(a/n) started writing this before you all made your arguments against gun-tracing so there is some here. i mostly took them from counterstrike, how's that for 'history'? |D

and yes i've said before i didn't want to do battles, but this plot bunny got stuck in my head and i did try to keep it toned down. tell me how i did.

Fate/School Days - Sidestory 04: Keiko

Koyuki was still an emotional wreck when I got home. Akitsu-kaasan was being looked over by Chiho-kaasan and Chiyo-nee, so there was nothing for my sister to do but fidget around the house feeling useless. Karin and Sakuya were off doing something I'd rather not know anything about, while many of the older children were at after school clubs or activities. It fell to me to distract Koyuki from her own mood.

Being an Emiya, my fallback distractions tended to be housekeeping or sparring. Thank goodness Uncle Gil was around to take care of the former, it gave me an excuse to engage in the latter.

We met in the large open space in the back yard as I laid out the rules for the spar. Having so many children with so many different abilities made it almost completely useless to have a single set of rules beyond 'Do Not Kill Each Other,' so fights were generally ruled on a case by case basis. Koyuki was listless as she listened to the limitations I had placed on the both of us, so I decided to take a bit of pity when I laid out her victory conditions.

For her to win this spar, she simply had to collect a large enough snowball that would smash me into the ground and cause a minor amount of property damage if it hit. She didn't even have to actually launch the attack, just create it. I knew if she kept herself focused she could create a ball of that size within a few minutes, which gave me a time limit for me to defeat her. My goal was to break her concentration with my own attacks. I was limiting myself to soft rubber bullets, though I did warn her I'd be using most of my rune combinations to distract her. If I could keep the spar going past the five minute mark, then it was my own victory.

Musubi-kaasan offered to officiate, though I think it had more to do with a desire to watch the unfolding battle rather than any desire to actually referee for us. I took my position across the field and watched Koyuki move into place on the far side as we waited for Musubi-kaasan to begin the fight.

She gave the signal and immediately the air temperature around us dropped by a good ten degrees. I had dashed to the side, anticipating an immediate snowball barrage, and I frowned when none came. Instead, Koyuki hadn't even moved from her spot, a small sphere of snow collecting over her head. I frowned at her lacking enthusiasm and pointed a finger towards her.

Trace on...

An MRI-Mark VII Desert Eagle was not generally considered a good weapon for actual battles, but it was a hand cannon in every sense of the word and it was useful for making a point. A single 0.44 rubber bullet was enough to completely vaporize the snow Koyuki had gathered and I let the pistol vanish as I watched her eyes widen.

"Gotta step it up, Koyuki-chan," I wagged a finger at her. "Just because I'm making it easy for you doesn't mean you've got a free win."

She blinked for a few moments and started to smile ruefully. A flicked hand in my direction sent several tiny pellets of snow my way, avoided by simply twisting out of their path.

"Better," I mock yawned and held out both of my hands. Two Beretta M9 semi-automatic pistols, the primary sidearm for US Armed Forces, materialized in place and I slid into a Form IV Gun Kata stance. "Wake up, Sister, here I come."

Koyuki launched another hail of tiny snowballs at my former position as I exploded towards the side. Pistols ablaze, I sent my own attacks split between various parts of her body or the snowball she was reforming over her head. This time, small explosions of snow marked where she had focused her powers into the stream of projectiles and successfully deflected them. One particularly large cloud erupted between us, blocking my vision, and I used to the chance to reverse direction and reload my weapons with more traced bullets.

Moving past the cloud, I sighted on Koyuki's back and her snowball. She had continued turning in the direction I had been moving before, and it seemed she had lost me when I pulled my reversal. She was just managing to turn around when a clip caught her in all along her side.

She exploded in a puff of white snow. For a second I was shocked into motionlessness, when suddenly I was blindsided by a renewed attack from my own side. Nothing but my pride had been injured, unlike her mother, Koyuki's abilities with snow left her fastest attacks suitable only for a friendly snowball fight. Since snow was most dangerous in quantities suitable for a small avalanche, she had always needed large amounts of time to gather enough snow for anything worth considering. Defensive strategies were her best forte, hence the rules I had set for our duel.

That didn't mean she didn't enjoy getting in a few hits of her own, though. For the first time this week she had a slight smile on her face as she stared triumphantly at my annoyed expression. Absentmindedly I lifted an arm to the side for a potshot at the large snowball still collecting in the air, but the surface barely reacted as the gathering snow simply absorbed the bullet. Her attack had reached the point where the handguns I was limiting myself to couldn't affect it directly, which meant my time was running out.

My primary-handed weapon dissipated and I poured more mana into creating its replacement. The Heckler & Koch USP 0.45 ACP was used by law enforcement agencies around the world, and the variant I had traced included its LEM-trigger modifications, which allowed for much faster follow-up shots. What made it even more special was the bullets I had traced were saturated with my od. Using my affinity with runes, I could 'prime' each bullet with a word, allowing for some interesting tactics.

Sowelu - Sun.

My first shot hit the ground right in front of Koyuki, setting off the equivalent of a flash grenade right at her feet.

Kano - Fire.

Spinning around, I fired a quick succession of bullets back at the growing snowball. This time, as each bullet was absorbed, the snow around it melted into water and fell from the construct as they melted from the fire spells. My other hand still holding a Beretta sprayed bullets back towards Koyuki, forcing her to reflexively dodge and shield herself as her eyesight recovered.

Ansuz - Communication, Teiwaz - Courage.

I'd never known why these two combined they way they did, but Father swore by it, and I'd always seen its effects first-hand, so I wasn't going to question it too much. The next two bullets I sent directly into the hollow left by my kano-bullets, and an explosion quickly tore out a fairly large chunk of the snowball, setting back Koyuki's progress quite a bit.

Behind me, my sister had finally noticed the assault I was launching and had begun to create a second ball. This one was still smaller than the one already formed - and recently reduced - but she packed it in tighter and launched it directly at my runic weapon.

Thurisaz - Protection, Algiz - Defender, Berkana - Growth

I spun to meet the new threat and fired a trio of bullets into a small wedge in the ground before me. A barrier spell quickly grew into place and the snow attack splattered against it. From behind its protection, I turned my firearms back towards the growing snowball and looked back over my shoulder.

Koyuki's face was flushed with exertion. She met my eyes with her own and I was pleased to see no trace of her previously dead expression. I grinned cockily at her and mouthed one final rune. She shook her head slowly and I felt a puff of cold air as she let the snowball completely disperse into the air.

"Keiko wins by forfeit~!" Musubi-kaasan declared, almost but not quite bouncing on her feet. "That was AWESOME! Rin-san would be so proud!"

"You didn't do as badly as I thought, Yuki" Karin said from behind her. I started; I hadn't even noticed her arrive. "You made Keiko use her runes pretty quickly."

Koyuki was still struggling to get her breathing under control. "It was still not sufficient," she gasped.

"Well," I began, "You protected yourself pretty well, and you got me good with that snow-clone. But you completely forgot that your primary objective was to protect your snowball."

Koyuki blinked.

"You should have either kept your defenses around it. But if you were going to relocate like that, you should have taken it with you," I concluded.

"Ah..." it was times like these Koyuki really resembled her mother. "I forgot..."

Karin sighed dramatically.

"My turn, my turn!" Musubi-kaasan cried out excitedly. I broke into a sweat at the thought of facing the powerful close-range combatant.

"Ooh, I want to watch this," Karin said. I turned towards her with a betrayed look.

"I, too, would find this interesting to see," Koyuki said with a narrow grin.

"Uh..."

"WHOO!" the 'adult' was shouting. "Oh wait, we need a new referee! I'll get Landlady-sama!" A small afterimage and a puff of smoke was all that remained as Musubi-kaasan vanished into the house.

"I think... I'm going to go... somewhere else for now," I said weakly. I started to head in, but my legs wouldn't move for some reason. Looking down, I noticed two shadowy appendages binding my feet to the ground. I nervously looked over my shoulder.

"Maa~" said a smiling Sakuya. "It's a champion's duty to accept their challengers, is it not?" She leaned forward, her bangs shadowing her face somewhat ominously. "Besides, I want to watch too."

I whimpered. "I hate you all..."