Yo readers, just a forwarning, this is not a complete chapter. However, I have a lot of uni work to do, so I wont be back to write for a while, as such I figured I should put what I have done thus far down. I'm not particularly happy with this chapter, but oh well, when I complete it i'll fix any issues then, so enjoy for now!

By the way, yes I do realise there is simalarities between Fate/Black Reflections initial meeting of these two and my version, couldn't be helped. Hopefully i've made them different enough that nobody complains. Gil will have a more interesting role in my story, he's found an interest in Ichigo, as thus may pop up from time to time to watch things play out, although not when Saber is looking XP.

Anyhow enjoy!

In another part of the city, Ichigo was engaging in his main pastime, scowling hellishly at anything and everything in sight. The reason for his ire this time was actually pretty simple, and oddly enough a situation of his own doing.

He was hungry as all hell, and he had forgotten to restock his now empty cupboards of food.

Ever since he had started his re-training, he had found much to his annoyance that the usual sized portions of food he ate no longer cut it; it was like his body was burning through carbs at the speed of light, transferring what would normally be energy for his body into fuel for his soul.

Urahara had told him this would be a very likely side effect of his training, after all Ichigo normally had so much Reiatsu that his body was far more likely to give out before he hit any semblance of a limit. Now though, his body would have to address the sudden drain on a vital resource, and the easiest way was to refuel his soul in much the same way he would his body, by breaking down consumed food into the required energy form. The only difference was now his body was putting more emphasis into breaking the consumed objects even further down to its original components, i.e. Reishi.

He had scoffed at the claim at first, but just watching Yoruichi that one time somehow put away easily 50 bowls of food in one sitting despite her ridiculously lithe figure had made him a believer.

As such Ichigo, having finished typing up a few extra pages on his latest Essay, had gone to the fridge to prepare dinner, only to find empty shelves staring back at him. A few choice curse words later, and Ichigo found himself walking down the streets, kicking a stone along the way in annoyance.

Unlike earlier, he was now donning a long pure black trench coat to keep out the chilly air (clothing bought in homage to his erstwhile partner) (1). Fortunately, even if it was slightly cold there wasn't any sign of clouds in the air, meaning at least there would be the small mercy of no rain.

'Now if can find somewhere open at this time…' he complained internally, kicking the stone further ahead as he walked. It would have been easy to find a store at this time on the opposite side of the river, but his flat was firmly on the Miyama side of the bridge, not the more urbanized Shinto side. While it was usefully located close to the Ryuudouji temple, it made getting supplies a relative chore at times.

Heading in the direction of the small shopping district in the hopes of finding an open store, even a pizza parlour would be fine by now, Ichigo passed by the entrance to the empty park. However, he was surprised to see a person ahead of him, standing underneath a street lamp casually, hands tucked into pockets as the man staring up at the sky.

"It's a beautiful night, isn't it?"

Ichigo was a bit surprised at the sudden question, it was obviously addressed to him as they were the only two on the street, but he couldn't for the life of him recognise the guy.

He looked about the same age as Ichigo, maybe a tiny bit older but it was hard to tell. Really, quite a lot of his features were comparable to him, so much so the stranger may have been a distant relative of his.

He was about the same height, a rare trait to have as Ichigo knew he was incredibly tall compared to many of his oriental peers. Even their postures kind of matched, although the man was leaning against the lamppost, his posture spoke of a proud individual even in laxity. Then again, the man also had a slightly foreign look to his features, vibrant blonde hair framing an almost regal looking face, even if it was currently sporting a strangely knowing and arrogant smirk, as if the man knew something nobody else in the world did. The most surprising factor was his almost crimson eyes, a colour Ichigo had never seen before.

Something about the man set off warning bells in Ichigo's head. He wasn't sure what exactly it was that set them off, the man seemed to be as normal as any other stranger on the street, no fluctuations or additional strength in the reiatsu he could sense. But he was feeling edgy anyway just looking at the man, and Ichigo had learnt long ago to always trust his instincts.

The man seemed to completely ignore all of Ichigo's ruminations, not even having bothered to wait for his answer before saying "The moon and stars are shining brightly, not a single cloud in the sky to mar this sight…yes, tis a promising night…"

Standing up straight now as he moved away from the lamppost, the stranger turned now to face Ichigo, that same smirk still in place as he regarded the former Shinigami for a moment, before giving a slight half bow, saying "My name is Gil, I would know your name."

Ichigo's scowl deepened slightly in confusion, the way this *Gil* spoke was strangely archaic and polite, his words ringing with an almost regal tone. Still, even if something about the stranger rubbed him the wrong way, Ichigo replied anyway in a rather blunt manner "Kurosaki Ichigo."

Gil's smirk seemed to grow slightly, nodding in consideration as he mulled it over, replying "Ichigo…First Defender? No, One who Protects…you have a strong name, you should be proud to bear it."

Ichigo's scowl faltered at hearing those words, having expected either the usual stupid Strawberry comment or nothing at all. "You know, you may be the first person to actually get my name, most people think my parents just had a bad sense of humour."

Gil seemed to find this immensely amusing, chuckling under his breath as he replied "Yes, it just shows how…ignorant…humanity has become in this day and age, my sympathies are yours, Ichigo."

The scowl once again slipped as he regarded the blonde haired man, he was finding it increasingly hard to feel animosity towards this man. Even though his instinct was still niggling him to be wary, the man's mannerisms, almost charisma, was very disarming. There was something…unique…about the foreigner's presence.

Gil looked like he was about to say something else, but he stopped, his head cocked slightly upwards and to the side, as if he was looking at something in the distance. The smirk seemed to return again in full force, Gil shaking his head slightly almost in regret as he spoke "As interesting as this little meeting was, it seems it shall have to be cut short, I have to be on my way."

Walking forward now, Gil moved as to walk by Ichigo, his scarlet eyes watching Ichigo's own as he smirked, saying "I look forward to our next meeting, Kurosaki Ichigo. It has been a long time since I met somebody as…interesting as you."

As he passed Ichigo by, Gil made one last, very strange remark.

"Be certain that you summon the Saber, I doubt any other would suit as your partner."

Before Ichigo could make any remark, Gil had passed him by, heading in the opposite direction, not looking back as he raised one hand and made a slight gesture over his shoulder, as if in farewell as he turned the corner, vanishing from sight.

'Huh?' Ichigo wondered in confusion at those last words, trying to figure out just what they meant. One word in particular stood out, another word spoken not in Japanese, but in English.

Saber…

'What the hell was that all about?'

Twenty minutes later, and one visit to the fortunately still open store (apparently they worked late hours on Thursdays, who would have known?) and Ichigo was making his way back to his apartment, laden with multiple bags of groceries.

At least that was until he sensed a sudden plummet in Reiatsu.

Almost instinctually, Ichigo dropped the bags, the heavy bags spilling their contents all over the street. However this was instantly ignored by Ichigo as unimportant as he snapped his eyes shut, throwing his head back as he forced his senses outwards across the night sky. All around him, invisible to the eyes of any person who didn't possess high levels of reiatsu, thousands of what looked like long pieces of white tape materialised, twisting in infinitely looping patterns as their ends reached towards Ichigo.

His ability to summon and control Reiraku, an incredibly high level technique he had somehow summoned and mastered on his first attempt, barely weeks after becoming a Shinigami. Even though his ability to detect unfamiliar Reiatsu still wasn't good enough to locate targets instantly on the go, by using this ability he could bypass that weakness entirely. It was the by far more complicated method, but it worked out best for him due to his innate talent for it.

Without opening his eyes, Ichigo's hand shot out and closed around a single thread amidst the thousands. While there was a small amount of…strange feeling Reiraku, there was only one amidst these countless thousands that he could sense the pain and agony that would dictate a reason for the sudden loss in reiatsu. (2)

"Shit!" Ichigo cursed as his eyes snapped open. He had the location, it wasn't too far away, but whoever had taken the injury was in a very bad state, their reiatsu almost petering out already barely moments after he had sensed the drop.

Without delay, Ichigo shot forward, aiming straight down the street he had come from, legs pumping furiously as he left his former shopping in the middle of the street. Even as he dashed, he summoned up what little he could of his Reiatsu on the run, forcing it out of his body to increase his speed. If there had been a person with a stopwatch nearby, there was no doubt there would have been serious competition for an Olympic athlete from the teen with the speeds he was hitting as he practically flew down the streets.

Still he cursed under his breath, his heart pumping furiously to try and cope with him forcing his human body beyond its own self-imposed limit. This still wasn't fast enough!

Whoever this person was, they were dying!

He couldn't tell what had happened, maybe a car accident, maybe something more sinister but that wasn't going to stop him from breaking a land-speed record to reach this person. If he could make it on time, he could save them. Even if the injury was critical, he had an advantage no other human could ever hope to have.

He would just have to pray nobody was around that could detect him. Even using his reiatsu in this method to augment his body was already risky enough; this was probably going to call a hungry hollow or two. At least they would be chasing him, there was no other significantly strong soul in Fuyuki City to draw their attention and one or two low level hollows wasn't outside of his limited abilities to purify.

The streets literally flew past him in a blur, his lungs drawing desperate breaths as he saw the location he had tracked the injured Reiraku to.

'A High School?!'

He had expected a road accident which was after all the most likely situation, what the heck could have happened to leave a student/teacher in mortal peril?

Didn't matter, and Ichigo didn't even slow as he ran up the hill towards the high iron gates into the school. Without a moment's hesitation, Ichigo flooded his body with as much reiatsu as he could summon at once and leapt upwards, clearing the two metre high gate with another metre to spare.

As he landed, he tumbled to the ground, legs unable to take the sharp impact of a three metre drop while still moving forward at such speed. With barely a seconds cursing, he sprung back up to his feet, ignoring the sharp pain in his right leg.

'Probably cracked something, I'll check it out later.'

Now he was this close, he could finally get a lock on the faint Reiatsu signature nearby, there was only one in the entire building. He could also smell blood, a lot of it.

'Wait, something's wrong…'

As Ichigo started towards the main building, he saw one of the nearby windows on the first floor had been smashed in. As he vaulted in (hissing slightly in pain as he landed on the bad leg), he saw the nearby stairwell. He headed straight for it, going up to the third floor where he pinned the reiatsu signature at…

A reiatsu signature that had somehow stabilized and was no longer at deaths door…

"What the hell…?" Ichigo cursed under his breath, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. As he walked in the general direction of the now stable signature, a silhouette visible in that direction down the hallway, the stink of freshly spilled blood grew to incredible strength.

As he finally approached, he could finally see the mess in its entirety.

Sprawled against one of the walls in the corridor was a boy wearing a high school uniform, obviously a student. He seemed to be unconscious, his breathing hitched in pain. All around him, all over his uniform was covered in blood. Far too much blood for the boy to be alive. What was even more disturbing was the hole in his uniform, straight over where his heart should have been.

Ichigo closed the gap in an instance, dropping to his knees as he reached the boy. He didn't bother activating the Healing Kido he had been preparing mentally; the teen was obviously stable, even if in some pain.

And that's what made no sense, all of the blood was obviously from the hole in the boys uniform, meaning his heart had been pierced judging from the extreme amount, yet the teen was alive. Even as Ichigo lightly pulled back the teens blazer to better see the wounded area, he could see from under the student's shirt that there was fresh skin, even if red and inflamed, in the hole in his shirt.

Scowling, Ichigo tried to figure out how exactly this teen was still alive. Turning to his senses, he realised the teen had an above average reiatsu, even if it was still weak from whatever had just happened. It was entirely human though, it didn't have any of the off tones of Hollow or Shinigami reiatsu.

"Could he be some kind of Quincy then?" Ichigo muttered to himself, his eyes looking to the teen's wrist. Ishida had always had some kind of pendant hanging from his wrist to channel his powers into a useable form. However, the teen had nothing of the sort, other than a strangely intricate tattoo/scar on the back of his hand.

Ichigo couldn't help but glance at the scar on the back of his own hand, the mark of the Substitute Shinigami badge that had materialised when he had managed to reawaken his powers.

'No he can't be the same, his reiatsu isn't even slightly like a Shinigami's, besides I've never seen anything remotely alike that symbol.'

Suddenly, the teen groaned loudly, breaking Ichigo's musing. As he turned to the teen, he watched as golden brown eyes fixed blearily on his own.

(P.O.V change)

"Ah…guh."

Shirou groaned in pain as he woke up. His whole body was in agony, every time he felt his heartbeat, a sharp pain stabbed at his head like a knife.

"What…happened?"

"I was hoping you'd tell me."

Shirou could barely even hear half of the words, spoken in a rough voice with a slight undercurrent of concern. He turned his head in the direction of the voice, and just stared blankly at the owner.

He was kneeling beside him, brown eyes watching him almost warily yet not quite concealing the concern hidden deep within, a deep scowl marring his features. Shirou couldn't help his eyes being drawn to the absurdly orange colour of his hair. The…man? The man looked to be about twenty, he couldn't quite tell with the scowl marring the man's features. He was wearing a long, pure black trench coat which served to make his orange mop stand out even more.

Shirou just kept on staring blankly for a few seconds, doing nothing. The man seemed to…growl? Growl slightly, muttering something about *in shock* under his breath.

The man then proceeded to pull out a cell phone.

"…n…no…" Shirou managed to struggle out, reaching to stop the man. He wasn't quite certain why, but something niggling in his head told him that it would be bad if he made the phone call.

The man seemed to scowl even deeper, as if Shirou's reaction had confirmed something. However, it served its purpose and the man put the cell phone away. The man's scowl seemed to somehow deepen even further, watching Shirou warily.

Shirou suddenly stood up, swaying slightly as his vision swam from the sudden movement. The man rose as well, a hand reaching out and gripping under his own arm firmly to support him.

"So, you gonna tell me why you were just lying in a pool of blood or what?"

Shirou winced at hearing those words, his hand going towards his chest. He pulled his hand away and looked down; indeed seeing his hand was covered in blood.

"Damn, I really…" 'had my chest pierced?'

The man beside him gave another one of those growls, a hand reaching up to run through his hair in irritation. Obviously he wasn't the patient sort, but he seemed to calm down pretty fast as he muttered something about shock again.

Taking a different line of questioning the man asked "Okay, how about your name then?"

"Emiya…Shirou." He replied slowly, staring at all of the blood that was plastered over the corridor. He started towards the classroom in an almost mechanical fashion.

"Okay Emiya-san, my name's Kurosaki Ichigo." The man answered in an almost forced tone, obviously not used to having to talk in this calm, polite way.

"Shirou…" the teen replied absent mindedly as he found what he was after, a nearby bucket and mop, water still left within from whomever cleaned up having forgotten to empty it.

"Okay Shiro, I'm fine with just Ichigo as well." (3) Ichigo replied, trying to keep patient as he mentally went over the best way to talk with patients in shock.

Shirou frowned slightly at the mispronunciation, but ignored it in favour of the mop.

Welp, like I said, incomplete. When I complete it, i'll repost Chapter 3 so you all know, until I complete the vast truckloads of Uni work, Au Revoir! Review and follow if you enjoyed, for as we all know, we fickle FF Authors live off reviews, the more we get, the more we are enticed to write XP (also helps with fixing plot issues)

(1) Yeah, kinda odd, but necessary for a minor plot point, namely that I am not going to have Saber wearing that god awful yellow raincoat in my story, she can borrow Ichigo's coat for late night travels.

(2) To clarify, Ichigo cannot sense Servants locations or powers, but he will be able to detect relevant proximity if in close range, and can identify them once he knows the Servant in question as their Reiraku holds a particular pattern. For now, he's completely unaware thats what he's sensing.

(3) On-going joke, dunno if you noticed in the anime, but Saber consistently mispronounced Shirou's name (this is also consistent in the V/N). While it's not quite as bad as I've made it out to be, for both Ichigo and Saber, they will consistently use the name "Shiro" for him instead of "Shirou". I won't add this in later chapters mind as it's a nightmare for grammar correction, I'm just hoping you guys remember that Ichigo and Saber will mispronounce the name consistently.