Chapter Ten: Vacation by Moonlight (Part Three)

Shirou opened and clenched his fingers before finally relaxing them in slightly loose and open fists aimed outwards. His body was already slightly lowered and his legs spread apart for the initial movement. It felt slightly uncomfortable to be holding the position but his body was already used to martial stances so it wasn't difficult to adjust.

"Hmm…not quite right, your stance is too ridged, it may look uncomfortable but things like the horse stance are the core. Baiquan's power come from the earth, if your stance can't channel that power then forget about not needing a 'second strike'. Remember that your elbows will be your main weapons as well. They're already tough but if you can't use them properly…"

Shirou nodded along to what his new gained tutor was telling him, even using mental skills to retain the words exactly and perform the necessary adjustments. It may be unfair in a way but his time in Misaki was pretty limited and the chance to pick up professional instruction that wasn't from Gaisuke's crazy dad couldn't be passed up.

He took a breath before shifting his entire body forwards with his fist straight out before pulling it back to strike the air with his elbow as his foot stamped on the ground. Completing the movement, Shirou kept his body in that stance as his head turned to look at his 'sensei' for commentary.

"Haa….it looks like it but an elbow-strike won't have the needed strength if your steps aren't correct. You need to practice your shinkyaku step more along with the horse stance. If you keep practice those core movements then you'll definitely get something worth remembering."

Shirou thought those words over as he held the horse stance, familiarizing his body with the position.

He could retain everything that he learnt here using his mental skills, but unless he grasped the nature of baiquan then all would be left was uncertain knowledge. He had seen what Sougen-san could do with a single polished movement; even a reinforced body would suffer major damage from a strike that did that level of internal damage.

Now he could understand how a base-line human could have a life with one step in the moonlit world even without some type of divine talent. Through ample self-study, technique can be refined. A genius can't construct a concept that transcends time and helps those without talent. If those who shine through their talent are the flowers of the tree then those who shine through their heritage become the trunk and nurture the tree.

Simply put having someone teach you is the faster way to improve. And since Shirou Emiya was someone who prioritized practicality over appearances, this chance could not be passed up no matter what.

He took a breath as he maintained the stance when his senses told him that a familiar person was approaching.

"Hey Shiki."

Shirou hide a smirk as the person stilled before giving a small chuckle.

"Man how do you do that? Am I tripping one of those…field things?"

He came out of his stance and turned to face the slightly older Tohno, whose blue eyes glanced to the waving Sougen enjoying a cup of tea before looking back at him.

"Sorry Shiki, the secrets of a magus must be hidden from the eyes of commoners."

Shirou easily recited one of Sella's more questionably worded phrases and gave a small smile at that returning scoff, it was unusual but he and Shiki has clicked rather quickly. That was probably because he reminded Shirou a bit of Gaisuke' boisterous nature.

"Bah keep your dusty secrets then, I just came to pick up some supplies from Jinan-san. Kohaku's experiments won't do themselves…at least not yet."

Shirou took a moment to remember Kohaku's more unusual interests since he had never seen it himself ,only heard it referenced. He hadn't spent much time with the twin maids though the two's interest in things like blades, cooking and video games did give them something to talk about. The Tohno estate was rather low tech and because it was a result of tradition, it was the maids who allowed to be an exception. So occasionally he would spend some time with them and while Shirou wasn't an expert in gaming, he did rather well since Ilya would often drag him into playing with her when Liz wasn't available.

"Oh yeah your dad said to call him when you're done. He needs you to pick up some ancient magi secrets that he left here."

Shirou had to hold back a sigh, his father had been tied up with Makihisa-san since they first came to stay at the estate so Shirou had been carried to places like Sougen and Daidara-san's by the Tohno's chauffeur. It wasn't a problem since he liked to go here to practice and listen to Daidara's stories of life back in Inaba and some of the special weapons that he crafted there. Unlike most smiths in japan, his knowledge of crafting encompassed styles from outside the country.

"Here's the thing about forging a blade. Relentless hammering will only produce something hard yet brittle. It may seem strong but a weapon like that will shatter easily if hit in the right…or rather wrong place. Flexibility is important, weapons are for more than just bashing into things; a katana will snap like a twig if you don't take advantage of the flexibility but even broadswords require finesse when wielding. So at times you have to handle your work delicately or the product won't be flexible at all. It's the same intersecting point that smiths have reached along across the world."

Hearing the craftsman's knowledge of life in general, helped Shirou understand the effort that the man put into his work and would be putting into his own piece. Shirou didn't have many presents, especially not of this magnitude but he would definitely respect what went into asked Sougen-san for the phone as Shiki collect the supplies and put it in the car that brought him there.

"Ah Shirou, Daidara called and needs to know when we can apply the enchantment. I have a place herewith some of the books about them but it's sealed with a bounded field. You've gone over how to access those with Leysritt right?"

Taking down a bounded field not of one's own creation was difficult if you couldn't access or damage any of the focus points and required large amounts of careful manipulation but simply accessing it would be…

"Yes I could do that….but I wouldn't know how to break it down."

He really should learn though, since it would require mainly prana manipulation and his ether element would fare well with it.

"That's fine the field is already keyed into our family's prana so just feed it to disable the lock. Just be careful, Iri stored some stuff from her family there and I kept some….old tools there as well."

Namely guns, explosives and other such knick-knacks.

Kiritsugu gave some more details on where the storage area was, how to deactivate some other mundane traps that were laid inside and what the book actually looked like. Shirou noted the information and said goodbye before wondering why or rather when was his father able to key a bounded field to his prana in an area that he had not been to in years. Before Shirou Emiya ever started practicing the art of magecraft.

Shirou went soon went off with Shiki to what was essentially the warehouse district of Misaki. Shirou stayed silent but Shiki was fine with shooting the breeze and soon talked about how proud he was of some position that Ahika reached at her school and how she was growing up and didn't need her big brother anymore. He said a bit sarcastically but Shirou already knew that Shiki was a 'bit' of a softy for her. 'Ni' was much the same even though he was more passive about it than his older as he paid the needed amount of attention to Shiki's siscon behavior, part of his mind thought about what he had gathered from his father's words. Were his parents already aware of his magecraft potential? Did they neglect to inform him for the same reason that Ilya was left untaught? Yet this piece of information implied that they had assumed that he would be taught enough to access bounded something change? Was it in preparation of trouble that never came?

When they were dropped off Shirou was able to locate his father's storage unit with ease even without the faint scent that it gave off. It was very low powered, likely feeding of the ambient mana and even lacked any mental warding common with that type of magecraft that would warn away normal intruders and alert not so normal ones. But with a grasp he could easily see its presence from where they parked. As he stood at the Bounded Field's boundaries and began accessing it, Shiki watched with curiosity at first, then growing disappointment as no fancy beams or explosions happened when he was informed that the field was disappointment promptly disappeared once they went inside.

With an inordinate amount of glee,Shiki went to play with the arsenal of military equipment laid out on the walls. Shirou quietly disabled a set of fragmentation bombs that laid under the container, before heading to the section of the room that wasn't a survivalist wet dream. Some of the area was covered with mystic implements, containers and ingredients, even an azoth sword in the shape of a surgical knife that Shirou assumed was an Einzbern working. Jubstacheit

Shirou assumed that the book detailing the basic enchantment would be on the only shelf in the room and started looking through it, keeping an eye of Shiki who was holding the thankfully unloaded weapons. There were several large books that look handwritten and one that his prana sense told him was enchanted in some way which he ignored. Finally he found a book that matched the description he was given. He leafed through it and while the words were in german, Sella had taught him the language even before he learnt about magecraft, when he just wanted to know more about where all but one of his family came from. It was mainly a compendium of various useful and well known spells though it also covered the history of the initial creators of the workings.

Shirou left with the book after memorizing the relevant information on Azoth swords to improve his own knowledge of magecraft. Dissuading Shiki from taking any of his father's tools took a bit of doing and ended with Shirou pushing the slumping Tohno out.

"Man I wish my dad had a safehouse filled with bombs and guns but noooo he would say that I have to use traditional weapons."

Shirou dealt with Shiki's whining about what weapons he was allowed to use through the original way of dealing with problems. Ignoring them and hoping that they went away. The results were rather positive in Shirou's opinion though Shiki might be less pleased if he knew.

Shirou soon completed his task and gave his father the book before spending some time practicing Sougen's teachings. And while his body was practicing his mind was considering the information on the Azoth sword that the book contained. Some of it wasn't particularly important in a practical way, like who the creator of the enchantment was but Daidara's words made him have a new consideration for creators and what they put into their work. Like that azoth 'knife' that he saw earlier, who was made by someone that was technically part of his family even if he had never meet them. centuries spent in wasted effort

Thinking about such things in earnest, it was not strange that Shirou feel asleep that night dreaming of swords…and of one blade in particular.

Complete White. A pure span of alien emptiness fills his eyes and he could not find a reason to care. Not of location or time or self, no axis to determine such things exists.

As a result, he could not say how long he stood there if asked. Or why. Until a crack in the white appeared between one moment and the next.

His mind could not grasp it, focus was impossible in a world that seemed to take everything he was and stretch it into meaninglessness.

But there was meaning even if one had to make themselves.

There was a shadow, a man. A man with a crack…or was it a twist in everything he was. He is red, in a way that would never fade. In a way that is both fitting and sad.

Shirou did not speak, it was not his place or desire to. But when an arm reached out, he recoiled from that calloused hand so worn and yet so desperately empty. It was wrong, he didn't know why but what is meant was counter to everything he-

And before he can escape, a grip of steel is laid on his head, sealing his sight. Light has vanished, even bodily sensation can no longer be recognized. He sees only darkness and then as if to fill that void, he feels something pulled from his mind, from his self and the darkness is replaced with something more.

A man, completely different from that aged shadow is now the only thing he could see. His stance in that simple white coat was relaxed and calm, fitting the peaceful look in his brown eyes. This man is not a warrior…no that is an incorrect Truth.

Where this man fights is not in a place of smoke and blood but somewhere different, yet he is certainly one that fights with stubborn will against the World.

And so they were different.

And so they were the same.

The man smiles at the silent acknowledgement in golden eyes and raises a hand suited to books and papers. A hand that holds a thin cane-like sword that has never touched blood.

'To let me reach beyond limits even in times where power had degraded was its purpose. By fulfilling that in life so many were helped and so much was accomplished. I find it fitting as the symbol of my legacy….and wouldn't to be nice to see if it can still help even now.

What do you think little blacksmith?'

He can't really find anything in a dazed mind to say, as the scholar with long black hair offers him the blade. Hands that seem too small to hold it reach out at the gift as he stays silent. What could he say but…

'Thank You.'

So he touches the hilt of the [Or-g-n-l]. Only for all to be consumed by a steel wind. Yet the man still smiles even as he was reduced to…no revealed as just a fragile reflection in a gust of shards.

He holds the offered tool firmly and without fear, even as the searing wind now comes for him. He is lost and cannot see the way ahead but he would not look away. That was all that mattered through his cracked perception.

And without hesitation or knowledge or reason, he swung the sword even as the wind forms into a shadow that was everything he was and was not.

All became a stark moment of emptiness. Complete White.

White that twisted into heat. Burning heat.

Burning him.

And he woke.

And the burning remained. Searing his mind and body.

He started from the guest bed given to him, before bending back in pain as conflicting feelings of fire from within and the cold outside air reached his senses. His circuits were burning, all twenty seven flaring in synchronicity and holding desperate amounts of power.

Gritting his teeth, he forced out the excess prana out of his hand and into the air. He was burning, his hand was melting and convulsing but he had to continue or risk a devastating rebound. He clamped down on his circuits, weakening the burning heat as they deactivated one by one.

Stumbling out of bed and onto the ground, Shirou opened a window and greedily gulped in the cold air. Pain from his hand still shot through his body and it felt strangely off center but Shirou didn't care. One's magic circuit's misfiring could end a magi's life…painfully. Especially for someone like him whose circuits were already low in quality.

He steadily tried to regulate his breathing and get his body back to normal, not daring to speak. His mind could bear the pain but if his body's capabilities worsened then it would be a problem.

It was only after his heart rate steadied that he realized the full extent of his body's spasm. It was when his ears finally picked out the soft but unnatural screeching emanating from his clenching fist. He stretched out his hand and observed it confusedly as the moonlit reflect off of his palm and the fibrous silver running through it in a vein like pattern, stained with blood from where it cut against his skin.

No…not silver, Steel. Steel that had been refined and tempered inside his body. But for what purpose?

Sweat beading on his brow and rare uncertainty filling his mind, Shirou stayed awake until the moonlight faded and the sun rose thinking about that question.

A/N: Whoa that chapter got kinda trippy in the last half huh? But it's basically Shirou in a dream, then half awake and in severe pain so some coherency was sacrificed. For those of you wondering about who that man Shirou saw was...well I think this makes me the first person to throw a Prototype: Fragments servant in a fic. Even if it was just as a reflection in a blade.

That last part, which is start of Shirou's offensive spells, was inspired by two things; Shirou's body of blades from HF and that dream sequence in UBW where his arm turns into a mess of swords. Now it's probably clear that Shirou is pretty strange in this fic and not just in a matter of what element or elements he might have. But hopefully I still managed to show some of his Shirouness despite the changes. If not give some advice on how to get better.

Oh yeah and Shiki or rather SHIKI is here! Yep I thought why keep the prisma happiness to just fate when I can make everyone's lives better. As for an explanation...let's just say that Kiritsugu and Iri had a transaction with Makihisa back when they were first coming to Japan and it turned out pretty well for both families (alchemy from a house that dates back the age of gods can be pretty useful when it's not wasted on a pointless war). The pre-canon tohno events are pretty much gone, except for the Nanaya because if Shirou's original family couldn't stay alive in prisma, there's no reason Shiki's should. The 'Ni' thing is me trying to make a rather basic Japanese linguistic pun. Protag Shiki is the second (ni) Shiki of the Tohnos and a brother(nii), yeah I know it's lame but it's the best i could do.

Next chapter should be the end of this little trip which kinda got a bit away from me. I know that I'm pretty slow paced and I'm considering merging some of the chapters together to make them a more satisfying read. I've already made the prologue a bit more substantial with some hepl from Fate Zero. But any Opinions or Advice?

As for this weeks UBW episode...I have nothing to say except this. In summer, Prisma will return and Gil better get ready for all the payback.