Swordsmanship

Shirou's shinai was hovering around Taiga's neck. It remained there for a good few seconds since no-one knew how to react.

"W-Winner, Shirou!"

As soon as Kiritsugu announced the result, Shirou's body was like a doll whose strings had been cut, and he lost all the tension in his body.

Lowering his shinai, he realized that his DS system had automatically stopped his 'Duel' action.

Therefore, Shirou came to the conclusion that the culprit behind his tension was his system. Technically speaking, a duel in swordsmanship should be a fight to the death. Since his system's action was simply 'Duel' and not 'Compete in kendo', Shirou could only assume that his last strike carried the intent to kill.

Luckily, he had managed to regain control of himself before striking Taiga's neck too hard. After all, Kiritsugu doted on her and it would be bad if he hurt her.

However, this reminded Shirou of the dangers of the system. While it may be all good and well when alone or fighting enemies, unwanted harm may occur when fighting with allies or friendlies.

"H-How did you do that?"

Taiga had a mix of expressions on her face. From a little bit of fear, to shock, surprise, and ultimately stubbornness. Evidently, his strike had stirred up a multitude of emotions within her.

[Choose!

A. You aren't worthy of knowing.

B. Why should I tell you?

C. I don't know.]

"I… I don't really know. My body just moved on its own."

"Hee~… that must mean you have talent! Grr… to think there's someone more talented than me…"

"Anyway, let's end this here. Shirou, good job! You too Taiga!"

Taiga grit her teeth. This battle did not go the way she wanted at all. She was meant to absolutely dominate Shirou, leaving Kiritsugu with no choice but to choose her over him. Yet the exact opposite just occurred.

Shirou didn't pay much attention to it, however. He just calmly left the dojo and went back to his room. But on the inside, he was jumping for joy. He had made a huge discovery just now.

When he inspected his Swordsmanship module, he discovered that Kendo had risen to 10%. No doubt, fighting in an actual duel rather than just training had boosted his proficiency gain.

For most people, this would explain everything. His last strike, the way he moved, and even the way he threatened Taiga's life could be accounted for by the increase in proficiency.

Yet, Shirou himself thought that something was amiss. And as if to prove it, a cursory look into his soul yielded some results.

His soul, in other words, his Unlimited Blade Works, had been accessible ever since he became 'one' again. But without Magic Circuits or Prana, there was no way to use it; he couldn't trace items into existence, and there was absolutely no way he would be able to start a Reality Marble.

However, he could still delve into it by himself. And when he did, he found the actual reason for his change. In front of him, there were two shinai – one plain, and another with a tiger keychain.

They were both stabbed into the ground, but not all the way into the hilt. If Shirou had to guess, then it would be about 9/10ths in the ground.

From there, the conclusion was easy. The 1/10th that was exposed obviously represented his proficiency in kendo. When it reached 100%, then both shinai would be fully exposed, and Shirou would have an impressive arsenal of moves and battle sense at his disposal.

This was different from the original Shirou's UBW. The original Shirou would trace every aspect of the weapon, from its structure to its history, as well as the way it was wielded.

Through this trace, he would gain a little bit of the expertise required. However, it was really only a little. While Archer EMIYA had a good grasp on his own battle techniques like the Triple-linked Crane Wings, the Emiya Shirou of the Fifth Holy Grail War was severely lacking.

Even in the UBW route, he could only imitate EMIYA after fighting against him and losing. Although he did win in the end, the current Shirou didn't want a Pyrrhic victory. He wanted an outright victory. A victory that would go down in the annals of Holy Grail War history as the one, true winner.

As such, his current system was much more preferable. EMIYA's UBW was similar to cheating or taking a shortcut, but Shirou's way was the 'proper way'. Granted, he would need to spend time training, but there were still more than 9 years till the war.

However, thinking about it, Shirou realized the need to train his Magecraft. Without at least Gradation Air, even if Ea existed within his UBW, it would be useless.

Against Magus, who had transcended normal, everyday humans, and against Heroic Spirits, who transcended even the strongest Magus, simply physical prowess and technique would not be enough.

Sure, Kuzuki Souichirou managed to survive till pretty much the end while being a simple human.

However, his servant was Caster, who had helped to reinforce his fists when he fought. He managed to catch Saber by surprise when they first fought since it was a new style, but even Kuzuki himself knew he would lose the next time.

And such a Saber only managed to take four to five of Berserker's lives. Granted, her Prana was limited by the original Shirou's incompetence and indecisiveness, but that just served to prove his point even more. Pure Physical ability would never be able to exceed the ability brought about by the Prana, especially if a Noble Phantasm like God Hand was in play.

In the end, Kuzuki managed to win a battle, but lost the war. And what Shirou wanted to do was win the war.

Therefore, he would need to learn Magecraft. However, therein lay the problem.

According to the original, it would take Shirou around two years of consistent requests before Kiritsugu would acquiesce. While that would still leave plenty of time before the Holy Grail War, Shirou's current objective was to save Sakura.

He had to do so within the next two years, before Zouken gets too crazy, before Shinji becomes traumatized by Zouken, and before Sakura gets r*ped.

However, to truly save Sakura, he would need to defeat Zouken. But without the Third Magic, Heaven's Feel, or extreme firepower, he would just be able to use his worms to recreate his body.

Therefore, ideally, Shirou needed to be able to access his UBW Reality Marble for at least five minutes before he went to face off against Zouken.

Alas, when all is said and done, he still needed someone to teach him the basics of Magecraft. Kiritsugu himself only had a small part of the Emiya family's Magic Crest, and he used it to manipulate time, although not the extent of the Fifth Magic.

Armed with Innate Time Control and his Origin Bullets, Kiritsugu never needed any other Magecraft to fight. As such, the amount of knowledge that he would be able to pass down to Shirou was severely limited.

That was also one of the reasons why the original Shirou was so weak. The path that Kiritsugu had set for the original Shirou was fraught with danger and would yield very little results.

Luckily, there was a certain tsundere in town…