Chapter 10: Growing Pains

The city below was beautiful at night. Buildings were lit in various bright signs and colors, built upwards in heights I'd only seen anywhere close to London. They were so different compared to Fuyuki; it felt almost like I had stepped into an entirely different world.

Slowly, I inched backwards from where I had been lying on the ground on one of the topmost floors of a skyscraper. This cat-and-mouse game I had been playing for the last couple of hours had been a tense standoff. The issue with hunting something intelligent, such as a dead apostle, was that they had the potential to learn. And my first strike didn't bring them down.

Further down the hall outside of my room, I could hear the dead as they bashed themselves against a door. This dead apostle with the dead it controlled was able to all talk to each other in their heads from what I noticed. Or at least somewhat get an idea of what each other is doing.

I'd been lying in wait and observing the dead that had been moving around, all the way from inside buildings to down below. This entire city was empty. I'd initially came in with only this one cumbersome sniper, Cain's dagger, some black keys and a brief message on my phone on needing to kill a dead apostle.

Justeaze could stretch out the time in these dreams in a way that they felt like days when it had been only hours. So I had treated this like I was going to be stuck here for a while. Empty streets and abandoned cars had greeted me for the first hour, with all the different signs being written in English. I'd broken into and hot-wire somebody's SUV, but actually trying to drive it was really annoying. I had to use reinforcement to make the pedals reachable for me, but once I did that, it was smooth riding.

Mostly, I might have hit a couple of things with the car by accident. But I wasn't going fast, so it was fine.

But with all the time to set up my hunt and nobody left to save, that just left me shopping in an abandoned place again. It was surprisingly fun just seeing what I find that would help me. Collecting more guns, makeshift bombs and other odds and ends were a given.

I'd spotted the tallest skyscraper in the entire city, made my way and then fortified myself inside of this room. I had a couple of different exits or ways to maneuver, but I should be able to finish this in one go.

But in the end, when I had spotted the dead slowly sweeping through the city, I had seen a shrouded figure who all the dead kept returning to. For someone who clearly seemed used to skulking in the dark, they must have grown confident in however long they had been uncontested.

So I had taken my shot, and I had punctured through its upper body in a clearly lethal shot. It had tried dodging, but it likely hadn't felt that threatened. It realized its folly only after making the connection that my ammo was blessed. Not as deadly as a black key, but certainly not a good time.

My additional shots had not been as successful, and it had fled into the night. And now I was stuck with the dead, slowly searching through the general area I had been in. Thankfully, they weren't the best in searching. But right now, I had two options: either I can stay put and try to outwit the dead apostle, or leave early and try to hunt them down. They had undoubtedly healed, but because of the lack of people had no way to recover their lost magical energy.

Though I couldn't afford to assume that they weren't running on an unfathomable amount of mana if they had eaten the entire city. The only thing stopping my blood from boiling was the fact I knew this was a dream.

Given the fact the dead apostle ran and hid over fighting me directly as a physically superior creature, left me with some questions. Either I was being baited, or they were overly cautious. But it would cost me nothing to continue waiting for an opportunity. So wait I would.

One of the many bright sides of Reinforcement meant that I had changed the shape of the door to my room and a couple of others to make them appear as if they were just part of the wall. Unless this dead apostle had a lot finer control and knew of my exact location, its search with its minions would end up being fruitless.

I had wrapped myself in darker clothes, leaving the room dark enough that most would have difficulty seeing me. Even then, my reinforced eyes were able to see between the lights of the city and into the darker portions of the city. As long as I didn't make too much movement, I should be mostly fine.

We both waited for hours longer than their search of my skyscraper turned out for naught. From there, their search moved to the surrounding buildings. As their failure would continue, eventually the leader would have to make their appearance again. I didn't have anywhere near enough explosives to take down whatever workshop this apostle might have. So I would just have to make sure I go all out at my next opportunity.

Lessons on using a sniper rifle had been the hardest for me out of all the lessons dad had taught me. Even now, I still had a lot of bad habits I was trying to iron out. Staying still for long periods of time, not moving or learning anything else, didn't sit right. Every once in a while, I would shift or twitch, wanting to do anything else until I refocus.

My eyes that stare through the scope catch sight of movement, seeing that same figure I've seen before, the apostle. As it uses the narrow alleyways as cover, a frown fills my face. Getting a clearer view as it appears and disappears from view in shaky, hurried steps, I sigh. Double checking the surrounding area before I fire, something sticks out to me with a sinking feeling.

Further down, almost out of sight between the streets, I spot another shadowed figure skulking around. As I suck in a breath between my teeth, my intensity in double checking the area increases.

During my time waiting, it seems my opponent had either had humans still left they were using as decoys, or even finer control of their dead than I thought. If I made a wrong shot, I might very well kill someone innocent and give away my position.

Worst-case scenario, these are lesser dead apostles they have as minions. Which would make my job even harder with how good they were at communicating. In good conscience, I couldn't go ahead with a shot until I had more information.

I sigh. This is going to be a long hunt.

Over the course of the night, I spent my time watching them for as long as possible. As far as Kotomine had been telling me about creatures like this, is that they would smell me or sense me if I was close enough. And considering there were no other humans who would mask my presence, it meant I was a giant target to those more powerful. Hiding from the dead was child's play, but the others would require a supernatural level of hiding, which I just didn't have. Making a mystic code for it might work, but with my skill being so bad at it now, I had no hope. Fighting opponents that outnumbered and were stronger was a pain to deal with.

With all this in mind, I waited and watched. As they got further with no results, most of the cloaked figures seemed to get more and more tense before disappearing further out of my sight. The dead slowly shuffled and broke their way into various buildings as they searched out the area, before slowly shuffling out of sight and disappearing into various buildings and not coming out again. The clock that still works in the room only confirms my suspicions. The sun is going to rise soon.

Waiting for the extra time for the first rays of light to appear, I get up from my perch with a groan. Stretching with my arms over my head, I take the time to move around the room and grab anything useful. It was best I go on the hunt now instead of at night when they would be strongest. I knew there was still some of the dead left inside of this building, so with a grimace I glanced between the floor and the window.

Hesitantly, I make my way outside to the balcony, squinting under the sun and wind. To the side, scaffolding and other balconies lie the length of this skyscraper and give options on how to descend this. If nothing else, this would be a lesson in quickly descending a high place.

My private reassurances don't work that well. Training with Kotomine meant this wasn't impossible, per say. But... I gulped as I stared at the ground down below that seemed so much smaller than I knew it was. With my sniper currently over my shoulder than well, I take the time to pull it apart into a more compact form. Something like this would be useless in tight quarters and deadly with trying to make my way down. It had the added benefit of steadying my nerves.

Reinforced and with no better options, I gingerly made my way to the edge. With a mix of careful maneuvering and landing between different balconies, I eventually made my way to the bottom floor with a racing heart. Adjusting the bag on my back, I take careful stock of my area before quietly making my way toward where my enemies were.

I had prayed over the bullets like Kotomine had shown me. Well, more like what he had shown me to do for praying or the theory for the blessings. But I had no clue if it actually worked. Worst-case scenario, I still had the black keys.

To be both in the light and out of sight was a very awkward experience in trying to maintain. I kept out one pistol I had pilfered, as well as a black key in my hands, and tried to be as quiet as possible. It's not long until I find my way to the building I last saw these cloaked figures enter. Taking a deep breath, I narrow my eyes before quickly forcing my way inside through the large doors into a large complex of some kind.

Inside, a large horde of dead fill up the entire space in a packed grouping, all hungrily staring in my direction having waited for me. My eyes widen in shock before whipping my pistol upwards and throwing my key at one of the closest to give me more room with my hands. With a bang, a bullet enters the head of one of the closest dead as I use its body to lift myself into the air. The force of my push pulverizes what was left of its corpse to the ground and causes some nearby dead to fall over.

With my spare hand, I grab onto one rafter that splinters under the force of me and use it to land on a different support beam. Down below, the dead reach all towards me. Ripping a pipe bomb off of my belt, I light it with a poor use of my fire magecraft. To my chagrin, it uses much more mana than I wanted. Dropping it down into the midst of the dead, I start a projection of Cain's dagger on my person and head as far away from the dead as I can inside this building.

Down below, two black cloaked figures jump up onto the rafters with me before darting their way along the beams with unnatural grace.

Grimacing, I aim my pistol upwards at one and fire rapidly. Initially, it doesn't even bother to dodge, but slows down in shock as my bullets seem to pierce it. The other one gets much too close for comfort with a lunge, but I purposely drop off the side and throw the hollow dagger at it. Compared to the pistol, it instinctively avoids the dagger and falls the same as me off the side. As it is stuck in the air and has no way to dodge, it's simple to unload the last of my bullets into its head and drop my pistol.

With my heart pounding and my palms sweaty, I can almost perceive the presence of the other creatures approaching, until a sudden explosion from the bomb below me momentarily blinds me, propelling me forcefully into a wall.

Searing pain covers my body, but the surrounding creatures seem in worse condition. Viscera and the remains of the dead cover the entire area as I kneel on the ground. The corpses around and still left smoke, and the still left cloaked figure writhes in agony, even if I can't hear it from all the ringing in my ears. Holy water in a pipe bomb didn't seem all that... religious in hindsight. But the results were great!

"Absorb." I said. It was odd not being able to hear myself, but my cuts being sealed was unsettling with having no control over it. Pulling out one of my many black keys, I hold it loosely in my hand as I watch the creature writhe. Hesitating for a moment, I take in the rest of the room before my shoulders slump. "Sorry. I wish you could have had a chance to be better."

The key going into its skull makes it go still, before it rapidly flakes into ash and dust, joining the rest of the room's rapid decay. Making a quick jog further inside as I grab my key, I take stock of the area. Heavy machinery, lines and belts give me an idea of what this place might be, but everything seems to be turned off. With a quick application of my Grasp on the surrounding area, I get at least three blurry results from where I am touching the floor in different parts of the room.

A twitch of my wrist has two keys in each of my hands, which I throw toward one of them as I head in the same direction. Drawing a pistol and Cain's dark weapon, I rush towards the undead that were trying to escape my throw. My sense of the room shows the other two figures are nowhere to be felt now, but I knew they were following behind.

Compared to before, this apostle dodges my black keys with some success, but cannot avoid both bullets and black keys, wounding it and emptying my pistol that is dropped in the same motion. When I get within striking distance, it claws at me with wild abandon in a swipe so hard I see its arm snap. But I'm simply faster.

A quick slash half-way decapitates the apostle, and with a thrust using both hands, I stab into the apostles' heart and twist. I drag the dagger out with surprising ease out of its side as whatever life it used to have faded from its eyes. My frown deepens.

I don't stay idle, moving as soon as possible to jump forwards. A searing pain in my back shows I'm not a moment too soon as the minions of this undead chase after me. The fact I can outpace them is both fortunate and concerning. They have been nowhere near the threat that Kotomine had told me about.

But considering their hatred of light...

Instinctively, I close my eyes as I activate my mystic code. "Licht." A bright flash of light burns out from my armband, where I open my eyes again afterwards. Disturbingly close then I thought they would be, two figures stumble in front of me in surprise. Their hasty dodge avoids my black keys, but I get in close enough to one that I can stab it. The creature retches as something flies out of its mouth towards me, and I have to toss away my chance to attack so I can avoid it. Unable to take the time to figure out what that even was, I touch the ground once more to grasp, revealing multiple creatures beyond what I intially felt had appeared at all entrances.

Another flick has me replace the black keys in my hand and wind up to throw, before a searing pain is in my chest. Time slows as I see the claw of one of these creatures had torn through my chest and held my heard in its hand. Things go numb at first, but with a force of will, I flip the switch in my mind and choke out some words. "Trace On."

This wasn't the first time I'd lost a heart in training like this. Though that was more than being cut and not losing it entirely. Internally, I switch off the part of my body that would stop me from working in its panic to preserve my body. Instead, as my opponents seem in slow motions as they gloat, I take the black dagger and pierce its arm through my chest, then blindly stab backwards with a black key. I sense them sinking in at an awkward angle as the creature trapped within my body thrashes, intensifying the pain I experience. Letting go of the key, my free arm grabs onto the creature's arm lodged inside of me, and with a wrench I cut it off and pull forward.

The other two apostles had already started rushing forwards, and out of the corners of the room more dead stumble and claw their way inside. Panicked, I hold on to the arm of the undead and jump upwards, with the two following in sync. With everything going hazy and out of sync, I pry the heart out of the creature's hand and stuff it back into my chest with a nervous, bubbling laugh.

Reinforcement has me hastily make a disturbing flesh mesh to keep it inside and think about it later, as Sakura's mystic code finishes the rest of the surface level healing.

Deflecting one of what I assumed was a lesser apostle, had me crashing into more metal machinery. A hastily lifted black key has me smashed further into metal as it caves, instead of cleaved in two. "Trace On." Using Alteration, I add the property of making a black key explosive, and toss it, making the apostle in front of me weave out of the way. Hastily I block more strikes, this time with Cain's dagger, as my spare hand presses against the metal. Red hot lines are carved through my arm, making it limp from the torn tendons before the metal against my back wraps around and covers me.

It's not a second too soon until where I am is shaken from an explosion I can't quite hear. I take advantage of the hopefully few seconds I have and use Reinforcement to wrap what is left of my chest, trying to put it back in working order, despite the stars dancing in my vision and my growing weakness.

Forcefully pumping blood through my body manually is incredibly stressful and awkward, but buys me more seconds for my flesh wounds to scab over. Tweaking with my ear drums gives me back hearing, even if everything sounds off. All I can hear is faint wails and groans distantly. The only warning I get is the scraping from outside before the creatures tear through the metal around me as if it were paper, and more of them lie outside. A rush of bodies starts pouring my way, and only a quick manipulation of reinforcement to turn part of the metal into spikes slows them down. Awkwardly, I pull out my last pistol and press the trigger until it empties completely, even as the slowly dying corpses of creatures cover my legs, pressing their sheer weight into me. The gnawing at my legs is irritating, and things only get worse than from behind me, the sound of metal being carved through echoes.

This... is going to be painful.

On the floor of the dojo, all I can see is the form of Justeaze leaning over me with furrowed brows as I lye there. A groan escapes me as I sit up. My body no longer is full of pain from being carved up, but the memory is still fresh enough that it's almost as if I still have the wounds.

"I warned you that this was going to be harder than you thought it would be." Justeaze says. Her tone is completely unrepentant as she gives me a stare that is not amused.

To the side is a very interesting wall I stare at and avoid her stare. "It was fairly hard... but I didn't do too bad this time!" Despite the energy I put into my voice, I keep avoiding eye contact.

"I don't mind you wanting to do some harder training or test yourself against those above you. But some of these scenarios you have come up with are just unreasonable for you to achieve." She scolds. Positioned away from my direct line of sight, she crosses her arms within her sleeves and observes me with bewilderment.

"Isn't the world of magic dangerous, so I should be prepared for anything?" I ask.

Before I know it, there is a stinging pain on my forehead that I clutch at in habit, before noticing that Justeaze places her hands back into place. "You need to learn how to walk before you start running everywhere, Shirou. As quaint as these spars with knights, soldiers, and dead spirits have been, I think it's time for you to return to studying your magecraft." Despite her sternness, her fond exasperation bleeds through into her words.

In part, I want to be upset about not being to focus on training my fighting, but I needed to focus more on my magecraft. I'd gotten better at using the magic I already knew, but I hadn't learned or done anything new.

If I was being honest with myself, I still had all my training with Kotomine too.

"Alright." I sigh.

Justeaze ruffles my hair. "You're a smart kid, Shirou, don't waste it."

"Not smart enough." I mutter. But regardless of how I think about it, there were things that needed to be done. "Can we practice making Mystic Codes again?"

"Sure," Justeaze says. Her smile warms. "Though I hope you don't expect me to do most of the work this time?" She lightly teases.

I scowl at her. "That's because I was in a rush! Just watch. I'm going to get it right this time!" Her widening grin only serves to spur me on further.

What I ended up making for the last of my time dreaming wasn't something I consider a success on any level, but Justeazes' laugh gave me a warmth to my chest that made it seem like it was a victory in a different way.

School had been getting more annoying, but this year had proven to be the worst so far. As much as I enjoyed spending time with my friends, the upperclassman were being insufferable. They treated all the underclassman as if they were servants, or picked on or make everyone's life harder. So I'd made it my job to make sure they knew how to behave.

Sometimes it got awkward when my friends caught me like this. All of them stood across from me in exasperation with the groaning bodies of the three most troublesome boys crumpled on the floor. Thankfully, I hadn't let them tear my shirt this time.

"Emiya." Rin says. Her voice is completely calm, even as her eye twitches. With an iron will, I force myself to not flinch. "Don't you think this is quite enough?"

"What is?" I say. Playing at being ignorant is in part because it'd be funny to see her get angrier. My legs step over their bodies so I can get closer to my friends. Sakura gives a concerned glance to the boys before ignoring them. Mitsuzuri is more amused than anything, while Makidera doesn't appear to be bothered by this at all. Only Rin is concerned with this whole affair.

Stamping her foot in frustration, Rin glares at me. "You know what I mean! You don't have to go and beat up all your problems, you brute!"

I scratch my chin in confusion. "I mean, I tried talking to them. It's not my fault if they can't see reason."

Sakura stops Rins growl, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Shirou would have tried, you know that."

Lately, ever since staying at home with us, Sakura had been acting more and more at home. Her asserting herself had happened rarely, but every time it worked for her, it was as if the world was that much brighter for her. For me, it was hard to say no to Sakura for that reason, and I know for a fact Rin felt the same way.

"You're right..." Rin says with a sigh. "But this will be bad if others find out about it. Shirou, people have already started calling you a delinquent."

My shrug brings despair to Rin on a personal level. "It's not as if it's the first time people have had weird names for me. Like when they thought I was odd for spending so much time with you all, or helping people. Reputation doesn't matter all that much."

The others watch in amusement, even as Mitsuzuri speaks up. "That's not entirely true. It matters a lot if you need others to work with you. Tohsaka can typically do what you did with just words."

Chiming in, Makidera nods in good humor. "I'm sure I've seen some boys collapse too after she's given them a stern talking too."

Rins' frown turns towards our mutual friends and closes her eyes in exasperation. "I'm being serious here. Shirou needs to stop being so reckless."

"Who said I wasn't serious?" Mitsuzuri says with a raised eyebrow. In a rare moment of losing her temper, Rin throws up her hands in exasperation. The sound of Makideras' laughter fills the area.

I put my hands in my pockets and act more casual as I turn my head over my shoulder. "Try to learn some respect and decency, okay?" Hopefully showing no hard feelings like this would smooth over any bad blood I might have stirred up. A slap sound draws me towards Rin who is facepalming, while Sakura gives me a pitying look.

"What?"

Without even trying to explain it to me, the girls all turn around and go to leave.

"No, really, what?!"

Ever since my talk with Justeaze after that first month of training and trying to do the hardest practices I came up with, Kotomine's training had been both harder and easier in different ways.

While it was less complicated, I could not describe the grueling training as easy. Outside of our group training, Kotomine tasked me with almost every task he could think of to forge my body into something he considered acceptable. Most of them were things he himself had gone through as training, which only made my respect for him grow higher.

Without magic, I had to scale different surfaces in faster and faster times. I practiced with different weapons at the church to train my skill, although they were mostly just practice weapons that weighed the same and not the real deal.

Apparently ash locks are hard to get without an official reason.

If it was exercise, I had to practice it. The most surprising part of it all was how much of it was all stretching as well. Apparently, flexibility would help a lot in some ways, as well as having the right diet. The last part was hard since Justeaze always insisted that I needed to eat her food over any meal plan.

Kotomine leaned against a tree, with a bible in his hands in silent prayer as he waited for me to recover. Sweat covers my collapsed form on the ground, and I heave for breath. It takes a couple of minutes before I even have the energy to talk.

"Kotomine. How hard is it to fight a dead apostle?" I ask.

His book closes with a snap as he turns his head towards me, tucking the book under his arm. "It varies. In the same way that not all mages fight in similar ways."

"But what would you would expect most of the time?" I press.

His eyes measure me in silence for a few moments. "Similar to what I have already told you about their strengths and weaknesses. Overpowering them is a fool's errand unless you have something to make the difference. The protection of the lord is ones best bet in dealing with any such creatures." His voice has a faint tinge of satisfaction near the end.

"With them being so fast, how do you even get anything to hit them?" My thought come back to my fight with the apostles. They had been so fast that they dodged bullets or my keys if I gave them enough room, and those were probably weaker ones.

"There is a reason one rarely goes alone. If a threat is dangerous enough, they send someone of the right caliber to deal with them." He takes a few slow and measured steps towards me.

"But you can't know what sort of threat you are going to fight all the time, right?"

Kotomine leans down to offer me a hand up, which I take gladly to haul myself to an unsteady standing position. "You can't," Kotomine adds. "But typically it is the job of the first member of the faith or ally to determine how dangerous a situation is and act accordingly. It is not perfect, but that is the way of man. We can only strive to do our best in trying times." His words sound preachy at the end, but I understand what he means.

If I was stuck in a bad spot again, I'd have to figure it out as I go.

"So," I change the subject. "How long until you think I might be on the level of one of those Executors you told me about?"

"Years."

A scowl comes across my face as I glare in his direction. "Years?! But that's so lonnng." I groan.

His lips twitch upwards in amusement before he uses his hands to motion forwards. "Perhaps I shall revise my prediction if you continue your training?" His smugly raised eyebrow makes me roll my eyes, but in the end, I start my run once again.

End of Chapter 10:

Howdy! Shorter chapter this week, been busy enjoying my first ever holidays which have been nice. There should hopefully be another episode in the coming week as well, but will be another side chapter on a different character. Hope you enjoyed, this was more to show how Shirous attitude and training are affecting him.

Reviews:

Guest -

On the bright side, I do have a Grail War planned... eventually. But honestly a good chunk of this will be more in other fate places, including Shirou in the Mages Association. That one will likely be a lot more work on my end or having to make OCs. It unfortunately does need to have some parts of it filled to tell some stories. But I'm glad El Melloi adds a lot more material to help with this.