KingVessel: In which I overhaul the Superman origin story and make his parents more like actual Kryptonians instead of messiah parents.
Chapter 01: Kal-El/Shirou Emiya: Origin
"Lara!" Jor-El called as he entered into his chambers, his heart soothed by her immediate appearance. After Jor's foreboding report about their imploding core, he'd immediately left to find his family before meeting with the Council.
"My love, what is it that ails you?" Lara-El as she clutched his shaking hands. Even now, the worry for him on her beautiful face both soothed him and ached him as he would have to add to it.
"Krypton's core is soon to collapse." Jor muttered after taking her hands in his. "While I haven't reported this yet, it is unlikely to be taken well."
Lara blinked before sighing and getting her composure together. "What would you have me do?"
Lara looked at his wife, who had been his volunteered warrior bodyguard before so. While their marriage had been purely for political purposes, there was nobody else they trusted and loved more than each other and it showed in how he'd instantly spoken of his true desires and how she'd accepted of his plans before knowing them.
"Has Kal left his nursing capsule yet?" Jor asked as he followed his wife.
"No, he hasn't." Lara replied. "It's almost time to let him out, though."
When they entered, Jor's eyes were instantly drawn to the slumbering baby within, born from his and Lara's genes before being nurtured in that very nursing capsule. "Pretty small..."
"I think it's because he might be a late bloomer." Lara commented as she came up to his side. "He looks just like you, don't you think? He certainly has your hair, at least."
Jor-El was a slender man with vibrant red hair and piercing silver eyes, his features sharp from years of experience. "I can still see your softness in his features. Hopefully, he shall have your eyes."
Lara-El, formerly Lara-Van, was a buxom woman with silky hair as black as the void, golden eyes that matched a yellow star and a slender figure which still made others doubt that she was General Dru-Zod's contender for leading the Warrior Guild. "You are the only man who will ever get away with calling me 'soft', scientist. So, what shall we do?"
"You and Kal shall leave Krypton for a year." Jor instructed. "If my reports are right, and never have I wished to be so wrong, Krypton will supposedly implode within then. If this occurs, our child will still be alive with you as his mother and bodyguard. If he's wrong, and I hope he is, you may return when the year is up."
"I see..." Lara hesitated before grabbing Jor into a strong embrace. To his own surprise, he hugged her back just as fiercely. They'd never been the type to display such blatant displays of affection recently.
Come to think of it, this had only started after Kal's birth. Even before leaving his nursing capsule, it seemed that his son was already causing miracles.
An hour later, Jor sighed as his wife and child vanished from his sight into the skies, graced by Rao's Shine as they disappeared into FTL Jump.
"Lara... Kal... You two remain my most valuable treasures." The leader of the Science Guild whispered to himself as he turned about into his home. "That is why you two must live no matter what."
And when Krypton truly imploded and shattered apart ten months later, Jor was one of the very few people who had any reason to smile while the planet broke apart around him, a tidal wave of heat and sound reducing his body to atoms faster than he could react.
Lara kneeled in the middle of the field her craft had crashed into, her son's cries a reassuring sound behind her as she surveyed the land and tried to weather the onslaught on her senses. This planet was strange in many ways different than hers. From what she'd observed of a land vehicle she'd seen from very far away, the planet seemed to be much lower in scientific and technological advancement than Krypton.
But along with that, Lara was still trying to weather the surge of energy she'd gotten from being basked in the yellow star's light. Already, she'd shaken the ground from stomping too hard and had accidentally sped into a tree hard enough to topple it.
Thankfully, she was well versed in her infiltration studies and soon made sure she was adequate enough to glean information of their whereabouts.
It appeared that the planet, Earth it was called, was similar enough to them in it's inhabitants that none of the humans seemed to have any visual difference from a Kryptonian. Earth did have potential, but she very much doubted that the natives would be too friendly to any visitors from outer space, given how the farthest they'd achieved was just their own moon and possibly the neighboring planet Mars.
(As for the ones who called themselves magi or dead apostles, Lara was of the opinion that almost every single one of them needed to be chucked into the Phantom Zone.
Ironically for the Earthlings' safety rather than just Kal's own.
She had no idea where the magi originated from, but the fact that there was an infestation of randomly mutated Vladats on the planet was nothing good.)
However, Lara would have to make do. If Jor's beliefs were right, and he didn't have a history of falsehoods, then Lara had to assume that Krypton was truly gone and her husband had died with it. Therefore, she could not lose her son as well.
'No matter what.' Lara asserted, her golden eyes briefly burning red.
From then on, she'd done her best to assimilate into the country she'd landed on. To ensure that her son grew up as both a Kryptonian refugee and a Japanese immigrant. Simple enough after her AI had gained a good enough understanding of their language, culture and primitive technology.
She would fulfill her husband's wishes and ensure that Kal-El (now Shirou in his Japanese papers, because she liked how the name sounded in it's multiple translations) wouldn't grow up wanting for anything.
Kiritsugu Emiya had thought that he'd lived a life in which things couldn't surprise him anymore, especially after the Fourth Holy Grail War.
Then he'd met an actual alien(who ironically enough, looked more human than any other nonhuman he'd ever met).
Well, he'd almost gotten killed by said alien during one of his trips to the Einzbern estate. It was now four years since the disaster of the Fourth Holy Grail War, most of it spent on trying to recover his daughter from the Einzberns.
He didn't know where it was good or bad luck to have encountered Lara-El (also known as Riruka as her chosen Japanese name) while having caught her easily annihilating a nest of Dead Apostles.
(His broken shoulder gotten from being kicked through a wall strongly suggested the latter.)
Even so, she had agreed to his wild and desperate plea to help him save his daughter, in exchange of his guardianship.
"Just like you, I have a child of my own that I must raise in this world." Riruka confessed as they hashed out the details. "In exchange for rescuing this 'Illyasviel', I want your name."
"M-My name?" Kiritsugu questioned.
"A Clan Name to be exact." Riruka clarified. "Fake personal names are one thing, but back in my homeland, it is heavily frowned upon to fake a Clan Name. From what I've seen here in this world, children with Clan Names are treated significantly better than those without. That is why you shall share yours with us."
'So she wants her child and herself to be adopted into my family?' "Done." Kiritsugu instantly accepted. As far as he was concerned, it was a very small price in exchange for getting assured help in saving his daughter.
While it had been strange to suddenly have two extra presences in his house, especially with the both of them being aliens, Kiritsugu quickly got used to them.
And when he held Illya in his arms a few months later while Riruka handily disposed of the massive golems sent out against them by Jubstacheit von Einzbern, he knew it'd all been worth it.
Shirou Emiya (born as Kal-El) had a very unorthodox family. He didn't initially think they were, but even he could understand that they were objectively unusual. His 'uncle' was a human magus, who'd adopted him and his mother into his family. His mother was an alien (Kryptonian, to be exact) who'd been some kind of soldier/warrior back in their home planet before it died. His 'cousins' were one half-homunculus and two homunculi who acted more like the hybrid's servants.
While he loved them very much, he couldn't deny that most of his affection was directed at his mother. While Riruka claimed that she'd borne him via artificial semination and probably saw him more as an extension of her bloodline than her child, there was no denying that she still saw him as far more valuable than anything else on the planet.
Which was why he'd called for her that day.
Shirou wasn't exactly sure of when it had started but everything seemed to be a tad brighter or louder or smellier.
It was horribly disorienting to the eight year old, especially when Hoshida-sensei called out to him.
"Shirou-kun? Are you listening?"
Hoshida-sensei was saying something, but Shirou didn't pay attention to her words. He was understandably more freaked out at how she hadn't noticed that her skin was missing.
"Are you alright, Shirou-kun?"
By Rao, he could see her beating heart. Before Shirou's very eyes, the hand-sized organ constantly throbbed and pulsed with a unique beat, dictating the flow of blood through channels that Shirou was currently looking at.
"Shirou-kun, listen to me. You need to breathe."
When Hoshida-sensei gently patted his shoulder, Shirou twitched as the walls seemed to fade right before his eyes. He could see the cars outside in the yellow sun and even then, the vehicles as well turned see through, causing a mild aching in his skull.
"Breathe with me, Shirou-kun! Yukika-chan, get the nurse!"
Then the sounds came.
It didn't matter the type as they all came. Machine humming became aching drones, footsteps became explosions, voices became loudspeakers, all of it roaring into Shirou's ears.
Everything was so bright and so loud, it was all too much. Screaming in shock and pain, Shirou shoved past his teacher and escaped his classroom. Even as he ran, his senses still went haywire, switching through normal and see through while the loudening sounds worsened the ache in his head.
Getting desperate, Shirou went into the nearby closet and locked it, hunching down as the sounds grew even louder as he shut his eyes. This time, even far away sentences were sounding as if spoken right to him.
^-Hey, what's for-^
^-car accident that claimed three-^
^-ka-chinga! ka-chinga!-^
^-the victims had multiple stab wounds-^
^-do you wanna die, you-^
^-you prefer? a million yen at once? Or ten yen every day for the rest of your life-^
^-mugger has taken the child hostage-^
^-in just three hundred years, they went and built up their numbers again. Humans really are like rats-"
^-have to lay off at least fifty workers by the end of the month-^
It was getting worse, and Shirou didn't know how to stop it. Didn't know what to do about it but cover his ears and try to block it out.
It didn't work. The sounds just kept on coming, uncaring of his response as even the languages began to branch out from just Japanese.
"Shirou-kun, come out of there."
It was Hoshida-sensei now, but she couldn't help. "Leave me alone."
"Shirou-kun, I've called your mother-"
"I'm here." Mother's reassuring voice cut off Hoshida-sensei. "What is it?"
"I'm sorry, but Shirou-kun just ran out of his class, Emiya-san." Hoshida-sensei replied. "I don't know why, but he was clutching his ears as he did so."
"...I see." Mother replied after a pause. "It's so soon, though."
'So soon?' So Mother knew what was happening to him?
"Kal, listen to me when I ask of you." Mother's voice spoke up again after a bit. "What do you hear?"
^(This is GTL Morning News!)^
^Authorities have confirmed that all week will be sunny with clouds!^
^(-the virus changes in a way that allows transmission between humans-)^
^(Yet again, today, another group of dolphins became stranded-)^
^Your socks are so cute!^
^Police say they've seen similar cases recently^
^(-not a physicist or an engineer! You're just a damn-)^
^(-on top of the bleeding man, beating him-)^
^(Doomsday is nothing more than a big hoax.)^
^Did anybody bring an extra bag?^
^( You know, what's the point of living... if you don't have a dick?)^
^(Nigga, if you look me in the eye and tell me there's something fluffier than a cloud out there, I'm gonna stab ya with this fork right here.)^
Shirou grabbed at his ears tighter. "Everything. It's like I'm hearing the whole world."
"Your hearing can only go as far as your permit your world to be." Mother replied. "First concentrate on yourself and become your world."
'I am my world. I am my world. I am my world.' Amazingly, Mother's advice worked as the loud voices slowly faded away, allowing Shirou to open his eyes and notice that his sight had gotten normal too. "I... I think it worked."
Mother sighed in relief, apparently having held her breath. "...good. Hoshida-san, I believe? I'm going to pull Shirou from school for the rest of the day if you don't mind."
"A-Ah, of course." Hoshida-sensei replied. "But if you don't mind me asking, do you what happened? He was in so much distress."
"This... is a family matter, I'm afraid."
Shirou opened the door at that moment before he immediately buried his face into Mother's leg, relishing her strong fingers as they caressed his hair.
There were many other moments like this with his mother, but that didn't mean he didn't value his uncle in the slightest.
Kiritsugu always struck Shirou as the type who seemed like he had no idea how to do something unrelated to combat but was still decent in it, proven by how he eagerly threw himself into becoming Illya's father again while doting on his 'nephew' as well.
When an accident had happened, which had resulted in Shirou using his Kryptonian strength to save the lives of his classmates, Kiritsugu had been the one to teach him the need for discretion rather than Lara.
"I just wanted to help." Shirou pouted as he sat down before their backyard. "I don't get why it's wrong for me to stop our speeding bus."
"You're just lucky you did it in a way that nobody could outright implicate you." Kiritsugu sighed after taking a seat next to him. "Shirou, it's not that I'm saying that it's wrong to save others. In fact, it's never wrong to save others. The problem is how others react to your actions. The Clock Tower, the Dead Apostle Ancestors-"
"Vladats!" Mother yelled out from within the house. "Whatever you say, they're horribly mutated Vladats!"
"...well, you Kryptonians are entitled to whatever you want to called them." Kiritsugu shrugged. "What really matters is that whenever somebody does something extraordinary, their chances of a peaceful life get ignored. Shirou, you and your mother are extremely extraordinary even by the highest of standards. Riruka could possibly take over the world if she wanted to and she's told me you'll end up superior to her as you grow up, something about your caste being undecided before you left and therefore with limitless potential."
"But I don't want to take over the world." Shirou frowned. "Can't I just keep pretending to be your nephew?"
"Pretending? I stopped pretending the moment Illya addressed you as 'Onii-chan'." Kiritsugu drew Shirou into a hug. "As far as I'm concerned, you are family."
It was probably a good thing that Illya had taken a strong liking to Shirou when they'd first met. The idea of having someone close to her age in her family thrilled her and made her glad that the family she thought she'd lost had instead grown, so much so that when Kiritsugu finally passed away from the curse that had been ailing him for years, she'd almost broken down immediately into a sobbing mess in Shirou's arms.
Even with all of them offering their support, it took several weeks for Illya to emotionally recover, even with Shirou serving as her strongest pillar of support.
But still life went on.
As Shirou grew, he still thought of his uncle's words and the brief snippets he got whenever the man alluded to the life he retired from. Kiritsugu had attempted to be a hero, but had always had to compromise his ideals at unfortunate moments, leaving him with an important person in his life always dying despite all he could.
Shirley, Norikata Emiya, Natalia Kiminski, Maiya Hisau, Irisviel von Einzbern.
For every person he'd lost, Kiritsugu Emiya had broken a bit in the inside. Saving Illya from her clan and being able to raise her had always been something he never failed to thank Lara for, it being something of a grand redemption.
So even though Lara took over as their guardian, Shirou knew that he would protect Illya in his uncle's stead.
It didn't matter that Sella and Leysritt were already going to do that. It didn't matter that there was an entire castle full of Einzbern homunculi in Germany who would take Sella and Leysritt's places should they fail, especially as with Jubstacheit dead, Illya was the Einzbern Clan's highest authority.
Shirou decided that he was going to protect her, and thus he would.
"Mother, I think one of my classmate's little sister might be an alien, too."
Pausing from her work (Riruka Emiya earned her salary as a story writer, putting most of her previous missions and adventurers among the stars into a series of books. The humans, very lacking in space material, loved the books very much to declare them as 'bestsellers'.), Lara turned to her fretting son. "Really?"
"I accidentally used my X-ray Vision on her, and her body was filled with... some kind of worms." Kal shuddered at the memory, which alarmed Lara as her boy would normally be more awkward about using his X-ray Vision at all, believing it to something that violated privacies. "Even now, I'm still not sure if they were hurting her. But, could you please look into it?"
"...very well." Lara sighed. "Give me her name."
Kal sighed in relief. "Her name's Sakura Matou. Please let me know if she's someone we can get close to."
Lara raised an eyebrow. "Do you desire this girl, Kal?"
"N-No, not like that." Kal blushed, his reply very unconvincing. "She's just a friend I made through Illya."
"Right..." Lara humored him while remembering the very subdued girl she'd met once. 'Kal's horrible denials apart, she's seems to be of good breeding. A good body with a gentle personality.'
So Lara later investigated as her son wished.
The good news? Lara was alerted to the most disgusting thing she'd ever seen which bore the name of Zouken Matou before he learnt of her and her son. Good thing Lara could take care of that in an instant... right after she got Sakura some much needed baths in their Organic Compound Electrolytic Dissociation Sterilization Pool Treatment Room.
The bad news? Future relations between them and her son were probably going to be awkward now that the Matou Clan was now missing it's grandfather and she'd forcibly removed the... worms from the girl and that... pit.
This was the best day of Byakuya Matou's life, hands down. He had no idea who that hot laser eye flying chick was, but he'd totally build a shrine to her as soon as he was sober again.
The Worms were gone! All of them! The Worms in Sakura, the Worms in the Pit, Father himself!
Popping open one of his oldest wine bottles, Byakuya poured a little of the drink over the small grave he'd dug for his brother. "This one's for you, Kariya. If only you were still alive to see the Worm Bastard die like he did today."
"You want me to teach you how to fight?" Mother raised an eyebrow. "I already have been doing that."
"No, what you've been doing is teaching me how to 'tap' attackers away without reducing them to pulp." Shirou shook his head. "I want to actually learn how to fight. I may have an advantage against normal humans but sooner or later, I'm going to encounter an enemy who can keep up with a Kryptonian. I don't want to be unprepared."
Mother stared at her son thoughtfully before shrugging and looking to the side. "Tiger!"
"I AM NOT A TIGER!" Taiga Fujimura roared as she charged out of nowhere and headed straight for Mother with a raised shinai, only for Mother to easily sidestep the sharp swing and restrain her with a single arm. "Hey, let me go, Riruka-sensei!"
Taiga Fujimura was a young woman with short brown hair and brown eyes, with her outfit composed of blue jeans and a black and yellow striped shirt underneath a light green jacket. She was a frequent visitor of the Emiya household as well as being Lara's self proclaimed student in swordsmanship.
While Mother had technically never trained her, the Kryptonian warrior had usually chased her off by always thrashing her in sword matches with wooden swords, thereby indirectly training her after she proclaimed herself to be Shirou and Illya's big sister and would protect them from all threats.
To Lara, this was just a 'thing-that-would-not-leave' that had upgraded into a potential human protector who needed to be up to her standards before making such a claim for her son.
"Tiger, congratulations." Lara spoke, her voice calm and unshaken despite the elbow constantly hitting her stomach. "Shirou just volunteered to become your student."
Taiga's elbow stopped before she leapt out of Lara's grip and glomped him. "My student?! Yeeeeaaaaaaaah! I'm gonna teach you so much! We're gonna be sword buddies! Isn't that great?!"
'This might've been a mistake.' Shirou thought as he struggled to remove his face from Taiga's chest. He could easily remove her arms, but considering the many times she'd shown cases of abnormal strength after being 'trained' by his mother, he didn't want her to get any strange ideas about her supposedly 'weak' little brother suddenly surpassing her in strength for no good reason.
"Good, good." Lara nodded to herself before getting up to leave. "Now while you two get started, I'm off to go deal with something I noticed a week ago at that church. If you hear explosions from there, don't mind them."
Shirou wished that he could've gotten more details from her, especially when she returned a while later with many, many injuries and what looked like a cylindrical sword with a golden hilt. Considering the massive amounts of energy it was giving off, Lara declared that Shirou wasn't allowed to touch it until he was at least seventeen before going to seal it off into their storage dimension.
Weirdly enough, the local priest died of heart failure around that time.
KingVessel: Now, while some of you may wonder how and why Lara-El is eliminating all of the 'Bosses' before Shirou even meets them, I myself wondered... Why the fuck would a matured Kryptonian Warrior notice the blatant threats in the city she's living in with her son and not deal with them as soon as she could? As for Gilgamesh himself, I feel like he would've at least had the sense to draw out Ea from the start upon facing the powerful 'invader', which is why he remains the only the only thing to have injured Lara since she arrived. As for how... I fail to see how 95% of every battle a yellow star-enhanced Kryptonian Warrior engages in would end in anything else but a curbstomp in their favor. After all, Lara doesn't have Canon! Superman's 'Thou Shall Not Kill' code. Also, in this Fanfic, standard Kryptonian physicality is at DCAU-level, so they can handle Servants just fine.