章 57: Chapter 54: Spine of my Blade (2)

(A/N: well here are the two chapters, and people give me your opinion, should i release 3 or 4 chapters on Sunday like the Hassan guy in the comments was saying or the current schedule of 1 chapter every 2 days is better)

Shirou took the blades and rushed into the forge. He poured coal into the clean and empty hole and pulled out a beaten-up iron rod. He began hammering the tip of the rod and then put on a bunch of paper, which soon caught fire. He pushed the burning paper into the forge kickstarting it.

The fire surged with the rhythm, made by the blowing of the box billow. shirou focused on the forge as soon as it got running and he forgot about his meal as well as his plans. This is what inspiration is, fickle and elusive. Sometimes it just clicks and problems plaguing you and seemingly insurmountable can be solved.

He filled the crucible with blades stained with blood. With a pair of tounges, the crucible was pushed into the roaring flames. Shirou pumped the billow making the fire rage as he held the handle connected to the crucible. The magic circuits on his arms released a pulsing glow and with time they synchronised with the fire and both followed an opposite but complimentary rhythm.

The sound of the hammer striking the metal echoed inside the shed illuminated in a yellow glow by the burning iron. Kiritsugu came about the next morning and found his son sleeping on a pile of cloth in the forge. He looked around and found clear traces of the forge being used, the furnace was filled with white charcoal ash and black soot.

The anvil had a rectangular block of steel that was cooling off. The steel block looked unassuming but kiritsugu didn't judge it because he knew that his knowledge of forging and mystic codes was lacking. What concerned him were the bloodstain beside the anvil and one of the katanas lying beside it.

Unsheathing the blade he found that its tip was stained with blood. Checking up on the sleeping boy he found the hemostatic mystic code wrapped around his forearms. He just sighed at this and put his son in a bed to rest.

Time passed by like this and Shirou's life went on schedule. He practised things, spent time with his friends and followed Artoria`s adventures. In the meantime, the month of March ended and the term`s end came nearer.

Shirou finally gained the confidence to make the second attempt at forging his planned mystic code. His hand moved over the row of wooden boxes covering the foldable cupboard that was newly added to the forge.

The total cost of these added up to 1 million dollars, this insane cost was because all of them were catalysts. They came from across various disciplines and thaumaturgical foundations, but one thing common among them was their attribute inclinement.

In the words of philosophy mage craft's feng shui theory, all of these materials are yin-inclined and produced in yin-gathering zones. He picked up his school bag from the shed's entrance and left for school. In school, he spent a normal day with the boys, this is what prevented him from connecting the dots between the current Shinji and the boy ordering around Rider in his visions.

During lunch, he met Rin, who had changed a lot during this time. She had opened up considerably to shirou and had stopped putting up her subconscious guard against him. Still, she avoided meeting him or anyone without a prior plan, hence after they talked about all kinds of topics while eating he said

"Tohsaka, come to my house in the evening. I am starting the 2nd attempt today."

She looked into his eyes and didn't say anything. She just nodded and said

"I will be there." and left.

There was still some time until the break ended, so shirou sat on the roof and contemplated life. He stood up and went back to class, as the teacher's impression of him was not that good so he wanted to avoid giving them a reason to be angry. Then again it was normal for a teacher to be upset with a student who was constantly for about half a month every month.

As soon as he reached the gate he dashed off into the lawn near the shed. There stood a drum among the burning embers, beside it kiritsugu sat on a chair and was reading an unnamed book with a pure black cover.

The father and son removed the embers together and moved the charcoal inside the drum into a small cart that they rolled into the forge. The charcoal was made from the branches of trees growing in a graveyard, which was a spiritual land. In short, the tree came from the backyard of a small mage family that practises necromancy.

(A/N: I mean the true necromancy by definition, not the skeleton army summoning kind. They are the kind that can talk to spirits and learn of past events through the spirit as a catalyst. Kind of like a seer but they use the dead, not the usual crystals and drugs.)

After putting the fuel for the forge in place shirou went to the bath and practised with Taiga. After that he spent his time meditating, trying to separate his combat and normal state of being. Mental training as expected by its name takes a long time, still, this form of mediation helps a lot in defence against charm and compulsive spells.

Taking inspiration from the iaido training, he aimed to reach the state of moving meditation mentioned. he was pulled out of his concentration by the arrival of Rin in the dojo. They tried to talk but Rin`s attention was pulled towards the swords on the rack.

After he explained whatever he knew about them to her, she asked the budding smith if his mana be sufficient to last through the forging. Listening to the non-committed answer given by the boy she exploded on the spot and gave him a long lecture about the side effects of mana exhaustion.

"We can connect a ward to the main bounded field around the house and that will at least help you in increasing the mana concentration of the shed," she suggested.

After 3 hours of brainstorming, both of them finalised a bare-bone magic circle that would connect to the ward of emiya residence and draw the mana nearby to the forge. It's a simple application of formal craft that allows the magus to save his od and increase the efficiency of his magecraft inside it.

They draw the magic circle around the forge and include the anvil and quenching area in it too. The circle is simply carved into the ground similar to how artoria had carved the circle for the homunculus vessel of the lesser grail in the 4th holy grail war.

After having dinner the forge was lit by shirou and Rin and kiritsugu stood witness to the attempt of the boy to make his own path. After the charcoal was ignited there was no visible difference in the fire but shirou was clearly able to smell the rancid smell of rotting flesh as well as the smell of damp soil that gave him a strange chill.

This was the effect of the inherent mana in the tree being released, the mana was blocked in the wood by the use of a small enchantment on the drum making the drum a bounded field when the wood was heated.

Shirou brought out the rough-looking jewel steel from one of the wooden boxes. This steel is very rare nowadays. Only 3 places traditionally make this and they operate once a year making the steel rarer. Shirou could practise with the mass-produced steel but he still needed the true jewelled still that held mysteries to make his blade.

He put the block that weighs about 5 kg into the forge and pumped the billows. The flames roar as if they were the curses of the dead, filled with regret. The iron started burning, the flames were turning yellow at the core.

Shirou repeatedly checked the steel with mana and then changed the frequency and rhythm of pumping. He pulled out the steel once it was yellow due to the heat and began hammering it. He repeatedly heated and hammered the steel and stretched it into a plate.

He opened another wooden box that Rin handed him and took out glass bottles containing dust-like substances. It was not dust rather but a kind of residue when natural-born spirits, what we call ghosts are destroyed.

This was a very common material used as a catalyst to cast curses and draw magic circles for rituals. He sprinkled the dust on the steel making it sizzle, and promptly folded the half-folded steel enclosing the dust between layers of steel.

The magic circuits on his arm clearly glowed representing the minute observation of the metal by the smith. The spectators breathed a sigh of relief when the mutual was put back into the forge.

(A/N: what do you people think of this chapter?

Some might find it boring but, this took me a lot of research to understand how smiths forge katanas and what are the traditions. Well, this is the 1st time so I will describe the forging in the required details.

If you are a fan of nasuverse then you likely are a fan of those nitty-gritty details that come with the power system of this world. And the graveyard was not an ass pull but still, it's not there in the original material.

It is mentioned that the Matou family earns money from renting their spiritual lands to other families. Hence it's logical to assume that other families have spiritual lands if the small city of fuyuki has 4 good spots already.