3 - Dreams of Justice, and Trial by Combat

As Shirou arrived at the entrance to the arena, he tested his ability to wield the sword in his hand. It was a relatively basic short sword, and seemed slightly dull to Shirou's eye. As he gave the sword a few practice swings, he noticed with satisfaction that his ability to use a blade has drastically increased, and feels much more comfortable in his hand than usual.

After the Nightmare Spell appeared, all schools were required to give combat classes to students starting from middle school. In those combat classes, Shirou was never able to use any weapon with even a modicum of skill, excluding bows of course. It seems that his attribute, [Child of Swords], gave him a chance to reliably wield close-range weaponry.

When the gate to the arena opened, Shirou walked through and immediately inspected his surroundings. He saw many people watching with masks on their faces; most likely to hide their identities from the fighters. The arena was completely empty, except for spikes that were protruding out of the walls to stop anyone from escaping.

The gate on the other side of the ring opened, and Shirou widened his eyes to see that he was not supposed to fight another human, but rather a Nightmare Creature. The abomination on the other side of the arena immediately looked at Shirou, and started to slowly circle the ring.

The appearance of the beast was some strange cross between a samurai and a wolf. It's back was arched to an unnatural degree, and it was carrying a massive katana, An odachi, Shirou recalled from combat class. It's armor had more fractures than he can count, and based on the mindless bloodlust that Shirou can see in it's eye, it was probably an awakened monster at most.

Nightmare Creatures we're ranked similarly to humans, with the difference being that unlike humans, Nightmare Creatures are ranked based off of corruption instead of ascendance, and were also classified based off of the number of cores.

The ranks for Nightmare Creatures are: Dormant, Awakened, Fallen, Corrupted, Great, Cursed, and Unholy. The classes were, from 1-7 cores: Beast, Monster, Demon, Devil, Tyrant, Terror, and Titan.

If Shirou's guess is right, than this will most likely be a difficult fight, as Shirou has no memories to use against it.

While lost in thought, the abomination suddenly lunged at him while swinging its blade in a horizontal arc, which Shirou easily ducked under. Why was that so easy to read?, wondered Shirou, as that attack should have most likely landed.

Seeing that it's attack missed, the monster attempted to slice Shirou in half from above, which Shirou parried to the side with little difficulty.

Okay, something is up right now.

Although Shirou was many times better with a sword than he used to be, [Child of Swords] should not be able to enhance his sense for combat. Shirou decided to worry about this strange ability later, as he decided to go on the offensive.

He doubted that he would be able to break through it's armor with a mundane sword, so Shirou quickly analyzed the armor for any openings while weaving under another attack. He realized that the fractures on the armor easy-to-hit weakpoints.

As Shirou avoided an attack, he flashed out his sword in retaliation at a point near where it's sternum should be. When Shirou parried an attack, he would send out a quick slice at that same spot, slowly weathering the armor covering that area.

As Shirou and the Nightmare Creature continued to clash against each other, he noticed that his sword was also slowly getting chipped, but this did not stop him. He kept on attacking until either his sword or the armor gave out.

The armor shattered first.

The abomination lost it's balance due to it's chest piece being broken beyond repair. Shirou took this opportunity to immediately stab at it's chest, which allowed him to pierce it's heart, and slay the Nightmare Creature.

[You have slain an awakened monster, Withered Wolf]

[You have received a Memory: Washing Pole]

What's a washing pole?

The crowd went silent, as if they did not expect to see such an outcome. Slowly, they began to clap one by one, until the entire arena was filled with the sound of clapping.

"Praise the Goddess!"

"Praise the Goddess!"

"Praise the Goddess!"

There it is again, Shirou thought, as he remembered the priest and the man who dragged him here referring to a goddess.

Is this some type of cult?

As the gate that he came through opened up, the man that dragged him here came to drag him back to the room. As Shirou was being pulled along he thought about his drive for doing, well, anything really.

Around a year ago, his adoptive father, Kiritsugu, succumbed to his flaw—a weakness all awakened gain after their First Nightmare. His health has slowly declined ever since he saved Shirou and Miyu in a fire 8 years ago, caused by the opening of a Nightmare Gate.

On the night of his passing, Kiritsugu told Shirou about how he desired to be a Hero of Justice when he was a child, but couldn't when he became older as reality caught up to him.

Up until that point, Shirou had no real reason to live. No dreams, desires, or goals. He was simply existing. When Kiritsugu told him about his dream, Shirou immediately grasped onto it, with hopes that he will be able to stop a tragedy similar to the fire from happening ever again, while also becoming like his savior .

When Shirou told Kiritsugu that he'll become a Hero of Justice for him. Kiritsugu simply smiled and said, "I'm glad, I can rest easy now," as his last words as they both stared up at the moon.

————————————————————

After being thrown into the room, Shirou immediately sat in an empty corner of the room, opposite of the strange girl from earlier, who seemed to be meditating. He sat down before concentrating in an attempt to enter his soul sea, in order to be able to view the Memory without having to summoning it.

When Shirou opened his eyes, he found himself in a barren landscape. When he looked up to see his soul core, he found a large sphere of steel that seemed as if it was scratching against itself, if the sparks falling from the sky were any indication. As he looked around, he noticed monolithic cogs floating in the sky, slowly rotating while being covered by clouds.

Seeing that there is nothing else to look at, Shirou set his eyes forward before widening his eyes as he noticed the same weapon that the Withering Wolf used being stuck in the ground. He walked forward and grabbed the weapon. Once he did, he gasped in shock as he saw an image of a man who looked eerily similar to himself forging a weapon. Shirou quickly stepped back wondering about what he just saw, before remembering what he came here for.

He summoned his runes and focused on the words, [Washing Pole], and a new set of tunes appeared.

[Washing Pole]

Memory Rank: Awakened

Tier: 2

Memory Type: Weapon

[A long time ago, there was a blacksmith who served the Daemon of Fate. His goal was to create a sword that can sever Fate itself, and he created said sword in his own image. This washing pole is a sword that he created early on in his lifespan, as he attempted to see how effective a sword of such length could be]

Shirou did not know who this Daemon of Fate or blacksmith were, but he assumed that it would probably not matter. After reading the description, Shirou checked the enchantments of the Memory.

Memory Enchantments: [Ignite the Forge], [Hold]

Two enchantments!

Shirou counted himself lucky to get two enchantments on a memory in his First Nightmare. He excitedly focused on the runes to figure out what they do.

[Ignite the Forge]

Enchantment Description: [This Blade can ignite in flames]

[Hold]

Enchantment Description: [After getting into a quickdraw stance, the blade becomes sharper]

As Shirou read the runes, he realized that [Ignite the Forge] would require him to supply the flame with essence. He can't gain the ability to control his essence until he awakens, so that is effectively useless.

Although [Hold] is usable as long as he gets into a stance, it would leave him wide open. It's better to use it when his enemy is vulnerable.

Shirou summoned the Memory and took a look at it. It is as long as he is tall, which would make it difficult to wield in tight spaces. He'll probably have to get used to it, but it's nothing [Child of Swords] can't fix.

Shirou sighed as he exited his soul sea, wondering if anything could ever be simple…