, I think it went well." Shirou smiled, "I saw her looking at me alot so I think we can become friends! Though, she had some weird questions."
"Oh?" The old man looked vaguely interested, "And what were those?"
"Well, she asked something about Sakura being the heir and a contract for some reason." Shirou could understand the part about the contract since Sakura had been adopted but not the heir thing.
She wasn't even very good with the Matou magecraft!... Though she was decent at necromancy through what he could only figure to be through her unique attribute of Imaginary Numbers like his regeneration.
Except instead of keeping her alive it just helped her with magecraft pertaining to spirits and the like.
"Oh?" The decrepit old monster made a curious noise before his face split into a malign smile. "Don't worry about that Shirou, after all, the contract never said anything of heirship."
The boy nodded with a thoughtful look, "Ah right, grandfather, I wanted to ask you about this chapter in voodoo…"
"What do you mean there's nothing about the Matou Heir in the contract!" Rin's angry shrill bounced off the walls.
Kirei sighed, "I mean just as I said, there is nothing about your former sister being the Matou heir, merely that she was to be adopted by the Matou. Not to become their Head."
Rin growled and smashed her feet on the floor. Her face was a rictus of anger, "Damn it…".
"Language," Kirei said without really meaning it. "And even if it did say anything about Sakura becoming the new Heir, the contract was normal, not a geas or anything of the sort."
That caught Rin off guard, "Wait, it's not magical?" She asked her would-be mentor.
Kirei sighed, but nodded all the same. "Yes, it's not magical." He confirmed, "By the time the contract was made, the downfall of the Matou clan had been a foregone conclusion. It was expected that your former sister would be the Heir, the fact Zouken gained a new heir was completely unexpected."
As he explained the intricacies or lack thereof, Rin gained an idea, a scheme for the future.
"If you're thinking of going against the Matou I strongly suggest you stop," Though Kirei said this, he realized this would only increase her desire to go against Zouken. Kirei smiled. "I doubt even your father could defeat the current head."
"W-what!? My father could totally defeat that decrepit old geezer!" The young magus argued, she had seen the Matou head before and realized the old man might die from a stiff breeze.
Kirei shook his head, "Come now Rin, appearances aren't everything. More than that, it's said that in his prime Zouken could take care of Dead Apostles on his own."
That bit of information made Rin subconsciously take a step back, "Y-you're kidding, right?" She asked, her plans falling before they were even put to paper.
Kirie stifled a laugh, but made sure to hide it. "No, I am not. In fact, they specifically avoid Fuyuki because he lives here." The Priest helpfully informed his ward.
Kirei did not take a small amount of satisfaction in his young wards' dreams crashing before they were even able to leave the ground.
"But, I'm sure you can do it, Rin." He said with a smile, to which the young Tohsaka heir pouted.
"Don't think I won't, you fake Priest!" She yelled, a fire in her heart.
So what if the Matou head could kill Dead Apostles single handedly! She was sure she could eventually do it!
It might take a while, but she would take revenge on the Matou for taking her sister and not even having the courtesy of making her the Heir!
How hard could it really be anyway?
Though there was still one thing she was curious about…
"Who is Makiri anyway?" She asked her infuriating guardian.
"Have you not read your own family books?" Kirei didn't allow her to answer as he moved on, "They are the name of the Matou before they changed it."
Rin sent a glare his way. "No not that Kirei! I know that already," She huffed, "I meant who was this kid before he became the Matou heir! I've never met him and f-father would have told me…"
Kirei tried not to smile, "It seems records show that he was a distant cousin of the Matou who's parents died and was left in Zouken's care," He spat the name out.
If Rin noticed this, she didn't say anything. She merely had an odd thought.
'Is he uncle Kariya's son?' She shrugged the thought off, Kariya would definitely have told her if he had a child!
But there was a lingering doubt….
Shirou focused on his od- his prana, the very lifeforce that kept him alive.
And he was giving it away.
A formless energy jumped through his connection to the crest worms, forcing them into a short incubation period as they soon grew.
They twisted and turned, becoming abominations as sharp sword-like wings jutted out of their every being. They buzzed, they flew, and they would pierce and devour.
Still, they had weakness'.
Ones which his grandfather neglected due to his own power.
But Shirou did not have that sort of power, he might never have that sort of power, and so he would need to improve upon them.
First though, he needed to finish his observations on the incubation period as well as the new being that emerged out of the cocoon despite the worm previously in there.
His Sword-centipede wouldn't come out of nowhere after all.
On a side note, he had finally managed to make a sword centipede! Though, they would probably be better called centipede knives for all that they were small and dull.
Shirou sighed, at least he was getting somewhere. The Crest Worms helped him a lot with that.
It really was interesting how varied his grandfather's worms were though, so much potential all in the form of a crawling worm. They had multiple evolutions which most would balk at and even had potential with the Matou attribute of Absorption that would amaze even other Magi.
Really, if his centipedes could become even half of what the crest worms had the potential to be it would already be an amazing achievement for him.
Five hundred years of work could not simply be recreated in a year or two.
Shirou knew this most of all.
Due to his own Sorcery Trait, his magic circuits could not be affected by the crest worms as they would simply be killed and turned into nutrients as soon as his trait noticed them.
A double edged sword to be sure, but one that was useful to him.
Still, due to his body retaining the information of the crest worms, his research had grown by leaps and bounds.
Though there was still the question of how he would exactly carry them about.
But that was for future Shirou, currently he still needed to make progress on other fronts.
Like curses.
Curses were very good.
Enough that he was wondering if he should ditch the Clocktower when he grew up and go to the middle eastern schools. They had better knowledge on curses compared to the Clocktower.
There was also the fact his blood seemed to sing when thinking of the middle east. A strange nostalgia welled up within his heart whenever he thought of it, though a shiver also went through his body.
But for now, how exactly could he imbue curses onto his familiars? Could he use the principles of Voodoo? Maybe through turning their bodies into cursed objects? Or perhaps just turning them into Mystic Codes straight up with the Matou family magecraft.
Maybe he could carry them by 'Absorbing' them and spitting them back out when needed?
'No,' Shirou shook his head, 'That would only have them be devoured by my body…' It was almost annoying.
Still, at least he was getting somewhere.
A knock at the door has his attention.
"Onii-sama, dinner is ready." The dull tone of Sakura came through the door, "Please get ready." Her footsteps sounded as she went away.
"Well that was just rude…" He couldn't help but mutter, turning back to his notes and putting them away.
Oh well, maybe he would make progress later.
He needed more experimental materials anyway…
That's right, Sakura and Shinji have a decent relationship now!
With Sakura not the heir, Shinji isn't liable to go full rapist brother on her. Since he was only angry about that because he believed she took his spot, he now starts caring for her as a real sister.
On the other hand, as we see in the last chapter, without Kiritsugu's guidance and with Zouken's Magus sensibilities, Shirou has basically zero experience on socializing other than a thin smile.
But yeah, not much Shirou or despair right now. Don't worry, we'll get there eventually. Next chapter even.
This one was mostly to show other characters aside from the Matou family, we'll have Shirou go back into his heinous crap and Zouken being Zouken soon.
Oh right, you guys might've been a bit weirded out by the Rin characterization, but it's just that I've been inspired by 100% NO CHILL!
...Not that that'll actually be her full characterization. She's funny but I want a combination of the original and project mouthwash's Rin, mostly for the interactions and I just don't think abridged Rin is much good for that.
Well, other than that I'm thinking on what to do once we get to the Grail war. I want an Avenger servant, but the only Avenger I can maybe decently write would be Jalter.
Hmmm… Such possibilities…
Oh well, see you next time!