At the back of the room sat Shirou his head was resting down on the table in front of him and he was staring out the open window to the fields below where a gym class was taking place. Most of the people in the class thought that he was staring at the girls exercising in the school field. But what he was really looking at was the sword held in the hand of the teacher with them.
It was a simple practice sword known as Tora-Shinai wielded by his neighbour one Taiga Fujimura so it was a sword that Shirou knew quite well for it was quite frequently brought to his house.
Tora-Shinai was quite a violent sword but that was only because of its curse so it and Shirou got along well and often talk. Well not literary talk but communicate in their own way because after it had been around Shirou for a while it developed a kind of steel sentience strange considering its not even made of it.
Though none of the other weapons Shirou has in his armoury has gained it, he theorised that he had not met any other blade that had the power or history needed to develop a personality even with his help as a literal living sword.
At the moment the two swords where once again discussing the tendencies of Tora's eccentric wielder, whom at the moment was chasing after the poor students with cursed sword in hand to 'motivate' them during their running.
Though Taiga was only a teacher in training the real teacher there as well didn't dare try to stop her, with her back ground her father the leader of the biggest yazuka in the area.
"Emiya... Emiya!" Shirou looked up to see the angry face of his teacher, "Emiya can you tell me the answer to this question?"
With his usual blank look he spoke clearly, "No."
"And why is that, I have just been explaining how to do it." Spoke his teacher through clenched teeth.
"It will not be needed in my life so I did not bother listening to you", he spoke clearly not showing any emotion in his voice and not understanding the anger emanating of his teacher at his response.
"Leave the class now!" Yelled the teacher at this Shirou nodded and left without an over word, this was a common occurrence in the school so most people where used to it. Though the teachers still believed Shirou was mocking them and not saying it because he truly felt it.
At school Shirou flunked most of his classes, though the few he didn't where able to just let him move up through the years.
These class's where P.E unsurprisingly considering the physical training Kiritsugu put him through, chemistry and history. The last two would probably surprise most people considering his grades in other subjects but Kiritsugu understood that they came from swords.
In chemistry the only thing he understood was metal and how it reacted due to his body, he naturally understood it because he saw many swords made with some strange metals. And in history he could read an entire swords history at a single glance using structural grasping so just by seeing one from a certain time period he picked up on many things.
At arriving outside the classroom Shirou did not wait there like one was expected to do, knowing that he had nothing else to do in school since archery was not on today decided to head home and practising his magecraft.
This was not the first time that Shirou came back from school early so Kiritsugu was not surprised when his son walked in and greeted him before walking to the back to his workshop.
'What is wrong with my son?' No that was the wrong question for Kiritsugu to ask himself because he knew what was wrong his son wasn't human. Even though he had the appearance of one his soul was not so he did not feel things that humans should.
For one he had no empathy he could not connect with people on the emotional level no it would be easier to describe as only having the barest understanding of what emotions are, like that time with that Matou girl he walked past her without even a second glance only realising she was in pain and did not even consider helping her.
"I'm probably going to receive another phone call soon", Shirou's 'problems' at school where always annoying to deal with the reason he always does so badly to quote him 'It will not be needed in the future'. Though most students have probably used this excuse in their lives at one point they never would have believed it as much as Shirou did, by his logic does a sword need maths to stab or Japanese to slash at someone.
'It always is difficult to teach human things to things so non-human.' This was one of Kiritsugu's hardest challenges when raising Shirou.
Kiritsugu stood up but immediately collapsed onto the floor the frailty of his body caused by the curse of all the worlds evil had done so much to him first it stopped him from rescuing his dear daughter Ilya and now it would kill him, he knew he had little time left in this world he just hoped he prepared Shirou enough for his future.
Kiritsugu and Shirou sat on the porch of their traditional house in a comfortable silence as they drank tea.
When Kiritsugu broke it, "Shirou I would like to tell you about my dream", with no response other than a small sip he continued. "When I was younger I wanted to be a hero of justice, I wanted to help everyone and stop all conflict in this world."
"Why did you stop?"
With a shallow smile he said, "Being a hero is a limited time thing I got to old so I could no longer be a hero." With a calm smile Kiritsugu looked up at the moon knowing this was his end.
In the same monotone voice came, "Dad what is a hero?"
There was no reply.
The end I hope you enjoyed this because I worked hard and I think it turned out alright. So once again please follow, favourite and review because when I see those numbers go up it makes me feel good and more motivated to write this story. Unless people are flaming me.
