Lord of Bones said:
We all know that Shirou gained his ideals via admiration for Emiya Kiritsugu's own path. However, what if he were to develop another set of ideals? More specifically, what if he were to develop the ideals of Saito Hajime, the Wolf of Mibu?
How and why he took up Saito's ideals would be up to the author, but would have to happen fairly early on. This would have the potential to be a darker fic, given that Saito's motto was Aku Soku Zan. It would also change Shirou's interaction with those around him - I can see him being contempous of Shinji, for one.
His interactions with Archer and Saber would change too, but I just haven't figured out how.
First of all: :wub:
I'm a huge Rurouni fanboy, which has lead to me doing some background reading on the Shinsengumi over the years.
I think, in the interests of making the change happen as early as possible, Shirou must be exposed to the Shinsengumi before his parents die.
The simplest option I can think of is to ignore the historical Corps and go straight for anime. Shirou and his pop sprawl on the couch and watch RuroKen reruns, or something. Even better, make his dad a huge RK nut, with the OVAs and TV series on VHS, and a shrine built around the manga and stuff. Hard not to take some of that in, as a kid.
From there, his young mind makes certain connections as he lies dying of smoke inhalation.
Fuyuki fire = Ikedaya.
Therefore, some bastard set a fire that burned a huge chunk of the real estate and snuffed out more than a few people's lives.
That would sow the seeds. Kiritsugu's later revelations and the tracery training would give him his own fangs. Put the two together to form the swift death to evil.
Aku Soku Zan, especially to Sorcerors playing at war in my city.
It wouldn't take much effort to have Shirou visit some kind of Shinsengumi display at a museum.
One trace later, and he can produce mythical katanas like Kikuichimonji, Kotetsu and the like. The legends surrounding Japanese swordsmithing, kenjutsu and the like would, I think, give the weapons enough magical punch to injure a careless Servant.
Even more importantly, he gets Hirazuki downloaded into his Reality Marble. Gatotsu is only a step away from that. And if Shinji gets good enough at that, he might even pull a Kojirou and elevate the skill into NP territory. Kenki and Prana might be the same thing. Or, at least, similar enough that Prana can do the same things as Kenki does in RK.
Academically, Shirou's grasp of Japanese history and the kind of social, financial and political factors that led to the Bakumatsu mean that he regularly outperforms Rin in History, Geography and Political Studies classes. (Presuming such subjects are actually part of Japanese school subjects.) The rest of the curriculum would interest him not at all, I suspect.
On the other hand, he'd have the Archery club and the Kendo club competing fiercely for his membership.
If things go down as in canon, then the first change will take place when Shirou sees Lancer and Archer fighting. Remember the Shinsengumi rules? Yeah. He's going to trace a katana and charge straight for Lancer's throat. Depending just how good Shirou has gotten, the initial exchange could go in his favour - Lancer will be expecting easy prey. He'll get a cornered wolf, instead.
If he puts Lancer down quickly and goes home (presuming Rin orders Archer to leave him be, of course) then the rest of the night goes as normal - Lancer comes for him, they demolish half of the house in a running duel, the Servant outlasts the human and then gets owned by the petite bonde lass.
Where things go from there, I know not. Shirou will understand Saber a great deal earlier, even as he refuses to be mollycoddled by her. Rin's bluster about killing him would backfire horribly here - although, if she allows him to retreat, he may stay his hand. She's not Evil, by his rules.
Someone who is, however, both Evil and likely to die very quickly indeed, is our dear friend Matou Shinji. This Shirou will loathe him from the get-go. If any hint of Shinji's involvement with the on-campus murders turns up, he's dead. And if he touched Fujimura, he's going to suffer before he dies.
One final word - no budding Wolf of Mibu could possibly turn down the chance to duel Kojiro. That is all.
