A/N: This Chapter has been edited.

This CYOA story idea had been in my mind for quite some time now, so here it is.

Oh, and by the way, expect smut/lemon in the future.

Knowledge Is Power

Prologue

30th June, 1994
Thursday
12:00 AM

I slowly regained my consciousness. My entire body felt numb and as heavy as led, my brain felt groggy and sluggish.

I tried to open my eyes, but I instantly regretted that decision as blindingly bright light hit my eyeballs.

"Oh fuck! why everything is so fucking bright?" I muttered while keeping my eyes squeezed shut.

After a few moments I tried to open them again, and this time slowly, so that they can adjust to the brightness. After I a few tries I managed to opened my eyes again. Everything was still too bright but manageable.

I looked around a bit and realized that I was lying in a hospital room. My body was bandaged, and I was hooked up to various medical monitoring devices.

After a while an Asian nurse came in, to probably check up on me.

"Oh! You're awake!" She said in relief after saying me.

"Water," I managed croak out, as for some reason I was extremely thirsty.

"Oh yes, just a moment."

Saying that, she brought me in a sitting position and gave me a glass of water.

"I'll go and bring the doctor and the gentleman who brought you here," She said. And then she went out of the room.

This left me to my own devices.

And now that I looked at myself a bit more carefully, I noticed that for some reason my arms and my legs under the covers were very short. And when I say short, I mean the size of a kid. Which was kind of weird considering that I was an adult man in my late thirties and quite tall as a result.

"Hmm, it's probably the sedatives," I thought with a nod. I was probably in some kind of accident (I couldn't remember it, probably because it was so traumatic that my mind just automatically suppressed the memory of it as a coping mechanism), so they probably had to pump me with a lot of pain-killers that was probably messing around with my mind causing me to see things.

And now that I thought about it, a horrific accident kind of explains the copious number of bandages wrapped around my body, plus the hospital.

After a few seconds a forty-year-old bald Asian doctor came in followed by another man in a black trench coat, who I noted with some incredulity, was also an Asian.

Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the Asians, all the power to them. But there does seemed to be a lot of Asians in what was supposed to be a hospital in California.

"How are you feeling son?" Asked the doctor.

"Son! Who is this guy calling a son? I'm thirty-eight-year-old damn it!" I thought feeling a bit insulted.

"My body's feeling a bit numb," Nonetheless, I calmly replied.

"Ah, that's normal," Said the doctor with a nod. Then he came near the monitoring devices to check my condition. "Hmm, you're surprisingly stable considering the catastrophic event you went through," He said after a few seconds.

"Catastrophic event? What is he talking about?" I wondered in confusion.

"So, what's your name son?" He asked.

"M-My name… M-My name," No matter how much I tried, I couldn't remember my name, causing me to panic a little.

"Amnesia?" Asked the other trench-coat wearing Asian man.

"Yes, that's seems to be the case. And It's not surprising considering the trauma he went through," Stated the doctor.

Amnesia? But I remember everything about my life. I am a clinical psychologist, I worked as a professor of psychology at the university of California. I am thirty-eight-year-old, and currently unmarried (which is kind of depressing now that I think about it). I don't have any other family member, so I'm an orphan. And aside from that I'm also an otaku.

So yes, I remember everything… well everything except my name, the integral part of a person's identity.

"So, do you remember why you ended up being so injured?" Asked the doctor breaking me out of my thoughts.

"No I don't," I said shaking my head as I genuinely didn't know how I became so injured that they had to practically turn me into a mummy.

"Well son, two days ago a massive fire engulfed nearly a quarter of the city," Began the doctor.

A massive fire? A quarter of the city destroyed? Now where have I heard that before?

"You were one of the victims of that fire and Mr. Emiya Kiritsugu over here had saved you," He said pointing to the man in trench-coat.

"Wait, Kiritsugu Emiya? Like from the Fate series?" I thought with incredulity, because Kiritsugu Emiya isn't real, he's fictional character, is this doctor trolling with me or something? "Um, what city is this?" I calmly asked. Damn! Even my voice is sounding like a kid.

"It's Fuyuki City, son," He answered.

I wanted to call bullshit on that. Fuyuki city and Kiritsugu Emiya or Emiya Kiritsugu wasn't real, they are nothing but fiction, entertainment. And this old man was clearly trying to troll me.

But I couldn't.

Because A) I couldn't remember my name. and when I say couldn't remember my name, I mean it's just gone from my memory. It's like I never had a name to begin with, even though I clearly remember my friends and colleagues calling me by my name. B) I just now realized that I wasn't hallucinating at all, I've actually became as short as a child. And judging by the fact that the doctor is calling me son, like I'm some kind of a kid, suggest that I've somehow regressed in age as well. And C) Then there's the one who the doctor called Kiritsugu Emiya. Yeah, he looked like the Kiritsugu Emiya from the anime alright.

No seriously, I never thought that there could be so much resemblance between a 2D animation character and a real-life person.

And aside from that, I just realized we were speaking in Japanese. Even though I've never been to Japan or ever bothered to learn the language.

"So son, are you hungry?" Asked the old doctor.

Hearing that question, my stomach let out a loud growl, as if to say that, yes it was indeed hungry.

"Yeah, I'm a bit hungry," I replied.

"Alright I'll call a nurse to bring you some food," Said the Doctor, and brought out his phone… a very old model of button phone to call a nurse.

How peculiar!

After finally getting some food (Damn! The Japanese sure knows how to make food, even it was just hospital sup it was still great) in my stomach I could finally think a bit more clearly.

So, how did I get here?

Let's think about it logically. I came back home after a practically stressful day at work. Then I sat down in front of my computer to search for a CYOA thread, as I wanted to make my own CYOA fanfic. But then, I found the CYOA interface of nasuverse, which was more interesting than the others.

Anyway, I started out with two hundred and fifty points.

First, I had to choose the setting of the story. I picked the entire nasuverse as my open world setting, it cost me thirty points.

Then I had to pick my character. And I picked Shirou Emiya, obviously.

Then came the options about his magical power source. There were many options like, regular twenty-five average magic circuits, twenty-five high quality magic circuits, a magic core with a massive prana output and a dynamic core with an initially very small output but one that can grow with training and time.

Naturally I chose the dynamic core, as this way my character won't hit a growth wall in magic due to limited prana output as he would be able to just increase his output with training. And in time, the dynamic core would just surpass the static core with massive output entirely.

Then came the option of Reality Marbles.

I skipped that, because a Reality Marble had the tendency to fuck up one's mind, and I'm trying to do a sane and rational Shirou Emiya here.

Then came the options about special powers. And there were a lot of options from both nasuverse and Worm, like the four True Magics and the Triumvirate power packages and so on and so forth.

I skipped all that and picked the Inspired Inventor.

Now, why did I choose Inspired Inventor instead of all the other OP power packages.

Well that's simple really. The things like Power Manipulation and the True Magics are way too Overpowered. And had I picked any of that, then I wouldn't have a story to wright.

Because think about this, a story is all about conflict. Even crappy romance novel has to have some kind of conflict in it.

The protagonist sees a girl, and it was love at first sight. Then the protagonist goes up to the girl and says 'I love you'. The girl heard his confession, and it was a love at first sight for her as well, so she also says 'Oh I love you too'.

And after that, they lived happily ever after.

The end.

See? That's not even a story. And the same thing would happen if I picked any of the other powers. Hell, the Power Manipulation alone would give my protagonist enough power in a week to crap on the TYPEs.

But the Inspired Inventor on the other hand… well it would allow my SI protagonist to make overpowered technology given enough time and resources like a tinker from the Worm-verse. But that's fine, and besides I'm a firm believer in knowledge being power.

I mean look at me, my knowledge of psychology had allowed me to spot crazy feminists and greedy harpies who only wanted to date me because of my money. And admittedly, that's also the reason why I'm still single and unmarried despite being loaded. Oh well, it's better to remain single for life than to be with a woman who would just later divorce you and leave you broke and jobless.

Anyway, then came the option for perks.

I picked Invictus (basically the gamer's mind only with unlimited will power and eidetic memory), Inspiration (it'll basically make my protagonist an effective leader with EX charisma), Blank (it will render any kind omniscience ability essentially useless on my protagonist, meaning Gaia or Alaya won't be able to see my protagonist, meaning the counter force won't affect my protagonist, meaning mage-craft won't suffer from degradation, meaning Gilgamesh's Gates of Babylon won't be able to steal my protagonist's tech) All Speak (which will basically let my protagonist learn any kind of language in a split second) … and Anime Harem Protagonist, because why the hell the not?

Next, came the options of companions, which I skipped.

After that, came the options for Complications.

Picking a complication would let me recover some points. But of course I didn't need to, seeing as I hadn't picked a lot of Powers to begin with.

But before I could skip that option, I noticed a very interesting difficulty. Its name was, Namelessness.

Basically, this difficulty will make my protagonist forget his original name.

For me, this was less a difficulty and more an opportunity, as it'll basically give me the excuse to just use Shirou as the name of my SI protagonist, and not complicate the whole thing with an original name. So, I picked Namelessness as my difficulty…

"Oh shit! I just got CYOAed, didn't I?" I muttered with wide eyes. I came to this conclusion because, this actually explains why I forgot my own name and I didn't have full blown a panic attack after I came to that realization.

But still, me being here just because I decided to play around with a CYOA thread, doesn't make any sense. So, what happened?

Flash back!

I finished picking my CYOA options. Then I double checked to make sure.

"Okay, that's about everything I wanted," I muttered, and then I clicked submit.

BOOOOOM!

However, the moment I did that I heard a loud booming sound from the distance.

"W-what the hell?" I muttered. Then I got up from my chair and looked out of the window. And what I saw, shocked me to my very core and made me shit my pants.

It was as if a second sun had just bloomed into the distance, making everything bright for a few seconds. And then it was gone, leaving behind a huge mushroom cloud and a rapidly approaching shockwave of ash and fire.

"Wait, wasn't there nuclear power-plant in that location?" Was all I could think about before the shockwave hit me and killed me in few second.

End Flash back!

… So, I died because a nuclear power-plant in my location had a melt-down.

Okay, it can happen. After all, it wasn't the first time that millions people died because a nuclear power-plant had a melt-down in their area.

But that still doesn't answer the question of why I'm here. Yeah sure I made that CYOA character before I died, but that's no reason for me to basically reincarnate as my own CYOA character. It makes no sense.

… But it makes perfect sense if one factors in the fact that the multiverse is real.

How do I know that the multiverse is real?

Well, that's simple. The nasuverse or the fate series may have been a work of fiction in the universe I came from, but apparently the reality in this universe. Meaning, this is a whole different universe, meaning there are multiple universes, meaning the multiverse is real.

And in the multiverse, an infinite number of universe exists for every possibility both imaginable and unimaginable.

So, even if the chances of me getting CYOAed after my death is so close to zero that it's not even worth mentioning, it won't really matter to the multiverse. Because if a possibility exists, then the multiverse will make countless universes to house that possibility.

Which means, me getting CYOAed has happened an infinite number of times and will happen an infinite number of times within the multiverse, with slight variations of course. So, in other words, I'm just another iteration among the countless other iterations of myself that has been CYOAed.

There! Now that's easier to swallow.

"Wait, if I'm in the CYOA that I picked, then where's my five charges of Inspired Inventor?" I wondered.

Buzzzzz!

However, no sooner had I finished that thought, I started feel them. They were like… five distinct but faint buzzing sounds at the back of my head.

"…Okay, now how do I use them?" I wondered.

Then throwing caution to the winds, I tried to focused on one of the charges. And instantly, that particular charge came to the forefront of my mind.

"A-Alright, so I'm supposed to pick a specialty for my tinker ability, but what to choose…? Oh, I know, how about… Technology?" Yeah, not really original I know, but it's simple enough.

And it worked. The charge disappeared, and an endless knowledge about various kinds of technology started to stream into my mind, causing be to go cross-eyed for a second there.

"Oh god! That was intense!" I said while taking deep breaths. "Alright, time for another specialty."

And just like that, I spent the remaining four charges to pick Efficiency, Biology, Medicine and Tools. And by the end of it all, I was heavily breathing, and a few tears started fall from my eyes, it was that intense. I'm pretty sure that if I didn't have Invictus then I'd would've gone crazy due to the sheer influx of knowledge.

After a few moments, I finally regained my bearings. And looks like just in time too, as Kiritsugu decided that moment to come in.

"Hello," Kiritsugu greeted.

"Uh… Hi," I greeted back as hesitantly as possible.

"I'm Kiritsugu Emiya," He said. "You know me, right?"

"Yeah, you are the who pulled out of the fire. Thank you for that," I said with a slight bow of my head.

"You're welcome," He nodded. Then he asked, "So, were you able to remember who you are?"

Golden opportunity!

"No," I shook my head. "But I was able remember my name though, but just my name and nothing else."

"You remember your name?"

"Yeah, and it's Shirou," I bullshited.

"That's it?"

"Yeah, that's all," I replied lowering my head.

"Well, Shirou then," Kiritsugu said with a smile. "The doctor said that you are completely healed and good to go."

"Well that's great," I commented.

"The way things are, they'll send you to an orphanage once you get discharged by the hospital," He said.

"Yep, there it is, the moment of truth," I thought without letting it show on my face. "An orphanage?" I Said.

"Yes, but I could adopt you," He said.

"There it is!" I thought with glee, of course I didn't let it show on my face. "You would adopt me?" I asked.

"Of course if that's what you want. So, would you like to be adopted by me Shirou?" He asked.

"I'd like that yes," I said with a slight bow of my head.

"Oh that's great! I'll go and get the paperwork done," He said. "Oh, and Shirou, there's something you should know about me."

"Yes, what is it?" I asked, knowing full well what he was about say.

"… I am a mage Shirou," He said.

"Huh?" I said with a confused expression, while inwardly thinking 'Yep, that's the bombshell'.

"Yes, I'm a mage," Kiritsugu repeated. "Anyway, I'll go and get the adoption papers," He said, and then he went out of the room.

I relief a sigh of relief after Kiritsugu was gone. Lying with a straight face wasn't easy, but in the end, I was able to pull it off.

And do I feel bad about it? About playing Kiritsugu like a fiddle?

No, I don't feel bad about it. I feel FUCKING HORRIBLE about it.

I was a psychologist and a professor (which is just another fancy term for a teacher). I've always tried to help my patients and students to the best of my abilities. Yeah sure I did it for money, but I still tried my best and never tried to harm or manipulate my students and patients.

And here I am, trying to manipulate a man who was clearly suffering from great grief, a man who had just lost his wife in a pointless glorified bloodbath, a man who would likely never see his daughter again, a man who I knew full well wasn't a 2D animation, but real.

To say that I was feeling horrible, doesn't even begin to describe it.

So, why I'm I doing this?

Well that's simple really. I didn't want to go to the orphanage.

Why I didn't want to the orphanage?

Because, in the orphanage I won't have much freedom or access to resources that I'd needed to develop my tech. So, in other words, I was manipulating Kiritsugu for resources. And not to mention, some of orphans ending up in the basement of the church to serve as glorified batteries for Gilgamesh. Yeah, I seriously didn't want to share their fate.

And yeah, I can't do anything for the orphans either, not as I am right now. I can't tell Kiritsugu either. Because, what's he gonna do? shoot Gilgamesh in the ass? Yeah, he'll have better luck rescuing Illya from the Einzberns.

…God! I feel like the scum of earth. I hope can repay Kiritsugu someday. And the orphans.

1st July, 1994
Friday
8:00 AM

"Wow! It sure is big," Was my thought, after I saw the big samurai compound that would soon be known as the Emiya compound. Of course I've seen this before in the fate series, but the real deal is still way too impressive.

It's been a day since I got CYOAed into this dangerous world (oh how I wished I had picked Power Manipulation and the other abilities, Oh well, no point crying over spilled milk). I was discharged from the hospital today. And Kiritsugu somehow cough*magic*cough managed to finish the adoption paperwork and purchase this huge beautiful traditional Japanese compound.

…Oh right, he purchased it during the fourth Holy Grain war, forgot about that.

"Do you like it?" Asked Kiritsugu with smile.

"Yeah, it's great," I smiled back.

"Alright let's get in then."

After that, we started to unpack. And by the time we were finished it was already eleven AM.

And it was at this moment, a certain hyperactive tiger decided to show up.

"Hi! I'm Taiga, Taiga Fujimura, it's nice meet you!" Greeted the quite exuberant tiger.

At this moment, Taiga was still a teenager. And just like the animation, she had light brown hair, brown eyes, and pale skin.

"Hello Miss Fujimura, it's nice to meet you too," Kiritsugu greeted back with a polite bow. "We are new here, my name is Emiya Kiritsugu, and this is Emiya Shirou, my son," Said Kiritsugu gesturing towards me.

I took that as my que to greet her as well, "Hello Miss Fujimura, it's nice to meet… Ark!" But before I could finish my greeting, she suddenly glumped on me as I let out a startled squawk.

"OH MY GOD! You are so cute!" She squealed while glumping on me so tightly that I was pretty sure, I was going back to the hospital due to asphyxiation.

"Help… Me…" I gave Kiritsugu a helpless look.

"Uh, Miss Fujimura…"

"Call me Taiga, Miss Fujimura makes me feel old," Interrupted Taiga, who was still hugging me with a death grip.

"Alright Taiga," Nodded Kiritsugu. "Why don't you come inside?"

"Okay!" After that she let me go, and went inside.

"Ow," I groaned while rubbing my ribs. "I think she broke my ribs."

After that I too followed them inside the house.

Kiritsugu made tea for Taiga (that's probably the only thing he could make as far as preparing food goes). Then, after making some small talks and declaring me to be her little brother she finally left.

"So, what do you think about our neighbor?" Asked Kiritsugu.

"She's… excitable? I guess?" I said.

"That she is," Kiritsugu nodded in agreement. "Anyway, it's time for lunch."

After that he got up and went to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Which was, as expected, a complete catastrophe.

Seriously, how does somebody burn water!? That should be impossible!

Anyway, after that, we had to order take outs, which weren't all that good testing. This caused me to use a charge (as they have recovered by now) on cooking specialty.

Yeah, that's right, I'd be cooking from now on.

A/N: If you guys notice some mistake, then point it out in the review.