Chapter Three: Magecraft

William POV

Last night was terrifying I could barely sleep after that nightmare even with the comfort given to me by my brother. When morning arrived, I was quick to go use the restroom and wash my face in cold water when I looked at my reflection in the mirror, I had to suppress the grimace seeing the bags under my eyes but then I thought about the similar looking bags under Kiritsugu's eyes and decided that it wasn't too much of a bad thing after all he was my hero.

Exiting the bathroom, I could faintly smell the scent of something delicious in the air I dragged myself down to where the smell was coming from. Once I was close to the source my eyes landed on Shirou cooking something in a pan.

"Shirou?" I questioned causing the other boy to turn around with surprise in his eyes which then turned into one of concern "Oh William your awake did you managed to sleep well," he asked I shook my head "barely last night was..." I trailed off at the end with a faraway look.

Shirou understood my subtle message and turned his attention back to the pan "so when did you learn how to cook?" I asked Shirou points at a nearby book "I was searching around the kitchen trying to see if there was cookbook that I could learn from so that we didn't have to wake up to the smell of smoke from the old man's cooking," he explained.

Seeing the book, I grabbed it carefully looking at each page and once again I was able to recall most of the pages that I had just read word for word I put the book down perhaps I should ask Kiritsugu if he knew why I was able to do what I did.

"Breakfast is served William," Shirou announced placing a plate in front of me the food looked incredibly fluffy and had a yellow appearance "What is this, Shirou?" I asked wondering what kind of food this was "It's omurice a combination of eggs and rice try it," Shirou said with a look of anticipation.

Picking up the fork I gently sliced it open watching as the egg was unsealed and mixed with the red sauce taking a scoop with my spoon this time, I gently blew on it and then took a bite time seem to stop this....this was delicious! I thought not noticing how my lifeless black eyes gained a tint of light.

"So how was it?" Shirou questioned I looked at him and gave a nod of approval "It..it was good you should make this for me more often." I said with a hidden amount of joy that I didn't possibly know I had.

My response seemed to have made Shirou satisfied as he went back to cook the sounds of footsteps entered my ears "Morning Shirou...William," Kiritsugu announced appearing with a set of blue robes and with a face that was even worse than mine seems like he didn't get enough sleep either "sorry," I muttered.

Kiritsugu turned to my direction and gave a gentle smile "don't be sorry about last night what happened was out of your control everyone can have nightmares even me..." he said with a haunted look at the end.

For the next few minutes, we all sat and ate talking about random things often times there were awkward silences until Shirou would pop in with something to talk about like how Kiritsugu managed to set a pot of boiling water on fire much to said man's embarrassment.

Afterwards Kiritsugu took us to the dojo room that the house had I didn't know why the house had a dojo room in the first place, but I didn't question it.

"Alright now in order to use magecraft you need to be able to have magic circuits William, I already know you have magic circuits so give me a quick second to check on Shirou." Kiritsugu explained before placing his palm on Shirou's back.

The next moment Kiritsugu's hand glowed a green pattern Shirou released a small grunt until he stopped "surprisingly you have an average amount of 27 circuits Shirou which would make you a first-generation mage," Kiritsugu said.

He then moved over to me, and I grunted feeling something flow through me this must be his magic "in-incredible you have 40 circuits all of which are producing mana at an incredibly fast rate," Kiritsugu exclaimed in shock.

"That's a good thing, right?" I questioned unsurely "No it's both a good thing and bad thing the good thing about it is that you'll have more access to more mana usage bad news is that some magus might want to experiment on you as only noble magus have such magic circuits of the degree you have." Kiritsugu explained with a grave tone.

"I'll talk to you later about this but for now it's time for you three to know how to properly use your magic circuits," Kiritsugu said changing the subject "You see magi can't use their magic at will you have to first switch on your magic circuits in order to use the mana within yourself.

In simple terms really just think of it like a car and its engine if the engine isn't on the car won't move but if the engine is on the car will be able to move," he explained as Shirou, and I paid attention with great interest.

"So, magi have to self-hypnotize themselves with an imaginal trigger for me it's that of a bullet being shot out of a gun. Now I want you guys to try and imagine a trigger depending on how strong the trigger is the more chances you have unlocking all of your circuits at once," Kiritsugu instructed.

Shirou closed his eyes in concentration at first nothing happened until the smell of ozone hit our nose and soon enough an all too familiar green color now spread itself all over Shirou's body who lightly panted "that burned slightly but it wasn't too bad," Shirou remarked now all that was left to do it as well.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and slowly I began to imagine different triggers that could the first couple of one's that I tried barely worked but then I recalled my nightmare and was a bit hesitant to do what I was about to do but surely it would be worth it I thought with determination.

Concentrating I imagined myself back in that hell and slowly I let the flames consume me and all at once I felt a cool electrical sensation run down my spine, I exhaled the breath that I had been holding in sweating a bit slightly.

"Good now that both of you have figured out how to turn on your magic circuits it's time to move on to the next lesson projection, structural analysis, alteration, and reinforcement these are the four basics spells I'll be teaching you it's up to you two to improve your progress," Kiritsugu said with a firm tone.

Kiritsugu then went on to explain how each spell was done projection was the art of creating something from your mind using visualization and analysis but because of Gaia the will of the planet apparently.

Any projection a person made was extremely hollow and weak much to my disappointment Shirou seems taken to the skill, but I thought it was worthless, so I didn't bother focusing on the skill to much.

Now structural analysis, reinforcement, and alteration were useful skills to have and one's that had potential to evolve even further. Reinforcement was the art of increasing one's natural strength by its max amount, structural analysis was the art of scanning an object or thing in order to gain information of said object or thing, and finally alteration was the art of modifying an object and its properties to however the user wishes.

Alteration was the skill I mainly focused on because if I was ever in a bad situation then I could just alter a piece of metal into a spear or sword how cool would that be I thought with slight excitement just thinking about all the possibilities.

-end of chapter three moving on to the omake-

"Alright are you ready Shirou?" I questioned getting into boxing like stance Shirou nods his head "yeah just give me a quick second William...Trace on!" Shirou exclaimed as a pair of twin blades appeared in his hands.

I raised a brow "trace on?" I asked, "tracing is the term I use when I create my swords because I am essentially copying a blade or weapon down to its last detail," Shirou explained "naruhodo," I said with a nod before getting an idea.

I slammed my fists together activating reinforcement "Fists on!" I chanted making Shirou sweatdrop "you know just because-" I cut him off with a deadpan voice "Fists on," I insisted firmly making Shirou sigh "okay you know what sure whatever do what you want," he said with a tone that basically said he was done with all of this shit.

-end of the omake hope you all enjoyed that-

Moving onto the author's note I'd like to announce that tomorrow I'll be doing something special. You see I will release 2 plus chapters.