Fate/Night Sky
Wolkenritter (II)
Signum woke up an hour before dawn, the knight shifting from a state of light sleep into full awareness in less than a fraction of a second. It took her a few moments to sense her fellow knight, finding both Shamal and Zafira sleeping in their rooms while Vita stood guard on the top of the roof. The red-haired knight had taken the second shift of guard duty this night and her restless pacing on top of the roof showed that she was more than willing to be relieved of the chore.
“She still lacks discipline” Signum muttered to herself before quickly dressing herself in one of the outfits she had recently acquired during the ‘shopping spree’. Said event had been orchestrated by her master and his supposed caretaker the moment it became clear that the Wolkenritter would be allowed remain in the house by the landlord, the head of the Fujimura. Signum swiftly made her way out of her room, walking towards Vita’s location as the smaller knights pacing grew more restless, most likely the result of the smaller knight becoming aware that her relief had woken up.
Signum passed the door to her masters room on her walk through the house. Carefully opening the door, Signum peeked through the small crack to search her masters quarters for anything unusual. She was greeted by the sight of her master sleeping without a care in the world, blissfully unaware of his surroundings as usual. She softly closed the door before continuing her round, her eyes roaming over every inch of the corridors as her feet led her towards the garden. As she entered the garden the small knight made herself known, jumping off the roof as her leader approached. The redhead gave Signum a short nod as a greeting before walking into the house herself, most likely heading towards the master's room so she could get a few hours of sleep before he woke up, staying in close proximity to the boy so that she could swiftly react to a sudden infiltration of their domain.
From her spot on top on the room Signum stood as time passed, greeted by the first rays of the sun starting its journey through the sky once more.
-------------------
Emiya Shirou’s day started shortly after dawn, silently making his exit from his own room where Vita was currently slumbering, his guardian unable to resist the urge to get some shuteye after staying up. The girl snorted as the boy tucked her in with his blanket before sneaking out of his room. He made a quick stop at the bathroom, quickly freshened himself up with the application of some cold water and a towel, before walking towards his workspace.
He waved at Signum as he walked into the garden, smiling at the woman on the roof until she returned his gesture, before walking into the shed as he started his own set of morning exercises.
He thoughtlessly went through all his physical exercises as his eyes wandered through his workshop, from the boxes holding his father’s belongings and the one holding his own spare clothes to the pieces of junk that he used for his magecraft practice. The number of objects had been increasing ever since had had started his magecraft practice, and Taiga had already asked him to clean the shed on several occasions as she called him an hoarder.
“That would be a waste. Even if it's junk, you can still use it." He spoke to himself as he pulled himself from the ground, finished with his pushups for this morning. His fingers traced the final element of the room as he stood up, some kind of old design inscribed on the floor. It was almost like an altar or something, or-----
Four strangers dressed in black--- standing in the magic circle as they----
“Nah, Dad would have told me about it.” Shirou dismissed the thought as he grabbed a broken remote from the shelf, a gift from Taiga after the girl had stepped on it during her latest rampage. He didn’t have much time left for his magecraft practice, but it was only a small exercise.
“Trace on.”
Twenty seven circuits hummed as they started producing od, supplying him with the prana he needed.
“Structural analysis“
His mind was filled with the blueprint of the remote, the cracked piece of electronics clearly beyond his abilities to repair. With a sight Shirou released the image as he placed the remote on the shelf designated as ‘real junk’, the graveyard for the things he really couldn’t fix with his meager skills. Realizing that he had to start on breakfast soon the boy quickly cleared his mind as he preformed the final part of his morning training.
“Core load”
It was a strange sensation for him, the prana his circuits produced flowing like water as it followed the circuits to their metaphorical lowest point, the place where they were connected to his newly gained ’linker core’. It was a construct that could actually store the prana his circuits produced without having them open all the time, a fact that Shirou found rather useful as that still hurt every second he had to use them. More importantly he could feel the books presence as it drank from the core, slowly draining the now partially filled container as the last bits of prana flowed out of his now deactivated circuits.
It would take the book less than a day to drain the core completely, feeding on the prana stored inside its structure. Its rapid pace forced Shirou to open his circuits at least twice a day to supply the core with the prana it required to meet the Book's demand, in order to prevent the Book from harvesting the energy of the surroundings.
It was a slow and inefficient way to fill the book, but it was the path he had chosen. He couldn’t become an hero of justice without relying on his own strength after all.
------------------------
" So, the book potentially contains an almost endless amount of magical knowledge and might, but is currently incomplete because it required a huge amount of energy for its awakening, right?" Shirou summarized as he recited the knowledge the book has imprinted in his head. " And the best way to gather that energy is to drain it from humans with magic potential and animals who possess natural equivalents of linker cores. You plan so far was to start looking for possible sources to fill the book? "
" Yes" , Signum nodded as she acknowledged the boy's abridgment of their explanation. " It would be wise to start gathering the required power for the Book's activation before a potential enemy discovers that you possess such an powerful source of knowledge, especially with this ' second owner' you speak of in the neighborhood. With your command we can…"
“You can’t! Something like using others people’s lives like that is wrong! Nothing that is gained that way could ever be right!” They boy interrupted the knight with a pained expression. “For you to do something like that, it’s simply wrong!”
“Master, it’s simply….” Signum tried to reason, before her master cut her of again.
" Listen. I'm going to become a hero of justice. I want to become a person like my father, a person who can save others with his own strength, not one who hurts them in the first place. Any power I can gain from such a method isn't one I want to use."
" But master!" Shamal interrupted him as she tried to make sense of the situation. "Without additional power, the Book will be forced to devour your own linker core's supply. You originally didn’t even have one at all, and the one the book forged for you can barely sustain the book's primary functions. If it is forced to feed on your own body it will leave you powerless!"
" But I can still use my circuits to produce prana right?” The boy quickly replied. “That way I can simply produce the prana to restore whatever the book takes from me. I should be able to keep it up as long as I don’t run out of od, and as long as I keep this core thing filled right?"
Shamal paused, as she though over the boy's counter-proposal. She had little to no knowledge of this planet's inherited magic ability. These 'magic circuits' seemed to be very refined in converting the body’s natural reserves into usable energy when activated, converting what one could call the ' life-force' of a person into 'prana' on demand whenever activated . It was the direct opposite of a linker core, which automatically processed the available energy at a much slower rate, but was capable of storing the ' prana' that was created into its internal structure.
Shirou's 'fake linker core' was unable to produce great quantities of prana in itself, but Shirou could crudely use his circuits to supply the core with prana, which the book could continuously feed upon to sustain itself and grow
" It could work…. " Shamal hesitated as she tried to run the numbers in her head, “but filling the book would take much longer, perhaps…”
" Then it is settled.”Shirou spoke, his tone making it clear that the discussion was over. “ I will fill the book by myself. It already has around 150 pages so far, so we can just see how fast it goes."
" It could easily take years, even decades….." Shamal tried to reason, but she faltered as she saw the boy's expression.
" I'll definitely will finish it with my own power. I promise you!"
" What a troublesome master we have" Zafira sighed, before he regained control of himself as he realized that he had let that last thought slip out.
Shirou only smiled at him.
------------------------
Vita was in trouble.
First she had woken up finding herself covered in her master’s blanket while the latter had escaped her sight, a fact that Signum was less then pleased about. Secondly it was breakfast time. Her master seemed to take great delight in having more people to feed, often pressing them with questions about the quality. It seemed that when Signum had tried to explain that the quality of the food did not matter she had somehow insulted her. Shirou had not only ordered them to eat his meals whenever possible, but had also ordered them to be brutally honest with him about the quality.
Their master seemed to have a little pride in his cooking skills, and thus the Wolkenritter indulged him on this matter as he saw fit.
“Uu…”
Vita was unable to hold in a pitiful whimper as Taiga continued her plundering of the meat, the woman’s speed surpassing that of a regular human when it came to food. Thus she could only watch as one succulent piece of meat after another was brutally torn away from her sight.
Her despair was soon flipped over to joy as her master placed another plate in front of her, an offer Vita was eager to accept.
" Vita-chan, You really like Teriyaki, don't you!" Shirou smiled. The answer was obvious, if unspoken , as Vita inhaled the food, before coming to a sudden stop as she realized that Shirou, her fellow knights and Taiga were staring at her.
The fact that she had already emptied the plate didn't help her hide her embarrassment.
" Seconds?" The boy offered as he held out his hand gesturing at the bowl in Vita’s hand.
"Yes please" The girl muttered as she stared to the ground, her face flushed as her hunger overtook the embarrassment.
------------------
" Now don't forget, the emergency phone numbers are posted above the phone in the hallway, and you can always reach one of grandpa's employees using the third number, also make sure that Shirou gets enough sleep, I know that he tends to stay awake in that shed for too long. Make sure that he goes to school on time, he'll be going to middle school soon, after all, and we don't want him to get tardy. Also…."
" Fujimura-san, You already told us this five minutes ago." Signum interrupted the rambling Taiga, as the girl repeated the checklist she had written down for the new inhabitants of the Emiya estate for the third time that day. " Do not worry, The young master and we will be fine."
"Ugh, having me look over you all for just a single week is way too short. I still don't get why grandpa trusts you enough to let you stay here."
"Please do convey our gratitude to Raiga-sama once again when you see him tonight." Signum responded at the girls mention of the old man.
"Hmm? Fine, I'll give him your regards then." Taiga snorted, before throwing the door open as she made her way out of the house. Signum watched as the girl walked down the street, before closing the door as she walked towards the living room, where her master was doing the dishes. Fujimura Taiga had been an interesting person. Simpleminded, but with the best interest for her master.
Fujimura Raiga had been another case.
------------------
"Friend of Kiritsugu, you say?" The man stated as he looked Zafira and Signum in the eyes. The other Wolkenritter had remained at home on her command, ensuring that their master was guarded while she assessed the situation
" Yes", Signum replied, as she mentally walked through the cover story she and Shirou had made before coming here. “We…”
Before she had a chance to continue the man held up his hand, making her halt, before he wove it dismissively.
" Leave us three alone for now," he ordered, and the men who had sat alongside them in the room stood up and walked out of the room without question. It was a display of power that she understood clearly, both showing that he could effortlessly command his men without any hesitation, and that he believed himself to be secure enough that he didn’t need anyone to watch over him.
" Continue," he spoke as the last men left the room, prompting her to continue.
" Like I said, we have been friends with Kiritsugu ever since we……"
" As far as I know Kiritsugu had no friends outside this town.”
“We were more like acquaintances” Zafira spoke up, only to halt as the man stared back at him.
“How strange it is then, that you traveled all the way across the world just to meet up with an acquaintance without giving any notice.”
“Like we said, we…” Signum spoke up once more, trying to find a means to regain control of the conversation.
“Shall we drop this charade?”
Signum's first thought was to grasp for her sword as the man in front of them dropped that bombshell of a sentence, her trusty blade hanging in its compact form around her neck. But she paused as the man’s frown turned into a small smile.
" You know, my old man once taught me that the success of a long life in the business is to respect the unknown world in which people like Kiritsugu seem to dwell in, because the horrors from that world are sure to cut down anyone stupid enough to dig deep enough for them. I already have reasons to suspect that it was something from that side that devoured my friend. And now suddenly you show up at his son’s doorstep, only days after his death.”
Both Signum and Zafira remained silent as the man stood up, walking towards them with small steps.
" Who do you serve?" Raiga asked the knight, looking them straight into their eyes.
" We serve our master; Emiya Shirou" they replied in tandem.
" Shirou-kun? Now what could he ever have done to deserve your loyalty?”
" Because he is the one who called for us." Signum stated.
“As far as you told me you decided to simply visit, and now you are telling me it was Shirou who called for you? Your story isn’t holding up very well.”
Once more the two knight remained silent under the man’s gaze, a tangible silence filling the room. When it became clear that the two would not answer his question Raiga pressed on.
“Shirou already told me you wouldn’t say much more than this. Even he won’t tell me what’s going on, and that’s just as strange.”
“I’m sorry, but this is all we can tell you, for Shirou’s sake as well.” Signum apologized to the man.”All I can tell you is that we will guard him with our very lives, and will follow him no matter where it will take us.”
The head of the Fujimura family blinked at the bold declaration, before letting out a sigh in response. “ Very well,” He spoke. ”You came unarmed before me, and from what I can tell you are not unaware of the meaning of loyalty. I will allow you to continue to stay at the boy's side, but know this….."
The man sat up straight as his grin faded.
" If the boy is harmed....”
“We will never allow that” Signum stated with a steeled voice, staring back at the man with a look showing the certainty of her statement.
" Please, do look after Shirou for me then.”
Signum bowed in response.
------------------
In the end Fujimura Raiga had been quite generous, promising to provide them with real identities. Once they possessed those they would be free to walk the streets without question, but for now they were confined to the grounds of the house for the next few weeks. It gave her plentiful time to think over the man’s final warning, a statement she had not taken lightly.
“There are three families who the Fujimura’s have stayed clear from ever since my grandfather’s time. The Tohsaka, who live on the top of the hill of this side of town. The Makiri, who used to live close to the Tohsaka but have hidden themselves. Finally there’s the Einzbern who don’t have any ground in town, but possess a large amount of grounds outside Fuyuki. They are rumored to have a huge property inside the woods which nobody is permitted to enter."
Her master had not recognized any of the names, but had heard the rumors of the haunted house on top of the hill.
“Even so, even if a magus lived there, it isn’t like we are going to draw their attention right?” Shirou asked his knight.
“I could go take a look---- with Graf Eisen,” Vita offered, to which Shirou rolled his eyes.
“Subtle Vita, subtle,” Zafira groaned.
------------------
" Come on Shirou-chan! If you freeze up, you die!" Tagia yelled, her cursed shinai connecting with Shirou's shoulder as it drove the boy to the ground. Shirou’s attempt at an evasive move proved far too slow to prevent the cursed sword from extracting it's punishment on the boy's body.
Zafira’s eye twitched as the girl took on what she has once described as her ‘victory pose’, pointing two finger into the sky as she rested the shinai on her shoulder while sporting a fullblown grin.
" Jeez, Fuji-nee, You aren't holding back today, are you?" his master wheezed as he climbed back onto his feet.
" What are you talking about Shirou-chan!?”, his occasional sparring partner complained. “I went really easy on you just now, you’re just still too slow to dodge even such a simple strike! Now make me my delicious victory dinner as promised!" The woman cackled, as she walked out of the dojo in search of a quick bath, leaving the guardian wolf behind with his master.
"She's right" The boy muttered. " I'm still too weak as I am right now."
" Do not worry master." Zafira spoke, trying to address his master’s worries. " Any opponent that would dare to attack you physically stands no match against me or the other knights. Your power lies in the wielding of the book itself."
"That’s not right Zafira", the boy interrupted his guardian, " Father told me that the body is the most important tool of a magic user. It's useless to have the ability to use magic if someone like Fuji-nee can just hit me on the head before I can even open a circuit. So far the only thing I have been able to do is the exercises dad taught me and training with Fuji-nee like this, but I’m still too slow."
"Well, it does seem that your reflexes are still underdeveloped. You can already anticipate how Taiga is going to attack, but it takes too long for your body to move into the correct positioning." Zafira noted as he recalled the previous spar.
"You really have a good insight into that sort of thing, don't you?" Shirou looked up at Zafira as he walked towards the entrance of the dojo. "How did you get so good at it?"
"I specialize in binding and close combat. My fighting style relies heavily on the reflexes and insight I have build up during my battles. Without those two skills I wouldn't be able to emerge victorious."
“So how did you train those skills?”His master asked him, stressing the question even more. “Is there some sort of special training?”
“Well” Zafira hesitated, trying to think of a better way to say it. “Practice, lots and lots of practice.”
Zafira noted that his master was not amused, a small scowl making its way on Shirou’s face. At least his master would most likely drop the idea of training in close combat skills after this with the harsh truth exposed. There was no need for him to fight at the frontlines after all.
Shirou remained silent for a while, before nodding as he came to a decision.
"Starting tomorrow I want you to help me train."
Zafira blinked as Shirou walked past him as he walked out of the dojo.
“What just happened?”
------------------
From that day on Shirou worked himself even harder. Zafira took the order seriously, and even while pulling his punches Shirou’s body felt like a punching bag, starting 30 minutes before Shirou had to stop to prepare breakfast. It took Shirou two weeks before he could finally dodge a single attack Zafira threw at him. In his excitement Shirou forgot that Zafira already had another punch heading towards his head, knocking the boy out once again. Zafira didn't know what to think of the boy, but he couldn’t refuse his master’s orders on the matter as their daily routine continued.
Neither of them remembered when Signum started joining in, though both of them together turned Shirou's life into a gruesome training session every morning, leaving him barely enough time to fix breakfast.
It was strange to see him smile even after they ran him ragged like that; it was truly an unusual experience.
The boy continued his own training in the evening, practicing his sole magic skills of analysis and reinforcement, while filling his core after every training session to supply the book with the power it needed. Those days continued and they watched over their master as his abilities slowly increased, grasping every miniscule victory and progress with his own two hands.
Signum wondered when her willingness to train him had shifted from obeying his order to seeing how far he could go, almost rooting for him to succeed on every step on the way." I do not know any swordsmanship I can teach you,” she had told him. "All I can teach you is how to get close to your opponent, and to find the opportunity to strike."
The sound of the shinai hitting flesh resounded trough the dojo every day.
Zafira wondered when he started looking forward to his daily session with his master, to see him crawl back up every time he fell, the smile never leaving his face." All I can teach you is how to hit a person, and how to prevent yourself from getting hit." Zafira had told him.
The sound of a body hitting the floor was a regular occurrence, but the time between drops slowly grew larger every day.
It was months later, when Shirou finally managed to parry one of Taiga's strikes during a sparring session, that they finally realized that their loyalty was no longer the force pushing them to serve their master, as they watched the boy stand in front of the bedazzled woman as Shirou’s sword poked her in the stomach.
It was pride. Pride in the boy who had become their master, and who they had started to forge into the hero of his ideals. And even the sight of the peeved Taiga beating the crap out of their young master wouldn't diminish that feeling.
------------------
" So you two won't be coming home for dinner today?" Shirou asked, speaking with Taiga over the telephone in the hallway, as the sound of Vita watching the TV filled the background.
"Neko-chan and I are taking Shamal-chan out for a girls’ night out after this!' Taiga replied happily. "That girl needs to get out more!"
"I see. I'll keep that in mind when shopping for dinner. Do you want me to leave some leftovers for you?"
" Yes, yes! Shirou-chan's cooking, Shirou-chan's cooking !" The woman sang on the other end of the phone, making Shirou sigh at the woman's immature behavior.
'Please grow up some more Fuji-nee' The boy thought to himself.
" Have a fun evening then!" he spoke loudly in the phone, desperately trying to get Taiga's attention while she was off in her dream world filled with food again. "And don't push Shamal around too much, she is still new around here!"
" Aww, don't be such a spoilsport, Shirou-chan!"
" I mean it, don't---"
*click*
Shirou raised his eyebrows, realizing that Taiga had just hung up on him. He walked back into the living room, where Vita had planted herself on the ground as she watched a comedy.
" Should you really be watching the television at this hour Vita-chan?" Shirou asked as he rummaged through the cabinets, looking trough what he still had for tonight’s dinner.
" I'm doing it for culture assimilation. Unlike the others I can't go outside that much because everyone thinks I'm a sick girl." The girl replied , her tone revealing that even she didn’t believe her excuse.
" …sick girl?" Shirou replied as he looked at her.
"I know, it’s 'hormone imbalanced', but all those old ladies in the shopping district keep treating me like a sick little girl every time they see me outside." Vita shuddered as she remembered the negative effect of having to stick to her cover story. She wasn't a dress-up doll, damn it, no matter how many costumes Taiga picked up for her on her shopping sprees.
" Ah, but aren't you the shopping's district's local idol?" Shirou smirked as he recalled their last shopping trip.
Emiya Shirou had been more than willing to use any means to get the ingredients he wanted after all, even if it meant abusing said idol’s popularity.
" Exactly!" The girl stubbornly puffed, as she returned to watching her broadcast.
Old people pinch way too hard when they think you are cute.
" Well, I'm going to shop for dinner right now, want to come?'
"…..no."
" If you come, you can pick dinner" The boy offered, as the girl tensed up as his treacherous words wormed themselves into her head..
Shirou smiled as Vita turned off the TV and stood up. " Stop wasting time and get moving!" the knight yelled at him as she walked past her master towards the front door.
“I take it we are eating Teriyaki tonight?”
“Be quiet!”
------------------
" Fuji-nee, you promised me that you would go easy on Shamal-san!" An angry Shirou boomed at the intoxicated guardian as he towered over her, the woman incapable of standing on her own legs at this point as she crashed onto the floor.
Apparently the girls’ night out with Neko and Shamal had been a success, if that was what you could call the three drunk woman passing out in the entrance of the house.
" How was… How was I.. I supposed to know that she could put them away like…. like that!?" The woman slurred as her intoxicated mind kept her from speaking up without losing track of her own sentence.
" How the hell did you three even get home?"
" I have NO idea!" Shamal slurred, before crashing down on the already unconscious Neko. Shirou simply blinked, before Signum and Zafira pulled Shamal and Neko from the ground as they carried her inside.
“I’m not carrying her” Vita spoke up as she pointed at the downed Tiger. ‘I’ve seen this on TV, she’s going to puke all over me the moment I pick her up.”
“Now Vita that’s----”
“Wait, not here… not over here!...”
The sound of Shamal emptying her stomach made him pause, as Signum's distraught voice filled the house.
“See! I told you,” the girl spoke to her master as she watched Taiga stumble back on her feet with a cautious look.
“I-I think that was everything--------no wait, it wasn’t” Shamal’s weakened and pitiful voice heralded a second round as Shirou walked into the house to find a mop and some hot water.
“I’m going to take another shower” Signum declared, her clothes covered in the former contents of Shamal’s stomach as she walked towards the bathroom.
------------------
"Let us never speak of this again." A very sober Shamal spoke up at breakfast, as both Neko ,Taiga and even Signum nodded with great fervor, the first two grasping their heads as the backlash of such an action after a night of alcohol made itself present.
Vita was especially chipper that day.
------------------
Signum did not know what to think of the current situation. It wasn’t until Shirou was in the second year of middle school that he met Matou Shinji, a boy the same age who he had been spending more time with lately. It was not their place to criticize their master on who he socialized with, and perhaps it was for the better that Shirou had found someone of his own age to talk to. Yet Signum couldn't completely suppress her dislike to the boy
She even made sure to minimize her encounters with the boy, a task made more easy by the fact that he had only visited on a few occasions. When her master asked her about her evasive behavior she had replied that she just didn't like his haughty way of speaking, but didn't want to offend her master's guest.
Shirou had accepted it for now, and since Shinji barely came over it was something that wasn’t spoken of after that.
But Signum wasn’t able to set this aside, especially after she followed the boy to his home, at the top of the hill where the older mansions stood. To make things worse she had felt a presence when nearing the house that was simply nauseating, prompting her to make a detour of over an hour before she felt safe enough to return to her home.
She hadn’t been able to drop the thought that it had felt like something had been watching her.
None of the other Wolkenritter ventured near the Matou residence after that, as per her orders, but Signum had not yet informed her master. Part of her wanted to believe that she was just being a little bit paranoid. There were no enemies here in Fuyuki that could be aware of them, so there was no need for him be on high alert like she had been the last few days….
It bothered her that she was so willing to believe her own delusions. When had she grown so soft?
------------------
"So what you are saying is that the knowledge in the book is not expressed in words?" Shirou scratched his head as he tried to keep up with Shamal's explanation on the book - it had finally gathered enough power to unlock some of its secrets, with Shirou’s addition of over a hundred pages in the last 2 years.
With a single page every week on average it would still take him around seven years, but he was patient enough for the book to complete itself. It wasn’t as if he needed its full power any time soon anyway.
"That's right. While the pages are fixed containers of the book’s power, the displayed text on them is malleable to the situation at hand. If you desire knowledge on a certain spell or subject the book will simply alter its current page to display the details of that information. This way the book can gather and display more knowledge then what these 666 pages can hold."
" That does sounds reasonable," The boy confessed, continuing to turn the pages in the book as he closely looked at the empty pages. As he reached the end he turned the book over, starting at the front again.
"Yes, “ his teacher agreed, before continuing. “You can simply will the book to show of execute a certain spell, or give you an overview based on styles or purposes, like search patterns and flight spells."
"Did you just say flight spells?" They boy spoke up with a boyish glee in his voice. He suddenly remembered that while his Wolkenritter could fly, they had never been able to explain how exactly they managed to defy gravity, nor had they been able to teach him in the art.
In response the tome shifted the context on the paper, the title Sleipnir appearing on top of the open page. Shirou grasped the book as he greedily started to read, only for his smirk to fade away as he slowly started to realize something important.
"Shamal, I can't do math at this level. How am I supposed to use this?" He implored the blonde, who smiled back at him with a apologetic look.
"The book can do some of the calculations, but for the rest you will have to---“
"Study?"
“Yes”
Shirou let out a sigh as he pressed his head against the book. “Since when do heroes have to do math homework?” he moaned.
-----------
"Well, Emiya-kun, I never knew you were the type who liked to crunch numbers like this," Shinji joked as he took in the sight of his friend , Shirou full of rapt attention while throwing himself at his homework during the lunch break. " Any reason why you suddenly find it so interesting?"
"Let's just say I got some motivation…" Shirou replied with his casual smile, before turning back to his math.
"You're a strange one Emiya-kun" Shinji replied with his signature smile, before walking towards a group of students on the other side of the classroom. Shirou continued unhindered as he wrote the equations with his right hand, as his left hand played with the small chain resting around his neck, carrying the small cross underneath his shirt. He had started keeping the book with him all the time as soon as he finally managed to pull off his first control of the book, to return it to its sealed state in the form of the pendant now resting against his chest. It wasn't much, but it had been the first sign that he was slowly getting control over the ancient mystic code, thus giving him even more reason to carry it proudly with him (as long as nobody noticed it, of course). As people around him chatted, he ignored them as he tried to focus on his homework.
Concentrating himself seemed to take much more then it usually did. Normally he found it easy to block out everything besides his goal, but today he felt a bit heavy. His training this morning had felt harsher than normal, and normally he would feel more energetic.
Somehow everything felt off today, it was as if----
His body felt as if it was burning, but it wasn’t his circuits. He had properly shut those off after filling his core this morning…
His core was empty. Why was it empty when he had filled it-----
Filled it---
Why was it so dark suddenly?
Did someone call out his name?
Why was he falling?
---403 empty pages remaining---
Originally Posted by ringlhach
(...)
