Chapter 38: Tatsuo

Shirou woke up very early due to the stabbing sensations in his body, checking himself out he found the blades sticking out as he had expected. Checking the mystic code he went to his father. 

He found the man meditating in the dojo, kiritsugu`s neck was releasing intermittent flashes of light due to the opening and closing of his circuits. This had become a routine for the magus killer to record his magecraft into his magic circuits and then slowly integrate them onto the crest.

Looking at this shirou went to his room brushed his teeth and put on a thick coat. Covered in a full-sleeve and bulky dress he went to his father who had finished his meditation. Looking at his son`s attire the magus killer's eyes showed slight guilt but ignoring it he said 

"Let's go to a relatively less known clinic to have the swords removed and wounds stitched."

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Returning from the clinic shirou prepared the breakfast in a hurry. As they sat down and began eating he asked his father

"Dad, did you know someone named Iliya in the Einzbern family?"

This caused the chopstick to drop from the hands of the older emiya. Taking some time to compose himself he looked into his son`s eyes with the unasked question about how he knew that name. Finding out that his daughter has appeared in his son`s vision he sighed and said 

"Her name is Illyasviel von Einzbern, she is the daughter of Irisviel von Einzbern and Kiritsugu Emiya. Yes, she is your sister and my daughter."

Shirou asked various questions about her and why was she with them. To this kiritsugu said 

"I went to the Einzbern family to get her, but they consider me a traitor because I destroyed the grail and refused to let me meet her just to spite me."

"The war has destroyed a lot of my circuits making me unable to perform magecraft on the level I used to do before. Hence I am unable to break through the ancient bounded field on the winter castle."

Hearing this shirou expressed his desire to help his father break through the castle and retrieve his sister, after hearing the promises of his son kiritsugu emiya said with a stern voice 

"No need for that! By the time you are proficient enough to do that it would be years. That is too late to rescue her. I know Jubstacheit von Einzbern would promptly discard her as he would think that Illya`s life span would run out before the next war."

"Hence I have some failsafe, I told Altair to spread the news about the next holy grail war occurring within 2 decades as prophecy."

"I also sent some documents to the Einzbern family giving some proof about the early war hence they would take care of Iliya as she would be useful to them as the lesser grail in the coming war."

The father and son next discussed some more things about the war and the Einzbern family. Then shirou told about his vision to his father. After hearing about the presence of his daughter in the war kiritsugu took another arrow to his heart and looked visibly older by his posture.

After the discussion and analysis of the scene by the ex-magus killer as well as the now failed father, shirou took his leave and went to school. Shirou went to school met his friends and had a normal class.

At the rooftop he and Rin had lunch. They talked about magecraft, especially the reinforcement and sense enhancement magecraft that Rin had learnt with relative ease while shirou was struggling with it. 

After this Shirou's day went by peacefully and he returned home and went to the kitchen. During the days sparing he used the full sleeve to cover the stitches on his arms from taiga. After the lesson taiga changed her clothes and answered some questions from shirou.

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A man in his late 30s walked along the road, he was dressed in a loose-fitting white shirt and similarly loose thick black pants. He was dragging a black suitcase behind him, which sometimes made tinging sounds when it struck the bumps in the road.

There was a thick grey apron and a cloth bag hung on the bag. The man opened a noot book and matched the address with the house in front of him and stopped. After reading the board which stated "Emiya Residence".

As he walked towards the gate the bronze jingle bells tied to his waist jingled. Looking at the shaking bells he stopped for a while as if contemplating something, after some time he steadied his body and took a firm step into the gate and the jingling of bells abruptly stopped.

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Shirou and kiritsugu went to open the door together with Taiga, opening the door they found the man who was the reason for triggering the bounded field in the emiya residence. Before they could say anything taiga said 

"This is Mr.Tatsuo Takano the master swordsmith that grandfather found to teach shirou."

Then she introduced both sides to each other and by the time they all sat down for tea people from the Fujimura group had reached the emiya residence to pick her up. After both the emiya family and the Smith encouraged her to go back home she left the emiya residence.

With the departure of Taiga, the room was filled with oppressive silence as both the remaining parties looked at each other deeply as if scrutinizing the other. Tatsuo finally broke the silence by saying 

"Do you realy have someone interested in being my apprentice or was that just a cover ?"

"No it was not a cover, we realy were searching for a master swordsmith from an authentic lineage who was willing to accept an apprentice." said kiritsugu without any fluctuation in his voice.

"I see. Then let's introduce ourselves with our complete identities, and then you can tell me why you need a swordsmith," said Tatsuo with a curious expression on his face.

(A/N: this chapter is shorter than the length of Atrum`s delusion of grandeur in the 5th war because I am busy so I couldn't write. I thought instead of not posting today I should post this much that had written earlier and then make the next chapter 2k words to make up for the shortness of this one.

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Anyway, this is the beginning of Shirou's blacksmith journey so leave your opinions in the comments.

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THANK YOU FOR READING:)