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"Shirou." Rias calling him snapped him out. "You alright?"
"Yeah, all fine here." He tried to smile but no one was buying it. Rias gives Liz a look but the homunculus shooks her head.
"Are you going to be in condition for our fight tomorrow?" Setsuna opens an eye and looks at Shirou. "I hope you give me your best. I don't want a half attempt or anything like that."
"Don't worry, I promise I won't disappoint." But that was not enough.
"Then you better go home and get some rest." Setsuna moved to get his bag.
"Wait-" She throws it at him.
"You will make sure he rest won't you Liz-san?" The maid was confused but she gave a nod and also got ready to leave.
"Hold on a second! What is going on?" Setsuna looked at him for a few seconds, Rias was also confused by her actions.
"I want to talk with Rias… girl talk." It was obvious that the girl felt weird saying that.
"I could just leave the room."
"And we will take your time, you better go." That was weird for everyone. During the whole week the black haired girl never acted like that and never bothered with 'girl talk'. Rias decides to play along.
"Go home and get some rest Shirou. The spar is tomorrow and we still have to schedule your fight with Kiba." Rias then gave him a coy smile. "Make sure to get yourself ready for her."
Rias made an insinuating motion with her eyebrows but Shirou didn't get it. "Let 's go Shirou." Liz decided that whatever Setsuna wanted to talk about must be important and they were right, the young man would need all the help he could get for the fight tomorrow.
After the Emiyas were gone Rias looked at Setsuna. "I would love to have 'girl talk' with you but I doubt that is what this is about."
"Is Shirou human?" The question shocked the devil;
"Care to elaborate on that?" Setsuna took a deep breath and said.
"He smells like a human, from the little I could see of him using magic his mana has nothing special and even the beat of his heart was of a human's." During the description Rias waited for the 'punchline'.
"And?"
"It was just an instant but I swear I heard his heart stop." That surprised the devil.
"Are you sure? Maybe you made a mistake."
"Maybe…" Even the younger woman was confused. "It was a moment but the rhythm got all wrong after."
Deciding that she needed to give some reassurance Rias lets out a sigh before speaking. "I had to take a bit of his blood to make the boundary field. It is tailor made for him with help from Sona, a dear friend of mine. By the specifics he can't be anything else other than human."
"Does he have a sacred gear?"
"That would be telling and you two have a fight tomorrow." Rias said with a smile and Setsuna accepted her logic.
…..
Shirou wakes up sweating and in a panic. He takes a moment to calm his heart and catch a breath. 'It was just a nightmare, calm down.' He tells himself while fighting to control his breathing. 'One… two, one… two, breath. Focus only on breathing, one… two…'
He couldn't even remember when was the last time he had a nightmare, even if he could remember the first. It was a few days after he woke up and he met his future parents, he was so excited to leave the hospital that he slept early only to wake up in the middle of the night screaming.
The doctor explained that it just had taken some time for the trauma to set in and recommend a psychiatrist or that he talked with his parents when he was adopted. He took the second route and with how much love Iri had drowned him in time the memories were buried, not forgotten for he could never forget what he passed but he managed to live with it.
His sister and father tried to help too but it was his mother who managed to just talk with him out of thinking about it. 'Build something good from the bad' she used to say and in a way that was the inspiration for Shirou's path in magic. Make something good.
Laying on his bed Shirou tried to go back to sleep but he knew that it was in fain. Looking at the watch at his bedside he saw it was almost 3 AM. Taking another deep breath he gets up and starts his work out.
After he was done he thought about what he should do, getting some sleep would be great but he just didn't feel like it. 'Maybe playing some games... ' Not his thing without his sister, she was the one who liked to play while he was the more active one.
He had plenty of spare time until the time for breakfast and part of him wanted to get out and run around the neighborhood, he was about to do exactly that when he had an idea. He was going to have a spar with Setsuna and she asked for his best, if he didn't give it to her after he promised she would be mad.
So he moved to his forge, even if the tools were missing he could trace copies and work there anyway. But that was not what he was doing there, he didn't know what were the benefits of being a half-yokai but he could guess from their previous fight.
Stamina, strength, it was possible that speed as well and, of course, the extra senses are all advantages she had over him. But that is just the surface. Shirou may not know much about yokais but he can tell that Setsuna was not the type to relax and let natural advantages help her, if anything she would harness them, sharp them into true weapons.
Much can be known by fighting against a person and the impression Shirou got after their first fight was that she is dedicated, their week of friendship and the fact that she insists on a date he believes she doesn't own him were just part of that.
While he looked around his former works he started to collect the best ones. 'I don't need to win but that would make her mad and I promised to do my best.' The sad fact is that with so many weapons around a good chunk of his time was used in maintenance but that meant most of his weapons were still sharp and he had plenty of options. 'My best huh? I'm going to do just that... Going to need Liz to bring up the car."
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