Chapter Twenty

Fuyuki City
2027

It was late in the evening, the full moon filled the sky and bathed the city in its light. High up on the top of the tallest building in the city stood a young girl, flintlock pistol and musket in her hands. Her left eye, a golden faced clock which rapidly rotated in reverse as the darkness gathered around her, merging into a single shadow at her feet until the clock finally stopped and the shadows morphed into a single shape cast by the moonlight.

The girl heaved a heavy sigh as her eyes scanned the ruined city around her, the smoke rising from the fires in the streets and buildings. The sounds of gunfire and death echoed all around her.

A gentle smile came upon her lips as she raised her weapons. "I need to be stronger. I need to be more powerful. Not for me. But for them."

"What are you doing?" asked a voice from somewhere in her blind spot. "Coward! Are you going to just walk away from everything you've caused?!"

"Far from it Shido… Far from it."

"Then what?!"

"I'm going to try again."

"From where I'm standing, it looks like you're running away from your consequences!"

"Zafkiel… " she said to manifest the giant clock behind her.

"You know I can stop you..."

"Yes. You could. But you're not going to."

"You seem overly confident in that statement," he said as he raised his right arm, his equipment in its laser weapon configuration.

"If you were in my place. Do you believe for even a moment that you would do anything less for your sister? Look around you Shido. Is this really the ending you want? That can't be true. Everyone we love are all dead and gone. All we have left between the two of us is our hatred for each other. I don't want to live like that. Do you? That's why I'm going to start a new game, and I'll replay it as many times as it takes to get to the good ending."

"Life isn't one of those visual novels you're so fond of Kurumi!"

"People have said that life is a game. But nobody before me has ever had both the power and the audacity to treat it like one," she answered with a wink. "But you know... That's the first time you've ever called me by my real name. How interesting. Who knows. Maybe on my next try, you and I could be friends. But that might just be wishful thinking on my part. You and I always seem to end up worse than my father and Shiki Tohno."

"I don't want to live this any more than you or anyone! But life is pain! Life is suffering! Life is loss! To reject those things is to reject being human! Time isn't something we were ever meant to mess around with! You could just make things worse!"

"Nothing can be worse than being alone. As long as we have the people we love, we can get through anything. But without them, what's the point?" Kurumi then put her musket and pistol to the twelve o'clock positions on the face of the clock. "Zafkiel, Yud bet," she said before shadows flowed from the clock and into the barrels of the weapons.

"Please don't do this… Don't invalidate everything we've all fought for. Everything they all died for!"

She lowered the musket to her side, and brought the pistol gently to the side of her head. "I really do so dearly wish we didn't always have to be enemies. But I suppose you and I are far too alike to ever get along. But I promise you this. However much we may hate each other, I'll still make sure you get your good ending as well."

"Whatever. Just don't make fun of Mana next time. That's a sure way to get me to hit a lady," he stated coldly as he slowly lowered his weapon.

Kurumi turned to give him a small, but sincere smile as she squeezed the trigger.

Fuyuki City
1995

Along a quiet street in Fuyuki walked a tired and weathered looking man wearing a casual kimono. A half smoked cigarette in his mouth which he puffed on while holding a bag of groceries in one hand, his other hanging loosely at his side.

"Pardon me…" came a voice from against the wall as he turned a corner.

The man stopped in his tracks and turned his eyes to his right, and then down to spot the raven haired girl standing with her hands neatly held in front of her. She had one bright blue eye staring up at him, an eye patch and bangs concealed her other eye. Her long black hair flowed freely behind her back. She was elegantly clothed in a black dress with white ruffled frills and red ribbons detailing it. Her legs were covered in black stockings, and her feet had a pair of well polished, almost mirror like black shoes.

He kept his cold, lifeless stare on the her without uttering a single word. When she decided he wasn't going to speak at all, she spoke again.

"I'm sorry to trouble you. But.." her blue eye turned down to the ground under the weight of his glare and a single tear escaped down her cheek. "I need your help. I had nowhere else to turn."

"Do you even know who I am?" he asked with a barren and dry voice. "Because if you did, you'd know that I should be the last person on this Earth anyone would ever turn to for help at this point."

"Yes," she said with a small nod before slowly turning her wet sapphire eye up to the man's almost black eyes. "You're Kiritsugu Emiya, the Magus Killer."

The man narrowed his eyes at her as he took the cigarette out of his mouth and smoothly discarded it. "I don't know how you found me, but you must be very resourceful. I'm afraid you've wasted your time though. I've been retired for a long time now, and there's nothing you can offer that will make me change my mind about that."

The girl shook her head, "I know. I'm not looking to hire you. That's not why I came to find you…"

"Then why?"

The girl took a deep breath and wiped away the tears leaking from her eye.

"If I introduce myself… You'll understand," she said before taking a deep breath and then looked deep into his eyes. "My name. Is Kurumi Emiya. I'm your granddaughter."

He started walking away from her with a small shake of his head, "Very cute… If that's all I'll be going now."

"It's true and I can prove it! I'm Shirou's daughter!"

Kiritsugu paused in his tracks.

"It's true. I was born on the eleventh of november, twenty eleven. Here in Fuyuki. I can prove it if you let me. Please sofu-sama! I beg you. Just hear me out. You don't know what I went through for this chance to meet you. You're the only one who can help me. Please!" she tearfully pleaded.

"Follow me then. I'll give you one chance to prove you're telling the truth, or to prove you're as insane as you sound."

Kurumi wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve and with a little spring to her steps, briskly walked to catch up with her grandfather.

Kurumi stood in hesitation the threshold of the Emiya house while Kiritsugu held the gate open for her. "I suppose I didn't really think this part through…"

"Giving up on your bad joke already? It's bad form you know. But you're still invited. So come in."

"That's not what I meant… I may have neglected to mentally prepare myself to meet my father when he was six years old…" Kurumi quickly took a deep breath, "Is he home?"

"No. He's in school. So come in already."

Kurumi nodded and slowly walked past the threshold. She suddenly felt a wave of calm overcome her and it brought a smile to her face. "Your bounded field… That's amazing."

"Wouldn't it be the same in 'your time' or are you not living in this house?"

"No. The house is the same. The bounded field though… I think it's safe to say that it's my mother's work on it that's changed it. You can still feel this same human emotion in it. But it's different, it feels like the love she had for my father. But there's also this, ruthless quality to it, which, pretty much defined my mother. 'Shirou! The light's out in the bathroom! Go change it immediately!' is the feeling you get from the bounded field in my time."

Kiritsugu couldn't help but laugh at her impression of her mother as the pair walked through the front door of the house. Both left their shoes near the front door as they walked through the entrance hall and into the livingroom.

"I don't believe this…" she said with a wide eye at the living room. "Nothing has changed! Literally nothing! This table will still be here! Oh and my TV! This is in my room now. Well… Not now now… But… gah. The only use we have for this old thing is for my antique gaming consoles, I like to play retro games sometimes and this thing just works best for it. I had to use reinforcement on all the components it to keep it working though… Amazing! It's literally older than I am! That's so amazing!"

"Well… If your proof is as good as the way you're acting, I might owe you an apology, 'granddaughter'."

"Oh. Right. I haven't told you anything about anything yet. I'm sorry. I'm just amazed at how little will change between now and then. This living room is exactly the same. The only change will be on this wall here…" she said while gesturing to the wall away from the door leading to the veranda and bedrooms. "It's full of family pictures. Of my parents, of me, of my sister. Of places my mom and dad have been in their travels. There's also a few more decorations on this side cabinet here…" she said while gesturing. "It's covered with souvenirs from places they've been, and things they've done."

"May I offer you some tea?" the man asked.

"Yes please. But after you see what I have to show you, and tell you what I'm here to tell you. Well… you might want to keep some sake ready… We'll probably need it."

The two sat on the veranda with their tea cups cooling beside them both. Kurumi took her smartphone out of her purse to show her grandfather everything she promised to show him as proof of the veracity of her story. The device itself was technology beyond the most advanced of the time, and proved beyond a doubt she was indeed from the future. But it was the photos collected within its memory which was the real treasure trove of evidence to support her claims.

"This is your son all grown up," she spoke softly as they leaned in close together so they could both see the screen she was holding between them.

Kiritsugu looked at the picture of the man his adopted son would one day become with wide-eyed wonder. "That is incredible…"

"To go to the next picture, you just put your finger here like this and gently swipe your finger across the screen. Do it the opposite way to go back if you want to," she explained while putting the phone in his hands so he could swipe through the pictures.

Kiritsugu did as he was instructed and had a chuckle at the next photograph on her phone. Shirou and Rin were in the kitchen after Rin had pulled a prank on her husband by covering him in the flour he was using to bake something. Shirou did not look amused while Rin was wearing her infamous 'I win' smile for Kurumi's camera. A very cheeky expression on her face with a thumbs up gesture. But more than just the amusing moment captured on this fantastic device, was the proof of what Kurumi was so amazed about when she walked into the living room. The house really didn't look any different. At least not the kitchen. There were, Kiritsugu guessed, newer appliances for the time, but that was all.

"Is this your mother? She's so beautiful… You certainly seem to take after her more than your father."

Kurumi nodded her head in excitement. "Yes. Her name was Rin Tohsaka."

He coughed and choked on that information, "Tohsaka? Tokiomi Tohsaka's daughter?!"

Kurumi nodded her head, "Yes. That's exactly right. She's the one my father will eventually marry."

"Should I even know any of this? Won't it affect the future? Or did you not think this through either?"

Kurumi sighed and shook her head, "Acting on impulse out of sheer desperation without properly thinking things through is in my blood. Mom used to tell me it was a character flaw of my father's that I was better off without. But… For better or for worse. I am who I am."

"You talk about her in the past tense…" he observed with a cautious tone.

"She passed away. Three years ago. Well… Three years ago from my perspective."

"I'm sorry…" he said while quickly swiping through more images on the phone. Enjoying the little glimpses into the happy life in his son's future. "Who's this girl with the red hair?" he said, thankful to have found something to change the subject.

"That's my little sister. Kotori. We adopted her five years ago. Again, from my point of view. Daddy rescued her from a fire in Tenguu City. The way you saved him from the fire here."

"That's incredible," he said while getting misty eyed.

Kiritsugu then came up to a picture of Kurumi and Origami, cuddling together for a selfie. Lusty expressions on both of their faces. "Who's this? You two seem… close."

Kurumi took a moment to clear her throat and gather her nerves, "Umm. Yes. Well…" she said while taking back her phone and quickly swiping far ahead. "This is what I mean about not thinking things through… Sorry, these pictures are not fit for mortal eyes…"

Kiritsugu couldn't help but find himself amused at the nervous sweat drop expression on the girl beside him.

"Well. Her name's Origami Tobiichi. I met her for the first time in Tenguu City. Before the fire I mentioned. We were playing together when the fire happened. Four years later we were reunited in Fuyuki, first year of high school. And… After realizing who we both were, and how much we'd grown up, and, ahh, changed..."

"So she's your girlfriend?"

"Yes… I hope that doesn't… You know…"

"That's your business, not mine," he said after she handed him back the phone. He then resumed swiping through pictures of the family in which Rin was now conspicuously absent.

He then came across a picture of Shirou with another woman. She had black hair tied up in a pony tail, and the two were sitting at the dining table with mugs of beer, each with an arm around the other and a stupidly big smile on their drunk faces.

"Does he start dating again after your mother passed?" he asked while gesturing to the picture.

"Yes. But not her. That's Ryouko Kusakabe, she's an army captain and Origami's mother, err, guardian actually. But I call her Origami's mother to remind my father that he's forbidden from dating her because it would make things awkward for myself and Origami. She eventually adopts Origami properly and becomes her mother. But her and my father are good friends though."

Kiritsugu smiled and nodded his understanding before swiping to the next picture. This one of Kurumi, Origami, and Kotori standing together for a photo during their archery club practice.

"You practice Kyudo. That's impressive. It's good to know that won't die out."

"My father practiced it when he was my age. He introduced me to it before I started high school. Kyudo became a very big part of my life after I got Origami interested in it. We're both what Aunt Tiger calls 'Kyudo Extremists' because of how strict we are about everything revolving around the practice."

The magus killer chuckled heartily, "Aunt Tiger, I hope you don't let her hear you call her that."

"Only when she's being obnoxious," answered a grinning Kurumi. "Kotori on the other hand, calls her that with impunity. She can pretty much get away with anything because of her weapon grade moe."

Kiritsugu passed her back the phone and took a very deep breath while gathering his thoughts on the matter. "Well... I believe you now. This is just too much to all be an elaborate hoax. I know of no magecraft which can produce false images like these, nor any technology which can come close to this device here… But. I gather from our first meeting that you didn't come here because you wanted to meet me. I'll be dead long before you're born."

Kurumi slowly nodded her head, "I wish meeting you was the only reason I chose to use this power I have to come here now. Things happened in my time. Things I don't know if I can fully tell you about, but I'm going to try now…"

Kiritsugu held his sobbing granddaughter against his chest with his eyes widened in shock and horror as he processed the story she told him.

"I've tried six times now to fix things. Telling everyone everything that happened the second time just made things worse. The third time wasn't any better… Fourth and fifth I tried other ways of going about it but no matter what it all comes down to just one thing… I'm not strong enough. I need to be stronger. I need to be more powerful. Not for me. But for them. For my baby sister, for Origami, for my father, for our whole family! There was only one person I could turn to who could teach me what I need to know to fight this battle and win..."

"I understand why you'd think that. But the things I have to teach… I decided I wouldn't pass down. And if everything you told me about your father is true, then I clearly didn't ever change my mind about that. For all the good that does..."

Kurumi pulled herself up from her grandfather so she could look into his already tired, but now visibly saddened eyes. So full of resolve was the fire in her sapphire eye that it held his complete and undivided attention.

"You didn't want this life for your son but he still chose it. But none of us chose what happened to us. That was decided for us. In trying to deal with it myself I made mistakes that I have to live with now. But I need to fix this. I can't just let this be the end of it."

"I understand how you feel. But what you're asking me for… It isn't an easy thing for me to reconcile with. I know you'll keep fighting no matter what. But maybe you'll get strong enough on your own? You do have one thing nobody else has. The ability to keep trying after you fail. That in itself is worth a lot more than any skills I could ever impart on you."

Kurumi shook her head, "I don't know the first thing about how to make myself stronger. I know magecraft, but I'm not nearly as strong as I thought I was. I'm not physically fit. I lounge around like a lazy cat all day and play games… That's why I need you to teach me. But I'm not just asking for your skills. I… I'm also… asking for… it. The Emiya crest. Mom couldn't give me the Tohsaka crest. I wasn't compatible with it because… Reasons. I need this. I'm asking you for it."

Kiritsugu shook his head in response as well, "I can't do that Kurumi. Even if I were willing, what makes you think you'd be compatible? You are an Emiya, but not part of my bloodline. You are however, in the Tohsaka bloodline. I don't understand why your mother couldn't pass on her crest?"

"If I'm going to be completely honest… I don't fully understand it myself. It has to do with my father. Something about him which passed onto me which made me incapable of accepting her magic crest. On my own… Well. My affinity is Darkness… I'm very limited in what my magecraft can accomplish. That's why I accepted Phantom's offer to grant me Zafkiel… A decision I'll forever regret. But I can't change that now. I have to live with what I've done and I have to fix my mistakes and get things right. I have to beat DEM to save our family! But I can't do that without your strength and power!"

"What makes you think you'd be able to take my crest if you couldn't even take your own mother's?"

"I have no idea… I just hope that if I couldn't be the Tohsaka heir, maybe destiny could make me the Emiya heir? Through Zafkiel, I gained an affinity for time now as well. The Emiya Crest was based on Time Manipulation wasn't it?"

"It doesn't quite work that way Kurumi. I'm sorry. I don't have a time affinity, but I can still use the crest. That's part of the purpose of passing down a magic crest. So the mysteries can be employed regardless of elemental alignment, and the mysteries of the lineage can continue to be developed. So... I just don't know if I can give you what you're asking for."

"If you could, would you? I need its power. I need its power to make full use of Zafkiel so I can fight and save everyone."

Kiritsugu couldn't help but snicker at her. "Somehow. I get the impression that in spite of how much you look like your mother, you are your father's daughter through and through. I really don't believe you're looking for power for power's sake. Your father's the same way now."

"If he thinks this way at age six… I promise you that even when he's thirty eight, nothing will have changed. But you're wrong about me. My father has this ideal he lives by. This pursuit of being a Hero of Justice. He got that from you. To carry your dream forward and accomplish that which you failed to accomplish for yourself. He idolized you beyond my ability to express in words."

The Magus Killer visibly flinched with a pained expression on his face but said nothing in response. Kurumi took that as a sign to go on.

"But not me. That's not who I am. I don't care about ideals, or being a hero, or any of that. Yes, I try to be good, and do good. But all I care about is my family. Being a magus means nothing to me. Being a spirit, even less. But my sister means the world to me, and I can't fail her. I love Origami with all my heart, and I want to make her happy. And while I'm at it, I have to save my idiot father as well. From becoming what my mother tried to keep him from ever becoming, and you're right that I will keep trying. No matter how many tries it takes, I will save my family. With or without your help,

"But if you're really the man my father spent his life trying to live up to, then I know you'll help me now. I've never known you in my life, but I'm more like you than him! And if what I just said is true, then the Emiya Crest will pass to me and do what you wanted to do with it! I'll save my family, and I'll save the world while I'm at it. Not because I give a damn about the world and want to save it, but because one comes with the other and it just can't be helped!"

"For someone who doesn't care about being a hero of justice, you certainly seem to have fallen into the archetype."

"That's not me at all… I'm not a hero. I'm not trying to be a hero. All I want to do is protect my sister. My father's ideals hold him back from doing what needs to be done in order to achieve that. If anything... I'm more like you in that I have no qualms about doing whatever it takes to save what matters most to me… But I'm also different from you in that I would give up the world if it meant saving my sister."

Kurumi swallowed hard after seeing the look on his face, "I'm sorry. I sort of used Zafkiel's power to peer into your memories through objects you left behind that my father kept around. I saw a lot of your past."

Kiritsugu shook his head, "Then allow me to correct that skewed version of me that somehow exists in your mind, and put these memories you acquired into context. Listen carefully because if you really want to learn something from me, then learn this, and never forget it… The moment you allow yourself to believe that no price is too high, is the moment you've lost everything you've been fighting for. When I set out on my path, I wanted to be a hero of justice. But all I'll ever be remembered for is the fact that I've ultimately killed more people than I've saved. So much so that the people I did save are irrelevant next to the number of people I've killed. I fought in the Grail War with the goal of winning that cursed cup to wish for a better world. But what I found at the end of that journey was the simple truth that it was impossible, and that all I had managed to do was kill more people than I had ever saved."

"I'm already at that point… I've killed so many, but I've saved none. That's why I came to you."

"How do you weigh the value of life? What gives you the right to decide if one person's life is more valuable than another?"

"I'll tell you what I believe. Other people's lives don't matter to me in the least. I only want to protect my family. I'll do whatever it takes to achieve that. Anyone who stands in my way deserves what's coming to them."

"That sounds perfectly noble. Indeed, you should fight and perhaps kill to protect those you care about from those who threaten you. But. Consider this. That brother and sister you told me about?"

"Shido and Mana…"

"The way you told me their story made it seem like he loves his sister every bit as much as you love yours."

Kurumi nodded, "Yes. I don't doubt that for a moment."

"So. They were ordered to go after your sister. And each time you respond with violence. Each time you killed one, the other went berserk and forced you to kill them as well. That's two killed to save one."

"It was the way it had to be. I didn't want to kill them. The last time around, I didn't. Even though I wanted to. But one of them ended up dead anyway... No. I didn't kill them. They killed themselves when they came for my sister. They made the choice for me! They had a choice! They could have left DEM the way Origami did, but they chose to follow orders, and they died for nothing!"

"So the question I put to you is this. Why couldn't you find out their motivations? You said that Origami left DEM because of what they did to her. Did they not do this to them as well? Did you try telling them that?"

"They wouldn't listen. What else could I do? What would you do in my place?"

"When I was presented with the chance to attain enough power to save everyone. I tried to save everyone. I really thought that with the grail, I could save absolutely everyone. I was wrong. You shouldn't be asking what I would do. The question is, what should you do?"

Kurumi took a moment to draw a breath and recompose herself, "I just don't know. I came here, to you, because, I had nowhere else to go. No one else who could help me. I don't have any of these answers. There's no way I can do what I need to do without killing a lot of people. My hands are already soaked in so much blood that I don't know if I can ever call myself an Emiya again. After that first loop… I was honestly too ashamed to even look my father in the eye. To do what I had to do... I had to shed myself of all the ideals he tried to teach me. Once I did that... I became exactly what you just told me you were. I can't be both a hero, and a savior. I just don't think it's possible. I can't save everyone."

"That's very true. You can't always be both. Very few have ever been both. But, you get a do over that nobody else has ever had before. Everytime you reset the clock, things go back to how they were, correct?"

Kurumi slowly nodded and wiped fresh tears from her eyes, "Yes. But that doesn't negate what I've done in the slightest!"

"No. It doesn't. In the end. All anyone can do is follow the path that's been set before them. I can give you the benefit of my experience, but you're the one who has to walk your path. Only you can decide what's right or wrong. You have to use the power you have to the best of your ability to accomplish the goal you've set for yourself. You have to determine your principals. Then. You have to construct a plan of attack to defeat your enemies using the tools available to you."

Kurumi slowly nodded and considered his words, "I don't know if I can do that. I don't have Origami's photographic memory… I don't have Kotori's genius, I don't have my father's power, and I especially don't have my mother's, or your ability to plan and strategize."

"That is something I can help you with. They aren't skills that can be taught exactly. But they are things I can teach you how to teach yourself. Unlike most people, you have the benefit of being able to take all the time you need to sharpen those skills."

"Does that mean you'll help me?" she asked full of hope.

"It means I want to spend more time with you. Get to know you. Teach you some fundamentals… So yes. Yes I will help you. But we need to figure out a few things first, and I would like a chance to study this 'spirit power' of yours as well."

"I can accommodate the spirit power thing, that's not a problem. What else?" she asked with her face betraying every bit of her happiness.

"Your father. You do still want him to be your father after we're done here, right? Speaking for myself, I can say I do. I have a feeling that after I get to know you, my only regret in life will be my inability to be there to see you grow up. To be at his wedding… But it's enough for me to know he grows up happy."

"He does. He was very sad after mom passed… But he eventually found love again. Then he lost it again, along with everything else. That's part of why I'm fighting now."

"You're a good person, Kurumi Emiya. I wish I would be able to remember you after we're finished teaching you what you need to know."

"Why wouldn't you?" she asked with a curious eyebrow raised. "You want to wipe away all your memories of me after I'm gone. Don't you?"

"If I do anything different than I otherwise would have, your father could grow up to be a very different man. Make different choices. And then you wouldn't exist at all. It doesn't take a genius like your sister to figure that out."

"So I guess Grandpa's first lesson is for me to watch my mouth?"

"That would be a very good place to start. As you said yourself, telling everyone everything that happened ended up making everything worse. Because you created situations you weren't, and couldn't have been prepared for. What you want to do is create and manage situations to suit you and your strengths. Does that make sense?"

"Yes. Yes it does."

"Now. We have a few hours before your father… I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around that… gets home from school. Let's use the time productively."

Well... I haven't been this uncomfortable in a while...

Kurumi was seated at the dining table on Kiritsugu's left hand side, while his son, her father, the six year old Shirou Emiya, sat directly across from his future daughter. He stared at her with curiosity, and her at him with trepidation.

If you can't think fast on the spot, no matter how uncomfortable you are, you'll be less than useless.

Her grandfather's words echoed in her mind, and she had no idea what he meant by them, until this moment.

"Umm. Hello there. My name is Kurumi… Tokio… Toki... Tohsa..aaa... Tokisakaa…" she stuttered and droned and stuttered more until it hit her, "Kurumi Tokisaki!" she said with conviction and a firm nod. "Yes. I'm Kurumi Tokisaki. Kiritsugu was kind enough to let me stay here for a while," she explained to the boy.

The Magus Killer leveled an inscrutable glare on her for a long moment before giving her a satisfied nod.

"Kurumi's father saved my life once. He's someone I know very well, and would do anything for. Now his daughter is in some trouble and needs my help. So I agreed to shelter her for as long as she needs it. I hope you'll help make her feel welcome here Shirou."

He just lied through his teeth without saying anything untrue!

"Of course! You can count on it old man!" the boy answered with all his youthful enthusiasm.

Old man… He called his father old man? No wonder he always got so annoyed when I called him old man whenever we ended up butting heads.

Kiritsugu turned his eyes back on Kurumi and stared through her for a long moment.

Kurumi closed her eye and gave him a small nod.

Lesson learned Sofu-sama. Lesson well learned. Hide the lies with truth. I'll take it to heart.

She then turned a scrutinizing eye on her future father.

This is so surreal...

"So… How about dinner?" suggested Kurumi. "If I'm going to be living here, I'll be happy to do the cooking. Unless one of you wants to?"

Kiritsugu raised an eyebrow at her, "Did your father teach you how to cook?"

"Of course! I'm my mother's daughter in the workshop. But I'm my father's daughter in the kitchen!"

"Can't be worse than the old man's cooking. I'll take a chance on her."

And there's the snark... He's definitely my father.

The next day, Kurumi and her grandfather were in the shed as the raven-haired spirit was making notes on an explanation he had given her on some of his magecraft when he suddenly changed the subject.

"The alias you came up with. Tokisaki. You were trying to do something with your other grandfather's name. Correct?"

"Yes. I'll need to work on a better alias incase I need one in the future," she said while setting aside her notes for the moment and sitting back to rest her weary mind.

"No. The one you came up with actually suits you. Toki, can be written with the Kanji for time. You can also write 'saki' with the Kanji for mountains. It seems fitting. Even if you hit on it by stuttering accident. It's a good name."

"Mountains of Time… Ffeh! Accidental brilliance is a family trait. From my mother, and father. Like when my father wrote my name on my birth certificate. You see… Mom and Dad didn't want to know if I'd be a boy or a girl. So they picked names for either outcome. Dad wanted to name me after you if I was a boy. Mom thought about naming me after her mom, but when she thought about it more she thought she could do better. So she really put a lot of thought into what she'd name me. Well. She decided on Kurumi. It was the name of a girl she once knew who helped her through a rough moment when she was little. She never told me the whole story. Anyway..."

Kiritsugu was working hard to stifle a fit of laughter that was building up. Somehow predicting where this was going.

"But when it came time to fill in the paper work they brought it all to my father to fill up while my mother was holding and doting on me, she didn't think my father needed supervision just then… Big mistake! So, Daddy, in his unlimited idiot works, used the characters for insanity and three to spell my name without even consulting my mother on how she wanted to actually write it. Sometimes he's such an unbelieveable numbskull like that…

"What possessed him to do that… I'll never know. But he was vindicated when I turned out to be what my sister describes as a 'yandere' chick. So… yeah. Accidental brilliance… Or is it more of a chicken and the egg scenario? Am I the way I am because of my experiences? Or did he curse me at birth to become this way?!"

Kiritsugu Emiya, the Magus Killer, was reduced to a belly laughing heap on the floor as he heard the story of her name. Kurumi couldn't help but catch his infectious laughter.

"For someone who's suppose to be made of swords… He's really not the sharpest tool in the shed is he?" asked Kiritsugu in his fit of hysteria to which Kurumi fell over onto the floor in laughter as well.

The next morning, long after little Shirou had gone off to school, Kurumi sat in the living room and patiently awaited the results of a test her grandfather had just finished administering to her. After a long moment he nodded his head, "I can confirm that your elements are indeed Darkness and Time. You said you only had the one affinity though, Darkness. So how do you now have two?"

"My understanding of my angel tells me I gained its elemental affinity beside my own. It's the same with Kotori. She gained a double fire affinity after becoming a spirit. Though, that's just my mother's guesswork. With Tohka it was Earth, Earth, and Void. Yoshino was Earth, Wind, and Water."

"That makes sense. There are ways of changing one's natural elemental affinity. Albeit, very painfully and dangerously. It stands to reason the Angels would have this effect on the receiver of their powers to allow them to use it to its full potential. Moving along. You said your origins are Determination and Relentlessness. Like me you have a double origin. Very interesting combination. I can teach you to harness that into a very potent weapon."

"I tried to apply your Origin rounds. It was messy, painful, and very ill advised. Also, when I reversed my own time to heal myself, the bone I cut out went back into me. But, it doesn't solve the baseline problem. I'd eventually run out of ammo, and getting more would be problematic to say the least."

"Interesting. Stupid. But interesting. Did you allow yourself to heal naturally before you tried reversing your own time again?"

"I wasn't exactly up for trying again. But I speculate the same thing would happen again anyway. I lost an arm once, and it just reattached itself to me. Zafkiel seems able to recombobulate me from just about anything, just as long as I'm able to load the power into my mystic code and shoot myself with the bullet."

"There are other ways of infusing munitions with your Origins. They won't be as potent, but they will be effective. We just need to figure out a delivery method. May I see your mystic codes?"

Kurumi nodded and reached to the floor behind herself and picked up her musket and pistol set, both of which were wrapped in black cloth, and set them down on the table for his inspection.

Kiritsugu picked up the musket first and unwrapped it from the cloth. He performed a function check on the weapon and closely inspected it before closing his eyes and performing structural analysis on the weapon. "This is excellent work. Truly excellent."

"My sister made them for me, with the help of Ciel, she's a member of the Burial Agency and a very close family friend. My mother apprenticed her in Magecraft for a while. Anyway, she provided the guns, and taught Kotori how to craft mystic codes. Kotori has a very strong aptitude for it. She made the guns for me, and something for my father which… Well. Something which answered a question for him. Let's leave it at that."

"I see. With a little adjustment... Tell me. How much did your mother teach you about the Tohsaka's magecraft?"

"Everything she knew. I continued to study it after she passed away sometimes. But I was mostly focused on trying to create my own mysteries since I couldn't recreate most of hers. I couldn't recreate my father's either, but I can construct shadowy facsimiles of his weapons, and other things. I call it Shadow Projection. In the end though, all the effort I poured into that amounted to nothing… The weapons had no real substance to them. What I tried to do was imitate my father's tracing ability by working on my own version of Gradation Air with my shadow element. I thought I was so strong because of it, but I was weak and pathetic..." she finished through clenched teeth.

"Calm down Kurumi. That's why we're here now, to figure out what you did wrong, and how you can adjust it to get it right. Now, the reason I ask about the Tohsaka mysteries is because of their knowledge of Jewel Magecraft. Did your mother teach you that?"

"She did. Yes. All I can do with it are a few cheap tricks though. Explosives and temporary shields, among other things."

Kiritsugu nodded, "You call them cheap tricks. But in my experience, cheap tricks are often the most effective. Mages never see them coming. It's inconceivable that someone would attack them with guns and explosives. Both of which you seem to be capable of employing."

"Inelegant dirty fighting…" she muttered.

"Now you sound like a Tohsaka," he said while wagging a finger at her, "Say what you want about dirty fighting, it works. You have a certain set of tools in your box. You need to learn to improvise with them and make them work for you. If you don't have a hammer to beat down a nail, use a stone. If you don't have a screwdriver, find anything that'll fit the screw and use it."

Kurumi rolled her eyes, "My father is really nothing like you. 'For every job there is a tool. For every problem there is a solution.' he would say. He was always particular about using the right tool for the job. The combat philosophy of a hero of justice who's a handyman on the side."

The magus killer had a light chuckle at that, "I suppose that's where he and I differ. If I don't have the right tool for the job, I'll improvise something. Improvisation and versatility will be your greatest tools as well. Learn to love them."

"Alright. So what are you proposing I do with jewels?"

"My own mystic code could only fire one round at a time. Yours seem able to function as quickly as you can cock the hammer. But if you do it the old fashioned way… I'm saying you can infuse jewels with your origins and make your own ammunition for these weapons. I can teach you the process. It's relatively simple and you already know how to infuse a jewel with a mystery and the magical energy to power that mystery. It won't be as potent, but it will be effective, and there are other ways of increasing the effect we can experiment with."

Kurumi's eye widened, "That's brilliant! With my Origins…"

"Absolute attack. A bullet which can breach any defense. Exactly. I'll set up a few training exercises. We'll assess your shooting ability and then see about creating this ammunition to deal with your enemies."

Kurumi took up a prone position on a highrise rooftop overlooking the city of Fuyuki. She lay with her musket held firmly against her shoulder. Kiritsugu knelt down beside her to correct her shooting posture and hand placements with the weapon.

"Now then, like I explained to you, carefully run your Od to your eye until you can see clearly in the dark. Good. Now. The wind moves differently in various places between you and the target. Since you can't see the air itself, look for the effects it has to judge the wind speed and direction."

"Do you think those factors will affect my shadow bullets?" she asked derisively.

"No. But they will all affect your jewel shots, which is why I'm teaching you this. So maybe assume I know what I'm doing?" he remarked with a light tap to the back of her head.

"Right. I'm sorry..."

"Aright. Now that you have the fundamentals. Let's see how you make your gem into a projectile."

Kurumi nodded and picked up one of the gems lying beside her, she closed her hands around it and reformed it into a small sphere.

"Wrong… All wrong," he said before pulling a bullet out of his coat pocket for her to inspect. "This is what it should look like. You shadow projectiles don't matter, but you want to make the gems as aerodynamic as you possibly can."

"I can just increase the muzzle velocity by putting more power into the rifle. Won't that make it overcome anything?"

"I can see why you praise your sister's intellect so much. When this is all over, you'd better pay more attention in school, particularly physics. Just do what I tell you. You don't need to understand why it'll work better, just that it will. Be sure you size it so that it'll fit snugly in the barrel as well… Actually wait… There's more to it than even that."

"Ara ara… For a man who plans so many steps ahead, you're sure full of after thoughts."

"Your musket is a smoothbore. So you need to create a bullet that'll stay stable in flight..." he said while taking out a small notepad and pen. He then started sketching. "What you need to do is create a bullet which will change shape on its own to remain stable in flight."

"Anything else?" she asked with a toothy grin. "I could give it some cute little kitty ears too if you want."

"Just make it so that it'll become like this after you fire it," he said while showing her his sketch.

Kurumi nodded and closed her fist around the gem once again, reshaping it from the small sphere it was to the bullet like object she interpreted based on his drawing.

Later, after Kurumi formed a projectile which was suitable to Kiritsugu, she once again lay down in the prone position and held her musket as he'd instructed her to.

"The target I set up for you is out there. Find it. Let me know when you do."

She scanned the area in front of her with her reinforced eye, using the Night vision technique she'd just learned as well. There was pain in her eyeball but she pushed that out of her mind to focus on finding her target.

"Found it. Mannequin on the roof of the building at two o'clock."

"Good. Can you tell me how far away it is?"

"Almost a kilometer… Roughly eight hundred meters."

"What makes you say that?"

"It's about the same length as the street in front of our house."

"Good. That's exactly right. You take something you know, and use that to judge the distance. Now. How about the wind. How do you judge the wind speed and direction in this environment?"

Kurumi examined everything between herself and the target carefully. "I don't know… Origami is an expert sniper, with a bow and a gun, I just played video games all the time… I'm sorry."

"It's alright. That's why we're here. Look at the first rooftop between us and the target. What do you see on top of it?"

"Air conditioning units, and… some cables going between the rooftop door and the corner of the roof."

"Good. Do you see the cables moving in the wind? Pay close attention to which way they're going."

Kurumi narrowed her eye on the cables. "They're swaying to their left. That way is… North East?"

"Correct. Now, the next building in front of that. What do you see?"

Kurumi moved her eye to stare at the next rooftop over. There were more airconditioning units, and a satellite dish. But nothing which was visibly moving that she could discern.

"There's no movement there."

"Look closer. It's subtle. Don't focus on anything specific. To detect movement keep a broad focus, and let your eye be drawn to whatever changes."

Kurumi gave a small nod and attempted to do as she was told. After a long moment she spotted it, "There's a loose bit of plastic wrapping on the dish. It's being pushed back towards me."

"Correct. Well done. So the wind around the first building is moving away from you, the wind on the second is coming towards you. What does that tell you?"

"There's a wind vortex between me and the target?"

"Correct. Now. What should you do? Wait it out and see if the wind changes, or reposition for a clear shot?"

"What's my situation? If there's a risk of losing the target while I'm repositioning, then it's worth trying something else to make the shot. But if my target will remain stationary, then repositioning would be the correct choice."

Kiritsugu slowly nodded, "Well thought out. You're really not as stupid as you seem to think you are. Let's go with the former. Let's see you try and overcome it to make the shot."

One week later

I'm pretty sure that when they said children eventually have to take care of their parents, this was not what they had in mind!

Kiritsugu had gone over to the Fujimura house to speak with old man Raiga. Kurumi had begged and pleaded for him to bring her along, but he ultimately refused because he needed her to watch over Shirou when he got home from school.

Spending time with her six year old father instead of getting this chance to see Raiga Fujimura, the man who was effectively her great grandfather, in his prime, was insufferable! But Kurumi had to work on her acting skill... Everything Kiritsugu put her through seemed to have some kind of purpose to serve, and lesson for her to learn. It seems he's decided to teach her by chucking her into the proverbial deep end every chance he got.

"What were you thinking? How could you of all people get into a fight in school?" she asked while cleaning his cuts. "And why the hell didn't your school nurse see to your injuries?"

"It didn't happen in school… It happened on my way home… Ow! That hurts!" he complained as she administered some antiseptic to a cut on his face.

"Well certainly it hurts. You can't hurt others unless you're prepared to be hurt yourself. Whatever you dish out, you have to be able to take as well. Otherwise, you have no business getting into fights. A lesson I had to learn the hard way."

"I didn't start it… The other kids followed me away from school to bully me. What was I supposed to do?"

Kurumi sighed, "This feels familiar…"

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing… You did the right thing to protect yourself. I hope you gave as good as you seem to have gotten," she said while applying a few plasters to his cuts.

This takes me back… I suppose I owe you for all the times you did this for me. Like after my first fight with Phantom. Yeah. This takes me back to that...

Emiya House
2027

"It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!" yelled Kurumi as her father cleaned the cuts on her back for her.

"You sound just like your mother right now… Hold still and remember it's no less than you deserve! What the hell were you thinking getting involved in that fight?!" Shirou asked with no small amount of anger.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me about these spirits?!" she barked back.

Shirou's response was to pour the antiseptic all over her back causing Kurumi to scream at an ear peircing level which in turn caused Kotori to cover her ears and bite down on her lollipop.

"Ahhhh! What the hell?!"

"You asked why! I showed you why!"

"Try using words, old man!"

Shirou's response was to give her another dose of the antiseptic bottle.

"Ahhh! Stop it! I'm in enough pain!"

"Because you would have wanted to get involved, and neither your mother, nor I, wanted you, and especially your sister anywhere near this!"

"Too late now! If I was forewarned I could have been forearmed!"

"You shouldn't have gotten involved at all! It wasn't your fight!"

"What the hell kind of logic is that?! Was I just suppose to watch Origami get killed?! If that had been Mom in there would you have just sat back and watched?!"

"Of course not! But that's different!"

Kotori spoke up calmly, with all of her childlike innocence and adorableness before Kurumi could muster up another doubtlessly furious response, "How is it different? She loves Origami as much as you loved mom… Kurumi is just as strong of a magus as you and mom. So, how is it different?"

"She's got you there old man," remarked a devilishly grinning Kurumi over her shoulder.

Shirou dabbed a little more of the antiseptic onto the last cut which instantly wiped the smirk off her face. "You're not nearly as strong as your sister thinks you are. Nor are you as strong as you seem to think you are. Being able to create a shadow facsimile of my swords doesn't mean you can use them like I can. Your gandr shots don't have a fraction of the power of your mother's. And your swarm of familiars aren't nearly as formidable as they are intimidating. When you overestimate yourself, this is the result."

Kurumi groaned a little to herself as her father applied some cotton pads to the cuts. "Hold still now," Shirou directed as he started wrapping bandages around her to hold them in place.

"You don't know how many times your mother and Saber had to patch me up like this after I got my ass handed to me when I was your age. And god only knows how many times after that as well. Since you can't heal yourself like I can, I'd very much like this to be the first and last time I have to do it for you Kurumi. I'd also like it if Kotori would learn from your mistake and not repeat it herself."

"You didn't answer the question… Was I supposed to just watch Origami die? How could I have lived with that?"

"No. You did the right thing. I'm a hypocritical ass. In your place I did exactly the same. Every time. Your mother is probably laughing hysterically at me right now… Assuming she's not yelling her head off at you for being this much like me."

"She'd probably do both," answered a mournful Kurumi.

"You're probably right," he answered before patting her shoulders. "You can cover up now, I'm all done here. You're lucky this wasn't a lot worse, if you'd hit the ground a little harder you would have needed stitches."

"My body is just as hard as your head. It'll take more than this to put me down."

Shirou stood up and leaned down to place a soft kiss atop her head. "I'm proud of you. And I'm sorry I was a jerk just now."

"It's alright Daddy. You were just worried about me."

"Damn right I was. But, I really have no room to talk, I once fought a Heroic Spirit with just a rolled up poster. Still got my butt kicked, but, that's not the point. You're orders of magnitude more powerful now than I was then. But don't let that go to your head. Learn from this beating you got, and make yourself stronger. You're the heir to your mother's legacy. Never forget it."

"I won't," she answered with a proud smile.

"And don't screw around with Spirits! Warn Origami not to either."

"Daddy? Will you at least tell me what you know about them then? I don't think I can talk her out of whatever she's into without something at least as concrete as your head!"

"If it weren't for the fear of you making those wounds even worse I'd drag you to the dojo right now to find out just whose head is harder!"

"Anytime old man! Even like this I can go ten rounds with you and Aunt Tiger at the same time! I suck at Kendo but I'm still better than either of you!"

"I'm pretty sure you have yet to land a hit on me. That's your mother's arrogance if I've ever heard it. You'd be better off without that particular character flaw or hers!"

Kotori rolled her eyes as the two started bantering again. It was a side of them which only came out when they got going like this and it was infuriating to the young redhead when it did.

Emiya House
1995

"Has anyone ever told you that you look kind of scary?" the boy asked her curiously from where he was looking up at her as she chopped ingredients at the kitchen counter.

Kurumi raised an eyebrow and turned to look into her blind spot where he was standing with the kitchen knife slightly raised in her hand. The boy then stared at her with wide eyes. "I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!"

I can't exactly help looking scary. Especially to you. I have my mother's eye…

"Oh relax. I just look scary, but I'm really not. I can't help only having one eye. I don't know why so many people find that intimidating," she said with a shrug of her shoulders before looking back to the vegetables she was chopping and resuming her work.

"What are you making?" he asked curiously, his fear of her instantly forgotten.

"Dinner," she answered matter of factly.

"Yeah. But what are you making for dinner?"

"I'm just going to fry some vegetables and noodles. Nothing fancy. Your father doesn't seem to know how to shop for much that I can work with."

"Yeah. He's a good dad, but he's not the best cook. Could you teach me? All the food you've been making since you moved in has been really good!"

Kurumi's eyebrow shot up again at that statement as she slowly turned her head to level a surprised glare on the small child which had his fear of her swelling up again.

"You snarked about his cooking before. But what do you mean, he's not the best cook?"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend him, or you!"

"No! I'm seriously asking here. I'm doing all the cooking in this house because Kiritsugu Emiya can't cook?!"

Young Shirou shook his head.

Kurumi's lips curled in a small smirk, "Well I know for a fact you'll become one of the best cooks in the world."

"If I survive the old man's cooking…"

Kurumi had a hearty laugh at that remark.

"Alright then. Lemmie teach you something to get you started," she said while scooping him up into her arms and then setting him down on the kitchen counter so he could watch her work.

Wait a minute… I'm actually teaching my father how to cook?! Is this a time paradox? Was I born to one day come back in time to teach my father how to cook?! Are the secrets of the Emiya kitchen a time loop?!

Kurumi violently shook her head.

That can't be. He'll learn again somewhere else because I'm going to erase his memories of me when I'm finished here… But it would be fascinating to find out where he did actually learn to cook.

She then started explaining every detail of everything she was doing to him as she did it until they finally sat down at the table to enjoy the meal she prepared.

Days later, Kurumi was sitting in the magic circle drawn in the shed, which would eventually become the workshop. Kiritsugu had a hand on her bare back as he assessed her magic circuits, after sometime he shook his head with a grim expression as Kurumi stood up and covered herself.

Kiritsugu then started coughing violently as he seated himself down on the steps leading to the second level of the shed. After a quick moment to ensure she was decently covered she ran up to him to pat his back.

"What's wrong? Are you alright?"

"It'll pass…" he said after getting a few deep breaths.

"Pardon me if I don't take your word for it. With a cough like that, how can you still be a smoker?"

"That's… Not the reason for it."

"That's what they all say," she bitterly remarked while seating herself down beside him.

"In my case it happens to be true. Anyway. Even if I were willing to pass on the Emiya crest. I'm afraid you're not compatible with it either, so it's an entirely moot point. There's something about your magic circuits that simply won't accept being connected to anything not a part of them. But what that is exactly, I don't know. If your mother couldn't answer that question, there's no way I can."

Kurumi's entire being seemed to deflate at his statement, "Well… I guess that's that then. Shit out of luck. I'll need to figure another way of gaining the power I need. Par for the course as my father would say."

"Well… You might not actually be out of luck. You might not be able to do this the easy way. But there might be a way you could do it the hard way."

"What do you mean?" she asked with a hopeful eye on her grandfather.

"What do I mean?" he said while taking a seat on the stairs leading the the shed's second level where he started gathering his thoughts. "I have a theory. But… Let me just sound it out and we'll see if we can't work with it."

Kurumi nodded and stood in front of him to listen.

"When you reverse your time, it puts you back together as you were before you were injured. Correct?"

"Yes. It reverts me to a pristine state. My theory is that Zafkiel has this, sort of record of me as I was when I first joined with the crystal. When I reverse time, it puts me back to exactly how I was then. That's why it didn't give me a normal eye and instead put this in here…" she said while removing her eye patch to show him her yellow victorian clock faced eye. "I also have old scars on my body from before I became a spirit, but never gained any new ones. No matter how hard a certain brother and sister tried to turn me into a Picasso."

Kiritsugu nodded, "Yes. I saw the ones on your back. So that makes sense. But what do you think would happen if you forged a magic circuit into a crest and then reversed your own time?"

"It stands to reason that it would restore the magic circuit and destroy the crest."

Kiritsugu nodded, "What's to stop this ability of yours from destroying the Emiya Crest if you were to receive it?"

Kurumi's eye widened, "Nothing. How could I have been so stupid?! Even if it would have worked, the risk is too high!"

The man nodded again, "What we need to do is circumvent this. You told me you had the ability, through your angel, to make copies of yourself correct? Copies which you use as familiars."

She slowly nodded.

"What if... you forged a crest for yourself, made a copy of yourself, and then reversed your own time? Would the copy retain the forged crest?"

"I don't see why not. Even if its time reversed as well, then… It would remain because it was created that way!" she happily exclaimed with a snap of her finger. "I see. Yes yes! You're onto something here! After that, if I transplanted the crest, because they're made of my own circuits, and none of my other circuits would be missing or damaged, then it would theoretically be left alone! Assuming the crest doesn't get destroyed after I get rid of the clone."

"What we need to do, is teach you to recreate the mysteries. Then, figure out how to go about building the crest. Then. We need to find someone who's skilled enough to do the transplants from your copies to you. But be warned that such a procedure won't be enjoyable, to say the least. There's a reason this is usually done from a young age."

"Can it be done? Do you really think I can recreate your mysteries?"

"After everything we've worked on together, everything I've learned about you, I've found nothing to prohibit you from recreating the mysteries. I'll tell you everything I know, and how I've worked with the crest to make it useful to me, and I'll work with you to apply them."

"But if I could recreate the mysteries without the need for the Emiya crest. What would be the use of forging my own?"

Kiritsugu closed his eyes and nodded at her question, "Yes. I suppose you would have been taught that the point of having a crest is to give you access to abilities you otherwise wouldn't be able to employ. But. When you stop thinking of a magic crest as something used for the purpose of advancing the craft, and instead think of it as just another tool in your arsenal… What would the benefits be?"

"I see your point. I'd be able to enact the mysteries with greater speed. Use them instinctively without the need to prepare beforehand… And even effectively use certain abilities outside my elemental alignments. I can probably make other abilities stronger as well if I don't have to go through all the hoops to cast them."

"Good. Let's see if you can learn things as quickly as you can unlearn them. We'll also need to very carefully plan out this crest. The method we've devised will be like putting together a puzzle. We're going to need to very carefully figure out the mysteries you want to put into this crest to do what you need it to do, and in order to do that, we need to figure out what you're made of and how you apply your thaumaturgy to combat."

A few days later, Kurumi went out to do the shopping for the house. She decided that her grandfather would simply never be able to choose good ingredients, so just giving him a list wouldn't have helped anything.

Along the way home she came across a playground. She peered into it with a small happy smile. Memories of her childhood echoed in this place. So much in the city will change between now and her own time, but a few small and simple things like this seem to exist outside the bounds of time. It was so heartwarming to see it exactly as it was, and exactly as it would be.

But then something caught her eye, the playground was empty save for one little girl sitting on a swing. Kurumi's heart jumped into her throat. Her eye and mouth held open in shock. But then her expression washed away, to be replaced with one that matched the little girl's.

The girl had a downcast gaze. All she was at that moment was sadness. Her black hair cast an even darker shadow upon her face, a blackness that seemed to flow into both of their souls. The sorrow radiated from her which reflected into Kurumi's heart like a mirror. Every other emotion was blown away from her like a rampaging tornado, erasing everything positive from her very soul. Where there were memories of unconditional love, happy laughter, and comfort, there now remained nothing but an unfathomable loneliness.

There on the swing was a small girl who would one day grow into a woman who was honest, kind, caring, compassionate, occasionally hot tempered, but so full of the light of love that it radiated into the lives of the people she knew long after she was gone. The past, the present, the future, the light of her love was so bright that it shone upon it all.

"Mom," she finally muttered under her breath with a tear coming to her eye.

Without a single negative or otherwise obstructing thought in her mind regarding what she was about to do, Kurumi walked into the playground. No force of nature could have, or would even have dared try and hold her back as she approached the swings and seated herself on the one beside the six year old Rin Tohsaka.

"Hello," she said to her once and future mother.

"Hi…" she answered somberly.

She extended her hand to the little girl, "I'm Kurumi Tokisaki."

She carefully scrutinized the offered hand and then looked into Kurumi's eye for a long moment. "That's a pretty name…" remarked the little girl as she took her hand. "I'm Rin Tohsaka."

"Your name is also very pretty. Are you here all by yourself?"

Rin nodded to her future daughter.

You don't just come out and ask mom what's bugging her. Unless you want her to take it out on you. I sense nothing's different about her even now.

Kurumi nodded back and set down her grocery bags before standing up and walking around behind her future mother. There, she gave her a gentle push on the swing.

"What are you doing?! I could swing myself if I wanted to!"

"Certainly you could. You can do anything you want to do. But, where's the fun in playing all by yourself?"

"I didn't come here to play! I came here to think!" she barked as Kurumi gave her another push.

So cute! She grumbles, but if she really wanted me to stop, she could make me stop.

"Sometimes, overthinking things only makes the problem worse. So just forget about whatever it is and have a little fun!" said a brightly smiling Kurumi.

"I guess you're right…"

That response was all the encouragement Kurumi needed to give her the bigger push that sent her properly swinging. She felt her heart lift and soar with her mother on the swing when she heard her giggling excitedly.

After a while, the two sat on the bench, where Kurumi reached into her shopping bag and pulled out a small bag of cookies which she opened and offered to the little girl beside her.

"Thank you," she said with a cheerful smile as she took one out. Kurumi did the same and both simultaneously, symmetrically, and inelegantly tossed them into their mouths.

"You know. Your eye is really pretty. It's just like mine," remarked Rin.

Kurumi smiled proudly down on the little girl, "Thank you. Would it be self serving if I said your eyes are pretty too then?"

"No. Well. Maybe. But what's wrong with your other eye though? Did someone poke it out for randomly making conversation with them?"

Ouch. Blunt as ever mom…

"When I was your age, I had cancer that destroyed my eye. So they had to take it out before it spread."

"That must have been scary."

"It was. But it wasn't all bad. My mom stayed by my side the whole time I was in the hospital. So I didn't feel as scared as I probably would have."

"I wish my mom could do something like that for me… But she can't do anything for me anymore. I have to do everything for her now."

"It may be a little early for you, it certainly is for me, but, all children eventually have to take care of our parents. It's natural. Just remember how much they did for you when you were helpless without them."

"I'm still helpless…"

Kurumi reached out and put a supportive hand on the little girl's shoulder, "Now that isn't true. Not at all. You're too strong and stubborn for that kind of thinking. There's nothing you can't do."

Except work a TV, cell phone, or play a video game with me… You're awesome at literally everything else though!

Little Rin was on the verge of tears as she replied to Kurumi's statement, "I try to be strong. But… sometimes… it's just too much."

Kurumi slowly nodded and pulled the little girl into a gentle hug. "I understand. I have to be strong all the time for my family too. Sometimes I also just want to run away and cry. But I can't do that because even one moment of weakness from me can have unimaginable consequences. But at the same time, finding moments where you can be weak, and let out all the negative emotions you have bottled up inside is still important. Because unless you take the time to let the weakness out of you, you can't replace it with more strength,

"Imagine your a bottle, filled with sadness, weakness, and other negative things. If you want to be filled with strength and happiness and other positive things. First you'd have to empty out the negative, and then fill it up with the positive. Does that make sense?"

It should. You taught me this after all.

"It does make sense… Thank you," she said before letting her tears flow freely from her eyes.

"That's good. Just let out all that sadness to make room for the happiness," she said while gently petting the weeping girl's head.

"Why are you being so nice to me? What's in it for you?"

Because you're my mother, and I love you so much…

"Because it's what my mother would have done if our situations were reversed. Even though she isn't with me anymore, I want her to always be proud of who I am."

"I'm sure she is..." answered Rin with a sniffle.

With a big bright smile, Kurumi pulled the little Rin into a tight embrace, "If you think she is, then I know she is."

The two sat in companionable silence for a long while before Kurumi realized the time, "It's getting late and I'm sure my grandfather and his son are probably going to be getting hungry soon, so I need to get home and cook. Before he poisons himself with his own bad cooking. Would you like me to walk you home?"

"There's no need. My house isn't far from here," she said while standing up. "But. Wouldn't your grandfather's son be your father?"

"I suppose that's one interpretation of my situation."

"You say weird things…"

Kurumi nodded and stood up as well. "Yes. I suppose I do. So are you sure you're alright walking home by yourself?"

"Yes. I'm sure. But thank you though."

"Alright. I'll probably never see you again after this. So before you go, I'd just like to say, thank you for everything."

"I'm the one who should be thanking you. I hope I see you again Kurumi."

"You will. After today, I won't ever see you again. But, one day, you'll see me again. After that you'll be seeing a lot of me. I can promise you that."

"You say weird things…"

"It's part of my charm," answered Kurumi with a cheerful smile, eye closed, and head tilted to the side.

One week later

Kiritsugu held a notebook and pen as Kurumi took him through the details of her magecraft. Beginning with her her most basic. In her hands were two unstable looking falchions made of shadows which emitted wisps of smoke like darkness from their form.

"When I mentioned I ripped off my father's favorite swords, this is what I was talking about. Kanshou and Bakuya. Noble Phantasms he favors above all others. Because of him my attribute affinity is reinforcement. But I can't apply it to these constructs because they lack any kind of substance, or even a concept. They're just nothing. Darkness. All I can do is make it darker. Giving it meaning beyond that is… beyond me."

Kiritsugu nodded as he jotted down a few notes. "Your friend Ciel was on the right track with developing your mystic codes. They take your shadows and give them a simple concept of hardness with which to do damage."

"Exactly."

"You see. This is where your magecraft is weak, and where you need to broaden your horizons. Improvise new solutions. I can't help you research and develop new applications for darkness, but, I can teach you to think outside the box and consider solutions you may not have considered before."

"The only real Emiya family Magecraft now is Reinforcement. The study of how to make things better at what they do. We do this to literally everything in the house. Our cloths, appliances, Dad even wanted me to do it to my glass eye to make it better somehow, but I refused. I hated that damn thing with a burning passion! Anyway. My sister and I are both very, very good at it. Kotori couldn't command fire for the longest time, but she picked up on reinforcement and ran with it. When she finally figured out how to use her fire abilities, she could reinforce the flames to the point that she was hurling plasma. It was incredible!"

"You're always so proud of her, no matter what. Even when you're talking about her ability to vaporize things."

Kurumi grinned brightly at her grandfather, "I'm always proud of Kotori. No matter what. I love her above all else. Always!"

"Admirable. So. What can you do with reinforcement to your own magecraft?"

"Nothing. You can't make nothing better at something!"

"You can if you first make something."

Kurumi rolled her eye, "My father makes things. All I can do is wield the shadows of things."

"Are those swords solid at all?"

"No. They do their damage by cutting at the shadows of whatever I'm attacking. It's a very roundabout way of doing harm, but it's all I had before my mystic codes. That and my jewels. But. Money for jewels was always an issue, so, I had to be very conservative with them. It's the Tohsaka curse. We're all doomed to be broke because of our magecraft."

"Doesn't the Tohsaka family have patents with the Clock Tower? You don't get your mother's royalties from them?"

"I should… But there was a dispute over who, if anyone, should get the money now. Mage politics at their finest…"

"I see. Anyway. Your mystic codes can impose the concept of hardness onto your projectiles. Correct?"

"Yes. That's correct. What are you getting at?"

"Have you ever considered trying to figure out how to attach concepts to your constructs? Your mystic code does it. Why can't you?"

Kurumi raised her voice as she angrily blurted out her response, "Because I don't have any-" she started before stopping herself.

Kiritsugu's lips curled into a small smirk. Which he found odd because smirking was never one of his expressions. But Kurumi's signature smirks and grins were infectious.

"Hardness. Is not so difficult to apply. It just takes a lot of magical energy to do. It's an Earth alignment ability, so I can't do it myself with any precision. That's why the mystic code does that part for me and doesn't drain my Od to actualize the mystery. But… if precision wasn't a factor in what I was trying to do..."

"So if you were to apply that to your shadows? What could you do with it? And please think bigger than just giving your swords a proper cutting edge."

Kurumi considered it for a long moment. "Wizards can fly. So can Kotori and most other spirits. But… I can't do that because shadows have no density, and no hardness. But. If I gave a shadow hardness…"

She then created a disc of shadow in front of her with a wave of her hand. With no small exertion of effort she managed to solidify it. "Shadows aren't bound by gravity…" she said while stepping on the disc she created. "Katrina Leskanich walked on sunshine, but Kurumi Emiya walks on darkness! I'm walking on darkness, ooh ohh! I'm walking on darkness, ooh ooh! And don't it feel good?"

Kiritsugu rubbed the side of his head as he approached her. "Promise me you'll never try making a career as a singer… You can't carry a tune to save your life. But how are you doing this?" he asked while inspecting the platform of shadow she stood upon.

"Well. We all cast shadows. I just have the ability to employ my own shadow in my magecraft. What I do is become my shadow. That's how I manipulate the darkness. After that, I just used the density of the ground under the shadow to make it act as if it were on solid ground."

"This is an incredible power you have… Why haven't you figured out these applications for your power before?"

"Sofu-sama? What are you thinking?"

"It's like cement isn't it? The shadow is like the powder, and hardening is just adding water and waiting for it to set."

"I suppose that's another way of looking at it," she said a finger to the side of her lips as she considered his words. "So what are you thinking?"

"Shadow bullets. Now shadow steps. You say you can't make things. But I don't see what prevents you from building things."

"Aren't they the same things?"

"It's all in how you look at it. So what else can you build?"

"I was already able to create solid bubbles with my shadow to protect myself. My mystic codes took that and made it into an offensive ability. This isn't much different. Takes a lot of magical energy to do, but if I draw on Zafkiel, I could build the stairway to heaven."

"Don't start singing. I love that song. Don't ruin it for me."

Kurumi's response was a mirthful laugh.

Five months later

Kiritsugu rushed at Kurumi in the Kendo dojo with his bamboo sword. The two traded blows for a few moments before he increased the aggression in his attacks. Kurumi held her ground for a short while before he forced her into a vulnerable position, a situation which he knew there was only one way to escape from.

"Time alter, double accel!"

The next thing he knew she was behind him on a shadowy platform which use used to counter his height advantage, and had her bamboo sword at his throat.

"That was perfect Kurumi. Absolutely perfect. I'm always impressed by how quickly you develop good instincts for these things."

"I have a good teacher," she said with a happy smile as she released him from her grasp.

"Being a spirit seems to really allow you to get full use of the Time Alter ability. The resilience of your body is remarkable. But always remember never to push it too far. Just because you're not feeling the effects of the double acceleration doesn't mean there aren't any. I don't particularly want to see how you'd stand up to a triple or square acceleration so don't go there. I never had to push any farther than a double except in one extraordinary situation. Anyway... You're also getting a lot stronger at Kendo. You lasted against me much longer this time. Those origins certainly make you a fast learner."

"Thanks, but, it's not so much that I'm a fast learner, it's more that I refuse to give up until I've mastered something I've set my mind to. Kendo still isn't my thing. Aunt Tiger used to try and encourage me to practice, especially since she can't steamroll my father anymore. But it's just not my thing. I mean, yes, it helps develop good fighting instincts, but, I still prefer to stick with Kyudo."

"Why is that exactly? What draws you to Kyudo?"

Kurumi smiled wistfully as her eye turned towards the roof. "In Kendo. You have an opponent. Someone to overcome. But you don't have that in Kyudo. You only have yourself to overcome. And I've always been my own worst enemy. Heh. Speaking of Kyudo. Do you mind if we call it a day? I feel the need to practice a bit. I haven't touched a bow in so long and I really feel the need to now."

"I was actually going to ask for the same. I have some business to take care of. But I was hoping I could ask you to watch over Shirou until I get back."

"Wasn't Taiga suppose to be coming over?"

Kiritsugu leveled a stare at her, as if asking 'are you serious?' without saying the words.

"Oh right. It's Taiga… Well, I suppose I could bring him to the dojo with me. He grows up to be quite the Archer anyway. No harm can be done… Oh wait… No. A lot of harm can be done."

"What do you mean?" he asked with with a hard glare.

"The dojo in New City, is where my girlfriend and I train with this group of masters every saturday. They know us very well."

"Yes. But they won't know you in this time. What's your point?"

"Yes. In this time. But when I walk in there for the first time in twenty twenty six without having aged a day and someone remembers me? I mean, look at me, I'm a little hard to forget."

"Is that because you're arrogant enough to think you're that beautiful, or because you think you look freakish enough to be that memorable?"

"Can't it be both?"

"Well. You are that beautiful, and your features are that memorable. So I suppose you have a point."

"Thank you?"

"It wasn't just a compliment Kurumi. Why don't we set you up a target stand in the courtyard and buy you a bow and some arrows?"

Kurumi raised her eyebrow for a moment and then widened her eye.

"Was it that good of an idea? We've had many strokes of brilliance between us these past months, but I don't think this makes the top five where that expression belongs."

"I just realized this could be why Aunt Tiger ended up as the advisor to the Archery Club, and why my dad got interested in Kyudo…"

"If you're worried about all the paradoxes you could be creating, then take that lesson to heart and be more mindful of everything you do."

"Point taken."

Kurumi was dressed in the traditional outfit for the practice of Kyudo as she stood on the veranda with her bow drawn. It was well into the winter now, but the cold didn't bother her as much as it probably would have before she became a spirit.

Her audience for this practice session consisted of a seventeen year old Taiga Fujimura who was only a year older than Kurumi at this point, and the six year old Shirou Emiya, both warmly dressed for the winter cold. They watched with wide eyed wonder as she launched her arrow across the yard to hit the small target dead centre and followed the movements into her relaxed position.

Taiga Fujimura started clapping which made the raven-haired girl internally cringe as she slowly turned to her future Aunt. "Ara ara… You shouldn't applaud like that. It's bad etiquette in Kyudo."

"Sorry, it's just so impressive. You have no depth perception but you managed to hit that tiny target which is even further away from you than it would be at an archery range."

"Not that much farther away… I could even hit it blindfolded if I wanted to."

"Oh really? Alright! Do it!" exclaimed Taiga while standing up. She took off her scarf and went up behind her to wrap it around her head as a blindfold.

Kurumi then loaded and fired her next arrow and hit the target.

"Wow! You're amazing Tokisaki-sama!" cheered Shirou.

Taiga whistled an impressed tune, "My school has an archery club. If you started attending I bet all the boys would be all over you. A girl who can shoot an arrow like that, cupid himself would be envious of you!"

Kurumi turned her eye upon Taiga after removing the scarf and handing it back to her. Then with a small toothy grin on her lips addressed her statement, "The boys don't stand a chance. It's the girls who'd have to worry."

Taiga widened her eyes at her remark and suddenly seemed to be very self conscious of her school skirt and appearance. "You, you mean you're… a dyke?!"

"Unless you feel like standing out there with an apple on your head, I'll thank you not to ever use that word again. You also need to calm down. I'm not going to start flirting with you just because you're a girl anymore than you'd flirt with every boy you meet just because he's a boy. You're not my type."

I know you too well for that!

"Why? Am I not pretty?!" barked the angry Tiger.

"It's not that. You are. But I have a girlfriend."

"Don't you get made fun of a lot for that?"

"Look into my eye… Do I look like someone people have the guts to bully?"

Taiga shifted uncomfortably, "No. Not really. You look like the sort of person who'd kill their dog for trying."

"Ara ara! Why would I do that? It's not the poor dog's fault that their master is a bigot. If they just keep it at words, I'll be merciful and just put shards of glass and salt in their shoes, then make them run a marathon."

Taiga looked away and giggled uncomfortably at the mental image of that.

"If they resort to something more than words… Oh… How irresponsible of me! I can't believe I forgot to let those people out of the basement before I came here! Oh well… Can't be helped now. I'll just burn some incense to cover the smell."

Taiga and Shirou both gawked at her with wide eyes. Both seemingly trying to decide how serious she was. Both then seemed to conclude, based on the inscrutable look on her face that the less they knew, the better off they'd be.

After Kurumi burst into laughter both sighed with relief.

"So you don't ever feel ashamed of being different?"

"In a room full of people with black hair, would you ever feel ashamed of having brown hair? This isn't any different than that," Kurumi said with a wink before going through the process of firing another arrow.

Shirou looked up at her with wonder. "You look really cool when you're shooting your bow Tokisaki-sama. Could you teach me how?"

"Me too!" added Taiga.

"I could probably give Fujimura a lesson, but you're still a bit too small for this Shirou."

"Where did you learn to shoot like you do anyway?" asked Taiga as she stood up beside Kurumi who handed her the bow.

"My father taught me… He used to remark that he'd created a monster because after that my Aunt kept telling him that I was even better at it than he ever was, she thought it would annoy him. He let her think that. There were worse ways she tried to get under his skin. In reality it only made him prouder of me every time she said it."

"It's time to put you to the test. I've been laying the groundwork for this for a while now, and everything's ready for us," Kiritsugu said as he pulled the blankets off his bed. "Happy birthday by the way."

Kurumi widened her eye at everything she was looking at. "Ara ara! You're the best granddaddy a girl could wish for!" she exclaimed while running up to hug him tightly. "You actually remembered my birthday!"

The Magus Killer rolled his eyes at her immature act, but nonetheless hugged her back. By now he'd gotten to know her well enough to know that it was only an act. He knew he could depend on her for the serious business at hand.

"These are all for you. They'll help get you started. The rifle was mine, and the rest was all I could discreetly scourge together. I've put together a list of places you can go to acquire more if you need them. There's no reason they shouldn't still be doing business in your time."

She looked over the items being presented to her. There were two bricks of C4, a few grenades, a combat knife, and a compact sniper rifle. But what truly caught her eye were two bayonets which she picked up to inspect before looking up at her grandfather for an explanation.

"I commissioned them for you from a very skilled craftsman. They'll fit your musket and pistol, and they'll stand up to any close quarters combat."

The raven-haired girl nodded and then picked up the Walther WA2000. "What about this? Isn't it a little redundant to add this to my arsenal? I can snipe anything with my musket."

Kiritsugu's lips curled into a small smirk, "Try structural analysis on it."

Kurumi closed her eyes and flooded her magic circuits. She then nodded at the weapon with an impressed look on her face. "I see… You really do think ahead. It's just like my other ones so I can definitely work with this. In fact, I think I have an idea for something I can actually do with this that I can't with my musket. So what's the job?"

"A group of mages, including a sealing designee are gathering in northern China, near the Mongolian border. The Association wants them all eliminated. Some old contacts of mine were given the job, but when I mentioned I was training a successor, they agreed to give you a shot at it. They'll take the credit for getting it done, and nobody who matters will ever know you and I were involved in this."

"So I'm your successor now?" she gleefully quizzed.

"I suppose you are, I've taught you everything I know… So are you up for the job?"

"What do we know about them?"

"Plenty. I'll go over everything with you if you're in."

"Isn't this technically like coming out of retirement for you?"

"Once you hear the details of this job, you'll understand."

"Alright. Tell me."

"First, tell me if you're in or not. If you're in, we go all the way with this. No turning back. No half-assing it. No mistakes. So are you in?"

Kurumi looked him dead in the eye and issued her answer calmly, and clearly. "Yes. I'm in."

Emiya House
2027

Kurumi sat on the edge of the bed and looked down on her sleeping sister. The alarm on her bedside went off and Kurumi quickly reached out to shut it off. But the damage was done, and the moment was ruined.

Kotori's eyes fluttered open as she woke. "Huh? Who're you?"

"Very funny Kotori-chan. I know I'm awake before you for once in our lives, but that's a little harsh."

She looked down on her little sister and noticed a genuinely fearful expression on her face. Her cherry red eyes watered and shook with abject terror. Kurumi's heart was in her throat as she mustered up her words. "Kotori-chan? Don't you recognize me? It's Kurumi. Your big sister?"

Kotori looked away to her left, and then to her right and then sat up while her eyes drifted back onto the raven-haired girl, locking in on her one blue eye. "Onee-sama?"

"Yes. That's right… I'm your Onee-sama."

"What time is it? I guess I didn't get a good night's sleep if I couldn't even remember you now."

Kurumi reached out and snatched her into a tight hug. "It's alright Kotori-chan."

"Uhh… It's not that I don't like hugs or anything... But what's with you all of a sudden?

"A lot Kotori… I'm just so happy to see you safe."

Kotori wrapped her arms around her big sister tightly. "Onee-sama? Why are you crying? What's wrong?"

"I love you so much and I'm so happy to be able to hold you. No matter what happens, I'll never let anything take you away from me."

"Did you have a bad dream or something?"

"No Kotori. I had a Nightmare. I've had the same one six times now. And I'm afraid to death that because I made a questionable decision that number seven is about to start. I had a chance to stop it all from ever happening. But the cost was more than I was willing to pay."

"That must have been some nightmare… What was the cost?"

"Save the world, or save you. I chose you. I would choose you every time. Fuck the world. Let it burn. As long as you're safe, nothing else matters to me."

"It's alright Onee-sama. I'll wake you up from your nightmares from now on. Because I'm awesome like that!"

"Yes… You are. You give me the courage to face all my fears. I treasure you above anything else. And I'll see the whole world burn a thousand times over, but I will never let anything keep you away from me."

"I have no idea what's gotten into you today, but I love you."

"I love you too."