The First Strike
Shirou dreamed about his reality marble. Within it he had taken the married swords from the surounding hills and placed them on his work bench. They were his favourite swords to fight with so reforging them to make them safe to wield was a must.
However while he had been watching them, an idea struck him. He could make the swords better using better materials. He looked at the material shelf and was surprised to see a new metal there. The iron and steel were still there along with the starmetal but there was a new metal. At first it looked like polished gold. It was a similar colour and he could even now see his face in it. Something within him told him the metal's name "Orichalcum"
In his world there were legends about Orichalcum. Translated literally it meant "Mountain copper" but he didn't quite think that was the correct meaning for this material.
He picked up the metal and felt a warmth within him. He realised then that it was reacting to his own shard. This was a metal that Solars were experts with.
He brought it over to the forge and placed it into the flames via some tongs. The metal was magical and so it took a long time to even show that it was heating properly. While he waited he walked the the married swords to extract their story.
"Kanshou and Bakuya: Gān Jiàng and Mò Yé/married twin swords representing Yin and Yang/crafted for the sake of crafting/[ ]/[ ]/[ ]/strong affinity against monsters"
Shirou was shocked. Most of the legend was not applicable to his needs. Instinctively he knew what the missing seconds said "lacks a sense of purpose/contain no fighting spirit to defeat others/made with the best materials and a human sacrifice"
These were weapons forged for no purpose to be used for. Perhaps that was why Archer had liked them.
If he wanted to craft these blades to be better he would need to bring other stories together to fill in the missing sections. He needed to give it purpose and he needed to find greater materials.
His eyes grew hazy and he knew he was waking up. He left the Orichalcum in the forge and set his tools down as he woke up.
His body rocked slightly, he was in a hammock normally for normal sailors. The room was full of many hammocks but his was the only occupied one. Likely due to the fact that the armada had an abundance of rooms. Sailors also slept in different rooms than normal soldiers.
He got up and made his way to the deck.
They hadn't left the moment he had shown that his power had recovered, it turns out they had still been waiting for something. That "Thing" turned out to be orders, orders that they were prepared to misinterpret if they would bring them back to the isle. So if anyone asked the army was just doing it's job, returning to the isle after a long time away.
On deck there were a few sailors working but nothing much was going on. He made his way to the front where he could sit looking for first sight of land. He didn't need to do this, there was someone sitting high in the ship's nest whose job was to spot land but Shirou was practicing. His eyesight was excellent and he had the advantage of some magecraft to reinforce his vision.
Thus he was able to see the ships coming in their direction before the sailor could. From what he was told, ships were not too common on the route they were travelling so any ship seen would be important. He quickly jogged over to the high quality cabins. He knocked and waited.
A servant opened the door and he saw a cluster of dragon-bloods inside and spoke what he had seen. Most dragon-bloods ignored him but a few came with him; Nereth, Rai and Roseblack amongst them.
They travelled to the deck just as the watch called out "Ships, about 6 miles out." There was a pause as the sailor gauged the ship's speeds before continuing "Assumed to be travelling about 6 knots, towards us."
Roseblack pulled out a spyglass and looked in the direction indicated. She shook her head and climbed to the top of the ship to get a better look. Once she had she returned to the deck and spoke "Cargo ships out front, warships behind them baring Mnemon's crest. This is it then." She finished solemnly
Shirou understood from the stratagy lessons that Nereth had gave him that there had been no true first attack yet. This however was likely the first strike. Those warships would start the civil war and bring chaos across the isle. There was nothing he could do now, nothing any of them could do until those ships came close. They couldn't even take the initiative without Mnemon using the fact they fired on cargo ships without prompting.
The ships got closer, the speed and distance of the ships would mean that it would take most of the hour to close the distance but it also took a while for the ships of the fleet to prepare for navel combat. The message was spread quickly and everyone prepared for combat.
Shirou looked at the approaching ships when they were only a few minutes away. There was nothing too obvious but something felt strange.
"There!" Shirou pointed a wisp of black smoke rose from one of the cargo ships. Nereth and Roseblack suddenly looked scared while Rai was confused. Roseblack called over a messenger before speaking quickly. Shirou was able to overhear "Get the word out; the enemy is using fire ships, the fleet needs to scatter so we don't all go up!" The messenger nodded as Rai realised what he had been misisng.
He was used to a war where fire was an avoidable hazard. Just don't move through fire unprotected, it was fairly simple. It had taken him a moment to realise he was standing on a wooden boat out in the middle of the sea.
End of chapter.
Now for Shirou to have the fun with a multi-chapter battle