Chapter 4: Pursuit

Beta read by n1ch, Shigiya, Solitary heart and 8kagi

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His eyes opened to a rather dark space. 

Shirou Emiya didn't dream much in the first place unless something really special and memorable happened that day. He always seemed to have one of the two same dreams.

He dreamed about swords.

Lots of swords.

A field of endless swords with a sky bathed in twilight.

The reason behind such a recurring vision remained unknown to him, though for the last few years, ever since he was saved by Kiritsugu, this was the only thing that came into his dreams.

There laid no meaning or reason to it. Just another piece that may just be one of the many aspects making up his mind. 

Though as soon as he saw glimpses of swords, they would immediately disappear and be replaced by something else. He would only recall a few things when he woke up after such a dream.

What he was taught a long time ago.

For example, magi and magecraft in general.

The sole reason magi existed was to understand the world and its mysteries. To use what they have found and understood to pave a road towards a gateway leading to the Akashic Records, the Root or Heaven to some. It was the culmination of their ancestors' hard work and aimed at a single goal. Reaching such a point would garner the desire for immortality, to learn true magic, or become all-knowing.

That's what it meant to be considered a true magus.

Frankly speaking, a magus was an exception who deviated from modern society—but even exceptions must band together to survive.

His father told him that the group of magi was called the "Mage Association". He also repeated many times over to never associate himself with them. Shirou heard many stories of certain experiments conducted by these people, some of which made him gasp in horror. Human value did not exist in their eyes. The lives of the common folks mattered less than a piece of paper. 

To them, they were just a number.

The group called the Magus Association hid magecraft and organized magi. They basically kept watch to see that the magi population did not affect society with their magecraft, but the strange part was that they did not prohibit misuse of magecraft, to certain levels at least.

According to Kiritsugu, the Magus Association was only interested in the concealment of magecraft. Even if a magus carried out his research at the expense of the lives of many ordinary people, the Magus Association would not punish them as long as they did not expose the secret of magic. In some cases, if the research bore fruits for the Association's benefit, they might even get rewarded.

Nevertheless, there were limits. 

Their main priority was that magecraft should not become public, so they did not ban magecraft outright. 

Arrogant and crazy were what Shirou regularly associated these people with. Granted, it didn't mean everyone was evil. Some magi never went so far with human lives.

Anyway, the surveillance of the Magic Association was thorough and nearly omniscient, according to Kiritsugu. They worked alongside other magical institutes and even freelance magecraft practitioners.

Kiritsugu was one of them in the past.

Yes, Shirou was aware of Kiritsugu's past on some level. His old man reluctantly agreed to reveal some parts to him after a few minor rants from his younger self. An assassin for hire, one that took lives for a price.

Did that make Shirou hate him? Never, that he could never himself hate his father. He'd seen just how broken the man had become in the end. He suffered enough, and having his son hate him would have been too much.

Kiritsugu did mention how he followed the ideal that the lives of the many outweigh the lives of the few. 

Returning to the previous topic.

Most magical research would cost a few hundred lives of ordinary people, and as a result, the existence of magic would become public. So, the Association did not allow research that would harm society.

So, some magi, in most cases, decided to stay at home and research quietly while the normal world carried on unmolested. Hence, magi only try to hide themselves to escape the Association. 

Gathering all of this knowledge, Shirou would agree that he was not fit to be called a proper Magus. 

He wanted to be a hero and nothing else and viewed magic as a tool to achieve that goal.

Yet why…

'Just at what point in my life did it have to come to this?'

The hair on his neck stood with the sensation of danger washing over him with the glowing blue gem in Luvia's hand as she aimed it at him with her two extending fingers. The image of a gun's hammer firing formed in his head, the possible life, and death situation making him want to speed up the process of gathering mana from the surroundings at a much faster rate.

"Trace, on!"

Shirou used one of the few spells he was familiar with, Projection. Going over the different steps at a rapid pace, choosing a dagger to protect himself while also carefully reinforcing his legs. 

The pain from earlier returned full force as he had rushed the process when jumping off his room to save Noah. The pain of his muscles straining themselves to their limits was ignored as he focused his glare on his opponent.

"There, now you look more like a proper Magus," Luvia commented, breathing calmly as her posture relaxed. 

She watched Shirou move into a fighting stance as he faced her, "Oh, Krav Maga? Interesting choice… made with the purpose of fighting back in a way that causes sufficient damage to an attacker or opponent to escape the situation altogether. I wonder, which one of these possibilities are you considering right now? Probably the latter from what I understood from your personality—even now, you don't look like you want to hurt me."

"We don't have to do this! So why are you even aiming at me!?"

He hadn't done anything in the first place! Both of them just talked, and he just used reinforcement in front of her, but aside from that, there was no reason for her to go on the offensive. Shirou refused to think that a Magus would just attack another magic user out of the blue like this for no reason.

Luvia decided to answer him with the release of the spell from her fingertips. The coalescent blue energy concentrated into a small sphere that shot itself at Shirou's head!

His eyes widening at the approaching attack, Shirou pushed his body to the side, dodging the spell a hair breath away from touching his skin as it impacted against the metal wall behind him and left a dent on it.

'Holy…'

Luvia didn't stop after that. She gathered another concentration of magical energy in a small ball form and fired once again at the nimble Emiya, who jumped around everywhere and kept dodging her attacks. He would occasionally use his weapon as a throwing knife and cancel out her spell. After that, he would immediately project another blade and restart the process.

"Ara, you certainly know how to dodge~," Luvia said, continuing to fire more spells.

"Please stop. We don't need to fight! And worst of all, doing it here. Why does it have to be now? And why do I have to fight against you? We have no animosity!"

No, they didn't, but she needed to make sure of a few things.

Bam!

Yet another dagger flew from him and met her spell midway, canceling it out and knocking the blade away or destroying it into many motes of blue light. Shirou didn't seem to care as he would just create more.

"Using Projection for fighting a battle against me… at least I've seen people do much worse when desperate."

Her rate of fire continued to rain on Shirou as she slowly started to increase her pace, wanting the boy to stop fighting so defensively and actually take the initiative.

'Quick fast on his feet, shows quite a high amount of physical training. Decent reinforcement, but nothing to be impressed over with how he keeps the weight off of his left leg, maybe injuring it beforehand from his hasty use of the spell. He is doing nothing to approach me nor is trying to take me down… this won't do.'

"You need to come for me, Shirou, or else you'll tire out and lose!" she called him out, making the latter hesitate a bit.

He couldn't just stay in such a small area and continue to dodge her attacks indefinitely. Shirou knew this. If he decided to run and find himself an opportunity to get her or stall for enough time to reason with Luvia, he needed to move—but that could endanger the other passengers.

"Hurgh!" Shirou grunted as she blocked another attacker with his combat dagger, the steel already showing cracks, and his shaking arm didn't give him enough confidence to hold on much longer.

'I will avoid the crowded areas. The upper part is empty, from what I remember. And everyone is spending their time outside as well.' 

Not thinking much more, he turned his back on his attacker and started to run away inside the cruiser.

"You're crazy, Edelfelt-san!" he screamed while running away from her. "I don't have any intention of fighting you!"

"Ara Ara, you can run away, but that's just making it hard on yourself. I'm going to win in the end no matter what you do. And please, you better muster up enough will to hurt me or else… you'll be in a world of pain." she coldly said, with a hint of playfulness in her tone which went unnoticed by Shirou.

As he reached the inside of the cruiser, he thanked the gods for there were no people in the room. A set of luxurious stairs lay before him, with a few corridors leading to a different place. Not wanting to risk going below, the redhead pushed more mana to his legs before jumping on top of the flight of stairs and hurriedly making his way upwards.

"Hah!"

Shirou kicked the floor with full force. It was about 6 meters and a half up. He barely managed to jump that height. Thankfully, he landed without hurting himself yet.

"Hohoho! This is starting to resemble a game of 'tag'!"

Ducking just in time to avoid another blast, Shirou didn't stop making his way up and not forgetting to keep his eyes on his pursuer. 

'So fast!' 

Luvia was in no way slower than him. In fact, she appeared to be more proficient in the use of limb reinforcement and made the same jump as him without any sort of exertion. Even the fact she wore a large dress didn't seem to slow her down in the slightest in her movements.

She was catching up!

As Shirou kept running through the upper floors of the cruiser, he noticed something.

'Weird, I know that I chose this part of the ship because I didn't want to run into an innocent passenger and risk their life. But, this place has been too quiet.'

Eventually, after rushing many hallways and trying his best not to get hit by the projectiles. He eventually made a wrong turn and reached a dead end. Worst of all, he couldn't backtrack as Luvia had already caught up to him. 

"You are getting tired. Your reinforcement is reaching its limit. For a rookie, you certainly are quite good at using the basics, but you haven't really shown me anything impressive with your own brand of magecraft." Luvia said, not even out of breath from the chase.

"While I agree that the use of Gradation Air is quite uncommon in battle, it isn't that surprising with starting Magi. Projection is considered to be an incomplete and mostly useless magecraft by most modern magi for anything other than immediate activities, such as projecting a sacrificial item to be forsaken in a ritual. Though I commend you on using reinforcement in parallel. Nevertheless, it proved to be inefficient and a waste of mana."

'That's because I don't have anything else other than these basic spells!' 

"Or is it possible that those are the only magecraft you know of?"

She guessed correctly.

True, he couldn't keep Projecting without tiring out and running out of Magical Energy. His circuits started to feel warm from the constant use, all 27 of them continuously absorbing mana from the world and converting it into energy he could use.

'I hate to do this….' 

Luvia looked to be a spellcaster primarily. At least, that was the most common fighting style among Magi. She ruled the field with long-range battles. He needed to close the distance and end up making her unable to continue on. He'd practice enough hand-to-hand combat and close combat to know what move to use on Luvia and not injure her when taking her down.

"You asked for this, Edelfelt-san."

He brought his hands to his chest, forming fists as he prepared himself for a quick fight.

"Finally getting serious, are we? Wonderful!" 

Now!

Shirou used his remaining Magica Energy to reinforce his legs without doing so for his fists, afraid that he might end up hurting her too much. 

"Ha!"

He launched a punch, using his speed to surprise her, but his decision to go easy on her proved to be an enormous mistake on his end, as the blonde Magus managed to easily catch his fist with a single palm.

"..."

'I'm an idiot,' he did the one thing Kiritsugu reminded countless times, to never underestimate a Magus.

"You know, I'm not only a spellcaster," Luvia said with a growing smirk.

Pa!

Shirou's eyes widened as what felt like a freight train rushed itself to his guts as Luvia delivered a devastating strike. Spit flew out of his mouth as he nearly lost consciousness from that one punch. 

Still, he tried to retaliate with a kick to force her hold off of his hand. 

Luvia proved to be a better combatant as she easily blocked his attack once again. 

Luvia once got hold of his entire arm this time and broke his balance by pulling him directly forward. With her right arm inserted under Shirou's armpit, the blond savage spun around on her right foot with her back against him and then lowered her right shoulder and threw the disoriented Shirou over her shoulder in a circular motion. Performing a perfect judo throw and forcefully slammed him to the floor with a loud bang.

"Kah!"

This girl was far stronger than he anticipated and the fact that she could do so much while in a dress while wearing heels further drove that fact.

Pushing the near paralyzing pain of feeling his spine get slammed against the floor, Shirou hastily got up with a backward roll, trying to create more distance from her.

But when his gaze turned to focus on Luvia, he found an empty hall in front of him.

"Behind you!"

Shirou felt Luvia wrap her arms around his stomach, he tried to break free but this proved to be a waste of time as the latter pulled his weight upwards before slamming him against the same spot on the floor in a very pro-wrestler-like move.

What he thought would be a quick fight ended up being true, but for the completely wrong reasons. 

This girl was even more dangerous in close-quarters combat!

"Will you kill me?" Shirou asked as he lay unmoving on the floor, Luvia having let him go from the suplex.

His body was aching in every area, with his legs burning as if someone had dropped molten lava on them. It reminded him of the pain he used to endure when converting his nerves into temporary circuits. Granted, that last one was way more painful and deadly than his current situation.

Was this really how he would die?

Getting suplexed by a girl half his weight, before killing him with a spell and probably everyone else on the ship.

His thought process was interrupted by a question.

"Now, have you learned your lesson, Sherou?"

That cold voice of hers was gone, replaced with that familiar cheerful tone he enjoyed while conversing with her before.

"Eh?"

{Break}

(Later that day)

Bam!

"Strike!" 

A beautiful blonde girl wearing an eye-catching outfit stood in front of a bowling alley. Having thrown the bowling ball with both elegance and style, she managed to knock down every single pin in her first attempt. 

"Ohohohoho! Such an exciting game! I can see why the commonwealth people would enjoy such silly activities. It does relieve my boredom." Luvia said with the excitement of a child's first visit to Disneyland. 

She strutted back where she found a downtrodden Shirou with what looked like a pout on his face. Not that she would ever admit it, but it was quite cute and made her want to tease the boy a bit more.

"Ara Ara, what's wrong, Sherou? You look so down. Are you perhaps not having fun?" said the blond girl, the same girl who nearly blew his head off a few hours ago.

"Kinda hard to have fun with someone who tried to kill me not that long ago and nearly broke my neck at that," he said, both angry at her and himself for not realizing that she was a Magus!

Not to mention how easily he lost that fight.

"You can't blame me for that."

Luvia sat beside him. Shirou felt a bit nervous being so close to her. 

"When I first felt the traces of mana fluctuate near my room, I nearly mistook you for an assassin sent after me by a rival family. Safe to say, I came prepared to battle you and probably end up having a death match. Fortunately, no such thing occurred, and all I found was an inexperienced user of magecraft whose naivety baffled me so much that I wanted to get to know such a person. Like, just how clueless and imbecilic should one be to commit such rookie mistakes?" she said, taking her white gloves off and checking out her nails.

"You don't have to rub salt on it. I get it already, I'm not a good Magus."

"Doesn't help that you left a still reinforced butter knife on the table."

"—!?"

Shirou's eyes widened in surprise before facepalming as he recalled how he left the object on the table where both Luvia and he shared a cup of tea. How could he have made such a rookie mistake… Kiritsugu would have definitely been disappointed in him. 

He became too careless.

"I can't believe I made such a stupid mistake," Shirou said as he rubbed his eyes with his palms. 

"Be glad that you ended up with me as your neighbor. Anyone else would have suspected you being a spy or something. Not to mention your blatant use of magecraft without setting up a bounded field is a mistake that many would have misunderstood for a sort of provocation. In an area like this, where virtually no one is using any spells, your practice of magecraft felt like a beacon to me. I don't let my guard down anywhere, even not in my own home."

That he agreed with her, despite how she decided to introduce herself as a Magus and nearly blow his head off, Shirou still didn't hold any real bad feelings towards the Edelfelt girl. Sure, a part of him was less than happy with her, but even that started to lessen, and he had already completely forgiven her. Nevertheless, the last part of her phrase made him feel a bit sorry for the girl. Not even relaxing in her own home… did she not trust her family then? 

"But why fight me? You could have just easily informed me about your identity, and that would have saved me a lot of stress. And what if someone were to stumble upon our fight!?" 

"Oh, that?" 

She brought her hands up and snapped her fingers.

"Clown."

Woosh!

Immediately, a blur appeared beside her, and to Shirou's surprise, he found a beyond 2 meters tall behemoth of a man in a suit standing protectively behind Luvia. His hands alone, which seemed to be bigger than Shirou's face, were covered in black gloves. This, paired with his suit and mohawk-style haircut, made the giant look quite intimidating. 

"At your service," he said while also greeting Shirou with a small nod, which the latter quickly returned.

"This is Bernard, but most just call him Clown. He is my family's most trusted bodyguard, enough to have him be my sole protector. He is an expert fighter and powerful Magus with a history of handling any danger thrown at him."

He sounded and looked like a badass, in Shirou's opinion.

"While I was threatening to bring you into a secluded area, I tasked Clown to set up a bounded field in a large area where I suspected you would run off to. And just like I predicted, you chose to retreat and follow the path I had determined previously." 

Was he that predictable?

"You can leave now, Clown. I just wanted to introduce you to our little friend here."

Without saying a word, he once left the area so fast that all Shirou saw was a black blur. A chill ran up his spine with the possibility of facing someone like him.

"I still don't agree with what you've done." he retorted stubbornly.

Like seriously, he nearly had a panic attack when he realized that there was a possibility that the Clocktower would somehow find out about Luvia and 'take care' of her. 

"Those attacks weren't that powerful. If it had reached its target, then at most, you would have a concussion. I was just testing you out a bit, though you are a greenhorn in the general knowledge concerning our world and customs—you certainly don't lack far behind in the physical department." Luvia brushed off his words without a hint of remorse. 

"You considered that attack 'not powerful'!?" She gathered enough mana to shatter anything he could ever hope to achieve in his life! And easily countered him in close combat, but that was mostly due to skills more than anything.

"I can obliterate the likes of lower ranked Phantasmal Species with a single spell of mine. What I used against you was a low-powered Gandr, don't whine too much when I could have done much worse."

What she pulled off after that still incapacitated him in the end.

"I was really worried about you and what could have happened to you if you were a regular person who saw me using magic. Since you are a Magus yourself, you can understand my panicked state. The last thing I want is to have to deal with enforcers from the Clocktower while on a cruise ship or live with the guilt that I may have ruined your life."

This only made Luvia laugh further.

"Hey, stop it, it's not funny!" he screamed at her.

Before he forgets, Shirou has a question to ask. "By the way, how did you sense me in the first place? Do you also 'smell' magic like me?"

"Smell?" 

Oh, how would he explain this sensation to her?

"Well, I discovered that I could sense magic through my nose in the past, this strange sensation I associate with the smell of food or something like that." 

Like how now that he was aware of Luvia being a Magus and recalled her scent reminded him of something fresh, fruity, and rosy, with a tinge of spicy vanilla. 

Luvia pondered a bit before realizing something.

"Ah, I think you have some misconceptions here, Sherou. Magi do not detect Magical Energy through their senses, normally, much like how certain Mystic Eyes do not work via the ocular eyes in the first place. Rather, magi detect them as a synaesthetic experience. I know someone who gets irritated or inflamed eyes—while for me, it's my twitching eyebrows. You must be something of a similar case, being very sensitive to the abnormalities or disturbances in the air and interpreting them as a smell when put into words. So, most likely, your detection of the supernatural has nothing to do with your nose in the first place, just like me, and in certain rare cases, you're just very sensitive to the abnormalities within the air. Note that this can only occur in short distances. If you were twice as far, then I wouldn't have noticed anything." Luvia gave a thorough explanation and made sure to not skip over any information.

No longer having a teacher in the first place, Shirou made sure to commit each of her words to his mind and not forget them. He even asked a few more questions about magecraft, which Luvia patiently explained as if he was her student. She didn't get irritated with simple questions that some people would have considered to be basic knowledge, always trying her best to provide as many details as she could. 

Kiritsugu was a teacher, but not a good one, Shirou discovered. His father could barely operate normally on a daily basis, needing more rest and peace as time went on. He couldn't teach his son as regularly as one might think and skip over many important subjects so that he could impart everything he could before his time would eventually run out.

"I have a question of my own if you don't mind." Luvia asked.

"Ask away."

"Who was your teacher? You obviously don't know much of the customs aside from the very basics of spells. If you ever were to roam in London and study in the Clocktower, your naivety and trusting nature will cost you your research and even your life in the worst of cases. Not that everyone is out to get you, but there are a fair share of despicable people."

Luvia didn't have any good opinion of whoever taught him about magecraft and the general knowledge about their society. 

"Just like I mentioned before, I learned everything from my father. He was the one who introduced me to the world of magic, and I pestered him to teach me how to become a Magus."

Luvia nodded her head, "I guess you don't have a Crest as well."

Shirou confirmed it, he wasn't related by blood to Kiritsugu, and then his old man never took the initiative to impart to him anything related to his Crest, if he had any, to begin with. The boy learned from his father that the chances of passing on a crest, in general, functioned like an organ and needed a suitable host to be transplanted in. Even then, the chances of it succeeding weren't guaranteed. Furthermore, this needed to be done slowly throughout the heir's childhood so that their bodies can get accustomed to the presence of the Crest as they mature.

"So you're technically a first-generation Magus," Luvia stated.

"Yes, though I wouldn't call myself one for the same reasons you've mentioned before. I don't care that much about the Root and the knowledge it holds. I don't want to acquire a way to learn True Magic, and I don't want to hurt people with my magecraft if possible. All I want to become is a hero and be a savior for the innocent."

"..."

They both stayed quiet for a few moments.

"I see. I still won't object to your dreams. You are free to do whatever you want. At least your ambitions are more plausible than certain noble families' goal of becoming True Magic users." 

They talked more throughout the day, not realizing that they literally spent the entire day together. Taiga had already returned to her room at dusk to have a small nap. It doesn't help that she drank a lot of booze, much to her protégé's dismay. 

Both Luvia and Shirou continued to play the many activities and games available on the cruise. After bowling, they participated in the scavenger hunt activity with the other people on the cruise. They frequented the sports-themed activities the most with surfing, volleyball, and basketball. Luvia was a beast, she wasn't familiar with rules, but after a few minutes of explaining to her how the game worked, she would destroy any team or player she ended up playing against.

Shirou tried the Archery-related games, and it ended up being the only area he could best the blonde Ojou-sama. 

Luvia also wanted to try karaoke, but the place was packed, so they decided to grab something to eat.

With the ambient atmosphere, coupled with the amount of fun they were having, Shirou even stopped caring about calling her 'Edelfelt-san' and began calling her by her first name.

For dinner, they tried a five-star meal from a world-renowned chef and continued to discuss more about magecraft and their past. Weirdly enough, Clown was nowhere to be seen during the whole time, but somehow, the weight of his presence lingered around Luvia as he was right next to her.

"So you've never tried any of these sports in your life?" Shirou asked, amazed at how talented this girl was in their activities.

"Unfortunately, no, as the eldest heir to the Edelfelt family, my duty to learn and master my family's craft remained as the top priority. Even if I say eldest, my sister learns just as much as we don't follow the normal practice of Magi families having a single heir. Due to these responsibilities, I never got to explore the normal world outside the supernatural. Magi, in general, detest these people, but I find them intriguing and wish to learn more. That's why I came here."

"Did your family agree?" 

If everything she said about her family was true, then he expected a bit more objection on their part.

"They don't even know that I'm here!" Luvia replied cheekily. "I've pulled some strings and favors from certain… 'friends' and managed to misguide my family into thinking that I went on some sort of expedition across the sea for a made-up ancient artifact believed to be the remnants of a weapon belonging to a legendary hero from the past. I even went as far as to purposefully leak the information to my foes, and now I bet that they are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean waiting for my arrival, which will never happen."

Such an elaborate plan just to go on a week-long vacation? At least her dedication to her own personal time could be respected.

"That's very devious of you."

"Why thank you! It certainly wasn't an easy task." She said proudly, puffing her chest while Shirou looked away with a blush at how distracting they were. 

"The environment in my house is very constricting and suffocating, I needed a breath of fresh air and to explore the world a bit. I don't want to grow up without knowing anything outside the magic circle."

He agreed with her. It was good to explore more of what life had to offer rather than staying cooped up in a single space and becoming clueless about the outside.

"While I agree with you, I also want to explore your world one day. I'm quite wary of the Clocktower as my father warned me to never associate myself with them, but if they help me get better and help me on my journey to become a hero—then I need to take the risk."

"That's a wonderful idea!" Luvia exclaimed loudly. "When you decide to do so in the near future, then contact me, and I'll invite you as a guest from the Edelfelt family. This will give you an added layer of protection against certain magi that will take advantage of you. Though it is a place where you need to have your eyes and ears everywhere, as the notion of elitism runs quite deeply, it is also the best place to improve your craft and learn new spells under the guidance of a competent Magus working in a certain department of magical studies. If you have the luck of the gods on your side, then you might even catch the interests of a Lord who can take you as an apprentice."

"A Lord?" Shirou asked, not knowing much of the inner workings of the Clocktower.

"I'll give the short version, the Lords are families that partook in the construction of the Clock Tower at its formation around the year 500. Each is in charge of a certain department, among other things. I frequent the class of Lord Meluastea, head of the department of mineralogy, as my magecraft revolves around jewels. I recommend you take a few classes if you ever visit London—you won't regret it."

The offer seemed extremely enticing to Shirou, not because he would get to meet Lords and other important people in the Supernatural world. Rather, he could finally have a proper teacher to improve his magecraft. Right now, aside from his three main uses of Projection, Reinforcement, and Structural Analysis, Shirou didn't have anything else. Anything he tried to learn from his father ended up failing quite miserably. Kiritsugu stated it was because he lacked the talent for magic in general. This was true considering how painstakingly he had to train nearly every day just to find some minor progress.

He couldn't ask Luvia to teach him her jewel-related magecraft as he knew that such a thing would never happen. There were many factors to block this option from him, and even if Luvia, by some miracle, accepted to teach him jewelcraft—Shirou doubted he would be able to achieve any progress in a week's worth of time.

But, there was an option available to him.

Shirou gathered up his courage and grabbed Luvia's hands with both of his hands. This surprised the Edelfelt heir, not expecting something so forward from the young man, and made some of the nearby people laugh at their actions.

"Sh-Sherou?" Luvia stuttered, a blush present on her face, as she was caught off guard by his sudden action and serious gaze that were looking at her intently. 

"Luvia-san, I want you to spar with me again."

.

.

.

"Excuse me?"

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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 2 Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword having 3 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise and Snafu.