This is the story of a small miracle.
That happened in a small county on a small planet.
All because of a small wish.
Let's begin...
War of the Knight Sky
Chapter 1: Vicissitude
Six months had passed since the end of the Jewel Seed incident. Other than a few visits from some TSAB members to check up on the Jewel Seed, life had mostly returned to normal for Emiya Shirou.
He went to school. He helped people out when they needed a problem solved and he started to learn how to fix the old appliances in the school because he heard a teacher complaining about the faulty heater.
It was startling just how little his life had changed.
But not all things had stayed the same.
"Trace On."
Shirou sat in the center of his basement and cleared his mind. His body tensed slightly as his Magic Circuits opened and were flooded with Od.
"Projection Start."
Prana flowed easily through his Magic Circuits. He could still recall just how hard he struggled to even manufacture a Magic Circuit all those months ago, but now all he needed to do was simply open his circuits.
That did not make his Magecraft easy. No, Shirou was well aware that he was pushing his body past its limits. His cells died, his heart stopped, his lungs burned, but Shirou ignored his body's cry to stop. To practice Magecraft was to risk one's life. Even a novice like him understood that.
But this would not kill him. Something told him that he will be okay. That his body could withstand the process no matter how much it should kill him.
This one magecraft was what Emiya Shirou was made to do.
Shirou released his breath and opened his eyes. In his hands he held a sword. A copy of the katana that he knew was resting inside a dojo not too far from here. Shirou examined the false blade. He took a swing testing out its balance.
"Hmm, it looks good." His father's voice broke Shirou out of his observation.
"There's something wrong." Shirou disagreed as he tried to put his thoughts into words. "I messed up."
"Hmm." Emiya Kiritsugu propped his head up with his hand as he laid out his own observations. "The cast time was a bit shorter this time. Did you skip something?"
"I think so." Shirou let the sword fade away after another moment of examining it. "I couldn't keep it together all the way through. It would have held up for a while, but compared to the original sword it's a pretty bad copy."
Kiritsugu hummed and looked thoughtful at the comment. "Well, I can't think of any solution at the moment." He scratched his head in embarrassment. Shirou had come to him specifically for advice. They had tried a bunch of different methods, but nothing had given them much insight on the odd Projection Magecraft. He was admittedly a little out of his depth. He was more suited to using magecraft than researching it. "Your Magecraft is like nothing that I've encountered. You'll just have to continue practicing through trial and error."
Shirou scowled as he mentally went over his last attempt again. He could probably attribute it to fatigue. They had been practicing for a long time. But that was also something that he would need to keep in mind next time. He did not think he could create an unlimited amount of swords.
"We'll try something different tomorrow. Maybe something that isn't a sword to change the pace. You said that you were able to make a spear earlier." Kiritsugu said thoughtfully.
"Back at the Garden of Time." Shirou said as he recalled the memory. The actual memory was fuzzy, but he had created a bunch of different weapons in the Garden of Time.
Shirou winced as a headache was accompanied by a sudden influx of information. The blueprint of several weapons that he had seen in the Garden of Time filled his head.
"I did." He confirmed weakly as he rubbed a hand against his head to tend to his headache.
"Then we'll try a spear tomorrow and see if anything is different." Kiritsugu said before heading towards the door. "Come on, you still need to get ready for school."
Shirou nodded, but otherwise ignored his father as he tried to filter out the influx of information flowing through his mind. He stared down at his own hands with a thoughtful look. He had made a lot of headway in his Magecraft compared to six months ago.
He had discovered he had Magic Circuits. Rather than needing to create one every time he wanted to use Magecraft, he could just open up his own Circuits. He had raised his success rate in Reinforcement from less than one percent to something easily usable.
And then there was his discovery of Projection which allowed him the creation of swords and a list of abilities that he was still trying to figure out.
"Really it was all so sudden." Shirou said soberly as he recalled those frantic days chasing after the Jewel Seeds.
Shirou raised his right arm and looked at the bracer that rested on it. It was a Sealing Device created to seal the Jewel Seed if it ever activated. The gem embedded in the bracer gleamed in the morning light as he examined it.
Before, he had been too excited over his own success to ponder the origins of his new ability. There had been too much going on in too little time. Now he had six months to think about his magecraft.
It had developed suddenly after he activated a Jewel Seed. The Jewel Seeds which granted wishes of those around them. All he could remember back then was his powerlessness and his desire to be able to do more.
Shirou pressed his hand to his chest almost as if to grab hold the artifact within his body.
"A wish, huh?" Shirou murmured thoughtfully.
It was a beautiful morning as Emiya Shirou ran to school. The sky was clear and crisp with only a few clouds littering the sky.
"Shirou!" A familiar voice shouted out.
Shirou paused in his run towards school and looked backwards at the cheerful shout. His mood brightened as he saw Takamachi Nanoha running towards him.
Nanoha caught up to him and greeted him cheerily. "Good morning, Shirou!"
"Good morning, Nanoha." Shirou's bad mood from his morning session dissolved under the bright smile from his best friend. "You seem excited. Did something good happen?"
Nanoha was bouncing on her feet as she waved something in front of Shirou's face. "Yes! This just came in the mail today."
A clear case that held a small DVD in it was shoved into Shirou's vision.
Shirou took the disk and examined it. He recognized it before he even read the handwritten text on the disc. "Another video from Fate?"
Nanoha had been trading video letters with Fate Testarossa ever since the other magical girl had left Earth for her trial. They were simple letters, filled with updates in her case as well as just snippets of her everyday life. Shirou had received a few himself. Most of the time he had replied back alongside Nanoha.
"Yes. I thought that everyone could watch it together." Nanoha smiled brightly.
"Sure." Shirou nodded as they continued towards school. "Still, I can't believe that it's been six months."
Nanoha nodded. "It's been a bit lonely."
"The letters have helped, but it hasn't been the same, has it?" Shirou had not realized just how much he had grown used to Yuuno's constant presence or how much he would miss Chrono and the crew of the Arthra.
"No it hasn't. Even Miyuki has started to miss Yuuno." Nanoha confessed while she shook her head.
Shirou laughed weakly at that. Nanoha's older sister had taken a bit too much interest into Yuuno's ferret form. It had taken all of Shirou's cunning and skill to keep the adorable animal from the older sister's clutches when she wanted to take a bath or when they went to the pool. It had been a good thing too, since they later found out that Yuuno was actually a boy their age and he only transformed into a ferret.
"But I'm glad." Nanoha looked down at the CD in her hands with an expression of happiness. "Everyone is doing well. And…"
"They'll be here again soon." Shirou finished for her before she could dwell on that thought. He missed everyone too, but he pushed it away since he knew that they would all see each other again. The TSAB still had unfinished business here.
The white manacle on his wrist gleamed under the sun as it reminded him of the dangerous artifact that lay underneath Shirou's skin. They would come back for it. He shook his head to clear the ominous thoughts out of it.
"Anyways, we should hurry up." Shirou pulled Nanoha from her own thoughts and gestured forward. "I'm sure Suzuka and Alisa will both want to see the video too."
Nanoha had gathered all of her friends to watch the video letter. On it, Fate Testarossa shared her daily life with her friends. It had begun with some awkward updates in the beginning, but Fate had quickly started to liven up after the first few minutes when she could talk without censoring things about her trial and magic.
"And then Chrono and Yuuno started to argue again. They never seem to get along, those two."
Shirou watched Fate light up as she described some argument that Yuuno and Chrono had gotten into and couldn't help but marvel at the difference between this girl and the girl in his memories.
When he first saw her, he had been awed. Fate was stunningly powerful and had easily dispatched Nanoha and himself. He had seen a girl that surpassed them both, flawed only by her hesitation to strike, a flaw that she overcame much quicker than he did.
She had seemed other worldly.
Then he recalled the other side of Fate. The girl he had seen when she had kidnapped him. He barely could recall what had been going on back then, but the image of Fate back then, covered in wounds, shaking and afraid, he could recall that perfectly. He struggled to match the two images to the same person.
The last time he had seen her in person, she had just begun to pick up the broken pieces of her life with the help of those around her. It had been a bittersweet encounter, but there was hope in her eyes that made him look forward to her future.
And now, though he was seeing her through a television screen, she seemed happy. It made him happy. To see her smile so brightly after all she had been through.
"Aren't you excited, Shirou?"
"Huh?" Shirou turned to see everyone looking at him curiously. Did he miss something important? He struggled to get his thoughts straight and remember what they were talking about again. "Um… yes?"
"What are we talking about then, Emiya?" Alisa smirked at the confusion and panic in friend's eyes. She never let an opportunity to tease the sole male member of their group.
"You… got a new dog?" Shirou said the first thing that came to his mind. The flat looks he received told him that he was wrong.
"Hopeless as always." Alisa sighed before pointing a finger at Shirou. "Your friend from another country is going to visit soon and you can't even pay attention to her video letter!"
"Wa, wait, I was watching, I just…" Shirou struggled to think of an argument.
"Hmm, it seemed to me that Shirou was watching a little too intently." Suzuka giggled. Alisa looked over at the purple haired girl in surprise before she also looked thoughtful.
"Hmm, you don't think…?" Alisa trailed off, but it seemed that Suzuka understood what her friend was trying to say.
"It would make sense. I doubt he even realizes it." She sighed sadly at their friends denseness.
"He wouldn't, would he?" Alisa pressed a hand to her face in exasperation.
"I would what?" Shirou had completely lost track of where this conversation was going. The secretive looks that Suzuka and Alisa shared did not make things any clearer.
"Eh, what are you guys talking about?" Nanoha looked between her friends with a puzzled expression on her face.
Well, at least Nanoha was just as lost as him.
"Nothing." Alisa quickly changed the subject. "Anyways, we need to plan a welcoming party for when Fate gets here."
Shirou sighed as the conversation shifted to party games and popular spots in the city. He settled down to give his own opinions, but found his eyes wandering over to the paused screen on the TV. The screen was frozen on the image of Fate Testarossa smiling brightly at the camera.
Emiya Shirou reflected the bright smile back before he let himself get dragged away by his friends to spend the rest of their day planning out a party.
The sun had set completely and the night sky was clear over Uminari.
Resting on one of the skyscrapers that littered the skyline, a small girl dressed in red stood over the city. Her eyes were closed as she stretched her senses out towards the city. A few moments later, her partner for the night arrived.
A large blue wolf with a spiky white mane wearing armored gauntlets landed deftly next to the girl.
"How is it Vita, do you sense anything?" The blue wolf raised his head as he questioned his partner.
"I'm having trouble pinpointing it. Every time I get a hold of it disappears, almost as if something is blanketing it from my senses." Vita frowned as she failed to locate her target, once more. "That large magical power, if we could find it, we could add a lot of pages to the book in a single night.
"Then we'll split up. I'll leave the Book of Darkness with you."
"Okay, Zafira." Vita tilted her head towards the wolf. "Search thoroughly, got it?"
"Of course." Zafira leaped off the building as he went to search for their prey.
Vita turned her gaze back onto the city. Whatever happened, they were not going to let this target go tonight. "Barrier Field, expand."
A red triangle appeared below her before half the city was engulfed by the spell.
Below in the city, two children froze as they sensed the Barrier enclose the area.
On one side, Nanoha looked hesitantly at the red gem sitting next to her. She mustered up her resolve and quietly snuck out of her home.
On the other side, Shirou immediately ran out of his room, pausing only to call out to his father that he would be back later; not waiting for a response. He stared out at the night sky for a moment to get his bearings before moving towards the source of the spell.
Both children ran out into the city to investigate, but neither of them knew that they were not the only ones searching the city.
Vita's eyes snapped open when something flared against her senses.
"Found it." The girl lifted her Device. "Let's go, Graf Eisen."
[Jawohl!]
"This is…" Emiya Shirou looked around at the empty city and frowned. He closed his eyes and the city seemed to invert in color for a moment. He opened his eyes and scowled at the familiar feeling. "Definitely a field spell. It feels like the ones that Yuuno can cast."
Temporal Force Field was the spell that Yuuno used to conceal them when they needed to use magic. It altered the flow to time in a set area to cut the dimensional space off from the public. Or something like that. The actual explanation had flown over his head. Shirou always felt stiff while inside that kind of barrier, like there was this invisible force trying to stop him.
But this field felt different. It encompassed the air just like the Temporal Force Field, but rather than holding him still, it seemed to press in on him like a cage set around him chaining him in place.
"But who would cast a barrier here?" Shirou asked. He received no answer. The city was dead silent, without the white noise of cars driving by or the nightlife trickling through.
Deciding to investigate further, Shirou continued his walk deeper into the city.
A few minutes of empty searching passed before he felt something. A strange pressure fell onto the area and pressed down on him. The feeling started as a strange tingle on his skin before rapidly turning into uncomfortable pressure attempting to crush him.
His eyes turned to the night sky and his eyes widened when he caught sight of an orb hurtling through the sky on a collision course with him.
"Trace On!"
Fire ripped through Shirou's body as Prana rushed down his Magic Circuits. The blueprint appeared in his mind as he rushed through every step. He did not have time to think, he just needed to make the weapon.
The twin swords that belonged to the only son of the Takamachi family appeared in his hands. The two katana were simple in design having no ornate accessories or engravings. Their quality was unmatched to the point where Shirou was sure that he could cut through steel if he tried hard enough.
The Projection of the twin blades was short. It took more time to call up the blueprint of the swords than their creation. But in the short period of time he had used for Projection of the twin weapons, the projectile had grown from a glowing dot in the distance to a softball sized bullet right in front of him.
Shirou's eyes widened. "Fast!"
The bullet was too fast. Even worse, he had been startled by the speed of the projectile. He would not be able to dodge.
But he did not need to.
The swords he created through Projection had a presence of their own. A history of battle that came with them that Shirou could use. Or rather, a history that could use Shirou.
Shirou felt his body twist, pulled by the swords in his hands, just enough for the magical bullet to pass by him only letting a rush of wind ruffle his hair.
[Tödlichschlag!] A mechanical voice toned above him.
But the iron bullet had been a feint. His attacker appeared right above him and fell upon him with a battle cry.
It was a smart plan. Two overwhelming strikes from separate directions. Shirou would have fallen for the tactic. The falling strike would have caught him completely off guard. But Shirou was not fighting with his own experience.
The sword in his right hand flipped so that he was holding it in a reverse grip and he placed it above his head at an angle. The shaft of a hammer hit the blade and grinded down the edge as Shirou moved sideways away from the attack.
Speed beyond anything Shirou was capable of shot him back several feet away from his opponent in a single step as his assailant rose back into the sky scowling as her surprise attack failed.
"She's flying," Shirou noted with a frown, so she was some sort of magical girl like Nanoha. "Hey are you the one that set up this barrier?"
The girl scowling above him was wearing a red dress. There were some ribbons and frills on the dress and she had an elaborate hat decorated with cartoon rabbit faces on it. She was holding some sort of futuristic croquet mallet that had exhaust holes near the head. Shirou's eyes wandered over the odd weapon and he immediately realized what he was seeing.
It was a Device. There was something different about it, but it was definitely a Device like Nanoha's Raising Heart. A headache spiked through his head for a moment as his mind struggled and failed to analyze the Device like it had with other weapons. The computerized weapon had not been forged in steel and fire, but manufactured and formed through unknown magic.
"Who are you? Why are you attacking me?" Shirou ignored the headache and continued to question the red clad girl. She only glared at him before raising her weapon again. The opposite hand rose and an iron ball appeared in a flash of violent red light.
[Schwalbefliengen.] The Device called out.
She swung the most high tech croquetcrocquet hammer ever and launched the ball with crushing force at her target.
Shirou darted to the side, but the attack shattered the ground and kicked up a brief cloud of dust that engulfed him. He felt the swords pull him again and he ducked just in time as the hammer cut through the air where he had been standing a moment ago.
Shirou countered with an upward swing aimed at the girl's shoulder. But his opponent was quick. She launched herself back into the air before his sword could do any lasting damage.
However, she did not go unscathed.
On her left shoulder there was a shallow cut through the elaborate red dress she was wearing. If he looked closely he could see a thin trail of blood underneath the hole.
His assailant looked down at the small bit of damage on her dress and scowled.
"Che!" She spat and swung her hammer to the side. "Graf Eisen, cartridge load!"
The hammer Device extended its staff portion revealing a small compartment that held a cartridge.
[Explosion.] The Device hissed as it slammed back into itself and fired the loaded cartridge.
Shirou choked briefly as the crushing pressure in the back of his mind suddenly doubled. It had grown from an uncomfortable presence to a near physical force pressing down on his body. But just as suddenly as it appeared, the pressure lessened from crushing back to merely uncomfortable.
The head of the hammer was obscured from Shirou's vision for a moment before revealing itself. It had upgraded to a more offensive state. The hammerhead was bigger and each end had a new component. One end had a rocket engine while the other was equipped with a wicked spike.
[Raketen Mode.]The Device gleamed in the night sky in its new form.
Shirou gulped and took a step backwards. He did not want to know what would happen if she hit him with that. His mind still dutifully painted a gruesome picture were that spike hit to him.
"[Raketen…]" The girl called out as the rocket booster started to fire. The force of the booster swung her into a circle before she launched herself straight at Shirou.
"[Hammer!]"
Shirou launched himself backwards to dodge the hammer again, but the girl did not stop. She bled the momentum of her missed swing into a spin before throwing herself at Shirou for another strike.
"Stay still!" The girl screamed out, her hammer trailing behind her.
The attack came dangerously close to Shirou's head as he desperately tried to keep some distance between him and the spiked hammer.
What followed was a dangerous game of cat and mouse as Shirou ran down the street with a trail of destruction right behind him as his opponent tried to crush him.
Shirou could see each of the girls attack as soon as they started. Every attack was as clear as day. The girl was making no attempt at hiding her intentions. She didn't need to. Anything that stood before her would be crushed by the hammer in her hands.
Yet even with his ability to predict her strikes, she was moving so fast that Shirou could only dodge by the smallest of margins.
This was going nowhere, Shirou thought as he swung at the hammer while diving to the side. His blade bounced off the hilt but knocked it off course just enough for him to escape. The girl carved another crater into the street and the force of the impact made his teeth rattle as he rolled away. She growled at another miss before pulling her hammer out of the ground and rose back into the air.
Shirou slipped under another strike and swung a sword upward at the arm holding the Device. The blade managed to slice into the arm, but it had been a shallow slash and his opponent's Barrier Jacket had blunted the damage.
"You annoying bug, stop moving!"
Shirou realized that he needed to change tactics. He needed to land a decisive strike and end this, but he couldn't do that if his opponent was constantly flying out of range. He could try attacking her in the air, but he quickly threw that idea out. He would not be able to maneuver in the air while his opponent could freely move.
Well, if his opponent wasn't within reach of his weapons. Then he would have to send his weapons to his opponent.
"Trigger on, load bullet." Shirou stopped and turned around as he poured Prana into the air and shaped it.
Reinforcement allowed Shirou to improve anything that he laid his hands on by adding Prana to it. Projection allowed him to create objects by shaping Prana into the air. In between these two steps was Alteration. Where Reinforcement improved an existing object and Projection created a new one, Alteration changed the existing one into something different.
Six swords appeared in the air in front of him. He raised a hand into the air and directed all six weapons towards his opponent. Alteration could change the physical attributes of an object, but it could also add or change the concepts of an object.
Like adding the concept of flying forward at high speeds to a sword.
"Sword bullets. Clear." Shirou chanted as he finished the process of creating the altered weapons. His eyes tracked his opponent rushing towards him as a firing hammer in his head fell. "Launch!"
The six weapons burst forward. Each sword had enough piercing force to penetrate the girl's Barrier Jacket. They cut through the air at the girl charging at him. She had no way to dodge.
But she didn't need to dodge.
[Panzerschild.]
Vita stopped and threw a hand forward and deployed a shield spell. Rather than the magic circles that Shirou was used to seeing, this one was in the shape of a triangle.
However, the shape did not change its purpose. Each blade slammed into the shield spell like bullets fired from a high powered rifle. However, not a single blade pierced through.
Shirou scowled at the defensive tactic as he created more swords around him to shoot. If she was going to go on the defensive, then he would just have to keep pressing her.
"Brat, like something like that will work." Vita called out. Her gloating stopped as she saw Shirou summon up another set of swords. "Oi, you can't seriously think that you it'll work the second time?"
"Sword bullets, Repeated Shots!" Shirou announced as another volley of swords slammed into the shield spell. But even as those swords crashed into the barrier he replaced them with more copies. The clang of each blade colliding with the shield resounded like a jackhammer as he tried to break through it with sheer numbers.
Blade after blade hit the triangle shield like gunfire. The magical defense seemed impenetrable at first, but after the third volley Shirou noticed his opponent straining.
"Oi."
The fourth volley had a sword imbed itself in the shield rather than be deflected off.
"You damn brat." She grit her teeth, the strain and vibration from the repeated assault washing over her.
The fifth volley had a sword pass through completely. The sixth volley shattered the shield outright.
"Graf Eisen!" The girl shouted at her Device as she crossed her arms to protect her face.
[Panzerhindernis!]
The girl had crossed her arms in front of her face as the blades hit her. A dome of energy appeared around her and held against the barrage of blades for a moment before shattering as well from the sheer numbers of swords. However, the barrier had staved off the worst of the barrage.
Shirou panted in exhaustion as he stared up at his opponent in disbelief. She had endured his attack like it was nothing.
The girl uncrossed her arms and winced as the multiple cuts on her body protested at the movement. She shifted her grip on her Device and glared down at Shirou below her.
"You little brat!" Shirou swallowed at the pure venom in the girl's voice. He had thought she had been angry before, but now the girl looked like she wanted nothing more than to kill him in the most painful way possible.
[Explosion!] The sound of another cartridge filled the air alongside the girl's rage filled battle cry.
Shirou felt a stab of panic as the entire area filled with crushing pressure. That same amplification technique from before!
He once again frantically moved away from the girl as she smashed the street into pieces. But he couldn't run away forever.
Eventually, he was going to run out of room to maneuver, Shirou thought as he felt his back touch metal. He glanced back and saw one of the cars parked on the side of the street. The pause was momentary, just a quick tilt of his head to see what was obstructing him, but it was enough.
[Flammeschlag!]
The red headed girl saw the opening and fell onto him like a meteor.
BOOM!
Shirou thought he had dodged. But he was lying on the ground and his body was in pain. His swords were gone too, broken by the explosion.
He looked up in a daze and saw the car that he had run into by accident. It was completely destroyed. The upper half of the car was completely gone and what was left was scattered around the street. His mind was surprisingly clear as it pieced together what had happened.
He had dodged the strike. He had pushed off of the car and started moving away when the world went white. The girl had missed him but her strike had hit the car behind him. The resulting shockwave had thrown him across the street like a rag doll.
His head spun,his body was battered to the point of breaking, his clothes were torn to near shreds and his swords were broken. All of that and she had not even hit him. His mind had categorized her magic as a crushing force and he was suddenly all too aware of the accuracy of that statement.
It was a frightening reminder of the difference in power between them.
"I am a Knight of the Wolkenritter, Vita. You can throw as many swords as you want, The Iron Count Graf Eisen will break them all." Vita boasted as he floated down, Graf Eisen resting lazily on her shoulder. "If you give up now, maybe I'll make it painless." She smirked at her dazed opponent. "Maybe."
"No way." Shirou shook his head. He didn't know why this girl was attacking him. But he was not about to just lie down and die. He was not going to lose here.
He would find a way to win. It did not matter if his opponent was stronger than him or if she had a Device. He would win.
His current strategy was not working. So he simply needed a new one. A peerless weapon that would not break even against a Device.
"Just make it. Forget about everything else and just focus on making it." Shirou whispered desperately to himself as he closed his eyes.
"Trace On."
Shirou gritted his teeth as Prana surged down his Magic Circuits. His body felt terrible, like something was shredding his insides while something else was trying to press it back together. He still had magical energy to spare, but his Magic Circuits were a wreck. At this point he would be pressing past his limit if he continued to use Projection. But he pushed it out of his mind. Just a little more, Shirou pleaded with his body. Just stay together just a little longer.
The swords that had haunted him for six months, he would make them. Even if he messed up, that was fine. Those swords, even flawed would stand up to an enemy like Vita.
"Projection Start." Shirou called out.
"Tch, you're still going to fight?" Vita pointed her hammer at Shirou as she realized he was going to continue. That was fine with her. "Then don't blame me for your injuries."
"Load Projection." Shirou continued without responding to Vita's taunts. He couldn't spare any focus on her. If he was going to succeed, he needed to use all his focus for Projection. Fire ripped down his arms and pooled into his hands.
The blueprint was set. He could see the swords in his mind. A pair of swords without any pride, weapons that were not created for the sake of killing others, but for the art of blacksmithing. A pair of peerless blades. Twin blades that were forged to reach even the realm of the gods.
All he needed to do was make them. The eight steps needed to make them flew through his mind.
His mind splintered. The swords were different than the others. They were no ordinary blades. They carried a much greater weight. As he was right now, they were beyond him.
But he pressed forward.
"Set." Shirou opened his eyes and saw Vita flying at him, hammer raised for the finishing blow.
Even a single sword was enough.
"Projection complete." Shirou decreed. He did not even need to look to see the result. He felt the heavy leather clad handle fall into his grip. Though he had rushed the production, the yang sword Kanshou lay in his hands.
Vita fell upon him and swung Graf Eisen down.
Shirou twisted his body and swung back with all of his strength. The heavy black sword in his hands crashed against the side of Graf Eisen's head. Impact. The black sword cracked against the crushing force and for a brief moment, Shirou wondered if he had failed. But the sword held and parried the blow.
Graf Eisen crushed the ground next to him..
"What?" Vita cried out in shock. The boy had done nothing but run and annoy her with shallow strikes. The most he had done was nick her and parry her attacks desperately but now he had met her head on and deflected her attack.
Shirou had a fleeting moment of victory, but it was short lived as Kanshou cracked and splintered in his hands.
The Yang sword Kanshou should not have cracked from a blow like that, Shirou knew that. He wasn't sure how he knew that, but he did. It should have held up even against Graf Eisen's heavy blows. But the imperfect copy in his hands was too flawed and thus it broke against the durable Device.
Still, it had deflected a direct strike. Even better, Vita had been stopped right in front of Shirou.
The cracked sword shot upwards. But Vita was an experienced knight and even the shock from Shirou's new found strength had not dulled her instincts enough to fall for such a sloppy strike.
Vita quickly raised the shaft of Graf Eisen to intercept the sword. However, while Shirou's attack was inexperienced, that did not mean it lacked power. The blow slammed into Graf Eisen and threw her backwards. Vita gasped and cart wheeled briefly in the air before she recovered and glared down at Shirou.
Shirou panted and stared down at the cracked black sword in his hand. He watched it shatter and fade away as the world reasserted reality. The Projection was still too far from the blueprint. The gap between the copy and the original only made them deteriorate quicker.
But he did not have time for a perfect Projection. Shirou quickly Projected another version of Kanshou as Vita came down at him again.
As Kanshou shattered blocking another strike from Vita, Shirou realized a big problem with this weapon. The Yang Sword Kanshou was amazing. It was fundamentally something different compared to the twin swords he used before. It had a weight to it that seemed to match even the crushing force that Vita could thrown around. But even with that impressive weight and strength, there was a glaring flaw to the sword.
There was no history behind the sword. Unlike the Takamachi twin swords that guided him with the history of their previous users, Kanshou was swung solely by Emiya Shirou's skill.
For all of his practice and training, Emiya Shirou was still only nine years old. His sword skill had progressed a lot since he had started, but he was still learning. Even worse was that his training was meant for a Japanese Katana. The oddly shaped chinese Dao in his hands felt heavy and cumbersome.
Shirou swung Kanshou, but missed completely as Vita took off into the air to dodge his counter. The black sword barely coming up in time to block a strike aimed at his shoulder. Vita continuously assaulted with heavy blows, retreating out of his reach before he could retaliate.
Shirou grunted as another blow shattered his weapon. His vision swam and his arms felt like they were being ripped apart. His body was being broken, Projection slowly burning him from the inside and Vita's strikes breaking him piece by piece from the outside.
But he kept pushing himself. It was not like he had a choice. It was keep going or die.
Shirou panted as he created another sword. The process was starting to take longer as he reached the edge of his endurance. It was not that he was running out of magical energy as much as he was breaking his Magic Circuit from repeated use. The only reason he could continue was that each Projection came just a little easier than the last. But it wasn't enough. He needed to end this now. He took a desperate swing at Vita but she just caught the blow on handle of her hammer.
[Schwalbefliengen.]
The mechanical tone was all the warning Shirou got as Vita summoned another iron ball and swung her Device at it like a baseball bat as he tried to retreat. The attack was much closer this time and without the speed granted from using the Takamachi swords he knew he had no chance of dodging. So he had to block.
Kanshou flashed upwards and caught the ball on the flat of the blade. It deflected the ball just enough to miss Shirou before the sword shattered from the force.
Shirou felt something in his arm crack. The impact reverberated down the blade and it was too much for Shirou's battered body. His next Projection dropped from his fingers as they had no strength to grip the handle.
But just because he stopped defending did not mean his opponent would stop attacking. She was not the type to stop when her opponent was injured after all. The only time she would stop was when he lay broken before her.
"You're wide open!" Vita cried out.
Shirou watched as Vita charged at him. He was finished. His right arm was no longer moving and there was no time to use Projection before she reached him.
Shirou closed his eyes and futilely raised an arm over his face to protect it.
A loud crash reverberated in the air and Shirou wondered briefly why he felt no pain. Had he been hit so hard that his nerves just stopped working?
"Tch, reinforcements." Vita's annoyed voice cut through his musings and Shirou slowly opened his eyes.
Standing protectively in front of him was a blonde haired girl, dressed in black Barrier Jacket with a cape thrown over it. In her hands the Intelligent Device Bardiche clashed against Graf Eisen, preventing it from moving an inch forward.
Fate Testarossa had arrived on the battlefield.
"Fate?" Shirou stared at the girl in complete surprise.
Fate looked back at Shirou for a moment before turning back to Vita. She gripped Bardiche tightly and decreed.
"By the authority of the TSAB, I am placing you under arrest."
AN: Welcome back everyone. It's been a long time. Years even. I've graduated from college, moved, gotten a job and finally decided to continue this thing.
I've got a few chapters written and finished, so expected those in a staggered release as I build a bit of a buffer. This chapter was actually already on the net in a few places, but here it is on this site. Expect chapter 2 within a month or two.
Now I'll talk about the reason for the long hiatus in another chapter as well as some changes I've made to the overall formatting, but for now, I'd like to put out some thanks. Mostly to my fellow author/beta reader/guy I complain to all the time, Angry Santo. While he's the guy I bounce ideas off of and helps me edit these into something readable, he also a better writer than I and he published his own Fate Stay Night/Lyrical Nanoha crossover that reminded me that, oh god I have a story I need to write. So if you enjoy this or want to give some thanks, head over and read some of his stuff.