Shirou decided that now was the time to interrogate the Fallen that his girls had captured. He got up from his desk and made his way to the room that the girls had placed his captives in, opening the door and entering. He immediately felt the effects of the Bounded Field affect him and weaken his powers significantly, but not enough to sever them completely, like it would for those weaker than him.
Inside the room was a black haired woman tied down to one chair, while there was a blue haired woman tied down to another facing the black haired one. They were both awake and struggling in their seats, trying to escape.
"So… what should I do with you?" Shirou spoke up while sitting in another seat near them.
THe women startled and turned to Shirou so fast he would have been worried about whiplash had they not been his prisoners. The black haired one growled while glaring at him and the blue haired one stared at him with a small hint of fear behind her anger.
"Let us go." The black haired one snarled.
"Now why would I do that when you are on my turf illegally. In fact, if I didn't have a Bounded Field around the city, I wouldn't have known you were here." Shirou wondered aloud.
"Because you stupid devil, we were sent here to protect the Boosted Gear wielder from your kind!" The black haired one shouted.
'What?' Shirou thought, all other thoughts halting.
He stared incredulously at them, "The hell do you mean protect him from us? Weren't you the one who made first contact with him?"
The blue haired one answered while the black haired one snarled, "We made contact as a way to protect him. We thought that if he was sighted near a few Fallen it would deter you from trying to recruit him for any kind of gain. Our plan was to just get him out of devil territory and leave him alone without knowledge of the supernatural."
Shirou stared at the pair with a discerning eye, if it wasn't for his time spent as the head of his clan, then he wouldn't be able to truly parse the truth from the lie in their sentences. And although they were fidgeting a lot, it wasn't due to lying, moreso due to their situation.
"If your job was to protect him, then who would you say was the most likely to try and get him in their peerage?" Shirou asked instead.
They both stopped moving for a moment before the black haired one answered, "Well it was either the Malthus Clan head or the Gremory Heiress."
Shirou let out a quiet sigh before asking another question, "Do you have any reason to suspect those two?"
The blue haired one answered, "Yes, it's due to their arranged marriages. It's no secret in the underworld that they don't like their arranged spouses. The reason we suspected they would use the Boosted Gear user as a way to ensure their freedom through political means. No one would want to go against a dragon, especially if it resulted in another Asteride Massacre."
Ah yes, the Asteride Massacre, Shirou remembers hearing about that. Apparently the last wielder of Divine Dividing had heard of how he was reincarnated into a devils peerage, through some rather unsavory methods, and had gone on a rampage. He activated his Juggernaut Drive and massacred around 250,000 devils, caused billions in property damage, and took a full 24 hours for the wielder of Divine Dividing to die from the strain it caused on his body.
It was agreed upon by all devils after that, that if someone wanted to bring a Divine Dividing or Boosted Gear wielder into their peerage, they had to go through the Great King Faction and get permission from them and also the Four Satans. So whatever plan Rias had told them was likely full of shit as she didn't care about the political side of things aside from gaining her independence.
"So, that's her game." Shirou said aloud.
'Using EMIYA to gain her independence wouldn't work because he is an unknown, and even if he does take down Riser, it doesn't mean she will be safe in her future and she knows this. So she is planning to use Hyoudou as a nuclear deterrent for any marriage proposals.'
"Now then, I have a few more questions for the two of you. The first being, what are your names?" Shirou asked, only just realizing he never got their names.
The blue haired one sighed, seeing no way out of this, so she answered, "Kalawarner, she is Raynare."
"Thank you Kalawarner for telling the truth." Shirou thanked, and hey it's not like he is above being polite to enemies.
"What makes you think I even told the truth in the first place?" Kalawarner bit back.
"Because as the head of the Malthus Clan, I've had to deal with political bullshit throughout my youth in order to not drown in the other clans shit." Shirou answered, really hating the current political landscape.
"Wait, you're the Malthus head?!" Raynare sputtered, stopping her glaring in place for her incredulity.
"You didn't know?" Shirou raised an eyebrow at that.
Kalawarner shook her head, "No, we weren't given any information as to the identity of the Malthus head, though we probably should have put it together that you are the Malthus head, what with us being here and all."
"Yeah, that probably would be the smart thing to do, research your potential adversaries." Shirou acquiesced to their point.
"Gee thanks Captain Obvious." Raynare snarled.
Shirou raised a brow at her before speaking, "You sure you want to speak to your captor like that?"
"What are you going to do? Beat us? Torture us? Rape us? If you do, just know that I will fight the whole way." Raynare growled while answering.
Shirou stilled at the mention of rape, memories of a purple haired kouhai flooding into his mind and what her supposed brother had done to her. The two Fallen watched as he became as still as a statue with a shadow covering his eyes. They saw how it seemed as though he aged 30 years and a pressure fell upon them, making it hard to breathe.
"You think… that I'd fall so low as to be like HIM?" Shirou spoke lowly, spitting out the last word with venom.
Shirou had found out, shortly before leaving for Chaldea, that Shinji had been physically and sexually abusive to Sakura. He didn't care that he was trying to turn over a new leaf anymore, Shirou did something that he would not regret during a fit of rage. When he first heard about it, he pretty much ran after Shinji and Traced weapons that would cause him the most pain before his death, so as to feel even a fraction of the suffering that Sakura had felt at his hand. After he had committed the deed, he disappeared to Chaldea and everything after that with restoring humanity after its incineration happened.
He took a moment to breathe and calm himself, noting that the two women were shaking a little while looking pale and having sweat run down their faces.
"Sorry for that. It's just there is one thing that I despise in the world and that is rapists, I would gladly cut their equipment off if I ever got my hands on them." Shirou sighed as he leaned back against the wall.
The two Fallen Angels remained silent, scared at his spike in power that was able to overcome the wards on the room, proving that he was very powerful in their minds.
After a moment to calm down Shirou asked, "Is there anything else that you can tell me about your mission?"
They shifted in their seats, obviously not wanting to tell a devil the details, but scared at the possibilities of what he could do if they didn't. Eventually, after they looked at eachother, Kalawarner sighed and turned to him.
"We were assigned this mission directly by Lord Azazel in regards to Hyoudou's safety. We were to either get him out of the city and leave him alone or somehow convince him to join us legitimately. Our secondary objectives were to observe you devils for any sort of useful information, this was assigned by Lord Kokabiel himself. He also assigned us two more objectives, those being eliminating any Sacred Gear users within city limits, and to take the Sacred Gear of an exiled nun once she arrived in Kuoh." Kalawarner answered, her voice wavering a little but gaining confidence to continue speaking.
"Hold up, you mean to tell me, that Kokabiel, the most bloodthirsty and biggest warmonger of the Grigori wished for you to spy on us and kill humans in our territory? And you willingly went along with that?" Shirou asked dryly, as if it was obvious for everyone as to why that was such a bad idea.
"What else were we supposed to do? Everyone knows that he has a reputation for killing those that don't bend to his will, and before you ask, no, we haven't killed anyone here." Kalawarner answered with a huff.
"Well, we haven't. Dohnnaseek might have without our knowledge." Raynare tacked on at the end of her statement.
"Right, I'll get my peerage on that." Shirou said.
'Great, just great. Gotta deal with a fucking Fallen mentioned in the Bible. Knowing the things I've been hearing about the Grigori, Kokabiel is actually in the minority for wanting a Second War.' Shirou thought to himself irritably.
"I'll be back, I need to deal with this." Shirou said as he got up from his seat.
"Wait, what about us?" Kalawarner asked quickly.
"I'll inform Serafall about you and have you sent back to the Grigori after I inform her of the circumstances." Shirou answered, walking to the door.
"Also, don't worry, she is actually more hospitable than you would think for a Satan." Shirou reassured before stepping out of the room.
Shirou let out a long sigh before picking himself up and walking away. He had a lot on his mind now, the fact that someone who he thought was a friend tried to blackmail him into being a bystander to a crime using Archer, to the fact that he needs to deal with Kokabiel somehow, knowing that his shit luck will drag him into fighting the Cadre.
When he returned to his little office he collapsed in his chair and stared off into space for a moment. He sat there trying to separate everything into separate folders in his mind to tackle one at a time, and once done he decided to give Sona a call first.
Grabbing his phone and dialing her number, Shirou put the phone to his ear and waited.
The phone clicked as Sona picked up, "Hello, Souna Shitori speaking."
"Hey Sona, I need to speak to you about something." Shirou smiled at the sound of his friend's voice.
"Ah Shirou, good to hear from you. What can I help you with?" Sona responded, with Shirou hearing the hint of a smile in her voice.
"I'm going to need your permission to get Serafall here." Shirou answered.
"Shirou why wou-"
Shirou cut Sona off by saying, "We have a minor crow problem and a possible catalyst for a great war."
Sona fell silent at his words. She knew that Shirou was never one to lie or exaggerate. She had gotten very comfortable with him in the time that she knew him, at first thinking that he would be somewhat like Serafall, but instead he seemed to be wrong somehow, so when she spoke up, it was in agreement.
"Sure thing Shirou, I'll get Onee-sama over to yours as soon as possible." Sona answered before hanging up.
Shirou put the phone down and was still shocked that Sona always took him at his word whenever he spoke. He understood that she trusted him, but felt like he could unintentionally take advantage of that fact, he never would though, not willingly but he was also touched that she trusted him like that.
The rust haired teen gathered himself and left his small office to gather his peerage, finding Artoria in the dojo practicing sword forms against an imagined enemy. Once he told her they were having a guest, he left to find Atalanta, seeing her going through her gear and making sure it was in working order, telling her the same thing he told Artoria he left to find Jack. He found the diminutive girl going through a photobook, looking at all the memories they've made with a smile on her face.
"Jack, were going to have visitors, please at least wear something presentable." Shirou spoke up, practically begging for the clothing part in his speech.
"Okay mommy, who are we having over?" Jack answered as she closed the book.
"We're going to be having Serafall over, for something serious so no dressing as you normally would please." Shirou answered.
"Okay mommy I will dress well." She answered with a pout on her face that almost got Shirou to cave.
They both left for the living room afterwards, awaiting Serafalls arrival. While they were waiting, Shirou got to work planning a new weapon for himself. He decided that it was going to be designed like Kiritsugu's specialized Mystic Code, his Thompson Contender with Origin Bullets.
Shirou knew that he wouldn't be able to trace the gun itself because the weapon was too far removed from the concept of 'Sword', so he instead tried to design it to be as easily concealable as possible while still retaining most of its power. Once he had finished drawing up the prototype gun he smelt two distinct scents.
The smell of the ocean that he associated with Sona Sitri, and the smell of glacial ice, associated with his self proclaimed big sister, Serafall Leviathan. The next second, Serafall and Sona's magic circles appeared in Shirou's living room, their circles glowed with an ocean blue and an icy blue for each girl before fading, revealing the pair.
Serafall stood there with her wide violet eyes looking at Shirou, revealing their excitement. She was dressed in her bright pink magical girl outfit that always reminded Shirou of that other version of Ilya who was bound to a Kaliedostick and became an 'Ideal Magical Girl' through the
Bogus contract that she was forced into by the Mystic Code when it ran from that worlds Rin.
Sona however, was dressed in the Kuoh academy uniform. The black striped white button up shirt hugged her figure tightly, paired with a black corset and shoulder cape with a magenta skirt made her look, well, hot. Shirou did consider Sona attractive in both looks and personality, but he wouldn't try to pursue her if she didn't show any signs of attraction for him. Her violet eyes behind glasses of the same color, he could see joy in her eyes at seeing him, though it was well hidden.
"Hey Shi-tan! So-tan said you had something for Big Sis Levia-tan?" Serafall shouted excitedly.
"Hello Serafall, Sona. Thank you for coming." Shirou said with a small smile that revealed how tired he felt.
"What's that you're working on there Shirou?" Sona asked when she saw the paper in front of the rust haired devil.
"Oh, just a conceptual weapon using my bones as ammunition." Shirou replied flippantly.
Everyone fell silent and stared at Shirou in incredulity. Sona, Serafall, Jack and Atalanta did not know what Shirou was talking about. Artoria however, had a sudden memory flash, within her memory there was a man who wielded a firearm that was loaded with bullets made from his bone powder to invoke his dual Origin in its targets, this man was named Kiritsugu Emiya, Shirou's father.
"Shirou no! What are you thinking?!" Artoria shouted in shock that he would go this far.
"I'm thinking that I should have done this ages ago and that I need every weapon in my arsenal ready." Shirou responded.
"Um… what's going on here?" Atalanta asked with a raised brow, feeling left out.
"Shirou is being an idiot yet again." Artoria retorted before Shirou could answer.
"Oh come on Artoria, you have to admit that it would be helpful, plus I can regenerate my bones so I don't have to worry about running out of ammunition." Shirou retorted.
"Master that doesn't help the fact that it may not even work, the man you are trying to copy used two of his ribs and only got something like 60 bullets out of it and he only had something like 20 or so when I met him." Artoria stated, falling back into the Master/Servant role accidentally.
"Please, can we just leave this conversation for later? I would like to deal with one problem at a time." Shirou responded, sounding tired.
"Of course, but we will be talking about this." Artoria said, a serious gaze locked on her Master.
"Now that's out of the way, let's get onto what I called you here for." Shirou said as he turned to gaze at his guests.
"We have two Fallen Angels that were here under two conflicting sets of orders. Azazel's were to observe any people with potential Sacred Gears. Kokabiel sent orders to eliminate them instead. Now this would normally fall onto Gremory's lap to deal with, but she has made her stance clear." Shirou explained.
"What do you mean by that Shirou? And why are you referring to her by her family name?" Sona asked.
"Because she tried to blackmail me into backing off and letting them kill a student by the name of Issei Hyoudou because she suspects him of having a Longinus, specifically one of the Dragons. I sent the girls here last night to deal with them and found out this morning that she had him assassinated and reincarnated for her own uses." Shirou answered his friend.
"Do you have any proof as to these claims Shirou? I don't mean to deny what you are saying, it's just that if there isn't any proof then nothing can happen." Serafall said with a downturn to her lips.
"The best I can do is show you where he was killed and tell you who, or more accurately what, killed the boy." Shirou answered.
Serafall asked Shirou to show her where the murder took place and so His whole peerage, sona and the Satan Leviathan found themselves standing next to a fountain in the park.
"We're here. The one who killed the kid was something that shouldn't exist in this world." Shirou spoke up once the area was cleared.
"What do you mean shouldn't exist in this world, Shirou?" Sona asked him.
"Does the name Alaya mean anything to you Serafall?" Shirou asked instead of answering.
"How do you know that name Shirou… not even the current heads of families know, only the Satans, Great King Faction, Grigori, Heaven and other Deities know about that." Serafall asked, her gaze laser focused on her surrogate brother.
"...I… I'm partially responsible for what is going to happen." Shirou answered, wincing when Serafalls gaze became more intense.
"Explain." Serafall said coolly.
"Well for starters I have the memories of another life in which the only supernatural elements were humans who could use magecraft and the church who went out fighting against Dead Apostles. I know about Alaya because there is an alternate future version of myself who became a Counter Guardian."
"Shirou wha…?" Sona had a dumbfounded look on her face.
"Is that how you gained your Servants? Using Heroic Spirits?" Serafall asked, voice frosty.
Shirou flinched again, "Yes, I used a Summoning Circle to call forth Artoria Pendragon, Atalanta and Jack the Ripper into this world. I had previously worked with them to save my previous world from being erased by a personification of the 72 demons of Ars Goetia."
"How did I not recognise the signature on any of you… now that I look at it it's obvious there is some residual energy left over after so long." Sera said, realization leaking from her voice.
"This doesn't explain how Hyoudou died, and it also doesn't explain why either." Sona said.
"It's because Hyoudou is suspected by Rias and myself to be one of the two Heavenly Dragons. The one who killed him was Counter Guardian EMIYA, isn't that right?" Shirou said, raising his voice in the end.
Sona looked lost while everyone else started to look around. Shirou just turned to where he could smell the scent he associated with EMIYA, steel and wrought iron. With his presence being exposed, EMIYA revealed himself in a blue misty effect.
"So, it's your fault why I'm here." EMIYA's crisp and deep voice spoke.
"Yes and I am sorry for this." Shirou apologized.
"So you're supposed to be the future version of Shi-tan?" Sera said, stars in her eyes at the reveal.
Shirou and Sona sighed goodnaturedly, Artoria shook her head while Atalanta smiled wryly and Jack had a big smile. EMIYA looked a little put out at her behavior, like he was remembering someone long lost, before he turned to Shirou.
"I know, she reminds me of Illya too." The rust haired devil had a sad smile on his face.
"I think I'll take you up on that offer." EMIYA said as he took a step back.
"Right right… girls can you all stand back? Archer and I have something to do." Shirou asked the girls with him.
Everyone did as asked of them and watched as the pair stared each other down. They saw as both of them raised their hands to the same position near their bodies.
"Trace, on." The pair said.
In a flash of golden light from EMIYA and blue flames from Shirou two swords appeared. Black as night in their left and white as freshly fallen snow in the right. Sona and Serafall had their eyes widened, Sona because she didn't know that Shirou could do what equated to a Sacred Gear while being a pureblooded devil. Serafalls reaction was as such because she hadn't seen Shirou use this since the day she found him.
"Anything you wish to say before we start?" Shirou asked his alternate.
"Anything you want to inform me of would be shown to me anyway, so let's get this started. Can you keep up?" EMIYA responded.
"It's not can you keep up, it's you keep up with me!" Shirou said as he took the offensive.
Rushing forward with a speed that momentarily surprised the Counter Guardian, Shirou thrust Kanshou towards EMIYA. The Counter Guardian moved to block the strike, also surprised by the strength behind the blow before the beginning of the memory transfer happened.
"I had to do it, it was the only way." Shirou said to himself as he overlooked the wreckage of the Matou mansion.
A note was in his hand that read 'Please Senpai, kill me. The curse is too strong to hold back, please, there is no other way.'. It came from Sakura, his trusted kohai that he didn't realize was in pain right in front of him. Her request was both a cry for death but also a way for Shirou to save the world, as if the curse were to be released, someone with Angra Mainyu's wishes for humanity's destruction would be the worst case scenario if it were allowed to pass.
"I'm sorry Sakura." Shirou whispered as he dropped the note and walked away with tears in his eyes.
The information was passed over to EMIYA and processed within a moment. He did feel bad that Sakura had to be killed but he barely even remembers who she was to him as a person.
The next swing was blocked immediately.
"Shirou, what do you think you're doing?" Rin's voice asked.
"I was offered an opportunity to work as security for Chaldea, I am apparently tasked with just watching over the observatory. So don't worry, I am not going to end up becoming Archer." Shirou responded with a smile.
"Besides, I kinda need to hide after the whole thing with me having a Sealing Designation on me now. Thanks to that one bastard from Spiritual Evocation." Shirou grumbled.
"Please Shirou, be safe okay? I don't know what I would do without you." Rin's dere side said in a soft voice.
Shirou gave her a small smile and pulled her into his arms, giving her a light kiss.
The memories were flowing in a higher number to EMIYA, who was slowly getting a better idea as to who this Shirou who he was faced with, really was. The next strike came from EMIYA himself, Shirou blocking it in short order.
Shirou found himself in one of the training rooms at the behest of one of his servants, specifically Gawain, who wanted to fight the man to figure out how he had captured his king's attention.
"Sir Gawain, is this really necessary?" Shirou asked, being respectful to the knight of the sun.
"Of course Sir Shirou! I wish to see what my king sees in you for myself, and I also wish to get to know my master better." Gawain answered.
"Can't I just tell you what 'ensnared' the King of Knights?" Shirou asked.
"Nonsense! For all I know you could tell falsehood to try to get yourself out of trouble." Gawain said in a jovial tone.
"Of course," Shirou sighed before speaking louder, "Ready when you are Sir Gawain!"
One more swing was sent towards Shirou, which he blocked with the same ease as the last, starting another memory flash for EMIYA.
"Onii-chan come play with us!" A little girls voice met his ears.
Turning around, Shirou was met with a peculiar sight. Prisma Illya, Miyu and Kuro were standing behind him, but the fourth person was a surprise. The fourth was Sitonai, a Pseudo-Servant inhabiting the body of Illyasviel von Einzbern, the surprise was that she didn't really spend much time around Shirou or Archer.
"What's up Illya, Miyu, Kuro, Sitonai?" Shirou asked.
"Mou…! Did you not hear her Big Brother?" Miyu said, pouting surprisingly.
"Yes I did Miyu, but what is it that you wish for me to do?"
"Hmm…" Illya started to humm to herself, deep in thought.
"I know! We can-" Kuro started but was interrupted.
"No Kuro, anything that you bring up is normally perverted in some way." Sitonai was the one to stop her.
"I wasn't going to say anything too bad!" Kuro went on the defensive.
Miyu let out a sigh before speaking, "We were originally planning on Hide and Seek but it seems like your Harem Protagonist skill went and showed itself Big Brother."
Shirou let out an uncomfortable laugh, the girl equating his luck with women to some skill like he was a Servant or something.
'Man why can't you go bother Archer' Shirou thought before succumbing to their whims.
Archer was startled to receive memories of what Illya looked like. He never thought that he would ever see her again, and while that is true, these memories of her face were enough for him. One last attack was thrown at each other, and for Archer it revealed Shirous last moments and his life as a devil.
"You got everything?" Shirou asked, not even breathing heavily.
"Enough to understand that you don't regret your path." Archer sighed as he dropped his weapons.
Shirou did the same with his weapons and both pairs dispersed into a blue mist. Everything was silent for a moment before the girls returned.
"What was that about Shirou?" Serafall asked, breaking the silence.
"Souls of a pair resonate with each other and absorb their experiences. I received basically nothing because I already had everything that we gathered, but Archer received my memories and what other weapons I added to our Reality Marble." Shirou answered the Leviathan.
"What will you do now Archer?" Shirou asked turning his attention back on the man.
After a moment the man let out a sigh, "I'll have to follow my master's orders for the time being, but maybe afterwards I'd like to open up a restaurant."
Artoria began to drool at the mention of food cooked by either version of Shirou, Serafall wasn't far behind her while the rest of the girls had their stomachs grumble.
"How about we make a little compromise for right now?"
"Oh? And what would that be?" Archer asked with a raised brow.
"We help you with your dream of opening a restaurant and you help me cook lunch for all these girls here." Shirou offered.
"You make a fitting devil you know that?" Archer said, an amused smirk showing on his face.
"So I've been told." Shirou chuckled with a similar smirk on his face.
After their little exchange, everyone dispersed and made their way to Shirou's home for the promise of a free meal.
Sorry for this story being dead for so long, I had just hit writers block at the time and then I got distracted with a bunch of stuff in my personal life and only just came back to this recently.
Hope you enjoy the story!
