Fire. For all eye could see there was only fire. The heat of the flames scorched anything they touched. Even if you managed to find a non burning spot the heat quickly left you dry. Your brain felt like it was boiling. Your blood felt like it was fire itself instead of your source of life. Your heart felt so strained it felt like a glass could break any moment. Air itself was dirty and poisonoius. Every breath felt like it was stabbing you through your throat. None could survive this fire. No one had enough willpower to keep walking with it. Yet one person kept walking. A kid no older than eight years of age. But of course he soon reached his limit and fallen down. But he had to keep going, not knowing why. So he got up and got rid of what was holding him back. But he had nothing physical holding him back. So he got rid of something else. A piece of himself. It wasn't something important probably. Maybe a bad habit. But it wasn't enough to go further than a few steps only with that. So he got rid of more. Not that it worked. So he left more and more. By the end of his journey kid had nothing left to give so he fall for one last time. As he gazed towards the sky he wondered why c̵̖̠͇̬̓̽̏͌́̂̐̔͝ừ̴̢͖̮̤̘͖͓̭̪̤̟̄̄̍͌͊̋ͅr̴̢̮͎̠̝̙̙̥͔̥͗͛̏̌̌̒̇͆̎̈́͗̊͐̕͝ṣ̸̢̢̝̳̣͔͖̣̤̭̅̾͒̍̀͠ͅe̴͉̪̪͇̳̻̜͑͌͌͆̓̍ș̶̘̙͛͒̀͊̂̐̔̌͊̈́̍͒͐̕͜ kept raining from the hole in the sky.

Shirou woke up with a hiss and a pain stabbin through his chest. He stilled for a moment and then checked his chest with panic. Luckily there were no sword on his chest like before. He did gave a sigh of relief but stopped mid way through. Grimacing as it hurt again.

-Ah you have woken up!

Shirou raised his head from his chest to look at the source of the voice. In front of the door there was a elderly man. Fairly normal one at that you didn't look at his sharp ears but he decided to shut his mouth about it. The elderly resumed talking after checking if Shirou was actually awake.

-We get travellers like you from time to time, the one carried you here was a merchant who got lost in the woods. He said you saved him but got wounded in process. He was mumbling something about at least being sure you rest well before death. Rather dramatic fellow he was. There was blood I accept but wound wasn't even deep. He seemed shocked when I told him that. Heh, younglings need to study medicine if they can't even differentiate shallow and deep wounds. When I was at that age...

Elderly kept talking about his time while Shirou barely contained his grimace. The merchant he helped was right to be confused. He felt the sword go deep in his chest , at least punctured his lungs even if it somehow missed his heart. But how did he heal? Was it an after effect of the magecraft carried him here,or was it something else. He couldn't be sure but he had to accept it saved him. Elderly seemed like he was ending the talk so he focused back on conversation.

-... and that is how I lost my shield in a river. Oh nevermind my old stories I got distracted. Merchant left you your extra clothes and sword. He said he couldn't afford standing here longer but was gratefull to you. He said he will be trying to visit more villages before winter hits. Come now, we have lunch ready.

Lunch, Shirou couldn't help but be suprised. He usually woke up at 6 a.m. not afternoon. Everything had a first time it seemed. He nodded the elderly and saw him nod and walk away from the door. After he was sure no one was there he checked his circuits. The 3 and half he made was 2 now. The fight and his healing process took long enough for them to revert back to normal nerves. Although there was something odd. The circuits didn't feel degraded like usual. Sure they turned back into nerves slowly but usually they first lost their magical capabilities and then started healing back to a nerve. This however felt like they skipped the middle step and was turning from circuit to a nerve only because his body found it wrong. It was something interesting but he didn't had time or resources to study on it. Not to mention he had to find a way to turn back to home, to Fuyuki.

Fuyuki. A town seperated by a river to its modern and simple side. It was a good place to live and despite his efforts to reign his emotions Shirou was worried about Taiga and Sakura. Taiga, his teacher and legal guardian, taking care of him and Sakura, sister of his friend Shinji and Shirou's kouhai who helped him manage his house. He wondered if they were safe from the faulty magecraft that sent him here on this clearly magical land. Only one way existed for him to figure it out. Exploration. This land hopefully had some sort of connection to Fuyuki, he guessed whatever sended him here functioned as a transportation vehicle. It had to have a road to follow, stations to stop by. He at least hoped how that would work but he didn't had enough resolve to think about other possibilities. These thoughts plagued his mind as he spent next few weeks in the Hateno village.

Hateno. A simple village humanoid creatures called hylians lived in. Shirou wondered the possibility of them being result of normal humans slightly mutated through years by magical means since aside from having sharp ears they were practically same as humans. They even considered him as a fellow Hylian with short ears. It was a lovely village and people were safe in it from outside threats. They occasionally needed to defend against bokogoblins, the pig faced creature he encountered during his first time in village, buy it wasn't much hard to scare them when every men in village including him grabbed a stick and stood against them. Villagers looked at him with as if he told a joke whenever he asked why the bokogoblins were this common so he had to ask to the elderly he stayed with during his healing process. For some reason the wound he suffered from the bokogoblin healed up the deadly part first but the rest of the wound was much more slower , making him extend his rest and feel even more indebted to old guy he stayed with. His only relief was that old guy being a weapon otaku of some kind and letting Shirou rest in his house by the condition of inspecting his sword and showing it to his grandson while telling stories from the days he went on adventures and found a chest filled with Rupee, the money Hylians used, and how he slayed a grey skinned bokogoblin more vicious than other ones even if it costed him his weapon. Shirou didn't want to admit but he liked listening these stories, it reminded him his time spent with Kiritsugu but also proved whatever caused monsters to be this common he would know. Shirou decided to ask it around his 4th week after his almost healed injury.

-So old man, why there are so many bokogoblins out there? No matter how much we scare off they always come back without losing their numbers?

-Ah Shirou quit joking, you know it is because of the Calamity that happened around 100 years ago. Well a little less than that but all the same. When Ganon somehow rose from the depths of the Hyrule Castle and corrupted the land all these monsters increased their numbers and started causing problems, it didn't matter how much we killed them because the blood moon seems to recover their numbers no matter how much we slay. We are lucky they aren't raisinh their numbers more than this.

-What blood moon old man, what are you talking about?

Old man's smile lost its edge slightly.

-Quit joking Shirou , it happens every month as a phase of the moon. Infact today is its day of the month.

After saying that old man gestured the window for Shirou to take a look at sky. Shirou didn't hesitate to take a look but a few seconds later he wished he did.

The Moon dyed in crimson, seemingkly growing every second. The air itself was putrid and toxicating as if it was the burning fumes from chemical waste. The red and dark smoke kept rising from ground, almost materialising into somethingbut suddenly, it all disappeared, moon turned back to normal and air become fresh again. Elderly was saying something but Shirou didn't had energy to respond, he was barely standing on his own foot. After all, he never expected to find something felt exactly like the hell he had been through.

Next a few days for Shirou was a haze. He clearly realised something was wrong with this land. It's people were in grave danger if this Calamity's effects were this strong after 100 years. Something needed to be done but people of this land accepted this as a natural phenomenon. It was hard to not see it this way if they grew up with this. Only someone like him who is from another land or maybe someone born before the Calamity and somehow survived it. He wanted to go back to Fuyuki, deep down in his heart, but Emiya Shirou wasn't a person to leave others to go through hell like he did.

8 years old boy layed on burning debris, he had nothing left to give up on, nothing to push himself for. So he lay down and waited for his heart to stop pumping. He raised his hand once more to the hole in the sky, maybe he thought he could touch it in his near dead state, but even that action took the last energy left in him and his body went slack. He watched his hand to fall in slow motion. He supposed this was where people watched their life flashback in their eyes but he left his memories to burn many steps ago. He watched as someone grabbed his falling hand. A man holding it. A man looking so happy with a beautiful smile on his face, a man smiling because he saved him. So kid's empty soul filled once again with a simple desire. "I want to smile like that."

Authors notes: Sup guys, this one is kinda rushed. I decided to try and characterize Shirou more after reading reviews. I hope you guys enjoyed. See you later next time.