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*Spoilers* Title at the end

"Where is Kiritsugu?!"

Shirou half-shouted in a deep, gravelly voice. It wasn't that his voice had cracked, it was simply because of what he was feeling right now.

Right now, he was fighting to keep dominance over his body. The light from within became ever so bright when he heard about Kiritsugu and was threatening to completely take over.

Even he didn't want Kiritsugu to die. He wasn't someone who would just stand by and watch a loved one die.

Because of that, he knew he needed to get there as quickly as possible. Yet at the same time, he had to keep the light in check.

"Hiii! He's over there!"

Shirou put the nurse back down and dashed towards the way she pointed.

Moments later, Takechi also arrived, asking where the boy had gone.

---

Kiritsugu had come in for probably the final time. His body was ever so weak, and there wasn't much he could do anymore.

Lying on his bed, he was resolved to pass away in peace. At least then, he would be able to see Irisviel again.

But it seemed like fate wouldn't allow him to pass away.

With a thundering noise, the door to his private room opened as the figure of Shirou walked in.

Without even saying a word, Shirou proceeded to Kiritsugu's side, and started healing him. This time, it wouldn't be as simple as stalling. It would be a complete recovery.

To do that, Shirou had to concentrate as hard as he could. He had to guide the Prana that came from Excalibur into all the nooks and crannies of Kiritsugu's body in order to purify the black mud.

He had resorted to stalling the corruption before because it would consume too much of his Prana and leave him in a disabled state for a while. That was something that he wouldn't allow to happen, since he had the goal of the Matous' destruction.

Now that it was over, there was nothing else to worry about.

As he guided his Prana, sweat rolled down his forehead and his brows creased.

Despite having near perfect control of his Prana, spreading it across everything – from the capillaries to the nerves, even to his brain cells – was an extremely hard task.

Half an hour had passed when he finally finished. And upon finishing his task, Shirou promptly collapsed while Kiritsugu was still revelling in the feeling of having his body refreshed anew.

However, he of all people, knew the extent of his own corruption. To be able to cleanse it must have placed a massive toll on Shirou.

"Shirou! Shirou, wake up!"

---

'Where… is this?'

What surrounded Shirou was something familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time. He was inside his Unlimited Blade Works, but right now, more than half of it was covered in cogs again.

'Exactly… what happened?'

"You're finally here! I had to wait for so long. You wouldn't ever fully exhaust your Prana at all!"

The voice that spoke used the same voice as him. It also possessed the same face as him.

"Who are you?"

"I am you. More precisely, I am the good side of you."

"So you're saying I'm the bad side? I refuse to believe that."

"Believe what you want. There is only one truth. And that truth is… that the two souls which make us up never fused properly. Right from the start, the two of US already existed.

Since the two souls didn't entirely fuse together, the resultant soul was always trying to split back up. However, the memories and personalities had already merged. Therefore, it decided to split up into a 'good' and a 'bad' side. Naturally, the emotions and memories also split up."

"How do you know all this?"

"There are many things that you don't know, since I inherited most, if not all, of the salaryman's 'good' memories. That's why you knew so much about the Matous, yet didn't know how the salaryman came to this world."

"What are you talking about! Of course I know! It's because… because… I-I don't know?! But how come I can feel happy then?"

"Because that's me taking over slightly. When good emotions like happiness sprout, I become more dominant. Yet because of training, you never experienced such things. Add on to that the fact that you attacked the Matous straight afterwards, and you'll realize you've been experiencing nothing but negative emotions."

"N-No… no way… so I'm the bad guy here?! Don't joke around! And what good are you? If what you say is true, then you're just a goody-two-shoes who won't kill anyone!"

"Well, that's correct, since you're the one who does all the killing. But right now, you've gotten to the point where you'll be out of control if you continue. In my opinion, at least. Hmm… for convenience's sake, I'll call you Shirou Alter. If one of us die and reunite with the other, we'll become a completely new, complete Shirou."

"Then you can just die!"

Shirou Alter rushed towards the 'good' Shirou. Brandishing his Excalibur which had changed to a red hue, he chopped madly at the other.

Shirou also started to move. He responded to Shirou Alter by summoning his own Excalibur, which had an even brighter gold colour than the original.

The two continued to clash as they dashed around all over the place. By now, they weren't only fighting with the swords in their hands.

Swords were flying left and right, bringing along sparks as they clashed.

However, while the two Shirous had differing personalities, their abilities remained the same. Therefore, no matter how much they fought, there was no clear winner.

And with no clear winner, their battle continued for what seemed like hours. Neither was willing to admit defeat first. Especially since the one who gave up first would be absorbed by the other.

However, there was one major factor that Shirou Alter didn't account for in his blind rage. And that was the fact that Avalon was inherently a 'good' Divine Construct.

Since it was given to King Arthur, who could be described as the embodiment of righteousness, there was no way it would support 'evil'.

And so, when the Prana in the soul had been used, Avalon started supplying its Prana to 'good' Shirou.

Suddenly on the back foot, Shirou Alter was forced to dodge and flee for his life.

Yet, Shirou did not let up his assault.

Eventually, Shirou Alter succumbed to the continuous barrage of weapons that he had tirelessly created.

"How ironic… to spend all my time gaining strength, just so I would die at 'my' own hands…"

"Sigh… I really didn't want to fight you. If you hadn't started spiralling out of control, I would have simply left things as they were. I can't believe you were going to draw Byakuya just to scare a doctor."

"Hehe… you'll never know how I feel! The lust for battle… the enjoyment that can only come from killing… what can you ever know?!"

"Then I'll be sure to look at exactly what you experienced after we reunite. Farewell, Shirou Alter."

Shirou's sword slid through Shirou Alter's throat with no resistance. In an instant, the cogs in the sky came tumbling around, as Shirou disappeared from the space.

---

Back in Kiritsugu's room, Shirou had replaced Kiritsugu on the bed, and his face showed a constant struggle.

Kiritsugu, who was holding Shirou's hands, was silently praying to a deity he didn't believe in, asking them to save his son.

And as if that deity had answered the wishes of the unfaithful, Shirou's eyes slowly opened.

However, as they did, his hair also started bleaching as it turned white.

When Shirou's eyes were fully open, a strange light glinted within them, and the amber colour slowly bled away, being replaced by a dull grey.

"Shirou! You're awake!"

"Old man… I'm sorry about everything that's happened. I think it's about time I explained everything to you."

---

Title: New Shirou

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I can't fit this in Author's Thoughts, so I'll put it here. While his hair and eyes look like EMIYA, he isn't actually Archer EMIYA.

The previous chapter may have been a bit exaggerated. In fact, the whole psychopath thing was a bit exaggerated. I wanted to make Shirou a more well-rounded personality, and going on the extremes on both sides of the scale is the only way I know and can write about.

In any case, Shirou is now a completely new person.

Does the whole scenario sound forced to you? I thought it was a logical possibility.

Thanks for reading!

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