3 Chapter 3
The next three days were more or less the same, with me going to school. Before heading home, I would go to the Edelfelt mansion to practice my magical energy manipulation.
"Uncle Kariya should be coming today," I said with a grimace.
I didn't know what to feel about him. For one, he was my uncle and my father's brother. However, due to their strained relationship, I only knew the bare minimum. All I could go off was what I knew from the series, which painted a somewhat decent person.
While he only wanted to save Sakura to gain Aoi Tohsaka's affection, he held genuine care for Sakura. His resolve was inspiring, willing to endure a year of Zouken's torturous training that destroyed his body just for the chance to obtain the Holy Grail. But I also knew that if his confidence and resolve were shattered, he could lose control, like he did with Aoi during Fate/Zero, where he choked her until she suffered brain damage.
That was who Kariya Matou was—a person who could endure any amount of abuse to save those he cared for. But he could not continue if all his hard work and efforts were spat upon by the ones he cared about. At least, that was my opinion of him anyway.
Anyway, I'll see what he's like soon. After all, if he comes to bargain with Zouken, I'll see him for an entire year.
After arriving home, I spent my time in my room since I was the only one without anything to do. Byakuya was drunk as usual, and Zouken and Sakura were in the basement, continuing her 'training.'
After waiting for several hours while watching the entrance, I saw the man of the hour walk up to the house in the dead of night.
Kariya was a tall and lanky man, unlike me and Byakuya, with black hair. He wore black cargo pants and a blue hoodie.
Alright, things should follow canon from now on. I just need to get stronger until I can actually make a difference.
[***]
Nine months passed in the blink of an eye after that. As expected, Kariya came to bargain with Zouken about the release of Sakura.
It was truly a sad sight to see Kariya degrade to what he is today. His black hair was replaced with stark white, and his slightly tanned complexion had turned sickly pale. One of his black eyes was beginning to whiten due to blindness, and he was walking through the house with a limp.
And that was all due to the harsh training he was going through under Zouken.
Then there was Sakura, who now sported the looks she had in Fate/Stay Night, with purple eyes and hair due to Zouken's blood adopting her into the Matou family.
And while the implications were disgusting, since Zouken didn't have a body and Kariya wouldn't do something like tie her to the Matou, I chose to ignore how Byakuya may have done something unspeakable to a child that was five years old. Just so I didn't go up to him and use all my magical energy to kill the man Zouken, be damned.
"Calm down, Shinji; you have a big day today," I said to myself while taking a deep breath. After all, if I mess up today, my nine months of work will be for naught.
In these nine months, I had gotten better at manipulating my magical energy, being able to manipulate it however I liked. I was able to do the two basic magecraft spells: reinforcement and structural grasp.
Structural grasp is one of the basic spells, alongside reinforcement, that magi children are taught in their early childhood to learn the basics of manipulating their magical energy. It allows the caster to push their magical energy into an object and then allows the caster to understand the structure and design of objects as if they were viewing a blueprint.
Of course, I am no Shirou Emiya, and I have only been using magecraft for nine months. So while I couldn't structurally grasp with just my eyes and gain all the information held by an object, I could get a pretty decent blueprint of most objects that weren't too complicated.
Structural grasp perfectly complemented the second basic magecraft spell, reinforcement, and was like a sub-program that helped it bring out its full potential.
Reinforcement, as the name suggests, reinforces something through magical energy, be it an object or a person, to the utmost limit. Everything has gaps in its inner structure, even things that are perfect, and those gaps can be filled with magical energy. The spell can also reinforce an object's purpose of existence, like increasing the sharpness of a knife, the nourishment of food, and, in the case of a living creature, physical structure and endurance. But it wasn't without risk, as too much magical energy pumped into the gap can cause the entire structure to collapse on itself and, more than likely, violently explode the object in question.
That was why structural grasp was so important, so that you could get an accurate blueprint of an object, especially if you were using it on the body and didn't want your arm to violently explode.
Thanks to practicing those, my magical energy manipulation shot through the roof, and I was able to implement my plan to get around my limit of magical energy.
Using my magical energy, I created gemstones using Arc of Embodiment, which cost 100 units of magical energy each. Then I would fill them with magical energy.
I used the theories of jewel magecraft, most famously known for its use by the Edelfelt and Tohsaka families. Of course, I had no access to any formal training from either family, so it was basically just trial and error and maybe, possibly blowing up thousands of dollars worth of gems.
But it was all worth it, as I could finally take my first step to finally understand myself and maybe even learn some magecraft.
In the three months that I started creating the gems consistently, I had forty gems stashed in the Edelfelt mansion, filled with around 50 units of magical energy.
With my roughly 300 units of magical energy combined with the gems, I had about 2,300 units of magical energy, which will be more than enough to make the adventure card.
And that was my plan for today, so I could finally start focusing on possibly learning some magecraft of my own.
After walking through the streets of Fuyuki for a couple of minutes, I arrived once again at the Edelfelt mansion.
With practiced ease, I went through the mansion, arriving at the basement that I had been using as my workshop.
Going over to the desk, I began pulling out gems from the drawers until there were sixteen now sitting on the desk.
Flipping my magic circuits, I used a large portion of my own magical energy reserves and all the magical energy in the gems in front of me, and I used Arc of Embodiment.
In a flash of magical energy, the object of my desire appeared in my hand. It was a thin, blank card the size of a credit card.
"I just need to inject my magical energy, and then..." As soon as my magical energy was pushed inside the card, it had an immediate reaction. The blank card began to gain black designs around the edges, and words formed in the center. After a couple of seconds, I could finally read the card.
———————————————————
Name: Shinji Matou
Class: Choose
Age: 6
Origin: N̸̬͗õ̴̯͖b̷̢͖̆l̵̰͖͒ȇ̴̳̈ ̸̮̄Ë̵̛̗͎́ṉ̵̘̍v̷͍̞͗͒ẙ̶̯
Element: Aqua Radiance
Sorcery Trait: Absorption and Binding
Skill Points: 2
Magical Energy: 360 (Circuit number (30) × Circuit Quality (B = 12 units per circuit))
Strength: 10
Endurance: 8
Dexterity: 8
Agility: 11
Luck: 80
Skills:
Arc of Embodiment
Reinforcement
Structural Grasp
Magical Energy Manipulation
———————————————————
"I see." I hummed in thought as I read the card. "I wish I could read what my origin is, but it is better not to learn it for now so I don't turn into a mindless drone. For now, let's see the classes I could choose from."
After pressing the card where the class was, I was given multiple options, such as Wizard and Creator. But in the end, I chose Adventurer. It had the most utility and granted way more benefits than a specialized class.
The Adventurer class is a general job for those who didn't choose a specific class. They can learn any class or species skill if they demonstrate it to the adventurer.
It would be great in a world like this, where there is a whole magic school that teaches just about everything in the world.
"Now that that's out of the way, what the hell kind of element is Aqua Radiance?! Of course, it probably has something to do with water, given aqua was in the name, but what the hell is the radiance part for?" I said, releasing a sigh.
"I guess I'll just test some more and see what I can come up with."
[***]
I stood in the warm embrace of my kitchen, the soft, ambient light casting gentle shadows across the countertops.
Dressed in a crisp, white apron that covered my dark attire, I rolled up my sleeves, ready to start cooking.
With precision, I began slicing the fresh vegetables I had set out with my sharp knife. The rhythmic thud of the blade hitting the cutting board created a soothing rhythm.
A tantalizing medley of soy sauce and ginger filled the air as I marinated thinly sliced beef in a bowl. The marinade, a mixture of soy sauce, sake, and mirin, was poured like liquid gold over the meat. Its rich aroma intermingled with the earthy fragrance of shiitake mushrooms I had prepared earlier and the fresh, vibrant scent of blanched spinach.
My eyes darted to the pot of rice simmering on the stove, the grains dancing as they absorbed the steam.
Stirring the miso soup, I watched the paste dissolve gracefully into the dashi broth, imbuing it with a savory richness. Cubes of tofu and thinly sliced green onions were added, creating a captivating mosaic that floated in the steamy liquid.
The sizzle of beef hitting the hot pan drew my focus back. I seared each slice to a perfect golden brown.
As I grabbed the plates of food, I yelled out. "Uncle Kariya, Sakura-chan, dinner's ready!" After setting the table, I sat down for a couple of minutes in silence before sighing and beginning to eat. "Another night of eating alone."
It had been two months since my adventurer's card was created. In that time, I've been studying anything that had to do with water, be it myths, legends, or fairy tales, and going over some ways that water was used in works in my past life.
Since there were so many works of fiction in my past life, human ingenuity far surpassed this world. And while some systems that those works implemented hardly made sense or were there to just move the plot along, some had some real thinking behind them, and I can use that to my advantage. After all, magecraft is just the enactment of preexisting phenomena, and if the Nasuverse is real, then all those worlds must be real as well, meaning everything that happens in them is a pre-existing phenomenon that can eventually be done and explained through science. And in a world like the Nasuverse, where human cognition shapes the world and its laws the most, having an outlook like mine would be a boon.
Other than practicing my magecraft, I had been hanging out with Sakura and Uncle Kariya.
They really didn't have much to say, but our small conversations were nice, at least in my opinion, and I hope they were alleviating a little bit of Kariya's stress.
I was soon taken out of my thoughts due to a wheezy cough. Looking up from my half-finished plate of food, I saw Kariya limp into the dining room, followed by Sakura.
"Sorry, Shinji-kun... cough... for being so late," Kariya said in a raspy voice as he gently sat down in his chair.
"Yes, sorry, Nii-san... Grandfather wanted to talk to us," Sakura said in a bland tone while taking a seat as well.
"It's fine; just make sure you eat up so your food doesn't get any colder," I said with a smile.
After that, it was silent as we all began eating, but I did take pride in the small smiles I was able to pull out of the two of them.
Once we were all done eating, I took the dishes and, with the help of Sakura, began washing them.
"Hey, Sakura."
"Yes, Nii-san?" Sakura asked as she stopped scrubbing the plate in her hand to look up at me.
"Make sure you look after Uncle Kariya while I'm off abroad, okay? Since I won't be here to help with the cooking."
"Right, you're leaving too," Sakura said emotionlessly, but I had been around her long enough to see through her facade, so I knew that she was sad but also slightly angry.
Drying my hands off, I reached over to Sakura and patted her on the head. "Don't worry, Sakura; I'll come back. After all, I'm your big brother."
Sakura stared at me for several seconds with barely widened eyes before a subdued smile graced her face, and her dull purple eyes gained a little bit of light that I hadn't seen in months.
"So will you look after Uncle Kariya for me, Sakura?"
"Yes… I'll look after Uncle Kariya for you, Nii-san."
Hearing her answer, I smiled before turning back to the dishes. "Good, now come on, these dishes aren't going to wash themselves!"
[***]
So this is it, huh? I'm finally leaving this place. And the fourth Holy Grail War was only a month away.
I couldn't help but smile, despite knowing I was leaving two people to suffer here. After all, Byakuya was sending me to London of all places, which is a plus in my book since I should be able to get to the Association, though I don't know if they would accept me since I was Asian, but it's worth a try.
Turning around from the car and back to the Matou mansion and looking up, I saw Sakura staring at me through her window. Raising my hand, I smiled and waved up to her. "See you later, Sakura-chan!"
Seeing Sakura wave back at me caused the smile on my face to grow larger before I ran into the car, ready for my journey into the moonlit world.
