Sparring And Holiday

I deflected the strike coming toward me and on instinct kicked the person's legs out from under them before bringing my own weapon up and striking down with an overhead slash. It hit them and slammed them straight down into the floor.

Smiling, I drop my stance and put out a hand for the person who was now groaning on the floor.

They took the hand, pulling themselves up and took off the black mesh helmet guarding their face and head. The person, a guy, looked indignantly up at me with a wry grin, "Masato-kun, we were training Kendo, so why are you using kicks?" he gestured to the shinai in both our hands, complaining about my way of winning. As naive as ever.

I grinned, striking his head lightly with the shinai in my hand before he could react, causing him to yelp and rub at his forehead with an aggrieved look on his face, "No, we were sparring. Do you think people follow rules like that in an actual fight? Besides, you asked for my help."

Shrugging, I turned away from him and put the shinai back on the rack.

Obviously I knew the basics of Kendo due to my experience from the Samurai memories I had but I guess that bastard had effected me more than I thought because the act of following rules in a fight utterly annoyed me. But, seeing as it was a positive change, I didn't aim to stop it because I agreed with the sentiment. In a fight, you should use everything you can to win. Honor, good-will, sportsmanship--all of those are useless if they cost you your life.

My experiences in that gladiatorial pit from the age of nine cemented that view and opinion in me to an ultimate degree. I'd never be able to shake it, no matter what I tried.

I didn't want to get rid of it, either, so there's that.

Anyway, who was I training with? Shirou Emiya, Kiritsuga's adopted son.

When I arrived back home at the age of 14 - two years ago - I was between a rock and a hard place. On one side, mom wanted me to go back to school and on the other side, I wanted to train 24/7 in preparation for the Holy Grail War I knew would be taking place in Fuyuki someplace soon. Specifically when Shirou and I turned 17.

Mom wanted me to live an ordinary life and didn't want me stuck inside training my body and swinging a sword around or practicing martial arts. While I didn't want to waste my time on school when I knew shit was gonna hit the fan sooner or later.

In the end, we came to an agreement.

I would go to school - but in return, both Kiritsuga and mom would teach me magecraft. Mom was a Magus, yeah, which wasn't really too surprisingly seeing as she was old friends with Kiritsuga.

Either way, in the process of learning from Kiritsuga, I noticed a few big changes in the timeline. For one, he wasn't dead. Two, his wife and daughter were still alive. Kinda wild but not gonna lie, I'm glad it didn't all go balls up for the guy. He didn't deserve the hand he was dealt in the original series.

Shirou was a friendly guy and seeing me new in town with no friends, took it upon himself to help me out. As you'd expect if you knew anything about him. Since then, we've actually become pretty close friends.

Slowly but surely, I've been helping him get over his survivor's guilt and helping him take a more realistic outlook on what 'justice' is and that it isn't all black and white. Sometimes it's grey.

I was helped out quite a lot by Kiritsuga's changes as well. His wife and daughter being here with him helped him not take on such an extreme melancholy like before. He's still a little blank at times but that's to be expected from a guy who's seen and done what he's had to see and do. His wife, Irisviel von Einzbern, is also a very nice person and likes to dote both Shirou and I - no doubt because she knows what the two of us have been through. Shirou is also her adoptive son, so it's to be expected.

...Though mom and Irisviel nearly came to blows over the latter doting on me. As to be expected of my jealous mother.

Ahem, anyway, all this contributed to helping Shirou move passed his unbecoming views on justice and his past problems with how he survived that fire while no one else did. He was still a kind and somewhat naive guy but he was at least self-aware now. Wasn't so goddamn dense now either, which did wonders for him when it came to social situations.

Interrupting my thoughts, the door to the training dojo of the Emiya Residence slid open and in walked Kiritsuga, "Ah, Shirou, Masato," he greeted us with a smile, "I didn't know you two were in here."

Shirou smiled to his dad, happily replying, "Masato and I were just doing a little bit of sparring, dad, nothing too serious. What brings you here anyway?" he quirked an eyebrow at Kiritsuga, and I had to say I was quite curious as to why he was here as well. He hardly ever trained in here and whenever he did, it was very rarely he would come here alone.

"Well, it is my dojo, so am I not allowed to come here when I want?" he returned the question with an accusatory look, smirking when he saw Shirou get a bit flustered at what he said. He waved his hand to gesture he was joking and continued, "Jokes aside, I was here to do a little training. I've gotten a little rusty," he stretched his arms, rolling his shoulders back and forth, "How about it, Masato? It's been a while since we've sparred without any magecraft, hasn't it?"

I smiled in reply, nodding, "It has been a long time, old man. Think you can keep up without your magecraft?" I taunted back in good nature, making Kiritsuga chuckle and shake his head.

Shirou looked a bit envious at the mention of magecraft, but he didn't say anything else. I'd long since talked to him about his envy a year ago and he realized it wasn't anyone's fault that his Magic Circuits and potential as a Magus were pretty awful. It was just how it was.

My talent, however, was actually pretty decent. Nothing like Rin Tohsaka's potential but pretty above average.

I took advantage of this talent and focused on one thing: Reinforcement. Mainly of my body.

Seeing as I was already much more sturdy than the average person, I could handle more Reinforcement even before refining my control over it. And after two years of lessons from Kiritsuga and mom, my control was pretty good by now and my Reinforcement gave me quite the boost to my already abnormal physical abilities.

Think of it like this, Reinforcement doesn't actually add anything in terms of quantity. It doesn't suddenly add muscle mass or muscle density. It just fills in the weaknesses of whatever you're using it on. So, it takes the quality of your body and removes weaknesses - it improves quality.

So, the stronger you are, the better quality it gave give you.

Let's say a normal human's body quality is like wood, right? When they use Reinforcement, it makes their body more like rock or iron, improving their physical ability and durability by miles.

My body is naturally already like iron, so when I sue Reinforcement, I'm instantly rocketed to something like titanium quality or tungsten quality. Basically, even without Reinforcement, I can fight normal people who are using it and if I decide to use it, it'll quickly become a one-sided fight unless I'm up against a lot of people. Even then it would still be pretty one-sided.

And after two years of very intense physical training, my baseline physical prowess has only got more and more extreme.

My Herculean Physique and High-Speed Physique cheats are helping a lot. The first allows me to get physically stronger and stronger without end as long as I train, and the High-Speed Physique allows me to accelerate to my top speed almost instantly - not to mention that my top speed is insanely high as well. I have no doubt in my mind that I could outrun a high performance car in a drag race.

Best part? Both of these physiques give me insane levels of durability. I've never been shot before but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make it passed my muscles and would just get stuck there.

TLDR? I'm a physical beast and with the use of Reinforcement I can turn myself into a living natural disaster. I'm well beyond the realm of humanity right now and I'm pretty sure I could give a Heroic Spirit a run for their money.

"Of course I can keep up with you, you cocky brat," Kiritsuga scoffed, "I kept up with servants, so I can handle you."

Shirou stepped off to the side and sat down, watching us intently so he could maybe try and learn something from the spar. I could see his eyes light up slightly, telling me he was using Reinforcement on his eyes so he could keep up with our speed. He worked extremely hard to try and get stronger, probably because of my involvement in his life. He didn't wanna get too left behind by his best friend, I guess.

I smirked but didn't say anything, instead settling into a stance that was ingrained into my very bones. After years with the experience and talent of two martial grandmasters at my disposal, I'd quickly found ways to improve both my unarmed combat style and my sword style.

After all, two sets of experience and talent are better than one.

This style I'm using doesn't even have a name - the unarmed grandmaster not even bothering to name it and instead focused on improving it or fighting with it. It couldn't even be called Karate anymore, after the inclusion of martial arts from all over Asia like Muay Thai, Bajiquan, Silat and many others were sampled, taken apart and the beneficial parts were added to this grandmaster's killing style.

What was left was a style that emphasized powerful, precise strikes, elbows and kicks paired with a ruthless efficiency that aimed for weak points and the like. It was a hard/external style of martial arts that focused on a strong body dishing out strong strikes and attacks. Perfect for me who had an impossibly strong body.

Kiritsuga used a martial art that was less focused on outward strength but more on technique and just killing the opponent with the least amount of energy. A martial art perfect for people who want to fight people who are stronger than you.

Still, he wasn't really a close-quarters combatant and was more of a gunslinger-type of fighter but that didn't mean he was useless in a close-quarters fight.

Quite the opposite, actually, as with his specific style of fighting, he can catch you off-guard and use your own force against you if you aren't careful. Quite an annoying opponent to fight, if I had to say so. But that was mainly because I was used to battles where two people clashed together like two brutes.

We circled one another, shuffling our feet and feeling out the other's movements. What I lacked in actual experience (mystical memories aside), I more than made up with through my instincts.

Which allowed me to see a slight opening in Kiritsuga's stance. Charging forward, I practically teleported in front of him, leading with a front kick aimed toward his right thigh. He side-stepped the kick, returning a counter punch to my stomach that I knocked aside and used the motion to swing my opposing elbow toward his jaw.

All this happened in about a second or two, and Kiritsuga threw himself back and away from the elbow heading for his head. If it had hit, he'd have gotten away with broken bones in a best case scenario and he'd be dead in a worst case scenario.

Despite knowing this, I didn't hold back much and neither did Kiritsuga want me to.

He was feeling rusty and what better way to get back into fighting condition than to experience some life and death fighting?

I quickstepped toward him, leading with a punch which he ducked under and in the process grabbed my arm, flipping me over his shoulder. I let myself get flung, flipping my body so I could have my legs catch me and once I was on solid ground again, I pivoted sending a brutal straight toward Kiritsuga's nose. If this hit, he'd be dead, regardless of best or worst case scenarios.

Luckily, he barely moved his head of the way, though not before the edge of my fist grazed his cheek, leaving a rather nasty cut there. The force of the punch was just that great that even barely grazing against it could cut open your skin.

Of course I wasn't going all out, and I was intent on only using technique to match him. If I used my speed and strength to their fullest, I'd have already won. But what'd be the point in that? I wanna improve, not stagnate out of a sense of complacency brought on by my superior physicality.

Kiritsuga continued, as if the near run-in with death was nothing much, and sent a palm strike toward my elbow and wrist, his arm blurring momentarily.

When the attacks hit, I felt pain spike up my arm and on instinct, I brought my foot up and impacted it against Kiritsuga's stomach. In the process, I tore my arm out of his grasp and pushed him away with my foot. The pain in my arm numbed - but that wasn't a good thing. My arm hung uselessly by my side, as a product of Kiritsuga's nerve strike attack he'd just pulled off on me.

I'd recover - waaaay quicker than a normal person - but in the middle of a fight, it was still a hassle to deal with.

I switched my style up, keeping my still working arm up front while my other useless one was kept behind me to keep it from getting in the way.

With one arm, I was somewhat on the defensive seeing as I was so intent on using technique primarily, but I was still enjoying the fight. You don't have the experiences of two fighting maniacs, live for years in an underground fighting pit, and not become a fighting maniac. I was lucky in the sense that I wasn't the sort who actively went out of my way to fight people, but if I was fighting an equal opponent, I'd usually enjoy the moment.

Especially when I improved upon my fighting skills. Like, right now, for instance.

Our fight continued for a few more minutes before we both stopped and gave the other a respectful bow. Kiritsuga was sweating and bleeding from a few cuts on his face but was otherwise quite okay and smiling.

I, on the other hand, was feeling numb all over and one of my arms was still uselessly hanging limp but I was smiling widely and powering through the numbness through my superb control over my muscles. Well, the muscles that I could still feel anyway.

"...You two are as monstrous as ever," Shirou gave a wry laugh off to the side, an expression of disbelief on his face as he thought about our fight, "I wouldn't have lasted more than a few seconds against either of you, even with Reinforcement," he gave a sigh before smiling, "Well, at least I have a goal to work towards, right?" he beamed over to us, making Kiritsuga smile with pride.

The adoptive father nodded, walking over to his son and patting the shorter teen on the shoulder, "Exactly. If you want, I can start to step up our training. But don't complain once it gets difficult!" he playfully warned, wagging his finger at Shirou who smiled happily and nodded.

Sitting down off to the side, I worked on flushing the numbness out of my body and getting my nervous system back into working order.

It only took a few minutes of focused concentration and by the time I opened my eyes again, I saw Kiritsuga tutoring Shirou on his fighting technique. With Shirou sparring both me and his father while learning from his father, he should be much stronger than his canon self by the time canon comes around.

Good. I need reliable people who I can count on during that time.

While they were busy going through the motions, I got up and exited the dojo, heading toward the changing room. Once changed, I headed home after saying goodbye to Irisviel. Luckily Illya wasn't around otherwise I'd have had to deal with her trying to dote on me - not out of romantic feelings but because she'd seen her mother and my mom do it to me, so she copied it. It's quite embarrassing for someone who looks like a pre-pubescent teen to try and dote on you.

I picked up into a jog on the way home, knowing I had some packing to do tonight. Why? Because we were going on Holiday to Greece. It took some persuading for mom to feel okay with going abroad with me again but with Kiritsuga and Irisviel's help, it eventually worked.

Finally, I'll get to enjoy some normal activities--Wait, isn't that a flag?

...Shit.