Reviews:

Keybladelight: For starters, this is UBW Shirou. I won't tell your my current plans concerning Saber, but I do have something in mind.

Aggura of Darkness: Thank you for the suggestion! I'll definitely take a look into doing that in the future. I'll probably take bits and pieces of your idea and integrate it into the fic. I have some ideas considering MON though, so please bear with me

FabledLife: Thank you for your input. I've been reading bits and pieces of your profile whenever I found time. It's been really helpful

Chapter 3: Spar

Tisha's eyes fluttered open as she gently awoke from her slumber. When she saw the white ceiling, she started to panic, until she realized where she was.

Damn it, she thought to herself as she got out of bed. I'm not home anymore.

She stretched her arms and her legs before going to open the door. She looked around, trying to find her only housemate in her new house. Shirou's cooking from yesterday was very good and she would definitely take his cooking over what she could throw together. She preferred the chefs from home, since Shirou's cooking was so different from the elven chefs of her kingdom, but his cooking was the best that she had since leaving home.

She looked around the large house, checking both floors, but he was nowhere to be seen. After taking a loop around the house, Tisha found herself back at the entrance of ehr room.

Well, maybe he's outside, Tisha thought to herself. She made her way to the backyard and opened the door to see Shirou holding a bow. She watched in fascination as the man took a deep breath and knocked an arrow. Her breath hitched when he released the bowstring, her eyes following the arrow as it whizzed through the air. When the arrow struck its target almost a hundred meters away from Shirou, the elf let out the breath she didn't know she was holding. The arrow struck dead center.

Something about Shirou's archery was fundamentally different than the way the archers conducted themselves back at home. She couldn't help but be mesmerized with the man's actions, trying to determine what made his archery so different from other archers she has seen in the past.

"Oh, good morning Tisha," Tisha visibly flinched, almost letting out a squeak of surprise when Shirou spoke. "I didn't notice you were there."

"You're… really good," Tisha cursed herself for being unable to say more. She wanted to, but she couldn't put the thoughts she had into words.

"Ah, thank you," Shirou rubbed the back of his head. "I like to do Kyudo in the mornings. It helps me think."

"Kyudo?" Tisha tilted her head.

"It's the form of archery I practice," Shirou explained as he made his way inside, beckoning for the elf to follow. "It's mostly done as a sport, but I do it as a form of meditation."

"I see," Tisha followed the man into the kitchen.

So that's why it's so different from the archers back at home, Tisha thought. It made sense for another country to have their own form of archery, but it made her wonder…

"If you have this Kyudo, is there also a special form of swordsmanship?" Tisha asked. She put a hand on the hilt of her sword. Despite the situation, she would never pass up an opportunity to learn more about swordsmanship. If it could help her improve, then she would be willing to learn.

"Actually, I was going to ask," Shirou said as he opened the fridge. "I do practice a little when it comes to swordsmanship and I was wondering if we can spar."

"Spar?" Tisha was taken aback at the request. It was common knowledge that elves were much stronger than humans. "Are you sure?"

"Why not?" Shirou closed the fridge, holding an assortment of fruits. "Well, if you want to, we can always wait until after breakfast."

Tisha's stomach growled at the implication of food. She coughed into her fist to hide the blush that was forming on her cheeks. "That is acceptable."

Tisha walked outside to the grassy backyard, Shirou walking closely behind her.

"Since you don't have a practice sword and I don't have a practice sword for you, I decided to use real swords too," Shirou said as he brandished twin dao. Tisha wasn't familiar with dao, as she's never seen one in person, but she read about them in a book about weapons around the world. The blades looked stunning. Their color scheme was the complete opposite of each other, but the make and shape of the blades were identical.

"Don't worry, I made sure they're dull so if you get hit, it won't cut," Shirou said.

"What about you?" Tisha asked. There wasn't a way for her to dull Knivhuggare, and the wind magic would only increase its capability to cut flesh.

"Don't worry about me," Shirou smirked at Tisha. Something about the smirk annoyed the elf, but she couldn't determine what. "I'll be fine."

"If you say so," Tisha shrugged as she unsheathed her blade. Shirou responded by getting into a fighting stance.

"Are you serious?" Tisha asked as she looked at his stance. With just a glance, she found seven openings in his stance, two of them being potentially lethal if the elf decided to take advantage of said openings.

"Don't worry about me," Shirou replied, the smug, easygoing smirk fading from his face to show a cold exterior. Tisha flinched at his expression. She didn't know someone so passive and easygoing to have such a cold expression on his face. It was as if he wasn't feeling anything at all.

Well, his funeral, she thought as she dashed towards her opponent, aiming for his right shoulder. Before she even moved to stab his shoulder, Shirou's arm was already moving. He parried her attack endlessly, counterattacking with a swipe at her neck. Tisha was so startled, she had to utilize the wing magic stored within her blade to push her as she dodged to the side.

What the hell was that?! Tisha thought to herself, shaking her head. To her knowledge, humans shouldn;t be able to react that fast.

Unless… he wasn't reacting? Tisha thought to herself. It made sense. If he knew where she was going to attack,he didn't have to react.

He's crazy, Tisha concluded, readying her sword again. He's going to get himself hurt like this. I need to beat the sense into him.

She dashed again, this time with the wind pushing her forward. She stabbed and struck as fast as she could, her blade appearing as nothing but a blur in her eyes, but Shirou kept blocking and counterattacking with calculated ease. His expression never changed as they fought. After exchanging blows for about five minutes, she jumped back, panting.

How can he keep up with me like this?! Tisha almost shouted in her head. She was striking fast and hard, trying to end the bout quickly so she could prove how dumb he is with her blade, but Shirou wasn't even breaking a sweat.

"Is that all?" Shirou pointed one of the blades at her. His tone wasn't mocking or condescending. It was completely neutral.

"Damn it!" The gem in Knuviggare started to glow as a gust of wind surrounded her before concentrating itself around the blade. She couldn't let a human of all people beat her like this. Not only a human, but a suicidal human with a style that practically gauranteed his loss. She let out a cty as she dashed towards Shirou, who held his blades up in response. Before their blades could clash, they both stopped when they heard the sound of a gunshot.

"Both of you drop your weapons!"

It wasn't supposed to be like this. Ms. Smith was just supposed to barge in, tease her new host a little bit, steal his food, and leave, but when she used the spare key to let herself in, she found the two of them trying to kill each other in the backyard.

"I said both of you drop your weapons!" Ms. Smith demanded as she pointed her pistol at the two of them. Shirou wordlessly dropped his weapons and held his hands up. Tisha glared at Ms, Smith and sheathed her sword.

"I said drop it," Ms. Smith growled. Tisha scoffed and gently put her blade down on the grass.

"Now, what the hell were you two doing?" Ms. Smith asked, her eyes full of anger and betrayal behind her sunglasses.

"We were sparring," Shirou answered as if it was obvious.

"Sparring?!" Ms. Smith shouted and pointed the gun at Shirou. "That didn't look like sparring!"

"We… got carried away?" At least Shirou had the sense to look embarrassed.

"Tisha?" Ms. Smith turned to the elf for her side of the story.

"Yes…" She growled, glaring daggers into Shirou. "Though with the way Shirou fought, it looked like he wanted to die."

"I'm going to lower my gun, but I want an explanation from the both of you," Ms. Smith said.

"Sounds good," Shirou said, completely calm despite the gun that was being pointed at him.

Ms. Smith lowered her gun and let out a sigh of resignation. What am I going to do with you?

"So that's the entire story?" Ms. Smith took a bite out of the pancakes that Shirou made for her. He showed her the blades he used were dull, so she wasn't as on edge as she was a few minutes ago, but she was still angry at the young man.

"Yeah, there really isn't that much to it," Shirou explained as he flipped another pancake. He made standard pancakes for Ms. Smith, but he used water instead of milk for Tisha's and cooked it in olive oil.

"If that's the case, then why was there a large gust of wind?" Ms. Smith turned to glare at Tisha.

"I was mad, okay!" Tisha slammed her hand on the table while pointing her butter knife at Shirou. "He was trying to kill himself!"

"I assure you I knew exactly what I was doing," Shirou didn't even turn to look away from his cooking.

"It sure didn't look like it!" Tisha shouted in response.

"Oh, am I seeing things, or is Miss 'Let's get this over with' actually showing concern for her host?" Miss Smith leaned towards Tisha, wiggling her eyebrows underneath her sunglasses.

"I just don't want him to get stabbed! Is that a problem?!" Tisha yelled at Ms. Smith. Before Shirou could break the two up, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get that. Don't kill each other," Shirou said as he walked over to the front door. He opened the door to see a girl with purple skin, black clothes, and a large scythe. Shirou tried to trace the scythe, but only got a large headache instead.

A Divine Construct?! Shirou thought. He instantly tore his eyes away from the scythe to prevent further damage to his brain.

"How can I help you?" Shirou asked, preparing to trace a weapon at a moment's notice. A girl holding a Divine Construct standing at his door couldn't mean anything good.

The girl pointed at Shirou with a deadpan expression. "You're going to die."

AN: Since Dulahans are death's enforcers or whatever, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the scythes were made by death itself, making it a divine construct. Thank you for reading! Don't forget to R&R!

Next:

Heroes and Spirits