Disclaimer: First attempt at a fanfiction ever.

Will attempt to retain accuracy to Nasuverse lore within reason. Keyword attempt.

Prologue 1:

An Unwished Choice

"I found my answer. It's fine, Tohsaka. I'll do my best from now on as well."

He lied as naturally as he breathed.

The Counter Guardian would never quite know for sure if his former Master had been fooled by his brave front, or merely allowed herself to be, but one thing he did know was that there was no salvation for him. He may have found his peace at this moment, but even were he allowed to bring it back with him to the Throne, his work would ensure that peace would only be temporary.

But she didn't need to hear that. It was better if she allowed herself to not think about it and reach that same conclusion.

And so, he kept his serene smile until his body disappeared into specks of light, ready to return...

Only to find himself simply rematerialized in a different place.

Strange. This body should have expired.

Confused, he relaxed his expression after quickly confirming Rin was nowhere around, and took in his surroundings; a serene landscape, paradisiac even, at a superficial glance at least...

Then, feeling observed, he turned around to notice a strange woman staring at him with a smile.

The woman held an uncanny resemblance to Illya, albeit a grown woman, and was dressed in dark ceremonial garb. A homunculi, perhaps...?

"Greetings, Archer, the winner of the fifth Holy Grail War.."

The woman performed a polite bow, and introduced herself without dropping her smile.

Archer's confusion at her words almost distracted him enough to not notice that something was... off about that smile.

"I am Justeaze von Einzbern, administrator of the Greater Grail, and I'm here to assist in realizing your wish, as you're rightfully owed as the War's winner."

"The winner...?" His expression made his confusion, and a hint of suspicion, rather clear. "That can't be right; nevermind being a Servant myself, my incarnation definitely expired there..."

"It is understandable for you to be confused, nonetheless, you are definitely the winner," Justeaze began explaining, politely yet firmly cutting him off.

"As the last servant standing becomes the war's winner, and once the seven vessels are collected, the Greater Grail manifests. And you are, indeed, the last man standing; Saber disappeared shortly before you almost did... your Independent Action skill won you this war. Of course, you're correct in thinking that normally a Servant couldn't possibly be the recipient of the prize... but those were truly unique circumstances, after all. You no longer have a Master, and with Gilgamesh's consumption, the vessel for 'Archer' has been obtained. Thus, you have earned the opportunity and privilege of helping yourself to a wish... or, rather, you must make one; seeing as the Grail is bound by certain rules, and after fulfilling the conditions like this, not granting any wish is out of the question, you know."

It didn't escape Archer's eyes that the woman's smile seemed particularly eerie, though in an almost imperceptible way, during that last sentence. Her explanation was sensible, but... he had a bad feeling about this.

"...I understand, however, I have no wish I want granted as of now." He replied.

It wasn't exactly a lie. He was at least aware enough of how the Grail operated to know that, if he requested for his existence to be erased as he originally wished, the procedure might even affect other possibilities of himself, like the Emiya Shirou that he had faced in this War. And the boy had, much as he was loathe to admit, earned his chance at being better than he had been.

As for any other wishes, a worn-out machine like him had no such...was that a grimace that just flashed through Justeaze's face as he said that?

"I understand; however, as I explained early, the grail simply mustgrant a wish at this point. If you cannot think of anything, perhaps I should read your heart directly to identify a wish for it to grant?"

Something was definitely off about her. From what he knew about homunculi, and the role she had identified herself with, he'd have expected her to behave more like an automaton, acting as a mere terminal for the Grail, but... something about her expression and body language betrayed expectation and playfulness.

An eerie, concerning playfulness.

And then, he recalled an important detail.

The Holy Grail was filled with curses.

It had been rather clear that the Grail had, at some point, been corrupted. It stands to reason that it's Terminal may have undergone the same fate. And if that was the case, then mayhaps...

"... I don't know about that. I'd rather not half-heartedly make a wish on a monkey paw."

Her smile froze, and shortly after crumbled.

"Tsk... noticed, did you? Damn shame. Coming up with creative ways to twist the means of granting a wish is the best entertainment I can get in here."

His hunch had been right on the money.

"Don't think that noticing it changes that much, though; I meant it when I said that a wish must be granted. Just like I must make it truly become a reality, regardless of how I twist the means. But, I do suspect you'll be careful about not giving me much to work with, now."

"...I see. And if you would be so kind as to satisfy my curiosity... why did you not just go ahead and grant whatever my heart wishes for, instead of asking and giving me a chance to catch on?"

"Because I already looked into your heart, and it would be a boring result," she answered, in a pout that might have been cute had it not been made in such an ominous context. "Your old, buried wish to bring a smile to people's faces by saving them has been rekindled. And the thing about reading wishes off one's heart, instead of putting them into words, is that they're more of a concept, much more restrictive with what I can do with them. If it was just to make people smile, there's a number of ways I could go about it, such as messing with the collective of humanity's brain chemistry to keep them in a drugged-like state of perpetual happiness... But nope, your wish isn't exactly altruistic, granting those smiles through your own actions is a strong part of it. If it was entirely a selfish wish though, it'd be as easy as plunging the world into a despairing situation so that a "Hero" was needed; but the kind of smile your heart wishes for couldn't happen that way, it is the smile of someone who is already happy after being rescued out of losing that happiness. It's not that I can't have any fun with that one, mind you, but the way I'm thinking of going around it, you'd be pretty much the only one to suffer from it. And, wasting one whole wish messing with only one person!? Boring!"

Her tirade ended with her behaviour decaying more and more into that of a spoiled child who got told "No" by their parents, albeit he had never met a child with such venom in their voice before.

"So come on, think of a wish for me, 'kay? You're welcome to try and make it as waterproof against misinterpretation as possible, it'll be a nice puzzle to figure out how to break it anyway."

Despite the childishness in her behaviour, Archer could tell the woman was dead serious, and he pondered his answer with equal seriousness. As much of a cynical, nihilist misanthrope he fancied himself as nowadays, it simply was not in his nature to gratuitously allow preventable harm to befall on other people, unless their name happened to be Emiya Shirou.

"...What exactly happens if I don't make a wish?"

"Weeeell, we only got so much time to work with. Your Mana is almost completely depleted, and it consumes resources just to keep you anchored around here, you know. So if you don't make a wish soon, I'll just go ahead and grant the one I mentioned earlier. Unsatisfying for both of us, and not a happy outcome for you."

"Is that so? If that was meant to scare me into thinking of a different wish, it's not very convincing. What sort of personal suffering would await me, that I should be worrying about avoiding it, even after knowing, how did you word it again? That I'd be pretty much the only one suffering through it?"

She paused, and he could see for a brief instant regret crossing her face, probably at her slip of the tongue. Her following words felt like a bluff, with a tinge of desperation to them.

"Well, you know, the works. You'll never get to see the smiles of the people important to you right now, you will not find a happy family life, your actions will probably cause people close to you suffering even if you save countless strangers... That sort of thing."

As a threat, it was indeed pretty weak. Certainly not words that let him have high expectations considering what the wish itself was, but, compared to what he had already suffered through up to that point...

"Well then... I'd say I have already suffered plenty to get this far." He beamed his smile at the homunculi, a smile oh so very similar to the one he had shown his handful of a Master merely minutes ago, but that couldn't be any more different in purpose, as he intended it to mock the woman's intentions. "May as well keep going and take that little bit more, to make it worth it making my dream come true along the way, don't you think?"

She glared at him with an annoyed look, which morphed into one of resigned defeat.

"Fine, fine~... we'll go with that, then. I would wish you unhappy times to come, but I'll already be making sure that that's the case, no more wishes needed for that."

She walked towards what appeared to be the centre of this space, where a strange glowing orb, much larger than herself, lay. "You may want to brace yourself, you may feel some... vertigo... in the process." Having said that, she seemingly opened an entrance in the orb, and went in... and not long after that, EMIYA felt his body disappearing once more, though this time, he did experience a feeling very similar to going back to and melting into the Throne...but also, ever so slightly different.

For an incalculable amount of time, he felt like a disembodied conscience of sorts. The copy of his soul that made up his Spirit Core remained active, but almost as if it was not attached to a body, spiritron or otherwise, and a silent Hell of total lack of sensory perception began...

Though not quite as bad a Hell as the one he was used to, all things considered.

He could somewhat feel, over time, that his Core was being anchored to... something. And so, all he really needed to do was wait patiently; a boring endeavour, but a triviality compared to the life that once turned his heart into steel.

...Without any means to measure time, it felt like an eternity.

...However, ever so slowly, perceptions began to arrive. Warmth, and a very distorted sense of sound, which became a little bit clearer with each passing moment, over another small eternity.

...Until one day, suddenly, he began to feel "movement" all around whatever his current body was, and after what was probably hours of external struggle... suddenly, a bright light, and a sensory overload.

And as his senses adjusted and he began to recover the capacity to analyse his environment- a herculean task, after what must have been months of sensory deprivation- he felt overloaded again, this time by confusion.

First of all, from looking at his hand, and from the general weakness he felt all over, unable to even lift his head, he had to come to the conclusion that, somehow, his body was that of a newborn infant's.

The shock from this realization alone caused him to cough, which was fortunate, as he didn't seem to have experienced a baby's instinct to start crying, and could have asphyxiated before even realizing what was wrong.

On a second look, he noticed his environment was in fact a hospital room. And seeing the people in it, even though there were a few odd details, there was only one conclusion to draw: somehow, he had just been… born.

Reincarnation? ...No, that felt wrong. Somehow, call it a hunch, he could tell that was "his" body. Shirou Emiya's body, down to it's latent magical circuits.

Was he getting a second chance at his life, perhaps...? He did not remember his original childhood, after all...

...But no, that felt wrong as well. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something just felt... off. So very, very, very off.

Firstly, while he was a newborn, he didn't completely feel like one. By the Root, he shouldn't even be able to have complex thoughts like that in a baby's brain. And just as he somehow could feel that this body was "his" body, he could also feel that Counter Guardian EMIYA's power dwelt in it... as if he had just become an entity similar to a demiservant.

Secondly, if two of those people who were in the room where this body's parents... Sure, he could understand his father being a redhead like he was...

...but he had never before seen his mother's white hair on anyone but his own aged self, and somehow, he doubted his original parents were magecraft practitioners.

Thirdly... well, this perhaps was the least strange among the oddities he was noticing, but still a worrisome one; the expressions on his parents... He could see nothing but pure depression in the woman's visage, and a nostalgic sort of pain in the man's, which was not what you'd expect to see on the faces of a couple that had just become parents.

"My, my," the other man in the room, who he identified as a doctor by his outfit, said. "look at how pale he looks. And how silent and stoic, too! I've been an obstetrician for a good two decades now, and this is a first in my career! Don't you think so, ?"

Was the doctor perhaps trying to lighten the atmosphere after reading the heavy mood in the room? That seemed to snap the man, Enji, out of whatever grim train of thought he was following.

Though, if looked objectively, he could see why he would say those words regardless. Admittedly, he WAS behaving abnormally for a newborn.

"Ah... yes, I suppose... It is... strange, isn't it..." he mumbled that last part, clearly still not completely shaken off his previous thoughts. "...maybe I should name him Shirou."

OI.

What kind of parent decides on their child's name on such a whim...!?

...and he certainly wasn't happy to wear that name once again...

He moved his neck, not without immense difficulty in this weak body, to look at the woman that must be his mother, hoping to see some sort of protest, but all he could see in her beyond exhaustion was a bit more emotional pain than before, as if she shared his thought, but didn't have the will to fight it, only resignation and acceptance.

...Well, seems like Justeaze had been correct about not finding a happy family, at least.

After a failed attempt to release a resigned sigh of his own- truly, infant bodies were so very inconvenient- he attempted to aim his sights at something else, when, looking out a window into the room, he saw a strange sight.

A man out in the hallway was holding a cup, probably coffee, and was warming it... creating a small flame from the palm of his hand.

His eyes shot wide open. Magecraft!? In the open like this!?

Looking further around in what he could see in the hallway, he also noticed what seemed to be an anthropomorphized bulldog wearing a nurse's coat and well, even magecraft didn't allow for much of an explanation on that one.

Suddenly assaulted by a hunch, he once again tried looking over the room, but this time around, he focused on trying to read any brand names he could find on any of the furniture and appliances in the room. Of which there weren't many visible ones, but the ones he could see...

He did not recognize a single name.

...It couldn't possibly be...?

...A different timeline?

...Possibly even, a different worldline entirely?

Doing a monumental effort to avoid overstraining his still delicate body, he attempted to feel the Mana in the air.

!

This density...! It was simply that easy to perceive, and that rich in the air. If he had been told that this world had never properly left the Age of Gods, he could easily believe it!

He was so overwhelmed by those discoveries and realizations, that he had missed entirely the ongoing conversation around him.

"...and he keeps getting paler, somehow. Perhaps the name will be fitting, after all! Well then, I'll have the nurse prepare the registration for your twin children right away. Shoto Todoroki, and Shirou Todoroki. I am most certain they'll both grow to be exemplary men like their father, our esteemed high-ranking Hero, Endeavour!"

..."Hero"...?

As if he hadn't had enough shocks to even make him completely overlook the other child in the room, despite it's eye-catching hair. Just- how in the world was this wish being granted!?