Author's note: I'm not good with fighting scenes, so this chapter may be a bit rough and some feedback would be nice. May be a bit OOC too. Sorry.
"997...998...999...1000!" Shirou exclaimed as he was on his last sword swing. He then walked over to one of the benches in the room, grabbed a small towel he picked up earlier, and began to wipe the sweat off his face. "Whew, guess I worked up quite a sweat," Shirou thought.
Right now, Shirou was in Chaldea's training room practicing his swordsmanship along with his tracing and projection magecraft. After a few minutes of cleaning himself up, he then continued to work on his swordsmanship.
It was then that a certain blue haired lancer came into the room...
"Hey kid!" a voice said.
Shirou turned around to see Cu in his usual blue tights and carrying Gae Bolg in his arms. "Cu..."
"So, you're training here?" he asked.
"Yeah. And you?" Shirou replied.
"Same as well. And if anything, I would rather train here than train with my teacher..." Cu muttered.
"Hm? Did you say something?"
"Ah. It's something you don't need to know about."
Shirou shrugged off from what Cu just said and continued practicing his swordsmanship. As he kept swinging his sword, Cu noticed his swordsmanship swings and thought, "Wow. The kid has improved ever since the last time I fought him. Before, he wasn't even able to swing even a pipe properly, and now, he's able to actually use a sword like a real swordsman..."
And this gave Cu a certain idea.
He then came over to Shirou who was busy with swinging his sword around and said, "Hey kid, spar with me now."
Shirou stopped his training regime for a moment and said, "What?"
"You heard me. Spar with me now," Cu repeated.
"And why?"
"Because I said so. Now get yourself ready."
Shirou sighed as he knows that he can't accept "no" as answer, so he said, "All right. Let's do it in the arena over there."
Cu smiled. "Good," he said as he was twirling his spear in excitement.
Both Shirou and Cu then left the center of the training area and went to the arena inside the room. Shirou set himself up in a defensive position holding his sword. On the other side of the training area, Cu set himself up in a forward stance as his legs were parted and he held on to Gae Bolg.
"Ready?"
"As I'll ever be..."
"Well then...don't mind if I attack first!" Cu yelled out as he lunged forward to where Shirou was. Cu then raised his spear upwards and attacked Shirou, but Shirou blocked his spear's strike with his katana. He then kicked Cu backwards and proceeded to head forward while Cu was recovering from Shirou's kick. Shirou then tried to slash Cu, but Cu blocked his strike with his spear.
Cu then set some distance between him and Shirou by pushing him backwards. Cu then proceed to strike at Shirou, but Shirou blocked his strike with a strike of his own. They then unleashed a fury of slashes against each other and then went into a defensive position after their dance of strikes. "Man, the kid definitely has improved since the last time I fought him...wonder if this is all he can do..." Cu thought.
After a few minutes of doing nothing but staying in their defensive positions, Cu then said something to Shirou.
"You know, you've improved than the last time I saw you," Cu said.
"I'll take that as a complement then," Shirou replied.
"But...is that all you got? Just that sword in your hand? Not that I'm complaining or anything. I'm just wondering..."
"That if I have anything up on my sleeve?" Shirou finished.
Cu flashed a toothy grin. "Yup."
Shirou sighed. "Well...if you say so..."
Shirou then sheathed hit katana and raised his hands. At first, Cu was confused, wondering what was Shirou up to.
Then Shirou's next words completely gave him a surprise.
"Trace On."
In an instant, Kanshou and Bakuya appeared in Shirou's hands, surprising Cu.
And he was assuming EMIYA's pose as well.
"What the hell?! Aren't those weapons the ones Archer uses?! How the hell did the kid was able to obtain them?! What's more, even he's in the same posture as him!"
"Hey Cu, what's wrong?" Shirou said, snapping Cu out of his thoughts.
"Kid...just where did you get those swords?" Cu asked.
"Let's just say...Archer gave me advice on how to beat an enemy..."
"I see..." Cu muttered. "Well then...this could be interesting..." he thought before he decided to lunge himself at Shirou.
However, instead of defending like before, Shirou used Archer's tactics and baited Cu into attacking him by letting his guard down. Cu then saw an opening and attacked him, but Shirou saw his attack, turned around swiftly with a twist, and slashed him in the abdomen. Cu gathered all his skills and reflexes to dodge Shirou's attack. Luckily the wound wasn't deep.
"What the hell?! Not only the kid has Archer's weapons and stance, but he also has his technique?! Seriously, are they related or something?!" Cu thought as he was trying to process what just happened.
After a few seconds, Cu asked, "Hey kid, you intentionally let that opening, didn't you?"
Shirou responded with a smile, annoying Cu even further.
"Great! Even he acts similar to him!"
However, at the time, this fight was actually intriguing him even further.
"But...considering how he was the last time I saw him...he's definitely improved...and this is actually fun!"
Cu let out a toothy grin.
"Hey kid, you're actually making this mock battle a lot fun than I ever expected."
"Why thank you. And I suppose you want to continue?" Shirou asked while assuming EMIYA's signature pose once again.
Cu smirked. "Well I wish I could...but it feels like we'll have to continue this another time..." he said as he relaxed a bit.
Shirou was confused. However, at that moment, three other servants came into the training room.
"Hey Lancer me! What are you up to this time?"
"Tch...this is a pain in the ass..."
"Hey older me! What's going on!"
Shirou and Cu stopped their fight and looked around to see where the voices came from. As the turned around, they saw three figures coming from the doorway.
And those figures were Caster Cu and Berserker Cu.
"Uh...Cu...by any chance..."
"Yes kid. Over there is my caster, proto, and berserker version of myself."
"I see...wait, caster version of you? Proto as well?" Shirou asked as he was surprised.
"Yeah. I know, I was surprised as well that there's a caster version of me as well, let alone a proto version of me as well. And for the record, the proto version of me is based on me when I was young."
"Wow...no offense, but I'm think a caster class doesn't fit you..."
"Hey man, even I'm not so sure about this either," Caster Cu said as he was walking towards where Shirou and Lancer Cu were. "So, who's the kid?"
"Yeah. Never seen this kid before," Berserker Cu said.
"Me neither," Proto Cu said.
Shirou twitched a little. "Great, even the caster and berserker versions calls me that too..."
"Oh yeah. This is the kid I was talking about. Remember? The one that I failed to kill three times?" Cu said to his alternate versions.
"Is that so..." Caster Cu said as he glanced at Shirou. "He doesn't seem to be that much to me..."
"Yeah...he looks a bit weak to me," Berserker Cu said.
"Now, now, don't judge a book by its cover. Remember the lessons Shishou would give us?" Proto Cu said.
Both Lancer, Caster, and Berserker Cu covered their heads with their hands in response to Proto Cu's words. "Don't...remind me...of them..." Caster Cu said nervously.
"Yeah...I don't want to experience that again..." Berserker Cu nervously.
"Me neither..." Lancer Cu said.
Shirou looked at the scene in surprise. "Just what kind of teacher did Cu and his alternate versions had to make them like this?"
"Anyways, what brought you two here?" Lancer Cu asked.
"For training obviously," Caster and Proto Cu replied.
"And judging by the looks of things...you seem to be getting your ass kicked by the kid," Berserker Cu said.
Lancer Cu scoffed and got a little annoyed. "Well try saying that after you fight against him."
"And why?"
"Because he seems awfully similar to Archer. Too similar I might say."
Both Caster and Berserker Cu was surprised by his statement. "Really?" they asked while Proto Cu didn't know what was going on.
"Yeah. In fact, why don't you three of you go against him?"
"Wait! Don't I get to have a say in this?" Shirou asked.
"No," they all said in unison.
"Great. This is not how I want this day to go...wish Arturia was here..." Shirou thought as he sulked in defeat.
"All right. Who wants to go first?" Lancer Cu asked.
Proto Cu smirked. "I call dibs first. I need a workout after all," he said as he got onto the arena.
"Damn it. Well, I call second then. You okay with this Berserker me?" Caster Cu said.
Berserker Cu let out a moan. "As long as I get to fight him, I don't care about the order."
"All right then, let the match begin!" Lancer Cu said as he got off the arena.
In an instant, Proto Cu immediately lunged at Shirou with Gae Bolg in his hands, pulling off a trust. Shirou immediately dodged that with his body turning to the side and struck him on the side.
"Tch!" Proto Cu said as he brought some distance between him and Shirou. Shirou lunges at him with his swords, ready to strike him. However, he intercepted the strike with one end of his spear and sees an opening. He then takes advantage of the short distance between him and Shirou to attack with the other end of the spear.
However, that opening was a trap.
Shirou blocked the spear and deflected it, hoping to land a hit on Proto Cu's shoulder. However, Proto Cu moved his body and brought some distance between him and Shirou.
Proto Cu was puzzled. He has never fought against this type of fighting style before, and it was confusing him. "What kind of fighting style was that? I'm not sure if this guy is a swordsman or a kid, but the fighting style he uses is suicidal. And yet, I haven't been able to hit him," he thought as positioned himself to his usual stance.
After Shirou positioned himself in his usual stance as well, Proto Cu asked Shirou a question.
"Hey kid. Who taught you that fighting style?"
"And why do you want to know?" Shirou replied.
"No reason."
Shirou sighed before saying his answer. "Let's just say...I self-taught it myself."
"I see..." Proto Cu said. "Anyways, here I come!"
In a moment, Proto Cu was on the offense in a flash, forcing Shirou to block his attacks as Proto Cu kept assaulting him in a rush.
However, this is where
Meanwhile, Lancer Cu, Caster Cu, and Berserker Cu were watching the fight with interest.
"So that's the kid you failed to kill three times Lancer me?" Caster Cu asked.
"Yup," Lancer Cu replied.
"Was he always this strong when you met him?" Berserker Cu asked.
Lancer Cu let out a chuckle. "Nope."
Both his Caster and Berserker counterparts looked at him in confusion. "What?" they said in unison.
"Yeah. In fact, the first time I failed to kill him, I stabbed him in the heart with Gae Bolg. There was even blood there as well. However, some girl who happened to be nearby revived him. The second time I tried to kill him, he at least put up a fight or so."
"And what happened?"
Lancer Cu sighed. "He apparently summoned a servant, interrupting the whole thing."
"Eh..."
"Yeah. Anyways, the third time I tried to kill him, it was a complete repeat of the first time I killed him. And that was the last time I ever saw him..."
Both Caster and Berserker Cu were surprised at Lancer's story.
"But still though...the fact that the kid I tried to kill three times before grew up to be something like this...it just baffles me..." Lancer Cu said as he was watching the fight.
Meanwhile at the fight, Proto Cu was having trouble trying to keep up with Shirou's unorthodox fighting style. He has tried to land a hit on him but has failed to do so. Meanwhile, Shirou has landed a few hits on him.
"Jeez. It's already this long in the match, and yet I can't even get a hit on him...just what kind of person is this saber-class servant is?" Proto Cu thought.
"Man, this fight is taking a bit too long. I may need to finish this..." Shirou thought.
In an instant, both servants decided to finish the fight and positioned themselves in an offensive stance.
"Well, it seems like both of us have the same idea," Proto Cu said.
"It seems so," Shirou replied.
Proto Cu grinned. "Don't hold back!"
"Likewise," Shirou replied.
In an instant, Proto Cu immediately lunged at Shirou in a flash, hoping to hit him with him even noticing.
However, Shirou immediately saw that coming.
At the last moment before the spear was so close to touching his body, Shirou span his body around so that he would be behind Proto Cu and struck him down in the back with Kanshou and Bakuya. Proto Cu then fell to the arena floor from the impact of the attack.
"See? Told you?" Lancer Cu said.
"Wow. This may be interesting..." Caster Cu said.
Berserker Cu didn't say anything.
At the arena, Proto Cu was trying to get up after being hit from Shirou's attack.
"You okay over there?" Shirou asked as he lended a hand to Proto Cu.
"Yeah...I'll be fine...but thanks for asking. Great fight by the way," Proto Cu said as he grabbed Shirou's hand to get up from the ground. As he was getting off the arena, he said a piece of advice to his Caster Counterpart.
"Be careful of him. This guy's fighting style is suicidal apparently."
Caster Cu grinned. "I'll take that in mind," he said as he was getting onto the arena. As he got onto the arena, he looked at Shirou and said, "Ready?"
"Yeah."
"Well then...don't mind if I do!"
Instantly, Caster Cu spanned his staff around and stabbed the ground with it, creating a spell of fire that flew straight at Shirou. Shirou quickly dodged it and lunged himself at Caster Cu while at the same time projecting multiple copies of Kanshou and Bakuya at him and started throwing them at him.
"What the heck?! My lancer version was right! This kid is like Archer! In fact, the resemblance between the two is uncanny for the most part!" Caster Cu thought as he spun his staff around to block the multiple swords aiming at him. Shirou then used that as an opportunity and tried to disarm Caster Cu, but Caster Cu was fast, jumped backwards, and placed his hand on the ground to create a rune.
The rune then created a wall of flame that went straight after Shirou. Shirou dodged the wall of flame, created more copies of Kanshou and Bakuya, and threw it at Caster Cu again.
However, this is where Caster Cu had enough of Shirou's constant spamming of Kanshou and Bakuya copies and placed his hand onto the ground.
During that moment, he created a giant rune.
"Grand Scale!" he yelled out.
At that moment the copies of Kanshou and Bakuya disappeared before they could touch Caster Cu. And not only that, but the giant rune hasn't disappeared.
"Sorry kid, but this rune completely disables any long-range attacks. It won't do any good to shoot each other at long range distances. So, let's go all out and do this the old-fashioned way!" Caster Cu said as he twirled his staff around and went into Lancer Cu's stance.
Shirou let out a chuckle as he observed the rune. "Judging from the earlier attacks...and this giant rune...I take it you fought against Archer before?"
Caster Cu let out a grin. "Yup. And unlike my Lancer version over there, I actually won."
Lancer Cu scowled a bit. "At least you didn't have a cowardly master..." he muttered.
Shirou sighed. "Well then, if Archer's tactics aren't going to work on him, then I'll have to change styles then..."
Shirou then unsheathed his katana from the scabbard and positioned himself into a defensive position.
After a few seconds of silence, Caster Cu lunged himself at Shirou as he set if staff on fire. Caster Cu then swung his burning staff at Shirou while Shirou kept countering it with his katana.
Both servants were swinging their weapons at each other, neither of them backing down.
"I got to admit...this kid's actually pretty good..."
"Jeez. Despite being a Caster-class servant, he still acts like his Lancer counterpart..."
Eventually, both Shirou and Caster Cu decided to separate themselves from one another.
"You want to know something kid?"
"What?"
Caster Cu smiled. "You're actually making this a lot fun than I hoped for."
"Well thank you."
"Yeah. To be honest, I was hoping to continue this a bit longer, but I have a feeling that my Berserker counterpart would probably barge in, so I'm going to end this once and for all," Caster Cu said as he positioned himself for a final attack.
Shirou smirked. "For once, I agree," he said as he positioned himself for a final attack as well.
After a few seconds of silence, both servants proceeded to lunge at each other with their weapons in their hands, swinging at each other.
In a flash, their weapons met each other and within that moment, they crossed paths with their weapons drawn.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then suddenly, Caster Cu started laughing.
"Hahahahahahaha! Kid, you sure are interesting! Never have I ever fought a fight like this!" he said with laughter.
"Yeah...and you still fight like your Lancer counterpart...with a few differences."
Caster Cu chucked at Shirou's statement. "I'm not sure to either be annoyed or angry at what you just said kid, but I don't care right now! Because this fight was satisfying! Anyways, I'm going to be leaving for now, so have fun with my Berserker counterpart!" he said as he left the arena, allowing Berserker Cu to have his fun.
"Guess it's my turn huh?" Berserker Cu said as he went up to the arena and then positioned himself in Lancer Cu's stance.
Meanwhile, Shirou did the same and positioned himself in a defensive stance. "Ready?" he said.
"As I'll ever be..." he said.
After a few seconds of silence, Shirou and Berserker Cu charged at each other. Berserker Cu thrusted his spear at Shirou in which Shirou dodged and tried to slash him. However, Berserker Cu was too fast for that and countered Shirou's strike.
As Shirou and Berserker Cu were dodging and exchanging strikes, Shirou noticed that unlike his Lancer and Caster counterparts, Berserker Cu didn't show any emotion in his fighting style. "Well this is weird. I haven't seen this Cu show any emotion in this fight, unlike his counterparts..." he thought as he blocked an attack from his spear.
"Hey kid, don't get distracted on small things."
"Eh?" Shirou said before he got hit by Cu's tail. The impact temporarily brought him down as he fell to the ground before getting up quickly. "Oh yeah. He has that tail of his. Speaking of which, how did know about what was going on in my head?" he thought.
Shirou then quickly redirected his mind towards the fight he was in and assumed in an offensive position. Meanwhile, Berserker Cu did the same.
"This kid...although he may be a bit soft in some areas, he's actually not that bad. I can see why my Lancer, Proto, and Caster counterparts would have some fun fighting him earlier..." Berserker Cu thought as he lunged forwards at Shirou while Shirou did the same.
As the two clashed each other with their weapons, Cu then began to start an onslaught of strikes as he kept swinging at Shirou with his spear. However, Shirou countered his swings with his own and the two were striking at each other.
Eventually, the two got tired of this and jumped backwards towards opposite sides of the arena.
For a moment, there was silence between the two as they were in defensive positions, waiting to either strike or the opponent strike first.
"You know...you're not half bad," Berserker Cu said.
"Why thank you," Shirou replied.
"But you know, I'm getting bored of that sword of yours. I mean come on, do what you did to my Caster counterpart from earlier, well...before he unleashed that rune."
"Well...if you say so..." Shirou said.
As he raised his hands and was performing his magecraft, he thought of a weapon that would surprise Berserker Cu and his counterparts.
"Trace on."
As he said his aria, a weapon appeared in his hands.
And it surprised Berserker Cu and his counterparts.
It was Gae Bolg.
At that moment, Lancer Cu, Caster Cu, and Berserker Cu were shocked to see Gae Bolg in Shirou's hands.
After all, it was a weapon handed to them by Scathach, the queen of the land of shadows.
And Shirou just replicated it easily.
Not only that, but he also assumed into the same pose as Lancer Cu, Proto Cu, Caster Cu, and Berserker Cu were.
"What the hell?! That's Gae Bolg! How the hell did the kid manage to obtain it?! What's more, he's even copying my fighting stance as well! He's ripping me off!"
"Was that Gae Bolg?! Impossible! How can he summon it so easily?! And out of nowhere netherless! What's more, how did he acquire it?!"
"You got to be kidding me! Not only he can copy swords, but he can copy spears as well?! Jeez, this kid is full of surprises. Speaking of which, I need to ask him for a copy of Gae Bolg later..."
"What the hell...did the kid just replicate Gae Bolg? Jeez...this kid is crazy. Speaking of which, I should not tell shishou about this kid...or else he'll kill him...or even worse..."
"Well, what's wrong?" Shirou asked, snapping them out of their thoughts.
"Hey kid...did you project that?" Berserker Cu asked.
"Yeah. Why? You're mad about it?"
"Well yeah...but honestly...I don't care...as long as the fight's good."
"I see...well then...here I come," Shirou said as he lunged himself at Berserker Cu with great speed. As so, Cu blocked his first strike. However, what happened next completely caught Berserker Cu by surprise.
Shirou was copying his moves in the encounter. Every strike Shirou used on him was a complete copy of what Cu would do, nether less which version. Each strike, parry, guard, thrust, anything was a complete copy of what each Cu would do.
During this exchange of blows and strikes, Berserker Cu was feeling something he had never felt in a while.
The joy of fighting someone.
And for once, Berserker Cu was grinning.
"This fight...isn't so bad after all. Rather...I'm actually enjoying this!" Berserker Cu thought as he was defending against Shirou's moves.
Eventually, Berserker Cu had enough of Shirou's onslaught of strikes and kicked him to get some distance.
After a few seconds of silence from the two, Berserker Cu said something to Shirou.
"Kid. You're actually making this a lot fun than what I expected."
"Thank you. Although I hope I didn't make you and your counterparts mad that I copied your fighting style."
"Relax. I'm used to it considering that I have multiple versions of myself and we learned this fighting style from our shishou."
"I see."
"However, there is one thing I should warn you about."
"And what is it?"
Berserker Cu gulped before answering his question. "Don't show this to shishou. I have a bad feeling about it if she finds out about this..."
Shirou was confused, but he nodded anyways.
"Anyways...let's finish this," Berserker Cu said as he positioned himself in an offensive stance.
Shirou nodded and positioned himself in an offensive stance. For a few seconds, nothing happened.
Then they lunged at themselves with their weapons drawn.
And in a flash, their weapons crossed paths with each other. Both sides were at opposite ends when the clash was over.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then Berserker Cu let out a chuckle.
"Hey kid...you made this day quite interesting..." he said while twirling his spear around.
Shirou let out a sigh. "So, I take it that you were satisfied then?"
"Yup. Anyway, I got to go now. See you kid," he said as he left the arena and the training room.
Shirou let out another sigh of relief before feeling a slap on the back from Lancer Cu.
"Hey kid! That was a nice battle over there! Although I'll admit, I am a little annoyed that you copied my spear and posture when using it," Lancer Cu said cheerfully.
"Kid, you sure have surprised me today," Proto Cu said with a grin.
"I'll admit kid, I didn't expect that coming out of you," Caster Cu said with a smile.
"Why...thank you," Shirou said as he was recovering from Lancer Cu's hard slap.
"By the way...can you lend me a copy of Gae Bolg later?" Caster Cu asked Shirou hopefully.
Shirou was confused. "Why?"
"Because I miss my spear..." Caster Cu replied with a sigh.
Omake
Scathach was walking down Chaldea's hallways, minding her own business.
It was when that she overheard Cu and his alternate versions talking about something in one of the recreation rooms.
Or rather, a certain someone.
"Did you see what the kid just did?" Lancer Cu said.
"Yeah! Not only the kid completely gave us a good fight, but he even managed to scratch me!" Caster Cu replied.
"And there's the fact that he managed to replicate Gae Bolg..." Berserker Cu said.
"Shhh! Keep it down! What if shishou manages to overhear us?!" Proto Cu said in warning.
"Relax. That would be impossible. Shishou wouldn't be around here this time of day," Lancer Cu said in confidence.
"And who wouldn't be around here?" Scathach said from the corner of the hallway.
At that moment, Lancer Cu, Proto Cu, Caster Cu, and Berserker Cu jumped in fear of hearing their teacher's voice. "S-S-S-Shishou?!" they said in unison.
Scathach then came into the room. "So, what's this I've been hearing about someone copying Gae Bolg? Huh?" she asked in a menacing voice.
"W-Well...it's sort of a-" Lancer Cu stutteringly said.
"Answer me," Scathach said authoritatively while menacingly at the same time with her hands crossed.
Lancer Cu, Proto Cu, Caster Cu, and Berserker Cu slumped their heads in defeat and prepared themselves for the interrogation that was about to come. "Crap, I think we screwed the kid over..." they thought in unison.