บท 24: Chapter 24: The double-edged blade

(A/N: sorry people I was travelling hence the chapter got delayed. I also learnt that writing while sitting in a car is the recipe for bad writing, margarine, and motion sickness.)

Standing up shirou suddenly heard a seductive female voice from behind.

"Oh my, I tried to hook a dragon in my net but only caught a small fish."

Feeling the sudden presence behind him he felt a chill at the base of his spine. Without identifying anything shirou felt his body pull out a wooden sword from the bag behind him while flooding it with mana.

Shirou could not identify the magecraft used by his future and felt perplexed by the lack of sensation of his circuits opening.

"Ailafa."

As soon as the chant echoed he felt a blow to the left side of his chest, he felt his ribs crack and his lungs get punctured. Screaming from the pain, he fell into the lake.

As he fell into the lake he felt the searing pain and maddening agony eerily similar to when he lost his shoulder to Bersker`s sword. This is when it hit him that the right side of his body is gone as if sawed off by an electric fan.

Dizy from the pain heard the same feminine voice say

"Stupid boy, to come to my temple with such rubbish magic resistance. It seems Saber too was unfortunate in her selection of master."

Shirou saw a woman covered in purple robes sneer. Half her face was covered by the hood of her robes, only showing her purple hair flowing down and her lips clad in purple lipstick.

The woman defined the term malevolent witch. The witch with a sadistic sneer on her lips said

"If you are worried about sabre, you don't need to worry. I will take her."

"Her noble phantasm is required to beat Bersker. You will die here but she will continue to live on as my slave"

As the woman continued her monologue, the lake's surface was covered in blood and shirou was starting to suffer the symptoms of blood loss. He released a groan.

"Ahh."

Hearing this she smiled and said with disgust.

"Goodbye boy, with such weak abilities, you don't have any value as a slave— but I shall use your command spells effectively."

A purple dagger bent in the shape of a "Z" reflected moonlight as it cut off his left arm. The scene of clouds swallowing the moon was reflected in the eyes of shirou as he experienced death by drowning.

His vision spiralled as it left the mutilated corpse drowning in the lake and went back to the void.

…

Jacob and kiritsugu watched shirou sleeping peacefully in contrast to the serious expression on their face. Jacob has opened various bounded fields specialising in detection and observation.

Time passed as they observed the perfectly normal scene until shirou started frowning and his eyes were moving under the lids. Looking at this Jacob asked while pointing at the struggling and writhing boy.

"You have told me that you have already administered him the drugs to prevent nightmares but he still is struggling with this."

Kiritsugu gave a solemn nod making Jacob focus back on the boy. Looking at the readings of the bounded field and mystic codes Jacob motioned for them to go close to the boy.

They looked at the arms of the boy filled with curiosity, they saw what looked like tips of kitchen knives and paper cutters slowly grow out of the boy`s forearms. As the boy`s expression controted the speed of growth of blades increased.

The blades grew for about 1 inch and then stopped. Jacob looked in horror at this display and checked the bounded fields through his mystic code. He said

"No fluctuation of energy is being given out but the mysteries in this area are fluctuating."

Kiritsugu and Jacob discussed as Shirou`s expression calmed down and slept in peace. Both the adults decided to remove the blades growing out of the boy.

After the blades were removed Jacob used his magecraft on shirou and then connected a stand with nutrient solution to the boy.

….

Shirou woke up and frantically checked his arms, after making sure that his arms were fine he heard the door opening. Jacob came through the door and removed the nutrient solution connected to the boy.

After talking with Jacob and kiritsugu, shirou left the room. Looking at shirou leave Jacob asked kiritsugu

"Tell me the truth Mr. emiya, the boy is not cursed so tell me what is the reason for shirou having these realistic nightmares."

Kiritsugu pondered

< I can't tell him the truth about Shirou`s vision, so I have to reveal some lesser truths.>

"The attribute of emiya family magecraft is time, shirou recently had a nearly fatal encounter with curses.>

….

Shirou after taking a bath was practising magecraft, noticed that it had become easier to perform structural grasp and his projection had been better. His trance was broken when kiritsugu entered the room.

Kiritsugu checked the room and then activated a bounded field. He brought out a notepad and wrote.

"Shirou did you have the same dream as last time?"

Understanding the signal shirou yawned and then wrote.

"No, it was a different scenario but ended with a very similar result."

Shirou explained his conversation with Saber and his activating the trap and kiritsugu contemplated.

Shirou explained the encounter with the suspected caster and her mocking of him and her actions. Kiritsugu analyzed

< I suspect that the woman is a witch and a very pompous one at that.>

Gathering his thoughts kiritsugu said

"Shirou according to what I have learnt from the books about prophecy and future sight, your visions are most likely possible futures. Your visions now are very similar to mystic eyes of premonition."

Kiritsugu then continued to tell all his deductions about Shirou`s dream and what might have happened. After this shirou went about practising his magecraft.

…..

Shirou was sleeping peacefully on the bed and there were no fluctuations recorded by Jacob except the normal absorption of ambient prana by the magic circuits.

After finding no changes for hours, Jacob turned towards kiritsugu and asked.

"What is the origin of the boy?"

After some contemplation kiritsugu said

"Sword."

And Jacob asked

"The element?"

Kiritsugu replied

"Fire"

Jacob nodded his head and said

"This confirms my suspicion that his origin is being stimulated by the near-death experience. His body under stress and looming death is turning into swords as a form of self-defence."

"I personally think that, if his origin is spontaneously awakened like that then he will transform into a mass of flaming swords and die a gruesome death."

"You have said that your family magecraft deals with time then I suspect that he is reliving that moment of looming demise repeatedly in his dreams."

Taking a pregnant pause he continued.

"You should find a way for him to overcome that trauma or have him stop practising the magecraft of your family. His origin awakening spontaneously is fatal for him."

Kiritsugu taking this all sat on the chair in shock and thought.

His face progressively hardened.

….

Shirou and kiritsugu stayed in the Miller mansion for 2 more days and not finding any recurrence of Shirou`s dreams the emiya family left the Miller territory.

Kiritsugu took shirou to the nearest city and set up a temporary workshop there. He left shirou in that safe house and after instructing the child to not leave the bounded field he left.

After his father left shirou locked himself in the safe house. He practised magecraft and swordplay as he took the body supplements that they had brought from the Miller family.

He practised structural grasp and projection a lot to refamiliarize himself with them after the sudden boost in them, after his death experience in the dreams.

Something that both the father and son missed was that Shirou slowly started losing the fear of pain and injury that everyone has. The thought that pops inside his head when he is in pain is