After falling asleep in my bed I immediately woke up in my usual dreamscape these days. Lying there for a few minutes as I let my emotions calm down before I stand up. A couple of days after I learned structural grasp and projection I started experimenting with them in my 'reality marble'. At first it was impossible, or at least much harder than it was in the outside world. Structurally grasping the grass or the clouds yielded strange, alien results that only confused me and caused my head to hurt.

I didn't stop however and in time they became more and more intelligible and familiar to my brain, feeling no different than for example the grass in the Emiya house courtyard. In a week I could just as easily use my magecraft inside my soul as outside. My only failure was using structural grasp on the gargantuan gears of silver floating somewhere extremely far away in the sky.

The results I got from them didn't improve with the others, remaining an alien concept inside my soul. My theory was that my soul was somehow naturally 'encrypted' due to its nature as a different world inside of myself… but for now it was only that, a hypothesis.

After standing up I projected an extremely comfortable armchair I copied from a furniture store, the thing cost near a 100 thousand yen. Sitting down and immersing myself in the pads I projected the two Einzbern books I found in Kiritsugu's room. With this method of learning while sleeping even without the ability to manipulate the flow of time within this place I could learn double the things others could.

The books were… interesting. One was entirely about the creation of homunculi which goes into quite visceral details I wish I didn't need to know. However I am a magus now, and there is little room for squeamish thoughts in the moonlit world. All in all the book was fascinating but not really what I was interested in. I am sure the knowledge will come in useful some day but that day won't come for let's say… 9 more years at the least.

The other book however contained quite a few things I wished to learn after reading their basic versions in the ones Kiritsugu gave me when he first started teaching me magecraft. For example the advanced Engel Notes Illya used during the Fifth Holy Grail War were in here. There were also several recipes for magically enhanced organs and the healing magecraft to make them compatible with the bodies they were transplanted into. A tiny part in the end also covered their sorcery trait, wishcraft, and the theoretical topic of the Heaven's Feel. Both were useless to the me who knows more about the third magic than anybody alive save for perhaps Matou Zouken and most certainly Zelretch.

After I was finished reading them I started putting into practice what I learned. The Engel Note had two variants I wanted to try, both of them I 'saw' used by Illya during the war a decade from now. The first one was Storch Ritter, it was an extremely fast and agile bird moving independently with simple commands from the caster bound merely by a strand of hair. With its body's aerodynamic properties and wings as sharp as steel blades it could cut through most things. The other was Zelle, another bird with independent action but this one was a ranged type. It could shoot bursts of very dense magical energy blasts at its target reaching maximum velocities at 1500 meters a second… it was comparable to the speed of tank guns.

Casting and testing them a few times I came to many conclusions. First that the most I could use the both of them for in combat was a few minutes without completely exhausting myself at my current age.

Next that if I commanded Zelle to shoot its projectile at its maxium velocity, I better stand far out of its way. The explosion it created was enough to destroy a house with a single shot. My body also quickly heated up to uncomfortable and even painful levels afterwards, apparently to make a projectile fly so fast via magecraft was extremely prana consuming… who knew?

Resting for near half an hour contemplating my discoveries I remembered something else. In the anime there was an exclusive scene in which Illya transformed his Storch Ritter familiar into a sword that could easily punch through Rin's jewel barrier which Zelle's projectiles proved innefective against. After learning three different ways I could shape my Engel Note familiars I deemed myself skilled enough to try improvising with it.

I waited a few more minutes for my prana to recover before I summoned my familiar. The vibrant blue light its body gave off intensifying as I filled it with my magical energy. After It was fully constructed I let it fly around for a few seconds before commanding it to transform. I didn't immediately go for something as complicated as a sword, a simple cuboid shape was sufficient for now.

I watched as the wires its body was made out of shifted suddenly, the many cables connecting it cutting themselves in some places while attaching them in others. Then it imploded.

It happened so quickly I didn't have much time to react before my entire body was jerked towards the familiar. I fell forward, but thinking swiftly, I transitioned it into a roll where I didn't plant my face in the ground. I quickly looked to where I felt the link with my familiar vanish, but there was nothing there. The only reason I know what happened in detail is because my scalp was still hurting quite badly from the prana enhanced alchemical hair getting pulled with such force.

'I must've missed something serious'. I mused as I rubbed my head at the place it was harmed. I lay there a few more minutes, trying to identify the problem but no solution came to my mind, or rather there was no need for a solution because I already knew what I was doing… in theory. This was evidently not the case.

I tried it a few more times with the basic type I learned a month ago. It was a more simplistic design which led to it being much less mana intensive. I changed both the shapes and commands I gave but the results were the same. I was ready this time however and just as it was about to collapse I swiftly cut the connection and let the strand of hair fly harmlessly without me being bound to it. I was speculating that the Einzberns built some sort of code into the spell matrix. Sadly I was not nearly skilled enough in alchemy to identify it. So I gave up on cool sword familiars for now.


Projecting my comfy armchair again I sat down to look into other matters. Making a copy of the very thick and heavy Holy Grail War history book this time. It was raw historic material spanning more than a century with scribbles of observations made by Einzbern magi on several different aspects concerning the Grail. I laughed out loud at quite a few theories they made.

The history of the wars honestly didn't concern me, I knew most of it already or at least the important parts. What I was looking for was something different, I found it close to the last pages. A list of several heroic spirits whose catalysts the Einzberns documented. Catalysts like an enchanted cloth from ancient India containing the essence of a demi-god. One guess who that belongs to. Sadly (or fortunately) it is contained in a sealed tomb surrounded by several deadly bounded fields in which dozens of Einzbern homonculi died painfully.

There was one very interesting treasure in the book however which the Einzbern family directly controlled. The Das Rheingold, the treasure Siegfried gained from killing the dragon Fafnir, an unending mountain of treasure. Honestly If they had it all this time why didn't they summon Siegfried instead of searching for a catalyst to use for Arthuria… perhaps his weakness was too well known or perhaps they're just egoists who wanted the best of the best. Considering they tried getting Karna, probably the latter.

At any rate with this book in my possession many things have already changed. Or perhaps they changed even before I arrived here. The name Darnic Prestone Yggdmillenia is quite prominently displayed then subsequently slandered by Einzbern magi in the part which the Third war was documented. He and his servant Lancer were supposedly eliminated late into the war. There is no mention of Amakusa Shirou Tokisada however, meaning that it was indeed Angra Mainyu who was summoned. This is also attested by the fact that the Fourth War was held in Fuyuki and it happened exactly like it would have in 'canon'.

In the end however much I thought about such things I didn't get anywhere. The first thing I had to do was train myself up to a standard I was comfortable with. Everything else could wait for when I was ready for them. With my current powerless self I couldn't change anything anyway.

I slowly went limp in the chair and closed my eyes, finally resting my mind.


The next morning waking up I showered, got dressed and then prepared a traditional Japanese breakfast for five… five normal people that is. Taiga barged in around the time it was ready and she eagerly devoured the food that would be enough for four normal people I placed in front of her while I was munching away at my mere single portion of food. We were both satisfied in the end.

"Hey~, Shirou. It's the weekend and I finished my exams, you know what that means right?" Oh yeah, it was Saturday. The days of the week had no power over me in this reality! As a child, that is. Normally they would and I'd be in kindergarten or something, but Kiritsugu thankfully agreed that I was mature and knew more than enough not to enroll me. It was close call though when he learned that I couldn't read and write in Japanese. I had to stress to him that I knew how to do that in four different languages already for him to understand… perhaps I shouldn't have done so now that I think about it, he must've thought I was a genius or something. Also he would've been a big hypocrite if he forced me. Anyway kiddie school was averted in favor of learning magecraft and everyone was happy.

Everyone but Taiga that is. She learned about it when after eating breakfast on weekdays I simply started getting ready to train or went back into my room to study. At first she just thought it was a school break but then Kiritsugu told her he didn't enroll me because reasons and well it somehow didn't sit well with her 'I want to be a teacher' sensibilities.

In the end I had to prove my knowledge to her of all people, but when I was solving her college level mathematics problems she relented. Unlike Kiritsugu, she openly thought of me as a genius, but also unlike Kiritsugu it was not a problem. If Kiritsugu thought I was too smart he would just make his training harsher and make me study more books. This would be just fine if it was something advanced but no, since his own magecraft was so basic he couldn't teach me anything new and I was stuck reading and learning the same things over and over again, it was slightly infuriating. At least I won't ever forget them I guess.

"Shirou, you there? You seem a little out of it."

Taiga's voice pulled me out of my thoughts and I noticed her holding a long black leather bag in her right hand.

"Yes, yes I'm listening, you go ahead and set the Dojo up. I still need to clean the table."


She leaves humming something along the way while I collect the plates and put them in the washing machine. Oh how thankful I am for this thing. The first month we moved here was hectic as everything, both mundane and magical were set up. Kiritsugu didn't have much and I had absolutely nothing so I quickly started stressing to him that we needed to go buy some furniture and several household items. Sleeping on the tatami was a novel experience the first day, then it got old fast as my back hurt every morning. I also had to do the dishwashing lest Kiritsugu blow up our house with anything even remotely connected to the kitchen.

I went back into my room and redressed to fit the occasion. A white Keikogi (exercise clothing) with a black hakama as pants. Taiga bought these for our kendo practice. Usually people would wear protective gear and helmets, but that was only for sparring and real fights. This would only be practice. I left my room and walked through the courtyard, still surprised sometimes at how large the whole thing was.

Entering the dojo I found Taiga in a similar clothing as mine. Her hakama was fastened with a black belt with four lines on it. Oh yeah Taiga was also the reigning national kendo champion in the high school division. At least she's competent.

"Good, you're finally here. Let's do a little warm up before we begin." She says in a stern, even voice. This is her 'teacher mode' as she dubbed it. She told me that she's trying to emulate her own teacher, an aged Japanese eight dan hanshi kendo master who is very good at his job, according to Taiga anyway. From the stories she told me only a handful of students were left because they didn't have the will of the sword or something. To me it only seemed like the teacher was too harsh with his disciples. I don't fault him for it though, to even achieve the title of hanshi one has to dedicate at the very least 40 years of their life to kendo. An incredible passion and skill for the sport is required.

Taiga says she could never beat the old man in a spar who's in his sixties now. I'd want to meet him someday when my structural grasp is on the level of the Original's. The history and skill his sword could provide...

"Shirou, are you sure you're alright? This is the second time you spaced out this morning. If you're too tired than you're better off just skipping you know."

"Don't worry so much Taiga, I'm fine. Just thinking about… things." She looks at me strangely at that but shakes it off quickly.


We did the warm ups Taiga set for us then got our Shinais, or bamboo swords, and started doing different katas, or rather Taiga did the motion then I had to copy her. She would correct my form every time she deemed it wrong, then when I achieved her notion of perfect I needed to repeat the same sword movement at least a few hundred times. Taiga in the meantime was doing her own practice with several different katas, shifting between them fluidly like a graceful dancer. At least if I had earplugs I would think like that. Her loud shouts of HYA's and HOO's and subsequent banging of her feet on the mats dissipating the beautiful image.

She also insisted I shout when I do the motions, saying its tradition. I do it when she's supervising my training, like now, but my own voice is inaudible compared to her near ear-splitting cries. I'm worried the neighbours would call the cops sometimes.

The training lasted from early morning until well into the afternoon when she got tired. I took a few breaks between the stances, my child-like body not able to keep up with her adult one. We both took a shower then I quickly cooked up some spaghetti for lunch (I miss my western cuisine). We ate and I got some books and went into the living room. Taiga was laid out on the couch already, watching some sort of archaic anime I don't recognize on our flat-screen TV, smiling and laughing every now and then. I sat in the large armchair next to the couch and started reading a book about alchemical transmutations.

I wasn't worried about Taiga noticing anything strange about the book. Even if she did I could simply say it's a fantasy or sci-fi novel or something like that.


The last stretch of the day passed like this, Taiga went home late in the evening after eating dinner together. I wasn't sleepy and I didn't know what to do so I started randomly structurally grasping objects around the house. At some point I got into Kiritsugu's bedroom again. Yesterday I didn't finish analyzing the entire room with magecraft, stopping after I found the books. I started at the point I finished last time, noting no irregularities with either the books or their cover I moved towards other locations in the room. I found a gun in the dresser, under the bed's mattress and below a separate floorboard. All of them were small caliber pistols already loaded with ammunition. Knowing Kiritsugu as I do, I found it perfectly normal for him to have these.

The last place I found something was in his nightstand. A hidden compartment. This was irregular not just because of its place, but also because I could feel traces of magecraft within. Trying to understand the composition of the object the minute aura is emanating from I wince slightly at the void I cannot comprehend. Deciding to take things into my own hands I open the hidden section carefully. Inside there is a small gray box with a combination lock. Using my structural grasp on the container I see the way needed to open it, and do just that. The box opens with an audible click and I'm left somewhat gaping at its contents.

The shape is unmistakable, even if the proportions are off by a lot. Three large bullets lay inside, their size indicating they should be fired out from something like a hand cannon rather than a small pistol. The way they look and feel… I know exactly what they are. The aura I felt pouring from them was not prana but rather a part of Kiritsugu's very own soul. My structural grasp not working on them was natural as they destroy all magecraft coming in contact with them.

Origin Bullets. Their core made from the first and second ribs of Kiritsugu, containing a minor part of his soul, and also his origin, which give them the power to destroy most magecraft they come in contact with.

I don't want to touch them, honestly, who knows what would happen. What I do want to do however is structurally grasp them. If I could recreate these bullets with tracing… it would indeed be the ultimate weapon against any magus. Well… if I can even recreate the Original's tracing that is.

I shut the box and shifted the lock into its original position before putting back everything to what it was. Then I went to sleep with the question of how exactly could I do this and more.