FATE/Probability

Started by his rushing she sidestepped and turned around, normally someone is off balance when doing this but she smoothly turned on her phalanges and stood with a solid centre of gravity. Looking at the boy she brightened up a little, and produced her practised diplomatic face but was pulled into an abrupt hug. As the shock wore off she struggled to get out of his arms but without using magecraft he was stronger than her. He gently stroked her back and whispered 

"It`s all okay now."

As she relaxed wet droplets fell on his chest and her aqua eyes became misty. Considering the place inappropriate they moved on to their regular rooftop. All this was observed by a pair of violet eyes whose owner was clenching her fist as opposing emotions raged inside her and she felt an unexplainable sense of loss.

On the roof the situation reeked of irony, how the tables had turned. Shirou was comforting Rin in an offputtingly similar way to how she did months back on that fateful night under similar circumstances. After Rin collected herself she went back to what he called "tohsaka mode" and looking at her serious face he collected his stray thoughts and listened to her. The conclusion of their talk was that their situation was already scrap iron, rin`s mother Aoi is not expected to recover from her current situation but rather the doctors are already preparing for her post-mortem and had suggested preparing for her funeral.

After collecting her addressee he watched the girl rush towards the hospital he muttered to the wind 

"What can a mortal do in the face of nature." and the content of his recent vision of the knight of Lake coming to challenge artoria high on his pride and disregarding the information about Caliburn to be fake.

There he saw how the rushing cavalry of France witnessed the light of Caliburn decimating an army and one look at the king of knights wielding the golden blade was enough to make Lancelot understand that what he was looking at was not a human like him but something beyond. This made him bend his knees to her as his Glem eyes detected no falsehood in her rather it was like he was looking at the fairies of the lake who blessed him, there was a thin veil of behaviour that separated the human and fairies and he felt that the king in front of him was the same.

Forgetting about the life of the girl called Artoria Pendragon slowly shedding her humanity for her aim he felt a sense of jealousy as well as enlightenment. Looking at her succeeding he aspired to be like her and that excitement dulled the sense of forbearance in his gut. The next day shirou walked out of the forge which was littered with scrap metal and gem fragments. 

In his hand, he held a plain edgeless blade whose specifics were similar to his katana. Packing the blade into his bag he walked towards the kitchen and the closing door hid his failures in trying to copy phosphoric fang even after using his newfound ability to its limit. His progress in structural grasp and graduating air that was stuck at a level similar to most experienced magus began progressing. What he didn't know was that along with the steady progress they left behind the limits of the mundane and common and have progressed to the level of unique.

Reading the way the hammer had struck the metal to forge it by holding the sword was beyond the capacity of most magus. Discerning the materials as well as their ratio and composition of the blade while holding it has become possible for him. The progress in his magecraft was a topic for another day as he wore the uniform and tread towards school after bidding farewell to the half-asleep taiga.

Reaching the school he found that Rin was absent and then met Sakura whose smile somehow had the capacity to brighten his sullen mood after his failure in smithing. She noticed the long sleeve that he had tied to his bag but didn't ask about it rather she spent most of their time taking glances at his face or quietly observing him as he did his thing. Well, what can we say about anyone`s choices? 

Today after class shirou went into the iaido lessons for the 1st time. The lessons from school here are held by collaborating with the local dojo. So the students are registered there and are like half disciples under the dojo master. So after the school bus carried the students to the dojo they were told to change into the traditional black kimono for the dojo and shirou felt strangely comfortable in it as it was very similar to Kiritsugu`s voice of attire.

After all the new initiates stood at the back as all the other students took their positions following a defined pattern. The door opened and a slightly hunched old man with a white beard walked into the dojo and all the students bowed. The summary of this was that the man was the dojo master and founder, and the group of 3 men and 2 women following behind him were the actual instructors in this dojo as well as the old man's disciples.

After the greeting, the old master went away as he could not teach due to his advanced age. Rather the 5 instructors divided the students according to the one they have taught before. A strong-faced man a little older than kiritsugu came and stood in front of the new initiates and with his Mr Fujimura-like physique took a wide stance and Gufly said 

"Who I am doesn't matter to you for now. You just have to call me an instructor for now."

"I will introduce you to the basic principles of the training and after that, you can consider whether you would like to begin training or not. A lot of people nowadays are coming here with unrealistic expectations and are quickly disappointed."

"This an art form that is based on the aim to achieve perfection in technique and understanding of samurai traditions. We aim to achieve the of achieving harmony between the mind, body, and sword and develop a strong character."

He eyeballed the students and after nodding in self-satisfaction he said 

"Now you people must understand the core values we would try to engrave in you here, they are discipline, respect, self-control, and being fully present in the moment. So first those of you who are not interested in the meditation please leave."

And after that, he described something more and answered the student`s questions. As he said the sword arts of iado is something that is the modern form of Japanese samurai traditions moulded into a form suited for peace as a means to preserve them and also train swordsmen instead of warriors. This art form is a form of motion meditation rather than a combat form, the true martial arts that move mysteries are kept hidden by choice as well as circumstances. Houjutsu & Shugendou are a topic for another time as they are closely related to the mountains present in their names.

The introduction highlighted that Iaido consists of four main components: the smooth and controlled movements of drawing the sword from its saya, striking or cutting, shaking off the blood from the blade, and replacing the sword in the saya all in a smooth motion. This is a mediation on a sword as the moments are slow, smooth, repetitive and intense on mind-muscle coordination. The instructor took the remaining students who wished to continue to a corner and left those unwilling behind, all arts are not for everyone the people who didn't pursue this have given up on the blade but rather they might practise something more combative like aikido.

The instructor said 

"So 1st before anything else I will introduce you to how to hold the blade and then we will move up to how to unsheath a katana"

"So You have to grip the katana with your right hand near the Tsuba and the left hand should be near the Kashira."

"Your hands should hold the katana with your right index finger barely touching the Tsuba, keep your hands relaxed and just apply pressure with your pinky and Middle finger"

" your index finger should barely hold the handle, and remember your wrists should be aligned together as you would not fancy breaking them."

The grip and movement of the sword were already very familiar to shirou as the years of kendo training were worth something and as they say, nothing beats a real battle. Being thrown into various situations and being taught assassination made sure that his grasp on the blade was solid.

(A/N: so guys this is the solution I have found for making him good at swordsmanship. Plus for those who don't understand what I am talking about just think of the situation of butterfly blade dance from nanomachine. While others shit and meditate here people meditate as they move.

And I remember someone asked me how many circuits does the crest improves and the answer is zero. The output limit of shirou emiya doesn't matter at all because his magecraft is not prana intensive at all rather it`s his small mana pool that's the problem.

If we compare the mana pool as a reservoir of water, the circuits as channels connected to a river that both bring in as well as take out the water from the reservoir, then Rin`s mana pool is a lake and Shirou's is a water tank.

The magic crest is like adding a one-way valve to the reservoir which allows you to drain it far faster but provides zero help in filling it. For Rin, her circuits are the 2-way channels that can take 500 units of magical power and her crest can take 500 units hence her max output is 1000 units. Currently, he has about 40 units of magical energy at his disposal and if he uses his natural circuits and the crest he can empty them in a minute or a single battle. So it doesn't matter how many he has then as he has a puddle compared to the initial 25 units he had when he awakened his circuits.

An average magus has about 100 units of magical energy with about 20 circuits, whereas Shirou has 27 so his peak should be around 140 units which is at the bottom of the barrel magus family. Waver has 70 units and he is supposed to be so weak that he can't perform proper magecraft.

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THANKS FOR READING :)