Warm and Soft Ribs

(3rd POV)

*Pant* *Pant *Pant*

In an empty park inside Hagun Academy, Ikki and Stella could be seen breathing heavily as they could be seen supporting themselves with a wooden sword.

"How can *Pant* you fight both *Pant* of us at the *Pant* same time?" Stella asked between breaths as sweat fell from her face.

'I knew that Shirou was strong from the beginning, and during the terrorist attack it was proven as he defeated them so easily as to not even break a sweat, but experiencing it first hand like this is…exciting,' Ikki thought while smiling with his face covered in sweat just like Stella, but all he felt was more motivation to get stronger.

Shirou called them this morning to make a training schedule for them since the inter-matches were starting, but it was mostly for Ikki and Stella's sake. Shirou wanted Ikki to learn the Total Concentration Breathing from himself using his Perfect Vision, and the best way was to fight them so that they could get actual experience.

Shirou didn't have any signs of fatigue and contrary to the both of them, he was totally fine.

"Don't worry, you are still young, eventually you will get stronger the more experience you accumulate and the more knowledge you acquire," Shirou reassured them as he rested his wooden sword on his shoulder.

"Why do you sound like my father?" Stella asked, annoyed as she finally calmed her breath.

Shirou just shrugged his shoulders and saw Kuroneko approaching them with their water bottles.

Stella and Ikki quickly grabbed theirs, not forgetting to thank her, before they started gulping water down their throats.

"So what do you think? Have you been able to grasp it?" Shirou asked curiously at Ikki since Shirou knew Ikki would be fast at learning it.

Ikki nodded, "Yeah, but only parts of it. Although, soon I will be able to learn it."

"Good," Shirou nodded back at him, "By the way Stella, you must have noticed, right?"

"Hmn? Noticed what?" Stella asked in confusion.

"Did you not notice that sometimes you feel something familiar when you are near me?" Shirou inquired and Stella widened her eyes in realization. Seeing Stella's reaction, Shirou continued, "It seems that you have an idea. Let me tell you what it is, before this causes a misunderstanding, It is because we have the same type of ability."

Ikki raised an eyebrow at Shirou, confused because from his understanding, Stella had a fire type ability and from what Shirou has displayed, it is nothing similar to it.

"Let me explain, Stella," Shirou said trying to ease their confusion, "Your ability is to manipulate flames like your father, The Emperor of Vermillion, Sirius Vermillion, right? "

"Yes," Stella nodded, still not confused on what Shirou meant.

"While it is indeed true that you inherited the flames from him, but that isn't your true ability," Shirou paused before the revelation, "Just like me, you are a dragon."

*Booom!* (A/N: *Ikki and Stella Exe stopped working*)

Stella and Ikki were absolutely speechless and were having a brainstorm. Meanwhile, Shirou and Kuroneko who saw their expressions, couldn't help but take a picture of it, which finally made the two of them snap out of their trance.

"A dragon? Like the one in those mythologies or in the movies? That dragon?" Stella asked, trying to confirm it.

"Yes, and as you can guess, you are a fire dragon. You probably have an even greater potential than your father, as long as you don't stray from your path and find the right people to train you, the rest will be up to you to find out yourself," Shirou answered her questions.

"Then, what type of dragon are you?" Stella asked curiously.

At her question, Shirou just smiled and said, "That will be a secret."

Stella looked annoyed at Shirou's response while Ikki just smiled wryly. Kuroneko, on the other hand, started laughing.

Shirou chuckled, "Anyways, I think we are done for today, tomorrow you will have your matches so it's best to not get too tired, rest well," Shirou said before turning around.

"Oh right, Ikki before I go, please remember what I will say now," Shirou stopped walking and turned his head to Ikki for the last time, "No matter what happens in the future or what others say to you, just by staying in the path that you choose, you are correct."

(A/N: Edginess if greatness.)

Shirou waved his hand and finally walked away, with Kuroneko following behind him, leaving Ikki and Stella confused by Shirou's sudden philosophical behavior, but decided to trust and listen to him.

Looking at Shirou, Kuroneko couldn't hold her curiosity anymore and decided to ask Shirou, "Say, why did you act like a mysterious prophet helping the protagonist?"

Shirou snorted as he looked at the students passing by, "I think I could use this opportunity to tell more about myself. Besides the fact that I know the "plot", which isn't that relevant anymore since we interfered with it, I have another skill named "Revelation" which basically allows me to have visions of the future."

"And this morning, I had one of those visions. I am just following accordingly to my vision, but worry not, I don't plan on relying on it forever since it would become a weakness if I were to rely too heavily on it," Shirou said without telling much about the future he saw, to which Kuroneko just pouted.

As they were talking, they reached one of the entrances of the arena, to which Kuroneko had to bid farewell since the entrance of the spectators were on another side.

Shirou entered and saw that it had a single corridor with several doors that led to rooms where the students could rest before their matches and at the end of the corridor, there was a machine where the students would acknowledge their entry into the inter-matches and agree with the terms and conditions. After all, it is a battle which could potentially lead to life-threatening situations.

Shirou without hesitation pressed the "agree" option even before the machine even finished listing the terms and conditions.

"Oh? Agreeing without hesitation, Kotobo~? But I have to admit, that was quite manly of you~," Shirou heard a familiar voice behind him as he turned around and saw the legal loli leaning against the wall with her fan open, covering her mouth, "But I can guess where that confidence comes from."

"Thank you for your praise, Nene-sensei," Shirou greeted her with a smile, "I plan to win the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival, so hesitating or losing here isn't an option."

"That's quite the confidence you have~," Nene said as she narrowed her eyes at Shirou, still having a smile on her face, "But I advise you to not get too overconfident."

"I appreciate your concern, Nene-sensei, but I belie–no, I am sure that I will win the festival," Shirou said matter-of-factly, "After all, those who fall due to overconfidence either have no power to back it up or underestimated their opponents too much. And I won't become someone like that, or so I hope."

Nene looked surprised for a second before bursting into a laugh, "I was right! You are really interesting, Kotobo~!" The loli exclaimed as she wiped a tear from her eye.

She then launched herself at him and Shirou's eyes widened. Underneath the cloth, Shirou could clearly feel her warm and soft…ribs, but then suddenly, Shirou felt time stopped.

Shirou didn't move though, not because he couldn't move, but because he wanted to see the scene that was going to happen as soon as he saw the woman behind Nene.

"Why won't you change your mind? Kurono isn't here so…" Nene whispered to him, but sadly she wasn't tall enough to reach his ears, "Let's go to an empty room with just the two of us and I will teach you some nau—GUH!"

Nene was interrupted when she felt a hand on top of her, smashing her skull and she immediately let Shirou go to reach the hand that was crushing her skull, trying to free herself from the time stopping vamp–I mean, woman.

"Seriously, every time I take my eyes off you, you go around and try to seduce one of my students, do you not have enough of it already!?" Kurono asked while applying more strength to her hand.

Shirou was amused as he stood there watching the suffering of the legal loli.

"Okay! I understand! Please let me go! You are crushing my head. It is going to break! Please! I beg you!" Nene screamed as she pleaded with her friend to release her from her grasp.

Kurono sighed tiredly, sparring her friend from the suffering, she then looked over at Shirou.

"I still haven't thanked you for safely rescuing the civilians from the terrorists, so…" Kurono said and bowed slightly, "Thank you and your friends, you were the reason these people returned safely to their homes with any injuries."

"You don't have to, director, we just did what we had to do," Shirou said, which made Kurono smile at him.

"Well, you should go now. Your match will be within a few minutes and you should spend that time preparing yourself rather than wasting it with this loli baba."

(A/N: Loli baba = Loli grandma (?), but Nene is around 20-30 years old, but it is still applicable.)

"Understood, director," Shirou said and bowed slightly before entering one of the doors.

"And you…" Kurono lost her smile as she looked at Nene, who immediately flinched and slowly turned her head to the director.

"Y-Yes…?"

"I think I have to teach you the rules of our academy again…" Kurono said with a sinister smile on her face.

"Please be gentle…"

___________________________

Drop your stones or I will drop you!