10 chapters ahead in my Pat.reon. Pat.reon.com/Oldherd.

<-------------------------------------->

(General P.O.V)

If anything has the slightest chance of happening, then it will happen and has happened in an alternate timeline.

This timeline, Shinji Matou was born as a magus and that caused reverberations across the known canon story. Zouken immediately made him his heir, forcing Shinji to take Sakura's place for the elder Matou's special brand of mage craft.

Tokiomi sent Sakura away to the Edelfelts. despite their enmity with the Tohsaka, the main reason for the mutual dislike — besides the Edelfelts’ defeat in the Third Holy Grail War — is that one of the Edelfelt twins who fought in that War married into the Tohsaka and gave them at least part of the family’s Magic Crest, hence their use of the Gandr, originally a Finnish spell and an Edelfelt specialty.

So there’s precedent of the Tohsaka being compatible with the Edelfelt Crest and vice-versa. The move ensured that the enemity between the two families ended and that Sakura would grow up in a relatively nurturing environment.

That abruptly changed when Tokiomi died and inner family politics among the Edelfelts, caused Sakura to be returned to her last surviving family member, her sister. Zouken made a deal with Kirei, who was left as the guardian of Rin Tohsaka and hence Sakura was adopted by the Matou's, only a few months after she had been given to the Edelfelts. By then, Zouken had already made Shinji his heir, so Sakura was able to escape most of her fate at the expense of being Zouken's guinea pig.

Kariya took part in the holy grail war to save Sakura from her fate. He lost and the war more or less ended the same way it did - a large portion of Fuyuki burned by the flames from the Grail's corruption.

Of course Ash had no way of knowing any of this. And without his intervention, Shiro would have died and that would have spelled doom for the whole world in the future.

Even if he had known all that, it wouldn't have made a big difference to Ash. He would still have been stuck in a time loop, fighting with servants that could kill him faster than he could blink. The scales would not have been tipped in his favor. The odds would still have been against him. He would still have fought with everything he had then, just as he was going to fight now.

Ash was choosing life.

The Emiya compound had been changed into a battlefield. The fight between the Servants had only been going on for about 15 seconds. However those 15 seconds had left a much bigger impact than the battle between Lancer, Ash and Shiro.

Ash dodged a stray attack from one of Rider's chains and backed away, getting closer to the fence of the compound. He wasn't needed anymore. He could make a break for it and that would be all. He had done his part. Saber could more than handle Rider and her master, Shinji.

Shiro was also okay. Not injured in any way. Seriously. Ash looked at the corner of his vision and saw a blinking icon from the Ouroboros interface. He could click on the next mission and get the hell out of dodge. Something told him that things would only get more complicated from here on out. Canon was fucked, if there even was an iteration of it that had survived.

He cast one final glance Shiro's way. The young boy was pushing off the wood from the wrecked workshop, looking on in wonder as Saber and Rider danced around in a deadly choreography.

His finger inched towards the interface but before he could press on it, something changed. Rider jumped back as far as she could, protectively standing infront of someone.

"Well well well, Emiya. So you are a magus after all?"

Shinji walked forward into the light.

His words were met with different reactions from the three other people in the compound. Shiro stumbled into the yard with shock written all over his face.

"Shinji? What are you doing here?"

Saber narrowed her eyes, stretching out one arm to stop Shiro from walking forward.

"Stay back Master. Whoever that boy is, he is Rider's Master."

She advised, having spotted the command seals on the back of his hand.

Shiro looked at her and shook her head.

"No, you're wrong. Shinji is a..."

"Friend?" Shinji himself intervened, taking a few steps to stand next to Rider.

"Is that what you were going to say Emiya?" He laughed.

"Magi walk hand in hand with death. We do not have friends. And even if we did, Emiya, I would certainly do better than a third rate magus who has no magecraft talent whatsoever."

Ash on the other hand was fuming...it was him. Shinji was responsible for all this shit. He could leave right now if he wanted but how could he go without at least punching the sneer off Shinji's face? Was it manly to curl his tail in-between his legs and run away?

Yes.

Ash knew the answer.

No one else had the right to judge his actions. He knew how it felt like to die. And time after time, he had told himself to keep a check on his anger and his impatience. He was no longer inside a loop. He would probably survive despite that and maybe even help them in the holy grail war. Or...he could die.

He could die for nothing. Saber was fucking powerful. She was able to surpass the concept of speed and dodge Sasaki Kojiro's attack that defied the laws of time and space. If she couldn't handle this then no one could.

Ash stepped on his anger, commiting Shinji's face to his mind. He wasn't strong enough to take part in this fight but this was only his second loop, if he managed to live long enough to make it back here, then Shinji was in for a world of pain. As it was, Ash had everything to lose if he stayed.

He pulled up the interface, praying that his next world would be relatively peaceful. The world froze like before and infront of his vision, a text box appeared.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

(Active Missions)

(Hold up the weight of the world in Percy Jackson's place)

Rewards:

Krillin's Warrior Card

Divine Magic.

Temporal Units remaining: 140

Time Loops remaining 500/500

Commence Loop Mission?

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

'Wait what?', Ash was stunned.

'Fuuuuuuuck me.'

This...had been a bad idea. Staying back and fighting was more and more looking like the better option. While the rewards were really really enticing, the task itself sounded like hell. The titan Atlas holds up the concept of the sky, which was heavy in the sense that the one holding it up was only as strong as his will. Ash as not confident...but the rewards...

He then looked at the frozen image of the two servants going head to head. A cloud of purple energy clad Rider, while Saber emitted White light from her body.

Ash swept his gaze around and looked at the destroyed yard. 30 seconds was all it took for the Emiya household to be reduced to a wreck. Ash could even see further into Fujimura, the yakuza's home. He saw the scene of people in the middle of running away. Too far from the fight yet affected by stray attacks none the less.

No wonder no had come to check on Shiro's wellbeing. Seeing the kind of crazy fight happening here must have had them running away, probably saving their lives. And all this was before either of them got serious. Saber still had Excalibur hidden behind an illusion and Rider was yet to use her mystic eyes of petrification.

And above that there was the noble phantasms to consider. And the fights coming up after this particular one would only scale up in tempo. City wide attacks would be thrown out with impunity as heroes from the age of the gods stepped onto the modern world and dominated.

All that went through Ash's mind and he found himself st a cross roads. His hypocrisy was laid bare for him to see. It wasn't about being realistic, Ash was simply... selfish. He had thought of leaving Shiro and Saber to fight this battle because he loved himself and wanted to keep his life. He thought he was choosing the logical option but really it was the easy option.

And now that the alternative had turned out to be even more difficult than his current situation, his true feelings could not hide themselves any longer.

'I am selfish.' he thought to himself before smiling sadly.

'But that's okay because, I am not a fictional character. I don't have the slightest inclination to help these people. It's not my responsibility!' He affirmed to himself.

'Then why pause? Why care about Anthony and Linda? Why fight?'

A small traitorous part of himself asked. Ash clenched his teeth.

Knowing that the more he thought about it, the more he would grow conflicted, the teen quickly pressed on the commence mission tab and accepted the prompt, not giving himself the time to feel any regret.

His surroundings suddenly changed as he felt himself get catapulted somewhere. Mid jump, just before he could materialize on the next world, Ash felt some...force, grab onto him and wrench him away from his destination. This time the trip was like the first time when he was abandoned in the M.C.U by whatever was responsible for kidnapping him.

The scenery comparatively minimal, the only thing Ash saw were three balls of immense pressure and weight. One looked like the observable universe, another a gray dimension, the third was a dreadful place of chaos and the last was an ethereal plane with a certain energy surrounding it. All these realms were intrinsically connected.

Ash flipped and twisted uncontrollably, headed for the universe, he breached past the layers of the first galaxy, then billions of stars and other cosmic bodies before managing to capture a glimpse of earth during his erratic motion.

In an instant, Ash was slamming through a japanese store, overturning boxes of accessories on the stands, sweets and almost bowling over a black cat that jumped away in a flash. The teen laid on the ground for a few seconds, blinking his eyes.

That...had been...he froze, just as he begun to get up.

There was a new text box displayed in his vision.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

(Active Mission CANCELLED!!)

(Urgent Mission Issued!)

(Fulfill the terms of the contract offered to you by Urahara Kisuke.)

Rewards:

Quirk Evolution.

Vacation In A Chosen World.

Temporal Units: 140.

Time Loops remaining:- 5/5.

Commence Loop Mission?

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

"Ara Ara, I didn't actually expect it to work."

Ash tensed and turned around, already knowing who the voice belonged to.

"Are you sure he can help? This guy looks like a wimp."

A boy whom Ash recognized as Jinta looked at him skeptically.

Urahara ignored him and the other two individuals in the room with him, a tall muscled guy and a small shy looking girl.

"Hello there, my inter-dimensional friend, you can call me Kisuke Urahara, I am your employer."

Urahara greeted with a genial smile.

All Ash could ask himself was how he was understanding Japanese.