Fate/Beyond Fantasy
Story idea by Xamusel
Disclaimer: I own nothing whatsoever except for the idea of how this one story would turn out.
A/N: Well, this is a strange Crossover if I can even say that about my own work, but since there’s no section for what this is crossed over with, I’ll have to be content with posting this in the Misc. Games and Fate/stay Night section of the crossover archive over on FanFiction.Net.
Now, this ought to be interesting, so let’s see how the fantasy of a lifetime will get started now.
Prologue
The day of the Fuyuki Fire to 10 years later
Flames... they had brought the destruction of an entire area of town. That was my first real memory in my re-forged life... my life forged in the fires of Hell.
I had walked from one part of the area to another, seeing all the corpses laying all around me, and feeling that I was the survivor around. I only remember one thing from my previous life: my given name is Shirou, and I was named by whomever my birth-parents were.
The fire as if it were Hell on Earth, the sky that was threatening to burst open, and my life was on the verge of ending within the inferno that was almost about to consume me. With a final trudge, I pushed onward, though the screaming that I heard crying for help would remain silent to me for the rest of my life.
Soon, I tripped over a body and fell onto the ashen ground. I turned myself upright, facing the burning sky, and saw a face over me. The face belonged to a man, but the man was also on his last legs. As his empty eyes gazed into my own, a wonderful thing happened. A smile crossed that worn face. One of pure happiness and joy. With a shaking hand he brought a beautiful light close to me. I couldn't gaze upon its radiance, but its warmth entered my aching chest and eased the pain even slightly. And then, as if he’d just expended the last of his strength, the nameless man fell atop me and died.
I felt his warmth flee from his body as time passed by incoherently.
As I was about to drift into what I thought would be my end, I heard footsteps in the distance, possibly other survivors, I first thought. That was when I heard voices in a foreign language, possibly a language that hadn't been heard in a long time. As the voices came my way, I could tell that they were looking for something, or someone, for that matter.
I heard a strange voice say, "Damn... another pile of corpses, and nothing like what we're looking for within it, either."
I heard a man say something, a regal tone of voice befit of royalty. I tried looking for him, however, but to no avail; the man who died on top of me was blocking my vision.
I could’ve sworn that there was more to be said, but I was slowly losing consciousness. As I was losing my grip on reality, I could feel a man grab me, as if he were my lifeline. For whatever reason, I felt at peace, because I believed this man would be my salvation.
…I had no idea what my father had done… my life was going to be major chaos after that point, and nothing could have prepared me.
I… I couldn’t believe it. I lost my freedom, I lost my rights as a human being, everything! It was all because one man, a man who was kind enough to consider me as a person and who wanted me returned to my family, had lost his in the twisted tournament called the Holy Grail War, losing his chance to free me, a now-caged bird. I was given the mark of slavery, and I was essentially used goods, no respectable Magus would really want to tutor me for fear of what “Grandfather” would do to them for trying to teach me how to no longer be the way he was molding me.
Still, I would love it if I were living with Nee-san again, even if it were only for a short bit. The fun we would have together...
A pair of young girls were playing together, one a year older than the other, both with black hair, though the older one had aqua eyes instead of the younger sister’s normal blue. As they had managed to go through the fifth round playing tag, they began to notice that the park was growing eerily quiet. What they didn’t know was that the park was closing early for the day, and their parents had forgotten all about them in the rush to get back home, only for them to remember well too late what they were supposed to remember.
As the sisters, for that’s what they are, were trying to find a way back to their parents, the elder trying to put on a brave face, though that didn’t work out so well, as she said, “Don’t worry, Sakura, we’ll find our way out, I promise.”
“Really, nee-san?” Sakura asked her older sister in hope of being able to find a way out, because of the fact that she was worried that their parents had abandoned them forever.
“Yes, Sakura, I promise!” the elder sister declared with confidence she didn’t really feel. I mean, who could blame her? She too felt that they were abandoned by their parents and left alone to fend for themselves.
While they were trying to find the exit, a boy with blue hair and eyes walked from around the corner behind them. Seeing the two together piqued his curiosity and made him wonder what was going on. That boy, Matou Shinji, was hoping that they would try to get home soon, because the park became infested with his grandfather’s familiars at a certain hour so he could relish some fresh air away from the basement.
Hoping to ensure that the two lived, Shinji called out to them, “Hey, Tohsaka Rin, Tohsaka Sakura!”
Turning to Shinji, Rin replied, “Yes, Matou-san? What is it?”
As Shinji was thinking of how to convince them to get out, he then realized that there was a bunch of his grandfather’s worms coming from behind him, so he says urgently, “You have to get out of here now! A bunch of scary guys are coming this way!”
Sakura, at hearing this, tilts her head in confusion before asking, “Scary guys?”
Before Shinji could clarify what the mystic worms were like, Rin asks in a straightforward tone, “Is this some kind of game?” Seeing Shinji look at her incredulously, she clarified, “I saw you before with some other boys. You made stuff that went away when you shined a flashlight on it.”
Shinji, for all his fear, was more shocked that he was seen around those boys his grandfather had hired to set up the fog machines to hide the true nature of the park’s new residents for the nights ahead. He was about to retort when he realized that this could be a good way to get them out of there. After thinking over his response clearly enough, he said to the two of them, “Y-yes, it’s a game I thought of, but the fog machines weren’t part of it originally. Now, the purpose of the game is to get to an exit that isn’t the main entrance and flee from the area and hurry home, not saying that you ran in a game but that you ran from a group of monsters made by Matou Zouken.”
Rin, for all her limited knowledge on the outside world, knew that Matou Zouken was not someone to take lightly. Given that she wanted nothing to do with him, and given that it was entirely possible for him to create those monsters, she decided to go along with Shinji’s idea. Turning to Sakura, she asked her, “Do you mind if we play with Matou-san? I hope that we can have some enjoyment out of this, but please follow his instructions at the end.”
Sakura replied to this, “Yes, nee-chan, I will.” As soon as she said this, Shinji grabbed both of them by their arms and dragged them away from the main entrance while they both yelled, “WHAT?!”
“Come on, now, RUN!!” Shinji yelled at them while dragging them away from the place that he knew would be completely flooded by mystic worms while he decided to find the best place away from the worms.
After 20 minutes of running around the park, though they finally found an exit that was safe and clear Shinji was starting to get worried about the worms following them. He hoped that they were far enough behind them to not get to the two with him, but that was when he felt something strange... something he probably shouldn’t have, considering he felt he didn’t have Magic Circuits. When he realized that he felt this before with his grandfather’s biggest worm monstrosity, and that it was heading for in front of them, he urgently held the two sisters that were running towards the exit before they could reach the exit.
When Rin and Sakura turned to face Shinji to berate him for holding them back, they heard a wiggling thing come up from in front of the gateway, which caused them to turn their heads to see what was possibly the biggest worm that they’d ever seen in their entire lives. They were about to scream in fear when Shinji pulled them over to the trees and whispered harshly, “Wait here, I don’t want you to get hurt by that thing...”
Rin, unsure of how this was going to play out, whispered frantically, “Are you out of your MIND, Matou?! How come you feel like you know how to beat this thing?!”
Shinji, being honest enough to get his true wording out, replied, “A Matou has to clean up after a Matou.” Then, after thinking it over for a bit, he said, “Besides, I know this thing has a weakness, I just need to find it.” After getting the two sisters to safety, he instructed, “Climb up the trees and get to a part where you can go on top of the wall, then carefully run across so that you can get to safety. I’ll hold it off!” Before Rin could complain, he frantically said, “Just hurry, before it gets you!”
After a shared look between Rin and Sakura, they hurried over to climb the trees, both getting away from the giant worm that threatened to eat them after eating Shinji. While that was going on, they noticed that Shinji needed some sort of help to get out of this mess, but they were focused on escaping at the moment. When they got to the top of the wall, they carefully ran on top of it so that they could get back home from there, with hardly anything going on wrong at that point for them... but not so for Shinji.
Shinji... what happened to spare your life? I hope it wasn’t some sick joke on your part that was for me to give you my trust, that would be the cruelest thing anyone could have pulled off. The joke, if it is one, is not worth my time, in any stretch of the word. If it is not a joke, then I want you to clarify for me what it really is.
Nee-san, I hope you understand what I’m going through, but why wasn’t it you who was in my place? If anything, it would show just what sort of sick man I’m raised under with Shinji... so why? Why didn’t Father let you leave instead of me?
All that and more… are what I’d want to ask, but I can’t, for more than the obvious reasons. The life I lead now, that of Matou Sakura, is one under the control of Matou Zouken, a wretched man who wants human suffering, if anything. What I’d give to escape from that man’s grasp... perhaps I’d be able to find a boy that wouldn’t care about my past and would be able to set me free--
“SAKURA!” I hear the barking of “Grandfather” from within his chambers, wanting me for something else in his elaborate scheme… figures, Shinji is unable to participate in the next War, if it were to actually happen so soon, and I’m the only viable option left for “Grandfather”.
With not a bit of hesitation, I walk on towards my personal Hell, praying that he’d go easy on me this time… even if only a little.
Part 1 of the prologue, and I have a ways to go to complete the prologue, so don't expect the rest of the whole thing for a while... then again, I've been busy with other stories while I should have been working on this in my spare time, but I wasn't.
Thanks to Neir for convincing me to post this as is so far, even though I sent a copy of this portion to AlfheimWanderer so that he could look it over (hopefully).
Also, thanks to ItsaRandomUsername for this cleaned up version, now it looks better than it did before, ne? Hopefully it will be a bit easier on some people, including those who think I shouldn't write stories at all.