21

"W-wait a minute, what do you mean you're a magus? Do you mean that you're a wizard or something?" Pyrrha Nikos asked, her expression one of deep confusion as she tried to wrap her head around what had just been said.

"Not technically but that's the gist of it. I'm someone who can utilize prana, or magical energy, in order to perform magecraft; that is to say, cast spells," Emiya Shirou explained.

Pyrrha grabbed the side of her head with one hand as she stared at the ground, "So, what you've been calling your Semblance is actually this… magecraft?"

"That's right. It's a branch of magecraft called Projection, or Gradation Air if you feel like being formal, but my particular version of it when I project swords and other weapons is called Tracing."

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, Pyrrha sat down on the roof, "This is— This is a lot to take in."

Shirou joined her by sitting seiza, his hands resting on his thighs. "I can explain the basics, if you want."

"I think that might help."

"This is a pretty complicated and deep subject so why don't you ask questions and I'll do my best to answer them?"

"Alright. What's magecraft?"

"Magecraft, also known as thaumaturgy, is basically spellcasting. It's the process of using prana to bring about a desired effect. It's kind of like science, in a way, but a science that only people with Magic Circuits can do."

"What did you mean when you said you weren't technically a wizard?"

Shirou took a moment to gather his thoughts before taking a deep breath. "That's because a Wizard or Sorcerer is someone who does something that's impossible even with magecraft. Take, for example, the chalk I made earlier. While the process I used to make that chalk could be considered miraculous, the end result wasn't. That piece of chalk was no different than a piece of chalk you could buy from a store. Same goes for the spell circle. While the sound of our voices is currently being blocked by it, the effect is no different than that which a sufficiently thick or dense wall could produce.

"With a Wizard, however, things are different. Not only is the process miraculous, the result is as well. A Wizard is someone who is capable of True Magic or Sorcery. For example, bringing someone back from the dead— which is to say returning their soul to their body— is considered True Magic since it is a feat that is outside the World's purview— it's unnatural. Even if given infinite time and resources, a magus cannot replicate True Magic using magecraft."

By this point, Pyrrha had copied Shirou's pose and was listening intently. "Can anyone become a magus?"

"I don't think so. If you're born without Magic Circuits, you can't get any naturally. There might be a way to give a normal person Magic Circuits but it's probably extremely dangerous and not worth the effort."

"What, exactly, are Magic Circuits?"

Shirou paused for a moment as he searched around for the right words. He'd never had to explain magecraft to someone else before— the closest he had ever come had been explaining the specifics of his magecraft to Tohsaka— so he wasn't entirely certain how to go about it. It was a bit hard to do on his own so he instead tried his best to imagine how Tohsaka would have explained things to him (his memories of Kiritsugu explaining all of this were too faded to be of any use).

"Magic Circuits are kind of like the nervous system of the soul. They're channels through which life energy— Od— is transformed into magical energy— prana. They're also used to store magical energy and to change mana— the life energy of the World— into prana."

"So, you're currently using your Od to maintain this… What did you call it? Bounded field?"

"Actually, no. I used it to activate the spell but it is currently being maintained by mana. So long as there's mana in the atmosphere, it'll keep existing until something stops it."

"Does the same thing apply to your swords?"

"No. Projection is a bit special. You see, items created via projection don't technically exist. They're phantasms; images. Because they're not supposed to exist, the World fights back against them and tries to destroy them. Because of that, projected items will only last for so long. Exactly how long depends on a number of things. That chalk I projected, and thus the spell circle I drew with it, will last," Shirou hummed in thought, "maybe three or four hours.

"My swords, however, are different. Due to the way my Tracing works, anything I make with it can exist for an incredibly long time. Regular items can last pretty much indefinitely while magical items last a number of hours depending on a few things."

"So, the chalk is only going to last four hours because you projected it instead of tracing it."

"Exactly. Tracing takes additional effort and energy which I didn't feel was necessary here."

"Have you told anyone else?"

"Professor Ozpin knows. I don't know if he told anyone else but you're the only other person I've told this to."

"Why don't you at least tell our friends?"

"I might one day and I absolutely will if that knowledge becomes important but I probably won't if I don't have to. Secrecy is my best weapon; it always has been and that's true for any magus. The fewer people who know about what I can do, the better."

"Is there anything else you can do?"

"Yes but not much. I'm a third-rate magus by most measures. I can only do the most basic stuff and even that's pretty limited. I had to draw a magic circle to produce this bounded field when even a beginner could have produced it with just an incantation."

"Well…" Pyrrha looked around a bit while chewing on her bottom lip, "Is there any way you can tell if I have Magic Circuits?"

"Yeah. In fact, I can do that right now," Shirou said as he got up, taking a moment to stretch.

"Do you need me to stand up?" Pyrrha asked as Shirou approached her and started to walk behind her.

"It would help but it's not necessary." Once Pyrrha had stood up, Shirou placed his hand on the center of his back and focused, releasing a pulse of magical energy through her. After a few seconds, he stepped back and shook his head. "I'm sorry but you don't."

"Well, that's a shame but thank you for checking. And thank you for telling me all of this."

"It's no problem. It would have been rude to brush you off after you figured out something was up."

"Thanks anyway. Well, I think we should get back to our rooms. It's getting late."

"That's a good idea. I don't know about you but I'm still pretty tired from our fight. I think I'll stay up a bit longer, though. I've got a lot to think about."

"Alright. Try not to stay up too late. Good night, Shirou."

"Good night, Pyrrha."

OoOoOoO

Cinder Fall smiled as she walked down the halls of one of Beacon's dorm buildings, heading toward her "team's" room. Things had been going incredibly smoothly the past few months— that business on the docks and with the Paladin notwithstanding— and she had to fight to keep any smugness from showing. It amazed her how easy it had been to infiltrate Beacon right under Ozpin's nose and then keep working once there. She had no idea why Salem was so wary of that doddering old fool when assassinating him would be child's play.

Still, Cinder knew better than to question orders. People had died for less, after all. If Salem wanted to destroy Ozpin's spirit and make him live with the knowledge of how utterly powerless he is then so be it. It didn't really matter to her one way or the other. So long as the old world was torn down, Cinder was happy.

Entering her room, Cinder came upon a familiar sight. Emerald Sustrai was sitting on the floor in the center of the room, hard at work on an infinitely complicated runic array, while Mercury Black laid upon his bed, thumbing through some comic book he had no doubt stolen.

"How went the recon?" Cinder asked as she sauntered on over to her bed, careful not to disturb Emerald's work.

Mercury growled, "It didn't. Pyrrha fought some punk named Shirou and their fight lasted until the end of class. Even if there'd been enough time, she was too weak for me to challenge her."

Cinder's eyebrow went up with mild interest, "You mean someone here was actually a challenge for the invincible girl?"

Mercury haphazardly tossed aside the comic before crossing his arms under his head, "More than a challenge. Guy almost won."

"He's not worth adding to the list, though," Emerald said as she took a break, setting aside blood-ladened paintbrush she had been using. "He's pretty well known inside this school but almost completely unknown outside of it. Aside from his encounters with Roman, there was almost nothing on him."

"Hey, are you sure it's smart to be doing that out in the open?" Mercury asked as he peered down skeptically at Emerald.

Emerald scoffed, "I already told you that this room's protected by a bounded field. Anyone who approaches it will be compelled to keep moving past it and anyone who looks inside will just see a regular room."

"Yeah, I know you said all that but I still don't trust this magecraft of yours. It freaks me out."

"Setting that aside," Cinder said, cutting off Emerald's retort, "how is your work coming, Emerald?"

Emerald smiled up at Cinder, "Pretty well. These materials are high quality and the mana here is pretty dense. At this rate, I should be finished ahead of schedule."

"Perfect. Keep it up. Mercury, I still want you to learn Pyrrha's Semblance. I'd hate to have to use one of our backups."

"Yeah, yeah," Mercury said with a dismissive wave before pulling out his Scroll.

"What about you? How are your preparations going?" Emerald asked as she returned to her work after getting a kink out of her back.

"Perfectly. We've got a very fun weekend ahead of us."

OoOoOoO

Jaune grunted as he slid back, his feet digging through the light dusting of snow and into the ground beneath as the moonlight illuminated the clearing from the day before. Pyrrha came at him at an angle, trying to get around his guard while his stance was locked, but he surprised her by recovering faster than she expected and slashing at her open side. Though surprised, Pyrrha easily managed to deflect the attack before dropping down and taking out Jaune's legs with a sweeping kick.

Undeterred, Jaune rolled backward the second he hit the ground and brought his shield up to block Pyrrha's thrust. Pushing her weapon aside, he countered with a thrust of his own but Pyrrha simply copied his maneuver before leaping back to avoid the kick aimed at the side of her knee.

"Very well done, Jaune!" Pyrrha said with a light laugh as she dropped her stance. Jaune immediately fell out of his as well, struggling to catch his breath. "Your swordsmanship is improving at an incredible rate."

Jaune straightened up as he brought his breathing under control and wiped the sweat from his brow. While it wasn't surprising, it still bothered him a little that Pyrrha looked like she had only taken a brisk walk. "I dunno," he said with a shake of his head. "It still feels like something's off."

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha asked with a slight tilt of her head.

"It feels like… like there's a… a switch inside me whenever I fight lately. I can feel that switch being pushed but, no matter what I do, it just doesn't flip."

Pyrrha hummed as she crossed her arms. "I can't really say I know what that feels like but I'm sure that you can figure something out. Even I didn't pick up on things this quickly, after all."

"Well, you probably didn't have an amazing teacher like I do," Jaune said with a smile.

Pyrrha blushed as her smile became slightly shy, "Thank you but it's not that. It really is a shame you didn't go to one of the smaller Hunter schools earlier. You have a level of raw talent I've rarely seen."

"Well, maybe," Jaune allowed as he transformed his shield and sheathed his sword, "but, if I did, things might not have turned out this way and I wouldn't want that."

Pyrrha's blush deepened but she pushed on, "How about we move on to Aura training?"

This time, it was Jaune's turn to blush, "Actually, Pyrrha, before that, I've got something I've been meaning to ask you."

"What is it?" Pyrrha asked as she eyed Jaune with interest.

"Well, ya see, the thing is, you're a really great girl and I really look up to you and you've helped me out so much and I was wondering if, maybe, ya know, you'd like to go to the dance with me?" Jaune said, his words becoming faster as he went.

"Wh-what?"

"Oh, it's okay if you don't want to! You don't have to or anything! In fact, I'd be amazed if you didn't already have a date! You probably do! It's okay! We can just… pretend this never happened!"

"No, wait!" Pyrrha shouted as she grabbed Jaune's retreating form by the sleeve. He turned back to look at her; surprise, hope, and fear written all over his expression. "Jaune, I'd love to go to the dance with you."

"R-really? You mean it?" Jaune asked, his eyes as wide as saucers.

Pyrrha smiled shyly at him, "Yes, Jaune. I meant it."

Jaune stared at her for a few seconds more before rushing in and enveloping her in a hug. Pyrrha froze for a moment, startled by the suddenness of the action, before reciprocating.

"Thanks, Pyrrha," Jaune whispered into her ear. "For everything."

OoOoOoO

Ruby Rose stood outside the door of Emiya Shirou's room, wringing her hands behind her as she rocked back and forth on her heels. She had been putting this off for the past couple days, always finding a convenient excuse to put it off, but Yang had put her foot down and practically forced her to take that first step.

Ruby breathed in deeply through her nose before exhaling through her mouth. She had stared down massive Grimm by herself before. Slain countless Beowolves. Thrown herself at giant robots. Surely she could handle something as simple as this, right? Gathering up her nerves, Ruby resolutely reached out to the door and lightly rapped on it once. Content with the knowledge that she had tried and Shirou wasn't in his room, she immediately spun away and started to leave.

She didn't get to take one step before that delusion was shattered.

"Just a minute!" she heard Shirou call out from inside. Swallowing down the lump in her throat, Ruby spun back around in time for Shirou to open the door. "Oh, Ruby. What can I do for you?"

From the way his slightly damp shirt clung to his frame, it was evident that the older boy had just gotten out of the shower and that did nothing to help the heat creeping up her neck. "Sh-shirou! Y-you're here! Um. Hi! Um. I was just kinda sorta wondering if maybe you were busy this Saturday?" Ruby asked as she forced herself to look at his face and not stammer too much.

Shirou crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. "Why do you ask?" he said, his tone neutral.

"Oh, well, um, if you weren't busy— you know, if you didn't have anything else to do that day— I was wondering if maybe you wouldn't mind going to the dance with me?" Ruby asked, her voice becoming steadily more high pitched as she went. During that entire question, she kept her eyes well away from him but a quick glance thrown his way at the end revealed nothing. He still had that same gentle smile that he almost always had.

"As a friend?" Shirou asked with a slight tilt of his head.

Ruby ducked her head low and started poking her index fingers together, "No, more like a… a… date."

Shirou was silent for an agonizingly long second before speaking up, "I have quite a few projects going on at the moment that I need to double check. Do you mind if I answer your question later?"

"Oh, of course! Take your time! Well, I mean, don't take too much time since the dance is kinda in two days but, you know, so long as it's between tonight and the day after tomorrow you can take all the time you need!" Ruby said animatedly as she tried to wrangle the overwhelming storm of emotions inside her.

"Thank you. I'll be sure to get back to you as soon as possible. Good night, Ruby."

"Good night, Shirou!" Ruby said before slowly walking away. Once she heard his door shut, she let her shoulders slump and face fall. That wasn't an outright rejection but it wasn't an acceptance either. What could those projects be, anyway? She'd never seen him work on something outside of school before.

Regardless, Ruby tried to keep her spirits up. It was still possible that he'd accept, right?

OoOoOoO

The second the door was shut and Ruby's footsteps had faded, Shirou nearly collapsed, barely holding himself up by the door handle as he started hyperventilating. Unable to remain standing, he turned around to lean against the door before sliding down it, his right hand clutching his shirt over his chest.

This couldn't be happening. This shouldn't be happening. Why was this happening? He was supposed to be a stranger. An outsider. Always remaining at the periphery, helping people whenever they needed it and slinking back when his work was done. The person he was assigned to watch over wasn't supposed to fall in love with him. He was perfectly fine with being her friend but asking for anything more was just…

Shirou closed his eyes and turned his sight inward, desperately seeking out the only proof he had of Saber's existence. Avalon thrummed gently inside him, its radiant energy seeping through him and working to calm his frantically beating heart. This was okay. This was fine. He just needed a good excuse to be anywhere but Beacon this Saturday and everything would be fine. He would apologize to Ruby, the dance would happen, and then he could pretend nothing had happened when he got back. Ruby's feelings might be hurt in the short term but that was perfectly acceptable.

Fishing out his Scroll, Shirou sent a message to Ozpin before closing his eyes again and trying to slow down his heart rate. After a few minutes, he got his reply and shook himself before setting off.

OoOoOoO

"I need a mission for this weekend," Shirou said the second he was in Ozpin's office.

"And miss the dance? Whatever for?" Ozpin asked while pouring two mugs of cocoa. Judging by the knowing look on his face, the smug bastard somehow knew damn well what had just happened.

Shirou politely took the offered cup but didn't drink from it. "Something has come up and I need a reason to not be here," he said with a tone of finality.

Ozpin took a long drink from his cup, his brown eyes focused calmly on Shirou whose agitation steadily grew. "I'm afraid that's not possible," he said after a long moment.

"There must be something going on. Random Grimm attacks, a bandit encampment, someone to spy on, something. I'll even look into Roman's little gang on a more official basis."

"Oh, there's plenty going on but it's simply just not possible for me to send you on a mission right now. There are countless pieces currently in motion and even one mistake on my part could be disastrous. Even as we speak, Salem's pawns are closing in on this city and even this very academy. Where you are right now is exactly where you need to be."

"Even so, surely there's no real difference between me being at this school and me being in the City of Vale."

"Shirou," Ozpin said, his voice starting to show signs of exasperation, "even if you have an excuse to not attend the dance, that won't make Ruby's feelings for you go away."

Shirou carried on, not even caring enough to ask how the headmaster knew that, "That may be true but all she did was ask me to the dance. If I can avoid going to that, I can just ignore the implications and pretend nothing happened."

"If you're this averse to going with her, why not just reject her proposal?"

"Because I don't want to hurt her feelings," Shirou said quickly.

"And you think this won't?" Ozpin asked, taking another drink from his mug.

"I—" the words caught in Shirou's throat before he could embarrass himself. He had already admitted to himself that this would hurt her feelings. He would have to be a complete idiot to not see how this would affect her. It would probably hurt her far more than a simple rejection would.

Ozpin put down his mug and leaned forward, his fingers intertwined on his desk as he peered over the frame of his glasses at the young man, "Why do you want to avoid the dance so badly? From what I can see, the two of you get along very well."

Shirou stared down into the dark liquid of his cooling cup of cocoa as his voice became very small, "I don't want to betray her."

Ozpin didn't need to ask who this "her" was. He already knew the full details of Shirou's history. Instead, he leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "I can fully understand your position. Betraying the memory of a loved one can plague you with some of the worst guilt imaginable. But don't you think that you're already doing that?"

"What?" Shirou's head snapped up, his voice and expression filled with no small amount of venom.

"Tell me, Shirou. What were Saber's last words to you?"

Shirou's expression fell as he recalled that bloody scene, "'Don't stop living.'"

"And Rin's?"

Shirou's body slumped as his face became pale, "'You've got to keep living.'"

"And Taiga's?"

Shirou's body slumped further as the mug hung loose in his hands, some of the liquid spilling onto the floor, "'Please keep living.'"

"And Illyasviel's?"

The mug clattered on the floor as all of the strength left Shirou's body, his pale face covered in a cold sweat, "'Keep living, onii-chan."

"All of those people who loved you asked you keep living. What you're doing right now isn't living, Shirou. It's surviving. In all my years, I've never met someone as contradictory as you are. You wish to keep on living for their sake yet perhaps the one thing you want most in this world is to die. You throw yourself into mission after mission, no matter how dangerous it may be, in the hope that your skill will fail you and your luck will run out. You want to be a part of your friends' lives and yet you want to keep a safe distance from them and not let them be a part of yours.

"Shirou, the pain you're going through is immense. You've seen more hell in the span of two weeks than most people will see in multiple lifetimes. The fact that you keep going in spite of that and are still trying to do good in this world is nothing short of amazing. I've seen valiant people break under far less. Yet, despite that, you don't allow yourself to live. Only survive.

"Sleep on the matter, Shirou. Meditate on it if you can't. Saber may be the person who sits on the throne of your heart and she may be there until the end of your days but that doesn't mean there can't be room for someone else. It's just one date, Shirou, one dance. If it doesn't work out then there's nothing wrong with it. Plenty of people go on one date and decide that there's nothing there. You need to start living, Shirou. Not for the sake of those who died where you didn't but for your own sake."

Shirou was silent for a long moment before slowly standing up. With slow, mechanical movements, he crouched down and projected a cloth, using it to soak up the spilt cocoa. Once the floor was clean, he stuffed the cloth into the mug before dismissing it, the liquid splashing a bit as it settled. Placing the mug on Ozpin's desk, he bowed to the man before leaving the office.

Once Shirou was gone, Ozpin sighed deeply. He truly understood the boy's pain, perhaps better than anyone else on the planet, but that was all the more reason for him to push him like this. It had taken him an awfully long time to learn the lesson he was trying to convey and Shirou simply couldn't have that much time. He could only hope that the young man could come to terms with his grief before his strength gave out.

If he couldn't, Emiya Shirou would certainly die.

A/N: Bit of a shorter chapter this time and one that's full of exposition but I thought it necessary. One of my goals with all of my fics is that someone who has no knowledge, or next-to-no knowledge, of the source material can read it and understand everything important to the story. Big shoutouts to my friend SSVCloud for this chapter. He always proofreads my stuff anyway but he was very helpful for this one since he knows basically nothing about Fate. As such, he was incredibly helpful for the conversation between Shirou and Pyrrha.

That aside, between the end of this chapter and the beginning of V2C6, I really hope that you guys can understand just how damaged this Shirou is and why some of his actions may seem a bit strange. This damage has been central to Shirou's character up to this point and shall remain so for quite some time. While this is true for Shirou in canon, it's even more so here.

We also have the big reveal that Emerald is a magus. Since this fic is all about canon blending rather than just plopping Shirou into RWBY, it's only natural that other people in the story also be capable of magecraft and Emerald seemed perfect for it. Also, while his murder wasn't shown, the blood that she's using for her runic array is Tukson's.