People die when they are killed.

Emiya Shirou had known that to be the natural order.

He should've been dead a long time ago, even before he began being fatally wounded almost every day since the Holy Grail War started.

He shouldn't have survived the Great Fire, those flames had burned up the entire essence of who he had been before that day.

The only thing that remained was his body and his name.

He was saved by Emiya Kiritsugu, a man who smiled as if he had saved himself that day.

Avalon, a conceptual weapon, the scabbard of King Arthur. The only reason Shirou had escaped death for so long.

It had healed wounds that should've killed him many times over. But he had given it up, given it back to its rightful wielder, it wasn't his to use anymore.

The Holy Grail War had devolved into true madness, and Saber, Artoria, was the only one capable of putting an end to it all.

The only way to save the lives of everyone in Fuyuki was if she could defeat the corrupted Servants and destroy the Greater Grail.

If he was killed, he would die this time for good, he couldn't be brought back anymore. Even so, that fact hadn't shaken him as he fought the King of Heroes.

He had already survived far longer than he should've, and he didn't fear dying if it meant other people would be saved.

His final battle had been fierce, but he braved through the pain caused by Archer's arm and defeated the Stray Servant Gilgamesh. Now the rest depended on Tohsaka Rin, Rider and Saber all performing their roles.

His body finally succumbed to his own injuries, to the thousands of miniature swords that had been created inside his body.

Even though he lost strength in his legs, he didn't fall; his bones and joints were locked in place by steel muscle fibers. He had thought his final moments would stretch on forever, as he watched blades grow from his skin. His mind sought an answer before he stopped thinking.

What did he want?

To be a Hero of Justice?

To save people? To make people smile?

To save himself? To make himself smile?

He wanted to feel what Kiritsugu had felt.

But Shirou himself wasn't even sure what his adopted father had felt, only the results leading up to it and the outcome.

If he saved people, would he be saved? If he made people smile, would he smile too?

Flashes of face swam through his fading thoughts: Kiritsugu, Taiga, Sakura, Rin, Illya, Saber, and Rider. The moments he had spent with those people were confusing, he always felt conflicted, his resolve would weaken or strengthen the more he thought about them.

Even as he was dying, and he thought about his accepting his death, having played his part to save everyone, he found his mind wandering.

He had promised Sakura they would see the cherry blossoms together.

He had promised Rider they would watch over Sakura.

He has promised Illya that he would atone for the fact she was abandoned.

He had promised Rin to repay the debt he owed to her.

He had promised Saber another meal, another outing.

Shirou had promised to spend more time with them.

What did he want?

His brain couldn't ponder any further, the last of his consciousness was shutting down.

Then...

Illya appeared before him in an intricate dress, a white light overtook his vision, he felt his heart stop beating and his brain stop thinking.

It felt like his soul had slipped free from everything.

Once more he was alive after being killed.

The world was disorienting, lights were too bright and words sounded jumbled. Yet his mind was surprisingly clear, as if foreign information wasn't assaulting his very essence.

'Saber?'

As his vision cleared up, he saw blonde hair.

'Or not.'

Then he saw blue eyes, and more facial features. Although she appeared European, the woman currently smiling down at him seemed less majestic than Saber.

'What happened? Who is this lady?'

He attempted to sit up, however his body wouldn't obey his commands, or at least not in the way he intended. His muscles and bones were too weak to even support his intended action.

Even as the outside world was still a blurred together mess and his body was numbed, he could feel his soul clearly.

'Did Tohsaka take back the arm? Or did the Grail take it away?'

His knowledge was extremely limited when it came to Servants, so he couldn't be sure what had happened.

Regardless, his soul was clear enough so he could feel that his Magic Circuits were still in an operable condition.

It was slightly surprising, he could've sworn they had been burned out from his fight, but now they seemed fresh, as if he had yet to even open them.

He visualized a gun pointed at his head, from the barrel meeting his skin, the chamber loaded with a bullet, and the tip of the hammer.

He pulled an imaginary trigger, the hammer struck against the back of a bullet, and as it exploded into his skull he felt his Magic Circuits switch on.

As if molten steel was injected into his veins, he felt Od be pumped through from his soul and into his body.

He gathered what little he could manage, and analyzed the structure of his body, scanning for his injuries.

'…'

Something was wrong, he couldn't comprehend the results and so he scanned his body once more.

'…'

He was an infant.

That couldn't be true.

"Xxx xxx xxxxx xx xxx xx xxxxxxxxx xxxx x xxxxxxxxx xxxx, xxx xxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxx xxx xxxx xxxx xxx xxxxxxxx xx xxxxx xxxx xxxx, XXXXXXX!"

The blonde woman had spoken in jumbled words, and then a glowing green light washed though his body and soul.

He felt his Magic Circuits be snapped shut, and his vision cleared up. He was in a room made from wooden material, and he was surrounded by three people.

A blonde woman, with a sizable bust, was cradling him with a worried look on her face.

A brown haired man, with a strong build, was nervously looking at him.

A woman with reddish-brown hair, in a maid outfit, was almost impassively staring at him, but there seemed to be a glint of scrutiny in her eyes.

'…'

The three people, all roughly appearing to be either mature teenagers or young adults, continued to talk amongst themselves.

Now that his hearing was clear, he could notice their words weren't random, instead every syllable was deliberate, he just couldn't understand it.

They were speaking in an unfamiliar foreign language.

After struggling to comprehend what had happened, he eventually fell asleep, and when he woke up in a crib as a baby, he finally accepted that he wasn't dreaming.

He had loosely thought he might've just been reliving Saber's birth, but there wasn't any evidence to support such a hare-brained theory.

The only explanation he could imagine that was possibly probable, was that True Magic had been involved.

The Second Magic: Operations of Parallel Worlds, and the Third Magic: Heaven's Feel.

Both of these Magics were involved to a certain extent in the final battle.

He had almost shattered his mind to produce a Jeweled Sword that used Mana from parallel worlds.

And he vaguely remembered Illya explaining something about how the Grail's purpose was to achieve a complete version of the Third.

So, it was possible his soul was plucked up by the Third and then shunted off by the Second.

He had been reincarnated in another world.

…

…

It was a struggle to form proper thoughts, it felt like his brain was malfunctioning as he tried to think.

No, it only became a problem as he began to experience the emotions and needs of his infantile body.

It was hell.

He could feel everything in vivid excruciating detail as his soul scorched and warped his brain.

Scenes from the fires of ten years ago replayed in his mind, although it was normally reserved for his dreams, he kept experiencing it in every waking moment.

The blonde woman would repeat the same jumbled words before her hand emitted a glowing green light, and then he felt the tension and pain leaving his body.

His undeveloped body couldn't handle the stress from the shift and he would pass out, then in his dreams he would walk past charred corpses begging to be saved.

…

…

The pain had stopped a while ago, he still dreamt of it, but when he was awake he was able to focus on different matters.

He had scanned his own spirit and body, everything that made up his person. And he was relieved to find that he was alone, and the sensation of his personal self hadn't changed.

He hadn't absorbed or consumed an infant's soul, it was likely that this body had been stillborn before his soul had found and inhabited it.

Another matter he had discovered was that whenever he opened his Magic Circuits and his body temperature rose as a result, he would be subjected to the green glow and looked at with worry.

It didn't take long until he realized that they were probably concerned that he was constantly showing signs of a fever.

Out of consideration for giving birth and caring for him, and because he didn't want to be the source of concern for others, he limited himself to only one open Magic Circuit at a time.

Another thing, the Magecraft being used on him would slam his Circuits shut.

Aside from being worried about whether his partners had been victorious, there wasn't much he could do as an infant. Especially since his new body required constant sleep, which meant having more nightmares than often.

He would occasionally spot the maid staring at him, and she would speak in the jumbled language even when no one was around.

…

…

He would pull back the string of a longbow, and everytime he released his grip, someone would die. A new nightmare began plaguing him, a remnant of Archer's memories transferred from the arm that lingered beyond death.

Shirou had scanned his form, body and soul, multiple times, and every time he found no trace of it, yet the information was embedded into his soul.

There was little he understood about what had happened, all he knew was that a spiritual limb had been transplanted onto his physical body.

And the only reason he didn't immediately die was because the donor had been a future variant of himself.

Whether the arm was truly attached to his soul or not, was something he couldn't be certain of anymore.

The soul forced the physical vessel to conform, and yet he was an infant. The possibility remained that the arm had been forced into a dormant state, and maybe it was unrecognizably different from his usual self.

Or maybe the information it possessed had been buried deep within his soul.

However, one thing he did learn from his scans was the presence of Mana inside his body. It seemed to just be generated alongside his blood, and then stop after filling up a set of spiritual veins.

The atmosphere was lacking in abundant Mana, so he was relieved that his body could produce the difference.

…

…

As an infant, he was breastfed rather regularly.

Fortunately, he was incapable of producing hormones that would've made the experience awkward, he only felt slightly embarrassed during the act.

He also soiled himself rather regularly.

For a while, he debated with himself on whether or not to reveal himself as a reincarnated person.

He couldn't imagine how humiliating and sickening discovering that the baby they've been caring for possessed the mind of a teenage stranger.

He should've been dead, and yet no matter how many times he was killed, he remained alive.

Eventually, he decided to not reveal himself, and instead he would simply try to repay the favor later on.

…

…

As time passed, his body soon developed the ability to crawl.

And soon he began exploring his surroundings.

Although he had guessed it by the state of his room, this house had no modern appliances.

And outside of the house were flourishing rural fields that stretched on for a while.

He spotted a village on the other side, and similarly no signs of modern living advancements were present throughout the entire village.

Most people were dressed in simple woven clothes, and other fashion that was reminiscent of the outfits he had seen in Saber's memories.

It was evident that this world was still in its medieval era.

And perhaps he shouldn't, but he almost rejoiced after his situation became apparent.

This world didn't have modern comforts, and the dangers and risks of this world were probably many.

In this age, people could be saved with the swing of a sword.

Shirou could actually save people in this life.

He could finally become a Hero of Justice, and then maybe he'll be able to smile like Kiritsugu had on that day.

That was what he wanted, right?

AN: I'm sure it's clear that this Shirou isn't from a specific canon route, and instead from a blend of all three.

In preparation for creating my Shinji story, I read all of the Fate stories in the crossover section, and I was slightly disappointed that none of them even had Shirou meeting Eris yet.

I hadn't planned on this story being created anytime soon, however, it just wouldn't leave me alone as I was trying to write my other stories.

If I was a better writer, then I would've made a story about Shirou being Eris' brother, and could've juggled some of the kingdom's politics. However, I couldn't picture a way to make that work.

Also, for no reason in particular, I've changed the way Magic Circuit and Magic work in this story. In my other story, Healing has helped Magic Circuits, but here it has recognized them as unnatural and has attempted to erase them. Fortunately, Zenith is unfamiliar with the human Soul, so she couldn't do much.