One Month

Day in and day out, Shirou trained with both Kiritsugu and Rin.

After a month, Shirou was like a completely different person. His previously flaccid body had been trained to the point of being toned. While not anything ridiculous for an 8-year-old, his muscles were considerably bigger than other kids the same age.

A month had passed since he started his training regime.

When training with Kiritsugu, he would first teach him a little bit about Innate Time Control. Following that, he would train him in unarmed combat. With the DS system, Shirou easily and quickly picked up most of the combat moves, which were part of the Emiya Style.

In his free time, he would also train his Swordsmanship as well as other more mainstream martial arts, like Muay Thai and Karate.

When training with Rin, he would read books on Magecraft – which surprisingly increased his Academics stat – as well as training his soul and Gem Magecraft. Although Rin didn't explicitly teach him Gem Magecraft since it was a family secret, Shirou's condition of being able to see Prana meant that he could see the spells engraved onto the gems and jewels.

Along with the help of Avalon and the DS system for controlling Prana, he could create his own version of Gem Magecraft.

Now that he wasn't officially going to school, he kept in sparse contact with Hiro. However, he was still getting his daily Academics increase due to Kiritsugu's home schooling.

Sometimes, Taiga would also pop by to eat some food and train with Shirou.

She was often surprised at Shirou's progress, since it had only been a month since he was a total beginner.

Almost every day, Shirou would spend at least 9 hours training Magecraft and combat. As a result, his DS system's stats had upgraded dramatically.

[Academics: 66

Physical ability: 142

Art: 20

Music: 10

Communication: 20

Charisma: 20

Prana: 660]

[Swordsmanship:

Kendo: 100%

Kenjutsu: 72%

Niten Ichi-ryu: Locked

Instant Shadowless Sword: Locked]

[Martial Arts:

Emiya Style: 100%

Karate: 100%

Muay Thai: 100%

Jiu Jitsu: 100%

…]

[Magecraft:

Magic Circuits: 33

Gradation Air: 54%

Reinforcement: 25%

Healing: 25%

Innate Time Control: 71%

Gem Magecraft: 35%

Origin Bullet: Locked]

He had already mastered kendo, and he was close to mastering Kenjutsu.

He had also mastered what could be considered an extreme amount of martial arts. The reason was that, compared to the Emiya style, they were practically child's play.

As for Magecraft, his Innate Time Control had the most improvement. Consistently seeing Kiritsugu use Double Accel and the other spells helped tremendously in his comprehension.

After all, he could practically see the Prana flowing through Kiritsugu's body.

Gem Magecraft was actually rather simple. It only involved imbuing gems and jewels with Prana and then 'engraving' a spell onto it. Afterwards, all one needed to do was activate the jewel by injecting it with a sliver of Prana.

Reinforcement and Healing improved at the same rate, since Healing was something that Avalon provided and was only limited by his own expertise in Reinforcement.

Similar to the original Shirou, he would practice his Gradation Air and Reinforcement at night, in the shed. However, instead of tracing and changing certain items, he knew how his Gradation Air worked.

Therefore, he would project the weapons already within his UBW, instead of changing items.

When it came to Reinforcement, he would reinforce the purpose of the item he projected; for swords, he would reinforce their sharpness and durability.

His Unlimited Blade Works had also changed dramatically within the month.

Avalon had already finished charging its Prana and was now relatively dormant within his soul. However, this dormant state was only dormant compared to its initial actions. His soul was still continuously changing.

The desert had now become a vast field, and it was getting thicker and greener by the day.

The swords would still stick out from the ground, but it gave off a more serene feeling than the previous solemnness.

There were an extra 6 pillars in the middle, representing the additional Magic Circuits that Shirou had gained.

The process of training his soul and increasing his Magic Circuits was interesting to say the least.

It required him to enter his soul, before using all the Prana within his body to 'create' a new pillar. It would usually take 5 days for Shirou to complete a pillar, which meant that he would gain a Magic Circuit every 5 days.

However, the fact that Avalon and the DS system were also pillars provided some food for thought. Would Shirou be able to create something like them in the future, when he had enough Prana at his disposal?

---

"Shirou-kun, are you alright? What are you spacing out for?"

Shirou returned from his contemplation when Hiro called out to him.

Hiro had invited him on his day off to go to the arcade and have some fun, since they hadn't seen each other in a while.

Despite only knowing each other for a short time, Hiro and Shirou had formed a bond with each other. Therefore, even though Shirou had quit school, they would still keep in contact from time to time.

"Ah, nothing. I was just thinking about something."

"Then that's fine, but since we finally met up, try to focus a bit more, alright? I need to beat you at this game!"

"Hahaha, you can try!"

Shirou was enjoying cutting loose. His daily routine was, although necessary, really boring. Training, training and more training, followed by learning and more learning.

There was no free time to do the things he enjoyed, which were manga and anime. Even when he did, he was trying to increase his Art and Music stat so that he could make an impact on the world.

Therefore, this one day off would become the outlet for all of his pent-up frustrations.

(A/N: O.o I mean that literally, not as a euphemism for anything else…)

"Hey, that game looks pretty fun! Let me in on it!"

An unknown voice suddenly rang next to Shirou and Hiro. When Shirou turned around, what he saw made him grit his teeth.

Standing next to him was a boy with a rather innocent looking face, with purple eyes and a blue mop for hair.

Although he was not as big a prick as his future self was right now, the haughtiness and arrogance were still present throughout his being.

Hiro, who was confused at Shirou's sudden hostility towards the stranger, could only hear him whisper a single word with utmost anger.

"Shinji…"