Chapter 18:Spar
"If you wish to have sparing matches then it's fine. I will go with you then."
After Kiritsugu`s affirmation, shirou went to the dojo to prepare for his swordplay lessons.
After his lesson with Taiga shirou went to practise his magecraft.
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The next morning shirou was walking to school while feeling the winter morning`s chill.
At the school gate, he met Issei who was cleaning his glasses.
"Good morning issei," he said
"Good morning emiya" replied Issei
And then they both walked into the class. Shirou sat beside Shinji and the class began.
During lunch break Shinji didn't have club work so shirou took him along to visit Issei.
Meeting Issei, Shirou said
"Issei this is Shinji and shinji this is issei."
Hearing this Shinji put his arm in a handshake position and said
"I am shinji matou."
Holding his hand the young monk replied
"Issei Ryuudou"
The three then sat down for lunch and chatted till the end of class.
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The weekend came and after having breakfast the emiya family walked towards the tohsaka mansion.
Walking shirou thought of the various times he met Rin at school and after a lot of discussions they decided that shirou would pick her up and they will go to the clearing near Ryuudou temple
To spar.
While walking towards the mansion shirou heard people talking about why were they moving towards the haunted house.
Learning this shirou had a good laugh, then the 2 storied ancient mansion came to view. This view fits the stereotype of haunted houses, so shirou felt he couldn't blame the people for classifying the mansion as such.
When he moved closer he remembered the summoning of Gilgamesh done by Rin`s father and sighed remembering his fate.
With this solemn mood, they reached the edge of the mansion`s bounded field triggering it.
Rin came out of the gate wearing a small red sweater and long pants. She had a bag strapped on her shoulder and looked at kiritsugu.
She stiffly greeted shirou and turned to kiritsugu
"I am Rin Tohsaka the second owner of fuyuki, you must be the magus killer kiritsugu emiya."
Kiritsugu nodded and then continued to walk forward while Rin and shirou followed behind him.
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Reaching the clearing where shirou practised marksmanship kiritsugu said
"Kids take a position on the opposite sides after getting armed."
Shirou put down his backpack, opened it and brought out his white desert eagle along with 5 clips of rubber bullets.
Rin removed her sweater stuffed some gems inside the pockets and had a silver knife tied to her waist.
Then they both went to opposite sides.
Hammer rang in Shirou`s mind and he opened his circuits, rin also did the same and her crest started glowing as she took a shooting position with her hands.
Kiritsugu yelled
"Start!"
Shirou jumped to the side and dashed behind a tree as cover while the weakened finn shot hit the ground alongside the cho of Rin`s voice
"Gandr!"
Shirou moved towards Rin while going from cover to cover as Rin shot Finn shots at him. He sometimes returned fire from his gun forcing Rin to evade or counter his hits using gandr.
This back-and-forth continued till shirou reached her, and then he pulled out the knife and fed mana into it.
Shirou ran towards Rin while using footwork to dodge the curses as he lacked cover.
When he was 20 meters away from her he was forced to deflect the finn shots using the blade fed with excess mana.
Reaching about 10 meters away shirou pulled out his pistol with 1 hand while holding the sword with the other. Before he could fire his last bullet shirou felt 2 impacts on his shoulder and thigh before he fell unconscious.
As shirou fell rin also collapsed, having used mare of her crest to fire successive Finn shots she felt nauseous as well as a burning sensation in her arm covered in the crest.
Kiritsugu moved in as soon as he saw shirou being hit by the curses. He 1st checked shirou and finding the boy just unconscious he went to the girl struggling on the ground and checked her arm.
As she saw kiritsugu move close to her she clutched the dagger on her waist and the gem on her neck released faint light.
Seeing this kiritsugu said
"Calm down girl, close your magic circuits or the pain will get worse."
Looking at the girl not listening to him kiritsugu went to get her bag and threw it at her after opening it.
Looking at her struggling to search for something in the bag, kiritsugu helped her bring out 2 vails of green and purple liquid.
Rin gulped down the green one and asked kiritsugu to pour the purple one on her crests.
As the liquid splashed on her arm she calmed down and shirou had also woke up by that time. Looking at Rin`s expression of agony he ran to her side and supported her.
After both children calmed down kiritsugu started pointing out flaws in both of their moves.
"Shirou your moves were too excessive like you were thinking too much about following the book."
"And the last run was idiotic at best and suicidal at worst, you should have conserved the bullets and moved closer while exchanging fire with her."
"And Ms.tohsaka you were too focused on either offence or defence, you should have planned for the situation where your shots didn't hit."
"Using the magic crest at more capacity than you can handle is a very bad judgment as it left unable to move."
"What is the use of defeating the enemy when you can't even leave the battleground after that."
Shirou walked Rin home while they both were criticised by the veteran mercenary.
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At home, shirou quickly changed clothes and prepared for Taiga`s lessons.
While meditating after his regular thrashing shirou thought
< I was too hasty in my fight today. I should have taken more ammunition as well as thought of using cover fire.>
< I also have to practise structural grasp more as with that I would be able to use reinforcement>
After that, he knocked himself out while practising projection and fell asleep leaving behind 3 copies of kitchen knives that slowly disappeared due to the action of Gaia.
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1 month passed by like this
In his dream, shirou watched as a 3rd party observer as Saber and Archer fought the last battle.
Archer with his arrogant tone used his noble phantasm to attack the injured saber.
As archer purposed to sabre and mocked her wish to get the grail and retaliated with fury and determination. Kiritsugu walked out to the battle.
There in the fuyuki`s area which was burnt that fateful night the holy grail, the reason for this slaughter stood on a pedestal.
Shirou had a forbidding feeling as he looked at his father's face which was devoid of any joy or anxiety, rather had the cold apathy of someone who had steeled his heart.
And as if answering Shirou's fears he uttered
"By my name, Emiya Kiritsugu"
"I order you with my command spell…." he said with a determined look
Saber with her blood-stained face and widened eyes as if screaming to give her the grail looked at her master who said
"Sabre, use your noble phantasm… to destroy the grail"
Her invisible air decapitated with an explosion of mana and Excalibur the sword of promised victory began shining as she looked at her master with a stunned face he gain commanded
"By my 3rd command spell, I order you again. Sabre destroy the grail."
Kiritsugu`s footsteps were like hammers in this stunned silence as Saber raised her sword fillers with the golden glow of her mana and screamed in futile agony
"Stop!! don`t!"
The mana now converted to heat and light illuminating everything in a blinding glow as the legendary sword was swung by Saber
The dust and light of the explosion faded and Kiritsugu`s expression changed into disbelief as he beheld a black hole releasing an ominous aura opened in the sky.
Black tar-like dirty water and mud started pouring down from the hole while the magus killer shouted in denial
"Impossible.."
"There is no way!"
The tar-like substance began to overflow from the crevice and started boiling and releasing steam as it came into contact with the ground.
Then under Shirou's disbelieving eyes the world burnt, anything the tar touched was set ablaze, including trees, grass and buildings.
The origin of the fuyuki fire was laid bare before shirou he witnessed Kiritsugu`s despair as he saw people dying around him.
How he was carrying corpses while crying, searching through flaming rubles for survivors.
He watched how Kirtsugu`s expression went from pain to denial to despair and then went blank as if he was a husk of a man.
He watched as kiritsugu searched through rubbles and his vision slowly descended and merged into the rubles and then onto a red-haired boy.
Shirou watched the scene that is already engraved on his memory, how he was rescued from the verge of death by his father.
As he was looking at his father's expression change from despair to a tearstained smile the world started blurring.
As he heard his father mutter
"Thank you."
The world shattered like glass and his vision went black.