The woods once again

(Shirou's pov)

After I walked Rin home, I went to my home. It was almost noon, and I should be at school, so Sella will probably want to have a talk with me about responsibility. I hope Irisviel is home.

---

When I finally arrived home and opened the door, Sella stood there with her arms crossed.

Sella: "Where have you been?"

Shirou: "When a man and a woman love each other very much..."

Sella: "Be serious!!!"

I stood there with a blank expression. That's what I get from trying to tell the truth. Plan B it is.

Shirou: "Irisviel, code red!!!"

I heard some noise behind Sella. Probably Irisviel was going the shortest route, not caring what she'd destroy.

Irisviel: "Voldemort is coming!?"

Shirou: "No, that's code black."

Irisviel: "Then what is code red?"

I swear I could see question marks above her head.

Shirou: "We talked about it a few days ago."

Irisviel: "Oooh, that one. I thought it was code green."

Shirou: "No, that's Hulk."

Irisviel: "Right, right.

Sella stood there watching our exchange. It looked like she couldn't stay quiet any longer.

Sella: "Irisviel-sama, it's the second time Shirou didn't return home at night, and this time, he even skipped school!"

Irisviel put the finger on her chin, showing that she thought deeply about something.

Irisviel: "Don't worry, don't worry. I'll talk to Ahirou about it, okay."

Sella bowed slightly but unwillingly.

Sella: "Understood Irisviel-sama."

I walked past Sella, who was looking at me with a sharp gaze. I'm starting to think that she does not like me.

Inside, Irisviel and I had a talk about bees and flowers, which was a little strange since I'm past that stage, but I suspect that she just wanted to have this talk.

NEXT DAY

While the girls had a meeting at Luvia's place, I went to my old training ground. I felt like going there for some reason. Since I started training with Scathach, I didn't visit here.

There I saw a girl just standing there without moving a bit. I, of course, recognized her as she was Nanami Moriyama. As I approached her, she noticed me as I was not hiding.

Shirou: "Eh... hi."

Nanami: "Hi..."

Shirou: "..."

Nanami: "..."

God, this is awkward. What should we talk about? Our last time meeting here wasn't the nicest, primarily because of Truck-chan and my uncontrollable rage at the time.

As I was planning to say something, I heard someone behind me.

Beatrice: "Wow, you really are here, just like she said."

I quickly reacted to her presence.

Shirou: "NANAMI RUN!!!"

I quickly traced the twin blades and threw them at Beatrice. She had already Installed her card, having one arm a lot bigger than the other, holding a giant hammer. She easily deflected them.

I looked in the direction of Nanami, seeing that she didn't even start running.

Shirou: "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!!

Nanami: "B-but-"

Shirou: "No buts, she'll kill you!"

She then hesitantly turned away from Beatrice and me and started running.

Beatrice: "And where do you think YOU are going?"

She almost attacked Nanami, but I fired Caladbolg at her, which she blocked with her hammer.

Shirou: "To a safe place."

Clearly displeased with my intervention, she said.

Beatrice: "I'm going to enjoy your screams."

(Nanami's pov)

I was running through the forest. I didn't know where I was going, but I needed to get away from there as fast as possible. I never saw Shirou so serious before. The only comparison was when he attacked that stranger which turned out to be a new transfer student.

I didn't know how to react to that. Shirou didn't do anything about it, so I kept quiet.

But it's not the time to think about it. I can feel my lungs trying to kill me.

*Bam*

Something flew by me and hit a tree, flying through it and hitting another tree, stopping there. It was Shirou, but parts of his skin were darkened and hair white.

Shirou: "*Cough*."

He started coughing out blood, and I noticed that one of his arms was bent in the direction it shouldn't.

Nanami: "SHIROU!"

Shirou: "Don't come any closer!!!"

He then started healing at a visible rate. His once broken arm straightened up, looking healthy once again.

He summoned a bow and a spiral-looking arrow and shot it at the incoming girl. She deflected the arrow with her big hammer.

As Shirou was fighting, he used more and more different weapons. There were twin blades, two-handed swords, and now a blood-red spear. Just looking at it gave me goosebumps.

He looked like he was used to using it. He then took a low stance.

Shirou: "Gae-"

Beatrice: "Oh no, you don't!"

She threw her large hammer at Shirou before he could finish whatever he wanted to say. Seeing this, he abandoned his original plan and tried to block it with the spear in his hand, but the only thing he accomplished was to weaken the impact a little.

*Smash*

Shirou flew once again, his whole body bloodied and wholly darkened. It was the same with his hair. Once entirely red are now white.

(Shirou's pov)

I was thrown into a tree a second time today. Now that I think about it, I have a lot of bad luck in the woods. First was my death, meeting Truck-chan, meeting Scathach, and now that. I should probably avoid forests for the rest of my life.

As I was healing, a lot of information started flowing into my head. I smiled and projected my favorite weapons, Bakuya and Kanshou, slightly different this time. They possess the shape of two handguns but still have the blades under a muzzle.

With an almost maniacal smile, I faced Beatrice.

Shirou: "Let's see how you fare in a second round."

Beatrice: "Don't get cocky, but maybe I'll forgive since you are one of the best toys I ever met. I break you, and you heal yourself. It's the endless circle, and I don't need to worry about replacing yo-"

I shoot at her mid-sentence using my new pistols.

Shirou: "You talk too much."

I threw Kanshou at her, which she easily avoided. I rushed at her with constant shooting, but it didn't do any significant damage. The thrown weapon was coming back.

Beatrice: "Did you really think that it would work?"

I didn't answer her as the weapon in my hand started spinning and firing off bullets simultaneously. I caught returning Kanshou in my hand and combined both weapons into one, making a staff with blades at both ends.

I stabbed her feet with one of the ends.

Beatrice: "AUGH!!!"

I used the staff as leverage to kick her face. She took a few steps back, but I didn't stop.

As I used bullets instead of arrows, now I could compress the weapons I know into bullets I fire. I used the 'arrow' I'm most familiar with - Caladbolg.

It had much more power than bullets I fired off earlier, but it still wasn't enough.

As our fight progressed, my fighting style became more wild and ruthless, arms, legs, body, and face. There were minor bruises on every part of Beatrice's body.

Beatrice: "How dare you injure my face!!!"

She swung her hammer, but I avoided it by back-stepping. I should probably end it.

I started gathering energy in both of my revolvers.

Shirou: "I am the bone of my swo-"

I felt extreme pain in my whole body. It wasn't like anything I had ever felt before. It even made me kneel.

Seeing my condition, Beatrice smiled sadistically, but she wasn't looking at me. With much difficulty, I turned my head, and what or should I say who I saw made me widen my eyes.

Behind a tree stood Nanami. What is she doing there? I thought she tun away a long time ago.

Despite immense pain, I managed to scream.

Shirou: "RUN NANAMI, RUN!!!"

Beatrice: "Shut up."

She appeared next to me, kicked me in the face, and walked towards Nanami. Nanami seemed frozen in place because of fear as she didn't move from her place even when Beatrice was slowly but surely approaching her.

I tried to project a bow and arrow to buy some time, but...

Shirou: "ARGH!!!"

A large number of minor cuts appeared on both of my arms. Trying to project anything caused pain comparable to what I felt a few minutes prior.

Beatrice raised her hammer, ready to strike defenseless Nanami. I couldn't let Nanami die before my eyes, so I ignored the pain to project just one thing I needed the most at the moment.

Shirou: "I am the bone of my sword, Rho Aias!!!"

As I was saying my chant, the wounds at my arm started to deepen to the point my whole arm was covered in blood. It was even hard to call it an arm at this point as big chunks of flesh were missing.

The seven petals shield appeared in front of Nanami, protecting her from the strike.

Beatrice: "I love when they struggle."

She then infused lighting power in her hammer and tried again. This time destroying three layers at once. After a few seconds, another one broke. I couldn't do anything to stop her as she was destroying layer after layer to reach Nanami finally.

Shirou: "DODGE!!!"

At my words, Nanami seemed to wake up and attempted to avoid the incoming attack, but she was too slow as the hammer smashed her whole left arm and part of her leg. They weren't broken as only ashes remained of them.

Beatrice's attack was not only powerful but also had properties of lightning, so Nanami would feel as if thunder had struck her.

Seeing her in that condition as I couldn't do anything as I was barely conscious because of pain and blood loss made me feel scared for the first time.

As I was losing consciousness, I heard Beatrice saying, seemingly to herself.

Beatrice: "What do you mean 'come back'? I just need to finish them off. I know. I know. I remember our deal. I'll leave him alive, okay, jeez."

The following words were directed at me.

Beatrice: "You got lucky this time."

And so she left, leaving Nanami and me at the brink of death, but as I was about to faint, I heard steps behind me.

(A/N I feel I need to apologize as I'm going to slow down the release for this fanfic. I'm feeling a little burned out, so I want to start to write new fanfic. It will be a system multiverse fanfic. Not the most original, but I'll try to make it more fun.

Me slowing down doesn't mean that I'll stop updating this fanfic. I'll still try to write one chapter a week.

Thanks for reading.)

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