All Purpose Negima Fanfiction Thread

I Have Accomplished Something, I Swear!

"Hello, Kiss-shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade," Evangeline smugly said through her cellphone, legs crossed, sitting by her resort's poolside on a lounge chair. "It's been a while, right? I just called to let you know the team of evil adventurers I'm shaping to my dark designs are developing nicely. I have the Thousand Master's own son right under my thumb, to make of him whatever I please, and soon, through them, the whole world will know of my fury! So, how about you? Still living at that bum's backstore, eating donuts while waiting for that schoolboy to notice you?"

From the other end of the phone line, Kiss-shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade's voice quietly asked, "Mina Tepes called you again to remind you of how well she's been leading the whole Vampire Nation, didn't she? I heard Dana herself gave a speech in her honor in last week's—"

Evangeline seethed angrily and crushed the cellphone in her hand.

Caster Lily sighed as he sat at the medical bay, shirtless and with Doctor Roman and Professor Lev running a checkup on him. The former was a tall, thin young man with light brown hair, which was long but conveniently kept tied back into a thick ponytail. The latter was easily two decades older, although still gifted with a certain old fashioned joviality, matching his somewhat outdated and outlandish taste in clothes. Even his hair was somewhat extravagant, falling by his shoulders into what looked like his dark red sideburns had grown out of control devouring the sides of his face.

"You know, this is rather strange," Caster Lily confessed. "Not only getting used to the idea of being a Heroic Spirit, mind. Which I guess is strange in itself, since time is supposed to be meaningless in the Throne of Heroes, and yet I still feel like I've just started being there..."

"Do you?" Professor Lev said, with a smile that tugged at one corner of his mouth more than at the other. "That's really interesting. Of course, people like us only could start imagining what's it like, being there at all."

"Yeah, well, it's actually sort of impossible to explain," Caster Lily awkwardly got around it. "Sorry, I'm digressing anyway. What I meant to say was, it's odd to be undergoing checkups even after becoming a Servant. I had grown used to the idea a Heroic Spirit was left to heal on their own after any use of prana, and no medical care was necessary..."

"Well," Doctor Roman said, looking into his ears while taking notes in his e-pad with the Chaldea logo on it, "you all are special cases, summoned under circumstances unlike any other prior Servants, and the Director doesn't want to leave anything to chance. Anyway, I look forward to working with you, Negi-sensei. It's truly a honor, getting to know you like this..."

"Likewise, Doctor Akkiman," the boy nodded. "I just wish it'd been under less pressing circumstances. Same for you, Professor."

Levy nodded slowly. "I see your legend didn't lie, you really behaved like an adult even during your childhood. Our students would benefit a lot from being more like you..."

"Oh, don't say that, please, the ones I've met so far are rather mature and professional," Negi said, pulling his shirt back on after Roman gestured at him to do so. "Well, Doctor, what's your diagnose?"

"As expected, you barely experienced any decrease in prana despite going through ten different rounds of difficulty," Roman told him while running another check on his complex technomagic reading instruments. "I think the Director will be pleased with these results, as you should be fully able for deployment in the next Singularity."

"That's good to hear..." Negi nodded at it, still feeling oddly disconnected despite the reinsurance. It was less of a physical sensation and more of an unexplainable feeling of unease about, paradoxically, how easily he was taking all of this himself. He supposed it was true, what the Throne itself had relayed unto him. That, after death, the spirits of heroes and villains, unless bound by chains of regret or wrath that were far too strong, would most often feel liberated from the links to their previous lives, their objectives either reached or unattainable anymore, but in any event unworthy keep pursuing.

He wasn't thinking about his father that much anymore, and that felt both subtly terrifying and vaguely comforting, liberating. He wondered if the girls felt the same, although Itoshiki-sensei sounded as angst ridden as ever.

"Yeah, well, by the way, you don't have to call me 'Doctor Akkiman'," the medic said. "Just 'Roman' will do just fine. It feels, well, kind of weird being addressed to so formally by the Prince of Mars..."

"Prince...?" Negi briefly tensed up, puzzled, and then rubbed the bridge of his nose up and down. "Ah. Right. That. Prince. Yes, I don't know, I suppose the summoning might have scrambled my memories a little. As I understand—"

"When a Servant is brougth with the appearance they had before their death, it's not unheard of for them to get confusing, even mutually contradictory memories, up to and including partial amnesia at times," Professor Lev helpfully finished for him, folding his arms. "Please don't give that much thought, as you should gain more focus as you spend more time in the world, attached to your Master."

"Yeah, I'm sure," Negi thoughtfully nodded, still analyzing the situation carefully but deciding to stop pushing on the subject for now. "So, about my Master, then..."

"Yes...?" both men smiled knowingly, leaning closer in a way that mildly alarmed Negi.

He gulped. "Um, I don't know much about her yet, and I was wondering if there was anything in special I should be told before—"

The men turned their smirks on each other. "This is the second God of Conquests, indeed!" Lev all but laughed.

"Just as expected from the greatest Casanova of his time," Roman chuckled kind of lamely. "Gudako-san better take care before he breaks her heart!"

"Um... guys?" Negi pouted. "That, that is really funny, but it isn't what I—"

"Well, even at the edge of Apocalypse, there are no more dangerous grounds than those of the battlefield of love, and we've just brought a nuke into it," Lev joked to Roman. "We might have just doomed the world far worse than it already was!"

"I bet you a month's salary the Director's head over heels for him before one week..." Roman replied, laughing at his own joke.

Negi blinked. "Is my legend truly that nefarious?"

"Now, Boy," Lev told Roman, "what would dear Olga Marie do if she ever learned you were saying that about her? What a shame, Roman-kun, you should be punished as it befits the offense..."

"Ah-ha-ha, I'm so sorry about that, Professor..." Roman scratched the back of his head before telling Negi, "Well, I don't know her that well, she's healthy and barely spends any time at all here, other than the obligatory routine checkups. But I'm sure she's agreeable and easygoing enough you shouldn't have any problems getting along with her."

"Oh, that's a relief," Negi sighed.

"As a matter of fact," Lev pointed out, "I'd say she's so generic, it's almost impossible finding a quirk in her that would make her troublesome. She's not like her brother, who was a greedy, perverted, spastic, sort of creepy character who acted like he'd stepped out of a gag manga..."

Roman nodded, his smile lost now. "Y-Yes, Gudao-kun was... well..."

"And.. whatever happened to him?" Negi finally asked, now slightly concerned.

Lev and Morgan gravelly looked at each other, then at Negi, and then said at the same time, blunt and direct, "Squirrels."

"Aaaaaaahhhhh..." Negi sort-of-understood.

Gym Class, the end of the school day

"Class dismissed." Ornstein said to 3-A's relief. They'd had another routine class like always, but nobody seemed focused on being in the gym. As punishment, Ornstein had challenged the class to a game of dodge-ball. And Ornstein never lost in dodge-ball. The class left with popping joints and a few bruises.

"A minute, Evangeline."

Chachamaru looked at Eva through the doorway but Eva waved her off, leaving the gynoid to wait outside the double iron doors to the gym.

"What is it you want Stein? I'm not in a cheerful mood today." Eva asked.

"Well that's a shame vampire. Of course, with your midget body I suppose every day is an unpleasant one."

"I am not a midget you overgrown god oaf!" She snapped. Ornstein just smirked and tossed a stray rubber ball into the ball bucket.

"I see your temper is short as always. Fine. Do you know anything about who—or what—attacked Sasaki-san?" He said dropping another ball into the bucket as he made the rounds. If it had been a full moon, Evangeline's fangs would've shined like pearls through her grin.

"Oh, is that so?" She asked.

"It was your automaton that brought Sasaki-san to the infirmary, and I know she is rarely not by your side. So why would she do such a thing without your permission?"

Evangeline did not smile. She flashed her teeth.

"Why dear Ornstein-sensei, art thou implying that I, dear sweet Evangeline, am the Demon of Sakura Lane? Ah ha ha ha ha!"

Ornstein's gaze narrowed, and his grip on a rubber ball tightened. "Answer the question vampire. Did you order Chachamaru to take Makie to the infirmary?"

"Well you old idiot, as a matter of fact I did! Of course, that was after I met her on the lane." The room became so quiet the hum of the air conditioning was louder than thunder. Ornstein looked at Evangeline like a dragon who realized they'd been duped.

"What?"

"You should've seen her! She was crying her eyes out, begging me not to drink her blood! To spare her from being my meal! It was pathetic! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

Ornstein grip on the ball tightened so ferociously it threatened to pop the red orb.

"And what's even better, I didn't even need to hurt the girl to catch her! That klutz twisted her ankle all by herself! Talk about an easy catch, AHAHAHAHAHA!"

Ornstein had hit his limit. He crushed the blood red ball in his hand, shaking the whole room with a resounding pop of spurting air. Evangeline stopped laughing, but her smile remained.

"So what now, sir knight? Are you going to kill me, like the evil bloodthirsty monster I am?"

Ornstein was a hair's breadth from slamming the petite vampire against the wall, crushing her throat, and stabbing her heart with a lightning stake for added measure. But then he heard her last words: 'bloodthirsty monster.' They made him pause for thought. Ornstein had known Evangeline for fifteen of the twenty-two years he'd been stuck at Mahora, and in all that time Evangeline could have been described with only a few words: distant, amoral, intelligent, and careful. No venture, not even her raiding his office, had been done without careful forethought and preparation.

In fact, she would've succeeded had she not underestimated the power of his wards and the faint magical aura left from Chachamaru standing guard during the attempt. This attack on Makie however, was a stark contrast to Evangeline's style. Makie had been brought to the infirmary by Chachamaru, an obvious link back to Eva if she'd been responsible. A reckless move, very unlike her. Then there were the wounds. Eva had only attacked one or two students at Mahora in her time, but the worst they'd received were bite marks. Makie had a wound across her entire left shin. Again, reckless and exaggerated, unlike Eva.

But the clincher was that Eva was never needlessly ruthless in her attacks. The original killer had left his victims without the heads and the crime scenes resembled the aftermath of a cannibal's barbeque. Ornstein slowed down his temper, took a deep breath, and laughed. It was empty of humor, kindness, or joy, but it still was the sound of laughter. Eventually Ornstein stopped, looking at a startled Evangeline. Ornstein didn't smile: he showed his teeth.

"Very good Evangeline. You nearly had me fall for your ploy. But you got ahead of yourself."

"Whu-what?"

"You're not the type to be so brutal as to kill without a good reason. You may have met Sasaki-san last night, but you did not attack her."

"You-You can't prove that!"

"I don't have to. You did that yourself."

"Why you..." She hissed through clenched teeth.

"I won't give you the satisfaction you desire Evangeline. You are dismissed." Ornstein finished with a hint of ice in his voice. Evangeline just stormed out with a frown on her face with Chachamaru as her silent and ever-loyal servant.

Eighty Six Years Ago:

The man descended through the thick layers of defenses, both man-made and crafted from magic created by beings several times older than mankind, with the greatest of ease. He didn’t need to cast anymore, exerting his own power through mere displays of his will. He thought of the defenses blocking his way snapping, and they snapped instantly. He had dreamed of such devices when he was naught but a child. Those days were long behind now, and what he beheld filled him with disgust and contempt. To think they had advanced so little, granted so long.

He ignored the alarms blaring and shining all around him in his slow, confident way down into the depths, for they were not even worth his mockery. Out of all the ants in that site, the only one with any rudimentary value was the one the lesser beings had chained below. With more visionaries like that person, perhaps humanity wouldn’t have to face the ultímate judgment now. But it was already too late to change that, and the King of Magic frankly was not in the mood for it either.

Finally, the tall, white haired man reached the final level, and the dark chamber came alive with light all around him. He could now see, encased in crystal with several layers of seals and barriers both orbiting it and adhered to it, the hooded, comparatively much slender figure of the prisoner he had arrived for.

With a monotone sound of contempt, for even this relatively superior being could be captured by those mockeries of existences, the Grand Caster reached ahead and effortlessly crushed and rippled through the defenses that kept the cloaked one in stasis. Then, very slowly, the eyes in the shadows of the hood went open, staring coldly at the prisoner’s rescuer, who cut an even more imposing and fearsome figure than his own.

“Greetings, Ialda Baoth, Prince of Jurai, the Mage of the Beginning," he spoke, with a dual deep voice that seemed to be converging from opposing directions into the hooded mage's ears "You know who am I. You know what I am able of. And so, I trust there will be no inconveniences when I notify you of this: you are under my service as of now.”

Daddy's Little Villain.

Satomi, fresh off the shower and with a white towel wrapped around her body, squinted at the tall figure standing on her doorstep. "Yes, may I help you before I call the Hall Monitor over this intrusion of an adult man in a female dormitory? We aren't having another Original Character fanfiction, are we?"

"Oh dear God, no!" the tall man laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his hooded head with a hand. "I'm Negi's father, I heard from, um, someone he was living here. I'd like to see him now..."

Satomi squinted further, trying to look past him, and paying attention to the screams of panic and police sirens in the distance. She calmly walked back in, grabbed her glasses from the table, walked back to the doorstep, and put the glasses back on, looking at the man's face as he pulled the cloak off.

"Oh," she quietly said. "Yes, indeed, you are... Nagi-san, is that correct? I'm sorry to tell you Sensei was called away by the Headmaster on some emergency. It seems there was some sort of incident around the World Tree."

"Oh dear, who would've ever done something that horrible...?" Nagi Springfield wondered innocently. There was a pause, after which he said, "Did he leave the staff with you? Because I could use that staff right now..."

"Um, no, he never lets go of that staff," Satomi shook her head. "Only when he's sleeping or bathing, and that's because Chisame doesn't like when he takes it to the bed or shower."

"Who is Chisame?"

"Our roommate."

"Is she pretty?"

Satomi blinked, looked at one side and the other, then gestured for the man to lean closer. Then she whispered into his ear, "Don't ever tell my girlfriend I ever told you this or I'll deny it and then vaporize you, but Chisame? Hottest girl I've ever seen, let me tell you..."

Then she wiggled her eyebrows clumsily, using her hands to trace the outline of shapely curves around her mostly flat body.

Nagi Springfield paused. "And she sleeps and bathes with Negi."

"Every day and every night."

"Is she a Tsundere?"

"Very much so."

Nagi began weeping silently. Then he placed his hands on Satomi's shoulders. "You... You have just made me the happiest man on Earth...!"

—-

"What do you mean, you won't help me destroy mankind?!" Solomon demanded of the Mage of the Beginning.

"Dude," Nagi replied for the force inhabiting his body, "I had lost all hopes for grandchildren after the last few timelines, but now I have them back? Like hell I'm ruining that...!"

"I still have hopes of my own placed on the development of the Springfield bloodline as an ongoing subject of test," the Lifemaker then spoke in a rich, cultured and archaic feminine voice. "I have to agree with the Idiot Hero over you in this case."

"... you know, at least my two voices are both male," Solomon said disapprovingly.

"Yeah, well," Nagi said, "I bet you've never kissed a man either!"

Outside that one teacher whose name I can't remember

"This is so foolish," a bored sounding Illya commented, standing on the sidewalk while looking at the fingernails of one of her hands. With the other, she was establishing a sound barrier spell to cover the area. It wouldn't do, after all, having nosy bystanders call on the local authorities to interrupt this perfectly nice match. "Do you know who Berserker is? It's Heracles! You just don't get into a fight with Heracles and, well, survive it! What a couple of dumb brothers I have!"

"Heracles?" Makie asked, catching her ball Artifact back after it had bounced off Berserker's head, as useless as everything else they were trying on him.

And they were trying a lot; while Saber frontally attacked the giant by repeteadly hacking and slashing on his muscular front, Ala Alba tried to, at the very least, keep him distracted. Negi zapped at his upper section with a constant stream of Sagitta Magicas, already starting to clench his teeth under the pressure. Misa was throwing needles at Berserker's eyes, aiming like Kuro, ironically, had taught her to; but while most of her hits did connect, they didn't look like they were blinding the creature. It was doubtful even blinding him would have mattered after all, since he attacked with single minded intensity not unlike that of a mindless beast.

However, as Negi realized immediately, Berserker followed Illyasviel's orders to the letter, so when she had commanded for him to kill Saber, that was what he focused onto. That meant he thankfully ignored the youngsters attacking him from all sides, treating them as pests beneath his attention. Negi realized, to his dawning horror, had she ordered him to kill everyone, at least a few of his students would be dead by now.

"Hercules!" he gasped. "That's the Greek name for Hercules, Makie-san! Everyone keep their distance!"

"That means you too, Sempai!" Misora yelled, using her Pactio enhanced strenght to keep the desperate Shirou grabbed by behind. "Are you suicidal? Even Despair-sensei is keeping himself out of reach!"

"I, I don't want to turn a child into a murderess by association, that's all," Itoshiki weakly argued, standing by Negi and shooting thick strands of darkness from his wooden ruler, trying to grab Berserker's legs and keep him in place. Since he was no Gilgamesh and his spell was no Enkidu, it was having little to no effect, although a lone figure standing on a rooftop high above them, overlooking the fight, was still taking good note of the strategy. Not that he needed it, but he was such a chronic thie— err, rightful claimer of approaches mongrels might develop but only he could use properly.

The handsome blond man in biker leathers kept most of his attention on Saber's heroically struggling figure, however, a boken lazily resting in his hand. "It's you," he purred huskily, with a cruel, lecherous smile. "I knew you just had to come back to me..."

Lashing from behind with her whip, Ayaka redoubled her efforts even though she already felt like her arms were going to fall. "Cocone-san!" she called out. "Your divine thunderbolt!"

"You're all too close, might hit you as well," Cocone said, keeping her cross well in hand, and standing shortly behind Misora and Shirou. "Akashi-san? This is a magical being, why aren't your bullets working on it?"

"Do you think the damn guns talk to me, how am I supposed to know?!" Yuuna complained, unloading another round on the monster's tough hide and then cocking her guns at her side, reloading them instantly. Even if actual ammo was not needed, the effort itself was after twelve shots each time. She took aim at Berserker's now hugely open, roaring mouth and grunted, "Let's see if this one works..."

When the next magic cancel bullet was just crushed between Berserker's teeth with a minor explosion that didn't inconvenience him, Makie gestured at Yuuna. "Okay, Yuuna-chan, that's enough! Hand me one!"

Yuuna blinked, then obeyed immediately. "Wh-What are you trying to do? Even if you're a better shooter than me..." and that was true, even after all the gun coaching Makie had been giving her at the resort, "the bullets themselves won't get any better..."

"You still can't do this," Makie calmly said, taking aim. "It's a much smaller target, and well, sorry, you don't have the guts."

"What do you mean with— Oh!" Yuuna gasped, realizing Makie was instead aiming at the White Kuro, who simply smirked evilly and raised her hands, deploying a barrier before herself. Makie still shot, undeterred, and the bullet flew, reaching the shield in a second and then, to Illya's brief but crushing shock, outright rippling through it, then to hit her squarely in the face...

"What— YES, OH YES!" Misa gushed, pausing in the middle of another throw.

Illya dropped on her butt on the sidewalk, rubbing her aching face and whining. "Ouchie!" she said, fleetingly said as if her connection with Berserker blinked, and that made her feel so crushingly cold and alone under the rain. "What, what's your game here, you stupid Japanese girl?!"

Berserker himself paused for a moment, one that Saber immediately used to plunge her invisible blade in his midsection, although even that didn't seem to rattle him at all. Instead, he only said, clear and distinctively, with a voice that still was growling and deep but vaguely human now, 'Why—?'' before the madness overtook him again, and he flexed his arms and roared, the force of his angry scream sending everyone stumbling back.

"Well," Skuld blinked, "she's my Ministra after all, but unfortunately she's also an idiot."

"Well, excuuuuuuse me, Master!" Makie protested. "I wasn't listening to the brilliant smart-girl ideas you were having but not telling us!"

Illya jumped back to her feet, pointing madly in pretty much all directions. "Berserker, Berserker, Berserker! You know what you have to do!"

"... there's only one good idea to have while battling this guy," Skuld gulped, then turned tail and ran away for dear life. "FLEE!"

"... see, that's why the genius in our team, sorry, Hakase!" Misora gulped, letting go of Shirou and grabbing Cocone by a hand. "Sensei, you heard the fake but still sensible deity, let's scram!"

"You do that!" Negi insisted, blasting at the rampaging Berserker while he battered on Saber, the smaller Servant's sword bashes barely offering any shielding against the force of his blows. Even so, her face already was bleeding, and there were tiny cracks on the front of her armor, where the slab of rock had hit him. "That includes you, Emiya-san!" he warned, as Itoshiki put his tendrils to better use by restraining Shirou, who still struggled to get to Saber's side.

"He's right, your teachers have suicide privileges on you!" Itoshiki chastised the young man sternly. "Besides, what will I tell Fujimura-sensei if I get you killed? She'd kill me!"

Makie sighed as she finished her cellphone call. Her cellphone, by the way, was pink and had Hello Kitty stickers all over it. "Well, that leaves us with Plan B, then."

"Plan B?" Haruna asked, drawing a Death Metal album cover-looking skull ram head and battering on Berserker's head from above.

"Akira-chan said they happened to be close enough, luckily," Makie calmly shrugged, pocketing the cellphone back. "Since the Sailor Senshi move so fast, and Honya-chan has that Jump card going for her, they should be here..."

"FOOL!" a voice called out from above.

Makie pouted. "A fool? You too, Honya-chan? That's what I get from—?"

"Who are you—" Illya looked back and over her shoulder at the source of the unknown voice, and she found herself staring at the grinning face of a green haired Loli in clown makeup. "— bwuh?"

The strange girl grabbed her hand, shook it with a small deranged chuckle, and then Illya cried as a jolt of electricity shook her into unconsciousness.

Berserker immediately stopped hammering on the trembling Saber, looked back at his Master, who now laid at the feet of the newly arrived Nodoka and Yue, and made a leap for her, leaving everyone behind. As quick as carefully, he scooped the tiny, sleeping albino child in his huge arms, looked at her face for a second, and then exhaled what only could be called a hellish sigh of relief. Then he stared madly at those gathered around him, roared viciously sending them down again, and leapt away with his precious charge, disappearing from sight into the storm.

"You just," Yue said from under her umbrella to Nodoka, "have used a still untested Card to zap a small child with electricity, under a heavy rain."

"A small child who was about to have Negi-sensei and Haruna killed," Nodoka corrected. "Is, is everyone okay? Sorry, we came as soon as we received Makie-san's call. It took us a bit since for some reason we couldn't hear the noise of the fight..."

"Nodo-chan, Yuecchi!" Haruna ran to hug them tightly, smashing them against her breasts, the smaller girls starting to wave their arms around because of the sudden suffocation. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you! You're the best, never change!"

"Yue!" Lala finally popped out of the trash bin where Berserker had forcefully slammed her into earlier into the fight, a bit we didn't bother to show Because Reasons. She smiled as bright and proudly as ever, despite her head being covered in rancid junk that made Peke shudder and cough. "My savior princess!"

"I, I didn't do anything, what are you talking about...?" Yue said as she struggled free from the chuckling Haruna's grasp.

"Yeah, well, join the club," Sailor Venus grumbled, jumping down from the rooftop of the ceiling where she had stood a moment ago, followed by Mercury, Mars, Artemis and Kero. "Seriously, Bookstore-san, what's the big idea, not leaving this stuff to professionals? Oh, and you have even more now, I see," she frowned at Saber, who was staggering back breathing heavily, and Shirou, who was coming to her side to hold her tenderly on her feet. "For real, Sensei, why don't you hand fliers over, it'd be less—"

Then her jaw slackened, as she realized the identity of the guy she barely could tell away between the curtain of water. She pointed and cried, all but openly gushing, "Ah! You're him! The jumping boy!"

"The who of what now?" an annoyed Shiho muttered, while Negi came to Nodoka's side to profusely thank her, which made her blush adorably, and then to ask her why she was in the company of a Joker fangirl, which made her blush in shame.

"You'll see," Minako excitedly said, "when I was very little, I once saw this really cool redhead who was trying to make a high jump over a bar, and while he kept on failing, he never gave up, and that was so cool, I only wish I had the courage back then to approach— Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked, only now realizing the dead, humorless way that famous Sempai who also was there was staring at her, her fingers all but crushing the colorful gems between them. "Aren't you a fan of superheroes, or what?"

Saber dreamed, a dream not her own.

The first time Shirou actually saw his father, Shirou had been sitting on his hospital bed, as quiet as a child ever can be, saying nothing, doing nothing, not even looking at anything in particular. He'd been that way for a while by then, not even reacting when the nurse walked in, checked on the catheter still in his arm, and kindly told him he had a visitor.

Then the man had walked, wearing that old, gray trenchcoat over his suit, with the shade of several days without a shave, and smiling sadly, walking closer to the small bed of sheets that were as white as Shirou's thin gown. Saber felt an icy revolt in her stomach, easily recognizing that man. Emiya Kiritsugu, Magus Killer Kiritsugu, the man who had led Irisviel to a senseless death, all for a prize he even wasted at the end of it all.

Shirou finally moved his head, enough as to get a good look at the tall, slim man, who seemed to have been once firm with taut muscle, but suddenly had most of the life suctioned out of him. Even his eyes were gray and dull, and yet stubbornly reluctant to let go of that last sparkle of hope. His voice was pretty much the same as that.

"Hey there, Champ," he said. "Remember me? Probably not."

Shirou remained mute, not even blinking, simply staring eerily at him, perhaps struggling to remember his voice and face.

The man exhaled. "My name's Emiya Kiritsugu. And you're Shirou, I've been told."

Shirou managed to nod as best as he could. His name, he could remember that much at least. Perhaps he'd told the doctors as they struggled to save his life, although that was difficult tos ay for sure. The last few days had been nothing but a confusing blur where events and their sequence got wrangled with each other.

"I'll be honest with you, since we don't have much time," the man told him. "They also told me they're letting you walk out next week. After that, you can choose whether you want to go to an orphanage or stay with me."

"Ah," the child say. Only that, and nothing else.

"I've heard orphanages in this country are very good, very professional," Emiya Kiritsugu said, putting a lot of weight on each word. "While I, well, I won't lie to you, I don't have a mother for you, my house isn't too big or fancy, and I don't have the best of jobs either. Still, I was really hoping you'd let me become your Dad."

—-

"Dad," Shirou said, more than one year later, as they sat on the porch of Kiritsugu's Mahora home, watching the starry sky sprinkled by New Year fireworks. "I've decided what my resolution will be!"

"Oh, yes? Let's hear it, then," Kiritsugu contentedly said.

Shirou took a deep breath in. "I want to be a Hero of Justice, just like you, Dad!"

Kiritsugu paused, first somewhat rattled and perplexed, and then pensive and contemplative. When he finally talked again, it was slowly and measuredly, giving each word a lot of thought. "That's a certainly commendable goal, Shirou, but there are goals that are just too commendable for most of us to follow. I'm not sure if I didn't do more damage than good, but then again, I'm sure you'll be a better man than I was."

"That, that wasn't what I meant, Dad!" he gasped. "I know I'll never be as good a magus as you are, but, but I can do other things too! I'll be as strong as Takahata-sensei, or as wise as the Headmaster, I'll find a way to make up for it! I don't care as long as I get to be a Hero, and make you proud!"

"You already make me proud," the man said. "You're the best achievement I've ever managed. Listen, Shirou, I'm not going to tell you what to do with your life. I'm not sure I'm the best man to decide that. If, by the time you're a man, that's still what you want to do, just pursue that dream with all you've got and be the best hero you can and want to be. But remember, even the best of heroes can't save everyone. The most important thing… is saving those who are the closest to you…"

Kiritsugu the Magus Killer would die a few years later, but that short conversation was, perhaps, the most important he ever had with Shirou. It encampsulated the nature of their relationship, and the bond they shared, perfectly.

Just like Saber, Shirou had been raised by a flawed father not his own, but that was where most of the similarities between their origins stopped. For Saber—

And Saber woke up, startled.

"Please stay down, okay?" she was told by a busty, pink haired girl she recognized as one of those who had been following Negi-sensei when they met him, gently keeping a hand on her chest before she could bolt upright. Saber took notice of the rather strange fact this girl could keep her down at all, even if she hadn't really pushed her hand up hard at all, and found herself looking up at a by now familiar ceiling. That of Shirou's bedroom, which she would visit every night as he slept as part of her routine watch duties, and definitely not to look at him while in bed. "Your wounds were so serious, we even thought of taking you to a hospital, even if Rin here said—"

"Tohsaka was correct, Heroic Spirits have no need for medical assistance. I have fully recovered now," Saber stoically said, sitting up on Shirou's futon and stretching an arm over to grab on the chestplate someone had taken off her and placed aside before adjusting it back over her shirt. As she did so, those tightly gathered in the spacious but now crowded room saw she indeed seemed completely healed, even her face having regained a pristine, almost unearthly beautiful appearance. "Illyasviel, that girl. Where is she now?"

Shifting her eyes around a bit, she saw Shirou sitting by Negi-sensei's side, looking somewhat stiffer and slightly more spent than usual. He still smiled at her, even though she didn't smile back. "Saber," he hoarsely said, "I'm so glad you're okay. But, are you sure...?"

"Yes, I am," Saber sternly replied, her tone giving no room for doubts. "Please answer my query, Shirou."

"Saber-san, you still need to rest," a girl she hadn't seen before at the scene of the field warmly told her, knneling by her side and touching her forehead. She had short grayish hair and was rather petite, even more than Saber herself. "Your wounds may have healed now, but your body's still tired. You should go back to sleep. Oh, oh, we haven't been introduced yet, have we? How do you do, I'm Izumi Ako, assistant nurse. Hm, Akira-chan and Makie-chan called me to see if I could be of any help..."

"Pleased to meet you, Izumi-san," Saber exhaled, slightly frustrated. "And I'm, of course, happy to see you're alive and well too, Shirou," she added, and then gave a better look at Negi, who sat with his shirt off and a few bandages around an arm. Saber vaguely noticed the boy was slightly more muscular than he'd have thought for a child of this era, but then, that explained how she'd seen him move around Berserker while avoiding the brute's strikes. "However, before anything else, I'd like to have my question about Illyasviel-san answered..."

"She's okay, she left with her bargain bin Solomon Grundy after Miyazaki here took her down," mumbled the pockmarked girl with glasses and a ponytail who also sat by Negi. The short girl with thick purple bangs hanging over her face looked down in awkwardness. "If what Tohsaka-sempai told us about her family while you slept is of any indication, and if she's anything at all like... well, some person like her we once met, then she should be alright. Seriously, though, what did you guys ever do to her?"

"Me?" Shirou asked back. "N-No, I don't even know who she is... She called me a 'brother', but ..."

"It looks like she's under some sort of delusion she and I share a father," Negi said, as Rin eyed him dubiously, and Itoshiki tried to look innocent, rummaging through Shirou's closet in search for anything to cut or hang himself with. "Where do you fit into that, though, I don't know."

"Is that so?" a frowning Shirou asked. "Well, Dad was my adoptive father, not blood related to me. I don't even know who were my birth family. That could have something to do with it, although no records have survived from my hometown's destruction, so I have no idea what might have made her think that. Anyway, no one was killed after all, right? Then everything's alright..."

"No, of course it's not 'alright'!" protested the ponytailed girl. "You don't know what you've just gotten into, do you?!"

"I must agree with her, Shirou," Saber dryly said. "Even after being told of the Grail War, and after listening to the priest's words, you don't seem to be taking this as seriously as you should. Your behavior on the battleground was hardly befitting a Master."

"Actually, that goes for you as well!" the ponytailed girl snapped. "Look, great warrior of the past, future or alternate world or not, I doubt you have any actual idea of what's going on with this whole Grail business!"

"Oh?" Saber coldly regarded her. "Would you happen to be a Master as well?"

"Me? Perish the thought!" the girl recoiled.

"Chisame, please, this isn't the way to explain it," Negi wearily said. "Emiya-san, Saber-san, Tohsaka-san, these are my roommates and students Hasegawa Chisame-san and Hakase Satomi-san, and the rest of them... well, they are our fellow members of the English Research Society. And the Sailor Senshi."

"Why the heck are we still staying here?" Sailor Mars mumbled, sitting near the door in seiza and impatiently tapping her fingers on her knees.

"It's still raining, would you rather go out and soak to the bone?" Sailor Venus hushed her, with a finger on her own mouth. "Now be quiet and don't make me, I mean us, look bad before Sempai!"

Shiho grimaced, giving Shirou a disdainful glance while Mercury looked like she really wished to be anywhere now but by their side. "You and your taste in men," she muttered to Venus. "No point of comparison at all with my Oniichan!"

Shirou perhaps overheard this, as he was next heard sighing heavily, like a man who is being insulted right at his own home but is too polite to lash out on it. "Pleased to meet you all, and sorry to have brought you into this. But, if we could know exactly what's—"

"That Grail thing is cursed!" Chisame blurted out, and Saber's eyes subtly widened for a moment.

Rin did a sudden, violent spit-take, and a small voice by her side could also be briefly heard gasping aloud. "S-SAY WHAT?!"

"We don't know that for sure just yet," Negi gently told Chisame.

"Murphy's Law!" Chisame said. "When something can go wrong, it'll go wrong! And it went wrong in Kuro-san's world!"

"That's... a very pessimistic outlook on things," her teacher tried to reason.

"She was nearly pulped to death by a murderous brute strung along by a creepy little girl who would've then killed us all!" Chisame argued, pointing vigorously at Saber. "Do you think that's what would happen in a War where everything was going on just fine?!"

"If everything were going well and in a civilized fashion, would there be a War in the first place, Chisame?" the girl named Satomi argued in response.

Shirou nodded. "Yeah, well. The way I see it, too, any Artifact people kill each other for is already cursed, in its own way. But you'll have to explain further..."

Yue sighed and stood up. "I'll go brew up some tea. I feel we'll be here for a while."