Chereads / Lyrical Sword / Chapter 4 - Chapter 4: Initiation Part 2

Chapter 4 - Chapter 4: Initiation Part 2

Beta read by Opal

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-Midchilda-

Shirou wasn't a stranger to awkward interactions, especially when it came to conversations with his neighbor. 

Back in London, the times Rin accidentally blew the room due to a malfunctioning spell and other types of the experiment was a dime a dozen. Complaints stormed in despite the numerous bounded fields they set around the perimeter, she always found a way to break them. The brunette on the other hand barely cared, leaving him to handle everything and if things started to spiral too much out of control — she would be this close to resorting to memory-erasing spells and on rare occasions… shooting a Gandr straight to their faces. 

Of course, he stopped her every single time, furthermore, Shirou suspected she knew it as well. Though such things would happen only whenever she and Luvia would meet. 

"Uh, hey guys… I didn't expect to see you two here. Um, let's have a good fight?"

He had to admit, their shocked reaction did give him the urge to smirk which he suppressed. The blue-haired girl — Subaru if he remembered — had her jaws opened like she had seen the most unbelievable sight ever. Honestly, that expression of hers did feel a bit too extreme, they only met once!

'Oh right, they think I'm a beginner mage, so having to fight against me must be a shocker.'

Tea's reaction was much more tamed and normal, only her eyes widened at his arrival. 

"Shirou?" Subaru spoke first, the look of confusion getting stronger. "Erm, are you lost? You may have ended up in the wrong training ground." 

"Yes, this is the ground for B-ranked mages. The D-ranks are not scheduled until another day if I remember correctly." 

"..."

Shirou was not one to show off or care if someone underestimated him as a Magus. Given he was a third-rate mage, that judgment was valid — so he didn't know how to feel or even respond to these two, there was a saying that actions were louder than words. 

So better wait and let them judge him again after their fight.

Nanoha who was watching their reaction from the beginning couldn't help but wonder how these three met each other. She knew that Shirou and Hayate got to know each other better thanks to her helping him out with a living arrangement, but how that made him familiar with the newest recruits was a mystery to her. 

Maybe Hayate instructed them to each other? That did sound like something she would do. 

"Shirou, have you met before?" 

"Huh, yes, we met yesterday while I was trying to find my apartment. They were very helpful and guided me and my luggage to my room." 

"Guided? Yesterday? But… then where did you sleep the night you came to Midchilda? Hayate mentioned that she successfully managed to find you a place to live upon arrival…"

"Ah," Shirou stumped, his mind going through countless mental gymnastics to formulate a phrase that wouldn't make things awkward if he revealed that he slept in her apartment. No matter how he twisted and turned the words, it sounded weird regardless of how he would say it. "M-my bad, she actually had me sleep in another r-room the first day."

Yes, that sounded good enough in his opinion. 

Meanwhile, Nanoha narrowed her eyes, one aspect of the redhead she came to recognize was his lack of talent at lying — he was horrible at it. Now suspicion arose as to why he needed to lie to her in the first place even. But, this was not the time for an interrogation, the training needed to carry on as they were on a time limit along with her other responsibilities for the day. She also promised Fate to help her out with some work and introduce the blonde to Shirou. 

"If you say so…" better to think about these matters later. "Alright, then since you've already met each other then this makes my work easier for me. Subaru, Tea, and Shirou here has yet to get an official ranking as a mage. He is new to our system and has never been tested in the past, though given what I've personally seen of his prowess, he's more than capable to take on B or even A-rank mages. This will also be a test for you two, to examine your ability to not only work as a team but also your mastery over your devices in real combat. There will be no time limit, the winning requirements will be if either side forfeits or is unable to go on."

"Wait!" Subaru raised her hands. "Isn't this too unfair for Shirou here? I mean, B or even A rank or not, it's still a two versus one battle!" 

She raised a good point in Shirou's eyes, even if he was confident in both his magecraft and skills, there was still no guarantee he could win a fight against one of them let alone two. With little to no knowledge of how powerful the mages in this world could be, with the only scale of reference being Nanoha herself didn't aspire much confidence in the man's heart. If either of them were anything like the magical girl over there then his chances of victory were slim… almost nonexistent. Though Tea did mention she was a ranged combatant, if that was the case and her power didn't come anywhere close to Nanoha then he could see himself win.

"I understand, but this is more of a training session than anything serious." 

"I see…" Even after listening to her words, Teana on the other hand still held some doubts. "Well, if you say so then I guess you can see how it turns out." She said while doing the last check-up on her gun while Subaru followed suit and performed a last inspection on her gauntlets. 

Nanoha spoke up, "Each group will take up their position on the opposite side of the field. Team A with Subaru and Teana will start on the East side, while Shirou will start on the West. You have ten minutes to get ready and when the timer hits zero, the duel will start." With that mentioned, everyone left the area leaving behind Nanoha. A transparent screen flashed before her eyes as she watched the live footage of the drones following each group and assessing their skills. 

"Any opinion?" She asked the two other people watching this duel along with her. 

"This is an unfair battle no matter how you look at it. According to the records, Subaru and Teana were ranked top in their classes for their synergy. But, I can understand why you decided to make such a match-up after seeing the footage." Hayate's voice came from the device, a hint of amusement present in her tone as she was equally curious about how Shirou would handle this battle. 

On the other hand, Fate had differing opinions. 

"I still believe this to be a bit out of the norm, if we needed to check his level then I'm sure either of us could have had a one-on-one duel." In the end, she knew that nothing would change the outcome of what was about to happen next. 

Still, she decided to trust their judgment and didn't add anything else to the conversation, choosing to continue watching the screen with keen interest. 

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"So, what is our plan of attack, Tea?" Upon the rooftop of a dilapidated ten-story tall building, both girls set up their position there with a bird's-eye view of their side of the terrain. With little time left before the timer ended, all they could do was to wait for the timer to hit zero. Meanwhile, Subaru was curious as to how her friend wanted to handle the battle. 

"From what I remember, Shirou is a ranged fighter like me so this might end up being your fight for the most part." A ranged mage's worst nightmare was to deal with a person like her partner. With both speed and power by her side, she might not even need to participate in the battle aside from scouting out his position. "Let me find him, after locking into his coordinates I'll relay them to you. Move fast, I'll provide cover in case he tries to shoot you, and take him out as quickly as you can." 

"Ah," Subaru didn't look that happy with the plan. "Wouldn't it be better to give him a chance to show off his magic and skills first? Like this is only a form of training for us while it being a special test for him. We're his neighbors… imagine the awkwardness if we ruined his chance with the Time-Space Administrative Bureau." Again as to why Nanoha would proceed with such a decision baffled the girl, though just like Fate and Hayate — she trusted her. Perhaps Shirou truly was an A-rank mage who grew up in a foreign world outside the control of the administration and was recently discovered by Nanoha maybe?

"We can, but our intentions will be clear to everyone watching and Shirou himself. It's very possible for him to get offended or even angered that we intentionally held back. Though I do agree with you to some extent, we don't need to go too far. Let's just treat this as any other battle we've been through in the past, we'll worry about the details later." said the blonde. 

"Got it!" 

The loud siren ringing announced the beginning of the test. 

Like the hammer of a gun snapping, Subaru rushed to the edge of the rooftop with Teana remaining behind — her eyes carefully scouring the terrain before her, watching for any movement within the hundreds of windows or any signs of the redhead coming for them.

"Coast is clear!" She shouted, giving her friend the green light to proceed forward.

"Let's go!" Her mana-driven rollerblades sparking with the friction against the concrete, Subaru leaped at high speed with enough momentum to oppose the building before smashing through one of the windows. Without losing any of her speed, she continued to head forward, jumping through the obstacles of the structure to reach the ground at record time. 

"Structure is clear, no presence of any boobytraps or robots roaming around the area." She communicated with Teana telepathically, a form of magic they learned to perfect with time.

"Good, Shirou has most likely already started moving as well. Don't wander around in open areas and keep your cover, I'll be keeping watch on your position." 

While her partner could come off as childish and somewhat immature, Subaru always had a unique approach to combat. With great combat instincts and countless hours of training against foes of all sorts — she was more than capable of completing this battle by herself in Teana's opinion. A near master practitioner of the Shooting Arts which used in tandem with her gauntlet device. 

With her acting as both a support and stricker, victory was basically guaranteed. 

Yet for some reason, she was unable to shake off the uneasy feeling she kept getting at this very moment. 

Was this going to be truly an easy fight?

***

Back in the main office, the two individuals overlooking the footage expressed a visible expression of interest and pride at what they had seen so far. 

"They make a good pair, don't they?" Fate mentioned, impressed by the strong beginning of Subaru and Teana. "Making sure that they inspect their surroundings and keep a lookout for Subaru just in case she gets surprise attacked. They have the potential to become A-rank mages in the near future."

Hayate agreed with her assessment. 

"That may be the case, but the battle has yet to begin so I can't say for sure if their current level will suffice."

"You think so? In their last assessment for the B-rank mage examination, they managed to take down the Large Scale Auto Sphere which was quite an infamous obstacle for having taken down more than half of the examinees last time." In Fate's eyes, even if this Shirou Emiya held the ability to fire powerful projectiles, it wouldn't necessarily be enough to take down his opponents. Even if hypothetically he was born with a Mana Core powerful enough to equal her, Hayate, or Nanoha — it wouldn't matter if both girls managed to outmaneuver him with skills. 

And she heavily doubted this boy, who according to the reports Nanoha gave her, called himself a "third-rate magus", it only served to reinforce her doubts. 

She turned to the other screen, showing the camera locked onto his back, wondering what he was planning to do. 

"A bow…" The very same bow she saw him use before from the footage provided. It looked quite simple, it wasn't even a device now that she looked at it carefully. "Is he… is he going to use a regular bow against those two?" 

"I'm not sure if we can call it a regular bow. It appeared in his hand and has shown incredible strength to fire projectiles at great distances." 

As Hayate mentioned, both saw a black arrow now appear in his other hand. Made from a translucent blue motes of mana from what they understood. In a way, they even wanted to call them beautiful with how they formed with Shirou's mana.

There was no hint of worry or concern on his face, amongst the concrete forest, he managed to stand out in the eyes of the blonde. While Subaru was making her way to his location, Shirou calmly brought the bow and arrow together before slowly pulling the string. His muscles bulged just to pull the string of such a contraption. 

"He won't be able to hit them," Fate had to comment on the absurdity of the scene before her. The arrow did not give her the impression of being anything other than a simple wooden projectile with a rounded metal tip. Putting that aside, where he stood was still many kilometers away from Subaru, and without some spell to discern her location it would be impossible to hit her. "I'm not sure what he's planning on doing." 

Try as she might, Fate had to stop thinking about the case and found it better to sit back and watch with a heavy sigh. "How confusing." 

Hayate continued to smile, "This is going to be interesting." Years working for the Time-Space Administrative Bureau, she managed to learn a few tricks from various friends and colleagues to pass the time. Right before he summoned that black bow, her screen showed Shirou's face in detail, gazing at his lips which moved to form two simple words she managed to read. 

Trace, on.

***

"Damn it, just where is he!?" Back on the field, Subaru's annoyance continued to rise as half an hour later she still couldn't find a single trace of her target. "Still no luck, Tea?" 

"Unfortunately no, I haven't found anything yet." 

"Tch, this is a waste of time. We should gather and just f—gah!" 

It happened in an instant, faster than she could react, before her mind could even comprehend what happened — she felt a gut wrenching strike hit her right in the stomach. The world stopped for a split second, her widened eyes staring in shock at the arrow that came out of nowhere. 

'He's close.'

'Tea missed him.' 

'Where is he?'

'Should I regroup or take him on here?'

'I didn't even hear a sound.' 

'I'll have to create a smoke screen!'

One question after the other barged through her mind, her body hadn't even hit the ground before she already started scanning her surroundings. Finding nothing but more empty buildings and destroyed streets, the girl had little to no idea where he could have shot her from.

She heard Teana's panicked voice shouting her name through their telepathic link, though none of the words afterward made sense as she paid no attention to them. 

At the corner of her eyes, she spotted a single glint of light.

"—!" 

Bang!

At the very last second, she brought her hands up and blocked another arrow, "Kah!" The second impact sent her body hurtling a couple of meters until her back hit the walls. Air was pushed out of her lungs but it didn't hurt as much as before. 

"T-Tea!" She couldn't catch his position, but her partner who kept watch the entire time should have seen something. 

"It came from your left! Move!" 

That warning came just in time for her to push back against the ground and dodge a third arrow that struck the area she was in before. 

Subaru activated her rollerblades, pouring as much mana as she could to give her a burst of speed sufficient enough to leave the area and not get hit again. 

She blasted forward.

A magic circle formed beneath her feet to form a platform that stretched in the air. A glint of light reflected from the distance, "Not this time!" Her arms cocked back, the gauntlet coming to life, spinning from a simple command. "Load cartridge!" 

As if loading a bullet into a chamber, Subaru's device continued to spin at greater speed with a small ball of mana formed above her hands. 

"Revolver… shoot!" A single shotgun blast rang as she fired the blast, recoiling slightly from the wind it generated. The ball traveling headstrong straight for the fourth arrow and hitting it with sufficient accuracy to cause both objects to explode. 

Teana immediately stepped forward from where she was stationed to follow along with Subaru's attack. Tracing the trajectory of the arrow which blew up, she sucked a lungful of air with clear disbelief visible on her face. "T-That far!?" 

It came from the rooftop of another building, yet that particular structure was two kilometers away from them! Even with her eyesight, the girl could barely make out the small red dot of the boy standing there. 

"Kargh!" 

And without warning, a red beam slammed into her guts similar to Subaru. Though unlike her partner's higher pain tolerance and defenses, Tea couldn't land back down properly and fell off the rooftop. "He's aiming for me too!" 

Pushing her shock to the side, she aimed her gun to a piece of rebar above and fired a grappling hook from her gun, the line extending and wrapping around the part she aimed for. 

"I got you!" 

As her fall started to slow down, Subaru came forth and caught the blonde right on time. "Behind you!" Tea screamed as she brought up her gun and fired at another arrow which nearly hit Subaru's head. The latter's jaw dropped when she noticed dozens of arrows in the sky, which all of them headed straight for her with terrifying precision. 

"That bastard," she smirked, unable to suppress her emotions at how ruthless and effective this guy was with his bow and arrows. "Is he a gatling gun!?" 

Left, right, riding up magic-constructed platforms, swinging across the whole field thanks to Tea, and jumping from one window to another — this was what both girls ended up doing for the last few minutes. 

Minutes that to them felt like hours. 

This became no different than a game of cat and mouse where they were able to hold on for now, using their surroundings as a barrier in case the arrows became too numerous, and using the short time Shirou stopped firing to shorten the distance between them.

Though Teana couldn't help but feel something was amiss here. He looked far too calm with how the battle was turning out.

***

"..."

In the office, Fate was left speechless at the event before her. The entire time, she believed this to have been an easy match for the girls and a challenge for Shirou. 

But the complete opposite occurred.

He was dominating the field with his range alone, something neither Subaru nor Tea could replicate. Using greater speed to keep those two from getting too close and stacking the pressure on them with the never-ending flow of arrows. Regardless of how powerful Subaru's punches were or how lethal Teana's shots were, as long as they couldn't hit their opponent then this would become nothing more than a one-sided battle.

"Fascinating, he is able to not only shoot a target at a distance of two kilometers, but to do it with so much accuracy!" Hayate exclaimed, "with his speed and accuracy alone, Shirou should have the minimum necessary qualifications to become an A-rank ground mage. He hasn't yet brought out the more dangerous arrows he has shown in the battle against the ghouls, so this should be a clear-cut victory." 

She wanted to root for Subaru and Teana just as anyone else. But the circumstances presented before her made that notion difficult to exist. 

"That's not clear yet," said the voice of Nanoha, the image on the screen turning to the brunette floating in the sky watching the battle below her with a smile on her face. "The duel has not ended yet, I trust those two still have ways to win this fight."

"Hoh, I was under the impression that you were expecting for Shirou Emiya to win, Nanoha-chan." 

She didn't deny her claim, "I am, but that doesn't mean those two have no chance of winning. There are many factors we must take into consideration and our mages here still have many tricks up their sleeves." 

Fate agreed and so did Hayate. It would be foolish and disrespectful to already come to such a conclusion without waiting till the end. They all fought such battles in the past, against opponents who were not only more skilled than them, but those who possessed far more power as a whole. 

Hayate turned her head, welcoming the arrival of a person who knew would be present to watch the current fight. "What is your opinion about this, Signum?" She asked the pink-haired woman, the latter watching the fight with an interested expression. "I see Vita couldn't join us today."

"She's busy taking care of matters concerning the staff for Riot 6." Hayate nodded in understanding, that the project of hers was nearing its completion and she was grateful for everyone who was giving their all to make it a reality. "I see, shame, she would have enjoyed the fight."

"Where is he from?" Signum questioned, "that bow is not a device, merely a weapon made of a durable material capable of creating so much force just to shoot a single arrow. And to do it so quickly requires immense physical strength." 

"Mah, you can ask him these questions yourself. I don't believe it's my place to share them in the first place." 

"If you say so." Regardless, it was clear to her that this boy was not a newly formed mage. Putting aside his power and magic, the experience alone already told her enough. 

{Break}

"What the hell!" Subaru shouted in frustration, "Is this guy for real!? What kind of person can use a bow like a freaking sniper!? And he keeps aiming for my guts!!!" 

At this point, she evaded at least a hundred of arrows but unfortunately, a few reached their target. Thankfully, Tea was around to support her and shot at the oncoming barrage when she was struggling to get up. 

"He's playing with us!" Subaru noted, she prepared herself for another stream of arrows that would inevitably rain down upon them, hoping that she would be able to dodge them like last time. She was weak, suffering from a burning sensation to her gut from all those arrows that hit her, and her clothes were drenched in sweat. The last time she was pushed to such an extent was against her sister, 'Though her fists hurt far more than his arrows.' 

That phrase she promised herself to spit it back into his face after successfully punching his face.

"I'll distract him, you go and get close to him!" Teana said, having reloaded her gun and firing in quick succession at a few arrows. "If he focuses on me then you'll have enough chances to get close enough to stop him from using that damnable bow of his!" 

"Be careful, those arrows pack enough punch to break a bone if you're not careful." 

Of course, she knew, having experienced the pain firsthand made Teana shiver at the thought of experiencing that kind of attack again. It was a miracle how Subaru managed to stay up for so long, even with a barrier jacket those things hurt tremendously. 

"In 3… 2… 1!" They split ways, the gunner running to an open area close enough where she could see Shirou up there with his bow.

"Over here!" She screamed, firing a couple of shots near his surroundings and some straight for his head. Unfortunately, they all got destroyed by his ridiculous shooting rate. Though she prided herself on her accuracy, Teana still managed to miss some shots while the others were casually taken care of by Shirou. He stared at her from a distance, with enough intensity that she felt as if he could see right into her eyes. Yet his action baffled her, as the boy turned his head around to aim for Subaru again. 

"Shit!" She cursed for the first time since the battle began, a rare case that only happened under high enough stress. "Subaru, watch out!" 

But then, for an inexplicable reason, he didn't do anything afterward. 

"Huh?" 

His gaze returned to her, Teana's body tensed as she saw him pull the string of his bow a bit more slower than next time. The wind whistled with a high-pitched sound, she turned her head just in time to dodge a familiar red beam that she felt touched the surface of her skin. 

However, even with her shooting like a madman, Shirou still managed to keep a steady balance with her. Whatever he did, Teams started to understand the frustration Subaru felt back then. More of her shots were immediately dispensed with little to no effort by the guy. In fact, even his firing rate had visibly slowed down, casting thousands of ideas course through Teana's mind. "This is my chance, he either ran out of ammunition and must be running out!" With that idea in mind, she was about to leave from the corner only to be met with those golden brown eyes that converted little to no intentions. "This is my chance!" 

Either Shirou grew tired by running out of mana or material, she had to seize the chance!

As soon as she took another step forward, "GAAAH!" A painful blow hit her ankle, and on her knees, she barely dodged a second strike for her other ankle this time. 

'Just have to deal with the pain for a little while longer.' 

Honestly, she had long since stopped questioning how he could fire arrows with so much power and protection with a normal bow. All of her focus was only on keeping that monster's attention on him and nothing else. Her eyes darted around the battlefield, seeing her partner get closer to him only served to fuel her desire to keep his attention on her. 

"Why don't you dodge for once!" In anger, she fired three shots. 

The first one got destroyed by one of his arrows, another one missed by a hairbreadth, and the last shot finally made him move. 

Meanwhile, a grin etched onto Subaru's face at the opening she was given, she threw all caution to the wind. Her teammate wouldn't hold onto his attention for long if she wasn't fast enough. Originally, it was supposed to be only her fighting Shirou in a one on one battle, but given that could no longer be the case, the girl knew she had to give it her all now. 

The distance between them kept getting shorter, Shirou's entire attention immersed on Teana as the latter kept making him dodge her shots and stop him from doing anything else. Just to get a slight boost, two gunshots rang from her gauntlets, propelling her forward even faster than before. 

Loading another cartridge would take more time, so she preferred to just sock him to the face! Her rollerblades reached the end of the platform, she jumped forward with her right fist winded back and ready to strike him. There was no way he would have enough time to react or fire another one of those arrows at her. 

"Sorry about this, Shirou, but I'll have to beat you up for all those shots to my stomach!" She would treat him with a gift later on as an apology, by now, Nanoha-san must have seen enough of his abilities by now. "Hah!" 

In an instant — he materialized a short black blade, having the bow break down into pieces of light and blocking her attack using the flat side of the weapon. A loud screeching followed with more sparks, he kept his ground without getting overwhelmed by her strength. Unable to process what happened, she gave Shirou ample time to deflect her fist before sending a powerful kick to her stomach accompanied by a small shockwave.

She coughed up saliva, clutching her guts which burned as if it was on fire. She swore that by the end of the training, her belly would be all black and blue. Pushed off her platform, the blue-haired girl ended up free falling from the sky.

Bzt!

Shirou wasn't done yet, he recalled his bow and sent a flurry of arrows towards her in a single burst. Many of which were aimed for her guts and head.

"Give me a break!" Subaru complained, as she tried to protect her body, the attacks rained down mercilessly till she was sent crashing to the ground, forming a crater twice her size. 

"Subaru!" Hiding behind a wall, Teana cursed that man at the last second changed his aim, and went for her head. She had to dodge the arrows which gave him enough time to turn his attention back to Subaru. The salvo of projectiles she saw hit her friend made a chill run up her spine, Subaru was strong enough to casually get up after getting rammed through a concrete wall. But if such a thing were to happen dozens of times then it would exceed her limit. Her eyes widened at how a single one of those arrows managed to destroy a boulder into fine powder, there was no way she was getting up from that any time soon.

And he was also a sword user!

"Hah, calm down Teana, you can do this." She wasn't much of a fighter, but that didn't mean she was completely incompetent in that area. Now, her priority was to get back to Subaru and retreat somewhere where they could lose the guy and rest for a bit. "Thankfully, there is no time limit so better use that to our advantage." There was no need to rush, they shouldn't have stormed headfirst without carefully analyzing their opponent in the first place. "Deep breath." 

A red arrow whistled near where she hid, grazing her shoulders. Teana hissed, going further behind while clutching her bruised area. "At least those arrows are blunt, but they still hurt. At least now I know he's still there and got his attention on me." 

She focused, clearing her mind of all negative thoughts, and focused her mana, drawing as much as she could whilst adding a new cartridge inside the barrel. A shooting spell of which she grew very proud of. Like many shooting spells, several magic spheres were produced, floating around her body. She tightened her hold on the gun and jumped to the side whilst aiming for the area Shirou stood before. "Cross Fire Shoot!" 

Woosh!

All ten spheres turned into beams of light, traveling faster than any of her previous attacks and bombarding the rooftop, destroying a large part of the building and engulfing it in a sea of fire.  

A quick reload later, she fired again without missing a beat. 

"Cross Fire Shoot!"

This time, only five spheres were shot, carrying less destructive energy. But they were nonetheless dangerous enough to completely obliterate the entire upper section of the building. 

"Hah… Hah… Hah," panting, she could feel her head getting lighter. The stress of evading his arrows for so long while trying to close the distance between them drained her mentally. "That… should… have been enough…" 

Seriously, to think she thought of him as a D-ranked mage in the past was laughable. She chuckled self depricantly, wanting to smack her past self for assuming such a thing. In a real-life scenario, it would have been a deadly mistake.

"Hm?" Teana got back up, something didn't feel right. The smoke from the rooftop started to clear as she watched with bated breath, her heartbeat drumming loudly. And finally, horror surfaced on her face as she found not a single trace of Shirou anywhere. 

'Did I go too far?' 

Her hands were shaking, this couldn't be possible, right? Instructor Nanoha was paying close attention to the fight, surely she would have intervened if things went too out of hand, right? The idea of something tragic happening just because she wasn't careful enough was too much to bear.

"N-No… it can't — " 

"— Behind you." 

"—!" 

His voice sounded from behind her back.

Impossible.

How did he get there without her noticing? At the corner of her eyes, she saw another blade's pummel swinging right for her head. There was an annoyingly pervasive thought that no matter how hard she tried, there was no way she could beat Shirou on her own. 

"DID YOU FORGET ABOUT ME!?" 

BANG!

Much to the blonde's surprise, the ground beneath them broke apart with a bruised Subaru bursting upwards with a cocky smirk. Her feet swung around and kicked Shirou full force to his stomach. 

"This is payback!" A second attack came forth with her plunging her other foot right to his face. "Plus interest!" Her gauntlet came to life, mana wafting off the device as it formed a single ball of blue energy. 

"Revolver shoot!" 

"Cross Fire Shoot!"

Realizing that she had mistakenly assumed the worst beforehand, Teana retracted her previous shock and followed Subaru's example. Using the sliver of an opening by her partner's distraction, Teana rushed to close the distance. She spun her gun, the pistol's barrel lighting up with an angry green hue of mana, creating more intense mana orbs which she fused to fire another round of destructive spheres. 

'Are his eyes glowing?' In the head of the moment, Teana saw a change in Shirou's eyes that she couldn't describe with words. 

They looked far more dangerous.

"I a—th—bon——y—ord!" 

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.

.

Shirou wanted to make this fair, he entertained the idea of firing a Caladbolg II but instantly dismissed it. 

So he chose the simpler approach, to bombard those two with enough arrows to overwhelm the girls to make them quit or render them unconscious. 

"She's persistent." 

From the days of the fifth Holy Grail War, his skills with the bow grew by leaps and bounds. A large part of it thanks to Archer's memories and finally the countless hours of training he did at the Clocktower. At a distance of two kilometers, he could comfortably achieve a bullseye ten times successively without missing once.

But to cause any unnecessary enmity with his neighbors, he only aimed to take down Subaru first by making sure she wouldn't be able to get up. He wasn't sure how good her defenses were so he avoided the head. Teana was a dangerous foe as she was the mastermind behind each move and a ranged fighter. Though her defense and senses were lacking as a single arrow was more than enough to catch her off guard. 

Unfortunately for him, Subaru came to her rescue and now both of them were coming for him. 

"Hm, I guess I can bring it up a notch." This time, he traced a simple nameless sword not even powerful enough to be considered a mystic code let alone a Noble Phantasm. The steel twisted into the shape of an elongated twisted arrow and in less than a second it was being pulled and fired at a greater speed than his previous arrows. 

The projectile hit Subaru right in the stomach, fortunately, he made sure that the tip wasn't that sharp in the slightest so as to avoid any grievous wound. "But a broken rib or two is unavoidable." 

Yet again, those two proved to him how great of a team they were. While the blue-haired girl needed some time to get back up, she fired a special type of bullet that hit any arrows coming too close to them before dragging her friend somewhere safe. 

This cycle continued for a couple of times, him tracing the same sword just to hit Subaru in the same spot again and again to the point that even he was getting flabbergasted at how tenacious that girl was. Barrier jacket or not, that much pain surely would have put anyone down by now!

By the end, those two got close enough to force him to bring out Kanshou which surprised Subaru long enough for him to smack her away and send her back down with a hail of arrows raining down on her body. If that fall wasn't going to make her unconscious, then surely this would.

"Damn it, I should use something else." After years of practicing his tracing, Shirou got used to bringing out Kanshou and Bakuya through instinct alone. But given he didn't know how well their defenses would hold up against the edge of a Noble Phantasm, he immediately dismissed the weapon and instead brought out a silver European longsword. "Now, where is Teana? Ah, she's hiding." A sound strategy, but their distance, he could just end it with a quick strike from the sword's pummel. Shirou fired one last arrow that managed to strike her shoulders, Magical Energy streamed inside his limbs and with the use of Reinforcement, he jumped straight to the other side quietly. 

Good thing he did so, as the girl came out with dozens of floating spheres around her and fired them where he stood before. The redhead felt goosebumps spreading over his body, that kind of attack would easily put him out if he wasn't careful. There was only so much Reinforced clothes and body could withstand without the use of proper armor. 

"N-No, it can't be!" 

She seemed distraught, panicking even to the point of not noticing his presence which he wasn't even trying to hide in the first place. 'Does she think that I…' 

He almost chuckled, though it still felt bad to have her react like that and he didn't want to use this opportunity to his advantage given this wasn't a genuine fight — so might as well announce his presence. 

"Behind you." 

Her body tensed up, but it was far too late as his blade's pummel was already nearing her temple. These clothes she wore provided a defensive spell that would have shrugged off his attack most likely, but did it also protect her head? Well, the only way was to see and find out.

Bang!

"What?" At the last second, Shirou lost his balance with the floor beneath him crumbling apart. He watched with shock as the previously thought unconscious Subaru burst upward with a giant grin on her bruised-filled face. 

Even after everything she experienced, she still looked so energetic and enthusiastic. So much so that even he couldn't help but smile at the girl's contagious energy. 

"Eurgh!" Though that smile was short-lived as he experienced a painful kick to the stomach, the sensation being especially painful due to the rollerblades threatening to dig into his flesh. 

"This is payback!" 

A statement he couldn't deny, he did intentionally target her stomach the entire time. The fact that she could still move was no different than a miracle, or perhaps she had a stupidly powerful abdomen that could withstand a heavy amount of blunt damage. 

'Just like Luvia… I lost count of the number of times Rin pummelled her to the ground and stomped the girl for long enough to entirely destroy the floor itself.' Just by thinking of that memory, the familiar laughter replayed in his mind with the mocking sound of 'Miss Gorilla' playing over and over again. 

'I really hope these two aren't similar.'  

Though it didn't just end there, another foot stomped his face. The taste of blood came to his mouth, that kick even chipped one of his teeth due to the rollerblades acting as another weapon. 

Shirou spun on his heels to disperse as much force as he could and felt his hair stand up with an imminent feeling of grave danger. The light emanating from Subaru's gauntlets and Teana's gun was no different than a death sentence if those hit him. 

"Revolver…" 

"Cross Fire…"

Every single fiber of his being screamed at him to move, but it was already too late. Finding himself in a similar situation to Teana from before, a position where he could do nothing but take the attacks head-on. 

He couldn't hold back anymore.

With Magical Energy surging through his circuits, Shirou's arm lit up with the circuit patterns traveling all through his limbs while he brought it up to face the two incoming attacks. 

When was the last time he felt such a great sense of danger? 

"I am the bone of my sword!"

""SHOOT!""

"Rh—"

A ball of fire and light came to life, spreading all over the rooftop and blinding anyone watching the fight. The screens in the offices turned white with everyone on the edge of their seats wondering what the heck just happened. 

Nanoha swooped in, an expression of worry showing on her face as she hoped things didn't escalate too far. She noticed how Shirou was holding back and wanted to dissuade him from doing so as it could easily backfire on him. But a part of her wanted to trust the boy's judgment as he proved to be good at taking the right decision at the moment. 

She shielded her eyes from the intense pale pink light.

As it died down, she and everyone else watched as the smoke cleared and watched as Shirou stood next to a fallen Teana with a struggling Subaru held firmly in a chokehold. The girl barely had any energy to move let alone pry herself off from the equally tired and heavily bruised redhead. A sword having pierced her left gauntlet to the ground, rending that arm immobile, and a few more blades trapped her legs from going anywhere as even the slightest movement could cut her skin. 

A few seconds later, seeing how it was pointless to resist. She sighed, tapping his arms around her neck signaling that she could no longer go on. "I give… up." She whispered, using her last bit of energy to say those words. 

"You were amazing… both of you. I nearly lost there." He said, gently putting her down on the ground and laying next to them. 

'No, you didn't.' Subaru wanted to say, but couldn't. The last image appearing inside her mind as she closed her eyes was that of a beautiful blooming sakura petal. 

"Raising Heart, are they okay?" She asked, hoping that they were alright.

"All three vital signs are stable." A heavy sigh of relief escaped her mouth, the magical girl landed next to them and waved her device. "Round Shield." Their bodies got surrounded by a translucent field of magic, protecting them from any residual danger. 

She smiled at the otherworldly Magus comfortably resting inside her shield. Hovering next to him followed by a friendly wave. 

"How are you doing?" She asked.

"Could have been better, I have a new fear of rollerblades from now on." He touched his face, feeling it sting from the previous kick and even spit out a broken tooth. "Even getting punched in the face never hurts as much." Or having to experience a Gandr, even a low-powered one hurt like hell on Earth. 

"Fufufu~! You can speak like that means that you still have a lot of energy left in you."

"I would argue the opposite, Nanoha-san." 

"I might just throw you back there to face Sigmun-san, I'm sure she would be more than happy to test you out." He had no idea who this person was but given how she was saying it made him already wary of this individual. 

"Hehehe, I'll pass on that. I don't think my body can afford getting nearly blown to bits again."

Both shared a laugh, glad that nothing bad happened. Shirou pushed himself up to a sitting position, stretching his arms and hearing a popping noise with each movement. He groaned and arched his back for a similar thing to happen again. 

"Now, now, you're not going to tell me that you're becoming too old for such fights?" Nanoha joked, bringing them back to a safer location where they would get treated. "Oh, I'm already seeing a white stand here, Shirou. You might have a full head of white hair in a few years." The girl continued to tease the boy.

"Humph, trust me, you won't like that version of me. He'll be nothing but a big grumpy crybaby. A true bastard." 

"Eh?"

"Nothing," he ruffled his hair, grabbing a single strand of white amongst the sea of auburn. "Just an inside joke. Also, you have great eyesight, to spot a single strand on my head… kinda weird." And pulled the strand off before discarding it. 

"Hehehe, I just got lucky… ah! I forgot to congratulate you on your victory, Shirou! You defeated two B-ranked mages! That should officially grant you the ranking of an A-rank." 

"Defeated? Barely." He didn't like that word in this context. "They could have beaten me if they tried hard enough. Especially with how good their teamwork was."

"They lost because they not only underestimated you, but they lacked sufficient planning and headed straight for the attack. It doesn't matter how you won, it doesn't change the outcome. And don't think I didn't notice how you were holding back a lot compared to what you've shown me when we first met." 

"I wasn't going to use Caladbolg on those two." He said with a stiff expression. 

"Then my point still stands, you had more than enough opportunity and firepower to not only defeat them from the beginning but also escape if things got too intense — but you continued to stay in your place." She pointed her finger at him, already guessing what he was about to say. "And if you still disagree with me then I'll schedule you for another duel and this time, your opponent will be me!" 

"I humbly accept this victory." He followed instantly, not wanting to face this nuclear-powered monster any time soon.

Nanoha nodded at his changed attitude, Shirou was too humble at times. 

Meanwhile, Shirou looked at both Subaru and Teana, cringing at how bruised and beaten they looked. His initial goal of ending this fight as quickly and painlessly as possible turned out to become the complete opposite. He regretted his actions at the end, perhaps there was another quick way to proceed with the battle if he had only taken his time to plan things out.

Soon, a group of paramedics came with three stretchers ready to bring them to the care center to treat their wounds. Shirou insisted that he was fine much to Nanoha's dismay. 

"Shirou, this is not the time to be acting stupid. Your nose was bleeding from Subaru-chan's attack; you could possibly be suffering from cracked ribs." 

"You're exaggerating, I went about my regular day with worse wounds than this." 

"That doesn't make it better!" She whined, contemplating whether to tie him up and drag him inside a hospital. "And why did you say that as if it was some sort of achievement to be proud of?" 

Shirou scratched his head, "I-It's really not that bad, I just need to take a nap and I'll be as good as new." 

She was beginning to experience a headache with how resistant he was being.

As those two continued their conversation, another group of three people arrived on the helipad to greet him. One of which he recognized as Hayate, the woman giving him a thumbs up. 

Behind her stood a tall woman with pink hair, with a stoic face that barely showed anything. "Sigmun." Was all that she said with a slight nod. 

He guessed it was an introduction of sorts.

"Um… Emiya Shirou." 

Then the third person, she came forward and extended her hand which he awkwardly shook. 

"Glad to meet you, Emiya Shirou. My name is Fate Testarossa, I'm a long-time friend of Nanoha and a Forward Lightning Commander." 

The boy didn't know what to say, not being an expert in interacting with new people he just smiled and nodded his head. I like Nanoha and even Hayate to some extent, he didn't know this person so had little to no idea how to steer the conversation.

"Your skill with the bow was impressive, may I know what magic you use?" She asked out of simple curiosity. 

"Ah, you mean about my accuracy? That's not magic, I just trained a lot to hone my skills to this level." 

"Eh, really? That's even more impressive!" As she was about to ask him more questions, Nanoha came along and rested her hands on the blonde's shoulders.

"Fate-chan, we can talk with Shirou later, now he needs to get treated for his injuries." 

"Ah, of course, let me help you." Fate proposed, joined by Hayate and Signum agreeing with the brunette. In the end, Shirou could do nothing but let himself get carried on a stretcher to the hospital. The battle was intense, especially towards the end. Those two gave him a good challenge and the next time it would probably not be as easy for him. 

{Break}

(A few hours later)

"—ru."

A voice rang in her ears, it was loud and annoying, making it hard for her to sleep. 

"Hmmn…"

"—aru!"

It came again, louder than before. She wanted to ignore it and continue indulging in the comfortable embrace of her warm bed. It was cold outside, yet inside the covers, the temperature was just right. Her body felt immensely sore, probably after spending a few hours too long training like many times in the past. 

Did she have any classes today? Probably. The girl couldn't be bothered to remember or even think about anything else but her warm lavender-scented pillow.

Weird, it never smelled this way in the past. Even her shampoo was odorless which made her pillow usually reek of her sweat — much to Teana's disgust. 

Oh, it was probably her pillow, she must have taken it by mistake in her sleep. 

Oh well, her partner had enough of them, not like she would miss it.

"SUBARU!" 

This time, the voice was loud enough to crush any and all feelings of sleep as it rang right next to her ears.

"AAAARGH! What!?" She shouted, covering her ringing ears, it felt as if she had an encounter with a banshee. "Can't a young woman like me get a simple full night sle…ep… huh?" 

Subaru's words died down her throat as she opened her eyes. The warm blue wall color of their room covered with countless pictures and posters was now replaced with a blank white wall. "Hurgh!" Her nose got immediately assaulted by the intense odor of pure alcohol and other types of chemicals which burned away any remaining remnant of her drowsiness.  

"Where… are we?" She asked no one in particular.

"Hey, finally awake." The blue-haired girl turned to see her partner sitting on a hospital bed covered in bandages from head to toe and drinking a cup of tea. "I grew tired of hearing you mumbling and snoring for the most part and had no choice but to wake you up, dummy." 

"Hospital? Snoring!?" 

Teana rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, hospital. Don't tell me you don't remember what happened before… Do you even remember who I am?" Seeing her confused face, the blonde sighed and massaged her temples. "Great, now I have to deal with an amnesiac girl who can barely take care of herself. Just my luck." 

"Oi! Who are you calling ambit… amnesti… amma… amnesiac? Yeah, amnesiac!?" Subaru crossed her hands with a pout. "If you had to know, I was just trying to remember what happened before." 

"We had our own spells blow up on our faces," Teana said with a dry tone, continuing to keep her eyes on the cup of tea while occasionally sneaking glances at the news screen on the other side of the room. "More like that happened to me while you suffered from not getting enough oxygen to your brain."

"Huh?" 

"You were choked to the point of losing consciousness."

"Ohhhh," Subaru nodded her head. "Now I understand. 

"Sure you do." She knew that her friend over here hadn't yet remembered the event of the past yet so she gave her a few more seconds. 

'In five… four… three… two… one.'

"Ah, now I remember!" 

There it was, right on time even. That was a new record now that she thought about it, maybe she needed to keep a record somewhere. 

Meanwhile, Subaru was slowly recalling every single moment which led her to her current situation. From her meeting Shirou, finding out he was their opponent the next day, having to fight him, getting kicked in the guts many times and the last memory was a bit blurry. 

'Was that… a flower?' It sounded absurd, but she was certain that before everything went dark, she saw a scene that would forever remain etched into her brain. 'But was it real, or was I imagining things?' 

Many questions occupied her thoughts, though many of which would remain unanswered. 

"Where is Shirou?" 

Fortunately for this one, she didn't need to wait for long to get an answer.

"I'm right here." 

"Gya!" Caught by surprise, she almost fell off her bed. "Shirou!?" 

Similarly to Teana, the boy was sitting on his bed with a good part of his body covered with bandages and he was also drinking a cup of tea while watching the TV. 

"What are you doing here?" 

"Resting." 

"For how long?" 

"Don't know." He shrugged, having not paid too much attention to the time. Though given the sky outside was now painted a deep orange color, soon to turn dark from the disappearing sun — it had been at least five to six hours. 

"Why didn't you say anything?" 

"I was drinking tea."

"..."

Well, that was obvious enough for her, rather she wanted to know why he was there. "You won, I remember now." 

"That may be true, but it doesn't mean that I didn't sustain any injuries from that fight. Remember, you smashed your rollerblades to my face and to my guts before shooting a full-powered magic blast at point blank. My body has survived many injuries in the past but an attack like that was bound to take me down if I hadn't reacted in time." The channel he watched along with Teana was in English, apparently, the station broadcasted the same news in multiple different languages for people from every corner of the galaxy who didn't necessarily know the same language as the people from Earth. 

"A flower…" Subaru blurted out, catching his interest as he turned around to face her. "There was a flower… something similar to a flower that blocked the attack." 

Teana sneakily paid attention to the conversation as well. Honestly, she couldn't remember what exactly happened in the end and the explanation she gave Subaru initially was her repeating the same words uttered by the doctors who were briefed on the training by Nanoha-san. 

"A flower?" Shirou was amused that Subaru reacted to what he used during the fight. Though he understood where she was coming from, he had a similar reaction as well when he first witnessed it. "I guess you can call it that, it was designed after one so you're not wrong. And to answer your question, it's a defensive… spell, yeah, a spell." 

Trying to describe a Noble Phantasm let alone that particular one was going to be far too troublesome without there being hundreds of follow-up questions. So he just took the easy way out and just called it a spell. 

Teana gave him a suspicious stare.

"Wow, that's amazing. So you can not only use a bow and sword, but also defensive magic? That's crazy."

"If you think that's crazy then I am more than curious about what you'd think of Nanoha's powers." Right before coming here, she clearly showed her ability to create an energy-based shield which only served to lengthen the list of powers he noted on her. 

And all of it originated from that small orb of hers; Raising Heart!

'I wonder if she can also use healing spells.' That was probably a no given she didn't use anything similar on either of them. 

Clang!

The doors to their room opened, and Shirou expected to see another nurse or doctor to come in and monitor their recovery. Though unexpectedly, the one who came was that blonde woman he just met, Fate Testarossa. 

"Subaru-chan, Tea-chan, I'm glad to see you both recovered so quickly." She said kindly, "I have kept watch on your battle alongside Nanoha-chan and Hayate-chan and all of us were impressed. You truly deserved your recent promotion, and I can't wait to work alongside you two." 

"Working with us?" Everything started to click inside Teana's mind as she looked with unhidden joy at the woman before her. "You don't mean…"

"Yup! I will be joining the Riot 6 group just like you two," her eyes turned to Shirou. "And you as well." 

"Eeeehhhhh!?" Subaru exclaimed. "You're part of the group as well!?" 

"I guess so," he did accept Hayate's invitation last time, so given she was most probably the leader then he did in fact become a member. 

"Please take care of me, you two." 

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