Or I could be busy because of the christmas season. Anyways, my christmas gift to you Beast's Lair. Is part two of chapter 5.
Enjoy
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A wasteland of iron and blood. That was the land that he found himself in.
No matter how far he looked, there was no sign of any life. The air was thick with the smell of iron and smog to the point where a normal person would find it difficult to breathe. However, the air didn’t bother him at all; in fact, it was almost soothing in a way that escaped him completely. It felt like he belonged here, but he couldn’t see how anything belonged in this desolate place.
The boy followed the spiraling smog into the twilight sky and watched as it suddenly shifted to show a series of large gears rotating in the sky before shifting back again. The boy turned his sight from the shifting sky to ground. The sight of the barren land caused a hollow feeling in the boy. He knew instinctively that the land was not meant to be empty, that there was something that needed to be here. But he couldn’t tell what belonged.
So the boy wandered, hoping to find what was missing from the land, and in turn what was missing from himself.
He spent an eternity wandering the endless land with the grinding gears in the sky as his only companion, and yet there was no fear of death; there was no despair at the chance of finding nothing. He had chosen this path. There would be no giving up, or losing his path.
Eventually, his search bore fruit. He had only found two objects stuck into the ground, but he knew that they were what belonged here.
Small hands wrapped around the leather hilts and a smile crawled over his face. In the lifeless ground of iron and blood, the boy found a single pair of swords. A small drop fell into the endless void within him.
It was a start.
…
He woke up in an odd room. It looked like something you would see out of a movie that was set in the far future. It was a rather dark room, with fancy machines littering the room and odd screens on the walls.
*BeepBeepBeep*
“Ah…” The boy looked around at the room in confusion. It was an unfamiliar room and it appeared rather complicated. Various machines were set up, and he could see some screens on the walls that had...stuff that he couldn’t make heads or tails of.
“You’re awake.” Shirou turned his head to the side to see a brown haired girl that looked older than he. She quickly wrote something down on a clipboard before flashing a friendly smile in his direction. “It looks like the operation was a success.”
“Operation?” Shirou repeated in confusion. He couldn’t remember being hurt.
“Yes. We were worried that there might have been some side effects, but so far we haven’t detected any major anomalies.” The girl continued happily. Shirou wasn’t sure if she simply didn’t notice his confusion or was ignoring it. She quickly started asking Shirou some questions that varied from basic information like his name and age, before switching to asking if he felt any pain or odd sensations. Shirou answered all the questions to the best of his ability, and after what seemed like an eternity to the boy, the questions stopped.
“Alright, that should do it. I’m sure that your friends will be happy to see you up. If you would just give me a moment, I’ll go get them.”
Shirou watched as the cheerful girl left the room and took the silence to gather his thoughts. He was in some sort of medical suite, and the girl had mentioned an operation. Had he been hurt? Shirou looked over his body and saw no odd marks or scars from any injury or surgery, but he did discover a large manacle attached to his right arm.
“Huh?” Shirou examined the manacle curiously. It was rather simple in design. It was just a thick white manacle around his wrist, though Shirou found it odd that he couldn’t find a hinge to the thing. Shirou wondered if there was a hidden hinge, or if they had cast it around his arm. Attached to the manacle was a small chain that ended in an odd rock. It was clear and shiny, almost like a gem. “I wonder what this is?”
Shirou gave the room a quick glance to make sure no one was here. Maybe a quick Structural Analysis would reveal what it was. He placed a hand over the manacle and spoke his aria. “Tra-“
“Shirou!”
Shirou flinched as his concentration was broken. It was less the shout and more the full body tackle that slammed into him. The boy choked as he was put into a strangle hold by a sobbing girl. “Ack! Nanoha… air!” The boy flailed around as she continued to choke him.
Nanoha thankfully got the hint and let go of him. However, his relief was short-lived as he was faced with the fiercest glare he had ever seen. “You idiot!”
“W-what?” Shirou flinched at the outburst and stared at her in confusion.
“I said you’re an idiot!” Nanoha shouted at him. She even hit him once to make sure he got the message.
“Ow! What are you talking about?” Shirou rubbed his arm.
“I believe she is referring to your reckless actions and getting yourself kidnapped, Shirou-kun.”
Shirou blinked and looked up at the soft voice. He noticed that Nanoha wasn’t the only one to enter the room. A young woman with green hair and an odd jewel on her forehead was smiling at him. Next to her were two boys. A slightly older boy with deep blue hair wearing a black jacket that had various spikes on it was first. The other boy was a blonde his age that was looking at him oddly. It was a look of relief that seemed odd to see on a stranger.
“Reckless actions?” Shirou scratched his cheek and tried to recall if he had done anything really dangerous lately. To his surprise, he couldn’t really recall anything. There was just a large blank spot that he couldn’t really explain. “Did I get hurt? I don’t really remember anything after fighting Arf.”
“Did you get hurt? Did you get hurt?!” Shirou swallowed hard at the sight of Nanoha getting angry again. It was a rare sight to see her genuinely mad. It was also a sight that Shirou never liked to see. “You…”
Shirou flinched when Nanoha buried her head into his chest. He could feel her tears soaking through the thin material of his hospital gown. His arms wrapped around her, and inwardly he started to panic a little. He didn’t want Nanoha to cry, but he had no idea what had happened. He looked up at the others for answers.
The blonde boy looked a little uncomfortable when Shirou’s gaze fell on him, but he offered an explanation. Shirou listened intently as the boy told him what had happened after Shirou had ran and grabbed the Jewel Seed. It had activated and warped reality. Nanoha and Fate had been able to seal it back up, but Fate had taken him with her after the Jewel Seed refused to come out of his body.
“So, it’s still inside me. Can it activate again?” Shirou felt Nanoha squeeze him tighter at the question.
“You don’t need to worry about that, Shirou-kun.” Shirou turned his attention to the smiling woman - Lindy-san, he recalled briefly from the boy’s explanation. “While we haven’t been able to extract the Jewel Seed, we have been able to seal it. That bracelet right there should keep the Jewel Seed from activating at all.”
The odd white manacle on his right arm gleamed under the light. Shirou gave it an appreciative look. What the blonde boy had described hadn’t sounded pleasant at all, and Shirou had no desire to go through it again. It was a miracle that it didn’t affect the city.
“Alright, so they sealed the Jewel Seed but it wouldn’t come out, so Fate kidnapped me. How did I get over here?” Shirou couldn’t really remember anything after grabbing the Jewel Seed. He could remember some flashes, but they didn’t really make any sense.
“We were hoping that you could shed some light on that.” The spiky jacket boy was frowning at Shirou.
Seeing Shirou’s confused look, Nanoha filled him in. “It was a couple days after you got kidnapped. There was this surge of magical energy in the middle of the night. We went to investigate, and we just found you lying on the ground in the middle of a park. We thought you escaped and collapsed there.”
Shirou listened to Nanoha’s words and tried to recall anything about a part. Almost as if a dam had broken, a flood of images crashed into Shirou’s vision.
A blurred picture frame–
An empty apartment–
Beef stew–
Fate and Arf–
Pain–
A pair of swords–
The images blurred together along with various flashes of the city into a chaotic slideshow. Shirou felt his hold on reality slip for a moment before the wave subsided.
“-irou! Shirou!”
Lightning–
Promising… something….
Shirou gasped for breath and thrashed under the grip of Nanoha and the blonde boy as fire seemed to lance through his brain. The images all faded into one picture before disappearing.
“Not...-el Seed, some so-… -lock.”
Shirou could hear yelling all around him. There was the whine of alarms on the machines activating, drowning out their exact words. He felt a wave of something pass over him and he shuddered at the invasion.
“I’m okay, I’m okay.” Shirou wasn’t sure if the words were reassuring himself or those around him.
“You’re not okay!” Nanoha yelled at him. It was a familiar sound considering all the times the girl had yelled at him for doing something dangerous. “You’re hurt and you need to rest!”
Shirou shook his head. “No, I’m okay. I was just… not ready for the memories that came back.” He finished lamely.
Nanoha lost what little anger she had stored at the sheepish look on Shirou’s face. It was a familiar argument that she knew she was going to lose.
“Were the memories that bad?” The blonde boy spoke up. There was that strange look of guilt on his face again. Shirou wondered why that expression kept coming up.
Shirou blinked in surprise at the question but shook his head. “Not really, they were mostly confusing. My head just felt like it was on fire when I tried to recall anything. The memories were pretty normal.”
The only odd memory was the last one. The memories had all faded into one last image that seared itself into Shirou’s memory.
A wasteland covered in smog and twilight, with a pair of swords stuck into the ground.
“Then do you remember what happened to you?” Chrono asked him. Shirou shook off the imagery and tried to piece together the odd flashes he had gained. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to make any sense.
“I’m not really sure. I remember some sort of apartment and I’m pretty sure Fate and Arf were there.” Shirou left out the part where he cleaned the apartment and cooked dinner for them. They really didn’t need to know about that and judging by the way that the blue haired boy was glaring at him, they wouldn’t appreciate a speech on cooking. “I’m not sure if I remember it right, but I think I fought them off and escaped.”
That was the only explanation for the swords and the pain that he could think of. The odd glimpses of the city could be when he was running away, but it started to blur pretty badly right before the pain and the swords, so he couldn’t be one hundred percent sure.
“Then you remember where they have been hiding?” The boy pressed further.
Shirou shook his head. “Not a clue. I can barely remember anything after I left the building. It’s all just a big blur.”
Chrono looked pretty frustrated by the lack of information, but before he could question Shirou any further, Lindy laid a hand on his shoulder. “I think that’s enough. We should let Shirou-san here rest.”
Chrono looked annoyed for a moment before he schooled his expression. He nodded briskly to her before walking out. Lindy smiled at Shirou and wished him well before following after the boy. This left Shirou alone with Nanoha, and oddly enough the blonde boy. Shirou wondered if he still had some questions.
“So you found me in the park?” Shirou decided that finding out the full story behind his disappearance and reappearance was a bit more important.
Nanoha nodded, “There was this large surge of magical energy in the middle of the night. Yuuno-kun and I went out to investigate. But by the time we got there, the source of the magic was gone. We searched around a little and eventually we found you lying in the middle of the park.”
Shirou frowned at the explanation and wondered what was missing. What kind of magical energy was it? Why did it disappear? Finally, he also wondered why Nanoha had given the blonde boy a nod when she mentioned Yuuno.
“Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask.” Shirou looked around the room and shot Nanoha a confused look. “Where is Yuuno anyways?”
Shirou’s confusion only grew after asking that question. Nanoha started giggling and the boy next to him slumped down into his seat like someone had hit him.
“Did I ask something weird?” Shirou tilted his head.
“S-Shirou… this.” Nanoha managed to point at the blonde boy while giggling. “This isYuuno-kun.”
“Eh?” Shirou’s mind had stalled for a moment as he tried to process that. He pointed at the boy with a confused expression. “B-but… Yuuno is a ferret!”
“I took that form to save energy. This is my natural form.” Yuuno had a resigned look on his face. He was completely expecting this reaction, but it didn’t make it any less awkward.
“A-ah… that makes sense I guess. I mean, Arf was able to transform, so why can’t you do the same.”
Shirou tried to rationalize the fact that the ferret that he had spent so much time talking to was a human boy. He wondered briefly why this was so weird when he lived in a world where magic was real. Still, it was rather jarring.
“It isn’t exactly a common skill to learn.” Yuuno admitted with a weak smile. “But it does make it easier for me to recovery from magical depletion.”
Shirou nodded and wondered if it was possible to learn a skill like that through Magecraft. He doubted that he could pull it off, but it would be interesting to see if it was possible. There was still so much about Magic that he didn’t know. Maybe he could ask Kiritsugu to tell him about some different types of Magecraft the next time he saw him.
“Okay, that answers that, but what happened after you found me in the park and how did we get here?” Shirou looked around the room and marveled at all the technology in the room. Most Magi didn’t use technology all that much. Kiritsugu didn’t really have a problem with it, but he tended to out of the house more often than not to care about the latest gadgets. Shirou had kept himself up to date only to be able to fix broken appliances. “I mean, this doesn’t look like a hospital.”
Yuuno nodded, “This is the infirmary of the Arthra, a TSAB ship.”
“TSAB?” Shirou looked confused for a moment before he recalled that Yuuno mentioning he was from another world. “Wait, you mean we’re on a spaceship?”
Yuuno nodded and Shirou felt his world tilt for a moment. He accepted that magic was real, but the idea of space travel was mind-boggling. “It’s more of a dimensional ship, but it can be utilized for space travel.”
“The Time Space Adminstrative Bureau.” Nanoha explained as Shirou tried to accept the fact that he was on a spaceship. “They came to investigate the Jewel Seeds. They asked us to help out with the search for the Jewel Seeds and we got them to help you out in return.”
“Right. That makes sense I guess.” The Jewel Seeds were dangerous, so it made sense that people were looking for them. As he was mulling over what he had just learned, a sudden thought shot though Shirou’s mind. “Wait, you guys said I was kidnapped. How long have I been gone?”
Nanoha tilted her head and Shirou could see her counting the days. “Only a few days. You were gone for a full day before we found you, but we couldn’t wake you up.”
Nanoha’s face fell for a few moments before she shook it off. “We took you back to your house and…”
Shirou blinked as Nanoha trailed off. The girl’s head was tilted down so that her eyes were hidden by her hair. He turned to Yuuno for an explanation but the pale expression on the boy’s face only caused more questions to appear. Shirou began to fear the worst. Did something happen- they mentioned his house- did something happen to Kiritsugu? “What happened?”
“Shirou…” The boy leaned forward at Nanoha’s whisper. Morbid thoughts were coursing through his mind. He wasn’t prepared to be tackled for a second time. Nanoha was squeezing him pretty tightly as she wailed. “Your dad is scary!”
Had he been able to move, Shirou would have pressed his palm to his face. As it was, he faltered for a moment before turning to Yuuno with a look that said, ‘What the hell happened?”
“Your father wasn’t too happy that you got kidnapped.” Yuuno laughed nervously. “And well, he interrogated us for information.”
{Flashback}
It was such a sudden change. The man had seemed tired and sickly when Yuuno first saw him. He had this tired smile on his face when he saw Nanoha, like he expected something like this to happen. He took the unconscious Shirou pretty well too, though he had an odd expression when he saw the boy’s face contorted in pain.
The change happened when Nanoha explained about the Jewel Seeds and how Shirou wouldn’t wake up. The exhaustion seemed to fade away, only to be replaced with a cold emotionless expression that made Yuuno shiver when he recalled it. The man pressed them both for information with a cold professionalism that seemed to clash with the man that had greeted them at the door.
When they were finished, Kiristugu just sat there for a few moments, contemplating. Yuuno could tell that the man was calculating what had happened and what options he could follow. Whatever kind of job that this man had, Yuuno could tell that it was one that this man excelled at. Then the professionalism was gone. The man sighed deeply and ran a hand through his unkept hair. “I was afraid that something like this would happen.”
“Eh?” Nanoha looked up at Shirou’s father with worried eyes. The man’s expression from before had scared her a little, but seeing that sad smile on his face was a little reassuring.
Kiritsugu shook his head and looked towards Shirou’s room. He spoke softly. “Shirou told me a little of what was going on. I had hoped that he was exaggerating a bit, but it seems that he really has stepped into something dangerous.”
Yuuno felt a stab of guilt. He was the one that had caused the Jewel Seeds to be released, and he was the one that had allowed Nanoha and Shirou to help him. Nanoha looked down for a moment and wondered if she should have stopped Shirou from helping her when a hand ruffled her hair. She looked up to see Kiritsugu smiling down at her.
“Don’t worry. Shirou will bounce back.” Kiristugu had no trace of doubt in his voice. “That boy is too stubborn to let something like this keep him down.”
{End Flashback}
“Dad was like that?” Shirou was surprised. It was difficult to try to match the picture that they painted with the goofy father that he lived with. He couldn’t see it. Though he was surprised that Kiritsugu had doubted him. Was his story about the Jewel Seeds that hard to believe? “Wait, where is dad anyways?”
Nanoha giggled and pointed to a corner of the room. Shirou followed it and looked over to see his father sleeping in a chair. Shirou stared for a moment and wondered how his father had slept through that entire commotion.
“Geez, old man…” Shirou groaned at his father. “You need to take better care of yourself.”
Nanoha and Yuuno both rolled their eyes in unison.
---
The next few days passed by in a blur of activity for Shirou. He was thrust from meetings about the Jewel Seeds, to appointments with the ship doctors and some engineers to check on Shirou’s health, and helping out around the ship anywhere he could.
Kiritsugu was so busy that Shirou barely saw him at all during the day. Luckily, he was able to help Shirou with his Magecraft at night.
Even with all the activity, Shirou was starting to become stir crazy on the dimensional ship. No matter what argument that he used saying he was fine, Lindy would not let Shirou go hunt the remaining Jewel Seeds with Nanoha and Yuuno. She had cited his injuries, the incompleteness of the Sealing Device attached to his arm, and the power mismatch between him and any Mid-Childa mage.
The list was meant to get Shirou to stop trying to go out into the field, but Shirou saw it as a list to complete so he could help Nanoha and Yuuno. He had managed to get an all-clear from the ship doctor, and after a rather rash experiment had proven that the manacle on his arm kept the Jewel Seed in his body contained and isolated from any other Jewel Seeds, an all-clear from the Device manager as well. With those obstacles cleared, Shirou was prepared to clear the final restriction barring him from helping Nanoha and Yuuno.
“I really don’t see the point of this.” Chrono stood across from Shirou in the training room looking as collected as ever.
Shirou was trying to suppress the excess energy he had accumulated over the last few days and couldn’t help but fidget a bit. “Lindy-san says that I can’t match a Mid-Childan mage, and I want to prove her wrong.”
When Shirou had asked about how he could get Lindy to stop worrying about his ability to take care of himself in a fight, one of the soldiers had jokingly suggested that Shirou challenge the strongest mage on the ship and beat him. It turns out that Chrono was the strongest mage on the ship, and Shirou had opted for challenging him to a spar right away. The serious older boy had blown him off at every turn, but Shirou wouldn’t take no for an answer and continued to accost him. Eventually, Chrono had relented and accepted his challenge reluctantly.
Shirou was almost positive that the boy accepted not only to shut him up, but to get him back for constantly annoying him with his 'harassment'. Once word got out, most of the ship that had heard about the spar came to watch.
“It’s also a good way to see some of the native magic in action.” One of the more curious soldiers chimed in. Kiritsugu had been in charge of giving a summary of Earth Magic to the TSAB, but his condition prevented him from giving a demonstration. Yuuno had been able to fill in some blanks from his own observations of Shirou, but they still wanted a practical demonstration. “Now less talking and more fighting!”
At that signal, Chrono raised his staff and Shirou held his hands out to grasp empty air.
“Ready?” Yuuno had been appointed the match referee. They wanted a neutral party, and the blonde boy had seemed the best choice.
The processes for Shirou's Projections had changed. The first time he had attempted to Project swords again, he had failed pretty badly. The Projection had been empty and useless. It was nothing like the swords he had been dreaming about, nothing like the swords he remembered. The process for recreating those swords was slightly different than he was used to. With some help from Kiritsugu he had slowly worked out the correct method.
The seven steps were:
Judge the concept of creation, hypothesize the basic structure, duplicate the composition material, imitate the skill of its making, sympathize with the experience of its growth, reproduce the accumulated years, and excel every manufacturing process.
Shirou followed every step and pulled the hammer back in his head.
“Go!”
The twin blades appeared in Shirou’s hands and he was gone the next moment. The magus apprentice shot forward underneath Chrono’s guard and swung up with both blades.
“Flash Move.”
Only to hit empty air as the mage disappeared in a blur of movement.
The odd thing about Shirou’s Projections was that they were more than just swords. Shirou’s sword Projections seemed to have a sentience to them. Shirou felt the blades pull him, twisting his body around to block the staff strike coming at him from behind. Shirou’s counter strike cut through the air only to be caught by an armored gauntlet.
The two boys stayed there for a moment locked in a battle of strength before Chrono made a move.
The glimmer of purple in the corner of his eye was all the warning Shirou got. The sword that was stuck in Chrono’s grip was abandoned and Shirou broke away for room to dodge. Chrono tossed the abandoned sword away and finished his spell. An array of small purple energy orbs were fired at the retreating swordsman.
Shirou tracked every blast as they came towards him, trying to deflect them with his weapon. The loss of his second sword meant that there were too many shots to handle. Half of the array were dodged or deflected, but the other half slammed into him and sent him careening into one of the training room walls. The impact kicked up a cloud of dust.
Chrono watched the smoke cloud wearily. That should have been enough to take out a non-shielded civilian, but from what the ferret had reported, Emiya Shirou had a ridiculously high tolerance for pain.
A silver bullet shot out of the cloud and forced Chrono to raise a shield. A red blur followed the projectile and Shirou lunged at his opponent with another pair of swords in his hands. Shirou had aimed the sword high at Chrono’s head to force him to block high. He dashed under the shield and stabbed.
Chrono’s Barrier Jacket prevented him from being skewered by Shirou, but it wasn’t able to negate the force of the blow. He regained his balance after being stabbed, skidding backwards and carefully analyzing what had just happened.
A quick glance of the training room showed that the blade he had caught and tossed away, along with the sword that had shattered against his shield and the two weapons currently in Shirou’s hands.
“Gradation Air.” Chrono recalled the debriefings Kiritsugu gave on earth magic. It was shaping magic into a physical form. It should be a crude and inefficient method that should only create a fragile model of an object. Shirou seemed to be an exception to that rule.
But where had the speed and power come from?
The ferret had given them a brief summary of the earthling’s abilities. He was much stronger than a normal nine year old should be, but he had not been anywhere near the super human speed he had just displayed.
He made a mental note to have the ship physician check the boy out. The Jewel Seed may have made changes to the boy’s body that they had assumed to be normal for an earth mage.
While Chrono was analyzing the battle so far, Shirou was beating himself up for messing up such a good opportunity. He had been saving that sword launching trick as an ace in the hole, and now he wasted his chance. He should have pressed his advantage while he still had Chrono off balance. Still, he had been able to keep up with Chrono. Shirou had been unsure of how he had done so, but he had kept up with the mage’s superior speed and strength thanks to the swords in his hands. They were pulling him through this fight… literally.
Shirou wasn’t going to bet that he could win if the fight if it went due to stamina. The boy’s body was already screaming in pain from the short battle, and the Magic Circuit he could use felt like it was about to break. If he was going to make his move, it was going to have to be now.
Another pair of swords were Projected above Shirou’s head, the two swords in his hands were thrown at Chrono’s head. Shirou caught the newly Projected weapons and shot after his thrown weapons.
“Flash Move.”
Instead of blocking the weapons like Shirou wanted, Chrono had disappeared in a blur of movement once more. But Shirou didn’t miss a beat. He was able to roughly track the blur of motion and launched himself at Chrono’s new location. The spell on the older boy’s lips died as he was forced on the defensive. A flurry of slashes and stabs were expertly blocked by the mage’s staff and gauntlets. No matter how fast Shirou swung, he could not land a solid hit.
Unfortunately for Shirou, Chrono was a very efficient mage, and while defending himself from the whirlwind of swords he simultaneously called up a barrier spell.
The wall of purple magic slammed down between the two fighters and halted Shirou’s assault.
“Bind.” Chrono didn’t give Shirou a moment to escape and quickly fired off a weak binding spell. The magic wrapped itself around Shirou’s wrists and stopped him in his tracks. A moment later he was wrapped in magical chains, immobilizing him completely.
“That should do it.” Chrono double-checked the binding spells before turning towards the spectator room. “The match is over.”
“Not yet!” Chrono turned at Shriou’s stubborn outburst.
“You’ve been incapacitated. Unless you can break those binds, then this match is over.” Chrono’s reply was clear and professional, but there was a hint of annoyance underneath it.
Shriou tried to shrug, but the binding spells made it look like he just shifted his entire body. “I don’t need to break them to keep fighting.”
Chrono’s arm snapped up just in time to intercept the sword aimed at his chest. The blade carved a deep scar in the gauntlet he was wearing. A second and third sword had already formed over Shirou’s head and launched themselves at Chrono, but both shattered against the shield he raised.
The strain at Projecting like this was starting to get to Shirou. His mind felt like it was filled with cotton and his body like it had gotten shoved into a microwave. Projection was not a cost-efficient Magecraft, and Projecting weapons like he did was much harder than just Projecting a simple object. Adding the strain of the high-speed movement he had been using, and Shirou was quite frankly exhausted. Yet, he couldn’t give up. There was too much at stake. With Chrono distracted by the swords thrown at him, the bonds around Shirou's wrists faded. That just left the chains around his body.
“Gu…ahhh!”
Fire erupted through his body, and both of his arms felt like they were dipped into molten lava. But Shirou pushed through it. Pain had always been a constant for Shirou when using Magecraft. A final pair of swords were forged into Shirou’s hands and sliced through the chains around him.
Shirou’s mind was numb. He had surpassed pain and worry. The entire room had fallen away from Shirou’s mind and all he could see was Chrono as he rushed him.
“Blaze Cannon.”
Shirou’s sight of the other mage was overtaken by a purple light and Shirou felt the magical flames sear over his body. The bombardment spell hurled his body across the room until he was stopped by the wall.
Yuuno winced at the impact and shook his head at the dazed Shirou slumped against the wall. “That’s match point.”
---
“Not exactly a one-sided match.”
Lindy’s eye twitched at the rather innocent-sounding phrase from Kiritsugu. Nanoha had ran into the room to check on Shirou, leaving her alone with Kiritsugu in the private observation room.
“No, it wasn’t.” Chrono had maintained control of the match, but she had not expected Shirou to even touch her son, let alone push him, if only for a few moments. But the information she had been using to gauge his strength was outdated, seriously outdated. “You knew about his new abilities?”
Kiritsugu nodded. “I did. Shirou isn’t exactly a master magus. He needed my help perfecting this new ability.”
“And you didn’t think that we might need to know about these new abilities.” She hadn’t meant it to sound like an accusation, but it still came out like one. However, Kiritsugu just shrugged the outburst off.
“The engineer assured me that Shirou’s magic would be unaffected by the Jewel Seed and vice versa, so I didn’t think it would be a problem.” That and he was still trying to figure out how Shirou was doing any of it. He had seen some odd things in his rather broad experience, but nothing that came close to Shirou’s spontaneous ability to Project weapons. The speed and strength were a surprise. They hadn’t been able to test that out in their quarters, but Shirou had mentioned that he felt odd holding them. Kiritsugu had several theories about the ability, but none of them made sense. He was half tempted to blame the entire ability on the Jewel Seed embedded in Shirou’s body. “The sword launching was a nice touch. We discussed the possibility, but I didn’t think he could actually do it.”
Lindy wanted to yell at the man. She really did. However, she let the moment pass and watched Shirou struggle to his feet with Yuuno helping him up. The little magus grinned at her son, and she watched the two of them exchange words. Chrono’s face briefly twisted to annoyance as he retorted to whatever Shirou had said. Nanoha turned to scold him, and she could see Yuuno sigh at his friends' antics. She could understand the bond between Nanoha and Shirou. They were childhood friends, but she was surprised to see Yuuno included into the group so easily. Hadn’t they just met a few weeks ago?
“He’s not going to take no for an answer, is he?” It was more of a rhetorical question, but Kiritsugu answered it anyways.
“No, he’s not. If someone needs help, he’ll go through hell and back to help them out. It’s just who he is.” The last part was said almost bitterly. There wasn’t a moment that went by that Kiritsugu didn’t regret sending the boy down the path he did.
“Then I guess I can’t forbid him from helping them, can I?” Lindy sighed and walked out of the observation room to give Shirou her permission. Kiritsugu gave one last long look at one of the swords still in the arena before following her.
---
AN: We get reunited with Nanoha and Co. The TSAB is introduced and we get a small glimpse of what Shirou can do against a trained Mid Childa Mage.
Still busy from Christmas so very little comments from me.
As always, Tell me what you think.
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Originally Posted by Heroslayer
