Fate: Hammer Time

Chapter 5: Acquainting with Mjolnir

"I guess it is the real thing after all."

Shirou looked in awe at the hammer in his hand. It was sparkling with lightning, while glowing lines ran along its surface in a bright display of colour, a far cry from its previous, almost dormant state.

That wasn't the only thing that had changed however. Shirou himself had been subjected to a sudden change as well.

Shirou was now clad in armour, coloured silver and blue, with blue lines running across the limbs. He also wore a red cape, fingerless gloves, and boots of the same material as his armour. On his head was a helmet, with small wings sticking slightly up and to the side. Everything except the cape seemed made of steel at first glance, and beautifully reflected the light of the sparks that were generated by the hammer.

Unbeknownst to him however, it was much more than regular steel. His armour had been created from the material known to a select few as Uru, a metal forged by dwarves. Far more durable than any metal on Earth and capable of conducting Magic on an insane scale, it was beyond even the gods of Shirou's Earth.

The cape he was wearing was not made of Uru, naturally, but it was by no means inferior to the rest of the armour. Woven from threads made by Freya, holding countless enchantments in it, it was still a Divine Artifact of immense power. The armour and the cape, worn previously by Marvel's Thor himself, together formed one of the strongest battle-outfits of the Marvel Universe.

But not only the hammer in his hand and the clothes on his body had changed in appearance and form, Shirou himself had been altered as well.

When checking himself over for possible injuries from the lightning, he saw to his astonishment that his muscles had become bigger than before. Not overly so, but there was a noticeable increase in mass.

They felt much stronger too. Shirou did not know how to explain it properly, but his whole body felt improved somehow. It almost felt as if he was Reinforcing himself constantly, even though he was doing nothing of the sort.

He did not feel particularly Divine though. He had not become a god, despite what the inscription on the hammer had claimed. A good thing too, as changing into a Divine being would have complicated his life to a ridiculous degree. How would he ever explain that to Fuji-nee, Sakura, and Tohsaka?

He couldn't. There was no way he could have explained that, ever. So yeah, he was pretty glad he wasn't a god now.

There was no doubt though that the hammer had done something to him, and he would have to be very careful from now on until he had an idea what it had done exactly.

Actually, Shirou had to admit the hammer kind of worried him. Not just because it had suddenly imposed a significant change on his body without a single warning, but also because such a weapon was not something one would cast away without a second thought. If this was a Mystic Code, which seemed likelier and likelier, then its maker, probably a Magus, would almost definitely want it back.

Worse, on the off chance that it was truly Mjolnir, then Thor himself might be looking for it. Which would of course be disastrous, as a visit from an angry God of Thunder would create a lot of problems for this city, as well as for every city within a thousand kilometres or more.

As in, utter and complete destruction.

Whether the owner was a Magus or Thor didn't matter much in the end though. Either way, Shirou couldn't keep it. The hammer simply wasn't his. He was not Thor's heir to the best of his knowledge, nor was it right to take another Magus' property. He was not a thief.

The question was then what he was going to do with it. Naturally, he didn't want to take it home with him. That would send all kinds of wrong signals and might put Sakura and Taiga in danger as well when the owner inevitably showed up at his doorstep.