Spirit Sword
Chapter 4:
I own nothing beyond this crazy idea and the laptop I write it on.
Author's Note: I am on pain medication less often then before, so you may see an increase in quality. University starts next week, so hopefully when I return to this I will be completely off my pain meds. Last chapter a couple people complained about Shirou's new reality marble, and as promised I will be explaining it here:
It is much more modular than before. The 'Spirits' are the magical abilities of various weapons. The purpose is that once Shirou fully understands his new reality marble and properly gains access to the veritable vault of weapons he was, Shirou would be able to mix and match different magical properties. Another element is that the physical properties of the noble phantasms are now bound to his tracing.
I imagine it like a mana pool (Edit: Arcane Pool) from Pathfinder's Magus class. Shirou can spend prana to create a traced physical base or use an existing base. From that base he can pick and choose enchantments that serve his purpose. Example, he could have an arrow with both Gae Bolg's heart seeking property (And its non healing curse) and Archer's Broken Phantasm property (That is what Archer's spirit does). This is not only cheaper that tracing and breaking Gae Bolg naturally(With Unlimited Blade Works, Since an existing arrow was used), but it can be applied to any item that fits the criteria that both 'spirits' require.
Naturally the prana cost will increase as you use more and more powerful enchantments. Gae Bolg is more expensive than Archer's 'spirit', but Excalibur Destruction's 'spirit' is more expensive than both combined. That is why I doubled Shirou's magic circuits, so that when the time comes, I can have him stack five or six spirits on one sword.
While my understanding of the Nasu-verse is far, really far, from being complete, but I took a little bit of creative freedom in this chapter.
Archer was tired. That was strange due to him being an incorporeal spirit supported by Shirou's reality marble. However, the information that Shirou provided him was causing a large headache then it should have. When Shirou had channeled the 'Spirit of the Twin Blades', Archer had felt the expenditure of prana and that allowed him to create a functional thesis on how this new reality marble worked. When Shirou entered the reality marble that evening things had been proven incorrect.
Archer understood the concept of origin slightly more than most magus, mostly because of having almost infinite time to search his under his service to Alaya. While an origin can be simplified to one word, it is at it's centre much more complex. Archer himself found his origin to be 'sword', but in the usage of 'a tool to be used to kill'. The difference with Shirou was that his origin was 'sword', but in the usage of 'a work of art meant for war'.
In the English language, or any language really, it would be difficult to describe the difference between the two usages of 'sword'. Thankfully the differences were corporal in this case. The implications of 'tool' means something used to achieve an end. It is impersonal, to the point that in Archer's reality marble every item was recorded factually and logically. In this case, 'used to kill' means any item that kills as part of that end. Both of these concepts refer back to Archer's original origin of 'sword' meaning that he only copies swords at his most efficient.
While Archer eventually learnt to force his reality marble to behave in a manner to allow him to copy items of defensive origin, his reality marble was still designed, or rather formed, to align with his origin. In fact, this understanding of the forces or subtleties of one's origin is required to progress while working on a reality marble. Archer initially believed that Shirou had an identical origin to him because he was a possible future version of Shirou. It was this mistake that was now causing him such a headache.
Shirou's reality marble wasn't different because Archer's soul was fused with his, but because he had a slightly different origin to Archer. A 'work of art' is much more emotional and sophisticated then 'tool'. Rather than simple logistical copies, a fully separate identity was forged from the history of the blades. To be 'meant for war' was significantly different to be 'used to kill', as in war may creation were made to protect their users or limit casualties. This difference meant that Shirou's reality marble natural interacted with protective items. Still, because of his centre origin of 'sword' Shirou had difficulty with not bladed items.
It had taken him close to twenty four hours to isolate the source of the disturbance. A hell filled with structural grasping of Shirou's soul and reality marble. Thankfully he finally finished so that he could rest his overworked mind. After using a projected pad of paper and a pen to leave a message for Shirou, Archer finally let himself succumb to sleep.
Shirou munched on a protein bar while he followed the nun that Issei spoke of the day before. Asia he believed her name was. Asia was a short, petite nun with brilliant blonde hair. Really, Shirou was essentially stalking her, but he had nothing better to do until the rest of the Gremory peerage was done with their schooling. The curious thing about this nun was that she reminded Shirou of Sakura.
The thought of the woman he loved more than anything made Shirou cringe. He failed to save her, but now he was alive again. Banishing the thoughts from his mind, Shirou focused on the girl ahead of him. He found her running errand for whom he presumed to be the priest of the church. She was walking around town and preforming small prayers at key points.
Shirou knew logically that these rituals were harmful to him, but he just didn't care. It is not that he wanted to die, but rather he didn't have any self value. Suddenly Asia stiffened and looked to the right. Shirou thought nothing of it until he saw her eyes. Those were the eyes of someone who was tormented daily. Someone to whom had lost everything but still refused to die.
They were the eyes that Sakura had. The thought of such torture being applied to another person made Shirou's blood boil, but he managed to reign in his emotions. He was a sword before all else, and swords should not be irrational. Shirou followed her line of sight to an odd creature. It was a rather attractive woman wearing provocative leather clothing.
The black feathered wings on her back were what drew his attention. The wing span was huge, almost the entire length of her body. Shirou's mind went blank as he felt something dangerous. His body began to produce prana in response to the instinctual threat he felt inside this creature. That meant that this was either an angel or fallen angel.
The fallen angel was speaking to Asia, but Shirou ignored it. He used his structural grasping on the wings. He found a huge amount of magical circuits in those wings, with the required muscles and bones to make them physically possible. Shirou returned his attention to the nun he was following. Asia said something in a hushed voice. The fallen angel replied with something in a haughty voice.
Shirou was momentarily blinded as the fallen angel used magic to take Asia and disappear. Shirou sighed as he felt guilt for leaving the young woman. Sadly he wasn't advanced enough with his tracing and reality marble work to guaranty a victory. Shirou returned to the club house with an hour left and spent that time within his reality marble.
While Archer could manifest his reality marble or internalize it, Shirou could only interact with it while he was unconscious or meditating. Within the world with a shattered sky and lush grass, he saw the projectile sword and the twin blades in full colour as their spirits rested. Unlike Archer, who had a full life and enough time to process his memories, the joint spirit of Bakuya and Kanshou were comparable to a new born. It had yet to create a solid personality and spent most of it's time within it's blades.
Before Shirou could fall into his reality marble completely, he felt a sudden shift in the air. When Shirou opened his eyes he saw Issei and Kiba in front of him. Issei looked an odd combination of worried and glad, sitting on the couch opposite of him and serving himself tea. Kiba was beside Shirou and looked vaguely amused.
"Hey Shirou." Issei greeted.
"Your quite early today aren't you Shirou?" Kiba asked.
"Not any more than usual. It's not like I have school to occupy my time." Shirou replied. "So whats up for tonight?"
"I will be taking your usual contract while you help Issei with another attempt." Kiba smiled. "Buchou believes that you could help Issei since you are a new devil too."
"It's not like I need help." Issei grumbled, clearly upset about his recent failures.
"Don't worry, it takes some getting used to." Shirou said.
It was nightfall when the contractor called for Issei. Because of Issei's inability to use the teleportation runes, Issei and Shirou were travelling on foot to the home of the contractor. It was a simple town house with a bland, but functional, design. The door was slight ajar when the duo arrive. While Issei was naive enough not to think anything of it, Shirou was put on guard.
They entered into a hallway and a living room. Issei began to retch as he saw the contents of the room. Shirou looked into the room and what he saw made him angry and upset. A man, presumably the contractor, was crucified on the wall, without his head. The floors were soaked in blood. The dead bodies of his assumed family were strewn about with no regard for human life.
Shirou stepped in front of Issei and activated all of his natural magic circuits. The 27 circuits provided him with the prana to reinforce his body and trace Bakuya and Kanshou. For now he left the twin blades spirit alone. He saw a lanky priest with silver hair in front of him. The priest held a cylinder in one hand and a pistol in the other. The cylinder released a beam of light that acted as a sword.
"Oh, is it the shitty devils?" The priest asked, causing Shirou to have flashbacks of Kirei, the false priest that was truly a sadist that used magic to interfere with the holy grail war. "Hey, I am the priest Freed, but don't introduce yourself. I don't want to know the names of the shitty devils I kill!"
With that final shout Freed launched himself forward at speeds that surprised Shirou. Still, Shirou was faster still and used Bakuya to black the blade of light and slashed forward with Kanshou. The black blade sliced through the mans chest, but unfortunately he was able to move out of the way so that it was only a surface wound.
"Ah you fucking devils cut me! See how you like this." Freed shouted, bringing his pistol up and firing several rounds at Shirou. Shirou saw the light bullets fly towards him and used the flat of Bakuya to block the shots. However, Freed used this distraction to dash at Issei and attempt to slice him. Issei barely managed to jump back in time, but made a stupid mistake.
In combat, it was beyond stupid to leave the ground unless you had a method of free form flight. Otherwise you would be too predictable. Thus when freed brought his gun forward and unleashed a trio of bullets into Issei's right shoulder, Shirou couldn't be surprised. Issei fumbled his landing and gasped as pain must have numbed his other emotions.
Shirou dashed forward and locked blades with Freed, while his other blade lashed forward to remove his hand. Freed stepped back and brought his blade parallel to the ground, before attempting to pierce Shirou's heart with a perceived opening.
"Got you now, you shitty devil!" Freed yelled, only to curse when Shirou used Kanshou to knock the blade of course. It was a suicidal way of fighting, and Shirou knew that. He purposely left openings in his stance and made them painfully obvious. Because of this, he always knew where the enemy would attack and could use those prediction to parry or dodge.
Freed swore and shot his gun in a wide arc, forcing Shirou to back off. Behind him, Issei had activated his sacred gear on his left arm. The draconic hand covering had a large green gem in the centre with red scales with yellow claws coming out of it. However, with his right arm out of the battle and the pain leaving him on the ground.
Freed fired shots at Shirou, forcing him to dodge. Once Shirou was moving, Freed dashed towards Issei to take him out of the fight. Issei managed to roll to the right, barely, and dodge the downwards chop from the crazy priest. Freed had no chance to reengage Issei as Shirou appeared before him and attempted to bisect him.
Freed managed to duck and step towards the right. The fight was going to continue, but a female shriek was heard. Asia was in the door way, fell to her knees as she stared at the dead people. Freed gained a twisted smile as he dashed up to her. Shirou hissed as Freed placed Asia between them.
"This is the first time you saw this side of our job, Bitch?" Freed asked, slapping Asia across the face. This got a growl from the two devils.
"You were supposed to keep the barrier up!" A punch straight to the gut. Behind Issei a red rune light up, with the Gremory crest at it's centre. "See you bitch! You let the devil summon back up." This time Freed ripped her veil off. Behind Shirou, Issei was in shock at seeing his new friend being an exorcist.
Rias and her peerage appeared in the rune and grabbed Issei, who was on the verge of passing out from the pain and shock he was in. Shirou stood between his master and Freed, tensing to engage at the soonest possible moment. Freed kept Asia as a human shield, while aiming his pistol at Shirou. Shirou called forth the spirit of the twin swords and split them between his two tracings.
"Shirou come here, we are leaving." Rias called, being flanked by both Kiba, with a Black Katana in his hand, and Koneko, in a louse boxing stance.
"What?" Shirou said, practically hissing.
"Four fallen angels are on their way, we are leaving now." Rias said, before her eye widened at the sight before her. She saw the state of Asia, and she understood.
"Better leave devil-chan! I have to rape little Asia so that she learns to do her job~." Freed said. Shirou at that moment remembered. He remembered Sakura, who was debased and raped because of her grand father Zouken. The worms that eat her and brought out the darkness within her. Shirou in that moment felt rage.
Rage and blood lust filled Shirou. He was a sword, but even so he couldn't stop feeling rage. Shirou had been angry, but never had he wanted to hurt another. He never lusted to spill the blood of his enemies like he did then. Shirou ignored Rias, and he threw Bakuya at Freed. Freed shot the blade off course, but that was what Shirou wanted. He didn't want this to end quickly.
Before Shirou could charge forward, he felt a heavy blow at the base of his neck and then he knew no more.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Archer was grim when Shirou regained enough self awareness to enter his reality marble. Shirou was going to ask why when he saw his personal world. The moon in the broken sky was blood red. The grass was no longer lush and green, but a dull silver and made of blades. There on a hill was Lancer.
The hero Cu Chulainn wielded the demonic spear Gae Bolg. During his life, and even within the Holy Grail War he was summoned in, he was polite and kind and greatly enjoyed fighting battles. His spear, Gae Bolg, was of demonic origin. Of all the blades within Archer's Unlimited Blade Works, this spear was the one with the greatest bloodlust. Other had experienced bloodlust, but this spear was made for bloodlust. Shirou had been struck by the spear before, having only survived it's curse due to Avalon stored within him.
"Hey kid." Chulainn greeted Shirou, a large smile on his face.
"How?" Shirou asked Archer, no other words really nessicary.
"During your latest battle, you felt the greatest bloodlust in your life, and connected with Gae Bolg." Archer explained.
"Basically, from how I see it, I am a part of Gae Bolg's legend. When you created a spirit of my spear, it became me since I live and died with Gae Bolg." Chulainn explained, looking around as the world shifted back to it's earlier form. He looked at Archer with a single eyebrow raised. "I thought reality marbles were more stable."
"They normally are, but this isn't a realized reality marble." Archer explained, before turning to Shirou. "When you get a weapon's spirit, it takes the form and memories of the blade. Gae Bolg was only wielded by Lancer, so he is the only one who represents it as a spirit."
"Odd, why was Bakuya and Kanshou an odd version of me?" Shirou asked.
"Kid, Archer here is the only one who wielded them blades. Then you wielded them, but in both cases they weren't your only blades, or even your best blades." Chulainn theorized. "So I think that they had no other spirit to copy, and as such became a derivative of you."
"So I can use Gae Bolg's spirit now?" Shirou clarified.
"Well, he is that spirit, and this is your reality marble. It is up to you to actually use him." Archer said.
Well, this was odd, but Shirou could understand why he had 'syncronized' with Gae Bolg. He wanted to kill Freed. It was an odd feeling. He never wanted to hurt people before, but now he had this need to murder Freed. Shirou wasn't stupid, even though he was a third rate magus, he understood why he felt this way. The girl, Asia, was going to suffer like Sakura had. He had to stop it. Shirou failed Sakura, but he would never let another person suffer like that.
So thats what it boiled down to. He wanted to kill Freed because he reminded him of what Sakura had gone through. Shirou decided that he would save Asia. At that moment, he found resolve and a goal. Since the Counter Guardians were summoned, he had been on auto pilot. Just surviving every day, not truly living.
That changed then. Shirou was going to murder Freed and save Asia. Probably not in that order.
End
