Sword of Earth chapter 1

The Keyblade Graveyard, a ruined, scarred world that was the sight of a fierce battle that left the world a barren wasteland with countless dead key shaped swords littering its landscape. How this came to be was due to a great battle that engulfed countless worlds and had its climax here. This conflict would later be known by future generations as the Keyblade war.

As for the Keyblade Graveyard itself, it was located near the heart of the multiverse where different versions of characters from both fiction and history existed, leading similar lives but at the same time whose lives are completely different from everyone else's.

This fact often lead to its fine share of chaos due to the never-ending battle between good, evil, and those in-between, just like what was going on now as two major battles were happening near a section of destroyed land that consisted of deep chasms that surround an extremely high platform that was raised high into the air as a heart shaped moon illuminated the field from the gap that was caused by splitting cloud particles.

However, the two battles in particular had already ended, as the mastermind behind the whole event was defeated along with his dark apprentice due to the combined efforts of two apprentices called Ventus and Aqua.

There was also a third member of their gang that was in a rather peculiar position as he was lying on his back of the elevated platform, he was well built wearing a full body athletic suit that was covered with a arm size bronze gauntlet, he also wore version of Japanese trousers that was belted up with the mark of mastery symbol, and a pair of armored boots on his feet.

However other then his wardrobe the strange part about him was his facial features that consisted of yellow eyes, tanned bronze skin, and silver hair that contrasted the rest of his clothes, this person was Master Xehanort, a keyblade wielder and someone who had successfully stolen the body of one of his former fiends apprentices called Terra by striking himself with his keyblade and transferring his heart to the old man's new body.

The reason that the old man did this was due to his desire to recreate the Keyblade war. During his travels through the worlds he encountered various documents and tablets detailing the events surrounding the war however every piece of evidence he encountered never explained what happened during the end.

When Xehanort was an apprentice alongside the younger version of Erequs during their days training under their old master. The wise mentor had warned both of then constantly to stay away from the keyblade war as no good ever came from it.

Of course Xehanort, being the curious person that he was, wasn't about to let those warnings stop him and had continued to research the war in secret for years after graduating to a keyblade master and decided to travel the multiverse while Erequs stayed in the land of departure.

Over the years he had discovered bits of the war that he never dreamed possible. During his research he had discovered the keyblade war was fought between various factions over control of a weapon of unparalleled power called χ-blade, which was the prototype of the keyblades used today.

Apparently, the forbidden weapon also served as the key to Kingdom hearts, the heart of all worlds and the main reason for the conflict as each side wanted the power of kingdom hearts for themselves. However for unknown reasons the χ-blade was destroyed and split into 7 lights of pure light and 13 darkness.

After careful research Xehanort had discovered that the 7 hearts of pure light that belonged to the 7 princesses of heart were the same ones that were once part of the χ-blade. The 13- darkness on the other hand were nowhere to be found even in the realm of darkness.

With this Xehanort had hit a dead end in his research and was at a loss. The image of him burying himself in countless books on the keyblade war appeared as he tried to find something he must have overlooked.

It was then that Xehanort was hit with an idea that would be able to demolish the dead end in his research, complete the X- Blade and finally start the keyblade war anew. Afte rall if he couldn't find the 13 darkness then he just had to make his own, but the only question was how.

Darkness was a powerful element that grants its user great power. However it also had a side effect as users of the dark energy would either die because their bodies couldn't handle that kind of power or lose their sanity if their mind deteriorates under the strain. Due to these defects, only someone with a strong enough heart could control darkness.

One such example was master Xehanort himself, as the keyblade master had mastered the power of darkness in a sort time since discovering it. If it was that easy to create the χ-blade then all Xehanort would have had to do was kidnap the seven princesses of heart along with 13 strong-hearted individuals with darkness in their hearts, then extract his victim's hearts and fuse them into the original keyblade.

Unfortunately, reality wasn't as simple due to the fact that the 13 darkness needed to create the χ-blade needed to be exactly the same in order to work, so if Xehanort was going to make this work he needed 13 hearts of darkness that were nearly identical to each others.

Deciding that while it still was a viable plan to work with, Xehanort decided that he would have to figure out some other way to create the χ-blade until he could figure out the solution to the 13 hearts of darkness.

It was during this time that Xehanort came across a quaint little place called twilight town during his travels, which was a village built along a mountain with railcars connecting various parts of the mountain and was bathed in eternal sunset rays.

It was there that he came across a boy named Ventus and decided to make him his apprentice since the boy showed the potential to wield a keyblade. During his time training the wind user Xehanort discovered that his apprentice possessed a powerful darkness within him and suddenly had an idea.

If he could build up the darkness in Ventus's heart and then separated it from the boy before it consumed him then he would be able to create not only a heart of pure darkness, but one of pure light as well. That would let him advance one step closer to his dream of recreating the χ-blade and restarting the keyblade war.

From there he continued to train Ventus to his absolute limits, while pushing him both physically and mentally until it eventually climaxed in a barren wasteland surrounded by neo heartless that he collapsed from the straining.

Seeing that his apprentice had reached the limits of his abilities, Xehanort proceeded with the heart split by plunging his keyblade deep within Ven's chest and extracted the darkness that existed in his heart. The darkness eventually formed into a boy in a red and black organic bodysuit while wearing a black helmet that was made of glass. Upon seeing him Xehanort decided to name the new creation Vanitas.

However, there was a fault in his plan as Ventus couldn't handle the strain of having his heart split in two meaning that the boy was currently dying. With his latest plan ruined Xehanort decided that he might as well let his student live out the rest of his days in peace and transported the two of them to the Destiny Islands where the master once called home when he was a young man.

As he laid Ventus atop a paopu fruit tree and left him to his fate, he was greeted with the sight of his student materializing his keyblade and shooting a stream of light into the nightsky.

After careful analysis of Ventus comatose body in order to discover this anomaly, he was greeted with a sight that both shocked and intrigued him at the same time as Ventus heart was merged with part of a heart that was not his own and had somehow filled in the void that was left in the wind users heart with Vinita's departure as he was the boy's darkness.

This new development caused a whole new slew of plans to develop in Xehanort's mind. First thanks to this unnamed benefactor Ventus heart is now restored to functional levels meaning that his plan to fuse him with Vanitas and recreate the χ-blade from their hearts. It also meant to the old man that it was possible to transfer part of one persons heart into another's but only could tell what that meant for his research.

For now, he needed to ensure that the boy was properly trained and nurtured to his full potential if he was to create the original keyblade and unfortunately he couldn't do it since he needed to focus on training Vanitas and he couldn't let Ven learn of his dark half's existence just yet.

So he did the next best thing and dropped him off at the land of departure where Erequs was training his two apprentices in the ways of the keyblade, he then entrusted the amnesiac boy to his former friend and would have been on his way if he hadn't noticed the eldest of Erequs pupils.

From what he could gather, the boy's name was Terra and he was a front line fighter who specialized in Earth magic, he was also a polite man who valued his friends but was also rash, headstrong, and had a taste for power. These traits meant that he had the potential to be a user of darkness.

Meaning that he would make the perfect replacement body for his heart.

Because of his old age Xehanort realized that he would probably die before he completed his plan to recreate the keyblade war, meaning that the only ways to live long enough to see his plan through to the end meant that he had only one option remaining.

And that was to steal someone else's body by transferring his heart into them and taking them over completely. However there was a catch as the old mans new body needed to have large similarities with his old one or the transfer wouldn't work.

However just when it seemed that he would never be able to find a suitable host lady luck had favored him that day as it turned out his old friend Erequs was training a young lad who possessed similar traits to his own, making him the ideal candidate for the transference.

After this his plan set into motion, first he would wait until both Ven and Terra were at an adequate level for his plans by waiting a few years for them to grow, then before the two elder students do their mark of mastery exam he would order Vanita's to create Unversed on mass and then spread them to different world so Erequs would send the two of them to investigate. He would also get his masked apprentice to goad Ventus into following Terra so that he would be free from Erequs influence.

Finally, once some minor tasks were taken care off such as killing master Erequs and his third apprentice Aqua so that they wouldn't get in the way. The old master would lure Terra and Ventus to the keyblade graveyard and subject them to their respective fates and finally recreate the χ-blade.

Now, even though there were a couple of deviances from his plan such as the continued survival of master Aqua as she was the only one to pass the mark of mastery that day, and Yin Sid's mouse apprentice King Mickey. However they were only minor deviances to his plan as he first fought Terra atop an elevated platform with Vanitas as back up.

He then put the next stage into motion by ordering Vanitas to reclaim his lost half and end Aqua's life, after his masked apprentice left to carry out his mission Master Xehanort stayed to face Terra in combat.

Even though he was holding back at the time so that he didn't damage Terra's body too severely, the boy still gave him a run for him money despite the old man having more experience and a wider range of spells. Eventually the fight came to an end when Xehanort lay there with Terra supposedly at his mercy.

When the old man spotted a great pillar of light spring up from the ground and close to the heart shaped moon hovering over the keyblade graveyard. He then pointed the light to Terra and told him that the χ-blade was now restored.

Not one to let such an opportunity to slip away, Xehanort used the distraction provided by Vanitas when he merged with Ventus to produce that light and drove his black keyblade into his chest and releases his heart, so that he could claim Terra's body and live to see the keyblade war in its glory.

However, the apprentice wasn't about to let himself get hijacked and had activated his armor in order to shield himself from Xehanort's heart, but it was a wasted effort as the bronze armor materialized a split second after the old man's heart entered Terra's body. The mystic armor then began to shed itself piece by piece until a younger, more powerful Xehanort was revealed having taken a fresh young body dipped in darkness.

"This heart belongs to darkness, all things begin in darkness and also end. The heart is no different darkness sprouts within it. It grows. It consumes, such is its nature. In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came"

As the triumphant bodysnatcher walked away with his black keyblade in hand in order join his apprentice and observe the completed χ-blade, he stopped to stare at the shocking sight of an orange Bounded Field with chains everywhere that had suddenly appeared over the elevated platform that he was standing on.

Suddenly Xehanort sensed something that should be impossible as he turned around only to be greeted with the sight of Terra's discarded armor that he shed when he took the foolish apprentice's body, except it was currently kneeling with the earth users keyblade embedded into the ground

At that point, Xehanort finally understood what he was currently seeing, even though the old keymaster managed to completely take over the young dark users body when he transferred his heart into Terra's body, the strong feelings that the angry Keyblade user was feeling were absorbed by the boys armor along with his desires.

Despite the fact that Xehanort was currently angered that his perfect plan was becoming undone, he was also curious about the mystery that allowed the boys armor to come to life and had silently complimented Erequs's fine craftsmanship if the light master's creation was now able to move and act on its own, but right now he had a hunk of animated scrap metal to destroy.

"Your body submits; your heart succumbs, so then why does your mind still resist" the body snatcher shouted as he saw the animated get up slowly, pick up its keyblade, and get into a stance that was identical to Terra's.

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(Meanwhile in another world called GAIA aka planet Earth, in a city located in Japan called Fuyuki City)

Emiya Kiritsugu was a man in his late to early 30s with spiky black hair, an unshaved beard, and wearing a brown overcoat over a two-piece suit. He was also an infamous mage called the Magus killer, who specializes in using modern weaponry and always succeeds in killing his target with brutal efficiency and with the least amount of casualties lost.

Also, this deadly mage-killer was currently standing over a supposedly fresh corpse. His Thompson contender-hunting pistol having been recently fired which resulted in a bullet being plunged into the heart of Kotomine Kirei.

The reason he did this was due to the circumstances surrounding the 4th Holy Grail war, a battle royal set up by three magi families' aka the Einzbern, Tohsaka, and Makiri.

The ritual they set up was created in order to obtain the holy grail (and no it is not the cup of Christ or the grail featured in Arturian legends) an omnipotent wish granting vessel and the 727 Holy Grail identified so far by the church.

However, there was a catch, In order to call the grail 7 masters and their summoned heroic spirit familiars, called servants, who had to battle it out until only one pair remained and was rewarded with the prize.

Sounds simple in theory, doesn't it? Well, that's where the simplicity ends as a majority of magi were cut throat jackasses who would do anything to win, meaning that the previous three wars ended up with no winner due to various circumstances. In fact the 4th could be considered the true 1st holy grail war since it was the first to follow proper rules and guidelines as well as the second to feature the holy church acting as a third party to oversee the conflict.

Emiya Kiritsugu had been hired by the Einzbern family in order to bring them victory in the grail war by offering the wish generated by the grail as a payment. They had done this by pairing him up with one of their homunculi's and the grail vessel for the 4th war, named Irisviel von Einzbern, who later became his wife and would bear his child, who was named Illyasviel von Einzbern.

Now, as someone who secretly wanted to create world peace it was a dream come true for the assassin. His countless attempts to stop disasters caused by rogue magi grew more fruitless and meaningless as he traveled from battlefield to battlefield, so with the wish granted if he won the war, all the suffering he had inflicted during his carrier would have meaning.

When the war drew near, the Einzbern family managed to excavate the lost scabbard of king Arthur from Cornwall and gave it to Kiritsugu so that he could use it as his catalyst to summon the strongest servant for the war.

However, there were a few problems that had presented themselves during the summoning. The first was predictable and one the magus killer planned for in advance.

Since servant Saber aka King Arthur was a knight, the servant obviously would have poor compatibility with the assassin due to conflicting viewpoints, Kiritsugu remedied this by deciding to work independently from his servant and pair the king of knights up with his wife.

The second problem was only a minor thing but significant nonetheless as they discovered upon Saber's summoning that the legendary king of knights Arthur Pendragon was in-fact a woman by the name of Arturia. Other then the fact that Kiritsugu was angry that the people of ancient Britain placed such a burden on a little girl and that nobody managed to find out her true gender during her reign he could use this fact to his advantage as Saber would get along well with Irisviel, since they were both women.

The third proved to be troublesome as they quickly found out that the king of knights couldn't go into spirit form. When the magus killer asked why this was, the servant said she had no clue either. Of course Kiritsugu knew that Arturia was lying but decided to drop it as he didn't want to antagonize his servant. With this new information they needed other means for Saber to stay hidden when Irisviel had a strange glint in her eyes and said that they just needed to dress her up.

With those sorted out, Kiritsugu decided to start his strategy for winning the grail war by arriving in Fuyuki city first with his assistant/lover Maiya before Saber and Irisviel, so they could grab their equipment and scout out the other masters and servants.

From there, various events followed during the war, from the 5 servant free-for-all at the Fuyuki docks, to blowing up the hotel where lancers master Keyneth Archibald was staying with his fiancé so that the curse placed on Sabers hand was removed.

Then there were Caster's mass kidnappings of Fuyuki's children, which forced the overseer to stop combat temporarily and offered a command seal as a reward for dealing with the rogue servant and his master.

Naturally, the magus killer wasn't interested in the reward since he already knew that the overseer was in cahoots with Tohsaka Tokiomi but decided to use the hunt to his advantage. Since the deranged servant who he found out was Gilles de Rais thought that Saber was his old comrade Joan of Arc, Kiritsugu decided to lure Caster to the Einzbern castle out in the woods so that the other masters and servants would follow and allow the assassin to pick off the masters one by one.

Saber, of course, didn't approve of this plan as she wanted to face Caster head on and end his heinous acts for good, things went south shortly after that when the resurrected serial killer showed up within the Einzbern bounded field with a group of hypnotized kids in tow. After seeing the servant kill one of the kids by crushing the boys head the king of knights went out there whether her master wanted her to or not.

Fortunately for the magus killer, the second part of his plan resumed when Lancers master appeared to challenge the master of Saber to a magus duel. Of course, being an unorthodox magus Kiritsugu wasn't about to fight like a normal mage and instead bombarded Keyneth with hit and run tactics, some use of the Emiya family crest, and an origin bullet fired from his Thompson Contender that completely fried the Archibald's circuits. However before the magus killer could finish his target off Lancer arrived to carry his master to safety.

While Kiritsugu wasn't able to finish Keyneth off or have Saber kill Caster, the night wasn't a complete waste as he managed to fry the mages circuits, meaning that his effectiveness in the war was crippled along with his ability to use and magic at all.

Eventually, the Caster fiasco ended when the magus killer managed to kill of the servant's orange haired master with two well-timed bullets to the abdomen and head, and then Saber regained the use of her right thumb allowing her to use Excalibur to destroy Caster and his summoned creature.

From there, the war continued for the assassin when he had Maiya neutralize and kidnap Keyneth's fiancé so that the magus killer could convince the lord to sign a geas scroll which entitles that Kiritsugu Emiya would not harm Keyneth Archibald El Melloi, and his fiancé during the duration of the grail war as long as the magus uses his last remaining command seal to order Lancer to kill himself.

Of course, the master of Saber wasn't about to let a couple of loose ends go, so after Lancer let out some curses and disappeared he had Maiya gunned the two of them down via a loophole in the geas that stated that 'he' couldn't harm the two of them but his assistant could.

Saber after beheading Keyneth to give him a quick death, was disgusted by her master's actions and openly confronted Kiritsugu on what kind of wish he would want if it meant using such despicable methods.

At first, the magus killer would have just ignored the king of knights but after Irisviel said that he should answer Sabers question since it was the first time that the white haired woman had seen the magus killer's line of work.

It was then that Kiritsugu decided to tell the two women about his hatred for war and that his wish was to bring an end to all that even if it meant bearing all the evils of the world if necessary. With that out the way he left the area with Maiya in order to scout out the other masters.

Soon after, Tohsaka Tokiomi contacted the Einzbern team in order to negotiate an alliance against Rider and his master since they were the greatest threat at the time. Of course they were not about to go along with a cut throat cheater like Tokiomi so they instead asked for a temporary ceasefire and to share all info regarding Rider, in exchange for Kotomine Kirei to be deported overseas. After that they waited for his answer.

However, this proved to be a mistake as a servant who mortally wounded Maiya attacked their base of operations, which resulted in Irisviel being kidnapped. Saber of course went after them while Kiritsugu pursued his own leads by first heading to the Tohsaka Estate, and then the Matou's, After torturing Byakuya Matou for information, he learned that Berserker and his master were behind the attack and that they had joined with Kotomine Kirei, Kiritsugu then killed the drunk and headed on his away to rescure his wife.

With that in mind, the magus killer searched the city for their hideout until a signal appeared over the Fuyuki park community centre signaling that they had the grail.

Not knowing whether Irisviel was alive or dead, Kiritsugu headed for the community centre while Saber entered through the parking area, eventually he encountered Kirei in a spacious room with black floors and bright square lights overhead, with that the magus killer prepared to duel the Executor.

However, the fight against Kirei was no walk in the park as the executioner was stronger and faster than the magus killer, plus he somehow used

A bunch of command seals to shield his circuits from Kiritsugu's origin bullet.

Fortunately, Kiritsugu was able to fight Kirei to an even match thanks to a combination of Sabers scabbard Avalon plus the Emiya family crest that allowed the magus killer to use Time Accel longer.

Unfortunately, during their fight the roof of the room they were in collapsed, causing a torrent of black mud to cover the both of them. When the magus killer regained consciousness he was greeted with the sight of his wife Irisviel standing on Arimargo Island, the place where everything changed for Kiritsugu.

From there Irisviel told him that she was in fact the Holy Grail and that it had taken the memories and personality of the vessel of the grail for its own, fake Irisvel then said that it had decided that Kiritsugu was the most befitting of the grail and decided to grant the magus killers wish.

However the truth behind the grail was nothing Kiritsugu could have imagined as it turned out that the holy grail was a cursed artifact that twists any wish it gets into one that gives the maximum amount of destruction, such as interpreting Kiri's wish into one where everyone on the planet except himself and his family is killed.

When he learned this, Kiritsugu decided to reject the grail by strangling the fake Iri that had taken his wife's likeness. Of course the grail wasn't about to take this supposed betrayal lightly and cursed the magus killer, which would slowly kill him in 5 years to come.

When the cursed marksman came to he was standing in the ruined room where he fought and found Kirei lying on the ground and was about to regain consciousness. Not wanting him to recover, the magus killer walked up to him and held the Thompson contender to his heart causing the defeated priest to hold up his hands in surrender.

Due to seeing everything that transpired between Kiritsugu and the grail, the executioner demanded to know why the magus killer rejected the grail after working so hard to get it. The master of Saber answered this by saying that using the grail would have caused too much loss and not enough gain.

He then said his farewells to the twisted priest by shooting him in the heart. After making sure that Kirei was dead he decided that if he wanted to stop the grail for good then he needed to destroy the vessel that was formed from Irisviel's body.

When he traversed the ruined hallways and went onto the platform that oversaw the main performance hall, the magus killer was greeted with the sight of his servant Saber at the mercy of Archer with the grail vessel located on the stage behind the golden servant.

It also appeared that Saber had noticed him and had silently hoped that he would use his command seals to get out of this predicament and defeat Archer. However the magus killer had other ideas.

"By the power of my command seal, I Kiritsugu Emiya order servant Saber to use her noble phantasm and destroy the Holy Grail"

Hope had then turned to confusion as Saber's mind tried to process what she just heard while her body obeyed the command and prepared Excalibur ready to carry out the execution.

Archer, of course, was surprised as this action as he didn't think she would use her noble phantasm while he is standing in front of the grail, seeing that Arturia still had enough Magic resistance to resist the command seal, Kiritsugu decided to use his final seal.

"Why Kiritsugu, why did it have to be you of all people, isn't the grail what you wanted all along" Saber was using all of her strength to prevent Excalibur from activating and destroying any hope of her saving her kingdom, However all she was doing was stalling for time as not even the magic resistance of the Saber class could resist the might of a command seal.

It was at that point that Archer realized the king of knights actions were not her own and were in fact that of her master. This meant that his master Kirei had been defeated underneath the stage which irritated the king of heroes somewhat as he still had use of the priest, not wanting to let that mongrel ruin his wedding the golden servant aimed weapons in his treasury at Kiritsugu and was about to fire when the magus killer gave his second order.

"By my second command seal I order you again."

"Noooooooooooo," Saber cried out in despair as she felt her hopes and dreams shattered before her eyes from hearing the last order of her traitorous master.

"Destroy the holy grail!"

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(In the keyblade graveyard shortly before Saber's Excalibur destroyed the grail)

It had been a long hard battle between Master Xehanort in Terra's body and the lingering remnants of the earth user inhabiting Terra's armor. The body snatcher's power of darkness combined with Terra's fighting style made him a formidable opponent, especially if Terranort kept spamming Ars Solum, dark dash, and that Curaga spell and when he received heavy injuries.

But the animated armor wasn't a slouch either as it was able to imitate Terra's fighting style perfectly including the power of darkness despite it not having a heart.

Eventually, the lingering sentiment managed to emerge victorious due to Xehanort not being used to his newly acquired body and the fact that the animated armor didn't tire out because it wasn't made of flesh and bones.

As the defeated Terranort lay there at the mercy of the lingering sentiment, the armor just stood there motionlessly as the remains of Terra's mind tried to process what to do next. Actually the animated armor didn't care about wanting its body back as it just wanted to defeat Xehanort at any cost.

Just then a shot of light erupted from the ground below where they were, which was the area where Vanitas was successfully defeated and the χ-blade successfully destroyed by the combined efforts of Ventus, Aqua and Mickey.

However, what this meant was that the original keyblade was going to explode and engulf its victims into a light that would fling everyone caught in the blast to god knows where.

Realizing through instinct that if Xehanort were to escape then it would never retrieve that which it lost. The lingering sentiment ran towards the downed keyblade master, which resulted in the armor being caught in the χ-blade's energy backlash as well.

Only God or that old vampire Zelretch would know where the lingering sentiment would end up.

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(Back in Fuyuki City shortly after Saber destroyed the Holy Grail)

Kiritsugu stood there atop the ruined remains of the concert hall for what seemed like an eternity as he studied the blast radius of Sabers noble phantasm, waiting for the smoke to clear so that he could make sure the tainted grail was destroyed

It was during this time that the magus killer saw a golden man embedded in the concrete floor. meaning that Archer had somehow avoided the blast from Saber's noble phantasm and was currently buried in a crater made by his golden armor.

It was also clear to Kiritsugu that the servant would want revenge against the magus killer for destroying the grail and denying him the chance to make Saber his bride. So as long as the magus killer kept himself hidden long enough for Archer to vanish after his independent action wears off he should be all right. It was at that point that Kiritsugu sensed something was very wrong and looked up to find the source of his uneasy feeling.

This caused the tired man to turn pale white as he was looking at a great black hole in the sky that was visible due to Saber's noble phantasm destroying the roof as a side effect of destroying the grail.

The Magus killer then remembered the true purpose of the Holy Grail that he had heard from Irisviel. As it involved using the defeated servants summoned for the war in order to open up a hole in the fabric of reality, which would allow a magus to reach Akasha.

After remembering this, Kiritsugu realized right then and there that he had made a grave mistake in forcing Saber to destroy the grail vassal with Excalibur. Without the grail keeping the hole in reality stable, it would eventually collapse causing a backlash that would have untold consequences.

So the magus killer could only watch in horror as a waterfall of black mud erupted from the hole in the sky and landed on the community centre floor while engulfing Archer in the process. In fact, if Kiritsugu had been paying attention, he would have seen as a brass object emerged from the hole in the sky.

Needing to get a better glimpse of the damage caused by his mistake, the former master ran out of the ruined centre and stood atop a hill. He then saw a sight that would haunt him for the rest of his days, as the black mud from the hole emerged from the ruined community centre, spread itself out towards the surrounding areas, and engulf them in fire and heat. The cursed substance then greedily sought out any life it could sniff out as if it had a mind of its own.

From his view point, Kiritsugu could only stare in despair and regret after realizing that in trying to destroying the grail and prevent a catastrophe that would have claimed countless lifes. His actions no matter how noble had caused a catastrophe anyway regardless of his intensions.

At that point, something broke inside the cursed man as he rushed to the disaster area in order to try and see if there were any survivors that were still alive in this hell.

As he ran through the black mud infested areas that were engulfed in flames, the magus killer rummaged through the rubble searching desperately for anyone that still lived, while unaware that there was someone else in the fiery ruins that was wandering aimlessly.

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The Holy Grail was a mystical artifact created by the Einzbern, Tohsaka, and Makiri families in order to open up a gateway that would lead them to Akasha the root of all things.

However, something can go wrong during the practical stages if you're not careful, such as Avenger corrupting the omnipotent wish-granting device with his presence after being defeated during the third war.

Another possible mistake would be that the grail could open up a gateway to somewhere else entirely if it synchronizes with another powerful artifact.

During this event, the Holy Grail was blasted into oblivion by Sabers noble phantasm in Fuyuki city. Around the same time the χ-blade in the keyblade graveyard was destroyed, causing a backlash that engulfed everyone.

However, what nobody ever expected was that these completely unrelated events caused a link between the keyblade graveyard and Fuyuki city, a link that resulted in a certain animated suit of armor being flung into another world.

Thankfully, the protective properties of the armor protected it from the black mud's effect as it was caught in the flow of cured substance, and sent flying out of the hole in the sky, and crashed into the ground below.

The lingering sentiment lay there for what seemed like forever before picking itself up and moving to anywhere that would help it find its target.

Despite the fact that the lingering sentiment was animated by Terra's lingering thoughts and feelings, it could only do so much as it did not possess sentience or any form of complex thought at all.

It was akin to an artificial intelligence that was programmed for specific tasks by its programmer. In the lingering sentiment's case, it was created for one purpose.

Defeat Xehanort and reclaim your body.

For that reason, it had created the lingering cage to trap the body snatcher and defeat him so that Terra could reclaim his body. However, things didn't work out so well as the light from the χ-blade sent the animated armor away from its target and into another world.

Now, it was now currently wandering through the burning wasteland that was caused by the grail in order to find its way home and defeat Xehanort in accordance with the remaining pieces of Terra's mind that were present in the armor.

And so it continued to walk, ignoring the cries for help from the burned and dying people caught in the disaster as they couldn't be saved. As it continued along its route, the lingering sentiment used the Ends of the earth keyblade to cut through any debris that was in its way as it searched fruitlessly for its target.

However, their desperate cries managed to have an effect on the armor as the lingering remains of Terra were reminded that it had already caused enough suffering during his travels because he was not strong enough.

Suddenly, the armor stopped at it stud there among the smoke covered ruins and looked around for any sign of life. It had responded to Terra's lingering feelings of righting the wrongs he made on his journey. Just then, the animated collection of metal plates sensed the sound of walking and came face to face with a boy.

Well more like face to upper hip, as the kid was only about more than a third of the armor's height. He had red hair coupled with ember colored eyes. The boy was also wearing a green jacket over a white shirt and jeans while also sporting severe burns on his arms.

It also seemed that his eyes were missing ovaries as he had a blank stare in his eyes[,] not to mention that the smoke must have damaged his eyesight somewhat.

His lungs seemed to have been damaged from the prolonged exposure to the smoke covering the area, which explained his [coughing fits. In other words, the kid was a wreck that could keel over at any moment, which he did

As the red head fell to his knees, the lingering sentiment instinctively caught the boy before he could touch the ground even though it was just a moving suit of armor.

It seemed that the burns the boy took coupled with the damage to his lungs by breathing in smoke, which meant that his life was in danger unless he had medical treatment right away.

The only way to save the boy would be to fuse with his heart like a symbiotic presence that would act like a life support to preserve the boy's health until help arrived to give him proper treatment.

However, this meant that the lingering sentiment would merge with the boy in heart and soul, meaning that there was almost no chance that the armor would be able to get revenge on Xehanort.

This lead to a confliction of interests for the animated armor of Terra whether to save a kid that it had just met from dying, or finding Xehanort and reclaim its body. It was during this conflict that a memory from not long ago surfaced.

"Fear leads to obsession, and obsession beckons the darkness"

While the armor was unable to feel fear, it was familiar with obsession as it was the stepping stone to its downfall and lead to its body being stolen in the first place.

It also knew that it couldn't just let the boy die as Aqua and Ventus would never forgive him if he did, so without a second thought the remains of the keyblade wielder Terra held the red head's hand and began the merging process while fluxing out its mana so anyone nearby can get here on time.

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(At ground zero of the disaster)

Pain.

That was what the boy known only as Shirou knew as he couldn't remember anything else due to the trauma he suffered from experiencing the fire that destroyed his neighborhood, killed his parents, and almost claimed his life if he didn't make a run for it in order to get away from the blazing fire.

Soon, the run turned to a struggling walk as the boy moved on despite the desperate cries made by the people caught in the fire regardless of age or gender[. He] had also shed his memories one by one as his mind couldn't handle the carnage that he was witnessing.

Eventually, it proved too much for the boy and caused him to collapse into a bronze man that was standing in front of his path before blacking out from the unexpected rush of pain that came next.

From there, he stared at the sky as the bronze man vanished into golden particles that gathered around his right hand while jagged shields made of earth formed around his body.

It seemed that the armor was somehow keeping him alive, but, unfortunately, it wasn't permanent. If someone didn't come around now, then Shirou would probably die in the next 10 minutes or so.

Suddenly, a black haired man in an overcoat ran towards Shirou and bent down to get a better look. Soon, tears began to form in his eyes from finding out that the boy was alive while holding Shirou's now armored hand tightly.

"He's alive, he's alive, he's alive, " the teary man wept with joy as the dazed boy looked into the face of his savior and observed that the man was happy that Shirou was still living through this hell and that he was able to save just one person despite the death and despair that covered the area.

"I wonder if I could ever be that happy, " the red head thought before darkness engulfed him and felt like something was entering his body.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Unknown location)

When the boy opened his eyes next, he was standing in a vast open wasteland with a setting sun in the distance that looked beautiful. When he looked up, he could see many things that stood out such as the giant spinning gears that hovered high into the sky.

Shirou then looked around some more to see if there were any more and spotted something that peaked his interest. There was a bronze suit of armor kneeling on a small hill with their hands resting on the top of a key shaped sword.

When the red head walked up to the person by climbing the hill, he was face to face with the armor-wearing knight that was unmoving[. D]eciding to see if he could get a response Shirou talked to it.

"Excuse me mister, can you tell me where we are?" the boy called out, but unfortunately didn't get a response. He then waved his hands in front of his helmet to tell whether the armored man was awake or not. That didn't get anything either.

Deciding that drastic measures were necessary Shirou apologized to the armored man in advance and grabbed the key shaped sword in order to yank it from under its grip. However, while this proved ineffective in moving the armored man, it did cause a strange light to emerge from the strange blade it was holding and caused Shirou to black out again from being exposed to the white light.

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(Fuyuki City hospital)

When the amnesiac red head returned to consciousness, he was currently being carried into a hospital bed. His body was wrapped in bandages around the areas where he was burned, despite him wearing clothes.

The doctors and nurses tending to him had applied a tube to his mouth in order to feed him without moving his jaw. However, his healers were unable to work on his right arm up to his shoulder since a strange bronze gauntlet was covering that area despite their best efforts to remove it without hurting Shirou.

It had seemed that the black haired man had carried the young red head to the nearest hospital to get healed. The hospital staff worked day and night to treat the burnt flesh covering his body by applying anti-burn ointment to his wounds after undoing the bandages and applying a new set after the burn treatment was complete.

However, no matter what the doctors tried they couldn't get the bronze armor covering Shirou's right arm off. In fact some of the more extreme doctors suggested amputating the limb up to the shoulder, which scared Shirou as he didn't fancy losing his arm. Eventually, they decided to leave the arm gauntlet alone since the boy suffered enough and proceeded to work on the rest of his body.

From his hospital bed, Shirou had witnessed the pained cries of his fellow child survivors as they thrashed around while the nurses tried to heal their wounds. Some had simply cried out for their mommy and daddy while others simply whimpered in pain. Of course, such a thing was irrelevant to the resting red head since his parents died in the fire.

Eventually, the red head had healed enough that the tube in his mouth was removed along with some of his bandages allowing the boy to open his mouth for the first time in days. In fact, the nurse attending him was amazed by his recovery as most of the kids in the hospital ward were still covered in bandages from the burns they suffered.

The red head then saw various adults enter the ward; these people consisted of the various parents and guardians of the children that were treated in the hospital for victims of the fire

They then proceeded to walk around the room looking for their child. Some managed to find their kids, resulting in tearful reunions, some greeted their charges neutrally while saying that they found what they looking for, and some left the ward with silent tears after finding out that their children were nowhere in the ward.

Many adults even spared glances towards Shirou but eventually turned their heads in disappointment after finding out that he wasn't what they were looking for.

This had continued for a few days until the ward only had a few kids that weren't collected by their parents including Shirou. Since the red head wasn't collected by anyone, after some time had passed then Shirou would become a ward of the state and be sent to an orphanage.

As the amnesiac kid lay there in his hospital bed contemplating his future, he then heard the sound of footsteps getting louder and louder. As he turned his head expecting to see his doctor, he was greeted with the sight with a black haired man with an unclean beard that looked like he hadn't shaved for days.

He also wore an overcoat that smelt heavily of ash and smoke along with other clothes that were equally dirty. Eventually, the unclean man walked up to the red heads hospital bed and addressed the red head while smiling. "You must be Shirou-kun"

After looking at him, the orphan had to admit that seeing someone like him smile was strange, as if the person hadn't learned to truly smile in ages. However, it was his eyes that really interested the 6 year old.

As he had seen those same eyes during the fire when he was saved from becoming another victim.

Eventually, the black haired man decided to introduce himself.

"My name is Emiya Kiritsugu, but that isn't important right now as there is something else I need to ask you so I'll keep this short by asking you directly"

He then took a deep breath and asked, "Which would you prefer? To go to an orphanage, or be adopted by this man who you haven't met before?"

At this unexpected question, Shirou's mind temporarily stopped as he tried to process the absolute bombshell that he was just given.

"Huh?" was the only intelligent thing he could say. After that, Kiritsugu decided to elaborate more.

"Well, which would you prefer, would you like to walk out of here with me or wait for someone else to pick you up?"

Upon hearing this, Shirou needed to get something clear first before giving his answer.

"Are you perhaps a relative of mine?"

Hearing this the magus killer shook his head "No, I'm just a stranger who just happened to come back to this town."

The red head had looked at the man who offered to adopt him more closely and saw that apart from his dirty and scruffy appearance his eyes were bloodshot as if he had been crying not too long ago, and had no light in them, it was if the person in front of the orphan had no future at all.

Seemingly coming to a decision, Shirou gave his answer. "Okay, I'll come with you"

The reply caused Kiritsugu to smile again. The tension in his body left in a sigh of relief.

Frankly speaking going with this person and going to an orphanage wasn't that much different since the red head would have ended up with strangers for parents anyway, plus Emiya-san did save him so he would be glad to have him as an adopted father since his real parents were dead.

"I see, that's good, really good, I'm afraid that your old clothes were burnt up in the fire to be usable so I asked the doctor to bring a spare set of clothes for you to wear before buying you a new set of clothes. After we're ready, we will be going home straight away since you should get used to your new home-."

As the magus killer rambled on, he proceeded to pack all of the red heads things in a small bag with fierce vigor as if trying to fit everything in the carrying bag. It was also clear that the man had almost zero experience in packing as he just shoved some things in regardless if they got creased or not.

Eventually, the widow noticed that the red head still had that armoured gauntlet on. It was an odd sight on the boy , since Kiritsugu had saw him wearing that thing while being saved from the fire. He had never noticed it before since the magus killer was preoccupied with getting the 6-year-old medical treatment.

He had even thought that the hospital staff already managed to remove it by the time that the red head was fully recovered, but if even they couldn't remove it then that could mean two things, either the gauntlet had a special lock that needed to be undone it could be removed or the armor was some type of mystic code that Shirou somehow managed to acquire and couldn't take off. The facts made Emiya Kiritsugu worry, as they required further investigation before he could do anything.

With that in mind, he got the red head dressed while making sure that the boys clothes were covering the bronze gauntlet and walked out of the hospital doors 5 minutes later. The doctor that Shirou had talked to a while ago had a dazed expression on his face which had ended when Kiritsugu snapped his fingers.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you something" the magus killer said to his newly adopted child in a voice that was completely calm, the complete opposite of the somewhat goofy voice he had a few minutes.

"Yeah?" Shirou asked as the man's actions got the red heads full attention now. Eventually, Kiritsugu's face turned to one of complete seriousness as he looked at the 6 year old.

"I need to tell you something before coming with me, it's a secret that must be kept at all costs. Do you understand?"

After receiving a small nod in reply, the 30 something year old man smiled a bit and leaned towards the red head so only he could hear what came next.

"The truth is that I'm a magi. " He said, completely serious with a neutral expression.

"Wow, that's amazing." Shirou said as it was the only question he could make since he was only 6 years old. It was then that he remembered the strange metallic gauntlet covering his arm and decided that he could use some answers.

"Old man, can I ask you something?" The six year old asked the older man who looked at him curiously before saying.

"Sure, Shirou, what do you want to ask?"

Shirou then pulled up his sleeve to reveal his armoured limb and say "Is this thing on my arm magical?"

The older man's features darkened, as he expected something like this but not so soon.

"I'm afraid that I can't answer that now Shirou, but I promise you that once we get home we can take a look at it and find out what it is and how it can be removed. " The magus killer promised while rolling the red head's sleeve back up so no one walking by can see it.

Deciding to heed the older mans advice, the red head walked with Kiritsugu into the cold spring morning towards their new home.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

From the day that Emiya Kiritsugu took him with him from the hospital[,] the young red head became known that day as Emiya Shirou as he came face to face with his new home.

[Truthfull, it] looked like no one had lived here for years as the garden was covered in overgrown grass and weed[. The] inside was full of dust and wooden tiles on the floor that included some that were broken and rotting[. There] were also empty rooms that were in bad shape from the broken doors and missing windows that littered the main building[. In other words,] words the place looked like a haunted house.

Kiritsugu explained to the boy that the house had been empty for many years before he bought it and that it had been used in the past as a samurai decided not to ask anymore on the subject as it seemed that his new dad didn't know much about the subject either.

Fortunately[,] the house didn't stay like that for long as one of Kiritsugu's friends had sent some people round to fix the house up[. This] person that Shirou's adopted father was acquainted with was a local business-man call Raiga Fujimura[. The] red head had first met him a few days after he got adopted after the old man invited the two over in order to talk about some business transactions with Kiritsugu.

At first[,] the red head was nervous around the old man due to his intimidating nature[,] but [he] warmed up to Raiga quickly once he got to know the old guy[. The] meeting also served as the 6 year old's first meeting with the hyperactive force of nature known as Taiga Fujimura who was Raiga's 13 year old granddaughter and a very energetic woman as the teenager ran off with Shirou to god's know where while crackling like a mad scientist.

The teenager was quite curious about the bronze gauntlet around Shirou's arm and asked where he got it[. The] red head answered truthfully that he had no idea where the armour came from since he was wearing it during the fire.

Upon getting to that subject, the teenage granddaughter wizened up and said that he didn't need to go into further detail since it would probably bring up painful memories about the fire and the two of them decided to let the subject go for now.

Eventually, after a few weeks, the Emiya Residence was restored to perfect living conditions thanks to the hard work of Raiga's contractors, and it was good timing too as the magus killer decided to go straight to work trying to remove the gauntlet on Shirou's arm.

"Listen vary carefully Shirou, what I am about to do is try and analyse this thing on your arm so see how it works so make sure to stay very still." Kiritsugu said seriously to the red head in the room that the old man decided to use as his quarters.

Quite frankly, it was pretty dangerous to fiddle with the armour around Shirou's arm since it was obvious to the magus killer that the bronze thing was an unknown mystic code that had any number of features.

This was why he was using structural analysis to determine the purpose of the gauntlet so he could figure out how to get it off. With that in mind, he activated the metaphysical switch in his brain, which was the trigger to activate his circuits.

However, thanks to the curse of Angra Mainyu he got at the end of the Fourth war, most of his circuits along with the small portion of the Emiya crest had received major damage and the damage was still spreading. If this continued then all of his circuits would be rendered useless in 2 years followed by a slow painful death in 3 years.

But, that wasn't important now as the dying man used his still working circuits to analyze Shirou's arm. However, there was a problem as the armor covering Shirou's limb was pushing back Kiritsugu prana preventing the magus killer from analysing it.

After clicking his tongue in annoyance, the magus killer looked at Shirou apologetically and said "I'm sorry Shirou, for some reason this mystic code on your arm has a high degree of magic resistance which is preventing me from analysing it"

Upon hearing this, the son of Kiritsugu said "Its okay. You tried your best and that's what counts" before remembering the unfamiliar term that his dad said during their talk. "Hey, dad, can I ask you something?

Curious about what his son wanted to ask him the magus killer raised an eyebrow and replied. "Yes, what is it Shirou?"

"I just want to know what you meant by magic resistance and mystic codes, Are they some magi terms?" The red head asked which caused Kiritsugu to think about this seriously as to whether to answer his sons questions or not.

Truth be told, Kiritsugu didn't want Shirou to learn anything relating to the moonlit world especially magecraft, which was why he refused the youngest Emiya's request to train the boy in the art of thaumaturgy every time he asked.

This had started after they got back from the mass funeral event for the 600 people who died in what is now known as the Great Fuyuki City Fire. Many people in black had attended including relatives and friends of the deceased, parents and their kids who managed survive the fire and were collected at the hospital ward where Shirou was, along with others that had lived in that area but were away due to various circumstances.

Of course, teaching the boy 'about' mage craft was safe in Kiritsugu's book since learning things never hurt anyone. However he still had to be careful on what to teach Shirou.

"Okay, I'll tell you about those terms Shirou, so be sure to listen." The black haired man said, addressing his son. He went into a Japanese sitting position and listened carefully for what his adopted father had to say.

"Magic resistance is the metaphysical ranking that measures a persons resistance to prana and other effects caused by magecraft." The magus killer paused letting this sink in before continuing.

"The degree of magic resistance varies from person to person, as those with high levels of prana tend to have potent magic resistance because of this, while those with little to no prana in their bodies like most 1st generation magi and normal people are more susceptible to effects like hypnosis and curses." Kiritsugu Emiya then stopped so that his son could comprehend all that.

"Well, was there anything you didn't understand?" the cursed man asked this as he could explain a few things if his son didn't understand anything.

However, the red head simply smiled and replied back. "Nothing so far, old man, but what did you mean about mystic codes?" Shirou asked which got a reply from his father.

"Well, Shirou, Mystic codes are a sort of tool that magi use in order to amplify their thaumaturgy or produce specific effects. Some magi often spend years' worth of research and funds in order to produce a mystic code that match either their style of magecraft or that of their families so the code can be passed on from generation to generation."

Kiritsugu then pointed at the bronze gauntlet covering Shirou's hand and continued, "From what I could guess, that thing on your arm is a symbiotic mystic code with a high degree of magic resistance that has functions completely unknown to me, unless I can find out some way to get around that resistance in order to scan it I'm afraid that there's nothing I can do at this moment."

As the older man apologised, the red head suddenly had an idea from hearing that the thing on his arm was some kind of symbiotic construct. "Dad, I think I have an idea on how to remove this."

Worried about the kind of reckless plan that his son would have but curious about what it is, the old magus killer decided to oblige his young charge."Very well, what is it that you have in mind?"

With that question heard, Shirou looked his father dead in the eye and said. "Teach me magic, of course."

At this, the retired magus killer could only sigh in exasperation. "Shirou we've already been through this. I refuse to teach you how I do thaumaturgy."

It seemed that it was just another request for his son to learn magic from him regardless if he refuses every time. Still, you have to give the lad points for never giving up.

Expecting this, the red head decided to explain his reasoning to his reluctant father. "Dad do you remember when you said that you think this thing is a symbiotic mystic code, well, I think that I can get it to work if I use my own prana reserves but I won't be able to use it if you don't show me how it works."

Hearing this, Kiritsugu thought about it for a minute. While it was true that his son had a point, the retired assassin still wasn't keen on teaching Shirou thaumaturgy since he wanted his son to have a normal life. On the other hand, if he couldn't get that gauntlet off Shirou then his son wouldn't be able to have a normal life anyway.

At that point, Kiritsugu went over the alternative means on how to remove it, amputating the limb was out of the question and he didn't possess any of the proper tools necessary to remove it since he wasn't a proper magus.

After seeing that there was no other option at the moment, the magus killer slumped his shoulders in defeat and said with a serious face. "Very well, Shirou, I will teach you magecraft, but I want you to promise me something"

Listening very clearly to what his adopted father had to say, Shirou said. "Sure, dad, what is it?"

The oldest Emiya looked at his son with an emotionless face and continued.

"Magecraft is an art that involves walking with death, meaning that you could very well lose your life or cripple yourself permanently if you're not careful. Therefore, I want you to promise that you will listen to everything I have to say and follow my instructions to the letter. Do I make myself clear?" The magus killer finished, waiting for his son to answer.

For Shirou, learning thaumaturgy was something he had already set his sights on since finding out the man that adopted him was a mage, so for the red head there was no hesitation.

"I understand, dad. Please teach me all you can."The red head said while bowing his head, which caused his father to say, "Are you sure about this? Magecraft isn't something you can just use in the blink of an eye and can be very dangerous if you do it wrong,. You can always quit anytime you want if you feel like it"

At this, Shirou looked at his father with fire in his eyes and replied."I already decided on this, old man, so don't hold back on me just because I'm your son. Besides, if you don't give me 100% then how am I supposed to learn enough to get this thing off my arm"

Upon seeing the determination in his eyes, Kiritsugu had to admit that it was nostalgic seeing his son be that insistent on learning magecraft. In fact, it had reminded him of much happier times when hewas a kid when his old friend Shirley had begged his father Noritaka to teach her thaumaturgy and let her help him in his work.

He would look like an utter prick if he refused Shirou tutelage. He just hoped that his son didn't end up like his first love

"Very well, I will teach you the art of thaumaturgy starting with the basics so be sure to listen up. The first thing I am going to teach you is how to open up your magic circuits"

"Magic circuits? You mean those things you used to scan my arm?" Shirou asked with a curious nature, which got a nod from his father in return.

"Correct, magic circuits are what makes someone like me a magus as they are the converters that produce prana needed to power our mysteries."

"They are often divided into ranks of A-E in order to determine the quality of a magi's circuits as well as how many they have." Kiritsugu then paused in order to let this sink in before continuing.

"The magi with the highest number of A-C quality circuits are often associated with families with a long history behind them due to years of selective breeding in order to produce heirs with the highest number of circuits possible. Therefore by this logic a 9 generation magi would have an advantage against someone with a lesser family history." Kiritsugu stopped his lecture, turned to his son, and said. "Is there any questions you want to ask?

After listening to his dads lecture on the mechanics of magic circuits, there had been something that was bugging him for a while now. "Actually, dad, there is a question I need to ask you."

Curious, Kiritsugu asked what was it before the red head replied.

"You keep talking about magi families and about how they are born with the most circuits but what about normal people, don't they have circuits as well?

"Not necessarily," his father answered back. "You see the magic circuits a person has is determined at birth and the number doesn't change, which is why magi families do selective breeding in order to increase the chance of their descendants being born with more circuits then their predecessors, a person born with circuits outside a magi family is rare but not unheard off since those families with long histories had to start somewhere"

Upon hearing the answer to his question, Shirou was in deep thought about what his father had told him and decided to ask Kiritsugu something. "Old man, if what you say is true about normal people rarely being born with circuits then do you think I have any?"

When the retired magus killer heard this, he got up and said. "That's what we aim to find out. We'll have to postpone your lesson for today Shirou, I need to gather some things needed for something that would help find out whether or not you have circuits"

He then left the 6 year old alone in confusion as to what his adopted father was going to use.

It was the next day when the oldest Emiya called the red head to his room where the apprentice magus was greeted with the sight of his father holding a vial of something that smelled horrendous.

"Shirou, today is a very important day as we are going to find out whether or not you have circuits or not."The retired magus killer said, addressing his son with a straight face

"Really? How are we going to do that?" The red head asked as he sat down in front of his father waiting for the reply.

"With this," Kiritsugu answered, pointing to the vile of nasty looking liquid that he had placed between the two. "It's a recipe that my late father made me drink when I was your age in order to open up my circuits and taught me the recipe in order to pass it on to the next generation."

Shirou had noticed that his adopted father developed a sour look on his face when his father was mentioned but decided not to dig [too]deep into it and listened on.

"If you drink this, you'll be able to tell if you have circuits or not as the concoction will open your dormant circuits upon digestion. Of course, if it turns out that you don't have any then our training will be over." Kiritsugu had paused in order to let this sink into his sons head before waiting for his son's decision.

The red head stared at the nasty looking concoction in front of him for a minute before nodding to his dad, signaling that he had decided to drink it. With that in mind[,] Kiritsugu picked up the vial and handed it to his son.

"Personally, I'd advise drinking it all in one go rather than prolong it. Trust me that stuff is nasty, especially the aftertaste."The older man admitted with a cringe which got a smile from his son, who grabbed the vile with both hands and looked down on it.

"Well, bottoms up," Shirou thought before placing the vile to his mouth and started drinking it right away, despite him wanting to spit out the horrible tasting liquid as it was among the nastiest things he had ever tasted. Still, if he managed to survive a fire that killed over 600 people, he could get through this.

Upon drinking the last drop, Shirou nearly dropped the glass vial as it felt like several places in his body was on fire. After seeing this Kiritsugu immediately grabbed his son and placed a medium sized bottle in the boys hand and told him to drink every last drop of it.

5 minutes later, the 6 year old was panting on the ground while his father picked the boy up and laid him down on a futon so the boy had somewhere comfortable to rest

"Well, congratulations Shirou, it seems that you do have circuits after-all."

After hearing this, the red head looked at his father to make sure he heard that right and looked at himself in astonishment

"Really? Wow," he then thought about something he should know about now that he has circuits and asks his father. "So, old man, how many circuits do I have?"

"Hang on a sec, let me check.]

" The retired magus killer said before placing a hand on Shirou's chest and used structural analysis to locate the magic circuits that were activated from the concoction that his son drank.

"Well, according to this you possess a total of 27 circuits that are of surprisingly high quality even by magi standards" The eldest Emiya said, while impressed.

Unfamiliar with the significance of the number, Shirou asked if that was a good thing, to which his father replied. "Of course, you see Shirou normal magi are usually born with a total of 20 circuits on average meaning that you possess 7 more circuits then the average magus, which is even more impressive considering that you wasn't born in a magical household"

Even though Shirou was excused at the moment, he could still hear what his father had to say even though he didn't understand half of it fully. "Does that mean I can use magic now?" the boy asked.

"One step at a time, Shirou," his father explained. "You've just opened your circuits for the first time so your body needs to rest in order to get used to your magic circuits. We'll continue again when you're fully rested and 100% well"

After saying this, Kiritsugu picked his son up and headed for Shirou's room so that he could get some rest.

The next couple of weeks that occurred involved Shirou learning to switch his circuits on and off in order to produce prana. Magi do this by having a metaphysical trigger in their minds which they use to self-hypnotize themselves into becoming conduits for Thaumaturgy.

The trigger that the red head chose involved imagining the barrel of a gun being loaded while the hammer was being pulled back and released upon utilization of Shirou's circuits.

The father and son duo concentrated on opening Shirou's circuits one at a time so that the red head could get used to them being present since magic circuits produce waste heat when in use.

Soon the fateful day arrived when Emiya Shirou decided to try and activate the gauntlet on his arm and hopefully find a way to take it off, which was why they were standing in the compound garden at night so that they had enough space to do something should things go wrong.

"Are you ready for this Shirou?" The magus killer asked with a serious expression, to which his son answered with an equal facial expression

"Yes, dad!" Shirou looked at the gauntlet on his arm and contemplated on whether he was ready or not.

From what Kiritsugu could gather with what little information he had, the gauntlet on Shirou's hand was in a dormant state, which could probably be activated with the right insertion of prana.

Therefore, if the youngest Emiya could activate the gauntlet with his prana he might be able to manipulate the code and hopefully get it off. Of course, that depends on if the armored hand would accept his prana in the first place.

Deciding that they had made adequate preparations, the retired magus killer gestured his son to begin. With that in mind, Shirou decided now was a good as time as any to activate his circuits.

"Trace on," the red head said with his personal aria for enacting his mysteries. The father and duo had spent hours trying to come up with an adequate activation aria for the boy since they had to be personal and unique to the magus. Eventually, they settled with 'Trace on' when Shirou had said random names one after the other and trace on was the only one that resonated the most with his circuits.

When his father asked why his son choose such a strange aria, the youngest Emiya admitted that he had no idea why he suddenly said it in the first place but for some reason the words seemed right to him.

So for that reason Shirou began with the self-hypnosis to turn his body into a conduit for thaumaturgy and converting the Od (life force) in his body into prana via 3 of [the] circuits that he was able to open safely after 2 weeks and concentrate the energy into his right arm where the gauntlet was.

"It's working." The youngest Emiya said with joy as his prana was being absorbed by the armor on his arm like a thick sponge absorbing water. Eventually, something happened that caused the two Emiya's to jump in surprise as the gauntlet let out a bright light.

"SHIROU!" His dad shouted in fright as he ran towards his adopted son in controlled panic in order to try and save his son and contain the aftermath. The panicking man calmed down slowly as he blinked once then twice at the sight that greeted him which was surreal even by his standards as a magus.

After all, it was not every day that you see you're 6-year-old adopted son stand there wearing a bronze, black and gold suit of armor that was tailor made for his height and width. It seemed that the red head was confused as well as he was looking at his now armored body from head to toe through his helmet even though it offered little vision.

That was why the red head moved his hands to his helmet and felt a slight clicking sound as the armor covering his head come off revealing the stunned 6 year old's face to his father.

As Shirou gazed at the bronze and black helmet in his hands, the confused expression turned to triumphant glee as he looked at his father and said.

"Hey, check it out dad. I look just like a knight from those medieval times"

This comment had triggered a memory in the eldest Emiya as he was reminded of his former servant Saber, who was the king of knights and followed the code of chivalry (despite the fact that she predated chivalry) and how Kiritsugu argued with the servant after Lancer's death about his dislike for chivalry due to it promoting conflict.

Putting those thoughts aside, the eldest Emiya addressed his son. "That may be so Shirou but how do you feel at the moment?"

This was a main concern for Kiritsugu as he had no idea what the suit of armor his son is wearing could do.

After thinking for a minute, the red head answered. "Well, for starters, these armor plates aren't as heavy as you'd think, since I can move about in them pretty easily. Plus, I think I can get the rest of the armor off since the helmet came off pretty easily"

"Well then, let's try it out." Upon hearing Shirou, the magus killer nodded and said[,]before helping his son remove the rest of the armor,one piece at a time.

By the time they had finished, Shirou was standing there in his normal clothes with the rest of the armor laying there on the grassy floor, Even the plates that covered the red head's arm for weeks since the fire had been removed revealing untouched skin for all to see.

This proved that the experiment was a complete success as Kiritsugu congratulated his son on a job well done.

To which, his son replied. "So, since I managed to get this off finally, are we still going to continue with my mage-craft training?"

[It] was a very good question as the only reason Kiritsugu even agreed to teach Shirou thaumaturgy in the first place was to get that armor of the 6 year old's arm. Now that they succeeded the eldest Emiya might decide to stop Shirou's training altogether now that they achieved their goal.

In-fact, Kiritsugu was very tempted to go along with this plan from the start, but, after training Shirou and teaching him the ways of the magus, he decided that he might as well hear his sons opinion first before making a decision.

"It depends. Are you sure you want to continue as learning thaumaturgy isn't a walk in the park." The retired magus killer asked his son[,] who nodded his head vertically

"Positive, old man, I was the one who asked you to teach me of course so I want to see this through to the end."

Shirou then pointed to the pile of metal armor in front of him. "Besides we still don't know anything about this to make any wild guesses. After-all, who knows what it can do"

As if on cue, the left hand plate that the younger Emiya was pointing at suddenly disappeared in sparkles of light and reappeared on his arm that was currently in a pointing gesture.

This surprised the father and son duo before the red head removed the armored glove that reappeared on his hand and said, "case and point, old man."

This, of course, caused the eldest Emiya to sweat drop as his son unintentionally made a bad pun but disregarded it as his son was right in saying that the mystic code had unknown features that they still didn't know about, which could prove beneficial if they managed to figure the code out.

For the rest of the week, the two of them continued with Shirou's magecraft training while studying the suit of armor that they chose to store in the tool shed. Having a assortment of medieval armor on display in a Japanese style house would make a pretty odd sight especially if Fujimura Taiga managed to see it during her visits.

Speaking of the Tiger, while Shirou was not training with his dad in mage craft the 6 year old asked the 13 year old yakuza princess if she could train the boy in kendo since his old man wasn't that good of a swordsman and he needed training from someone of at least adequate skill if he was to become stronger.

At first Fuji-nee was reluctant to do this since it had only been a month since the boy survived the fire and didn't want to accidentally cause unexpected consequences during her training. However, after seeing Shirou's determination to learn, the brown haired girl enthusiastically agreed on the condition that he make her meals whenever they finish training.

The reason for this is because, due to various circumstances, the red head was surprisingly a good cook. The 6 year old decided to try it out after both his father and Fuji-nee proved that they had absolutely zero talent in cooking, plus it was either lean how to cook or have take-out every day.

With that agreement settled, a routine had formed in the Emiya household, which involved Fuji-nee training Shirou in kendo every morning, afternoon, or dinnertime depending on what time Raiga lets his granddaughter out of the house, followed by Kiritsugu's mage-craft training in the evening.

Of course, the kendo training involved the red head being hit by Taiga relentlessly while he tried in vain to break through the brown haired girl's defense and land a hit followed by the girl laughing over laughing over her victory while demanding breakfast, lunch, or dinner depending on the time of day they were training. Shirou predictably wasn't about to let her victory streak go on forever and vowed to defeat her some day.

When his kendo training wasn't happening, the red head was practicing the next part of his training in thaumaturgy, which covered structural analysis, a technique used by magi to understand the inner workings of an object or person and is an important step in mastering the rest of the basics.

Shirou had been practicing using this technique by reading nearly anything and everything he could find around the house. During this time, he found that he could analyze sharp and pointy things like knives and pikes easier than other things.

However, his father told the boy that structural analysis was a useless art to normal magi, since they would often abandon the spell for more complex and powerful abilities as a way to show off their skills. Of course, Shirou wasn't about to abandon a skill like that just because it was the basics of the basics and trained in using it to the best of his ability.

After a week of training, the red head was getting used to using structural analysis. Kiritsugu decided it was time to start the next part of his training, which involved using Projection.

However, something happened on that day that Shirou would remember for the rest of his life, and set him along a path that was beyond his wildest dreams.

"Okay Shirou, today we will be going to start with you learning the next part of your mage craft training since you seem to be doing so well in using structural analysis I taught you last week." Kiritsugu said, addressing his son within the confines of the tool shed.

After some careful examination of the entire Emiya household, it was determined that the tool shed in the yard was the perfect place for a magus workshop, since its hard stone floor and structure would allow prana to stay put. In contrast, if they set up shop in one of the rooms where the energy produced would pass through the wooden floors and paper doors.

"The reason that we are doing it after just one week is because of the progress you made with that technique I showed you to do last week. "Kiritsugu then looked towards the miniature set of armor sitting in the corner. "Plus you've showed real progress in learning how to use that armor"

What Kiritsugu was talking about was the activity the son and father do during the end of every lesson where Shirou goes with his father to the tool shed where the bronze armor is kept and learn how to use it. So far, the red head had learned he could summon each piece of the armor to his body by thought. After some careful structural analysis, he found out several things about the armor that surprised both Shirou and his father.

First, it seemed that the armor was semi-sentient according to the analysis Shirou performed but unfortunately they had no solid proof of this other than the fact that the bronze medieval suit of armor seems to respond to the red head's will. They also found that it has a sort of protective membrane around it that protects its wearer from external interference, giving the armor a very high magic resistance.

Finally, Shirou found out that he could summon the armor to his body at will by hitting the circular button located on the left shoulder plate and de-summon the medieval suit of protection by hitting it again, which would definitely prove beneficial in the future.

"Thanks, dad, but I couldn't have done it without your teachings, even though you suck at it." The youngest Emiya said without a shred of remorse, which caused Kiritsugu to sweat drop due to the fact that it was true, when he wasn't teaching Magecraft to others.

Yes it was true, the infamous magus killer capable of killing his targets with a 100% success rate per mission and was an expert in modern weaponry couldn't even cook or teach someone else how to make meals themselves as per the case of Taiga Fujimura, which in turn caused the red head to cook via self taught techniques honed from hours of successes and failures.

In fact, it was Kiritsugu Emiya who taught his wife Irisviel von Einzbern how to drive. Luckily, the retired assassin seemed to have wizened up to his inability to teach and made extra special care to make sure that he explained the basics of Thaumaturgy to his son in careful detail.

After all, if he didn't then that could lead to Shirou getting the wrong idea of how circuits work and, instead, turn his own nerves into makeshift circuits every time he needs to use mage craft.

"That's nice to hear, Shirou, but you don't have to rub it in every time. Its not my fault I was born with a twin origin of severing and binding." The eldest Emiya got out while making excuses.

Deciding to cut his old man some slack, Shirou decided to not push the subject anymore. However, there was something that he had noticed that seemed peculiar to him "Dad, when you said that you had twin origins what did you mean by that?"

Realizing that he had let something like that slip, Kiritsugu decided he might as well explain it to his son after thinking it over." Well, I wasn't going to tell you about origins until you advanced in your training a bit more but since it's been mentioned now it wouldn't hurt to talk about it a little."

The eldest Emiya then began his lecture with Shirou listening in carefully. "A person's origin is a sort of trait that defines a magus's personality and abilities, they are like goals engraved into the soul of a magus that guides their actions subconsciously and effects their thaumaturgy in many ways."

"However, origins can cause abnormalities in a person's body and mentality if they happen to be awaked. For example, a person with the origin of consumption would develop increased strength and speed, the mentality of a carnivorous predator, and even a case of cannibalism." The retired magus killer stopped to let this info sink in as he saw his son turn a shade of green at hearing about humans eating other humans as a result of awakened origins.

"Are there any questions you want to ask?" Upon seeing the red-head's face, Kiritsugu asked, before deciding to get back with explaining projection to Shirou after seeing that the red head didn't want to know more about origins for now.

"Okay then, I think that it's a good as time as any to explain the concept of projection mage craft to you." The magus killer explained before waiting for his son to give him his full attention so he could continue with the lesson.

"Projection or Gradation air as it is properly called is the art of using your prana to create solid copies of other objects such as cups, knives and other things as long as your imagination isn't limited." Kiritsugu explained before Shirou interrupted at hearing the specifics of Projection.

"Wait a second, are you saying you can create anything you want with just prana?" The red head asked before his father shook his head and decided to explain further.

"Not exactly, Shirou, you see objects made by projection only last a few minutes due to GAIA erasing their existence as well as the fact that they are very fragile due to the fact that projection only copies the objects shape making them hollow in the process. There is a reason that magi consider projection useless since it is an incomplete art that is only good for practicing how to manipulate prana and create disposable reagents for rituals"

"It is for that reason that many magi abandon this and skip to doing reinforcement since it is more beneficial to reinforce something already there then project something that only has a fraction of the original's power, which is why I'd advise you to skip gradation air once you practiced enough and go straight to reinforcement."

Upon hearing this, Shirou went into deep thought about what his father said about Gradation air. If what Kiritsugu said was true then and copy made by projection wouldn't last very long due to the fact that the object in question was incomplete and empty.

But, what if there was a way to fill them up so that they weren't hollow. After all, an object such as a vase or box is comprised of different materials that make up its shape, and then there was the method of manufacturing the object that needed to be taken into account.

Suddenly, the adopted son of Kiritsugu had an idea as he addressed his father."Hey, dad, you said that copies made by projection only last a little while due to the fact that only the shape of the original was copied, right?"

Wondering what his son was getting at, the eldest magus nodded his head from his knowledge of projection before the 6 year old continued

"Do you think it's possible to make a copy last longer if you take into account the composition of an object as well as the method of how it was made instead of just the shape?"

Blinking at his son's proposal the magus killer thought about what Shirou had proposed about projection magic. While Kiritsugu wasn't a traditional magus who was a researcher, he did see the benefits of thaumaturgy in regards to its practical uses in combat.

When the red head gave his idea about adding composition and method of making to gradation air, it gave the retired assassin some ideas. "Well, I guess in theory it's possible since structural analysis plays a vital role in analyzing an objects shape. It's possible for a magus to scan an object's composition and the method to make it as well in order to improve the projected copy's durability and allow it to last longer"

The magus killer then thought about something. "If you want, you can experiment with this new form of projection as a side project, since doing so would improve both your structural analysis and gradation air skills as a side bonus."

It was something to think about for the red head. If he managed to master this new variant of projection, he would be able make near perfect copies that are near identical to the real thing, but that was far away at the moment as he needed to get used to using projection magic first.

"So can I get started on projecting something, dad?" Shirou asked his father who was deep in thought from thinking off the practical uses of gradation air should they add the variants that his son mentioned.

When he noticed his son sitting there looking at him, the Elder Emiya coughed in embarrassment.

"Oh, yes, you can go ahead Shirou."He said as he explained how to project an object and the method for manipulating your prana to achieve this. With that done, he watched as the red head pick a metal pipe up, analyzed it with structural analysis and put it back on the floor where he found it.

"Trace on" Shirou recited as he activated the aria that he picked to hypnotize himself and become a conduit for magecraft and open his magic circuits. He visualized the metal pipe in his mind's eye. The red head paused as he began adding the info he gathered from the original by going through five steps that he and Kiritsugu thought up.

"Judging the concept of creation, hypothesizing the basic structure, duplicating the composition material, Imitating the skill of its making, Excelling every manufacturing process," eventually, a grey metal pipe appeared in the red head's hand in a flash of golden light. As Shirou held the pipe to his head in order to get a closer look, he found that the outside was identical to the original as he grabbed the original and compared the two.

However, when he used structural analysis to check the inside of the projected pipe he was met with disappointment.

"I take it things didn't turn out so well. "His father said reading the expression on his son's face.

Hearing this, Shirou nodded his head in agreement and handed the pipe to his father. "I managed to copy the materials and how it was made into the structure, but for some reason the projection still feels empty and hollow to me and I have no idea why"

Receiving the projected pipe from his son, the magus killer decided to have a look himself to see what Shirou was talking about. A closer inspection revealed that the pipe was not only identical to the real thing but Kiritsugu found by scanning it that the pipe not only had the composition of the original down but how it was manufactured was also taken into account.

Quite frankly, he was amazed at what his son had achieved since the projected object was eroding at a much slower rate than normal projections and would probably last at least a few hours from a day if the rate of corrosion was anything to go by.

That was why he was puzzled as to why his son thought it was still a failure, despite the fact that it was a near perfect use of gradation air[,] but if his son thought it was incomplete then he had no right to say otherwise since he wasn't an expert in gradation air himself.

"Well, to tell you the truth, Shirou, I don't think I can help you with this since projection isn't one of my strong points so the only thing I can advise is for you to keep practicing until you think you've done it right." It was the only piece of advise he could offer at the moment since he wasn't a Faker a magus who specializes in projection mage craft.

The 6 year old , upon hearing this , decided that the best way right now was to try again and review the steps, so that he could find out what he was missing in the equation and looked around the shed for something to project until he was face to face with his brass armor.

As he stared at the medieval suit, he suddenly had a vision of a grown up sized version of the armor wielding a strange key shaped sword with a stone shaped pendant for a keychain. The vision seemed to last for eternity until Kiritsugu placed a hand on his sons shoulder.

"Are you alright?" He asked, which snapped the red head back to reality

"Yeah, I'm alright, old man, I just dazed off for a second"

Telling his father that he was all right, Shirou tried to process what he just saw and realized that the key sword the life-sized armor was wielding was still clear in his mind, deciding that he might as well go for it as the red head thought about projecting the weapon that he saw in his vision.

With that in mind, he concentrated on the sword, making sure that he had a clear image of it in his head and recited his activation aria "Trace on"

What came next was totally unexpected for both Shirou and his father, strange holographic lights appeared around the red head's hand only for the lights to vanish revealing a speechless 6 year old holding the same weapon he saw in his vision.

The shaft of the blade had a textured, dark brown color, with brass edges. The teeth at the tip of the blade were made of two pick-like points, including two hammer-like protrusions on the opposite side. The guard had an off-blue color, and seemed to have been crafted from two Omega insignias (Ω). The pommel was a dark blue cone, with the Keychain token at the bottom of the blue handle a reddish rock fragment with brass armor-like plating that batched the brass coloring of the armor that Shirou had.

As the two of them stared at the strange sword that appeared in the red head's hand, Kiritsugu decided to break the silence "Shirou…what is that?"

Upon hearing his father's question, the survivor of the Fuyuki city fire merely stared at the weapon in his hands in fascination. "To be honest, I'm not quite sure myself. This suddenly appeared in my head when I looked at the armor in the corner so I decided to see if I could project it. Although judging by the fact that its not corroding at all, I don't think it's a projection"

This had set some alarms in Kiritsugu's head. His son told him that the weapon in his hand wasn't made by gradation air, since GAIA wasn't trying to erase it, but if that was the case then what was his son holding.

"Son, can you give that to me for a second? I want to take a look at it for a moment."The magus killer addressed his son, wanting to take a closer look at the brass weapon in Shirou's hand. However, when the red head handed it over to Kiritsugu so he could examine it, the weapon suddenly disappeared out of his hands and reappeared in Shirou's hand.

"What?" Shirou got out as he witnessed the key shaped weapon disappeared from his father's hands and reappeared in his hand. This had surprised the former master of the grail war as well as he never expected that to happen but it did reveal something to him.

First was that the blade could only be wielded by his son, as proven when it disappeared when he tried to hold it meaning that it had a degree of sentience which made since as there were plenty of examples of sentient blades who choose who wield them such as Caliburn: the sword in the stone that choose king Arthur to rule ancient Britain, and Gram: the sword in the tree featured in Norse legends.

Suddenly, the magus killer remembered something he had heard about during his days as a mercenary hunting dead apostles and sealing designates, it was something he had read in some research journals he had 'acquired' from one of his targets.

It appeared that the rogue magus in question had been researching about a strange weapon that had appeared in various historical records and legends all over the world and the mage had written an incredibly detailed report about these accounts. Normally, the magus killer wouldn't have bothered to read about something like that but since it was a magus research in trying to reach the root of all things it was work a small look.

From what the assassin could gather the weapon had surfaced in the hands of several people throughout the ages such as ancient China, Greece, Scandinavia, Ireland, and even Britannia during the 6th century when the Roman Empire was beginning to collapse.

The reports had even went into detail about the weapon's abilities such as the fact that it could open any lock without fail, as well as place locks itself, could even effect spiritual entities such as elementals, and even what it was called.

Eventually, the Association's enforcers had confiscated the report after the magus killer finished reading it as well as collected the rogue magus body, this meant that the Clocktower knew about what that mage was looking for and had a high interest in the weapon if they were willing to place a sealing designation on the mage if it meant acquiring his research.

Which was why Kiritsugu grew serious as he asked his son something "Shirou, do you know what that is?"

To which, his son replied. "I'm not sure, let me scan it so I can figure out what it is and how it works"

Kiritsugu then left the red head to activate his circuits and concentrate on the blade he was holding.

However, the task proved difficult as lots of different information appeared in Shirou's head, making his head hurt in the process. Eventually, he managed to find out something about the sword and cut the connection by closing his circuits.

"Well, did you manage to find out something?" the magus killer asked while hoping that he was wrong as to the true identity of the sword in his son's hand.

Eventually, Shirou closed his eyes to process the info he had just found out and opened them when he was ready to give an answer "I wasn't able to find much dad, but I did manage to find out its name"

He then held up the blade with his hand and said. "From what I could gather, this weapon is called Earthshaker, and it's a keyblade"

"A….keyblade?" the magus killer repeated as he came to realize that the sword his son was holding was the same weapon that the magus killer had read out from long ago and had been considered as a high priority research object sought out by the magus association.

"Emm, dad, is something wrong? You're making a really scary face" Shirou asked nervously as Kiritsugu had reverted to his magus killer persona giving him an emotionless face which scared his son a bit.

Seeing the 6 year old's frightened face, the elder Emiya sighed and apologized "Sorry about that, son. Its just that I recognized what you are holding"

Hearing this, the newly crowned keyblade wielder asked, "Really? Do you know what a keyblade is dad?"

"Only a few rumors here and there that I happened to hear during my younger years, one of the magi that I was 'acquainted' with had built up a sizable research journal on these mysterious blades."

"It was said that not only was a keyblade a very powerful weapon when used as a sword, but it also had the power to open any lock its user wanted whether it was mundane or magical. " As the magus killer stopped with his explanation to catch his breath, Shirou had a question that needed answering.

"But, why did this appear in my hand? I mean I was trying to use projection which makes inferior copies so why did I get the original?" The red head asked as he held the brass colored blade with both hands since it was pretty heavy.

"Because keyblades choose their wielders Shirou, and for better or worse it had choose you as its master." Kiritsugu answered, making sure that the weight of what he said was firmly etched into his sons head so that the red head fully understood the significance of what he was holding.

That seemed to have made an effect as stared at the keyblade for a minute or two before looking at his father, "Old man, what do you think I should do with it?

"I'm not sure, the keyblade has the power to bring disaster or salvation depending on who uses it so I want you to promise me that you will not abuse its power and do what you think is right, can you do that for me?" His father asked with a serious expression on his face as he waited for his son's reply.

After thinking about it for a bit, Shirou answered, "Okay old man, I promise"

Hearing this, the eldest Emiya let out a sigh of relief and thanked his son for understanding before noting that it was getting late and was already past Shirou's bed time.

So with that the father and son duo left the Earthshaker keyblade in the shed with the brass armor and locked the shed door before heading back to the house for a good nights sleep.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Somewhere in the dark alleyways of Fuyuki City)

It was a dark moonlight night in the city of Fuyuki as many different people went about their businesses whether it was work, fun, or more unsavory purposes, considering that the alleyways of a large city were the perfect place for certain elements to hide out in the dead of night.

One such element would soon be revealed as a pair of stereotypical Yakuza flunkies, going through an alleyway in order to take a short cut after a night out drinking.

However, unlike most Yakuza flunkies that pervade Japan, these two were members of the Fujimura family meaning that they were more neighborhoods friendly then normal Yakuza since they mostly follow the law and even help out the police from time to time.

It was for this very reason that Kiritsugu established a very beneficial relationship with them during the fourth war, since it was them that managed to smuggle the weaponry the magus killer needed for the war due to Japan's strict laws on gun control, plus they were easy to get along with compared with traditional magi.

However, that wasn't important right now as the two Fujimura flunkies were about to have an encounter with something that could very well end their lives if they weren't careful.

"Yo, Daisuke yu have any idea whut that is?"The drunk one gurgled out to his collegue, as they stared at moving blob of black mass that was appearing from the shadows.

His sober partner holding him was currently staring at the black mass in fright as it seemed to form into a vaguely humanoid shape with bent tube like ears, webbish hands and bright yellow eyes with no ovaries, another characteristic of this otherworldly creature was that it looked like it was melting as black blobs fell of its body and hit the floor only for it to dissolve in black gas.

As the dark monster moved towards the scared thugs, making black footprints in its wake more creatures just like it started to appear only for them to cringe in pain as they started to melt at a faster [pace than] the first creature.

Eventually, the dark creatures dissolved into dark puddles that melted into the darkness, it was from that point that the Fujimura Yakuza made a break for it in the opposite direction convincing each over that what they saw tonight was merely hallucinations created from access drinking.

However, this event was merely one of a series of incidents that would happen over the years involving the creatures made of pure darkness known as the Heartless.

Hello viewers, Epicgamer484 here, and thank you for reading the first chapter of mu new fic, Sword of Earth, which is a fate stay night and Kingdom hearts crossover, as well as the spiritual successor of my previous crossover story Fate/keyblade of wind.

The reason I did this instead of another chapter of circuit network is due to two reasons, the first is because this story was swimming in my head for a while now so I wanted to try it out, the second is because my previous stories have no BETA.

Fortunately I was able to find a BETA on short notice and was busy making corrections that he pointed out, however while he is knowledgeable about the fate series he unfortunately doesn't have knowledge of the kingdom hearts verse, so if anyone has any tips on how Nasuverse mechanics would work when Kingdom hearts is incorporated please PM me or leave you're comments in the review section.

Well that's all I have to say for now so see you later and please review.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters associate with this fic, they are the property of Type-moon, Square-Enix and Disney interactive,

Please support the original releases and look out for Kingdom hearts 3 and Kingdom hearts 2.5 HD