Discalimer: This is just a self-insert, mostly self-indulgent piece of fan work and nothing else. Enjoy this garbage.
P.S: Expect random power-ups.
Chapter 1: Shirou Emiya. (15D/3M/24Y)
[Have fun! Sincerely, Dunnonia.] A youthful voice reached my ears, pulling me out of my thoughts.
"What?" Confused, I turned my head to look at my surroundings, yet found no anomalies in sight that could've caused such a noise. I was alone in my kitchen, running water being the only sound one can hear as I was currently washing the dishes. Blinking a few times, I chalked it up to my mind playing tricks and resumed cleaning the plates before placing them back at the cupboard.
After wiping my hands clean and turning the faucet off, a weak thump sounded from behind me, catching my attention. Upon facing the origin of the noise—an empty wall, my eyes trembled in fear as a wall of fire engulfed my vision, before being violently flung backwards straight into the wall by an invisible force.
"Gah!" A pained shout forced its way out of my mouth as I dropped to the ground. Opening my eyes, I caught sight of my home being ruthlessly swallowed by a sea of flames that seemed twist and writhe with a life of their own. My barely functioning brain processed the information and came up with a probable explanation: an explosion of some sort.
My ears rang a sharp tune, unable to pick up any noise from the surroundings, and my entire being was submerged in a pit of untold agony. Despite the pain my body was subjected to, I clenched my jaw, picked myself off the ground, and immediately rushed towards the back door to escape.
Emerging into the outside world, I was met with a sight that can only be described as a hellscape; the ground below were but of ash and cinder, the buildings groaned then crumbled into fine dust, the sky plagued with ominous clouds that seemed to spell out the end of the world, and pillars of flame that seared anything it touched were everywhere.
I swiftly snapped out of my bewilderment and focused on escaping the area. Trudging across the fiery landscape, my legs threatened to collapse with each step, but I refused to fall and pushed my body to its limits to move even a single centimeter forward.
Screams resonated from all around the place; a man was digging through piles of debris in search of his loved one, a young girl shouted their parents' names amidst a cage of rubble, and a bunch of others were yelling in agony as the flames swiftly consumed them.
"Please!" A desperate voice called out. Halting my steps, I faced the direction of the shout and saw a woman trapped under a concrete pillar "My baby! Please take her!" She extended her arms forward to show me a blanket wrapped around the charred form of what I can only assume to be a child at one point.
"Sorry…" I quietly said before walking past the ill-fated mother, ignoring her pleas that gradually blended into the background. Some might call me cruel for leaving someone to die, but I rationalized my decision by thinking that I, too am a victim in this scenario, trying their best to survive.
I marched through, letting the cacophony of cries go from one ear to the other. I did not know where I was heading, the place was utterly unrecognizable with all the destruction spread about. After a few minutes of non-stop walking, ignoring the pain that came with each stride, the limits of my body has finally been reached, causing it to unceremoniously drop to the scorched ground. The sensation of pain slowly left as my senses began to numb.
"Haa…" A defeated sigh left my lips as I lied on my back, staring at the dark skies above. In my delirium, I spotted a star that shone brighter than most amongst the clouds and reached out for it without much thought. For some odd reason, my limb felt light and shorter, but it was probably my imagination.
My mind and body has failed me, there was nothing else I could do to extend my life for even a second more. A series of blurry images brushed over my head—memories I've come to cherish over the years played in my mind like a feature-film, causing a small smile to form on my lips.
Accepting my fate, I took one last breath as death approached and stopped holding my arm up. However, before it could fall back down, a pair of hands took firm hold of mine as if scared it would disappear the moment they let go.
Suddenly, a burst of golden light enveloped my whole being before vanishing just as quickly as it appeared. Though confused, I swifty threw the phenomenon at the back of my mind.
Then, the voice of a man reached my ears. "Thank goodness..." Relief and happiness could be felt in his words, as to why, I didn't know. Perhaps they mistook me for someone they knew.
My eyes trained on their face; he appeared to be of asian descent with rowdy black hair, his eyes were filled with emotion as tears slid down their cheeks, the smile on his face matching the brightness of a star, and he mumbled out words of gratitude while grasping my hand.
As my conciousness flickered, one final thought crossed my mind. 'Why… are you smiling like that?'
"Welp, this ought to be fun." A being of pure darkness muttered. Its shape continuously shifted, but always retained a vague humanoid shape with a silky scarf draped around their neck. It picked up a book labled "Shirou, Blade of Emiya" from a weathered bookcase and made its way through the unnatural structure it resided in.
The being hummed a jolly tune as it walked across the space with swift, yet elegant steps. Eventually, it arrived at a small garden crowded with all sorts of colourful flowers.
The blackened creature sat on the chair in the middle of it all before opening the book in its grasp, eager to read its contents—a story following the life of a normal person who got reincarnated into the world of Fate/Stay Night as a certain Hero of Justice with a System on their side.
Through the window, I stared at the endless expanse of white and blue that incased the morning sky, until the silence was broken by the harmonious sounds of children interacting with one another in the same room as I.
Earlier on the news today, the investigation about the particular incident had finished, and the disaster that took the lives of hundreds was concluded to be nothing more than an accident due to a gas leak.
It had been a few days since then, and I had come to discover something shocking upon waking up. "I'm a child again." I whisper to myself. Specifically, a seven year old child with a head of auburn hair and a pair of amber-coloured eyes. No matter how much I tried to tell the doctors and nurses, they remained unconvinced, attributing it to me still being in a state of shock, so I gave up and tried to think of an explanation of my own—which went nowhere as expected.
I mean, how can one even begin to understand the peculiar position I found myself in? I was but a normal member of society, not a scientist. And the fact I was in Japan midway through the year 1994, could write and speak their native tongue as if I had grown up with it all my life, only complicated everything else.
"You must be Shirou, yes?" As I wallow in my own thoughts, a familiar voice pulled me back to reality. I turned, facing the same man who dragged me out of the sea of flames days ago. He wore a black trench-coat that fell just below his shin and had a briefcase on hand for some reason. Unlike when I first met him, his expression was blank, and his eyes shone weakly.
'Shirou… yeah, that's what they called me.' I didn't know why, but my name was registered as "Shirou" in their database even though I don't recall claiming my name to be as such, however, I was too preoccupied with my thoughts at the time to correct it.
"I am Emiya Kiritsugu." My eyes twitched for the briefest of moments, remembering a character of the same name from a certain franchise. "Well, little Shirou, you have a choice. You can chose to go enter an orphanage, or be adopted by me."
I stroke my chin while putting on a thoughtful expression. This man went out of his way to save a kid he barely knew about from a deadly place that could've easily killed him, so I didn't think he'll do anything bad to me, but his empty gaze and impassive face made me a tad apprehensive about accepting his offer. However, his intentions of taking care of me was genuine, that much I could tell. My physical form might've regressed back to a child, but my thought process was still that of an adult.
"Sure." I pointed my hand towards him, welcoming his offer with a kind smile. I feel a little aweful about taking advantage of his kindness, but one should take whatever they could get when thrown into a unfamiliar environment.
The kids around us stared in wonder, causing a bit of a clamour. I did not know how they feel watching another kid in the same circumstances as you be adopted so quickly, but I ignored them in favour of switching into a new set of clothing a nurse had kindly given me.
The nurse felt somewhat off; her eyes were hollow, and her movements punctual, as if she were a robot following a set of instructions. Were nurses in Japan like this? However, what caught my attention the most was the fact that Kiritsugu already had the paperwork necessary to adopt "Shirou", as I am known by at this moment, in the briefcase he possessed.
Though a bit surprised, I chalked it up as him eager to take me in, perhaps he'd started the process right after dropping me off the hospital some days ago. After putting on my new garments, which consisted of a dark jacket and pair of shorts, I followed my adoptive father outside the hospital and hopped inside a black car parked right at the entrance.
Now comfortably sat down with my seatbelt in place, Kiritsugu ignited the engine and drove out of the hospital grounds into the busy highway. He and I never spoke the whole ride, but the atmosphere between us never went awkward, thankfully.
While lazily staring out the window, watching the shifting landscape, my thoughts drifted. I'd already concluded this to be real, and not just some dream my mind had conjured while on the brink of death. I've tried hurting myself, much to the horror of the caretakers, and did everything I could to 'wake up', but all of my attempts failed, leaving me to acknowledge my current reality. As unbelievable as it was, all I could do was accept it and try my best not to fumble this chance I was graciously gifted.
Time whizzed by until the car went into a stop before a wall that wrapped around a traditional Japanese mansion, its splendor out for all to see. It was a sight to behold for sure, but my first thought was rather mundane: 'This place would be a pain to clean.'
The mansion didn't appear to be manned, there were no cleaners or caretakers on sight with the only occupants being Kiritsugu and I, so instead of feeling excited at the prospect of living in such a large house, a sense of unease went over me.
My adoptive father and I emerged from the vehicle and entered the mansion's parameters. Upon stepping into the foyer, I was greeted by an imposing empty hallway which made my eyes narrow slightly. While not abundant, an accumulation of dust could still be spotted on some surfaces, causing an itch to form in my head that badly needed to be scratched.
Kiritsugu, seeing me glare at the floor, ushered me inside with a weak push on the back before strolling past me. Broken out of my thoughts, I trailed behind him and entered a living room with a small low-table in the middle.
"Shirou, I have something to tell you something." Kiritsugu sat down on the wooden floor and declared: "I'm a mage, or 'magus' you could say."
"What do you mean?" I asked, echoing my confusion. Was he some sort of stage magician? How can such profession even let you buy a house as large as this one in the middle of a city? I know this was the past, but buying a property like this shouldn't have been easy even back then.
His face became more earnest. "I know it might sound absurd, but magic does truly exist in the world we live in. The correct term would be 'magecraft', as 'true magic' has been lost to time, the distinction between the two is pretty important."
Then, a sudden jolt of electricity flashed across my mind. My face was stuck in a state of disbelief after finally figuring out why he, and the strange happenings prior to this, seemed familiar.
Kiritsugu Emiya, a man known throughout the supernatural space as the "Magus Killer", was sitting before me, and I was none other than his adoptive son, Shirou Emiya, whom the man rescued from the disaster he, himself created — How could I have missed such obvious signs?
'I'm in Fate?'
Some time later, after getting over the sudden revelation that I now reside in a world thought to be purely fictional, I stood near the kitchen in utter silence, confusion mixed with fear washing over my entire being.
'What the hell happened here?' I thought to myself while watching plumes of smoke occupy the small kitchen area connected to the living room. In the middle of it all was none other than Kiritsugu Emiya holding a spatula of all things.
He turned to me before apologizing with a stoic expression. "Ah, sorry. I was trying to cook dinner."
Seeing his attempt at conjuring a meal, my eyes twitched. I knew he was horrible at kitchen work - as it was repeatedly told in the show, leaving Shirou to do it in his stead - but this was just straight up disastrous. How can one even fail at cooking eggs so badly that it literally got burned into a crisp?
"How about I do it instead?" I kindly suggested. This man should never be placed behind a counter ever again to prevent sudden house fires from happening in the future. Here I thought finding ways to triumph over the upcoming Holy Grail war would take precedence, but it appears the world had other plans for me.
After politely kicking Kiritsugu out of the kitchen and cleaning the wreckage he had created, I took it upon myself to prepare dinner. Thankfully, I wasn't as inept as him in the art of cooking, having lived by myself for many years naturally forced me to learn how to make proper meals.
As we sat across one another at the table, eating our food in silence, I sifted through ways on how to increase my abysmal survival rate in the future, and quickly found a simple solution to that question: Magecraft.
If this body of mine remained true to my memories of the show, the farther the craft strays from the concept of a sword, the more difficult it is for me to comprehend it, leaving me with very little options. However even that wouldn't pose a problem, because unlike the original, I already knew what to do with my limited skill-set.
"Dad?" I paused, wincing a little. It still felt somewhat weird calling someone my own (mental) age 'dad', but I'll get used to it eventually. He turned, facing me with a questioning look. "Can you teach me magecraft?"
He had revealed the existence of mana earlier by using 'Reinforcement', a spell that bolstered a given target's purpose of existence, on himself—increasing his physical strength by two-folds. If I were a normal child to begin with, such phenomenon would pique my interest more than anything else, so he should've expected this outcome.
"No." He shot back immediately, firmly refusing to teach the boy any kind of thaumaturgy,
"Please?" Once again, my request was met with rejection. However, I wouldn't let such setback stop me from getting what I wanted. So for the next couple of minutes, I pestered him on teaching me the art of magecraft until he finally gave in.
"Fine, only after we finish our food." He said with a defeated sigh. I almost let out a shout after hearing his answer, but I reined my excitement in and resumed eating my food with renewed vigour.
Though a little surprised that he caved in pretty easily, you won't find me complaining about it. He'll most-likely only teach me the very basics much like the original, but as stated earlier, it posed little to no problems as long as I master it. If Shirou Emiya (from the show) can do it, then so can I… hopefully.
Later that night, after putting our dishes in the sink, he told me to sit down next to him. Placing his rugged hand on my back, he spoke with a hardened tone. "I'm telling you now, the moment you start this journey, there's no going back, you'll be putting yourself in more danger just by practicing this."
I gave him a simple nod in response. There was no way I was backing out from this as it was the only way for me to possibly avoid the many life-threatening events that are about to come. A cold shiver ran down my spine just from remembering how much strength a single Servant - a hero of past renown summoned to the modern world with the help of an artefact - possessed.
"First off, you need a mental trigger, something to recall whenever you activate your magic circuits, so I want you to imagine an action, like stabbing yourself or breaking something." Quite the morbid thing to tell a child to imagine, but now's not the time to be fixated on that particular detail.
Quietly taking in his words, I pulled my senses inward, imagining two moving swords that produced a flare of sparks upon impact with one another. I could've went for something simpler like the hammer of a gun going off, but swinging swords came more naturally to me.
Possessing Magic Circuits is how one qualifies as a magus, and are needed to employ any form of modern magecraft. It is connected to one's soul and cannot be altered in any way; once destroyed, it remains as such for the rest of one's life. From what I could remember, Shirou Emiya is said to had 27 of these circuits—which was higher than average (20).
Kiritsugu's hand became warmer, followed by the prickling of my skin, then a wave of electricity abruptly spread across my body, causing me to clench my teeth, but the sensation disappeared shortly after. From deep within my very essence, I felt something move in tandem with my thoughts; an intangible force that took whatever shape I wanted it to.
As I drew steady breaths to familiarize myself with the odd feeling persisting all across my form, a translucent screen with written text suddenly appeared before me, startling me somewhat.
[Your Magic Circuits has been opened]
'What?' I stilled, gazing at the interface before me. Is this what I think it is? A tool to aid me in my journey in this world filled with danger and opportunity?
"You alright?" Seeing Shirou's stupefied expression, Kiritsugu asked worriedly after taking his hand off the boy's back. He'd heard that some children went into shock after opening their Magic Circuits for the first time, and he hoped this wasn't the case for his adoptive son.
"Oh, nothing. I'm just a little surprised." I replied calmly to erase his concern. Throwing a swift glance at his face, it appears that he couldn't see the interface that just popped up, saving me the effort of explaining what it was.
Nodding at my words, Kiritsugu told me to head straight to bed for tonight, saying that he'll continue my lessons on magecraft tomorrow after I get used to the mysterious feeling.
END.