Chapter 159: One of Them

When the three of them saw Sayaka's so-called "sensei", the majority of his face is covered by an oversized hood. This made it so that they didn't see his true appearance.

Now that they did, all of them are stunned. The small child in front of them has a perfectly round face, a pair of light amber pupils, and his hair which is a mix of black and white. His pale skin made another contrast to him, giving off the vibes of a child who needs to be protected.

"E-eh... I apologize for them." Shirou, who snapped back to reality, swiftly apologized.

"It's fine for this time. Though, isn't this method of information gathering childish?" The child said in a teasing tone.

"You... How could there be another unknown magus in this city?"

Hearing this, the child laughed. Yes, Fuyuki City might've been owned by the Tohsakas in the paper, but it doesn't mean that she'll get to know everything. She doesn't even know the full extent of her biological sister's suffering, but she could exclaim like this now.

"Haha... Everything is possible, young girl."

"Y-young girl?!" Rin exclaimed as if hearing something unbelievable. Since the one who said this is a "child" younger than her, she couldn't believe it for a second.

The child continued, "Just like that... ritual of sorts. It seems that your 'mana' is inside him. Is it what I think it is?"

Rin seemingly couldn't process it as she froze. Then, a tinge of redness spread to her cheeks as she realized the underlying meaning of that statement.

"N-NO! THAT'S NOT IT!!!"

Suddenly, Sayaka appeared between them and prevented her from being one step closer to the child.

"It's fine, Sayaka-chan."

"...Alright."

The child, Shiro, skillfully diffused the tension that rose between them. Rin took this time to explain that what they used is a ritual whereas only skinship is needed. The person involved in it would see the other person's memories, akin to a Master seeing the Servant's memories.

(A/N: This is the retconned version of "Mana transfer" in non-eroge versions of Fate.)

"You don't have to defend yourself that much, you know?" Shiro paused for a while before looking at Shirou who was still in an apron. "As for your problem... It's best if we talk about it properly."

"My problem..?" Shirou murmured confusedly.

In the end, they settled the thing in the guest room before proceeding to the living room with a kotatsu.

Shiro took the initiative to speak first.

"First of all... Whoever taught you is a bad teacher... I'm not saying that he's necessarily a bad person, though."

"He's not a bad person... but I've heard Rin mention this to me as well..."

During the time Shirou told Rin of his achievements as a magus, the latter was in disbelief due to how badly Shirou got taught. He learned the three basic magecraft, which is [Projection], [Reinforcement], and [Alteration], but he doesn't know about the others in-depth. He's also clueless about magus organizations, advanced spells, and his circuits are even awakened in some unorthodox ways!

While others strengthen their control over their Magic Circuits, he's there withstanding all those pain that he could've avoided if taught well.

"Sayaka-chan, can you point out his problems?" Shiro instructed. "Since you volunteered to teach him, I believe that you know it well."

The praise from her teacher made her elated, almost breaking her calm facade, but she proceeded to do as she was told.

"Emiya-san, your Magic Circuits itself are the problem."

"My Magic Circuits?"

Sayaka nodded and said, "You must be using them every day, but it seems like it's not opened properly. You're basically using a method to forcefully open them temporarily."

Shirou went silent upon hearing it. He then remembered something strange whenever he practices his [Projection]. Even if he couldn't forcefully project an item, he was still met with burning pain. The same also went whenever he applies [Reinforcement] on some objects, albeit the pain felt during that time is smaller.

"To fix it..." Sayaka disappeared from her previous spot as she said it, only reappearing behind Shirou. She took off a part of his shirt, which surprised the two girls beside him. Saber almost instinctively called forth her sword but chose not to since she could feel that the child opposite them is strange.

Simply put, he can threaten her life.

As for Rin, she doesn't trust Sayaka. But, her power made her believe in her intentions. She could kill Shirou in a surprise attack, after all. With that projected A Ranked Noble Phantasm and strange Tang Daos, she has enough capabilities to do so.

The moment her fingers touched his back, she initiated a [Structural Analysis] to grasp his Magic Circuits. With the leftover creator attributes in her body, her analysis is a very detailed one.

After analyzing it, she began doing the same thing as her teacher had done to her. She injected a part of her mana and properly activated his circuits by making them think that they were "functioning" for a long time already.

Hum-!

Shirou's circuits opened up while he was met with the familiar sensation of pain during its activation. Though, he's surprised that it's not as painful as it used to be. Moreover, his mana capacity seems to have increased as well.

All of these took less than 3 seconds to happen.

Seeing that her work is done, she perfunctorily said, "Done."

Shirou immediately said, "Thank you."

"It's nothing. This is part of our agreement, remember?"

"...I see. I'm still grateful to you."

Meanwhile, Rin inwardly sighed as she thought, 'Emiya-kun is not suited as a magus. This kindness might as well be the end of him. Even if he has some unknown great power, he would end up self-destructing...'

She didn't know that she got everything right. Alas, only if she had known that Emiya's future is the same as her prediction...

'Hm..? I should have a small talk with him later.'

Thinking of the Servant who's currently in a spiritual form right now, Shiro thought of some possibilities and plans. One good thing here is that the Saint Graph of the EMIYA Archer in the Grand Order and the Saint Graph of the EMIYA Archer in this world are not inter-connected—mostly because of Grand Order's current special state whereas even Alaya cut off contact with it after giving it one last hope.

Meaning, their experiences, and memories are not the same. EMIYA doesn't know Shiro, but Shiro knows him very well.

'It's tough to become powerless. I still need to remove the worries that the others would experience, so fixing my injuries is my biggest objective for now.'

What he didn't know is that... the situation is not as simple as he thought.

*****

In a very mystical place, the space where the "singular" origins of the so-called "Heroic Spirits" are present...

A unique being, one that is similar yet different to the other Heroic Spirits, is woken up from her dream.

"Shiro..."

*****

A/N: A small trivia. One of the reason why Shirou got his circuits damaged when he projected Kanshou and Bakuya for the first time is exactly due to his unorthodox opening (switching) of his circuits. As to why it didn't need healing now, his own body could heal those small injuries itself. One has to remember that in Day 1-3, Shirou took over 1 hour just to open a single node (in the way that Kiritsugu taught). Using [Projection] during his fight with Kuzuki accidentally opened up his circuits properly, though it's a forced and sudden one that caused injuries to it. You can think of a battery being charged from 0 to 100 in a second. There's no way that it didn't sustain any damages, just like Shirou after waking up the next day. Archer fixing it enabled Shirou to use his [Projection] magecraft to full potential (28 Magic Circuits, average, but his Reality Marble is enough for most of the stuff).