"My babyyyyyyyyyYYYY!" Sobs followed the sad wail, getting an uncomfortable grimace from the recipient of the grown woman's crying and hugging.
"Kaa-chan. I'm fine, really." Shirou muttered, trying to avoid looking at his father who was staring blankly at him.
It was a stare that was blank not because it was void of emotion, like he was used to from Sakura, but rather it seemed to be more blank because Kiritsugu was trying to suppress whatever he happened to be feeling at that moment. Honestly Shirou wasn't sure which option would have been better, but at least it was more comfortable than the crushing hug he was getting from his mother.
"Your eye though! You're going to have so much trouble with depth perception now! And that scar makes you look- actually it gives you a really cool look. But your eyeeeeeeee!" Shirou made a small noise and tried to twist away from Irisviel's clutches, not that she let him of course.
"Kaa-chan. It's fine. I still….. I still have my eye." He whispered at the end so that only she could hear.
"E-Eh?" Tears still streaming down her face, Irisviel gave an owlish look at her son who just gave a small head tilt in the direction of the airport's car park.
"It involves Magecraft, maybe at home?" He suggested, pointing to his left eye when Kiritsugu gave him an odd look.
"In that case, let's get going Iri. The sooner we get home the sooner you can keep doting on him." Kiritsugu responded, already beginning to walk in the direction of the exit.
"Never!" She cried dramatically, picking an uncomfortable Shirou up and walking while holding him. "I'm going to sit next to him in the car and I'm going to cuddle him and I'm going to make sure his eye is absolutely-"
XXXxxxXXX
"-Magic!?"
Shirou sighed at the outcry from his mother and sister simultaneously, sitting at the table with his elbow on it to prop his chin up with his hand. His lone eye giving both Einzbern women a deadpan look at their shout that still had his ears ringing.
"Shirou. Just hold off on the sass for a moment and show us the eye. I think Iri might start bawling again if you don't." Kiritsugu groaned, letting the playfully annoyed look of Irisviel slide off him with practised ease.
Shirou didn't even ask how Kiritsugu knew he had a Rin-worthy comment cocked and ready, he just breathed in deeply through his nose while closing his right eye. His breath leaving just as smoothly as he opened his left eye to his family for the first time, seeing the way that they all tensed up minutely as he did.
"It really is a Mystic Eye." Sella commented from the sidelines, staring at the Gold and Cobalt blue colouring of his new eye.
"It looks pretty." Liz added on emotionlessly.
"How did you get this Shirou? How did you hide it? Does anyone know? Does anyone know?" Irisviel asked, becoming frantic at the end as she placed her hands down on the table and stared at him with wide eyes.
"I hid it by just keeping my eye closed and the only ones that know are Gray and Luvia." Shirou replied with a placating smile, closing his left eye and re-opening his right.
"You only keep one eye open at a time?" His father noticed, getting a nod from the pre-teen swordsmith.
"My sight is faster with my left eye, and clearer, so it's confusing to have both of them open at once. Even though I can do it." He revealed, getting a small hum from Kiritsugu as he stared at Shirou's closed eye.
"Onii-chan, how did you get your Mystic Eye?" Illya asked, having noticed his lack of answer on the subject.
"I met someone called Altrouge Brunestud-"
Kiritsugu and Irisviel froze, even their breathing held static.
"And her pet 'Cath' did this to me."
"You met and fought Primate Murder?" His father's voice was hard and sharp, a man that meant business.
"Primate Murder? Is that what it's also called?" Shirou questioned before shaking his head. "No, it wasn't a fight. It was a one sided beatdown. I injured him once, by luck."
"You managed to injure Primate Murder?" Kiritsugu, the man known as the emotionless Magus Killer, looked absolutely floored by this information, so much so that Shirou couldn't even wallow in his self-depreciation.
"It was luck, like I said, I made a blade and threw it at him. He shattered it and the wound healed instantly." He responded, getting a small hum from the older male as he leant back slightly.
"I'll kill them…" Everyone in the room looked towards Irisviel, with one of her hands flat on the table and her hair covering her eyes.
"Kaa-chan?" Shirou called out, cocking his head to the side.
"Momma?"
"That Dead Apostle bitch-" Both of her children jolted at hearing her actually swear for once. "-and her pet hurt you. I'll tear them apart. I don't care what it takes."
Raising her eyes, everyone in the Emiya household could immediately see the rage and murder in her eyes, something that even Kiritsugu wasn't used to seeing. Her eyes practically glowed with animosity and her presence seemed to fill the room, making Illya, Sella and Liz tense up, both of the maids taking an instinctive step towards Illya.
Throughout this all, though, Shirou and Kiritsugu stayed completely calm, the both of them having felt more powerful killing intent from stronger sources on multiple occasions. It didn't mean that neither were worried of course, because they were.
Construction cost quite a bit in today's economy.
"Iri, calm down. Trust me, I want to take them out as well. But this is Altrouge Brunestud and Primate Murder. Maybe try cooling down. Shirou's ok for now as well, even came out of it with a bonus." Kiritsugu said, getting Iri to whip her head around to glare bloody murder at him for even suggesting she calmed down.
And then she noticed the hidden tundra in his eyes, a rage that unlike hers, ran ice cold and crushingly deep. A rage that was deep-seated, manipulative and above all else absolutely unforgiving in its nature, a rage that promised a slow descent into The Magus Killer's clutches.
Seeing that rage reflected back at her she managed to sigh and relax, almost melting into a human puddle right then and there. Her arms flopped onto the table and crossed before she placed her chin on her forearm and pouted.
She hated it when Kiritsugu was right, because she could never argue with him. Whenever he made an argument he routed it firmly in logic, unlike her own arguments which were usually routed pretty heavily in emotion.
"Fine. I'll calm down about the stupid Ancestor and her dumb pet." She mumbled, acting like a child.
"Right. It's good to know that you aren't permanently injured from your run in with them. But how did you manage to hide all of this? Surely someone in the Clock Tower would have commented on both how you got that injury and how it mysteriously healed." His father asked him, his eyes burrowing under Shirou's skin and almost physically trying to pry the answers out of him.
"I said it was a Mystic Code that healed me, because it was, and that what I used to make it work was used up. Because it was." Shirou answered simply with a shrug, getting small sigh's from both of his parents.
'Thank God for the Clock Tower's focus on family research and secrets.' Irisviel found herself thinking, for once actually finding something useful in the cut-throat mentality of the Magi.
"Wait." Kiritsugu stilled. "You used a Mystic Code? And you had something to power it?" Both him and Irisviel shared a look, suddenly straightening back out and levelling unwavering stares onto the young swordsmith.
"Uh, yeah? The Mystic Code that's inside me." Shirou confirmed, getting a strangled noise from his mother as she paled.
"You have a Mystic Code in you Onii-chan?" Illya questioned, tilting her head ever so slightly as her mind ran through what it could possibly be.
"Mhm. Though it feels more powerful than any Mystic Code I've ever felt. More like a Noble Phantasm than anything else." Shirou told his sister, looking over when Irisviel made another choking sound.
"Shirou, how have you been powering this Mystic Code?" His father questioned, getting Shirou to press his lips together for a moment before he responded.
"One of my friends at the Clock Tower, it partially activates whenever I'm around her."
"WHAT!?" Kiritsugu's jaw dropped and Irisviel slammed her hands on the table, leaning forward with an equally stunned expression to her husband.
"Onii-chan….Momma and Papa are worrying me. I think they know something about your Mystic Code." Illya began in a worried tone before ending her final sentence in a bland deadpan, her ruby red eyes drilling into both of the suddenly uncomfortable adults.
"Know something? Why would we know anything? It's just shocking, isn't it? That some random person from the Clock Tower can activate this mysterious Noble Phantasm Shirou has." Irisviel laughed nervously and sat back down, avoiding her daughters, and then her sons, gazes as she coughed into her fist.
"Look, sometimes there are things that are better left secret. Whatever this Mystic Code is-" Kiritsugu gave a narrowed side-eye at his further paling wife. "-I'm sure that Shirou's family made it for an express purpose. It's not safe to tamper with things you don't know about."
For a moment, a brief moment, Kiritsugu thought that he'd managed to convince both of his children to leave the issue alone, and then they shared a look. A look that Kiritsugu was unable to decipher but one that sent shivers crawling from his neck to his toes.
Staring at each other for a few moments, the two siblings said nothing, only making different expressions and small head movements. Eventually ending in both of them nodding one after the other and turning back towards Kiritsugu and Irisviel with blank looks.
"You know something about Onii-chan's Noble Phantasm." Illya accused tonelessly. "And yes, it is a Noble Phantasm, mother wouldn't have called it one if it wasn't." She preempted Irisviel's response as the older woman opened her mouth.
She promptly shut it with an audible, but quiet, click.
'God dammit Iri.' Kiritsugu thought while rising to his feet.
"You aren't going anywhere."
"Sella, Liz, block the exits."
Both of their children spoke at once, the maids obediently moving into positions that would allow them to block as many exits as quickly and efficiently as they could.
'"Let me give them lessons on how to scope out entrances and exits" Kiri said. "It'll be useful for them," he told me. Now look at this. Trapped in our own house by our children and maids. I blame you Kiri.' Irisviel spoke in her head, her mental voice in a high, mocking tone of voice as she mimicked Kiritsugu's words.
Evidently it only took a single look from her to somehow telepathically transmit her thoughts to her husband because he just sighed and hung his head.
"You'll tell me and Onii-chan everything you know about his Noble Phantasm." Illya ordered as her father sat back down at the table.
"We could make them sign a Geas?" Shirou suggested casually, as if commenting on the sky being blue.
"Shirou! How could you suggest that!?" The red haired pre-teen winced slightly and felt a pang of guilt well up at the genuine hurt in Irisviel's voice.
Illyasviel, on the other hand, had undoubtedly inherited much more of their fathers iron will and no-bullshit attitude.
"You both just tried to hide its very existence from us right after learning that it was the only thing that not only saved Onii-chan's vision, and life, but also gave him a Mystic Eye. If you're willing to hide it under those circumstances then we have no way of knowing what else about it you might hide, or how you'll hide the information. You just told Shirou not to tamper with something he doesn't know about and you have information on that very thing."
Her words cut through both of their parent's like one of Muramasa's famous blades in a river, making Irisviel flinch in guilt and Kiritsugu's face twist up ever so slightly at having his own words twisted against him.
"Now, do we need to make use of Onii-chan's suggestion or are you going to tell Onii-chan about the Noble Phantasm that is currently residing within his body?"
Both parents looked at each other, seeming to have a mental conversation that was much easier to follow than Illya and Shirou's own. A mixture of guilt, pleading and stubbornness thrown back and forth between them before finally, expectedly, Irisviel broke first.
"The Noble Phantasm, it was a wedding gift from your….grandfather." Irisviel admitted slowly, clearly having no love lost for Jubstacheit.
"A Noble Phantasm for a wedding gift?" Illya looked surprised, Shirou looked astonished.
"He had another purpose behind giving it to us. To use it as a catalyst in the Fourth Holy Grail War." Kiritsugu continued on, clearly not wanting to admit the information but thankfully doing so anyway.
"That checks out, Noble Phantasm's have to get their Mystery from some legend." Shirou muttered, leaning back in his chair as his mind churned through his, annoyingly short, catalogue of Noble Phantasm's he'd seen from Gilgamesh.
"It has strong regeneration abilities when nearby or in contact with its original wielder. Without Sa- Without it's original wielder summoned into the world, all it does is make you a specimen of almost perfect health. You never get sick and you heal from injuries faster than the average person. An extremely minor regeneration if we had to call it that." The eldest Emiya continued his explanation, really wishing that he could have a smoke at the moment.
"And with it's original wielder?" Illya prodded, eyes as intelligent as Iri's yet as piercing and cold as Kiritsugu's own bored into him, a glimmer of pride seeping into him even as he felt a shiver work its way up his spine.
"With it's original wielder, especially in contact with it, you would have nigh-immortality. Not even a destroyed heart could kill you. It would regenerate before you could die." Once again the oddness of the Emiya family reared its head when the casual mention of death didn't get so much as a peep from either of the children.
"So that's how…" Shirou muttered to himself, running a finger over his eye.
"And i know for a fact that it's original wielder is no longer here. So knowing that someone in the Clock Tower can activate it is highly suspicious." Kiritsugu said, his eyes narrowed on the closed eye of his son.
"We're both happy that you're ok Shirou." Irisviel quickly tried to assure him. "But this is a very high profile Heroic Spirit and-"
"King Arthur. Right?" Shirou's guess cut through the room like the legend themselves had apparated through just his words.
"H-How did you?.." Iri muttered, getting a mysterious smile from her son.
"I made a promise i wouldn't tell. No Geas or anything, just a promise." He assured them. "You can….call Professor El Melloi II if you want?"
"Waver knows about this?" Kiritsugu hissed, placing his palms silently on the table and leaning forward.
"He's very tied into it." Shirou replied seriously with a small nod. "We work together. I keep their secrets and they keep mine."
"Should i be jealous Onii-chan?" Illya pouted with a cute glare and crossed her arms at her brother.
"What? No way Illya! It's fine, really." Shirou responded quickly, waving his hands around.
"Kiri. Kiriiiiiiii!" Both children turned back to see tears rolling down Irisviel's face as he clutched the man's sleeve and shook him back and forth.
"...Yes. Iri?"
"Our baby boy is becoming a Magus before our very eyes! I don't want him growing up so fast!"
"I can just stay in my forge if that's the ca-" Suddenly the tears were gone and a finger was in his face.
"You're going to spend some time out of that forge and socialise young man!" All Shirou could do was sigh and deadpan at his mother and her mood swings.
"Okay Kaa-chan…"
"Oh! Papa?"
"Yes Illya?" Kiritsugu just sounded tiredly cautious by this point.
Not that it wasn't warranted of course, but Illya felt offended anyway.
"We know what the Noble Phantasm does and who it belonged to but what is it?"
"Ah. Well, listen Shirou, the Noble Phantasm…is Avalon."
"King Arthur's sheath for Excalibur?" Shirou asked in awe, getting a giggle from his sister at the downright reverent look on his face.
"The one and same!" Iri cheered, giggling much like her daughter when she saw Shirou look down at his chest and poke it experimentally.
"Avalon…" He muttered, the name for some reason that was foreign to him, even with his left eye open, just feeling right as it tumbled off his tongue and out of his lips.
Within a barren world of missing features, errors in reality and blades, shone a singular, warm, light. A light that with a pulse that rippled over the land and over the sky began to coalesce into a form. Light turned golden. Light turned blue. Light…turned to a sheath.
XXXxxxXXX
A couple days later, Fuyuki primary school
"Girls, you know that I still have depth perception. I don't need you to do…this." Shirou muttered to them, having Rin holding his arm to lead him through the school grounds and Sakura hovering behind him to try and help him if something happened.
"Yes, Muramasa-kun. We know that but everyone here thinks you just got the injury. Play along." Rin hissed, getting a tired sigh from Shirou as Rin jerked him forward once more, getting a small noise of alarm from Sakura as she reflexively shot her arms out in case he fell over.
"Sakura. You don't need to try and catch me, you know?" He attempted instead, knowing that Rin wouldn't give up now that she had this idea in her head.
"Yes, I do." She replied seriously, not that most people could tell with her rather emotionless tone.
"You…really don't." He muttered with a deadpan look as he moved his foot to avoid making Rin stumble.
"I do. I need to help you. Regardless of a lost eye or a Mystic one." She responded once more, shaking her head as Rin tugged him up the stairs.
The purple haired girl went silent as the three of them rose up the steps, her body tensed up and ready as if ready to respond at the slightest hint that Shirou would go down. Something that he both found endearing, that she cared so much, and odd that she was suddenly not only this protective but also seemed to want to help with basically everything he did. In the end he just chalked it up to his injury and the method that he received it through.
Finally reaching the roof, the three of them sat down with their bento's and drinks. Shirou shifting his temporary eye-patch when it began to dig into his skin a little, finding the accessory incredibly annoying despite its usefulness in getting him used to keeping one eye closed all the time.
"Fiddling with it won't get it to come off any sooner, Muramasa." Rin admonished him even as she leaned forward to adjust some of his hair that had gotten trapped or tangled by the eyepatch bands.
From his side, Sakura gave Rin a somewhat flat look, having planned to deal with that herself in just a few seconds. The two former sisters met eyes as Rin felt a gaze on her, confused aqua staring into flat purple. The impromptu staring contest lasting for longer and longer as Shirou looked back and forth between them with a confused expression, ending the staring contest as he grabbed some food to begin eating.
"Allow me?" Sakura asked while placing her hand on his, as if trying to take the chopsticks from him without actually putting any force into doing so.
"Huh? Do you want to feed me or something?" Shirou muttered with a tilt of his head, blinking a couple times when the stoic girl nodded her head in response.
"S-S-Sakura!?" Both pre-teen's looked over at Rin, her face blood red and her eyes basically swirling.
"Yes Tohsaka?"
"Y-You can't just decide to f-feed Muramasa-kun like that!" Rin shouted, so scandalised by the other girl's actions that she forgot all about trying to avoid using her name.
"Why not? I have steady hands."
"T-That's not the issue!" Rin leant forward while sitting cross-legged and straightened out her arms in front of her in frustration.
"Then what is?" Sakura tilted her head much like Shirou had a likening to, her eyes blank except for a spark of something that shone through them, like she was remembering something.
"That I can eat by myself?" Shirou piped in.
"That may be, but I wish to feed you." Sakura responded, turning to face him as she spoke.
"Sakura!" Rin screeched, so red she looked like she was trying to do an impression of a tomato.
For a moment the Matou heiress was silent as she seemed to be thinking over something, her eyes shifting slightly to stare into nothing as a small hum left her lips.
'Huh. She looks oddly like Rin while thinking like that…' Shirou thought to himself, surprised by the supposed similarities between the two girls.
"Alright." Sakura nodded finally, getting a relieved sigh from Rin as she began to lean back.
"If you'll feed Senpai instead?" The Tohsaka heiress froze with her back ramrod straight, her eyes slowly opening as if her brain was struggling to compute Sakura's statement.
"E-Excuse me?"
"If you'll feed Senpai instead?"
"N-No way! That's like b-boyfriend and girlfriend stuff! W-We're just partners is all!" Rin shouted in embarrassment, waving her arms in front of her frantically.
"People call their boyfriend or girlfriend their partner." Sakura pointed out blandly, getting a choking sound from Rin as steam practically came out of her ears.
"I…think you broke her." Shirou muttered with a sweatdrop as he watched Rin slowly tilt back until she was lying on her back on the rooftop.
"Not permanently. She will be fine once her mind catches up." Sakura responded, turning back to him. "Will you allow me to feed you now?"
Shirou opened his mouth to respond, an instant 'no' on his tongue, but his voice never came out. Instead, his mind going through the many lessons that Luvia, and to a lesser extent Gray, had been pounding into his head while at the Clock Tower.
"I…suppose I can let you." He muttered, feeling weird for letting Sakura do this, even if she seemed to want to. "But only…if you introduce me to the archery club?"
"You did not have to bargain with me for that Senpai, I would have introduced you if you wanted." Sakura responded with a slight shifting of her expression that Shirou knew to be determination.
"I'll…keep that in mind, Sakura."
XXXxxxXXX
Two Days Later
Shirou felt his right eye twitching as he sat on the couch of his family home while waiting for a certain golden-haired Servant to appear. He would rather be working on a blade if he was going to be on this particular property, but he knew that with what he had to explain and show Gilgamesh, the arrogant King would never allow him to finish his work. So, it was better to just not even start to save on the waste of time and materials it would create. He'd tried doing a bit of cooking while he waited but he wasn't particularly hungry, and he hadn't restocked the kitchen in the Muramasa household – Sacrilege! – since he'd returned from London. So, the simple plate of snacks and teapot on the table in front of him was all that he really was able to make.
The grandfather clock in the living room continued to tick with each second that passed, filling the space with a rhythmic sound as the pre-teen let his thoughts wander in the time he had left before Gilgamesh arrived. Most specifically the conversation he had, the one with both his family and friends right before coming here. He knew that the longer he kept Gilgamesh waiting the worse the fallout would be, and he knew that if he was kept away from the King due to his parents, there would be no mercy shown to them.
It was probably that exact reason that he had argued to come here by himself. He'd rather avoid having either of his friends around Gilgamesh if at all possible and he knew that his parent's would likely just faint or do something dangerous if they themselves met him. And having Illya around Gilgamesh was just a flat no from the swordsmith, even the familiars she sent to stealthily follow him were probably pushing it.
'Not like they'd still be there knowing Gilgamesh. He probably sniped them before they actually entered his line of sight.' Shirou snorted to himself, looking over in the direction of the front door as he heard the telltale sound of Gilgamesh opening the very much locked door.
He'd given up trying to keep Gilgamesh out of his property by now. The man had everything from anti-thaumaturgy weaponry to an exact copy of his key that he could just pull out of his gate, and Shirou didn't even know how the King had gotten the key either.
"Ah! Finally I find you waiting for your King as a proper subject shou-" Gilgamesh exclaimed as he walked into the room, arrogance rolling off of him in waves and a smirk upon his lips.
And then Shirou was on his feet and tipping forward, yet not allowed to fall by the near-crushing grip on his right wrist.
The air thickened and began to grow excited. Goosebumps spread across Shirou's skin and a vitriolic golden light bathed his body head to toe. He looked up with his singular human eye and came face to face with a dangerously blank look from the King. Crimson eyes so slitted a reptile would get jealous, and lips pressed thin. From beneath the fashionable clothing of the King of Heroes a red glow emanated, as if a warning of the rising ire of the legendary figure holding his wrist in an unbreakable grip.
Shirou knew that something was bound to happen once Gilgamesh saw him, but the sheer fury that showed through his actions and his aura that roared off him like the man's strength personified was an unforeseen reaction. The golden-haired man had cleared the gap of his living room and pulled him off the couch before Shirou had even been able to realise he was moving.
At least with his human eye.
"What. Is this, smith?" Gilgamesh spoke, his voice as smooth and eloquent as ever yet his tone was soft and oh so dangerous, carrying a killing intent that would freeze a lesser man even thrice his age in fear.
The pre-teen blinked as he felt his entire right arm get flooded with the prana of the Incarnated Servant, the thick, heavy power surging through his limb and forcibly lighting up his Magic Circuits on instinct to try and expel the King's prana. As he did so, the markings Altrouge had created through her contract with the boy shone to light on his arm. The marks previously shining bright and beautiful in the presence of the Dead Apostle Ancestor now dark and ugly as they were forcibly brought to the surface.
"This is-" Shirou began, flexing his fingers a couple times to make sure the blood flow wasn't being cut off and standing on his feet properly. "A contract I made while on a Dead Apostle extermination. At the time it seemed like a good idea but I've… since been told off."
The pre-teen sweatdropped at the reminder of the very thorough tongue-lashing he had received from every single person he had told of the deal so far. It didn't even matter that after both Gray and Luvia, he had learned exactly why it was a poor decision to accept the deal, everyone kept telling him off regardless.
For a brief moment Shirou expected the golden king to follow in the footsteps of so many before him but, of course, Gilgamesh was the type of unique existence who moulded his own path in life.
In a singular golden pool that killed off all the other portals around him, a dagger of iridescent crystal fell out in a ripple of gold and landed in Gilgamesh's waiting hand. A nimble movement of his fingers flipping the blade into a reverse grip that he aimed at the main origin point of the contract marking without any waiting.
Snapping his left eye open with all the speed that he could, his Structural Grasping was already active before his eyelid even fully completed the action of opening. Information fed into his mind as he unknowingly stared at the jagged dagger of crystal with both eyes instead of his intended one. His right eye handled the information that he, as a human, could handle and comprehend; feeding the information into his Reality Marble to create a blueprint of the blade. His left eye on the other hand handled the information that only made sense now that his eye was actually uncovered and looking at the blade, the information too alien for his Age of Man mind to wrap around. The information from his right eye feeding into the blueprint of the blade within his Reality Marble, giving it substance and essence, but most importantly giving Shirou a name.
'Prototype…Rule Breaker.' Something inside his psyche, his very soul, seemed to thrum as he realised the blade's name, his mismatched eyes watching the blade fall at two different speeds.
Until it stopped. The tip of the blade hovering barely a millimetre from his skin. The rageful, glowing fire in Gilgamesh's eyes having subsided to a rage no less potent but rather more focused, and thus more intense. Slowly turning to look at him, the King barely spared a split second to stare at Shirou's Mystic Eye as he closed it.
"Explain this contract you made, and who you made it with. Begin with the mongrel in question." Gilgamesh ordered, his voice leaving no room for arguing or bargaining.
Not like Shirou really had any plans to do so in the first place.
"Altrouge Brunestud is her name. I've been told that she's a Dead Apostle Ancestor." Shirou answered, blinking in surprise as Gilgamesh's power flared slightly.
"Vermin."
"Uh, sure? She was the one that made the contract after telling me of my Reality Marble that's forming," Gilgamesh made a small sound at this news, what it meant Shirou had no clue. "And the contract was just that she'd help me develop my Reality Marble if I help her out at some stage. She then sent her pet after me, which is how I got this." He pointed at his scarred eyelid.
"What a conniving little bloodsucker." The King of Heroes scoffed, dropping the Prototype Rule Breaker into his Gate of Babylon, and standing at his full height.
"Ok?"
"Keep up, entertainment. She attacked you to put you under stress in a potentially life and death situation, which is how Reality Marbles grow and develop. She put you under a binding contract and proceeded to immediately absolve herself of responsibility meaning she no longer has to do anything from this moment forward."
"But….I still have to help her?"
"Good, you can actually keep up. That school of two-bit Magi and clowns actually taught you something. Yes, which could be something simple that you can handle, but won't be. She'll throw you into a situation expecting you to sink just for her own amusement."
"How do you know?"
"Are you questioning your King?" Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes slightly at Shirou, getting a blank look in return.
"Your logic, yeah." He responded, getting a click of the King's tongue before he turned away from the pre-teen.
"She's sneaky, manipulative and conniving. No such person is ever kind enough to throw an easy task at u- you." He spoke, glaring at Shirou when the boy opened his mouth after the stumble in his words.
"…So why not break the contract? Prototype Rulebreaker can do it." Shirou spoke, having already gone over the blueprint in the time since recording it into his Reality Marble.
"It can. It, like many of my others, is a highly valuable treasure." Gilgamesh bragged, missing or maybe just ignoring the deadpan from the pre-teen behind him.
Only for the King to spin around and stare at Shirou, not in a glare directed at the boy but rather in a determined glare that promised pain and devastation for someone other than him. Ironically a stare that he'd seen somewhat recently in the eyes of his family.
"However. You clearly cannot keep up with my own tactical superiority if you haven't realised what that contract allows me to do, peasant," Shirou deadpanned again at Gilgamesh's incessant gloating, even the blade that whizzed past his face, cutting his cheek, did nothing to his facial expression. "Tsk. Such a disgraceful look to aim at your King. Fine I'll tell you, peon. This contract, should the situation be twisted properly, allows me to bring her to a proper location to punish her for laying her hands on one of my subjects."
"One of your subjects?"
"You are my entertainment. It is not a role of high prestige by any means but that still makes you one of my kingdom. And I will allow no vermin such as this 'Brunestud' to sully a single member of my kingdom."
"How kind of you."
"Careful, else you lose my protection."
"I apologise."
"Put some heart into it."
"Oh, King Gil-"
"I've changed my mind, be silent and follow. We'll test your new capabilities with that Fairy Eye of yours."
"Wait, this is a Fairy Eye?"
"I said be silent, peasant."
XXXxxxXXX
Thirty Minutes Later
"Now, open that Fairy Eye of yours. I wish to see its abilities post-haste!" Gilgamesh ordered with a clap of his hands.
Slowly exhaling, Shirou closed his right eye and opened his left, immediately moving to dodge the blade that had already been fired in the moment that both of his eyes were closed.
'If nothing else, Gilgamesh is good at showing me my faults.' Shirou thought, activating his Tracing for the first time with his Fairy Eye open.
Hypothesising the basic structure.
Duplicating the composition material.
Imitating the skill of its making.
Sympathising with the experience of its growth.
Reproducing the accumulated years.
…
Excelling every manufacturing process.
The blueprint shone behind his eyes, his Magic Circuits roaring to life with the contact of a firing pin against a bullet.
I…..h..b…..f…o…
Appearing in his right hand in a crackle of green lightning, Shirou deflected the two blades that seemed to be almost crawling through the air. His Traced blade remarkably intact despite having shattered it with a similar manoeuvre before he left for London.
Of course, it just had chips and some damage to it, given its immensely inferior status compared to the blades that Gilgamesh fired as easily as breathing, but the fact that just being able to react properly let him minimise the damage so much was incredible.
'And of course, I missed this. What kind of swordsman-' His thoughts were cut off as he leapt back from the barrage of blade's that impacted his previous position, pulling him back into the fight.
Crouching down and leaning forward slightly, Shirou shot towards the golden-haired Servant. Dodging and weaving between the fired blades with an ease that he never could have achieved beforehand.
"So, your reflexes have increased to that level, have they? It looks like I don't need to hold back quite as much." Gilgamesh grinned with an arrogant laugh before suddenly the number of portals around Shirou tripled and fired simultaneously.
"You're trying to kill me!" Shirou accused while throwing another one of his blades and deflecting two more of Gil's.
"If I was trying to kill you, there wouldn't be much trying involved." Gilgamesh taunted him, not that his words weren't true.
"At least bring out some new ones so I can scan them!" The King felt his eye twitch as he stared at his rapidly moving entertainment before him.
"My personal treasury is not some kind of market stall for you to browse!" He snapped, his crossed arms tensing up.
XXXxxxXXX
Three Days later, France
"Ahhhh, The Eclipse Princess of Black Blood herself. What brings you to this lovely meeting?" A man spoke, or at least, a creature taking the appearance of a man.
"Enhance. I'd say I'm thrilled to see you but that would be a blatant and disgustingly false statement." Altrouge smiled up at him, a smile full of plastic and acid.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm not exactly thrilled to see you either bitch." Enhance scoffed with a cocky smirk, looking over at Cath Palug as he growled from Altrouge's shoulder.
Grinning widely, with all human-like teeth apart from vaguely sharper canines, Enhance leaned forward and waggled a finger from his left hand mockingly in front of Cath's face.
"Awwww, look at the squirrel-" The next words were stolen from the Dead Apostle Ancestor as for a split second, Cath's snout grew longer and his teeth sharpened into deadly killing instruments, biting half of the Ancestor's hand off. "What a rude pet you have, Princess. It takes time to repair damage like that, you know?"
By the time he had finished the statement his hand was already back to normal.
"It's quite rude to show such blatant hostility towards other Ancestors, you know? I'm amazed you were even invited here." Altrouge spoke, her face innocent but her tone dripped with snide amusement that got a bloodlust filled grin from the Ancestor in front of her.
"Oh, didn't you hear? The King of the Dead Apostles sent invites to every Ancestor. Whether any show up is up to them or not." His grin sharpened as Altrouge's innocent look transformed into a coolly annoyed expression, a soft growling from Cath filling the silence.
"I see now. You're here today for blood if you're willing to bring such a thing up in my presence." Her presence began to fill the air around her, only getting a dark chuckle that practically overflowed with hatred and malice.
"It's what my blade's spill best." He winked at her, getting an unimpressed huff in return. "And are you shitting me? So many Ancestors, from both factions and neutral? This is bound to end in disaster."
Contrary to what one might think considering Enhance's own status as an Ancestor, his voice was nothing but grimly gleeful as he spoke. A phantom image of a blade extending from his right hand and more blades coming out of his shoulder blades filling Altrouge's vision for but a second. The image only making her click her tongue and push past him, ignoring the concentrated killing intent that momentarily burst out of him as she did.
'On his own he has no chance of killing me. But if combat does break out, he'll target anyone who so much as show's a moment of weakness. What an annoying brat to have joined the Ancestor's.' Altrouge thought to herself, keeping her senses spread wide and finely tuned even if it didn't look like it.
"Ahhhh, Altrouge. I'm so glad you could arrive." An elderly voice spoke, making both of Altrouge's hands curl into fists just on instinct.
God even just hearing his voice set Altrouge on edge. This annoying, old-fashioned fool who dared to try and challenge her at every twist and turn. Why she accepted his invitation and came to this back-water country and this idiotic meeting she had no idea and was already regretting doing so.
"Trhvmn. It's not like you to call a meeting like this, let alone allow unstable neutrals like Enhance to join." She ignored Enhance's snort of amusement from the sidelines. "So, it seems like even Vampirism couldn't save your mental faculties from fading to time. Did you call us here to hand me everything you have in a rare moment of lucidity?"
"Watch your words, brat. You may have that pet of yours, but Mystic Codes and Magecraft are not all that grow stronger with age in this world of ours." The grey-haired Ancestor's reprimand came with a flaring of power that she was more than happy to match with her own.
Around them, both leaders of the Ancestor's could feel and hear their own bodyguards and followers beginning to get ready for combat. Power of all kinds filling the area but nonetheless a power that was overwhelming in all its quantity and might.
The ground shook and cracked beneath their feet, pebbles and stones floating a few centimetres off the ground and clothes and hair began to sway in a non-existent breeze.
But of course, like every time before it, the flaring power's all shut off simultaneously. This song and dance of Altrouge and Trhvmn's having repeated enough for everyone to know that one day one of them truly would swing at the other, but today wasn't it.
As much as both of them wished it was, oh Crimson Moon how they both wished that today was the day they could wipe the other off the map. But no, with so many members of each other's factions in one location, and wildcards like Enhance, neither of them was willing to try it.
"We are still waiting on Nrvnqsr. Relax, partake in some blood. I brought enough for all 27 of us to share." Trhvmn spoke suddenly, smiling much like a regular old man might.
It didn't fool Altrouge, she knew he was just putting up pretences.
"All 27? You didn't truly believe every one of us would arrive, would you?" She scoffed disbelievingly.
"Of course, I know some of you ungrateful ingrates wouldn't show up. But it wouldn't do for the host to be unprepared. Now, relax Princess. Keep such a look on your face and it will freeze that way."
"Perhaps if we weren't waiting on your subordinate, I wouldn't have to worry about time." She shot back snidely, smirking and waving with wriggling fingers when he turned his head to glare at her.
Keeping up his glare for a moment later he huffed and walked away from her, leaving her to sigh and almost deflate slightly.
"Demented fool." She snarled beneath her breath before finding a glass of the blood that Trhvmn had apparently brought himself.
'I can't wait to start culling your faction. Just wait a few years longer you traditionalistic- Just you wait. I'll bring your kingdom down around you. No matter how many contracts I have to make and call in to do so.'
XXXxxxXXX
Omake: Homurahara Class Debate
Shirou had to stifle a yawn as he rested his chin on the heel of his palm, staring ahead as the teacher had the class split in half and debate on the topic he had written on the blackboard at the front of class.
Is the internet safe for worldwide public use?
The left side of the class had to debate on the side of the Internet. The right side of the class had to debate against the internet. In theory it was a pretty good idea and something that might even be marginally fun for the pre-teen. It even distracted everyone enough that they stopped staring at his eyepatch.
However, there was one small problem with said interest. With how the debate had been going so far it couldn't even get off the ground.
"I, for one, say that the internet is safe for people to use because-"
"Objection!"
Five Minutes Later
"And the new search engine that came out recently, google, is completely different to anything previous hackers have-"
"Hearsay!" A loud, simultaneous, wave of groans sounded out through the class.
Ten Minutes Later
Rin Tohsaka walked up to the podium, the picture of poise and elegance. Clearing her throat and smiling politely.
"Today I'm here-"
"Objection, hearsay!"
SLAM!
"SHINJI IF YOU DON'T SHUT YOUR-" Quickly the girl realized that her shout and slamming of the podium was far from her 'usual' self, the girl posting a plastic smile over her features.
"If I hear another objection out of you Shinji Makiri I'm going to make you write a two thousand word essay on proper debate decorum. Am I clear?"
"C-Cryst-"
"Objection!" The juvenile retort from one of Shinji's own team got a round of laughs from the whole class.
'What do you know, this was pretty enjoyable after all.' A lazy grin split Shirou's lips.
XXXxxxXXX
Yes. That omake was a joke about the Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard trial. God I know that fighting against such impossible odds is difficult but her lawyers are a joke.
Anyway! How was the chap? Good? Bad? A little bit of both?
To be honest this chap was weird, I had to go back and add some stuff and a few scenes I had to rewrite multiple times cause I just couldn't get them to work at first despite them being necessary. But in the end I got it to all fit together. And what a send off for this Arc.
Oh yeah! This is the end of the 'twelve year old' arc by the way. The next time you see Shirou and co. it'll be in the 'fifteen year old' arc. So a bit of a timeskip and a bit of a change for everyone involved.
In other news my mid-semester break has started and finished in the time between chapter 12 and 13 so that was interesting, though I don't think any of you really care XD
But yeah, I don't have much else to talk about other than the purposeful vagueness of the Tsukihime Remake regarding the DAA's and their abilities hurts.
Discord: ctMzhq3
REVIEW REPLIES:
Sailor Root: Yes he does. It was just an Omake, so non-canon
Zelenin-02: Thanks! And the change in mannerisms is because her body is that of Artoria's, I'll say that much for sure. And the thing with Add is that while he has Rhongo sealed inside him. He has multiple forms he can change into, his sword form is said to bare a remarkable similarity to Excalibur.
1740: I can't remember if you did either but I've definitely answered it before. Basically, I have no current plans to add her into the harem.
Calderoneric758: It was an omake, so non-canon xP
Guillermocejas767: It won't be permanent, it'll more fade over time till it's completely gone.
Deltablacknaruto: It's fine, it's non-canon XD
Sandmanwake: Basically it was just cause I wanted there to be a scar but it'll fade into nothingness over-time. And yes technically he could stab his other eye and balance out his eyes. Unfortunately his friends and family have this annoying thing called 'limits' and apparently stabbing your eye goes past those.
Vulkhanos: That depends because Gil's power level has been changed multiple times and Altrouge recently got a really big buff with the remake (not like we knew much in the first place). But if Primate Murder is involved then Altrouge, every time.
RebelOtakuX: Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the story so much.
AND THAT'S IT!
I hope you look forward to the next chapter and next arc and I'll see you all next month!