What a Fool You Are, Matou Shinji

[WildlyLaughing]

Shinji Matou shivered, a chill breeze slithering past him in the dark night in Fuyuki. Dim lighting from the street lamps overhead cast an ominous haze as he walked back home.

"It's Spring. Why'd I bother letting someone else use my jacket," He muttered. The blue-haired teen brushed his wavy hair out of his vision as his eyes darted back and forth. Any idiot knew that it was more dangerous at night, and that was doubly so in places with dim lighting like where he was.

And those who knew of the Moonlit World knew that there really were dangers around every corner.

Unfortunately for Shinji, he hadn't started his training with his grandfather, Zouken Matou, to be a magus yet. And that meant that he was stuck knowing of the supernatural danger of the world but had none of the power to protect himself from it.

What else was there left to do but pretend that the danger didn't exist?

"Sakura had better be grateful and not catch a cold," Shinji continued under his breath. The jacket had been a present from his father, Byakuya. One of the few presents he'd ever gotten from the asshole.

As the teenager continued walking down the street, he definitely wouldn't have admitted that he felt almost naked without that jacket.

Suddenly, he heard a feminine voice shouting from a near distance. "Help! Get away from me!"

His steps definitely didn't stutter, and he confidently changed direction so that he wasn't walking towards the sound. "Heh," Shinji sneered to himself. "A woman's voice calling out for help on a dark night? How convenient that she's just slightly too far for me to see where she is or what kind of trouble she's in."

A memory surfaced of a man dressed in a dark mockery of a priest's gown, one that had bulging eyes that could look in opposite directions at the same time, as he lured unsuspecting children to their doom.

Child sacrifice was apparently still an easy way to summon demons, if you had the know-how.

Shinji shivered, forcing that memory back down from where it came from. There was no need to remember things from almost a decade ago.

….especially not the hands reaching out to him, begging him to save—

Shinji shook his head free of those thoughts. It's not like he'd been able to take on a magus at that age. There was nothing he could've done back then.

A harsh slap rang out as a gruff man's voice rose. "Shut up and get in the car!"

"How stupid does this thing think I am?!" He hissed. "Voices coming from a dark part of the alley would only tempt fools with no brain cells like Emiya. I'm no idiot!"

Shinji definitely didn't slow down and he definitely didn't stop walking. Even if the surroundings around him now stayed in place.

He was still in motion. Of course he stayed in motion.

After all, the planet was constantly revolving around the sun and he was on the planet so therefore he was always in motion and constantly moving as well.

"Please don't! I'm sorry!" The woman's voice. It rang out.

It rang out and into his head. Over and over and over.

Please-don't-I'm-sorry-please-don't-i'm-sorry-i'msorrypleasedon't-p-l-e-a-s-

At some point he realized that his surroundings had started to move again, but this time in the opposite direction. His feet pounded the pavement as he sprinted towards where the voices had come from. Shinji knew his grandfather had familiars hidden all throughout the city. Practically nothing happened without him knowing about it. There was no way Zouken Matou would let someone kill his grandson.

…..right?

Shinji burst onto the scene and his eyes took in everything in a second.

A bald man in his early 50's and was wearing an expensive suit and tinted glasses. One who was very obviously drunk and forcibly pulling a brown-haired lady in her 20's into a suspicious black car with dark, tinted windows. Rips and tears on the lady's white blouse made it obvious that she didn't want to go anywhere with the man if her struggles hadn't already made it clear.

In the next second, Shinji crossed the distance, his fist smashing into the other man's face.

The bald-headed man was stronger than he looked as his head only rocked back. It was a good thing then that the curb behind him was higher than the city should've allowed it to be as the drunk man tripped and fell backwards and crashed onto the ground, groaning.

"You damn brat!" The bald man pressed his hand to his face before looking at it. A rock had made a shallow cut, his palm coming back smeared with blood. "How fucking dare you. Do you know who I am?! I'll sue!"

Shinji stood still for a moment before he doubled over, laughing.

He'd been worried that the man had been a magus. The Matou heir knew exactly what happened when you disturbed a magus getting research materials, his grandfather being the prime example many magi in Japan knew as someone this applied to, and being painfully vivisected after having your senses heightened was one of the least horrific things that those of the Moonlit World could do to you.

And now this drunkard was threatening to sue of all things?

Shinji laughed even harder before straightening up and wiping a tear from his eye. The other man was clearly no one important, otherwise there'd be far worse things he'd threaten with than bringing up Japan's legal system. "Bring it, old man. The name's Matou Shinji and I'm not afraid of you." Shinji grinned, baring his teeth, as he taunted the man and flipped him off.

Not bothering to waste any more time, he took the arm of the lady he'd just saved and pulled her with him as he ran off.

Far behind them, they could hear the sounds of police officers yelling at them to stop but they quickly lost them.

No one knew Fuyuki better than a Matou after all.

——————

Shinji ran, pulling the lady along, and he felt lighter than he'd had in years.

No.

He couldn't remember the last time he felt this light. For once, he felt strong. Powerful.

Like he could do anything.

The evening breeze pushed his dark-blue hair from his eyes as they ran. The two of them snuck through alleyways, slid in and out of department stores, and sprinted down the streets.

A part of him didn't want it to end.

And it didn't. Until he felt a tug as the lady whose arm he'd been holding pulled back.

"Wait, wait," She said, heaving, her white blouse looking ruffled and stained with sweat from the exercise. "Just. Give me. A second."

Shinji looked at her, doubled over as she was, and could tell at a glance that she wasn't going to be going anywhere anytime soon. She might've been skinny for an adult woman, but she clearly wasn't an athlete. No, it was more likely that she worked at an office and had a desk job.

He looked around and couldn't see any sign of the bald-headed man or the police that had clearly been following them on the man's orders. "We should be safe here for a bit."

"Thank. God." She managed to get out in between breaths.

Now that they had a spare moment, everything that had just happened caught up to Shinji. He looked down at his hands and noticed that they were shaking. His knuckles hurt, and it was almost as if he could still feel the way the man's face felt as his fist crashed into it.

The man had looked at him for a moment with fear. The woman had looked at him with gratitude.

And all Shinji himself could feel at the time was utter relief. Because for once, he was the most powerful person in the room.

…..and part of him couldn't deny how good it'd felt.

Shinji shook his head free of those thoughts. Now wasn't the time for that. Looking around again, and seeing that still no one had followed them into the alley that they were currently in, he pulled out a cell phone and started dialing the number of someone he would normally avoid like the plague.

He put the phone up to his ear. The person on the other end picked up after the first ring,

"Oi. Eiyuu-baka."

"Shinji." The voice on the other end said his name like a bitter, old friend would. "Why-"

"Shut up and listen. I'm sending you my location. Get here fast. Someone needs help." He ended the call there with a scowl. Part of him felt like puking from disgust from having to… rely… on him, but even with how much Shinji hated the other man, no one else had his trust like he did.

Smoothing his expression, he turned back to the brown-haired lady who'd finally managed to catch her breath and straighten up. "Feeling better?" Shinji asked, smirking.

"A little," The woman nodded, completely missing the teasing nature of his remark. She bit her lip. "What do we do now?"

He snorted. Shouldn't she be the one with all the answers since she was an adult?

"You should run. Get out of town. In fact, get out of the country. If you have someone you can stay who lives outside of Japan, stay with them. Start over fresh. New name, new life."

In his mind's eye Shinji could still see the man who'd tried to force her into his car. Even though he hadn't been a magus (or some sort of phantasmal creature), that didn't mean the man wasn't a threat (to her at least). The suit he'd been wearing wasn't cheap. It was Brioni, a luxury brand known for suits that were made-to-measure and offered bespoke level service to their private clientele.

Byakuya Matou had a few, and it was definitely not something you could easily get in Japan.

Even without that though, the look in the other man's eyes would've clued Shinji in to the kind of person he was dealing with. It was that sneering look that only people who were used to a certain level of power had when dealing with people far below their station.

He wouldn't admit that it reminded him far too much of his grandfather, Zouken Matou.

"That kind of man won't leave you alone. He'll keep chasing you until he gets what he wants, and he seems like a man with a lot of money and power." He said. "Tell me I'm wrong."

She bit her lip before shaking her head. "No. You're not wrong. I… I did something for him. Something I shouldn't have. But he was someone I couldn't say no to. Not without making a lot of enemies."

Shinji nodded. "That's what I thought." He opened up his messaging app and sent a text.

The yakuza owed the Matou clan more than a favor or two and they'd always kept a small, private jet ready to fly at all times of the day with a pilot on standby. They'd be more than willing to do a favor for the heir as a way to repay them.

His phone chimed as he received a text back. It was short and sweet, just the way he liked it. He slid his phone back in his pocket just as the sound of a motorcycle started coming closer to the alleyway he and the lady were in.

"Do you hear that?" She asked.

"Yes, I hear it." He scowled. "And I don't usually like the person who comes with it either, but he's also the only person I can guarantee won't sell you out to that man for a quick buck."

A sleek, black motorcycle pulled up to the alleyway, the driver wearing a black, leather motorcycle jacket with a black helmet. Shinji walked the woman in the white blouse over to the driver as the man got off the bike.

The driver pulled off the helmet, red hair and heated amber eyes meeting Shinji's blue ones. "Shinji. What's going on?"

Shinji scowled back at him. "Shut up. I feel dirty just talking to you." He pulled the lady forward. "She needs help getting out of town, fast. Bad situation and don't ask me for any details. I don't know it and I honestly don't care to know. I've sent you the address of a small, private airport. Take her there. By the time you arrive, there'll be a jet waiting to take her to wherever it is she wants to go."

The other man's eyes narrowed but he nodded. "Fine. By we're having a long conversation once this is over."

Shinji scoffed. "You want to talk? You can ask her all the questions you want on the way there. By the time you see her off, you'll probably know more about what's going on than I do."

"W-wait!" A stuttering voice cut in. The blue-haired teenager and his red-haired acquaintance looked toward the brown-haired woman. "What about you? Are you going to be ok? Won't he be after you too?"

Shinji smirked. "Don't worry. I'm Matou Shinji, and if you couldn't tell already my family has more than a little pull around Fuyuki so I'll be fine." He nodded towards the biker. "Now get going. The jet won't wait forever."

The lady looked down a moment, before running forward and kissing him on the cheek. She quickly ran back to the motorcycle, where the other man had already put his helmet back on. In less than a second they were already roaring down the road.

Shinji's hand felt where her lips had been on his cheek just a moment ago, his head completely blank.

"….Damn. Never even got her name."

——————————

The night seemed brighter, somehow. The stars seemed like they eclipsed the lights on the streets instead of the reverse, for once. The shadows didn't seem so dark as Shinji strolled back home. There was no need to rush, no need to worry. Tonight, even the darkness of the moonlit world didn't seem like it could touch him.

Shinji, for once, let that feeling in his chest bubble up and burst onto his face in a wide grin. He'd once said that whistling was a pointless activity invented by the poor and downtrodden to try and make their shitty lives better.

Man, he really regretted that now. Shinji had this huge urge to whistle as he strode back home feeling like nothing could touch him.

And as he unlocked the door to his house, all of it lasted exactly less than two seconds inside his house.

The Matou heir's grin froze as he saw it.

HER.

Walking out of the door to the basement alongside his grandfather, Zouken Matou.

The basement which was Zouken's workshop.

No magus was allowed to enter another's workshop.

…..unless they were the magus heir.

Shinji's grin melted until all that remained was a bitter, venomous glare. "What is this?" He hissed. "Grandfather! What is this?! Why?!"

There was so much he wanted to say. So much.

But none of it was coming out.

Zouken's amused chuckle crawled out of his decrepit body. It wasn't just a laugh. His amusement came out as a dry, rasping sound that made Shinji think of something alive crawling beneath rotten floorboards.

"What do you mean, Shinji?" A grin slid across Zouken's face like a knife slid across a throat. "Is something the matter?"

"Grandfather! You said that no one was allowed into your workshop but you and the Matou heir!" Shinji spat out. "No one!"

The elderly man nodded. "And that's true. No one but myself and the Matou heir is allowed in my workshop."

Shinji gaped. Turning slowly, he looked at his sister. "S-Sakura…"

Sakura bit her lip and turned her head away from him. "Nii-sama."

It wasn't true.

Of course not.

Of course it wasn't true.

His hands curled into fists.

After all, if it were true, then someone surely would've stopped him from bothering to memorize the Matou clan's more than 300 years of history and lore, and their predecessor clan, the Makiri's more than 800 years.

Surely, someone would've bothered to stop him from learning the theory and applications of the Matou magic in preparation of starting his magus journey and becoming the clan head.

"Nii-sama." Sakura. His sister, even if it wasn't blood. He'd cared for her. It wasn't Byakuya who took care of her when she was sick. It wasn't Zouken who patched up every little scrape she'd had. It wasn't even damn Rin Tohsaka who'd given her the love that she should've had as a little sister, giving her piggy back rides and taking her to parks andsharedhisdreamsofbecomingamagusandtheclanhead-

"Onii-sama. I am the Matou heir."

…….

It was a lie.

It was all a lie.

All of it.

The little girl he'd been told was thrown away by her family.

The little sister that he'd taken care of.

The girl he'd welcomed into the family and would've taken a knife to the gut for.

IT WAS ALL A LIE.

His little sister didn't exist.

He stared, dead-eyed, at the girl who did. The one who'd walked into his life with only one purpose: to steal his place in the family from him.

"Why are you so shocked, Shinji?" The old man's voice, gentle but like a keeling death bell. "Magi train their heirs from a young age, as soon as they show their potential."

And Shinji had none, was what was implied.

"She showed great potential, even from when she was three years old." Zouken's voice barely registered with Shinji.

So much was obvious in hindsight. He remembered the day when his father, Byakuya Matou, walked into their house with a tiny, six year old girl.

He'd always wondered why his father would adopt a daughter into the family. After all, he barely cared about the child he already had!

"Her family already had a magus heir, one that was also born with great potential. Whereas our family had none." Zouken continued, smiling faintly.

Memories flashed through his mind. Zouken looking at her and smiling, Byakuya turning away from her in disgust. The way she'd often crawled into his bed and started crying for seemingly no reason when they were kids.

Of course. Why wouldn't Zouken Matou smile when his plans as a magus were advancing?

Byakuya had hated anything and everything to do with magecraft and his father. That he couldn't stand to look at the daughter he'd adopted made sense!

…..and why wouldn't Sakura cry? Magus training was hard and she'd also needed a way to check and see if Shinji had discovered the truth every now and then.

"When Risei and I met, we decided that there was a solution to both our problems. There can only be one magus heir in the family, but there have been precedents for adopting the children of others into magi clan if the bloodline grows too thin."

……why was Sakura loved and he wasn't?

"So it was decided. The Matou would pay with jewels and some minor insights from our clan's research, while the Tohsaka would give their unfortunate-but-talented daughter to us."

It was because she was the family magus. And as he realized that, as the entirety of the long-con that Sakura Tohsaka had played on him in order to become the Matou heir, Shinji snapped.

"You," He muttered under his breath, glaring at her. "You stole my life from me! I treated you like a sister but this whole time you were just aiming to take my place!" Her dead, purple eyes stared straight into his as she said nothing. The sight of it made him so sick and disgusted that before he knew it, his backpack had slid off of his shoulder and into his hand.

"ANSWER ME!!"

The bag flew through the air. Part of him wanted it to hit and wipe that expression off of her face. That despicable, emotionless look that she was giving now that he knew she was clan heir. It was obvious that now that she didn't have to put up the facade of the loving younger sister, she didn't want to bother with it.

…..there was a small part of him that hoped the bag would miss.

What could've happened was something that Shinji wouldn't find out. Tens of flying, worm-like familiars leapt into action. They came from the walls, the ceiling, the floors, all of it suddenly coming alive and writhing as they stopped camouflaging themselves and leapt at the perceived threat. In a split second a writhing mass of the insects formed a shield which devoured the backpack as soon as it made contact with it.

"BOY!" Zouken's furious voice hissed. "You would dare attack the future clan head? Do you know how much time I've painstakingly invested into her? I've vivisected branch members for less!" The swirling mass of flying, bladed worm familiars hissed alongside Zouken, their voices sounding like rabid, starving dogs to Shinji's ears. "If you think the fact that you're my grandson would absolve you of this behavior then you're gravely mistaken."

Sweat trickled down Shinji's neck.

His grandfather looked serious this time, and he wasn't sure what he'd be able to do to get out of it.

Just then though, the strangest thing happened.

The doorbell rang.

…….

Everyone paused.

Zouken tilted his head a fraction. Wordlessly, his familiars flew up and blended into the ceiling, walls and floor.

Shinji wasn't fooled. Now that he knew where they were, he could spot them as long as he tried hard enough. They were ready to pounce and devour anyone at a moment's notice.

"Get the door." The ancient magus commanded.

Robotically, Shinji complied. His body moved stiffly, fists still clenched as he gingerly stepped over the places he knew the familiars lay. There were so many though that he couldn't avoid them all, yet oddly enough he didn't feel a thing. If he didn't know better, he'd think that they weren't there.

Turning the lock, he wordlessly opened the door to find two officers staring at him in the face.

"There you are you little rat!" The first one, a portly man whose police badge was emblazoned with the name Yamanaka, said.

His partner, a tall and muscular man whose badge read Tanaka, forced himself into the house and knocked Shinji down to the ground, cuffing him. "Thought you were so tough didn't you? Going around assaulting people like that! Did you really think you could get away with it?"

Yamanaka snorted. "Too bad for you, your victim remembered how you were bragging that your name was Matou Shinji. I guess cocky little shits like you need to be reminded that no one's above the law!"

Shinji could feel officer Tanaka put his arm across the back of his neck, forcefully keeping him down. All he could do was glare at the piece of shits who were his grandfather and the person he used to think of as his sister.

Officer Yamanaka clearly saw where his gaze went as his next question was clearly meant for Zouken. "Are you his legal guardian?" Part of Shinji wanted to snort as the man clearly didn't know close he was to getting his throat ripped out by demonic-looking worms.

"….I'm his grandfather, yes."

"We're putting him under arrest for assault and battery. Normally he'd be in jail for at least a week before we brought it up to court but considering the crimes he's been accused of and who it was against, I don't doubt that it'll be expedited to within the next few days."

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO IDIOTS DOING??!!" A third voice came from outside the house. Shinji couldn't see the man from where he was currently being restrained on the ground by officer Tanaka, but he felt the man stiffen.

"Sir!" Officer Yamanaka's voice rang out. "We were just apprehending the suspect, Captain. I saw him running away from the scene of the crime and he matches the description that the victim reported."

Shinji heard the sound of one of the officers getting slapped in the back of the head. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS?!" The captain's voice roared. "Bow your heads and apologize right this instant!"

"Oh, no, there's no need for that at all." Zouken said, his voice creaking. Shinji knew the bastard was playing up his age since the police were here with them now.

"I'm sorry, sir. I'm captain of the police here in this part of Fuyuki and these two report to me. When I heard that where they were headed I tried telling them not to head over here but these two knuckleheads apparently couldn't be bothered to follow orders!" The captain paused. "I'm sure there must be some misunderstanding here, we all know that the Matou family are fine, upstanding citizens of our city."

Zouken Matou inclined his head before smiling at them. "Oh, no, thank you for coming when you did! You should be commending your fine officers here."

Shinji's eyes widened. What the hell was this old man saying??

"I'm not shocked at the charges being brought against him as Shinji here has been acting so violent for the past few days. I've been worried for myself and my other grandchild here," Zouken gestured to Sakura. "Just now, he'd come home and attacked us!"

"YOU, DAMN, BASTA-" was all Shinji managed to choke out in response before his vision slowly darkened.

_______________________________
What a fool you are, Matou Shinji.
04/01/2016
________________________________

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Author's Note:

I've been looking at all of the story ideas I've had over the years and I realize that I actually love redeeming villains for some reason . Not sure why, but I do. Maybe it's a rooting for the underdog thing or the fact that they have so much against them that they have to overcome (including themselves) and every time they fail or succeed it just reminds me of every time I realized I was an asshole and had to work hard to change myself.

This fanfiction is also posted on SpaceBattles. If you go over there, I've also posted an "Unedited Chapter 1" in the Apocrypha.

Anyway, important things to note:

Spoiler: Important Things to Note

• The Point of View in this chapter is Shinji Matou's. It's through 3rd person limited POV, and as Shinji is far from an unbiased person, you can take the way that he sees things and people or events with a grain of salt as he's a bit of an unreliable narrator.
  • This is especially true when it comes to Sakura Matou. If you already don't like someone or suspect them of something, everything they do comes off as sinister or evil even if it's as innocent as eating a strawberry.
• The 5th Holy Grail War hasn't started yet. It may or may not play a significant role in the story (I haven't decided but there are definitely ideas for it).
• Shinji is still an asshole, but he genuinely treated Sakura Matou like a little sister growing up. He hasn't done anything toward her yet. Considering the fact that he's been arrested and is now going through the P5 protagonist's backstory he definitely won't ever get the chance to do anything to her moving forward. If he survives the Persona 5 Royal storyline, he'll be a changed man so he won't be doing anything like that to her either
• The events that happened in this chapter all occurred on April 1st (which is April Fool's Day for those not familiar with the holiday). The exact canon date of the P5 protagonist's backstory/inciting incident is never stated but it's definitely before 4/6/2016 which is the first day of school in the Persona 5 game.
• Why choose Shinji Matou?
  • Because I honestly think that he was highly under-utilized in the original story. As heir to an ancient magi family and also a former friend of the protagonist of Fate Stay Night (Shirou Emiya) I felt that he should've been an epic villain. Even without powers, Shinji was supposed to be highly intelligent and charismatic. Instead he's kinda just pathetic and whiny.
  • The creators of Fate Stay Night also keep stating that they want to do more with Shinji and make him either more of a dangerous villain or somehow make him cool and redeemable (like how many people like Gilgamesh even though he's an asshole and canonically has committed far more atrocious things than Shinji)
• About the usage of AI in this story:
  • It's only for criticism of the story as I don't have beta readers and I'm not consistent enough of a writer to be able to ask someone to take time out of their busy schedule to beta read.
  • I do all of the writing and editing, not the AI. I'll post the original chapters I wrote as Apocrypha as well as the criticisms that AI gave in SpaceBattles. You can decide if the original is better or the one I wrote after the criticism is better.

Japanese Culture Tidbits:

Spoiler: Japanese Culture Tidbits

• Japanese people refer to each other with their family name first, then their given name.
  • EX: Elon Musk would be "Musk Elon" to a Japanese person.
  • I'll use the Japanese way of referring to people in the dialogue, but I'll keep the westernized version outside of that
• If you are unfamiliar with a person or don't know them very well, the polite way to address someone would be with their family name, assuming you know what their family name is. Addressing someone by their first name is usually a sign of closeness with that person, like you're friends or you're family.
  • Ex: You're talking to Jeff Bezos at lunch but he's just a random colleague that you don't know well. "Bezos, can you pass the ketchup?"
  • Using someone's first name when you don't actually know them well can be kinda rude in Japanese culture as you're overstepping emotional boundaries and announcing to them and anyone who can hear that the two of you are buddy-buddy and are really close friends or something.
• There are certain honorifics/titles in Japanese culture that can be used when addressing people. Common ones include:
  • San:This means Mr./Ms. and is generic. This is on a general level of politeness. It implies a certain level of emotional distance, that you're not that close to them.
    • Ex: You're talking to Elon Musk and complaining about the Cybertruck design. "Musk-san, I don't like the Cybertruck design. It looks like a trash can."
  • Chan:A "cutesy" way of referring to girls, little kids, and things which can generally be classified as "cute". When used to refer to people (such as girls or little kids), it implies a certain level of emotional closeness as you don't use this with random strangers. When used to refer to certain objects or things, it implies that you find that thing cute.
    • Ex: Naruto is asking Sakura out on a date. "Sakura-chan, I like you. Please go out with me!"
    • Don't use this in a professional setting. It's impolite as saying that your coworkers, boss, or subordinates are "cute" is highly demeaning. Even if you know your coworker well and you call them "chan" outside the workplace, referring to them as that while in a work meeting would not go well.
  • Sama:A way of showing respect to someone who is higher than you in the social hierarchy. It implies emotional distance (as you are essentially putting this person above you figuratively speaking) and that's typically not what you do with people you're close with. This can be used in a sarcastic manner or in a normal manner. It's highly polite and not something you use with just anyone.
    • Ex: Alfred the butler talks to Bruce Wayne. "Bruce-sama, your guests have arrived." or "Wayne-sama, your guests have arrived."