Chapter Text
The last thing Shirou Emiya remembered before the Void was Archer killing both him and Gilgamesh in a suicide maneuver he had pulled to trap the First Hero and allow that killing blow.
Right in front of the Grail.
Which probably caused a time paradox. Or explained the Void.
Capital V, there was something mystical about this Void.
Which became really obvious when writing popped up in front of his face.
'So you died, and you died in such a way we literally cannot have your soul continue existing in our Universe, neither through Reincarnation nor the Afterlife. My associate Alaya would like to say, "How the fuck did he do that?" more or less. Less really, I got the sense of humor in our Universe as far as Cosmic Powers go.'
Shirou quickly rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, he did believe the dead part. And the died in too weird a way to be dealt with part. It was a higher being having a sense of humor that got him.
"So umm...what now?"
'Well I'm shunting your soul off into another universe of course! But it's a nexus universe so I'll have a little leeway with how I do this, which is great because I get to have fun. So I'll be turning your next life into a...reality TV show of sorts! You'll keep your primary power and I'll even let you pick how it is achieved! It will look like a video game character creator screen but once you are reborn you shall live life normally of course!"
"Whoa, hey, who are you?"
However Shirou was not answered as another box popped in front of his face. This one with big red letters saying 'New Life+'.
"And...he's gone. Great, what did I get myself into now?" With nothing better to do his astral self reached out and touched it.
'Total Achievement Points: 10,000'.
And below that were a bunch of black boxes with only the top one revealed.
'Choose an Origin'
Hitting that he was given a slew of options: Genetic Experiment, Mutant, Inhuman, Mystical Apprentice, Average Joe, Atlantean, and Legacy as the ones not in completely black boxes.
Clicking into them most had sub-types. For example Inhuman had 'Earth-born', 'Attilan', and 'Royal'. However both Attilan and Royal cost more than the ten-thousand points he had. Inhumans were also described as being super powered people that were part of some ancient alien genetic experiment so he now knew this new universe had aliens. Which was pretty wild for him.
"Rin would freak over aliens though," he mused to himself as he kept looking.
Mystical Apprentice seemed pretty solid of a choice, but it wouldn't leave him many points for whatever was in those other blacked out boxes further down the line, costing a full eight-thousand.
In fact the most cost effective to benefit option he saw was the Mutant one. Mutants were apparently a mutation of the standard human who had something called an 'X-gene' which activated strange and wonderful powers in them at around puberty. Under Legacy there were options to be a second or third generation mutant, but those were costly. So he picked a normal Mutant, well as normal as that sounded.
It took him to a new screen titled, 'Mutant Powers'.
And true to the higher being's description his only option was his old powers. Every other option was entirely locked, no matter how many points he had.
'Unlimited Bladeworks: Past Life Discount: 2,000 Points'
However reading the description it appeared that he would have to start back from scratch with it in his new life. Having no blades and no ability to manifest the full Reality Marble. But he could do that, plus it seemed like his Tracing and Object Reinforcement were considered bundled abilities, which made sense as Super Speed got Friction Resistance and High Velocity Impact Resistance for free.
So down to only half his starting points Shirou kept moving through character creation. He picked to speak a bunch of languages, not have any genetic defects, look generally like he had in his past life, and picked 'Upper-Middle-Class' as his upbringing because he didn't really want to be a rich kid but he figured not having to scrounge for food doing odd jobs would allow him to spend more time learning about the weird universe he was going into.
He spent most of his remaining points picking what he felt were the crucial, 'Skip Infancy' and 'Skip to Grade School' features.
It meant he had to forgo doing a geographical choice and left that to random, but he did not want his mind stuck in a baby's body for years. Even if he had gone back and given up a few languages he wouldn't have been able to pull off any more interesting countries than Italy for geographical choice. Japan was a full thousand points and he hadn't even gotten a discount like he had on his Bladeworks!
And then Shirou got the information dump.
He woke up with a gasp, remembering somehow that it was his first day of Kindergarten in...New York City?
His name was Shirou Morita, his mother had wanted a more traditional name for him.
He was born in 2000.
And his dad, Jim Morita Jr. was a teacher at a nearby high school.
And his mom, Cho, was missing presumed dead when...a giant green monster called the Hulk and a big spiky one called the Abomination had rampaged through Harlem just a few months back.
Which made the year...2005.
His grandfather was a US Army veteran and...oh man his head hurt.
At least he wasn't an orphan? He had a father. Which he supposed wasn't too different than last time.
Oh it turns out he had just been enrolled in a local karate class because his dad thought it would help him deal with the grief because he had been acting oddly since his mother's disappearance/death.
That was good, that could help with any personality shift from his memories dropping into his five year old self instead of being here the entire time.
He tested out his magic and...no circuits. Well that was expected apparently he was something called a mutant? But his five year-old memories had never heard of a mutant, perhaps they were secretive?
"Okay, so I've gotten myself into something really weird here haven't I?"
Shirou attempted to reach out to his Reality Marble, attempted to reinforce his body, attempted to reinforce an action figure, and attempted to Trace his small television in his bedroom. Nothing. He had absolutely no luck with accessing his powers.
Which means he'd have to wait until...oh no, until he started puberty again.
It was time to get ready for school he guessed.
School was a bit of a breeze and rather boring. Shirou almost wished he had been able to skip straight to Middle or High School, but those point costs had been huge.
So through Grade School Shirou developed a bit of a reputation as a kind of quiet prodigy. Who taught himself to speak four languages with learning CDs he asked his dad for, as an excuse to explain knowing them. And as a kid that packed a mean punch to bullies. He'd actually had his dad called to the school office once over defending a kid that was being bullied by misusing his karate skills on the bully.
He had been blown away a few years later when he had been home watching the news after school and the billionaire Tony Stark revealed himself to be the Iron Man, a man flying around in a high tech suit of armor, on national television.
His grandfather, Jim Morita Sr, had been visiting from Fresno when it happened and said something that struck Shirou as strange.
"It's happening again, the men of legend. The men of mystery. They're returning."
It sounded haunted. And it haunted Shirou's mind every time he saw one of Iron Man's exploits for the next few years. Because Tony Stark didn't really strike him as a true hero. He wasn't really an Ally of Justice.
And that angered Shirou, he was reckless and a bit selfish with his power as both a billionaire and a genius.
And so Shirou tinkered, and developed his own engineering skill as well as his martial arts skills. Preparing for the day he could access his powers.
And by the time he was eleven he had made a good usable taser out of pawn shop junk and was almost a black belt.
Because Iron Man had inspired Shirou, even if it was through anger, to someday become a hero for this world.
And then on May 4th, 2012, Shirou's twelfth birthday, everything was set into motion.