That very same day.
Shirou had managed to convince Taiga to let him spend time outside the village. Since he had returned to the orphanage, she had made sure to keep him nearby. Not that it was a problem, since at that time all he did was brood about Sakura.
But that was before he decided on his goal.
Now he was sitting beside the river thinking about how to approach magic. He only knew that he had potential. But potential doesn't produce results. Shirou knew that he had some form of enhancement magic that allowed him to be tougher and faster. The only problem was that he didn't know how to draw it out.
So that left him with the other option for the time being, and that is by getting stronger the normal way. It wouldn't be easy, but it was the first step to his goal.
Shirou brought a fist to his chin in thought. There were two choices, he could ask the Fujimura clan or the hunter group. Alright, maybe only one obvious choice then. Taiga would kill him if she heard that he was asking for help to get stronger from the Fujimura clan. Right after he had just recovered from being injured.
With the first step in mind, Shirou went off to find Yamashiro, the leader of the hunter-gatherer group.
The man would be easy to find. He always spent his time near the village borders, hunting small game like rabbits and geese while the hunting group was busy with other responsibilities. Not everyone was always available, that was why they limited the hunting trips to twice each week.
Shirou returned to the village and asked a few guards whether they had seen where Yamashiro went. A couple of them gestured that he went hunting towards the north. He thanked them and ran off to find him. If he was going to start working out, then might as well begin early.
Except he underestimated his stamina and found himself out of breath after a few minutes of running. Shirou leaned on a tree while he recovered, thinking that one of his priorities should be learning how to endure longer. If he ran out of energy quickly, how would he survive a fight? During the chase, he learned that magic was not infinite. His body certainly felt like it was burning after the entire event.
After resting for a few moments, Shirou resumed his search for Yamashiro. Albeit this time, he tried jogging to conserve his energy.
A few kilometers later, he arrived at some geese hunting areas. The location was close to a river, so they naturally flocked to the surrounding area. Not to mention that it was also far from any populated areas so there was lots of food to be found.
Quite a good place for them to settle in.
The first area was empty. Yamashiro clearly wasn't hunting on this spot, so Shirou combed through several more geese nesting sites before finding the man.
Shirou found Yamashiro laying underneath an apple tree, watching a flock of geese. "You're not hunting them down?"
"Nah, it's breeding season and I don't want to disturb them. Once the eggs hatch, we can hunt more after they grow." Yamashiro shook his head while munching on an apple.
That made sense to Shirou. The more geese there were, the more food the village got. Hunting them now would only minimize the gains later on.
"Uh…so I came to make a request…" Shirou stumbled on his words. He wasn't sure if Yamashiro would agree at all. The hunting party had been one of the first people to be informed about his injuries.
"If you came all the way out here then it must be urgent. I'm not doing anything right now so let's hear it."
"Can you train me to be stronger?"
Yamashiro eyed him with a raised brow. He shifted from lying on the ground to face Shirou. It was clear that he was pondering about his answer.
"Would this be about what happened a month ago?" he clarified after a few moments.
Shirou nodded. He was getting nervous now. Yamashiro already knew the reason why he was asking to be taught. The correct decision would be to deny and lead him back to the village.
"Are you sure? You're a bit young to be asking for it. Normally kids like you would be playing in the village instead."
"I-I want to get stronger…so that I can protect myself. I want to find Sakura." Shirou started his sentence nervously before ending with a firm resolution. If he wanted to get Yamashiro's support, then he would have to convince him.
Yamashiro stood and walked in front of him. He slowly paced around Shirou before slapping a hand on his head and rubbing it roughly. "I can respect your decision. Very well, let's start now if you want."
"You're not going to tell Taiga that I've been sneaking off? I'm supposed to be recovering." Shirou asked. He was surprised someone would willingly earn her ire. Taiga was well known for being extremely friendly towards everyone, but also a tiger when she got angry.
"I'll be fine. I'm more focused on what you would've done if I didn't say yes. You might've ran off to train on your own instead."
He was right. That was the last option that Shirou decided if he couldn't get anyone to teach him. It was dangerous, but getting stronger was his main priority.
"Sorry if I'm making trouble for you." Shirou muttered quietly. He knew that his actions would bite the leader of the hunting group later.
"Lesson Number One: Don't ask for forgiveness if you didn't do anything wrong, kid. As a man, we also have to stand by our decisions. We can't let anyone else make the choices for us." Yamashiro walked a few steps away before facing him.
"I'm not an expert in fighting, but I can at least teach you how to build your body to be stronger. I'm a hunter, not a fighter. Now follow my movements and tell me when you need to rest."
Shirou blinked. It appeared that they were about to begin.
Yamashiro moved through a set of warmups that he followed. Shirou had seen some of the actions done by the guards and other villagers, but never understood the reason behind them. Now, it seemed that they were exercises designed to loosen up the body and prepare it for more vigorous activities.
The hunter led him through several sets of each action, repeating them slowly if Shirou couldn't copy the actions perfectly. In fact, Yamashiro even explained what each exercise did. He didn't name the exact muscles, but tapped them on his and Shirou's body to show them.
"The best method to get stronger is to build the entire form evenly. You can have all the arm strength in the world, but it wouldn't matter if somebody kicked your legs out from under you. That's because your legs hold more power than your arms. The same applies to your body, if you build up all your muscles, you can combine all of them into one move."
The explanation was simple. Work on all your muscles, and all of them will work for you.
Shirou kept pushing to keep up with Yamashiro, but the older hunter decided that it was enough. He stopped their training after one hour and instructed him to rest.
"Why won't you continue? I can still keep going." Shirou asked. While he was obviously tired, he could push himself longer if that was what he needed to get stronger.
"I don't want to overdo your first day. You will see what I mean later, your body will feel the effects of pushing itself hard. I'd rather have you slowly build your endurance each time we meet. Later on, we could move on to tougher exercises once your body has accustomed itself to training."
After resting, Yamashiro beckoned him to follow towards the river. Shirou noticed that during the break, his throat started to feel dry and thirsty.
"Always make sure to drink a lot of water during each session. Once you return home, eat a lot of food as well so that you will have energy for tomorrow. I want you back here at the same time everyday alright?"
Shirou returned to the village in a happy mood afterward. He felt that he had taken one step closer to his goal. A small achievement, but something he could be proud about.
The following weeks were spent repeating the simple drills that Yamashiro taught him on the first day. Shirou found out the hard way that forcing the body to push itself resulted in pain if he wasn't accustomed to it. His body and muscles felt terribly sore after each workout session. But the pain only motivated him to keep persevering.
But his training introduced him to another problem: keeping it a secret from Taiga. The first day proved to be hard. She noticed his unusual movements and kept eyeing him like a tiger. Shirou was afraid that his cover was blown, but Taiga didn't pursue the matter.
Shirou made sure not to get too close for Taiga to see his movements afterwards.
Another concern Shirou had was his daily schedule. Since his workout sessions were in the afternoon, Shirou decided he could spend the morning honing his magic.
Unfortunately, he didn't know where to begin. His experience using magic wasn't sufficient for him to control his pathways. Yes, he could remember how using mana felt like. How it mixed with some sort of energy inside of him, and how it felt to enhance his body. Shirou could even specify where his prana circuits were.
He wandered in the nearby forest, trying to activate his prana circuits. Going through several motions to try and trigger the idle pathways, but failed to make them activate.
At least, he felt that his workouts were proving to be productive. His body didn't feel as tired and painful as it did during the first day.
After a few hours of the fruitless endeavor, Shirou resigned that he wouldn't be able to use them yet. He picked up a simple lunch of fruit and salted beef jerky from the orphanage kitchen before running off to the training field.
"Alright let's do something different today." Yamashiro announced when Shirou arrived at their usual workout area.
"Now that we've been training your body to familiarize itself with your muscles for a couple weeks, it's about time I taught you a different set of workouts. These ones are focused on stretching and flexibility. As long as you keep practicing them, they should slowly allow you to use the full range of movement that your body is capable of."
Yamashiro proceeded to show Shirou a new set of workout routines. Unlike the usual repetitions of small movements and actions, these routines forced him to push his limbs outwards, as if he was a rubber band.
Shirou found himself struggling to twist and reach the same areas that Yamashiro showed him. He was only beginning to discover that there was more to getting stronger than simply building muscle strength.
"You don't have to force your body. With enough time it will grow to adapt." Yamashiro patted his shoulder after another set of warmups. Shirou had been pushing to reach his toes a few times but could never quite reach them.
Perhaps he was trying too hard? Progress could only be achieved with balance. Too much effort and lack of ability would only hinder him in the long run. He really should take Yamashiro's lessons to heart, Shirou thought.
You couldn't accelerate progress if the body couldn't keep up after all. It would be better to listen to Yamashiro and slow down.
"How long? Before I can start on the harder ones?" Yamashiro had mentioned that Shirou had only begun on his path to get stronger.
"Don't pay attention to how long it takes. Getting stronger is a path that never ends. Even years from now, you would still be learning ways to become better. I'm not an expert, remember? I can only teach you what I know." Yamashiro shrugged. He was only teaching Shirou what he knew from experience. Sooner or later, he would find better teachers while he searched for Sakura.
"So until the day you leave, we will be working on how to improve the basics. Mastering them will help you more than anything right now."
Shirou was beginning to understand what Yamashiro intended to do. He was going to be repeating the same exercises for a long time. Maybe the difficulty would increase, perhaps some changes, but it would all be the same.
That evening, Shirou noticed something peculiar. It wasn't obvious at first, but it became clear that Taiga had been glancing at him. Since his return from training, he caught her staring at him several times during chores. Her worried appearance hinted that she knew about his daily trips outside the village.
His guess was proven correct when Taiga questioned him after supper.
Kitchen tools and wooden plates were collected and brought to the stream beside the village. Together, Shirou and Taiga washed the plates in silence. They were submerged in water and rubbed with a rag to scrub out the little smudges. There were no leftovers, out of principle. Taiga made sure to teach everyone that each morsel of food should be eaten instead of wasted.
They were alone, and this proved to be a better scenario to confront Shirou as any other.
"Shirou…what have you been hiding from me?" Taiga asked quietly. Her face was a mix of emotions.
Shirou knew that his recent activity would lead to him being questioned by Taiga. The problem was not why, but how he would explain his intentions to her. Taiga was very worried about him, and if she found out that he had been training to chase Sakura…
He was prepared to fight her if he needed to.
"I-I'm scared. That day…I felt so weak. I couldn't protect Sakura…she was kidnapped and all I could do was chase after them…" Shirou responded with a half-truth. Maybe he could hide his intentions until he announced them later. By that time, Shirou could prove that he was capable of protecting himself.
"I've taken care of you my entire life Shirou. I know when you're telling a lie. Please…tell me the whole truth. I promise I won't be angry." Taiga had started biting her lip. She cared a lot about Shirou, she wanted to understand what caused the change in him.
No child would willingly train at such a young age for no reason. She had noticed that his muscles had started building. It was a small change, but she had seen many trained muscles from her clan members. Taiga was sure that somebody had started to train him.
That was why she wanted to learn the cause behind it.
Shirou stayed silent. He didn't want to divulge the information, and both sides resulted in a stalemate. Taiga, asking for answers, and Shirou, hiding them.
"If you don't want to tell me…at least promise me that it's not bad, or that it would harm you…" Taiga wrapped her hand around Shirou's head and pulled him into her embrace. It only made him feel worse from hiding his goal from her.
"What if it is? Would you try and stop me?" Shirou asked quietly. His heart felt heavy and he wanted to answer honestly, but he had to know what Taiga would do.
"I would try to change your mind from doing it…I don't want you to make any regrets."
Finding Sakura wasn't a bad goal…but would Taiga accept it? It was dangerous, but that was only if Shirou didn't act carefully.
"What if…I wanted to find Sakura?" Shirou answered nervously. She was only trying to look out for him because Sakura was gone.
…and here he was planning to disappear after Sakura.
Taiga tightened her hug on him. "Are you really sure about this? If you are…then I won't stop you…"
Shirou nodded with determination. Taiga wasn't going to stop him. Was it because she understood him? He would never know.
For a long time afterwards, the two remained in the same position.
It had been two months and Shirou had not made any progress towards activating his circuits.
Clearly, he was taking the wrong approach. So it was time to try a different method.
This time, he tried to recreate the pushing process that his pathways executed during the chase. His previous experiments only involved him focusing on his circuits, but it didn't prove effective in awakening them.
Shirou guessed that it was the methodology he used. He was only focusing, instead of acting on his pathways. Like how a person would think of what to write, instead of writing it down. The idea was there, but the action wasn't.
He picked one circuit and focused his concentration on it. Shirou imagined that he was pushing something out of his pathways. The action was repeated several times but proved unsuccessful.
What was he lacking? Was there another step needed to recreate the enhancement effects? And what could it be?
Shirou's mind drifted to the words that the mage uttered during his appraisal.
"External mana entering your internal pathways…"
External mana? The only object Shirou had been focusing on was his internal pathways. If he had discarded an external factor, then it made sense that using magic would fail.
Expecting an outcome without completing the steps wouldn't produce results.
With this realisation, Shirou returned to observing his circuits. He focused on one pathway, but changed his attention from inside towards outside. He had already discovered the dormant energy lying within him a week ago, but couldn't seem to make them work.
So this time, he would try to focus outwards.
It took him a long time to feel his internal Od, so Shirou assumed that sensing an external presence would take roughly the same length of time. He also cycled between all 27 circuits, copying the same procedure that allowed him to detect Od.
Hours went by without any progress, but Shirou continued repeating the actions. Focus on one pathway, meditate until he senses the internal Od, then try to feel the external mana from the environment outside his circuits.
It was difficult, but he already had results to base off of.
Lunch was fast approaching before Shirou stumbled on an unfamiliar energy. He had been meditating on a single circuit for half an hour before sensing the wild sort of energy.
It was different compared to the calm sleeping energy with him. This energy kept moving, flowing around him and the environment. It was only for a short glimpse, but it was there.
Shirou grinned enthusiastically. Finally! Some progress! Who knew that sensing your internal Od was the key to unlocking a whole new world. If he continued to practice his perception of magical energy, then he would soon find a way to activate his circuits.
While Shirou's advancement on the magical side of things was slow, his physical training was not. The past two months had developed his muscles for a light-moderate workout routine. He could go for a tougher combination of sets, but Shirou was also developing endurance at the same time.
To summarise his training development, Shirou would start from light workouts until he reached the one hour limit. From there, he would continue training endurance by adding fifteen minutes each week. Once he could do a set of exercises for three hours, Yamashiro would teach him a harder set for some exercises, which he would replace the old ones with. Then rinse and repeat.
It took Shirou five weeks to reach the two hour mark that he needed to achieve. The past two weeks had been focused on improving the new set of workouts Yamashiro had introduced to him. He was still struggling to reach the two hour mark because half of his routine had been changed with tougher sets.
But that wasn't the only reason why.
Shirou had returned to hunting. Two days out of each week was spent with the hunter-gatherer group to collect meat for the village. For moderation purposes, Yamashiro also made sure to make Shirou rest on the last day of the week. Meaning that he could only train four days each week. More than half, but it was enough.
But today was different.
"What?" Shirou was staring dumbfoundedly at what Yamashiro said.
"I want you to climb this tree. At least until halfway, be thankful I didn't ask for more." Yamashiro grinned like a madman.
"Look, I know we've been making good progress on building your muscles. But teaching you to climb is also good. Trust me."
Even for Shirou, this training method seemed a little too crazy. "Why do you want me to climb trees?"
Yamashiro answered by climbing the tree quickly. He reached the top after a few moments. It was like watching a monkey crawl up the tree. This surprised Shirou. He had never seen Yamashiro show this ability to anyone else.
"You saw what I did right? Try to point out any observations you have."
Shirou pondered for a few moments. The only advantages he noticed was the increased strength Yamashiro had on his muscles, which allowed him to pull his weight on the trunk and branches.
"Is this an arm exercise? You were able to pull your entire body weight on them."
"Partially, climbing trains more than just your arms. It also trains your mind, your balance, and your reactions. To you, I was swinging on branches. But to me, I was observing and picking branches that could support my weight. It takes fast reactions for me to leap from one to another quickly, so that the branch doesn't break from carrying my entire weight for too long. Furthermore, I find this the best way to teach you about balance. Unlike normal balancing exercises which focus your weight on your foot, climbing moves your central mass around in different positions. So you are forced to balance by adjusting all four limbs at the same time."
Shirou's eyes twitched at the long explanation. Climbing looked simple from afar, but from Yamashiro's perspective, it performed multiple roles that he didn't consider.
Yamashiro slinked down the tree and walked in front of the frozen kid.
"Your turn."
Those two words would begin a new kind of hell for Shirou.
Yamashiro pushed him in front of the tree and placed both of his arms against the rough bark. "Wrap your arms and legs around the trunk and try to pull yourself up. It will take awhile, but once you learn this method, you can climb any tree in the world."
Shirou gulped. He faced the tree then tried to climb the trunk, only to slide down. Finding enough grip to climb the trunk proved to be hard.
"Keep practising for this entire afternoon. We will be learning this for the entire week until your hands and legs can grip the trunk hard. Good grip will prove useful later on once you reach the harder parts."
Shirou stood up and readied himself to give another crack at climbing. This time, he wrapped his hands around the trunk but placed his feet against it and pushed his legs.
He rose a little, before his hands gave up on him. Another thump was heard as Shirou fell on the ground again.
It made sense. His exercises never actually trained his hands, so this was going to be the first time that he would be using them for something other than cooking and hunting.
By the end of his afternoon training time, Shirou didn't know which body part was more painful, his hands or his back.
Three months.
Shirou was meditating in the peaceful field. Wind shook the grass as it passed by. But the noise of the dancing greenery didn't shake Shirou from his training.
Rather, what caught his attention was the billowing mana that breezed past him, accompanying the wind.
His training had proven fruitful. The more he learned to sense his Od, the stronger he was able to feel the surrounding nature.
The mana of the world danced on the edges of his senses, a colourful rainbow of different hues that he couldn't decipher. Sometimes, he could even taste the colour of an object, or even feel the smell.
Shirou was sure he had gone quite mad when he experienced it first hand.
Not only that, but the mana also brought more depth to his sensational perspective of the world.
He found that rocks and trees exuded different impressions when he touched them. Shirou even tried to examine the ground once. But the sheer size knocked him out of focus.
He wasn't going to be trying that again any time soon.
Shirou imagined the same experience would happen if he tried to examine water. So he collected a small sample and studied it inside a cup. Still, he found no way to describe the immaterial world that existed alongside the physical realm.
He also tried to observe the village with his new perception skills. Most if not all villagers had a subdued presence of magic compared to the environment. He deduced that this must be the result of not using it for their entire lives. But even with a subdued presence, they still stood out compared to the background. Shirou noticed that the mana of the world didn't pass through them like it did for the rest of the environment. This made their presence a void of magic that he couldn't ignore.
It seemed that humans were the unnatural beings in the world. Even animals had some sort of innate magic within them, but these magics were operating on a different form compared to the environment.
Shirou didn't know it, but the way his perception skills worked had mirrored the unique structural analysis that Unlimited Blade Works contained within him. But structural analysis worked on the physical realm, whereas Shirou's newfound insight operated on the realm of mana.
Slowly but surely, his body has started to adapt the skills that his previous life engraved into Unlimited Blade Works.
Shirou didn't just spend his time exploring the new world that opened up in front of him. He also made sure to continue training his circuits.
Two weeks after discovering the flowing mana of the world, Shirou noticed that his ability to discern the world in a broader scale of complexity was because of the subtle actions in his pathways.
Specifically how his prana circuits were absorbing a small amount of mana in the air and mixing it with his internal energy into a different kind of energy. The special energy had a mix of his Od and the intrinsic mana that came from the world around him. Which led to him being able to comprehend the world in a new manner.
Shirou had just discovered that he was using magic instinctively.
He quickly capitalised on the opportunity and observed the process.
Apparently, the reason that he was able to observe the world through different senses was because he was injecting a small portion of his Od-mana mix into the object he wished to examine. It was the reaction that his Od received that allowed him to experience the sensations and impressions that the world had.
Shirou experimented by increasing and decreasing the amount at which his prana circuits absorbed mana from the environment. The varying amount of mana directly affected the strength of the prana being produced.
But for a newbie like him, he could only absorb a small amount of mana from the environment, which produced a meager three units of magical energy from each of his newly awakened circuits. An eleventh of the true ability of his mana pathways.
Shirou didn't know it at the time of course. All he knew was that he was finally capable of doing magic. To him, this was already a milestone. An achievement to be proud of.
One week after learning about his ability to activate his circuits, an inspiration smacked Shirou in the face.
Literally.
It was during his training with Yamashiro on how to fight with fists. This was the third type of training that he had learned. The first was his workouts, followed by the tree climbing exercises that he had been doing.
After a particular hit that brought him down on the ground, Yamashiro approached the groaning nine-year-old.
"Sorry, but I want you to feel the full strength of how hard adults hit. I know it hurts, but this will only convince you to dodge more instead of taking hits with your young frame."
"Let's rest for now. Don't worry, I'll hold back on my punches after this first one. The more you practice, the more you will be accustomed to being hurt."
Shirou laid on the ground facing the sky. While he recovered, his mind ran through stray thoughts to distract himself from the pain.
'I should train harder.'
But he couldn't train harder. He already learned that training harder became inefficient because his young body had reached its current limit already.
What else could he train? Magic? But as it stands, he was still unable to replicate the same magic from months prior. He wasn't able to enhance the strength and speed of his body. The only training he knew with his magic was to observe the objects around him. The more experience he could gain, the better he could find a way to improve.
'What kind of exercise could train my circuits?'
Shirou's mind wandered to his workout sessions. Or specifically, how he had trained different muscle groups using different exercises.
Then it clicked. Shirou's circuits were like muscles, and while he had been using them, it wasn't the same as training them. It was like he was walking, but hadn't tried running with them yet. If he could train the circuits the same way he did with his muscles, then would they also develop just like muscles?
The following day, he did just that.
It was a rest day, so Shirou didn't have any training sessions with Yamashiro, or any hunting party activities. He decided that it was a good day to start experimenting with his planned workout routine for his mana pathways.
Shirou had few ideas.
He could train the strength of his prana circuits by pushing each and every one of them to the limit then letting them rest afterward. During this break, he would focus on another circuit and repeat the same exercise. Apply the exercise to each one and he could continuously train all of them like a cycle.
The next idea was to build the endurance of his prana circuits. One thing he learned was that nothing could last forever. Walking was simple, but if you walked long enough, you would also get tired. The same applied for circuits. He could use them casually for a long time, but he would eventually get tired. To make this exercise work, he would exert a certain amount of effort into prana production, while also working towards making them last longer. Theoretically, this should push his circuits to keep working for longer periods of time without break.
Another option was to train the production speed of his circuits. Just like how he would train when he was climbing. Shirou would try to speed up the process of producing prana. He would alter the specific output amount each time, but would focus on keeping the speed fast, or prioritize the maximum rate at which his circuits could work.
Lastly, training the reaction time of his circuits proved to be the most difficult amongst all of his ideas. The goal was to improve how fast he could go from zero to one hundred in terms of prana production. This also included the speed at which he could begin manifesting magic within him. Currently, it would take him a long period of meditation before he could even begin to use magic.
This reaction training also led him to create a variation of the exercise. To be accurate, Shirou wanted to also see how fast he could switch from one circuit to another. The idea was to be able to cast another spell from one circuit right after one was released from the other. Skipping the delay in between while also allowing him to continuously cast spells from all twenty-seven circuits in a never-ending barrage.
It was during his training later that Shirou would create the idea to use twenty-seven circuits simultaneously into one spell wave.
It was just like how he would summon a wave of swords from Unlimited Blade Works. A complex wave of swords that supported each other in a massive formulaic structure that interwove the effects of each sword with one another. Scaling the strength of all swords together.
Shirou grinned up at the wide expanse of the sky above him.
Maybe, just maybe. He had a chance to actually find Sakura now that he knew of a way to get stronger.
Author's Note
Help! I'm starting to understand why other fanfictions can't keep up a constant update rate. I'm running out of ideas. But at least I have a few for future volumes. It's the little things that I add in the content of each volume that I'm having trouble with!
Don't worry. We are still in the first volume. I still plan to add more volumes once I get a good grasp of how I can connect them into the story.
Please review any ideas you have. It helps a lot if I have something to work with! Though only a select few might reach the story with the way I plan it.
In fact, a special shoutout to that one guest that commented some information on my Author's Chapter earlier allowed me to think of an idea that made it into Shirou's training arc! You really helped me out there buddy! Specifically, the part where magi only use one of their circuits during each moment.
Also, my imagination keeps scaring me that I might just blow everything way out of proportion again (which will definitely happen sooner or later). Wheeeeeee!