Shirou was not a man who thought about sex overly much. Sure, he certainly had it regularly with his girlfriend and enjoyed it, but it was not something that consumed his focus like some other men. He had his priorities, and if it came down to it, he could stave off carnal pleasures for extended periods of time without much stress on his part.

But yeah, he still had to conclude that threesomes were pretty fucking awesome.

A low hum came from his throat as he looked up at the ceiling, the usual cocktail of post-coital hormones rendering him able to do little else. So… that just happened, he thought to himself. Again. Several times. It had been afternoon when they had started, but by this point it was well into the night. It looked like Saber had wanted to make up for lost time, as it were. Shirou wasn't entirely sure how he or Rin managed to keep up if he was being honest with himself. He idly wondered if his newfound cooking powers had anything to do with it.

He paused before a slight frown crossed his face and he sat up a little. Wait, what if it did have something to do with what just happened beyond Saber's normal love of food? Because if so, the fact that he could make lust inducing food was mildly horrifying.

A small moan captured his attention and he looked to his left, finding Saber gripping at his shoulder. His concerns melted away as a smile crossed his face, and he reached out a hand to bush Saber's now loose hair from her face. The whole situation may have been crazy and absurd, but he just couldn't manage to get worked up about it. The woman was one of his most trusted companions, and this level of intimacy just felt… right for whatever reason. Even though he had no doubt that, in spite of Rin's assertions, things were going to get messy later; he was a least willing to see it to that point.

At the touch of his hand to the side of her face, Saber nuzzled his palm for a moment before her eyes fluttered open. Even in the darkened room, the perpetual twilight of London filtered in through the windows enough to let him see her emerald eyes that locked onto his own, and the faint blush that colored her cheeks. "It would seem that I have behaved inappropriately again." She whispered softly, their proximity requiring little more.

"Not that I'm complaining." Shirou whispered back with a grin.

This caused her blush to deepen. "E-even if you and Rin have accepted this arrangement, I should not give in to my own desires so readily. It is unbecoming, and… distracts from other things."

"If that's the case, then you probably shouldn't blush so much." Shirou replied, his hand still cradling her face. "Because you look adorable when you blush like that, and then I'll have no choice but to get you in bed. Then of course you'll start blushing even more which will make you even more adorable and I'll have to do it again. It'll be a vicious cycle and nothing will get done for days."

Saber all but squeaked at this and turned her head to bury her face in the pillow. It was, of course, adorable, but the man managed to not follow through on his promise through sheer force of will. And the fact that he was pretty much spent by this point, but that was neither here nor there. He spent a few moments longer playing with her hair before a sigh escaped his lips. "Does… this upset you so much? Because if so you should not feel obligated to keep doing it."

After a few seconds Saber turned her head back towards Shirou, a look of worry crossing her face. "This is all very strange and somewhat uncomfortable for me... and yet I find that I still want it." She gave a sigh of her own. "You must understand, I have spent my entire life denying my gender… denying my humanity for the sake of my duty to my country. Intimacy was something I wasn't even sure I was capable of. And now I have suddenly found myself with two persons in a position so intimate that it borders on debaucherous." Some color returned to her face as she said that. "It is more confusing than anything else."

Shirou gave a small hum as he considered the woman next to him, his hand sliding down to settle somewhere on her waist. Arturia Pendragon, more commonly known as Arthur Pendragon, King of Britain. Forced to hide her gender in an age where women were not considered fit to rule, forced into a position of sovereignty she did not want, and forced to watch her kingdom tear itself apart as she struggled to keep it together. Brought to a time long after her own to fight in a War that was useless from the start. And now, still around many years after and suddenly finding herself in a kinky three-way.

Yeah, things were probably a little confusing for her at the moment.

"If that's the case, we can take this a bit slower if you want." Shirou said. "Though if I may say so, considering all you have been through, I should think that you may have earned a little debauchery."

The blonde shifted. "I do not think the people of my court would have seen it that way."

"Yeah, well, those people were pretty blind in a number of things." Shirou replied flatly. "I mean, who could possibly fail to see that you're a woman? Immortal boy king my arse. A woman as beautiful and strong as you deserves better than that."

The woman had a strange reaction to the praise, looking at him with both happiness and confusion. "That… is something I thought I would never hear you say. Perhaps I should endeavour to see that you are home more often."

"I don't mind." Shirou replied. "Maybe I can have someone cover for me sometime when I back with the Wardens. I don't have to personally save everyone after all."

At this, Saber suddenly went rigid and her eyes widened. "Shirou, what are you-" A sudden, loud rumbling noise cut her off, and the pair both glanced down at her stomach, the inevitable source of the sound. As they looked back up at each other, Shirou once again caught sight of her adorable blush. "W-we did end up skipping dinner after all."

The man shook his head, amazed that even she could be hungry after all of the food she had eaten already. "I'll see if I can whip you up a snack." He said, and managed to roll over and extract himself from the bed.

Saber propped herself up a little and made as if she was going to ask him something, but at that moment an arm wrapped itself around her waist from behind. Rin, who it seemed had been partially roused from sleep by the insistence of Saber's stomach, was displeased at the prospect of her bedmates leaving her and had moved to rectify the situation. Saber tried to resist, but Rin trapped her with her legs as well, and nuzzled her neck from behind taking all the fight out of the blonde woman. Shirou couldn't help but smile as he watched this, slipping on some pants before he turned and made his way out of the bedroom.

He didn't immediately go to the kitchen though, instead pausing in the living room to take care of something first. It seemed that even in the midst of passion Rin's thoughts had still lingered on his change, and as such as some point during the festivities she had transferred some of her prana to him. It was a rather novel sensation, as he was far more used to giving her a portion of his own prana in order to support Saber.

A thought occurred to him and a worried frown crossed his face. After the Holy Grail War ended, the ritual that had brought Saber to them ceased to provide the extra power that sustained all of the Servants. Normally they would all fade away, but Rin was one of the few people on the planet that could actually sustain a Servant using only her own power, and thus Saber was able to stay. Not that it was at all easy: it took about 80 percent of Rin's daily prana to do so, and that was if Saber didn't use her more powerful abilities. Normally Shirou would regularly donate some of his own prana to help share the load, but he couldn't do that anymore. Saber wasn't in any immediate danger of disappearing, but he did not like the fact that they had just lost a safety net.

He shook his head. He could think about solutions to that later. For now, he needed to spend a moment focusing on himself. "Trace on…" he muttered, and felt a surge of relief as prana flowed and Structural Analysis took shape, analyzing his own body. The amount of prana he had was used up quickly as he didn't have much of it, but the information he got back did say a lot. For one thing he found that his physique had in fact changed. He had regularly scanned himself enough to notice that he had gained several more pounds of muscle, and it was packed much more densely than it had any right to be. The end result was that he was more or less the same size, but his musculature was a lot more cut and defined than it normally should be.

It wasn't just his muscles either. Bones, nerves, even his internal organs were in amazing shape. Avalon usually took care of any major problems he might have had, but now his body was near perfect down to the cellular level, and then some. It was almost like his body had been permanently Reinforced, if not to the same degree. He wasn't even sure just what he was capable of physically anymore.

Unfortunately, before he could look any deeper, his loaned prana ran out and he was once again left with empty circuits. Well, at least it doesn't hurt like it should, he thought to himself as he started to make his way to the kitchen. Normally completely empty circuits would feel something akin to a collapsed lung, but by now he was actually getting used to the feeling. He imagined that he would have to be getting used to a great deal in the future. His body was different, his magic was different… even his relationship was different. It would be interesting to see how he handled it, at least.

A vicious grin split his face. Sure, they all may protest it, but the whole point of the Dragonblooded was to serve him. The Fire Aspect bitch may have resisted at first, but by the end she was panting and begging for more, just like the rest of them. He wondered if the bondage was some repressed fetish of hers or if-

Shirou stumbled and drew in a sharp breath, and his stomach twisted itself into a knot. Wh-what the hell was that? He thought to himself. He felt like he just had some kind of intense waking dream, but it felt so… wrong. He felt a brief moment of revulsion even though he couldn't really explain why.

The man took several deep breaths to calm his nerves before he shook his head. I've… just been having a weird time of things lately, he thought to himself. One weird little bout of dark thoughts doesn't mean anything. He then set about in the kitchen, focusing wholly on his task so that he couldn't think too hard about anything else.

The Clock Tower was the main and largest branch of the Mage's Association, headquartered underneath the British museum. Rin was not quite sure how or when it happened, but there was a veritable labyrinth of facilities for magi of the Clock Tower to use underneath the institution, most of which being libraries or laboratories. Still, not all who practiced the mystic arts did so only in an academic sense, so there were also facilities for the Wardens and Enforcers to practice their craft, and that is where Rin found herself this morning.

It was a surprisingly large room considering it was underground, about the size of a small basketball arena. In the center was a large open space meant for combat sparing, ringed by a bounded field meant to keep any magical backlash for fighting contained. The floor itself was concrete with a layer of sand over it, also meant to absorb blows and minimize damage. Around the edges of the room there were benches as well as various pieces of training equipment, both mundane and magical.

Of course, she was more than a little irritated that they were here at all. She wanted Shirou in her on site lab as soon as possible to do some more thorough tests on him, but the idiot insisted that he spar a little bit first. It didn't matter how much she talked about controlled testing environments or unknown effects, he just wanted to know how well he could use his 'Exaltation' as he called it to hit things. Eventually Rin capitulated, figuring she'd use it to her advantage somehow.

Rin watched as Shirou talked with a few of his fellow Wardens a few feet away. She hadn't been sure if he was still allowed to use the facilities after his suspension, but it looked like that wouldn't be overly much of a problem. Even though he wasn't allow to go on missions at the moment, it seemed that he still had some access to the resources he normally did. As for the other Wardens, their posture towards him seemed more curious than anything else. When Shirou had made it known that he was planning on doing some training today, a few more had shown up to sit on the sidelines, wanting to see if he would do something strange again. However, there was only one person he would be sparring against today.

"Rin, I am worried." Saber said from behind her.

Rin turned to look at her Servant. Gone was her usual blouse and skirt, replaced with a lightly armored shirt and slacks, and a helm was held under one arm. It was all for show of course, as Saber hardly needed armor in a fight against a human, but appearances had to be made. It would be… problematic if Saber's true nature was discovered to say the least. Even with her carefully hiding her strength though, the Enforcers had taken notice and had invited her to join the Enforcers a number of times. However, 'Joan' as they called her in public, always refused and instead remained as the personal bodyguard of Rin.

Rin waved her hand, launching to the logic she had come up with for Shirou's actions. "If Shirou immediately ran and hid from everyone, that would only increase the suspicion that he is doing something forbidden and bring down the attention of the Lords. Given his display back in Germany, it's not exactly a secret that he used some kind of new magic, so we might as well show them a little so long as it's not anything too extreme." The magus unconsciously glanced off to the side to see several other magi mulling about the boarder of the sparring field. These were not combat magi, but rather ones who had been in Germany and wanted to find out just what Shirou had done. Most likely by taking him apart. And then discrediting her in the process as well to take her standing in the organization down a few pegs, and gaining esteem for themselves.

Ah, politics. The second most practiced art of magi.

Saber, however, did not seem convinced. "While that is a concern of mine, that is not what I meant. I meant that I am concerned for what Shirou's new abilities are doing to him."

Rin arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean? I know that is something we need to keep an eye out for, but I can't think of anything he's done yet."

Saber looked off to the side as a light blush crossed her face. "Last night Shirou and I… talked for a while, and he was… romantic."

The other woman blinked dully at this. "I know that you don't have a lot of experience with relationships, but pillow talk does tend to lean in that direction."

The blonde blushed more, but said "When has Shirou ever said anything romantic?"

Rin opened her mouth to respond, but paused when she found that she couldn't. It wasn't that the man wasn't romantic, but he certainly didn't have a way with words. He did things that were romantic (even if he always just said that he was trying to make her happy), but poetic? Not so much. "Ok, I guess that's a little weird, but is that really a big deal?"

Saber looked at her directly and said "He said that he would consider taking time off from the Wardens. That he didn't 'have to personally save everyone after all'."

That caused Rin to stiffen in shock. "He- he actually said that?" While it was not a big deal if someone else had said something to that effect, Shirou was… different. The man had a near pathological need to save people, often at the expense of everything else in (and including) his life. Rin has speculated that the impulse had been created when his adoptive father pulled him out of the Fuyuki City Fire all those years ago, but whatever the case it had been shaping his psyche ever since she had met him. Even after years of being in a relationship with the man she had barely made a dent in his occasionally near-suicidal hero complex. And just now, out of nowhere, he was starting to let it go? That was definitely suspicious.

Saber nodded. "It is true, though I must admit that while the change is concerning… I do not entirely disapprove."

Rin groaned. "How the hell is it that Shirou showing signs of being less broken and reckless is something to be worried about? How did our lives get to this point?"

"It is most strange, but perhaps we can be optimistic for the future." Saber said.

Rin gave the other woman a flat look. "Since when has something new and unexpected been good for us?" She asked. Saber opened her mouth to respond before she shut it with a grimace. "That's what I thought."

"Joan! I'm ready to start when you are!" The two looked over to see Shirou already standing inside the Bounded Field, stretching his body out in preparation for combat.

Rin let out a breath. "Alright. We can talk about this later. Make sure his new powers aren't getting to his head, 'Joan'." She said. Saber nodded and walked past her, but before she walked completely past Rin managed to reach down and sneak a squeeze on the woman's posterior. Saber jumped and looked back in alarm to find her master smirking at her. The woman blushed and continued on to the arena, and Rin's mirth turned into trepidation as she focused on her apprentice.

Don't do anything stupid, don't do anything stupid, don't do anything stupid…

"I assume that you would like you're usual?" Shirou said as Saber approached him.

"Yes, thank you." She replied as she placed her helm over her head. Shirou nodded and Traced her sword. While the woman could likely requisition a weapon from the Wardens, she preferred the blade that Shirou could make for her instead. The reason for which was that he knew the exact shape, balance, and weight of her sword Excalibur, and while he couldn't trace the weapon itself due to how powerful it was, he could make a far more mundane version that Saber would be comfortable wielding. (She didn't use the real version because it would both reveal her identity and be ridiculously overkill on a normal human.)

The blade formed in Shirou's hand with a flash of golden light, and he tossed it to Saber. She caught it out of the air and started to get into the swordsman stance before she paused, her head tilting to the side before she looked at Shirou confused. It took the man a moment to see why; the sword had taken on the golden sheen which had been apparent in all of the weapons he had traced since his Exaltation. He gave her a shrug as it wasn't the time or place to talk about it, and the woman resumed her stance, allowing the man to focus on the battle at hand.

Shirou stood about 6 meters opposite Saber, wondering just how things were about to go. Normally his matches with Saber would fall into a pattern of attack and defend, with him occasionally using some of his more flashy uses of magecraft as needed. Now though he didn't even have a clue what he was capable of. It was why he was doing it in the first place after all, but he could have done without the audience, especially one that would be watching like a hawk to find any excuse to take him apart. Unfortunately, he didn't exactly have his own duelling area to practice his skills against, so he had to make do with his current circumstances.

Any other thoughts disappeared as Saber suddenly moved, coming at him with an overhead swing. At the very least he knew of one thing he could certainly do. He reflexively raised his arm to block, the empty hand already formed to grasp the Chinese blade that would appear within it. He Traced Kanshou-

Too slow.

The blade appeared after Saber's own sword passed through the space it was Traced in. The sword which was now inches away from his head. In a fit of sheer panic, he hurled himself backward and dismissed Saber's sword, managing to just barely miss having his head carved open. He tumbled back across the ground for several feet before he managed to roll to a stop, picking up his head to see Saber looking at him with worry from behind her helmet. "Shirou! What happened? Are you alright?"

Shirou shook his head as he stood. "I'm fine, fine. I guess I'm just… off my game a little." He said. It wasn't Saber's fault; she had come at him with the expectation that he was fast enough to Trace and block, and he should have been able to do so, but this time… His Tracing speed was marginally slower. Not much, but enough that it would have gotten him killed in a normal fight. He'd have to make sure later, but for now it was best to assume that he couldn't rely on his old Tracing speed. He created another longsword for Saber and tossed it to her, before creating Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands. "Let's… try that again."

She hesitated for several moments before she moved in to attack again, though this time much slower.

It wasn't necessary.

As soon as the woman was in range, things started going much more smoothly. She came in with a horizontal swipe which Shirou deflected and countered with an overhead slash. She spun around him and out of the way to strike at his other side, but he spun the other way to meet her with both his blades. He tried to shove her off balance, and though he only managed to make her step back, he moved forward to aggressively press the advantage, coming in with a flurry of blows that surprised his opponent. Which was good; Shirou wanted her to step it up a little.

Saber always held back during their matches (even when they had the chance to go all out, as a fight between him and a fully powered Servant would be so one-sided it wouldn't be funny), but now it seemed that she was holding back even more due to the mishap at the start. Shirou didn't want that. He wasn't usually in such a mood, but at the moment he wanted a fight. The woman got the cue and stopped giving ground, and in an instant her blows were hitting harder and faster, reversing his momentum. He kept it up even as he retreated, his blades lashing out to block and counter.

The two continued back and forth, with Saber gradually increasing the speed and strength of her attacks. After about a minute or two Shirou noticed something: he was performing much better than he should be. He had already passed the point where he would have normally needed to start reinforcing himself to keep up with Saber, and he wasn't even feeling tired yet. He somehow had the speed to parry Saber's blows and the strength to actually follow through. Granted, at the rate Saber was speeding up he would have at most a minute before that stopped being the case, but he had already passed what he should humanly be capable off. The most alarming thing was he wasn't even using his newfound power; this was just his body. Curious, he baited Saber into a sweeping attack which he then made to jump over.

Saber was expecting him to jump the attack. She did not expect him to jump over her as well.

Shirou lashed out with his swords as he flipped over Saber, and the woman barely managed to get over her surprise in time to deflect the attacks. He landed on the other side of her and spun, sweeping one blade down low before following through with a thrust. For the second time in the spar, Saber found herself off balance and was forced to stumble back. This time Shirou didn't press forward, instead settling back into a stance with his blades at his sides, pointed upwards. Saber stood still, her own blade pointed at the ground and an odd expression on her face. "Hmm. I see that you are full of surprises today." She said evenly, her brow furrowed slightly.

Shirou affected a shrug. "I guess so."

The woman paused for a moment before her mouth twisted into a rueful smirk, and her sword raised itself into a ready position. "Very well. Let's see how long you can keep it up."

There was no way he could keep this up. Saber had been holding back and caught off guard before, and he still hadn't actually landed a hit on her. Now? Judging by her stance and posture, she was about to remind him just who was the legendary ancient warrior hero and who the guy that had been training with swords for only 5 years was.

She came in with a blur of motion, smashing her blade into his guard and forcing him to step back. He could barely bring the other blade up to parry before she attacked again with a diagonal slash. Shirou rapidly started losing ground, and he knew that she still wasn't even close to her full strength. In his head he predicted that he had about another 12 moves before he was (painfully) out of the fight. That meant it was time to see just what his new abilities could do.

If only he had the slightest clue how to use them.

Mild panic settled into him as his arms started to feel the strain and his back was rapidly approaching the edge of the arena. He knew he could make himself glow, but that hardly seemed useful at the moment. He could only remember bits and pieces of how his fight went with the Monster, and he wasn't sure how much of that was the Exaltation or the remaining prana that had been in his body. Either way he had to try something.

He tried willing his Light into his muscles and bones like he would with Reinforcement. No effect

10 moves.

He tried reciting a mantra in his head that some monks used for physical activity. No effect.

6 moves.

He tried envisioning exactly what he wanted his body to do. No effect.

3 moves.

He tried muttering a rushed prayer to The Unconquered Sun for guidance. No effect.

1 move.

He was out of time. Out of room. He had to stand and block. So, he stopped trying and blocked.

What happened next was… unexpected.

Shirou's Light surged through his circuits, and on reflex his grip and his blade reversed, pressing the blade flat against his arm. As Saber's blade came down he reversed his direction and sprang forward, stepping into the blow. Saber's blade slammed into his arm, but he managed to guide it down and to the side, while his other blade came around for the strike to the head. He was too close to hit with the blade so he simply lashed out with the pommel. He managed to score his first hit of the combat as a glancing blow to the side of Saber's helm.

The woman gave a low grunt in surprise but surged forward, trying to use her lower center of gravity to shoulder check him and throw him away. Shirou however dropped down, and somehow managed to slide past and behind her. Saber spun in a wide arc to catch him, but as Shirou rose he flipped backwards out of her reach. He briefly considered throwing his blades at her, but decided against it considering he knew how fast she was and how his ability to Trace a new pair would be slower than usual.

His instincts were right, since as soon as he landed he found Saber charging towards him with a straight thrust. Rather than try to the dodge to the side, Shirou moved forward and thrust Kanshou at Saber's blade, almost as if he was trying to make the tips touch. The two blades scraped against each other, and Shirou twisted the black blade with his wrist and pushed with his arm such that the thrust was deflected off course, if only just barely. This allowed him to make a thrust of his own at Saber's chest plate, and he managed a shallow gouge into the metal before she pulled back.

The woman redoubled her efforts with a series of rapid slashes to pin Shirou down, but the man wouldn't let her. Her blows were now closer than ever to hitting him, but he always just barely managed to turn it aside or move out of the way. All the while he kept landing glancing blows on her armor, little more than knicks and cuts, but compared to how well he usually did against Saber it was amazing. However, it took Shirou a while to realize the most amazing thing: in spite of the Light now flowing through him, he still wasn't actually faster or stronger.

His strikes and counters were still coming with the same force they had before, yet somehow he was not only holding his own, but managed to get a few hits in himself. He knew his new abilities were responsible for it, but he had no idea how. It was almost like it was being completely direct in what he wanted out of it. He wanted to block a strike, so he did. It wasn't necessary to make him stronger or faster to do so, just… better. He moved with more skill and precision than he had ever thought possible in his life. And as he did, he became increasingly aware of the golden light pouring from the sunburst on his forehead.

Saber, of course, did not take this new development lying down. Once again she started to increase the force and speed of her attacks, but now she was finally starting to approach her full power as a Servant. Shirou's new found skill was indeed a powerful force multiplier, but his arms once again started to feel the strain as blows that should have shattered concrete rained down on him. Taking a gamble, he moved in on Saber, keeping his torso and blades low to the ground. Saber naturally aimed low with her strike to ruin his momentum, but rather than blocking or stopping, Shirou simply flipped his body head over heels at the last second. Before the woman knew it, the man was colliding feet first with her chest. She stumbled back a bit but held her ground, which was fine for Shirou as his legs then bunched up and he jumped away from her, using the woman's breastplate as a spring board to get some distance. As he landed several meters away, he had a scant few moments to prepare for what was about to happen next.

Ok, he thought to himself. Don't think about doing it, just do it. Reinforcement worked by filling prana into the imperfections of the human body, strengthening muscles and bones and tendons to the point where they could perform at super human levels. It was a process that required thought and care when applied to the body; else what one was trying to Reinforce would simply break instead. Now though, Shirou didn't bother with that. He just took a deep breath and hurled himself at Saber, seeing just how far he could push himself.

The ground beneath his feet cracked and sand sprayed up behind him as he pushed himself forward, and in an instant his blades were hammering into Saber's like a meteor. The Servant gave a small yell of surprise as she was pushed back from the force, her feet digging trenches in the floor as she fought to maintain purchase. Shirou did not let up. The man became a maelstrom of blades, lashing out with speed, accuracy, and power which he had never dreamed possible. The air tore and ripped around the pair, the speed of their movements causing winds to pick up any loose debris around them. No man, magi or monsters could have possibly hoped to stand against such a vicious assault.

However, he was facing none of those things at the moment. Saber was done holding back. She matched him blow for blow, crossing blades against him as only a Servant of the Sword could. After countless strikes, counters and ripostes she managed to just slip her longsword into his guard, smashing the flat of her blade against his wrists. Shirou lost his grip on his own blades and they went flying off to the side. She moved in to press the sword to his throat. The power surging through Shirou demanded that he act.

So he punched the sword.

Bringing his fist back around, Shirou lashed out with a defiant shout, aiming straight at the edge moving towards his neck. The instant his knuckles connected with their target, golden light flared to life, exploding from his entire body. The sword shattered, pieces of gold sheen steel flying in every direction.

Saber leapt back in shock, glancing at the ruined hilt she now held in her hand and ready to dodge at a moment's notice. However, Shirou did not immediately attack, and for several long moments he simply stood there, glowing like a bonfire. Eventually he Traced another longsword and tossed it to the woman, letting the shattered remains of the previous one dissolve into the air. Shirou was dimly aware of this own blades slamming back into his hands, but his focus remained on Saber. She caught the new sword out of the air and raised it before her, her eyes narrowing. There was no more holding back. This is where the real fight would start.

"That's enough!" The two blinked and turned to find Rin walking towards them, a cross look on her face. "This is supposed to be a simple sparring match! I won't stand for the two of you exhausting each other and forcing me to drag you around all day."

"But we were-" Shirou started to say.

"I don't care." Rin said with finality. "I've humored you enough for today and we're leaving." She then lowered her voice to the point where only he and Saber could hear her and hissed "Before you end up showing something you can't take back!"

Shirou then glanced behind her to see magi of various houses watching him very intently, and he grasped what Rin meant. If he went any farther with his abilities, it would mean he likely reveal something that would cause the other magi to stop considering him a curiosity and rather something to vivisect. As such, he merely gave a nod and allowed Rin to drag him away.

That didn't stop him from feeling all of the stares, though.

"I knew this was a terrible idea, but no…" Rin said as she threw up her hands, pacing around the locker room they had sojourned to. Soon after they had entered Rin had set up a Bounded Field so that others couldn't listen in to what was being said, though Shirou had a feeling that most of it was going to be her chastising him. "We could have experimented in any number of controlled and discrete environments to test your new abilities, but you just had to go hit things with swords and push yourself dangerously close to the highest physical augmentation level that Enforcers are capable of didn't you?" She turned to look at Shirou, a scowl on her face and hands on her hips. "And will you stop glowing already?!"

Shirou shifted uncomfortably on the bench he was sitting on. "I've been trying to, but nothing's worked." He noticed with some chagrin that the bench and lockers behind him were starting to bleach white, like they had been left in the sun for too long. "I think we just have to wait for it to die down."

Rin's eyebrows furrowed at this. "You have to be kidding me. Do you have any idea how hard it will be to keep a low profile if you start glowing uncontrollably like a light bulb whenever you do things like this?"

Shirou was silent for several long moments before he said "I don't think it's the kind of power that's supposed to be low profile."

"What do you mean?" Saber asked.

"It's just a feeling I have, but I get the impression that the reason I was given this power was to, well, use it." Shirou said. "He… the Unconquered Sun said that I was to be a Champion of Justice, that I was to strike down evil. I don't think that he meant that I was to do so stealthily."

"Well, I think Sol Invictus is just going to have to deal with the fact that that's not how the world works!" Rin snapped before she started to rub her forehead with her hand. "Then again, why should I expect any different? If it's not a god of subterfuge I should probably just assume everything about a Divine Spirit is going to be loud and obvious."

"You don't have to make it sound like being obvious is the worst thing ever, Rin…" Shirou said flatly. "I'm not going to stop doing what I do even if I can't be subtle about it."

The dark haired woman rolled her eyes and shot Saber a glare. "And you were worried about his personality changing."

"Wait, what?" Shirou said as he looked over at Saber in confusion.

The blond woman looked off to the side, a grimace crossing her face. "I was simply expressing my concern for the possibility. Your Exaltation has already altered several other things about you." She turned to look at him. "You were able to match pace with me for longer than you should have without empowering yourself, and yet you stumbled when trying to counter the first strike of the combat."

Shirou gave a frown of his own. "My Tracing speed has slowed. It looks like the Exaltation isn't completely complimentary with my other abilities." He paused to think about that for a moment. "I suppose that is a little concerning, but I can compensate. Besides which, I've only started to scratch the surface of what this Exaltation can do for me."

"Like get you killed by your fellow magi because you couldn't stop shining at an inappropriate time." Rin said flatly before giving a sigh. "Look, I get that you don't want to stop doing your… hero thing, but until you have a firmer grasp on how to control this power, don't get into any more fights, practice or not. You're training in a lab or not at all."

The man crossed his arms. "You say that, but I don't think that a lab is the best way to explore what I can do. Besides, as far as we can tell, there's no way to remove the Exaltation, so I might as well start getting used to it."

Rin paused for a moment, her eyes flickering to Saber before coming back to Shirou. "That… isn't entirely true." She continued when Shirou gave her a confused look. "You of all people should remember this due to your memory for weapons, seeing as how you could Trace… that particular dagger."

Both Saber and Shirou went stiff when they realized what she was talking about, and a scowl settled onto Saber's face. Shirou couldn't blame her; the weapon that Rin was referring to was Rule Breaker, the dagger of the Witch of Betrayal. The three had encountered her under the class of Caster during the Holy Grail War, and the memories she had left them were unpleasant to say the least. The woman had used Rule Breaker to steal his Command Seals and subsequently Saber away from him, turning the proud woman into her plaything. It was a miracle that Caster was killed and Rin managed to contract Saber to herself before the Servant's will was eroded. However, it was a full two days before that happened.

Saber never talked about what happened to her during that time.

Still, even for all the distasteful memoires it brought up, it only further reminded him of how useful the weapon could be. Rule Breaker was the ultimate anti-magical tool, capable of breaking any magically binding contract without negative consequences. He wasn't quite sure how it would react to the thing Rin had said wasn't even remotely like any other magic she had ever seen, but if there was a way to restore himself back to normal, that would be it. That didn't mean he had to like it though. Just thinking about the shape of the thing made him…

Just thinking about…

…Wait, that wasn't right.

Shirou sat bolt upright, his eyes wide as he stared off at nothing. That wasn't right. He could remember the dagger. He could remember the sight of it plunging into Saber's chest very clearly… but that was it. No blueprint of its physical shape in his head. No knowledge of its history or composition. It was just… "It's gone." He whispered.

Saber frowned at him. "What? What is gone?"

"Rule Breaker. It's just gone!" Shirou yelled in mild panic. He held out his and tried to Trace the weapon, but nothing happened. "I can remember it, but it's just a normal memory! What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

Rin and Saber exchanged worried glances. Rin looked back at Shirou and said "You said it yourself that the Exaltation isn't fully compatible with Unlimited Blade Works. Perhaps there are individual weapons inside your soul that run counter to it. Have you lost anything else?"

Shirou closed his eyes and tried to think, though looking for gaps in one's supposedly perfect memory of thousands of cataloged weapons was not an easy task. Or at least it should have been, as he managed to find a massive number of other weapons he should have been able to remember better than he could. Gáe Bolg, Dáinsleif, Gram, even the unnamed chain and nails that Rider had used were lost to him now. Now that he could see which ones were missing, the linking thread between them became obvious. "Darkness and evil."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rin asked.

"I've lost all of the weapons I've stored that were of an evil nature, or even just a dark one." Shirou said grimly. "I'm not quite sure yet, but if I'm estimating correctly, I've lost about a third of my arsenal."

"A third?!" Rin said in alarm. "That has to be at least hundreds of blades! Many of which were priceless Noble Phantasms! Why in the hell would the Exaltation get rid of them?!"

"Well, they were evil…" Shirou said sheepishly. "Besides, I never really used those weapons for exactly that reason."

"That's not the point!" Rin said in frustration before her head fell into her hands. "Why can nothing ever be simple with you, Shirou?"

"Why are you treating this like it's my fault?"

"Because Sol Invictus isn't here and even if he was it would be ill advised to yell at a deity." She said with a grumble. "And whatever the case, I don't like having a fallback plan suddenly disappear on us, even if it might have been distasteful." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "We've been in here long enough. We should get you to a lab as soon as possible. But first…" Rin then started to adjust her clothing, making it somewhat lopsided and rumpled.

"Rin… what are you doing?" Shirou asked with some concern.

The woman gave him one of the looks she liked to give when she thought he was being particularly dense. "Shirou, I absconded with you to a locker room and set up a Bounded Field to ward away ease droppers right after your fight where you showed some… interesting things. Do you really think there aren't other magi trying to listen in on what we're talking about right now?"

"Well, ok, but why are you rearranging your clothes?"

"Because the only other reason I might have had for doing so was that your performance gotten me so hot and bothered that I simply had to take you that very second." Rin said flatly, causing Shirou and Saber to blush fiercely. "Now start making yourself look like you ravished me to my satisfaction or you'll probably end up on some Lord's operating table."

Shirou hated the fact that his life had gotten to the point where someone could say that in complete seriousness to him.

A/N: Once again, thanks to Destrark for Betaing.

So, a little preview of what Shirou is capable of in this chapter. It's certainly not the full extent of his abilities, but you have a rough idea. Also, I showed that the Exaltation had more of an effect on Unlimited Blade Works than Shirou might have thought. The Solar Exaltation carries the essence of the Unconquered Sun, and remember that the term 'Creatures of Darkness' in Creation is pretty much defined as 'things Sol Invictus doesn't like.' Needless to say, there were a lot of things in Shirou's soul which his Exaltation wouldn't tolerate.

Some of you might be curious as to just how physically capable Shirou is now, and I've seen a lot of Exalted fics handle it differently. For this fic, when Shirou is not augmenting himself in any way, he's equivalent to Captain America: superhuman, but only just. I'll leave his maximum up to speculation at the moment, but I will say that Saber at her full strength (and using a weapon Shirou can't punchsplode) would still be able to hand Shirou's ass to him at this time.

Till next time.