Chapter 161: Dumbfounded Magus of Flowers; Training, Start!

In the reverse side of the world, there existed many mythological beings who have been alive until the modern era. One special place there is a garden. There, many faeries danced and played. No other forms of "corruption" of any vile beings are said to reach it, hence its paradise-like scenery.

In the center of it is a black tower that constantly floated. It only held a single purpose—to imprison a certain man. He is Artoria Pendragon's teacher, loyal advisor, and court magus. Alas, he offended a wrong girl, which ended up wrongly.

"Let's see... There's something wrong with the new 'presents' that I'm seeing. It should be that powerful foreigner outside our universe, hm?"

Suddenly, the man inside the tower felt something just as he was about to sit down on his desk, whereas his computer setup is present. This time, he raised his eyebrow as he sensed a "present" of another universe.

Originally, this shouldn't have happened, making him bewildered.

"How did it... Hum, I see."

Based on his [Clairvoyance—EX], he saw a pink-haired girl whose Reality Marble is strangely the same as his. This formed a connection to this place, Avalon.

What's even more strange is that the girl in his vision resembles one of the highest-level of existence that he personally knows. Her true essence is extremely similar to that of a fairy born in the Heart of the World, almost turning into that universe's rules herself.

Though, what he saw next made him, the Magus of Flowers, dumbfounded.

"Is he... Is he planning to build a Magical Girl army?"

In the same universe, he saw Roman interacting with dozens of young girls, each of them being a "Magical Girl". It's good for the Chaldea's timeline if there's a strong group to help them, but it still made him dumbfounded.

"Is his decision to become human wrong? I can't see the Grand Caster in a similar way again."

As the one behind Magi*Mari, he knew about Roman's otaku tendencies. He thought that the latter would keep it to himself, but who would've expected that he's going for real this time!

In the end, the only thing that he could do is to become closer with him through Magi*Mari. For when the time comes the Grand Caster knows the truth, Merlin is sure to see a very interesting expression. In fact, he already saw his devastated expression once, but it'll be more different once he gets the chance to see it himself personally.

Moreover, he also wanted to meet that interesting foreigner whose appearance exceeds his...

*****

As soon as Sayaka woke up from her sleep, she immediately noticed something wrong with her sleeping posture. She wore a pair of blue pajamas that Shiro took from his [Dimensional Storage (SSR)]—one of the things that he prepared if this situation of theirs occur.

From what she's feeling, it looks like she's... hugging Shiro like a pillow.

With him being in a child-like state, his height doesn't exceed 145cm. That's even shorter than Madoka, which made him the perfect person to hug.

Fortunately, Shiro lost most of his sensory powers as a temporary handicapped or else she wouldn't have this chance.

Suddenly, she felt an amalgamation of 'threatening intent' directed at her. Looking at the source of it, she saw her "Senpai" smiling with one of her eyes open.

Still, this isn't enough to startle someone who have experienced a Witch transformation; for just like Mami, she has a [Unbroken Will] too. Sayaka appreciated Shiro's current appearance for a while before standing up from the bed.

A faint blush present on her cheeks, she worded out as she smiled:

'I'm sorry.'

She didn't even wait for Mami's retaliation and went outside. There, her chaotic thoughts became more evident.

'Sensei is... No, no..! Wicked thoughts, begone!'

After calming down for a few minutes, her previous embarrassed face is gone. Making sure that everything's alright, she headed to the Emiya Residence's dojo. Opening the sliding door, she was greeted with a familiar room.

"It's only been a few days since I last visited one..."

"You know kendo, Miki-san?"

The auburn-haired youth, who was performing some warm-ups, stood up and asked her.

"Un. My combat style is all about swords, so sensei taught me in a dojo that he bought."

"...Bought?"

Hearing this, a small laugh came out from her mouth and she said, "My sensei only took two weeks to become the richest in Japan."

"Ah..?"

The auburn youth, Shirou, became dumbfounded upon that revelation. While he is working hard to pay for his expenses, there's someone out there that can be rich in less than 2 weeks!

Truly, comparison is tedious.

It is something that Shirou is already used to, so he didn't became jealous and expressed his amazement instead.

"That's... amazing. But wait, Japan?"

"As your Servants may have noticed, we are not from this world." Sayaka replied. "Catch."

She threw out her smartphone to Shirou's direction, in which the latter caught it perfectly.

"Can I analyze it?" He asked.

"Sure."

Performing a quick [Structural Analysis], Shirou found out about the complexity of modern smartphones. He was shocked to find out that a small device such as this could hold eight processors—something that only a computer can have. Furthermore, there's also a high-definition graphics that can't be matched by the current computers.

This is enough to amaze someone who's living in 2004.

"This is from your world?"

"Not really, it's only 2011 for us. To be exact, it's from Japan in 2023. Though, you might not need to wait for that long if what we've heard about Shinto Town is correct."

In Fuyuki City, there's two towns, namely: Shinto and Miyama. The former is where the Fuyuki Fire took place; it is currently being turned into a modern development sector. Meanwhile, the latter is where the old mansions are present, ranging from Western households to traditional Japanese manors.

What's surprising here is that the Shinto Town is developing at a very past pace. In Sayaka's world, it would've already been in 2010. If not for the fact that Shiro gave her that smartphone, something that belonged in 2023, she would've also been surprised by it.

"I see."

Shirou returned the smartphone back in her hands. She received it normally, but she's quite delighted internally. Even this act of her showing some futuristic technology is a move of hers to make him trust the three. They have no bad intentions, but it's better to lower the chances of them being attacked out of nowhere.

Who asked for a 13-year old child to experience such as malicious event?

Not only that, seeing her other fates from other world lines helped her mature even more. Her pathetic self, one who have sacrificed everything for a bastard who wouldn't love her...

Of course, it benefitted her in a way that it forced her to be more mature. Through it, she can understand some things that her previous self might not be able to grasp with her childish mindset.

"Now that we're done with this, we should start my payment..." Sayaka observed Shirou for a while and saw several points where he could improve. "Your magecraft can't be improved in such a short time, but you kept training your body. If so, we'll focus on your [Origin] first."

"Origin? I've heard that from father before."

"...That's why he's a bad teacher."

From the side, Saber sat in a seiza position. She secretly agreed with Sayaka's words as she recalled her memories of Kriitsugu being her master. Technically, he's a good master who makes rational decisions, but it is also this aspect of his that resulted in this bad teaching to Shirou.

"Since you're participating in this "Grail War", you'll need to aim for more immediate strength enhancements. By finding out what your [Origin] is, I'll be able to make this tutoring more accurate for your needs."

Shirou listened to the small girl attentively. From what she's saying, his control over his Magic Circuits can only be trained over time. Thus, he'll need to find out his so-called [Affinity] and [Origin].

Sayaka, seeing that she guided this conversation perfectly, asked, "From what I saw last night, you like swords?"

"Well... That is so."

"We should try going in this direction then. Your personality and hobbies can tell us about your [Origin]."

*****

'Well... Sayaka-chan is Sayaka-chan.'

The moment Shiro woke up, he saw the world once more that is enclosed with darkness. The only saving grace is that he can see the outline of people and objects as a form of white lines. It's similar to how someone perceives an item through [Structural Analysis].

He sensed Mami who is sleeping besides him. She placed a distance between them, so her hugging him like a teddy bear didn't happen... or did it?

As for Sayaka, she slept in his right. Though, she's already up at 6:00 AM since it's the time she and Shiro agreed on.

'With Sayaka-chan's knowledge, it won't be a problem teaching someone clueless about the magus society. Hm... What time is it?' He thought as the scent of breakfast wafted to his nose.

His senses might not be comparable to his peak, but it's no problem to deduce that breakfast is Japanese-styled Curry and Miso Soup. Furthermore, there wasn't much 'spiciness' on the former, so it should be the sweet variation.

Sensing the small clock on top of the small cabinet, he saw that it's 6:45 AM right now.

'I should've recovered around... yep, less than 1% from my injuries.'

Just as he thought about it, a glitched out panel appeared amidst the darkness, illuminating what's in his sight.

[Sys... Re...very: 10% --> 12.22% / Physical Inj...: 30.6% --> 29.8% / Soul In...ries:  32.4% --> 31.7%]

The first portion pertains about the system's recovery from its countless crashes while the latter two is all about the overall injuries that he sustained during that time.

The most prominent one would be the remnant effects of the <ORIGIN STATE>, which disabled most of his UR-rated Abilities such as [Aurora Curtain] and [Six Eyes]'s functions as well as prevented him from using any abilities related to soul.

Be it his Soul Armaments, Mana, or any Abilities that he received from the System or the Chat Group, he won't be able to use them without a cost. Even now, the only reason why he kept using his Healing Abilities is to recover from the said injuries.

The start might be tough, but once more abilities are opened to him, or even the Chat Group itself, his recovery would skyrocket and he would be back to his normal self.

Still, recovering on his own is a very slow progress. Also, it would be slower once he becomes closer to treating the core of his injuries.

Just as what Fenrir would say:

"F*ck this."

'Things might be easier if I can borrow [Avalon], but nope. They're still on guard with us.'

Just because Shirou had accepted them in this household, it doesn't mean that his Servant, Saber, and Rin had lowered their guard. From the quote "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer", accepting them here is a form of surveillance and guard towards potential powerful enemies.

They didn't show them hostility, yes, but this is human's nature. In this case, it's a former experienced King and a Magus who've seen the dark side of them world.

Organizing his thoughts, he stood up from the bed and faced Mami who's 'sleeping'.

With a soft tone, he said, "Thank you."

Unbeknownst to him, someone's been smiling sweetly inwardly upon hearing it...