Chapter 66

Emiya returned to Mount Enzou after repairing the remaining appliances he had left at the school yesterday. He had also wandered around the school a bit before leaving, looking for remnants of the battle yesterday that might need to be repaired, but it was all gone. After Rin had formed her alliance with Assassin, she had returned back to the school and fixed the more obvious places, such as all the windows and craters in the ground, before she contacted Kirei and left the rest to him. As a result, the school looked perfectly normal, like it had always been.

The temple was silent, with the majority of the monks at the temple sitting in the main hall practicing meditation, rows of men sitting on mats breathing evenly, their backs straight while their left leg was folded over the right thigh, the right foot tucked underneath. Their knees rested on the floor, and their hands laced together in a circle right above their crotch. Candles flickered, the shadows cast by the monks moving incessantly, but their bodies never wavered.

Caster knelt next to Kuzuki, the towel in her hands a bright red as she soaked up the blood on the ground, wiping away the red liquid that had spilled on the ground through the bandages and gauze she had wrapped around his arm. The formerly white cloth was now almost completely crimson, most of it a dark red. Another towel lay beside her, wet but unstained by blood, having been used to clean his body of sweat. He was currently still resting, the scabbard still working to restore his arm. It seemed to be almost reattached, as the flow of blood had stopped, but she could still hear very small scraping noises coming from the wound that she assumed was the bone reconnecting. She estimated the process would be done by tonight, judging from the fact that the skin was fully attached, and the bone was undergoing recovery.

As for Saber, she was still resting in her room with Shirou, the wounds almost healed. However, Caster could tell that the amount of mana was causing her lethargy, and that in order to make her move for longer amounts of time, she would need to solve the mana deprivation problem. She had managed to wake up twice while Shirou was at school, but after Caster had managed to reassure her that Shirou didn't need her to be constantly be at his side since it was daytime, and that he could summon her with Command Seals if he was truly in danger, she had fallen asleep again. She would probably have to link the leylines to Saber through Shirou, in order to help Saber reach peak condition.

*kok-kok*

Caster turned to the shoji doors at the sound of someone knocking on the wooden frame.

"Can I come in?"

Caster stared at Kuzuki for a moment, then pulled a blanket over his body while adjusting his arm into a more comfortable position.

"I'll come out."

She got up and bunched the dirty towels together into her hands, then opened the door and left the room.

"Excuse me."

Shirou only caught a glimpse of Kuzuki lying in the futon, his face looking somewhat different from usual as he rested, his consciousness in another realm, before Caster closed the door.

Caster beckoned Shirou to follow her, and so he went with her to the laundry room.

They walked in silence for a while, before Shirou asked her.

"Is he fine?"

Caster tilted her head a bit while walking, considering the question.

"He should be in perfect condition by tonight. You should be more worried about your own Servant though."

"Well, he is my teacher, so I can't help but be a little worried about him." he scratched the back of his head as he said so.

Caster paused her steps, then continued walking. A slight smile graced her face as she responded to him, though he couldn't see it from behind her.

"That's not what I meant by that. Your Servant has a more serious problem than my Master. She doesn't have sufficient mana from you to fight properly."

Shirou ducked his head at that.

"Ah, I know I'm not much of a magus, so I can't really supply her with much energy at all. After all, I have to make a new Circuit every time I try to perform magecraft, so-"

Caster whirled around to face him and marched right up to his face. The towels dropped to the floor as she gazed up at him intensely. Shirou backed up slightly in surprise, but she grabbed the front of his uniform to keep him in place.

"What did you just say?"

"I-I, I'm not much of a magus?"

"And after that?"

"I have to make a new Circuit every time I perform magecraft."

Caster glared at him for a few more seconds, before she released his uniform and sighed, closing her eyes and shaking her head.

"Let me get these towels washed first, then we'll go to an empty room for you to demonstrate how you perform magecraft."

The next thing he knew, he was kneeling in a spare room with a cup in front of him, with Caster sitting in behind him and placing her hands on his bare back, his uniform top and jacket lying next to him in a pile.

"Please show me how you usually do it."

He emptied his mind, stretching out and regulating his breaths. Everything outside his body faded away, all of his concentration focused inward.

"――――Trace, on."

The phrase was spoken, a mental trigger for self-hypnosis, a crucial factor in almost every form of magecraft. No matter how skilled the mage was, they needed to believe that they were able to accomplish the magecraft they were about to perform, and the words of the spell served as something to ignite that self-belief, a phrase that they would become accustomed to.

It was even more true for Shirou. He had no Magic Crest and no knowledge of magic, so a spell was only a change to himself. In a normal human, there were no "lines" in their bodies to allow the passage of magical energy. So in order to create the path in his body artificially to perform magecraft, he believed that he had to unify his entire being and every nerve lining the flesh within his body.

For him, magecraft was a battle with himself.

At this very moment, he was inserting a burning steel rod into his backbone. The metal rod was the only "Magic Circuit" he could prepare for himself. When he inserted it deep into his body and connected it to his nerve system, he became a magus. It may have sounded like an analogy, but in reality something like a molten crowbar which couldn't be sensed was being inserted into his spine.

When Shirou was saved, Emiya Kiritsugu said to him in the hospital.

"I am a sorcerer."

He was a living magus who performed many marvels, and had touched the very fabric of the world. Shirou in his childhood admired him, and begged Kiritsugu to teach him magecraft.

But pure effort just wasn't enough to become a magus. Talent, and the appropriate knowledge was also needed.

Of course, Shirou didn't have a drop of talent, or so he thought, and Kiritsugu taught him nothing about magic. When questioned, he simply told the young Shirou.

"You have no need for such knowledge."

Even now, Emiya still didn't understand those words. But it didn't matter to the young him back then. He thought that if he could use magic, he could be like Kiritsugu.

However, no matter how much he wanted to learn, he lacked the raw talent. He had no Magic Circuits, no Magic Crests indispensable to all magus families, the crystallization of the results from generations of effort and preservation.

The work of magic Kiritsugu possessed, the Magic Crest passed down in the Emiya family, could only be passed on to a blood relation, and it would be rejected by those who didn't possess these qualifications. As a result, Shirou was unable to receive it, being an adopted son.

So in the end, it all came down to the training that he could do. If he wanted to be a magus, he had to learn magecraft that was compatible with his nature.

Since he was raised in a normal family, he didn't have many Magic Circuits.

So that left only one method open to him. According to Kiritsugu, there was a certain form of magic that was a perfect fit for each individual person that practiced magecraft. It involved drawing out energy to perform magecraft related to their "origin", but Shirou didn't really understand his explanation at the time.

All he knew was that if there was the possibility that some type of magecraft existed that he could use proficiently, he would train in it and become like Kiritsugu. And so eight years ago, Kiritsugu finally became his mentor after giving it a great deal of consideration.

"Listen, Shirou. To learn magic is to stray away from common sense. You die when you die, and you kill when you must. Our essence is not in life but in death. Magic is only a way to destroy yourself-"

But Shirou was already one brave bastard even as a kid. The speech didn't affect him in the slightest.

Kiritsugu smiled bitterly, putting his hand on the nodding Emiya Shirou.

"What I will teach you will bring you conflicts. That is why you must not use it in front of people, and you must not cease your practice even though it is difficult to learn. Well, I don't really care if you break that one. The most important thing is that magic is something you use not for yourself, but for others. If you do that, you may become a magic user, but you will not become a magus."

It was obvious to Shirou that Kiritsugu didn't want him to become a magus. Nevertheless, he wanted to be like Kiritsugu, so he put those concerns to the side. If he could be like Kiritsugu on that fiery day, he would-

"!"

He needed to discard these thoughts. The iron rod slid into place, his body burning up like it was on fire.

"Uh, gah...!"

It would be a fatal mistake if he lost control of his breathing right now. The artificial Magic Circuit he was creating could easily devour his body and destroy it. When that happened, he'd die. To fail like that would be the mark of an amateur for him.

Grinding his teeth, he focused on the connection again as sweat poured off his body like rain drops.

After a battle like walking on needles, the iron rod finally arrived deep within him and fused with his body.

In the end, it took him an hour. After that much time, he was finally able to create a single artificial Magic Circuit for producing power.

"Basic structure, analyze."

After that, it becomes a process of naturally flowing magical energy. He was no magus. He was only a spellcaster, who could create magical energy within his body and channel it into objects. So there was only one type of magecraft available to him.

Which was...

"Composition, analyze."

Strengthening objects. A magecraft of "strengthening" that reinforced the object's abilities by understanding the object's structure and channeling magical energy into it.

"Basic structure, alter."

There was a porcelain cup in front of him. He would channel magical energy into it, performing the simplest magic, and reinforce its durability. That was all.

But, channeling magical energy into something other than the caster him/herself was basically like pouring poison into that object. Just like how the blood of Emiya Shirou wasn't not the ceramic of the porcelain cup. Pumping different materials into the object only accelerated its breakdown, it certainly wouldn't strengthen it.

To prevent that and turn the poison into a booster, one must completely understand the structure of the target and channel the magical energy into small, open spaces.

"Composition, reinforce."

For Shirou, who couldn't even create the energy to analyze an object without spending an hour to make an artificial Magic Circuit, it was as difficult as hitting a target from hundreds of meters away. The usual target in kyudo was exactly 27 meters away. How much harder it was at many times that distance, went without saying.

"Guh!"

The heat in his body quickly escapes. The burning pillar in his backbone disappeared, the lungs stretched to the limit as they demanded air. His entire stomach had collapsed inward, his breath having left him while he focused.

"Haa, haa, haa, haaaaa..!"

He arched his back to hold back the dizziness that was pushing him to the point of fainting.

"Ah...dammit. I failed again..."

There was no change in the cup. It seemed like the magical energy poured into it had evaporated into thin air.

"It's hard to improve something that already has form."

Caster responded to his frustration. It was like adding something to an already complete work of art.

Adding to a complete object risked making it less perfect, and it would actually decrease the value. That was why the magic of "strengthening" was so simple and yet so difficult, with only a few magi using it willingly. Shirou didn't use it willingly either, but it was the only thing I'm good at, so it couldn't be helped.

"Ah-"

He wiped the sweat off his brow.

Now that he thought about it, he realized his whole body was covered in sweat like he had just been drenched with a bucket of water.

But it was lucky that it just ended like this.

If he'd taken a second longer to recover himself, he would probably have destroyed most of his body.

"If I improved every time I came closer to death, there might be some hope."

That was what he used to think, but wasn't that easy. You wouldn't improve if you were afraid of dying, because as long as you studied magecraft, death was beside you. A simple mistake could easily reap one's life.

"The first step of a magus is to accept death."

Kiritsugu said so sadly. Perhaps there was a reason for that. Even so, that was only the first step. To truly improve, one had to-

"By the way, you've been doing it wrong from the start. Who taught you magecraft?"

Eh?

Caster met his blank stare with her own confused eyes.

"To start with, you already have Magic Circuits, so there's no need for you to artificially convert your nerves into one."

Shirou blinked, then lowered his head, his fatigue catching up to him as his body sank to the ground.

"Jii-san(old man)…"

*Brng*

What sounded like a clear bell being rung resonated in the room, causing both Shirou and Caster to snap alert.

"There's intruders!"

Caster stood up and bolted out of the room, Shirou following closely behind her.

(Some parts of this chapter were taken directly from the VN script, all credit goes to TYPE-MOON and Kinoko Nasu)