Chapter 22 : Chat With Rin

[ Next day ]

'There isn't much time. I need to find a suitable teacher in the coming competition. All the things I wanted to achieve have been mostly completed. But there are somethings like Fuinjutsu which has extremely slow progress.' - Shirou.

Shirou was currently training his swordsmanship skills. Unlike other students, Shirou who had always used his Sword Resonance ability on any sword-related weapon he saw, can learn its history, battles, challenges, and skills used by all its wielders. Not only that Shirou's sword affinity also allows him to replicate all the previous wielder's sword skills.

'I need to make the previous wielders skills my own. The only way to do that is to practice them many times until they are ingrained into my body. Sakumo's sword style is currently the strongest one I have, so I should focus more on them. I can't copy it exactly, I will have to make changes, otherwise people will think I stole the Hatake clan secrets. But the issue is that there are many swords and sword skills. I will eventually record many more swords in the future. I will have unlimited blades at my disposal. So what should my future combat style be like? Learning the styles of each and every blade is not possible. If I could use the Multiple Shadow Clones Jutsu to create thousands of clones for sword training then learning each and every sword style is practical. But despite my great increase in Chakra from activating my circuits, it is nowhere near the level in which thousands of clones are possible.' - Shirou.

'If it was my past life where I could only dream of having Shirou's magic, then I would propose creating a single sword style that can be used for any and all swords. But now this is reality, so how would I even begin to create such a style. If only I was a super genius.' - Shirou.

Shirou thought about all the anime, manga, novels, and movies of his past life. He wanted to find an inspiration that could help solve this problem. The only combat style that was compatible with Shirou belongs to Counter Guardian Shirou Emiya. But there are still problems.

'Unless I can travel to the Nasuverse, I have no way of learning Counter Guardian Shirou Emiya's skills. Even if I could meet him somehow and learn his combat style by fighting him, I wouldn't. Ignoring the fact that I would relive his tragic life through resonance, his suicidal fighting style is not something I want to learn. His combat style is cool but risking my life by creating fake openings during combat to bait opponents is not something I ever want to do. For me who values my life very much learning Archer's style is a Big No No... Well right now I guess I will focus on a single type of weapon and style. As for the future, I will deal with it in the future.' - Shirou.

Shirou continued swinging his training sword. It was a wooden katana similar to KiKen. Shirou even included the Amplification Seal on it but the wood material resistance to the power of the Seal was so low that there was only a minor increase in power. But why would Shirou include such a Seal on a training weapon? Because other than training it is also used for dealing with bullies without cutting them. Don't look down on it. With skill and the seal activated, it can hurt basic bullies and with the reinforcement spell as well even higher-grade bullies are no problem.

Shirou knew that this training weapon which is also designed to inspire terror into bullies needed a special name. After lots of contemplation, he named it "Tora-No-Tsurugi".

Shirou really liked the character Taiga Fujimura.

"Huh, Muramasa-kun! I didn't expect to meet you here." - Rin.

Shirou was also surprised to see Rin.

"Nohara-san! I was surprised to see you here too. Are you here for training?" - Shirou.

"Yeah, after all, there is not much time left before the competition. I need to improve my skills if I want to get noticed." - Rin.

"I know... Who do you expect to be your teacher?" - Shirou.

"Eh?... I... I really admire Tsunade-sama. So I hope she will become my teacher." - Rin.

Shirou recalled the books he borrowed from the academy library. There were books written by Tsunade. A few weeks ago he returned all the books back. There were lots of advanced chakra control exercises, Jutsu theories, and knowledge in them.

"Actually, in the academy library, I borrowed a few books written by Tsunade. I returned them after reading all of them. They had a lot of advanced chakra control exercises and knowledge indispensable to a Medical Ninja. You can go and check them. See if the information can help you. It's not too late." - Shirou.

"Really! That's great. Thanks a lot, Shirou-kun." - Rin.

"It's no big deal." - Shirou.

"What about you? Which teacher do you want to get noticed by?" - Rin.

"Tsunade-sama of course." - Shirou.

Rin was surprised.

"I didn't expect that. Do you want to be a medical ninja too Shirou-kun? Most boys in class are excited about getting noticed by ninjas like Hokage-sama, Jiraiya-sama, and Orochimaru-sama. In fact, it is the same for most of the girls as well." - Rin.

"I told you about my body condition right. Weak body and low chakra. But high spiritual energy. Therefore my biggest advantage is my Chakra control. I have trained my Chakra control every chance I get. Even though I have a weak body and low Chakra, I have trained hard physically and practiced Chakra refining seriously. I hope to get guidance from Tsunade-sama to see if I can eventually develop a solution for my problems. Others like Jiraiya-sama and Hokage-sama are not suitable for me." - Shirou.

"... You guys are really amazing... compared with me, I haven't put much effort at all... even Obito works hard and despite Kakashi's amazing talent he continues to push himself. Even Guy is giving it his all every day." - Rin.

Rin became a bit sad recalling everything.

"... I really envy you all..." - Rin.

'What the heck am I supposed to say in this situation? This is like an event in a manga.' - Shirou.

Looking at Rin, Shirou knew the issue. All of her friends seemed to have no doubts in life. Everyone had clear goals of what they wanted to do. Obito despite his average performance never stopped trying to improve. Kakashi was always perfect in her eyes. Guy turned his failures into his strength. Shirou seemed to have everything planned out. Nothing seemed to faze him. Only Rin saw herself as an ordinary person among them.

"Rin, to you we might seem like some kind of untouchable existences but the truth is we all have our flaws. It's just that we hide it better or we act like it has no effect on us. I had a time when I felt that I didn't fit in with the world. It was only later I made the choice to live. So you don't need to feel inferior at all. Once you make the choice and stick to it, you will realize that your feelings of inferiority are just an illusion." - Shirou.

Rin looked at Shirou in surprise. She didn't expect everyone to have flaws.

"But... the choice feels so hard to make... even harder to stick to it." - Rin.

Shirou knew exactly how hard it was. Due to the complexity of his past life, he knew exactly how scary some decisions were to make.

"Hm... Sorry Rin, can't help with this one. I could say some inspiring stuff to make you know it isn't difficult but I would be lying as I know how difficult it can seem to be... But I will say this, even if you don't make the choice, it's ok. No one is forcing you. You are free. If you find it troublesome don't do it. At the end of the day it's just a choice." - Shirou.

Rin looked at Shirou with complete surprise. Then she smiled.

"You are not normal... are you Shirou." - Rin.

"Remember what I said, no one is..." - Shirou.

"... without flaws." - Shirou/Rin.

Rin seemed to have a heavy burden lifted off her shoulders. Both of them talked for some time. Then they started training for the competition. Shirou gave tips about Chakra control to Rin. Shirou focused on swordsmanship.

As time went on Obito came and joined the training. Followed by Kakashi and then Guy.