World Tree MUSH

    This world is easy to mistake from plenty others where the planet Earth is found in a contemporary early 2020s. Maybe a few years further than most. And the city Emiya Shirou found himself in is dark, now, the late evening darkness lit up by the dim glow of neon lights.

    Less so in the district he found himself in though, perhaps. Outside of the downtown area, the streets aren't as busy... and the people who do keep the street busy, lingering outside dingy bars and convenience stores don't pay any attention to the young man slowly moving along. Ignoring him pointedly in spite of the fact that he is clutching his left arm with his right hand -- the sleeve of the white-and-black jersey jacket shredded up from one side of the limb, leaving a bloody mess coating it underneath while it otherwise hangs limply and uselessly at his side for the broken bone hidden underneath.

    And he keeps trudging on still. Even though his body is running hot and sweaty from both the pain and - unbeknowst to him - the twisted magic coursing through that wounded arm trying to put it back together. The tube-shabed pack strapped to his back thumping lightly against his shoulder with every step he takes towards where he at least *thinks* he saw some kind of clinic before...

    The World Tree sometimes has a wry sense of humor in where it deposits people who go astray. Saber had been trying to get back to her Master, but one wrong turn deposited her in this strange city. That wasn't something that bothered her much... she's used to taking her time getting back to her Master, who seemed to give her quite a lot of leeway in these things. More importantly, she was grumbling and carrying a pack, wearing cutoff shorts and a t-shirt. It didn't bother HER that this wasn't much to be wearing in this weather, but it was drawing the eyes of some who wondered how she couldn't be shivering.

    This meant there was a lot of under the breath grumbling, and an air of danger that kept many away. Multiple times she'd considered just going to spirit form, but hesitated... right up until she saw a young man with an obvious wound.

    Now, Saber wasn't exactly the kind to jump in and help the helpless, but it was an unusual sight that had her squinting. "Yo, are you gonna bleed out all over the street there, or are you actually looking for a hospital? Cause I think you're one street over." She jerks her thumb down the nearby alley.

    "Enh...?" He hears the voice. It almost doesn't register at first, but... it says something about a hospital? While trying to properly process it - and not quite making heads of it - Shirou stops in his staggering steps, and slowly turns to guide his amber gaze towards the source of that voice.

    "What...?" He starts to ask, but.

    His heart practically stops right then.

    His mouth left hanging open, he finds himself able to do nothing but stare at this mysterious woman shouting vague directions at him. He blonde hair, the shape of the face, the stature. His vision is blurred, granted, so the obvious differences don't strike him, but... it's just close enough, that in his daze--

    "...Sa...ber...?"

    False recognition flares in his eyes -- and maybe no small measures of relief mixed with desperation. Desperation for what he thinks he's seeing ahead of him to be true. Pivoting fully on his heel to facing her with such a sudden motion that his wounded arm is about to get torn off from the whiplash, he repeats that name again, as if it might be a spell to make the person he's thinking of manifest right in front of him.

    "...Saber!"

    Needless to say, that name being yelled out is... surprising. "Huh?" Saber blinks, staring right back at the half-delirious and wounded boy. Then her eyes narrow. "Do I know you? I mean you sure look like you've gotten on my bad side, but I don't tend to pick on random schoolboys and you don't seem that upset with me, so I'm pretty sure I didn't mess you up like that."

    The curiosity has to be put aside with a snort of mild alarm. "And settle down there, you're about to fall over!" She just casually walks over and grabs at Shirou's shirt, more to hold him up than rough him up at all. "Can't remember seeing any kid like you. You sure you got the right girl? Not that I think there are a ton of Saber Servants running around. But if you got caught up in a Grail War that'd sure explain why you're messed up... which means I should probably kill you."

    As casually as she says it, Saber doesn't seem inclined to actually do it. At least, not until she's gotten some answers. "Come on, I saw a big red cross on a building this way. Now how the hell do you know my Class?"

    She says plenty of things. Who knows how many of them are actually reaching the boy's mind to where they can be properly registered and decoded.

    The redhead takes a couple more steps forward-- so hurried in his daze now that the last one ends in a proper, rough stumble. A stumble that would have sent him right down on his face on the curb, were it not for Saber now grabbing at his shirt, and effectively ending up holding him up like a ragdoll.

    His head hangs down, while he's caught in her grip, and... well. It might very well end up looking much like he's not actually properly understanding anything she says. Not even when she urges him to come along and presents that repeated question.

    "...sorry... Saber..." Comes a low mumble between strained breaths instead, in the meantime. The boy is shaking faintly.

    "I'm... sorry..."

    She might not notice it with his current positioning, but there are tears starting to well up in the corners of his eyes.

    Saber glowers, giving a snort of disgust and shaking her head, "NOW what? The hell did you do to me that you're whining like a little..." She trails off, frowning. "Wait, don't tell me you were my Master in a Grail War or something? Ugh, how did I get saddled with someone like you? You know we don't remember shit between wars, right?"

    She's not far off in her assumption, is she? Yet also so very, very off the mark. Regardless, she mutters, "Well, until I figure things out, I won't be killing you, and I guess fragile humans need some help. Come on, I'll carry you." She's not exactly delicate about it, but she does take care not to jostle the arm when she hauls Shirou up easily and just starts walking.

    "Though sounds like we lost. Eh, the Grail War is kind of crap anyway."

    Hup! Up goes the Magus Emiya, since he isn't exactly in any position to exactly protest getting hauled up over her shoulder. No matter how embarrassing it might look to be hauled around by a girl her size.

    Well, at least *he* knows that there's plenty enough strength in that frame to warrant not being embarrassed. Even if it's the wrong person.

    "I... left... Sorry..." Are roughly the last words that manage to slip past the completely worn-down magus before he loses consciousness.

    == SOME TIME LATER ==

    The building Saber brought the wounded teenager was not exactly a hospital. Some kind of free street clinic -- but it served well enough, at least, for Shirou to be taken in and treated. If she hung around enough to talk with the old middle-eastern man running the joint, she might have heard him note that his arm didn't really have the kind of wounds that warranted that amount of blood, but... well. At the very least, he got it bandaged up, and bound with a splint to support the broken bone.

    It's roughly an hour later that Shirou, with his jacket stripped off and the left sleeve of his blue shirt cut off to make room for the earlier treatment, stirs on a bed in the recovery room. It's an open room meant to house several people-- though fortunately, there aren't any other patients there right now. The bloodstains on some of the beds suggest that might have not been the case just moments before Saber brought him there, though...

    "Ggghh..." Shirou groans out in a dizzy fit, eyes not quite managing to open up fully after the first cruel rays of lights from fluorescent lights above reach his retinas. "Nnh... My head..." His good hand going to brace against his forehead, he tries to shuffle along the bed with just the push of his legs, and get him to something resembling a sitting posture. "Where...?"

    Saber wasn't much for small talk normally, but she did hang around and at least try to get an idea of how severe the situation was. Learning that the young 'Master' wasn't going to die right away was good, but without getting him talking she wouldn't figure out what was going on.

    Which is why she isn't far off, playing some kind of handheld system boredly while she waits. "Oh, you're finally awake. Got caught trying to cross the border, did you?" Wait, that's the wrong narrative, and Saber smirks before she sits up, still wearing that... off-character(to Shirou's view, at least) rebellious wardrobe.

    "You're in a clinic getting that arm patched up," she answers. "I hauled you here after you said my Class and then started crying and apologizing for something. Gonna be straight with you: I got no clue who you are, kid." Not that Shirou is much younger than her. In fact, he probably looks older, given how petite Saber is.

    "Ghh... What are you talking...?" In the midst of his mid-waking state, he doesn't quite catch on right away to the fact that this is the same person who he mistook for... someone else, earlier. So what she says doesn't make much sense right way either, no.

    HE manages to brace his back against the head of the bed, and slowly opens his eyes the rest of the way to look to her.

    "...What...?"

    He can see her a bit clearly now. The differences should be recognized, but in the first moments, the false recognition still shows up. Though, well. His eyes move down over her form, and, despite having just woken up from a blood loss nap, he presents one blunt, deadpan question at her:

    "...Saber. What on earth are you wearing?"

    That's the thing he catches on to first?!

    The hell? Saber might be having a suspicion about what's going on, but for now, she brutally suppresses it. Also, she's great at answering questions directly. "Clothes. You know, the things people wear when they go out and about? A little chilly-looking for this weather, but it was a lot warmer where I just came from." She grumbles something about wrong turns. "What, did you expect me to wander out wearing a big suit of clanky armor or something? I'm off-duty right now."

    She leans back, arms crossed. "So how do you know me, kid? Run into an alternate world? Previous Grail War I don't remember? You're lucky my Master isn't in a Grail War or I'd have to kill you before I got any answers."

    "You know that's not what I meant!" The boy barks out right on cue-- like the exchange was taken right out of some kind of strange comedy routine.

    He blinks several times over at her, with auburn brows furrowed together. "You're not making any sense. You--" His words drift off, when that most obvious of possibilities finally comes up together within his neurons. The person he's thinking of wouldn't talk like that. Or dress like that. And come to think of it, there's subtle differences in her face. So, then--

    "...You're not her."

    The whispered words come out as almost a sigh-- and Shirou himself slumps more limply against the wall the bed has been set against.

    "I'm sorry, I... I thought you were someone else." A sad measure of disappointment is all too obvious in his voice when he says that, too.

    That simple statement hits Saber hard, because she immediately gets what's going on. She stops moving, going very still for a moment, then leaning foward. "Not... who? Who is your Saber, kid? Do you know her true name? There can't be that many who look like me." Oh if only you knew, Saber...

    But in this case there are a few too many clues. "Let me guess. She was a noble knight, bound by honor and nobility. You might say regal, I bet?" She snorts and flops back. "Eh, if it's who I think, you're better off without her. She'll let you down when it really counts."

    "...Ah. I don't know." The admission comes perhaps a bit too easily from Shirou, as he shakes his head at this... different Saber. "We agreed it was better for me to not know. Just in case someone tried reading my mind..."

    His gaze lifts back up to meet her when she lists off those particular qualities, however, and... he frowns. "... Almost everyting is on mark there," he says, sounding... almost offended? "She had a reliable air about her. I know I could count on her. Or, well..." His good hand grips into the covers of the bed smoothed over his lower half. "...I could, if things didn't end like that..."

    Saber leans in, eyes intensely watching. "End? Did you lose her? Lose the war? She and I have a score to settle. We go way back..." Saber isn't so clueless that she doesn't pick up on how threatening that sounds though, and quickly waves a dismissive hand.

    "Ah, forget it. With my current Master, I doubt I could really get satisfaction even if I found her, and I'm not about to take out my frustration on you. You don't even know who she is. I bet you'd understand if I told you." She grins. "Who she was anyway. But what's your name, kid? Heh... maybe if I do run into her again, he'll owe me a favor. That'd be something."

    Oh. Oh, that makes Shirou narrow his eyes on the girl now. "... What is she to you, exactly?" He asks, and without even realizing it, his fingers tighten at the fabric to the point that his knuckles start to whiten. "Are you her enemy?" That almost sounds like he's convinced that would already make her his enemy, too.

    She's... waving it off with a devil-may-care kind of attitude, though, and he tilts his head in confusion. "...No, it's probably better you don't tell me," he says, with a shake of his head. "If I was ever to learn it, it'd be better if I heard it from her, herself. ... And oi. What are you muttering over there, exactly, huh?"

    Rather than look worried, Saber laughs! "Don't get too carried away there, kid. I'm pretty sure you're no match for me, especially with all the blood loss." She rubs her chin. "What is she to me? An enemy? Yeah, probably, sort of. We did kill one another in life, but it didn't have to be that way. Family matters, you know? Not really your business, not really something you want to get involved in." Probably safe to admit that, since she does look nearly identical.

    She gets a more serious look. "But you're right, it's probably safer if you don't know. If she thought you would be in danger knowing, she was probably right. You're smarter than you look, huh?" That could be a compliment, maybe?! "Anyway, I'm not about to hunt her down. My Master gives me a lot of freedom to do whatever I want, but I'm pretty sure that would see me dismissed in a hurry."

    "..."

    What's he supposed to think about this, exactly? She's openly admitting that she and his Saber killed each other in their past life. And they were family...? Just what kind of Heroic Spirit was the Saber he knew? And this one, for that matter?

    "I felt plenty involved with her as it stood," he insists while he, with a groan of pain, shifts his legs along the bed so that he can slide them off the edge -- get himself sitting without the support of the wall. "It's not like I fully understood it, but we were teammates, right? That's all I needed to know. ... But in any case, what's your deal, exactly? Is there a Holy Grail War in this world?"

    Saber shakes her head, "Nah, I mean you aren't involved in my family stuff. If we were on opposite sides of the War, then sure, you'd be involved, but I'm not going to go asking about your parents and messing with them, so you won't be a part of what's between me and your Saber, got it?" She wags her finger, then shrugs, leaning back.

    "Not this world, I'm from another, but that one doesn't have a Grail War either," she points out. "See, the whole Summoning Ritual wasn't really SUPPOSED to be used for that, it has another use. I don't really know the details, I'm not a Caster. Short version is, I'm summoned to fight a completely different kind of war. No Servant-killing needed. I mean, it might happen, but I haven't had to fight either of the ones I've met so far."

    "Maybe not," Shirou concedes, but there's still a firm expression on his face regardless. "But she's still an important ally to me, so I wouldn't hesitate to help her however I could if it did come down to it between you two." Well. As long as we're all being straight about it, huh?

    As for her explanation on her... summoning? Shirou just looks... baffled, by this. "Come... again?" He cocks his head to the side, in a vaguely puppy-like show of curiousity. "That doesn't make any sense. I thought that was the whole point of summoning Servants?"

    "Well you thought wrong!" Saber laughs, kind of unpleasantly. Then she frowns, "But I can't really tease you for that. Seems like it isn't all that well-known anywhere. Yeah... you can Summon a Servant without a Grail War, but it takes some real specific circumstances. Like, world-ending shit, really. That's what happened on my world. Most of humanity is dead, and it's a real mess. I was summoned as part of a way to fight that, but I can't go into details without putting my Master at risk. That much is the same."

    She sighs, "Which is also why, even if I run into 'your' Saber, I won't get to really take out my frustration on her, probably. I'm guessing you got separated by a Vine and ended up here with your Servant somewhere else? Sucks for her, but these contracts are pretty sturdy. If she's lucky she'll last long enough to find some way of getting mana, but chances of winning the war are pretty much nil."

    "You... You could sound a little less pleased about that..." Shirou mutters with an akward, forced smile (complete with twitching corner of the mouth).

    The complicated matters of where this Saber comes from... well, they do earn a deep frown from Shirou, too, especially over the 'most of humanity being dead' -part. But with her asking about his own situation... that makes his mind drift back to that one fateful day, again.

    "...There were... other circumstances making things even more complicated," he explains, with a deep sigh. "But... that's the gist of it, yeah..."

    Saber shrugs, putting a hand on her hip. "Hey, them's the breaks, as they say. Look, if you're looking for comfort or kind words, I'm not the Saber to talk to. I say things as they are because trying to play nice never got me anywhere. Grail Wars suck, pretty much all Magi are trash human beings, and honestly, a kid as obviously naive as you would have, at best, survived with mental scars to last a lifetime. That's if you survived at all."

    She quiets and crosses arms. "So... if it counts for anything, you probably ended up luckier than most. Saber's a Servant, if she dies she can be summoned again. You humans generally only have one life to live. Despite that you ended up with your arm torn up, so you clearly can't stay out of trouble, Nameless."

    "...Yeah. I know all too well," he offers with another shake of his head, his undamaged hand going over to brush over his chest momentarily. "It's not... something I can change. Whatever the circumstances might have been, I effectively lost. If there's anything left of that world... it's all up to those two now." He does give her a bit of an unhappy look when he's called naive, however. "...I'm not completely clueless, you know. I knew what I was getting into. I was ready for whatever was going to come."

    Well. So he at least says, anyway, but can anyone truly say that?

    Pointedly, he glances at his arm, and purses his lips. This really does seem to keep happening to him. "...It's Emiya," he says then, without looking back to her. "My name. Emiya Shirou."

    "Emiya... nope, don't know it," Saber replies. "I might give mine, but if I did you'd know your Saber's True Name too, so you'll have to settle for calling me Saber. I guess 'Saber of Red' if you need to distinguish us. I'm partial to red." Now as long as Nero doesn't show up there will be a little less confusion. "It's not my job to babysit you, so I won't... but you gave me my answers, so consider us even, debt-wise."

    She gets a more serious look. "I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with, but I don't actually enjoy watching people die. So try not to end up in a place like this again, okay?"

    "I wasn't really expecting you to know it," Shirou points out with al ow chuckle. He lifts his head then, and turns to look to her again-- considering the monikers she's putting on offer to be used with her. "...Red, then," he decides. "It's going to feel too weird calling you Saber, and... Saber of Red is just kind of a mouthful, you know?"

    When she shows... Well, maybe it doesn't really count as concern, but it briefly at least *sounds* like it, if nothing else. "Yeah, uhh..." He laughs akwardly, and now even rubs at the back of his head with one hand. "I can't really promise that?"

    Saber chuckles, "Whatever works. And yeah, I expect you'll end up in trouble again. I don't know what happened, but if you're compatible with... the other Saber, you probably have a bad case of Hero-itis. Just try not to get in over your head, you're only human."

    Yeah that's as close to concern as she'll get. Probably because she comes from a world where humanity is struggling to survive. "You going to be okay with that arm? Any place you have that I can drop you off? I'm not in a hurry to get back to Master, but I REALLY doubt you want to meet mine. They don't like visitors. She's unlikely to kill you or anything, but I doubt it would be pleasant."

    "What's that supposed to mean exactly?" Shirou asks with a faint huff. "I just try to do what feels right, is all..."

    Well, he'll take that much at least, if nothing else. When questioned on the arm, he... well, somewhat defiantly pushes himself up from the bed, even if he ends up instinctively rubbing his right hand along his left bicep as he does. "...I think so. Honestly, it doesn't even hurt that much anymore. I guess the doc here must be good at this..." ...Yeah, sure, we'll go with that. "I'll probably be fine getting to the Vine out of this World. As long as I don't get lost again..."

    Saber stares pointedly for a long moment... then shrugs, "All right, not my problem. The Tree can be a dangerous place, but hope for your sake we never end up on opposite sides." She shoves hands into her pockets. "I'll let you check out whenever, I just wanted to know what was up. Too bad your Saber isn't here, woulda been nice after all this time." Grumble grumble.

    "Don't get any body parts chopped off, kid."