AN: Shinji Matou is a pretty terrible person and this story is character focused, so the narrative won't be too critical of him and it will make excuses for his behavior.

Shinji Matou was frantically fleeing away from where a battle had just occurred. "Ha, haa, haa, ha!" His desperate pants for air were paired with his reckless footsteps echoing through the dark hallways.

'Damn—what's with that woman? How can something so ridiculous happe!? Rider's Noble Phantasm was the strongest, so why did she have to lose!? She's just the Saber, so why does she have such a Noble Phantasm!? It's unfair, unfair, unfair!'

His loss replayed in his mind with perfect clarity with every step. He needed to escape, even an idiot like Emiya would see he was still a risk, a loose end in this War.

With more fervor than he's ever felt before, he ran. Even after he tripped and rolled down sets of stairs, and crashed into a wall, he ran. "Damn it you idiot! Why'd you take the fight all the way up here!"

At this rate he would run out of energy before he reached the ground level of this fifty-story building. Fear of being strangled, or worse, hit with that brilliant beam of light, fueled his body.

'What was that!? What sort of Saber would have such a demonic sword!?' So he runs through the darkness, because he'll surely vanish without a trace if he turns around.

"Ha—damn, damn it! What was that about her Noble Phantasm being invincible!? That woman was all talk, and was defeated because she was weak, that idiot."

He wouldn't be in this situation if his Servant had won.

"Ha—ah, hya!?" He had crashed into another wall and almost fell down. "Damn, don't put a wall somewhere like this…!" He punched the wall in anger. "Huh?"

"Grrrr…"

His vision adjusted just in time to show him that he hadn't crashed into a wall, it had been Berserker.

He hadn't punched a wall, it had been Berserker.

His eyes then registered a limp pretzel-like thing in front of his eyes, it had been his own twisted arm. "——" He couldn't even scream, his nerves were frozen stiff with fear.

Laughter fills the air, and from the tense darkness the glistening silver hair of Illyasviel von Einzbern emerges. "You can't do that, mister maggot of Makiri. There's no running away, not for a loser."

"——" He couldn't be sure, his brain short-circuited, but he thought he saw his own blood dancing through the air.

Shinji Matou didn't realize his eyes were open for quite a while, his brain had been convinced he had died. "Huh?" He blinked and then it registered that he was standing in front of a green telephone booth. "What?" He stepped back and looked around.

An empty metro-city, one devoid of all life met his gaze.

'Is this… purgatory?'

He felt dizzy, a wave of emotions was on the verge of exploding out of his skull, but he didn't see the point anymore. His struggle was over, he failed, and he was probably going to hell now.

"Damn…" He failed. He failed. He had finally been given a chance to become something grand, and he failed.

His entire body felt weak, he was truly insignificant now, a true failure. His legs wobbled and he collapsed onto the curb.

He didn't know what he should be feeling at the moment, conflicting emotions were clashing and colliding against themselves. He held his head in his hands, as he waited for it to pass. A heavy gust of wind blew against his curled up body and he heard the flapping of a dozen birds fleeing.

As the earth shook, rattling metal shutters and shaking glass windows, the vehicle to ferry his soul across to the afterlife appeared with the sound of screeching rubber.

Shinji looked up at the blue chariot that had stopped right in front of his face. It was a little modern, but he didn't particularly care.

"Did you wait long?" The reaper, with dark purple hair, sounded friendly as she flung open a door to her car.

He stared at her blankly, her hair was a shade or two darker than Sakura's.

"Get in!" She shouted as she crawled over her gear shift and passenger seat, and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt before yanking him into the car. After shuffling him in place she slammed the car door closed and peeled down the street after making a U-turn.

"So now what?" All his motivation had died with him, but still he wanted to at least be informed of the tortures he would suffer.

"Hold on tight, I'll take you to your dad." She said as she began speeding down the empty roads, barely swerving by the abandoned cars left scattered about.

"Oh, I haven't seen him for a few years." Shinji mumbled out, he wasn't surprised that his father was already dead. It had been a few years since they last interacted, and he hadn't even said goodbye to his son before leaving to the Clocktower.

"You don't sound thrilled."

"I mean, he cared more for his damn project than he did his own son." Shinji had been blind as a child and only thought his father was just aloof, but after discovering Sakura's true purpose, his father started to openly display his hatred for everything. "That bastard."

"Ah, um, well, it's pretty important work."

"I know, but it's not my fault!" He snapped. If he was born with magic circuits that weren't crippled, he would've been the successor to his family's legacy. "It's that bitch's fault for giving birth to me!" Supposedly his mother should've passed on a special trait too, but instead he got nothing.

"Hey, uh, I'm sure you don't mean that, just try to relax and think of all the good times you had with her."

"Ha! As if, that bitch was food for the worms before I could even form any memories with her." A rightful punishment for giving birth to him.

The car fell silent, with only the distant sound of explosions to fill the tension.

'Wait, explosions?'

"Oh fuck, get down!"

Right after being tackled into the seat, but before he could voice his confusion, the windows shattered as the car shook and started rolling down a ditch.

A heatwave traveled across his flesh and a shockwave shook his bones.

After the car stopped tumbling, Shinji stared through a glassless window.

A massive pillar of light was piercing the heavens and earth.

Even Saber's Noble Phantasm paled in comparison.

As the light faded away, a giant monster stood at the center.

"W-what is that?"

"That, Shinji, is an Angel." The reaper sounded serious, as if she wasn't currently laying on top of him in a car flipped upside down.

'Ah—what the hell is happening in purgatory?'

AN: Let's hope this Shinji won't end the world.

And I guess it's spoilers, but it should be clear in the next chapter that the protagonist isn't the only thing different in the world.