41Reincarnation
"I shall grant you this: at this moment, you are powerful."
In my surge of rage and noticeably audible flow of mana, I almost didn't hear Gilgamesh's admission just before running him through with Kanshou. In that second, the reality marble that I'd been able to cast - Unlimited Blade Works - swirled around us as the combined mana between Rin and I was finally depleted, and I found myself back at Ryuudou Temple.
It worked... it had actually worked.
It merely took a cursory glance around the destroyed temple to see that the Grail had definitely been destroyed, any sign of All The World's Evils wiped off the earth before anyone could be fatally harmed by its effects... I could only remain confident that Rin, Saber and Shinji had emerged from the ichor safely. Despite it all, even though I knew I could die in the next few seconds, I was also confident that Rin and Saber could easily defeat Gilgamesh in this state as soon as they found him. There was no way he could win.
The War was over.
"Running out of mana is a pathetic ending," Gilgamesh began as a single blade of the Gate of Babylon emerged from a golden portal beside him, "Victory is yours."
I was in no state to deflect what I knew was coming... crouched over without the strength to stand, I no longer had the inherent Tracing and Projection enhancements granted to me by my greatest magical achievement to date. Rin's crest had faded from my shoulder, but we had saved Fuyuki and the rest of the world from a terrible fate. Together.
"...Die with that satisfaction, faker."
As if he were reading my thoughts. He might've even scowled at my smirk had he seen me, but it was of no consequence now. It would take a miracle to-
FWOOOOOM!
A sudden influx of wind along with black and a baleful blue energy forced me to look up at the King of Heroes as he now struggled against the force of an all-too familiar phenomenon.
"Swallowing me accomplishes nothing!"
"A hole left by the Holy Grail?" I couldn't help mumbling as the black maw of the formless artifact now managed to pull Gilgamesh in by his stump of an arm. But how was it able to remain in existence? And why?
But before I could think any further, a golden chain suddenly shout out of the abyss and latched to my forearm, a Divine Weapon from which I knew I had no chance of escape!
"That malformed abomination!" I heard him yell as his head and torso appeared out of the hole, "Does it not know that a fellow Servant cannot be made its core?!"
Without paying much attention to his senseless speech, I cursed under my breath as I tried to brace myself against the overwhelming pull of the Grail's pit, "You're trying to take me with you?"
"Fool! I haven't the least intention of dying! Stay where you are, ruffian!..."
Hmm. So I've graduated from mongrel to ruffian. Something I might go as far to say I'd be proud of if I weren't so adamantly struggling against certain death at the moment.
"...At least until I climb back to where you are!"
At that, my sense of self returned, the end goal taking over my mind and actions as they always had. Gilgamesh had to be destroyed no matter the cost... and the only thing keeping me from hurling myself into that bottomless portal along with that cursed Servant was Rin and Saber, but it still didn't mean I'd be unwilling to make a sizable sacrifice in order to rid the world of the original Heroic Spirit.
"As if!" I scoffed aloud as the pull of the hole and chain made it easy for me to stand and hold my position, straining against my upheld arm, "I'll rip my arm off if that's what it takes!"
Of all the things to happen next, I certainly didn't expect it to come from behind.
"Do so if you wish, but step to the right first."
It... it couldn't be...
But in turning my head to see the one man I'd least imagined to arrive at such a moment, a flash of red sailed right by me... and into the forehead of the eldest of the two Archers now in the courtyard.
"Ar... cher," was Gilgamesh's last word as his head snapped backward at a rather unsightly angle, my elation causing me to turn between the dying Servant and the smug hero behind me.
"That guy, always showing off," I mumbled as my shock morphed into a level of gratitude I hadn't felt in ten years...
That is, until the unthinkable happened.
Looking back at EMIYA, I hadn't realized that the chain that my arm had been ensnared with actually held taut, and in the moment I let my guard down, a final pull from the Grail caused my legs to give out from under me and sent me flying towards the endless darkness.
"Shirou!" was all I heard my future self say before the hole overtook me, the last thing I saw being a sizable blast that seemed to envelop everything in the temple itself...
It was dark.
So dark.
Any sense of time was lost as I continued looking around, finding nothing to use as a viable reference point before yelling in my anger and anguish.
How could I have been so reckless!?
What had become of EMIYA? Not to mention Rin and Saber? I gritted my teeth - or whatever semblance of teeth I may have still had in that place, being that the darkness was so prevalent that I failed to see even any vestige of my own body - as I realized that I'd left the girl I'd fallen for behind... the one who had taught me to fight with the aim to live becoming the girl I'd begun fighting to live for... and I had failed her.
I fought and thrashed and grunted against the suffocating abyss as I floated along in endless black for who knows how long, but it was no use. Eventually, it became clear that the remnant of the Holy Grail had claimed its last victim and didn't have the least intention of letting it go. Resigning myself to my fate, deprived of mana and of any hope of escape, I began to close my eyes with what I was sure would be my final words.
"I'm sorry... Tohsaka."
Of course, what I couldn't help but start at was the sudden flash of light that caused me to sit up and open my eyes.
Wait... I was sitting? How long had I been unconscious?
I looked around and found myself in a forest, concrete steps behind me leading up to what I could only assume was the ruined Ryuudou Temple. The light, however, was strong, lighting up the trees around me with an almost unnatural brilliance as I continued trying to gauge my situation.
"If it's... this bright," I began thinking aloud, "Then it must be almost noon... but, was I only thrown out of the Grail until now? It surely must be the case - Rin certainly would've found me otherwise by now..."
It wasn't until I managed to stand that I began noticing a few things felt... off.
For starters, my clothes.
No longer did I have the torn and tattered shirt and jeans that I'd worn when I faced Gilgamesh - I now donned a strange array of armor that struck me as foreign yet familiar at the same time.
Looking down, I realized my trusty shoes were replaced with steel-tipped boots which seemed to be connected to my trousers, both more of a dark purple color than the black I'd somehow felt would suit them more. However, I did seem to have a detailed black chestpiece of armor that covered my torso, a dark sheen of obsidian with sapphire lining which tapered town to my waist over an... impressively red overcoat. Wait.
No, it couldn't be. This red was darker, almost a wine color in contrast to the bright red overcoat I'd become so familiar with during the War.
But still... my new outfit beared an eerily similar appearance to the Red Plain Mystic Code ensemble worn by my future self, EMIYA... down to the agemaki knot and everything.
Looking back up into the sky, I then realized the second thing that literally felt out of place.
"Where's the sun?"
As my mumbling merely faded into silence, I tried turning to see where it should've been, remembering what my old man had taught me about using the sun's position to tell time outside the Emiya estate one day after some projection training. Yet... the sun wasn't there, everything still so bright despite being unable to be seen over the treetops - which I now realized were also not native to Fuuyuki.
Pine trees? Really? ...Where was I?
"Hiya, stranger!"
The unexpected voice behind me caused me to turn to its source, also tracing Kanshou unwittingly into my hand. Thank goodness that at least I had regained enough mana to Trace in this place.
"Whoa now, no need for violence!" she defended as she held out both hands placatingly, a few more people coming out of the woods behind her. Like her, they all widened their eyes a bit at the sight of me, the girl in front in her red and white dress taking a step forward as I let my armed hand slowly fall to my side.
The girl who spoke didn't seem much older than me - seventeen or eighteen at most - so it was rather likely she was my age.
"Who are you?" I asked of the pink-haired girl in front of me, noticing that she too had armor over her red and white dress which struck me as odd... everyone in her group did.
"Alright, that's a little better," she continued with a wry smirk, a hand motioning at herself and stepping aside to introduce the rest of her group as well, "My name is Lisbeth."
She pointed at a young girl who couldn't be more than fifteen years of age who surprisingly enough already had a dragon-like familiar perched on her shoulder, "Silica."
Then to a smug older man who looked more like a samurai than anything else, decked out in reddish armor, "Klein."
Followed by a young lady with bright green hair whose... um... upper regions would certainly rival Rider's from the War, "Leafa."
And then to another young woman who interestingly enough sported an impressive bow along her back, a fine weapon which I instinctually used Structural Analysis on to add to my collection of weapons, "Sinon."
Sorry about that, Sinon.
Finally, Lisbeth motioned to the last young woman of the group, a girl whose beauty honestly rivaled that of Rin's in my eyes despite her looking like she was mentally preoccupied with something else at the moment, "And that's Asuna. Asuna, you alright?"
Turning up at the sound of Lisbeth's voice, who now had her hands at her hips as she glared at Asuna with a mix of expectancy and what looked like concern, the girl looked at her instigator, then briefly at me, and back at her.
"Yes. All is well."
"Are you sure?" the girl I recalled being Silica asked as she turned her head away from me and at the blue-haired girl with worry, her familiar seemingly echoing her with a questioning squawk, "You don't seem like yourself today..."
As the group turned their attention on the girl, I took the opportunity to take a step back and get a better feel for my surroundings. I just couldn't shake the strange feeling that things seemed out of place here, and the strange group of armored youths in front of me wasn't helping. There was still no sign of Rin nor Saber... and as I finally got to look at the long pathway leading away from what I still believed was Ryuudou Temple, the final nail to the coffin fell in place as I realized to my growing panic that there was no longer any sign of Fuyuki City as well.
Instead, there was the distant silhouette of a massive, towering tree.
"I-I'm sorry," I began shakily, reluctantly regaining the attention of the group, "Where exactly am I?"
"Alfheim. In the Spriggan Territory capital."
The voice had come up behind me so suddenly that I locked in place, ready to Trace Bakuya into existence as well if I needed to... but I was stopped as I noticed everyone in the group's faces light up at whoever had spoken behind me.
"Kirito!" was Asuna's first exclamation, the young woman smiling for the first time and running towards the young man who I turned to see and also believed to be my age, decked out in a black uniform with a large black blade strapped to his back.
Also now Structurally Analyzed to add to my Unlimited Blade Works.
Now that I knew how my Reality Marble worked, the curiosity was already overwhelming my lingering panic... a panic, however, which swiftly returned after what the young man had said finally processed in my mind as entirely foreign.
"Bu- ergh- what!?" was about all I could stammer at the pair before Kirito turned to me with a perplexed expression, "Are we not in Fuyuki City?"
"Not at all!" Klein now mentioned from behind me as the remainder of the group congregated around the pair, "I'm not sure where you think you are, buddy, but that city isn't even near where we are IRL!"
IRL... why does that sound familiar...
"Are... you new to Alfheim?" Sinon now asked, her name already memorized due to the bow that reminded me of EMIYA's strapped to her back, a question to which I merely shrugged.
"Yes?"
She hummed in response, about to reply when I blurted out the first question that came to mind. After all, there was no way of knowing who these people were unless I asked.
"Are you all here from the Association?"
"..."
My old man had told me about the Mage's Association when I was younger and Rin had mentioned joining their ranks someday during our time together... and even though these kids were our age, the youngest already had a dragon-type familiar under her control. Dragon-type! I'm sure Rin would've stated that such a feat was impossible at such a young age, but it was evidence enough for me to theorize the possibility. But judging by the blank stares I had currently brought upon myself with that question...
"Uh, no," Lisbeth finally drawled as she took a step to stand in front of me, "Sheesh, you really must be confused if you don't even know where you're standing."
"Maybe he's just spawned for the first time?" Silica postulated meekly, my head cocking to the side as the unfamiliar terms were used.
"No, he'd have been presented with the tutorial by now," Asuna interjected, taking a step closer to me, "And besides, he's clearly an Imp. He wouldn't have spawned in Spriggan territory if that were the case."
"So you think he might be an NPC or something?"
As the strange terms continued piling up, I finally spoke up once more after hearing Klein's question and second abbreviation. NPC... I'd heard that term before, spoken in the halls of my school.
"Look, I can certainly say that I am confused at the moment - none of what any of you are saying makes any sense to me!"
"Hmm," was all I heard from the following silence, the owner of the pensive hum revealed as Kirito stepped forward beside a fairly curious Lisbeth and looked me up and down, "The armor is definitely Imp, but I've never seen an Imp with white hair before..."
...WHAT.
Someone must've read my expression of pure shock because a mirror was suddenly thrust into my field of vision by a pale white hand. Sinon.
"See for yourself."
My mouth slowly dropped further as I analyzed my reflection... facially, I looked just like myself - but my skin had become paler, almost white with a tinge of purple hue which I wasn't sure was a reflection of my armor on my skin or the pigmentation itself. But what really unsettled me was how my eyes had changed from a once golden brown to a gunmetal grey... and my hair from an auburn red to a pure linen white. It was just like... just like...
"Archer..."
"Yes, that I am," Sinon replied quizzically, an eyebrow raised at what she surely thought was my reference to her. But at this point, I was much too floored to reply, any attempt to question anyone here further being stifled by Kirito's next words.
"I... don't think he's an NPC. He has an HP bar and none of us have received any quests from him... but I don't see a player icon floating above his head either," his pensive expression remained, and before I could protest the increasingly familiar terms used, his next action only shocked me back into silence, "Yui, have you been able to gather anything from him yet?"
And in that moment, to my utter stupefaction, a little, tiny pixie girl flew up from behind his shoulder and flew towards my face before replying, "No Papa, he certainly isn't a player in full-dive, but the system isn't recognizing his [Profile ID] as an automated command line, either..."
"You mean, he could be like another Freyja?" Lisbeth questioned, to which Klein corrected with an inexplicable seething expression.
"You mean Thor..."
Thor? As in the Norse god Thor? One may call it situational irony, but at that moment I noticed a few more harrowing discrepancies with what I was currently looking at.
For starters, the fairy.
Then, the fact that I, along with everyone else, had strange pointy ears. Like elves.
And finally, the undeniable swishing of cat tails behind Sinon and Silica that were reminiscent of cartoons I remembered watching before the Fire. Tails... of a cat!
I was quickly losing my sense of reality in this place.
But like a flower on the cusp of blooming finally opening its petals to the light, a slow realization came over me as I looked around the strange landscape. Light, touch, every sensation around me... it wasn't real. It felt as if I were going lucid in an otherwise convincing dream, something that shouldn't have surprised me considering that it was the portal from the Holy Grail that brought me here in the first place. Was I still asleep in the abyss? What had happened to Fuyuki City?
"Actually," the little fairy girl continued, gathering our attention as I noticed what looked like several little somethings moving just beneath her wide little eyes, "If anything, he's more... like... me..."
Her slow conclusion certainly seemed to carry its weight, everyone in the group staring at me with wonder before Kirito spoke up again, "Like, a sort of [Immortal Object]? Spliced from the root Cardinal System itself?"
"N-No," she continued, "At least, I don't think. He has a high-priority [Profile ID] capable of Independent Action..."
Darn right I am.
"...much like the original framework I was based on. However, even though it's blank, he has an IP Adress tied to his handle."
Amid the small chorus of hushed exclamations, Kirito trained a glare at me before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose, "Very well, what's your name? I'm unable to see it by analyzing you."
Analyzing me? As he looked back up at me and crossed his arms, more out of exhaustion than anything else as it became more apparent, I decided to go along with this strange turn of events as well. If this was the Holy Grail's doing, I'd have to find out what I could to dismantle the cursed artifact once and for all.
"Emiya Shirou."
Another small succession of muted exclamations before Klein spoke up.
"Eh- Ewhat? A Japanese name from an NPC here!?"
"He must be a player then, don't you think?" Asuna now stated calmly into Kirito's ear, something I surely shouldn't have heard - that is, until I quietly Reinforced my hearing as I saw her approach him from behind.
At that, the murky surface of my situation seemingly began to clear up.
"Alright," Kirito now announced, the group seemingly riveted to whom I now ascertained had to be their leader, "Circumstances aside, it's nice to meet you, Emiya. At worst, I suppose you could be a hacker who mistakenly got yourself into this server instead of the one you wanted using a high-priority account but got your short term memory jumbled a bit by inputting the login credentials into an unverified rig. It's a rare problem that has affected a tiny group of AmuSphere users."
Silica's face scrunched up in question at the slew of words, "That can happen?"
"Yes," Kirito continued, unable to hold back a small smirk at the girl's admittedly humorous expression, "It's only happened less than a half-dozen times in the past year, and usually to those who failed to hack themselves into a VRMMORPG correctly, but it's something we plan to work on as we develop the next-generation rigs."
"Ah, that's right," Leafa, who had remained somewhat silent during this time stated as she added, "It's part of that thing you're doing now, Mecha... Mechat..."
"Mechatronics," most of the group finished light-heartedly in unison.
Hmm, that sounds like something I'd be interested in.
"In any case, it should clear up in a few hours at most," Kirito concluded, his gaze set back on me before adding with somewhat less certainty, "Hopefully. Maybe you can get up to speed on the system mechanics here with Klein and Sinon while the rest of us head up to the forest house to finish our homework for the day."
"Sounds good to me, bro!" Klein exclaimed happily before Sinon added flatly to his statement.
"As long as he doesn't hold us back too much. I'm still looking for that new bow, you know."
"Ugh," Lisbeth now hedged with a facepalm, "Seriously, just one week into the game and you've already got your sights set on a Legendary Weapon..."
Legendary Weapon? Like a Noble Phantasm?
"Don't worry, Sinon, I'm sure you won't have too hard of a time," Kirito now retorted as he crossed his arms again with a smirk, "After all, you very well know what happened last time you generously took a newb under your wings..."
Well, I for one didn't know... but judging by the low growl and unmistakable blush now adorning the normally stoic girl's cheeks, I'm sure that'd be an interesting story to hear. But if anything, what I did know was that someone was going to have to explain what was going on here soon, as the conversation had taken a turn to the ever-intriguing topic of electronics before I had even realized. But before I knew it, the conversation seemed to have ended, Klein walking over and placing a hand on my shoulder as I finally let Kanshou fizzle out of existence.
"Alright, man! Always nice to have a new member to add to the party!"
"Goodbye, Shirou. It was nice to meet you," Silica began first, waving at me as the familiar on her head casually yawned without acknowledging me.
"Yeah, take my advice and don't get killed," Lisbeth added teasingly as she along with Silica, Leafa, Yui, Asuna and Kirito began to turn and walk towards the forest, "There's a shortage of cute guy avatars these days, it'd be a pity to ruin yours."
"Eh- bu- uwah-" was about all I could stammer before a chuckling Klein tightened his grip on my shoulder and led me to the opposite direction with Sinon as the remainder of the group waved their goodbyes, the three of us now headed towed the trail in the forest that led to that seemingly distant tree.
"Don't worry, she teases," Klein began good-naturedly, "That just means she likes ya!"
Huh? I'm... not exactly sure how Rin would react to that... Probably with violence.
Yep, definitely violence.
"Uh... okay," I replied moodily, finding the first topic I could change the subject to - logically, one of the many terms I had failed to understand while I took the back seat in their lively conversation they'd had in front of me, "So, er... what's a VRMMORPG?"
He placed a finger to his chin in thought as the three of us stopped along the trail, I taking a chance to look behind me only to see that the group we were with were now nowhere in sight... even with the Reinforced sight that let me see hundreds of yards into the woods that I was sure they had entered. Strange.
"Ack, I dunno, I'm terrible with abbreviations-"
"Virtual Reality Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game," Sinon supplied seamlessly with a small smirk at the sheepish samurai. However, said smirk vanished as she turned her sights on my surely paler-than-normal face.
"Y-You mean... we're in a... a game!?"
"Well not just any game, bud!" Klein declared with a smack on my shoulder, "You're in a full-dive virtual reality game known as the one and only ALfheim Online!"
Hmm, if I still had that mirror Sinon had lent me earlier, I think I'd know what Archer would've looked like had he been reduced to nothing more than a fish-like gaping motion. So much for being the calm and collected type he'd turned out to be in his day.
"Wha... that's impossible!" I finally protested when I regained any sense of coherency, the slew of gaming terms now making sense as to what I'd heard spoken of often in my school halls, "The technology to create that kind of game was said to be several years away last I checked."
The two strange characters in front of me merely traded a confused glance before Sinon glanced back at me, motioning at all of herself and Klein before replying, "Does any of this not seem Virtual to you?"
I blinked at her. I blinked at Klein. And I blinked at the sun which had finally peeked over the treetops in our descent.
And if I had my doubts then, they were surely confirmed now. That was certainly not a real Sun... Digitized, symetrically shining across the flawlessly blue sky, it didn't even cast believable shadows on the objects around us if you paid attention hard enough. The angles were off. Sinon... was right.
Upon shaking my head, she merely nodded, "Exactly. So get used to this world quick, because getting killed and having to respawn across the map sucks. And we won't come looking for you again if that happens... I will grant you no further charity than I did Kirito."
Crossing her arms and turning away with a huff, I noticed the blush slowly reappearing on her cheeks as she mumbled something about a stupid girly avatar...
"Well, no offense, but," Klein began, gaining my attention as he scratched the back of his neck in his indecision to continue, "Did you live under a rock or something before all this? Virtual reality games like these came out more than three years ago, and well... they certainly got some serious publicity when the first one came out..."
I couldn't help but notice a much heavier emotion in his eyes as he looked down upon stating the last bit, but in my wish to keep him from feeling to awkward or something about it I decided to answer quickly, "Well uh, I didn't watch much TV growing up, much less play games... I spent most of my time, well... training."
Sighing once before shaking off whatever cloud was threatening to remain looming over him, Klein brightened up and flashed a small smile, "Well, I guess it'd explain why you still talk about Fuyuki City... you're the first person in ages I've heard call that city by that name!"
I'm sure my pointy little ears pricked up at that statement, "What?"
"Well, yeah. About fifteen years after that huge Fire I heard of tore up the city real bad - I was just a toddler when it happened, but I heard it was horrible - people just started calling it Kobe until one day the mayor made it official. Been that way ever since. Heh, I guess you just don't get out much!"
What... fifteen years? That... that was impossible. It's only ten years after the Fire, it's still 2004!
...Isn't it?
"C'mon buddy," Klein invited as he snapped me out of my stupor with a tug on my arm, "Let's go fight some monsters!"
I absent-mindedly followed the pair as the new archer I'd met idly brandished her weapon to check it.
"With any luck, you might be able to help us beat the Deathstalker in the valley that guards the Legendary Bow."
I couldn't believe it.
Fuyuki. The War. Saber. Rin... all gone. And I, left in this strange world I had no idea how I entered aside from the cursed power of the Holy Grail. Why...
Why!
I guess in the end, this was the result of my ideals - except this time around, ending up in a reality much stranger than that of Unlimited Blade Works without knowledge nor contract with the world to rend me anything like EMIYA... instead, swallowed whole by the Grail for reasons unknown. This... this was too surreal.
But at the same time, wasn't everything in my life that way? Ever since I was but a boy, time and time again had the surreal threatened to rip me apart, but here I was. There had to be a reason why this was happening, and there had to be a plan. If the Holy Grail were trying to gain enough mana to fulfill its last wish of world destruction... or arguably worse... start yet another Holy Grail War, I had to be the one to end it whether I have EMIYA's strength or not! If there's still a reality rooted from this world, if there's still a Japan at all, I must do everything I can to save the people who can't save themselves! No matter what the Grail may do to me, I shall not change - I will not falter! I will fulfill my path to be the Hero of Justice for the sake of of who I am... for the sake of all I lost.
For Rin.
"Lies! Impossible! How could this have happened!?"
Despite his disintegrating form, Archer merely looked down as a wailing Tohsaka continued pounding on his translucent chestplate, her eyes tightly shut in her futile attempt to block out the tears that were already flowing.
"I apologize," he repeated for the umpteenth time that day, "I hadn't realized that the chain held fast... he was pulled in before I could react."
"No! No no no..."
Clutching onto his fading cloak, EMIYA felt heartstrings long untouched pulled to their limits as he sensed the anguished love pouring form from this young woman towards his earlier self, taking a long sigh to regulate what little mana he had left. After all, if his time had been stretched to the limit using Independent Action for two days without a Master, it had certainly been overreached once the pair realized just when the successive blast from the Holy Grail had sent them.
Unless...
"He's alive."
Her form immediately tensing at his flat declaration, Rin took a step back with fists at her sides, gruffly wiping the tears out her now puffy red eyes in one motion before glaring up at the fading Spirit with a narrowed watery gaze.
"Is that so?"
Archer sighed once more, his usual method of blocking out the young Tohsaka's emotions failing as he had to clear his throat to continue, "It's merely a theory. I had once wished to be summoned to this era in order to create a double-paradox strong enough to erase my existence by killing Shirou myself... if the Grail had killed him, I'd have faded several minutes ago, isn't that so?"
Sniffling a few more times, Rin broke her gaze on the fading EMIYA long enough to wipe her still-flowing tears as she looked down pensively, her sharp mind hard at work before finally returning a determined glance at her ex-Servant.
"It's possible, but unlikely. It would make sense if we could find a good enough reason for the Holy Grail not to have... killed... Shirou... in a-addition to your hypothesis as w-well..."
Walking over - or more like floating over - to her position as he realized she was about to break down once more into sobs, he did the best he could of comforting her by placing a practically see-through hand on her shoulder.
"Well, I'd say his pitiful amount of mana supply would be an excellent reason."
PWAH!
Surprised at how he was actually punched back several feet by the young magus' Reinforced punch, Archer actually had to clear his throat to avoid speaking up with a chuckle, "Well, it's true. Logically, being without enough mana for a new core nor enough to summon a secondary servant, the Grail would find a place, a realm, a timeline, if necessary, to resupply its Mana reserves... of course, what it would do then is anyone's guess without one of the three Founding Families to control it-"
"I can."
Her quick interjection left no room for doubt; if he had ever gotten to know Rin Tohsaka, EMIYA knew he wasn't going to get her to change her mind on this one.
"Then," he continued more slowly, "If the aftermath of the Grail's disappearance led us... here... then I can only imagine that it has found a possible core somewhere in this area. I doubt it has left Japan."
"It would be wise then to list our possible contacts at this time... how far ahead did we go?"
Archer cautiously glanced at the young woman, her head tilted down so as to have her hair cover her eyes... it would be jarring, but he had little other recourse.
"Over twenty years. I estimate our current date to be in early January... 2026."
Hearing her breath hitch, her shoulders tense a bit but otherwise no other reaction from her, the grey-eyed hero waited for her response.
"Who might I be able to trust in this era?"
He hummed as he pondered the options, "Your teacher, Taiga... whatshername, would be a start. The Emiya Estate may be the best place to set up at this time. Your sister... as well. Other than that, you'll need to find a lead - something that can hint at a spike in Mana somewhere in Japan."
His continued deductions were put on hold as he heard an unmistakable scoff from the girl, narrowing his eyes at her as she looked up at him with a raised brow.
"Ever the intelligent one, EMIYA," she began with a not-so-subtle roll of her eyes, "Some things between your alternate selves really don't change."
"Hm? Do tell."
Exhaling sharply, the girl did her best to regain her composure before crossing her arms at the Heroic Spirit, "You're missing a very viable contact... one that I've trusted before and wouldn't hesitate to trust again."
"..."
"You, Archer!"
"Ah," he replied faintly before looking down at his half-undone self, nothing more than his head, torso and arms remaining, "Then I suppose..."
"Yes. I believe it's time we renew our contract. I trust you don't have any previous engagements?"
The white-haired EMIYA smirked as he shrugged what little was left of his shoulders, "Don't mind me, I have all the time in the world..."
And with that, he braced himself as the talented Magus held out her hand and began the fateful incantation at the Ruined Temple overlooking 2026 Kobe, Japan.
A/N: Hi there, TPS here! As I tend to do after coming back from hiatus, I try my hand at a oneshot or two to get my creative juices flowing, and this time around I've finally ventured out of the RWBY fandom to write my first Crossover (which funny enough has nothing to do with RWBY... nice)! Of course, I'm always willing to give this fic a higher priority depending on demand, so that bit pertains to you, dear reader! If you like it, feel free to say so in a Review and show your support with a Fave and Follow, as it's the easiest way for me to gauge which stories to give more love! After all, that's how my currently most popular fic, The Gamer Girl, started out - just a writing exercise that grew into something way bigger! :D
One note, however: I've read some AWESOME stories both in the FSN and SAO where it's evidently, most definitely obvious that the authors have a much better grasp of the mechanics of those worlds than I do... and I am merely working on that I remember from the anime versions of both shows... heh. Just putting that out there. So I'm always open to suggestions and definitely critiques - just feel free to give me a link or example of the source material (UBW only in the FSN side) so I can learn the world mechanics there and implement it in the story! ;)
So as always, till next time -
And Happy Reading!
