Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Fate/stay night or any Blizzard related merchandise. Now stop trying to be silly and sue me.
This story is Rated M for safety reasons. Although it will not be my main focus, I might spontaneously add in mature content such as violent imagery ranging from bloody fights, torture, or physical/mental abuse as well as foul language, lemon or other contents not recommended for youth below certain ages. You have been warned.
Hello everyone, this is Minaly22. This is the second chapter of the story. There will be a bit of bloody imagery but hopefully nothing over board.
Sorry this took some time. Me and my Betas had a very long discussion with where the story was going to go.
PS: Why the hell are there no Blue Exorcist X Devil May Cry crossovers? I am going to cry... Hope someone would make one; just not me!
Beta'd by silentstrixe and souvikkundu0017
Arthas was guiding a nervous Shirou through the deeper parts of the Caer Darrow Keep, heading into the castle at the very end.
Shirou was surprised by how... small Caer Darrow actually is. It was just a small island on the lake with a castle and some buildings. He wasn't sure how much bigger Fuyuki is by comparison though.
It felt much bigger last night when he was running through it with Arthas, adrenaline pumping through their veins. But that fickle illusion shattered when Shirou stepped onto the garrison walls this morning, and looking down at everything that was protected by the surrounding walls.
Since the battle from last night, the majority of the buildings close to the gate were burned down. The whole place felt even smaller than before. The burnt buildings have not been completely demolished yet, so one could call the area close to the gate as the 'graveyard of black skeletons'. It was simply that eery.
And sadly, since the population density was higher at the area around the gates, a good majority of the normal civilians of the keep just lost their homes. Thankfully the other half who still had their homes offered to house them, but it was not quite enough. Another chunk of people now live inside the somewhat small castle, where there were fewer guest rooms than a normal castle, forcing them to squeeze together or even sleep on corners in the halls.
One couldn't be picky when they are not living in a normal castle, but a castle that was solely built for military purposes. A roof over their heads and walls to block the weather is probably all they would need at the moment anyway. Shirou also bunked with Arthas in the Castle last night, sharing a room where there are two beds on different sides of the room.
They are not short on 'living' supplies, as they still had enough food and clothing to tide everyone over for a while. Shirou breathed a sigh of relief when he found out he wouldn't need to touch Mage Food for a good while. Construction supplies, and especially healing supplies however, are on an all-time-low.
Reconstruction is not quite possible when they are on an island without enough supplies, as it takes much more time than usual to transport them if one discounts magically intensive Mage Portals that requires you to dislocate space or dimensions for a prolonged amount of time. The longer the distance, the harder it is to open it and keep it open. Currently, all the Mages are either too tired or injured to open Portals safely. So that leaves transporting things through ship.
Caer Darrow was also semi-under-siege. Even though they had convenient healing spells that the majority of the forces on Caer Darrow can use, they still require things like herbs to make medicine and potions for infections and poison, bandages to dress wounds when some people's limited healing abilities couldn't fully close one, splints for broken bones, etc.
If they just got attacked last night then that means the enemy should be very close too, trying to transport supplies like that is just asking them to rob you blind. All they are doing right now is keeping constant vigilance until a new plan is formulated by the higher-ups.
Except, Shirou wasn't really bothered by all this, these happenings weren't what caused him to be nervous.
He was much more bothered by Uther's 'chat' so to speak, from last night.
"Would you like to become a Paladin?" Uther asked out of the blue.
"Eh?" Shirou just stared.
"I said, would you like to become a Paladin?" Uther repeated himself, this time with an intense look in his eyes.
"I... uh... You see..." Shirou was not sure what to do, he was leery about this proposition that came out of the blue.
Even if the man didn't seem to have any nefarious intentions, Shirou could see that he has an ulterior motive.
So he decided to stall. Until he can think of what he should say, that is.
"It would be really great if you could join the Knights of the Silver Hand." Uther continued, the 'look' grew a bit more intense.
"But... Why would you want me to join?" Shirou was confused by Uther's sudden change of behviour. Becoming a Knight used to be one of his dreams before he decided to fully embrace his adoptive father's dream, but he never expected it to start out like... this; being passive-aggressively cornered and cajoled into becoming a Knight.
"You have a lot of potential, and I wouldn't want to see it go to waste." Yet Shirou could see that Uther genuinely wants him to join though.
"Am I really qualified? I mean, there must be better candidates than me around?" Shirou could see that this is probably not going to end well. 'Maybe I can ask for help? Nikolas or Joydee could probably defuse this situation...' He tried to twist his body just a bit so he could meet the eyes of either of the duo.
Turns out, the two of them retreated to the far side of the road during the freakish moment where light poured down from the heaven, and Shirou doubts they saw his pleading eyes from that distance.
He did the next best thing he could think of at the moment. In hindsight, it was probably the worst decision he could make right then.
He took a step back.
"You seem to have some experience with conflict, and that alone says more than what meets the eye." Uther also took a step forward, but due to him being larger than Shirou, it was the same as taking two steps.
"How so?" Shirou was starting to panic, he took another step back when he realized Uther was a bit too close to him for comfort.
"There are many man less brave than you. I have asked the others around while you were day dreaming, and they told me how you jumped into a fire to save someone from their doom." Uther once more took two-steps worth of distance forward.
"I just did something that I thought was right -" Shirou started to reply, and tried to step back again, until a bright flash of light blinded him.
It was a brief flash, but still too bright in this late time of the night for him. Since Shirou's feet was still mid-air in a back pedaling motion, he stumbled to the ground in surprise when his feet didn't land correctly due to the sudden birghtness.
Letting out a yelp, he promptly scanned his surroundings to see the source of the light, but couldn't find anything.
'Aha!' Uther smiled in triumph, if this isn't a sign from The Light, then he wouldn't know what is.
"And that, Shirou, is why I think you would make a great Paladin." Uther looked down on the fallen Shirou, reached out his armored right hand, and thumbed it semi-harshly on his own chest plate - where the heart is - with a closed fist.
"It takes great courage to do what you did. Your heart is filled with everything we could ask from a Knight of the Silver Hand." Uther had to do his best to not let his sourness appear on his face. 'Unlike some people...' he sneered inside, but forcefully pushed unpleasant memories deeper into his mind.
"I am sure others will do the same if given the chance -" Shirou was now forced to crawl backwards in a very undignified fashion. He was also poorly trying to deflect the subject.
"Like Arthas?" Uther interjected, and once again stepped forward.
"Yes, like him -" Shirou shuffled backwards.
"Arthas was trained ever since his birth to become a Paladin, its his life goal to be the best of the best." Uther interrupted again, another step.
"Then what does that have to do with me?" Shirou crawled backwards... and his back hit something solid.
He took a glance behind him, and was dismayed that he had hit the wall of a building.
Shirou is officially stuck.
Uther quickly closed the distance, and was looking down on Shirou almost oppressively.
"You could become something remarkable, someone truly great, if you join us." Uther slowly kneels down, and levels his gaze with Shirou's.
Although Uther's eyes shows that he means nothing but a sincere request, Shirou couldn't stop himself from thinking about the inconsistencies.
What are his motives? What does he get out of this arrangement? Why now, and not later?
Shirou didn't want to find out what would happen if he says something.
So he stayed silent.
The awkward silence stretched for a while, and Uther just continuously stares at Shirou.
"Master, Shirou, what are you two doing?"
Arthas walked up to them, with a confused look on his face. Shirou and Uther turned to look at him.
"Whoa, Master, what is with that 'Join, or Die, or Both' look on your face?" Arthas was kind of creep-ed out. He has never seen his Master like this before.
Deciding that thinking about Uther's strange behavior from last night was pointless, he quickly hastened his steps to catch up with Arthas when he realized he was lagging behind.
"This is the Castle of Caer Darrow." Arthas drawled out with a roll of his eyes. He has been doing that for a while in the tour now. Stating the obvious like 'this is the fountain in Caer Darrow, the garrison, the tower' etc. seems to grate on his nerves.
Shirou was a tiny bit disappointed by the tour when he realized Arthas is just walking around, stating what place is what, and not mentioning any history or memorial things about the location.
But maybe that is because he has been absolutely silent on the tour so far, would Arthas answer his questions if he asked? No reason not to try.
"Can you tell me more about this Castle?" Shirou asked tentatively.
"Sure. The Keep of Caer Darrow is the oldest human monument in the world. At least, thats what I heard from Archbishop Alonsus Faol." Arthas shrugged.
"Really? Who is Alonsus Faol?" Shirou asked next.
"He is Uther's master in the ways of the Light. There were initially no Paladins at first, just Priests. Archbishop Alonsus Faol realized that Priests are not the best combatants in a war, and decided to create the Order of the Silver Hand and train Knights to harness the power of the Light, thus creating the Paladins right after the first war." Arthas walked deeper into the castle as he explained about the history of the Order.
Things like how Master Uther was the Grandmaster of the Order, but preferred to be low key and split the responsibilities with other high ranking Paladins, making multiple Masters control the Order; but ultimately still being the highest figure in terms of authority Order because everyone respected him as such.
Shirou walked through the halls of the castle along with Arthas, who pointed out the directions to him if he ever wants to go to somewhere specific ("This is the Library, and aside from books, we also keep the records in here" or "This is the hallway leading to the Quarters, most Paladins who are still on Caer Darrow have a room there."). Shirou took note of everything, and constructed a mental map of the place. He was a bit surprised when he realized he had a piece of paper that was titled 'The Map of Caer Darrow' when he felt a new object being copied into his Unlimited Blade Works.
'What is this? A game? Its not like I could say 'Press M to open the Map' or something...' Shirou thought wistfully.
They went up some staircases, and Arthas introduced Shirou to the second floor.
"This floor is where most higher authorities have there room on. As well as some smaller meeting rooms and offices. We try to keep quiet because they have to focus on their work." Arthas told him in a stage whisper, he then pointed at the staircase they walked on that linked the whole castle from ground floor to the highest floor.
"Up there is where the Masters are, and there are bigger offices as well as the big meeting room. I heard Master talking about how there is also a treasure room that keeps valuable artifacts or dangerous objects inside. Master and the others are probably arguing over what to do as we speak, so let's simply not go up there. Not like we should go up without permission anyway." And promptly led Shirou back down.
They went lower, ending up below the castle.
"Over there are the dungeons, where we keep captives and criminals if we have any." Arthas simply pointed towards the direction of the barred gates, and didn't guide Shirou through the place.
Shirou didn't want to go there anyhow. The smell is as horrible as they come, and his sensitive nose is making his stomach queasy.
He happily followed Arthas up back to the ground floor, where Arthas proceeded to take him to the other side of the castle.
"We will pass through the Kitchen shortly. Do you want something specific to eat?" Arthas inquired.
As if on queue, Shirou's stomach began to grumble. And he blushed embarrassingly when Arthas threw him a grin.
"No, not really. Anything other than Mage Food would be fine." And this time Shirou got a raised eyebrow from Arthas.
"I don't see how you seem to dislike Mage Food so much." Arthas asked confusedly.
Shirou was about to open his mouth and give off a remark about 'eating junk food or fast food all the time isn't healthy' before he was interrupted by Arthas's growling stomach. This time, it was his turn to shoot him a grin, and Arthas scoring an embarrassed blush.
In hindsight, Arthas probably wouldn't know what junk food is. But Oh well.
Stepping into the Kitchen together, they sat down at a table inside the gigantic room. One of the kitchen helpers walked towards them, and greeted them cheerfully, grabbed a plate filled with food, then placed it in front of the two teens.
Arthas quickly wolfed it down without any composure, reminding Shirou of Taiga.
'Oh no, Fuji-nee...' Shirou wanted to facepalm. What is going to happen to her when she realizes three of her students, one being her surrogate younger brother, plus a foreigner that claims to be her now deceased crush's friend, had literally disappeared off the face of the earth?
Shirou finished his meal halfheartedly as the memories of a certain rowdy Fujimura Taiga flooded his consciousness.
Once Arthas finished demolishing the food supply, they walked some more in the castle.
Shirou was very interested of the Armory they passed by, but Arthas told him that they don't need to go in there yet.
So Shirou found himself at the training grounds out door with Arthas. It was a vast field, practice dummies and big open space on one side and a fenced circle for fighting/sparring purposes on the other. There were a few people practicing, and Shirou could see someone sending bolts light out to hit the dummies, while the others were sparring.
Both Arthas and Shirou just stood there, watching the other Paladins train. It was interesting to see someone wielding a two handed axe sparring with another who uses a pole-arm. Both were slightly unwieldy due to their size and weight when compared to one handed swords or daggers, but pack much more punch into the hits. Shirou noted with interest how the person with the pole-arm was flowing around the hits from the axe wielder.
It reminded him of Lancer back during the Grail War, with his superior speed, the person he is watching right now is nowhere close to that level, but there were still similarities.
The axe wielder mindlessly hacks around with obvious strength, continuously missing their nimble opponent. While the attacks were powerful, it would not matter if it didn't hit their opponent.
'Would it been easier to take down Berserker if he wasn't so quick?' Shirou couldn't help but wonder
... The axe wielder isn't trying to adjust his tactics, and keeps over reaching by putting too much force into the strikes.
'Never mind, this guy doesn't look like he is catching on at all.' Shirou thought sympathetically. Even Berserker under the Mad Enhancements wouldn't have been this pathetic. Although to be fair, the Berserker probably wouldn't care, he will just wear them down and beat them to the ground given enough time because of his God Hand.
Eventually, once the spar winded down when the axe wielder called it quits, they moved away from the training field. Walking towards the entrance of the castle where the courtyard with a fountain, they sat down on one of the empty benches.
"So what do you think?" Arthas asked Shirou as they both settled down.
"Think about what?" Shirou asked confusedly. Arthas's question has a wide range of different interpretation. What did he think about the town? How did he like the castle? Was the food to his liking? Was he asking about the spar?
"About last night?" Arthas turned to look Shirou directly in the eyes.
Once again, Arthas's question has more interpretation than one. The attack from last night, the fire they jumped into, the girl they saved, the Orcs that were figuratively swept away then frozen solid, and... Uther's offer to join the Order.
"Are you talking about the attack?" Shirou didn't want to talk about Uther's offer just yet, so he once again tried to deflect the subject... poorly.
"No, that was not what I wanted to ask you. But it was pretty hectic last night wasn't it?" Arthas rolled his eyes, seemingly catching up to the fact that I am avoiding the 'obvious' subject. Not giving Shirou another chance to stall, Arthas cut right to the point.
"What do you think about Master's offer?"
"... I honestly have no idea." Shirou admitted to Arthas. Normally he would have not revealed his feelings so easily so someone he didn't know. However, there is simply 'something' about Arthas that Shirou couldn't help but confide in him. It doesn't feel like the 'charisma' Arturia had as a King, or it could just be a much weaker version of it that is still affecting him somehow.
Plus, he could see that they can become friends if they tried. Arthas reminded him of himself, a different and much more hot-headed version of himself. They both seemed to be stubborn and abandon self-preservation when someone is need of assistance.
They haven't tried to become friends yet. He is confused, depressed, and pessimistic about his future; making friends is probably the last thing on his mind at the moment. He still never got a chance to unwind from the freakish war back in Fuyuki, and now add being thrown into a different world on top of that, is making him starting to crack. Him worrying about his friends is also not helping him any, and being reminded of Fuji-nee felt like a knee to his gut.
"I really have no idea what to do with this offer. I... my friends and I were fighting to destroy an evil artifact back at home, then the next thing I know is waking up in someplace I don't know, separated from my family and friends, and thrown right into the line of fire." Which was part of the truth.
"Then do you know where you came from? Maybe we can find out what happened?" Arthas suggested.
'Oh you have no idea.' Shirou resisted the urge to depressingly bury his head into his hands. How is he ever going to reunite with his friends? There is nothing to look into, and there might also not be a way back home.
So Shirou settled on a sigh and shaking his head. Arthas slumped back into the bench.
"What do you want to do?" Arthas asked, tone slightly gentler than before.
'What do I want to do? Good question...' Shirou wanted nothing but go back home with his friends, he wanted everyone come out alright after the Grail War.
Which also means he didn't want to accept Uther's offer.
"I don't want to accept Uther's offer because what I really want right now is finding my friends, and see if we can go home." He will have to try and find his friends in this world, be them dead or alive, misplaced through time and either becoming older than him since they landed here 'earlier', or him having to wait several years only to stumble upon his still-teenager friends.
Staying here would not be a good decision.
"But you could join and let us help you search. More people helping you would make it easier, right?" Arthas suggested. And it was a sound suggestion, since it does makes more sense to have multiple people help out. Heck, its not just 'a few people' in this case but an entire organization.
"Is leaving the Order possible?" Which brings up the second issue of him not wishing to join the Order. What if it's almost impossible to leave the Order? If he would be joining just for the help he would get while searching for his friends, then he is most likely not going to stay once he finds them. Back on Earth, there was no way to completely cut ties from the Clock Tower once you joined.
However, he was feeling a tad bit guilty for comparing an Order of righteous Knights who strive for honor and justice, with an Association filled to the brim by people of questionable morals.
"Technically, yes. But no one truly wants to leave unless they have to." Arthas informed Shirou somberly.
"Have to leave?" Shirou wondered.
"We Paladins rely on the power from The Light. The Light is in all of our hearts; It grows stronger with every good deed we do, and every righteous action we commit." Then Arthas imitated the Uther's gesture from last night - he thumbed his own chest plate where the heart was supposed to be.
"But the Light will leave you if you ever do something wrong or evil willingly. And most likely will never be with you again, until you go through a very lengthy process of 'atonement'. Once the Light leaves you, you are no longer considered to be a Paladin, and although officially you are still a member of the Order..." Arthas trailed off, and Shirou understood what he meant.
The Clock Tower was the same on this regard. Magi who have lost their ability to use Magecraft, although still considered as members of the association, become social outcasts that are shunned by everyone. It was the reason why his adoptive father, Emiya Kiritsugu, the Magus Killer who robs his targets the ability to use Magecraft forever was so feared. No one had ever survived against him, and dead people can't use Magecraft; even if they live by some miracle or other, they would still never be able to do any Magecraft again.
"If that happens, and they ask for permission to leave, they are free to go. But otherwise, everyone is very contend in being in the Order. No one would really leave willingly on their own unless facing dire circumstances; and even then, everyone in the Order will gladly help them out." Shirou didn't doubt for a moment if anyone was in trouble, the entire Order would jump on the chance to help them; if not out of the simple goodness of their heart, then for the power boost from the Light by doing something good.
"There has been instances where the Paladin in question wished to leave the Order due to reasons like getting married and settling down, or crippling injury that made them unfit to continue as members of the Order. But I have yet to see any Ex-Paladin with my own eyes." Arthas finished his explanation.
This explanation cleared most of his questions about the Order away. There have also been interesting information about the Paladins and their powers.
The Order sounds like a wonderful place. 'If only it was truly the case.' But Shirou held his cynicism regarding it, and reserved such judgmental thoughts for later.
Shirou was still undecided in what he exactly wanted to do, but thanks to Arthas, he was certain he wouldn't feel so bad about joining the Order if push really comes to shove.
"Thank you, that helped a lot." And Shirou mustered up his most sincere smile he could manage at the moment.
Arthas simply smiled back.
Shirou swore he saw a tiny glow of light coming from Arthas's chest plate, but decided to not think further upon it.
Shirou and Arthas chatted through the rest of the day.
They talked about various things, and Shirou found out that they share a lot more in common than he previously had thought.
For one, Arthas favored close combat and his preferred weapon was a sword. Like him, Arthas was rash and headstrong most of the time, and usually gets scolded by Uther or other Masters. In his case, Shirou would end up with Rin and Fuji-nee screeching his ears off (with the former doing it 'discreetly'), Arturia giving him disapproving glares, and Sakura a fake smile on her face when he does something stupid.
Aside from mentioning how he shared those traits, Shirou also told him something about himself in return. Things such as Cooking, and explaining why he abhors Mage Food because he takes it as an insult to all Cooks in the world, or him being good at Archery.
Arthas just stared at him strangely when he mentioned his Archery abilities, then his face formed into a wicked smirk.
"I bet you can't shoot 20 bulls eyes in a row." Arthas taunted playfully.
Shirou wanted to playfully joke back, but was interrupted by someone else.
"Oh? Is that a challenge I hear there?" Nikolas's voice floated over from the side. The Paladin was decked out in full armor, unlike the two teens who are wearing casual tunics instead, because of the orders from Uther.
'Relax and take the day off until I call for you.' So Arthas shed the armor since it was a day to relax.
"Yeah! Shirou told me that he is pretty good at Archery. But I bet he wouldn't be able to score 20 bulls eye in a row." Arthas told the man.
"Hey hey, isn't that a bit too harsh? I haven't seen a Hunter around here that could score 20 bulls in a row for a while." Nikolas scolded Arthas slightly, but Shirou could hear he didn't actually mean it.
"You both know that I am still here, right?" Shirou called out, clearly annoyed.
He saw Nikolas's grin grow slightly bigger, and Arthas still sporting that infernally taunting smirk.
And then Nikolas did something that made Shirou want to strangle him.
"HEY EVERYONE! OUR LITTLE FRIEND HERE WANTS TO SCORE 20 BULLS EYE IN A ROW HERE!" Nikolas shouted at the top of his lungs, and a crowd soon gathered around.
"That scrawny looking kid? No really?" Someone said.
"Ahahaha, good one Niko." Another voiced out.
"Doesn't look like archer material."
"Probably going to end up missing everything!"
The crowd laughed at that. And the chatter continued, until Shirou felt his temper snap.
"Fine." Shirou grounded out.
Everyone turned their heads toward his direction.
"I am going to score 20 bull eye in a row. All of you are going to eat your words, and I am going to make you like it." He channeled a bit of his inner Tohsaka Rin during that statement, and tried his best job in imitating her scathingly stiff smirk which screamed displeasure to all who are not dense or blind.
"Where can I get a bow and some arrows?" Shirou asked.
Shirou, now equipped with a regular wooden bow, and exactly 20 arrows in the quiver on his back, walked to the training field with an entire group of Paladins trailing behind him.
The group grew even bigger as a certain someone that has a name that starts with 'N' ran off to fetch the bows and arrows, while screaming about the challenge all the way.
According to Nikolas, he had to run to the town's forge to borrow the bows and arrows along with the quiver, the shop owner asked Nikolas to return it later.
Thankfully he didn't announce their purpose all around town, but he did drag the Paladins walking around back to the castle with him.
Shirou's reaction to the growing group made Arthas collapse on the ground in laughter. He promptly kicked him, and felt a bit better after hearing Arthas let out an 'oof!' of pain.
Finally reaching the the practice dummies, he saw how the bulls eye was painted on the chest of the comically looking target dummy. Shaped vaguely like a man, it had a silly yellow painted split-in-the-middle hairdo, a face that could only be described as derpy, and the mouth was painted to look like its missing a teeth. There was a crossed bandage on its right shoulder, and a raised left arm in the air, while the body was made to look like its wearing a brown vest. For some unimaginable reason, the whole thing was attached to a spring board, so it bounced from right to left slightly, completing the look of an idiotic blonde man wearing a brown vest that has a bulls eye painted on its chest, waving his left arm in the air and missing a teeth. (Hearthstone Target Dummy!)
'Even a Target Dummy is mocking me...' Shirou thought irritatingly. Then raised his bow, placed an arrow, and focused.
Seeing that the show was about to begin, the crowd were starting to quiet down. Shirou paused for a few moments, seemingly waiting for the noise to die completely.
But in reality he was reinforcing the bow discreetly.
During the Grail War, Shirou had gained a good majority of Archer's memories. And Archer uses a conceptual reinforcement on his traced bow that would increase its accuracy by being able to shoot arrows that lock on specific targets. It was not perfect when faced against enemies much stronger than him, but vastly increase the chance of landing a hit. Shirou could understand how it was beneficial in a fight where it was hard to hit the enemy due to their superhuman capabilities. Archer later implemented something similar whenever he decided to shoot weapons he traced from the Reality Marble, like how Gilgamesh would shoot his enemies by opening the Gate of Babylon.
Shirou quite enjoys the feeling of focused tranquility while doing archery back in the High school Club, and he usually wouldn't have even considered using this reinforcement except during combat situations. But the behavior of the Paladins calls for some good ol' revenge on his part.
He pulled, then released.
The arrow flew through the air with a 'whish' and landed on the target dummy with a 'thunk'. The dummy, due to being placed on a bouncing spring, frantically twisted around due to the power of the shot.
Once it settled down, the spectators all let out appreciative noises of some kind. Some were whistling, some were cheering or aah-ing.
The arrow was lodged right in the middle of the bulls eye.
Realistically speaking, if it was just regular shooting on a target, Shirou actually didn't need to use the conceptual reinforcement of perfect accuracy; he would have scored all bulls eye anyway. But he had something 'fun' planned that he probably would never pull off without using the reinforcement.
He quickly pulled back the strings, set the arrow, and released it again. All in the split of a second.
The arrow once again lodged into the bulls eye, going directly through the previous arrow and splitting it. The dummy bounced erratically again.
But Shirou didn't let up, and quickly shot the dummy while it was bouncing. Another pull, set and release, the arrow hit the dummy and it redoubled its frantic dance.
He shot another few arrows in quick succession that way, always hitting the previous arrow perfectly while the dummy was erratically bouncing around. None of those arrows would have hit without the reinforcements.
He then decided to do something different.
Shirou angled the bow upwards to the sky, and shot the arrow into the air.
He watched the arrow in the air nervously. He had never tried that before during his Archery Practices, but was confident he would have been able to score a bulls eye without cheating... on a stationary target.
He could see that the arrow changed trajectory ever so slightly that it would hit the bulls eye on the 'dancing' dummy.
Shooting another in the sky, he got the same result as last time with none the wiser.
Shirou then mounted two arrows on the bow, then gave a backward leap, shooting the dummy while mid-air. Without the reinforcement, it probably wouldn't have scored a bulls eye even if its just a stationary target, not to mention the one he is shooting at is bouncing without any order or rhythm, but it would have at least hit the target somewhere.
But since he was cheating, both arrows hit the bulls eye.
He did this a few more times with only one arrow, leaping left and right then forward.
Archer, as in EMIYA, had to learn how to shoot on the move since it was not always a good idea for him to stay stationary. Thankfully Shirou had the memories on that, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to pull it off.
Mentally counting how many arrows he had left, he realized that he used up 13 already.
He then twisted his head to look over his shoulder, and grinned at the gobsmacked expression on everyone's face.
"Hey!" He shouted, and it seemed to bring a majority of the audience back to their senses.
Shirou continued to smile, looking right at them as his hands pulled, set, and released another arrow.
They gaped at him like a bunch of human-headed fishes.
He did that with three more arrows, bringing his arrow count to 17. Shirou purposely made funny faces at them when he shot at the bouncing target without looking at it.
Rifling through the memories he got from Archer, he found something interesting.
Shirou let go of the bow birefly, then twisted his right arm in front and over his head. Instead of holding the bowstring somewhere close to his right ear, by positioning it this way, the bowstring is now almost touching his left ear. His right hand was holding the bow string in a backward grip, and was on the same side as his left.
Shirou was aware that he was holding his bow in a very bizarre position, but he couldn't help but try when he found out the memories about ancient Mongolian archery masters being able to shoot arrows that way. It doesn't matter if he wouldn't actually hit the target and if he was cheating.
He was having too much fun to not play around.
Releasing the strings with a grin on his face, he saw the arrow speeding towards the target dummy and hit the bulls eye again courtesy of the reinforcement.
He shot another arrow with that bizarre position, now he is down to his last arrow.
'Hmm, what to do.' Shirou absentmindedly fingered the shaft of the arrow as he mounted it.
Then an idea struck him, and Shirou's grin grew bigger.
He walked towards the target dummy, placed his hands on it, turned around, and began to walk large steps away from the target dummy. He made a show out of counting the number of steps he took loudly, and the audience seem to realize what he is doing.
There is a Japanese idiom originated from Chinese which describes the an amazing archer.
'Shooting Willow from a Hundred Steps away'.
It means being able to shoot a specific willow leaf fluttering in the wind from hundred paces/steps away without ever missing.
"One Hundred!" Shirou announced. One hundred steps away from the target dummy. He really hopes this is going to work...
"There is no way!"
"Is he really going to -!?"
"How in the world can he -!?" and other disbelieving comments of the same vein floated through the distance.
Shirou turned around, and took aim of the target dummy swaying from left to right.
Deciding that he was getting bored of hitting the bulls eye with the reinforcement, he decided to get rid of it and try hit the target dummy with his own ability. He was curious and wanted to see if he could really do it without cheating. Back on Earth, there was a Guinneas record on being able to shoot a target from 200 meters away, which equates to about 135 steps. Breaking it as he is right now is not his goal, since he is just trying something different.
Taking a deep breath, Shirou shut out everything else around him. The world slowly faded away as he focused on hitting the target dummy, and nothing else.
Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, pull, exhale.
Inhale, set, exhale.
Inhale...
'Release!' Shirou let go of the string.
Shirou watched with baited breath (as he forgot to exhale after taking a breath before releasing the arrow) as the arrow flew through the distance.
The dummy was hit by the arrow, and bounced around, making it impossible to see where the arrow landed clearly.
The audience was silent as a grave, waiting for the dummy to settle down and reveal the results.
...
...
...
Then the whole training field erupted into loud cheers.
Shirou grinned, feeling proud of himself.
The spectators scattered once the show was over, but a sizable group of Paladins were still surrounding Shirou when he walked back into the castle with the sunset on his back. They were throwing off all kinds of compliments as he walked.
Shirou simply tuned them out, since he didn't really care for those compliments. He had fun from that little show, even if he had cheated the majority of it, but hey, it was out of good fun, so no harm done in his opinion.
He turned his head around and saw Arthas looking slightly... sour.
'Huh?' Shirou was confused.
Arthas seemed to realize that Shirou was looking at him, and his expression quickly changed into a grin.
"Oh! I know! We should go drink!" One of the Paladins shouted out, and was met by several affirmative cheers.
Shirou was then dragged by a group of excited Paladins into town with an expression of shock on his face, Arthas was grabbed by Nikolas when he tried to weasel out of it.
Entering the local tavern, they were greeted by a cheerful voice.
"Welcome to my inn! Ha, find a seat if you can!" The stout and short innkeeper standing atop a barrel bellowed out.
'I guess I just had my first look at a Dwarf.' Shirou thought to himself and twisted his head to have a second look at the Dwarf. The Dwarf in question was very short, and Shirou estimates that he was in fact shorter than Illya. The Dwarf has long dark auburn colored hair braided on the two sides - possibly his long side burns, a full voluminous beard that could probably make a Viking in the past back on Earth jealous, and heavily muscled arms with a tankard in his left hand, along with a strange card that has a gold outline, blue back ground and a swirly patterned gem and a star set on the middle.
Shirou saw some people shuffling around, watching over two people who sat holding the same kind of cards, and staring at each other with a strangely shaped board on a table between them. A brief poof of smoke, and a 'Croak' later, one of the two banged the table in frustration while the other smirked in glee.
He couldn't really think more about the Dwarf or the strange cards in its hand, or the strange board though, as the Paladins dumped him on a table on the other side of the tavern, hollering for drinks.
Shirou was still sober by the time the group came out from the tavern.
He had been forced by the others to drink when they realize he hadn't touched a single drop of alcohol. Shirou pretended to have drunk a lot, but in reality he has only been sipping on that one tankard he got.
There was no way he could describe the mortification of drinking underage, but realizing it was technically legal since there are no such restrictions in a different world. A drunken Fuji-nee has at one point forced him to drink some Sake, but Shirou could only remember the burning feeling down his throat from that particular experience.
She tearfully apologized to Shirou the next day for forcing him to drink with her.
The food in the tavern however, made Shirou more than happy enough to devour without any one prompting him. His tongue was assaulted by strange and exotic tastes he hadn't tasted before when he bit down on the chicken legs, piquing his interest to the cooking of this world.
Jokes were thrown around, and the atmosphere only got more and more rowdy in the tavern. Shirou felt his spirit lift slightly from the Archery game and watching the other patrons of the tavern goofing around.
Arthas, on the other hand, wasn't quite so lucky to escape the drinks unscathed.
The other teenager was utterly smashed. Swaying around almost exactly like the Target Dummy Shirou had just abused a few hours ago, and mumbling drunkenly incoherently under his breath. He was quite certain that Arthas has glared at him a few number of times when the other teen didn't think he was looking, but he wasn't sure what for. And before he knew it, Arthas became the most drunken person at the table.
Shirou had hooked the other teen's arms over his shoulder to stabilize the other. And even then, it was getting a bit hard to keep Arthas steady and not topple from side to side all the time.
"Arthas, are you certain you are alright?" Shirou asked concernedly.
"Aw, Amfine~. Diz ish Nossing." Arthas slurred back.
"I saw you glaring at me back there, what's the matter?" Now wouldn't be a bad chance to pry, since drunken people are usually more forthcoming.
"Yu may me rook bad beck dare" Arthas swayed once again before he finished that sentence.
'I made him look bad back there? What does he mean?' Shirou was still confused, but he now at least understand that Arthas would be upset because he made him look bad.
Question is - "What did I do to make you look bad?" Shirou pulled Arthas back to his side as he said this.
"Arrrrrrrr, cherry" But Arthas tumbled back a bit too harshly, and Shirou had to steady himself in order not to fall down with him.
'What does my Archery have anything to do with - Oh.' Shirou rolled his eyes to himself. Arthas was the one who started everything, and he must have took it unnecessarily hard by thinking Shirou showed him up.
Not that Shirou would tell Arthas that he happily did it, and did a spectacular job at it. But that wouldn't make the situation any better.
"Er, Sorry?" Shirou had to at least try and placate him, although he hasn't ever done that successfully when facing an angry Fuji-nee or Rin.
"Yar fetter ve! *hic*" Oh no, he is even starting to hiccup now.
"Do you remember how much you drank?" Shirou continued to make way towards the castle.
"Rossss kont afta erefen" Eleven? Wow, how much can this guy drink?
Shirou felt pity towards Arthas; the other teen is going to have a killer hangover tomorrow.
Finally reaching the castle, he walked to the side where their room was: the Quarters area.
Shirou's blood froze when he saw someone standing outside their door at the end of the hall.
It was Uther.
'Oh crap...' Shirou thought sourly. He did not want to talk about the offer to join the Paladins just yet, and he doubt Uther would be happy to see a Squire drunken to the bone, hanging off the shoulders of a potential recruit.
But it was too late, Uther seems to have saw the duo and is currently walking towards them now.
"Well met, Shirou... Arthas?" Uther asked in bewilderment.
"Yooooo Masterbaite - mmph" Shirou quickly slapped a hand over Arthas's mouth before he embarrassed himself further.
"Ahah, ahaha." Shirou laughed awkwardly, he can feel a sweat drop rolling behind is head.
Seeing that Uther was frozen on the spot in shock, Shirou quickly darted behind him while dragging Arthas along, tore the door open, dashed into it, and slammed it closed.
He dumped Arthas onto one of the beds, threw the sheets on top of him haphazardly, and ran back outside.
Once again, slamming the door shut, he placed his back on the door as he stared at the back of Uther the Lightbringer, still standing there, not reacting to anything he had done so far.
It took a few moments for Uther to finally find his composure again.
"Well met, Shirou. How are you doing?" Uther turned around and greeted him, with a strained smile on his face.
"I am doing fine. The Paladins dragged Arthas and I to the tavern." Shirou replied with an equally strained smile.
"Then I shall speak to them tomorrow." Uther's strained smile only grew more strained, and Shirou could see that there is a tick mark that wasn't there before.
'If I have learned anything from hanging around Rin... That kind of expression can only promise a whole lot of pain to their aggressor.' Shirou thought wistfully.
"How did the meeting go?" Shirou wondered.
"Nothing much. Thankfully none of us are politicians, so it went on without any troubles." It was not hard to see the relief on Uther's face.
'Rin and Arturia talked about that too...' Talking with politicians was always a pain. Things go round and round in circles, petty arguments are thrown around, hostility continues to rise between them, and nothing ends up getting done.
Rinse and repeat every day, then you get a Kingdom or Nation heading towards ruin.
"What are your decisions regarding my offer?" And Shirou cringed.
"I still don't know what I want to do. I have talked with Arthas and it helped..." Shirou admitted his uncertainties.
"Oh? What did you two talk about?" Uther inquired.
"I told him that I actually didn't want to join the Paladins." This time, it was Uther's turn to cringe.
"Not that because I don't like the Paladins... Its about something else, something more personal." Shirou rubs his arms, as the chill in the night settled around him, being inside a stone castle not only didn't help, it actually made it worse.
Seeing Shirou being uncomfortable in the cold, Uther grabbed Shirou's arms and gently pulled him to move.
Together, they walked towards the second floor, and Uther casually opened a door as if he owned the place.
'He does, to an extent.' Shirou thought. Uther might not actually own the castle, but as the person of highest authority around here right now, it wouldn't be a stretch if he had absolute freedom to do what he wished with it.
Walking through the door, Shirou managed to discern the fact that this was an office with the help of his reinforcement.
Night vision was really important to survive in the night back on Fuyuki.
There was a low table in the middle with two chairs facing each other; Uther sat down on one of them, and gestured for Shirou to take the other.
Shirou shuffled awkwardly to the chair, being self conscious to the fact that they were sort of trespassing. But if Uther doesn't have any trouble with it, he supposes he can go along with it.
"Now, what is the 'personal' thing that is troubling you?" Uther asked.
And now, Shirou had to actively stiffen himself to stop himself from squirming.
He has no idea whether to spill everything about his world, or just leave out facts and tell half truths like he did with Arthas. Both have its benefits; If he came clean with everything, there would be less misunderstandings in the long run, but he can't guarantee that Uther won't use those information to his advantage by blackmailing him to join the Order or using it to fulfill his own agendas. On the other hand, if he omitted a big majority of his story and be vague, he might be let off the hook, but since Shirou doubt Uther would be fooled for long, he will ultimately have to face this issue again as Uther listens with much more distrust than before.
Decisions, decisions.
When in doubt, stall!
...
Oh wait, stalling would seem way too obvious right now, and only make Uther more suspicious of him.
'What should I do?' Shirou was trying his best to think of a solution right now.
Uther the Lightbringer was feeling tired.
The meeting today dragged on for a very long time, and even though they had breaks in between, it still ultimately caused him a migraine.
He was clamping on the urge to rub his temples as he sat in the empty office in the middle of the night right now.
Having Arthas's drunken state presented to him in all its glory was also not helping him at all.
Terenas was a loud individual due to his temper when he was younger, but when the former prince was drunk, he was uncharacteristically quiet. Arthas acting like that was a surprise that Uther did not expect to see for a time yet.
He was going to have a stern talking down to those people with hang overs tomorrow, that is for sure.
'Better focus on the situation right now...' Uther pulled his thoughts back to the present.
The mysterious young teen in front of him was struggling.
He hasn't started to squirm or shift his eyes to avoid his gaze, or anything that could outwardly portray his nervousness; but Uther gets the feeling that the teen wasn't having an easy time.
'What is he struggling for? Is he trying to hide something? Is it physically impossible for him to tell me about it? Or is it just too emotional and personal?' Uther's mind raced.
And so Uther silently watched the youth, not uttering a single word.
'The Orcs are close, maybe too close.' So he decided to let his mind wander on other things for now. Like thinking about the meeting during the day.
Terenas has sent him away from the front lines to defend the country on the inside, repelling infiltration and raids, as well as helping as many victims of war as possible. The Order of the Silver Hand has already completely traveled through the all lands within the Kingdom of Lordaeron, and it was disturbing to see so many Orcs within the borders.
Repelling the Orcs in one area simply makes them relocate to another, and once the Order chases them, the area that was previously cleared will be filled with new Orcs again. It was a very damning cycle, one they didn't know how to break.
Uther at first didn't worry too much, since it was war; and it used to be only the places close to the border who are having trouble. But an attack on Caer Darrow is simply too deep into the Kingdom of Lordaeron to just brush off without a care. Something is definitely wrong if the Orcs can just slip through their lines and hit so deep.
The second capital: Stratholme is just a few days away if travelling slowly from Caer Darrow. Marching quickly will take a whole day, riding swiftly would only take a half. It was by pure chance that they have decided to set up on Caer Darrow instead of camping close to the other settlements under attack. Uther and the other masters originally believed that Caer Darrow would be safe for a few more weeks, and would have missed this siege if they didn't decide to stay here instead.
He has to send thanks to Dalaran someday. If they didn't have as many Mages as they did now, they would have been forced to camp at the villages since there were no portals for quick travel available. If they wished to defend the villages, it would have been more practical to stay there instead of traveling from Caer Darrow. This has prevented the fall of Caer Darrow...
'... And saved everyone lots of trouble by keeping the Runestone away from our enemies.' Uther voiced this particular train of thoughts to the council of Masters, but none seem to believe that the Orcs would go after a Runestone and not for the keep on the lake with immense strategic value.
But he knew he was right. The Orcs had to have been going after the Runestone if they didn't immediately attack Shirou and Arthas when they were defenseless and surrounded. Killing the resistance on the inside wasn't important since they somehow knew everyone was retreating...
'...Which also means we have a spy in our midst somewhere.' Uther thought grimly.
Their enemies knew that the keep was going to be emptied when they entered it. It wasn't possible for the Orcs to have hesitated in attacking the people who are still inside otherwise. The Orcs were also not the best naval fighters with their longer and sleeker ships capitalizing on speed, since Lordaeron is renown for its strength on waters. Which makes it even more suspicious that they got close enough to attack the gates.
'Maybe now is not the best time to hear his story right now.' Uther admitted to himself, and finally gave into the urge to rub his temples.
His mind was swamped with all these things about the war and their current situation as well as the 'what ifs'. Even though listening to a troubled youth so he could help him was a great thing, right now it seems both are way too distracted to actually do anything about that.
"Shirou," Uther called out.
The boy was jolted out of his musings; tensing up in surprise.
"I think tonight we are too tired and have too many things on our mind to do this effectively." Uther continued.
He closely watched the boy's body, to see if he could glean any more clues from him.
The previously tensed muscles were beginning to relax, and the breathing was also returning to normal.
Clear signs of relief.
'So, he is definitely hiding something.' Uther mused. But he wasn't exactly worried though; the boy was unconscious for a short period of time so it was impossible for him to be a spy if he was in no condition to report his findings. The boy was also under constant surveillance once he woke up, with him assigning Arthas to watch over him and all.
Silently standing up, Uther walked towards the door and pulled it open; walking out the door
Shirou followed him shortly after that.
Both walked through the empty hallway without another word, and paused at the stairs that connected to the higher floor and lower floor.
"Rest well, Shirou." Uther said.
"You too, sir." And Shirou slowly walked down the stairs.
Sighing, Uther walked upwards, heading for his room at the top of the castle.
Right.
So nothing interesting to say here, except the fact that I am moving this month and chapter updates will be much slower.
Oh don't worry, they will update eventually, just takes more time.