Infinity Stratos Blades
An Infinite Stratos/Fate Stay night fanfic
Authors Notes: I am changing IS Rin to Lin as to avoid confusion with FSN's Rin
Chapter 4: Visiting home.
Shirou was still sore, but he found that his magecraft has further increased, he was now able to draw from Aka no Kishi's IS core, apparently IS power was a good replacement for magecraft.
"Wow... this... this is amazing" Shirou said
He channeled Aka no Kishi's power trough his circuits, he used the same amount of energy to project a a mundane sword.
"Ok... so now I can use the IS energy, and for what I can understand I can also use my own prana to power Aka no Kishi" his IS could used his prana, it was a two way street, no Aka no Kishi was now HIS familiar.
His head was swimming in question until a message popped up "Added Unknown Weapon to database?" Aka no Kishi asked.
After thinking about it he decided to do it if just to test a theory... he wanted to know if he could store the weapon on it's subspace.
Shirou woke up... he still felt some pangs of pain but it was lessening, after that he made a small breakfast for himself and Houki, he left her's for later, for when she woke up.
He left a message for her "Houki-san I left for home, I will be back around 8 at night so don't wait up, take care, I left something for you to eat for breakfast" Shirou wrote.
With that he left the room as stealthy as possible as to not wake Houki-san.
Later that morning
"And that's what happened" Houki said as Cecilia and Lin cornered her and asked question about Shirou's whereabouts
"Still is not surprising, Shirou-sempai is feeling homesick, anyone would, his hometown is a long trip by bus... but at least he will make it back" Charles said.
Houki nodded.
"Still I hope he sees his extended family" Cecilia said.
"Eh? I thought his father and mother are dead?" Houki said
"Well yes, that they are, but he has a couple friends he is close to and became part of his family... if not by blood by the bonds they share" Cecilia said.
"How do you know that?" Lin asked.
"Well one of his friends came over to check up on him... I must say I was honestly confused by what I saw, but they explained it to me" Cecilia said as she had one-upped them.
"Wait... that can't be right" Charles said thoughtfully.
"Eh? Why is that?" Cecilia asked "are you doubting my word?"
"Uh? No, nothing like that... is just... people who are not in the academy cannot enter the premises is on the handbook they gave us, there is a LOT of security around here... how was an outsider able to get in?" Charles asked.
Cecilia blinked, she had forgotten about that, and to boot there was no inquires about the person who came in... it was like she just... appeared out of thin air.
Back to Shirou
With that he left to take a shuttle back to Fuyuki City.
It took 50 minutes to travel... but he arrived to the station after the travel, a lone person was there, a girl with dark raven hair in twin pigtails ans aqua eyes.
"It took you long enough, idiot" she said with a smile
"I am back home... Rin" Shirou said.
She rushed at him and hugged him
She then begun to pound on his chest "You idiot... the house feels empty without you" she said as she cried on his chest.
Shirou winced a bit.
"Shirou? w... what's wrong? Did I hit too hard?" Rin apologized
"No... there is something important I need to talk to you about... something you are quite knowledgeable about?" Shirou said.
Rin nodded, codded message understood.
They spend 20 minutes to walk back to the Emiya complex... the bounded field identified Shirou as the owner and allowed him to pass and then examined Rin... they went in without further problems.
Shirou glanced at the dormant IS and Rin bundled it up, she also cast a bounded field around the arm to separate the dimension the arm was from the actual one without splinching it.
To all purposes the arm was in a sub-dimension where it could not interfere with the actual reality of sorts, the bundling of it was just to stop it from recording what was going on in case people who saw the recording of the IS could lip read.
Rin brought a notebook and a pen and thus begun to write.
"So... what happened?" Rin wrote down
"Apparently Aka no Kishi had bonded to me, something akin to a familiar... and blasted me with it's energy... it overloaded my magic circuits, but I can't for the life of me think HOW it did that, circuits are supposed to be in the soul and not interact with anything until prana passes trough them to make a spell right?" Shirou asked on the notebook.
Rin nodded "Normally that is the case, however due to the sentience, or rather limited sentience the machine has, decided that in order to help you it should bond with you, anything that can see changes to the bio signs, as magecraft increases our core temperature, would record that as a secondary energy... now I am talking from a magus standpoint but basically it's lending you extra power and in order for you to use it your... IS... it blasted it's energy in order to create a 'bridge' to your circuits in order to establish a pseudo contract... I don't' know how it would be on the mechanical standpoint but that's all I can offer you" Rin wrote down along with a SD drawing of herself shrugging.
"I see... I thought as much... I managed to use tracing using the IS power source... I used just the same amount I would use with my own od..." Shirou wrote down.
Rin nodded.
"I have other news" Rin said as she looked out on the veranda, a futon was airing there, or should been but Ilya had taken to napping on it due to how nice it smelled and the sun warming her up. "Ilya has 4 months to live... her body is breaking down slower than anticipated, but breaking down all the same" Rin write down.
The news hit Shirou like a physical blow... his sister...
"Rin... is there any way to prevent this? Like using the Heavens Feel?" Shirou asked.
Heavens Feel... the third true magic... it would stop the decomposition of the soul and materializing it, making the one being cast upon immortal and a perpetual motion machine as it's prana would never lower and recuperate it instantaneously or close enough to render the lag a moot point.
In order to use it tough, she would need the Dress of Heaven, but he didn't want to sacrifice one of her Maids to use it... with Aka no Kishi's power he was confident enough that he could recreate it using tracing, tough it would suffer a loss of rank by overloading it he could render the loss of rank a moot point... then he thought of another idea.
"Rin... can you check something... you can use jewelcraft... using jewels as mystic codes... can you see if you can use my IS core since it's jewel-like?" Shirou wrote down.
Rin rose an eyebrow but nodded... she pulled back.
She was in shock at the sheer power of the core.
"Do you think we could use this to pull off the Heavens Feel?" he wrote down.
Rin blinked as she analyzed the jewel-like IS core.
She backed away.
"T... that is a LOT of power, but to be honest we will be needing a LOT more... it's not close but with at least 50... but to be honest I am out of my league with the power requirements for this, and the Tohsaka line had never held a sorcery trait, so here I am just estimating... but with my calculations it SHOULD be about right" Rin wrote down.
Shirou had known Rin for a while and learned that she was a bit... OCD-ish but in doing so she always messed up in the least important parts, but those ultimately end up biting her in the ass... such as forgetting to set the clocks in her house back an hour, and thus she summoned an Archer class servant rather than the Saber she wanted.
"How would you go about it tough?" she added.
Shitou thought and wrote down "Due to the connection with Aka no Kishi I can use it's energy to trace stuff without using my own... so I believe I can trace these cores using it's energy"
"Yes... but how will you go about it? Your traced items will degrade after a while as Gaia's rules enforce it's decay" she wrote down.
"I think I have a way around it... but I need to talk to some of the mechanics to learn more about what I am trying to do" Shirou said.
"oooh... it seems Shirou-kun is having fun" Rin said with a a smirk.
"Don't say it like that" Shirou said as he looked to the side, slightly blushing at Rin's insinuation.
Shirou looked at Ilya's sleeping body.
"Go on... she would like it" Rin said.
Shirou nodded as he excused himself... he laid besides, and she immediately wrapped her arms around Shirou's neck. "Hehehe... caught you" she said as she giggled.
"I... Ilya" Shirou said in shock
"I missed you, you know?" she said as she pulled herself closer "You are the only relative I have... you are the only one I can rely on..." she said.
"I know... and I am sorry" Shirou said... they cuddled together, they fell asleep Ilya hugging her younger brother
A half hour later Shirou woke up... he went over to see his other person he cared about.
He went to Sakura's room, she was in a sitting position on her futon.
"Hello Sakura... I am back" Shirou said with a smile.
"Sempai" she said with a dreamy voice, she was happy to see her longtime crush back.
Shriou sat down, he had a plate of porridge for her to eat. "Sakura... how are you feeling?" Shirou asked
"Ah... I am feeling better sempai... don't worry about it" Sakura said.
"Thats good... you need to take it easy... you still getting over... it" Shirou said.
Sakura nodded but looked to the side.
It was the worms that Zouken had implanted the crest worms... parasitic worms that feed on her carnal impulses as well as prana. Due to this, an due to the worms having a piece of the corrupted grail... it twisted her... making her into 'The Shadow' or as she was commonly known as Dark Sakura.
"Rider is currently working on an antique shop... and that other woman is still looking for a job" Sakura said chuckling.
That other woman, was Bazett Fraga McRemitz, an Irish woman who came to the last grail war but was duped by the priest Kotomine and left for dead, thankfully she somehow regained her arm and was now alive... however due to her blunder she was now stranded in Japan and the people who hired her to win cut her accounts and blocked her credit and debit cards and had debt collectors after her, she was now working part-time in order to get enough money to pay her debts. Shirou felt bad and allowed her to stay, she in turn decided to teach him as much as he could in runes, at she was a Fraga she was more in depth with runes and taught Shirou as much as she would, she held back somewhat, it wouldn't do for a magus to give away all her secrets.
"Anyways.. I am doing ok... the classes are a bit intense... but I am doing fine... I made some good friends there" Shirou said.
"I... am glad that you are... doing ok... sempai" Sakura said with a tender smile.
"I am glad you are feeling better... let me bring you some water" Shirou said as he left her room to fill a glass of water for Sakura.
As he went to the kitchen he made a small meal for Sakura, someone came in.
"Tadaima" a husky female voice said.
Shirou almost dropped the glass and the dish
"B... Bazett?!" Shirou said in shock.
Bazett was dressing in a cute maid outfit.
"T... this isn't what you think... I was just... part-time... part-time job... I was forced to dress like this" Bazett said as she tried to explain her outfit.
"Ohhh... it seems Bazett would go so low as to try to keep on staying in this house for free... I mean Shirou-kun is a nice guy but to think you would tempt him like that" Rin said with a smirk.
"Noooo~ is not like that~" Bazett said as she fell on the floor with little hinotomas around her as she laid down on the ground, depressed.
"Anyways... Shirou... you need to be careful... I hope nothing 'unusual' happens to you again" Rin said.
"Yeah I'll be careful... anyways... I am gonna go to Sakura's room and give her something to eat" Shirou said.
"Ok... take care of my little sister" Rin said as she left the house.
Shirou delivered Sakura's meal as Ilya was sitting on his lap, they had some fun, talked and enjoyed each others company, but time came up and Shirou had to go back due to curfew.
With farewells Shirou promised to come back whenever he had the time, Ilya pouted but understood... she hugged Shirou as he was going to board the bus.
Ilya saw Shirou lips move on the bus "I'll save you" he said, but she couldn't hear it, but she smiled, tears trailed down her face.
A flier hit her face... it was from IS academy.
"Uhmmm... a festival? I wonder... what can I do with this information?" she said with a devilish smirk.
In the bus
Shirou felt a cold wave wash over him... something unsettling may happen... he hopped it was not a Dark Sakura event all over again.
Without meaning, he rose an event flag further down time.
Shirou arrived an hour later to the IS academy, it was dark and was nearing the curfew time... but he made it to his room.
Houki was there reading a book... "Oh.. Shirou-kun, welcome back" she said as she greeted Shirou.
"Did anything happen?" Shirou asked.
"No... the other girls and Dunois-kun where worried about you when they couldn't find you" Houki said.
"Ah... well thanks for telling them" Shirou said.
He went into the bedroom and put on his pajamas on.
"Good night Houki-san" Shirou said.
"Good night Shirou" she said as they both went to sleep.
Monday morning
Sunday was an off day and he just went to look for a place that had no cameras to practice his reinforcement magecraft as well as projection, but due to the IS he could only trace small objects.
After his mornign traning he decided to go to the engineering department of the school.
"Oh... if it isn't Shi-kun" Honne Nohotoke said as she waved at him.
"Oh... Nokotoke-san how are you?" Shirou greeted
"Eeeeh... I told you Shi-kun... call me Nohohon" She said.
"Nohohon then... can you fill me up on some information about the IS" Shirou asked.
"Uhmmm... Shi-kun looks serious, what can I help you with?" Nohohon asked.
"Yeah... I wanted to know about the IS subspace and what are the limits of what it can hold" Shirou asked
"Eeee~eeh, that is a deep question... well, your IS is custom made and tailored to your specs, but using the Rafael Revive abilitie along with another IS called Byakushi... however your model uses both models as base, but it has enhanced ports to sport more weapons, you can add them as you see fit... however the theoretical limit would be around... 150 or so, you can increase it if you add more bus slots, but that would be very hard for your current skill level of IS know-how" Nohohon said.
"I see... think you can teach me how to expand it?" Shirou asked
"Eee~eeeh... suuuure... I don't mind, you are welcome to come by anytime, how about the day after the next? We have free time that day, so I'll see you theeee~n" Nohohon said as she waved goodbye to Shirou.
Shirou walked about the campus, classes would soon start again.
"I DON'T UNDERSTAND... WHY ARE YOU TEACHING IN A PLACE LIKE THIS?!" a voice yelled
"That voice... Bodewig-san?" Shirou muttered as he pushed himself against a tree to decrease his visibility.
"I've told you a hundred times already... I have personal bussiness here... that's all" Orimura-sensei replied.
"WHAT BUSINESS COULD YOU HAVE IN SUCH A BACKWATER PLACE IN THE EAST?! PLEASE INSTRUCTOR! RETURN WITH ME TO GERMANY, AND ASSUME LEADERSHIP... THEY AREN'T USING HALF OF YOUR ABILITIES IN THIS PLACE! The students here mistake the IS for some kind of fashion trend for you to waste your precious time on these unworthy..." Laura said... but then quickly shut up when she felt honest blood-lust from Orimura-sensei.
"That's enough from you child" she growled.
Laura flinched at that.
"How dare you presume what you can't see? For a 15 year old, you're being needlessly arrogant" She said with a cold, cool logical voice.
Laura was shivering "I... that is..." she wanted to say something but fear prevented her to do so.
"We are done here, go back to your room" she said.
Laura bolted out.
"Well... that could have gone better" Shirou said
Orimura flinched, she didn't felt his presence at all.
"Where did you learn to hide so well... and shouldn't you be ashamed of spying on two women talking?" Orimura said.
"To be honest... I picked it up as necessity... and it wasn't my fault, I didn't want to interrupt your conversation" Shirou said. "Besides that could have gone better, she is a little girl who wants her instructor back... if I am mistaken you where the only one who help develop her skills back in Germany?"
"Uhmm... picked that up uh? Not bad... and yes, is true... I worked with her outfit before... as a way to repay a debt I racked up" Orimura-sensei said
"Must been quite a debt... you don't seem like the kind of woman to be tied up by a debt... I wont ask what it was, but I can only surmise something really bad happened" Shirou said.
"You are right Emiya-san... however I am not a domestic person..." Orimura-sensei said
Shirou smirked at that "I can see that... I think you should have handled better even with children, you have to see it as a battle... how you talk to them how you approach to them... is all about control after all" Shirou said.
"Uhmm.. like you know" Orimura-sensei said
"Is all I am saying... it might make you more likeable" Shirou said.
"I don't know about that... the students seem to like me as it is" She said with a smirk.
"Y... yeah... I noticed... are you sure that's ok? Seems somethings off about that" Shirou said with an awkward smile.
Orimura chuckled "I ask myself that question a lot actually" she agreed.
"Anyways Orimura-sensei I wanted to ask a question... is it possible to delete some presets from my IS?" he asked.
"Uhmmm why the sudden question?" she asked.
"Well.. I was thinking of adding more stuff to it... I am getting to know some of the engineers to help me with a little project I have for my IS" Shirou said.
"Oh? So you taken an active role in your IS education?" Orimura-sensei said.
"I thought I was being careful" Shirou said, he didn't care much for the IS, however the IS has become a toll he could use to save his sister's life.
"Yeah... I get you were forced here... but still it wouldn't hurt to just have fun... tough for some reason you keep getting in deadly combat... showing a lot of skills and abilities a regular person shouldn't" she said glaring at him.
"I have secrets of my own, and due to me keeping it I am keeping them to protect others from it... the secret I carry are a burden... one that I will not allow anyone else who isn't in the know-how to carry it, you seen my character... so please... I ask you... drop it" Shirou pleaded.
"Emiya Kiritsugu..." Orimura said.
"eh?" Shirou said not expecting to hear his father's name.
"Emiya Kiritsugu, the Magus Killer... that was your father... a international known criminal... he traveled a lot and killed many dangerous criminals, no matter how fortified their defenses where, he would kill without hesitation, leaving nothing but bodies on his wake..." Orimura-sensei said as she looked at her holo display. "It took me many favors and legwork to find that about him... so tell me... is he the one who taught you how to fight that way?" she asked
Shirou sighed, he knew his father was a bastard... but he loved the guy, however after finding out what he did... "No... he didn't... I learned that on my own" Shirou half-lied.
"I see... anyways... go to homeroom Yamada-sensei has an announcement" Orimura-sensei said.
"One more question... why did you pitted Cecilia and Lin, against Yamada-sensei? Is it to make them see what they are lacking on teamwork?" Shirou asked.
"Oh? You noticed that? It's good way to put the brats in place and have them respect us" Orimura-sensei said.
"I see... I wouldn't recommend it... but it works" Shirou said with that said Shirou rushed out... no need to make Orimura-sensei angry for something so petty as being late for class.
Classroom
Shirou made in with a few minutes to spare, he sat down and took notes of IS mechanics as furiously as he could, he tried to find everything he could about the IS subspace... Interesting that you can input ay weapon, provided that there is enough memory in the Machine to store the weapons, depending on the complexity of the weapon it took more space, so he didn't actually KNOW how the IS would take into traced Noble Phantasms or Conceptual Weapons... but he now had a clue on something... he could trace an IS core and save it as a 'weapon'.
Class-time was over in a flash and he went to his room.
"Ah... Shirou-kun... I got news for you, you will be moving in with Dunois-kun" Yamada-sensei said with a cheery smile.
"eh?! wh... why?" Houki said in shock.
"We~eel it's not right to have a boy and a girl at your age together in a room you know" Yamada-sensei said.
"Houki-san, I wish to thank you for putting up with me... but if you want... please come to my room for breakfast, my way of saying thanks" Shirou said.
"Y... yes... I would like that" she said with a sad smile.
"So pack your things Shirou-kun, you are moving tonight" Yamada-sensei said.
With that said Shirou, with Houki's help packed his belonging.
They got all his stuff and greeted his new roommate.
"Ah... Shirou-sempai, is god to have you here, hope we get along" he said with a sunny smile.
Shirou returned the gesture.
With that they choose who would have what bed they put their stuff in the closet.
It was all going fine... but it was eery having Bodewig-san trailing Shirou all over campus.
Laura had attempted a few attacks on Shirou but where spoiled due to him always going to places that had many hiding places to use as cover from her attacks.
It was irritating for Bedewig due to him dodging her attacks by making it look accidental, but her training allowed to spot it... it was deliberate.
Still Shirou was annoyed having to do this almost EVERYDAY...
Bodewig wanted answers, he didn't want to give them.
It was really getting on his nerves as he couldn't get much free time to trace the IS cores... he was surprised that it only used a tiny portion of Aka no Kishin's energy to make them... he was able to store the traced cores on the IS subspace, thanks to Nohohon's teachings, he had also managed to fiddle with the machine a bit, making it more user friendly to him as well as being able to take that ridiculous 'assistant-targeting system' from it, he never would need it. He upped the power of the shields as he enhanced the mobility specs, he went so far as to modify the arrows on his IS to have more penetrating power by adding thrusters on the arrow the moved clockwise as a drill, adding the drill-like arrow-head for more penetrating power.
"Emiya Shirou... I wish to challenge you to a duel... should I win you will have to do as I request" Bodewig came as she threw a glove at me.
This was out of the blue, but not exactly unexpected, so Shirou decided to answer
"I re-" Shirou was about to refuse when Houki came and butted in.
"He accepts, is high time someone put you in your place, you done nothing but aggravate Shirou and us since you started" she said as she glared the loli soldier.
Shirou gawked... "But I really don't-"
"Yeah... and if you loose you have to do what Shirou wants... no hold barred" Cecilia said with her own smirk.
"W..wai-"
"So... is it agreed then? Or will you back down now that he meet you bet for bet" Lin said with an evil smirk.
"Then the day after tomorrow at 1800hrs at the arena... the instructor will be notified" Bodewig said as she saluted and clicked her heels and left towards Orimura-sensei on the staff room.
Shirou's eye twitched... he was ignored, put into an unattainable position... yeah... this was just like home.
An hour and a half later Orimura-sensei came up to me when Iw as having lunch with Charles and the other 3 girls "I heard about the bet with Laura, don't worry... I talked with both Japanese and German government as well as your guardian... this bet now carries a binding legal contract agreement... so I expect you to give a good show" she said with a cruel smile.
A shiver run down his spine "Your guardian was against it, but then she said that and I quote "Shirou-kun did a promise he has to man up and do it" end quote" Orimura-senei said.
It was VERY disconcerting hearing Fuji-nee's words from her, in how cold she sounded.
Still now Shirou was in deep trouble, she had knowledge of my weapons and tactics... but if he used something more 'esoteric' then maybe...
"Also... only officially recognized IS weapons can be used, anything else will be grounds on forfeit... we want to make this fair after all" she said cornering Shirou even further.
"See you then... train up" Orimura-sensei said with a smirk.
Shirou rushed to his room... "Call Tohsaka" he said to his IS as he was nervous about that, Boedewig's machine was a 3rd generation and had little to no information about her machine, other than she being trained by Orimura-sensei,the fact that Orimura-sensei was confident on her winning told me lots about it... time to stack the deck in my favor then.
"Uh, yes, Emiya Residence... how may I help you?" a female voice answered
"Wait... Bazett? Thank the root... I need your help... can you meet me halfway to the academy? At the Ahnenerbe Cafe... 5 o clock?" Shirou asked... no... pleaded.
Bazett nodded, "S...sure what do you need help with?" Bazett asked.
"With your heritage" Shirou said.
All people in the house minus Taiga knew that Shirou was being recorded so she nodded, she understood what he meant. Coded message send.
"Very well... I will be there, just let me get ready" Bazett said "Take care" with that she hung up.
Shirou sighed... he hopped he could get an edge using some of Bazett's knowledge in this area.
Shirou managed to find an abandoned section of the school where he managed to trace some more of the cores.
It was 3:30 PM so he decided to get to the cafe early... No sense on making a lady wait.
Little did he know that 3 girls where currently tailing him.
"Where do you think Shirou-san is heading to?" Cecilia asked as she went into the furthers part of the bus, she felt uncomfortable using such plebeian way of transportation.
"I don't know but this is way out of the blue... also I am curious... aren't you?" Lin said.
"I am coming along to make sure someone doesn't go overboard" Houki said while glaring at the two other girls.
Shirou stepped out as the girls took the back exit of the bus.
"Ahnenerbe Cafe?" they said in wonder.
They entered and took a table opposite to where Shirou was.
A few minutes later a older lady entered, she had a small beauty mark by her left eye, she was wearing a 2 piece suit with a red-violet necktie and short magenta hair, she looked very official.
"Oh... Bazett... how are you doing? Is Caren giving you much trouble?" Shirou asked
"Ah... no the priest has been quite... to be honest that's what is worrying me, but you asked for my help, what can I do for you?" Bazett asked.
Shirou tapped his ear and Bazett nodded... with a practiced easy and major discretion she made a bounded field around them as to not let other people hear any 'sensitive' information and bounded Shirou's arm to prevent recording of any kind.
"Well... Bazett, I hope things are going well for you?" Shirou asked
"I... it's going well... but the question is... what do you need my help with?" Bazett asked.
"I am getting into a fight... and apparently I got dragged in and it has high stakes... apparently should I loose I would have to do what the winner wants... and its legally binding due to some paperwork my teacher put in on to the government... so now I am cornered as I can't use my... tracing skills" Shirou said.
"And where do I come in the picture?" Bazett asked, not understanding her role on all this.
"Well I need your help to reinforce my current weapons with runes so they can catch people off-guard as well as help me weather attacks that might be unexpected, the person I am gonna fight has a IS that is on the 3rd generation, meaning that there is little info on it, as well as weapons I never seen as well as defenses, so I want to stack the deck in my favor, can you help me?" Shirou begged.
Bazett blushed... "Ughh... s... sure I don't mind if it's for you" Bazett said as she looked to the side.
"Great, then when can we do this?" Shirou asked.
"I asked the master of this place, I have a room ready, it will take some time... but leave it to me... after all I can't let someone who helped me when I was down" Bazett said with a nod.
"Ok... let's go" Shirou said as he and Bazett went to the back of the Cafe to go up the stairs to the second floor.
"We have to go after them... who know what that woman might do!" Cecilia said as she bit the hem of her dress
The following is the product of the over erotic imagination of a sheltered lady, all of the following should not be taken seriously and said lady should see a psychologist... viewer discretion is advised.
*Insert sexy jazz music here*
"Bazett... you are beautiful... let me have you" Shirou said.
"N... no... Shirou... is too sudden" Bazett says "AH...no... it... it's so big... I can... Can't... I... AHHH! be gentle"
"You sure are very flexible"
N... No... I.. I am.. C... Cuuuming~!"
End of Cecilia's ero fantasy
"WE MUST STOP THEM!" she said with a serious glare that made the 2 others girls back away due to her intensity two trails of blood came down her nose as she panted.
"R...right" Lin said.
They tried to go but a strange creature blocked their path.
"Welcome young costumer~nyaaan... I am sorry but that area is off limits... so I have to ask you to go back to your seats-nyah" a strange cat-like creature said.
"Eh? Is this a robot or something?" Lin said as she stretched the strange creature's face.
"Nyaaah~! That hurts" the strange cat-like being said as she pulled a paper-fan and smacked Lin in the head, leaving her in the floor with a big goose-egg on her head.
"That is rude, I am Neco-arc... I ask you to respect the rules... or should I torment... I mean educate you some more on manner?" Neco-arc said as she smacked her fan on her hand.
The returned to their seats.
They purchased some coffee and some cakes and they admitted it was delicious and apologized to the strange creature...
They decided they won't be able to find out anything else and thus left with their tails between their legs... Lin hopped no one would know about the incident with the cat-like creature.
It took a few hours but Shirou had managed to add runes to his weapons in the IS as well as adding a couple of Black Keys to the IS... it was luck that the IS recognized the weapons and added it to the database of it.
"Well with the runes on the blades and arrows it should help add to their offensive abilities, as well as adding piercing power and endurance, also it will increase your defensive power as well... it was a good thing I brought my tools too" Bazett said as she was sweaty due to the heat of the tools and the small room they where in.
"Thank you Bazett you gave me an increase on my fighting ability" Shirou said grasping her hand.
She blushed "Ah...no... it's no problem" Bazett said.
"Anyways... I have to leave for school else I get my teacher more angry at me than I did before" Shirou said as he left the room first, followed by Bazett.
All he could do was prepare... and train.
Laura Bodewig was an... interesting opponent. She had military training, and, if his intuition was correct, she was personally trained by Orimura-sensei, and then to boot he was unable to use anything with magecraft. That is why he was saving traced swords there... some mundane blades as well as some conceptual weapons as well as some minor and mid level noble phantasms that the IS has recognized and thus would be completely legal to use.
Not to mention Bazett's input on reinforcing his mundane blades from his IS with her knowledge of runes, thanks to her sorcery trait 'Traditional-carriers-God's holders', her skills and knowledge passed down by genes rather than teaching, so she has knowledge of runes far beyond those of normal magus as well as being the only person to being able to use a Noble Phantasm, the Fragarach.. the sword of the gorging god.
Now his blades (the core IS weapons) would be 3 times more resistant as well as that many times more sharper, some with a hidden function due to some rune-chain that Bazett had magnanimously carved on the blade, thanks to modern tools it took a few hours, mostly cause she reinforced the tools to make it faster.
He DID notice however that the girls where glaring at him and it made him shiver, he had no clue why the intensity of their stares.
Bazett had warned him that those 3 had tailed him, and that is why she used a small bounded field to confuse and not allow the girls to hear them talk.
Anyways he noticed that Cecilia, Lin and Houki where more... aggressive then ever at training (Houki used one of the School's IS)
But Shirou took this in stride and welcomed it, it helped him push his skills more, he had to dodge the laser shooting drones from Cecilia's IS while dodging her own rifle shots, dodging Lin's attacks with her 'dragon cannon' as well as he huge double edged pole arm and Houki's attacks.
All in all they all left rather ragged out, but Shirou kept the magical enhanced weapons hidden until time came, no need to show ALL his tricks.
Shirou kept that day tracing more cores when it was time to take a shower, Charles was in the shower.
He noticed that they had run out of shampoo so he brought one, he opened the bathroom door since it was unlocked.
"Hey Charles I got you a new-" Shirou's words died on his mouth.
Charles... had boobs... the fuck?!
"Shi... Shi... Shirou...?" Charles said as she covered her chest.
He closed his eyes, put the shampoo on the sink and slowly, ever so slowly, he turned around and delicately closed the bathroom door.
He left the room and looked at the door, yup that was the right number, and yes, the key worked on the door, yes this was his room alright.
A few minutes later
Shirou put a cup of green tea for Charles and himself and sat down, he took a deep breath, but there was no way to start the conversation without it turning even MORE awkward than it already was.
"So... you really a girl" Shirou said, being blunt was his specialty.
"Yes, you see... it was the Dunois Company President's idea...that man gave me the order directly" She said, her eyes looked lonely and conflicted.
"Order's... he's your father right? Then why-?" He begun to ask
"Shirou... I'm... a bastard child" Charles said
"What does that have to do with..."
"Two years ago , my mother passed away, and it was the first time I heard of my father... when I tested, I had a high aptitude for piloting an IS, so I became the informal test pilot for Dunois Company... come to think of it, I've only meet my father twice... the first time when they called me from my home... it's a bitter memory... I was accosted by his wife, I was called the daughter of a 'thieving bitch'... It hurt pretty bad" she said with a sad smile, her eyes watering even tough they where closed... he could feel the pain on her... to be unwanted... unloved.
Her experience was analogous to Sakura's... whoever she was lucky in the regard that she wasn't raped... however how lucky was she? To be in a hostile environment where her own existence was the cause of the toxicity she was in?
"Altough my mom told me well about such events, I was still at a loss at the time, some time later... the Dunois company went through a management crisis..." she added.
"Uh? But isn't the Dunois like the 3rd when it comes to mass-produced IS?" Shirou asked
"Not exactly, the Rafael Revive is still a second generation unit... and IS development costs a lot of money... in our case, the Revive costs us almost all of our government's founding. Currently, the European Union is executing a unified strategic defense plan, they are in the middle of selecting the next main force for this 'ignition plan' Hard-liners who want third-gen units to be the main force want France to be removed from the plan altogether. In other words, France either had to come out with a third-gen unit immediately or quit altogether... so the Dunois company set out to develop a third-gen unit, but we are the last entrant into the second-gen market after all... so we lacked both in time and data... it seemed as if the unit would never take form...it was a case where we were unable to find the next trial unit, so our funding was cut, and we were facing the revocation of our IS development licenses" she added
"Ok, this is a bit hard to take in all at once, but what does all that have to do with you dressing as a man?" Shirou asked.
"It's simple... it was a ruse... it's all there is to it" Charles said looking down.
"As a fellow male student it would be easy to approach Emiya Shirou and steal sample data from him... that was the plan" Charles said.
"That's..." Shirou put a hand behind the chair... if she had discovered his secret...
well he had a conceptual weapon that could make clean up relatively easy.
"Yes, I was instructed to steal data from you Aka no Kishi by that man..." Charles said with a serious look.
Shirou relaxed... no she had said data, so his magic would not show up...
Still this was a messed up situation for the girl. She was a bastard child who due to her high aptitude for piloting IS, and due to the situation the girl was put on an unattainable situation... being unable to be accepted by her father... being mistreated by the step mother... it was a situation where she was going to loss regardless.
"Well.. that is my story... I'm sorry for tricking you all this time... talking to you has cheered me up a bit, the company will no doubt go bankrupt... and I will probably be departed back to France" She said, she fought back the tears.
"Are you alright with that end? Charles... are you really satisfied with that kind of ending?" Shirou asked as he glared at the young girl.
"... I don't really care... I didn't choose this, and I don't really don't care... whatsoever" she said with a cynical smile.
"I see... THEN STAND UP! DON'T YOU 'WHATEVER' ME! AND THAT MAN WHO CALLS HIMSELF YOUR FATHER JUST BECAUSE HE IS THE REASON YOU ARE HERE, IT DOESN'T MEAN HE CAN DO WHATEVER HE WANTS! EVERYONE HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE HOW THEY WISH TO LIVE! AND NO ONE, NOT EVEN YOUR PARENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO DENY YOU THAT" Shirou roared as he slammed his hands on the table.
He was angry... angry not at Charles that accepted such sad fate, or at her lying to him, he could understand that...but of the people that forced her to do it... and her being unable (or so she tough) to escape from it.
"Sh... Shirou... why are you" she asked.
"Let me tell you a story... my own" Shiruo said as he took a drink of his green tea... the bitter flavor suited the mood.
They sat down and Shirou told him about his childhood... She expected happy times with his family and the like.
She instead heard a tale of darkness and blood, fire and pain, a story of a young child that went trough hellish world and the ending of it.
"I was in the fire... The Great Fuyuki City fire, people around me where dead or dying... people pinned down under the rubble or pierced by it, people being burned alive... I was a kid and I just wanted to save myself, I was unable to help, what could I do? And so I walked, but I Was unable to move, I was feeling too much, to much fear, too much rage, sadness and pain... and so I left pieces of myself... if I was feeling fear I let go of it, if I felt anger, I dropped it, if I was sad, I forced myself to not feel sadness at all... and so I left a trail of the emotions I discarded in order to move... however I reached the end... I had nothing left to give up... so... I gave up... and I laid in the ground to die..." Shirou said explaining his own childhood to her.
Charles gasped and horror at his story, tears flowed from her eyes, but in shock on how... uncaring Shirou was about it.
"I laid down there... sure to die... my eyes grew blurry and was just hopping to die... until I meet him... the person who saved me... he had a beautiful smile... and he was crying... he was glad he was able to save someone... that person became my foster-father... I always will call him my father... I made friends and family, but I choose the way I live... I wanted to be a hero like him... and I still do, he tried to dissuade me... he told me what I would find in the end of that road but I decided and he choose to help me on my journey on that path... unfortunately he died 5 years later... still I was fortunate to meet him" Shirou said
"Also... since there are too many people expecting something from me... I decided to memorize the IS academy rule book... and just so happens I read in article 21 of the academy's charter that each and every student must belong to no state entity as long as they are enrolled here" Shirou said with a smirk
Charles was confused at it all.
"If the student does not agree to it, then no external intervention shall be permitted, so in other words, is fine if you stay here, right? Use the time to find a solution, and I will be here to help you" Shirou added. "I am here for you Charles"
"Shirou..." Charles smiled and giggled "There's 55 articles, but it's amazing you remembered them" she said feeling far too humored by this.
"Of course, I got to study ya know? I been hitting the books to be able to further customize my IS to my ideal specs. So now that this is settled..."
*Knock Knock Knock *
"Shirou-san? Are you there?" a familiar female voice called out
"Ce... Cecilia?!" Shirou said in shock
"A moment please" Shirou said with a fake sweet voice "You got to hide... if they see you like that they will find you out!" Shirou hissed.
"Y... yeah... I will just hide in here" Charles said as she hid in the closet.
"In there?! Be serious, just get to bed" Shirou hissed.
Cecilia opened the door.
"...Shirou-san?" Cecilia asked as she entered the room. "What might you be doing?" she asked as she saw Shirou put the covers on Charles
"Oh... yes, it's Charles, he wasn't feeling too good, he is with a slight cold so I am helping him here" Shirou said quickly, he was VERY nervous, an angry woman, and one that could misunderstand a situation at that was dangerous.
"What about you Cecilia, did you need me for something?" Shirou asked
"Ah, well... I was wondering if you have eaten dinner yet, Shirou-san... if not, I was hopping we could dine together..." she said
"I...is that so...? well, since Charles is not feeling well he was telling me to go by myself" Shirou said
"Y... yeah" Charles said as she faked some coughs.
"Then, please feel better Dunois-san" Cecilia said
"I'll be back later Charles" Shirou said
"T-take care" Charles said under her covers.
As soon as they left she pulled the covers from over her and gasped for air.
She walked to the window and looked out "Ever since my mother died... Shirou was the first person to tell me those words..." Charls said in an inner monologue.
"I am here for you Charles" Shirou had said, those words still in her mind.
She put a hand on her chest as her heart begun to beat hard and her face flushed.
Shirou then cooked dinner for her and taught her how to use the chopsticks as well as Shirou helping her by feeding her, due to Charles not being able to use chopsticks.
The day of the fight was coming up... he done all he could to prepare.
Day of the bet
Shirou was a tad nervous, it was very hard not to... this girl was personal trained by Orimura-sensei, she who was hailed as THE BEST IS pilot in the world.
She took a deep breath.
"I am the bone of my sword" Shirou said.
With that part of the aria his magecraft enhanced his body, his shields where at full 600 shield units, he reinforced his shields and the machine's outer frame as well as his own body.
"Go Shirou... kick her ass!" Lin said
"Show her that we cadets are not to be underestimated" Cecilia said
"Good luck" Houki said.
"Get them Shirou-sempai" Charles said
"Aka no Kishi... start" Shirou said as his IS Materialized around him.
With the sound of the alarm Shirou and Bodewig shot out into the arena.
Shirou heard some talk about Laura's defensive capabilities, so he decided to test them.
Materializing his bow and arrows he shot them with mechanical precision, he went for her machine's joints.
They stopped within inches of the machine... something was preventing it...
And then Shirou's mouth almost went agape.
That shield!
It was versatile... according to his analysis of the machine using structural analysis it told him... it was called an AIC (Active Inertia Canceler) that, as the name states, cancels all inertia, rendering the projectiles, IS, and ANY attacks useless as they would loose speed that would be needed to penetrate the defense on the IS.
This would be troublesome, but he had been hitting the books a lot and learned that while versatile it was not a perfect shield... still tough... he had an idea... could he perhaps replicate the AIC and use it with Aka No Kishi?
Shirou replicated the process, and the lack of pain and him nor dying where good signs... he decided to hold it off until later, for some reason he felt someone was observing him... and it wasn't Orimura-sensei, but someone was being furtive.
Still he moved as he saw a few daggers flying at him, and worst, they were wired controlled, so Bodewig could still control their attack vectors.
Shirou moved with a lot of speed, a silver blade materialized in his hands.
*CRASH *
Shirou's attack was stopped inches away from her body. Bodewig smirked "is that the best you can do... what a pathetic novice mistake"
"You really think so?" Shirou said with an equal smirk.
The arrow that missed her and was left in the ground exploded, taking both Shirou and Bodewig's shields down considerably.
Shirou got freed from the AIC hold on him and went back... He pulled another arrow and shot, and another and another, so fast it looked like a automatic weapon.
Many arrows went towards Bodewig but most where around her, trapping her with the explosions.
The AIC unit would look imposing and it might as well be... however it had a small flaw, the user had to concentrate on the target, there where a LOT of arrows around so she couldn't stop them from exploding with the AIC.
Shirou used this flaw and attacked as Bodewig was being pummeled by the explosions by the arrows disconcerted her as she was blown left, right front and back.
Shirou rushed in with a silver blade.
"UUOOOOH!" Shirou yelled as he charged.
Bodewig was overwhelmed by this tactics, her AIC was nigh useless against him, he had overcome 'the perfect defense' by the use of meticulous tactics.
"I see...no wonder the instructor told me to increase your worth from 'worm' to 'enemy'... BUT I WILL NOT LOOSE!" Bodewig yelled as she shot 6 daggers out.
Shirou dematerialized the silver sword and materialized his IS's Kanshou and Bakuya
With them he batted away the daggers, using the white blade he looked at it to see behind him and avoided the returning blades by throwing himself to the side.
He threw one of the blades towards Bodewig and then immediately made his bow appear and shot once more, towards where the AIC unit was housed.
"GAH!" Bodewig yelled in pain as the arrow blew past her shields and broke her AIC unit.
Shirou closed in... his blade hit Bodewig on her chest, her shields held strong but went down to 110... the exploding arrows didn't do much damage on their own... but with so many being shot out she was pummeled by many small damages it added up.
Bodewig yelled out as she charged Shirou with her own energy blade.
Shirou's blade held against the energy blade from Bodewig's IS the Schwarzer Regen, Bodewig gritted her teeth as she put more force to push him back... but Shirou's blade stayed strong.
Unknown to people Shirou's blade had been strengthened and reinforced with runes stand up to to Bodewig's beam sword weapon.
They both went at it for many blows, blow by blow Bodewig was being pushed back... her shield energy barely at 40 units while Shirou had around 250 units.
"I can't loose..." she said "ICAN'TLOOSE ICAN'TLOOSE ICAN'TLOOSE ICAN'TLOOSE ICAN'TLOOSE ICAN'TLOOSE ! The instructor trained me herself... I WON'T LET HER WORK BE TAINTED BY THIS!" She yelled.
"GAAAAGH!" Laura yelled out her body obviously in pain.
Her IS, then begun to leak a silvery liquid... Shirou gasped at what he saw.
What was pouring out of her IS was something termed 'nanomachines'... they seemed to be hurting Bodewig by using her as a secondary battery of sorts, it was harming her physically and mentally.
Her IS melted and reformed... it looked vaguely like Orimura-sensei in looks.
Bodewig was in trouble... the more time she spend in that form the more injured she would get.
Shirou rushed in... but Bodewig's new form... something called the Valkyrie Trace system, he had read about it in a book, a program that would make the IS take the shape and skills of the last winner of Mondo Groso, who was none other than Orimura-sensei. And to boot, this was completely illegal.
Her country's government had placed her in incredible danger
Shirou was blown back by the Valkyrie Trace system IS, the strength was unreal...
"The match is canceled... take care of Laura Bodewig!" Orimura said as she spoke trough the PA system. Her voice had a tinge of worry, she knew what the Valkyrie Trace System could do to her body.
Cecilia got out to help, she used her Blue Tears as she sniped the Valkyrie Trace system IS but it was no use, it moved fluidly and dodged Cecilia's beam attacks.
IT was fast, VERY fast and went to attack Cecilia.
Charles however managed to get there in time and blocked with a shield.
"Thanks Dunoius-san" Cecilia said, a sheen of sweat was covering her face due to the honest fear she had at that attack.
Charles was panting, that attack was TOO strong, his IS shields got a big blow, even if he was behind a shield... he was down to 400 units with that one blow.
Shirou raced towards the Valkyrie Trace system.
The VTS IS shot out towards Shirou, Shirou got out his Kanshou and Bakuya of the IS and blocked her attack... thankfully these copies had a special function that enhanced his defensive abilities due to some of the runes carved in the blades, he held his ground, he had to push his shoulder towards the flat of the blade to stop the VTS's attack.
She then attacked once more and his defense collapsed.
The VTS took this opportunity to attack, however Shirou saw trough this and jumped back, pulling out his bow out once more and shooting at the VTS. However her blade managed to cut trough his shield and get him a deep gash on his chest.
Shirou grimaced in pain, his shields where down to 80 units, that... thing was dangerously powerful and out of control.
The VTS cut down his arrows before they reached it, not even the explosion got to her.
"Cecilia, Charles, both of you back away, it is fixed on me, both of you retreat... I will save Bodewig-san" Shirou said.
"Whatever you are talking about?! She is gone crazy!" Cecilia said
"No... something happened to her... her IS ran an unknown program and made the IS like this" Shirou said.
Then the VTS charged towards Shirou... there was only one thing to do "Trace... on"
Using the Aka no Kishi's core he traced a sword on his hand... the sword he traced was a sword he needed to use to deliver a lethal blow to the IS in order to drain it's shields... since the program had rebooted her shield energy back up. Luckily he had it prepared beforehand and had 'saved' it on the IS subspace.
He needed one hit with this weapon and then with another one he had prepared on his mind... the blue-print ready to be made into reality.
Monohoshi Zao, the laundry pole sword, called that way due to it's impractically long blade.
He rushed in blade on his hand, the floor was flat, thankfully he could now use a 'perfect' technique.
"Hiken: Tsubame Gaeshi!" Shirou yelled as he swung the sword.
This technique was from Assassin from the grail war, it was not 3 cuts... it was 1 single attack that reproduced itself 3 times in the same time and space, making it an inescapable attack.
The VTS saw something that should not be possible, and it was arrested trying to understand what had happened.
The attack would been deadly if it was done to a person... even a servant, but thankfully she was covered by the silvery substance that made the body of the IS.
The VTS's moves, arrested by the sheer impossibility of the attack, Shirou took this opportunity as he traced the other blade he had stored in his mind.
"Cut the mechanical monstrosity in front of me and allow me to save the child inside of it... DURANDAL!" he shouted as he cut down the VTS IS.
The machine's body was cut open... the body of the young little girl could be seen, Shirou smiled as he took her out of the rouge IS... he turned away, confident that it was all over.
*Glash*
The VTS had pierced Shirou's stomach with it's sword, Shirou grunted in pain, but he didn't fall down... he kept walking protecting Bodewig's body, he had to walk away from it... the IS took one last shot, a way of taking down it's opponent with it. Shirou staggered but continued to walk, he had to take her to safety, he couldn't fail her... he was a hero of justice... he would get her to safety.
The IS blew up, a fail-safe to protect the secrets of the VTS. Shirou walked like a sentai ranger as the explosion happened behind him.
There was an uproar... the medics rushed in for Bodewig as well as Shirou.
He passed out... he had been bleeding a lot, He felt his legs tremble but was held by a pair of arms.
His traced weapons broke down... and he was taken to the infirmary.
And for some reason he could see Saber's face, smiling at him. "You did well Shirou... rest now, the girl is safe"
With that, Shirou collapsed in the stretcher, a content smile could be seen on his face.
He had saved someone.
Chapter end