Kiritsugu had come back from Germany on a rather unsuccessful rescue mission. He knew that it wouldn't go well due to his decaying body and mind but even he was surprised by how quickly things got worse for him.

  Perhaps this is his penance for all the pain he has committed, now being put back into him tenfold. With the loss of the Holy Grail War and denial of his wish, accepting his death appeals to Kiritsugu, but he must continue for his daughter Illyasviel.

  For now, though, Kiritsugu must recover his strength and pn for his next attempt. Thus, he returned to his estate in Fuyuki, Japan.

  His home…

  A term foreign to the man.

  As a child, he spent his youth travelling with his father before settling on Alimango Isnd for a year. After that, he spent his teenage years freencing as an assassin with Natalia Kaminski and then with Maiya Hisau.

  Before the Fourth Holy Grail War, he was contracted and stayed with the Einzberns in Germany. After the war and the loss of his wife, he decided to stay here with his adopted son.

  For most of Kiritsugu's life, moving from one pce to another to rest was commonpce. Whether for a target or his safety, staying still was never an option.

  But now it's different. Now, every day isn't filled with bloodshed. Now he has a son to take care of.

  Speaking of, how is he doing? Shirou is a competent child who can take care of himself based on what he gathered from his brief stay here.

  The weird thing is his sudden change from a busybody to a boy genius. Something happened while he was gone.

  Kiritsugu will have to do some questioning. He was not interrogating; he was suspicious of a boy who wasn't even double-digits old. The st thing he should do is jump to conclusions.

  Finally, he took a step forward and reached for the door.

  Only for it to be opened for him.

  "Oji-san! Welcome home!" His adopted son greeted him.

  "Shirou! Did you expect me?" Kiritsugu asked with surprise.

  "I asked some of Raiga's employees if they could call when they saw you arrive. Come in, I’ll put on some tea.” The boy ushered him in.

  Nothing seemed off yet. The fact that a child was involved with the yakuza was concerning but Kiritsugu adopted him while saying he was a magician.

  He considered getting changed, but if he wanted answers, it was best to get them now.

  "So, how have things been?" Kiritsugu opened.

  "Nothing much, I guess... I made some new friends and improved a bit on my Magecraft." Shirou answered. 'I'll have to follow up on those. For now, I'll ask about the big points.'

  "I wouldn't think that becoming famous is not much," Shirou is flustered by this.

  "Sorry, since it has been everywhere, I assumed you'd already heard about it."

  "Just because I've heard about doesn't mean I don't want to hear about it from you."

  "Where should I start, then?"

  "How about the beginning?" Shirou regaled Kiritsugu with what happened while he was gone. With a heavy interest in science, Shirou produced a new ceramic by accident. The money he got from the deal was used for charity. With his new-found fame, Shirou shared his story of the Great Fuyuki Fire.

  "Why go through with all of this?" Kiritsugu asked.

  "I want to help people but I realized that there are other ways of doing it."

  "That's true; there are many people in need who would benefit from the money you gave." Shirou smiled at the praise.

  'Everything feels weird but nothing seems to be sticking out.' Kiritsugu thought.

  "How has your Magecraft been coming along?"

  "Very well, there's something I want to show you." Shirou stood up and closed his eyes.

  "Trace On," he uttered, and a katana came forth. Kiritsugu recoiled back and prepared for an attack. When nothing happened, he rexed.

  "I know you said that Projection Magecraft isn't that useful, but look!" Shirou gave the sword to his father. When he inspected it, Kiritsugu noticed that the quality was one-to-one with the real one.

  "Have you tried with anything else?" He asked, giving the weapon to his son, who dissipated it.

  "I have. I've noticed that items closer to the concept of swords I'm able to better Project," Shirou answered.

  "I see. Anything else I should know?"

  "I found my blood family's house, or what's left of it anyway. There's a workshop reminiscence of a bcksmith forge in the basement. It's covered under a trap door." Shirou's eyes darkened at this.

  "Would it be okay if I took a look?"

  "Yeah, be careful, oji-san." Kiritsugu finished his drink, which he noticed was a decent-quality tea, and left.

  'Haven't even been here an hour and I'm already back to work.' Kiritsugu thought, prepping his supplies.

  (...)

  Kiritsugu slowly made his way through the wreckage of the Fuyuki Fire, his eyes and expression bnk as he looked around, continually seeing brief fshes of cursed fmes and wailing bodies already past the point of death. However, unlike the st time he was here, he wasn’t trying to save anyone or atone for a mistake he had made. Instead, this time, he was here to help his son, if it was even possible.

  His pace was slow and methodical, working on a case of starting from the outside of the zone and making his way slowly inward. So far, he had found nothing, keeping his eyes on a swivel as he moved.

  Kiritsugu, like other Magi and spellcasters, could sense hints of Magecraft through one of his five senses. Kiritsugu could sense Magecraft through his sense of sight, an oddity not quite on par with his double Origin but also not common. And the colour that he had caught in his periphery was undoubtedly the unique colour, which he had found out as a child no one else could even see, of Magecraft.

  Straightening out after his nding, he approached the pile of rubble, able to see the wisps of Magecraft loosely clinging to the debris but mostly seeping from deep underneath and only seeing the light of day thanks to various cracks in the rubble. With a sigh, Kiritsugu pced down the metallic briefcase he had been holding and began to move the debris, working from the top down to avoid crushing or trapping himself unnecessarily.

  Eventually, he found what he was looking for—a trapdoor underneath all the rubble that the Magecraft was coming off. It seemed that the trapdoor alone had a bounded field over it. It meant that the house was completely unprotected, likely why it was so easily destroyed by the fire, but also that it stayed somewhat protected while also hiding the Magecraft of the family from any prying or wandering eyes. All in all, it was rather ingenious, especially if they had set up other small Bounded Fields or runes on the property to hide or suck up the ambient mana somehow.

  ‘The more I think about this set-up, the more I realize that I might need to use it myself on a few safehouses. Especially when I go to... Focus. Break the Bounded Field, search and ransack, then let yourself get distracted at home.’ Kiritsugu thought.

  After ten minutes, he grunted quietly as he finally cracked the bounded field, opening the trapdoor and taking a moment to extend his senses and search for any traps, magical or otherwise. After assuring himself that there was nothing, he grabbed his suitcase and began to go down, activating a fshlight once the trapdoor closed on top of him and covered him in darkness.

  With only the light to guide him down, the curved metal stabbed into the wall, acting as a dder, and the Magus Killer continued going further down. Until, during a cursory gnce down, he finally saw a floor, breathing quietly in relief and continuing to make his way down.

  Touching his feet down on the floor, he raised his fshlight and looked around, only to blink slowly as he stepped out of the dder well and into whatever room was in front of him. Mana-powered mps started up all around him. Blinking a few times to adjust his eyes to the light, he turned off his fshlight and began to look around, not very surprised to see the unique colour of Magecraft incredibly thick in this workshop, which, true to his son's words, was a forge.

  The surprise showed on his face before he shook his head and made his way further into the workshop/bcksmith, keeping a cautious eye out for any additional or spare traps that may still be in here, especially considering this room, almost half the size of his current house, was a Magus Workshop. He noticed that despite the fire and devastation up above, this particur workshop was completely untouched, like its own little Magus’ paradise away from the world.

  A couple of tools and pieces of metal were left lying in random pces or disarray, but really, Kiritsugu had seen worse from his brief sightings of the Creation Department at the Clock Tower. He went over to the small wall of bookshelves on the far end of the forge. ‘Smart keeps them away from the fire hazards but close enough for quick access’ Kiritsugu began lightly running his fingers along the shelf of the bookshelf, noting multiple books that seemed to be giving off the same intensity of colour and aura as a bounded field. Finding a fairly thick tomb that didn’t give off such a feeling, he nimbly plucked it off the bookshelf and held it up to his eyeline, wiping off some dust.

  “The Art of Weaponsmithing, by Karyuin Mura... masa.” He read it out, blinking in confusion at the name of the author.

  “Karyuin Muramasa? Wasn’t his name Sengo? Or Senji?” Kiritsugu muttered, pcing the book back and taking a moment to look at one of the books that seemed to have some protection pced on it.

  Looking at it with his magic-sensitive eyes and sharpened, trained senses for a few moments, he furrowed his eyebrows. It felt more like a protective barrier than anything else—a prevention of damage more than a retaliation to it. It wasn’t enough to ease his suspicion of any of the others, but he was at least willing to try and read this one.

  Pcing a single finger on it, he did nothing for a few moments despite the tenseness of his body, nodding to himself a few seconds ter and slowly sliding it out of pce. Holding it carefully, he cracked the leatherbound book open, noting the old and slightly dated Japanese kanji used to write in it.

  ‘How old is this? Some of these words I can only make out due to context...’ The assassin thought to himself, reading the first page.

  "3 Kisaragi, Azuchi-Momoyama Period"

  "After the early passing of my father, Karyuin Muramasa, I have decided that, in addition to adding my knowledge to our crest, I will write down all that I know in this book and protect it using the sorcery recently discovered in the city to the north. The crest suffered with the passing of my father so early. Unlike grandfather Senji, father was only able to pce three mana points in the crest. I will do my best to pick up the sck where my father, unfortunately, could not, and shall I fall to an early death as he did? Hopefully, both the crest and this journal will be completed to sufficient levels for one lucky descendant to finish our cn’s life work."

  "-Mako Muramasa"

  Kiritsugu felt his eyes widen and his jaw drop involuntarily as the realization began to fight to the front of his mind, the words he had slogged his way through reading smming into him like one of Archer’s weapons. The book slipped from numb fingers as bck eyes roamed back over the forge with a thousand-yard stare as everything finally clicked into pce consciously.

  "Shriou is a Muramasa?"

  (...)

  It was only until tomorrow that Kiritsugu decided to continue with the questioning.

  The revetion of Shirou's bloodline stopped the Magus Killer's curiosity for the day.

  Learning the Muramasa family was real was surprising, but not life-shattering. This was a man who fought with King Arthur against the likes of Diarmund da Duibhne, Alexander the Great, Gilles de Rais, Lancelot du Lac, and Gilgamesh. He was privy to many secrets that many have killed to protect. Him being one of them.

  The fact that his adopted son was part of that family was shocking. The rational part thought it made sense with his affinity for swords and minimal damage when Kiritsugu found him.

  That made him wonder, 'what the hell do I know about Shirou?' At first, he was a simple kid who thought magic was cool and wanted to be a hero. A smart kid who could take care of himself was a little weird, but what child isn't?

  Oh, how wrong he was.

  Now he's turning a useless magecraft into something useful and becoming a household name!

  'Deep breaths, Kiritsugu. You won't get answers by panicking.' He thought.

  Shirou cooked dinner for the two while the adult sat at the table.

  While he wanted to do it instead, unfortunately, the life of a Magus Killer doesn't give much opportunity to learn how to cook.

  The first time he tried to, the kitchen almost went up in fmes. That was also his only time.

  Kiritsugu helped pte the food and bring it to the table.

  Shirou turned on the television and switched it to the news.

  "Even though we have gone into the new year, there are still things from the past that must be discussed." The news reporter started. Whatever the segment they were going to do, it was obvious it would be grim.

  "Why not switch it to something more lighthearted?" Kiritsugu suggested.

  "Nothing on right now really interests me, and it's good to keep up with what's going on." Shirou answered before putting a piece of food in his mouth.

  "It has been months since the Great Fuyuki Fire ravaged the city and destroyed the homes and lives of many." The news reporter said.

  Kiritsugu's expression darkened at the mention of the tragedy. He was the one who caused it, after all.

  In the life of a Hero of Justice, Kiritsugu has killed many innocent people for the sake of the greater good. The Holy Grail War would be the st time he would have to kill someone.

  That's not what happened, though. The Grail turned out to be too good to be true, and when he tried to stop it from activating, he only made it worse.

  'All that bloodshed, for what? Every time I killed someone, it was to save someone else. That was to be the penultimate sacrifice to save humanity. Now it's all for nothing.' Kiritsugu mented.

  "Due to the nature of this event, second-hand information could only be expected from this. However, the sole survivor of this tragedy shares his story and how he pns on making a change." The news reporter continued. That made Kiritsugu perk up. "Thanks to the story of Emiya Shirou, author of 'Through the Fire: Finding Purpose in Tragedy', light can be shed on this event."

  "You did an interview?" Kiritsugu asked.

  "Yes, this news channel was the most persistent one, so I couldn't say no. Thankfully, I was allowed to not have my face shown." Shirou answered. “I mentioned you in passing, but not in name, in case you were wondering.”

  ‘How odd. Usually, the Mage’s Association and Church would be on top of things like this. Something might be at py if someone got this far.’ Kiritsugu thought.

  “I found you’re original family’s home. I didn’t expect you to be a Muramasa.” He said.

  “I didn’t expect it either, but that's probably because I still have some amnesia,” Shirou said.

  “Did you find anything else that was interesting?” Kiritsugu asked. Only the TV was heard through the dining room for a moment.

  “I felt something weird when I went to Ryuudou temple.”

  “That's probably because the root of a leyline is there.”

  “Oh…” Shirou said, demurely. It didn’t go unnoticed by Kiritsugu.

  “If you want, I can go check it out?” He asked. Shirou lit up at this, then quickly went back to normal.

  ‘No matter how smart or weird a kid may be, they will still want some help from their parents.’ Kiritsugu inwardly chuckled.

  “Alright then, but I’ll do it tomorrow; there’s only so much these old bones can move around in a day.”

  “You’re not that old.” That got a ugh out of Kiritsugu.

  But while Kiritsugu wasn’t looking, Shirou’s face changed to deep contemption.