It’s being three and a half years since Kiritsugu died, it came as no surprise since I felt the energy in his soul decrease by the day, when I tried to indirectly ask him about it, he told me not to worry about it so I didn’t. Or so he thought… Sometimes I sneaked into his bedroom with the excuse of me having a nightmare and when he was asleep, I read the memories within his soul which led me to discover the curse that was place on him.
I had no way to dispel the curse but I at least wanted to know how he got it, so I used my studies on souls and read some more fragments from his memories, and from that, I was able to witness something called the grail war, his wife and daughter, and his usual “business trips” which were actually him trying to meet with his daughter again and again but unable to do so, and the thing that left the most impact on me, “Saber”, Such beauty and grace, the pride of a king and strength of a warrior, it left every cell in my body mesmerize.
"That kid Emiya really has some talent for archery"
That voice woke me up from my thoughts, after waking up I immediately released the arrow which was in between my fingers, the arrow flew, cutting air, sounding as if someone was blowing a whistle.
*THUNK*
Like usual it hits its target right in the middle. This is something that happens quite often, the archery club is a place where I focus on a single task and left my mind wander as it pleases, it’s quite the refreshing feeling if I might say so.
I lower my bow and looked back towards the other members of the club, the two I know the most are Shinji, who now has an envious expression on his face, and Mitsusuri Who has and admiring expression with a pink shade on her cheeks. Theirs faces show exactly what I could feel from their souls, Shinji was full of jealousy while Mitsusuri is full of admiration, they are almost like an open book .
Mitsusuri is like one of my younger daughters, her eyes sparkled every time she saw me fight, and in Mitsusuri’s case, her eyes sparkled every time I shoot an arrow. Shinji on the other hand is the complete opposite, he hates it when I stand out more than him so I usually try to piss him off by giving advice to the other members which causes him to fall behind in performance until they teach him what I thought them.
We finished practice and I headed towards my job, I didn’t really need one since my inventory is full of things that can easily allow me to buy a country or two, but i have no reason to use that wealth, my neighbors Raiga and his granddaughter Taiga often look out for me so they would surely question where the money came from.
In conclusion, I’ve been doing a couple of jobs here and there to keep myself from having to freeload from Raiga, right now the job I have is at a construction site, it’s quite helpful with training my body too. This body is quite peculiar if I might say so myself, being frank, the magic talent within this body sucks, I can apply some of my past knowledge here and there but affinity and talent take one of the biggest parts in the gain of strength.
After a couple of test with Kiritsugu, we discovered my origin and elements, The origin is something that defines the core of a person’s personality, you can also call it instinct, in my case that ended up being “Sword”, which I didn’t find strange at all, since the thing I enjoyed the most in my first and second lives where watching and participating in battles, especially the ones that had swords in them, I think my thirst for fights also comes from that.
I became a blacksmith in my second life for that same reason and created thousands of weapons, weapons that I lost while fighting the 20 gods from my previous life. Now, my element is a bit weird, the usual are things like water, fire, earth, and wind, then you can find some rare ones, like dark, holy, space, but mine is even weirder which ended up being “Sword” somehow.
I still remember the face Kiritsugu made when he told me about these two things, it was as if he was seeing one of the many wonders of the magic world, of course one of the useless ones that is. As for the magic this body allowed me to learn before Kiritsugu died, those are reinforcement and projection, then there was the one I stole from Kiritsugu’s memories, but of course he didn’t know that since I practice it in secret.
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Though he couldn’t teach me much before he died, I still follow his magic teachings, or at least some of them, he wanted me to focus on reinforcement magic and throw projection aside, but I was too interested in it so I practice it by myself when he wasn’t looking, like he said, its not really that useful but I am still intrigue by how I am able to bring objects from my imagination to real life.
After finishing my shift, I headed home and after dinner with taiga, I went inside the shed to start my daily practice.
"Alright, let’s do this."
*Clank*
It was a sound i couldn't be any more familiar with, the sound of a hammer hitting steel echoes in my head and my body’s temperature starts rising.
"Trace on!"
This is something similar to a chant if I had to describe it, I gave it the name because of how the magic I use works. I “trace” or analyze the structure of the paper and find the openings where I then move my magic energy from my circuits to the openings in the paper. I grabbed the paper and poke the corner,
"hoh! Let’s see"
I said as I threw the paper towards the walls of the shed and contrary to common sense, the paper pierced the wall and got stuck there, after a couple of seconds the paper became soft again and fell to the floor.
After a couple of continuous success, I thought of something, not sure yet whether it is good or bad but who cares, it sounds interesting at least in my head.
"Trace on!"
I chanted the spell again but this time the target was me, I analyzed the structure of my body and after a couple of minutes, I started using reinforcement on my right arm, the result? Well,
#
"Getting hurt at your part time job right before the tournament, what were you thinking"
This guy with blue hair and an air of arrogance around him is Matou Shinji, I met him in the archery club and after some time he started seeing me as his rival, I didn’t really care so I just went with it, I always tried to match my skills with the two best members of the club Mitsusuri and Shinji but my skills are way above them, of course they don’t know that.
It’s almost like a gut feeling, he couldn’t stand me and I couldn’t stand him, he didn’t like how I was able to do everything he could, and I don’t like how he thinks he is above others even when he is just a frog in a well. But for appearance sake we acted normally around each other, not as friends but more like acquaintances.
"ah ... well, sorry, but things should be fine since we still have both you and Mitsusuri right?"
when I say that, he gives me a side glance but doesn’t say anything else.Club activities ended and I headed home, it was my usual routine.
"injury on the job huh!" I said while sighting.
Of course, it wasn’t from the job, it was from two days ago when I tried to reinforce my arm, I went a little too fast and because of the amount of magic running through my shoulder, it was like filling a balloon with water, boom!.
"I should be more careful next time, taiga seem worried when she saw me"
I think while reading a note that Taiga left on the dinner table.
-Hope you recover soon! After you get some rest come back to the club, we’re waiting for you!-
"She always worries about me doesn’t she, if I had a little sister then I think it would be just like this"
I laid down in the living room and started listening to the rain drops falling since a couple of minutes ago.
"It’s peaceful, kind of hard getting use to this way of living after 12 thousand years of fighting"
As my mind wondered off, I hear the sound of the doorbell.
*DING DONG*
I went ahead and opened the door and what waited there was a familiar face, we’ve never spoke with each other but because of my weird relationship with Shinji, I’ve seen her a couple of times.
She was standing under the rain while looking down, her purple hair covering her eyes, and black uniform adorning her body.
"Shinji’s … Little sister?" I asked with a confuse face not understanding why she would be here.
As she looked up, I was able to look at her in the eyes while she introduced herself,
"Yes, I am ... Matou Sakura"