Shirou looked at the man before him, who stared back at him with disinterested eyes with a can of diet coke dangled in his fingers, Shirou's eyebrow twitched as the man heavily sighed as if his presence alone was an eyesore to the god.
The man, Dionysus, gave out a thick scent of grapes and wine. The moment he followed Chiron to the Big House, he knew that there would be a godly being there when he felt the humongous body of pure energy.
What is a god doing here?
From what he imagined, gods didn't go to the mortal world for fun or vacation, let alone sitting by a table playing poker with three other satyrs.
"Shirou, Mr. D, the director of Camp Half-blood," Chiron introduced, "Mr. D, our newest camper, Shirou Emiya."
The god merely grunted as he picked up the dealt cards, not even acknowledging the man-turned-boy's presence. He glanced at his cards, and crushed the can in his hand as his godly presence flared, startling the Satyrs around him.
"Blasted! Every time! I swear!" Mr. D glared at the Satyr who dealt the cards, who shivered under the god's intense glare, "you're not dealing any cards soon! Damnation! Leave my sight and don't come back until you know how to deal better cards!"
Gods were such sore losers, Shirou noted as the Satyr scrambled away from the table.
"Ah, and now we're missing one man," Mr. D sighed, the crushed can of coke disappeared with a flick of his wrist and another appeared on the table, "Chiron, are you certain you're not playing?"
Chiron smiled dryly, "I afraid not, I need to give a tour to our newest addition of campers."
"Hn, a pity. Where's Underwood?"
"He's… on a mission, escorting a new demigod."
"Curses," Mr. D turned to address the Faker, "You know how to play?"
Shirou allowed a chuckle escape his lips as he shook his head, he knew how, but he knew better to play with a ill-tempered god, "unfortunately, no."
"Di immortales!" Mr. D cursed, he pointed at the remaining two satyrs by the table, "you two! Go fetch someone who actually knows how to play the bloody game! I don't care who! Just go find one!" The two poor satyrs, flinched and jogged away.
"Come on my boy, let's move on, before Mr. D's mood turn even more foul," Chiron gestured.
The centaur had long left his wheelchair. Shirou mused over the memory where Chiron left the chair and revealed his true form for the first time. Literally, his legs grew the moment he moved away from the chair. A very interesting sight to behold.
Together, the two moved away from the Big House.
This morning, they had met up as planned. Chiron had thrown a Drachma at the road, the coin, in Shirou's disbelief, sunk into the ground as if swallowed. Not even a moment later a yellow blur appeared by the side of the traffic.
Jeez, seriously, this was already climbing ranks in Shirou's 'top weirdest things' list, and trust him, he had seen a lot of strange things thanks to Zelretch.
The car, against the iron laws of physics and reality, sped faster than a plane, so fast that it nearly broke the sound barrier, even with his eyesight he could only catch glimpses of buildings and skyscrapers. Shirou could barely contain his hysterical screams of horror despite his long years of venturing across the battlefield and fighting Apostles.
To make things worse, the driver— drivers, had only one eye, an eye.
He swore, he'll rather face Berserker naked and defenseless than to ride that roller-coaster of death again.
They landed just outside the border of the camp. The red swordsman remembered seeing a shimmering barrier around a portion of the forest, one forged for the security of the demigod camp. A massive and powerful one that was enough to repel even the mightiest of the monsters.
All of that energy came from a certain tall pine tree.
And the tree had the traces of a soul, a spirit. He guested it was the guardian of camp of some sort, bestowed to guard this camp by the mighty gods.
As they entered, he was greeted with a sight that he nearly fainted.
Behind the huge tree atop the hill, slept a dragon.
His brain pretty much shut down.
After the orientation film, he was walking alongside with the Trainer of Heroes as he explained and guided him through the campsite.
He had seen a stable a field of strawberries attended by boys and girls with green thumb powers. He had seen a stable consist of Pegasus, some girls teaching other campers how to ride one and Shirou was stunned when he witnessed the girl taking off into the sky.
He definitely wasn't gaping when he saw the Climbing Wall, dripping lava. He really questioned the demigods' sanity when he saw several young campers suicide enough to climb the wall, without safety ropes and all.
After the visit at the Big House, where Chiron lives and his office located. Apparently, there's an oracle mummy in the top floor that was supposed to deliver quest prophecies from what the centuar told him.
During their rather long journey around the camp, Chiron had a lengthy explanation of the world behind the mist.
From what he had gathered, the gods were undisciplined and powerful beings. Safe for Hera and Artemis, gods went left and right and screwed mortals as they like. And that thought made Shirou angry, gods were supposed to manage the flow of the world to make things better, not ruining other's life.
To make them worse, instead of raising the children like any responsible parents would, they left their child to the mortals and went back to Olympus for, quote 'godly business', which was basically finding another eye-catching mortal to screw.
Demigods, were magnets to trouble, namely monsters. They reeked out aura that would attract roaming monsters. Shirou's fist clenched as Chiron said that the gods were in no position to save their child, as they were immortals that were bounded by laws set by entities far older than them. For a moment, Shirou felt nothing but pure hatred for the beings high up above the clouds.
Then something made Shirou come very close to snapping, the closest since the Holy Grail. Those... filths, they were no gods, they were even lower than trash. Claiming, that's what Chiron said. The gods left the mortals soon after the demigod was born, and the children grew up never knowing their other parent. In some cases, the human parent would sprout lies that their wife or husband had died in an accident, covering up the identity of the gods. Some even had their memory altered.
And they grew up like any human beings, or at least, they tried to. Most demigods had extreme cases of dyslexia and ADHD. And most of all, they saw things they shouldn't be able to see.
Monsters, hounds, giants, demigods saw it, and yet the humans couldn't. They were scarred for life.
As they age, their scent grew stronger, to a place where most monsters could ignore and attacks could not be avoided.
And so that's why the camp exist. A place created by the greek gods, a safe haven for their children, a camp that train demigods so that they could handle whatever danger thrown to them.
"Grover, the satyr, is one of the protectors?"
"Indeed. You see, satyrs have a very gifted sense of smell, and would be able to smell a demigod when near one. And so we send many satyrs around the state in hope of bringing demigods to our camp unscathed."
"So, Percy's a demigod."
"Yes, he is a very special one."
"I'm guessing that he would be here soon."
"If everything is going according as planned, he should be here in a week's time."
Together, they entered an area which was surrounded by a row of cabins. Twelve of them, each was unique and different from one another.
There's that one cabin that was pure white and seemingly untouched, there's this cabin build right on top of the lake which Shirou thought was pretty cool. He blinked at a cabin painted with red paint and a boar head pinned by the front door.
"These are the Cabins. Twelve cabins, twelve gods," he waved at some campers as they greeted him, "Zeus, Hera, Ares, Apollo, Artemis and etcetera. The children of the twelve Olympian lives in the cabins. The unclaimed ones will live in the Hermes cabin until they are claimed."
"And the minor ones? What about them? I don't see cabins of the minor gods." Shirou asked. A ball of lead was forming in his gut as he watched Chiron stared blankly at the floor.
"The minor ones… they don't have their own cabins. We can't afford to build a cabin for all hundreds of major and minor gods."
Shirou fumed at the words. They were gods for Root's sake! They built a floating island above clouds! And now they say they can't afford building minor gods cabins because they couldn't afford it?
"The children of the minor gods, they live in Hermes cabin, since he is the god of travelers and all."
"And I'm supposed to live in the Hermes cabin?" Chiron stopped and glanced at Shirou, he stared for a moment before nodding slowly.
"Yes, since as you claimed, your godly parent is not one of the major gods, then you shall be staying in the Hermes cabin," they stopped in front of a particularly bigger cabin. Just like the other cabins, it was very special in its own way.
Messy, it was very messy. And Shirou was dreading his future days in the camp.
With his gifted eyesight, he could see a row of boxers and panties hanging on the roof of the cabin. The roof was painted with mismatched patches of paints of different colors. He gulped as he saw the amount dirty clothes piled by the edge of the balcony of the cabin.
"…"
"Have no worries, son. While they might be bunch of antics, they are rather friendly and welcomes new campers with open arms."
Chiron moved ahead and Shirou reluctantly followed behind. As they approached the cabin, the magus' senses tingled.
His eyes shifted to the bushes by the doorsteps. He could hear the soft shuffling of leaves and fabric. A glint of metal hidden in the shadows.
His gaze shot to the windows of the cabin, while he could not see it, he could feel mischieve eyes trailing his form.
He was too late to warn Chiron however, as the centaur's hand was already clasped over the doorknob.
The moment the door swung open, Shirou tilted his head instinctively and a couple paintballs flew pass the ear by mere inches.
Chiron was not so lucky.
He took the whole blunt of the ambush. Shirou blinked slowly as he saw Chiron froze, spray of paints splattered over his jacket and his face.
There was a stunned silence until a tall blonde by the door stammered awkwardly, "uh… hi Chiron?"
Chiron turned slowly at the speaker, "hello, Luke. I'm here to inform you that the Hermes cabin would be responsible for kitchen and toilet duty for two weeks." Shirou shivered at the very Rin-ish smile on his face.
Shirou gazed over the blonde after Chiron left the cabin surrounded by frightening aura. No one in Hermes cabin objected their punishment after Chiron gave them a glance.
"So, you're the new guy, huh," Luke Castellan mused, "Korean? Chinese? Japanese?"
"Japanese. My name is Shirou Emiya, just call me Shirou." He shook the cabin counselor's hand. Shirou felt calluses from the blonde's palm.
Shirou was just reborn, and he didn't inherit his past injuries and scars. So compared to the hand of a swordsman, his hand was smooth and only slightly callused from using kitchen knives.
"Luke Castellan, son of Hermes, and the counselor of Hermes cabin," Luke smiled, the scar wrinkled on his handsome face, "we, the children of the god of travelers, welcome all the unclaimed demigods. And so, as long as you're still unclaimed, you're a part of our big family." A couple kids from the back cheered and pillows flew, a pillow hit Luke in the back on his head.
"Actually, I'm claimed."
"Oh! And who is he, or she?" Shirou grimaced, and looked away, acting as if he was reluctant about giving out the information. He knew that some demigod had came to despise their parents for ignoring their wellbeing, and he's pretending to be one.
"…He's a minor god, no one really important," Luke, seeing the frown and the feinted hard look in his eyes, could relate to his hate towards their godly parent and didn't pressed further.
"Alright, I don't particularly like my dad as well, he's kind of a… asshole," Shirou raised an eyebrow at the bland declaration, "let's get you settled."
Luke hoisted his rather light backpack and lead him further in the cabin. They had to advance slowly as they had to dodge flying objects and chaos from time to time.
"You can sleep in here, the previous camper left the camp last year," Luke placed his backpack by the bed, "you have about an hour to settle until we need to head for lunch."
"Thanks." Shirou smiled as he brushed his dusty sheets.
"You're welcome. And don't be a stranger, don't hesitate to ask if you're in trouble." With a smile that would melt any female's heart, he left the cabin.
Luke Castellan seemed to be a nice guy, but Shirou didn't miss the excessive vemon in his tongue as he metioned Hermes and the dark look in his eyes.
Shirou's smile faded. He sat down on his bed and finally began to think of his words with Alaya.
To save this world from monsters and gods. So far nothing really serious seemed out of place, no evil masterminds or super boss appeared yet. He guessed the world domination or world destruction must be a long term thing. He could slay a couple monsters. He'd slayed dragons with Arondight, cut down waves of zombies with armies of swords, strike down a True Ancestor with the deadly thrust of Gae Bolg, and defeated the King of Heroes in his own game.
Slay a couple monsters, he could do that.
He thought as he dodged a pair of worn socks. He sighed, somehow he knew his days in camp would be troublesome.
It didn't take him long to pack his thing. He didn't have much stuff to bring to begin with, and he was the self-proclaimed king of household affairs.
When he was done, he escaped the madness occurring in his cabin. He ought to leave this mess, or he doubt his sanity would survive.
And so he took stroll around the camp, exploring the place so that he could have a general grasp over the landscape of the place.
He followed a dirt track to wherever it would take him. He took in the faces of campers as he passed them, they wore colorful expressions, some were happy, some had frowns on their face, some was sulking for whatever reason.
Shirou envied them. He, the living sword, had long since abandoned most of his emotions and feelings. Back at that time, if it wasn't for Rin holding him up, he doubted he would last this long. Every time he looked at the mirror, he saw himself sometimes with a scowl on his face, his gray eyes hardened to the strongest steel. He was the very definition of a seasoned solider. And he hated that, he imagined that was the look EMIYA often wore in his times as a Counter Guardian.
The magus smiled. This time however, he would be a hero. His ideals had slightly changed over time. He had long accepted the need to kill someone sometimes in order to save more people. But unlike Archer, he decided to abandon a group of people in order to save those he loved, Rin and friends like Luvia were someone irreplaceable in his heart.
Shirou stopped as he arrived at the stables. He could hear munching of teeth against hay and huffing from horses.
Pegasus, something that was considered as holy as phoenixes in his world was something he had never dreamed of seeing before. He knew that the Rider from his war possessed a Pegasus, but she died before he got the chance to admiring the holy entity.
In this world, it seemed that it was a relatively common creature. He entered the stables against the better of his judgement. The instant he closed the door behind him he was forced to bend his body to evade the mighty flap of a Pegasus' wing.
Shirou was no tamer of animals and holy beasts. He stepped back and gazed at the row of Pegasus of white. He blinked, they truly were beautiful creatures, pure white horses with wings of angels.
"What are you doing here?"
The girl was young, similar to his current age, probably among the ages of thirteen to fourteen. Her orange camper shirt was smudged by patches of dirt and hay.
"Ah, am I not supposed to be here?" Shirou asked politely as he turned around.
"It's not like you're forbid to be here, it's advised to enter with a supervisor or a trainer, since some of the Pegasus are not really friendly towards stranger," the girl studied him with her blue eyes, not unlike a certain magus in Shirou's life, "not to be rude, but who are you? I'd never seen you before."
"I'll be surprised if you do. I've just arrived camp today." Shirou said as he sidestepped the thrust of a hoof from a Pegasus who managed to stuck its leg out of its gate, "never seen a Pegasus before though. So I figured to come here to see one."
"Oh, they're not here just for sightseeing. Later you'll get a chance to ride them."
"Really?" True, he'd never dreamed of riding a Pegasus, it's every kids dream, his too. Shirou stared at a relatively calm horse compared to the other Pegasus. Instead of huffing and glaring at the magus, this one was simply staring at him as if curious.
"You can touch him. You know?" Shirou turned to regard the raven-headed girl, she sported a smile, "go ahead, he's one of the calmer ones. He won't bite, hard." Shirou chuckled as he neared said Pegasus.
He reached out and placed a hand on the mane. The horse flinched but stilled as Shirou instinctively activated his magic circuits in his arm. If anything, the horse leaned further into his warm hand.
"He likes you." The girl said, moving her bucket of water and towel near a Pegasus to wash.
"You think?" Shirou replied softly as he caressed the horse one more time before letting go. The Pegasus whined. "You know, I don't think I manage get your name."
"Silena Beauregard," she stood to face the magus, "I would've shake your hand, but…" she giggled as she raised her filth-covered hands.
Shirou chuckled, she did have a beautiful laugh, "Shirou Emiya, it's nice meeting you, Miss Beauregard."
"Just call me Silena, Shirou," the Silena smiled.
Picking a piece of roasted pork from the tray, Shirou moved on to the vegetable section.
When his place was full with nutrient, the auburn haired followed his cabinmates to a pit fire, where they dumped a generous portion of their food in the fire as offering to their parents.
The younger of the Stroll snickered as he tilted his plate and fed the fire a plateful of vegetables.
As the Stoll left the line for their table, Shirou moved forward. He didn't really have anyone in mind. So as he let a pile of beef and beans down the fire, he thought of Rin.
Just for a moment, it could be his mistake, but he could see a soft blue hue in the fire.
He moved to seat in an empty seat in the Hermes table, the guy beside him grinned at him and gave him a friendly pat on the back. Shirou nodded back.
The cafeteria was crowded. While the hall might be big, the campers presented was making it seem small. Twelve tables, twelve huge tables were all packed in suck tight space. All this noise and clattering of utensils were starting to get under his nerves.
Luckily for him, he didn't have to endure anymore.
"Camper, in case if any of you forget, I would like to remind you all that we would be having Capture the Flag this Friday as usual," the campers exploded in cheers, nearly busting his eardrums, "the team leaders are the Athena cabin for the blue side and Ares cabin for the red side."
The Ares campers celebrated the loudest as Chiron finished his speech and sat back down on the head table.
As annoyed as Shirou was, he got a feeling that this Capture the Flag game would be fun.
The next day, after breakfast, Luke brought Shirou to the armory to search for a fitting weapon for him.
One reason that he wanted to avoid using his sword in Unlimited Blade Works was to save himself from the spotlight and questioned by various people. Attention was the least he need now, he'd rather lay low.
He doubted using his tracing abilities wouldn't attract attention from gods and demigods alike.
"Well, here's the armory. There is not much, they are pretty decent."
To the Sword that creates various swords, decent was overrated. Almost all of them were made by the Hephaestus campers. Compared to even the lowest ranked nameless sword from his armory, it was like putting a gem next to rocks. Most had no history at all, like reading from a blank page, the metal quality was poor and all were made of celestial bronze, one good snap and the blade would dent or snap.
While some were trash, a few were in better quality.
"Not the best, but passable," he muttered as he moved towards the pile in search for his temporary weapon.
He scanned all of the swords, axes, daggers for the appropriate weapon for himself. The better ones were recorded in his armory while the lesser ones were tossed into the corned of his Reality Marble.
Then, he came to this one sword.
Shirou bend down and grabbed the leather hilt of the short sword, practically a machete. Quite well balanced, reinforced celestial bronze forged from days of hammering. Even after thousands of years, the blade only showed minimal amount of scars.
But what caught his eye was not the quality of the blade, but rather the history and the wielder of it.
The practice sword once used by the hero Hercules.
Apparently Hercules had once coincidentally picked up this blade one day when he was training, surprised by how perfectly balanced it was in his hands, he decided it would be his practice blade for swordplay and occasion spars.
Somehow this blade had found itself in Camp Half-blood after years of traveling from one wielder's hand to another.
"Hmm, an interesting choice. While I am not really a master of machetes, I guess I could teach you some basic swordplay about it," the senior camper suggested.
Shirou didn't reply, he left the pile and moved to a clearing and gave a few slow and simple practice swings imitating Hercules' motion and style. It did represent Hercules' style, wide swings and fiercy thrusts, dismissing defence for attack, a style that required tons of muscle mass.
"You seem pretty familiar with swordplay," Luke said, breaking Shirou from his practice swings.
"I did learn a bit of Kendo back in my childhood," which was partically true, he did learn a bit of Kendo from Taiga.
"Ken...do?"
"A sport of bamboo sword."
"I see."
If Luke was surprised to see his familiarity with a weapon, he didn't show it, "you sure you want this? You can always get a classic long sword, longer reach, more power."
Shirou raised the blade before his eyes and studied it. The blade was wider than most swords by a several inches. It was short like Byakuya and Kanshou, but unlike them, it was plain and slightly heavier than the married blades.
He supposed it was a good change to use something else than fake swords, something real in his hands.
"Yo, you wanna spare?" Shirou blinked as he looked away from his chosen weapon, Luke stood with his arms crossed, a look with no little amusement etched on his face, "you know, to test the machete. And if it doesn't suit you, then you can always change for another weapon."
Shirou glanced at the position of the sun, they had sometime before the lunch bell rang. He could spare sometime. And it would be a good opportunity to see how he fared after reversed to this body, "sure."
Together, they moved to the arena, where some campers were either practicing swings or sparring against one another. As the duo entered the stage, some ceased fighting to stare at the two.
"Newbie's gonna lose, just wait for it." Shirou allowed a deep chuckle to escape his throat. He was far from a newbie.
"Poor guy. Hopefully Luke will be going easy on the guy." The red swordsman ignored yet another comment.
As Luke took some leather armour from the stance and started hooking them up, Shirou stretched his arms and twisted his waist, wincing as he heard a couple painful pops.
As they were doing respective warm ups, a few campers stood to watch. Most were whispering how the master swordsman of Camp Half-blood would mop the floor with the unlucky new guy.
As Luke brought out his blade, Shirou noted that this sword was another blade forged by the Hephaestus kids, fashionable in looks but poor in quality.
Cracking his neck for one last time, Luke settled in a loose stance. Shirou didn't have to be observant to know that the guy wasn't taking him seriously, and he shrugged, Luke probably thought that some new guy with little battle experience would be little challenge for him. And Shirou wasn't angry to be looked down at, he had long since abandoned his pride when he started wielding fake blades.
Deciding to mix Hercules' style with various other different styles he had learnt from many machetes and short swords' history, Shirou settled in a stance, blade placed by his chest and his other arm behind his back.
Luke raised an eyebrow at the foreign stance, "that's one weird style. Is that Ken...do?"
Shirou shrugged, "a bit of a mix of Kendo and my own style, works pretty well."
"Armor?" he offered.
"Too heavy." Shirou said simply. Luke nodded and took the initial charge.
Determined to know his physical limits without reinforced by magic, Shirou blocked with the flat of his blade. The blow was half-hearted but Shirou considered it quite heavy for an undeveloped twelve-year-old boy.
With a grunt, Shirou pushed back, stepped back to gain distance. Reminding himself that fighting an adult with strength alone was a bad idea, Shirou leaned back to dodge an almost lazy swing from Luke. He delivered an equally slow slash at Luke, who deflected it with ease.
In hope of remaining in the dark, Shirou did little to show off his more advanced and deadlier skills. His hand twitched as he refrained from digging the point of his blade into the slight opening Luke exposed on his neck, he hesitated as he almost cut off the overextended arm when his opponent did a half-hearted thrust.
As Luke slashed and stabbed, Shirou would slap them away and countered, which would also in turn be blocked by the decent swordsman.
As they attacked back and forth, the crowd was beginning to cheer. To them, this level of fighting was considered impressive and for a midget and beginner like Shirou, it was no small feat that he, not only defended himself from Luke's attacks, but also managed to return strikes.
As the battle went on, Luke was getting either bored or frustrated at the seemingly endless and meaningless battle and began to pick up a notch. His attacks were now sharper and more refined. And with one smooth motion, Luke twirled and smacked Shirou's sword hard and sent it flying off his hand.
The redhead had to resist to pull a sword from his inner world as the tip of Luke's sword pointed at his throat.
"I win," Luke smiled, only slightly winded from the brief spar, a light sheen of sweat on his forehead was the only evident he worked for the win.
"Yes you did," Shirou panted. Damn, that was so pathetic that it shouldn't even be counted as a spar, but his body was in a very bad shape, the sheer exertion he felt from the light spar was unbelievable large.
Luke grinned and sheathed his sword, snatching a bottle of water someone from the crowd had tossed him and took a large gulp. He grabbed another one from the air and gave it to Shirou, who thanked him and devoured over half of it.
"You're good, better than most campers," Luke spoke up after the crowd dispersed.
"When you survived alone in wilderness for years, you ought to have picked up some skills," Shirou lied smoothly, taking another slip of water as he placed his machete back in its sheath.
"I guess we are very similar. I also once live in the wilderness. But unlike you, I have Annabeth and Thalia."
Shirou stared at Luke blankly.
"Oh right, you never meet them. Annabeth's one of the Athena's kids, the smartest of them all, 'bout the same age as you," Luke trailed off, eyes distant as the bell signaling the start of lunch finally rang, "and Thalia… she's gone, protecting us."
Luke pointed at the lone tree on top of half-blood hill, the pine tree contained a soul, "you see that tree? That's Thalia. Her dad, Zeus, turned her into a tree before she dies, and now she protects the camp with that barrier of hers." Luke stood up, obviously not wanting to talk about the topic, and began to move towards the Mess Hall, "Come on, let's hurry up."
Shirou sighed as he stood to follow.
He was not ashamed to admit it, but being in the camp was fun and relaxing.
Days passed, Shirou had, for once acting like his age, followed his cabin mates to their designed activities.
And of course, he had ridden the Pegasus for the first time. Turns out, it wasn't as hard as Shirou thought it to be, or maybe it's just Silena's a great teacher.
In the archery range, he had casually taken up a wooden bow and split arrows after arrows, the ache on his fingers as he drew the string taut, the feathers on the end of the arrow brushing against his fingertips when it was released was the sensation he had grew so fond of. He had been told more than once that his love and skill for archery was the indication that he was the son of Apollo.
Shirou wanted to laugh, this was all pure skill, none of that was related to magic. Though he doubted anyone would believe him.
And so that's how Shirou earned the title of the camp's bowman, though he preferred to be called Archer. It sounded way cooler.
Most of the times, he avoided contact with campers, only occasion talks and chats with Luke and a couple senior campers. They were the only ones that could actually hold an intelligent conversation and was able to answer his question about gods and monsters.
In the few days, he had tried modifying the style he had learnt from the machete. While Hercules' form was one of the best, Shirou couldn't perform some of the swings and skills that required a monstrous amount of power, not without reinforcement.
His sparring partner, namely Luke, was impressed with his improvement using his newly acquired blade. A fast learner, he told Shirou during one of their sections.
Shirou had to say, he enjoyed being in this camp, peaceful and away from danger, just like the old days.
Friday, campers were all smiling and grinning, excited of the night's Capture the Flag event.
Shirou consumed little food, not wanting to throw-up in the amidst of battle, not that he really planned to get really involved in the game. He'd rather lay back and observe the battle capabilities of the demigods.
As Shirou stood next to his fellow cabinmates, Chiron galloped up the stage and cleared his throat, "campers of Athena cabin and Ares cabin, pick your side now."
"Dips on Hermes!" a punkish girl, Clarisse yelled. The Hermes cheered and Shirou followed them to stood behind the Ares campers.
"We'll have Apollo cabin," the blonde female, Annabeth, frowned as her desired teammates were taken away from him.
And as the last of the cabins settled behind their respective sides, Chiron spoke up, hamming his hoof on the marble to gather their attention, "Heroes! You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. Maiming and killing is forbidden. I will act as referee and battle field medic."
"Prepare yourselves," with a wave of his arm, standard shields, weapon and armours appeared on the tables.
The red magus watched as his teammates stepped forward to grab weapons of their liking.
Shirou fought back a sigh and grabbed a light helmet from the pile, the only piece of armor everyone was required to wear in order to indicate their side, and a light leather chestplate to keep himself warm from the cool night breezes.
He had his machete by his side, Shirou figured that this would be a good time to see if his skills rusted.
With a loud roar, Clarisse and her cabin lead the team into the forest.
They didn't really have a tactic, Shirou frowned as Clarisse only assigned them their position and nothing more.
"Don't worry, there's never a plan whenever we are playing with Ares cabin," Travis Stoll assured him, "just go with the flow and follow your intuition, works for me."
Shirou was assigned to be one of the two guards of the flag, which was placed right in a clearing surrounded by trees. A rather bold position he would say.
As the team moved out to their respective given positions, Shirou along with a couple other guys of Hermes, Demeter and Dionysus cabin headed to the direction of their flag.
The horn blew just as Shirou and the other guard arrived their destination.
The other guy, a kid from Demeter, only seemed bored and kneeled down to tend the plants and flowers. Meanwhile Shirou unsheathed his sword and stretched, moving to a nearby tree and leaned against it.
Soon, fighting and shouts could be heard in a distance. Unconcerned, Shirou continued to inspect the sword, tracing nicks with his fingers and testing its sharpness.
About a couple minutes later, Shirou felt a presence enter the clearing. His eyes gazed up, but saw nothing. Frowning, He was pretty sure he felt something.
Shirou closed his eyes and waited.
A twig snapped almost inaudibly, crushed under a combat boot.
Now he was sure there was another person in the clearing, Shirou just couldn't see it.
Invisibility or cloaking magic, Shirou concluded as he heard another twig snap, escaping everyone's notice but his. This invisible person was pretty bad at being stealthy with all the sound he was making.
The swordsman noted that his fellow guard was still unaware to the presence, and decided to take action.
The person invisible froze as Shirou pushed off the tree and walked slowly towards his teammate, who was still kneeling and inspecting grass with his fingertips.
As Shirou passed the invisible individual by a foot distance, he swore he heard a sigh of relieve and Shirou smiled.
Spinning quickly, Shirou brought the hilt of his sword against the approximate position of head of the opponent. The loud clang startled the son of Demeter.
Shirou stepped back as the invisible person swayed and hit the ground with a soft thud. Invisibility wearing off as a girl's cap and helmet rolled off.
The Faker sheathed his sword by his side, "that makes one prisoner."
Clarisse cackled as she smacked another wimpy camper with her spear, the victim spasm as he was electrocuted.
Her cabin mates were unstoppable, decimating batches of campers with ease,
They ain't children of the war god for nothing.
As the last of the campers were disarmed, Clarisse waited for reinforcements to burst out of the bushes, but none came.
Something was wrong. They had encountered little resistance, and Wise Girl was nowhere in sight.
Normally, the sneaky daughter of Athena would come up with some tactic that always caught them in surprise. But this time there was none, no ambush, no trap, they were not surrounded, and they hadn't had the flag yet.
Damn Annabeth and her invisible cap, Clarisse had lost count how many times she had lost because of her advantage with her wimpy invisibility. Not that she really minded, she would always choose a good fight over some stupid victory and short-lived glory.
A loud cheer gathered her attention. Luke Castellan burst out the bushes with their enemy flag in hand, his cabin mates fending off the chasers.
Her brothers and sisters yelled as the son of Hermes crossed the line, the horn screamed and Luke thrusted the flag in the air, grin of his face.
Clarisse didn't share their enthusiasm, she barely fought any people. She wasn't satisfied.
Chiron had galloped into sight and Shirou sighed in relief.
"Shirou?" the centaur asked uncertainly as he surveyed the surroundings, or rather, their prison. Chiron noted that the other demigod guarding the flag with Shirou was edging away from the redhead as if frightened.
"Good timing, Chiron," Shirou laughed dryly, "I think I overdid it."
Certainly, he didn't expect the helmets to be so frail. The metal was dented from Shirou's blow to the head and left a nasty bruise on the prisoners' head.
Shirou stood by the centaur's side as the he checked the campers for any lasting injuries.
"Hmm… nonlethal head injuries, nothing a good night sleep and some ambrosia won't heal. Except they would have a nasty headache when they wake up," Chiron concluded, removing his hand away from a camper's temple.
"You're… very interesting, Shirou."
"Thanks."
Together, the magus and the Trainer of Heroes waited until the Apollo kids emerged from the woods with stretchers.
Later that night, when all campers were either celebrating at the campfire or back their cabin resting. Shirou stood by the lake.
A couple naiads giggled as he made his appearance, but drifted away as they noticed the distant and cold look in his eyes.
He neared the lake and touched the surface with his palm. His circuits activated as he flooded the water with prana. Blue electricity arced off the arm as he concentrated on the connection he had with Alaya.
Shirou stopped as mist rolled off the lake, molding and taking appearance of a woman.
"Emiya Shirou," Alaya, wearing the face of his beloved partner, smiled, "I see you are making progress."
"Alaya," he greeted neutrally.
"Impressive, you've even manage to keep your magic hidden as well," the entity representing humanity praised.
"I'm trying to avoid unnecessary attention," Shirou sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly, "that aside, tell me more about my enemies. They haven't even make an appearance yet."
Rin pursed her lips and rested a finger against her cheek, a very similar action he often saw her lover with, "oh no, they've made their move, but they are just laying low." Rin flicked her wrist, mist rolled off the lake and formed a familiar screen, it lit up and showed a scythe, "Kronos, King of Titans, Master of Time, father of gods. He is rising, the scattered pieces of his essence are gathering and soon he will rise again."
Speechless, Shirou remained silent as Rin continued, "There is a prophecy, and the children of the Elder gods are the key controlling the fate of Olympus and mankind." Rin chuckled, "the dark side, the Titan forces, will do anything to guarantee their king's return.
"So my enemies are monsters?"
"Not entirely. Demigods and minor gods are swayed to their side for revenge and their hatred of their mistreatment. Those gods are still oblivious to the real danger and fighting among themselves." Rin sighed, "in case you are not aware, Zeus' master bolt and Hades' helm was stolen. A divergent made by the enemies to cause conflict between gods."
Powerful beings were stupid, Shirou had known long ago.
"Great," he mumbled, "stop a war between gods and defeat the Titan of Time, no big deal."
"Actually, Shirou..." Rin said, "you should be more cautious. Afterall, if the legends are true, if greek gods are real, then..." for a moment, the deity known as Alaya seemed uncertain, "there is a high chance that the others are too."
A moment of pregnant silence.
"You're kidding me."
"I hope I am. But better safe than sorry. While it is weak, I can feel subtle spikes of energy across the globe."
Shirou sighed heavily, unbelievable.
Rin giggled, "don't worry, Shirou. You'll receive help on the way, you are not alone." Rin's form flickered, "I'm afraid I have to cut this short, my presence would attract Zeus' attention. We'll talk later."
The mist vanished, and Shirou was left alone by the lake.
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