346English is not my mother tongue/language, so you may expect some spelling and grammatical errors, if you can look beyond that, welcome and I hope you enjoy the story.
"Character speaking"
'Character inner monologue'
Ryuudou Temple
Shirou breathed desperately, trying to grasp some air. His opponent, Gilgamesh, stood in front of him bleeding from his chest as well as from the stump where once was his arm, but still pretty much alive.
Impotence crossed Shirou's body as he saw a portal of golden light appear at Gilgamesh's side, with the tip of a sword standing out of it. Even with Tohsaka's Magical Energy, he wasn't capable of dealing a finishing blow and now he was going to die, leaving the magically exhausted Tohsaka and Saber to deal with this monster in human skin.
"Running out of mana is a pathetic ending. Victory is yours, die with that satisfaction, faker." Said the arrogant voice of the first hero.
But then, a twisted imitation of a miracle happened. From Gilgamesh's missing arm a ball made of darkness appeared, starting to attract everything in its vicinity just like a black hole would do, including Gilgamesh himself.
Shirou was astonished by the view of Gilgamesh being swallowed, in his surprise, he could only murmur…
"A hole left by the Holy Grail?" As soon as those words escaped from his lips, a chain of a golden divine metal appeared from the hole, wrapping around his arm and pulling him towards the hole. Shirou's eyes followed the chain trail to the hole just to see Gilgamesh grabbing its end as if his life depended on it.
Despite hearing the words Gilgamesh was blabbering, Shirou ignored them. He had to find a way to free himself from this chain or he would be dragged along with Gilgamesh.
Though, the solution was clear from the start. He couldn't overpower a Servant like Gilgamesh in raw strength, and even if he could that would free Gilgamesh from the Grail's Hole, leading to his death at his hands, or more like his flying swords.
Cutting the chains was also impossible, it was a divine treasure, made by the Mesopotamian Gods. Even if he could Project a Noble Phantasm right now he wouldn't be able to break this chain, he wasn't sure that even Saber could cut this chain, or at least, not easily. So, there was just one option for him…
"I'll cut my arm if that's what it takes!" Shirou freed his left hand which was grabbing his right arm until now, applying resistance to not be pulled into the hole, and concentrated the minuscule quantity of magical energy he still had on him, projecting a nearly hollow copy of Kanshou to do what he just said.
Though, what Shirou didn't take into account was that the added weight and the loss of his supportive arm would destabilize his posture, making him fall to the ground and be pulled toward a shocked Gilgamesh.
'Ah, that was stupid, but at least…' His arm moved with all his remaining strength and closed the distance between him and Gilgamesh.
'I could do this.' Shirou thought as his blade made a deep wound on Gilgamesh's neck, leaving him to suffocate in his own blood while both of them fell to an eternal fall.
Not far from there, Archer locked as the scene unfolded in shock. He was going to help the boy but his own stupidity made him fall, provoking in consequence the swallow of Gilgamesh before he could shoot him, bringing the still chained boy along.
'Oh shit, Tohsaka isn't going to be happy.' And he was the one that would be explaining the situation. Truly, the life of a Counter Guardian was pure suffering.
The ritual was completed and the souls of Heroic Spirits filled the Holy Grail, yet it failed to manifest itself twice. The winners, the last pair of Servant and Master, rejected its manifestation. Truth be told, it first tried to manifest with only 5 souls, but the remaining energy of the last war was enough to ignore that inconvenience, furthermore, the last servant was a strayed one at the edge of disappearance so it was impossible for him to claim victory over the master and her servant. But, they stole its vessel, the one within the Grail would manifest.
The limited conscience of the Grail panicked and searched for another adequate vessel to manifest, yet nothing that would fill that need appeared, so it had to use a sub-adequate vessel in order to manifest.
The Grail achieved to absorb him, but he was at the border of death and he wasn't alone. It didn't matter, this was the last chance for the Grail to accomplish its purpose, so without any order, the magical energy started to flow like a river, prepared to accomplish a corrupted wish, the birth of Angra Mainyu, in the few seconds its vessel had of life.
The Grial prepared to manifest itself, yet when it was ready to appear in the world, another soul filled it, and something was lost.
'Where it went?!' The flesh that was prepared by its anterior vessel disappeared, leaving the lesser Grail without a method to rapidly manifest itself and a ton of charged-up magical energy in need of liberation. The Grail almost freed it directly, but the explosion, potent enough to completely obliterate this city, would damage if not completely destroy the system of the Great Grail under the mountain.
The energy, as if it was made as a security system, redirected itself to one particular Magic that it could use to liberate the magical energy in a safe way. And then the limited version of the second True Magic, the Kaleidoscope, activated; successfully dispersing the magical energy in an alternate dimension and sending the now-dead vessel and the foreigner that entered its black hole to that particular dimension.
Unknown location
Steps resonated through the wood walls built in a labyrinthine way. The source was a group with more than twenty armed individuals, all of them walking in the same direction from where an external light, different from the dim blue light that was illuminating them, could be seen.
Another sound that accompanied their steps was the jingle of steel, not only produced by the armor that some of them wore but also from the collision of objects inside the bags of others.
Silence filled the corridor as everyone had in mind what happened earlier in their expedition, the appearance of a new type of monster, one that caused enough damage to their equipment and supplies that forced them to give up on the expedition.
And then, in the dimly lighted corridor, an outplaced noise like the crack of glass combined with a sucking noise started to rumble, breaking the thoughtful silence that previously surrounded the group.
Everyone stopped and looked around them with confusion and precaution for this newfound noise, yet in a second, everyone directed their gaze in front of them where the sound was increasingly getting louder.
Many eyes opened wide as from the thin air a ball, apparently made of darkness, appeared and rapidly expanded omnidirectionally till it touched the surface of the walls.
The adventurers stepped back, leaving the reach of the ball while they observed it in shock. After the briefest of moments, a body was thrown from the center of the ball toward them as if it were an arrow. The vanguard of the group dodged instinctively, creating a semicircle of people around the body.
They didn't even have time to express their surprise before the massive ball of darkness shrunk, disappearing even faster than it appeared, leaving the thrown body behind.
"What the hell is happening with the dungeon these days?!" The harsh voice filled with the anger of a young man broke the silence in the corridor.
At his side, a tall woman with green hair and pointy ears let out a sigh of frustration.
Meanwhile, what seemed to be a kid with blonde hair walked towards the body and knelt down to take his pulse.
"He is alive." A soft yet authoritative voice came out from his mouth, looking at the unconscious teenager.
"I'll take care of him!" Said a deep voice coming from a short yet very robust man, who was already preparing to carry the person on his shoulder.
"Thanks, Gareth. Okay, guys, it's been a long day, we'll prepare the camp on the 18th floor while we wait for the others to catch up with us." said the little leader of the group, looking at his companions. "And luckily we'll get some answers." He said looking at the unconscious boy.
"Come on, the light of the crystals is attenuating, so it's late enough." And with those words, the brave Pallum, Finn Deimne, led the first group of the Loki Familia towards the nicknamed Under Resort of the Dungeon.
18th Floor, near Rivira
In one of the many tents in the camp formed by the Loki Familia, the executives, each one of them of level 6, were talking.
"So, what do you think of what happened these days?" A dwarf asked his two companions.
"Honestly, it seemed crazy. Not only a new species seems to be spawning but there also was that boy appearance, that was all except common" A little sigh escaped from the middle-aged pallum "We explored more than fifty floors in the dungeon but we haven't seen anything like that. Honestly, I think it is more probable to be the work of some kind of magic than that of the Dungeon itself. You're the expert on magic, what do you think Riveria?"
"Honestly speaking? I have no idea, I've never seen or heard of any kind of teleportation magic here in Orario or back in my own hometown. And even after seeing it in real life this only gives me more doubts. Such a spell would be extremely long and mind-exhausting, I don't think that anyone under level 4 could successfully use the spell even once. So that itself raises another question, how the user of this magic is not famous yet? Its uniqueness and utility plus the required level to use it would make the mage famous, it doesn't make any sense."
"So we're back again at square one, eh." A collective sigh echoed in the tent.
"Well, we could ask the boy once he wakes up." Gareth said.
"Yeah, hopefully, he'll be able to answer some of our doubts. How is he by the way?"
Riveria remained silent, as her thoughts deviated to the same boy they were talking about.
The boy suffered from obvious exhaustion and had several injuries covering his chest; those injuries had such a shape that made it seem as if someone dragged him through the ground. She healed him, but those strange bluish-green lines over his body remained, heck they even made enough light to illuminate the tent he was resting on, and moreover…
"His fever hasn't gone down by even a bit, heck I even would say that it actually increased, I don't think we can move him in this state, he could die. We checked his back, either he doesn't have a Falna or his God knows how to hide it." She said to her captain.
"What about a status thief? We're near Rivira after all." Finn suggested.
"I also thought of that but they are expensive. I don't think it's really worth it, you should know it better than anyone Finn" A tired grin appeared on the pallum face as the dwarf shot down the idea.
"Yeah, taking into account all the losses of this expedition is probable that we'll have to do another just to compensate for all the Valis we've lost in equipment."
"Then maybe we should wait and hope that the boy wakes up. We can bring him to Loki and interrogate him if necessary." Riveria. who stayed silent for a while. gave the idea.
"We'll remain two more days here then, our actual supplies won't enable us to stay any more than that, if things take a turn for worse we'll make Aiz and Bete carry the boy to the Dian Cetch Familia to see if they can heal him."
"It's all we can make right now I guess." said the Dwarf
"I agree, though you should be the one informing everyone of your decision Finn." Riveria's smile revealed the fun she was having looking at their captain's miserable expression.
A sigh escaped from the pallum's mouth as he walked towards the exit of the tent.
"Bete and the others won't be happy about this." Another sigh escaped from his mouth, he could only relieve himself with one thought.
'The faster done the less pain'
The second group of the Loki Familia, led by Raul, arrived 30 minutes after the first group started installing the camp. They were resting now, sitting on the floor after hearing the Captain's orders.
"So now we have to wait for two days because they found some unconscious random guy? What an expedition…"
"Come on Raul don't be like that, I know that you are frustrated because of the mistakes you made while following the first group, but it's not the boy's fault. Finn even said that he appeared from nowhere with some strange magic."
"Yeah sorry, you're right Aki. I'm mad, it doesn't matter what I try. It always seems to be flawed in some way, honestly, I still don't know why Finn wants me to succeed him in leading" A sad sigh escaped from the human boy's mouth.
"Come on don't be upset, Finn is wise, I'm sure that he chose you because there are things that only you can do."
"Thanks Aki, you always find a way to cheer me up."
"We're friends Raul, I'll be there if you need me."
"Thanks again and same here." Both of them shared a smile.
"So what will we do these two days?" Asked the cat girl.
"I guess we should ask Finn, but we had to leave most of our bags behind, so it isn't as if we could go to get some magic stones right now. We could chill here on the 18th floor tomorrow, and the day after that we could do a space redistribution between bags, we will have fewer food supplies so we should be able to borrow some bags and go get some magic stones"
"See, I knew that Finn had a reason to choose you, you give yourself too little credit." Raul blushed and turned his head away from Aki but even with that, the silence that surrounded both of them was a comfortable one.
18th Floor, Loki Familia camp
He woke up feeling on fire, as if magma filled his veins with every heartbeat. All was a dark blur in his eyes and his arms and legs seemed to weigh three times more than he remembered.
Getting out of the sleeping bag was almost a titanical achievement and with every step, he felt like he was getting nearer the Earth's core.
'Water, I...need water'
Forming a coherent thought felt like running a marathon. His arms were hanging at his sides, too much force was needed to move them for even an inch.
It was like hours passed between each of his steps. At some moment he got in a green blur 'A forest' his broken mind told him.
And as he continued walking, a part of the green blur turned blue. 'I have to keep walking.'but the forest had other plans. His feet, which till the moment were properly doing their job, found resistance and with his tired body, he couldn't regain his balance, tripping on a tree root and falling towards the blue blur.
Hours passed as he remained on the water of the lake, cooling off his body from a temperature so hot that nearly started melting his brain.
'I was lucky, if I hadn't been able to move my body so I could fall backward I would have drowned'
'However, how much time has passed since I fell? It felt like hours, and the light resembles the morning'
A sigh of pain left his mouth. Even with his coherence restored, the situation was still bad. If he got out of this lake he would surely die from his own body heat in less than a day, and all was because…
'My magic circuits have gone crazy' There was too much magical energy on his circuits, and for him who had them first opened not even a week ago, it was like hell. He was completely sure that if he hadn't developed a high pain resistance from turning his nerves into magic circuits he would have died just from the shock of such pain.
'This hellish fever is caused by my magic circuits, if I close them I should be able to recover.' His concentration went to his trigger, and when he was going to turn his circuits off…
DON'T!
A voice inside of him, probably his survival instinct, stopped him. It was only for a second but this voice inside him said, screamed, that if he turned off his circuits at the same time he would surely die.
'Okay, one by one then.'
He concentrated on only one of his twenty-seven circuits and started to slowly close it.
'This…is not working at all.' It was like the mana on his circuit negated the dispersion in the air, or rather the act was so much more difficult than it should. 'If the mana doesn't disperse by itself when I try to close the circuit then I'll have to make use of that mana.'
In a second, a simple but well-made sword appeared in his hand. 'It didn't change anything.' The second that the magical energy left his circuit more mana surged to serve as a substitute, igniting his body in a painful manner once again.
'The magic circuits of a mage act like a sponge to the mana of the air, I have to stop my circuit from absorbing more mana meanwhile I use the magical energy within it and close it at the same time. Ugh, this will be a hell of multi-tasking' This would normally be an easy task for a magus, but his less-than-stellar condition and the strange state of his circuits, as well as the strange density of the mana in the air, made it rather difficult.
And so, after twenty minutes Shirou Emiya was able to partially close one circuit.
'I feel that if I close it completely right now it will damage the circuit' After such a torrential amount of mana a complete shut-off could hurt the circuit even more, or so he thought. He was just a third-rate magus with a poor amount of knowledge, after all, he was just following his instincts, or Archer's probably.
'I'll close them in two rounds then' First he would bring all his magic circuits to the same partially closed state as the one he was concentrating on, after that he would close them one by one in the same chronological order as the first round.
'This will take some time.' A growl rose from his stomach.
'This first, and then I'll have to find some food and discover where I am' And so Shirou Emiya continued closing his magic circuits.
18th Floor, Loki Familia camp
"¡SHIT!" An unexpectedly loud voice came from a blonde Pallum who was in front of Shirou's tent.
"Captain, what happened?" The voice of one of the Amazoness sisters, Tione, came from behind. At the same time a bunch of members of the Loki Familia, who were at their tents till that point, started to get out of them to see what was going on.
"He is not here. The boy is not in the tent. Wake everyone up! We have to search for him, now!"
"Captain, are you sure he is even on the 18th floor anymore? Quite a lot of members had been up for hours now and no one seems to have seen him" Tione said while looking back at his Familia companions, the ones that had been awake for hours, who seemed even more confused than her.
"No, he is still here" The tingle at his thumb reaffirmed that to him.
"Gather everyone, we will divide to find him. Everyone of level 3 or more will go alone, those of lower level than that form groups of three to search, we will meet again here in two hours" The formation of groups was far from the ideal when searching for someone, but it had to be done to ensure the safety of the members. Even if monsters did not spawn on this floor, some monsters ascended from the 19th floor, if anyone at level 2 encountered a monster from the 19th floor there could be a real danger for their life.
"Yes, Captain!" A brief silence appeared in the camp until Raul took the word.
"Umm, Captain, most of us hadn't seen this boy, could you describe him?" Finn nearly facepalmed in front of everyone.
"He's a teenager, maybe 17 years old, one year up or down. Auburn hair, has some strange luminescent lines in his torso and one that crosses one of his eyes."
With those words, everyone chose a sector from the floor and began their search.
After he had been able to partially close all his circuits, and thus capable of a normal thought process, Shirou realized some things. First of all, he was dressed, or to be more accurate he wore pants, underwear, socks, and shoes that were actually wet.
The second was that he was shining, like actually generating his own light. Blue lines, which reminded him of when he used Tohsaka's magical energy, covered part of his body, mostly the left part of his abdomen and pectoral. Thanks to his reflection in the water, he had seen that one seemed to cross his left eye. He guessed that they were his magic circuits, which were overwhelmed by such an amount of magical energy that was even visible through his skin.
Part of that shine was slowly disappearing, caused by the partial closure of his circuits. Shirou sighed. Now that he partially achieved his first objective he should concentrate on getting some food, but before…
'I should tend out my actual clothes, getting even sicker would not help much' As Shirou undressed he looked at his sweaty skin, 'And I should get a proper bath too' He did not have any bathing products with him, but he wasn't in a situation to be demanding. 'A projected sponge will be enough to deal with the sweat.'
Light steps crushed dried leaves as a young elf by the name of Lefiya Viridis advanced through the woods. The captain of her Familia, Finn, ordered everyone to search for the guy that appeared in front of them on the 19th floor. Luckily he gave them a description of the boy; she was at the rear of the group when the incident happened so she couldn't take a good look at the guy's appearance.
'Why would he escape from the camp though? Is he some kind of criminal? From the description of the Captain, I doubt that he has a shady appearance, but I guess that looks can fool.'
Lefiya wasn't looking at the situation with much of a positive perspective.
'But I guess that we should grant him a chance to explain himself, he must be very confused. I would surely be if I woke up at a place that I didn't recognize, much less if I was surrounded by strangers.'
Though that didn't explain how he managed to evade everyone. 'Maybe he woke up at midnight? That could explain it. But shouldn't the guards have been able to see him?'
Lefiya briefly stopped herself as the light landed on her eyes. The trees blocked most of the light so it surprised her a bit to be suddenly flashed by it. 'Taking a better look, there doesn't seem to be any more trees for nearly a hundred meters'
As Lefiya walked forward, with her hand blocking the light, the reason for it was clear. She just entered a glade, which had a calm river that crossed all the woods, and inside of it was a humanoid silhouette. 'Is that someone?'
Lefiya continued walking forward and lowered her hand to enable her to see correctly, blinking a couple of times to get rid of the blur in her sight. As soon as she recovered, she stopped with a loud step, shocked by the sight in front of her.
The human male who had been washing his hair in the water turned on and looked at her. Luckily the angle in which she was did not permit the lower half to be exposed, Lefiya wasn't sure she could avoid fainting if that had been the case.
Her heartbeat instantly rose as she saw the naked boy in front of her. He had strong-looking marked abs and pectoral. His wet skin shone under the light of the roof crystals as well as for the phosphorescent blue light of the lines that covered the left side of his body. One of these lines crossed his amber eyes, making them stand out even more, and seemed to lose itself inside his auburn hair.
Lefiya froze as their eyes met, one with surprise and embarrassment while the other expressed shock. At this point, she could hear her own heartbeat resonating in her head and her face felt in flames.
Lefiya's mind broke, as she lost the ability to have structured thoughts.
"E-mmmm, sorry Miss, could you turn around, please?" A strong yet soft voice sounded as he spoke.
This woke Lefiya of her stupor, making her conscious of her actions.
"I am sorry!" The words just left her mouth as she turned back and started running towards the forest in embarrassment. She could swear she heard something like "Well, at least I know that I'm not that far from civilization"
Meanwhile Lefiya was running, her head fell into chaos. 'Oh Loki, I was standing in front of him and looking at him naked, he surely thinks that I'm a pervert!' Her thoughts returned to the naked boy and her cheeks turned even redder. 'At least I found him, I am sure he is the one the Captain was talking about. But, what should I do now? Go to inform the Captain that I found him? Or return and wait to escort him to the camp' Her head nearly melted for her own thoughts.
'What should I do?!' Her internal panic manifested in a frustrated sigh as her eyes looked at the floor and even her ears folded down.
"Lefiya?" A voice she knew quite well called her name, making her turn towards the voice.
There stood one of the Amazoness sisters, Tiona, looking at her.
"You're already returning? So you didn't find him as well, uh." Meanwhile, Tiona was speaking, two people walked towards them from Tiona's back.
"So you're also here, I assume you didn't find him either?" The one who spoke was Tiona's sister, Tione, who was accompanied by Aiz Wallenstein, the strongest human in all of Orario.
"Ah, Tione-san and Aiz-san are here as well" Lefiya murmured looking at the other members of the Loki Familia.
"We should tell Finn immediately" A delicate and monotone voice came from Aiz, reminding all of them that they were supposed to inform Finn whether they found him or not.
Aiz and the sisters immediately turned towards the camp direction and started walking. Tiona turned her head to see that Lefiya didn't move at all and seemed to be frozen.
"Lefiya is something wrong?" Her voice held concern towards her friend.
"I actually found him" Tione and Ais who had stopped walking when Tiona started talking, turned around at a neck-breaking speed to look at her.
"Really? Is that so?! Why isn't he with you? And where is he?" Tiona tackled Lefiya and started questioning her with a voice plentiful of joy and curiosity.
Lefiya who was overwhelmed by Tiona's energy could only point out the direction from which she was returning just a moment ago.
"Come on, let's bring him to the camp, there's no time to lose!" Tiona started running in the direction followed by Aiz and Tione.
"Tiona-san wait!" Lefiya's voice went unheard as she started chasing them.
After that embarrassing interruption and the reassurance that civilization was probably near, Shirou finished his bath. He extended his hand and took the towel that just appeared from the air, drying himself.
'First I thought that that girl was actually a human, but…' Shirou's dilemma came from that girl's ears.
'They were too long to just be a strange trait, but the alternative to that…' It wasn't difficult to identify the type of humanoid the girl was. Even someone like him, who didn't particularly indulge in fiction, at least not for some years as of now, knew about elves. They were commonly used as fantastic species in literature and games after all.
'But did elves really exist? I can't recall if Kiritsugu ever mentioned them. Maybe she is not an elf but some sort of nature spirit? We are in a forest after all' Just as that thought appeared in Shirou's mind, he felt the urge to punch himself. 'Spirits wouldn't show themselves so casually, and if she was really one I'm sure her presence would scream that, and what type of spirit would run over finding someone? Naked or not.' Shirou sighed, he was still at square one.
'¿Leaving that aside, where is this place supposed to be?' If the forest with a gigantic tree in the middle of it, so tall that could be seen from anywhere, wasn't enough of a mystery, the roof was apparently made of crystals that emit light all over the forest. Honestly, this seemed more like an artificial biome made by a Magus who didn't know how to spend his money rather than nature's work.
He was trapped here for the moment, but this forest must have an entrance, he had to be thrown here in some way, and the expensive-looking clothes of that girl didn't match at all with life in the wilds. Maybe sticking at the borders while following a direction would end with him finding an exit.
Another sigh left his mouth, if he had to do it better start now, the more he waited the worse the situation would get, he didn't have food or drinkable water after all. He took what remained of his original outfit and put them on. 'They're still a little wet, but this shouldn't be a problem now.' He had partially closed all his circuits with success, after all, so the risk of getting sick was highly reduced. He didn't want to project more things than necessary now that he partially closed his circuits, the uncomfortable pain was still present, but he guessed he should project a shirt and start moving.
As soon as those thoughts crossed his mind, a group of fast footsteps seemed to invade the glade he was at. He turned over towards them, just to be body-slammed the next second.
"Ouch" A pained sound came from his mouth, at least the grass cushioned his fall. Shirou opened his eyes meeting with the brown counterpart of the one atop him.
"Hey, hello! We finally found you!" A jiggling voice came from the dark-skinned teenager who was leaning her hands on his chest. Shirou had a look at her revealing clothes before becoming red as his brain had a short circuit.
"Ahh, I couldn't stop her" A voice filled with disappointment came from behind the dark-skinned girl. The one who made the comment, the may-or-may-not-be-an-elf girl from before was accompanied by what he expected to be two human girls, one who had great resemblance with the one using him as a pillow 'Twins?' and the other…'she could pass as Saber's family member' her looks, from the golden hair to her slender figure gave her an air of nobility and the form she walked, relaxed but ready to fight, remarked the nature of one deeply acquainted with the battlefield.
As Shirou's brain restarted he left out a confused "¿You were searching for me?" towards the short-haired girl atop him.
"Of course we were meanie! Why would you even leave the camp with that fever? I know the desire to have a good open-air bath from time to time, but you should have at least told someone, the captain was really worried you know?" The girl, who was already talking with him with the familiarity proper of old friends, said to him while she stabbed her finger into his chest.
"I'm sorry?" The confusion in Shirou's mind made it seem more like a question than an actual answer.
"You should be! Do you know how much time you made me waste? The time that I could have spent at the Captain's side" A much harsher voice came from the other sister who was looking at him with a feral gaze. A sweatdrop seemed to fall on the other girls faces as they had a common thought 'Even in this situation, uhh.'
Shirou looked at the blond girl to escape the gaze of the black-haired girl, but she only gave him a curious look while she tilted her head to the right. Shirou's eyes turned to the (supposed) elf but she turned her head towards the left with red cheeks as soon as their eyes met.
"It was all a blur for me when I woke up, I felt as if I was melting so I subconsciously went to search for water I guess, sorry if that really troubled you." Seeing that he wouldn't be getting any help, Shirou decided to respond to his own actions.
The eyes of the girl seemed to soften a bit and she let out a sigh "It's fine I guess, just come with us, the Captain has some questions for you." The girl who was atop him finally got up and offered him a hand, which he took. His eyes widened in surprise when he nearly collided with her when she instantly got him up. 'This girl is far stronger than she seems.'
As he started to walk towards them the last comment came from the harsher twin "And don't even think of escaping, this won't end wonderful for you if you even try" Shirou gulped, as something deep within him agreed that if she was as strong as her sister it would probably end badly for him, hell doesn't compare with a despised woman after all.
It didn't take them much to arrive at the camp, the travel itself was slightly uncomfortable, the elf girl was looking everywhere except him and the other two ignored him meanwhile the tackling one tried to make small talk with him, asking things such as his name, age or strangely enough, his preferred type of weapon.
He answered with sincerity not seeing anything bad in telling a little about him to the people that apparently if what they said was true, looked after him while unconscious.
However, even with all this strange situation, he certainly did not expect to be in front of what seemed a blonde kid, at least in height, with a spear in hand as large as himself.
"Well, here's our missing guy, didn't expect you to just get up and walk away; can I assume you're better now?" The kid spoke with a tone and confidence that would be more appropriate in a dependable adult than in someone who looked like a child.
"Sorry for causing problems, even if I'm not sure how I got here, I'm still grateful to you for taking care of me." Tiona, the cheerful twin more or less explained the basis of the situation to him. Apparently, he fell down a portal in front of them, and so, they decided to carry him to their camp, in order for him to not die...He wasn't sure if she was referring to the fever, but the way she spoke so casually of death while keeping that cheerful tone was a little disturbing.
And the portal, he only could assume that it was a hole like the one that absorbed him, but that left the questions of how was he still alive, and where was "here" exactly.
"Don't worry lad, we would be quite bad people if we left someone in such a vulnerable state in the dungeon" This time the one talking was a short yet strong-looking man, with a large beard and a massive axe in hand...he was starting to see a pattern here.
His eyes slowly deviated to the other people in the camp, a lot of them carried diverse types of weapons and armor, and some even wore things like robes and staffs, honestly speaking, it seemed like a cosplayers party, and if it wasn't for his eyes, that could instinctively grasp their weapons, he could have believed so. There were some swords of normal iron or steel and others, such as the spear on the kid's hand, that was metal, that while capable of grasping, he couldn't recognize.
"The dungeon?" His voice, filled with doubt and concern, repeated the two last words said by the man, gaining a strange look from everyone, and making the kid and the man in front of him look at each other as if having a conversation only by looking at the other.
"Say, where do you come from, exactly?" The kid asked with a raised eyebrow and a serious face.
"Huh? I'm from Fuyuki, Kyuushu" He expected some kind of recognition after saying the city's name, but he received none of that. Yeah, Fuyuki wasn't as big as some of the other cities in Japan, but they at least should have recognized the island's name, after all, they were speaking Japanese...But he didn't see even an inch of recognition in their eyes.
The kid seemed to change his posture to one of deep thought, closing his eyes, and after a moment, his eyes opened, looking directly at him.
"I don't seem to recall any city by that name in the vicinity of Orario, from which country is it?"
"Orario?" The face of the kid slowly mirrored his, one of deep confusion.
"Hugh, I'm tired of this shit!" Someone walked between them and put their hand on his shoulder with a strong and hurtful grip, making him gasp in pain "Stop this nonsense and start telling the truth little shit, you're making us waste our time!" The man in front of him had a tattoo on his face, resembling lightning, and silver hair, accompanied by a pair of dog-like ears and a tail coming from his backbone.
"Bete stop, don't treat our guest disrespectfully." the kid, whom he should ask the name to stop referring to him as "the kid" in his head, told to the beast-man? in front of him, making him click his tongue before taking out his hand from Shirou's shoulder.
He nodded to the kid who nodded him back "By the way, my name is Emiya Shirou, yours would be?" Referring not only to the kid but the man at his side.
"Finn Deimne"
"Gareth Landrock"
"By the way, Shirou-san, do you feel like you don't remember what happened recently or anything like that?"
Shirou thought for a second and decided on an answer that would not compromise the secret of magecraft, after all, he was not sure if they were magus (and he didn't want them to be hunted by the association if that wasn't the case), their attitude seemed radically different from what Tohsaka and his father told him about them, although looking back at those holding staffs he was not so sure anymore.
"Both my head and my thoughts seem a bit foggy right now, but I think I would be okay if I rested for a little" It wasn't a total lie, he was bad with those, but enough of the truth to seem plausible until he could know for sure if they were Magus or not.
"Finn, everything is packed up, we can already leave" A regal voice, came from behind the crowd that slowly built up as the conversation kept going. Within a few seconds, the owner of the voice, a beautiful woman with jade long hair and pointy ears, appeared from the crowd. She reminded him of Saber, not only because of her beauty but also because of the aura around her, one of importance.
"Thanks, Riveria. Gareth and I were talking to our guest, but seeing that we are ready to go, we can postpone that too when we return to the surface."
'Surface? There is a ceiling…but I didn't think this would be underground.'
"Having said that, everyone! Put yourself in formation, we are returning to the surface! Raul, Aki, escort Shirou, he doesn't have any armor, so taking a hit could be fatal" Everyone in the camp responded with a "Yes, Captain" and started positioning themselves while walking towards a certain direction.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, the not hurt one, to see a kind-looking guy and 'Is that a catgirl?' standing to both of his sides. With a mild slap on his back, from the guy, the three of them advanced, following the big group in front of them.
They slowly advanced as a group, eventually leaving behind the forest to enter a cave-like path that seemed to go upwards.
As more time passed, bigger grew his confusion about where he was exactly. But as he felt the chill around his upper body, his thoughts changed to 'Oh…Yeah, I can't project one now, can I? Could someone give me a shirt, please?'
So to those with questions about Shirou's situation, here is a brief explanation.
1. When Shirou fell on the portal he had his magic circuits open, and so, when he was teleported away his body instinctively absorbed the mana in the air, and having into account that danmachi still is in the Age of Gods...yeah.
Fever. Magic circuits raise the temperature of the body when active, if these went overload, I don't see this situation as a highly improbable one. And as the circuits were full of mana (thicker than Shirou's body could normally stand), they couldn't normally close without Shirou's input.
This situation would probably cause the usual effects of turning Shirou's eyes and hair closer to Archer's for the whole using magecraft beyond your limits (in this case the circuits limit) but he didn't stay for long like that nor did he overexert himself. Although he is in a lot of pain right now, probably enough to be debilitating to a good extent.
Internal statement about dying. If he would have closed all his circuits directly, he would Ignis Fatus'ed his ass and imploded. On the other part, if he wouldn't at least partially close his circuits (or to be more accurate, just emptying them (though Shirou refers to this incorrectly because of his lack of knowledge, he just blocked the circuits from absorbing more mana while using the one already inside without closing the circuit), his temperature wouldn't go down and he would eventually die, if not from the fever, due to not being able to withstand the mana continuously entering his body (mana poisoning).
And the reason for Shirou not dying in the hole (cause of Angra Mainyu's shenanigans) is that he barely stayed there for a pair of seconds before being teleported away.