Natsumi saw the overhand swing coming at her and performed a wide sweeping parry, which was common when used for dealing with strong attacks.
Only this wasn't a strong attack. Though the form and footwork were the same, it was a faint. The momentum her opponent saw that she was performing her wide sweep, he would pull back on his attack, and allow Natsumi's sweep to hit nothing before taking advantage of the opening.
Only this strategy itself also left an opening.
Natsumi jumped forward, turning her parry into a slash.
"Point! Match over! The match goes to Namimori Middle School!" The ref declared, leading to Ryohei, Gokudera and Illya erupting into cheers. Natsumi let out a sigh of relief before remembering she had to bow to her opponent one last time for sportsmanship before returning to the sidelines, where the rest of her team was waiting for her, along with Sella and Leysritt, as their club advisers, and Illya, who was dressed up as a cheerleader.
Even when not in Dying Will Mode, Natsumi could still get a good feel of how her opponents would act, and after realizing it the day before, Shirou had coached her on how to take full advantage of this by setting traps. Shirou said that Natsumi's ability to read people was similar to something called the 'Eye of the Mind', and had known how to make the best use of it.
Even though she was still weaker and slower than almost everyone there, she had been able to win five of her seven matches that morning, something that she had never believed possible.
She did feel guilty, using this unusual talent of her in order to basically cheat in a sporting event against people who had spent years trying hard to learn how to do it the right way. But if Natsumi was cheating, then what was the rest of her team?
While Kusakabe had managed to win five out of six matches and Gokudera had won four of his seven matches, Ryohei and Shirou had both yet to have a point scored against them, save for one penalty placed against Ryohei by a ref who believed his shouting to be unsportsmanlike conduct. Ryohei's absurd speed and strength aside, having Shirou fighting against normal middle school students was simply unfair. Natsumi was pretty confident in saying that he could probably take on all the other contestants blindfolded if she had wanted too, even without using his superhuman strength.
With Shirou and Ryohei around, only one of the other three had to win their rounds in order to win them the entire set.
"Way to go, Judaime." Gokudera said as Natsumi got back to the rest of her team as Kusakabe went out for his match. The silver haired boy held out a bottle of water for her as she smiled one of those smiles that left the girl uncomfortable.
"Thanks." Natsumi said as she took the water bottle. She almost wanted to just dump the thing on her head to cool off. She had been wearing the protective gear for nearly three hours now and it was uncomfortably hot.
As it turned out, there were a LOT of middle schools in the area which meant that even a prelim meant to select the top eight of them to go on to nationals was time consuming. Especially because someone on the board planning on this stuff didn't want the standard tournament format for the selection and instead made it triple elimination rather than just single, so until a school lost three sets, they were still technically in the tournament.
While this did mean that one bad match up wouldn't result in your school losing their shot at a spot in the national tournament, it did mean that the entire thing was dragging on, even with eight different matches all going on at once. Natsumi was almost scared that it would extend into another day.
They had started in the early morning, but even as it started to reach the afternoon, and out of the thousand schools that were registered in the tournament fewer than a hundred of them still remained.
"After this we will be given an hour and a half to have a lunch break, while blocks 3 and 4 run through their rounds." Shirou said as he watched Kusakabe match. "As I thought. Their faint based style is a bad matchup for him." No sooner did he say it than Kusakabe took his first point against him. "This next round they will be over confident and go for a strike to Kusakabe-san's left side. He'll catch it and counter for the point."
Sure enough, it all played out just the way Shirou said that it would.
"That's just scary." Gokudera mumbled.
"Onii-chan is amazing!" Illya said with a wide smile.
"How do you do that?" Natsumi asked. She might be able to read the flow in the moment, but she couldn't make such predictions so far ahead.
"A consequence of fighting within a set of rules, and with very specific weapons and styles. It makes everything predictable if you have enough insight into the fighters' habits. While I can't see the future, I can make some good guesses as to what might happen." Shirou said with a shrug. "It's something you can pick up with enough experience."
"You can think of it like rock paper scissors, while it seems on the surface that it is all just a game of chance, there are psychological tendencies involved that could help you win, if you understand them. Kusakabe and Gokudera are particularly easy to read, as Gokudera follows premade strategies to the letter until something breaks and Kusakabe is dependent on his size for an advantage." Reborn commented. "Kusakabe-kun is going to end up losing the final point, trying to press his earlier momentum to end the match quickly and get parried. I'm guessing in the first seven moves."
"Something like that." Shirou agreed with a small nod of the head.
"No way…" Illya said a little crestfallen. They already had the three wins for this set, so it didn't actually matter, but she felt bad for Kusakabe, who was giving it his all.
"So far the matches have been pretty easy, but we are getting to the point where most of the weakest teams have already been eliminated." Shirou said. "We should start scouting our opponents soon and figure out our round orders and individual strategies in order to take advantage of weaknesses and minimize their strengths. Gokudera's match should probably be our accepted loss, if needed."
"Fuck you!" Gokudera growled, earning him a slap to the head from Sella for swearing in front of Illya.
"Is that really necessary?" Natsumi asked. "We've been doing pretty well so far, and with you and Onii-san on our team, I can't see us failing to qualify for nationals."
He might have had a point, but they were already more than halfway through their matches and had yet to really lose any of them.
"Overconfidence is the enemy. A warrior must never assume that they have won until after the dust has settled." Shirou said with a slight smile as the ref called the match, Kusakabe losing on the seventh move. They just needed to win at least two more of their five matches to win a stop in nationals.
"Sorry, everyone." Kusakabe said as he took off his helmet. He was clearly disappointed at his own performance, though there was nothing that could be done.
"You all have only had one week of training. You're doing better than anyone could have expected of you." Shirou said with a small shake of the head.
"I'm sorry I cannot live up to your example, Emiya-senpai." Kusakabe said with a bow.
"That… was supposed to be a compliment." Shirou said awkwardly, before giving Ryohei a pleading look.
"Ysh." Ryohei said before coming forward and placing hands on Kusakabe's shoulders. "Chin up. There isn't anyone in the world who's never been knocked down before. That is simply life. What separates the men from the failures is that a man never lets being knocked down keep them down. Even after the count is up, a man still pushes himself to stand on his own power."
"Sasagawa…-senpai." Kusakabe said, blinking in surprise at the serious expression on Ryohei's face.
"Men always stand back up. We do it, not because we want to win, but because we know that all of this, everything that we have done, everything that we are doing now, and everything that we will ever do, is just preparations. And that when the chips are down, when real men are needed, when we can't afford to be knocked down, we will be ready to put our lives on the line. That is what it means to be a boxer." Ryohei finished his speech, leaving everyone staring at him with held breath.
*Ryohei cast Motivational Speech at the 5th level.*
*Up to five characters that can hear him gain 15 temporary hit points and have advantage on Wisdom saving throws for 1 hour. If an affected character is hit by an attack, it has advantage on the next attack roll it makes. Once an affected character loses the temporary hit points granted by this spell, the spell ends for that character.*
*All characters gain an inspiration.*
"Ysh! Now it is EXTREMELY my turn!" Ryohei shouted, picking up his helmet and almost seeming to glow as he walked out onto the field, the crowd's voices dampand by his heroic strut.
"What just happened?" Illya asked with a tilt of her head.
"...I need a smoke." Gokudera mumbled, patting his body in an attempt to find where he had hidden his lighter.
Natsumi gave a sigh of relief as she splashed water on her face.
She had been in the Kendo protective gear for hours now, and the heat and sweat had been starting to build up. So she was glad for the opportunity to take it off and cool down a bit. She was still in the sweaty uniform, but at least the thick protective padding was off.
The group had split up to go to their respective bathrooms while Leysritt, Kiritsugu and Irisviel went to pick out a spot for them to have a picnic. Shirou had packed two whole coolers full of food the day before. When Illya asked if the food would still be good after almost an entire day, he admitted to having enchanted the coolers in order to make the food inside of them last better. It wouldn't have completely fresh out the oven taste, but it would still be better than anything they would get from the tournament committee.
"You two all done?" Sella asked Natsumi and Illya as she dried her own hands.
"Yeah, I think so." Natsumi said as she picked up her various things in a strained duffle bag.
"We should probably just go to try to find Irisviel's group. Something tells me that the boys might take a little longer to take care of business." Sella said with a smile.
While the ladies' bathroom had been almost completely empty, the men's room had a bit of a queue going for it. Made sense given how skewed the population of men to women in Kendo was. Though there was technically no division between sexes in the group competitions, Natsumi hadn't seen more than three or four girls that entire day. Same went for the people coaching the different clubs.
Leysritt had jocked that their group was the envy of everyone there, because they had five beautiful girls in it. Natsumi wanted to roll her eyes at the comment and say that people only think like that in cartoons and that there were some schools that had brought cheer squads with them… but they did seem to be getting a lot of stares. She supposed that Sella, Leysritt and Irisviel all looked like they could be models, while Illya looked really cute dressed up as a cheerleader.
Illya had tried to insist that Natsumi was pretty too… but given that she was dressed in the Kendo uniform and usually had a helmet on, she highly doubted half the people even realized she was a girl. She appreciated the younger girl saying so though.
"I hope all the boys get through quickly. Ryohei wouldn't stop going on about how you need thirty minutes to digest before an 'extreme' workout. I'm kind of worried that he won't eat at all if he doesn't have that extra time." Natsumi chuckled.
It had been something that the boxer had insisted on when Shirou asked what people would want for lunch, something that would digest quickly and was high in nutritional value. Shirou didn't seem to worry as much about it, but conceded to the man's wishes.
Natsumi wondered why Shirou wasn't worried about cramps when Reborn explained to her that Flame Active individuals tended to process food a lot faster than normal people, especially those with the Sun element.
Ryohei treated his body like a temple, and did everything he could to take care of it, reading all kinds of healthy living guides. It had also been the reason he punched Gokudera in the face when the boy approached him with a lit cigarette, afraid of the second hand smoke.
"I'm sure they will be fine, though if we get to the picnic first, that means we get the first pick of all the snacks." Sella said with a slightly teasing smile.
"I didn't realize you had a gluttonous side, Sella-sensei." Natsumi said with a sigh, closing her eyes for dramatic effect as they walked along.
She should have kept them open.
As Natsumi reached a corner, she heard a loud squeal, and barely even started to turn her head when someone ran into her at high speeds, the both of them tumbling to the ground.
"Ouch…" Natsumi said as she rubbed her shoulder, slightly more glad for the thick clothing cushioning her.
"I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" The girl who rammed into Natsumi asked as she helped Natsumi back up.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Natsumi said before looking at the girl's face and blinking in surprise.
While the girl was taller than Natsumi was and looked to be a few years older, her appearance was startlingly similar. Hair color, eye color, complexion, general shape of the face, it was almost like looking in a mirror. The only difference being that this girl's hair was a bit shorter. She also had a lively energy about her that Natsumi rarely had.
Even so, the two of them looked more alike than Natsumi and her own parents, especially with them both wearing Kendo practice clothes on, leading to Illya looking back and forth between the two saying "Long lost older sister?"
But even beyond their similarities, Natsumi thought that she seemed familiar, as though she had met this person somewhere else before, but couldn't put her finger on it.
"Sorry, I'm such a klutz. Stuff like this always happens whenever I'm in a hurr… EEII!" The girl gave a loud squeal as she looked down at the ground. "My lunch." She mumbled weakly as she fell back down to her knees, mourning the loss of what appeared to be one of the lunches they were handing out to the participants who hadn't remembered to bring their own.
"Sorry." Natsumi said as she weakly tried to help pick the stuff up.
"It's not your fault. I shouldn't have been running." The girl replied with a sigh, even though her stomach gave a small rumble.
"Is everything alright? We heard a yell." Shirou said as he and the other boys came bolting around the corner, though he froze when he saw Natsumi and the other girl, recognationish and shock entering his ever so transparent expression. "Fuji-n…" He started, but then his words seemed to get caught in his mouth. Shaking his head, he looked over the situation, before a sort of smile came over his face. "Some things never change."
"Um… Have we met?" The girl asked with a tilt of her head.
Shirou chuckled weakly in response before answering with his own question. "Would you like to join us for lunch?"
"So good!" Fujimura Taiga squealed as she ate one of the egg sandwiches that Shirou had prepared the day before. The sound of it throwing the boy back almost twenty years by his reckoning, to the time when Kiritsugu had first brought him in and Taiga had only been a highschool student. Those happier times. While the age difference between the two of them had changed dramatically, it seemed as though the age gap between her and Illya was pretty much the same, with Illya turning nine soon while Taiga was in her final year of mid school.
Odd, considering that everyone but him seemingly born fourteen years later than in Shirou's original timeline, with Shirou only being seven years later. Rin could probably have explained how this all came to be, but Shirou personally didn't worry about it too much. Thinking about such things too much only led to you going as mad as Zelretch.
Taiga's hair was short, like how she wore it later in life, rather than the ponytail she had in highschool, but it wasn't the hair that made Fuji-nee Fuji-nee. It was the boundless energy, and the paradoxical mixture of being an overbearing adult and a completely helpless child that made her who she was.
Because Shirou had been basically watching Natsumi grow up, it hadn't really occurred to him how much Natsumi was like his old surrogate older sister, not just in appearance, but in their slightly klumzy nature and how they always seemed to be running late for something… as well as their OTHER similarities.
"Feel free to have as much as you like. I made plenty." Shirou said as he relaxed.
"Wow, you made all of this yourself?" Taiga asked. "You must be an amazing cook."
"Yep, Onii-chan is the best!" Illya said as she ate some of her mini sausages.
"Some might even call his cooking 'magical'." Reborn joked with a teasing grin.
Shirou was going to roll his eyes at the fake baby's joke, but Natsumi gave a small choking sound that didn't sound like laughing. "Hm, is something wrong?" Shirou asked the girl as she struggled to get the food to go down the right way.
"I... I'm alright." She said, turning a little red as she looked at the meal in front of her. "Shirou-senpai, you didn't… put any of your blood in… the food, did you?" She asked, a little worried.
Shirou couldn't help but snort with laughter. "I don't make a habit of doing such things."
"Why would Onii-chan put his blood in it?" Illya asked.
"No reason." Natsumi said, avoiding the girl's questioning eyes.
"Man, bumping into you is the luckiest thing to happen to me all day." Taiga cheered.
"Luck huh." Shirou hummed as he swirled his tea a little, looking up at the clouds in the sky.
Even since the first time a Magus figured out how to measure 'Luck', there had been debates as to what 'Luck' even was. Some believed that it was the power to defy one's fate, while others claimed it to be the opposite, saying that it was being fated to succeed or fail, despite the odds stacked against you, or in your favor. Zelretch admitted to knowing the true answer, but refused to tell anyone just so that he could laugh at them.
Shirou tended to lean towards the former option, but in the end, it was all the same. Archer, who according to Rin had the lowest 'Luck' that the Holy Grail's summoning system was capable of recording, had been unable to succeed in escaping his own fate, even when given a functionally infinite number of tries.
Was that his luck being too bad to escape his fate, or was it that his fate was to fail all along?
The concept of fate was one that frightened Shirou, especially in this new life. Even in a completely different timeline, with completely different situations, he still managed to be found by Kiritsugu. He still became Illya's older brother. He still ended up running into Fuji-nee. He still ended up involved in a Moonlit World. All if it happened without Shirou's input, and with him almost being powerless to stop it.
Was all of it fate?
It frightened him, because while everything so far had been positive, what about everything else? What about his mother and father's deaths from the Grail's curses? What about the Grail War in general? ...What about Illya?
"So what school are you guys from?" Taiga asked cheerfully as she tried to make small talk.
"We're from Namimori Middle School." Natsumi replied.
"No way! So you're also from one of the currently undefeated schools." Taiga said before grinning and puffing out her chest. "I guess that means we will probably be seeing each other on the field of battle soon. My Homurahara Middle School team also hasn't lost a match."
"Huh? If your teammates are capable of carrying along a klutz girl like you, then they must be pretty good." Gokudera scoffed. He had been moody ever since they had gone to the bathrooms, when the boy decided to use explosives to scare everyone else away, so that he could get back to Natsumi sooner, and Shirou slammed his head into the ground and threatened to slit his throat open if he ever tried that again.
"What did you say, you delinquent brat!?" Taiga shouted at the boy, causing a collective shiver in some of the younger members of the group as they all swore they heard a tiger's roar. Shirou only smiled and sipped his tea, letting the nostalgia carry him away. Ryohei was almost giddy with excitement after feeling the girl's fighting spirit. "I'll have you know that I am the star of my school's team!" She huffed before sitting back down and grabbing a third riceball.
"In that case, you should EXTREMELY join our boxing club!" Ryohei said, a fire burning in his eyes.
"Boxing club?" Taiga asked through a mouthful of rice.
"That's right! Though we are taking part in this Kendo Tournament, our true identity is the EXTREME Namimori Middle School Boxing Club!" Ryohei shouted, so loud that people all around were turning their heads to see what was going on.
"...Really?" Taiga asked, looking to Natsumi for confirmation, to find the girl frantically shaking her head.
"It's true that we aren't really the Kendo Club, but only Sasagawa-senpai is part of the boxing club." Kusakabe explained.
"Wait, if you aren't part of the Kendo Club, then why are you competing?"
"The entirety of the school's Kendo Team and its advising instructor were all recently expelled. Emiya-senpai was selected to assemble and train a new team in time for this competition." Kusakabe said, nodding his head in Shirou's direction.
"Emiya?" Taiga said, frowning a bit before her eyes popped open wide. "Now I remember! You're that guy who won the nationals in the Kyudo competition last year! The one who never missed the center of the bullseye even once! Emiya Shirou!"
"Oh, right. That." Shirou said, awkwardly looking away. Honestly, he meant to miss one or two shots… but Illya had been there and he might have gotten a little carried away to make her happy…
"That's right, Onii-chan has never missed a shot ever!" Illya said happily.
"Geez, so not only are you a genius when it comes to archery, you also know Kendo, huh?" Taiga said. "I remember the news article saying that you weren't even in the Kyudo Club either. Are you trying for a repeat performance?"
"Not really. It's just our school's prefect badging me to do it and me finding just going along with it is easier than dealing with him." Shirou said with a shrug.
"Emiya-senpai." Kusakabe said with a slightly worried expression.
"So… not even Natsumi-chan is really into Kendo?" Taiga said, looking at the girl with a hopeful expression, only to see the look on Natsumi's face and immediately know the answer. "And here I was thinking I finally found another girl who was into Kendo." She said, sulking a little.
"Well…" Natsumi said awkwardly, trying to think of something to say that wouldn't hurt Taiga's feeling.
Unfortunately, Gokudera was there.
"As if Judaime would waste her time with something like a Kendo Club. Our boss has more important things to do." The silver haired boy scoffed.
"Gokudera!" Natsumi shouted at the boy in frustration. Would it hurt him not to be an ass for five minutes?
"Judaime? Boss?" Taiga said, seeming to only pick up on those words.
"That's right." Reborn chuckled. "Natsumi-chan here is going to be the Tenth Generation head of the Vongola Famiglia."
"Reborn!" Natsumi said, shocked to hear him say it to just some girl they randomly met at competition.
Though if that shocked her, then Taiga's reaction was the proverbial bombshell. "You too, huh?" Taiga said with a weak chuckle.
"Me too?" Natsumi repeated, not understanding what Taiga meant, until someone else joined the scene.
"There you are, Taiga-chan. I was wondering where you had run off to this time." Said an old man dressed in an old cotton Yukata, with a tiger striped coat over it. With his wrinkled face seemed, along with his clothes gave him the look of a fearsome beast. Even his friendly smile seemed a bit dangerous. The moment Natsumi saw him, the word 'Yakuza' popped up into her head. "You were supposed to meet up with me by the front gates, and here I find you having a picnic without me."
"Sorry grandpa, I… might have forgot." Taiga said, rubbing the back of her head and giving the man one of her big smiles.
"That's just like you. Though I have to admit, you've managed to find yourself in interesting company." Raiga said. As he walked forward he glanced at Kiritsugu, Irisviel and Reborn. "I don't think we have ever formally met, but let me introduce myself. I'm Fujimura Raiga, leader of the Fujimura Group and Taiga-chan's grandpa."
"The Fujimura Group?" Natsumi said, the pieces falling into place as Kiritsugu returned the greeting.
"That's right, Fujimura Raiga is the leader of a Yakuza group that operates out of the city of Fuyuki. Which makes Taiga a Yakuza Princess." Reborn said cheerfully.
"Hiieee!" Natsumi squealed.
"Yeah, that's right." Taiga said, chuckling a bit. "But I don't have any intention of going into the family business, so I usually just pretend like it has nothing to do with me. I'm guessing from your reaction earlier that Natsumi-chan is the same way. Honestly, who'd ever want to be a shady business dealer for the rest of their lives?"
"Oy, Taiga-chan, don't say that in front of Reborn-sama." Raiga said with a sigh. "First you abandon me at the gate to go eat lunch with your new friends, now you are just making me look bad. What happened to the cute little tiger cub who loved her poor old grandpa?"
"Grandpa, don't call me that in front of everyone!" Taiga cried, blushing a bit in embarrassment.
"Would you like to join us? There is plenty of food to go around." Shirou offered Raiga, completely at ease with the old man.
"Thank you for the invitation." Raiga said before sitting down and grabbing a riceball of his own.
Kiritsugu glanced at his son with a single half raised eyebrow, surprised that he was so calm about this Yakuza boss, when he still treated Gokudera and Reborn with near enough open hostilities. Shirou supposed that since he never went to Fuyuki, this Kiritsugu never became friends with Raiga. He had no way of knowing that Raiga had been the one to arrange his funeral, or that he had Taiga named Shirou's legal guardian.
"Does this mean that Fujimura-san is a magical girl too?" Illya asked, looking at Taiga with a new level of curiosity.
"Magical girl?" Taiga and Raiga said together, not having a clue what Illya was talking about.
Reborn jumped up onto Raiga's shoulder and started to whisper into the man's ear, the Yakuza boss going quiet as he listened, then the old man burst into laughter. "That is the most adorable thing I have ever heard!" He boomed, holding his gut as he laughed.
"What? What is it grandpa?" Taiga asked, until Raiga leaned in and passed the word onto his granddaughter. "That is so CUTE!"
"Wha? What did Reborn say?" Illya asked, confused by the sudden laughter, that cute flustered look on her face.
"Oh don't you worry little girl. It's just an inside joke." Raiga said waving Illya down. "And yes, yes my little tiger cub is a 'magical girl' too."
"Grandpa!" Taiga said, blushing again from either the nickname or being called a magical girl. He didn't seem concerned with his objection and just continued to laugh his throaty laugh.
Shirou smiled, remembering how Raiga had been easily charmed by Illya in his previous life too. As gruff looking as the man was, and as much less-than-legal loaning and security work he did, he had a soft spot a mile wide.
Even in another world, some things never change.
Ryohei: Cleric with EXTREMELY high Strength, Endurance and Charisma, but low Wisdom and Intelligence. Worships EXTREME boxing.
Shirou: Oath Breaker Paladin/Warlock (Since once you connect him to a larger power source he cleans house.)
Natsumi: Sorcerer (Since all her power comes from good genetics and just casts Fireball on people all day every day)
Reborn: Gunslinger (Action surge for days)
Illya: Sorcerer (Same as Natsumi)
Hibari: Berserker (Eats damage without a care)
Gokudera: ...Ranger? (Since no one cares)