First of all: I'm sorry it took so long for this to come out and that the chapter isn't longer. I initially planned for something that was about twice as long as I like to have some heft to my chapters in terms of size, sticking to a generally comfortable range of 6000-10000 words but life happened (i.e. uni work) and I started going to the gym something like 5 times a week and that ate into my schedule, then, ps4 games and shit came out so I got interested in that (Sekiro, Control, others) and now I've started reading Worm. Pretty good. Whole unwritten rule policy seems kinda stupid and redundant though but whatever, some of the powers are pretty cool.

Next chapter should be longer and come out a little sooner assuming I don't start procrastinating...

Chapter 9: Restitution

"Kane?" Rider called out from far below.

"Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down." I kept mumbling to myself as I felt a gust of wind sweep by.

I opened an eye and did the exact thing I kept telling myself not to do. I looked down.

"Ohhh fuck!" I yelled out, completely horrified with my position in the sky.

A solid thirty metres straight up and I didn't know how to get down. What the hell do I do? Do I glide down? What if I lose control and hit the ground at terminal velocity? Will my neck snap? My spine? Will my legs be shoved up into my torso and crush my lungs? Will I just be a puddle on the ground?

I didn't want to move.

"Just leave me Rider." I cried out, clearly terrified, though I tried to maintain a somewhat cool façade. "I think I'll stay here for a bit."

This was exactly like back at that rock-climbing gym in my previous life. Fucking auto belayers! Felt like if I let go of the wall I was going to plummet to the ground.

Rider sighed and shook her head in response. She and her Master were lucky that it was already dark out otherwise he would have clearly been seen by the rest of the neighbourhood. He'd already been up there for ten minutes and refused to move. Around fifteen before that and he'd finally discovered how to fly. He was buzzing all over the place and refused to sit still even when it was time for him to eat dinner.

And now that he refused to move he was also in the worst possible position. Right out of reach and somewhere he hated being. High above the ground. She was sure he'd get over it eventually, such a thing would come with practice and experience after all.

"You can't stay up there forever Kane. You'll starve." Rider called out once more. That seemed to get a reaction out of him. Though unfortunately it wasn't the one she desired.

"Just bring it up to me." He mumbled out.

"What is that child Master of yours doing now?" Saber chose the most inopportune moment to arrive with a bowl of her own food that Irisviel had urged her to try. She had been hesitant at first, having had the many disasters that the chefs in her own castle made. Of course, then she actually tried the food and it was wonderful!

Rider merely pointed to the sky in response, her usual discomfort for her Master jumping from high places gone and replaced with utter defeat.

"Wha-" Saber began only to see the child in the air. She turned back to Rider. "What is he doing?"

"He's afraid of heights. Especially without a safety of some kind." Rider turned back to face her Master once more. "I'll catch you Kane! I can't jump that high!" Maybe half or a little less.

"Nooooooo!" her Master whined. He actually whined. And here she thought he had the mind of an adult in a child's body. Clearly, she was mistaken to some degree. "I don't wannaaaa!"

"You'll be stuck there forever if you don't come down." It was Saber this time. Clearly by the sound of her tone she wasn't impressed. "Eventually you'll run out of mana and drop out of the sky." No reaction. She supposed she'd have to up the ante then. "I'll even eat your dinner…" Saber trailed off. If this didn't work she was seriously tempted to knock him out of the sky with an underpowered blast of invisible air.

"…You wouldn't." the young Master in the sky said feeling threatened by Sabers bold proclamation.

"Mm!" This was what she wanted. "I think I'll do that right now in fact." Saber turned on her heel and entered the dimly lit house not bothering to look back at the boy still trapped in the sky due to his own efforts.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" I screamed. Dinner was like, one of the most important meals of the day. I couldn't go without it! "God dammit!"

Looking down at the ground once more I tried lessening the hold I had over the space around me. It had the intended effect as I slowly began to descend as I had when initially practicing the technique earlier today when jumping off of the rooftop. It took a few minutes but after some stopping and starting I eventually hit the ground on my arse.

"Duly noted." Rider said off to the side with a tone that said she was not impressed. "Food withholding is a suitable punishment." She strode off inside then and I could only whimper slightly. This couldn't be happening to me. Please Rider, forgive me!

I made my way inside and was met with the amused stare of Saber and Maiya. Irisviel had been clueless as to what was going on as another wave of fatigue had hit her and she could no longer move so easily as she had been a few hours beforehand. Fortunately, she hadn't seen my embarrassing episode. Unfortunately, she was almost completely incapable of movement now as only her head turned to move from her position lying down on the floor when I entered the room.

"Oh, hello Kane." Saber looked at me with a slight smile on her face. "We were just talking about how you got stuck in the sky after trying to learn how to fly."

I just sat down clearly upset that apparently everyone had been told of my little episode. I'd have to get over that real quick if I wanted to be able to fly properly in the future. Besides that, I grabbed the bowl that was handed to me and started eating, not bothering to check what it was. It's not like they were going to poison me at this point anyway…

Irisviel had been moved out to the shed by Saber right after everyone finished eating and placed on the magic circle that had been drawn there sometime earlier. Probably when I was out trying to learn how to fly using Bringer light. It didn't really matter.

Irisviel had however, asked to have a small chat to me in private so as nervous as I should have probably been sitting next to a Homunculus that was designed to be physically superior to Humans in just about every way, there was no need to as she may as well have been a limp doll at this point…Wasn't she supposed to be kidnapped from this place by Berserker in the original timeline?

…I couldn't remember too well. It didn't matter anyway as basically everyone that mattered at this point was either dead or not participating. I still wasn't sure about Kayneth but odds were that he would show up again.

Stepping through the shed door I could see Irisviel lying on the cold hard ground off to the side, though in her position it wasn't like she could see who came in properly.

"Mm, Kane-kun, is that you?" Irisviel asked trying to crane her head around to look at me and failing miserably.

It was almost a shame that her daughter would be stuck as a midget and not turn into her mother's carbon copy.

"Yeah, it's me." I said as I approached her side and sat down next to her. "What's up?"

"The roof?" Irisviel seemed slightly confused with that statement. "What do you mean?" her inquisitive eyes met mine and held their stare.

"I was just asking, how are you?" I was slightly exasperated with my response. General slang seemed to fly over the Homunculus' head. In hindsight I should have somewhat expected it. Being raised in a castle while being cut off from the rest of society tended to do that to you I'd imagine. Must've been pretty boring there.

"Oh! I'm fine…" It seemed like she wanted to say something else other than that but refrained from doing so. "I just can't feel my toes anymore. It's weird." She muttered out even as her feet did wiggle slightly. It quickly stopped however as her vision refocused on me from where it had strayed to the ceiling. "Anyway, enough about me. How are you Kane-kun? Are you upset about the War or anything else?"

It seemed as though she still saw me as a child for the most part. I could only imagine that she was trying to comfort me.

"Well, not really. I'm a little about having to participate and whoever thought it was a good idea to have a city wide war with beings from ancient history that have super powers. Well, that and my parents got killed." I mulled over my thoughts for a second, trying to see if there was anything else. "Pretty sure that's it."

Irisviel gasped slightly in horror. She couldn't imagine doing that to a family. Granted, her Illya was about to be left alone in the Einzbern castle but it wasn't like she'd be alone. "That's horrible."

"Mm, yeah, well. There's nothing that can be done about it now." I mulled over my thoughts. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen their ghosts either…that or I'd been too distracted by my impending doom to realise they were there. Perhaps, even though they were leaving me behind they didn't have any great regrets. That and they probably thought that we'd all be joining each other in the afterlife and thought they had no reason to stick around…Though I'm certain that they'd be immensely pleased that I'd managed to survive so I couldn't exactly fault them for not staying around. I certainly wouldn't want to. Though, if I did turn into a Hollow I'd make sure to get to the top of the food chain.

A silence permeated between the two of us for a moment before Irisviel spoke up again a minute later.

"I have something for you Kane-kun…a present." She frowned for a moment. "Can you give me your hands for a moment?"

I wordlessly placed my hands in hers and let her guide me to where I placed my hands on her abdomen…wait…seriously!

"I have an artefact within me at the moment that exists in a conceptual form. Think of it as something that has no physical substance but still has an effect on the world anyway." She explained. "Seeing as you are capable of magic or something else, it should be possible for you to place this within yourself for a time."

She really was going to give me Avalon. The only reason I could fathom as to why she wasn't giving it to Maiya was because she wasn't the child in this situation.

"Alriiight…" how does one use their circuits?

"Um, I don't think your method would work properly for me. I don't know how to use Magic circuits." I admitted. There was no use going into this blind.

"…Really?" Irisviel had a perplexed expression. "How did you do what you were doing then?"

"My power is a spiritual ability. I interact with spirit particles in the world around me to achieve my goal. In todays example, I learnt how to fly. I can also use it to do many other things such as reinforcing my body," as I'd learnt during gun training. "Walking on water and to alter somethings properties to a limited extent, provided I have enough spirit energy. I think it is similar to mana and ether to some extent as souls are made of spirit particles and ether can also contain souls." I just had to look at the servants for that part. Their only flaw was that they weren't self-maintaining, or rather, they couldn't produce their own Prana or spirit energy.

Irisviel looked slightly puzzled for a moment. "That means you should be able to do this anyway with your ability but it's probably better to learn now how to use your circuits." She lifted one hand and placed her palm on my chest. "This might feel a bit weird." She warned me.

A second later and a warm fuzzy feeling spread throughout my body. Quickly enough the warmth became a searing heat as I felt the multiple pathways that were there that I'd never gone about using before. Now that I knew it was there, I knew what to feel for exactly. It was strange to say the least. There appeared to be an inherent similarity between spirit energy and Prana but Prana felt more like a diluted version of spirit energy. Until I got a better hand on it to analyse it properly it'd have to do for now.

"They were already open by the looks of things but now that you know your circuits are there you should be able to use them properly." Irisviel said as she placed her hand back down on her midsection. "You have quite a few. They're also rather high quality for a first generation magus…" Irisviel's face scrunched up in confusion slightly.

"Why did it feel so hot for a second though?" I was curious. Wasn't that only supposed to happen when circuits were actively being used? The only thing that I was actively using them for was to fuel Rider but that was it.

"That was your circuits rejecting my Prana as a foreign substance. What I just did was a small intrusion to 'wake up' your circuits and have them retaliate against the foreign Prana in order to activate the circuits. Normally Prana can't be transferred from one person to another but there are a few rituals and methods that can allow the transfer with minimal discomfort. For example, drinking someone's blood is an excellent way to take their mana as blood is very good at holding mana. Once in the digestive system the body is tricked into thinking that it is sustenance and it can be absorbed."

That made sense for the most part, though mana transfer vaguely reminded me of the tantric ritual that Shirou performs with Saber and Rin in the VN in the Fate and UBW routes. Yeah, that was probably a thing.

"Hm, ok." Sure, let's go with that. "What now?"

"For now, give me your hands again and I'll guide you." Irisviel said once more making me place my hands where they were previously. "If you can follow with that strange ability of yours it might be best to use that for now until you have more control over your mana."

I wasn't even sure that my control over my ability was even any good at the moment. I'd just been winging the whole thing and I had no one for a reference point. She was probably right however and it would be best to use Bringer light for now.

I 'pulled' with Bringer Light causing a faint green flicker to appear and could instantly feel Irisviel's Prana falling within her body to retrieve something. Following it through I soon recognised something that could be considered tangible. Her prana hooked around the object and pulled on it once, the small jerk being just enough to shake the object loose within her body, gold particles were already beginning to accumulate above her.

The pull that Irisviel was exerting on the item was suddenly turned into a pushing force to repel it from her body. It was then I tried to grab a hold as well, being careful as to not pull too hard on the object we were retrieving. With the action the sudden pull caused an eruption of gold flecks to pour forth from her body and slowly converge into a single piece, Avalon.

"You were quite good with that Kane-kun." Irisviel said, diverting her eyes from the shining Noble Phantasm for a moment to look at me. "Though you were a bit quick. A little gentler would have been nice."

"Sorry." I instantly replied. I didn't exactly want to make this woman's last day on the planet any worse than it already was.

"It's alright," Irisviel tried to wave it off though a slight cringe was brought to her face a moment later from what I could only assume was the pain of the situation. "Now, place it inside your own body."

…How do I do that?

Do I somehow grind it into dust or something?

Maybe I should try pulling it apart with Bringer light and try to merge the particles with my body. The instant I did so, nothing happened. Rather a shocking revelation came to me. The entire thing was made of spirit particles and reinforced with mana and what I could only assume to be ether to take on a physical appearance…trippy. Or did spirit particles equal ether…? Probably why Fullbring can be seen by regular humans, the mana part that is. It also told me why a foreign heavy metal wasn't wreaking havoc to her insides. The object in question didn't actually have a physical form…

This played a few questions on what could be considered 'conceptual'. At its core meaning, 'concept', meant 'an idea'. Therefore, imposing a concept on something would be very much like Kiritsugu's bullets imbued with the concept of cutting and tying on bullets with his ground up ribs. Normally such a thing wouldn't have the ability to do something like that. But the bones possessed a part of Kiritsugu's spirit? Hence the bullets were imbued with his spiritual power? So, was implementing a concept just giving an object an ability it normally would never have with spiritual origins?

In that case, relating my Fullbring ability to that of the concept of soul manipulation with the environment would mean that implementing a concept would just be changing the spirit particle structure of any item in question, thereby changing the spiritual effects of said item while empowering the effect merely required an induction of energy…If this was true it meant that while Magi had the ability to implement concepts upon items it didn't actually mean they knew why those concepts were imbued upon the items in question even if they knew the method…Potential gold mine?

"Um, how do I absorb it?" I looked to Irisviel for a moment, confusion clear on my face.

"Do you remember what it felt like when it was forming?" Irisviel asked.

"Kind of." Not really. Went off on a tangent trying to figure shit out.

"Rather than trying to pull it apart, try to imbue it with your prana or spirit energy and then pull that back into you." She said that with a completely straight face. "It turns it into a spiritual entity that can exist within other spirits."

I wasn't so sure about that. If what she said was true I could technically absorb say, a pencil and then spit it back out whenever I wanted to but that was physical matter and not spiritual and at this point I was starting to think that there might not be much of a difference. If that was the way it worked then why didn't magi keep other personal equipment stored within their soul or something. The answer was probably that it couldn't be done with most objects and that they required a high enough spiritual saturation, something that couldn't normally by done…probably. Or the fact it wasn't made of spiritual matter…I take back what I said previously. It most certainly has to be constructed from spiritual matter. I didn't want to think about the fact that I could have pencil accidentally materialise in my chest and accidentally stab myself in the heart…or worse.

Come to think of it, this sounds awfully familiar. Urahara Keisuke stored the Hogyoku in Rukia's soul for some period of time before it was taken by Aizen. Perhaps this worked by a similar principal, though Aizen needed some weird ritual to do it whereas I could just supposedly pull this thing in and out of my body at will.

I did so as Irisviel said and instantly the mass collapsed into motes of gold light before being funnelled into my body. It felt weird. There was this odd pressure on my body that I hadn't felt before. Almost as though my skin became tighter and my body was too small to house me now.

"Good job!" Irisviel applauded. She grunted slightly in discomfort. "You must be tired."

Not really. It's only what? Eight.

Granted that is probably a suitable time for a six-year-old to go to bed. Probably sooner if you asked most.

"Why don't you head off to bed now then." She continued unhindered.

I could say no but I got the feeling that I wasn't welcome anymore despite Irisviel's kind tone. Kiritsugu on the other hand wandered in through a wall and sat down beside his wife for the time being even though they couldn't interact with each other.

"What do you mean you don't know what it was?" I asked as I was hopping on one of my feet.

Kiritsugu looked suitable pale. Well, as pale as a dead man could with that much red covering his body could I guess.

A shuddering sigh came from his mouth. "It was at least the size of a bus, stood on eight legs and spoke through a white mask."

"…Alright." He confirmed there were in fact Hollows wandering throughout Fuyuki, only that they were more likely to exist in certain places. Probably because of the Shinigami wandering around town. They must be pretty good here then. No need to worry so much I guess. Still though, the number of pluses around didn't make any sense. I should have seen my parents at least after they died…

Having taken Avalon from Irisviel left me with the thoughts of what else the crumbling family could possibly give me. Not very nice of me, I know, but rather perhaps a gift for Illya?

Well, I very much doubted that she would even be capable of utilising the Thompson Contender later on in her life even if she is half Homunculus. That could be useful later on. No idea what I'd do with it but meh, I'll think of something when it comes to it. Real good for killing shady Magi I'd imagine though.

On the other hand, since she is actually Kiritsugu's descendant it means that she would be capable of utilising his family crest. I couldn't use it because of the imminent rejection that I would suffer from because of the wholly unfamiliar circuits. The only reason the circuit transplants work in the first place was because of genetic and spiritual similarity between two people, that being in most cases the children of the one whom originally owned said circuits.

This house? Probably mine now. Illya has the castle out back in the forest and as long as we became friendly with each other I'd probably have no issue of her coming over whenever she liked. I don't think she'd think of this house as too great a loss. Something like the family crest on the other hand? She'd probably murder me for it.

In the meantime, however it would be good to find a way to preserve the family crest so I can give it to her later on down the track. Thankfully, Kiritsugu's body hadn't been cremated and was only buried in the back yard. Slightly morbid. Having someone buried in your backyard would probably freak out just about anyone with a sense of normalcy.

My eyes drifted off to the side where Kiritsugu was buried in the meantime, a mound of fresh dirt signifying where his body was placed…well, it couldn't hurt to try.

Placing my hand on the earthen mound I tried extending my senses downwards with my Bringer light, almost like I had done with Irisviel previously in the shed. It took a moment, but I found it, Kiritsugu's body, or more specifically, something that could be his crest. It certainly had this quality and feel to it that made it seem like the residual of a small soul from what limited experience I had with it so far.

Wrapping my own spirit energy around the crest I pulled and felt it move. It wiggled for a moment as it struggled to hold onto Kiritsugu's corpse, but a short quick tug later having made sure I had a firm and stable grasp on it, and it was free.

Floating in my palm was a near translucent button shaped object with roots of some kind dangling off the sides. They looked kind of like dendrites, the end effectors of nerves. It made sense really when thinking about it. The original FSN VN used Shirou's nerves a lot even though the idiot was doing the wrong thing because of Kiritsugu. Even if Shirou's use was wrong the description still compared Magic circuits to nerves.

Whatever. I have to figure out a way to store this in the meantime before I give it to Illya as a peace offering hopefully.

A spiritually reinforced jar?

Wouldn't hurt to try. There were bound to be a few things in the house I could use to contain this.

"Haha!"

Ok, I couldn't find a jar. The used freshwater Tuna can would have to do…I cleaned it! I swear!

"Kane." Rider's voice sounded off from behind me making me jump slightly. I hadn't sensed her sneaking up on me. "What are you doing?"

I turned around to see Rider with a slightly bemused look on her face.

"Uh…" did she see it? "Nothing?" Damn it! That sounded more like a question than an answer!

I winced when her smirk grew slightly, reaching over the top of me, momentarily distracting me when her chest hit my face and proceeded to press down. Well, what kind of straight guy was I to say no to this…Wait a second!

She pulled back a moment later and then it was only that I realised what she had done. Holding in her hand the can I had hidden the crest in she smirked again before rattling the can a little.

"This of course." She motioned, though her arm dropped to the side a moment later. "Though, given your inherent utter infatuation with my body and behaviour I can only assume that you are actually much older than most others would realise."

"…Uh." I had nothing…Wait, a dream sequence? Had she seen my memories!? That's forbidden! You don't need to know what porn I've seen! It's shameful! Though it involves Rider to some degree… Wait, no, those are doujins? Wait, it doesn't matter!

"You've seen my memories?" I ask hesitantly. All I could keep saying in my head though was 'Don't think about it!' over and over again.

"Yes, though, only on one occasion." Rider held the can up to her face to observe it again from behind her blindfold. "Your reaction now though only confirmed my suspicions. Ones I've had since our conversation about the Grail war in the café we visited back over in Shinto."

"Um, look I don't know what you've seen. But maybe best not to bring it up." I waved my hands around gesturing to the area around us. It was obvious that I didn't want out other company to find out.

"About the war you mean?" Rider then asked. That was a slight relief that she hadn't seen any of my other more…questionable memories. And the war could refer to the one we were currently participating in so it didn't really matter all too much. Or it could refer to the war I died in back home at the other place.

I frowned, "Lots of explosions, rubble everywhere?" I asked just to make sure and got a nod in return.

"My most probable scenario puts you as someone from an alternate reality whom was reincarnated here in this reality after you died in some kind of war." A slight frown graces riders face as she considers this. "The small glimpse of the technology you were using that I could see, put you decades ahead at least, of this Earths timeline. The only other assumption I could make out was that you were possibly from the future."

Just a single dream sequence and my personality and you got all of that?

I didn't see much point in hiding it at this point in time, as long as she didn't go off spouting about it to other people. "The first one…well, a bit of both really. Alternate reality, around twenty-twenty-five. World war three."

"…I see." Rider's tone implied that she understood to some degree what had happened. "How did you come across information on this realities Holy Grail War then?"

"Uhh…" I scratched the back of my head at that. Hoo boy. "Look, I can't tell you that," for hopefully obvious reasons, "and even if I did, the relevant information runs out at the end of this war and even then, most of it is now useless."

Thanks crossover universe. Asshole.

"The process can't be repeated either. It's physically impossible." As far as I was aware at least. "All I can say is that I trust you to get me through this war regardless of your past. It's a trait of yours that I picked up. You're reliable and a good person, no matter what you may think of yourself. None of what you did was under your absolute control and no one can fault you for that."

"I-I-" Rider stuttered momentarily, unable to control herself.

"Besides. Out of all of you, you're the most beautiful sibling." Rider started sputtering harder, and normally by now I would have started breaking down too just talking to a girl like this, but I was on a role and if I stopped now I don't think I'd physically be capable of finishing. "You have amazing curves and your sisters were probably jealous." Riders nose started leaking something… "Uhh…"

I'm sorry. Did Rider just break?

"…" Poor girl must have never received a complement like that before. She also wasn't moving very much…riiiiight…I'm just going to go to bed now. "Goodnight Rider." I waved back at her, equally as flushed as her. Complementing people like that was hard. Especially if I'd only recently met them. Normally I'd just call out someone's negative traits straight away and that would be the end of that.

I shivered remembering I'd called a girl fat to her face back in school. Not my brightest moment. Granted she didn't seem particularly phased by it, but she didn't look so happy either.

Anyway, bedtime, yeeeeeah…

Word count: 5310

Also, I changed something in the Hunter CODEX entry in the first interlude. Initially it was going to be a crossover addition with DC but then I realised, 'Zanka you idiot! You barely know anything about DC! Pick something else!'...And so I did.

Servant stats updated!

Class: Rider

Name: Medusa

Status: Alive

Master: Kane ()

Status: Alive

STR: C -} B

END: D

AGI: A

MAN: B

LCK: E

REVIEWS:

CH 9:

Raidentensho:

Lucky guess...

Loser Stuck In Memory Lane:

That would be telling, though, a part of what you said isn't far off.

Maybe:

State ye wish and ye shall receive.

hideki667:

No, that can't happen at all. I don't think you remember bleach too well. The MC isn't a shinigami and as such CANNOT stab someone with a sword and transfer a part of his powers to them and make them a shinigami as well. The MC is a Fullbringer, powers for which are based on hollows not shinigami. The MC is more likely to eat Kiri than he is to give him powers.

CH 8:

Guest:

The reason Saber doesn't understand magic well is because she never had any interest and never bothered to learn anything from merlin. The official reason is that she didn't have the patience to sit around and learn it. That being said, if she had bothered she'd be an unparalleled magus with how powerful her circuits are.

CH 1:

Garatak:

While those are the stats she had with Sakura during the 5th HGW, her stats were actually an entire rank down in STR, END and AGI and a rank up in LCK when shinji was her master. The idea of lowering her stats here was that the MC had just awakened his magic circuits and was just getting them warmed up over a few days which would inhibit the stats of rider for that duration.

That being said, her stats have changed again.

Other REVIEWS:

Thank you for the continued support. I really appreciate the reviews.