Chapter 368 - My OC Stash #68 - Fate: Sword Order by Parcasious (FGO) (1/2)

-Wouldn't be a true man of culture if I didn't put this up here~ Author doing the Shirou in F/GO justice!

Synopsis: A certain technician is invited as a member of Chaldea's staff until a chance discovery changes everything and lands him into an ordeal with the fate of Humanity itself at risk.

Rated: T

Words: 18K

Posted on: fanfiction.net/s/13623502/1/Fate-Sword-Order (Parcasious)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics/originals mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1

-Base Sequence: Human Genome Confirmed.

-Alignment: Lawful-Neutral.

Welcome to the data center for the future of humankind. This is the Security Organization for the preservation of humanity, Chaldea.

Fingerprint, voiceprint, and DNA authentication cleared. Magical Circuit assessment complete.

-Username matched. You are recognized as a member of the primates. Nice to meet you. We hope you enjoy your time here. We are waiting on one more visitor.

The mechanical drone of an automated voice echoed throughout a square chamber where a red-haired man stood alone under assessment. He wore a green button-up sweater over a white long-sleeve, and wore faded jeans with black sneakers. His bronze coloured eyes furrowed unmistakably as he stared down towards the entrance of a long hall opened from a rectangular side-door ahead of him.

So, this was it, Chaldea?

The man's name was Shirou Emiya, and his first impression of the magical institute dedicated to the preservation of humanity, was that it was cold. No literally. 'Surprised' would be the first of many words to take root in his mind when he'd first heard that Chaldea was in Antarctica.

It was an underground workshop built on a snowy mountain 6000 meters above sea level.

The Central Command Room which was in front of the Main Chaldea Gate was just ahead of him down the long hall he'd just walked down through.

He'd been called in as a technician, but after learning of Chaldea's purpose he'd 'applied' and been approved to be part of the group of thirty-eight elite mages and ten public applicants. By applied, he meant unexpectedly strong-armed. You see, he had an uncanny aptitude for something called Spiritron Dives which was inadvertently discovered in the assessment tests conducted on all Chaldea staff.

Shirou had a sneaking suspicion that his aptitude had something to do with him being a former Master of a Holy Grail War that he'd never disclosed to anyone not in the know. Holy Grail Wars were spiritual rituals conducted by magi that pitted seven Servants and Masters in a free-for-all to obtain a chance at a wish. Masters were those who were in contract with a Servant, and a Servant was one of many familiars selected from the Throne of Heroes, a pool of mankind's greatest legends immortalized in spirit.

Shirou was one such Master who'd participated in the Fifth Holy Grail War with the Servant Saber, one of seven classes of Servant. The rest were Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Berserker, and Assassin. However, he wouldn't voice his prior participation in a Holy Grail War as it was only speculation.

What mattered now was that he'd been discovered to have a high aptitude for Spiritron Diving.

Spiritron Diving itself was the concept of Rayshifting into abnormalities in a timeline through conversion of the body into spirit particles that generally constituted a Servant's body. He wouldn't go into the details of the operation as magical terms were way over his head, but the important factor was that he was unable to refuse.

Word was that all those that were capable of Rayshifting had been brought to Chaldea. Of course, that included himself, but at this point there was no use in complaining as the order had come from one of the highest ranked families in the Mage's Association, House Animusphere.

Shirou was a third-rate magus and he'd somehow gotten himself involved in something big again that had Rin, a dear friend and perhaps something more, overly concerned when he'd told her of his sudden departure. Needless to say, she wasn't amused, yet even she had no power to veto the command already given.

Well, that's what he was doing until he'd ended up bumping into a woman chasing after a white squirrel? A dog? It was difficult to tell, but it was some sort of animal, and she wasn't paying too much attention to what was in front of her. It didn't help that they'd collided at the bend of a corner as the animal made a quick get-away.

”Sorry. I-I wasn't watching where I was going,” the girl apologized quickly despite being the one who'd fallen on her b_u_t_t from the accident. She had bob-cut styled lilac hair, lavender eyes, and was fair skinned. She was wearing square-framed glasses, wore a grey hoodie over a white collared-shirt, a red tie, black skirt, and brown shoes.

”No need to apologize,” he kindly offered a hand towards her, but she seemed confused at his actions at first before a bright smile came to her face.

”Thanks,” she sounded genuine while taking his offered hand and pulling herself up. ”You aren't mad?” She seemed like she'd expected him to yell at her, or at the very least glare.

And then Shirou promptly remembered what sort of facility this was and that it was run by magi. They weren't known to be the courteous sort, and it suddenly made sense. ”I'm not like most magi,” he was quick to clarify, much to her relief as she placed a hand over her c_h_e_s_t.

”I can already tell,” the woman said as her eyes seemed to brighten.

He smiled wryly, a hand scratching the back of his head as he decided to introduce himself. If the woman worked in Chaldea, then they were going to be comrades anyway.

”Shirou Emiya,” he said with a light smile. ”Sorry for bumping into you when you were in such a rush.”

”No-no, it was my fault! I wasn't looking where I was going.” The woman shook her head vigorously and then seemed to stutter before finding her voice. ”I'm Mash Kyrielight, a member of Chaldea.”

Shirou could see that Mash wished the conversation to go on, as he assumes that she didn't have many people she could talk with in the facility, but he decided to remind her of what she was doing prior before it was too late. ”I think it's going to get away,” he said flatly.

”Ah, Fou,” Mash nodded and ran off down the hall. ”Bye, Emiya Senpai!”

He almost stiffened due to the manner in which Mash said farewell to him, as it hit too close to home about another girl that he used to know that called him by the same formal title. However, he didn't have the time to reminisce. He was already in front of the Command Center, and didn't want to waste time standing in front of the automated doors just for everyone to stare at him.

Single digit, front row. He recalled his seat position and made his way over. There was no designated seat so he supposed he could just pick any. Around him where the other candidates selected for Chaldea, but all he could stare at was the miniature planetary projection in front of him.

From what he remembered from the small briefing he had, it was called Sheba, a telescope used to observe the pseudo planet Chaldeas. It also served as a surveillance system for the facility and was used as a near-future observation device.

Near Sheba was a stage platform where a woman clearly no older than him stood waiting with a straight back, crossed arms, and an indifferent gaze. She wore a black sweater over a white-collared dress, red stockings and bowtie, and black high-heeled shoes. She had long white hair tied into a small braid on her left side while the rest of her hair fell past her shoulders. Her eyes were of similar colour to Shirou's own, and she was practically glaring at anyone who dared make light of her.

Shirou however saw it differently. He'd been around Rin long enough to know when someone was putting up an act, and the woman was clearly putting one up to mask her nervousness.

Her name was Olga Marie Animusphere, the director of Chaldea, and one of the reasons he'd been summoned to the facility. She was evidently waiting for all forty-eight candidates to arrive before beginning orientation, but candidate forty-eight was running late.

”Candidate forty-eight, Ritsuka Fujimaru, has anyone seen him?”

A tick mark was forming on Olga's forehead, and she was quickly losing patience. Fortunately, Mash came in to escort candidate forty-eight into the seat directly beside him, candidate forty-seven.

Ritsuka was a man who looked distinctly on the verge of falling asleep, and to make matters worse, there was no way Olga wasn't going to notice as she began her orientation speech.

Shirou watched as Mash who sat in the third row and leftmost seat gestured for him to help out Ritsuka, but he already knew it was too late.

Shirou shook his head in condolence. The look on Olga's face was almost identical to the way Rin appeared when she'd far surpassed her tolerance point and was only smiling to maintain her image.

Yeah, well, Olga wasn't Rin who'd just smile.

Walking right up to Ritsuka, she slapped him in the face and Judo threw him out of the room. ”B-Team it is,” she scowled before eyeing everyone in the room like a hawk. Mash flinched. ”Anyone else?” Her brow was twitching.

No one answered, and as if she'd never just thrown a Master candidate out of the Command Room, she resumed orientation and told everyone to begin preparations to enter their respective Rayshift pods lined in a semi-circle across the room.

Mash, bless her, took the initiative to check up on Ritsuka before Shirou could do so himself. Seeing as Ritsuka was in good hands, Shirou allowed himself to go through procedures. Twenty minutes later, just after almost everyone got into their pods, his intuition from life and death battles kicked in. Something felt off.

Mash nodded towards him as she entered her pod, but he barely registered her actions. An ominous feeling was flooding his system.

For the life of him, he couldn't put a reason as to why until it was staring him right in the face. The Rayshift pods, coffin-like devices, had been planted with magical bombs which he'd only been able to sense as he'd drawn closer to his own. The scent of potent magical energy was impossible to ignore. He was cautious from the start and didn't immediately enter his Rayshift pod which perhaps changed the future of even just one person.

”Hey, you! What are you waiting for?” Olga called out to him, pausing on her way to her own pod in order to lecture him. ”You're wasting time. Everybody's already in their pods and Lev already left to start the activation sequence. We don't have time to waste. What if we're left behind?!”

Olga's point was the last of Shirou's concern. As far as he could tell, the pods were a death sentence waiting to happen, and it was sooner than he could have ever expected. He didn't even have enough time to yell a warning to everyone. The magical energy built up way past the point of becoming volatile that a significant explosion was inevitable.

He had to act now.

”Shit,” he swore before tackling Olga to the ground, the two falling sprawled with Shirou on top. Olga bristled and glared at his abrupt action, but she quickly faltered as everything went to hell. Her eyes widened as fire and heat erupted everywhere and all she could see was him shielding her body with his own while activating his magecraft.

It was this one difference that allowed him to survive using Reinforcement and the lingering innate healing factor in his body to recover from wounds. Even now, the memory and actions of a woman he once knew still watched over and protected him despite his growth as an individual. He'd never forget, nor belittle the experiences they'd shared together. He was her Master, and in turn, she was his Servant; the both of them sharing a bond in their determination to carry out their dreams and ideals.

For the sake of a promise he'd made, he would never stop walking forward.

He groggily opened his eyes as he registered the ringing in his ears from the explosion. His vision was spinning, a numbness in his limbs as blood trickled down the side of his face from a cut over his forehead. He carefully forced himself up and looked beneath him to see Olga passed out with only minor burns and injuries on her person. He'd been able to save someone with his actions and that was all that counted in his mind.

Fires raged around him, alarms blaring red, and sending him into hyper focus. He put Olga somewhere safe where the flames would not reach her and scanned the room for life.

”Is there anyone else alive!” He yelled out while digging through piles of rubble in hopes of finding anyone trapped beneath to no avail.

”Over here! I need help!” A voice echoed out, causing Shirou's eyes to sharpen.

Directly adjacent to him, two men had rushed into the Command Room, one of them Ritsuka Fujimaru who stopped at Mash's Rayshift pod.

Shirou didn't waste a second and ran over to assess the damage.

Mash Kyrielight. She didn't look good. In fact, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to call her dead already. She was buried under rubble, one look enough to tell that her lower body had basically been crushed or blown up to the point that there was blood everywhere. She could hardly speak, and by the time he'd arrived, she could only signal to him with her eyes to get Ritsuka out of the room before they all died.

She was asking him to leave her without even trying to help.

Not a chance.

Laplace's shifting protection established.

Singularity's additional factor slots secured. Please start final judgements.

Announcements were ringing out from all around him, but he wasn't necessarily listening to them. There were people before him that needed to be saved, and that alone was priority.

”W-We have to dig her out if we want to tend to her wounds,” Ritsuka, though clearly nervous, put Mash's well being first and proposed a plan of action.

”I'm on it.”

Shirou didn't care for the fire and directly placed his hands over the searing metal pieces of rubble. Fire was nothing knew to him, and if burns were the only price to save another's life, then so be it.

No longer able to verify the existence of humanity a hundred years in the future.

Across from Shirou and Rituska, the latest announcement had Chaldeas turning completely red at the center of the room. This time, Shirou heard what the announcement had said and stiffened in shock.

”Hurry!” Ritsuka called out. ”We have to stop the bleeding.”

R-Right. Maybe he'd just misheard. Shirou focused by putting all his attention on the life he could save in front of him. The rubble was off. They just had to keep her alive somehow.

The announcements continued unabated.

Rayshift requirements not met.

Searching for qualifying Masters…Found.

”Help me lift her. We can't leave her like this,” Shirou said while carefully hoisting Mash up from her arms without aggravating her injuries.

Ritsuka nodded without any complaint and moved to her lower body.

Candidate No. 1, 47, and 48, Olga Marie Animushpere, Shirou Emiya and Ritsuka Fujimaru reset as Masters.

Unsummon program, start.

Spiritron Conversion, start

Rayshifting starting in 3…2…1.

Oblivious to what was happening around them, both Shirou and Ritsuka soon froze in place, Shirou more so. This sensation; the sight of a sea of sand-like golden light surrounding the area, it was all too familiar.