It was with dual, matching, sly grins that both Scathach of Ireland and Morgan Pendragon of Britain watched Shirou walk out of the hallway leading to his room half-dressed. His pants for the day firmly on but his shirt currently hanging from the waist of his pants, as it was firmly tucked in and held in place by said article, and pulled over his muscular frame one sleeve at a time.

Neither woman, who was previously having a small discussion about potential Bounded Fields to be placed in and around Fuyuki, made a single sound to try and not ruin the show while it lasted.

Both women were far from drooling, hormonal teenagers that blushed at such a sight, but by that same token, both of them could more than appreciate the view when so politely handed to them on a silver platter. Which was why, when Shirou walked past the both of them and into the kitchen, neither of them so much as blinked as he spoke up.

"No no. Don't mind me, keep talking. I'm just the eye candy here."

"You said it, not me." Scathach grinned, raising a challenging eyebrow at him when he turned to give her an incredulous look before he merely rolled his eyes in humored defeat and turned back around.

"We were just appreciating the view." Morgan tacked on with a smooth grin of her own to counter Scathach's teasing one.

"I'm not going to have to worry about either of you two suddenly being sprung on me to join in the 'celebrations' am I?" Shirou chuckled, pulling a few ingredients from his fridge.

"No no, we'd be polite enough to give you warning." Morgan denied and confirmed in a single breath.

Shirou would have been impressed if she wasn't using such a silver tongue to basically admit that she had at least thought about getting into his pants. Though it's not like he had much room to speak on such a matter after last night.

"Better than nothing I suppose. Either of you want breakfast?"

"If you're offering." Scathach nodded politely.

"I would be delighted." Morgan rested her elbow on the countertop and her chin on the heel of her palm, just watching him.

"While you're cooking, where is Artoria? I assumed that after how stout a guardian she was the last few days she would be an ever-present shadow." Scathach looked around just to visually make sure that the rest of her senses weren't fooling her, only for them to show no Artoria in the vicinity either.

"I think the exhaustion finally caught up to her, she's passed out in front of my room standing up. If not for her eyes being closed and the shallowness of her breathing, I would have assumed she was still awake honestly." Shirou chuckled, making a teasing gesture for them all to keep their voices down.

An ironic request considering how loud everyone in that room had been the night before, but nothing that either Queen wasn't happy to oblige by. After all the both of them did have things that they wished to ask and see of Shirou, and it surprisingly had nothing to do with sex.

"I'm half tempted to go and check." Morgan grinned as she spoke quietly, the idea of teasing her younger sister as she once did as a small child surprisingly appealing to her.

Though, like many things these days, reality had quite a heavy hammer when it came to shattering such simple daydreams and recollections, and Morgan's fantasy was no different.

"However, I know that Artoria has too much of an instinctual fear of my other half to ever allow me to get that close without waking up in a panic. I'd be lucky if I could catch a glimpse before she was swinging for my neck."

"Hmmm, I could always go and check?" Scathach suggested with a sly grin, "As a Lancer I didn't have much in the way of stealth but that's hardly an issue now."

"I heard about that vaguely. You incarnated right?" Shirou looked over his shoulder at Scathach, a glint in his eye that the two Queens knew all too well.

"It's more complicated than that. I more or less overwrote the memories of my living self, meaning that I'm just the living me, but now with the memories of my Lancer self that had been summoned to this Holy Grail War."

"It's truly a fascinating event." Morgan hummed with an interested sparkle in her eyes. "I've been working on the theory behind such a phenomenon since the Battle of Kings in my spare time and believe that should any of us be able to somehow find a living body of ourselves, we would be able to do the same thing. Even those without thaumaturgic talent like Heracles."

"Heracles and Xuanzang were both ascendant figures in their lives, right? Wouldn't that aid them in some way?" Shirou questioned as Scathach got up to sneak down the hallway and see what Artoria looked like.

"Not quite. The Grail summoned them as they were before their ascendancy. Once ascended to full godhood, or buddha-hood in Xuanzang's case, they're too fundamentally different. They are, in all ways except their memories, different people." Morgan denied with a shake of her head, getting a small hum from Shirou as he placed some diced ingredients in a wok.

"Makes sense, guess there is a reason that such a thing was always treated as a big deal in mythology."

With a small exhale, Scathach sat back down beside Morgan, getting a curious sound from the woman as she raised an eyebrow.

"Well?"

"Oh, she's out of it entirely. Honestly, it's almost cute that she's still trying to stand guard even while sleeping." Scathach grinned, drawing a two-rune line, and an illusion of Artoria appeared in the air for Morgan to witness.

"It's like a lion that's all big and scary while awake and a small kitten when asleep." Morgan grinned, only getting a quiet chortle from Shirou in response.

"Don't let Artoria hear that."

"Don't tell her then." Morgan shot back just as quickly as she said that, getting a small, acquiescing, tilt of Shirou's head in return.

"Speaking of sleeping, none of the others are awake yet. How did you manage to pull that off?" Scathach asked, intrigued by how Shirou had managed to pull himself out of what was no doubt a small mound of limbs and curves.

"My father is one of the greatest assassins in the entirety of the Moonlit World." Shirou snorted with a small roll of his eyes. "Also, a healthy abuse of some instinctual reflexes. That helped too."

"How very clever of you, Mr Muramasa." The Queen of Shadows hummed, leaning back on her chair and stroking her jawline with her thumb and forefinger. "I'll have to keep such a skill in mind for the future."

Once more Shirou turned his head slightly to give her a squint-eyed look, only to get a sly, challenging smirk in return. She wanted him to challenge her on what she meant by that, he just knew it.

However, no matter how potentially rewarding falling into the trap may be –emphasis on the 'potentially'–, Shirou had been taught better than to walk that blatantly into a verbal trap. Therefore, instead of springing the trap or falling into it, he merely placed the simple breakfast he had been cooking into three bowls and handed one to each of the Queens.

"Your breakfast." He replied instead, giving a small grin in return to Scathach's humored expression as if she knew why he had chosen this exact moment to spring the food on them.

He had, but he wasn't exactly going to admit that to her face.

Sitting down opposite the two of them, he ate his food silently. The taste of something to eat after the…'activities' of the night before was somehow even better than he ever could have expected.

Or maybe it was just his cooking?

'Careful. I don't exactly want to be Gil 2.0.' He chuckled to himself mentally, practically able to hear the lecture the man himself would have given him if he had said that out loud in his presence.

Perhaps when he gets to whatever that 'Chaldea' place is he'd do that, just to watch the man's face go red and mess with everyone else. It was certain to be amusing to watch if nothing else.

"Say, Shirou." Morgan suddenly spoke, making him look up at her with a curious hum, a grain of rice stuck to the corner of his lips and his eyes wider than normal in curiosity.

In all honesty, Morgan found it sort of adorable. She'd forgotten what it was like to feel such innocent amusement over the last couple of days of trying to dismantle all of her other half's schemes, it was nice. She liked it.

"If you don't have any particular plans for this morning, would you perhaps be interested in fulfilling a selfish wish of mine?" She purred, placing both of her elbows on the counter now and resting one hand over the other hovering in the air, her chin resting atop the back of her highest hand.

"Depends on what that wish would be." He responded with a quirked eyebrow, wiping the rice grain off his face with his thumb and licking it off.

As she opened her mouth to speak again the lustre seemed to fade from her eyes, leaving only icy-blue pits of intrigue and obsession in their wake.

"I wish to see your Reality Marble in all its glory."

XXXxxxXXX

Fuyuki Outskirts, Ten Minutes Later

Both Scathach and Morgan stood across from Shirou in a small, cratered, field created from one of the first battles against the supernatural invaders that Scathach herself had fought. Small makeshift crosses were hammered into the ground on the side of the field closest to Fuyuki proper alongside a few professional looking stone ones that Shirou knew had to be Magecraft.

Who created them and for what purpose, he could only guess, but they were there nonetheless and only added to the pervasive feeling of death that clung to this area like a thick morning fog.

It, perhaps, said something about the three of them that none of them seemed to even care about such a strong feeling in the air. Scathach actually seemed more at peace here than in the quiet kitchen of the Muramasa Estate, though that made sense considering who she was.

"Come on, bring it out already." Scathach called out, twirling one of her spears to wear off some of her anxious energy.

She failed, it only set her further into battle mode and made her more excited.

"Yes, this is quite a bit of waiting we're doing." Morgan tacked on with a smarmy grin of her own, getting a roll of Shirou's eyes.

"We just got here." Shirou muttered petulantly before sucking in a deep breath.

"I am the bone of my sword."

"Alloy is my body, and fire is my blood."

"Again and again, I have created every manner of blade."

"Never once satisfied."

"Only seeking perfection."

The mana in the air around them began to sing. Round and round it danced, swirling with invisible, unrivaled, might around the three of them while Shirou stood in the eye of the storm. The air began to heat up and grow clammy, small wafts of steam rising from the dirt beneath their feet as the moisture was forcibly drawn out of it.

The world around them began to condense and fold in on itself, the invisible focal points of Shirou's Bounded Field spreading from the teen himself and dictating the bounds of his domain. And through it all, all that Scathach and Morgan could feel was sheer, mind-melting excitement.

"Hammering the anvil on this hill of metal, striving for the Ultimate Sword."

"This is my purpose, my only path, I needed no other reason to live."

"My whole life shall be, Unlimited Blade Works."

The earth cracked beneath their feet and the sky warped. Up was crushed into left and right became the new backward. Magmatic red glowed from the cracks beneath their feet before it burst forth and blocked the two women's vision for only a scant second.

Yet that time was all that was needed, the world around them was no longer one that either of them knew or had ever experienced.

Immediately the two of them were looking around in awe, Morgan's eyes dancing from the blades to the soil to the river to the smoke-belching cliff and even more. Her eyes never stopped moving and neither did her body, her feet bringing her down to the river to inspect it even as her neck craned to give her a better view of the sky, balance be damned.

Scathach, meanwhile, had eyes only for the multitude of blades that sat stabbed into the uncountable number of hills that surrounded them. Gauging them, assessing them; her excitement only grew with each and every new one that she found.

This was it, the land of Shirou Muramasa's soul. The world that birthed unlimited blades unbound by the rules of Gaia. Oh, how her very soul trembled.

"Here we are. Unlimited Blade Works." Shirou spoke, walking down the hill that he himself had appeared on with his arms folded into his sleeves.

Just like them, his gaze was constantly moving, his head on a swivel. Taking in sights and sounds that he had been too pre-occupied to notice beyond tactical advantages and weaknesses in the chaos of his fight with the goddesses.

The world looked simple at first glance but when you started to break it down, it grew more and more complex; much like forging a blade, if Shirou had to liken it to anything.

The irony in that comparison was not lost on him.

With soft steps on the dull metal that made up the 'soil' of half his world, Shirou walked between the two women towards the river that snaked through the rolling, endless, hills. Idly he noticed that both of them were following after him, clearly interested in what he was planning on doing and just as fascinated –or even more so– in exploring his inner world than he was.

Shirou's foot stepped into the water of the river, and he startled to a stop, getting curious looks from the two women behind him, especially as he let out a small bark of laughter.

"I should have known." He chuckled, reaching down into the water and pulling out a clump of clay.

Of course, he could have simply allowed himself to know the composition of his Reality Marble while he stood within it, but he found that boring and unsatisfying. He wanted to experience all that it had to offer for himself, to not only see it with his own eyes but feel it with his own hands and traverse it with his own feet.

Just as his bloodline wished to learn to craft greater and greater blades by wielding them themselves, so did Shirou wish to gain a greater knowledge of his Reality Marble through his own efforts and senses.

"Fascinating, a localized transmutation stemming from the river- No that's not quite right. A simple matter of coincidence? A subconscious linkage in your mind between water and forge-worthy clay?" Morgan questioned, knelt in the river herself despite the running water that very happily drenched her dress and clothes.

"I think your last guess would be the closest. Though we can test." Scathach said and in a flash of her spear, cut a chunk of the metal-earth to her right out of the ground entirely.

With the chunk of metal balanced atop the flat of her spear tip in a move that Shirou knew was meant to show off her skills with her weapon of choice, she turned to hold it over the river and rolled her spear until the chunk fell into the river with a loud Plonk!

Curiously the three of them watched for a moment, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.

"I can cross localized transmutation off the list then." Morgan grouched unhappily; she had actually been hoping that her first guess had been correct.

The thaumaturgical implications behind that particular line of thinking would have been fascinating to delve into and would have given her even more to research about this Greater Magecraft that she now stood inside.

As it was, she already had days worth of research to do but it never hurt to have more to do. A good magus was one that was always striving to improve, after all.

She had a feeling that that particular adage hadn't survived very well into the modern day, but that was hardly her problem. If the magi of the modern day wanted to stagnate and dissolve then they were more than happy to, she had plenty of new, young (ish) minds to mold within Fuyuki as it was anyway.

Though the thought of researching Shirou's Reality Marble reminded her of something that had been brought up during their dinner a few nights ago that had occurred during the night of the Battle of Kings. One that had her fingers twitching and her heart hammering in her ears even with the peaceful rippling of the water in her ears and the gentle lapping of its mass around her legs as she knelt in the river.

"Say, Shirou." The teen looked back at her with a small hum, halfway through wading his way across the river, the water now up to his neck. "I was told something interesting about this Reality Marble. That it's capable of creating new blades, specifically a blade uniquely qualified to handle our new Sumerian Goddess?"

"Do you want to see it?"

Oh, Morgan was swooning, he knew just the way to a magi's heart.

"More than anything." She nodded enthusiastically.

Raising an arm from the flowing river that he was still currently neck-deep within, and consequently splashing some water on his own face, he threw the blade to her.

He had not been holding that blade previously to raising his arm from the water, and neither did the river contain any blades, pretty much the only place devoid of their sharp edge.

Morgan didn't care what she had to do or offer, she had to be let back into this realm to study it as often as she could get away with.

"You weren't holding that blade a moment ago." Scathach voiced Morgan's thoughts aloud as the silver-haired woman studied the blade in her grasp.

"What are you talking about?" Shirou smirked at her, taking a few steps to actually rise out of the water and holding a hand out to her, a blade in his grasp that similarly hadn't been in his grasp, nor the river, a moment previously. "Every blade within this world is within my grasp."

Scathach and Morgan stared silently at Shirou before the Queen of the Land of Shadows closed her eyes.

Slowly she inhaled, slowly she exhaled. Her eyes opened.

"Alright, I think I've been patient enough." She announced suddenly, getting a raised eyebrow from the red-haired teen before the point of her longest spear was held aloft in his direction.

"Shirou Muramasa. I, Scathach, formally challenge you to a duel of first forfeit. Do you accept?"

XXXxxxXXX

Meanwhile, Muramasa Estate

Rin jolted in bed as she heard a high-pitched, shrill, exclamation of anger that seemed to rock the entire house to its very foundations. An arm and leg smacked into her as she flung herself off the bed at the exact same time as two others, all of them colliding with each other in midair. Their forms strumbled and collapsed unsteadily once they hit the ground again, only Rin herself actually managing to stay on her feet thanks to her back hitting the wall and stopping her from unbalancing any further.

It took the work of seconds for her to have some underwear and one of Shirou's shirts on as she launched herself out of his room, hot on the heels of Medusa who –unfairly– was just able to summon her clothes onto her form.

Sliding across the meticulously cleaned and waxed floor, goddammit Sakura, her feet finally found the friction and purchase to slide herself to a halt and see what, and who, was now flooding the house with enough anger for it to be almost tangibly felt.

The answer, as it turned out, was Artoria. The buxom woman holding what was very clearly her blade in one hand –even if Rin couldn't actually see it– as she looked left and right as if searching for something.

"Artoria? What's happened?" Rin asked breathlessly, some of her hair clinging stubbornly to her face as Luvia and Sakura came from Shirou's room slightly more prepared than she had been, but not quite as prepared as Artoria and Medusa.

Once more her mind cried cheaters at the reminder of how easy it was for the both of them. Meanwhile, all she had was her ring, though that was more than enough to deal with quite a few things if her martial arts couldn't handle it beforehand.

"Master is gone, and so are Scathach and Morgan." Artoria growled, getting a confused look from Rin and a slight slouch forward from Medusa.

Rin got the distinct impression that Medusa was less than impressed with Artoria waking them all up due to something so mundane.

"They stayed over last night?" Rin questioned, having been a bit too distracted with…..other things, to take notice of such a thing.

"They did." Luvia nodded alongside Sakrua, only to frown a little as she tilted her head to the side. "Morgan isn't answering my questions."

"….I can't sense Senpai" Sakura muttered, looking around with slightly wider than usual eyes, her composure not quite shattered but starting to crack.

"Master isn't replying to any of my questions either. I know that he's getting them, but he isn't replying." Artoria grumbled, trying to find any sort of signs as to where the three of them might have gone.

"You don't think that they've pulled him into a fight of some kind, right?" Luvia looked between the other four, getting two scowls and two inquisitive looks in return.

"No. There's no way- Well…." Medusa trailed off, thinking about exactly who was missing from this equation of theirs.

"There's no need to panic." Rin chuckled nervously with her hands out at her side, "Perhaps his mother or Illya came over and they just went to the Emiya Estate?"

"Oh, there he is." Sakura mumbled, instantly having the attention of the other four locked onto her.

"What- how can you- Where is he!?" Rin questioned, stepping towards Sakura with a worried look.

"The edge of town, I can sense his Reality Marble." Sakura explained, already heading towards the door and holding it open as Artoria stormed out of it, face perfectly blank.

She was going to kill them. She was going to find the three of them and kill them for doing this to her. Was it too much to just wake her up? Was it too much for the three of them to just keep her duty in mind?

No, they would not be escaping her wrath once she caught them. Of that, she would be certain to make it come to fruition.

XXXxxxXXX

"Come on Shirou!"

Sparks and debris showered the two figures as they clashed amidst an endless stream of raining blades. Heat unlike anything she'd felt since the battle with that one fiery spirit one hundred and twenty years ago pressed down on her and warmed her skin uncomfortably. Sounds that she hadn't heard in such a quantity in four hundred and eighty-two years resounded around her, practically deafening her.

It was uncategorically, unsurprisingly, pure euphoria to her.

"This is all the projectiles that you can throw at me!?"

Her feet left the ground, and her crossed spears twirled alongside her, shattering the blade in the red-haired teen's grasp. Sparks leaped from the ground and the back of her spears, showering her top to bottom in her super-heated embrace yet doing no damage and leaving no marks.

"Hardly!"

His eyes were wide and manic, his grin large and sharp, his hair whipping and waving wildly in the winds of not only the falling barrage but the sheer speed of their strikes. He looked nothing like the King that she knew that Fuyuki was looking for and their allies were hoping he would step up and become, he looked like a demon focused on naught but victory and pleasure.

She imagined that she would look much the same. To anyone who could keep track of her moving at the speeds that she was, that is.

Probably the Queen floating high above them, but she looked about three seconds away from joining in herself if the way that she was staring at Shirou and his barrage was any indication, so she was hardly an unbiased commentator.

A new blade found its way into his hand, and he surged forward with steps that covered far too much distance for the movements of his body. The technique of the second Saber that he'd begun to pick up before the Battle of Kings.

Her spears never stopped moving as she ducked, dodged, deflected, and struck back out at Shirou. A dance that she hadn't been able to properly take part in with a worthy opponent in millennia.

Sure, Divine Spirits made for strong enemies that required a constant effort to take out, but she had been fighting the same ones for centuries. Somewhere along the line, it had grown stale. Not to mention that Divine Spirits didn't have that same spark that humans did in a fight, there was something that they lacked for all the speed, strength, and power that they had instead.

Fighting Shirou like this, she remembered the joy of fighting a true, worthy, human opponent.

Skills and techniques that she had rarely used in her time as warden, and was incapable of doing as a Servant, began to find their way back to her as she fought him in an echo chamber of screaming metal and roaring heat. Like skipping a stone, the technique never really left you even if it did rust with disuse.

Her fingers danced as her spears stayed in constant motion, never in the same position for longer than a fraction of a second as she defended herself from the barrage raining down on her, the attacks of the owner of this world himself, and struck out with her own. A spark of light danced to life joyfully at the tip of her finger and elegantly traced a practiced pattern as she twisted her shorter spear to knock three blades out of the air and drive Shirou's thrusted blade into the earth beneath them.

A gout of fire exploded between the two of them, launching them away from each other with smoke clinging stubbornly to their forms and trailing behind them.

Scathach couldn't help but be surprised by what had just happened. That technique, writing runes amidst the natural motions of handling her two spears, was one that she had developed years ago; long before she had locked the gates to the Land of Shadows. She had used it a handful of times within those lands, half of which was just her doing so to make sure that she actually was capable of still doing so. The Divine Spirits that dwelled in those lands simply didn't require her to fight them on that many fronts as she grew in strength, speed, and technique. At the beginning they had, but like everything else that had faded after the first century or two.

She hadn't focused on doing that, hadn't consciously attempted the technique that she had all but forgotten about in the three hundred and seventy-seven years –when had the time stretched so long?– since she had last used it in battle. The fact that she had done it now, so subconsciously, meant one thing and one thing only.

She needed more of this battle.

Dropping low and leaning back as far as she could, rather far with her flexibility, she dodged the airborne arc of slicing wings that shattered the hill behind her alongside the sound of the blade within her opponent's grasp shattering in tandem.

Think and fight, she'd done it before, she could do it now.

With a shockwave, she launched herself forward and met the charge of Shirou himself, both of their weapons glancing off each other and scoring thin slices along their necks.

Far from first blood for the two fighters, but meaningful, important. Injuries meant many things in a fight; they meant even more in a non-lethal one such as this. Both of them could have killed each other right then and there.

Well, attempted to, but neither of them was particularly susceptible to falling to such a paltry injury, let alone only one instance of such.

Faster, she had to move faster, had to strike harder, had to push him more. Force him to improve just as she had, force him to higher and higher heights. Make him turn his abilities into subconscious processes, improve his blade work, activate his Magecraft in the blink of an eye, track her intentions from the heat of her breath.

The sparks could no longer get to either of them, the runes and barriers in the air too frequent and too plentiful for their few seconds of life to ever pierce through. Lightning leaped through the air and fire roared, water crashed and ice cracked, light sang and darkness cackled.

She could feel her fingers cramping from the amount of work that they were doing, her brain pounding from inside her skull from the amount of work that she was making it undergo and her heart and lungs screamed at her to not only breath but let up on the intensity of the fighting; if only for a moment so that she could use a rune to fix herself up.

She refused. This was too good, too intoxicating, she couldn't keep going if she stopped now, she couldn't push him further if she stopped now, she couldn't see that beautiful moment where her death shone before her if she stopped no-

"Match winner! Scathach!" Morgan crowed distractedly from her floating platform above them, when had she made that?

Beneath her, on his back with his blade frozen just a few centimeters too far from her body for him to harm her before the point of her spear –pressed against his forehead– skewered his brain completely through, Shirou panted heavily while staring wide-eyed up at her.

Above him, Scathach panted while staring wide-eyed back down at him, her thoughts running a mile a minute as her body tried to cool the fuck down after such an intense, frenetic fight.

She'd used the shifting of her weight to throw him off and a rune to create split-second illusory copies of herself to slow his decision-making before spear-tackling him to the floor and pinning his non-blade arm to the floor with one of her feet as she pressed her spear against his forehead.

Experience. That's what it ultimately came down to in the end. The experience that she had built up over her years of constant fighting and refinement that it brought had triumphed over him this time. She had meshed multiple tricks that had worked together in the past –movement feinting, illusory copies, and unorthodox moves– into one combination that had, once more, worked.

She could live with this victory, she didn't need to lose to Shirou just yet so long as he learned from this just as she always had in the past.

She could live with it, but that didn't mean that she had to like it.

"Dammit." Shirou sighed, letting go of the blade in his hand and reaching up to push some hair off his forehead, his frustration at his loss easy to see.

"Keep this in mind in future fights. Not everyone is going to stick to 'orthodox' fighting." Scathach informed him with a small smile, taking a moment longer to just look down at him before finally getting off. "I know that I've managed to win more than one battle through a move that they wouldn't expect me to throw."

"Clearly." Shirou huffed with a small grin, getting up off the ground as Scathach took a moment to stretch her limbs out and try to straighten her hair back out.

"That fight was certainly a spectacle for the ages." Morgan smirked as she floated down, 'seated' in thin air with one leg crossed lackadaisically over the other. "I have to say that I wasn't expecting to see such a thing out of either of you, makes me wish I had incarnated myself."

Because as much as it burned her to admit, she didn't stand a chance at being able to beat either of them in this Servant body of hers. At least within the confines of this world, when it came to Shirou. Not only did she lack the raw power that her living self contained but she also lacked the kind of open mindset that made a magus of her caliber so dangerous. For every idea that her Caster self could imagine, her living self would have already made three and been putting at least one into action.

That was just the kind of disparity that existed between the copy and the original when it came to a Heroic Spirit, and put the limitations of the Holy Grail into a much more stark clarity.

"You say as if you couldn't choose to incarnate whenever you wish to." Shirou snorted, frowning a little when he looked down and saw that his shirt had gained no small amount of cuts and tears.

It was to be expected but was still annoying. He was going to have to go back to the estate and grab a new one before he did anything else.

'Well…' He cut off his own thought process with a considering mental hum. 'I was already planning on going hunting later in the day, so why not push that a little further up? Would save me from ruining two shirts.'

"Hm. Perhaps I could, perhaps I couldn't." Morgan replied with a wishy-washy wiggle of her hand as she languidly stretched out and rotated in the air to place her feet below her, "I'd hate to ruin that particular surprise."

Shirou and Scathach both just gave each other an amused look at Morgan's words, more than aware of the fact that she could return herself to life pretty much whenever she wanted.

It wasn't exactly a simple process, but if given a bit of time to set everything up properly, Morgan Pendragon could complete the task fairly easily. Such was the skill of the –arguably– greatest spellcaster to ever grace Britain's water-logged isles.

"Do you reckon she's going to disrupt the space-time continuum when she incarnates or starts hunting gods?" Shirou questioned while leaning towards Scathach, his arms folding into his sleeves on instinct even with how ruined they were.

"You mean first? Space-time continuum, gods are too small a prey." Scathach whispered back to him, only getting a roll of the silver-haired woman's eyes.

"Yes yes, you're both very hilarious." She drawled, getting different shaped but matching grins from the two of them.

"Alright alright, enough with that. I've got some things I want to do today beyond just this." Shirou chuckled under his breath as he started to walk forward, both Scathach and Morgan following behind him curiously.

Like the old skin of a reptile, their surroundings began to peel away and lose all of their color before finally giving up the ghost entirely and shattering much like what Scathach had done to some of Shirou's blades earlier, leaving them once more on grass and earth.

"Which direction do you think- ah." The three of them stopped dead in their tracks as Shirou stared dryly ahead of him.

Directly in front of them, Shirou's girlfriends, plus Medusa, Artoria, and Angelica, stood waiting. Expressions ranged everywhere from happiness to darkly furious and body language that conveyed those exact emotions too.

"I distinctly see quite a few injuries on you, Shirou." Rin grinned innocently, her expression just a tad too tight and her fists balled up a hair too angrily for him to actually believe such a thing.

"Minor ones that are nearly all gone already." He shot back easily, twisting towards her to let her get a better look.

To his credit, nothing that he had said was wrong. He had gone through great efforts to avoid taking any large or debilitating injuries and those only come out with small cuts and bruises that even an ordinary person could walk off with a bit of medicinal help.

The fact that he had done so specifically so that he wouldn't have to slow down his pace or start fighting more carefully, and thus enjoy the fight to its fullest for longer, went smartly unsaid even if the look that Artoria was giving him sharpened a little after he finished speaking.

"That's true…" Rin muttered, her expression pinched, and her eyes still narrowed at him as if she was still angry at him and either didn't know why or didn't want to admit why to him directly.

Though one didn't get to be, nor call themselves, the boyfriend of Rin Tohsaka without learning the intricate ins and outs of her emotional ups and downs and at least some of her internal hang-ups.

"I'm sorry that I startled you, I should have left a message or note." He began with a light, sheepish smile while scratching the back of his head, "And I know that you were worried about my physical health but I'm perfectly fine and I wasn't feeling tired or sluggish at all when I woke up. Yes, I've pushed myself a bit very soon after waking up but it's not like either of us were fighting to the death."

When her death glare softened into an expression that Shirou felt a lot safer calling 'pouty', he knew that he'd managed to hit the nail on the head for her worries; and Luvia's too, if the way that her shoulders relaxed and her expression loosened was any indication. He didn't think he was out of the woods yet though, he knew his girlfriends too well to ever fall for that trap.

"And Sakura and Artoria, I'm sorry for not waking you up and bringing you along with me. You'd both been working so hard while I was asleep that I just wanted to let you both rest without worrying either of you."

Sakura's expression only got brighter with the relief that his words brought her, but Artoria's didn't shift an inch despite her internal feelings. She was a King and a damn good one too, she knew when someone was trying to give her the verbal run around.

The fact that she could feel the sincerity in all the words he had spoken so far through their connection made holding onto the heat of her anger a bit difficult, but she did so. If only to make sure that Shirou was aware that he shouldn't just expect to do stuff like this and get away with it scot-free.

"You better be sorry, Master." Artoria grumbled with a dark look, stalking up to him with so much poorly concealed fury that even Rin stepped back worriedly, looking between her boyfriend and his Servant.

"I am, promise." He nodded seriously.

That was the wrong question to ask, she'd known it the moment that it had left her lips. Shirou was a unique kind of a person, Artoria already knew that, but when it came to spontaneous actions like this, he was hardly one of a kind.

Artoria had known Merlin for the better part of twenty years of her life, she could spot such spontaneity from a few miles away.

"Do you regret what you did?"

Shirou's response came just a moment too late, two overlapped, scandalized, shouts of his name cutting him off before he could even try and speak. She felt a slightly annoyed spark shoot through their connection and sent back an intangible dancing fairy light of self-satisfaction back at him in return.

If he wanted to play dance-around with his words, as true as they may have actually been, then he should have expected her to call him out like this. One didn't face the King of Knights and expect to come out unscathed, after all.

Though she may have taken a bit too much enjoyment in that brief spark of annoyance that she felt from him. She'd have to ask Medusa or Scathach later on if that was normal.

"No, I don't. But everything that I said is true."

"Of that, I'm well aware." Artoria nodded, placating his girlfriends and calming them back down, "But are you aware of what the role of a 'guard' is meant to fulfill, Master?"

"Of course?" He nodded with a raised eyebrow, unsure of where she was going with this new line of questioning.

"I don't think you do. Because a guard's role is to protect their charge. To be there in case there is danger. It may not have been bad this time since you had Morgan and Scathach with you but you didn't even try to take myself, Sakura, or Angelica with you while leaving the city grounds." She stressed with a stern look.

"Angelica only joined us since she couldn't find where you were and guessed that we would know. You can't keep forgoing everyone just because inspiration struck you, Master. I'm willing to forgive you this time since I know that you were sincere, actually went out with others, and nothing bad happened. But don't expect such leniency in the future. My duty as your Servant is to guard and aid you and I cannot do that if I'm not there when things happen, do you understand that?"

"Yes, Artoria. I get that, I promise." Shirou admitted defeat with his hands up in a weak surrender. "I'll make sure to bring at least one of you if I go out somewhere, I swear."

"Good! And don't think that you're getting rid of any of us for the rest of the day. I think you nearly gave me and your girlfriends a small heart attack with your disappearing act." Artoria huffed with another dirty look at the suddenly wolfish grin that spread across her Master's lips.

"That's fine by me, I already had a plan now that my shirt is ruined that you girls can all help with if you're going to tag along. Or not, that's fine too. More fun for me." Shirou shrugged in a 'what can you do?' type motion, immediately getting a curious look from Luvia and Sakura and a twitch of Rin's eye.

"And what exactly would that be, Shirou?" She challenged with a fiery look.

It was unfortunate that she had to share her head with two others now because now her inner commentary on the way that his tilted head with that same goddamn grin on his face made her feel was no longer private in the slightest.

Ishtar's additions to her thoughts did not help the direction that they went, either.

"Hunting."

XXXxxxXXX

Side Story: Clocktower Chronicles VI

"Come on Olga, put your back into it a little more." Shirou grinned as he backed up a step from the younger girl's slash.

In front of him, Olga panted and huffed as sweat rolled from her temple to her cheek and stuck her fringe to her forehead. Her usual heavy clothing replaced for some clothing a lot better suited for the kind of exercise that Shirou was putting her through.

"Sorry b- Shirou!" She called out, redoubling her efforts as she went after the red-haired teen.

The blade in her hand seemed to almost hum as she swung it through the air at her opponent's ribs, cutting through the air unlike anything she had ever held before. Once again, she flinched at the last moment, worried that she would actually hit Shirou with the very real edge of her blade.

For her worry she felt a foot tap the inside of her shin and throw her leg out wide just as she was putting her weight on it. Her face slammed into the ground with her body laid out flat before she'd even noticed.

"You hesitated again."

"S-Sorry Shirou!" She exclaimed, scrambling to her feet quickly.

Once upon a time she would have seen this kind of training as beneath her, seen sullying herself with sweat and dust as something that only a fool did.

After seeing Gray and Shirou….if she had to be a fool to reach the same heights as them, then become a fool she would.

"Come on! Keep trying!" Shirou encouraged with an easy-going grin, reaching out to rub her head as he twirled around a weak but fast thrust of her blade.

Also, she would do anything for more of those headpats.

XXXxxxXXX

Alright! We get yet another Shirou vs Scathach clash in the story and once more it ends before things can get too heated. Poor Scathach and Artoria are both going to burst eventually and its going to be funny.

Also, the idea of her writing runes amidst her spear movements is something that, to my knowledge, doesn't exist in canon but its something that just feels right for Scathach to know. So, I decided to give it to her as one of the many things that she can do as an actual living individual but not as a Servant due to the limitations of the Servant Classes. So I hope that you all agree that it at least fits Scathach and the level of power that we've seen from her Servant iterations.

Also, I'm going to be taking a break across the entirety of January just to give myself a little room to breath and relax. This chapter was finished three days before posting and was only looked over yesterday so I think that I'm starting to cut it a bit close and need to unwind a little. Which does mean that next chapter will be out at the end of February 2025 but what can ya do, y'know?

Now, please follow me to the shilling corner:

Original Story: Young Swordmaster's Journey (Royal Road)
Discord: ctMzhq3 OR plasmaassassin

AND NOW, REVIEW REPLIES!

Zensored: Writing Raiga was fun, he's a nice breath of fresh air.

TheGreatYeetus: Eventually, yes

Fujin of shadows: Ah if only you could reach in and tell her that. But you can't so she'll never find out, oh well!

Blazing ice cream: That is the eventual goal, yes.

Phantom117a: Raiga is in a unique position to actually pop up more in the story, so yeah he will.

Just a bored Highschooler: They're playing Starcraft and you can't change my mind. Also thank you!

AngelicWisdom: Well why not, y'know?

SentinalSlice: He'll get to eventually, don't you worry about that at all.

AnimeFan13579: It's going to be interesting for sure and that tidbit about the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is actually really cool, I didn't know about that before. As for Tamamo-no-Mae appearing, I'll have to think over that for a while.

Rajo: Yeah this chapter was one of those super necessary ones but I was expecting quite a lot of people to complain about it. Imagine my surprise when I'm actually getting a lot of love and support for it instead? XD

Adro-Sama: I'd love to give you a canon answer, unfortunately there is none.

Ariadne Venegas: Yeah that's pretty much it. There's a massive power struggle that's going to start now and they sort of all have to step up to handle it.

Blumstein: I'm really glad that you enjoyed the chapter but I'm not going to write that XD

TheSlySage: We are indeed! And while he's not returning in this story, that'd definitely be amusing.

Conner Kumiai: It's definitely going to progress in an interesting direction if I have any say in it. And that's always a possibility, you'll just have to wait and see.

Zukafew119: Once more you return! Just a few things to point out or correct in your assumptions. Yes the FPD either died to the sudden mana-influx or left entirely, The funny thing about Raiga being a hunting fanatic is that that is actually canon information, it is indeed Luvia's report on the Battle of Kings, and the Ayako idea was basically just that. Her gaining access to potentially dormant Magic Circuits and becoming apart of the ad-hoc Fuyuki defence. I hope that everything gets better in your life and a Happy New Year to you too!

AAAAAND THAT'S REVIEW REPLIES OVER AND DONE WITH!

I hope you all have a good New Year and I'll see you in February. Also, I bought the new Imperium Maledictum rulebook, but the collectors edition, and despite the astronomical price was not expecting to get a leather-bound, gold leaf tome of a book. I'm almost afraid to read through it cause it looks so nice, I can't lie.

(P.S. Looks like fanfiction is having an absolute stroke and won't let me upload any files regardless of the document format so I'll have to upload that at a later date. If you're seeing this on fanfiction after that time is up, hi! This site is a hellhole! :D)