CHAPTER 4.2 - TRAINING

Mankind was a race that rose up the food chain by having ingenuity and wits. With fire, they conquered the night; with sharp stones, they hunted beasts several sizes bigger than them. The knowledge was passed, improved, and expanded on before being passed again. Slowly, mankind became an advanced race as time went on.

Then those people started to appear. The thinkers, the inventors, the artists – those who pushed the limits of what can and cannot be achieved. Their works carried mankind's advancement; their wisdom enlightened the masses; their research changed the world.

Then, what happened if you gathered the brightest mankind could offer from the very beginning till the modern era? And added the incapability to feel tired and needing nourishment on top of that.

You get an army of people who could build an insane amount of things in less than a day. Below the Emiya residence was now an underground base that was easily bigger than even the residence above it. It consisted of many facilities designed to support any servants' work.

From workshops for the casters, a training ground for spar, personal rooms for each servant who wanted one, and even some recreational ones like a pub existed. That was not even counting the main hub which was the reason this underground base was built in the first place.

An observation room for an entire city that was currently still under development to increase the scope of its range. Tapping into local leylines coupled with using various mystic codes placed around the city, it was now possible for the servants to maintain a constant "eyes" on Fuyuki. The servants were now able to detect the shadow entities easily because they passively emitted a low-level curse that could be detected by the main hub computer system, making it easy to find and deal with them.

With the shadows in the city being swiftly dealt with, Fuyuki was now effectively a stronghold for the servants.

Of course, the fact that the system was limited to Fuyuki, for now, and the shadow entities were reported to already expand their area of activity outside of Fuyuki was a problem. One problem they would need to address soon.

In one of the many workshops in this underground base was Shirou, currently learning his lessons on magecraft. Beside him was Medea, who constantly watched over the boy's progress, and Kiyohime, who looked at him with concern. In his left hand, he held a small cylindrical tube made of aluminum.

He took a slow deep breath before he uttered, "Trace... on."

Several dimmed lines appeared on his hand, slowly moving their way to the aluminum tube. From his perspective, newfound knowledge flooded his mind – the composition of the tube's material, its making, durability, and even blueprints on how to create one. However, as he delved deeper, he also started to "see" the history of the tube, but it was a blurry mess. The only thing he could understand was that Medea had held this tube before him.

Feeling he had enough, he ceased his action and let out a sigh.

"Are you alright, Anchin-sama?" Kiyohime asked worried.

"Yes, a bit tired though." He replied, he then looked at Medea. "It was still a blur, Medea-sensei," he complained.

"But did the blur become more clearer?"

"Hmmm, I guess? Not very noticeable though."

"Then that was enough, practice makes perfect, and your magecraft was unlike many others, boy. Repetitive training was the best way to train for you," Medea explained.

Shirou pouted. "This is not fun, Tama-nee can conjure fire with a flick of her hand, you can use teleportation, and Kiyohime can even control fire as she pleases."

Kiyohime visibly smiled sweetly. "Maa, being complimented by Anchin-sama..." She looked blissful. "But Anchin-sama, it's not right to have 'fun' with magecraft."

Medea patted Shirou's head, nodding. "Yes, magecraft isn't supposed to be fun, boy." She reminded him, "While I understand your complaints, you need to remember that to be a magus is to walk with death. One wrong step and you will end up dead."

"...Okay, I understand... sorry."

"Then..." Medea walked towards a weapon rack she put in this room, she then pulled up a normal-looking European sword, "…how about doing Structural Grasping on this?"

Shirou nodded and accepted the sword, he glanced at it for a sec before doing what he did before all over again, "Trace...on."

He saw just what he expected, the composition, materials, and the blueprints of it. But then he got to the history part. Unlike the aluminum tube, what he saw now was definitely clearer. He could understand more things, he even saw a girl named Gareth was the last one who used this sword in a spar against a man named Bedivere. Huh, he could even get names now?

He stopped his action, "I could see clearer on this one, but only for the last couple hours though."

"I see..."Medea mused, "It's clear that your element and origin made your magecraft work wonders on bladed weaponry."

"Having a special element and origin, as expected of Anchin-sama."

Shirou found out about element and origin from Tamamo days prior. He initially was excited to know his element, perhaps it was fire and he could spew some fireballs like Tamamo or water and he could control the rain!

No, he got none of that. Hell, he even didn't exactly sure that his element could be counted as "element". His element was "sword" as Tamamo told him after she did several checks to make sure. Medea also confirmed that "sword" was his element just before they started.

What kind of element was that? Metal he could understand, but a sword was an object?

To put the cherry on top, his origin also revealed to be "sword". Once an accident, twice a coincidence, he hopefully wouldn't encounter a third one. So, what were the ramifications of him having the same very rare—weird element and origin? He was incapable of using like ninety percent of what magecraft could do.

He was incapable of doing most basic magecraft; thus far he only knew three spells. Structural Grasping, a scanner-like magecraft that allowed him to see the inner workings of an object. Projection, by using his magical energy, he could create a hollow copy of an object. Alteration, forcing a change towards an object through magecraft means.

He could do Structural Grasping and Projection just fine; Alteration was a bit tricky but doable. As he practiced, he noticed that while using Structural Grasping, he could "view" the history of the object. Most were a blur mess, but it was clearer when he used it on items like a kitchen knife and scissors.

When he told Tamamo about this, she said that it shouldn't be possible as Structural Grasping was limited to only grasp the inner workings of the object, like the material it was made of. She then told him to keep practicing using it, to sharpen his proficiency of using this unique Structural Grasping.

"Your own brand of Structural Grasping was so unique that even I couldn't do that," Medea smiled.

"I'm sure you can find a good way to use this new Structural Grasping, Anchi-sama," Kiyohime added.

She didn't lie; she even already thought of several ways to use Shirou's unique Structural Grasping. From the look of her, Medea seemed to think the same thing.

"If I'm being honest, boy," Medea spoke, "Your talents might lay in making or creating swords related objects, like a blacksmith or a mystic code crafter."

Origin is the starting point that defines one's existence and directs one's actions throughout life. The fact that Shirou's origin was "sword" means his whole life most likely would follow the way of the blades. His exceptional application of unique Structural Grasping on any bladed objects was the proof of this.

Shirou pondered what Medea just told him. Making, creation, sword... he widened his eyes.

Shirou focused his mind. His Structural Grasping didn't only allow him to peek into the history of its target, but also the blueprint of its making. Then he thought, what if he put an obscene amount of detailed blueprints into his Projection?

Projection was well known as a spell that creates a hollow copy, but what if it wasn't, and instead, the hollow copy was created because of the lack of understanding of the user towards the object copied.

He closed his eyes. Trace on...

Judging the concept of creation, he recreated the blueprint in his mind.

Hypothesizing the basic structure, he already knew the exact composition and materials needed for it.

Duplicating the composition material, he now actively tried to recreate it from scratch.

Motes of blue sparks converged on his arms and slowly formed into a solid object. It took him a while before he finished his Projection and felt it fall onto his arms.

It was the European sword from before, or to be exact, a copy of it. The weight was close, with the copy being slightly lighter. He also noticed some chips and other small defects in the copy sword. The biggest offender was perhaps how the blade was not straight and slightly misaligned to the left. He sighed, well, this is disappointing.

While Shirou was feeling disappointed, behind him, Medea and Kiyohime thought differently.

"...What Anchin-sama did, that's not a normal projection right?" Kiyohime asked her fellow servant.

Medea eyed the copy sword on Shirou's arm calculatingly, "Yes, it isn't."

...

"Your stance needs to be lower," Scathach told him as she easily swept his legs.

"Y-Yes, Shisou!" Shirou hastily replied as he pulled himself back up, only to get knocked down again by Scathach.

The sound of wooden spears reverberated throughout the whole room. Shirou desperately tried to hold his ground against the unstoppable assaults of Scathach. The difference in skill and strength between them was akin to a speck of dust compared to the tallest mountain.

"If you can't block..." Scathach thrust her spear, "...then deflect it."

Shirou's chest was hit, and he skidded several steps backward. "Y-Yes, Shisou!"

"You have good tenacity for your age, child," Scathach smiled a little before rushing at him again. "Keep it up."

The two of them continued trading blows, with Shirou desperately trying to keep up as best as he could. On the side of the room, Kiyohime sat with Cu beside her. She silently glared at Scathach while muttering every curse word she knew.

"My mentor wouldn't hurt him..." Cu spoke, before seeing Scathach swat Shirou across the room again, "...well, not anything permanent at least." He grimaced.

The glare on Kiyohime intensified. "Shut up."

Cu raised his arms, giving up. "Okay, fine."

Kiyohime slowly bit her thumb. "...how dare she?! How dare she?! How dare she?!" She would burn Scathach the moment this training started... if she could.

Back to Shirou and his desperate attempts to survive, he perfectly knew he didn't stand a chance against Scathach. When he heard Scathach say she would train him, he never thought she would mean surviving her spar by any means possible. But at least as the spar went on, Shirou's posture, spear wielding, and overall abilities were gradually improving.

But it was not enough. Not fast enough. He needed to find a way to at least land a hit on his Shisou. He needed to give everything he had.

Glancing at the wooden spear Scathach used, he muttered, "Trace on!"

This was his first time using Structural Grasping without direct control and while he was busy blocking, parrying, and holding on in a spar. He saw it, the history of the wooden spear and what he was looking for – the history of Scathach using it.

He grasped that knowledge and forcefully implemented it in his mind. What lasted for a fraction of a second felt like minutes to him, but he did it. He "knew" how to wield the wooden spear just like his Shisou now.

Scathach's wooden spear came twirling at an angle, but Shirou managed to divert its trajectory at the very last second. Scathach was silently surprised by this. Then, twisting his body forwards while applying a proper stance, he lunged and thrust his wooden spear towards Scathach's upper body.

At that moment, Shirou failed to notice several critical factors. First, he was significantly shorter than Scathach, which severely limited his reach during their exchange. Second, even if Shirou managed to mimic Scathach's technique perfectly, his body wasn't capable of fully executing it with the required strength and precision. And third, Scathach's power and skill still far surpassed his own.

Scathach spun her body around, avoiding the thrust. She then used her spear to disarm Shirou before sweeping him off his legs. After that, she thrust her spear right at Shirou's head, stopping merely a centimeter away.

"I-I give up?" said Shirou.

Scathach narrowed her eyes. "You shouldn't, but I'll let it slide for today." She then grabbed Shirou, pulling him off the ground. "Your last move was pretty good, but the execution was bad."

"Thanks, Shisou."

"Anchin-sama!!" Kiyohime came rushing, embracing him. "Are you hurt? Can you move your arms? Oh my poor Anchin-sama. And you!" She snapped at Scathach, "Learn to hold back!"

Scathach ignored Kiyohime and instead tilted her head, asking Shirou, "How did you do that, child?"

Among all people, she would be the one who knows best how Shirou's last attack was eerily similar to her own style.

"Well..." Shirou then explained, "...I have this unique Structural Grasping that lets me 'see' the history of an object, and it works better with any bladed items."

He then scratched his cheek sheepishly. "And uuhh, I kinda used it to 'see' the history of the wooden spear you hold and copied your style on it. But even after all of that, it still didn't let me land a single hit on you, Shisou, ahaha."

Shirou treated this as a massive failure, but Scathach thought otherwise. Even Cu, who was on the side of the room, caught wind of this and raised his brows.

To instantly learn how to fight with a glance, all he needed was a suitable body for it to works. Scathach couldn't help but smile at her master's future prospects. Give him enough training and teach him proper reinforcement, and he would be able to use any fighting style he laid his eyes upon.

What a terrifying master she had here.