Shirou Emiya skinned rhythmically.
In his hands, he held a dark knife made of flint that he had found lying around. Originally very brittle and dull, through countless scraping against rock had sharpened it so that it was now of decent quality.
He cut into the base of its neck and trailed down from there, cutting precisely, without digging into the dead rabbit's body. He moved up, down, sideways, until all of it was cut. Then eventually came the feet.
He began a fire simple enough, the old school way with a flint and began the process of cooking the rabbit. He sat down on a log he cut down and simply stared into the crackling flames blankly.
One would take it as Shirou drifting off, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. He was alert, as always and he seemed to be in his element.
The cool wind blew across his face, almost knocking off the hood off his tattered black coat.
The weather, Shirou surmised, must have been around twenty or thirty degrees Fahrenheit. Even for him, it was cold. The only reason he hadn't succumbed to the elements yet was because of his sheer will. He didn't give up when all odds were against him before and he wouldn't now.
Sometimes he wondered why it was that he was always able to survive when others didn't. Did fate have some plan for him?
Everytime he thought that the next day would be his end he was proven wrong. He thought that because of the snow, animals would be scarce and he would die out. That didn't happen. In fact, the animals seemed to be quite plentiful, despite the change in the season.
His eyes moved to a brown bear. It moved through the snow with its cubs trailing right behind it. Nothing special. When he looked more to the left however, he spotted deer, a bear's natural predator and easy prey for the momma bear.
And yet, they didn't attack each other.
They clearly recognized each other's presence and were not that far off from each other but the bear wasn't trying to eat the prey and the prey wasn't running away.
Even with Shirou's bare knowledge of the wilderness, he knew this wasn't normal.
It was like they had a common goal.
On one hand, he wanted to investigate the cause, as perhaps it was someone planning something nefarious, but on the other hand, he realized that it wasn't any of his business.
He wasn't a hero of Justice.
He wasn't a hero at all.
He could barely save the people closest to him, so what's to say he could save anyone at all?
The reminder of his failures still ached his body.
That blonde woman, the one who held the Archer class card, she outclassed him completely, broke many of his blades—many of which were still repairing— and left him half-dead in this forest.
Where was "this forest"? He had no clue. He'd walked and walked but never found any signs of life. Granted, his progress was slow as he focused mostly on healing his wounds and staying sheltered when it would get too cold to continue.
His next step was unknown to even him. He had nobody left to protect, nothing to live for.
He was simply existing.
Time went by and Shirou set into his routine. He would scout out the area, hunt for food, eat said food, scout some more and then practice his archery skills, which was what he was doing now.
In his hands he held a simple bow. It was made out of a tree using Alteration, and he refined it with reinforcement.
He got the string from the bark of a dead tree he found out was once strong, when he used Structural Analysis on it. Crafting arrows was even simpler and soon enough he had a proper bow and arrows.
Sure, he already had a bow technically, but that bow was more for shooting off broken phantasms and sword turned arrows. Not very viable normally.
He also wasn't planning on getting into combat again so he left behind all of his skills and decided to be as natural as possible.
"Hah!"
He shot his arrow at a makeshift target he put up. A carved up tree that had a circle as the center point.
He made it very close to bullseye.
"I need to work on controlling my grip, too much power will send it off course and possibly destroy the bow, too little will not make the arrow travel far." Shirou muttered to himself.
One thing he discovered about his body was that it was changing. Prior to losing everything, he was as normal as you can get. Little knowledge of thaumaturgy and generally weak.
Ever since he installed the Archer card that apparently held his future self, he had been subject to a lot of changes.
First off, mainly was his skills. He was able to not only use graduation air but the Emiya sub-variant, dubbed "Tracing." Which allowed him to copy any blade he's ever seen and store it in his world.
Second, he's been getting flashes of memories that weren't his. He saw himself and himself face off against each other, he saw someone known as Rin Tohsaka command him as his master, himself die and many other things he didn't understand.
Third, his hair. Everytime he traced anything huge, his skin would darken to a tan color and more of his hair would turn white. He was slowly turning into Archer.
He wasn't sure how he felt about that thought, so he decided to forego using it much at all unless he was tracing something major. It was no problem for him anyways. He had fought, he lost and now it was time for him to rest.
As Shirou sat down in his small cave that he found, about to fall asleep he heard the howl of a wolf. It sounded not too far from his location.
More howls went out shortly after that one, the next one coming from a different direction. And then the next one and the next one.
"Something is happening."
Shirou could feel it within his very bones. He wasn't a sensor by any means, but he had an amazing sense of danger and could usually detect supernatural entities.
He got up from his resting position against the floor and stared out into the distance. It was too misty to see but he could see the shifting of shadows in the distance, meaning something was moving.
"No, someone's moving. Lots of them." Shirou muttered, as he grabbed his bow and held his arrow in another hand.
He had the fire out long ago, so it should be hard for anyone to detect him if they were a normal human, which was what he was thinking they were.
The question was, why are humans out in this harsh weather? Something wasn't adding up.
He decided that waiting and seeing was the best option before deciding to jump to any conclusions.
He was rewarded a few moments later when he heard the sound of voices, talking. Because of the weather which whipped wind around, they were forced to speak loud. It sounded like…
"Girls." Shirou realized. "What are they doing here?"
Finally, a person stepped out. It was an olive-skinned woman, decked out in a full parka with long boots on. From what he could see of her face, she looked quite exotic, a type of supernatural beauty you don't see every day.
Not that he cared—mind you—just an observation.
What truly separated her as not normal was the bow slung over her back. He couldn't use structural analysis on it from where he was at now but even he could tell that it was a very high quality bow. Besides that, he could see two hunting knives that were attached to her hip.
Behind her, more young women stepped out. All of them seemed to be between the ages of ten to fourteen, yet all gave off a feel of not being normal.
Am I seeing things, or are they giving off a silver aura?
No, he could see it clearly. They were all illuminated in the dark. It looked like the moon itself was shining and giving them its blessings.
Shirou counted over twenty of them. All girls and carrying various gear.
He realized then, that they would find him eventually. He may have been hidden but the cave certainly wasn't. He didn't want to know what they would do if they saw him hiding. Perhaps they would shoot by instinct.
Just as he was about to leave the cave and reveal himself, he saw the hunters suddenly turn rapidly to the left, but not in his direction. They were all looking off at something.
The first one he saw, the bronze-skinned woman, she pulled out her bow and began shouting orders. The others followed shortly after and soon they all had their bows nocked with an arrow that glinted in the night.
Shirou couldn't see what they were alarmed for at first, but quickly found out when he heard the sound of a flock of birds. Except, the bird's voice gave out a loud shrill that made Shirou wince in pain.
It was certainly not a normal bird. The female group released their arrows off into the trees, causing a huge commotion as leaves and branches fell off the roots of the trees.
The birds he was hearing suddenly flew out of the trees they were inhabiting, letting Shirou get a good look at them.
They were birds, certainly but not like any ever seen before. Their necks were long, much like a crane and looked mean and harsh with their glowing orange eyes. Their feathers looked almost metallic and their beaks were sharp and pointy. He wouldn't be surprised if combined with its sharp claws it could tear apart a human's body, easily.
He heard the female group shouting as they let loose on the group of birds. Most shots missed, but some found their marks. Shirou noticed that the arrows they were releasing were special in a way. They seemed to ignore the harsh wind that was occurring and they flew straight and true.
The birds did an action that surprised both him and the females and they started to charge right at the group.
As they descended, their feathers shot out and much like the hunter's arrows, it flew straight towards the group as if it was a projectile.
The women who Shirou presumed was the leader, shouted orders and the group scattered with speeds Shirou was surprised they could move at. They took cover over tree's, ducked under the attacks and the leader simply pulled out her knives and parried the attacks easily.
Showing more initiative, she charged at the first bird that descended and stabbed it in the head. She then grabbed it to get her knife out of its skull, and tossed it to the side. She continued this process, and Shirou couldn't help but admire her fighting style.
She wasted little movement, and moved with ruthless grace. Spinning around launched feather's, parrying the bird's attacks carefully and even predicting where it would land and grabbing her bow and shooting it.
She looked to be a girl of only fifteen but Shirou refused to believe that she was. Her experience spoke for itself and her actions inspired the other hunters to spur into action and attack.
The birds stood no chance
Incredible.
Shirou couldn't help but think to himself.
Soon enough, there were no more birds attacking. The ones that did survive, retreated into the distance, showing their self preservation.
The hunters finally relaxed their guards and he could see the leader interacting with the group and telling them something. Whatever it was she said, spurred them into action and he saw the hunters do various things.
One, collected the feathers that were stabbed into the ground and put them into a bag. Shirou assumed to later craft into arrows.
Another, began cutting down branches and gathering logs. One pulled out a giant pot from their small bag somehow, and the remaining ones pulled out cloth's for which Shirou assumed to be for the tents.
He was proven right as he saw all of the available hunters begin to set up tents. Shirou noticed that they did it with extreme skill, as if they had done it hundreds of times over.
Most of the tents were medium-sized but he noticed one particularly large tent being set up. About half the size of the tree's around, which was quite tall.
He assumed it was for the leader, but was proven wrong when a tent a little bit smaller than the former was built and she stepped in.
Then who's tent is that?
Did that mean there was someone leading this group that wasn't the olive-skinned girl? If so, who? To be the leader of such skilled girls.
There were a lot of questions he had and yet he had little answers. Which brought him to the most urgent thing.
How was he going to reveal himself?
He needed to do it. Eventually they would find him. The cave wasn't so out of the way that nobody would notice and with twenty girls it was bound to happen.
What would happen if they were to have found him watching them? Would they think he was a stalker or something and kill him? Detain him?
He didn't know.
He was interrupted from his thoughts when he spotted a pack of wolves that strode into the camp.
Those were the wolves I heard earlier.
The wolves were majestic looking with gorgeous silver fur and gray eyes. They were bigger than the average wolf and were clearly hunting wolves as some of them dragged dead animals back.
The girls didn't seem surprised to see them and some of them even petted them softly and whispered things to them. They cooked the meat that the wolves brought back soon enough, and he could see the group in a circle around a fire talking to each other.
The only one who seemed to truly be distant was the leader of the group. She looked distant and simply stared off into the fire as if her mind wasn't living in the present, but the past.
He knew that look well enough.
Observing while trying to remain quiet and hidden was starting to become taxing and his eyelids were slowly starting to shut. His conscious came back to him a second later when he realized what he was doing and he jumped a little to regain his balance which was slipping.
He quickly regretted doing that.
One of the wolves—who was eating some meat—head suddenly snapped in his direction. He froze as it began to get up and go where he was.
Shit! Shit! This isn't good. I can't move or else I'll be detected and it might trigger more of them, but if I don't move, I'll be found.
The wolf was only getting closer and it was only a matter of time before it entered the cave and found him. Shirou had to think on the fly.
He reached into a pouch he kept at his waist and grabbed some pieces of meat. They were little scraps he was keeping for the animals that would frequent around here and it also served as good bait. That was his plan here.
He would throw the meat and quietly make his way out of the cave. If nobody was paying attention to him, he would be hard to spot with his dark jacket on and hopefully the wolf would be too distracted munching on the pieces of meat.
He would unfortunately have to leave everything behind, minus his bow, but he didn't mind. Most of it was equipment he could find anywhere and he was in no rush to go anywhere in particular so it wasn't a big deal.
With the bow slung over his back, he executed his plan. He threw a particularly large piece of meat out into the snow.
The wolf, who was sniffing around for his scent, suddenly got a whiff of another scent, one more delectable, and veered around, away from his direction.
Shirou let out a sigh of relief as he saw the wolf completely distracted. None of the other wolves seemed to follow the one wolf either so he was in the clear.
He had to admit, he was slightly curious about the group he was watching but he cared more for his own life to risk it.
Moving as quietly as possible, he began taking slow steps away from the cave. He inwardly cringed every time his boots brushed up against the ground.
Luckily, where he was walking there wasn't much snow as there were high trees above it.
That didn't help his anxiety much, even as he kept occasionally glancing back at the camp and the wolves. They were all still there, all nineteen girls.
Wait, wasn't their twe—
Shirou felt cold steel underneath his chin. He immediately realized what was happening.
"I'll ask you this once, boy, who are you?"
Now this was just bad luck.
(-)
Artemis flashed into the location where her hunters had set up camp, quietly.
It was around midnight currently, so she didn't want to wake anyone up. She had been out for several days as she was attending to her godly duties and Zeus had called an Olympian meeting to discuss topics she could care less for.
It was the same old bickering between her father, Zeus and her uncle, Poseidon. Dionysus was as disinterested as her as he tried in vain to drink liquor disguised in a coke can, Aphrodite cared more about her own reflection and image then the meeting itself as per usual, Hephaestus was tinkering with his gadgets, Ares was provoking the fight between the two gods, Demeter was as silent as ever, and Hermes was on the phone.
Hera… wasn't actually there surprisingly enough, but Artemis thought all the better for it.
And of course, Apollo was teasing her and trying to get her provoked which she admitally still fell for every so often. Usually when he would pretend that he was the eldest when she was the one who helped her mother, Leto deliver him.
So otherwise, the usual. She teleported into the camp and looked around approvingly. Everything seemed to be set up and in order.
Not that she was surprised as her lieutenant, Zoë was her most skilled hunter by far and the one she's had for the longest. She was the one person Artemis could truly say she trusted fully.
As she walked through the camp she noticed that everyone seemed to congregate around the large tent which was her personal tent. She went over there to check and heard lots of commotion which was strange in itself.
Her hunters, while looking young, mostly were all in their thirties at the very least so they weren't immature by any means and always followed orders unless it concerned…
"Men!" One of her hunters—Chloe— shouted in disgust. "He spied on us, Zoë, you know the rules set by Lady Artemis. He needs to die!"
"She's right. Who knows what he was planning to do when we let down our guards." Phoebe said.
The rest of her hunters bar a few who had no personal problems with men, nodded their heads approvingly.
"As thy have said, thy final decision goes to Lady Artemis. Thou knows the rules." Zoë said calmly. She stood at the entrance of the tent while the others stood in front of her.
Zoë was as calm as ever and Artemis couldn't be more proud. When she was gone or couldn't interfere, Zoë always stepped up and became the bigger one.
Artemis didn't see the male in question so she assumed he was inside her tent for when she came back. Zoë must have put him in there so he wouldn't stir their anger more than it already was.
Before her group could cause any more ruckus, Artemis stepped up and made herself visible for all to see.
The hunters all looked in her direction and each of them bowed respectfully. Then they all tried to speak all at once but Artemis was having none of it. She held up a hand to silence them and looked towards her lieutenant.
"Take me to see this male, Zoë." The moon goddess ordered. "I and only I will have the final say on what happens to the male.
Her hunters looked displeased at the chance of him getting away at all and one decided to voice it. "But, m'lady, he watched us! He saw what we did. If we let him go, he could expose us!" Amaryllis, one of her younger, arguably least mature hunters.
She sighed. "Amaryllis. I will not judge someone before I have heard their argument. Me doing so, would make me an unfair goddess, male or not."
Artemis didn't look back to see if her hunter agreed or not and strolled into the tent with Zoë in tow to see this male that intruded upon her domain.
Attached to a log with ropes that looked extra tight—probably on purpose— was a male younger then she would have thought he would be.
He was Japanese, from what she could tell and had auburn hair, around the same shade as her own common form, except it was spiky and clearly unkempt. At the tips of his hair near his bangs there were slips of white yet it wasn't in any natural pattern so she wondered if it was hair dye.
His eyes were a unique amber, a shade rarely found in normal humans, yet it was his eyes that surprised her. Some say that the eyes are the windows to the soul and that within it you could see a person's life and experiences as well as their personality. The boy's eyes were empty, and had little life in them.
It was a look you didn't see very often in anyone, male or female, these days as times were not as harsh and people were far more coddled then in the time of Ancient Greece.
It made her slightly interested to at least hear him out before deciding.
While she observed him he kept his gaze straight forward, not even registering the two of them, as if he was in his own world.
She decided to announce her presence.
"Boy."
Her one word was able to get him to wake up from whatever trance he was in and his eyes gained a little light, but not by much. He looked at her in surprise when his eyes fell on her.
"Do you know where you are?" She asked bluntly. She had no time nor wanted to play any games and dance around words.
He shook his head.
"You are in my camp. I am the leader of this group of hunters. Do you know who I am?" She tested him to gauge his knowledge. She wasn't Apollo by any means but she could tell a lie by their body language.
He shook his head again but Artemis wasn't having it. "Speak, boy. You can do so, I'm sure."
"No. I don't." He replied.
She stared at him for a few seconds and he did the same unflinchingly and she eventually broke it.
"I am Artemis, goddess of the Hunt." Her announcement got the wide eyes of the man as expected. "Do you know me?"
"I've read a little bit of Greek Mythology before and remember seeing your name a few times." His words were true, but she had a feeling there was more to it than simply hearing it.
"Then that makes it easier." Artemis started and her eyes grew a little colder. "You intruded upon my domain for reasons unknown to us. Not to mention you came, armed."
She looked at the equipment he came with that they detained from him. It was a simple bow made out of a good tree and clearly manmade which showed he had skill crafting weapons.
"I never intruded on your hunters." He defended. "I was making camp at the cave when I saw your hunters come and kill those birds."
So a clear-sighted mortal then.
"So thy claim." Zoë growled. "Thou's validity is in question."
"Look at my base camp. I have been camping here for several days now. I came upon you guys hunting by chance."
"Then answer me this, boy, what is your reason for being so far out here, away from civilization, presumably by your lonesome?" Artemis questioned.
"I…" He hesitated for a moment which was already a red flag for the goddess. "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Artemis repeated in disbelief.
"I woke up and I was in this forest a few miles back south. From there, I've been just trying to survive." The boy answered truthfully.
Was it common in the world now for people to just outright wake up and find themselves far into the wilderness? She didn't have an answer to that because she was one of the most disconnected goddesses and primarily just focused on her hunters and the missions to hunt monsters her father, Zeus, set out for her.
She decided to probe for more information given nothing was truly adding up.
"Where was the last place you were?"
"Fuyuki, Japan with… my sister." His answer came out solemn and deeply laced with sadness. There was a story there, but Artemis had neither the time or care to listen to it.
"And what were you doing?"
"I'm sorry, I don't want to answer that." He said, looking her straight in the eyes.
"Thy's choice is irrelevant. When a god or goddess speak, their will shall be carried out, one way or another." Zoë interjected, glaring at the male.
Artemis simply sighed. Her hunters were the closest thing to family she's ever known, and some even as children, but a lot of them were extremely zealous and rage-driven in their hatred towards men.
She personally had no issue with men, but knew how men could be. Her own father was known for his constant infidelity and could be seen even in the Olympian Council in the face of Dionysus and Hermes.
Not to mention his own daughter, Thalia who had died just before she could make it to camp.
Even her own brother, Apollo was known for being an extreme playboy, his cabin was full of his kids by different mortals. Some of them were even in her group of hunters.
Seeing the lust and greediness of men caused her to take a voluntary vow of maidenhood much like her aunt, Hestia, to avoid having to marry some fool male.
Because of this though, Artemis could understand them the best, and so she never admonished them about it.
Still, she decided to calm down her lieutenant. "Zoë, it is fine. His secrets are his own. I've judged him well enough now to know that he had no intentions of harming or interfering with The Hunt."
"Then you will just let him go?" Zoë said in disbelief. She hardly took her eye off the boy even when she was speaking with her.
"I never said that."
The boy suddenly jumped into the conversation, hearing about his fate. "What do you mean?"
"I cannot just let you bumble around this area without being supervised and you are far away from home." Artemis explained to the auburn-haired boy.
"So where am I?"
"You are in Philadelphia, close to New Jersey." The boy's eyes widened in shock at the information. "So it is decided. You will stay with me and my hunters where we will keep a close eye on you, and when we arrive in a city in a few days you will be dropped off there. That is the furthest my grace is willing to be stretched."
She blamed it on the times for her becoming a lot more soft towards males. In the past, merely looking at her or her hunters a certain type of way would simply spell death or transformation to a deer or stag.
With the changing of the times, the gods have changed somewhat as well, not being as reckless or as ruthless as before.
She still decided to add in a little warning. "During your stay here, if I find out you have touched any one of my hunters, your life will be forfeit. Are we clear?"
The boy nodded. So she continued. "Now, what is your name, boy?"
"Shirou. Shirou Emiya."
And so, the meeting of a lifetime occurred.
So… A lot of you are going to be asking me, what is this that shares the same name as my most beloved story?
Well, this is the remake. Except, it's going to be far better. I tried editing fsb but the whole thing was just a mess, I kept adding plot points and I was just jumping the gun too much. This one will be a lot more concentrated on character interactions and slow burns.
And yes, by slow burns I do mean slow burns. Of course, not that by chapter 60 they still are playing will they won't they, but they aren't going to be immediately in love by any stretch of the imagination.
Shirou has so many demons in his closet, he's simply not ready for something like that, and Artemis still needs a character arc as well. I want them to have a lot of time to grow together as well as apart. Note those two. They won't always be attached to the hip, but won't be never seen together.
Its important to find balance in between.
Speaking of, as you all have noticed I have another pj x fate crossover fic that I am working on at the same time. I couldn't help myself.
Still, the two fics will be focusing on entirely different things with entirely different ships.
The other fic will feature Ubw Shirou, so his entire character will be completely different from this Shirou. Ubw Shirou will be a lot more kind-hearted and interactive due to… well you'll see, and more put together so he won't be killing or at least not as much as this one will.
Whats different between that Shirou and this is that oath over snow Shirou basically had nobody in his life besides Miyu and Kiritsugu and they both died. Sakura as well. So, he is secluded and will have his own character arc to help him.
But one thing that irks me is that people in this community think that a hurt and comfort fic needs Artemis or Hestia or some women to help him.
No. That's not how it works. Shirou is almost a grown man. His problems will be solved long before their actual relationship, and I find it corny to have her coddle him and be his shoulder to cry on. I just don't see it. That's what the other characters are here for.
Once they are both ready, then the relationship can start.
Lastly, quick disclaimer, both Shirou's skillset will be drastically different. Oos (oath over snow) Shirou will be quite a bit stronger and faster (as his body is slowly turning into Archer's) as well as the fact that we see that he can trace divine weapons even if they do face imperfections like Ig-Alima. That gives me a lot of room to work with, really and I have a lot of mythical weapons written down for this Shirou to use.
Same for my ubw shirou as well. He will have his own unique skillset more focused on intelligence and cunningness.