This story idea wouldn't let me go, so I ground out this little prologue to see if it might have any potential.
One would really think that Emiya Shirou would have learned better by now. The twenty-five year old apprentice magus had been living and studying at the Clocktower with his lovers Tohsaka Rin and Arturia since they had graduated high school. It hadnÆt been easy for him to fit in at the Clocktower, as KiritsuguÆs family name earned him many enemies that his adoptive father had made over the years spent as the Mage Hunter. Still, life had been fairly good, if interrupted by many acts of strange magic and Rin being visited by one of the most feared and respected mages in history, Zeltrech. The wielder of the Second Magic had been full of praise for what he considered RinÆs rather remarkable success at replicating his own work. Which had started Shirou down the path that lead to the current predicament he found himself in.
A pulsating rod of glowing diamond hung in the air in front of him, created by the magic of his reality marble stretched to the fullest limit heÆd used it since the 5th HeavenÆs Feel. HeÆd pushed hard over the years in relative secret to develop the technique left to him by his future self as Archer and had managed to succeed with using it to replicate many weapons and even imperfect copies of Noble Phantasms. He still wasnÆt sure what had made him think this idea was a good idea. HeÆd seen Rin use the object once and its rather unusual sense of humor had turned her into a magical girl straight out of a shoujo anime, but she told him afterwards that it had transferred knowledge and even a little power from an alternate worldÆs version of herself. After all, Ruby had been crafted by Zeltrech and was able to access the Second Magic. Maybe it had been the constant snubbing by the various apprentices as they achieved their own masteries and maybe it had been that niggling bit of inferiority he felt around Rin that had never truly left the back of his mind. Maybe it was just the lure of the potential power he could achieve, since even he was not immune to its lure. Whatever the reason, his attempt to recreate Ruby hung in the air in front of him, pulsing with far more prana that he was sure it should and although his own od was almost completely depleted, the rod just glowed brighter.
Without even realizing he was doing it, ShirouÆs hand stretched out and tentatively touched the recreated object. The lightÆs intensity began to increase exponentially and the young man barely had time to regret his choice before he was blinded by the flash. He suddenly felt as if he were falling, spinning into something and images began to form in his head. He saw every choice he had ever made, every choice that had been made for him replayed in his mindÆs eye. Then the vision shifted to choices he had not made. He saw himself as one of the drained children in the basement of KotomineÆs church feeding Gilgamesh. He saw himself losing an arm to protect Ilya in the forest outside her castle from an odd looking berserker. The images spun faster and he could feel his magic circuits ignite with power and the pain of that flooded through him until he gratefully lapsed into unconsciousness.
______________________________________________________________________
Consciousness slowly returned to the young man known as Emiya Shirou, Servant Archer, Counter Guardian EMIYAà wait where did all that come from? Shirou forced his eyes open, wincing painfully at the light and looked around. He seemed to be in the rear half of a hospital room with the dividing curtain drawn to close him off. The window was letting in light and showing an unfamiliar skyline to the young man as a sudden pain shot through his head. Shirou grabbed his head with both hands, trying to ride out the waves of pain. He could distantly hear footsteps approaching, but the pain was preventing him from concentrating on his environment. It seemed like hours before the pain began to recede into blissful numbness and Shirou finally raised his head to look around again.
ôGood to see youÆre doing better,ö a short frog-like man dressed in a white lab coat said jovially. ôWe werenÆt sure that you would make it back for a while, what with your brain trying to handle an information overload like that.ö
ôWho are you,ö Shirou asked confused. ôYouÆre speaking Japanese, but I was in Englandà and you said information overloadà?ö
ôItÆs not surprising that youÆre confused, young man,ö the frog man said as he pulled a chair from its place by the wall to sit next to ShirouÆs bed. ôIÆll start simple and you can fill in what you can.ö
ôSounds good to me,ö Shirou replied with a weak smile and a sinking feel in his stomach that something was really, really wrong.
ôWell, to start with,ö the man stated, ôthis is Academy City. ItÆs an autonomous research and educational facility designed to train espers and research esper phenomena and how to advance the human psyche. You were found in the middle of a ruined building that had been destroyed in a special anomaly. They brought you here as you were unresponsive and convulsing in fits. Examination revealed that your body was reacting to exposure to extreme amounts of energy and your brain was struggling to process massive amounts of information. Of course, they brought you to me, Meido Gaeshi-sensei, as the finest physician in Academy City. My colleagues have even jokingly referred to me as HeavenÆs Canceller, since my skill is such that I can bring someone back from the brink of death. Now, can you tell me your name, young man?ö
ôItÆs Shirou, Emiya Shirou,ö he replied fuzzily as he tried to think. He hadnÆt been back to Japan for more than a couple of weeks in the last few years, but surely he would have heard of this Academy City, wouldnÆt he?
ôWell, Emiya-kun, itÆs a pleasure to meet you,ö Meido-sensei said with a wide frog-mouthed smile. ôIÆm afraid, though. That your presence here has ruffled quite a few feathers.ö
ôIt has,ö Shirou asked weakly.
ôIndeed it has,ö the doctor continued. ôYou see, all of the students and faculty and staff of Academy City have their genetic map recorded in the central systems for identification purposes and yours isnÆt there. Which presents a quandary, since trespass in Academy City is severely punished. There are ways around this, if youÆre willing. I can input your information into the system and make it look like a system error prevented them from finding your file. You would become just another student in the faceless sea for the rest of the year and then we can see about getting you back to your family.ö
ôStudent? Back to my family,ö Shirou repeated in confusion. ôWhat are you talking about? IÆm twenty-five years old.ö
ôNot according to all of your test results,ö Meido-sensei replied sternly. ôAll tests say that your body is only fifteen years old and your physical growth matches the predicted patterns based on your genetics.ö
ôFifteenàö Shirou muttered as he looked down at himself and noticed the substantial decrease in body mass. The last ten years had added almost a foot in height and a good 20 or so kilos to his mass and now it was all gone.
ôIÆll come back later when youÆve had a chance to go over it,ö the doctor said sympathetically. ôWhatever left you in that state must have been a horrible ordeal and you need some time to think this over. Use the call button when youÆre ready to talk.ö
One would really think that Emiya Shirou would have learned better by now. The twenty-five year old apprentice magus had been living and studying at the Clocktower with his lovers Tohsaka Rin and Arturia since they had graduated high school. It hadnÆt been easy for him to fit in at the Clocktower, as KiritsuguÆs family name earned him many enemies that his adoptive father had made over the years spent as the Mage Hunter. Still, life had been fairly good, if interrupted by many acts of strange magic and Rin being visited by one of the most feared and respected mages in history, Zeltrech. The wielder of the Second Magic had been full of praise for what he considered RinÆs rather remarkable success at replicating his own work. Which had started Shirou down the path that lead to the current predicament he found himself in.
A pulsating rod of glowing diamond hung in the air in front of him, created by the magic of his reality marble stretched to the fullest limit heÆd used it since the 5th HeavenÆs Feel. HeÆd pushed hard over the years in relative secret to develop the technique left to him by his future self as Archer and had managed to succeed with using it to replicate many weapons and even imperfect copies of Noble Phantasms. He still wasnÆt sure what had made him think this idea was a good idea. HeÆd seen Rin use the object once and its rather unusual sense of humor had turned her into a magical girl straight out of a shoujo anime, but she told him afterwards that it had transferred knowledge and even a little power from an alternate worldÆs version of herself. After all, Ruby had been crafted by Zeltrech and was able to access the Second Magic. Maybe it had been the constant snubbing by the various apprentices as they achieved their own masteries and maybe it had been that niggling bit of inferiority he felt around Rin that had never truly left the back of his mind. Maybe it was just the lure of the potential power he could achieve, since even he was not immune to its lure. Whatever the reason, his attempt to recreate Ruby hung in the air in front of him, pulsing with far more prana that he was sure it should and although his own od was almost completely depleted, the rod just glowed brighter.
Without even realizing he was doing it, ShirouÆs hand stretched out and tentatively touched the recreated object. The lightÆs intensity began to increase exponentially and the young man barely had time to regret his choice before he was blinded by the flash. He suddenly felt as if he were falling, spinning into something and images began to form in his head. He saw every choice he had ever made, every choice that had been made for him replayed in his mindÆs eye. Then the vision shifted to choices he had not made. He saw himself as one of the drained children in the basement of KotomineÆs church feeding Gilgamesh. He saw himself losing an arm to protect Ilya in the forest outside her castle from an odd looking berserker. The images spun faster and he could feel his magic circuits ignite with power and the pain of that flooded through him until he gratefully lapsed into unconsciousness.
______________________________________________________________________
Consciousness slowly returned to the young man known as Emiya Shirou, Servant Archer, Counter Guardian EMIYAà wait where did all that come from? Shirou forced his eyes open, wincing painfully at the light and looked around. He seemed to be in the rear half of a hospital room with the dividing curtain drawn to close him off. The window was letting in light and showing an unfamiliar skyline to the young man as a sudden pain shot through his head. Shirou grabbed his head with both hands, trying to ride out the waves of pain. He could distantly hear footsteps approaching, but the pain was preventing him from concentrating on his environment. It seemed like hours before the pain began to recede into blissful numbness and Shirou finally raised his head to look around again.
ôGood to see youÆre doing better,ö a short frog-like man dressed in a white lab coat said jovially. ôWe werenÆt sure that you would make it back for a while, what with your brain trying to handle an information overload like that.ö
ôWho are you,ö Shirou asked confused. ôYouÆre speaking Japanese, but I was in Englandà and you said information overloadà?ö
ôItÆs not surprising that youÆre confused, young man,ö the frog man said as he pulled a chair from its place by the wall to sit next to ShirouÆs bed. ôIÆll start simple and you can fill in what you can.ö
ôSounds good to me,ö Shirou replied with a weak smile and a sinking feel in his stomach that something was really, really wrong.
ôWell, to start with,ö the man stated, ôthis is Academy City. ItÆs an autonomous research and educational facility designed to train espers and research esper phenomena and how to advance the human psyche. You were found in the middle of a ruined building that had been destroyed in a special anomaly. They brought you here as you were unresponsive and convulsing in fits. Examination revealed that your body was reacting to exposure to extreme amounts of energy and your brain was struggling to process massive amounts of information. Of course, they brought you to me, Meido Gaeshi-sensei, as the finest physician in Academy City. My colleagues have even jokingly referred to me as HeavenÆs Canceller, since my skill is such that I can bring someone back from the brink of death. Now, can you tell me your name, young man?ö
ôItÆs Shirou, Emiya Shirou,ö he replied fuzzily as he tried to think. He hadnÆt been back to Japan for more than a couple of weeks in the last few years, but surely he would have heard of this Academy City, wouldnÆt he?
ôWell, Emiya-kun, itÆs a pleasure to meet you,ö Meido-sensei said with a wide frog-mouthed smile. ôIÆm afraid, though. That your presence here has ruffled quite a few feathers.ö
ôIt has,ö Shirou asked weakly.
ôIndeed it has,ö the doctor continued. ôYou see, all of the students and faculty and staff of Academy City have their genetic map recorded in the central systems for identification purposes and yours isnÆt there. Which presents a quandary, since trespass in Academy City is severely punished. There are ways around this, if youÆre willing. I can input your information into the system and make it look like a system error prevented them from finding your file. You would become just another student in the faceless sea for the rest of the year and then we can see about getting you back to your family.ö
ôStudent? Back to my family,ö Shirou repeated in confusion. ôWhat are you talking about? IÆm twenty-five years old.ö
ôNot according to all of your test results,ö Meido-sensei replied sternly. ôAll tests say that your body is only fifteen years old and your physical growth matches the predicted patterns based on your genetics.ö
ôFifteenàö Shirou muttered as he looked down at himself and noticed the substantial decrease in body mass. The last ten years had added almost a foot in height and a good 20 or so kilos to his mass and now it was all gone.
ôIÆll come back later when youÆve had a chance to go over it,ö the doctor said sympathetically. ôWhatever left you in that state must have been a horrible ordeal and you need some time to think this over. Use the call button when youÆre ready to talk.ö
