"Shirou!" Irisviel cheered, smiling wide and splaying her arms out before rushing forward to glomp him into a bear hug.
With a yelp Shirou stumbled back a few steps before getting tackled by his mother, only barely able to drop his bags so he didn't fall on top of them before his back hit the floor.
"I missed you Shirouuuuu! Never leave again!" Irisviel whined as she nuzzled her cheek into his chest.
"Missed you too Kaa-chan." He muttered in a slight daze, blinking a couple times as he stared at the ceiling of their house.
"How was the Clock Tower, Shirou?" Kiritsugu greeted him with a nod, getting a small one in return.
"It was good. I learnt some pretty cool new things." Shirou replied, his lips curving into a satisfied grin.
"That's good. Please get off of him Iri. I don't want to deal with Illya if you keep him away from her for any longer." Kiritsugu muttered tiredly, getting a stubborn whine from his wife.
"No! I've been without my baby boy for a month! I deserve this!"
"Baby boy…?" Shirou muttered with a small sweatdrop on the side of his head, ignoring the part of his mind that reminded him that he loved the affection.
"That's right! My precious baby boy!"
"…Can I please get up Kaa-chan?"
"Hmph! Fine!" Irisviel relented, getting off her adopted son and letting him stand up, grabbing his bags.
"How has everything been while I was gone?" He asked as he went to walk further into the house.
"Quiet. Sakura came over a few more times. She's such a sweet young lady." Irisviel cooed as she walked beside him, Kiritsugu doing the same silently from the other side.
"That's nice. No visits from Rin?" Shirou asked jokingly, getting a giggle from Irisviel and a snort from Kiritsugu.
"Not one!" His mother spoke cheerily "Though that's because her 'assistant' wasn't here~" She teased him, nudged his arm with her elbow.
"I still can't believe she's so stuck on calling me that. I barely act like an assistant at all." He sighed, shrugging and shaking his head.
As the 11 year old did this, he missed the vaguely smug look that Kiritsugu shot his wife as she sighed in defeat at her teasing going directly over his head.
"You go into the dining room Shirou. Illya, Sella and Liz are waiting in there," Kiritsugu said, nudging his own head in the direction of the dining room "Iri and I need to talk about something."
Shirou looked at the both of them strangely for a moment before shrugging and walking on ahead, opening the door only to get dragged in and the door slam shut violently behind him.
"He's 11 Iri." Was what Kiritsugu opened with, his gaze still on the doors to the dining room where they could both hear Illya's excited yelling.
"Well I'm not expecting anything yet, Kiri. But if I get the ball rolling now. Then it'll happen much sooner!" Iri argued passionately, getting a groan from Kiritsugu as he buried his face in his palm.
"He should be free to choose for himself Iri."
"Kiri!" She yelled, scandalized that he would even suggest that "I'm not trying to decide who he ends up with. He could end up with Sella if he wants. I'm just doing my job as a good mother and making sure that he's aware of any and all opportunities" She said proudly, holding a closed fist to her chest as she puffed it out.
"And Illya?" He asked dryly with a raised eyebrow.
"She's my precious baby girl! And she's still a child!" Iri exclaimed, closing her eyes and shaking her head vehemently, missing the deadpan look that Kiritsugu gave her.
XXXxxxXXX
Meanwhile
"Onii-chan!" Illya cheered as she hugged Shirou tightly, the pre-teen sitting down at the table as his 'younger' sister wrapped her arms around him.
"Shirou. Welcome back." Liz said with a bland expression, nodding her head and munching on a new pocky stick.
"I hope you learnt something important while there Shirou. It'd be a shame if Lady Irisviel and Lord Kiritsugu sent you there just for you to fraternize." Sella commented, maintaining her image as the 'professional' maid of the Emiya family.
"Haaaah. You don't have to be so mean to me Sella," Shirou sighed before chuckling, scratching the back of his head "I learnt plenty while I was there."
"Of course." She replied evenly, getting a click of Shirou's tongue in response.
"You guys didn't have any problems with Sakura did you?" He asked, cocking his head to the side.
"Nope! She was very nice and helpful!" Illya responded with a large smile, finally letting go of him, but still sitting next to him.
"That's good." He replied with a smile and nod, looking over as Sella suddenly cleared her throat.
"Yes, Miss Sakura was very helpful while you were gone. Her temper towards those Mormon's was surprising, however."
"Temper? Sakura? Are we talking about the same person?" Shirou laughed with a raised eyebrow.
"Not to say that she blew up or screamed at them, Shirou. Rather her manner of speaking was far more…." Sella rolled her eyes around, seeming to search for the right word.
"Aggressive." Liz commented, laying across the couch.
"I would have said 'blunt' personally. But it was an obvious change in her demeanor." Sella noted, getting a hum from Shirou.
"Weird….Probably just doesn't like the Religion." Shirou guessed with a shrug before yawning.
"Awwww! Are you tired, Onii-chan?" Illya asked leaning forward to start inspecting him.
"Got used to London time." Shirou muttered while yawning, getting a giggle from Illya.
"The term you're looking for is 'jet-lag' Shirou. Now please sleep. It's not good for a… person, such as yourself to deprive themselves of sleep."
"Thanks Sella. So nice." He chuckled tiredly, noticing but not commenting on the twitch that her eye developed.
"Night Onii-chan! Can we hang out tomorrow?"
"We can see how I'm feeling, ok?"
"Ok!" Shirou smiled at his little sister's answer and ruffled her hair, walking to his room as Illya whined in embarrassment.
XXXxxxXXX
Golden-Amber eyes slowly opened to the sight of well crafted but worn stone bricks, the ambient heat of the chamber he was in prickling his skin and hairs and the consistent ringing of metal on metal reverberating through his skull. Slowly, ever so slowly, he picked himself up from the ground.
The boy was unsurprised to find himself in a familiar blacksmith by now, noticing that this time the building itself seemed to have finally stabilized into a permanent fixture. The person hammering and the weapon being hammered on, however….
Shirou sighed at the familiar shifting of colours, forms and feeling that both the blacksmith and the weapon gave off. The dreams where he entered The Forge were honestly few and far between. Each time he entered, he learnt something new. Even if it was just something as simple as the exact angle to hit the heated metal at, or problems to watch for while forging. So he decided to once again find a spot to settle down for the remainder of his dream, knowing that the last spot he had chosen took him directly in the path of the blacksmith when he had reached for some tools.
Propping himself up against the warm surface of the brick wall, he heaved in a deep breath and looked up, only to blink in surprise as he found himself not within the forge. Instead he found himself on the outside, leaning against the wall of the forge, the muffled sound of metal impacts still ringing in his ears.
This was the first time he had ever even seen the outside of the forge, let alone left it. Yet he was both unsurprised and incredibly disappointed to find himself in an environment that couldn't even decide what it looked like. The only thing that seemed fixed was that there was ground and the swords stuck within said ground…many of which he recognized.
"What? This is my flame katana I made before going to England." Shirou muttered, walking over and grabbing the handle.
The instant he tried to move the blade, he could feel something…strange within himself. Like the fact that he could even pick up the blade was something inherently confusing to himself. Swinging it around a few times he once again blinked in surprise, not a single change had been made to the sword. For all he knew, he was holding the real thing, rather than standing inside his own dreamscape and swinging around a figment of his-
Oh right. Dreamscape. Of course it would feel real.
Yet.
Yet that didn't feel right either. Something deep within his soul seemed to deny that thought, and yet he was still no closer to figuring out why it would feel so realistic. He had spent who knows how long swinging and going through familiar motions with his blade and he still found himself no closer to an answer. So, deciding to shelve that thought for a moment, he continued to look around. The boy marveled at all the blades and weapons he saw whenever he looked around.
In fact, he could even see some of the weapons that Gilgamesh would occasionally pull out around him within this strange field. Some of them seemed more stable than others and there seemed to be almost no rhyme or reason as to why. Shirou furrowed his eyebrows, knowing that logically there had to be a reason. Yet for the life of him he couldn't-
Light.
Shirou froze, both physically and mentally. Slowly turning his head, he noticed a single elevation within the empty field of weapons, where a blinding yet beautiful golden light radiated. One step, then another. Without even thinking about it, he began to step towards the light, his steps stilted and robotic yet strengthened by something he wasn't aware of.
And with another pulse of light, his vision went white and pins and needles filled every limb and nerve in his body.
XXXxxxXXX
With a quiet groan, Shirou's eyes opened to the interior of his room, something which really did nothing to surprise him if he was completely honest. Whenever he had a 'weird dream' he always tended to wake up in the same way. He was just glad that he didn't usually wake up with a jerking movement or loud noise like most shows and movies would show.
Raising a hand to rub one of his eyes he looked over at the time on the clock in his room, clicking his tongue when he realized it was a little past 1:15 in the morning. Despite the time though, he didn't feel tired at all. Something to actually thank Jetlag for he supposed.
Lying back down, he tried to sleep once again, only to fail at that when twenty minutes passed and not only did he not feel sleepy, he actually felt more awake. His heart beat in his ears and both his blood and his Prana throbbed through his body, excess energy begging to be released in any way shape or form. Though Shirou was under no illusions about an actual choice, after the dream he just had? There would be nothing that would release all this pent up energy better than a solid couple hours in his forge.
Slowly crawling out of bed and getting dressed, he padded his way through the halls of the Emiya estate. Quickly scribbling down a note about where he was and putting it on the kitchen counter, he put some boots on and made his way out the front door, mindful to be as quiet as possible at all times.
Honestly the perceptiveness of the Homunculi of the house, barring Illya, was downright terrifying sometimes.
XXXxxxXXX
Two Hours Later, Muramasa Estate
Shirou huffed as he placed the ingot back in the forge, blinking at the ping that went through his mind. With a deep sigh he placed his tongs down on his anvil, hearing the trapdoor to the forge open with a loud bang.
"Mongrel! You dare to return without informing your King?" Shirou rolled his eyes, returning his focus back to the ladder as the form of Gilgamesh dropped down.
"Yeah, sorry about that Gilgamesh. Family picked me up from the airport and all that." Shirou responded, not sounding at all sorry despite his words.
Had Shirou said or done this upon first meeting Gilgamesh he would have likely ended up with another two or more swords stabbed through him for daring to treat Gilgamesh lightly. However, three years was a long time. Shirou wouldn't lie and say that he and Gilgamesh were friends, or particularly close, but they'd certainly grown a lot more used to the other's presence. Gilgamesh had even begun to cool his temper somewhat in the last couple months.
He was still insufferable most of the time though.
"Yes I thought so. For a swordsmith of your talent you waste an awful lot of time fraternizing with Magi and Homunculi." Gilgamesh snorted, already approaching the black leather couch with golden embroidery that was along one of the walls of the Workshop.
Said couch was the only spot near the forge that was spotless of soot and other impurities and particulates. This was thanks to a Bounded Field that Irisviel had helped him set up since Illya liked to watch him forge from time to time, though it was also occasionally used by Rin and Sakura whenever they decided to come over.
"If I didn't spend any time with them I would have wasted away to malnourishment years ago because a sword needed more work." Shirou snorted, getting a bark of laughter from the golden haired king as he sat down on the couch.
"Truly the mark of your dedication, smith," Gilgamesh spoke, flicking a hand in the air "Despite any worth you might have as a smith, you were always my entertainment first and foremost."
"I feel honored."
"As you should," Gilgamesh spoke, his voice light yet aura serious "You're the singular being in this pathetic age that I see any usefulness in."
"Hm."
"Oh? Nothing to say? Glad to see that you've finally realized the gravitas of my magnificent words." Gilgamesh boasted, a cruel grin on his face practically begging Shirou to rise to the bait he laid.
"I've always realized it." Shirou spoke simply, turning to check the progress of the metal he was heating.
"And yet you have the nerve to turn away while speaking to your King?"
Having nothing to say to that, Shirou just let the faintest ghost of a smile spread his lips as he took the ingot out and began to bang on it once again. His focus immediately narrowing in on the task at hand, rather than his golden haired home-crasher.
Gilgamesh meanwhile, knowing he wouldn't get any more entertainment until Shirou finished, merely decided to watch the young boy. His gaze impassive and his body stretched out over the couch, one leg crossed over the other.
Being a King, he knew next to nothing about swordsmithing, let alone the generic umbrella it fell under that was 'blacksmithing'. He ordered things to be made after all, he didn't need to make them and if they were made poorly he just put a black-mark on the blacksmith's name. However even with his lack of knowledge, he could tell that the boy had gotten better since his last time watching him work.
His swings were smoother, more efficient. His eyes seemed harder, more focused than they had been the last time. This increase in focus and efficiency also led to a feedback in the way he held himself. Though knowing the boy, Gilgamesh wouldn't put it past him to not realize how he was holding himself in his hyper-focus on his blade.
Additionally, his Prana seemed ever-so-slightly more controlled since the last time he had seen him. Something which he knew wouldn't have come from any sort of practice with smithing.
Waiting another few moments, the king's mouth was already opening as soon as Shirou grabbed his tongs to put the ingot back in the forge.
"Your Prana seems more streamlined, boy. That ridiculous school actually did you some good." Gilgamesh spoke, getting a raised eyebrow from the boy.
"It's not like you to care?"
"What I do and don't care about is none of your concern." Gilgamesh was quick in his rebuttal, expression flat and tone warning.
"Not concerned. Just confused," Shirou relented with a small shrug, putting his tongs back down "And it did do me some good, I learnt a new method to mix Od into metals while melting them."
"What a load of good that'll do for you." Gilgamesh mocked him, gesturing around to the room with one hand where there was nothing to melt any sort of ore.
"I'll need to speak to my parent's about it," Shirou responded petulantly, getting a scoff from the king.
"Parents this, parents that. You hold them in such esteem for people that limit you and tell you what to do." Gilgamesh commented.
Shirou wasn't quite sure how to respond at first. Gilgamesh didn't sound cold or apathetic like he usually did when mentioning his parents, nor did he sound arrogant like he would during most of his seemingly endless comments. Gilgamesh now though….now he sounded angry? Like his parents had somehow done something to anger him personally, and yet based on his words that was wrong.
'Does he not like the idea of parents?' Shirou thought, going back through his memories of the legend of Gilgamesh.
"Do you not like parents, Gilgamesh?" Shirou asked, still trying to bring up the disconnected pieces of the legend that he had read all those years ago, he really needed to refresh his knowledge.
"Hah. That's hardly my issue with them. I have a hatred of those that force their own ideas and limitations on others. That expect you to follow them for no reason other than they have power."
"My parents don't do that though?"
"Do they not, boy? They tell you what you can and can't make or experiment with. They tell you when you can or can't work on your craft or train." Gilgamesh sat up straight now, his tone strangely hot and impassioned.
"That's what parents do though, right? Make sure that their child doesn't push themselves too far?"
"Hardly."
"Then what would you have been like as a parent?"
"Pardon?" Gilgamesh actually blinked at this, mildly stupefied by the question.
"If you had, had a kid. What would you have been like as a parent?"
"What an asinine question," Gilgamesh laughed, flicking his head back for a moment as he did so "What answer could you or anyone ever come up with that isn't 'the perfect parent'?"
"I'm not the one answering it? I want to know what you think you would have been like as a parent." Shirou responded bluntly.
"Hmmm, mighty arrogant for entertainment to challenge the King to a game of words, boy," The Incarnated Servant grinned cruelly "Because I believe the words I spoke were 'you or anyone', not simply just 'you'."
"I suppose they were…So that's your answer? 'The perfect parent'?" Shirou asked, cocking his head to the side.
"Of course. I could never be anything less even if I attempted." Shirou chose not to make an outward comment on the blatant ego, it was still a bit hit and miss on challenging that to be honest.
Instead the pre-teen just let his family's forge fall into a semi-comfortable silence. After another moment or two he grabbed out the blade he was working on and began to slam his hammer into it rhythmically, so focused that he didn't notice when Gil seemed to get an idea and sat up straighter while snapping his fingers.
"Boy!" The sudden shout made Shirou tense up in surprise, his arm swinging down with far too much force and creating a dent in the middle of the blade.
Now a regular smith, of the Magus variety or otherwise, would have just shrugged, maybe scowled, and continued working on the blade. Perhaps they might have put it back in the forge to heat it up a bit more before working to fix the blade and get back on pace. However, Shirou was far from a normal swordsmith.
With a disgusted scowl he threw the blade on the floor and proceeded to grab a bucket of water and pour it on the blade, easily ignoring the cloud of steam that exploded from the blade as it went from red-hot to dull grey in a matter of seconds. Tilting his foot slightly he managed to leverage his foot under the blade before sending it careening into the wall on the opposite side of the forge to himself.
Turning back to look at Gilgamesh before the blade even made contact he placed the now empty bucket down heavily and gave him a thoroughly unimpressed look.
"You made me ruin that blade." Shirou accused him, voice flat.
Now, as stated earlier, a regular smith wouldn't have considered Shirou's blade ruined. In fact they might have seen fixing it as just a trivial annoyance on the path to making a good blade. A regular person with as much knowledge on smithing as Gilgamesh wouldn't have even recognized there was anything wrong with it in the first place.
Except there was a certain type of feedback loop that happened whenever Gilgamesh was present in Shirou's smithing. While the exact reason for each of them were different, the one thing that they both hated with a passion was something done sloppily or half-assed. And for weapon's this went doubly so.
"You ruined that blade yourself." Gilgamesh waved him off, his sharp gaze almost challenging the boy to argue.
"Right….So why did you suddenly shout for me?" He asked, grabbing the bucket and walking over to a tap to start re-filling it.
"I wish to see if that asinine school actually taught you anything useful other than small efficiency improvements in your forging."
"How would I show that?"
"You will fight me." Gilgamesh said simply, as if commenting on the weather.
"Fight you? Are you genuinely attempting to kill me this time?" Shirou gaped, placing both hands on his anvil and leaning forward.
"If I was, you'd already be dead, mongrel," Gilgamesh commented, rolling his eyes as if to non-verbally call him a dumbass "I said that you would fight me. Not that we will fight. Should I treat it like a true fight you'd hardly last a fraction of a second."
"Can't argue with you there. But right now?"
"No, once we go somewhere that isn't a basement, unless you wish for me to bring the very foundations of this building down on your head?" He suggested, snapping his fingers and opening multiple golden portals for emphasis.
"Let's just get going. I'd hate to take up your time." Shirou muttered with a dry look and rolling his eyes, something which Gilgamesh ignored to stroke his own ego.
"Of course! You're finally learning your place boy. It took a few years too many but I suppose the stories of children being stubborn really are true."
Shirou just snorted at Gilgamesh taunt, grabbing his coat off one of his tool benches and walking past the ego-stroking King, beginning to make his way up the ladder.
XXXxxxXXX
Far outside Fuyuki City Limits, 5:53am
"Well? What are you waiting for?" Gilgamesh asked, a hand on his hip as he tapped his foot impatiently at the pre-teen standing across from him.
"You to give me a blade?"
"I will not hand you one of my blades."
"Then I'll have to use Tracing you know?" Shirou called back with a raised eyebrow, knowing of the Heroic Spirits dislike of his Magecraft.
"Yes. I am aware." Gil growled, the fist not on his hip clenching tight enough to make his knuckles go white "However, I can deal with them if I don't think of them as fakes."
"I try not to think of them as Fakes, makes it a bit easier to actually practice Tracing," Shirou smiled sardonically at Gilgamesh beginning to lower himself down "I prefer to think of them as references, or educational artifacts."
"References on what exactly?" Gilgamesh scoffed, flicking some hair out of his eye.
"The ultimate blade."
"That again…" Despite finding the dream ridiculous, seeing as whatever this blade was it would have to overcome Ea, he couldn't help but snort with the barest hints of a smile.
Hypothesizing the basic structure
This step hadn't changed from his original iteration of Tracing, despite the overhauls it had gone through in the last three years.
Duplicating the composition material
This step had made the stability of his Projections far greater than they had been before, however it still rubbed him the wrong way. But until he got a greater grasp on metallurgy, both scientifically and Thaumaturgically, it was the best he was going to get.
Imitating the skill of its making
His pride burnt at the wording of this step, even so many years after it's creation. In fact, having had to keep it the same for so many years probably only made it worse.
Sympathizing with the experience of its growth
This step had yet to be changed since he was 8, but he would one day. Once he had more life experience. Once he had done more than go to primary school, forge basic blades and go to the Clock Tower a single time. Then he would update this step.
Reproducing the accumulated years
This step had been created when he was 10, to unify with the previous step. The 'application' of the 'created' Mystery for his weapons that help stabilize and strengthen them for reasons he was aggravatingly unaware of.
Excelling every manufacturing process
Excelling every process Shirou's fucking ass. It was a blatant and liberal use of Reinforcement to increase the durability and, most importantly, longevity of the Traced blade.
Despite it being essentially a Magecraft of his own creation. Tracing was still very much in the infantile stage of its development. And while that was good, in that the only way it could go was up. It was also bad in that it relied directly on his skills and experience to do so, and that would take time to rectify.
The blade that fell into his hands was a Katana. Roughly 74cm in length from Tsuba (handguard) to Kissaki (blade tip) and 96cm in length factoring in the Tsuka (hilt). It wasn't his flame katana that he had taken to London, but rather an inherently non-magical blade he had made shortly before said katana. Should the need arise, he would begin bringing out magical blades, and he was under no impressions that it wouldn't ramp up to that intensity, but he wanted to bring out a non-magical blade first to test his Tracing.
Gilgamesh watched the blade appear in a shorter time than it would have previously to his excursion to the West. It was still laughably slow compared to his Gate of Babylon but holding the boy's Magecraft to his own was akin to holding a campfire to the sun and comparing how far the light from both spread.
Opening a single portal, he unthinkingly began to reach up to grab the protruding blade by its hilt. The instinctive knowledge of fighting he had been born with as a Demi-God coming to the forefront of his mind as he looked at the boy, the strengths and flaws of his stance filtering into the King's mind. His foot began to shift before halting, barely a few centimeters from where it had originally begun.
'What…..What was I doing? I wasn't planning to actually, physically combat him. Was I? No, of course not!' With the slightest flick of his wrist, he sent the blade back into his Gate, shifting it to face Shirou before the tip of it poked back out 'I was just shifting my weight is all.'
Yet despite his thoughts. In the depths of his soul, the deepest, darkest parts of his very being. He knew the truth. He knew what he had been about to do, and he knew why he had been about to do it as well.
Clicking his tongue, he allowed the boy no further time for preparation and fired the blade towards him. It was a single blade at what could barely be considered 1/10th of his Gate's top speed, yet there was a reason behind such a speed. Even if said reason was simply 'Shirou is both a child and human'.
Unsurprisingly a single blade at such a speed, with the knowledge it would be fired at him, let Shirou deflect the flying blade with the one in his hand. A loud screeching sound filled the air for the briefest moment before Gilgamesh's blade spun off to the side and Shirou began moving his blade once more. His blade hit the second sword that had been fired by Gilgamesh during his deflection of the first. The pre-teen's body spinning with the momentum to avoid the third blade that he knew would be coming as he let the second blade fling itself off in whatever direction it had decided to go.
His guess about the third sword was correct as he straightened himself out, only to find the sword heading directly towards his new position instead of his previous one. With a minute widening of his eyes he threw himself to the side before scrambling to his feet to avoid yet another fired blade.
"Come now, is this all your Magecraft has to offer? Hah. Even a single Gate is enough to best the only human of worth in this pathetic Age." Gilgamesh taunted him, an arrogant, sadistic smirk adorning his features as he crossed his arms.
His answer was the roaring of fire as Shirou's Magic Crest lit to life, the wordless fireball careening towards the stationary King mercilessly. However even with the fireball being twice the size of his head, Gilgamesh stared at it with half-lidded eyes, thoroughly unimpressed as the singular portal rotated to face the fireball. A standard Egyptian khopesh hurtling out of it and both into and through the fireball, destabilizing it into a wave of fire that didn't even reach Gilgamesh. What was approaching him however was the blade the boy had previously been wielding, spinning through the air in what had obviously been a Reinforcement-assisted throw as the pulse of Prana alerted him to the casting of yet another spell. Opening a second portal, he fired blades from both simultaneously, shattering the construct that had been hurtling towards him with one and attacking Shirou with the other.
The sound of metal impacting metal once again rang through the clearing, drawing the King's attention to it, and seeing Shirou once again holding the blade that he had just shattered.
"Don't be too proud of yourself, smith. I fired six blades and nearly overwhelmed you."
"And you're a Servant." Shirou retorted without any real heat or malice, merely stating it as a fact.
"If you wish to create the ultimate blade, you'll need to be able to stand on my level, mongrel. A blade of such magnitude is not a blade of humans but of Heroic Spirits." Something in his words had angered the boy, Gilgamesh could tell.
His eyes narrowed and his grip on his katana had tightened. The minute clenching of his jaw also giving away his frustration at whatever it was that Gilgamesh had said to anger him.
"Oh? You disagree with your King's words?" He taunted, waving one of his hands around idly as he did so.
"I won't need to be a Heroic Spirit to use the blade." Was all the response he got from Shirou but an interesting one nonetheless.
"No of course not," The Incarnated Servant scoffed, "Having a blade in life that can only be used by a Heroic Spirit would be karmic irony even the Gods wouldn't have attempted without provocation."
"Good." Shirou replied before launching himself forward, deflecting a blade before having to dig his feet into the ground to avoid the second one that was quick to follow behind it.
XXXxxxXXX
Fuyuki suburbs, 7:23am
"Gilgamesh?" Shirou asked, limping alongside the completely untouched form of the man walking beside him.
"Yes?" He hummed, buffing his nails on his jacket.
"How do you fire your blades?"
"Using my Gate, plebeian. Did that near miss with the Warhammer actually knock some of your precious few brain cells loose?"
"You know what I mean. Your Gates are just portals, right? They shouldn't be able to fire weapons at those speeds." Shirou reasoned with him and had Gilgamesh not been in such a good mood after knocking him around for over an hour he might have had to dodge yet another blade.
"And why do you ask such a bold question, hm?" Gilgamesh hummed, looking down at him from the corner of his eye, a strange gleam held in the red orb.
"Because…..It doesn't make sense to me?" Shirou muttered.
"…Ah. I see, you're looking to try and recreate my fighting style. Aren't you, mongrel?" Strangely, Gilgamesh's voice held equal parts mirth and annoyance as he figured out Shirou's true agenda.
"Forget I said anything." Shirou said quickly, averting his gaze from Gilgamesh.
"Are you trying to order me around?" A pressure washed over Shirou, making breathing suddenly much harder than it had previously been and his body tense up despite his wishes.
"N-No of course not. I'm not suicidal." He groaned out, breathing a sigh of relief when the pressure disappeared.
"Good. And remember that the next time you say such a thing to me."
"Got it…." The boy huffed, drawing himself to his proper height once more as the pain in his body lessened slightly.
"Regardless. I will not give you an answer. Prove you deserve it and do as a proper warrior or magus would, figure it out yourself."
The comment Shirou muttered under his breath got him pinned to the ground painfully by a spear as Gilgamesh walked away, cackling at the boy's misfortune all the way until he left Shirou's earshot.
XXXxxxXXX
Later that day, Emiya Residence
"Muramasa-kun! How could you spend so much time with an….a-an….AN EDELFELT!" Rin yelled, getting Shirou to lean back as if physically buffeted by the wind of her shout.
"Hey! Don't yell at Onii-chan!" Illya shouted back, pouting cutely as she hugged Shirou's arm possessively.
"It's fine Illya," Shirou chuckled, petting her head "And Tohsaka, what's wrong? You and Luvia are allies right? Or at least work together?"
"NO! The Tohsaka's and Edelfelt's are rival families! There's no way I'd ever work with her unless I had to!" She shouted, her arms at her side and stomping her foot petulantly.
"Oh, well I didn't know that Tohsaka." Shirou chuckled, scratching the back of his head "And Luvia isn't that bad. She was pretty helpful actually."
"Grrrrr." He smartly decided to look away as she glared and ground her teeth together.
The look he sported though made Illya giggle, letting Rin know that it was likely a deadpan or snarky look that would just set her off more. Right as she opened her mouth to continue shouting, making sure that he knew Luvia had no right to him. That Rin was 100x more helpful than Luvia could ever hope to be-
Right as she did so, the doorbell rang giving Shirou a free pass to exit the situation that he took without even a moment's hesitation.
With a grumpy pout she sat down at the table, trying to ignore the giggling of Illya as best as she possibly could. Which was difficult considering the girl was almost demanding her attention with her sly look and her giggling.
"You have a crush on onii-chan don't you?"
"W-What!? How could you say that? H-he's just my apprentice! N-Nothing else!" She could feel her cheeks heating up, crossing her arms in front of her face.
Meanwhile, as Illya teased the Tohsaka heiress with her crush on Shirou. The boy of said affection opened the front door, seeing Sakura standing there.
"Oh hey Sakura." Shirou greeted warmly, his eyes closing momentarily as he smiled "Did Kaa-chan tell you I got here as well? She seemed oddly determined about telling-"
His next words were cut off as Sakura slammed into his form, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing tightly but not so tightly that he couldn't breathe at all. With a confused look he wrapped his arms around her in return, getting a noise from her that was so muffled he couldn't even begin to tell what emotion it was.
"S-Sakura? What's wrong? Are you ok?"
"I'm fine." She mumbled into his chest, continuing to hug him.
"You don't seem fine, Sakura…" He pointed out.
With attentive amber eyes he looked over her form as she hugged him. Her body language, unreadable to anyone else unless she allowed it, was like an open book to him. Whatever had her shaken had done so very thoroughly, something that caused a mashed maelstrom of emotions inside his own mind. However now wasn't the time to think about his own issues but it was the time to try and help Sakura with hers.
"Nothing's wrong Senpai. I just missed you." She responded; her voice so empty it hurt him.
So much work to help her show her emotions like he could seem to have been thrown out the window in a couple weeks.
"Sakura. If something's wrong, you can tell me. You know that right?"
"…I don't want to talk about it," He opened his mouth to retort "please?" And his mouth clicked shut.
When she asked him so sincerely, how could he possibly say no? That didn't mean that he wouldn't be looking into it though. Sakura and he were kindred spirits after all…
"I- ok. I'll leave it alone Sakura. Just remember what I said, ok?"
"Ok Senpai." She nodded her head, emotion and feeling beginning to filter back into her voice after having been in his presence for barely a minute.
"Would you like to come in? Tohsaka is here." He gestured deeper into the house.
"That would be appreciated, thank you Senpai." She gave him a small, weak smile but one that wasn't faked at the very least.
"Ok." He smiled and nodded, "Am I going to have to ask Illya to move seats so you can sit next to me?"
"N-No Senpai! Don't do that. I'm not worth pushing her out of her seat, I'll just sit on the other side. It's ok!" She hurried to tell him, moving back a step and waving her hands around in a panic.
To anyone else she might have seemed to go back to normal but to Shirou there was a single phrase bouncing around his head as he led her further into the house. A phrase that burned itself into his mind and ignited his soul.
'I'm not worth pushing her out of her seat.'
Shirou hadn't heard her talk about her own worth, or self-thought lack thereof, in a little over a year. And just suddenly it's back? No. Something had happened to make her question her own self-worth once again and even if it took him a decade or longer, he would find out what had happened and stop it.
Because he and Sakura were kindred spirits and that meant that it was his job to help her just as others had helped him before. Even if it meant cutting down the perpetrators.
But enough of the dark thoughts, he thought to himself as he shook his head and entered the dining room to see Rin and Illya arguing over the specifics of some spell. He had just gotten back from London and survived a 'training session' with Gilgamesh, he had some catching up with his friends and family to do.
XXXxxxXXX
Side Story: Leaving England
"You didn't have to come see me off Luvia." Shirou chuckled while making sure he had everything.
Luvia, meanwhile, just giggled while waving a hand. Her clothing, and Auguste, attracting quite a lot of attention towards the very obviously rich young girl.
"No, no. Of course I did, Sherou. We're business partners, it would be remiss of me not to make sure you got back to your home properly." She smiled at him and got a smile in return.
"Well, I would have been fine by myself, but thank you Luvia." The girl just giggled a little at his thanks.
"Say, Sherou. Do you have any plans once you get back to Japan?" She questioned, leaning forward a little with a curious look.
"Probably rest to get over the jetlag. But after that just working on my smithing, and any commissions I end up getting." He shrugged nonchalantly.
"Well if I manage to get any I'll send them through to you right away Sherou." She winked at him, getting a small snort from him.
"I'd hope so, there's no way I'd grow without any challenges." His reply only got another small smile from Luvia as she twirled some hair around her finger.
"My my, so dedicated to-"
"All passengers for Flight XXX please make your way to gate 34"
"Sorry Luvia. Looks like its my flight." Shirou smiled apologetically while grabbing his bag.
"It's fine Sherou, I'll keep in touch."
"That'd be nice. See you next year Luvia." He gave a small wave before making his way over to the gate.
"Let us go Auguste." Luvia muttered after a moment, tilting her head down.
"You seem distressed My Lady?" Auguste pointed out with a raised eyebrow.
"A year is a long time Auguste. I don't want to have to wait that long. But sadly, I do." Luvia admitted, tilting her head further to try and hide her small blush.
"I understand. At least you can still stay in contact with Shirou Muramasa?"
"Yes…silver linings I suppose."
XXXxxxXXX
Hey guys!
Welcome back to HttB in this lovely month of November! (I'm uploading 13-14 chapters this month kill me ;-; ) I hope you guys all enjoyed the chapter!
Chapter 6 and 7 were sort of like a short interlude between the prologue arc and the second 'proper' arc of HttB. Which will take place a year later, when Shirou is 12. So you guys have that to look forward to next chapter (Which comes out on the 20th btw). Also next chapter I throw out a lot of names to see sort of who you guys do/don't want to see. So that'll be pretty interesting to see the results of.
But back onto this chapter. Gilgamesh has a tiny smidgen of character? Le GASP!
Yeah, early on into his fanfic I finally watched Demonic Front Babylonia. And seeing what Gilgamesh eventually becomes makes me really hate how one-dimensional Gilgamesh is in all three timelines of FSN. Like yes, he's an antagonist in FSN as opposed to DFB but that doesn't mean that he can't be compelling. Also I like the DFB Gil a lot more than I like the F/Z Gil.
Also Shirou now knows that theres something fishy going on with the Matou family. Does he know exactly what it is? No. Is he going to bust down their doors at eleven years old and fight Zouken? Also no. However it will feed into future arc's so I'm doing the leg work now to make sure it sorta doesn't just come out of nowhere later on xP
But with all that said. It's time for shameless selling out and review replies!
Join my discord: ctMzhq3
REVIEW REPLIES:
Zelenin-02: You sadly won't see that this chapter….BUT YOU WILL IN CHAP 8
KingAllen: Yes
Fyr RedNight: It was very anime protag of him, yes XD And its Luvia, how could she not taunt Rin a little?
Issei ODR: It's certainly a possibility, but I'm not certain yet.
SentinalSlice: I've been working on trying to punctuate my sentences. But it's a slow process admittedly XD And yeah, I have future plans for Shirou to learn Runes and whatnot.
AngelicWisdom: Oh yeah, once Luvia realizes Shirou's a boy the others are gonna have some competition. Also sadly he's not there for that long. Only a couple months a year over the summer holidays.
Foxsky Harem Emperor 2015: You can tell if one of the stories at the end of a chapter is canon or not by what I say. "Omake" means not canon while "Side Story" means it is Canon.
Sawtooth44: It absolutely is your responsibility because zelretch bends to my whim and you put this idea in my head.
JackBlaze123: Yeah. Grammar's always been my weakpoint but this fic is definitely helping me try to fix it XD And wow, thank you for saying you prefer something from my fic compared to FFD. That's actually a really big honor in my eyes considering how popular FFD is. Also there will be more to the harem than just Rin and Sakura (not even planning on adding Illya for at least a while until she gets a body appropriate to her age)
Mistletainn: Yeah I wanted to try and show that Luvia, despite her maturity, was still a kid and this was the best way I could think of to show that. And the Clock Tower peeps interacting with Shirou is already proving fun to write in chaps 8 and 9. So you definitely have that to look forward to XD