Campione!/カンピオーネ!, Fate/stay night 1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fate/Stay Night or Campione. They belong to their writers Kinoko Nasu &amp; Takedzuki Jou**

Being reborn in another world can be a very confusing experience.

Imagine your mind trapped in a body of an infant who was just born and having to experience being a toddler for a few years. This of course includes being smothered by your various relatives, breast-fed and your diapers changed regularly.

Yeah, it's **that** awkward.

Not only that, you have to actually _pretend_ being a toddler. Meaning you have to pretend to cry sometimes, pretend that you don't know how to walk yet (so you have to crawl all over the place), pretend that you are curious about everything around you and other things you could think of that toddlers actually do. If not, you'll end up in some kind of research institute or something like that and being experimented on.

Okay. So that last part might be a bit exaggerated when you're just a toddler but it's still a frightening thought.

And the worst part?

All of this is **still** not as bad as some of the other experiences I had when Zelretch thought it would be funny to chuck me into a random world with the Kaleidoscope and sticking me with the Kaleidostick so that I could find my way back home myself!

The problem was - like its creator - the Kaleidostick _really _likes to chuck me into _other_ random worlds to amuse itself!

I've been put into situations that are awkward, embarrassing and dangerous more times than I can count (and the Kaleidostick's penchant to turn me into a Mahou Shoujo doesn't help either).

Well, at least I was able to get my eyes on blades that can't be found in my original world.

Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you view it), I was able to return after about one and a half century of wandering the Kaleidoscope to find that only a month had passed in my world and my physical age was very much the same as when I left. Though mentally, I was about roughly 180 years old already. I've lost count.

Thanks to my experiences in wandering the Kaleidoscope, my view of the world has become a bit more warped than it already has.

Well, I guess it's good thing since I no longer had any problem trying to add more women to my har- family. And to tell the truth, those were the best decisions I've made my entire life. Nothing could ever make me regret having them as my wives.

Sure, I would end up having used up all my stamina most nights relieving three or four of my wives at once, but they were nights that were well spent if the amount of kids in the mansion is any proof.

Anyway, back to my situation in this world.

My mother died giving birth to me (after naming me Shirou) and I was adopted almost immediately after. Apparently, she was an illegal immigrant who found herself pregnant after being raped. Despite that, she still carried me in her for the whole 9 months with tender loving and care if what I was told is true and I believe them.

This isn't because it's my hope or anything like that. I believe it's true because the only photo I have of her is during her pregnancy, sitting on a small chair rubbing her growing belly with such a happy and peaceful smile.

She had long red hair that reached her waist, beautiful golden eyes and seems to be quite tall compared to average Japanese women. She was also quite beautiful with a heart shaped face which was enhanced with her smile that reminded me very much of Sakura after we saved her from Zouken and the Grail.

The people who adopted me were the Kusanagis. They found my mother lying on the street in labour one night and helped her to the hospital. After finding out that she was an illegal immigrant without any shred of identifications and was pregnant from being raped (which they found out from their short conversations with her to the hospital) they decided to take me in.

I will forever be indebted to this family for raising me and my mother for loving me despite the circumstances of her pregnancy.

I was raised by Kusanagi Ichirou, who from the family hierarchy is the grandfather in the house, along with my adoptive brother Godou and my adoptive younger sister Shizuka. Grandpa Ichirou seems to be quite the traveller and playboy in his youth. I can say this with the utmost certainty because whenever he brought me and Godou travelling with him; there will always be some women who would recognize him and start to flirt with him, which he flirts back.

This always causes Grandmother Chiyo no end of worry and headache.

Still, he taught me and Godou how to take care of ourselves when travelling to unknown lands. Not that I needed it since I'm already used to it, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. The problem was, Godou had started to pick up ways to woo girls without him even knowing it. In other words, he's attracting girls left and right and he's completely oblivious about it.

I'm starting to have feelings of deja vu here.

Despite his...playboy tendencies, Godou really does mean well with every girl he has (unintentionally) attracted. In fact, finding out about Grandpa Ichirou's ability to attract women made him swear not to be like him although it's already too late since everything Grandpa has taught him has been engraved in his psych.

The proof?

His acting upon everything Grandpa has taught him about treating girls without him seeing anything wrong with it, though it's not his fault either as even I can agree that what Grandpa has taught him isn't anything bad. Like treating them politely, support them when they require it; be gentle with them when chastising them and other conducts that should be watched when interacting with girls.

The problem is these acts are supposed to be done when trying to attract the opposite gender while Godou thinks of it as the general guideline to interact with them regardless of time or place. It doesn't help that he seems to think that the only way to attract girls involves flirting with them of which he is definitely not doing.

As a result, girls gravitate towards him like moths to flames.

I can only hope that he doesn't end up breaking a girl's heart too badly. Thankfully, that hasn't happened yet thanks to him always making it clear that he only thinks of the girls as his friends despite his being oblivious to their attraction to him.

I can't even chastise him on his behaviour because it'll make me a hypocrite. I already have more than a dozen wives back in my original world. Not only that, I have my own set of 'fan girls' in this world too (I'm no longer that oblivious thanks to almost 200 years of experience in handling girls), so I'm not really the right person to 'rehabilitate' him. The only thing I could probably do is to advise him how to treat his girls right when he eventually (yes, 'eventually' and not 'if') amasses his own harem.

I wonder if I should teach him the various techniques Matsu used to teach my wives back in my original world...I can't believe I'm contemplating about teaching my adoptive brother 'bedding' techniques. I really am distorted.

As for my Magecraft, when I first tried to access my circuits and found that I can't, I almost panicked thinking that I don't have any circuits in this world. That is, until I realized the familiar sensation of my od flowing through me, minus the heat and pain that always accompanies the activation of Magic Circuits. Turns out, this world's rules in conjunction with Magecraft are a little different in terms of how to accumulate prana. Thankfully, I can still use Tracing and have access to my Reality Marble.

After some experimenting, I found out that this world does not try to limit my Magecraft like my original world. Meaning, that Gaia does not exist in this world to interfere with my Magecraft. I find Tracing to be easier to use with the prana cost cut to almost a fifth of what I'm used to which is quite the bonus and my Projections lasts until I want it to. In addition to that, some of my sword's Mysteries have become a lot stronger too. If my calculations are correct, they range from 3 to 5 times stronger.

Even Avalon's healing powers are stronger here. It's _almost_ as strong as when Saber is the one supplying the prana to Avalon instead of me. Thinking about some of my Noble Phantasm's powers like Excalibur being amplified sent shivers down my spine.

Fortunately - after Tracing some of the weaker Noble Phantasms - I discovered that their abilities only increased by a whole rank instead of amplified many times over like I originally thought. Perhaps Gaia isn't as proficient in limiting the Mysteries of Noble Phantasms. That makes sense I guess. Noble Phantasms aren't like normal Mysteries; they are crystallized legends of heroes.

Thanks to this, I don't have to worry too much about accidentally sinking a small island from using Broken Phantasms. All I need to do is to adjust their current power levels with my future strategies.

Actually, Tracing a Noble Phantasm degrades their abilities by a whole rank. Since my Tracing can now rival the originals, does that mean I'm no longer a Faker?

...Nah, if the originals were here they would most likely also receive the same kind of boost so in the end my Projections are still inferior in overall ability (thinking about Ea getting stronger despite it already being classified as EX rank gave me nightmares). Still, it seems Gaia does not just force magi to use more prana to enact Mysteries but also limit their powers when it is even enacted successfully.

The Magi in my world will be salivating at the prospect of their Mysteries not being limited by Gaia. I know I am.

Further research on this world's prana revealed that I could now convert mana in the air into my own prana several times faster too. It is still not as fast as od but it is close enough that if I ever end up in battle of attrition, I most probably can hold out for a whole day instead of of half a day when relying solely on my od levels. Though I still need to be conservative to last that long.

Chucking Broken Phantasms left and right without holding back will probably deplete my prana reserves in about twenty minutes, maybe thirty if I use the lower ranking Noble Phantasms for it.

Still, most enemies shouldn't be able to withstand that kind of barrage, especially since I've already mastered the art of 'Altering' and 'Breaking' Noble Phantasms mid-Tracing (this requires an additional step to be added between step 6 and 7 of Tracing which is 'Altering basic structure and composition', something I was able to complete after two decades of research with all of my wives help) and chucking them at speeds of Mach 4, 10 if I use my bow.

And with this world's amount of mana - which abundant doesn't even begin to describe it - I can do this without having to worry about depleting the surrounding mana completely.

Speaking of my prana reserves, unlike Magic Circuits of which you are born with a predetermined number and cannot be changed (except the quality though it requires constant training and would still see very few improvements even after decades of training), my current prana reserves can be increased much faster through training, but still takes a lot of time to do so. I'm not complaining though, it is still a good thing for me.

My Reinforcement can also be done almost instantaneously now and it lasts for hours on end until finally the prana I pumped into all the imperfections in my body will start to dissipate slowly. This takes another few hours for them to fully disappear and that's _only_ when I don't consciously try to manage it.

Consciously trying to do so results in my reinforcement lasting _indefinitely_ until I either let it dissipate naturally or end the Reinforcement myself. The increase in stats is three times stronger than in my original world. This and not having to deplete my prana reserves to maintain my Reinforcement is one less thing for me to worry about in a fight though I'm going to have to watch out when using it against normal people.

Gaia's influence to my Structural Analysis is also evident when I find it to be easier to structurally analyze any objects other than swords since being reborn in this world. This is to the point that I can even start to Trace firearms, albeit only simpler ones like small pistols and Revolvers. I still can't Trace rifles or machine guns or more complicated firearms, unfortunately. That would have been really cool though.

The draw back is that it takes longer for me to Trace them. I can Trace the bullets easy enough, but the gun itself takes about ten seconds of deep concentration for me to do so. Not surprising as the complicated mechanism of a gun is what prevented me from being able to Trace them before this. Just being able to Trace them now, tells how much my ability have been held back thanks to Gaia. Fortunately, this little drawback can be circumvented if I just Trace the gun beforehand.

I've started to modify these guns with runes to increase their effectiveness (thank you Rin and Bazett for the various lessons). Guns are after all less conspicuous than swords and now that I can Trace father's Thompson Contender with the Origin Bullets, I have one more Anti-Magi Ace up my sleeves, though further research is still needed to find out the exact effects on Magi in this world since they don't have Magic Circuits if my current lack of them is any indication. I still suspect that it will render any Magi to lose their ability to enact Mysteries though.

I've also discovered that I can actually Trace the skills of the various owners of the blades in Unlimited Blade Works without actually Tracing the weapons themselves as long as I follow all the steps of Tracing except the last one. Very useful if I want to keep my Magecraft a secret when I require a specific set of skills while using mundane set of blades. My experiment with mixing these skills together astounded even me.

Mixing Saber's and Sasaki Kojirou's swordsmanship allowed me to beat up a whole gang of armed delinquents that had more than 30 members without even using Reinforcement or any other Magecraft (though using the Torashinai to intimidate them might have also been a factor) and I was only seven back then. That incident became a sort of legend in the town. Thankfully, I was wearing a helmet I Traced and lived in a different prefecture so they never found out it was me.

And finally, my Reality Marble. After finding some time for myself, I finally found a place secluded enough to test out the effects this world has on it when I try to deploy it. The result, although not amazing was still significant. In my original world, the strain on using my Reality Marble on my prana reserves is enormous. I could probably deploy it for a few minutes before burning out. In this world, my Reality Marble still consumes a lot of prana, but I could most likely maintain it for fifteen minutes at least, twenty at most if my calculation isn't too far off. And since I can increase my reserves after more training, I can make it last longer in the future.

Honestly speaking, I'm a bit surprised that I still retain my Reality Marble. I originally gained it after having forced to discard pieces of myself in that hell on earth known as the Fuyuki Fire. My memories and emotions were all discarded in exchange for my survival. Love, empathy, hate, sorrow, grief, courage, fear, sadness, despair, anger, happiness, sympathy and finally, even hope. All were discarded in that fire so that the me back then could keep moving on in order to survive but even after all that, it still wasn't enough.

As a five-year-old child, there's a limit to how much I could endure until my very legs could no longer support me and I fell to the ground. Having exhausted every single thing I have to give, all that was left of me was an empty shell of a human. No memories, no emotions, no regrets or even hope I had accepted my death, but it never came for me. Kiritsugu was able to find me in that hellhole before it claimed me.

The way he looked so happy - the pure unadulterated joy he had looked back then for even having saved just one person in this fire that consumed everything in its path as if he was the one saved despite the one being saved was actually me - stuck with me ever since.

That event had distorted my very soul and the way I view the world to this very day. It is the very reason I gained a Reality Marble.

Ever since that day, the only thing I could think of was how I could become that happy and so, I aspired to become a Superhero. Someone who saves others. I never could find a value to my life in conjunction with others. I still can't. The only reason I lived for so long was for the sake of my family as I couldn't just die and leave them all behind in my quest to save others. In the end, it was love that kept me alive all those years.

It kept me from sacrificing my life to save someone else who I didn't even know.

It kept me from taking huge risks just so I could save one more life.

It kept me from falling into despair for being unable to save everyone in front of my eyes.

And it kept me from becoming a Counter Guardian - which would have been a hell of my own making - just like what happened to Archer.

Anyway, the reason I'm a bit surprised that I still retain my Reality Marble is because I had thought my soul would have already been healed when I was reborn into this world. Perhaps having memories of that hell is what keeps my soul from healing. I'll never know and I don't intend to find out by experimenting on others. There is no way I'll subject anyone to that hell if I have anything to say about it even if it's just the memories themselves.

All my preparation and training in Magecraft was NOT to prepare myself for the upcoming Holy Grail War (which is a relief. I've had to go through the fourth and fifth Holy Grail Wars dozens of times already during my wandering through the Kaleidoscope). After some poking around in the internet, I found that in this world, Fuyuki City doesn't even exist much less a secret tournament between seven Magi and seven Heroic Spirits.

But I still don't know what kind of dark secrets are lurking in this world and if there wasn't any I'm still aspiring to be a Superhero, so keeping up with my training is a must.

On a side note, I'm glad that my culinary skills haven't been rusty after not being able to enter the kitchen for 5 years (that's how long it took for me to give Grandpa the 'slip' to get inside the kitchen alone) and having a body and strength of a child didn't help matters. After cooking my first dish though, the whole family now thinks I'm a cooking prodigy.

I felt a little guilty about that, since this was a skill I mastered in almost two centuries (most of it spent in random parallel or alternate dimensions) and not because I'm some sort of prodigy, but seeing their happy faces while eating the food I cooked myself I decided to just take pride in it if it makes them happy. And being able to teach Shizuka the wonders of cooking reminds me of the happier times I had when I was able to cook in the kitchen with Sakura.

When she reached 5 years old, I started teaching Shizuka how to cook. Just like I did with Sakura, we began with onigiri. After that, I increased the difficulty of the dishes bit by bit. After 3 years of her tutelage under me, she's started to try to develop her own recipes. Granted, most of them have been failures but she has been getting better at it and the number of failures she's had have dwindled after every mistake.

Sometimes I feel so proud of her when I see her in the kitchen - with a cute pink apron on - experimenting with the various spices in the house.

If only Godou has the same kind of passion for cooking, I would've taught him too. Unfortunately, although he does like eating good food, when the time comes for his turn to cook his thought process becomes something like 'as long as it doesn't taste bad and is nutritious then it's fine'. As a result, although his cooking isn't exactly bad, it's not worth praising either.

I feel like smacking his head for his mentality that is an insult to all aspiring chefs in the world whenever it's his turn to cook. It's bad enough that I have to sacrifice my time in the kitchen by agreeing to take turns with my adoptive siblings so that they can slowly learn how to cook as well but his disregard for the art of culinary is just infuriating. Still, when I compare his ability in the kitchen with Kiritsugu's (both of them), I realised Godou wasn't that bad since he could _actually _cook.

No one's perfect, so I'll just have to endure it. I'm still gonna try to convince Grandpa to give me Godou's slot in the kitchen though.

In the mean time, I'll keep bestowing Shizuka with all the culinary knowledge I possess. Of course, I don't think she'll be able to learn everything I know. My knowledge of the culinary arts is something that I accumulated for around 200 years after all and it even includes recipes from other worlds that can't be recreated in this world due to the ingredients not existing in this world. Still, I'll keep teaching her everything I can until she finds her own path in mastering the culinary arts.

As for my aspiration to be a Superhero, it is actually going quite well. As soon as I was sure my physical capabilities are good enough, I started to patrol the town I live in at night regularly. You won't believe how many criminals are loose in this town despite it being quite peaceful. I manage to catch criminals almost every week and send them to the police.

Covering my tracks has become second nature to me and thanks to two decades of tutoring from Matsu - who can even hack through firewalls on the encryption levels of the Pentagon - hacking through the security cameras and alarms of a small town like this isn't even a challenge. Having an outfit with runes engraved that gives me a C rank Presence Concealment also doesn't hurt.

The outfit was one of the three that my wives researched, trying to imitate the Servants of the Holy Grail War. This one tries to imitate an Assassin while the other two tries to imitate a Saber and Archer. Unfortunately, the high prana consumption and the given stats that are comparable to only some of the weaker Servants with E to D rank stats made the trade off impractical. Just in case though, I kept a copy for myself if I ever need them. And boy I'm glad that I did.

Gaia's absence should have given these outfits the stat boost that can rival the mid level Servants in the Holy Grail War. I still haven't tried the Saber and Archer outfits yet but it should be about that much given all the increase in the power of my other Mysteries in this world.

For now, the Presence Concealment of the Assassin outfit is a lot more useful for my vigilante purposes. Before this, it was only able to bestow an E rank Presence Concealment - just enough for people to ignore me if they aren't consciously trying to look for me - but now, it was enough for me to knock out a whole group of 'evildoers' without them even noticing me. I still wouldn't hold a candle to a real Assassin class Servant in Presence Concealment though.

Not like it matters much. No matter what, I will definitely become a Superhero. That has never changed whether back in my original world or this world.

And so, my new journey begins.

**xxx Two Years Later xxx**

Life went on peacefully until I reached the second last year of my elementary school (that is, if you don't count the times I went on a crusade as a vigilante capturing criminals and decimating gangs, mobs, mafias and yakuzas lurking in the town while still keeping it a secret from my family).

It was during Golden Week.

I was visiting some of the temples and shrines around the town to try to pinpoint any signs of the magical community since if I'm lucky; they might station some of their magi there. Temples and shrines are after all historically built on leylines. If not, I had planned on travelling the world to do it. Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck since all the places I've visited so far hasn't exuded any traces of Magecraft or even prana.

The shrine I'm currently searching for is supposed to be quite old and didn't receive visits from many worshipers except the older generation due to its location. The shrine was that supposedly quite old since it was built around the Sengoku Era - at least that was what I was told - had my hopes up a little. It's usually the case that the older the temple or shrine is, the higher the chance it is authentic in its business of dealing with the supernatural.

The moment my feet landed on the first set of stairs, my nose started to pick up the traces of prana. Excited, I immediately ran up the stairs to identify where the prana was coming from. Finally, a clue to the supernatural aspects of the world, I was starting to think that I should really travel the world to even find any traces of it. Once I reached the top, I turned my head left and right to see if I can find anything that's emitting the prana I smelled.

There.

Just beside a cherry tree to the side of the shrine grounds, there was a small girl wearing priestess robes sweeping the leaves on the shrine grounds. She looked around my age with chestnut shoulder-length hair and a cute face. If she was 3 years older she might become what Japanese people like to call a Yamato Nadeshiko. Since she's still young, she's probably still an apprentice priestess.

Perfect.

Immediately, I pretended to ignore her and went straight to the offering box in front of the shrine in a relaxed manner. Once there, I did what all the visitors of any shrine would usually do. I gave some offerings and prayed. At least, I pretended to do so. I was actually paying attention to the apprentice priestess still sweeping the grounds. It seems she only paid attention to me for a single moment and ignored me once I started praying.

Good.

I still don't want my existence to be known yet. Who knows what could happen if I don't tread carefully. The worst-case scenario is that I'd be captured and turned into a human experiment subject.

Not a pleasant thought.

Focusing on my more supernatural senses, I confirmed that she was the one who was emitting that prana my nose detected. Not only that, she was quite powerful too. Her reserves should be about four times more than mine if my guess was correct. I wasn't sure of what my nose was telling me about her powers though since my mind wasn't able to register what is it my nose is sensing.

At the very least I'm sure that her powers wasn't in the elemental category since I would be able to tell easily if they were. The closest thing my mind could translate the smell my nose was picking up was clairvoyance though I'm sure that wasn't it either. How the heck I am able to smell something like clairvoyance that has no physical form at all, I have no idea. It's just how my mind is, trying to translate what my nose is sensing.

Once I'm sure I've collected enough information, I decided to leave so as to not arouse suspicion to myself. I still have to do some reconnaissance but this time, from a bit farther away. Not a problem since I'm sure there is a tall building in the city that's just far enough for my reinforced eyes to watch the shrine unhindered.

I'll have to call home later to say that I'll be late because I'm helping someone though. Since that's usually the reason I come home late most of the time, it shouldn't cause too much worry for my adoptive family. Over the years of living with the Kusanagis, I've proven that I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. It doesn't stop them from worrying about me but it does alleviate it.

Like I thought, there was a highrise hotel in the city that's just in the right position for me to spy on the shrine. Once I found a comfortable enough place on the roof, I prepared for one of the most boring moments when spying on a target.

A stakeout.

Well, I'll just have to endure the boredom right now. It's for the sake of gathering information after all.

**xxx 1 Month Later xxx**

It's been a month since I've started spying on the shrine and what I've found was quite heartening.

The apprentice priestess's name is Mariya Yuri. She is what the people in the shrine call a Hime-Miko. I've never heard of the term before and I wasn't able to find out what the title entails but I was able to tell that she possessed an ability known as Spirit Vision although what that ability does I have no idea except that it has something to do with clairvoyance.

She also seems to have very good instincts as I'm sure she has realised I've been stalking her albeit from a far away distance that I'm sure she can't even see me. The reason I know this is because she always became wary of her surroundings the instant I start spying on her. Every time I came onto the roof of the highrise hotel and started my daily stakeout, she starts to watch her surroundings more as if she can feel me watching her but isn't able to tell where I'm watching her from.

There were a few times that some men in suits had come onto the roof, but wasn't able to find me. Good thing I put up some subtle bounded fields using some runes that erase themselves once they detect anyone heading in this direction on the stairs. So far, they haven't been able to discover it. Just in case though, before I start my daily stakeout I would always quickly use Structural Analysis to try and find anything that doesn't originally belong on the roof.

Good thing I did, because they have started to plant small cameras to try and catch me in the action. My current hacking skills came in handy during these moments. I'd hack into their system - without them noticing of course - and find blind spots in their surveillance and when there wasn't any, I made them. There were times that they used analog cameras to avoid hacking, but I circumnavigated them as well.

When I detected that they tried using mystical means instead, I put out some bounded fields to cloak my presence. All their scrying would show is an empty roof. If my earlier bounded fields are any indication, they don't seem to know how to detect the bounded fields. I've also been using my Assassin outfit for insurance. I avoided from hypnotizing people though, because they might be able to detect it.

All in all, I was completely sure they weren't able to track me or even knew I existed. Still, it seems the magi in this world are more in touch with technology. That might be a bit troublesome but it's nothing I can't handle.

So far at least.

It is a bit disheartening that the magi of this world seems to have more influence on the government if all the resources that are at their disposal from the history I gleaned from the cameras are anything to go by.

What is heartening though, was the Mariya family's approach to Magecraft. They still keep Magecraft a secret of course but they weren't as strict as the magi back in my original world. All the people in the shrine know about it despite most of them not being magi themselves. The Mariya family was also quite a normal family as well.

As far as I can tell, they don't seem to practice some of the more loathsome practices the magi I know does, like giving away their children to other magi families or focusing on their magi duties more than their families or some of the political back stabbing I've seen magi in my original world do. The Mariya family is quite a loving one actually if the intimate relationship I've seen between them is any indication.

They also don't seem to have the usual arrogance I'm used to seeing in magi from old families. In fact, they seem to take their priestess duties seriously and treat people kindly and fairly, especially to the older generation, although that might be because their bloodline is also not that old yet. Which also means that they might not have a lot of influence in the magical community.

Still, as far as magi go, they are the best I can hope for when I want to find a way into the magical community. It's high time I make contact with them.

**xxx Scene Break xxx**

That night, I made my way to the house the Mariya family lived in near the shrine while wearing my Assassin outfit. I first made sure that there are no unexpected visitors inside the house and they aren't expecting anyone else either. Those factors can sometimes mess up any operation really bad. I was planning to meet Mariya Yuri in her room once everyone else inside was asleep. I hadn't expected her to come out the front door and head straight inside the shrine.

What is she doing inside the shrine in the middle of the night?

Curiosity and worry for her safety made me follow her. After a few turns, she went inside a huge empty room. It was probably the place where the monks usually meditate or pray. Once she arrived inside the room, she went to the middle of the room and started looking around. It looked like she was waiting for someone. She looked nervous too.

"W-Whoever you are, I know you're there. Y-You're the one who's been w-watching me for the last month r-right? S-Show yourself!" She said in a nervous voice despite trying to show a brave front.

I raised an eyebrow and frowned a little. So she was waiting for me. How did she found out though? I was sure there was nothing like an ambush waiting for me inside the shrine, so she hasn't told anyone yet. I wonder what she's planning.

While I was contemplating this, a few minutes had passed and Mariya Yuri just stood there waiting. Eventually, tears started collecting in her eyes and she looked like she was close to crying though she kept holding it back.

Damn. It's always the tears isn't it?

Why is it that after 200 years of living experience I still can't bring myself to stand idly by when a small girl is crying? Well, I guess it's just in my nature. Deciding not to scare her more than she already is, I decided to show myself while making sure to shut off the runes for my Presence Concealment. I also made sure to disguise my voice, just in case.

"I wasn't expecting that you were waiting for me. How did you know?" I opened one of the shoji doors to the room and entered.

"I-I felt that you were going to come see me tonight a-and if I wanted answers, I should m-meet you here." She said while stuttering. She's clearly scared even though she's still trying to put up a brave front. "I-I didn't expect you to be so..."

"What?" I prompted her to continue.

"...young." She finally concluded.

I almost sniggered at that. She's one to talk. She's confronting someone who she knew has been watching her for the past month without knowing anything about them, alone and scared. She's got some steel in her for someone who's clearly terrified. I really should punish myself later for scaring her this much.

"Yeah. Sorry for disappointing you. Were you expecting some scary mysterious person to show up? And what do you mean that you _felt_ me coming?"

"Not really, I never felt any hostile intent. It felt more like curiosity than any ill intention. That's why I came here alone. I was sure that I'd be fine." She's stopped stuttering so that means she's not that scared anymore. That's a relief; I didn't come here to threaten her after all. "As for what I meant about _feeling_ that you were coming, my instinct as a Hime-Miko is quite strong. Thus, when my instinct tells me something, it is usually correct."

I knew it! So her powers are something similar to clairvoyance. Better ask about that later though, for now I'd better explain myself to her. First on the list is that I have to apologize to her, I don't want her to think I'm a bad person.

"Sorry about scaring you. I was just trying to gather information."

"What were you trying to find out? I don't think I have any huge secrets."

"Well, I'll have to explain my situation before I get to that. Let's sit down, this might take a while." I was already in a seiza position when I finished my sentence. After seeing that I didn't mean her any harm, she also sat in a seiza in front of me.

"Now, I still don't want to reveal who I am so you can just call me Archer. Nice to meet you."

"Hello Archer. I am Mariya Yuri. Please just call me Yuri." Following my lead, she also introduced herself while bowing slightly in a manner appropriate to a shrine priestess.

And thus, I began to explain to Yuri about my situation and the reason I've been stalking her for the past month. Of course I made it clear I wasn't threatening her. I told her that I was a self taught Magus and that I 'discovered' my abilities at a very young age. As I was learning Magecraft by myself all this time, I never knew what the magical community was like and that she was the first Magus I've ever met in this world.

It was partly true, since I did taught myself Tracing and she really was the first Magus I've ever met in this world. I told her that I was curious of this world's magical community and wanted to know more about them before revealing myself since I knew next to nothing about them and it made me a little paranoid.

Yuri at first didn't believe me. Why would she? My Magecraft was very different to the magic that she's learned all her life but after demonstrating my Tracing Magecraft by Tracing a few household items nonchalantly, she decided to withhold her judgement.

After some more explanation on the experiments I've been doing since my 'discovery' of my abilities (of course I didn't reveal everything, just the general outline), she finally believed my explanation and agreed to reveal everything that I might need to know about the current magical community (at least, everything she was allowed to divulge anyway) as long as I swear that I will not use any of the information she will be revealing for any kind of ill intentions. I easily agreed, as I'm not planning on doing those things anyway.

Before she started her explanation however, I stopped her. Tomorrow was a school day and it was already very late. We'll only get a few hours of good sleep if we go to sleep now, no sense in making it shorter. I told her that I'll come visit some other time and we can continue where we left off, I also asked her to keep my existence a secret to which she agreed. After walking her back to her house and setting up a suitable time to meet, I went straight home. I'll be visiting Yuri again tomorrow and I'll finally get some answers about this world's magical community.

I just hope this world's magical community is more accommodating than the one in my original world.

**xxx Scene Break xxx**

Over the past few months, Yuri and I have started to develop a strange friendship of sorts. I would keep visiting her in the shrine grounds in the weekends or during the public holidays and we would exchange information. Finding out how the History Compilation Committee operate set me at ease since they use mostly hypnosis and information black outs without harming the innocent, making them far better than the Clocktower in my book.

She also explained some of the basic mechanics of this world's 'magic' system. It seems that this world's Mysteries required invoking the blessings of the deities that even now exists in order to enact them. I was able to ask Yuri to teach me some basic spells called Spell Words that is similar to my Reinforcement. The result however, was quite disappointing.

The increase in stats granted by the Spell Words doesn't seem to be as effective as Reinforcement. I had first thought that it could be used in conjunction with Reinforcement to further increase my base stats but as it turns out, my Magecraft and the Spell Words Yuri taught me don't seem to mesh well together as they seem to cancel each other out.

The reason is because filling one's body with prana is an act that is usually used by magi of this world to dispel magic that is affecting the body and since Reinforcement requires me to fill the imperfections in my body with prana it is effectively the same as me dispelling the effects of the Spell Words.

However, I decided keep the knowledge of how to cast these Spell Words in case I can't use Reinforcement somehow. You never know. It's better to 'have it and not need it than need it but not have it'.

As for the existence of deities, it was something that I had already considered since this world seems to still be in the Age of Gods. There were some similarities of this world and some of the alternate worlds I've blundered into during my 'youth'. Most of the Gods I've met share one trait however. That is to say they were complete _assholes_. There were some benevolent ones but there were very few of them.

In exchange for her explanations, I explained to Yuri about my Magecraft. She seemed afraid at first when I suddenly Traced a mundane broadsword in front of her but she recovered quickly when she sensed I had no ill intentions whatsoever. Of course I kept the information about my Reality Marble to myself. Who knows how she'd react to it. If there's anything I learned about Reality Marbles is that you should always keep the information about them under lock and key.

Despite the magi in this world not being as loathsome as the ones in my original world, I still think they might make me their human experiment subject if they ever find out about my Reality Marble.

Seriously, I've been in enough alternate worlds to know that.

I just hope I won't be in a situation where I'll ever have to use it or bar that, have no other witness present when I do end up being forced to use it.

Anyway, Yuri also seemed interested when I didn't invoke any deities to enact my Mystery. She says that my Magecraft is a revolutionary find among all the current school of magic since all of them use Spell Words one way or another. Not invoking any deities when enacting a Mystery is a completely alien concept to the magi of this world.

As exciting as this news is, I was able to convince Yuri to keep this information to herself. There's no telling what the magi of this world would do to get their hands on it and that's not even as bad as being on the radar of some politically influential people who might try to use me for their own ends.

I really hate politics. I'll say it again.

I.

HATE.

POLITICS.

Other than that, Yuri and I also frequently exchange cooking recipes. When she first found out that I'm a really good cook she was quite happy since she also has a degree of passion for cooking. After tasting my heavenly cooking however, I've somehow ignited the fire of rivalry in her in terms of cooking.

Perhaps she thought that she will be able to instruct me in the culinary arts but instead, my ability surpassed hers by a wide margin. She's been challenging me every time she thought of a new recipe ever since. I'm not complaining though, I enjoy seeing her defeated face that was somehow filled with happiness (it's contradictory I know, but that's just how it happened) whenever she gets a taste of my desserts.

It seems that me being a man who is very good at cooking is a bit wrong in her eyes or maybe she just thinks of me as a rival she has to defeat, I don't know. Either way her passion for cooking is in full force and I'm very glad for it. It's unfortunate that I haven't shown my full capabilities yet. If I did I might crush her passion, which is something I want to avoid. The other reason is because of the reaction people get when I go all out in my cooking.

To think those who ate my cooking could get orgasms from every bite. I haven't gone all out in my cooking ever since.

Besides that, Yuri also reminds me a lot of Sakura. A timid Yamato Nadeshiko who actually has a strong heart and quite a good cook too with a passion for it to match. Fortunately she wasn't abused from her family like what Sakura experienced (I was very relieved at that. I might have murdered her family if that was the case. No way I'm going to turn a blind eye to something like that ever again).

Not everything went as I had originally hoped with my regular visits to the shrine but in a way I'm glad it went the way it did. I'm talking about the two new additions to mine and Yuri's rendezvous.

In the numerous times I've visited Yuri - although she did her best to keep my visits a secret - I was still found out by Yuri's younger sister, Hikari and Yuri's friend, Seishuuin Ena who visits the Mariyas from time to time. Both times happened the same way, much to my dismay.

They walked in on us when we least expected it.

It was Hikari who found out about us first. When we first met, she thought that I was some kind of Phantom Thief, here to kidnap her sister and take her as my bride. Where she got that idea I will never know, though I suspect my disguise played a part in it (A black shroud covering my face and head with a black coat, black pants, black shirt and black shoes. Clothes that emphasize on stealth).

Remembering that time always seem to make me want to chuckle because of how comical it was if I look at it differently.

**xxx Flashback Start xxx**

_I was rendezvousing with Yuri as usual for our scheduled meetings. She was just starting to explain to me some of the duties that Hime-Mikos are burdened with when suddenly, the shoji door opened revealing an eight year old girl in her pajamas who was rubbing her eyes while still carrying a pillow that is almost the same size she is. Clearly she was just out of bed judging from her state of sleepiness._

_In any other situations I would have tried to tuck her in bed like I usually did with Shizuka. Unfortunately, right now she has somehow trespassed on the Ground Zero of my meeting with Yuri._

_Me and my E rank luck. Can this get any worse?_

_..._

_..._

_Please tell me I did not just think that._

_"Onee-chan, what are you doin-" She cut her sentence short once she saw me sitting in seiza - like I usually do during my visits - in front of Yuri. Then her sleepiness seems to vanish entirely as her eyes became wide open._

_"THERE'S A PHANTOM THIEF TRYING TO KIDNAP ONEE-CHAN!" Before she was able to start screaming I had already subtly activated a Bounded Field that would muffle any light or voices coming from this room just in case something like this happened. I had originally constructed it so that I could handle any ambush that might happen in a silent manner. Well, I guess this can also be considered an ambush. _

_"Hikari! Not so loud!" Yuri whispered with a low voice just loud enough for Hikari to hear. Unfortunately Hikari seems to be too excited to hear it._

_"Oh, my god! You're here to take onee-chan as your bride aren't you?" It seems that Hikari's imagination is starting to run wild, as her 'accusations' got more and more absurd._

_Yuri tried to placate her sister before she causes a scene but she wasn't having much luck. Hikari just kept on with her excited ramblings, not even bothering to pause for a moment to catch her breath._

_Seriously, where the hell does she get all these ideas? Do I look like a Demon King? And who the hell is Kaito Kid? In an act of desperation I used a technique that most times would work on quieting little girls who have a sweet tooth._

_I decided to shove a mochi in her mouth. _

_The effect was instantaneous. She immediately stopped being so excited and started to have a look filled with bliss on her while chewing on the mochi. The mochi was something I made during dinner for Yuri and I brought it that night for our regular dessert battle. Thankfully, I still have two more of them with me so I can still win tonight's battle once I present it to Yuri. I knew I made the right choice to bring more of them when I saw Yuri had a look of sad jealousy watching her sister finish the mochi._

**xxx Flashback End xxx**

After some lengthy explanation on Yuri's part, Hikari decided to join her sister with her excursions with me. She told me to bring more of the mochi when I come visit though.

Kids. So predictable.

Hikari easily reminds me of Yukari without her violent tendencies. I sure hope Hikari doesn't grow up to be as violent as Yukari though. I don't think I can take it.

As for Ena, she was more relaxed when she barged in on us unannounced and found out about me. Although she looked relaxed, from her stance I could tell she was ready to pounce on me and beat me up if I tried anything to hurt any of them. Fortunately, after both Yuri and Hikari explained the current situation to her she decided to join us. She warmed up to me pretty quickly considering we've only just met. Her personality reminded me a bit of Musubi.

In other words, she's a cheerful airhead who likes to fight strong people.

Instead of a bear like Musubi however, Ena was more like a monkey. When she found out that I was good with swords we sparred with each other every time we meet. It's one of the reasons I've started coming to the shrine in the afternoon as well as in the night, though the meeting had to be convened in the woods behind the shrine when meeting in the afternoon in this case.

The other reason is because we can extend the length of the meeting if it is in the afternoon unlike during the night. The night meetings had to be short so that everyone can have enough sleep for school the next morning.

Anyway, my spars with Ena usually ends with a draw, mostly because I was holding back on my Magecraft and relied solely on my sword skills and the skills of the owners of the various blades in Unlimited Blade Works. Ena also mainly focuses on her natural body strength and agility. She never used any Spell Words in our spars.

Although I was never serious in our spars, I'll admit that trying to fend off Ena was quite challenging. She had an amazingly flexible and agile body not to mention good battle instincts and reflexes. It was a good experience.

And like Hikari, Ena also fell in love with my desserts. She would gobble them all up in a matter of minutes. I'm pretty sure she's gonna have an amazing rack once she hits puberty. There were already small lumps on her chest this early in her teens. I don't even want to think about what she would look like once she fully matures.

And so, time flew by. I kept coming to visit Yuri and Hikari sometimes just to chat, other times to exchange more cooking recipe. Most of the time however, I came discuss about the magical community's culture.

All was right with the world as I was able to balance my time spending them with Godou and Shizuka while regularly visiting the Mariya siblings Yuri and Hikari. Even the regular spars with Ena was quite fun. Truth be told, these peaceful days was actually quite fun for me. The only violence during this period is during my vigilante moments.

I should have known it wouldn't last forever.

**xxx Scene Break xxx**

It's been almost a year since I became friends with Yuri. It was a Saturday night. My last visit to the shrine was last Sunday.

I headed to the shrine like I usually did at night, timing my arrival so that I would arrive at the shrine at the agreed time. Since it was determined beforehand, I was surprised that the lights were still turned on in the house. That would mean that the residents of the house are still awake.

That's odd.

I'm pretty sure that Yuri's parents would have gone to sleep by now. Since they are still awake, that must mean something had happened. There was also an aura of gloominess around the house. Although the house didn't seem to be in a state of alarm, it had a resigned feeling around it.

Something definitely happened.

Worry for the Mariya siblings plagued my thoughts so I went to the window of their rooms - I knew where their rooms are thanks to my one-month surveillance of the house - to check up on them. Yuri's room was empty but since there were no signs of a struggle she wasn't taken by force. At least, not from her room. I decided to check up on Hikari next, since I was just as worried for her as I did for Yuri.

The lights were still on when arrived at Hikari's window. Peering inside, I saw Hikari sitting on her bed with a haunted look on her eyes.

This can't be good.

I was conflicted. Should I interrogate her now or wait after she's calmed down? The former gives me more time to react to whatever that has happened while the latter made sure Hikari wasn't as distraught as she is now when I press her for information.

What should I do?

After some contemplation, I decided that time isn't a luxury that I have at the moment especially since I don't even know what is going on right now.

I need information - badly - if I'm going to decide what to do.

Firming my resolve, I lightly knocked on the window to Hikari's room. Hikari jolted out of her bed in a panic but calmed down immediately once she saw me. She then made sure to lock the door to her room before opening the window to let me in.

"Archer-nii, what are you doing here?" Apparently she forgot about our meeting after whatever it is that has happened.

Gently now, I don't want to distraught her anymore than she already is. "It was past the time for our meeting. Since your light was still on I decided to check up on you."

"OH! I-I'm sorry. I-I completely forgot about our meeting!" She looked real sad at this.

Not wanting her to feel guilty, I pat her head softly and used a soothing tone to assure her. "It's okay, I'm not angry. Can you tell me what's happened? I couldn't find Yuri anywhere. Is she alright?"

She started sobbing before answering. "They *sob* took onee-chan for a ritual *sob*. The Campione, Marquis Voban is *sob* gathering all the Hime-Miko he can to conduct a ritual to *sob* force a Heretic God to descend *sob*." Hikari answered me while sobbing and trying to hold her tears in.

"Sorry Hikari, but what's a Campione and a Heretic God?" Damn, my studies into the magical community haven't gone that far yet. Are these Campione some kind of influential people? What did she mean that he's trying to force a Heretic God to descend?

At my prompt, Hikari then started to explain about the Heretic Gods, those who rebelled against their own myth that descend on the world and the Campione, Devil Kings who usurped the Authority of the Heretic Gods they defeated. No matter the Heretic Gods or the Campiones, it seems that they almost always cause destruction on the level of natural disasters wherever and whenever they appear.

It felt like I was in the Grail wars again when it reminded me of battles between Servants.

It was when I found out that Yuri was taken by one of the Campiones for a ritual to force a Heretic God to descend, my worry turned to stone cold fury.

These Heretic Gods cause natural disasters to occur just from them existing in the mortal plane and now the one who the people has 'assigned' the responsibility of defeating them, who was **supposed** to defend the populace from these Heretic Gods is trying to **force** one to descend?

How many people will suffer before the Heretic God is finally vanquished?

Will the Hime-Mikos gathered by the Campione even survive the ritual?

Considering the sheer amount of prana needed to summon even a fraction of a Heroic Spirit, summoning a Heretic God will most likely kill the Hime-Mikos.

The sheer disregard for those around him that this Campione, Sasha Dejanstahl Voban, is committing made me seethe with anger. How many innocent lives is he putting in jeopardy with this...selfishness, of his just so that he can duke it out with a Heretic God?

I may understand the selfishness born from valuing the lives of those you care about above the unknown masses. This self-serving action however, is akin to tyrants of old whom forces hardship on their people for no better reason than for their own enjoyment instead of necessity. This person is the kind of tyrant I loathe from the bottom of my heart.

There were Kings in the past that were hated by his own people simply because they had to make the hard decisions despite those decisions were what saved the whole kingdom from ruin.

There were Kings who waged wars across the land for a dream that was shared by him and his men.

There were also Kings who was lucky enough to rule during times of peace and decided to match his rule with the current age using wisdom instead of a sword and brought prosperity to his kingdom.

These are the kind of rulers that I could admire from the bottom of my heart for their devotion to their duty, their charisma and their love for the people of their kingdom.

Sasha Dejanstahl Voban, the Devil King of Balkan is not one of them. In fact, he is at the polar opposite of the admiration I had for the said past Kings. The very existence of someone like him is an anathema to me. The very knowledge that someone like him still breathes is what made me want to enter the battlefield just so that I can put an end to their tyranny.

All these emotions went through my mind and could likely be felt by Hikari too, which is probably the reason she became frantic.

"No, Archer-nii! Please don't do something like going after onee-chan or the Marquis! It's already too late, they have already departed just this morning from Japan and should already be in Balkan! Please, Archer-nii!" Hikari was almost hysterical to try and persuade me.

It seems Hikari has figured out that I might go do something stupid to bring Yuri back. I wanted to assure her, but I don't know how. Hikari kept begging me not to go while sobbing the whole time trying to hold in her tears that is clearly leaking from her eyes. In front of her desperate pleas, I wasn't able to say no.

I also acquiesced because I have no idea how to even start looking for Yuri. Even if I somehow got on a plane right now and go straight to Balkan, I still don't know where exactly they are in Balkan. My current network of information is too thin for me to be able to try to pinpoint Yuri's location and my status, as a 12-year-old child doesn't help either.

The only thing I could do now was pray for her safe return while cursing myself for my own uselessness.

After promising to Hikari that I won't do something that will incur the wrath of the Campione, I gently tucked Hikari in bed and held her hand until she fell asleep.

She never stopped calling out for Yuri in her sleep.

**xxx One Week Later xxx**

I became more active in my vigilante activities to vent my frustrations for the past week.

Of course I made sure I didn't do anything that will reveal my identity despite my current unstable emotions. I know it was reckless to be doing this while my ability to make clear judgements are hindered but it was something that I need to do before my emotions got the better of me and I decided to do something completely stupid.

Like storming the History Compilation Committee Headquarters to find something that could help me bring Yuri back.

The idea forms in my mind every time I start thinking about Yuri, which is the reason I went for my patrols in the town with more fervor. It helps that once I'm in my 'battle mode' my mind clears and I start to logically form strategies and tactics to take down the criminals without leaving any traces that might expose me. It's a state of mind I was able to achieve after countless battles.

I also kept visiting Hikari every night for the past week to comfort her while she sobbed herself to sleep. She never cried in front of me, most likely because she felt that I might go after Voban to try and bring Yuri back if she did. There was no trace of the energetic little girl that I've come to know.

I swear, if anything happens to Yuri I'm gonna hunt down that sorry excuse of a Devil King even if it's the last thing I do.

To hell with him being a Supreme Ruler, Devil King, God Slayer, Rakshasa Raja, Campione or whatever. I'll shove down Gae Bolg so far up his ass his alternates are going to feel it. I couldn't be bothered to use something majestic like Caliburn or Excalibur for this. Something so steeped in curse and violence is the perfect tool for this job.

I know these emotions are because of the hormones that have started to surface now that I've reached my teen years, but I couldn't be bothered to hold them in check right now because they are **justified**.

That night, I was heading to the shrine like I've been doing the past week to comfort Hikari again. The thought of the small girl crying herself to sleep calling for her onee-chan makes my heart ache.

When I arrived however, I noticed that light was pouring out of the window of Yuri's room.

It can't be. I-Is she back?

I wasted no time pondering on that thought and just went straight to the window of Yuri's room. I was able to calm myself down enough to consider being cautious when peering inside the window and there, on the bed was Yuri and Hikari sleeping together while hugging each other tightly.

I almost burst into the room when I saw Yuri. Fortunately, I had enough tact to know when it's not yet time for me to show myself to her tonight. She needs rest and she rightly deserves it. Before I left however I noticed that although asleep, Yuri doesn't seem to be at peace. It's most likely that nightmares are plaguing her dreams.

I frowned.

It seems that whatever she experienced, even in her sleep the memory haunts her. Is there nothing I can do to grant her any peace at all? Most of my Noble Phantasms are meant for destruction. Even those that are not used for such things are useless in this situation. If only I have something that exudes an aura of peace and protection I coul-

Wait. I do have something like that. And it's also perfect if I want to hide its existence while making sure that it would always be with her.

Finishing that thought, I slowly opened the window I was leaning on - looks like they forgot to lock it up. I'd better do it for them when I leave - and entered the room without making any noise. I went to the bed and stood beside it.

'"Trace... On." I whispered my incantation and prepared to Trace the only Noble Phantasm in my Reality Marble that I am able to copy perfectly. It would serve to protect Yuri as well to a small degree. Without Gaia limiting Avalon's capabilities, it's healing properties should augment Yuri's own though it would still be quite slow.

After finishing the seven steps of my Tracing, what lay in my hands is a scabbard. **Avalon: The Everdistant Utopia**. The sheath of Excalibur. The Noble Phantasm that granted Saber/Arturia a pseudo immortality, preserving her youth and healing most of the fatal injuries she ever sustained in her life. A gift from the fae for Arturia. It is the very embodiment of the utopia that people seeks.

Its function as a Noble Phantasm is an "absolute defense" that completely shields its user in the domain of the fae, Avalon, the everdistant utopia. It is the greatest protection in the world that goes beyond defending or reflecting, completely isolating its user in a world completely separate from the regular world.

Since Yuri is not it's true master, she would not be able to use it's defensive capabilities but right now what is needed is the aura that the scabbard exudes.

An aura of peace and protection for those that find themselves in its embrace.

It's a silly notion, even when the scabbard was inside me it didn't prevent me from having nightmares of the Fuyuki Fire, but right now this is the only Noble Phantasm that I can think of that even has a chance to liberate Yuri from her memories that are haunting her. And since I can implant it inside her, she shouldn't know of it's existence - I didn't, and I had it in me for 10 years - accomplishing my objective of not revealing any of my Noble Phantasms this early.

The moment I implanted Avalon inside Yuri, her complexion became better and whatever nightmares haunted her dreams seems to have faded as well. A small peaceful smile finally graces her lips and it set me at ease.

Looks like it's working. Maybe Gaia's absence also no longer limits the aura that Avalon exudes. I might have to experiment a bit with that theory later. For now, this is enough.

I made sure to lock the window as I went back home, finally feeling relieved after a whole week of being unsure whether one of the people precious to me will ever return. I should prepare my best dessert the next time I visit Yuri.

**xxx 3 Years Later xxx**

I've done it.

I finally finished all the Compulsory Education up until high school in three years. I'm now officially a high school graduate despite being only fifteen years old in the eyes of the Japan's education system.

To think that I had to hasten the completion of my education.

Well, ever since I found out about Heretic Gods and Campiones I've been itching to travel the world in order to meet all the Campiones. It was a decision I brooded on for months after Yuri returned to Japan after that ritual to summon a Heretic God.

Speaking of Yuri, I was very happy that she came back safe and sound from that dreaded ritual.

Even if she was, just physically unharmed.

I never asked what happened to her when she was 'abducted' though I knew that whatever _did_ happen traumatized and scarred her for life. I saw the signs enough to know.

The effort she put in to force herself to smile.

Her trembling and frozen fingers when she recalled something horrible.

Her haunted eyes every time she recalled the memory of what happened.

There were other signs too though mostly small ones but basically, whatever happened was terrible.

I tried visiting more often as well and with Hikari's help; try to make her at ease. Fortunately, Avalon was also working it's magic to heal her trauma. I once asked if she was having nightmares lately to see if the scabbard was still working its miracle. She said no, instead of nightmares she told me that she was actually having very strange dreams of being in a grassy field, with a clear blue sky, white clouds and the sun hanging in the sky giving warmth to the whole place.

She somehow felt safe and protected in that place like nothing in the world will harm her when she's there.

It was one of the reasons she no longer feared to go to sleep. Before that, she always had terrible nightmares that will wake her up at night and making her feel exhausted, nauseated and scared. Now, dreaming of being in that place was one of the things she look forward to when going to sleep.

With the combined efforts of me, Hikari, Ena (sometimes) and Avalon, she soon - two whole months actually - became comfortable enough to reveal everything to us. About what happened during the ritual.

The ritual that Yuri was forced to participate in was something that was made to force the descent of a Heretic God. The Campione Sasha Dejanstahl Voban wanted to fight a powerful Heretic God and thus, gathered the Hime-Miko. He gathered dozens of Hime-Miko for the ritual. In the end - although the identity of the Heretic God that descended was not known - the ritual was successful but at the price of the sanity of the Hime-Miko present for the ritual.

As far as Yuri knows, only she and one other survived with their sanity intact.

After hearing her tale in silence, forget stone cold fury, I was murderous. Although I already knew it, hearing about the Campione's total disregard for human life from Yuri - one of the person who survived the ritual - made me want to really to kill him and apparently it showed in my aura as even Yuri and Hikari was starting to be afraid of me. Ena just looked at me with concern.

It took the combined efforts of Yuri, Hikari and Ena to calm me down, and the only reason I did so was after Yuri explained more about the adverse effects of a Campione being absent.

It seems each Campione will claim the country of their residence as their own and in these parts, they are protected from the descent of Heretic Gods in prolonged periods as it is easier for the Campione of that region to reach the place the Heretic Gods descended to defeat it.

I pointed out Voban's disregard of human life, so how is it that he can be a protector?

Yuri then reminded me that if a Heretic God descended on a place that was outside of a Campione's sphere of influence, that region would be subjected to the Heretic God's whims.

That finally gave me pause.

Seeing my hesitation, Yuri pushed through on her explanation on Campiones since it was clear that Hikari's explanation wasn't sufficient and clearly lacked some more important details. Like how few the number of Campiones is in the world, how rare the event of their birth really is and what would happen if any of them died and a Heretic God descends on the land they once claimed.

That last part was clearly an effort by Yuri for me to see reason and not do something reckless like challenging a Campione for a duel to the death.

After some more explanation on Campiones and Heretic Gods that Hikari didn't tell me - This is simply because she doesn't know them yet. She's still an apprentice Hime-Miko after all - I parted with the three girls. Of course, they made sure that I've given up on the notion of going after a Campione. Despite that though, Yuri seemed grateful that I would go so far for her sake.

It was after learning more about Campiones and Heretic Gods that I ended up sitting and brooding on that information for months, thinking about what I should do. In the end I decided that I needed to meet with the Campiones myself. Meaning that I'm going to have to start travelling the world sooner than I thought.

The only problem is that I can't ignore Japan's education system. In other words I need to finish all the compulsory education that Japan has set for everyone in the country. I didn't want to wait too long before setting off for my journey simply because I had to finish high school so I had a lengthy discussion with Grandpa Ichirou about accelerating my education.

The next morning, Grandpa met with the principle of my school - Turns out they knew each other. Figures. - to see if they have or know any program that will allow me to skip a few years of school life. Fortunately for me, although my original school doesn't offer that kind of program they know a school that does.

Jounan Academy.

After some more lengthy talk whether I'm ready for high school or if I'll be able to cope with having older classmates and other relevant issues that affect high school life, I was given the permission to enter the high school section of Jounan Academy in the Spring of next year if I can pass their high school level written tests.

Piece of cake.

I already finished my compulsory education plus a university qualification back in my original world (I really have to thank Rider for infecting me with her love of books, it really helped my studies a lot and experiencing high school life hundreds of times during my 'dimension hopping days' helped I guess) and it showed in my studies in my current world. I could probably _teach_ high school subjects by this point but I decided to hold back in my exams to avoid too much suspicion.

The written tests that I had to take were something that Jounan had designed to determine my actual level of knowledge and competence. If I aced all the tests than than it will actually determine that I have the knowledge level of a university graduate, which was why I had to hold back a little, just enough for the test to determine that I'm around the level of a high school sophomore.

And thus in Spring, I began my three years of high school life as a Freshman (although they acknowledged me as being in the same level of a Sophomore, they were more comfortable that I start out as a Freshman), which has now come to an end as I have formally graduated from high school.

The three years of my high school life was relatively normal. Well, except that one time when Ena was bestowed with Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi or the Sword of Kusanagi. I don't know whether the name is just a coincidence or it's the Root trying to screw me over, but whatever.

It happened during my senior year.

Ena wanted to see how far my Tracing can go so she told me to try to Trace Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi. Of course I was able to Trace the sword but unlike the original, the one I Traced was an empty copy without the spirit of the deity that resided in the original which what classed the sword as a subordinate god in the first place. Still, it was still a good addition to my arsenal.

Unfortunately, it seems Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi perceived this as an insult and immediately proceeded to take control of Ena through her Divine Possession.

It's objective.

To 'utterly crush me for even daring to make a mockery of a copy of himself'.

I was forced to fight with Ena with some of my more esoteric skills, namely, launching dozens of swords and rain it on Ena who was possessed by the rampaging Heretic God. Of course, I only launched mundane swords at her. I don't want to end up accidentally killing her after all.

The rain of swords however was only a distraction so that I could get closer to Ena in order to use Rule Breaker. My gamble paid off, as I was able to stab Ena with Rule Breaker while she was busy trying to defend herself from my endless rain of swords. The fight however ended with the small hill we used as a landmark behind the shrine for our secret meetings being littered with dozens of one to two meter craters.

The fight also made Hikari, Yuri and Ena completely gobsmacked. Seriously, their expression was really comical. I should've taken a picture of it. I'm sure they'd be completely embarrassed by it.

Anyway, after recovering from their...shock, Hikari and Ena was very excited about it - because I was somehow able to face off against a Heretic God even if it was a lesser subordinate god - Yuri however, forced me to explain to her what had happened. I tried playing innocent at first but being glared by that stern expression that makes me feel like I've done something wrong made me cave in (Hey! You try getting stared at by a Yamato Nadeshiko that feels like your mother with a stern expression and see how you like it!).

She, Hikari and Ena were surprised when I revealed some of my blade Mystic Codes - I didn't show them my Noble Phantasms other than Rule Breaker. How dumb do you think I am? - though both Yuri and Hikari was more interested in Rule Breaker's dispelling ability since it seems to be enchanted with a similar but stronger version of Disaster Purification (an ability to dispel magic) that Hikari possessed.

Yuri asked me if she or the History Compilation Committee could borrow its powers if the need ever arises. I agreed, as long as it's not used for some diabolical purpose of course.

Other than the incident with Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi, the other supernatural events that occurred during my three years of high school are my visits to the shrine for my weekly study of the magical community though after two years, it became a time for me and the three girls to just chat and train in our specialty magics.

For Ena, she trained in her control of Divine Possession - Ena made sure that Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi promised that it would not try to take control like what happened before. It agreed as long as I don't Trace it's copy in front of it ever again - by sparring with me in her Possessed state. I also started to use my blade Mystic Codes against her though I still haven't revealed any other Noble Phantasms except Rule Breaker ever since.

Yuri's and Hikari's progress however wasn't very noticeable as Yuri's Spirit Vision is highly dependent on chance and Hikari's Disaster Purification takes a lot of her reserves to do and it still couldn't do much to my Traced weapons except making it a bit fragile even after she used almost all of her reserves to do it. Still, being able to 'hang out' with them was quite fun especially the dessert battles that I and Yuri compete in. She still hasn't won even once against me yet.

Before I graduated from high school, I already had a long talk with the whole family about my decision to meet the Campiones (using the 'traveling the world to experience what the world has to offer' excuse). Shizuka cried saying that I haven't taught her enough about my culinary skills, Godou gave me some moral support and Grandpa Ichirou gave me his blessings. I wasn't surprised that Grandpa Ichirou let me leave so easily. Even though I'm still fifteen, I've almost finished high school after all.

I've also already told Yuri, Hikari and Ena about it - by using the same excuse I used with my family - and they all prayed for my safe return. I told them that I'll send them postcards regularly to tell them about my travels. Hikari told me to learn how to make foreign desserts and make some for her while Ena wanted me to make her some foreign delicacies when I come back (I actually know how to make them already but I never told them that). As for Yuri, she just asked me to bring back souvenirs.

On the eve of my departure, I start to reminisce about the family I made back in my original world.

It still amazes me to this day how big my family ended up being. Marrying Rin, Saber, Caster, Jackie, Sakura, Rider, Luvia, Bazett, Caren, Gil-Ko, Lorelei, the Sekireis Musubi, Tsukiumi, Akitsu, Karasuba, Miya, Kusano, Matsu, Kazehana, Uzume, Chiho (human), the Dead Apostle Ancestor Altrouge, the True Ancestor Arcueid, the female human personification of humanity's will Alaya-ko, the Aozaki sisters Aoko and Touko had given me many children I cared for.

Remembering Gilgamesh as the nanny still gives me a warm feeling of accomplishment inside my heart.

And finally, Archer, the person who I used to hate his guts for daring to even call himself an Emiya after giving up his ideals. I was finally able to see how despairing it is to be unable to save those who you so desperately want to and that having a family of my own was what prevented me from becoming like him.

Once I considered it, he must have been forced to kill those in Fuyuki City in alternate worlds including Rin, Sakura, Fuji-nee and other people I/he knows time and time again when any of my alternates fail to destroy the Grail. I shuddered at this thought. Even during my travels through the Kaleidoscope I never had to face that kind of decision.

Not only that - after I was able to assimilate more of his memories - I discovered he never even had the chance to sort out his thoughts during his days as a Counter Guardian. He would be continually sent out by Alaya to wipe out every single trace of a threat to humanity when the Counter Force failed, and since we are talking about the existence of parallel and alternate worlds, it is never ending.

I doubt Archer ever had the time to mourn or even firm his resolve before coming back from his last assignment and was sent out again. Worst of all, he was never given any choice to either kill or spare anyone. He was just made to wipe out everything. This cycle continues on and on forever. By this point even I am not presumptuous enough that I won't give up after all that.

I start to think that among others, he also deserves a happy end.

I only hope that Rin and Aoko manage to figure out a way to combine the Second and Fifth Magic to allow him a second chance so that Counter Guardian EMIYA's existence will finally find peace. They also have to be very careful in their experiments so that they don't accidentally create a paradox and erase his existence entirely.

The theory is that if Archer can become a true Heroic Spirit and be placed in the Throne of Heroes, all the parallel worlds that required his summoning in the fifth Grail War can be achieved even if he didn't become a Counter Guardian thus his existence as a Counter Guardian will no longer be needed.

He still has to try and kill my alternate selves in the Grail Wars though, if only to put some sense into their heads.

As for me, I died on a hill of swords at age 47 (physically at least, I was more than 200 years old mentally) fighting against the Magi who was jealous of my family's power and waged war on us. I was forced to fight a whole army of undead, Dead Apostles and dozens of Enforcers. Archer and Gilgamesh were fighting somewhere else, as was everyone else.

I fought to protect my family so my only regret is that I was leaving them behind. I was glad that Takami was able to find a way for my Sekireis to not fall with me when I died. I hope they live a happy life to the very end. Of course - as soon as I'm able to - I would hurry home to their arms once I find a way to go back.

...Or Rin finds me first and starts to Gandr me to the afterlife for dying in the first place.

The next day, I departed from Japan. Shizuka cried the whole way to the airport while Godou tried to comfort her. I bid them goodbye with the biggest smile I can muster. They are also my family now; I'll definitely come back to them once I finish my quest to meet with the Campiones.

Whatever happens, I'll come back to them.

**A/N: For those who don't know yet, this is the rewrite for my draft fic The Fake Campione. I didn't delete that one because I thought it might give an inspiration to other writers and some of the scenes there won't exist here.**

**Anyway, I'm still conflicted whether I should just replace Godou with Shirou going to Italy and fight Verethragna. Or just follow my draft and insert Shirou around after the Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi fiasco.  
**

**I'll decide after some responses to this chapter. I'll happily accept suggestions and critics. Flamers…..well, I'll accept them too.**

**Anyway, please review.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fate/Stay Night or Campione. They belong to their writers Kinoko Nasu &amp; Takedzuki Jou**

***Story start***

It's been a week since I started my journey to meet the Campione.

If you think I'm stupid enough to just go and meet with the Devil Kings without doing any single preparation that might preserve my life against people who has managed to kill a Heretic God, think again.

The Campiones - as far as I know from Yuri's descriptions - are tyrants of the highest order. They can do what they want and to who they want to do it and none may defy them. There are cases like the American Campione, John Pluto Smith, who is considered a masked hero in his domain (I was freakishly reminded of the characters in some of the old sentai series I used to admire when Yuri described him to me) and despite his regular destruction of giant structures during his fights against his enemies, he is seen in a positive light as someone who protects the masses.

The regular destruction of structures he wrought is summarily treated as taxes in exchange for driving off the enemies that threatens those in his domain. However, his positive image also describes him as an eccentric of some kind who likes to be in the limelight as the main character or protagonist in a play or adventure or something like that.

I'm not ashamed to say that I've started to admire him for managing to achieve the very ideal of my childhood dreams.

Still - among the current existing Campiones - he is the only one who can be considered even _remotely_ reasonable. The others that I've heard of are either full of ego (Luo Hao), tyrants (Voban), irredeemable idiots (Doni), thieves (Alec) or a recluse (Aisha). And worst of all, there is no one who could match their powers except each other.

Them meeting each other is a whole other problem.

From my studies about Campiones with Yuri, Campiones usually have strong personalities and are mostly the reason why they would fight each other whenever they meet. The result of this is usually the utter destruction of the environment. Some of the aftereffects of these fights can be seen even today in the form of lands that can no longer support life, huge craters reported as meteor strikes or whole civilizations disappearing over night (Croatia).

Due to this, the various magical organizations in the world would try their utmost to prevent Campiones from ever meeting each other or bar that, from meeting in a hostile environment. For this very reason, it is also generally the best approach to deal with the magical organizations the Campiones are in charge of instead of the Campiones themselves since members of the organizations should know their master's temperament best.

The other reason is the various magical organizations don't even want to deal with the Campiones. Sure, they want the backing of a Campione but they don't want to deal with them either. It's quite a selfish reason but there are reasons to it and it's very a simple reason too. In other words, it is because the Campiones are just troublesome to deal with.

Imagine someone who is an eccentric and wields godly powers that can destroy nations on a whim. Political influence has no bearing to them, brute force is useless against them and they live **long** lives. The organization they're in charge of caters to their every whim because they're either trying to minimize the damage they would cause when they head out to fight Heretic Gods - or whatever it is that Campiones do because of their fancy - or because they just want the power that comes from being backed by a Campione.

Basically, incurring the wrath of a Campione can either get you killed or a lot of innocent victims in a disaster that wasn't supposed to happen in the first place if the Campione is left alone most of the time, so I'm not stupid enough to meet them without collecting as much information about them as I can. Which is why currently, I'm staking out (yes, again with the stakeout) the Witenagemot's Headquarters.

If my studies with Yuri is correct, than this organisation is my best bet in getting the information I need on the Campiones. From Yuri's description, the Witenagemot was formed by people deeply involved with magic: Mages, Occultists, Fairy Doctors, and others. Also those who were short of being experts like ordinary scholars, marketplace researchers, catholic priests, protestant preachers, monks, shinto priests, artists, capitalists, nobles, royalty and even imperial families. Unlike other Mage Associations, the Witenagemot is more of a research organization with a few wizards as members. The Witenagemot of Greenwich can't be called a magic association it is more of a mutual aid society than anything else.

My current objective is to spy on Princess Alice, the Speaker of the Witenagemot, to find out where she lives.

...

...

I'm now currently in England looking for the Speaker of the Witenagemot's home - who's a beautiful lady with long blonde hair that reminds me a bit of Tsukiumi - trying to figure out her secrets.

...

...

I'm becoming a stalker aren't I?

...

...

AHHHH, screw it!

It's not like I haven't done this before to collect information on my targets!

Damn hormones for getting in the way of my missions! This is for the greater good so that I don't unwittingly cause the death of innocent victims by angering a Campione, damn it!

I'll just apologize later if I have to but right now it's a necessity because I still don't want to carelessly announce my presence to the magical community without making sure that I or anyone I know might get caught in the crossfire if I ever make a wrong move. Also, a bunch of the people in the Witenagemot acts like stuck-up nobles. Princess Alice doesn't seem to be like them - from what I've heard - but she is still part of the Witenagemot so her loyalties lies with them.

I can't risk her reporting me to the Witenagemot and getting those I care for in unnecessary danger.

*Sigh*

Now that I've cleared my mind of my conflicting emotions, it's time I make my usual 'information gathering' of Princess Alice.

...

The first time I ever laid eyes on The White Hime-Miko was the first day I arrived in England and went straight to the Headquarters of the Witenagemot. It was actually more of a coincidence that I was able to spot her that day since it seems that Princess Alice does not actually come to the Witenagemot Headquarters regularly because she has a weak body for some reason. I haven't been able to find out if either her body is naturally weak or if she has some sort of illness.

If it is the former than I'm not sure I can help her. Avalon may be able to heal illness and injuries but if the body itself is weak since birth like a weak heart or a similar important organ, than Avalon may not work for her as it is already the natural state of the body. Which is also the reason why I'm really hoping that the cause of her weak body is an incurable illness of some kind that she was inflicted with. Because in that case, Avalon will work for her just fine.

I could have just used Structural Analysis on her to find out what the cause is immediately but there is just one _tiny_ problem with that. Namely, what I'm seeing isn't Princess Alice at all. It is actually ectoplasm that was made to look like her. It is similar to the Kage Bunshin that I'm used to seeing in the Elemental Nations.

I wondered why Princess Alice would send a 'clone' of herself of all things to the Witenagemot but immediately discarded that thought as it was actually very easy figure out why. Since her real body is weak, it stands to reason she would send a clone of herself to deal with physically exhausting matters that may actually worsen her condition so that her 'real' body may rest. It was such an obvious conclusion that I didn't even need 10 seconds to figure out something like that.

Once I figured out that little piece of information I began to form some ideas to use as a bargaining chip when I eventually confront her and start negotiations. If she strongly wishes for her body to recover, I can use Avalon's healing ability to barter for information on the Campiones while making sure that she keeps my existence a secret.

On the other hand, if she is loyal to the cause of the Witenagemot, than she won't fall for such temptations and my cover will be immediately blown the moment I go to meet her. I contemplated on hypnotizing her but had to immediately scrap that plan as Princess Alice is known as one of the strongest Hime-Miko in the world so hypnotism most likely will not work on her and I don't plan on threatening or harming her either unless it is a last resort and even then I may still hesitate.

I may have killed my fair share of people - guilty or not - so my hand is far from clean of the blood of the innocent, but I still prefer not to take any lives if I can help it. The lives I took was for the sake of saving more lives in the end so it was not as if I take delight in taking another person's life. Far from it in fact. If Archer hadn't given me a crash course - during the Holy Grail War - of what I should expect if I pursued my ideal, I probably would've been in despair for not being strong enough to save everyone.

My encounter with him has instead made me strengthen my resolve and the memories I inherited from him allowed me to save more people than what I would've originally been able to thanks to the insight, experience, skills and the many blades that now reside in my Reality Marble that those memories of Archer provided. Thinking of it now, I should've been grateful to him for knocking some sense into my head instead of angry with him for giving up on his ideal.

If Archer hadn't done so, I no doubt would've already walked the same path of self destruction like he did. Of that I'm completely sure as we are after all the same person, burdened with the same ideals we decided to shoulder and distorted with the same kind of beliefs. My encounter with Archer had prevented me from being too naive about my ideals.

It it wasn't for his chastisement I probably would've blundered into some kind of terrible incident with my naive thinking and caused more people to die when trying to stubbornly save everyone instead of trying to save as many as I could by making necessary sacrifices.

Thinking back to the time I fought him in the Einzbern castle made me realize that he wasn't actually trying to kill me back then... In the very depths of his heart anyway. How else could a third-rate magus like myself who didn't even know how to fight properly defeat a Heroic Spirit - even if he was weak from limited prana - who was hardened by his skill and experience in countless battlefields?

Most likely his true objective was to save me. In order to prevent me from making his mistakes by walking down the path of my ideals without knowing the consequences those very ideals entail, he had forcefully made me inherit his memories and experiences. He wanted to save me from the very hell that he has experienced from walking down that path even if he himself didn't realize that he was doing it by telling himself that he just wants to kill me.

That hypocritical bastard.

We really are the same person if even the person we hate most is unconsciously in the list of people we want to save. Our desire to save people is just that strong. The desire to save people is the very core of our being, thus no matter how much we want to deny it we still want to save everyone in front of us no matter how impossible that desire is.

Of course we would still kill those said people if they are beyond saving. Archer would have most likely killed me if I was beyond saving. If he had deemed that I would tread the very same path he did with the same naive beliefs that would destroy me, he would have shown no hesitation and killed me on the spot if only to spare from the very same despair he experienced.

Knowing what I know now, I realize it would have been a kind of mercy for me as well if all that awaits me in that bloody path is the hell that Archer is trapped in right now. Both of us will never wish that kind of hell on anyone. I would have done the same thing if I ever end up meeting an alternate of mine who's trying to go down that path without a bloody clue of what awaits him.

In the end, he made sure that I am fully aware of the folly of blindly following my ideals without the firm resolve required to tread through its blood stained path. It is one of the truths of the world that my naive young self wanted to ignore before getting a huge wake up call by Archer.

You cannot save everyone. The only thing you can do is to save the most number of people by making the least number of sacrifices.

In other words, I have to be ready to harden my heart in order to make the necessary sacrifices to save as many people as I can but at the same time I mustn't lose my heart to my very own ideals. If I start to close my heart I may end up the same as my adoptive father, Emiya Kiritsugu, who was a person that ended up broken and despaired by his very own ideals.

Losing my heart would also mean I would never be able to love my wives and children again, which is something I would never allow myself to do even if I end up having to suffer the despair of sacrificing the few to save the many.

As it is, my hand has long been stained with the blood of the innocent even if it is for the sake of saving more lives. Despite my bloodied hands however, I still manage to gain the love of so many women which in turn showed me how far a person's heart may endure the despair of seeing his ideals to be out of reach again and again and again by just simply having someone or in this case some people who would believe in them, support them and take on the same burdens they themselves decided to shoulder.

Every time I came back on a mission where I again failed to save everyone, basking in the love of my wives and my children that my wives had given birth gave me hope that I had done the best I could to save as many lives as I could and so I should be content that those lives I saved would now have a chance at happiness as long as they live seeking it. And as long as I live to see another day, I could continue on to fight for my ideals of saving people.

It is these kinds of thoughts that had kept me from becoming a stone cold killer with no emotions and nothing to live for except for my ideals which would have eventually destroyed me. If I had, I would not have gained the love of my wives in the first place. So I will never lose the heart that my wives had intended to preserve when walking down the bloody path of my ideal. I will not betray them like that even if they are currently no longer with me, and if I have my way than that won't stay for long either.

I've found some clues that _might_ give me access to a way to go back my original world from my studies with Yuri but for now I have other issues to deal with.

Ever since I started spying on her, I have never been able to find the home residence of Princess Alice. Every time she decided to head back, her 'clone' would just disappear and I would lose the chance to track her home. I once thought that I could tail Miss Ericson - a woman who always accompanies Princess Alice when she's at the Witenagemot - to Princess Alice's home but so far she hasn't gone back yet to wherever that place is as she seems to be busy with filling paperwork.

And it's a lot of paperwork since she still hasn't finished them all even after a week of almost nonstop signing and writing reports for the Witenagemot. I'm even starting to feel sorry for her despite her looking not even the tiniest bit tired from all that desk work. Seriously, I might've gone insane with that amount of paperwork. I silently thank the Root for never putting me in that kind of situation myself.

As I continue my daily stakeout, a limousine drove in front of the Witenagemot's headquarters and I spotted Princess Alice arriving in it. This is the second time I am able to lay eyes on her for the week so I paid close attention to see if I could glean more useful information this time. Unfortunately, it looks like she's doing the same routine as the last time I saw her. Meeting with the stuck-up nobles while being accompanied by Miss Ericson, reading some of the documents the Witenagemot has accumulated, drinking tea like a proper British lady in the court-

Huh?

Did she just winked at me?

That's impossible! I'm about 4 kilometers away with my Archer outfit - to increase my sight - and in a Bounded Field. Hell, I'm wearing parts of the Assassin outfit that gives me Presence Concealment - I've been studying them to look for what could cause the Presence Concealment to make hybrid outfits of my original ones - for good measure. Even Yuri was only able to feel that I'm spying on her without knowing from where and now this woman can not only sense me spying on her but she knows from where too!

Okay. Calm down. I might be just blowing this out of proportion. It could be that she got dust in her eyes which caused her to close one of her eyes out of reflex and made it look like a wink.

Yeah, that's it. That would explain about her 'winking' at me...

Except she's putting up a medium-sized handkerchief saying "Hello. Do you want to talk? It's not nice to spy on people you know?" in front of her in my direction.

...

She's _good_.

Wait. This isn't the time to be impressed with her abilities!

Damn it! I underestimated her and now my cover's blown!

What should I do now?

Okay. Let's start by assessing my current situation. I've been discovered by the very target I'm trying to spy on and my cover is now blown...Or maybe not.

I haven't seen any sign of hostile activity coming in my direction ever since Princess Alice's declaration and now that I think about it, she had made sure to flash me that message while making sure that no one else who was nearby could see her doing it. Not only that, if the message she showed me is her true intent then perhaps she is willing to meet me in a peaceful setting if it's just to have a talk.

It's a naive conclusion but it's something that I very much hope is true. Still, it's always best to prepare for the worst case scenario.

Now then, if she really wants to have a talk with me then she should have figured out a way for us to have some privacy. Or does she expect me to make the necessary arrangements on my own? If it's the former then I'll have be careful of any ambush in case she intends to betray me while the latter makes sure that I will have more control over the circumstances of our meeting even if it means I have to spend days planning for it.

While these thoughts are running through my mind, Princess Alice flashed me another message with a different medium-sized handkerchief. It contained an address for a place somewhere around Hampstead.

Hmmm...looks like she'll be the one making the preparations it seems.

So, do I ignore it and just make my own plans or do I take the bait and hope for the best? The first choice will make me lose an opportunity to set a positive image in Princess Alice's eyes that can make our negotiations smoother while the second choice puts me inside an unfamiliar territory where the enemies have the home advantage if they decide to be hostile with me.

That said, she didn't set a date for us to meet so perhaps she expects me to come at my own convenience. Well, if that's the case I could take a few days to monitor the meeting place - which is probably her home - and come up with a safe way to meet her without alerting the other residents.

Heh, it seems Princess Alice has decided to have a compromise for our meet. She would be in a territory familiar to her while I will be able to make plans and contingencies in case something goes horribly wrong during our 'rendezvous'. If she was able to plan this far ahead, that means she has a very good grasp of diplomacy. Not surprising since she is the Speaker of the Witenagemot but it's still a nice thing to know that she could be reasonable person if a bit manipulative.

Oh, I have no illusions that she is a manipulative person. Her demeanor reminds me a lot of Rin and my wife can spin anyone in her little fingers until they don't even know left from right unless she allow it.

I still love her for it. I don't care if she Gandrs my ass until next week when she's angry with me because I'll still love her and she knows it because she always milks me for all that I'm worth every time it's her turn to get me in bed.

Sometimes I still find it hard to relate my high school crush with the real Rin. Especially since I'd never imagined the school idol to be so...kinky in the bed.

Good old Rin. I miss her.

And all my other wives too of course.

Okay. Now that I have finished reminiscing about my original world, it's time I pay a visit to that address Princess Alice gave me. The sooner I arrive there, the sooner I can case the place and decide whether meeting Princess Alice there is a good idea or not.

I just hope nothing would go wrong though considering my usual luck, it wouldn't be surprising if it did.

**xxx 2 Days Later xxx**

It looks like I was right when I assumed the address of the meeting place Princess Alice gave me is her home.

It's actually a very huge mansion with a size that can rival Jounan high school's main building. I've seen bigger mansions like the one in the Valliere estate before so this is not that intimidating to me.

Despite it's size though, it was not hard for me to map the place out in just half an hour (thank you, Structural Analysis) and find out the patrol routes and schedules of the guards, maids and butlers of the mansion in just one day, especially since there are only around twenty people in the mansion including Princess Alice and her father Duke Gododin.

The guards are stationed on every entrance to the mansion while the others mostly patrol the grounds. There are only a few guards who patrol inside the mansion itself. I thought the amount of guards for the mansion of a Duke was too small until I discovered that all of them are around the rank of a Great Knight. In other words, they had forgone quantity for quality for their guards.

I was glad I had decided to sneak into the Witenagemot's Headquarters five days ago to watch the organization's knights train. Thanks to that, I was able to tell the rank of their knights after some careful observation. From my estimates of their prowess, I could probably match five to seven of the Great Knights at once if I use some of my more _lethal_ weapons. I shouldn't have a problem incapacitating them without killing them if I use my Anti-Magic weapons, but I want to keep those as my trump cards as much as possible.

Other than the residents of the mansion, there are also magical wards around the mansion that acts as an alarm and they are all over the place. Any normal magi would find it hard to penetrate the defenses of those wards without tripping the alarms. Fortunately, I have already met a few of father's (Kiritsugu) alternates and learned the finer arts of 'breaking through' Bounded Fields so this much security isn't going to be a problem.

I might have had some trouble stealthily sneaking into the building with the hounds that the guards bring along with them when they patrol the mansion grounds in my original world but my current Assassin outfit's Presence Concealment also masks my scent in this world so I can circumvent around the hounds without them picking up my scent quite easily.

Basically, it shouldn't be a problem for me to sneak into the building undetected to meet with Princess Alice with my current skill set. My only worry is whether she has the strength to be conversing with me or not.

After finding her room thanks to the usage of Structural Analysis, I was able to confirm the current state of her physical body. If what I gleaned with my Structural Analysis is correct her body is slowly weakening everyday due to her usage of her Hime-Miko powers. Seeing her like this idly reminded me of Yuri's poor stamina before I implanted Avalon inside her. Yuri has been able to do more physical labour ever since, though her stamina is still very low.

Anyway, seeing Princess Alice bedridden the whole day sent a small pain in my chest.

So this is the result of using too much of her powers as a Hime-Miko, huh?

From her behaviour with people I've seen her interacted with, she seemed to have a bubbly and cheerful personality with a bit of love of mischief put in the mix (so she's still the manipulative type). To think that her body is so weak that she isn't even allowed out of her bed because of it. I already knew her body was weak from illness though it seems I had underestimated how ill she truly was.

Despite that, she doesn't seem to have a bleak view of the world. Quite the opposite actually, as I was able to watch her tease one of her maids who seems to have just gotten engaged. I've begun to admire her perseverance. Even when moving her body to go and relieve herself requires tremendous effort on her part.

If our negotiations go well, she should no longer have to worry about her body's condition once I implant another copy of Avalon in her.

Without her knowing of course.

Hell, I'll implant it in her discreetly even if it won't go well. I can't just ignore her plight even if she might become hostile later because of her connection with the Witenagemot and I can't just tell her to betray her own organization either. Also, it might not be her fault if our negotiations failed later considering that I'm trying to keep my own identity a secret so I can't even be honest with her most of the time.

*Sigh*

Now that I have made my decision, it's time I sneak into the house and meet with Princess Alice. It's a good time to do so too since her 'clone' seems to be busy entertaining a guest who came just this evening just before nightfall.

I've already made sure that the guest won't pose any problem to my sneaking in the mansion.

Also, I've discovered that unlike the Kage Bunshin from the Elemental Nations, Princess Alice's 'clone' can't operate without her controlling it. In other words once Princess Alice deploys her 'clone', she will be too busy with controlling her 'clone' to be aware of her physical body's surroundings. If all goes well, I could have enough time to Trace a copy of Avalon and implant it in her before she even realises that I'm in the room with her.

I've abandoned my earlier notion to use Avalon as a bargaining chip to negotiate her silence after seeing her condition. I just hope this won't bite me in the ass later.

After evading the patrolling guard in the mansion grounds, I scaled the darker side of the mansion's walls and arrived at the roof. From there, it's just a matter of moving slowly so as not to make too much noise and 'passing' through the various wards without triggering them to arrive at Princess Alice's balcony. I've begun to appreciate the wonders of Presence Concealment ever since arriving in this world.

The lives I could have been able to spare when I was in my original world with it.

Unlocking the balcony's glass door is a piece of cake with my two centuries of experience. Once I arrive inside her room, I used a quick Structural Analysis just in case she prepared a 'surprise' for me.

Turns out she did prepare **something **though I wasn't expecting it.

It looks like she already knew I would come tonight - Figures, even Yuri was able to predict my coming, so why shouldn't she? - and prepared a note beside her bed.

_"Dear Mister Mysterious Stalker,_

_Please wait for me inside my room until I've finished entertaining my guest._

_Do not worry, I have no intention of sending the guards after you as long as you don't do anything untoward to me or the people in my home._

_I'm quite sure you are itching to have a chat with me so please be a gentleman and wait for me quietly._

_Sincerely,_

_Alice Louise"_

...

...

...

I'm speechless.

I don't even know what to think right now.

She already knew I was coming and prepared a note to ask for me to wait until her guest has left. If I take the note at face value, than she really just want us to sit down and talk and as long as I don't do anything to harm anyone in the mansion, than she would not send her guards to put me down.

What are her intentions though?

I'm a stranger to her. She only knows that I have been spying on her and that's supposed to make her more cautious instead of welcoming me with open arms.

The more I try to figure out her thought process the more confusing it becomes.

*Sigh*

Well, at least she is not hostile so our negotiation should go smoother than I expected. It's still too soon to tell but from her reaction towards my spying on her, she seems to be handling it quite well even if I consider this whole situation as weird. Also, like I had hoped, she is now concentrating on entertaining her guest using her 'clone' so I'm free to do what I had decided earlier.

"Trace... On."

Muttering my aria I prepared to Trace another copy of Avalon. Princess Alice has deigned to welcome me with open arms despite the negative impression that I should have given her when I spied on her. Since she has decided to extend to me her goodwill, it stands to reason that I should give something back. If I use Avalon as a bargaining chip now, after all what Princess Alice had done for me, I might never be able to look myself in the mirror ever again for using this girl's only hope to move about with her own body against her.

Just like I had done all those years ago for Yuri, I made sure that the copy of Avalon is perfectly recreated in every single aspect. It's power, history, aura, appearance, everything. I will not allow a single imperfection to mar this particular Noble Phantasm for the very concept it represents.

A utopia.

A place where a person may feel safe and protected, knowing that nothing may harm them when they are there. There are times that I wish I could do the very same to everyone I wanted to save.

Finishing my Tracing of Avalon, I place the scabbard on Princess Alice's body and _push_ \- for the lack of a better word - it inside her.

There, it's done. Now that Avalon is inside her, Princess Alice should be making a speedy recovery.

Using my Structural Analysis, I find that Avalon is already working its miracle to heal Princess Alice's body. At the rate it's healing her, it would probably take about a week, give or take a few days, for the Noble Phantasm to fully heal her. She should already be able to move about with her own body in a few days. This is probably the only thing I would be able to do for her that's personal. After this, it would probably be strictly professional. Still, imagining Princess Alice being able to enjoy the full advantages of a perfectly healthy body fills my heart with a certain warmth of accomplishment.

It is times like these where I would be able to save someone without sacrificing anything that I truly treasure, for these are the only times my ideal may come true in its truest and most beautiful form.

All that I have to do now is set up some Bounded Fields to give us some privacy - you can never be too careful - and wait for Princess Alice to return her consciousness to her body.

**xxx Scene Break xxx**

After a few hours of waiting patiently in her room, Princess Alice finally woke up to address me.

"Hello, Mister Mysterious Stalker. It is nice to finally meet you in person. I am Alice Louise of Navarre. Please call me Alice." She said in a cheerful voice.

Not the most endearing way to refer to someone but considering that I've been spying on her, it could have been a lot worse. "Hello, Miss Alice. You may call me Archer." I answered her while bowing slightly with all the manners of an English gentleman I could recall.

"Oh, my. You are quite the gentleman. I never actually expected that and your choice of an alias is quite interesting as well."

"Now, will you finally tell me why you have been trying to collect information on me for the last week, Mister Archer? Since I didn't sense any sort of ill intention, I assume that you just want to speak with me?"

I'll say it again. She's _good_.

"Yes, you are correct. As you perhaps have deduced, I wanted to have a chance to speak with you without revealing myself to your organisation. Would you allow me this selfishness of mine for not wanting to reveal my identity?"

She smiled softly to me - which is a very beautiful smile that made me blush - before answering. "Very well. As long as you don't have any ill intentions toward myself, my oranisation or the people in this mansion I will allow your selfishness during our meetings. Now, what is it that you want to talk to me about?"

So far so good.

"I thank you for your generosity. I'm here to ask a favour of you. I would like to know all the information that you and your organization have been able to collect on the current existing Campiones." Better try to do this as polite as I can. Good manners can take you a long way.

Alice closed her eyes and seemed to be in deep thought. When next she opened her eyes, her features had become more serious. "What would you do with that information if I decide to give them you?"

Better not lie to her now. I'm confident in my poker-face especially since I'm wearing my shroud that covers my whole face and head except the eyes but if her instinct as a Hime-Miko is strong enough - which she has already demonstrated - she will likely be able to tell if I lie.

Here goes then.

"I'm planning to go on a journey to meet all the current existing Campiones. The information that you can give me will allow me to try my best not to incur their wrath or bar that, escape their wrath with my life intact."

Alice's whole body was stunned and she was only able to blink at me. Her mouth was slightly opened as well. It took her about ten seconds to finally form the words she wanted.

"You are serious? Why would you want to meet all the current existing Campiones? You do know **who **and how dangerous they are don't you?" Her voice sounded a little worried and alarmed.

"My reason to meet them is...personal. Suffice to say that I just want to meet with them face to face so that I can make my own judgement on what kind of people they are. And yes, I do know the general consensus on what kind of people and how dangerous they are. Even so, I'm still going to go and meet them. With or without the information I currently seek."

Alice just stared at me. She looks a bit incredulous.

"So whether or not I give you the information you want you will still go and seek the Campiones?"

Since there's nothing else I could add to that statement, I just nodded.

Alice seems to be contemplating something with a troubled expression before she sighed and asked me her next question. "If I were to order my guards to seize you right now, what are the chances that they will succeed?"

Hmm...looks like Alice is worried about the consequences of what would happen if she just let me go to meet the Campiones, though she seems conflicted whether or not to send her guards to capture me.

I wonder why?

It's not like we've known each other for long, so she shouldn't be this troubled to capture me if she deems me a threat. Not only that, other than my polite manners I don't think I've made any positive impressions ever since we've met. Unless she's reluctant to apprehend me because I haven't done anything to harm anyone - yet - she shouldn't be this conflicted to give the order to her guards.

I better prepare myself for the worst case scenario. The situation might still be salvageable but there's no telling wha-

The moment I felt a familiar sensation, I reacted on reflex.

It's a sensation that I'm used to feeling whenever I sparred with Negi in the first form of his Raiten Taisou. Suffice to say, I was able to finally master the ability to predict Negi's movements after about a month of training with him in Evangeline's resort. The ability required me to perceive the ionic discharge that he releases whenever he moves using his Raisoku Shundo.

Thanks to the training, I was able to make myself move on reflex to Trace Kanshou and Bakuya and cut the place where I predicted Negi would appear when he comes out of his Raisoku Shundo.

Which is exactly what I'm doing right now.

Fortunately, my mind caught up with my body's movement fast enough to stop myself from beheading a man in a suit who suddenly appeared in a burst of lightning. Both my swords are now mere millimeters from the man's neck.

What the hell just happened?

My body had reacted completely on reflex when I felt the ionic discharge I had trained myself to feel. However, other than that lightning using version of Fate (I don't remember his name) and Negi himself, I was sure there was no one in this world who could use Raisoku Shundo. There **is** however only one person in this world that most likely could use a similar version of it ever since he usurped an authority that turns him into lightning.

The English Campione, Alexander Gascoigne.

Great, I've just tried to behead one of the only 6 existing Campione in the world.

My reflexive action had caused the whole room to be deathly silent. Not surprising since they just saw me try to behead someone who had suddenly appeared in Alice's room by - most likely - moving at lightning speed (literally) and would have likely succeeded in beheading him if I hadn't stopped myself at the last moment.

"Who are you?" The Black Prince Alec finally asks.

"Archer." I couldn't exactly form a more detailed answer as my mind right now is going into overdrive trying to figure out a way for this whole situation not to end with people dying from a Campione's rampage.

"Not giving your real name, huh? Tch. Fine then. Do you mind moving those swords away from my neck now?" He sounded irritated but doesn't seem to be enraged.

Good. This might still end without any bloodshed.

Needing no more urging from the Devil King, I removed Kanshou and Bakuya from his neck and made a gesture that looked like I was storing my swords in the back of my coat while I actually astralized them instead (A trick I learned to use for all Noble Phantasms. It's really useful if I want to save prana by Tracing them earlier and materializing them when I need them).

"Sorry about that. It was a conditioned reflex." Although he doesn't seem angry I better apologize and explain just in case.

"Reflex? You're telling me you felt me coming?" The Campione didn't sound convinced by my explanation.

"Of course he did. How would he have been able to put those swords on your neck otherwise?" Alice said this while sounding quite amused.

Huh, looks like the whole spectacle was actually entertaining for her. If she isn't alarmed by the whole thing then maybe this situation really will end peacefully. Better make sure that I don't make anymore mistakes though.

"I'm used to dealing with someone who uses lightning magic a lot. So when I felt the ionic discharge that announced your arrival, my body acted on its own." There, an easily understandable and veritable explanation.

"I see. So my ability can be easily predicted by sensing the ionic discharge that I emit, huh? Tch. Better try to find a counter for that." He sounded a bit annoyed that one of his abilities could be easily countered.

"Never mind that now Alex, you can figure out how to do that later. So, how does it feel to almost lose your head by an unknown magic user instead of another Campione or a Heretic God?" Alice still sounded very amused by this whole event.

From the way she talks with the Campione, it can be easily deduced that they know each other quite well. Also, she seems to have either forgotten about our earlier conversation or just decided to shelve the matter for the moment. Either way, it's an opportunity for me to buy some time try to find a way convince her.

"Mind your own business." The Black Prince sounded more annoyed than before.

"Oh? So you don't feel even a bit ashamed that you were bested by a _mere_ magic user?" Even I can see that right now Alice is filled with glee.

"He didn't beat me." Despite Alice's teasing, Alex still hasn't lost his temper. Although he is getting more annoyed by it.

"He would've if he hadn't stopped himself at the last moment. Otherwise, you would've been a head shorter already." Alice is really milking this whole situation for what it's worth it seems.

"Even so, he still didn't beat me and that means I'm still a King no matter what you say." That statement made me frown a little. Does he think being a King is that easy?

"Huhuhu. Whatever you say Alex. So, what reason do you have to honour me with your visit?" Alice seems to have decided that she has teased Alex enough, though I have the feeling that she'll never let this matter end that easily. She's probably never gonna let Alex forget about this night. Ever.

"I heard that some of your people was able to pinpoint the current location Guinevere is holed up in. I want you to tell me where she is and the report that the person who found her filed in." Alex seems to have decided that moving the matter along is his best choice for now. If only he knew.

"Ah, it's about that is it? I apologize, but you're too late. Guinevere has already left that place a while ago and we've lost track of her again." Alice answered with an apologetic look.

Yup, she's lying.

I've had enough experience to read someone from their expressions, so I can tell she's lying through her teeth. And if I can tell that she's lying than maybe...

"You're lying." Yeah, like I thought, Alex was also able to see through her lie too.

"Tell me where she is. Now, or I'll force it out of you." Damn, looks like he's starting to lose his temper. If I remember correctly from my studies with Yuri, Guinevere is currently the strongest Divine Ancestor (a Mother Earth Goddess who has lost most of her divinity) and is being pursued by Alex for some reason that Yuri doesn't know yet.

Still, I can't let Alex go through with his threat. I guess it's time to use my ultimate intimidation technique. It's been a long time since the last time I used this technique on someone else, but I kept practicing it in the woods so that I won't become rusty with it. I'm _really _interested on the effects it has on a Campione but I'll also have to be careful so that I don't take it too far. This is going to be a **huge** gamble.

"Mister Alex, threatening a young maiden who is bed ridden from sickness is...**forbidden."**

I was never able to see it for myself, but I knew when I have successfully materialised the Ashura - as everyone has decided to call it that - as I can feel the menacing aura that's coming from the space behind my left shoulder. This technique has never disappointed me whenever I want to use it to scare someone senseless without harming them in the slightest.

...Well, physically at least.

And just like I thought, both Alice and Alex reacted instantly to the Ashura's face that I know has materialised behind me. All the blood was drained from Alice's face while Alex has become almost as pale as a ghost. Both of them were trembling in fear but Alex was able to keep his trembling from being too obvious. I guess it should be expected of a Campione to be able to still keep his cool when confronted by this technique even if barely.

Heh. I love this technique.

"Now then, since everyone has calmed down a little, we can continue with the conversation without resorting to any violence."

I decided to break the silence after ending the projection. It's better that they don't get used to it or, heaven forbid, seeing it too long will let them figure out how to do it too. After all, I was able to use it after seeing it a number of times and was finally able to reproduce it after a few months of research. And I'm only third-rate magus.

It was only because Miya has restrained herself from using this technique in front of other magi that Rin, Luvia, Bazett, Lorelei and Medea was never able to figure out how to do it too. Needless to say, I never used it in front of them either.

"Big words from someone who tried to intimidate us using a mysterious ability." Alex said a bit menacingly. Wow, he was able to recover from _that_ real fast. As expected of a Campione.

"Whatever do you mean?" I used my most innocent voice like I do every time I feign ignorance after using the Ashura.

"Don't play dumb, I'm talking about that..._thing _that was floating behind you just now." Alex seems to be losing his calm more and more.

I know it isn't right and not only that, it's a really risky thing to intimidate a Campione but I can't help it. It's always so much fun to mess with people after using the Ashura, it's practically a tradition between me and Miya.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He most likely can't see it because of the shroud I'm wearing - he probably can if he's good enough to read my expression only from my eyes - but right now I'm smiling at him with my most innocent smile. Again, it's one of the ways me and Miya always feigned ignorance after using our respective 'masks'.

A vein appeared on Alex's forehead - What is this? A cartoon? - but before he could say anything else, he was cut off by Alice mumbling loudly to herself. "Hmm...project a menacing aura...the word 'forbidden' is used as a keyword...most likely the user's own mental depiction of what is considered fearful..."

Huh?

That sounded like someone analyzing something they saw that they completely immersed themselves in their thoughts.

No way! Was she able to figure it out? That can't be! It took me months to learn it by myself! And she only saw it once!

No. Not yet, she hasn't figured out how to do it yet but I better stop her before she makes any headw-

"I think I've figured it out."

Too late!

"Alex, trying to threaten me in my own home is...**forbidden**."

I don't believe it. She was actually able to do it after just seeing it once. ONCE!

Like I feared, Alice was able to figure out how to materialise her own version of this technique. Right behind the space of Alice's left shoulder there was the face of a woman with very long dirty black hair that covers even its own face but its bloody mouth and one of its wide bloodshot eyes can be clearly seen from the openings of its hair.

It looked like the ghost from a horror movie called The Ring I saw once but a lot creepier and the menacing aura that's being emitted by it makes it scarier than anything its movie counterpart could ever hope to achieve.

And it was _really_ creepy.

I can feel my face paling and the blood on my face draining a bit, but thankfully the many times I've faced this technique from Miya has allowed me some measure of resistance to it. Alex however, started to stagger back a little with his face paler than the time he saw my Ashura. Not surprising since I held back earlier because I didn't want to scare Alice too much and cause her weak body to become worse even if Avalon is currently slowly healing her and I didn't want to over do it when intimidating a Campione.

Alice however, is not holding back at all. She was even able to reproduce the bloody eyes that I sometimes see Miya do when she was more serious. Alice was also making her projection take out it's long tongue that looks real slimy and creepy and moving it about like a snake which is also quite disgusting. This is almost as scary as that time Miya went all out and produced her Hannya mask in the dozens with bloody eyes and...

I shivered. I _really_ don't want to remember that.

"This is all your fault." Alex seems to want blame me for (unintentionally) teaching Alice this frightening ability.

I can't fault him for that, because I'm currently blaming myself too. I should've known better than to show this world's current strongest Hime-Miko this technique if even I could learn how to do it after just seeing it a couple of times, but it's too late for any regrets now.

What have I unleashed into this world?

"Oh? Whatever are you referring to?" Looks like Alice is also copying my innocent act like I did earlier.

...

...

I've already said it twice but I'll say it again. She's _good_.

At her blatant mimicry of my ability and manners I just glared at her a little and she just smiled back at me with the usual innocent smile me and Miya use whenever we feigned innocence.

Damn. She's doing that too, huh? And I can't just chastise her without being a complete hypocrite about it.

Why?

Because I'm the biggest Faker in the world! That's why! Everything I _do_ is based on copying others. But I'm still going to say something even if it'll make me hypocrite.

"You damn copycat."

"Ohohoho. I honestly have no idea what it is you are referring to."

Damn it!

Root! I know this is all your fault as much as it is mine but I'm still going to push all the blame on you!

Damn you, Root!

"Tch. Enough of this. Tell me where Guinevere is. NOW!" Alex has finally lost his cool and has started to raise his voice but even I can tell that it's just bravado because his face is still pale and his body is still trembling.

In response, Alice only sounded teasing. "How rude. It's very ungentlemanly to force a lady you know? Your title of Prince is surely weeping right now."

"You-" Before Alex could finish his sentence, Alice projected her...Ghost Woman faintly behind her and caused him stop.

Huh. I never thought to project my Ashura mask like that before, and it looks like Alice has perfect control of her Ghost Woman. How much talent does she have?

"Guh! Fine! I'll just find her myself!" At that, he suddenly disappeared in a burst of lightning.

That was...anticlimactic.

He was here for only about 15 minutes and he is already running with his tail between his legs. Isn't he supposed to be a god slayer? I was sweating buckets trying to figure out a way to make our earlier clash not end in the total destruction of this side of the country and now he just up and leaves after being confronted by Alice's Ghost Woman? Just like that? That technique is **really** terrifying if it could even frighten someone like him.

...Well, I guess that's expected. Even I feel like running away whenever I'm confronted by that technique and I've fought Heroic Spirits, Dead Apostles, Phantasmal Beasts, man eating zombies and other unspeakable horrors. Hell, I've been closer to death more times than I can count and have died once already! It's no wonder that Campiones who have fought Heretic Gods would be afraid of this ability too.

Really. What was I thinking when I (unintentionally) taught her this ability?

"Well. Now that the interruption has gone. Where were we?" Alice looks really happy right now.

Huh?

Oh, that's right!

We were negotiating about giving me all the information the Witenagemot has on all the Campiones but the earlier debacle made me forget about the whole thing!

Damn it! I was supposed to use the extra time I had from Alice's and Alex's unexpected meeting to figure out a way to convince Alice to hand me the information. I have to figure something out! Fast!

Hypnotize her? No go. She's the current strongest Hime-Miko. There's no way it'll work on her!

Threaten her?...Yeaaaah. NO!

Seduce her?...Still no go! I've never flirt with anyone, never mind know how to (consciously) seduce them! Now that's a thought. I've married more than a dozen beautiful women but I've never tried seducing any of them. How the hell did everyone kept falling for me? Damn it! I'll figure that out later. I can't believe I even considered that option!

What else can I do?

"There's actually not that many personal information that we posses on the current Campiones but the procedures that I will have to go through will take up some time since the information itself is kept highly classified. Still, it shouldn't take more than 3 days to collect the information you will need, so could you come back to meet me again by then?" Alice said in her - more than usual - cheery voice.

How about if I- Huh?

"What?" That was the only thing that I was able to say after having my thoughts that were going more than a mile a minute suddenly stop dead.

"*Sigh* I said that you can come back after 3 days to collect the information you need." Alice huffed a little while putting both her hand on her hip because she had to repeat herself.

It actually makes her look quite cute.

No! Don't get distracted! Okay. How the hell did she just go from considering to capture me with her guards to willingly give me the information I need without even negotiating for anything?

Hmm? Wait. Just now. Didn't she seem very happy?

"Are you...in _that_ good a mood?"

"Why, yes actually. Thank you for asking." Alice sounded quite pleased too.

"Why?" Seriously. If it was this easy to make her happy, I might've saved myself a lot of headaches from thinking too much on how to do it. Well, at least seeing her smile like this gives me a warm feeling in my chest.

"When you first asked me to give you the information I was worried for both the safety of the population and yourself when you meet the Campiones. As you know, there's no telling what would happen if you go and meet them." She looked a bit worried at this.

So, she was worried about me as much as she was worried about everyone else. She really is a good person. I should apologize to her later for worrying her.

"However, your...almost beheading of Alex showed that you're quite experienced in battle. Enough to even give a Campione some trouble, if my estimate is correct."

Yikes. She was able to find out that much from that little scene? Well, maybe _little _isn't an apt description but I'm sure I didn't reveal _that_ much either.

"Also, when Alex tried to threaten me, you came to my defence even when you knew he was a Campione. I was able to tell from your reaction that you've already figured out his identity. Despite that, you didn't back down because you were worried for me. That shows you are very good person because you wouldn't allow anyone you see get hurt if you can help it."

I just scratch the back of my head - like I always do when I'm embarrassed - at that statement.

She was able to figure out that too? It could be just me trying to score points with her, but doing that reckless stunt in front of a Campione is probably what made her believe that it was legit and that I didn't have any other motives.

"Not only that, you gave me an ability to scare even a Campione! Oh, I'll have so much fun with this ability. Huhuhuhu." Alice was really happy at this I can almost feel her cheerful spirit.

So that's the real reason! She was happy that she was able to gain an ability to make even a Campione cower!

Ugh!

Please don't tell me she wants to conquer the world with it!

"From all this, I can tell you are not a bad person and whatever your motives are for meeting the Campiones, I'm sure that it is anything but selfish if your determined eyes when you said that it was _personal_ is anything to go by. So I know you definitely won't misuse the information even if I hand it to you. On the contrary, you most likely would make sure that no one will be inconvenienced by it. It is why you seek the information about the Campiones in the first place." She just smiled softly at me when she said this.

I blushed a little. Although I already know this, she's quite beautiful when she smiles like that. And it seems I've set a positive image in her eyes from that last debacle.

I'm glad.

It really was the right decision not to make Avalon a bargaining chip in this negotiation. If all goes well, she should make a full recovery after I leave to meet the Campiones. It's a pity I won't be able to see her myself once she recovers but I'll still have the chance to do so after I finish my current mission.

"Thank you for this Miss Alice. I'll never forget this favour. So, I can just come back in three days to collect the files I need right?"

"Yes, that's correct. Make sure you come at midnight and don't be late. It's rude to make a lady wait you know." As always, she said this in her cheerful teasing voice. I did sense a little mischief in there somewhere but right now, I couldn't care less about it.

"Then I'll just be on my way. Oh, by the way, it's not much to repay this favour, but do you have anything you would like me to make? I'm confident in my culinary skills." Well, it's the least I could do to repay the favour and I'm sure she would love my cooking.

She just blinked a few times before smiling at me again. Am I imagining things or did she just become more beautiful than before?

"Oh, Sir Archer, you really are someone who could not stop with the surprises. Very well, in preparation for that night, I'll keep myself from eating dinner then. I hope you don't disappoint. As for what I'd like. Hmmm...perhaps you could surprise a lady such as myself? As long as I deem it elegant and delicious that should be enough to satisfy me." Alice looks both excited and amused at the same time and her smile is becoming more radiant.

Is she glowing? Nah, just my imagination. But why is it that I keep thinking that she's becoming more beautiful? Well, it's true anyway so I'll just leave it at that.

Also, she has just issued me a challenge.

Oh, I'm definitely going to enjoy this. I have a whole repertoire of elegant dishes that I'm sure that a lady like her will definitely love. But something like that isn't going to be enough for this so I'm going to pull out all the stops short of my best - which will make her orgasm - for this particular dish. I'd say she deserves it and I can think of it as an early congratulatory gift for her full recovery.

I wonder if she'll ever figure out that I'm the one responsible for her recovery?...Nah, there's no evidence that might connect me to her recovery except the 'coincidence' of the time of our meeting and the time that she recovers.

All's well that ends well I always say. Heheh. Always wanted to say that.

"Alright then, I'll come back in three days with my specialty dish. I'm sure you'll love it. Good night then Miss Alice."

"I can barely wait Sir Archer. Good night." Alice's smile is really radiant now. It really suits her.

After hearing her answer, I decided to just jump out the window and into the night. Everything went well tonight - well, almost everything - so it's a cause for celebration. The success of tonight's mission gave me hope that perhaps everything else will go just as well.

**xxx Alice's 3rd Person POV xxx**

She has never felt happier than she is before tonight.

Her body is healing. HEALING!

How many doctors and healers have tried to diagnose and failed miserably to find a way to cure her illness? She has lost count of all of the specialists that her father had hired in the hopes that they could find a way to maker her recover from her illness. All the research on the various healing spells that currently exists in the world had not yet even come close to find a way to heal her.

And now, a mysterious stalker that calls himself Archer who has been spying on her for the last week, showed up in her room and somehow healed her!

She has a very good idea how he managed it too.

Ever since she returned to her body after entertaining her guest - another stuck-up noble who just wants more prestige - she could feel her body that was so heavy before this - that just having a short conversation in her body takes so much effort that she would collapse soon after - is now lighter even if not by very much. But what surprises her is that her body - instead of becoming heavier and weaker after conversing - felt lighter and lighter at a very slow rate. After she discovered this, she used her Spirit Sensing on her body to find out what's happening with her body.

It was then, that she discovered..._something_ that was imbedded in her just a few hours ago that was slowly healing her. It was most likely a powerful Divine Artifact of some kind for what else could it be that it is able to - even now - slowly heal her?

She has no doubt that the person who imbedded this in her is Archer for he was the only one who was near her body around the time the Divine Artifact was imbedded in her.

At first, she was worried that Archer was going to use this Artifact as a bargaining chip to get what he wants in exchange for giving her the only thing that had any hope of healing her weakening body. Instead, he never even brought up the subject of the Artifact and her instinct is telling her that he seems content to keep it a secret.

She was a bit suspicious of that, but as long as her body isn't directly being searched through mystical means, the Artifact that was implanted in her will never be discovered by anyone. This is because, whatever magical presence the Artifact is emitting, it doesn't seem to be leaking out of her body. What that means is that if there is anyone or any Heretic God who might be looking for the Artifact, they will never find it as long as she keeps the existence of the Artifact a closely guarded secret.

If that is the only price she has to pay in order for her to keep the Artifact for herself so that she may finally move about with her own body without it deteriorating anymore than it already is, than she will gladly pay it. Archer may have had some ulterior motive for imbedding the Artifact in her but she can't help but feel grateful to him for doing it.

That is, if he ever had any ulterior motive.

After interacting with Archer - even if it is for a very short time - she can tell that he is not a person who would wish ill upon others without very good reason. Her long experience in interacting with people who have either noble and ill intentions was enough for her to classify Archer as the former.

The more she thought about his behaviour, the more she is convinced that Archer had imbedded the Artifact in her for the very reason that it is actually for her sake and that reason alone. He did not even consider the act as a favour to her let alone desire any sort of compensation from her if his offer to make dinner for her is any indication.

Giving up information on the Campione in exchange to have her wish granted was a small price to pay in comparison.

Still, when she first found out about Archer's desire to meet all the Campiones, she was very conflicted.

In one hand, his quest might jeopardize the safety of many innocents, a disaster she is honour bound to prevent as she was in the very position to do so. It is the reason she didn't want to tell Alex where Guinevere is currently hiding, as the place is actually filled with people who has nothing to do with the supernatural side of the world. Telling Alex where Guinevere is currently hiding will needlessly endanger their lives for no other reason than the Campione's selfishness, even if he is the type that likes to plan things out before engaging in a battle.

On the other hand, Archer is her saviour who bestowed her - without telling her - a powerful healing Artifact and he most likely did it because he wished for her well being and only that. If she had any doubts about his motives, they were all squashed the moment Archer tried to defend her from a Campione while being fully aware of who he was confronting and how dangerous it was to do so.

Just remembering that scene makes her picture Archer in a dazzling armor on a white horse. Her prince charming who would always come to her rescue.

Perhaps this is what people call love at first sight? Or is it just her gratitude for Archer playing with her mind?

Either way, when he confronted Alex with his...Ashura, her Hime-Miko instincts suddenly fired up and spoke to her that this man would defend her from anything that tries to harm her. Not only that, she also felt he was very powerful, enough to give even a Campione a run for their money. This confused her in more ways than one.

For one thing, she has felt the magical power that Archer emits and she was sure he was not that strong in that department as even she surpasses him by a very wide margin let alone a Campione whose magical power exceeds even hundreds of old and powerful sages.

However, Archer seems to possess a range of strange abilities if his ability to break into the mansion completely undetected except for her (and even then it's because she was specifically keeping an eye out for him), producing swords out of thin air (she was sure he was not pulling it out of a pocket dimension like other knights and mages she knows usually do) and that Ashura of his that could cower even a Campione (she is _so _going to have fun messing with the nobles at the Headquarter with this new ability of hers).

Perhaps he has other strange abilities that could baffle even Campiones?

Although it seems unlikely, she somehow feels that Archer could most likely pull it off. Also, this is **both** of her instincts that are informing her of all this, so how can it be wrong?

She has long since been able to separately identify which of her instincts that are informing her, her ordinary human instincts and her Hime-Miko instincts. Basically, her Hime-Miko instincts has never been wrong in its predictions and everything that it has ever told her while her human instincts are less reliable and much more...primitive in its interpretations (such as telling her that she should jump Archer and get him in her bed the next time they meet, which is exactly what she is planning to do).

If her Hime-Miko instincts tell her something, she knew enough that it will always be true but now **both **of her instincts are informing her that a mage that doesn't even have a quarter of her magical powers could duke it out with a Campione and has a good chance of coming out on top. The experience is so mind boggling and bizarre that her logical mind has started to try and find the many faults in that line of thinking.

But her instincts will not be denied.

There has been many times when her Hime-Miko instincts have informed her of matters that can sometimes be considered ludicrous but despite her scepticism, they have always been true and it has happened so many times that she has started to ignore her human instincts in favour of her Hime-Miko instincts if they ever clash.

So if **both **of her instincts are agreeing on a particular subject, that could only mean that it is an absolute and undeniable truth no matter how much her logical mind wants to protest. It is the reason she stopped worrying for him if he ever meets the other Campiones and his noble bearing guarantees that he will make sure that the masses will not be inconvenienced by his actions. Which is why she finally agreed to give the information on the Campiones to him.

The more pressing question is, how can something like this be possible?

It is one thing to accept an impossible conclusion no matter how ludicrous it is but another thing to figure out how something that is considered an impossibility to be even remotely real.

Does it have something to do with the Artifact that is currently imbedded in her?

How was Archer able to acquire such a thing?

Where did Archer learn those strange abilities of his because she has never encountered anything like them before.

So many questions but so few clues to form an even remotely satisfying answer.

There is one thing she was able to figure out from her jumbled mind however and it made everything else that surface in her mind become pointless.

She was in love with Archer.

Why she suddenly developed such a feeling for someone that could only be considered as a total stranger is still a puzzle to her as well. She supposed it was caused by her gratitude to him for granting one of her dearest wish to move freely with her own body, which was a wish she had given up on after experiencing so many failures in trying to heal her and he didn't even try to take credit for it.

Simply put, this was the so called scenario where a damsel in distress is saved by a hero and they fell in love with each other, a childish dream she once had at a very young age that she ended up burying in the very depths of her heart as time flew by and she started to grow up.

To think that the small childish dream she once had would come true.

A person suddenly shows up in her life and saves her from her predicament. He then proceeds to defend her when the Devil King (Campione) tries to threaten her. He (unintentionally) bestows her an ability that could even drive away said Devil King if used correctly. And finally he offers her dinner of his own making as a token of gratitude for her generosity when the one who should feel such a thing was herself.

The feeling of her gratefulness to Archer is so strong right now that it's making her have thoughts that are both silly and romantic.

Once she considers whether to push through with her feelings, her Hime-Miko instincts flared up again informing her that if she ever let him go without telling him of her feelings for him, then she would regret it for the rest of her life. Her human instincts is again telling her to just bed him and be done with it.

Well, if both of her instincts are in agreement of her feelings then who is she to consider otherwise?

Now then, in preparation for their next tryst, perhaps she should learn about those Karma Sutra things that Hindus practice.

She can't wait to see Archer's reaction to her 'feelings' when next they meet.

**A/N: Alright guys before anyone start flaming me for the final scene, I'm just gonna say that I agree with you.**

**I've been trying to make her fall for Shirou in a believable way but even after hours of brainstorming, I can't seem to figure out a way that I can be satisfied with, so I'm going to put this up and get everyone's opinion on the scene.**

**While you guys are busy evaluating the scene, I'm going to start writing the next chapter. I'll most likely modify some things in the last scene and post it at the same time as the next chapter. Don't worry, I'll make sure to tell you guys if I make the changes or not so you don't have to read the whole scene again to confirm it. If you guys think it's okay, I'll just leave it as it is.**

**By the way, after I was told how the review system worked, I've decided to make The Fake Campione (Draft) fic as a place to dump draft chapter, previews and scrapped chapters for this fic so if anyone is interested, please look there for these things.**

**Well, please review and don't hold back anything. I'll gladly welcome everything you guys will throw at me.**


	3. Chapter 2 (Incomplete)

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fate/Stay Night or Campione. They belong to their writers Kinoko Nasu &amp; Takedzuki Jou**

**I've decided to drop this fic, but I thought that I should just post what I've already written. This is an incomplete chapter 3 of The Hero Of A Thousand Blades. Hope you guys would enjoy it and forgive my selfishness for dropping it.**

**If all goes well however, I'll do a rewrite of my fic that I hope is much better than my current one.  
**

**Well, happy reading.**

**WARNING! Some lime - maybe lemon, I'm not sure - abound. You have been warned.**

**xxx Preview start xxx**

I wake up in the early morning as usual.

My eyes open and started blinking a few times to adjust themselves to the light of the room. Once my eyes have adjusted themselves, I see the familiar scene of my tent that I had Traced last night to sleep in. I lay in my futon - that I had also Traced last night - for a few more seconds before flexing and stretching my muscles a little to get rid of the fatigue from sleeping the whole night. Beside me, just a few steps away, my companion - in the futon I Traced for him - also starts to wake from his slumber.

"*Yawn* Morning, Archer."

"Morning, Yinghua."

Yinghua turned to face me with a sleepy look on his face. "I can't believe you actually lasted the whole six months of Master's training without taking off that outfit of yours. *Yawn* Well, except when you go bathing, whenever that is. You even actually sleep in it. Doesn't it ever get...smelly or stuffy?"

"I always Trace this outfit when I need it. The one I used before that, were always turned back to magical energy."

Yinghua had a stupid look on his face. Probably because the thought never occurred to him. "I can't believe I never realized that. I'm definitely going to figure out how to do your Tracing magic. It's really handy." At this, he starts to look around the tent at the various household items that I Traced last night to make our dinner. A wok, a kettle, a few bowls, forks, spoons, cutleries, a chopping board and two wooden cups.

"Never mind that, Yinghua. This is the last day for our survival training that Her Eminence had us go through. After this, you have to travel to the top of Mount Lu to meet her and report to her our progress and for your ceremony of reaching adulthood. And you know what happens if you're late."

"Ugh. Don't remind me. I'm going to go take a bath near the river and prepare. Can you handle breakfast?" Yinghua looks hopeful at the mention of breakfast.

"Sure, I'll cook something up to congratulate your reaching adulthood since I can't participate in the official ceremony because I'm still an outsider. Now, hurry up. It takes more than two hours to get there because of the various traps that Her Eminence had prepared for this training, so you barely have an hour before you have to go if you want to be on time."

"I know." At this, he immediately gets up from his futon and goes out of the tent.

As for me, I head straight to the makeshift kitchen I had set up behind the tent to start making our breakfast. Since there are enough ingredients for it, I decided to make some ramen with deer meat. It's a good thing that I had already prepared most of the preparations for it last night, so right now all I need to do is to make all the finishing touches.

As I start apportioning the suitable amount of meat and noodle for Yinghua and myself, my thoughts begin to wander through all the events that has occurred ever since my second meeting with Alice, who is now (un)officially my wife.

It has been about a year since then.

I remembered that I was looking forward to Alice's reaction once she tastes the steak that I made for her. The steak was cooked to a perfectly soft texture so that Alice wouldn't have trouble chewing the meat and it was marinated in a special blend of sauce of my own creation for a whole day. I'm sure my selection of an English dish and my own twist to the usual dish would please her.

I made sure to give Alice a portion of the steak that would agree with an elegant lady such as herself in addition to some salad with another sauce of my own making and an old vintage wine I acquired by pawning a few diamonds - I learned to create jewels from normal stones using Alteration to restructure its atoms back in my original world. Rin and Luvia made sure to profit from this ability either financially or in their own research of Jewelcraft - at a sleazy pawnshop that wouldn't ask much question about where I got them.

Once I arrived at the balcony of her room - the security on Alice's side of her room was light that night - I knocked a few times on the wooden panels of the glass door as was proper etiquette. I knew Alice was still awake as the lights on her room was still on and I can see the shadow of her figure on the curtains of the door sitting on a chair in front of a small table reading a book. I went inside after she told me to come in.

Unlike the last time I visited where Alice wore only her one-piece white night dress, that night Alice wore a blue Victorian dress with white frills that hugged her body closely, showing all her curves that left nothing to the imagination except those below her waist. I could even clearly see her cleavage. She was presenting the very image of a beautiful noble English lady.

I should've figured what Alice was up to when I saw her wearing such a beautiful clothing, but unfortunately my brain was just mesmerised by her lovely look that night.

After that, my body was just on auto-pilot to cater to Alice's needs like a waiter - my mind however was numb from being unable to get rid of Alice's beautiful image from my head - so dinner that night went without hitch.

Once dinner had ended, my mind finally came back to take control of my body as Alice handed me a flash drive containing all the information the Witenagemot has accumulated on the current Campiones and also some other information on past Campiones that she thought I might find useful. After storing the flash drive in my coat, Alice and I started to chat a little about random topics. I actually had fun exchanging a few jokes with her.

It was about after an hour of chatting with her that Alice's true objective was carried out.

First, she asked me to carry her. I didn't find anything wrong with it because I thought her body still hasn't recovered enough for her to move about a lot yet, so I just picked her up in a princess carry without much thought. And that's when she suddenly loosened the shroud around my mouth and gave me a deep French Kiss that lasted for a whole minute.

Normally, I would've pulled my head back in shock once she started kissing me but I underestimated a few factors that I neglected to address after being reborn in this world.

My teenage hormones.

The longing I sometimes feel when I find none of my wives in my arm when I wake up from my sleep.

And the attraction I felt for Alice.

Suffice to say I returned Alice's kiss with vigor and we had a very intimate moment. A thought at the back of my mind had wondered why she was doing this until she somehow transmitted to me her memories (during our kiss no less) of her discovering Avalon - she thought Avalon was a Divine Artifact - and how it was healing her body and how she figured out that I was the one who gave it to her. I could even tell how grateful she was to me and how she had fallen for me and the fear that I might reject her.

It made her more endearing in my eyes, and it almost made me want to 'take' her.

Fortunately, I had enough self-control to end the moment with only a kiss, although it was a very deep and intimate one. I was also glad that Alice had decided to hold back in her plans to seduce me that night - I later found out that she had also took some stamina boosting medicine in case her plans to seduce me was more effective than she had originally thought - enough that she was still able to get a kiss from me.

That little fox. She had planned everything.

Her beautiful clothing, our chat so that we would be comfortable with each other while letting the food she ate digest a little (in case her plans lead to more...heated results), the three day excuse so that she may recover more of her health, the romantic atmosphere she had set up for her room - which I didn't notice until later - and the way she kept smiling happily at me to make me let my guard down.

And I totally fell for all of them.

I could still admire her sincerity however, as she never opened her eyes after she loosened my shroud to kiss me. She knew I wanted to keep my identity a secret and respected it in her own way. She didn't even try push for a relationship despite the very strong feelings she had started to have for me. She had decided to respect my feelings - though she still decided to get that kiss from me - and to let me decide whether I want to develop a relationship with her or not.

Her sincerity and strong feelings made me want to just 'gobble' her up, but I had enough logical reasoning to know that these matters can't be taken lightly. Not to mention that I still have various secrets that I want to keep despite Alice seem to be willing to live with it (and I was worried that some of my wives might decide to kick my ass if I got into another relationship without their permission).

Thus, I decided that if I wanted to do this, I will take it seriously and not rush it.

After that night, I decided to visit Alice regularly to get to know her better. I knew it was wrong and I might regret it later but I indulged my...cravings with Alice by having affectionate kisses with her every time we meet. I needed to find a way that could alleviate my desire to have a woman beside me in bed and this was the best way I could think of. I wasn't going to hire a prostitute.

Alice however, decided that she could take the chance with our affectionate moments by revealing more of herself to me with the Instruction spell (I found out the name of the spell later from her) and transmit to me her memories of her life to bare herself to me a bit at at time and after two whole months she revealed everything of herself to me - both the good and the bad side of her - until there was nothing of herself left for her to reveal.

Our tryst however had already escalated to regular...sensual nights after about a month and a half. Alice's continued usage of Instruction in the bed made our nights more and more...heated. The more she revealed herself to me the more I fell for her.

It made me want her more and I showed it - with every bedding technique I knew - during our nights together.

When Alice had bared everything of herself to me I finally decided to tell her more of the secrets that I keep. It was hardly fair that Alice revealed all of her secrets to me without me matching her sincerity. When Alice found out about my past and that I had originally been born in a different world before being reborn in this world, she never doubted my words (or memories since I was also using Instruction. Alice became more...energetic when I did it in bed like she did). She was a little sad that I had already married more than a dozen women but cheered up easily enough when she found out that I wouldn't love her any less because of it. Nor any of my other wives of course.

There was however one problem that I dreaded when it came time that Alice and I were going to bring our relationship to the next level. It was supposed to have been done before I even kissed Alice as was proper etiquette.

Basically, I have to meet Alice's father, Duke Gododin.

It was an experience that made me really nervous. After all, I've never had to deal with my wives fathers before being able to bed them as they were either already dead or just didn't exist.

Fortunately, Alice had already explained my situation (she kept most of my origin a secret of course). According to Alice, Duke Gododin was at first furious of our relationship. That only lasted until Alice told him about me healing her at which point his reaction made a 180 degree turn and changed to utter gratefulness to the point that he was willing to marry his daughter to me.

Talk about a loving parent.

Not surprising I guess since the memories I received from Alice - the Instruction spell actually only last for around a day or two but a memorization technique called Memory Partition allows me to store a copy of the memories in another part of my brain, thus storing it for as long as I need even after the original has faded away as the spell loses its effect - indicate that Duke Gododin was desperate to heal her. It seems that he made frequent contact with people that may have the ability or skill in anything that might even remotely have any chance of healing Alice, and those includes shady doctors or underground organisations.

It seems that he was running himself dry of almost all of his resources in his desperation. From what I can tell, he's already spent more than half of his fortunes doing so. So when he heard that I was the one responsible for the miracle that he sought all these years, he was in tears thanking me from the bottom of his heart. It was quite heart warming to see an old man in his 40's crying from happiness and gratefulness for the simple wish of seeing his daughter in full health.

The Duke was even ready to perform a Shotgun Wedding when he found that Alice has completely fallen for me and was ready to give everything of herself in mind and body to me. Suffice to say, I never had any chance to protest - not that I would - at the Duke's insistence. Fortunately, I was able to dissuade him from doing such a sudden wedding ceremony and to reason with him to plan for it appropriately.

The Duke also agreed to keep the wedding a complete secret except to those that he and Alice trust without a single doubt which were only 2 people. The Duke's childhood friend who was a Great Knight and his most trusted adviser and Head Butler of the mansion. Of course they also agreed for me to put a geass on them to keep the ceremony a secret. And so, I ended up marrying Alice the next month. This was actually quite bizarre for me as I never actually end up marrying someone this fast before.

Getting them in bed? Yes, I've managed those in about a week before but marriage? The fastest record I've managed that was half a year with my Sekireis (winging them doesn't count as marriage even if it was supposed to be a mating ritual). This time I managed to even break that record in half the time of my previous one (my honeymoon with Alice was for a week).

I wonder if it's because they're nobles? Or because they were just too happy? Or they fear that this is all just a dream so they wanted to see it end happily before the dream ends?

Anyway, the three months I spent in England wasn't entirely because of my trysts escalating into marriage with Alice. The personal information of the Campiones that Alice gave me was quite a lot as well, so I needed time to sift through them. It had taken 3 weeks for me to sort through all the information I needed but that resulted in me researching the various Heretic Gods that Her Eminence Luo Hao and Voban might have defeated in their time since the information I received from Alice on their earlier days as a Campione were incomplete and had a lot of conjectures and inconsistencies.


	4. Prologue (rewrite)

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fate/Stay Night or Campione. They belong to their writers Kinoko Nasu &amp; Takedzuki Jou**  
**  
xxx Story Start xxx**  
_  
The world was burning._  
_  
Everywhere as far as the eye can see, fire so hot that it could melt steel and heat so strong that you could feel it from tens of meters away, was burning everything and everyone who was unlucky enough to be caught in its path._  
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Even those who were lucky enough to escape the fire itself suffocated from the smoke the fire released. It's as if it was saying that it will not let anyone escape its grasp no matter where they tried to run._  
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In this sea of flames, I was running for my life._  
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How did this happen?_  
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I didn't know the answer. _  
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All I knew was that I must run or I'll be burned alive like those around me. Even so, no matter where I went, the fire would always be there to block my path of escape. _  
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I saw a man, who had stopped moving for too long, being consumed by the flames after realizing too late that he was trapped… so I never stopped moving, fearing that I would end up like him if I did.  
__  
I saw a mother, running into her burning house trying to look for her screaming children who were trapped in the house and never came back out... so I closed my ears from the screaming that was coming from everywhere around me._  
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I saw a police officer trying to fight the fire with water coming out of a hose attached to a fire hydrant. Somehow, he had angered the flames as instead of being extinguished; they burned fiercer and completely engulfed the officer… so I never tried fighting against it.  
__  
This was literally hell on Earth._  
_  
All my survival instincts were concentrated on the fact that I must move forward, so I never lingered or stopped for anything even when I could no longer run and was reduced to trudging through the flames. The more I went however, the more hopeless the scene around me became. _  
_  
Everyone I laid eyes on was being burned alive. _  
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The smell of burning flesh made me puke out all the contents in my stomach even as I kept moving forward._

The air burned my lungs but I kept breathing, trying to get more oxygen in them.

The smoke was suffocating me and I never stopped coughing until my throat felt like it was being cut open from the inside out by small knives.

_Even so, I never stopped moving._  
_  
I kept running, never stopping even for a second, ignoring all the desperate pleas for help and all the cursing they sent at me that I could clearly hear for ignoring them._  
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When that wasn't enough, I started trading my memories for my survival. _  
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All of my painful memories were traded first. After that, it was all the memories I deemed unimportant. When it still wasn't enough, I exchanged all my happy memories too._  
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Even after all that it still wasn't enough so my emotions went next. _  
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Love, empathy, hate, sorrow, grief, courage, fear, sadness, despair, anger, happiness, sympathy, all were discarded in that fire so that I could keep moving forward in order to survive but even after all that, it still wasn't enough._  
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In those flames, even hope was finally discarded._  
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After moving forward for hours, my body finally reached its limit. My legs could no longer support the weight of my body and so they buckled and I fell to the ground._

I had exhausted every single thing I had to give, all that was left of me was an empty, human shaped, shell.

_No memories, no emotions, no regrets or even hope, I had accepted my death. _  
_  
"It hurts." _  
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I said this in an empty tone that was void of all emotions not from my own pain but for all the pain that every victim in that fire had to experience before being released from it by dying._  
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I laid there on the ground where I collapsed waiting for death to claim me._  
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However, it never came for me._  
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Before the fires could reach me, someone, a man with unkempt hair and dead eyes, had found me in that hellhole._  
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"Hey, are you alright? Hang in there!"_  
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In the next moment, I could faintly remember seeing a golden light surrounding me and the feeling of my limbs coming back to me. The man held me in his arms as if I was the most precious thing in this world to him._  
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However, it was the next scene that I will bring with me throughout the remainder of my life._  
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"Thank you. Thank you for being alive."_  
_  
The way the man looked so happy, the pure unadulterated joy that the man had on his face, brought only one sentence to my mind._  
_  
"I wish I could be that happy."_  
**  
xxx Scene break xxx**

"Sir, please wake up. We've arrived at the airport."

I opened my eyes at the sound of a female voice.

"Hm?"

"Sir, we've arrived at the airport." The flight attendant that was trying to wake me up patiently repeated.

"Oh. Thank you."

Finally waking up from my slumber, I calmly loosened the belt around my hips and got up from my seat. After stretching my muscles a bit, I took out the bags that I brought with me on this flight from the compartment above my seat. The rest of my belongings would be sent directly to my house by airmail.

How long had it been since the last time I had dreamed of that day?

Even after so many decades, the memory of that day was still so vivid in my mind. Whether it be the various forms of suffering I was forced to bear witness to or the smile that my adoptive father had when he saved me from that hellhole… all of it was carved into my very soul.

It was the cause of my mental trauma. The very thing that had given birth to my distortion.

A psychological condition that, had it not been for the continuous support from those who cared for me, I would have brought with me to the very end of my life.

Well, technically it's my... tenth? twentieth? life (I've lost count) but no one else needs to know that but me.

"Coming back from a vacation?" The flight attendant tried to make some small talk while helping me with the two bags that I had.

"No, I've just graduated from Harvard and coming back home after the convocation." I replied nonchalantly.

The flight attendant paused in her actions and looked at me in disbelief. "Harvard? But… you look so…"

"Young?" I finished the sentence for her.

"Yes."

"I skipped a few years of middle school and high school before studying abroad." Of course, I did more than just _study_ during my time abroad but she didn't need to know that.

"Th-That's incredible! What did you study in?" She asked me excitedly while examining me. I only raised my eyebrows at her.

Finally realizing that she was really close in invading my privacy, she started to get flustered. "I-I'm sorry…I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright." I cut her off.

"I'm used to it. Actually, I'm used to a lot worse." I was talking about some of the girls that considered me as a Grade A husband material. Many girls on campus tried to get my attention in any way they could.

Seduction.

Show of power (in the political sense).

Even outright confession (they even studied a bit of Japanese culture for it).

I still couldn't figure out if this phenomenon was caused by the Kusanagi blood that I inherited which allowed the members of the family to easily attract the opposite sex (whether it's a curse or a blessing was still up for debate) or just my usual charm. I mean, I'm pretty sure I wasn't **this **popular during my previous lives. I know I ended up saving a rich heiress from being kidnapped at the beginning of the semester which was how I became well known but still.

In the end, none of them could interest me however, as I'm used to more…incredible women. Hell, I even married some of them. Fortunately, I wasn't on campus a lot as I was busy traveling to other places in the city (more specifically, the places where the darker side of the city resided in), so they couldn't really bother me much.

The real problem came from the jealous boys but none of them tried to directly confront me again after they found out the hard way that I wasn't a wimp.

Beating up thirty guys (who were the local delinquents they hired to get me) right in front of them could do that.

Heh.

If this was the old me, I would've been less violent in trying to defuse the situation but centuries of experience had taught me that those types of people needed a taste of their own medicine. It worked wonders.

...Most of the time.

Not to mention that for those kind of people, a powerful reputation in their circles could go a long way. As a matter of fact, after a series of 'hostile takeovers' around the city, I'm now the official Boss of a huge gang that consists of hundreds of people.

Of course, I didn't let it end just like that.

It took the whole time I was in the country for me to turn a gang of trouble making delinquents into an underground gang of vigilantes. The crime rate in the city had hit an all time low in the past decade. The gang's vigilante activities have gone quite smoothly after I showed them all I know about vigilantism in the modern day such as not getting caught by the authorities or refrain from using excessive violence or even where to find resources such as money WITHOUT robbing banks or mugging people.

This was one of the ways I learned to try to redeem the young generation who've lost their way in the modern society. Basically, they all just needed a push in the right direction. It also helped that the people around the city, including the authorities, even started to support them, even if not openly.

It's a shame that not all of them were interested in redemption. Those people had to be sent to jail.

Unfortunately, I had to warn them off from the more dangerous side of the underground society. There was no way I was going to let them try and tackle powerful crime syndicates with just a few years of training. Not to mention that I forbade any use of firearms in the gang which could be deadly factor when dealing with armed professionals.

Thankfully, that problem was solved by some liberal use of hypnosis on the top people of said crime syndicates to spill the beans on the evidence of their illegal operation. After that, a few anonymous tips to the authorities were all that were needed to root out the 'evil' in the city. They even managed to apprehend most of the corrupted individuals in the police force.

Hopefully, the gang wouldn't run into any dangerous adversaries for a while.

"To answer your question, I studied law and politics." I said while smiling at the flight attendant a little. My statement was an over simplified summary of what I studied there but I thought it was good enough without divulging too much or too little.

"I-I'm really sorry." Ashamed at her previous behavior, she bowed very low in the traditional Japanese 'saikeirei' bow at me.

"It's fine. As long as you understand." I assured her. It's not like I was even offended at her excitement in the first place.

"Do you need help with the bags?" She offered after she composed herself.

"No need. I can take care of them myself." After politely refusing her offer, I took the bags and went out of the plane into the Tokyo International Airport (Haneda).  
**  
xxx Scene Break xxx**

It's been around two years since I left Japan to continue my study abroad.

At home, everyone considered me a prodigy for being able to enter a prestigious university at the young age of 14 years. Of course, this wasn't true. Rather than being a genius, the truth was that I had already finished all the learning material up until university level.

About a dozen of times.

Although I may have forgotten some of the things I've learned since then after so many years, all it required was some time in the library for me to recall them again. You won't forget things that you learned over and over and over so easily after all.

As such, it wasn't hard for me to get excellent grades in my exams.

It made me feel a little guilty for receiving praises from all those around me since it felt like cheating but I pushed it to the back of my mind. After all, I technically had endured the life of a student so many times before already so it's only fair that I don't need to live through it again in the same amount of time.

I've had enough of written exams, thank you very much.

Thankfully, I've completed my studies so I never have to sit in one ever again. It's quite a shame that I only needed the qualification as a front instead of pursuing a career using it. Well, it can come in useful sometimes if I want to prevent myself from getting ripped off or back stabbed due to technicalities of a country's laws and political climates.

It's already happened several times before and I was only able to escape from being embroiled in pointless political struggles thanks to that. Also, since I'll be continuing my quest in upholding my ideals soon (again), being lawfully and politically savvy can only be a good thing.

I've been keeping my head down as much as possible all these years while at the same time collecting crucial information from around the world without alerting certain 'communities' of my presence for the last 5 years. I would've been more open about it if it wasn't because I wanted to keep my family from receiving a backlash from my intended activities.

My family, or more specifically my twin brother, who seemed to have gotten involved with the very people that I've been painstakingly protecting him from anyway, without me knowing about it.

It all started about fifteen minutes ago.

The moment I stepped out of the plane, I had smelled a **huge** prana signature that was metaphorically slammed into my face like a ton of brick.

This amount of magical power was comparable to some of the Dead Apostle Ancestors or deities that I had the misfortune to encounter in some of my previous lives.

"Shit. This can't be good."

Whoever or _whatever_ that was emitting such a powerful magical signature was definitely inside the airport. The good thing was that there didn't seem to be any sign of panic or suspicious activity that usually accompanied such a situation.

This basically meant that he/she/it was keeping to themselves at the moment but that didn't mean that this would continue indefinitely.

I had to find and figure out the objective of the one emitting this magical power, fast, before any disaster that usually happens when those kind of people or _being_ could carry out their plan if they had any.

I could only hope that this wasn't going to turn into a bloodbath that would involve the lives of innocent people. Not to mention that my whole family had informed me that they would be waiting for my arrival at the airport as well.

My mind was running around a mile a minute trying to figure out a way to prevent such a scenario from happening.

I immediately kept an eye out for any suspicious individual that might possess such a terrifying power or if I was lucky, their minions who were easier to handle for interrogation purposes while activating my Structural Analysis to help me with the task.

Keeping myself from panicking, I calmly and patiently went through the immigration procedures in the airport. It wouldn't do to present a nervous exterior. That would only make the immigration officers suspect me instead. Still, it was a very nerve-wracking period as moments like these meant that time was of the essence.

It was a good thing that I've learned how to properly hypnotize people from Rin. I was able to cut down the time for them to process me and my documents by using it to cut through the long line of people.

As soon as I was released, I immediately went to the waiting area that Shizuka, my younger sister, had informed me that they all would be waiting at.

It was then that I noticed using my supernatural senses that the closer I got to the waiting area, the closer I got to the one who was my current objective.

Could it be that all of them were at the same place?

That thought made my heart beat faster and faster from panic as I changed from walking quickly to outright running while Reinforcing my body to the limit. In my haste, I still didn't forget to Reinforce my bags that I was carrying as well in case their contents spilled out.  
_  
"Please! Please be alright!" _I thought as I approached the place where it was most likely going to be the ground zero for whatever disaster that might happen.

The good news was that there were still no signs of panic so it meant that I might still make it in time to prevent whatever tragedy that might happen.

However, that thought didn't even make me slow down from my current free running. I didn't even bother using the escalators and just jumped from a height of 5 meters to the floor below when the opportunity presented itself so that I could shorten the time of my arrival.

Luckily, with my Reinforced self and centuries of experience in avoiding people's gazes, no one was even able to catch a glimpse of me doing such a stunt as I was moving too fast for them to notice me and I was traveling in their blind spots. Receiving the appropriate training from a guild of skilled assassins can do that. I wasn't even harmed when my feet touched the ground.

My fears were realized as I arrived at the waiting area. Whoever it was that was emitting the magical signature was definitely at the waiting area with my family.

I frantically turned left and right to find where my family was.

There.

Huddled closely together, I could see them sitting on some benches.

It was at this moment that my mind had stopped working.

At the same time that I found them, I had also discovered who it was that was emitting such a powerful magical presence.

It wasn't a deity.

It wasn't a Dead Apostle Ancestor.

It wasn't even some kind of terrible being that existed in some hidden corner of this world.

The one who had such a terrifying magical power was standing in front of Shizuka and chatting normally with her and Grandpa Ichirou and two other girls (one was a foreigner with blonde hair wearing a fashionable red shirt and black jeans that made her look stunningly beautiful and the other was a local Japanese girl with brown and black hair wearing a simple white one piece dress that suited her quite well) that were most likely the latest victims who had fallen for his charms, however unintentional he had charmed them.

That person was Kusanagi Godou. My twin brother.

I could feel a headache coming as I rubbed the bridge of my nose with my thumb and index finger.

"Godou, you have _a lot_ of explaining to do." I muttered to myself as I headed in the direction where my family was waiting.

**A/N:**

Well, that's it for the prologue. It's a little on the short side but since it's just the introduction chapter I thought that it should suffice.

Anyway, please review. And please be brutal about it. I can take it. By the way, Shirou's current dimension hopping isn't due to Zelretch being... well... Zelretch. I'll try to find a good moment during future chapters to explain it. Please look forward to it.


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