His heart had started beating- no, it was almost as if drums had replaced his heart with how loud they were.

It had all started a normal enough day: wake up, pray, deal with Gilgamesh, practice Baijiquan, teach Rin magecraft once she came from school and then finally go down to Min-san's Restaurant for his favorite tofu.

Of course, this was when his daily routine deviated.

First it was when two teenagers went behind Min-san's diner, he wouldn't have bat an eye at that but it was two male students. Now, he didn't really care about one's sexuality, but the nervous face on the taller one gave him a bit of curiosity.

So it was with much surprise that he realized a bounded field was set up almost directly after the two boys went in.

He scowled, the buzz of flies gave away who this was.

But why did that old worm target two boys? He usually went for the women.

So it was with much surprise when he realized the one who set up this barrier was not that old worm and instead was the Makiri, Rin complained about.

And then his heart started beating.

Kirei couldn't help but smile, it was as if his heart was welcoming the birth of something new, something great.

He hadn't felt this way during Caren's birth and neither had he felt this way even when faced with Kiritsugu Emiya. The only time was when-

Burning mud filled the streets, a cursed fire filled the buildings while the screams of the innocent and sinners alike burned.

Sweltering heat pushed against his skin as tar-like smoke tried to invade his body, everything had a distinct curse-like quality to it. From the broken glass shards to the crumbling buildings, he felt as if he was in a 1st rate Magus' Workshop.

It was quite literally hell on earth at that very moment.

Kirei's smirk gained a bitter quality as his thoughts went to one idea, one that his whole body seemed to agree with.

Still, he hid in the shadows to see what would happen. And to see if it had truly been reborn into this era without any prompt from him.

That tugged on his smirk a bit.

But it also had the effect of having the Priest wonder what sorts of atrocities it would do in the future, what it had already done.

That had his smirk tug back up.

So he watched as the two teens got into an argument, watched as they panic'd at its arrival, savored every moment as they nearly shit their pants in fear.

"KUSAKABEE-"

And he watched as those two teens got butchered with a smile on his face.

At that point, feeling as if the event was done and over with, made his appearance.

Only for the appearance of a half a dozen Blade-wing worms to cause him to instinctively reinforce his limbs, destroying every projectile with his magecraft strengthened bajiquan.

"Oh? Isn't this familiar," The Priest couldn't help but say, this move was quite reminiscent of Kariya fighting against his mentor. Though, he had to admit this spell seemed more powerful than Kariya's.

Then again, Kariya was never really a Magus, was he?

Though, this boy was. In fact, if he really was its vessel, then he should probably test it, shouldn't he?

Kirei smiled.

Shirou frowned as the Priest smiled.

For some reason, he couldn't help but find the man similar, and not just because of the memories of the last grail war.

That he was in a fighting stance really didn't help.

"Lord of the Flies!" His fly swarm transformed into a dozen Blade-wing worms, each launching itself at the priest.

They wouldn't do anything more than cause a distraction though. So with a quick movement, he tossed his school bag as his hand reached a book.

A leathery cover responded to his touch, Shirou smiled despite himself.

This mystic code was created using the Matou family attribute of absorption and inspiration of the Caster of the fourth grail war.

Flipping the book open as the last of his familiars were decimated, he felt the texture of skin in place of paper.

"Rise my horde, your lord requires assistance." Dozens of skin-pages flew into the air, almost jumping out of the book. "Twist and transform, revert to thy originality." The pages transformed in mid-air returning to their base form of monstrous familiars far greater than anything Shirou could produce.

The priest had already shown the ability to defeat his swarm with ease, but would he be so receptive to the familiars created directly by his grandfather.

More than that however-

The bug magus couldn't finish the thought as a fist neared his face, only missing due to a greater Blade-wing worm taking his place.

Jumping back, a leathery page crawled onto his left hand, transforming into one of his own familiars. Due to its size and the fact it was still comparatively new, he wasn't able to get the familiars children.

So he had to resort to carrying it in his Tome of False Skin.

An interlocking red carapace grew as dozens of iron-like legs wrapped around his forearm with a death grip. A red blade erupted from its mandibles, a small haze enrapturing its form.

Shirou barely deflected another punch with his new sword through ingrained practice, but wasn't able to counter attack as he could feel the kinetic energy transferring between his familiar and arm.

The priest destroyed another familiar but another caught him in the back, unfortunately that too was destroyed with a twist of his body.

"Tsk," Shirou clicked his tongue, two fingers running through the flat of his familiar-blade. "Burn, Crimson Centipede." A cursed flame enveloped the blade as he pointed at the defending Priest.

With a grunt of emission, he fed his od into the blade.

Heat caressed his face as a gout of infernal fire erupted from the blade, lighting up the dark alley. The fire unnaturally twisted around his insect familiars and targeted only the Priest backing up.

However, Shirou knew this was only temporary, once the fires died down the Priest would no doubt target him.

The Magus stared at the hairline cracks on his centipede's carapace, he wouldn't bet on it surviving any more attacks.

With a snap of his fingers, all the familiars readied themselves to launch.

This time, he would be ready-

'Oh, it's night already…' Shirou thought as he flew through the air, twisting as he bounced off a wall. His cheek had already started to swell before he even landed on his back.

The Priest- Kirei Kotomine his blood sang, had smashed his face in, cracking his skull and giving him a killer headache.

Waily standing back up, he found that the priest had started destroying his familiars again. With only a few burns already starting to heal, it seemed as if the man in front of him was invincible, smiling as he dealt fatal blows to his familiars.

"Damn it…" Shirou muttered, he wouldn't win this way-

Wait, why was he thinking to win? No, it would be all good should he simply continue on living and survive. Winning was a secondary objective compared to that.

The bug magus could already feel his injuries healing, hairline fractures sealed themselves, internal bleeding stitched themselves up and what few blemishes from the fight had been reverted back to normal. Though there were a few smaller injuries he would need to heal himself later, this would do for now.

Through his connection, more than half of his forces surrounded the priest, who looked a little amused.

"Do you really think more familiars can kill me young boy?" The dark haired priest asked in the middle of the fight. "If that didn't work before, what makes you think it will work now?"

Shirou allowed himself a smirk. "Who said anything about killing you?" He asked back, before grabbing hold of his connections to the familiars and clapping hands in the physical world. "Katsu!" The curse took hold as his hands glowed a brief orange.

Kirei's eyes widened the smallest bit, before the Blade-wing worms around him exploded with a blinding light.

Shrapnel flew into his reinforced skin and clothes, the noise threatened to deafen him and heat washed over his form over a dozen times.

Shirou smiled.

Through the concepts of Voodoo cursecraft, he had substituted the normal connection needed like hair or blood and used his connection as the master of the familiars to send an explosion curse.

But it wasn't over, no, every part of his being told him the priest would survive this.

His centipede familiar unclasped before jumping towards the now vulnerable priest. "Burn with cursed prominence! Crimson Centipede!"

The wriggling insect glowed with a burning orange, flames danced along its cracked carapace as with a blinding flash a serpentine centipede dozens of times larger appeared with a burning body.

It launched itself at the briefly surprised priest, whose body reinforced itself even further as he took up an attacking position.

His Crimson Centipede was specifically mutated and bred with fire in mind due to their inherent symbolism to fire. That the Japanese considered it a symbol for curses and corruption only made imbuing its very being with curses all the easier.

Eventually resulting in its ability to spew fire and detonate into a giant fire centipede with a curse of spreading.

But that wouldn't stop the priest, something of this level wouldn't keep him down for long. Shirou inherently knew this.

Shirou ran, grabbing his dropped Tome and bag, not giving the other materials a second glance as he collapsed the bounded field and ran with all the power reinforced legs would give him.

'I need to look up strengthening spells,' The Makiri thought as he didn't even try to look back, hopefully the priest wouldn't give chase.

Or, if he did, he would level himself to normal since people were still out on the streets.

'For the most part anyways.' Shirou leveled an unimpressed glance towards the drunken crowds, he could already feel his nose stuff up.

The smell of alcohol was none too pleasing to his nose, far too bitter to his nose. The only sort of alcohol he had ever managed to force down was mead and wine. ANd even that was only because of Shinji's incessant whining.

That had the seaweed haired boy thrown into the worm pits.

Shirou smiled-

The only warning he had was the shriek of cut wind as he just barely twitched his head to the left. A Black Key nicked his cheek, carving a shallow gash along it.

The magus hissed as the wound seemed to burn up before being suppressed by his body. 'Holy Weapon!' Shirou internally cursed.

Turning his head in panic, he found the accursed priest had nearly caught up to him. Three Black Keys in both hands, scorch marks littered his body but none seemed even close to a major injury.

"Fuck!" WiIth a curse, Shirou muttered another chant as pages jumped from within his Tome, transforming mid-air and launching themselves towards the dull-eyed priest.

Unfortunately, every single one was either deflected or destroyed as they neared him with even being given the chance to explode.

Another incantation, though this time maggots were forced out of his skin before transforming into a swarm of Blade-wing worms. WIth a heavy breath, Shirou launched dozens of worms at the Priest.

The auburn haired boy smiled wickedly, the priest had taken up a defensive stance and for every one Blade-wing worm he had taken out, another two had taken its place.

Though none would do any damage to him, every single one pushed him back centimeter by centimeter. With every broken worm coming with shrapnel, some even pierced through his reinforced skin.

Small cuts littered his face, injuries that even a normal man could heal on his own. As such, the Priest was straight faced, a small smile on his face as he broke down the bug familiars.

Why was the priest even doing this? With this many witnesses there would be no end to-

Shirou's eyes widened, there was no one around. An empty ghost street without a single man woman or child in sight.

Only now did he smell the magecraft in the air, a bounded field had been established. But how did this priest set one up so fast?

Shirou didn't know the answer, but he did know that he needed to run.

Turning back to run, the auburn haired magus gasped. "Gah!" Shirou screamed in pain as a Black Key struck through his shoulder, going through it with the same ease a hot knife cuts through butter.

Blood gushed out like a river, stumbling as the holy power imbued within fought with his inherent nature.

"Tch," Shirou clicked his tongue as he glared at the priest still destroying his worms, at this rate it would only be a matter of time before he died.

"Now, now," A old and decrepit voice sprung from within the darkness of an alleyway. "Kotomine-kun, could you please leave my grandson alone?" The old form of his grandfather stepped out of the darkness, an ugly smile on his face.

At least Shirou knew who set the bounded field up…

"Old worm…" The priest narrowed his eyes as the old monster stepped in front of his injured 'Grandson'. He stepped out from his crouch as Shirou winced, his grandfather had taken control of his familiars and dispersed them.

There was an anxious feeling in the air, as if a battle were to begin between two monsters cut from the same cloth. Shirou would normally cheer at the prospect, or at least try to, but unfortunately he was too busy dealing with the holy element inside of the Black Key to be listening to these two.

"Very well then, but do warn him not to fight outside of someone's favorite restaurant." The Priest nearly growled.

WIth that, the priest walked away. A vaguely displeased grimace on his face.

Soon enough, there was only Shirou and his smiling grandfather.

The old man turned around, that ugly smile still on his face as a bit of mischief colored his smile. "Now then, Shirou-kun, what did you learn?"

Shirou couldn't help but let out a glare as blood gushed from his wound once more. He could swear the old worm's smile grew a bit…

Sup guys!

College is still on and sucks as expected.

But enough about me, here's another thing made by me!