After Shirou left Louise's room, he immediately made his way to offer the staff his services.
When he found out that they didn't really need help but accepted his assistance if he liked to offer a hand during tea-time for the second years as the bond with their familiars.
Shirou could help but to think of Louise when staff those words.
Shirou accepted and in half an hour he began helping by serving the entrées of either cake, cookies, or with toasted bread with butter or jam with the tea.
As Shirou was serving the same girl who he saw Guiche with last night asking for his whereabouts as she was carrying a basket. By the smell Shirou deduced it was the Soufflé she'd mentioned to Guiche.
Shirou was more than willingly eager to maliciously comply with her request to find him. It was also fortunate that it so happens that he was also delivering both Montmorency and Guiche's orders.
He had seen Guiche with Montmorency as he was talking and flirting with her as they were with their familiars, a giant mole about the same size as Guiche and a little light brown frog barely about the size of Montmorency's own palm.
As he made his way towards them Shirou asked Katie to follow behind him as he would lead her to Guiche. Shirou just thought this was karma for Guiche for being a womanizer, and he its harbinger was more than happy to oblige in fate's plan.
As he approached his destination, he heard their current conversation they were having. Verdante didn't react to Shirou's presents nor his approach at the brunch, this was because when he got up in morning, he put all his stuff on his person into his bag before waking up Louise. Giving Guiche no warning of what's to come.
"You flatter me like always." Montmorency said with approval to Guiche's former praise.
"I would never lie in your eyes." Guiche said in the same sultry tone, and he did with Katie.
"But I heard a rumor recently about how you started dating a first year." Guiche flinched at the truth behind the accusation of the statement of that rumor Montmorency just spoke of. And she was not pleased by it from her cold undertone in her voice.
Guiche collected his baring be for speaking as to not let anything slip. While He quickly composed himself, he failed to notice the arrival of both Shirou and Katie
"Nonsense, there's never a-"
"Hidden side of my affection for you." Before Guiche was able to finish his sentence he was interrupted by Shirou, who completed the rest of his statement. That once again made him flinch.
Guiche slowly turned to Montmorency as he could feel her cold judging glare on him. Not noticing Katie who stepped out behind Shirou shaking in rage and dismay. Having heard the conversation about the rumor, she'd have stepped out earlier to greet him if it wasn't for him saying "Nonsense." And the competition of those honeyed words he had said to her by Shirou.
"G-Guiche, I was looking for you." Katie's voice was shaky as if she could barely contain the emotions she was feeling. Only coming down enough to collect herself from Shirou, who placed a hand on her shoulder for both comfort and support before continuing.
"I was going to give you the Soufflé I've made for you to enjoy while tea-time sense we were dating, but it would seem that I was mistaken." Guiche whipped his head back and forth between the two angry girls while he put his hands up in a calming gesture, as if he startled two wild lionesses and tried to appease them so as to not to be mauled to death by them.
Hell Knows No Fury Like A Woman's Scorn. Shirou knows this better than anyone as he was constantly surrounded by very strong women.
"K-Katie, this is some sort of misunderstanding."
"Guiche, what's the meaning of this? Have you really been cheating on me?!" Montmorency spoke with a seething tone in her voice.
"Now Montmorency the Perfume, please don't distort your rose like face with such anger." Guiche quickly tried to calm the enraged Montmorency as he was sweating buckets as he thought of ways to de-escalate the situation.
Yet this was not to be.
Others started to gather at the growing commotion in their curiosity.
"You horrible man, you told me I was your one and only!" Katie raised her voice letting all those near know her displeasure.
"Ladies please, I think that the both of you need to cal-"
Smack
Before he could finish both Montmorency and Katie slapped Guiche as hard as they could, knocking him to the ground. As love letters flustered out of his pocket, enraged the girls more so.
For Shirou It was very strange to experience these sorts of things on the outside.
"Were Through! You Jerk!" Guiche's heart sank when those words by Montmorency and Katie echoed in his head.
Shortly after the girls stormed off the crowd began to laugh at Guiche for being dumped in such a matter.
"That's enough, you can all take your leave now and go back to minding your own business." Shirou said to the crowd of students and their familiars, before offering a hand to Guiche. Shirou thought Guiche got what he deserved; he wasn't the type of person to make fun of or allow others to pick on someone.
Shirou's words snapped Guiche out of his daze and registered the helping hand up in front of him. Guiche was momentarily stunned by Shirou's gesture but batted it away in rage.
It was "his" fault for causing this situation, and it was "his" fault for making Montmorency and Katie upset with him and breaking up with him and causing others to laugh at him and potentially ruin his name.
He cursed Shirou for all that he had done towards him, never once taking responsibility for the wrong that he had transgressed upon Montmorency and Katie and instead shifting the blame on others rather than his own flaws and shortcoming, he was used to doing this and an aristocrat, a noble how got what everything he wanted and thought of his being superior to others.
When Guiche got up he berated Shirou for not knowing his place as a commoner and making two ladies cry before declaring a duel for such transgressions as he tried to save as much face as possible and justify the duel. Which Shirou corrected him by stating they were not crying but raging because of him.
Shirou not wanting to pick a fight nor cause trouble, he took a deep breath and sighing while he scratched the back of his head and apologized.
"Guiche look, I'm sorry that you were caught womanizing, so can you please call off the duel." The remaining crowd burst into laughter at Shirou's so-called apology infuriating Guiche even more.
Infuriated declared how Shirou dared to insult him and asked to cancel the duel. And once again Shirou tried to refuse the duel and advised Guiche that he didn't want this fight, but Guiche was having none of it as he called Shirou a coward and how he wasn't a man. While Shirou still held an impassive stone face not showing a hint of emotion from his words.
It wasn't until he called Shirou a familiar just as useless as Louise the Zero was, that which made his impassive face begin to crack. Shirou then asked Guiche to stop and apologize for insulting Louise. When he refused unless he accepted and won the duel that he would. Which caused Shirou to begrudgingly accept Guiche's duel.
The battle was now set for the Vestri Field.
Siesta couldn't overhear what had happened and the revelation that Shirou was a familiar shocked her. She quickly recalled the name of this master that was spoken of Louise. The infamous third daughter of the Vallière. Everyone in the academy knew of her, especially about her failures and her new commoner familiar. Even Siesta had heard the rumors but doubted such a possibility for Shirou to be a familiar.
Quickly She ran with all her might to find Louise as only a noble can stop a noble and Louise the master could put an end to such a thing and save Shirou from harm.
/-/
He couldn't believe he was doing this, though he admired Artoria, but he wasn't going to accept a duel for no real reason and as a person who doesn't actively seek or start trouble and conflict but instead trying to stop such things, but it never seems to go his way.
You could make fun of him, insult him, and beat him and he wouldn't mind one bit, but to harm and insult others, especially those he cared about was something he just couldn't stand and unleashes his fury.
Shirou went towards the Vestry Field as most of the crowd followed them and the rest were telling others of the happening.
"Looks like you showed up," Guiche said smugly as he turns towards Shirou.
"Well, I do tend to be a man of my word." Shirou committed nonchalantly before speaking again. "You know there's still time to call all this off and apologize."
Guiche's brow twitched, was he seriously still looking down at him?
"Funny I was about to say the same thing." Guiche rebuttal.
Shirou crossed his arms and closed his eyes, the air around him began to grow serious from his actions and demeanor before he spoke again.
"I guess it can't be helped." with those words Shirou took off his gloves and jacket revealing the runes on his hands and his tight black sleeveless body armor with silver accents highlighting his muscles and abs causing the girl in the audience to blush especially Kirche who whistled at his bold action.
What none had noticed was that the runes on his hand were always glowing, not strongly nor brightly, this is because the power of the Gandálfr was always semi-active. This is due to the fact that the power of the Gandálfr grants those who possess it gains heightened strength, agility, endurance, and reflexes in addition to complete proficiency over the weapons meant for combat. And Shirou was that weapon, from his mind, body, origin, and affinity to his forge and armory of an inner world all relating to one concept: Sword. Though Shirou already had the power of instant proficiency with weapons thanks to his tracing ability.
"This might be interesting." Kirche commented to Tabitha whose face was still in a book in one hand and her staff in the other, only giving momentary glances up to the present situation.
Shirou then used alteration on the shroud that was given to him into something reminiscent of an open trench or over coat.
In response Guiche flourished his fake rose before one of the rose petals fluttered and landed on the ground creating a bronze armored woman which wielded a spear. Which he calls "valkyries."
It seemed as if he created it out of nothing but instead, he pulled material from the ground itself to make that golem, it very reminiscent if not the same thing that Enkidu can do.
Unlike what Chevreuse said, brass was actually made of copper and zinc, not iron, reinstating the fact they don't know such a thing as the periodic table. Shirou believed that she made a mistake or someone mistaken iron oxide (rust) as copper and was never corrected. Both have similar properties, but their meanings were different as well as iron being harder, less malleable, and higher thermal conductivity and melting point than copper was, while copper was better at conducting electricity and being more corrosive resistant than iron.
But bronze's make-up was different: it was made up of mainly copper, tin and other alloys.
Guiche brushed his cape to the side before exclaiming his title. "Guiche the Bronze." It was a warrior's greeting.
"Shirou Emiya." Shirou responded in kind before flaring his magical energy to once again deter Guche from this fight. However, doing so caused gales of wind to make dust, dirt, capes and skirts to lift and flutter causing everyone to cover or close their eyes while the girls held down their skirts as well.
Tabitha also had her eyes shut while holding her skirt down with the shut book with her hand before countering it with her own wind spell. Kirche couldn't care less about who saw her black side tied panties as she just covered her eyes with her arms and kept one eye open to see what was happening.
Guich was intimidated and shocked by the act, he never experienced something like this in his life. He had only heard of such things from the tales of "The Heavy Wind." Whether his opponent was a noble, fallen, bastard, or commoner he now can't back down due to his noble pride. Even though it was against the academy's rules for nobles to fight he could get away with it by justifying it as fighting a familiar rather than another noble in the worst-case scenario for him.
Seeing that Guche wasn't backing down, Shirou then held both his hands out as if he grasped at nothing.
"Trace, On." With those words his magic circuits can to life to realize the mysteries of his craft and cause the runes on the back of his left hand to glow.
"..."
Everyone was dumbfounded as those same lights from the familiar summoning reappeared once again, coming from Shirou. Instantly two single bladed curved short swords manifested themselves out of nothing in front of everyone stunning and shattering their preconceived notions of their world's knowledge on magic, as arcs of lightning came off the swords and his body.
Their Names were Kanshou and Bakuya, the black and white married twin swords representing Yin and Yang. Kanshou was black with a red hexagonal pattern while Bakuya was plain white.
They were among his favorite weapons to project as it meshes well with his preferred duel-wielding fighting style, as well as their sheer captivating beauty, low mana cost, and tracing speed. Plus, their magnetic like effect with each other, and when held together boost their parameters and grants him magical and physical resistances.
Shirou was the first to notice something peculiar about his projections; they were faster than normal to make, not only that there was no degradation from the seven processes he uses to make them, causing them to usually be a rank lower than the original. This was because the power of the Gandálfr also had boosted his own natural abilities as well.
Guiche first to snap out of his befuddlement and notice Shirou's momentary distraction, he had his valkyrie to attack his opponent while he was distracted.
Shirou quickly put all his questions aside to focus on the duel at hand, he saw the rapidly approaching golem and got into his battle stance. It revealed a lot of openings, it seems like he was a novice with the sword but actually it was his preferred style as it grants him control as he could predict and respond to an attack, though it took a lot of training and concentration to get to where he was at as one slip-up could be the end for him.
With in an instant, he was a blur of movement as he engages the golem, with in an instant of engagement he slashes through the golem's spear, arm, and head decapitating it with otter ease.
Guiche and the crowd were speechless at the efficiency of how he disposed of the golem as if it was nothing.
Ever since he flared his magic energy- No ever since he first appeared Tabitha was keeping an eye on him as she felt some sort of comradery from him, not only that but also her instincts told her he was more than just a mere commoner, just from her dragon familiar Sylphy's reaction to him.
Her eyes went wide, she was taking in all of what she was seeing, enraptured in the duel and these unknown uses magic.
This caused Kirche to raise a brow, knowing Tabitha the best she knew almost nothing could get her head out of a book. It was only when something she found interesting where she would look up from her book mostly only momentarily, but for her to put her book away and watch was something she had never seen Tabitha do before.
Shirou pointed Bakuya at Guiche to see what he would do next, Shirou hoped that Guiche would have done the smart thing and surrendered, yet that was not to be.
Guiche flustered, began to chant and summon more valkyries in hopes that by overwhelming him with numbers would bring him down. A good plan on paper but Shirou's experience, speed, reaction, and weaponry render such a tactic useless, although his golem were good and strong, but Shirou had fought and faced opponents way stronger than them.
The air was filled with the sounds of swinging arms and clashing metal and one by one the brass golems surrounding Shirou were taken out, some from friendly fire from him dodging or by parrying their blows and others by him directly as more took their place.
/-/
As the final golem barely stood Shirou kicked it past Guiche who was holding a sword, as it shattered when it cratered into the stone wall, Guiche couldn't understand it, 20, he defeated 20 of his valkyries, worst yet he did so much have a scratch on him as his blades were perfectly fine having no nicks or cracks on them from his brass golems. During the bout he even tried using levitation on him to throw him off seeing the rapid defeat of more of his valkyries to get the upper hand to no effect, stunning him with another impossibility.
Shirou then appeared right in front of him knocking the sword out of his hands and falling on to his butt, as once more a sword pointed at him and Shirou asking for him to yield.
Seeing as he was beaten Guiche laid his rose wand on the ground and raised both his hands before admitting defeat. Shirou then dematerialized his swords and offered a hand to this time Guiche took up on his kind offer and apologized, keeping true to his words as the light s from the runes of the Gandálfr began to dim once again.
At that moment Louise and Siesta had just arrived panting as they missed the whole fight trying to get there.
