Chapter 11: The magic awakens

After we parted ways, Tohsaka, Archer and I went home without any further conversation. We silently walk home and I do not even know what I am supposed to say. As we arrive at my house, I reach out for the door as suddenly the door is thrown open.

"Don't even think of entering-"

It is Saber who points her invisible sword at me in a crouched position. She looks very furious. Luckily, she does not attack us after seeing me and puts back her sword.

"It's you, Shirou"

For a while we look at each other, while Saber glances rather angrily at me. Since I do not say a word, Saber takes the initiative.

"Any explanations?"

Oh, yes. Makes sense, she wants to know why I ran away without telling anyone where I was heading.

"Can't we enter first?"

"No, you will explain yourself here and now"

Saber is so determined that I cannot object, thus I tell her everything that happened. The church, the conversation with Kotomine and his kidnapping. I also tell her about the interference of the Mage's Association and the Lord as well as his offer. Saber listened to my story very carefully and so did Tohsaka and Archer. After giving her all the information which she demanded, I await her offering me to enter.

"That was very reckless of you. At least you should have brought me along and if the Lord and his friends as well as Rin and Archer wouldn't have helped you, you would have been dead now. Therefore, will you promise to always bring me along wherever you go?"

"I can't do that, Saber! You can't always accompany me wherever I go. This is simply impossible"

"Then let us agree that you will never be alone from now on. At least one of us will go with you- and to make a fair deal, let's say no one of us is allowed to go outside on their own. Doesn't that sound fair, Emiya-kun?"

Did they plan this from the very beginning? Tohsaka's proposal sounded way too monotone. Still, I think I have no other choice left than to accept the condition. I can feel the stare of everyone increasing their pressure on me, so I must give in or else I am not sure what might happen to with me.

"I accept"

"You're a weakling after all. You can't defend yourself and… you can't protect anyone else, am I right?", Archer responds.

I cannot tell how he is feeling right now, but anger and desperation take the biggest part in his feeling cocktail right now. What was his intention by saying this to me and why… why did his words hurt me so much? It is true that I am unable to save any person, but hearing it from Archer… it is a strange feeling.

"Hey, Emiya-kun! Get in already, it's getting cold outside"

Tohsaka interrupts my train of thoughts, thus Archer and I go inside. It is… silent. It might be nothing too surprising, but lately the house was filled with people and lively sounds that I did not expect by now. I enter the living room to see nobody. Then, a thought crosses my mind and it is so obvious that I am surprised how I have not thought of it earlier.

"Where are Straw Hat and Rider and why did you three remain here?"

"This house is our base after all and we must protect it. We can't leave it defenseless, so we three stayed here to ensure the security of this place. Besides, Rider insisted to stay at Sakura's side", Saber answers.

Well, it sounds reasonable. I say goodbye to the others. Tohsaka, Archer and Saber leave the room to go to their respective rooms. I am alone now. Although I should also rest after this eventful day, I have to go to the storehouse, because I must resume my training.

After opening the door of the storehouse, I grab a pipe and sit down. The room is filled with various junk that I use to train. I firmly grab the pipe with both hands and close my eye. After letting the air escape my lungs, I concentrate on the pipe in my hands.

"Trace on"

As always, a slightly burning feelings make their way through my inner body, but the pipe glows up. Several strands of turquoise color appear on the surface of the pipe. I am very happy about the outcome, but suddenly I feel a pain rushing up my hands and arms and then I am thrown away.

"It didn't work… again…"

The pipe stopped glowing and the Reinforcement of the object failed. Day after day, I try to reinforce various objects, because that is the only magic allowed for Emiya Shirou. As I frustrate about the result, I hear someone approaching the storehouse.

"Emiya-kun, are you around here? You said you will come to my room tonight and now I am searching for-"

There she is, standing in front of the storehouse and staring at me as if she has seen a ghost. However, she raises her right hand and is obviously disappointed at the sight.

"Why are you lying on the ground? Did you triple over something, because you forgot to turn on the light?"

"What, no! I was just… inspecting some stuff here"

"Inspecting some stuff, you say? What kind of stuff exactly?"

I look around and quickly grab the pipe that I let go mere moments ago in order to hold it up as evidence.

"See, I was searching for a pipe and I found it, but as I wanted to leave the storehouse again, I fell on the ground"

"Interesting. Now, the truth?"

Guess, I cannot lie to her; she must be talented to detect lies, since she is a good liar herself. Therefore, I lower the pipe as a sign of defeat.

"I was training some magic with this pipe… are you satisfied now?"

Tohsaka enters the room and sits down next to me. A little bit too close to my likings.

"Good timing, because I actually wanted to teach you some magecraft"

"What, you want to teach me about magic?"

Tohsaka, the one who always laughs about my abilities as a magus and brags about her own superior abilities? She wants to teach me about magic? I think the burst from the pipe was so strong that I fell unconscious and now I am dreaming.

"Why? Do you have any problems with it? I just wanted to help you, well because… you know, I think you deserve proper teachings"

"Well… thanks, I assume?"

I am still too startled to answer right now. Tohsaka leans back and looks at me.

"So, what kind of magecraft did you learn so far and in which fields did you advance?"

"Well… I begged my father to teach me magic as a kid, but he always refused. At some point, I was able to convince him somehow and he agreed to teach me the basics. However, I wasn't able to learn anything at all and I ended up liking… projection magic. My father told me it is useless and tried to teach me other stuff, but he died before I could really advance in any specific field. Since then, I have always trained Reinforcement magic in this storehouse, but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't… do you maybe know why?"

Tohsaka views me like I failed to calculate one plus one. She averts her eyes and stares outside the storehouse into the sky. Suddenly, she throws a little tantrum.

"AAAAA, Emiya-kun, you are so USELESS! Projection magic is indeed a branch that is often ignored, because not only is it hard to master, but it is easier to permanently create the desired object. It is especially hard, because you try to add magical energy to an object that is already finished. It doesn't need any refinement. Do you really not have any other talents?"

"No"

"Well, I can't help you. My focus is on Jewel Magecraft, but I tapped into several other branches of Magecraft; however I never seriously tried projection magic"

Wow, Tohsaka seems to be really talented in contrast to me. So, she really cannot aid me in my progression. That is truly unfortunate. Tohsaka sighs and proceeds to speak, but this time with a normal voice.

"Can you at least activate your trigger and show me how far you advanced in Projection magic?"

"Trigger? What do you mean?"

"Wow, you really are a useless magus. Do you really not know what a trigger is?"

"No… not really"

Tohsaka takes a deep breath and changes her sitting position to a cross legged one.

"I guess, I must explain it to you… at a certain point of their life, a magus activates their magic circuits. Do you know what these are?"

"Yeah, they are inside my body and my connection to magical energy. They make the difference between a magus and a regular human"

"Correct. When those are activated for the first time, magic runs through them. Imagine magic circuits as a secondary nervous system, although they are something that the human body rejects. That's why a magus experiences extreme pain and numbness the first time they are used. They are unnatural, yet they are needed to connect the mortal world with the astral plane and convert Life Force into magical energy. Much more important however is their ability to perform the different sorts of magic such as your Projection magic. By remembering the first thought a magus had during their first activation, they can switch on and off the circuits to preserve their energy. Much like a switch for a lamp"

Wow, I never knew of this. Basically, this means magi are able to activate and deactivate their magic circuits at will… whenever they need it.

"Tohsaka, I have a question"

"Sure, go ahead"

"I thought I must recreate a magic circuit every time I use Projection magic, is that-"

"WHAT, ARE YOU SUICIDAL?!"

Tohsaka almost fell backwards and she is apparently shocked. She is absolutely terrified about what I said… am I that bad of a student? What have I done wrong?

"E-emiya-kun, don't tell me you lived, no survived your whole life like that?"

"Well, every time I want to use magic, I concentrate on creating a magic circuit. Sometimes it works, but sometimes I am thrown away"

"Do you know that you escaped death several times?"

Wait what. I did not expect that; is this method so abnormal?

"You try to create new magic circuits, but in other words you always attempted to convert a part of your nerves into temporarily magic circuits. It is pure madness and if you would have failed once, your body would have broken down from the inside. This procedure is connected to immeasurable pain and should never be used"

"Do you mean, all this years I did everything… wrong?"

"You didn't even really activate your magic circuits"

Wow, this is… some incredible new information. I never knew that kind of stuff. I am really thankful that Tohsaka is now my teacher, else I maybe would have destroyed myself at some point of life without her advises.

"I conclude, the first lesson will be to activate your magic circuits in order to prevent you from systematically killing yourself on an astral level. Wait, I have a strong jewel for this at my room, maybe if we force some magical energy into your body it will artificially activate your circuits"

"Wait, Rin. I think this will make everything worse"

He is back and since when is he here now?

"Archer, what are you doing here?"

"Just interested in the stuff you two are doing here"

Archer enters the storehouse and stops before us; looking down at us menacingly.

"If you activate the magic circuits, he will only suffer from it. After being activated, he will force magical energy in a system which he never used, thus leading to an overload of it"

"How do you know all of this, Archer?"

"Let me see your shoulder"

Archer walks behind me and lifts up my sleeves revealing my naked shoulder.

"Hey, who gave you the permission to tou-AH!"

As soon as Archer touched my shoulder, I felt my body… awakening. Awakening in agony and fire. If I had to illustrate it, it would be like firing the hammer of a gun. Yes, that is what my body feels to me like now; this is the only thing that is in my mind.

"What was that?"

"Your magic circuits should be activated now. I also induced the right amount of magical energy, so the system does not overload. Try reinforcing the pipe again"

Archer throws the pipe towards me and I do not really know what I should do. Despite, I close my eyes and concentrate on the pipe.

"Don't concentrate on creating a new one, let the magic flow from your soul over your arm to the pipe. The pipe is now connected to you", Archer's voice drills in my brain.

I do as he said and concentrate on the flow in my body. I can feel it… something has awakened and the energy is resonating within me.

"Trace… on!"

The energy races through my arm into the pipe, yes, it is truly reinforcing the object!

"See, your energy is way more stable than before. By imagining the hammering of the gun, you can switch on and off the circuits"

"Archer, why do you know all of this so precisely?", Tohsaka asks.

"Oh well, you see… I… errr had a similar… problem in the past. Therefore, I thought I could maybe help out, right?"

"You had the same problem as I did?"

"Maybe"

"I see. Thanks for your help anyways, Archer. I would have not expected you to be the person to help me"

"Me neither"

"Archer!", Tohsaka rebukes him.

"If you don't develop further, you will die, Emiya Shirou. Remember, the only magic allowed for Emiya Shirou is Projection magic. None other can be mastered by him. His very nature is twisted and so is his magic"

With these words he turns around and goes away. What the hell was this all about? No other magic is allowed for me? I cannot do anything else besides Projection? Just how much does this guy know about me?

"Well… this was unexpected, but your magic circuits are activated, right?"

I look at the glowing pipe in my hand. Now it is so easy to reinforce the pipe, it feels so smooth.

"I think so"

"Good. Try to switch them off now. Just imagine the feeling you had when they were activated"

As Archer recommended me, I concentrate on a firing the hammer of a gun. After a while, I feel the burning and the energy within me ebb away. Everything is calm again.

"My circuits are turned off"

"You are making progress. Perhaps you are not as useless as I suspected. I think we can conclude today's lesson now"

"That's all?"

Tohsaka stands up and stretches her arms. I must admit that the shining of the moon enhances her charm and elegance.

"Activating your magic circuits is a huge step. If Archer wouldn't have helped you out, you would've needed much more time and if he said the truth, it would have caused more troubles than solving them"

Astonished as I am, I let go of the pipe and grab Tohsaka's arm before she can leave.

"Huh, what? W-w-what is it, Emiya-kun?"

"Thank you for teaching me. You are a great help, Tohsaka"

She looks away from me and mumbles some gibberish, although I understand something like "Don't… idiot". However, she frees herself from my grip and quickly walks back to the house, likely to her own room. I also stand up and go back home, but suddenly I can hear a female voice.

"Making progress, hm? I guess, now you will be more powerful and much more… interesting"

A chill runs down my spine. It is her. I would never cofound the voice. Why, where, when?

"WHERE ARE YOU?!"

I grab a wooden bar and throw myself behind a pillar. Hammering a gun, activating them-

"Trace on!"

The wooden bar is reinforced and prepared for combat. My adrenalin is on a level where it should not be and my breathing gets erratic. To my surprise, no one can be found no matter where I search for the origin. She is gone. Her presence is not around anymore, too. It cannot be a mistake, an aura like that can never be forgotten. She was here, but why? H o w? Still, I let the bar fall and turn off my circuits. I hope the days awaiting me are more merciful.

As you can see in the updated description of the story, I have made an upload schedule, so I dont get confused which chapter I have already uploaded and which not (and due to school, too). I will release every monday and friday another chapter from now on