Part 82: Lunchtime / Permit

Music: Gentle Everyday




"This is… I see, you have put the food from breakfast between bread."

Hamburger, between two pieces of bread?! Unthinkable!

Saber admires the sandwich as she eats it.
As she is using a paper napkin so as to not dirty her hands, I can sense her elegance even with this kind of lunch.


"Yeah. I thought so this morning as well, but Shirou sure is a good cook.
I think eating good food is a good thing."

On the other hand, Ilya is stuffing in her sandwich, full of energy.

Why does that have to sound so dirty?



I don't know if she's out of control or just copying me.
Ilya usually seems more well-mannered than Saber, but that doesn't seem to apply to dining manners.


"Hold on, Ilyasviel. Your hair will get dirty if you stay like that."



Saber places a napkin against Ilya's cheek.
Something like butter must've been on there as Saber wipes around Ilya's mouth.



"…Thanks. But what is this? You don't like me, right?"



"Yes, I am still on guard right now. But I understand people's hearts as well.
You bear no hostility and Shirou has accepted you as a guest.
So I will use minimal manners. And"
"And?"



That must have been from the bottom of her heart.
Saber's voice is the same as always. It doesn't sound like she's thinking about Ilya.

""
Ilya stares at Saber.
And I realize.
Ilya has never directly looked at Saber until now.
For Ilya, Saber was just my Servant and not someone that deserved to be treated as a human.



Well, I can consider you as well. I can make Shirou win, but I can't protect him."

Ilya says so while shrugging her shoulders and eats her sandwich.



Saber answers Ilya plainly.
The conversation is the same as before, but their voices sound more gentle.

Music: Stop



Statements like that only increase the harem image.

She addresses me concisely and returns to the outbuilding.

Music: Surrounded by Smiling Faces

"…Oh, I forgot about that. I was going to have Tohsaka teach me magic this afternoon."

As I never had a proper teacher, Tohsaka's magic lectures are more than helpful.
It seems Tohsaka is still willing to teach me, so I should go to see her as quickly as I can.

Today is a lab lesson: experimenting in the transferrance of magical energy, part 2.

"Sorry, I'll be going to Tohsaka's room.
I don't know how long it'll take, so you guys can go rest."

Knowing Shirou, about 30 seconds.


"All right. I'm kind of sleepy, so I'll take a nap."
Ilya goes out of the dojo, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
…Good.
If Ilya will calmly go to sleep, there won't be any problem with me going to Tohsaka's room.



"Hm? Yeah, I just said so. I need her to teach me magic."


"…Is there a need for that? We have defeated Berserker and there are no more enemies that require our cooperation to defeat.
So there should not be anything you need to learn from Rin."

…Hmm. That might certainly be true.
First of all, Tohsaka taught me so that we could go up against Berserker.
Now that that need is not there, there's no more reason to learn from Tohsaka, but

"No, I want to learn from her, forgetting the thing about Berserker.
I'm inexperienced, so I have to become a better magus as quickly as I can."



"…?"
Saber murmurs with a sad face.

It's okay. There's plenty of "magical energy" to go around.

Music: Surrounded by Smiling Faces



Tohsaka asks me a strange question as soon as I enter her room.

"? What would be broken?"


"I'm asking you if any part of your body won't move.

Rin's starting to sound like my inbox.

You did something as absurd as that, so I know your nerves must be burned up somewhere.
…Well, I don't really care, but I need to know before I start teaching you."

The medicine is on hand, but must be ingested ahead of time.

…It seems my body should be numb somewhere according to Tohsaka.
But I know myself that she's wrong.

"No, my whole body's fine.
The fever and the headache went away after one night, so I'm healthy now."


"Huh? That can't be true. You projected Saber's sword. That kind of stunt should at least take out one of your arms!"

"I'm telling you, they're fine.
Anyways, if I couldn't move, I wouldn't have been able to carry Ilya home. The only things wrong with me back then were the fever and the headache."


"You're lying! Let me see your arm, Shirou!"

Without waiting for a reply, Tohsaka takes my arm and stares at it.

Music: Stop



…Even though I'm getting used to her, having her this close tenses me up.

And on top of that, umthis distance reminds me of that night.
It's not like I forgot about it, but that was really just an emergency illusion.

I can't stay calm if I recall it, but I don't recall it unless something like this happens.
That's why I'm able to talk normally if Tohsaka acts normal.
But if she comes close to me like this, it's only natural for me to tense up and stop breathing.

Music: Surrounded by Smiling Faces


"…There really doesn't seem to be anything wrong.
There are some places black like a bruise that might be because of the burning, but everything else has healed. …No, it's more like it grew anew, rather than healing…"
As she murmurs, her breath brushes my arm.

"Hey."


That makes me blush, but…


"Your body is ridiculous. This isn't because of that healing. Your healing is definitely caused by some outside force, but I think that this is from your own healing power."
She says so while rolling up my sleeve and patting my arm.

"Hey, stop that…! T-That's enough, Tohsaka. Go sit in your chair if you're done…!"
I pull my arm back to get away from Tohsaka.




"I guess the medicine won't be necessary after all."

Tohsaka moves closer to me.



"T-That's none of your business! Don't worry about it!"


"I see. If it's none of my business, then you won't mind me doing this, right?"
"Hya…! D-D-D-Don't put your hand on my forehead…! I don't have a fever, so there's no point…!"


"It seems so. Even your ears are red. It seems more like you're drunk than feverish."

She smiles maliciously.
…It's deliberate.
I bet she's doing this deliberately.

"…Tohsaka. You're doing this on purpose, right?"


"Oh, you can tell? I had to make fun of you since your reactions are so good."

"……"
…Heh. You should go to hell for toying with a man's innocence.

He just had a threesome not two nights ago and he's still acting like a virgin on prom night.


"Well. I'll stop playing around. The mummy hunter might become the mummy if I make fun of you too much."

On the contrary - keep it up and the mummy won't be shriveled at all anymore.

Tohsaka returns to her chair in a good mood.
…This is a problem.
Tohsaka will likely make more fun of me as the days go by.

"…Tohsaka, I don't like to say this, but I came here to learn seriously."


"Oh, that's so impolite. I feel the same way. I was just checking on my student's health just now."
"Okay. Then you'll get to the point, right?"


"…Let's see. It's outside my specialty, so I'll only be able to give you some advice, but I'm sure it's better than nothing."
Tohsaka turns to me seriously, discarding her earlier lightheartedness.


"To be honest, that last lesson was the last time I could be of help to you.
You can't learn magic with such short lessons.
I only turned the switch on for you that you didn't use. Do you understand?"

"That jewel, right? After I swallowed that, the Magic Circuit did become something to switch on and off rather than something to make."



And even that was just releasing what you've been training until now.
I can only develop what you've learned, and I have no intention of teaching you any new magic.
Because you have no talent."


"…Yeah. I feel kind of refreshed if you tell me it straight like that.
But you will give me advice about the magic I can use, right? So, tell me what I used back then."



Tohsaka doesn't answer.
She just glares at me like I'm her enemy.

"Tohsaka? Um, this is a lecture, right? It's a problem if you don't say anything."


""
She averts her gaze with an unhappy expression.
But that's only for a moment.


"That's impossible.
I can't use projection magic. There's no way I can teach you about something I don't understand."
"…? …You can't use it…?"

I tilt my head questioningly.
Wasn't the thing I used against Berserker fundamental for a magus?
Assuming the structure of an object and passing the necessary magical energy through it.
It's no different from a "strengthening" magic.
But it's hard to pass my magical energy, an alien element, through an object that's already there.
It's like adding "paint I consider red" to make something redder, but ending up with a different color.

I never get tired of explanations that aren't.

Compared to that, it's so much easier to draw using my own paint from start to finish.
I can just draw whatever I want.

"That can't be true. You must be able to do that. It's easier than strengthening magic."


"Hey. If you said that to another magus, they would kill you for sure. What you did was projection, and you completely reproduced a Noble Phantasm. I've never heard of a Faker who could do such a thing."

Music: Stop

""
I feel a chill.
It's not my imagination.
Tohsaka is certainly hostile to me



I had a sense of it since I saw your shed. There's no point in feeling enmity toward Emiya Shirou now."

Music: Whirlpool of Fate 2


"I'll explain since you seem to be misunderstanding. What you did was a 'projection' magic.
It's an incomplete magic that reproduces images of existing artwork or weapons using your own magical energy.
It's usually used as a temporary substitute for ritual items. But it disappears quickly since it's made from an image, and it's naturally recognized as an 'imaginary object'."

"……?"
I can understand that it's a reproduction made out of illusions.
I saw Saber's sword in my dream and imagined the golden sword based on it.

"…I don't get it. Magical energy is like clay. So shouldn't it stay around once it takes form even if it's just an image?"


"That's not true…! Magical energy is something that can only exist inside you, right!?
That's why we pass our magical energy into other things and use magical energy as a starter to affect nature!


"Sure, I can make something like a dagger by mixing magical energy like toffee.
But that's it. It's just toffee that's shaped like a dagger, and it will disappear quickly since magical energy taken outside will vaporize."


"Listen. Things made of magical energy will not last long, and they're just shapes.
…Well, I guess the projection magic takes these things with only shape and make the ability close to the original's as well."

"Hm."
Certainly, magical energy has no shape.
I can feel it when it's in my body, but it fades and disappears once it goes outside.

So no matter how well I make a blueprint in my head and construct something out of magical energy, it is only natural for it to fade away since it's made out of magical energy.
…Come to think of it.
When I first did something like projection when Kiritsugu first started to teach me, he told me to do strengthening instead because projection was inefficient.

"I see. Projection uses a lot of magical energy. It'll disappear right away when you use it, so it's pointless to make things."


"That's right.
For example, you would use ten magical energy to 'project' a sword, right?
In that case, the sword only has a power of about three or four. A human image is full of holes, so it can't reproduce something just like the original.
In contrast, if you 'strengthen' a sword using ten magical energy, the power of the sword increases to twenty or thirty. And it lasts a hundred times longer than 'projection'."


"You understand? Nowadays, projection magic is only used during rituals.
It's just a magic used to prepare a temporary substitute in case a real tool cannot be prepared.
It was appropriate for your father to teach you 'strengthening'.
You don't have many Magic Circuits to begin with, so you wouldn't be any different from a normal person if he taught you something as useless as 'projection' magic."

""
I understand that.
But then, what was that?
The golden sword that I imagined in my head and reproduced seemed to have its original powers…

"…Hmm. Then I guess it was only by chance that I could project Saber's sword.
…Come to think of it, that sword held ridiculous amounts of magical energy. It's certainly strange to imitate magical energy that's a hundred times what I have, huh?"


"…That's, uh… probably because you're compatible with 'swords'. Magi each have an attribute, right?
I think it's 'swords' in your case."

Hahaha, that explains a lot. Now we know why this is outside of Rin's specialty.

"Attribute…? You mean elements like fire or water?"


"Right. One usually takes one of the elements that make up this world. They call fire normal and wind noble in the Magic Association, right?
It can be one of 'earth, water, fire, wind, heaven' or one of 'wood, fire, earth, metal, water'.
A magus has one of these elements, and there are others with specialized elements as well.
…Most of these magi end up as specialists, though."



There's no variety, but you can try and be the best when it comes to swords."

He's the best alright. He's so dreamy.

"I see. Certainly."
When it comes to swords, I've always had a strong interest in them.



…Then what attribute would Tohsaka be?
Considering her, I'm sure it's something uppity like fire or wind, but I want to ask and I'm curious.

"Hey Tohsaka. I'll ask you for reference, but what attribute do you have?"


"Me?
I have the attribute called the 'five elements'."

""
…Um.
Does that mean she has all of them…?


"Anyways, that's about all I can tell you.
Projection is so useless that it's even called vanity, so don't use it too much."


"On top of that, it's suicidal to reproduce Saber's sword. It's good you succeeded that time, but it wouldn't have been strange if you had died right then.
You said it earlier that the magical energy in Saber's sword is way over your capacity. You understand that reproducing that thing is easily past the limits of your Magic Circuit, right?"

"…I know. But you can't easily go past your limits. No, before that, it's the limit, so surely you can't go over it?"




"Magic follows a form, so it's only natural that you can use any magic if you have the knowledge, right?
Even if you know it's a miracle that you cannot reproduce, anyone can attempt it.
A magus is only a source of power.
Even with a small engine, you can go over the speed limit if you keep pressing on the gas. But all that lies ahead is destruction."

In Japan, speeding is punishable by execution.


"It's just like that. Magi can easily go over the limit if they're prepared for self-destruction.
Burning up the Magic Circuit, and ruining the nerves, but if you keep on turning the magical energy, you'll reach the miracle."


"Your projection is just that.
Your body was burning after the battle because your nerves were burned out. That's the price you paid for using magic beyond your level.
…After doing that, it would be natural for you to lose an arm or two."

She's angry at me.
But at the same time…


"…So bear this in mind, Emiya-kun.
Magic beyond one's limit will make the caster a cripple.
Never do anything as dangerous as projecting Saber's sword again."
She's really worried about me as well.

Music: Stop

After warning me, Tohsaka hands me some strange medicine.

"Rin. We covered this. It still works fine."



It'll probably just be a little comfort, but at least take some painkillers, just in case. If it works well, it might heal your bruised skin as well."
Saying that, she prepares a light green powder for me.

I drink the medicine with tea.
Tohsaka rummages through her stuff and tries to prescribe me another medicine.