Classified location. Tokyo. Japan.
Within a classified location deep underground, a boy awakened from sleep. His mind giving birth to a consciousness for the first time in his life.
Blank white walls, roof, and floor were all he could see.
"Subject 9028 has been awakened according to schedule. Beginning Phase 1"
The boy did not understand the context behind those words. But his artificially implanted memories told him exactly what his purpose was.
His golden eyes stared blankly like a robot as the floor in front of him opened up and revealed a katana placed on a pedestal.
Its wave-like hamon gleamed in the artificial lighting along with its golden tanagobara while evil energies rolled off it in waves.
It was evil energy that would give anyone a pause, yet the boy felt nothing.
"Begin."
The command rang out in the room, making the boy move forward, obeying the implanted command within his mind.
Once he was within reach, he placed his small hand on the handle of the sword without hesitation.
And the result was exactly what anyone would expect.
His body rapidly aged. His crimson hair turning white instantly, his body developing wrinkles, and his golden eyes turning grey.
Within seconds, the boy was reduced to an empty husk of skin and bones as his very lifeforce was forcefully absorbed by the evil blade.
"Subject 9028. Experiment 15002. Failed. Prepare Subject 9029 for-"
Suddenly, the underground facility shook as explosions rang out across the space.
The voice that spoke with cold neutrality finally showed an emotion.
Fear.
"Secure the Muramasa blade and begin evacuation through protocol Omega-"
Gunfire rang out across the speakers before silence suddenly reigned in the room, and the explosions finally subsided.
One of the white walls exploded inward, showing the horrifying image outside.
Bodies lay bleeding on the floor as blood and gore painted the various halls of the facility's control room, right on the other side of this testing chamber.
As for the killer, his black coat and clothing did a good job of not showing the blood stains.
The man calmly dropped the lit cigarette between his lips to the floor and stepped on it while speaking softly, his mana mobilizing under the spell's activation.
Instantly, flames erupted from below his foot and spread out, forming a barrier that nobody could break aside from him and his wife.
Coincidentally, the flames also burnt the blood on his clothing, cleaning him instantly.
"Mou~ Kiritsugu! This was a bit excessive, you know?"
Kiritsugu Emiya, father of Shirou Emiya and Illyasviel von Einzbern, and husband of Irirsviel von Einzbern, sighed and walked forward calmly as his wife continued complaining while skipping alongside him.
"Iri, we are on a job right now. Can't you be a little bit serious?"
"I am serious, though~ you could have let me go first so that I could immobilize them. Then, we could have extracted some leads from them about where other branches are located."
"Not possible. Those guys will rather die than cough up the details on who owns these facilities and the mastermind behind all of this."
Irisviel's eyes dimmed a bit as she looked at the shrivelled-up corpse by the side of the cursed blade.
".....Yeah. These guys are surprisingly stubborn."
"Fanatics are all like that."
The couple fell silent and got to work.
Irisviel started using her mana to create magic circles and runes around the Muramasa Katana stolen from the Owari-Tokugawa family, while Kiritsugu called a familiar number on his phone.
"Maiya? We have the blade. Clean up the rest."
"Understood."
The professional and cold tone of Maiya Hisau rang out from the other side, followed by a few men in tactical gear and skull masks rushing into the control center, cleaning up what remained of the mess as well as trying to salvage anything they could.
Holding the cursed blade within the seals, Irisviel walked behind her husband as they walked out of the facility.
However, her blood boiled every time she saw one of the so-called 'Subjects' that this damned Nihon Revival Institute produced for their sick experiments.
Several pods lined the walls in the deepest part of the facility, housing young boys who all shared the same face and features.
Crimson hair and golden eyes, with fair skin and Japanese features.
Artificial Humans created based on the DNA blueprints of a long-dead man. The same DNA that was itself derived by using advanced, small-scale time manipulation magics from across the world on the blood and flesh of said man's descendants to extract a pure source.
Another cruel experiment that killed the last remaining kin of the man whom these monsters were trying to revive.
Unlike the Homonculi like her and her sisters, who were variants of the original DNA, the Hero Siegfried, these Artificial Humans all shared the exact same DNA as that man. So much so that, genetically, they were the exact same person.
A complete recreation of the original. Hence, they could not be called Homonculi.
To what end did this institute create these artificial humans, and why were they so obsessed with that man? Nobody knew.
What Irisviel knew, however, was that her baby boy may or may not have been a product of these experiments, or was possibly the original experiment.
A heartbreaking realization that made her maternal instincts go haywire in rage. Rage that was probably dwarfed by what Kiritsugu felt, if the cold and ruthless way he tracks down these institute branches and kills them all without mercy is anything to go by.
Irisviel jumped a little when Kiritsugu's palm fell on her shoulder.
"Don't think too much about it. We will find out who is running these experiments and put an end to them. Shirou is safe back home, so you shouldn't have to worry about him at all."
Then, Kiritsugu's face twisted with a wry smile.
"Well, as safe as he can be after being exposed to the supernatural world. Not to mention that Sella and Liz are there as well, and the fact that we live on the territory of the Underworld's two Pillar Heirs means that there is literally nothing that is suicidal enough to mess with our family."
Irisviel could not help but smile sweetly at his awkward attempts to comfort her. If she did not have a Muramasa katana in her hands right now, she would have glomped him then, and there, his image among his men be damned.
"Right. You are right. Let's finish up quickly and go back home! I miss my children very much!! I hope they didn't miss me as well!"
"....Iri, we were gone for a couple of hours at most since Kuoh is practically neighbors with Tokyo."
"Doesn't matter."
Kiritsugu just chuckled at his wife's words and continued walking.
"But, Kiritsugu, why are we not asking Shirou about why he reeks of powerful mana now? Why are we not telling him the truth about us either? Now that he is aware of the supernatural world based on Maiya's investigations?"
More than two weeks ago, in the dead of the night, Kiritsugu and Irisviel were alerted in the dead of the night when they felt an oppressive mana signature approach their home. A mana signature that felt so heavy and dangerous, like a naked blade against their throats, that they instinctively assumed that their home had been found by their enemies and they were here to attack.
A reaction that their 'maids' Sella and Liz shared as well, since they prepared for combat with their weapons drawn and ready.
However, it was Irisviel who first realized who the source of this mana was.
Her keen senses picked up the familiar feeling of warmth, like being near a hearth, followed by the odd sense of steel that he always had in his presence, which told her who it was that was approaching their home at breakneck speeds.
It was their son, Shirou Emiya.
The family barely had the time to hide away their weapons and tools, along with suppressing their surging mana, before Shirou snuck back into the house through his room's window.
That night, they realized that Shirou had finally been dragged into their side of the world, a fate that they never wanted for their son and daughter.
Kiritsugu smiled at his wife's words.
"Because I trust him to handle whatever power he awakened responsibly. And, I believe that he will tell us himself when he is ready. As for why I did not want us to tell him about ourselves..."
A flash of guilt and fear flickered in his eyes, one that his wife caught.
Irisviel took her husband's hand into her own, knowing exactly what he was thinking.
He was afraid. Afraid of being rejected by his son. Afraid that Shirou would see them as monsters if he knew the truth about what Kiritsugu and Irisviel do and what kind of 'jobs' they take.
And deep down, despite her trust in her children, Irisviel shared the same fears as her husband.
"...I think it is better if he does not know about this part of our lives. Even if he is now aware of the supernatural somehow."
"....Fine then! Enough brooding around! I want to get back home quickly before they wake up. I promised Asia-chan that I will show her how to cook!"
This time, Kiritsugu started to sweat buckets, realizing that some poor fool was going to get poisoned to death with his wife's cooking, and, if she somehow managed to pass down her 'prodigious' techniques to Asia, then her future partner was equally doomed.
As the two walked out of the base, they pointedly ignored the way the artificial humans within the pods died the moment their chambers were opened, showing that there was some kind of failsafe embedded into their bodies that killed them to protect the institute's secrets.
They also ignored the terrifying implication of such a failsafe's existence and its possibility of existing within their son.
Because some things were better left unsaid, shoved into the darkest corner of the mind.
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Author Notes:
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