Trial by Blades: Chapter 4
Emiya Shirou would sometimes dream of himself standing atop a hill filled with swords impaled into the ground, the area looks like a desert with the sky having an orange hue due to the sun over the horizon that seems like it will set soon. Shirou did not know what this place meant, he does not know of this place, the place gives him a strange vibe of familiarity like he lived in the place or something but as soon as he tries to dwelve in his mind to know what the place really is, he would wake up.
"Should I ask Zelretch-jii-san about this, wait shouldn't I ask him about the thing inside me first?"Curiosity filled the boy's mind as he recalled the events last night when he was studying his magecraft.
When you structuarally grasp a person, you're only bound to see the normal things that make up a human's body like the organs, or the systems that make up the body, or in a magus' body their magic circuits. So how should something unusual like a golden scabbard be inside his body?
The boy's self thought was cut-off by the sound of the entrance door being slammed open."Oh crap, I need to make breakfast"And at that instance he knew he has a scolding ahead of him.
Minutes later after Taiga left Shirou was now heading where the Wizard Marshall dwelled, then he reminisced at the annoying events before amd during breakfast that current morning. Cooking the food would have been faster of Fuji-nee would have stopped saying things to Shirou like him being too naive to fall to Tohsaka's trap of making him her psuedo-servant by acting as her boyfriend, but as soon as food was ready she gobbled her share like an actual tiger and left as soon as she finished, leading to the current time.
When Shirou opened the door he saw that there was no one there, with the bed made and a letter on top of it seeming like a message left by the old man to shirou.
"I went to England to get some things that I'll need in your training, I'll most likely be back after two weeks. I give you permission permission to dwell on projection before I'm back, I left a few notes about it at the shed, considering that it'll be the best place to be your future workshop. If you learn projection before I'm back we'll jump to teaching you about bounded fields so do your work kid. "Shirou's eyebrow twitched while reading the letter, seriously he only started recently at being the old magus' apprentice and he's giving him extreme pressure already? The two weeks of his teacher's absence will surely be long.
Quite annoyed he did his morning exercises, took a bath, and went to school. Halfway the trip Shirou did not notice that there was a girl approaching him from behind. Anyone would have noticed the scary smile on Tohsaka Rin's face as she pounced on the not-knowing Emiya. As soon as Emiya faced the one who seemed to have pounced on him he was quite shocked to learn that his attacker was actually Tohsaka Rin who's smiling brightly at him.
"Good morning Emiya-kun, shall we go to school together?"The twintailed girl asked, with the Emiya boy on end blushing.
"Uhh, good morning too Tohsaka, and yeah, let's go"Shirou remembered. He actually got dragged into a fake relationship by Tohsaka to keep boys from confessing to her. Given his awkward reaction to the Tohsaka's invitation, it seem like he still have not grasped the situation yet and still has to get used to it, it's just that Tohsaka's charms distracts him from giving a plausible act, she's really cute. Still, for twelve years old teens like them and their peers, will an act be enough to keep the said targets away? Twelve is the age where the brain starts getting mature and this is dangerous because some could start being suspicious of them if they didn't put work to this. Well it will be quite the problem if anyone finds out so he might as well do his best.
When they arrived at school the pair split up with Shirou heading to archery practice and Rin heading to class early.
Moments later as Emiya was heading to class he passed by many students that were staring at him like a predator would it's prey, he knew full well why people were acting like this. Truly, the week will surely be long.
Even in class the gossip lurked the whole section, people whispering. It wasn't long until the teacher got annoyed and gave the whole class a quiz for being noisy. The news really spread like wildfire. When class ended a group, no a cluster of boys surrounded Shirou and asked if the news was real. That he and Sakura from first year was dating.
"What?"Who's Sakura wasn't the one who he supposed to has a relationship to is Tohsaka? The question boggles on the boy's mind until something more ridiculous happened. With Tohsaka now clamping Shirou's arm with hers she replied to the boys' question."No, Emiya-kun is not dating Sakura-san because he's dating me." Silence filled the room until the group of boys seemed to regain their senses and acreamed,"EEEEEHHHHHH!"they all said in unison,"E-Emiya, what have you done?!"Every one of them have said at least one bad thing to Shirou, but he couldn't react, that would blow their cover, he just has to endure this.
It was the time again for students to go home and sadly and with a bit of luck Shirou would not have to walk with Tohsaka today towards their home. But as he reached the park again he saw a familiar figure, the purple haired girl that was being bullied by the group of boys was there again, alone. Without reason, he only felt it, the boy approached the purple haired girl. He tried to initiate a conversation,"Hi, I'm Emiya Shirou, you were the girl from yesterday right?"The girl gave him a silent nod, the boy continued the conversation by asking for her name, she was not replying and it ended up with Shirou holding the girl's hand, the girl blushed at the boy's action and now gave an answer,"M-My name is Sakura, I'm glad to meet you, Emiya-senpai. That's right her name sure sounds familiar
Ahh right, Sakura was the name of the girl his classmates were saying that he was supposedly dating."Umm about the school rumor, I'm sorry."The purple haired girl gave him a faint smile,"No, it's okay senpai, I don't want you to be troubled. The rumor started because of me, I asked about you from a classmate because I wanted to thank you and she thought I liked you and it went from that."
"Say Sakura, do you want to be friends?"The redhead noticed that she's alone, doesn't she have friends or someone close?
"What's with the sudden proposal senpai?"Of course, it's normal for her to ask, she's never had one and she probably wouldn't get one either. But this guy just asked her to be his friend, what should she do?
"I-I guess you need to think about it right? Being friends with a guy you just met, I guess it's those first experience things too for you right?"
Sakura does not understand, she's broken, dirty, disgusting. Yet this guy wants to be her friend, she cannot help it, is this happiness? She's going to have a friend.
"No, senpai I accept your proposal, let's be friends."The girl gave a smile, a genuine one, the feeling of hope, flowing through her.
"Then Sakura, would you like to eat dinner at my house? Don't worry I'll help you get permission from your guardian."Shirou gave a question that made Sakura shake, her grandfather letting her go to another person's house. Is that possible? She could not reply. Emptiness filled her eyes again, the girl succumbing to despair at least not until she noticed that her new friend, cheerful friend was now holding her hand and while walking with her and was asking her directions on the way towards her home. Really, her new friend is a good relief for her. Honestly now that she's getting used to it even though it's still new, she went her friend's way, not looking back and arrived at her household.
She must not let her friend see her 'grandfather' what would anybody think of him, he's a monster. So she pleaded for her friend to stay at the gate and wait for her.
Emiya waited at the familiar household's gates it took a couple of minutes before Sakura got out and gave him a smile, they now proceeded and went to the Emiya boy's mansion. As soon as they arrived Emiya gave her a hand and led her inside where they were greeted by Fujimura Taiga.
"Shirou... Who is this girl now?"A kind of scary tone was heard by Shirou from his sister,he thought."Is she suspecting something?"He assumed that Taiga is asking who Sakura really is because of what happened when she met Tohsaka. He had to give an answer, but question asked received it's reply already and it was not him who answered it.
"Emiya-senpai is just a friend"Sakura answered with a silent voice. Shirou enforced the statement by also saying the same thing and explained to Taiga how they met,"So you got into a fight without me knowing?"The scary tone returning,"I guess I can't really help it, you got it from Kiri after all, but Shirou."She put a hand on the boy's shoulder, take care of yourself too okay? I'm going home you two can eat alone."Taiga left the pair alone, Shirou did not understand what she said but he will try, he will.
"So Sakura, do you know how to cook?"A question came into Shirou's mind, he didn't actually have someone to compare his cooking to that he knows. Maybe if they're going ti be friends he could atleast teach Sakura some of his secrets.
"I don't know how to, my brother orders the food in our house. Why ask senpai?"Shirou gave her the reply on his mind and they did do it. Shirou taught the girl some basics at cooking and ate dinner.
When Shirou and Sakura were washing the dishes someone rung the doorbell at the entrance,Shirou came to see who the visitor was and was surprised that it's his friend and a clubmate from the archery club.
"Yo Emiya, I came to get my sister, our grandfather asked me to fetch her already."The blue haired boy named Shinji asked Emiya for his sister.
"Sakura is your sister? Well we're still washing the dishes but don't worry I'll come and get her, can you wait here Shinji?"The redhead gave his answer and returned inside, after a couple of minutes he returned with Sakura, but the blue haired boy made sure of something before they left."By the way Emiya what was this news that I was hearing about you and my sister dating?"Sakura blushed at the statement but Shinji ignored her, Shirou got shocked for a bit but gave the truth,"No Shinji that's just a rumor, the one I'm dating is Tohsaka."Shinji clicked his toungue, seeming more annoyed because of what he last said but he recomposed himself and the brother and sister left. Shirou ubderstood what Shinji thought or so did he thought that any big brother would want to protect their sister right?
Shirou was now alone, it's pretty late, it's pretty much a good time to practice his magecraft. And so the boy headed to their mansion's shed.
He took and examined the notes left by his teacher about the basis of projection. Gradation air or also known as projection is the branch of magecraft where magical energy or prana is shaped into the material composition and design of an object that is being imagined by the magus.
"So I just have to imagine the object and let my prana flow outside and shape into it huh? I guess I'll try now."The boy used a knife as his specimen, and looked at it he then raised his hands and closed his eyes, flaring up his circuits."Trace on."He now imagined the image of the knife in his head, it is a simple one, it's one of those utility knives that you use when camping. It has a red handle and a short, two-edged blade on it , with the process seemingly complete as he managed imagine the look of his specimen properly, he opened his eyes and looked at the product.
Compared to the original, the product has many flaws, the boy thought that it's because of his shortcomings on prana flow, he then noticed when he did structural grasping on the product that it's empty inside, like it only copied the original's surface, is this really how projection works? He tested both knives on endurance and he also found out that the fake one is completely fragile."Zelretch-jii-san didn't leave any more things about what is projection really, but at least I was able to do it right? Who am I talking to?" The boy gave a sigh"Guess I'll get back on my routine."
A week passed in Fuyuki, Emiya Shirou who was heavily tired is now going home from a long week,"It's only a few days more until Zelretch-jii-san gets back and I still doubt my projections, seriously why do they break like glass so easily? I was getting good at prana flow now but all of the initial problems I had are still there."Tired, Shirou decided to take a break from projection that night, but he realized something. From the whole week that passed, Tohsaka and himself were known as a couple at their school. Even though they are known as that, they aren't walking together to their homes, he noticed that their classmates have also known of this and now spreading rumors, getting cautious Shirou wanted to warn her but as far as their fake relationship go they really are not that close. Even so Emiya still wanted to be at least a friend to Tohsaka, wouldn't their acting get better if they are close? Come to think of it Shirou doesn't actully have Tohsaka's household number, he remindes himself to ask her this on their next meeting.
When Shirou got home he prepared dinner and took a bath, then after Taiga arrived the pair would eat with Taiga leaving after she is done with her meal, leaving shirou alone in the house again. At least until the doorbell rang.
"Hmm, who could the visitor be? It's still early for minors to sleep so it must be either a visitor or a classmate."Shirou went to the entrance shocked that the intruder is actually Tohsaka Rin.
"Good evening Emiya-kun."Tohsaka Rin said, she explained to Shirou that she wasn't able to copy their assignments and so she went to him. Not knowng what the girl's true intentions for visiting, the gullible boy let her go inside at least not until the bounded field in his house started giving the alarm that warned him about an intruder.
"Why do my plans always get messed up?!"The annoyed Tohsaka now looked on her target, reaching for her gems inside her skirt's pockets, the tension now rising. She was preparing for this since last week yet the plan's going downhill already and it seems that she now has to fight her fake boyfriend.
*Tohsaka.. Who are you?"The boy now seemed to know the girl's true intentions and he's now confirming if his classmate really is a magus.
The girl gave him a plotting smile, she now started to walk towards him, if they are really gonna fight it should be inside the bounded field since noises are supressed inside. With this thought he walked backwards luring the girl inside so he could not hold back. But can they just get along though?"Well, I'm just like you Emiya-kun except I am a magus from the Tohsaka family. I was originally planning to research about you're identity but it seems I've been found out, If I'm gonna have a way out of this it's to go through you right?"
"Ughh Tohsaka I can explain,"
"Are you seriously thinking that you can fool me that you're not hostile?"When she finished her statement she now dashed at him and got her hand out of her pocket, Shirou saw that she was holding gems in between her fingers and thought to himself."Are those gems related to her magecraft? If they are shouldn't I dodge them?"When the redhead was having thoughts about the Tohsaka's peculiar gems the girl threw a few of the said objects and the boy dodged them. He saw that the red ones produced explosions, the green ones caused a burst of wind, and the blue ones where freezing what they came into contact with. His enemy is already pressing hard on him and if he didn't fight back he would be defeated here. With that thinking the boy realized that he needed a weapon. And he remembered about projection.
He projected the knife he was using as a speciment last night and threw it to Tohsaka to test his capabilty. The knife met the red gem ending up to an explosion on impact, the knife was shattered into pieces but it's trajectory not changing and still heading to Tohsaka but with a weaker velocity and so she only have to step to the side a little to avoid it. One knife didn't do the job but can two do it? With this thought the readhead projected two copies of the knife he used and threw them again. Tohsaka on the otherhand threw a green gem giving a burst of wind before having contact with the copies blowing them away and getting stuck on the wall.
"Ara, ara Emiya-kun is this all you can do, I honestly thought that I brought too much gems with me, I shouldn't have brought them at all. I guess Gandr can do the job."The girl said to Emiya. Is she underestimating him? She also said something about Gan-
The girl raised her arm and pointed her finger at Shirou like a gun, a black orb materialized on the tip and it fired like a bullet. On Shirou's point of view the orbs are like bullets that either needed to be deflected or dodged. Shirou did both and projected a pair of knives again. He was getting tired, he already used projection five times, his prana is almost drained, if he does not come up with a plan he may end up killed, not even before he achieves his dreams. There was no way he was going to accept this. No, he won't accept this, he will not let his life pass by so easily, the life that was saved by Kiritsugu, he only saved one person, and he almost even failed at it, what use is a hero that can't even save himself?
Then the boy remembered something, Tohsaka did not see what his plans were nor did she care, she was mostly doing this for a selfish purpose, if magi's can really become that bad just to fulfill their desires he would either correct them or stop them.
The boy threw the pair of knives he last projected, the boy counted on the girl that was underestimating him to continue what she was doing, and that was firing the black orbs on his thrown weapons, she was clearly distracted, even for a second it was already enough for him to entagle the garden hose around her legs and trip her then and there. To land the final strike he projected a sword that he always remembered, it was his sister's wooden sword, the Torashinai. People naturally feel the ominous presence that the sword gives, it is becaused the weapon is cursed, how did a cursed weapon end up in a normal girl, he did not know. But he was glad to have left the garden hose there, and how Fuji-nee has Torashinai.
The fight ended, Shirou striking Tohsaka's head with a very strong hit from the cursed sword, leaving the twintailed girl fainted.
Shirou almost got defeated on that fight, if it weren't for the things that made him win such as Tohsaka's carelessness, Tohsaka might have killed him already."But is this really fine?"The boy asked himself as he brought the girl inside, he shouldn't even do this, Tohsaka clearly attacked him and she might do so again, but why is he now bringing her inside and left her to sleep. Moreover he is already feeling dizzy from using a lot of magical energy for projection. The boy then realized that the wooden sword he had projected was yet to disappear, struggling to even move, the boy approached the weapon and structurally grasped it and hw found out, the sword was not empty like the knives, it was clearly an exact replica of the original, how did he do it? The boy collapsed due to prana exhaustion before even wondering about how he projected an exact replica of his sister's wooden sword.
Morning arrived, Tohsaka woke up in a japanese-type hallway WAIT WHAT?! The girl then remembered about last night's fight,"So Emiya-kun defeated me huh? Wait if he did really defeat me shouldn't he have killed me already? Considering what I've done to him."The girl walked a couple of meters and saw the Emiya boy on the floor lying there too. A thought went by the girl's mind."Wait if I did get defeated, and he didn't kill me.."The girl then sighed deeply awfully disappointed at her carelessness that made her indebted to Emiya.
The girl decided to go home before someone came, before she left she pulled the boy's body into a futon and made him sleep there, she also noticed the cursed wooden sword that the boy was holding. Wait, was't this sword also a projection? How did it have a curse if the shape was only copied? She decided to bring the sword with her towards her home too. A few minutes later after the girl left him alone, Emiya Shirou has woken up, still being tired, the boy again remembered about last night, He, he won against Tohsaka on their duel, he remembered that. But he canmot recall the events after. He remembered abiut having projected a perfect replica of the Torashinai but he does not remember anything past that point. After having a thought he quickly remembered that he left Tohsaka inside before his memories became hazy and so he ran to the corridor where he left her. She must have left already. But was it fine? What proof does he have to say that the girl wouldn't attack him again, Even so, people shouldn't be judged by actions they haven't even committed. With that thought the boy went on to do his exercises and prepared food for breakfast."Wait if it's morning, that means that Fuji-nee will also come for breakfast."The boy looked at himself and felt stupid, that's right he fainted in the yard last night he woke up and even do exercise and he was still in his dirtied clothes, surely his sister would ask about it.
The boy took a bath and finished before Taiga arrived. They both ate breakfast and went to their destinations, with Shirou to school for atchery practice.
He's always been good at archery, he really finds hitting the bull's eye easy, well that's normal for the school's ace right? Again thr morning practice were as dull as always, he never misses what's the point? Then as soon as he was finishing up, his friend Shinji approached him who also seemed to finish already too.
"Yo Emiya, can I ask you something?"The blue haired boy said.
"Sure Shinji what is it?"The red haired boy gave a reply.
The boy then snickered and said,"When and how did you know my sister?"
The boy speaked to himself on his mind,"Oh, so he wants to know these things huh? Being a big brother sure is hard."He then gave the reply his friend asked for. They talked more for a bit before going to their classrooms, the class now started and Shirou saw Tohsaka there, staring at him. He did not mind her and listened to his teacher. When class ended she quickly approached him without giving him time to react and whispered him,"See me before you go home at the rooftop."
It was now sunset and Shirou is now questioning himaelf if he really should go meet Tohsaka, it might be a trap but he wanted to settle his issues with her whatever it was. Shirou now went on to climb to the building's rooftop and saw his fake girlfriend there, staring at the sun before noticing his presence.
She gave a cute expression and smiled"Emiya-kun, would you like to study magic with me?"
"What?"
A/N: Hey, we on chap 4 now. Well I would like to give a thank you to all the people that followed,review,and favorite'd my story. Look forward to everything I have in store for you guys.
Well about this chapter. I had a hard time with Sakura's character since from where I started Sakura is not in love with Shirou yet. Then the Rin fight, I honestly enjoyed writing that, I think you guys noticed that shirou actually traced Torashinai instead of projecting an empty one but let's consider that dumb luck. It's also gonna went on as Shirou having a good idea about tracing before the war.
I honestly have no idea who to make the villain for the first arc but I'm definitely thinking. If anyone has a suggestion feel free to PM me.
Tell me what you guys think, honestly that's what the review button is for, or you can either PM me what you think too. Then again, I accept criticism as I see it as a means to improve so feel free to do so.
P.S. Still need a also sorry for some typos, I'm only using a phone so it's quite hard tbh.
I don't own the fate franchise all dem rights belong ti Type-Moon.