Author's Note: Alright! Time to escalate the events! As absolutely adorable it is having Hakuno and Shirou interact in a peaceful environment, we all know these two have terrible luck when it comes to events happening to them.

To address the whole 'technology only malfunctions at Hogwarts', I'm fully aware of that. But in this story, I'm making it more pronounced, there is more than meets the eye going on here.

We got a commissioned art piece for a cover image! It was drawn by the same artist that did Digital/Culmination's piece!

Full Sized Image: www deviantart com/chrisgohan/art/Digital-Antithesis-Cover-Art-827003810

Anyway, this chapter serves to start to set up future events, as well as push our protagonists along.

Sakura365: Right here. This story only has like 4 chapters, don't expect action every other chapter.

Just A Normal Human Being: She is adorable.

Starlight's Poet: Nope! Ship all you want.

PsylentFox: Hakuno is a girl that will mostly avoid talking about topics unless required, so her conversing about his Reality Marble might not come up until much later. And yeah, Fate Route Shirou is a fellow with good potential.

Guest 907: See author notes.

VGBlackwing: In a way. I have no plans in having them join other factions. And they will not be students at Hogwarts, ever.

AmethystPone: Still, that's what makes it interesting. Fate has such an interesting magic system.

AriFrost: Thank you very much for the nice compliments! I thought this concept would be a great story, and that Hakuno and Shirou (Fate Route) would be great together as friends.

The counterpart, the opposite, the rival. She is all these to this world of magic, yet also represents them at their best. Now, this Digital Human, unheeded by prophecy, shall change it all.

Digital/Antithesis

Chapter 4: The Shield of a Distant Place

Hakuno Kishinami was starting to despise magical travel in this world, missing the Moon Cell's more convenient and noninvasive method. If it weren't the only method to get around quickly, she would never touch the Floo Network ever again, or any other method the wizarding community used. But, such wasn't the case, Hakuno and Shirou used it to return to Diagon Alley, and also to return back to their current home base.

With the help of the guide purchased the prior day, they located and passed through the 'Leaky Cauldron' that served as the entrance to and fro the mundane-dominated London. Arriving in the 'muggle' world served to state ever so more that Hakuno was no longer in the Moon Cell.

The world that Hakuno Kishinami had briefly explored was familiar to her, yet foreign.

Her original counterpart had been cryogenically frozen in the year 1999, whereby this world was in the year 1993. That was six years apart, and decades away from the time of the Moon Holy Grail War in the 2030s. But because it was earlier, there was a distinct similarity in the technology, in which likely the remnant subconscious memories of Hakuno Kishinami knew of.

The only thing missing is the city gone ablaze.

They explored around a bit, spending the bettermost of a few hours familiarizing themselves with London. Hakuno was experienced in mapping, her mental image of the city's layout was accurate and precise, though still lacking in information, the city was large and old, it would require more than a single trip to explore.

For now, however, Shirou and Hakuno returned to their home base.

But, there was another problem.

"Shirou," Hakuno spoke to the boy beside her. "We're broke."

They were broke, the little currency they had was wizarding knuts and sickles.

"Yeah, I know," Shirou replied. Luckily, they had still had supplies back at the house, and if they sparsely used the wizarding currency, they can purchase foodstuffs through Diagon Alley. But, it would become an issue in a few more weeks. "I'll try to find a way to fix that later."

Huh… Hakuno felt like a sense of deja vu from what was basically a grocery shopping problem.

"Alright," She replied. "We were-"

She stopped abruptly in the middle of her sentence, then felt a migraine strike her in an instant, a moderate pain, Hakuno brought her hand against her head in a futile effort to relieve the pain.

"Hakuno?" Shirou expressed concern. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Her eyes caught a glimmer, a subtle glow to the hand she had brought up, it was the small jewelry attached to her finger.

Then, words appeared in her head, like a telepathic link to a Servant, yet cold and calculating, but entirely logical. It forced itself into the forefront of her mind.

SERAPH Calculations Complete. Transfering results toward designated Regalia Holder.

Threat to Moon Cell Automaton detected, Velber Influence inconclusive, Conceptional phenomena preventing Quantum Time Lock placement of variable designation 'Digital Human Timeline'.

Continuing primary objective observation. Awaiting Regalia Holder inquiry.

Hakuno Kishinami finally got a chance to recollect her thoughts and awareness. She took immediate notice that she was sitting on a bench with Shirou Emiya looking over her, an expression of concern on his face, but relief that she'd regained her senses.

"Hakuno," Shirou began. "Are you alright?"

"I am now," She replied, her mind still processing the information from earlier. "What happened?" She asked in confusion.

"You started grasping your head and then nearly collapsed if I didn't catch you," Shirou answered. "I brought you to the couch to rest but there wasn't anything I could do." He sincerely apologized for his inability.

"Thanks," Hakuno replied. "I got… Information…?" She paused for a moment. "I think I'm still connected to my grail and its side effects are affecting me."

He frowned, "Were you a container for the grail?"

"Container?" She questioned puzzled. "No, what is that?"

"Oh," He blinked. "Hakuno… I think our respective grail wars have more differences than originally thought."

"I know, the Holy Grail War that I was in was only based off the original," Hakuno explained.

The Moon Cell took the Holy Grail War based on Fuyuki and used it as a back-drop for its own cruel tournament in studying the human soul. Of course, Hakuno Kishinami couldn't fathom the reason behind why the Moon Cell would create such a deadly event, as even Twice Pieceman, her predecessor and the man responsible for the Holy Grail War continuing until her arrival, was a participant in the Moon Holy Grail War before his interference.

"Then explain, please," Shirou asked.

"Why?" Hakuno questioned.

That made Shirou take a second of pause like he hadn't expected the sudden question from the girl.

"Well, because-"

Knock! Knock! Knock!

They both looked towards the door in surprise, the samoyed began barking loudly at it, pacing back and forth between the living room and the kitchen while facing the entrance door.

Shirou stood up, Hakuno noted that he was tense, which was expected. Had the owner returned to reclaim his property? Unlikely, the house owner would not have bothered knocking, so it could be an accomplice or perhaps government-related. The dog's barking didn't help her newfound anxiousness, the previous topic forgotten, Hakuno decided to hide slightly behind the couch, in sight of the front door and able to do a Code Cast quickly should it come down to conflict. While Emiya was closer to the door, his hand was empty but open, ready to grip something at a moment's notice, Hakuno noted an iron bar next to the doorway, typically used for the fireplace, Shirou must have moved it.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

It continued, but with a voice shouting from the other side of the door this time.

"Open up! I know you're here! Don't try to pretend otherwise!" The voice of a presumably male individual shouted with anger in his force. "You have not done your due and I am here to collect or confiscate!"

Shirou decided to open the door and confront the stranger.

"So you've-" The man, dressed in an old English apparel, paused upon immediately noticing Shirou wasn't his quarry. His eyes examined the boy's casual attire, expression twisting into disgust, his left hand reaching into a holster behind his waist. "The ward is active, how did you get here?"

"Are you looking for the house owner?" Shirou asked.

"Doesn't matter," He ignored Shirou's question, drawing forth a wand. "Muggles shouldn't be here. Obli-"

Shirou struck in that instant, Hakuno moved from her cover. They had read enough to know that this wizard thought them as mundane, non-magical, and was likely attempting to eliminate a potential leak. Shirou didn't bother with magecraft, instead opting for a solid punch.

It did the trick, staggering the wizard enough to disrupt his potential spell.

Hakuno followed up, the all-so-recent experience as a Master in the Moon Holy Grail War had trained her so thoroughly for combat it was nearly second-nature.

Her magic circuits activated with the brief imagery of a burning city.

"Code Cast: Hack!" She shouted her only offensive digital magecraft with an outstretched arm, open palm facing the enemy.

"Gak!" The man coughed blood as a burst of data-like particles erupted against his frontal body, he collapsed after the Code Cast's effect.

A stream of colors, like jagged lines, fired around and through the door just as Shirou narrowly dodged to behind the wall. These apparent spells struck with some force, creating tiny pockets of holes in the building. Hakuno Kishinami ducked behind some furniture and spotted around three other individuals outside the doorway, all bearing wands towards them, dressed in black cloaks.

Who were these individuals?

There hadn't been much mentioned in the journal, perhaps they were related to the ritual mentioned? Possible members, that were to sacrifice the samoyed for magical purposes?

The red-haired boy grabbed the long iron bar near the doorway, "Trace on," Shirou spoke.

Hakuno recognized those words, and she watched with nostalgic feelings as- No, he wouldn't trace anything. He was doing something else, magecraft that Archer hadn't done or wasn't visible to the naked eye.

She blinked… Shouldn't he have a black and white pair of blades as his weapons?

The Spirit Hacker girl pushed the thought aside, instead chose to focus on the situation at hand. The barrage of spells had stopped, Hakuno could still see them, coming closer at a cautious pace. This wasn't to their advantage, considering that Shirou seemed to lack the experience in magecraft that her Archer had, as well as her own inability as a magus, they didn't have a good position to face off against wizards with unknown spells.

Simply put, Hakuno Kishinami did not have the capabilities to defend against their magic, let alone against spells she hadn't read up yet-

"Dodge!" Hakuno shouted out a command by reflex towards Shirou Emiya.

Her coordination and skill to keep up with Servants and issue orders had saved her multiple times in the Holy Grail War.

Unfortunately, while the boy did react to her call, it wasn't according to her command.

They simply did not know each other long enough to work together to that degree.

Shirou had come out into view and a wizard against the chest with his improvised weapon but was struck by a bolt of blue light that streaked across the air. He fell on the floor, struggling to regain control of his body. Hakuno took a mental note of the surprised expression of the assailant as if he didn't expect Shirou to be able to move after being hit.

Still, regardless of Shirou's supposed resistance to the spell, it didn't discard the fact he was temporarily unavailable to fight. He simply did not have the experience or knowledge on how to fight wizards and witches yet, not to mention, have the superhuman feats of Heroic Spirits.

The samoyed was barking madly and was consequently struck by a spell that let it paralyzed at a stand-still.

Hakuno dodged a follow-up, it blasted a nearby vase. She barely had anything to deal with this situation!

Threat to Designated Inheritor Detected.

A voice echoed in her head, or rather, information of a sentence.

Her magic circuits surged with od, inner magical energy.

She raised her arm, "Code Cast: Hack!" Hakuno shouted, but her aim was narrowly off and struck the right side of the doorframe, blasting it apart.

Queueing Summoning Matrix… Awaiting Regalia Holder Input.

Hakuno Kishinami needed a way to defend against these spells. She didn't have the Magic Resistance of Servants and never had much of any personal defense Code Casts. Though, she wished she had one capable of protecting her and Shirou.

Overriding Local Conceptional Environment... Summoning Spiritron… Re-Activating Master-Servant Contract.

The magus gasped as her left hand stung with terrible yet familiar pain, like someone burning the top of her palm with a hot rod. She fell to her knees, her eyes looking to her hand and widening as the previously dull gray Command Spells, partly marred, now lit a crimson glow and were reconstituted into a fully formed symbol.

Suddenly, a blast of wind erupted in the midst of the living room, sending everyone tumbling to the ground and making light furniture and decorations collapse to the floor.

Hakuno's eyes spotted a new figure in the house, feminine, with a slight tannish white complexion and donned in a purplish-black armor that covered her upper and middle body, hands, and feet up to the middle legs. It was a young girl, possibly around Hakuno's age if a bit older. Her lavender eyes stared at Hakuno Kishinami, short lilac hair wavering in the wind generated by the implosion of magical energy. But, most eye-catching, was the positively massive shield larger than the girl's size, having a cross-like shape and matching the armor in color.

This young girl was Hakuno Kishinami's Servant,

A Heroic Spirit… But, something felt a little off… She didn't… The Servant did not have the same sensation as Hakuno remembered being around.

"Um…" The Servant had a confused expression. "I'm… I'm Servant Shielder!" She exclaimed. "You're my Master? Right?"

Hakuno nodded, "We're under attack, Shielder." She pointed at the wizards.

"R-roger! Entering combat!" Shielder said, turned, and entered what Hakuno presumed was her combat stance, very defense orientated. "Your orders, Se- Master!" She corrected herself.

"Push them out, guard our position," Hakuno ordered.

Now recovered in the timespan it took Hakuno to direct her newly contracted Servant, the wizards spew forth a volley of spells that impacted against the clear threat the Heroic Spirit represented purely by appearance alone. These jagged lights didn't even touch Shielder's armor, instead dissipated harmlessly against a barrier that formed upon close proximity to the Servant.

Hakuno Kishinami recognized this as Shielder's Magic Resistance. But could not identify how high ranking it was to be able to deter wizardry magic.

Shielder brought her massive shield to bear and slammed it against any wizard inside the building, knocking them back like ragdolls to the outside, further damaging the walls with the kinetic force behind her blunt attacks. Shirou finally recovered from whatever after-effect the spell had and decided to retreat to Hakuno's position, behind Shielder's defensive front.

"You summoned a Servant!" Shirou exclaimed surprised.

Hakuno glanced down to the now red tattoo-like design indicating the Command Seals on her left hand. Then, she looked toward Shirou, "I did, apparently."

"She said her class was Shielder?" Shirou said as he examined the Servant that was guarding the entrance into the household. "They're throwing spell after spell at her and nothing is penetrating her Magic Resistance."

Hakuno nodded, there was also an effect on Hakuno herself. She felt a sense of safety, more so than usual in the presence of her own Servant, perhaps a defensive attribute that guarded Shielder's Master or allies? It could also be related to a Skill that Shielder had.

Wait, the noise of the spells and building destruction had left.

"Master," Shielder said, her shield covered the doorway entrance. "The enemies are retreating… Broomsticks?"

The magus girl stood up from her slight cover, "Broomsticks?" She questioned.

Shirou walked up, the Servant moved her shield aside for them to see, "They're flying away," He said slightly stunned. "Guess they've given up since Shielder appeared."

"On broomsticks?" Hakuno inquired curiously.

Flight hadn't been something she'd ever dealt with before in the Moon Cell, impossibly high jumps, sure, but not outright flight. Still, weren't broomsticks a little far-fetched for wizards and witches? It seems so… Stereotypical.

Perhaps, that was just this world's explanation of that particular myth?

She shook her head and addressed her newly contracted Servant, "I'm Hakuno Kishinami, thank you for saving me, Shielder."

"Same, I'm Shirou Emiya," The boy greeted as well. "It was unexpected a group of people would just outright be hostile like that."

"I'm Shielder, um…" The female Servant paused for a moment. "True Name: Mash Kyrielight, please take care of me!" The shield in her grip vanished into motes of magical energy as she did a half-bow towards her Master and companion.

"Mash Kyrielight?" Hakuno questioned, not recognizing the name in any of the history books she read throughout the Holy Grail War.

She stood back up, "I'm a novice at being a Servant, but my Spiritron Core has a base centered around-" Her eyes widened. "It's centered around…" She started again but didn't finish. She grasped her head with her own hand, "Why can't I recall?"

The samoyed barked happily as it began to run around Shielder, distracting her from her thoughts as she reached down and patted the dog behind the ears.

Hakuno smiled, then looked to Shirou, "We can't stay here."

"I know, we got lucky the first few days, but they might return," Shirou frowned in thought. "Unfortunately, with our current situation, we might need to take a loan."

The brown-headed girl blanked at that, "Well-"

Again, that robotic inquiry in her head, she was believing it related to the Regalia on her finger more and more.

Retrieved Portable Terminal Financial Account: 1,503,250 PPT.

Convert to the local currency of 'Pound Sterling'?

"Huh, yes?" Hakuno answered, much to the confused look of Shielder and Shirou.

Conversion Complete. 8471.72 Pound Sterling. Replicating native card…

A flash of data particles appeared in Hakuno Kishinami's hand and suddenly she had a type of plastic-looking card in her hand.

That… It seemed way too convenient.

"What… Happened?" Shirou said.

Hakuno glanced at Shirou, then to Mash, then responded.

"I don't know. But, money problems are no longer a concern?"

That summed it up.

"Hakuno," Shirou began. "I think I'm going to need an explanation about what's going on," He said.

"Master, I'm a bit confused as well," Mash said. "I have some information provided to me, but it's full of holes."

Hakuno Kishinami didn't really want to talk about it, she glanced away.

Shirou Emiya, however, decided otherwise.

He stepped forward, taking an assertive approach that was quite unlike his previous attempts at conversing with Hakuno Kishinami, "Hakuno I can't understand anything if you don't talk about anything. You keep saying you're okay, you're fine, but clearly something keeps bothering you. And I don't mean just mentally, but outright something is physically bothering you."

She was stunned, "Shirou… Just… I can't explain."

"You can. Even if I probably won't fully understand it will still serve as an explanation for me," He continued.

Hakuno recovered, she knew that she was being quite stubborn and that she should just tell him about it. But… But…

The revelation of Shinji's death, a six-year-old thought to be playing a game brought down by his hubris in revealing information.

A old gentleman seeking to see his wife again now joins her in the afterlife, deleted after his Servant's defeat brought on by her collection of information against them.

Alice… A girl and her storybook Servant counterpart, the tales of Wonderland, now serving as its own demise once used against them.

Death… Death… Keep your information… Take others… Survive.

Live or Die by the Sword.

"No!" Hakuno shouted as she stepped away. "I can't say! I won't explain!"

Shirou backed off, then stayed wisely quiet.

There was silence between them.

A wordless exchange.

Shielder broke the cold ice, "Master, Shirou, you two shouldn't fight. How about we leave this for later?"

He nodded, "Alright, I'm sorry, Hakuno."

Hakuno glanced away, focusing her thoughts on other matters besides the memories. She took a deep breath, "Okay. Let's leave this place."

They would be giving up their access to the Floo Network after this, which would force them to return to Diagon Alley every time they wished to use the transportation network. But at the same time, the mundane world would serve as a more suitable location for them. While it was interesting to live in this magical household, it didn't serve them any purpose outside of a temporary location to get their bearings and understand the wizarding world.

"We should pack then," Shirou understood what Hakuno meant. "I found a rather large, if old, luggage trunk before. We can store some necessities there."

"I'll help in carrying it!" Mash offered.

"No, a girl shouldn't do that," Shirou said, meaning no offense. He followed up, "Can you stand guard in case they return?"

"Shielder can do that," Hakuno agreed. "Pack the books too."

They would need a lot more information about what this world's magical denizens can do, given how much they were woefully unprepared.