Fate: Hammer Time

Chapter 31: General Maintenance

Electronics and machinery.

Shirou had had an interest in them for as long as he could remember. It just fascinated him, how a collection of metals, plastics, wires, and a bit of energy could create things that moved by themselves, or could rise into the air, or allowed one to interact with the entire world from behind a desk.

The redhead could still recall taking apart his first motorcycle, to see what it was made of and how it worked. It had been an old, broken thing, a gift from one of Raiga's men for Shirou to mess around with to his heart's content, but the redhead had been over the moon with it.

Now, giving a motorcycle to a child to take apart was of course ridiculously irresponsible. It could easily have led to Shirou injuring himself, especially since the man hadn't even removed the fuel from the tank. Kiritsugu had been apoplectic when he'd learned of it. But that incident was what had gotten Shirou interested in electronics, so he was grateful to that guy nonetheless.

He had taken that motorcycle apart completely, meticulously studying every piece to discover what purpose it served and how it worked. Then he had tried to put it back together again, before repeating the process of breaking it down and building it up again several more times, until he knew every single aspect of the vehicle inside and out.

From there on, it was only a small step towards trying to repair motorcycles, and then repairing cars, and then household appliances, and so on. Over the years, Shirou had quickly made a name for himself as an expert craftsman, though only in certain circles, such as a certain Yakuza gang, several schools, and the local library.

Once Kiritsugu had gotten over his shock of having his child play around with dangerous equipment, he had praised Shirou's skill and encouraged him multiple times to make a career out of it. Being a repairman was much easier and much more fulfilling than being a Hero of Justice after all.

Shirou hadn't listened to him though. Having the skills of a repairman was certainly useful, to help people out or maybe bring in some extra money should it ever be needed, but it would never fill the gaping void in his heart, left there by the Fire. The path of the Hero of Justice was the only path open to him.

Kiritsugu had been disappointed, but this was one of the few cases in which Shirou hadn't cared about what his father thought.

Raiga on the other hand had never bothered talking about careers or paths to take in life. He had just been happy to have Shirou repair his family's broken motorcycles and cars, and sometimes had Shirou enhance them as well. A normal car should never be able to go faster than four hundred kilometres per hour, but once Shirou was done with it, it could, for a little while at least.

The Yakuza-head didn't use Shirou for those jobs to save money though, no, he royally compensated Shirou for every vehicle repaired. He only used Shirou because Shirou never talked to the police and never asked difficult questions.

A car with bullet holes in the motor cap might raise a few eyebrows in a normal garage, but Shirou just overlooked them, calmly repairing the engine and welding the holes shut without a word.

Once he began to attend school, he started taking care of the appliances there as well. The air conditioners tended to break down every summer due to excessive overuse, and while they would normally be replaced in such an event, since hiring a repairman to fix them was more expensive than just buying a new one, Shirou always managed to make them last a few months more.

His teachers had been so grateful for his work –and that he didn't ask for compensation—that they hadn't even asked where he had learned his skills.