One Year

Back home, Shirou plopped onto his bed with a million thoughts running through his head.

When he saw Sakura in the arcade, he realized that she hadn't been too badly broken yet. However, it was only a matter of time before Shinji would be sent overseas to study. He had to take the opportunity while he was still in Japan to clean out the Matous entirely.

But to do that, he needed to get even stronger. Currently, the only things he had mastered were Martial Arts and Kendo. None of his Magecraft were up to scratch, and he hadn't even started trying to activate his Reality Marble yet.

Perhaps Kiritsugu would be able to help him? He had tried to use his Healing Magecraft on him during training, but the effects were minimal. As expected, even Avalon wouldn't be able to cleanse humanity's greed and desires.

However, the Healing did manage to stagnate the corruption. Kiritsugu would not be able to return to his prime, but at least he wouldn't deteriorate further as long as Shirou was here. Since that was the case, wouldn't he be able to use the remaining 17 Origin Bullets to aid Shirou in destroying the Matous?

But firstly, Shirou would have to prove that he was capable of handling the assault by himself.

Shirou wanted Kiritsugu to simply be a back-up plan, since he was aware of his wishes.

He wanted to retire from being a Magus, yet Shirou was going to ask him to return to being one. Apart from that, if Kiritsugu died, then Shirou would have to find work to earn money. Although he could easily draw manga or win the lottery, it would still take time out of his day which he could be using to train.

So while the reason may be cold, detached and more rational than emotional, Shirou wanted Kiritsugu to stay alive.

In the end, everything counted on strength. Without enough strength, nothing could be achieved.

---

Inside the Matou residence, a hunched figure was currently overwatching a huge pit of worms, writhing inside and outside of a young girl with purple hair.

'Hmm… that Emiya boy has already grown so much… he will definitely be an obstacle. Looks like I'll have to speed up my plans.'

He slowly raised his hand, and several worms crawled out from his arm. Anyone watching would probably puke at the disgustingness of it.

The worms continued to slither out, until it filled the pit to the absolute brim.

The girl, as if she felt the increase in worms, started writhing about, showing her first movement since she started the 'treatment'.

"Hmm. Looks like your adapting rather well. Let's hope you mature faster than he does."

The little girl simply looked at the ceiling with her lifeless eyes.

---

Shirou continued his training, while also keeping in contact with Hiro. After that last incident, he found that training all the time was having a negative effect on his mentality.

He needed to be able to let go once in a while, to relax a little bit. Otherwise, he'd be like a permanently wound-up toy, and would break when it really came to the important parts.

Of course, the DS system made sure that his body was always in tip-top condition. However, his mental health was not the same. Academics only helped with wisdom and intelligence, not the way the brain handles stress.

And so, a year slowly passed by.

Shirou made an extreme amount of progress. His Physical ability had reached an insane 1,500, meaning he had 150 grown men's worth of physical prowess.

His Academics had increased every day as well, reaching 431, 43 times the norm.

He had also made a lot of progress with his Swordsmanship, Martial Arts and Magecraft.

[Academics: 431

Physical ability: 1,500

Art: 200

Music: 200

Communication: 200

Charisma: 200

Prana: 2,120]

[Swordsmanship:

Kendo: 100%

Kenjutsu: 100%

Niten Ichi-ryu: 100%

Instant Shadowless Sword: 100%

Suigetsu: 100%

Nothingness: 100%

…]

[Martial Arts:

Emiya Style: 100%

Karate: 100%

Muay Thai: 100%

Jiu Jitsu: 100%

…]

[Magecraft:

Magic Circuits: 106

Gradation Air: 100%

Reinforcement: 100%

Healing: 100%

Innate Time Control: 100%

Gem Magecraft: 100%

Origin Bullet: 76%]

Pretty much all of his Magecraft had reached 100% mastery, with the exception of Origin Bullet. The reason was that he was having some trouble recreating the Origin Bullets.

He had already analysed the structure of Kiritsugu's Bullets and Thompson Contender, and they were not easy to reproduce.

The Bullets were conceptual weapons, while the Contender was a Mystic Code.

Therefore, Shirou opted to create his own version. Instead of using his bones, he would compress a sword from his Unlimited Blade Works into the form of a bullet, then fire it off from his palm instead of a gun.

The way it acted was more similar to Broken Phantasms compared to the penetrating power of the Thompson, but that was to Shirou's advantage.

If his Origin could be actualized over a large area, then there would be no problem with hitting the enemy's Magic Circuits.

In fact, it could be possible to change their entire body into a Sword.

He could then store them within his UBW after tracing them, turning him into a sort of 'Collector'. It sounded a bit dark to Shirou, but also way too cool to pass up.

As for his Magic Circuits, he now had 106 of them. With a capacity of 20 each, it totalled to 2,120 Prana.

With this much, he would be able to support the Reality Marble Unlimited Blade Works for 10 minutes, minimum.

The original Shirou required the help of Rin to activate it. Assuming that the defective Magic Circuits would be able to provide 5 units of Prana, then it would give him 135 units. If it was rounded up along with Rin's Prana, it would reach 200 units of Prana. With that much, he was able to support it for a couple of minutes.

The current Shirou had 2,120 Prana, which probably allowed for a maximum uptime of half an hour.

Granted, only the start-up took a lot of Prana, while the upkeep didn't not take so much. Therefore, it would be more accurate to say that Shirou would be able to activate his UBW around 20 times a day.

His UBW itself had also changed a lot. The pillars had actually formed a full Parthenon, with the DS system taking the central spot, replacing Avalon.

Avalon was now truly in a dormant state. With Shirou's current Physical capabilities, there was no need for its regeneration ability.

Right now, his UBW could actually be called Avalon, the final resting place of King Arthur.

With its transformation, his tracing ability had also taken a new aspect. Instead of copying just its history and its structure, it also copied the errors within. With this information, the next Projection of the weapon would be equal to the original, since the flaws were taken away. It wouldn't surpass the original, since it was still a 'copy'.

Another change was that he was able to trace Divine Constructs. Although it took an immense amount of time, he was still able to do it. This new capability would allow him to trace the Jewel Sword with ease. He also wouldn't need to go down the Heaven's Feel route to get it.

After taking down the Matous, Shirou was going to take a break. He had been training – no, grinding – non-stop, even in his free time.

The occasional meet-ups with Hiro weren't enough to restore his mentality anymore, so he was a bit unstable already.

It was to the point where he thought that massacring a bunch of people would make it better.

In any case, the Matous should be counting their days left on Earth…