The Gaming Magus Chapter 1: Prologue: Enter bathroom, start game, a fate/stay night fanfic

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

XxX

He wiped the sweat off his brow as he finished his daily exercises. He then stared at the clock behind him, and noticed that it was still barely six. Sakura would be here in fifteen minutes or so, with the tiger not so far behind her. He could still get clean himself up and start on breakfast before they got here.

He exited the dojo, and started his walk towards the bathroom by the entrance. His mind wandered, and he thought about his underclassman.

The addition of Sakura in his morning routines was not an unpleasant one. She had first started coming over to his house during the summer when he had gotten sick. Shinji had come with her, but his friend just came and went with nothing but a get well soon before leaving Sakura to take care of him. He had tried to refuse, but Shinji just gave him a condescending look, before he reasoned that Sakura was a good caretaker. Nothing more was said after that, and Shinji left soon after, he had thanked him before he left though, and Shinji had just waved him away and told him to get some rest.

It sort of flowed after that, with Taiga utterly gushing as Sakura took care of him.

He reached the bathroom and slid the door open. He entered and closed it behind him, making sure to lock the door before he went over to the sink. He opened the tap, before he filled his hands with water and splashed it all over his face. Just another measure to make sure he stays awake.

He wiped his face on the towel he had around his neck, before he looked up towards his reflection.

He stared.

"What the-?" He stared at the words above his head. They were reversed, and it took him a few seconds to understand what they said, but when he did, he was even more confused.

Emiya Shirou – Brownie – Level 4

HP: 266/266 MP: 100/100

The words and numbers for the HP and MP were both in a bar of sorts, a green one for HP, and a blue one for MP. Aside from that though, he was confused. Why the heck did he even have an HP bar and MP bar?

He had played some RPGs before, so he at least understood that it was a common thing for his name and level to be displayed atop your avatar. But he wasn't in a game, he was in real life, and currently, he was in the process of freshening up in the bathroom. So yeah, he wasn't at all in a game, and this certainly wasn't an RPG.

Wait… why the heck was he so calm? This should be freaking him out. The only thing that could have made this was another magus, so it should be obvious that one was inside his house right now.

But there wasn't, Kiritsugu's bounded field made sure of that. If there was, he would know.

He shook his head, maybe it was just a trick of the light… as impossible as that was, there was just no reason for words to be there. So he ignored it, and went on with his rituals.

As he exited the bathroom, making sure to place the weird floating words to the back of his mind, he thought about what to cook. There was some leftover pork still in the fridge, as he couldn't cook everything yesterday. The pork itself was probably two to three days old, and while it wasn't fresh, it wasn't spoiling either. Still, if he didn't cook the raw pork, it would start soon. Maybe he shouldn't have brought excessively, but hey, it was on sale.

He entered the living room, and walked directly to the kitchen attached to it. He opened the fridge and pulled out the pork. He couldn't marinate them right now, but he could still cook them with some soy sauce and a little bit of spice.

As he reached for the knife to start cutting the pork into pieces however, a… window opened in front of his face, surprising him that he almost let go of the knife.

Quest: The most important meal of the day

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and having breakfast can be the difference between having a good day and a bad one. Cook a good meal for three (Five) to have a good one!

Completion reward: 30 (50) exp.

Increase reputation with Sakura and Fujimura Clan.

Completion failure: Disappointment

Decrease reputation with the Fujimura clan.

He felt his eye twitch. This was looking more and more like an RPG. Why the heck was it looking more and more like an RPG? And what did the five mean?

Deciding to ignore the window, he tried to swat it away. To his satisfaction, it did leave. He stared down at the pieces of pork that needed to be cut, and smiled. This would be a good distraction… hopefully he'd get it done before Sakura and Taiga got here.

The Gaming Magus

XxX

He was aware both Sakura and Taiga were talking, he was also aware they thought he was in the same conversation. But he wasn't, he was just nodding his head when they looked at him, and though his eyes were looking at them, they flickered upwards. First at Taiga.

Fujimura Taiga - Fierce Tiger - Lvl: 48

And then at Sakura.

Matou Sakura - Unofficial Kouhai - Lvl: 230

He felt his eye twitch as he registered Sakura's level. By all means he should be panicking, but he couldn't. Not right now, not when they were both here talking like everything was normal, and to them, it may as well have been normal. They didn't react like they could actually see what he was seeing, and if he pointed out that he could see words that they couldn't see, he could potentially be branded as crazy with a tendency to hallucinate at best, and outright have delusional tendencies at worst.

"...ight Senpai?" He blinked as his eyes zoned back towards Sakura. She was smiling at him, and again, he nodded his head.

"Right." He said, not at all having followed the conversation. It wasn't until Taiga started laughing and clutching her stomach did he figure out that he walked into a trap.

He frowned. "What?" He asked, more as a means to keep up appearances. Sakura just giggled, which in turn caused Taiga to start laughing louder. His frown deepened. "What?" He repeated.

"N-nothing Senpai." Sakura got her giggled under control, before she adopted an almost pitying look at him. He did not like that look. More because he just knew that he walked into that look. "You just agreed that you're more a housewife than the man of the house."

He flushed. "What!" He then shot an accusing look at the only one that could have possibly made Sakura agree to trap him like that. "Fuji-nee!" He cried in embarrassment.

For her part, Taiga stopped laughing and managed to calm herself before she grinned at him. "Don't blame me. You've been nodding and agreeing with what we say for the entirety of the conversation. You can't blame me for taking advantage." Taiga's face morphed into one of mischief, causing him to sigh and smile a little at her slyness.

"Alright," He nodded his head. You can't tell him he didn't take responsibility. "I wasn't listening. But you didn't have to do that!" She really didn't, though the amount of times Taiga had made a fool of him should have made him used to it, she kept finding ways to just get under his skin, not in a bad way per se, but more to annoy him and cause him embarrassment.

In response to his indignation, Taiga grinned. "You should listen when other people are talking Shirou! Your onee-san raised you better than that!" At this, fake tears suddenly appeared in her eyes. "Oh Kiritsugu, whatever happened to that sweet boy who always listened to people's worries and troubles!"

He sighed, but couldn't stop himself from smiling at Taiga for her demeanor, he was used to this, and from the look of amusement on Sakura's face, it seems she was as well. "Keep talking like that Fuji-nee, and I won't feed you anymore." He threatened with a grin.

In response to his threat, Taiga really started bawling. "Ah! Sakura-chan! Shirou's so mean to his Onee-chan!" Taiga then made a show of running over towards Sakura, before enveloping the younger girl in a hug as she bawled into her chest.

In response to this, Sakura patted the woman's back softly. "Don't worry Fujimura-sensei, even if Senpai won't feed you, I will." Ah Sakura, always the kind soul. He didn't have anything against that, really. But…

"Don't spoil her Sakura." He said jokingly. Of course, he'd never abandon Taiga. He loved her like a sister, albeit a freeloading older sister that acted more like a child than he ever did, but still, a sister. And he wouldn't always be around to freeload off of, so yeah, Taiga had to stop freeloading sometime.

Sakura smiled at him, but before she could say anything, Taiga straightened and recomposed herself. Not that she needed to anyway, she was always like this. "Anyway," Taiga began. "I have to leave a little bit early today. Since it's the first day of classes, teachers are going to have to sit through an orientation." And with that said, Taiga grabbed her bowl of rice, before she gulped down the last bits of it, not at all bothering that there was no more food on the table.

After she finished, she placed the bowl down, and let out a content sigh. "Thanks for the food Shirou!"

The most important meal of the day complete!

Reward: thirty exp points!

Your reputation with Matou Sakura has increased by 12 points!

Your reputation with Fujimura Taiga has increased by 12 points!

Your reputation with the Fujimura clan has increased by 6 points!

Level up!

Your hp increased by 30

Your mp increased by 10

You have gained 5 stat points!

You have gained 1 skill point!

You have gained the ability to choose a trait!

You have gained 1 trait point!

You need another 300 exp points to level up.

He blinked. Oh for the love of-

He looked up, towards his own name and HP/MP bars.

Emiya Shirou – Brownie – Level 5

HP: 276/276 MP: 110/110

"Shirou?" He looked up, glad to be interrupted from his inner musings at just what was happening to him. He caught the look of worry from both Sakura and Taiga, and could guess they could sense his inner turmoil. "Are you okay?" It was Taiga who asked, and though he really wasn't, with the incoming headache from the confusion of having RPG elements in his life, he still smiled at her.

"Yeah, never better. Why?" He asked, deflecting the issue. He couldn't lie to save his life, but he could deflect. Albeit it was still obviously unconvincing, as Taiga still sported a worried look along with Sakura.

"You've been spacing out for awhile now." Taiga explained as she sat back down, an uncharacteristically morose look on her face.

He frowned, yeah, he guessed they would notice. "Just… thinking about a lot of things." Not exactly a lie. So it wasn't hard to say that. But judging from the understanding look on Taiga's face, as well as the small smile on Sakura's own, he could guess they bought it and were now thinking about something else entirely.

"It's fine Shirou." Taiga said, her voice sounding surprisingly sage and motherly. "Coming into high school isn't something to think about. In fact, it's arguably the same as being in middle-school. Just be yourself." Not exactly what he was thinking about, but still, he could understand and appreciate what Taiga was doing. It was the reason she was his sort-of freeloading sister.

He nodded his head. "Thanks Fuji-nee." He felt like a bad friend/brother. He was lying to both Sakura and Taiga, and here they were comforting him in a subject he didn't have the least bit of trouble with. If he wasn't so worried they would throw him into a loony bin if he told them about the RPG elements that popped out that only he could see, he would have told them.

Still, he could keep a secret. If he could keep his late night activities from being found out by Taiga, and about Kiritsugu being a magus, then he could at least keep whatever was happening to him a secret as well.

Taiga nodded back at him, before she glanced at the clock. "Well, that's my cue!" With that, Taiga went from serious to her normal demeanor. She stood up again, before she started for the door. "I'll see you both later! Don't be late now, Shirou, Sakura!" She waved as she exited the room, leaving him alone with Sakura.

He waved goodbye at his guardian, before he turned towards Sakura. "Let's get to cleaning up." He said as he stood up.

Quest alert!

God dam-

Quest: Clean up.

Breakfast is finished, but you still have to clean up. Finish cleaning up before 7:30am or you will be late for school.

Completion award: 45 exp.

Increase reputation with Homurahara Academy.

Completion failure: Decrease reputation with Homurahara Academy and Fujimura Taiga.

Wait. Why only Homurahara? He would think that failing to clean up would result in a decrease of reputation with Sakura at least. So why-

"Don't worry Senpai." He lifted his head to look at Sakura. She had already grabbed Taiga's plate and had stacked a few of the empty ones by her side. "I'll clean up, you just rest. It's the least I can do for you after you made breakfast."

He smiled at Sakura before he shook his head. "No, it's my house. You rest, I'll clean up." He then made to stand, but a pointed look from Sakura made him hesitate picking up the first place.

"Senpai. It wouldn't feel right for me to just eat and let you clean. I would feel like Fujimura-sensei." She shot him an almost accusing look, as if asking him if he wanted that.

He couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. Well, he supposed he couldn't. "Alright. I'll wash, you dry." A compromise was always good. He didn't want to delegate everything to Sakura.

Sakura for her part however, only smiled at him. "I wash, you dry." Was all she said before she too stood and went over to the sink, carrying with her a majority of the dirty dished used during breakfast. Well, alright then.

Your reputation with Matou Sakura has increased by 30 points!

He did his best to ignore that.

XxX

He had made sure that he was alone in the bathroom, opening every singe stall just to make sure that no one was in there to hear what he was about to say next. Knowing that there was no one, he sighed before he spoke. "Pause."

And with that, everything turned grey. The ceilings, the floor, the stalls, heck, even the sunlight coming in from the small slit windows turned grey. He turned to the mirror, and wasn't at all surprised to see that he was the only one that was not grey.

"I should be surprised." He muttered to himself. But he really wasn't. The fire had been a surprise, and he doubted anything less than something equivalent to that would surprise him.

Without anything else to do, and knowing that now that the world was paused, he had all the time he could have. "Menu." He tried.

Characters

Items

Status

Options

Relations

And with that, a window opened showing off five buttons. He wondered if this wasn't voice activated, and thus, tried pressing on the 'Status' button.

Emiya Shirou – Brownie – Level 5

HP: 276/276 MP: 110/110

This unit can be leveled up.

A window opened, showing off a picture of him. There were some empty spaces next and to the bottom of his window, but he didn't pay those any mind. Instead, he pressed on his picture.

Name: Emiya Shirou

Class: Magus (3rd rate)

Title: Brownie (+10% increased reputation gain)

Level: 5

HP: 276/276

MP: 110/110

STR: 8 (30)

VIT: 10 (40)

DEX: 7

AGI: 7 (10)

INT: 5

WIS: 4

LUK: N/A

Status: ? (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill), Helpful (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain). Levelheaded (Allows the calm assessment of any kind of situation).

Skills:

Tracing – Active – 7 – An offshoot combination of the Structural Grasping) skill and the (Projection) Skill. This skill allows one to understand the core of anything they choose to understand.

Structural Grasping – Passive/Active – 40 – Passively grants perception, an ability that allows the user to understand the going's on around him and spot the tiniest details. Active: Grants the user the ability to delve deeper into an objects structure

Cooking – Passive/Active – 55 – Passively grants a bonus to stats when cooking (+10% to all stats when cooking). Active: Grants the user the ability to make stat increasing food.

Mechanic's hands – Passive – 40 – Grants the user an understanding of how most doohickeys and doo-dads work. Give the user an understanding of how to fix and/or upgrade certain items.

Vigorous – Passive – Max – Due to the user's special body item, this user doesn't suffer from illnesses and has drastically increased health regeneration. Also, this unit doesn't suffer from age inhibitors like most others.

Traits:

? : This user is a *ERROR*. His skill set allows him to [Trace] *ERROR* to the point that it feels like the original. Due to the very nature of this user, he cannot be more than a 3rd rate magus at best. (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill)

Helpful: This user is a helpful person. (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain.)

Levelheaded – This user has the ability to think clearly and make good decisions, even under intense pressure. (Allows the user to be calm in situations that would otherwise make others panic.)

He raised an eyebrow at his first Trait. It gave out more questions than it answered. And was the reason he was so calm about all this was because he had the levelheaded trait?

He also noted his class. Not that it annoyed him, but what did Class have to do with anything? Was it there for increasing his skills? Or what?

Well, no use just standing around here… not like it mattered since time was still stopped. He knew the basics of most RPGs, but what exactly did each stat do? Did they increase each other if given a set amount? Did they affect his overall health?

Damn it, if only there was a manual or something.

"Main menu." He said, and immediately, the status window disappeared only for it to be replaced with the previous menu window with the same five options.

Characters

Items

Status

Options

Relations

He thought for a second. "Options." And again, the window disappeared only to be replaced with a new one. He had to remember that the windows could be activated by voice command, and also by pressing the buttons in the menus. All he had to do was pick the best one where he wouldn't look like an idiot if he needed to open one menu in public.

Sorry, you must first finish the tutorial before you can access the options menu.

He blinked at the window that opened. Before the window suddenly closed and took him back to the main menu. Again, he felt his eye twitch. This was some messed up game.

"Items." He tried this time. And was immediately rewarded with another window opening, this time, without the need to finish the tutorial flashing in his face.

Emiya Shirou

N/A

He raised an eyebrow at the three other slots, and wondered why those didn't show up in the character menu. He shook his head, before he pressed the button with his name on it.

Emiya Shirou's inventory

Homurahara uniform (Top): Equipped (+5 to vit)

Homurahara uniform (Pants): Equipped (+5 to agi)

Homurahara uniform (Jacket): Equipped (+5 to vit)

Black (fake) leather shoes: Equipped (+5 to agi)

Avalon: Equipped (Bonus skill: Vigorous)

4000 yen

Wallet

Well, the only thing that stood out was Avalon. What was that? He pressed on the button for Avalon, and another window popped out.

Are you sure you want to unequip Avalon?

Yes/No

He blinked, before he pressed the yes button. Maybe if he got to see what it wa-

ERROR! Avalon cannot be unequipped.

He suppressed the urge to run his hand down his face. Of course.

He swiped the window away, and reentered his inventory. He looked at it for one second, before he swiped it away as well. Well. That was another waste of time.

Oh well, at least he had some knowledge of how RPG's work. So he could guess what he needed to do.

He reentered his status screen, before he looked over his stats. Sure enough, there were plus and minus signs right next to them, with the minus signs grayed out. That meant he could distribute his stat points right now and not have to worry about it permanent without him confirming.

With that, he added the points to where he wanted them most.

HP: 276/276

MP: 140/140

STR: 10(30)

VIT: 10 (40)

DEX: 7

AGI: 7 (10)

INT: 8

WIS: 4

LUK: N/A

Adding two points to STR and three to INT. Not really anything mind boggling, but if he had to guess, intelligence would help him with some of his magus training, and having a little bit more strength didn't hurt.

He also noticed that his MP increased by thirty. He wasn't a genius, but he did understand that it had increased because he had added 3 points into his INT stat. Hmm, so increasing INT increases MP. But what did WIS do then?

Now that that was out of the way, he had two more things to do. Taking another shot in the dark with what he was about to do, he spoke. "Skills menu."

Sure enough, he was rewarded with another window opening, this time, showcasing his skills and where he could put his skill point.

Tracing – Active – 7

Structural Grasping – Passive/Active – 40

Cooking – Passive/Active – 55

Mechanic's hands – Passive – 40

Vigorous – Passive - Max

Those were his current skills, but then there were three more; ones that were grayed out, and told him that they weren't part of his current skill set yet. He didn't really count Vigorous as his own, since it was part of the Avalon item.

Concentration – Passive

Weapon's Expert – Passive

Alteration – Active

He was a little bit surprised Alteration was there. Since he could do that before all of this happened. He wondered if he could though, now that it was listed there.

Deciding that he had nothing to lose. He swiped the menu away, before he approached the sink. There, he went to grab the valve that would turn the tap on, but was forced to draw his hand away as he was shocked by something.

Error. You cannot interact with objects when the game is paused. To unpause game, go back to area where you paused, and say "Resume."

Right, of course that was needed. What kind of game would allow you to move when the game was paused? That would be entirely too broken to be a finished product.

Well, he could rightly unpause the… game. He still hesitated to call it such, as this was real life, and whatever this was, it was either the work of a magus that was having entirely too much fun with him, or he really was living his life like it was a video game. He wondered though, on why this happened only in the morning, when he was in the bathroom and not when he woke up. Was there something in the bathroom that he missed? Something that triggered this?

Deciding to put that on the back of his mind again, he opened the menu once more. He navigated to the skills page, before he looked at each skill and wondered what they could do. Deciding to test out something, he pressed the Concentration skill tab.

Concentration – Passive – Max level 20 – This skill allows the user to focus on the task at hand, granting the user a bonus in their stats whenever they allocate all attention to one task. Warning: Lower levels of this skill can be seen as hard-headedness and thus, can be detrimental if not used properly.

Huh. Okay then, at first glance it looked great. What did the other skills do though?

Weapon's Expert – Passive – Max level 50 – This skill allows the user innate knowledge of how most weapons work. It gives the user bonus STR, AGI, and INT when wielding a weapon. This skill also allows the user to wield weapons as if they knew how to use them even if it were their first time holding one.

Alteration – Active – Max level 100 – This skill allows the user to Alter objects from Gaia. Allowing them to recreate material to anything that is needed at the time. At higher levels, one can Alter objects in their immediate vicinity, including air.

Well, both had their own merits, but Concentration seemed to be the best choice out of all three. He pressed on the plus sign next toe the Concentration skill, before pressing confirm. And then another window popped out.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill [Concentration]!

Concentration – Passive – 1 - This skill allows the user to focus on the task at hand, granting the user a bonus in their stats whenever they allocate all attention to one task. Warning: Lower levels of this skill can be seen as hard-headedness and thus, can be detrimental if not used properly. (+1% to base stats when concentrating on a task.)

Well, he wasn't surprised to see that it was only a miniscule addition to stats. Not to mention that it only counted his base stats instead of his bonus ones. Well, at least now he had another skill to add to his repertoire… and at least he was owning this strange occurrence.

Though now that he thought about it, maybe he should have leveled up his [Tracing] skill more. Oh well, maybe the next level up he'd do that.

He went back to the status menu of himself, before he stared at the one remaining point he had yet to distribute. A trait point.

He didn't know what a trait was. But from his own traits, the [?] one that gave him a good amount of STR and VIT, then a Trait was most likely something that would really help him in the long run. More so than skills.

He had never encountered a game with a trait system before, not that he needed nor wanted to mind you, but he had played a fair share of the games Taiga had left in his house. Most of which were RPG's. He didn't spend an ungodly amount of time on them like Taiga did, but he did have knowledge on how most worked and what a typical RPG video game looked like.

Deciding to just bite the bullet, he pressed the traits button.

? - This user is a *ERROR*. His skill set allows him to [Trace] *ERROR* to the point that it feels like the original. Due to the very nature of this user, he cannot be more than a 3rd rate magus at best. (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill)

Helpful - This user is a helpful person. (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain.)

Levelheaded – This user has the ability to think clearly and make good decisions, even under intense pressure. (Allows the user to be calm in situations that would otherwise make others panic.)

Of course, it listed his own Traits first. He then clicked on the button below the new window that said 'Pick a new trait?'

Determined – This user is of having one purpose. This user will not let anything stop them if they set their mind on something. ([Concentration] skill turns into [Determination] skill. +8 to WIS)

Heroic – This user is a very brave person. This user will stop at nothing to save people, even going so far as to give up themselves to try and save a total stranger. (-50% to self-worth, +10% reputation gain with the opposite sex, +5 to STR, +5 to VIT, +5 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to luck.)

Hmm, so there were only two traits he could pick? Not as much as skills, but then again, Traits did seem to be moderately more powerful than skills in this case. Still though, while the first one seemed good, the second one was just…

He pressed the button for the [Heroic] trait. He then confirmed, before another window popped out telling him he had learned the [Heroic] trait.

He hadn't really thought about it really, he wanted to be a hero. And that trait just seemed to be the best one to pick to get to that. In hindsight however, it was perhaps the better of the two choices. While the subtractions had caused him to have a -1 score on his WIS stat, the additions to his stats more than made up for it. Although this had made him adding the three points to his INT a moot point, but then again, his luck didn't have any number next to it, so it did lessen the impact of the cons.

And what exactly did self-worth mean? He still liked himself, so maybe it affected something else? Hmm. And the plus to reputation with the opposite sex wasn't something he was happy nor sad about. If anything, it was just there. He didn't care about being praised for doing the right thing such as helping someone, so it may as well have been useless to him.

Deciding to go over his stat page once more, he checked over his stats.

Name: Emiya Shirou

Class: Mague (3rd rate)

Title: Brownie (+10% increased reputation gain)

Level: 5

HP: 326/326

MP: 90/90

STR: 10 (35)

VIT: 10 (45)

DEX: 7

AGI: 7 (15)

INT: 8 (-5)

WIS: 4 (-5)

LUK: N/A (-5)

Status: Status: ? (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill), Helpful (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain). Levelheaded (Allows the calm assessment of any kind of situation). Heroic (-50% to self-worth, +10% reputation gain with the opposite sex, +5 to STR, +5 to VIT, +5 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to LUK).

Skills:

Cooking – Passive/Active – 55 – Passively grants a bonus to stats when cooking (+10% to all stats when cooking). Active: Grants the user the ability to make stat increasing food.

Mechanic's hands – Passive – 40 – Grants the user an understanding of how most doohickeys and doo-dads work. Give the user an understanding of how to fix and/or upgrade certain items.

Concentration – Passive – 1 – This skill allows the user to focus on the task at hand, granting the user a bonus in their stats whenever they allocate all attention to one task. Warning: Lower levels of this skill can be seen as hard-headedness and thus, can be detrimental if not used properly. (+1% to base stats when concentrating on a task.)

Traits:

Helpful: This user is a helpful person. (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain.)

Levelheaded – This user has the ability to think clearly and make good decisions, even under intense pressure. (Allows the user to be calm in situations that would otherwise make others panic.)

He noted that his health had increased by 50 points while his MP decreased by 50 points. He swiped the window away before he went back to the main menu. Deciding to just leave the relations page for later, he quickly said "Resume."

Immediately the world returned in full color. He could hear the bustling of the student's outside as they continued their lunch break. He let out a sigh as he approached the sink again, before he looked at the top of his head.

Emiya Shirou – Brownie – Level 5

HP: 276/276 MP: 140/140

Well, now he couldn't rightly say that his life was going to be boring now could he?

XxX

A special skill has been created through a special act!

You have gained the skill Archery (Kyudo)!

Archery (Kyudo) – Passive/Active – 1 – Your arrow has already hit, thus, you need not worry about your shot. This skill grants the user increased perception and awareness when using a (Kyudo) bow. (Passively gives +2 to WIS and +2 to DEX per level up when a (Kyudo) bow is equipped, and +1 to WIS and +1 to DEX per level up when using any other bow. When active, grants the user +8% bonus stats when using any sort of bow, drains 5 MP per second active.)

He had lost focus thanks to the sudden window popping out telling him that he had gained a new skill. And all he had done was aim and shoot.

Before he could ponder on the new skill however, he heard a whistle from behind him. He turned and was met by his club mate eyeing the shot he had made right over his shoulder. "Another bull's-eye. Keep that up and we're sure to win regionals this year."

He stepped to the side a bit to give him some space to look at the person that gave him an offhanded compliment. "You said that last year too you know." He said with a slight smile on his face. In return, the person he was talking too only blew him a raspberry.

"Oh bite me Emiya." Mitsuzuri Ayako said, a playful tone in her voice. He liked the woman, though she did have a habit of invading people's personal space, not just him, but many others. Some found it disturbing, while some endearing. He was part of the latter group.

"Still though." Ayako straightened herself before she looked over his shoulders again. No doubt looking at the shot he had made just a few seconds ago. "I've never once seen you miss a shot. It's kinda creepy, if it weren't so damn amazing that is."

He felt heat rise to his ears at the more direct compliment. "You know I've missed a shot." He countered, trying to stop Ayako from admiring something he really didn't need to think about to accomplish.

In response to his words, Ayako only gave him a blank stare. "Yeah," She nodded. "And I wasn't here to see it. I swear, if most of the club hadn't been here to see it, and if Matou hadn't been harping about how you were just like everyone else, I would never have believed you missed." She then adopted a rather sly grin. "So that's why I've been waiting for you to miss."

He smiled a little. You had to admire her directness. "Wanting me to fail are we? What happened to you wanting to win regionals?"

Ayako shrugged her shoulders. "Meh, a shot or two being missed would still give you a high enough score to carry us." Ayako replied, her tone coming off more playful than it was damning.

He shook his head at her. "Yeah, sure." He said dryly before he returned back to his position and notched another arrow. He took a breath, and focused. Concentrating on the shot, on the single purpose of hitting the target before it was released.

Through sheer unrelenting focus, your (Concentration) skill has gained 1 level!

Through your intense concentration of making the shot, you have gained 1 WIS!

Through your mastery of the bow, you have gained 1 DEX!

He almost lost his focus at the window appearing, but managed to catch himself just in time to make the shot as accurate as he could. The arrow flew and embedded itself onto the target just like his previous ones, only this time; it was a tad to the left of the bulls-eye.

He let out the breath he was holding, and frowned as he stared at the target. He hadn't expected that he could level his skills when he used them. But maybe he should have expected that, his (Cooking skill) and (Structural Grasping) skill were at high levels, and he certainly hadn't put any points in them.

"When I said I wanted to see you miss, I didn't really mean it." He turned around and stared at Ayako. Who was now giving him a reproachful look. He just shrugged his shoulders, before turning back towards the range.

Still, he had to make sure of something. As quietly as he could, he muttered the word "Pause." Causing the world to turn gray. Once that was done, he put down the bow, before he opened the menu where he scrolled towards his status and checked his (Concentration) skill.

Concentration – Passive – 2 – This skill allows the user to focus on the task at hand, granting the user a bonus in their stats whenever they allocate all attention to one task. Warning: Lower levels of this skill can be seen as hard-headedness and thus, can be detrimental if not used properly. (+2% to base stats when concentrating on a task.)

He noted the changed level and the increased skill boost. And, while slight, gave him enough of an understanding to know that once he reached level 20 with that skill, he'd have at most +20% increase to his base stats.

Come to think of it, this skill was overpowered. If this were a game (he still had trouble thinking his life was turning into one), then most likely the skill could be considered overpowered and thus, broken. For example, if he had 100 to each stat, it would give him a bonus of 20 points to each. And while he had no idea of knowing if that was a lot or not, it was all moot. After all, his stats could be leveled by training as well.

Though that did raise another point. When he had been cooking, his (Cooking) skill hadn't increased in the slightest. No, prior to that, during his morning exercises, his stats hadn't increased. In fact, when he woke up, there was nothing out of the ordinary happening. He had just woken up, and did his morning routine. It wasn't until he got to the bathroom did things change.

He sighed as he rubbed his temples. Was his bathroom cursed or something? Damn it this was just getting annoying. He liked it better without having to worry about his life turning into a video game.

Sighing one more time, he swiped the window away, he'd get this figured out when he went home. After Sakura and Fuji-nee left, he'd have all night to figure out what was going on and how he could get rid of this… Did he want to get rid of it though? That was the question.

He shook his head before he got back into the position he was in before he paused, making sure everything was in order. He quickly said, "Resume."

The world returned in color, and the sounds of people chatting and arrows flying returned. He took one deep breath, before he looked down at the range and towards his target. Notching one arrow into the bow, he focused. Concentrating once more at the target, at the center that had already been hit in his mind.

He breathed out, and then released his shot. With a thunk! The arrow embedded itself in between his previous shots in the center.

Through repeated bull's-eyes, your Archery (Kyudo) skill has gained 1 level!

Through your mastery of the bow, you have gained 1 DEX!

He relaxed himself, before he turned back towards Ayako. Ayako, in turn, just gave him a half-smile and half-smirk.

"Making a fool out of me eh?" She grinned at him. "Never thought you had it in you to joke around like that! Kudos to you Emiya."

He just gave her an exasperated smile. "Not really," He tried to shrug off her enthusiasm. "I just lost focus for a second there." Although he told the truth to it, Ayako just continued to grin at him, obviously not believing him in the slightest.

Your reputation with Mitsuzuri Ayako has increased by 12.5!

"You keep telling yourself that ya show off." She said, half-teasingly and half-seriously. "Anyway, keep up the good work. It's kinda hard being the captain when you're a freshman. But hey, someone has to do the job."

"Why don't you ask Shinji for help then?" He asked, honestly confused as to why she wouldn't ask his friend for help.

Ayako let out a snort of derision. "Vice-captain he may be, but he's about as good a leader as a lemming." Then, as if remembering something, Ayako shook her head before she sighed. "No offense to your friend. But yeah, he's good at archery I'll give him that, but that doesn't mean he's any good as a leader if all he does is abuse the power granted to him."

He flinched a little at Ayako's words. He didn't disagree with them per se, but then again… "It's just the way he is." He shrugged. "I kind of got used to it in middle-school, plus he isn't exactly a bad guy. He's just… Shinji."

Ayako just gave him a blank stare. "Yeah, and Shinji is arrogant, spiteful, and wants others to fail and only him to succeed. Those traits aren't exactly good Emiya."

He shrugged again. "Shinji is Shinji." He began. "And whether or not he has good or bad traits, he's still my friend. So I'd appreciate it if we didn't talk about him like this behind his back."

Your loyalty to your friend is admirable and has garnered respect from your peers; your reputation with Mitsuzuri Ayako has increased by 125 points! Your reputation level has changed from 'Neutral' to 'Friendly'.

Your loyalty to your friend is admirable; your reputation with Matou Shinji has increased by 50 points!

He raised an eyebrow at the window that popped out, before he looked back towards Ayako, who was now giving him a wide smile. "What?" He asked, slightly confused at what she was smiling about.

"You're a pretty stand-up guy Shirou." He raised an eyebrow at the name change, but otherwise didn't call her out on it. "Anyway, let's talk after club. It doesn't really make me a good captain if I just stand behind you all club time and not help the newbies around here." Ayako then gave him a cheery wave, before she turned and started to walk away from him and towards the other members of the club. "See ya later Shirou."

"Yeah, sure." He said at the retreating form of Ayako. He didn't know that he would impress Ayako with just defending Shinji, but otherwise, didn't really complain about it. He had known Ayako for a little over two years, having first met her during their time in the middle-school Kyudo team. In all the time he knew her though, she had never once called her Shirou. He wondered if that had anything to do with the reputation level increase.

A special trait has been unlocked!

Oh for the love of-

You have gained the trait (Dense)!

He felt his eyebrow start twitching; the game was trying to tell him something, he knew it was. He just didn't know what.

Dense – This user is a bit thick in the head. This unit's inability to read into other's emotions and feelings has left much to be desired about his interpersonal skills. (-5 to INT, -7 to WIS, +20 to VIT)

He resisted the urge to put a hand to his face, not only did his WIS turn into a negative number again, but his INT had turned negative as well. Wait… did that mean his MP was now zero?

He looked up at his name, and breathed out a sigh of relief.

Emiya Shirou – Brownie – Level 5

HP: 526/526 MP: 50/50

He wasn't surprised to see his HP had increased by that amount, he had sort of guessed that VIT increased his overall health. But that wasn't what he had been looking at, his MP had remained at 50, despite his INT going below zero and turning into a negative number.

Still, this was getting out of hand. He needed to get home soon, because the sooner he got home, rested, fed Taiga, and then got to his workshop, the better. He didn't want to mess with this strange ability to distort the world and turn it into a video game that only he could see without it being at least on his turf… though that begged the question, if he got this at home, then what else was there?

Well, he'd figure it out eventually, right now though, he'd need to focus on just making sure no one figures out that he can see things in a gamer's perspective… for some reason though, he just couldn't stop feeling like a geek for thinking like that.

XxX

Shirou's character sheet

Name: Emiya Shirou

Class: Magus (3rd rate)

Title: Brownie (+10% increased reputation gain)

HP: 526/526

MP: 50/50

STR: 10 (35)

VIT: 10 (65)

DEX: 7

AGI: 7 (15)

INT: 8 (-10)

WIS: 4 (-10)

LUK: N/A (-5)

EXP to next level: 300

Skills:

Cooking – Passive/Active – 55 – Passively grants a bonus to stats when cooking (+10% to all stats when cooking). Active: Grants the user the ability to make stat increasing food.

Mechanic's hands – Passive – 40 – Grants the user an understanding of how most doohickeys and doo-dads work. Give the user an understanding of how to fix and/or upgrade certain items.

Vigorous (from Avalon) – Passive – Max – Due to the user's special body item, this user doesn't suffer from illnesses and has drastically increased health regeneration. Also, this unit doesn't suffer from age inhibitors like most others.

Traits:

? : This user is a *ERROR*. His skill set allows him to [Trace] *ERROR* to the point that it feels like the original. Due to the very nature of this user, he cannot be more than a 3rd rate magus at best. (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill)

Helpful: This user is a helpful person. (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain.)

Levelheaded – This user has the ability to think clearly and make good decisions, even under intense pressure. (Allows the user to be calm in situations that would otherwise make others panic.)

XxX

First overall chapter. I know there are some disparities with this and the manghwa, but bear in mind this. Shirou is a sword, that is who he is, and who he will ever be. He cannot have the gamer's passive traits like gamer's mind and gamer's body. Mostly because his mind and body are really just swords. So with that in mind, I had changed it to give him a more realistic feel to his skills and traits.

For those of you who missed the hints, this fic takes place a year before the Grail War. Now keep in mind, that the Gamer ability is considerably overpowered, and thus, you can expect something that I'm rather not used to writing. An overpowered Shirou Emiya.

Now keep in mind that while I myself am a very big fan of Shirou, I'm not going to start wanking him and making him one-shot Heracles. (Though with the Gamer ability, that may not be a far off dream), what I'm going to do is make Shirou earn his overpowered-ness through training. Or in gaming terms, grinding. That's right folks; Shirou's gotta grind some levels before he even has a shot at beating big boss characters like Servants. And since you all saw Sakura's level, you can get a pretty good estimate of just how high leveled Servants are.

To put it simply, Sakura's level can be seen, while the Servants levels are "?" in the Gamerverse. What does the question mark mean? I'll get to that in the following chapters. And for those of you that know what it means and why does Sakura's level appear instead of the question mark, again, wait for the next few chapters.

Gonna start cleaning up some pieces of this game, and then hopefully I have something that will flow neatly and without much trouble. It's going to be hard to remember all these traits and skills and stat levels, but don't worry, you only need to see his current levels, while I have to keep track of everything. So yey, harder work for me, but hopefully it pays off.

Gonna post this on Beast's Lair as well, as soon as I finish editing it for the website that is. Formatting is a bitch ya know people?

Lastly, for some odd reason, I'm feeling like Shirou or any other character that had appeared in this chapter was OOC. Would appreciate it if you guys can confirm this or not, it's just bothering me a little that I might have made someone so OOC that they're now an OC.

I'm out, peace!