AN: Have you ever had a moment when you didn't know if you had really good luck, or really bad luck? I've been trying to summon Asagami Fujino in FGO for a while now, but thus far no dice. On the other hand, I have gotten the five star Saber Shiki, not once, not twice, but three times since I began.

I don't even particularly want Shiki, and I've been saving up for Arthur(Prototype) in a month or two, so if things go my way I won't particularly need another Saber . . . Still, I guess that I should be glad that I got the five star Saber, so I decided to finally get started on this idea I've had for a while now. Here's hoping I can actually maintain my momentum for once.

The sound of feet slamming into the gravel coated pathway sounded out like the beating of a jackhammer as Shirou Emiya tore down the hiking trail. The forest was beautiful, a lush green in all the glory of the German summer, but said beauty was lost on the boy as the leaves and shrubbery blurred together into a green mess thanks to the shear speed he was forced to move.

The only sound louder than his footfalls was the sound of his heartbeat hammering in his ears, each clench of the circulatory organ echoing in his ears like the pounding of a base drum.

Nonetheless, he could hear the sound of footfalls behind him, notably slower than his own, but also much heavier, and slowly getting closer to him. Fighting off the urge to look over his shoulder and see how close his pursuer was, Shirou put on an extra burst of speed, leg mussels staining as he pusher them to their limits.

As he ran, thoughts racing over all the stupid decisions that had gotten him here, he couldn't help but come to a simple conclusion: Entering Ebott City had been a monumental mistake.

It had certainly seemed like a good idea, at first. Hide in the large crowds of the city, find a way to get back in contact with Kiritsugu or Conery, and go back home to Japan(or one of Kiritsugu's safe houses, that would be fine too).

But no, that had been his naivety talking. He had failed to take one simple detail into account, and that reality had ruined any chance he had of blending in.

He was a red haired, amber eyed, Japanese kid in battered cameo clothing in alone in a city in north Germany without an escort and looking like he hadn't had a bath in weeks. He stood out like a sore thumb.

And that was before accounting for how the entire city seemed to a have an obsession with his homeland! Honestly, everywhere he looked, there was some of anime or manga related merchandise. Dragon Ball action figures. Yu Yu Hakusho posters. Gundam. Evangelion. Cowboy Bebop. And that was just what he recognized at a glance, there were dozens more that he didn't recognize! Plastered on practically every street corner.

Not to mention how every girl his age (or at least the ones that he had seen) were wearing the merchandise of the latest Magical Girl anime to come out riding Sailor Moon's wave, with cat ears plastered on practically anything pink! Wasn't anime supposed to be relatively unknown outside of Japan? Did these people not get the memo?

Ultimately, Shirou had been pulled aside by well over a dozen people to confirm that, yes, he was actually Japanese, and then have to try to cut the conversations as short as possible.

At least he knew German rather well, or else things may have ended up worse. As it was he had to convince several adults that he was fine and he didn't need their help finding his parents and no he didn't need to go to the local station of the lost and found or the hospital, and no he didn't need to be in school!

A low hanging branch smacking him across the face roused him from his recollections as he re focused on the trail ahead of him, which was starting to twist and turn as they went up the mountain.

He had first noticed his stalkers while manoeuvring around a crowd of people handing out petitions, something about getting a new dump further from the river, when he caught a telltale flash of white hair in his peripheral vision.

Say what you will about the Von Einzbern, their Homunculi's design was usually consistent, and anyone even passingly familiar with one would be able to recognize one on the spot. Shirou, meanwhile, had been outright studying them for years, and could even tell the individual models apart from a distance. He ran.

While the model he had spotted in the crowd was a negotiator class Homunculus, made as a proxy to be sent to make deals with potential clients and such, it had had a bodyguard in the form of a combat model. Said combat model had quickly taken off after him, even as he felt a mass hypnosis spell go off behind him, likely to keep anyone from noticing the little boy being chased by an albino woman.

He had rocketed through the streets, but soon found himself driven to the outskirts of town by flocks of familiars, where he took off down a hiking trail into the mountains. Luckily it seemed that the wire familiars couldn't get to far from their creator, and the combat model couldn't make them itself.

Shirou, seeing that he was approaching a rather sharp curve, began to skid his feet on the gravel to bleed off his momentum, the high quality combat boots Kiritsugu had gotten taking the punishment easily. The instant he reached the bend, he exploded back into motion, the feeling of fingers brushing through his hair making his heart rate double, if such a thing was possible.

Luckily, if the sound of breaking branches and disturbed leaves behind him was any indication, the Homunculus hadn't slowed down, and had thus run off the trail and into the thick foliage. Nevertheless, Shirou didn't slow down in the slightest, feet devouring the steep mountain trail like it was nothing, not daring to look back in case his enemy was still right behind him.

By the time he finally looked back, he had been running for nearly three minutes without sign of pursuit. Neither seeing, nor hearing any sign of his pursuer, he slowed to a near stop for a much needed breather, lungs heaving.

It was unlikely that he had lost his pursuers, seeing as how he had yet to leave the primary trail, but Shirou had already learned that combat Homunculi had a annoying tendency of going straight through the obstacles that he had to go around, so running through any forest too densely packed to avoid leaving a clear trail wasn't an option.

If the trees weren't as close together as they were, if the moss was less prevalent, or there was a chance to jump tree branch to tree branch, he would have taken the risk, but as it was, he'd just have to keep following the trail until he reached a spot were he could more easily sneak off.

Not for the first time since he was separated from his Father and their allies, he wished that he still had a few of the bird familiars that they had used for scouting on hand. An aerial view would make escaping vastly simpler, even just the ability to scout ahead before he had to be their physically would be invaluable.

Unfortunately he had lost the three familiars prepared for him during the raid, and he lacked the skill (not to mention time and materials) to make a familiar himself, at least at the moment.

Shirou continued his run down the path once he had caught his breath, albeit at a slower rate, taking a moment to reinforce his ears. As skilled as the Von Einzbern were at alchemy, their solution to most complex problems was "Throw more prana at it." When it came to battle, their Homunculi followed a similar methodology, trying to brute force their way through most obstructions in their path.

The idea that one of said artificial humans might try sneaking up on him, let alone be good enough to actually do it, was almost comical. And, sure enough, he heard their approach almost a full minute before they actually managed to catch up with him, enough time that he risked a glance over his shoulder as he ran.

Really, if the situation had been less serious, he would have laughed. The woman's headpiece had come off, and her hair was set in a rapidly failing bun, which was full of leaves, twigs and branches. Her dress, which had been a pristine white when he first saw it, was now covered in several layers of green stains from the leaves, and was torn is several places.

Of course the humour of the scene was rapidly lost when one took note of the subtly murderous look in her eyes(he hadn't known combat models were even capable of that much raw emotion!), or of the large rhenium halberd she was carrying in one hand. Shirou didn't know where they had hidden that monstrosity of a weapon when they were out in public earlier, but in the end it was of little relevance. She had it, and it was likely she knew how to use it.

'If the Einzbern had armed their Homunculi with bolas instead of axes, they would have caught me already.' Shirou realized as he refocused on running. 'I need to get some countermeasures for tangling weapons soon.' he noted to himself.

It was about that time that he spotted a three meter tall, chain link fence with a barb-wire top up ahead. On the door meant to allow entry to the other side, next to the padlock, was a sign with big red letters. NO ENTRY. UNSTABLE GROUND BEYOND THIS POINT.

The path, upon reaching the gate, forked off at a ninety degree angle, and unless Shirou missed his guess, was leading back towards the city.

Of course, if he actually tried take the turn, he'd end up running TOWARDS the Homunculus following him, instead of away, and she'd probably just cut through the forest to get to him. So, with the only option to go straight, Shirou reinforced his legs as much as he dared under such short notice, and jumped.

It was an incredible leap, easily carrying him over the fence, with a good meter and a half between his feet and the barbed wire. Of course, he nearly ran into some branches, but managed to reach the ground with only a few leaves in the mouth for his trouble.

He was glad to see that the trees were beginning to clear up as he got further up the mountain, as he would soon be able to leave the beaten trail without fear of being slowed down by the foliage. He was less glad to hear his hunter smash her way through the fence behind him like it was made of tissue paper.

The chase continued for several more moments, Shirou making large jumps as the mountain became more steep and rocky the higher up they went, the Homunculus still in pursuit. Luckily for the young magus, the woman's footwear was not designed with rock climbing in mind, and she slid backwards constantly. Also in his favour was how her 15 kilo+ halberd made jumping extremely awkward, serving to slow her down even further.

Eventually, the young magus spotted a large cave in the distance. Again he lamented the lack of familiar's to scout ahead, as if the cave was dark enough, and had multiple branches he could use it to loose his pursuer. Especially if it had another exit else-wear on the mountain.

Entering a cave with no idea what was inside was foolish however, and instead of entering, he jumped over it unto the mountain slope above it and continued his forward charge, glancing over his shoulder to see that the Homunculus had been reduced to small speck of white in the distance behind him.

Said glance over his shoulder proved to be a mistake, as barely a second later he tripped over a root. Said root was right at the edge of a large hole into the mountain that he had missed earlier, due to the rocks around it being elevated enough to block it from view until he was right on top of it. Lacking any way to arrest his forward momentum, and he went stumbling into open air, crashed into the other side of the hole back-first, and falling into the abyss bellow before he could grab the side.

Immediately Shirou began to assess his situation. On one hand, he was confident that even if the fall was far enough that he reached terminal velocity, the worst could expect was bruised bones and/or torn tendons as long a he was properly reinforced. Maybe something might get dislocated if he landed wrong, but that was the worst of it.

Of course, being in an enclosed environment wasn't exactly the best idea when someone was hunting you down. And for all he knew, the bottom could be a bed of spikes!

Rotating upright mid air, Shirou projected a pair of mining picks, the stone-cleaving tools materializing into his hands from thin air in a blaze of blue-green light. Rearing his arm back, he prepared to stab the blade into the wall beside him. Hopefully, he could make it back up to the top before the Homunculus caught up with him. Who knew, maybe he could just wait in the hole then drag her down when she got to the edge.

It was not to be, however, as when Shirou had fallen twenty meters down, his circuits went haywire, turning on and off multiple times in an instant and producing so much heat that the boy was almost instantly lightheaded, going limp in the air. Colliding with the wall as he fell, his limp body bounced, and began to spin, until a second later when he slammed into the ground.

AN: Not exactly happy with this, I feel like the writing jumps around a bit, but overall passable I suppose. I guess I just need practice writing outside of the first person.

Also, a warning to the readers, my usual specialty when writing is self inserts, and while that won't be appearing in this fic, I still have a tendency to make a lot of OC's. I know not everyone like's OC's, so I figured I'd warn you here.