Cursed Sword [Fate/C3]

AN: I KNOW I posted this here somewhere before, but now that I'm re-reading C3, I figure I'd give it another try to get this out.



The house he lived in was a pretty simple one as far as homes went: two stories with a kitchen, a few bedrooms, den, and even a small storage room in the corner plus a few extra unused rooms on both the first and second floor. It was nothing like the house he had lived in before, but it was comfortable and habitable as well.

A young man was setting up dinner for himself when his doorbell rung, surprising him as he had not been expecting any guests that night. He quickly turned off the heat to his stove and yelled out that he was heading to the door.
When he opened his front door, Emiya Shirou knew the black cube being carried by the deliveryman was going to be trouble.

To be fair to the black cube, he didn’t even use Structural Analysis on it – it was the letter from Tohsaka Rin that was taped to the side that caused him to groan.

“Rin… Not again.” He muttered as he watched the deliveryman drive off. He then looked down at the black cube and the letter in his hand. Sighing, he carefully lifted the cube up and moved it inside the house. If Rin felt it was safe enough to be delivered via mundane courier, it can’t possibly be dangerous enough to skip dinner over.

After depositing the cube in his safe-room, Shirou took the letter with him back into the kitchen and finished making dinner. When he’s alone at home, he found that he liked simple dishes like the one he was having today: fried fish with some vegetable like snow peas, and a bowl of rice. It was easy to cook, and there were many ways to season it which kept it refreshing, or add to if he had unexpected guests dropping by.

He had started eating before remembering the letter that Rin sent with the cube, and paused in his meal to open it. As usual, Rin’s writing was neat and easily legible, even if a bit flowery for his tastes. To his surprise, the letter seemed like a normal letter at first glance… until he realized that if it came with the normal courier, it would have had to look normal.

“To my close friend, Emiya Shirou:

The season has turned, and once again the weather has turned dreary here in London. It has been a month since we last spoke, and I feel that it has been too long since we have met together.

My classes in London have been going well. I have made some remarkable discoveries throughout the past months, and one such discovery has led me to send you the attached item.

I’m sure you will have an interesting time with it, but do not peer too close at it.
-Tohsaka Rin

PS. Say hello to my sister for me.”

For some reason, he felt that the last line should have ended with “or else”, but she did not want to give him proof that she was vindictive as hell. The letter also filled him with dread, as the last time that this happened…

His sharp ears heard a floorboard creak and he quickly stood up and got into a position that allowed him more maneuverability. Sakura shouldn’t be back until later on in the week and Konoha has her own home now, so who was it moving in his home? His hand itched to have something in them, but he resisted the urge and picked up a cutting knife instead.

When the footsteps stopped right in front of the door separating the dining room/kitchen area with the hallway, Shriou gripped the knife tighter. When the door slowly opened, he was preparing to reinforce his body. When he heard a loud and rather familiar grumble, he lifted an eyebrow as a mop of silver hair peeked out from behind the door.

He sucked in a breath of air as his mind juxtaposed the coy look of a certain young girl on the face of the person who had stuck their head in. A second glance showed a rather pitiful look on her face as she looked at the food still on the table.

“… Are you hungry?” Shirou finally asked, deciding that nothing good can come from someone who reminded him of his (technically) older sisters.

---

The young girl, wearing a t-shirt way too large for her (which he recognize as his), dug enthusiastically into the food that he had prepared. He had found out that she didn’t understand how to use chopsticks and gave her a fork to eat with – though she needed help with deboning the fish.

“So, your name is Fear?” Shirou asked while opening up his senses by a bit. Instantly, he was hit with a heavy scent of blood… and regret? He wasn’t even sure he was supposed to be able to ‘smell’ an emotion like regret. She nodded while eating, and he waved the letter he received earlier. “And I assume you were that cube that I received today?”

Fear nodded again. “That old-ha…” She paused mid-sentence and glanced fearfully behind her as if expecting something, but found nothing but air. “Old-hag said that it was the most efficient way to get here from England.”

Shirou winced as he imagine what Rin would have been doing to make Fear react like that. “More like efficient for her wallet…” he muttered, knowing the young magus was probably just as tight with her money no matter where she was.

Luckily, Fear didn’t seem to catch that and continued eating. “I don’t even like being in that form for long, and I was kept in a cold place through the entire trip. If I see her again, I’m going to curse that old hag…” Her rambling faded off as she continued to chew on the food remaining.

Shirou watched her eat for another moment before grabbing some tea for himself. By the time he returned, Fear had finished off all the food and was sighing in content.

“So, how was Rin anyways? Her letter was kind of short and didn’t say much.” Shirou asked, trying to get a conversation started.

“The old hag was so annoying!” Fear shouted, jumping out of her seat. “She would poke me and touch me and tell me to do this or do that! If it wasn’t for the fact that she said…” Her rant suddenly cut off as she suddenly sat back down and her teeth clenched shut with a ‘clink’.

“She said what?” Shirou asked calmly, already knowing the answer.

For a moment, Fear seemed to shrink into herself as if cold water was splashed over her. But then she seemed to regain her confidence and said, “She said, I could free myself from my curse.”

Shirou nodded to himself as he took another sip of tea. This was not the first time that he had a conversation like this, and it reminded him of the first time he had met someone with a similar wish. She had already had some time to get used to the idea, but his entrance into the scene had scared her a bit until they had reach the relationship they share now.

“How much do you know about curses? And… tools, like me?” Fear softly asked, looking straight at him.

“A bit. I know that tools can become cursed or even ‘demonic’ if they are created or infused with negative thoughts continuously. Generally, this curse is spread to people around it or even its owner, and this power generally gives rise to some special power that can be used by that item.” Shirou answered, trying to think of all the information he knew about the topic of cursed tools.

“Anything else?” Fear prompted, still keeping her eyes trained on him.

“Well, eventually enough human thoughts – all the wills and grudges aimed at you, gather together to give birth to a being like you – something that's not fully human or fully a tool. A thing that transcended just a normal item, but not quite to the point where it is a legend in itself.”

To Shriou, ‘Cursed Tools’ had always reminded him of Noble Phantasms. They were both items that had transcended what a normal item was to become something more, but whereas Noble Phantasms seemed to have engraved themselves in the mind of all Humanity as legends or part of a legend, the ‘Cursed Tools’ are prominent only in a small part of Humanity, and are almost always scorned or cursed.

To be honest, it always reminded Shriou of the old Japanese folklore of keeping an item with you for 100 years and it would gain sentience.

“That's right – it started with a single grudge. I was made to harm people and because of it, I received much hatred, grievances, and murderous intents. From those grudges, I was given the curse of driving all my owners into insanity." Fear paused in her explanation, as if remembering something painful. I did not ask for that. In fact, I did not ask to receive so many grudges and hatred that I became self-aware. I did not asked to be cursed against my will and cause all those things to happen.” Shirou noticed that her small hands were gripping his table tightly and lifting herself up from her seat with that leverage.

“Rin said that if I came here, I can free myself from that curse. That’s why I’m here, but she didn’t tell me what I would have to do. So tell me honestly – will I be able to free myself from my curse? And don't forget, I was sent to you and that makes you my current owner – if you lie about this place being able to purify strong curses, then you will be the first one to suffer from it.”

Shirou looked into Fear’s eyes. She had propped herself up on his table and was leaning forwards to glare at him. But that glare held nothing but fear and hopelessness of someone who has long been disappointed and does not expect to be saved anymore.

Shirou closed his eyes. To current him, her look was a bittersweet reminder of all that he has lost and gained. Even now, he did not believe it was wrong to want to help another person – no matter the fact that he knew that he can only save those who are close to him. That Fear would come to this place, and that he could offer her the salvation that she was looking for…

Shirou knew what it meant to be saved, and thus he answered in the only way he could. “Yes, you can.”

Fear started to slump, when she blinked and stared back at him with her mouth open. “Huh?”

“I said you can free yourself from your curse here. This land is naturally pure and has the ability to slowly purify any sort of curse – even though it has become a city, the properties of the land does not change.” Shirou explained, watching hope slowly grow in Fear’s eyes. “And no curse can touch me anymore, so your curse won't affect me either.”

Fear slowly slouched down into her seat, still staring at Shirou. It was like her dream was coming true, once again giving her hope that she would be able to stop the curse that had been thrust upon her creation.

“But when I said slow, I meant it.” Shirou warned. “A curse that is capable of creating someone like you would take years, if not a decade to be completely removed if you just sat here. If you want to remove the curse faster, you should try to create as much positive thoughts centered on you.”

“What do you mean, positive thoughts?” Fear asked, once again sitting properly and listening attentively.

“Your curse was created by the hatred and grudges of men who was killed by you. If you were to create the opposite type of thought – thankfulness and other positive thoughts – then the two energies will cancel out each other eventually. Well, at least that's what I've been told.” Shirou explained while taking Rin's lecturing pose #2, lifting an arm to emphasis his words while using the other to let his elbow rest on it. He added the last part just to make sure Fear understood that his information is second-hand.

“I see…” Fear muttered, thinking to herself. “Well, I didn’t think it would be easy to rid myself of this curse anyways.”

A sudden noise ran through the house, a soft chime of music from his doorbell. Fear jumped at the sudden noise, but Shirou reassured her that it’s just something people to use to tell that they’re outside the house. He left her with some rice-crackers and went to check who was at his doorsteps at this time of night.

Outside of his front door, was a rather heavy breasted woman in glasses, holding onto a metal pot and glaring at his door. "Oh. Konoha..." He muttered to himself as he opened the door.