Way of the Magus

Later that night, Shirou and Damian were again in their shack that they chose as a base of operations. Instead of having a fancy lab filled with fancy equipment and magical appliances like most self-respecting magus do, the workshop only had mechanical rubbish littered everywhere. Even so, it was perfect for Shirou's training.

For the past month, after helping Shirou activate his magic circuits, Damian only taught him Material transmutation and Structural grasping. Afterward, he had Shirou scan random objects and reinforce them every day. Much to Damian's surprise, Shirou mastered them scarcely quickly. By the end of the month, Shirou could see the materials, purpose, and history of every object he scanned, and his reinforcements and alterations had a high level of success.

'Either Shirou had considerable talent that was held back by Kiritsugu's bad teaching, or I'm just that good.' Damian often thought when he watched over his progress.

"Alright, I wasn't planning on teaching you anything more for at least a year, but since you made such good progress, I decided it's time for you to learn a new spell."

"Really?" Shirou almost jumped in excitement. He was a bit winded from his training so far. However, his now activated magic circuits and the excitement of learning a new spell quickly replenished his energy.

"Yeah, now that we're done with the basics, you're ready to learn runecraft."

"Runecraft? Do you mean writing magic letters to use a spell?" Shirou tilted his head to the side curiously.

"Well yeah, basically," Damian scratches the back of his head in embarrassment. "Runes are magic symbols composed of straight lines that, once inscribed, activate the mysteries they represent simply by running magical energy into them. They're very similar to magic crest in that regard."

Shirou stayed quiet and blinked at him a few times, trying to understand what he was telling him.

"So basically," Shirou started slowly, "you draw lines with magic and put a spell into lines so that you can use the spell anytime you want by putting prana into them."

"Exactly," Damian nodded, "most magi these days don't use runes because they have a low chance of success against mages due to their natural resistance unless it's inscribed directly onto the body. For example, my old family close combat specialist. We've mastered reinforcement to the point that we can reinforce almost every part of their body with ease, including our organs. On top of that, we inscribed our body with runes to give additional abilities such sense enhancement, magical resistance, better agility, and so on."

Shirou looked at him with awe and admiration, making him inwardly curse his stupid big mouth. He was bragging about reinforcing his limbs and organs to Shirou. Shirou Emiya of all people!

A boy who suffers from tremendous survivor's guilt.

A boy whose incapable of valuing his own life.

A boy who wouldn't hesitate to fight a heroic spirit on his own.

A boy that is a living incarnation of a f*king sword!

"I'll teach you how to reinforce your body only when you're ready. If I catch reinforcing your body without my permission, I'll seal your magic circuits and make sure you can never use magic again!" Damian rushed to say as soon as he saw a dangerous look in Shirou's eyes.

"What?" Shirou panicked. "You can't!"

"Sure, I can. You'll only hurt yourself and others if you're careless. Without the wisdom to use it responsibly, a great power will only lead to senseless destruction. I need to know that I can trust you if you want me to keep teaching you." Damian lectured, shamelessly stealing a line from a movie he saw in his previous life.

"Okay! Okay. I promise I'll be careful. Please don't seal my circuits." Shirou pleaded.

"Good." Damian sighed in relief. He had no idea how to seal someone's circuits, but he knew how reckless and stupid he could be. There are mages much more thoughtful and more cautious than him who died because of their research. Better safe than sorry.

"Getting back on topic," Damian cleared his throat, "Once you've learned runecraft, I want you to practice putting Material transmutation runes on objects to make them stronger or change their shape."

"Okay, but why won't you teach elemental spells. Like fireballs or wind blades or something." Shirou asks.

"Because we don't know what your element is," Damian replied. It wasn't technically a lie. He had no idea what Shirou's element and origin were before Avalon changed it. "Until we do, we'll focus on spells that every mage can use."

After explaining the basics of runecraft to Shirou, he left him alone to practice and thought about his training. He knew exactly how to train Shirou into a competent Master for the war but not what to do about himself.

'Odds are I'm not even going to be a master for the fifth war. Most of the magic spells I know are useless against servants. With my eyes, runes, and reinforcement, I might be able to keep up with low-level servants physically, but that won't be enough. Not by a long shot.' Damian thought

He turns to look at Shirou, dutifully practicing on metal pipes and failing almost every attempt. Most would get discouraged at this point, but he keeps trying without missing a beat.

'I need an ace before the fighting even starts, but what? Shirou develops an advanced form of projection by limiting himself to… Wait. 'The realization hit him like a lightning bolt.

"THAT IT!" Damian screamed with joy while jumping up.

"What? Please don't get mad. I almost got it this time. I swear." Shirou flinches at his outburst. He was afraid that his master was getting angry at his slow progress. That he might want to stop teaching him and seal his magic circuit.

"Sorry. It's not your fault. I was just wondering what kind of magic I to learn the most and figured it out." Darius said. "I'm going to master Flash Air."

"Flash what?" Shirou said

"Eh. I'll explain later. Now get back to work." Darius said

At around midnight, when the Emiya household is fast asleep, only Damian wearing black jogging pants, a blue hoodie, and a backpack, was awake as he sneaks out of the house. He walks out of the gate and out of the bounded field.

Better hurry before they notice I'm gone,' Damian thought as heads towards the part of Shinto that the fire cause destroyed the by the end of the fourth holy grail war.

He arrives after about thirty minutes of jogging. It's only been two weeks, most of the wreckage of destroyed and crumbling buildings is still there and surrounded by yellow tapes. The place he grew up in was unrecognizable.

'Damn, this will take a while' Damian clicks his tongue in annoyance.

He made sure that no one was around then reinforced his legs to dash to his through the wreckage. After an hour of searching, he finally found it. His old house. Where Damian Dracon grew up in.

"Home sweet home," Damian sighed. "Man, even with my predecessor's memories, it took me so long because I can barely recognize the place he grew up in. The looked like a crumbling ruin."

He stared at the house that he grew up in and recalled all the memories of the original Damian Dracon. His training, his parents, and all nine years of his life before Damian died and Jerald took his place.

Damian's parents were most magi. Prideful, selfish, and cared about finding a path to the root above all else. The most significant difference is that they, for some reason, cut all ties with the mage's association and stayed hidden in Fuyuki centuries ago. They were more like a strict and demanding teacher than parents. They only cared about nurturing his talent as a magus rather than raising him. Maybe because of his potential, or perhaps that is how magi typically raise the kids. Either way, Damian doesn't have many fond memories of them.

'Whatever, they were his parents, not mine. And I didn't come for nostalgia.' He thought as he walked in and conjured wind blades to clear his house of the rubble.

Once most of the rubble was out of his way, he walked into the ruined house, entered the basement, and reached a magically sealed room. 'There it is!' Damian thought as he said as he conjured a spell to undo the seal and enter.

The room looked completely untouched by the fire. It was his family's workshop. It had plenty of lab equipment, Grimoires, magical appliances, and mystic codes. Damian smiled. This is what he came here for.

Shirou and Damian have spent most of their time practicing their respective mage craft. Shirou focuses primarily on reinforcement, structural grasping, and projection. Damian put all his efforts into mastering Flash Air. Luckily his old family some books about Displacement magecraft and alchemy in general.

Flash Air is a low-level magecraft that substitutes something for something else, and the replacements always suffer from degradation. Most magus considers it weak and next to useless art. Yet, after much consideration, Damien decides to follow the example of a magus that he hoped didn't exist in this dimension. Darius Ainsworth.

Just like Shirou, Darius Ainsworth tempered a seemingly weak magecraft into something that's borderline sorcery. Through his mastery of flash air, he can shift space to teleport, redirect any attack, displace light and sound to become invisible and soundless. He can even block strikes from a holy sword by inversing the attack's surface area coordinates.

'If I can reach the same level of mastery in flash air as Darius Ainsworth, I'll be able to hold my own against servants.' Damian thought as he relentlessly practiced. Their magical progress is going smoothly. Shirou can now reinforce most simple solid objects with a high level of success, and Damien learned how to replace the shape with another shape such as a spoon into a fork. Of course, they didn't neglect their physical training either.

"Oww," Shirou whined after Damien knocked him to the ground the hundred times. They were in the dojo sparring with wooden swords.

"That's what you get for neglecting your defense. Your offense is fine but leaving that many openings are like begging the enemy to kill you. You need to learn to dodge." Damien scolded.

"Oww," Shirou agreed while rubbing his arm.

Damian took their daily sparring very seriously. He wasn't confident that he could teach him his fighting styles since he learns by copying them with his mystique eyes. So instead, they just kept fighting. Damian used blows that wouldn't leave a bruise but would still hurt like hell. He knew Shirou didn't value his own life, so he hoped his body would teach itself to avoid pain through harsh beatings.