White Ink

5

A knife sliced smoothly through flesh, scarlet liquid bursting from the wound. The bone inside was extracted from the pile of meat and subsequently discarded; its presence irrelevant for this experiment. The skin was carefully dug out and placed to one side; its purpose would come later. Hands intimately skilled with a knife came down chopping the meat further, rending down the tissues further until nothing remained but pulp.

With that done Shirou finished off the rest of his beef sandwich.
"Needs mayo," he thought as he bit into the product of his experiment into simple western cooking.
His hands went groping towards the vessel. He delicately, inch by inch, stripped it of all its coverings. Awkwardly he lifted the piece to eye level and, satisfied by the amount, began to jerk it back and forth waiting for it to discharge its creamy white contents.
Shirou stood up having finished munching the food that he had made to pass the time. Sumire was coming today and she had promised to help him with a problem he had recently. When Shirou had finished the fight he was eager to try out his new move. During his long grounding when he wasn't allowed out of the house he tried to perfect it and only it. He forwent training his normal manipulation of water and the only practice he got with his magic over that two month period was fixing the fucking spell foundation system. He sighed remembering that. It had taken him two-and-a-half years for him to get that thing perfect. Even now six months after it was all fixed up he still dreaded the sign of thaumaturgical drift and spells functioning incorrectly.
Anyway the result of that was he had consistently had magical energy flowing throughout all the cells of his body. At first he either used too much or too little causing the spell to fail after about an hour or so he got better and he began to be able to hold it for longer and longer. He went from only using the water in the skin in his arms and the muscles in his limbs to sending magical energy into all his skin and muscles. From there as the duration that he could hold it increased he decided to play around and, trusting in Avalon, send prana into his bloodstream and all the major organs. The last bit was his nervous system which he avoided until he woke up one day having gone to sleep using [Ryuujin's Perfect Body] and woken up with every single drop of water in every cell in his body packed with prana. He initially panicked and not wanting to tell Kiritsugu simply shut off the spell and decided to take time off practicing.
From there he went downstairs to make a morning cup of coffee for Kiritsugu and tea for himself and promptly shattered the first cup he had picked up. Jumping back he put his hand against the counter to steady it and he left an imprint of his left hand on the counter due to the wood being crushed. Slipping down he fell on the floor and caused a crack on the wooden floor as well. Kiritsugu had come into the room trying to figure what the hell had happened and found him frantically trying to fix piece together the broken things using some half remembered magecraft that Kiritsugu informed him about months ago.
His dad had quickly calmed him down and had him explain what had happened. He had then done a diagnostic and discovered that Shirou's body was radiating prana even with his circuits closed.
He quickly called his school and claimed that Shirou needed time off his classes for medical reasons which was strictly true. From then on he had instructed Shirou to immediately discontinue the use of his circuits and meet him in the dojo.
For the next three hours Shirou was made to go over repetition after repetition of exercise and each time Kiritsugu measured the forces behind his strikes as well as the speed that he moved. The results were mindblowing to say the least and at the end of the testing Shirou found himself with an unusual problem. He hit too hard and moved too fast. A single punch could quite easily kill a human and single step crushed the ground and propelled him far into the air and any weaker blows would just bounce off him.
His dad was quite worried about that so he did the only thing he could do in this situation and incredibly reluctantly called Sumire.
Sumire as usual was happy to help and when she had arrived she had dropped the mother of all revelations on Shirou. By constantly filling every cell in his body for over two months he had unconsciously altered his body to such an extent that it could no longer be called human. She revealed that just by existing his cells were generating mystery and that was the substance that was making him stronger. She had offered to be his sparring partner for a weak in order to have him learn how to control the power of those strikes. Just thinking about it had left him shivering
xxxx flashback xxxx
"So Shirou you want to learn how to fight," Sumire said shadowboxing against the wall, still wearing her bikini, her bottles of alcohol confined to the corner of the room. "Been hitting the gym and now you need to learn how to throw a punch. Well it won't be easy but I've certainly had to train worse in the past." Sumire stood back hands on her hips. "Now attack."
Knowing how strong she was Shirou didn't miss the opportunity to launch an attack at her. A straight punch that aimed for the centre of her mass he put his all behind it, cratering the floor and creating a visible shockwave that was avoided entirely by Sumire as she executed a perfect judo move and grabbed his arm throwing him over her hip and onto the wooden floor of the dojo. He lay in the indent of his body on the wooden floor unmoving as he tried to get his mind around what the hell just happened.
"I don't think I'm going to like how this training goes," he said, his voice deadpan.
"Nah, it'll be fun," Sumire said lifting him up by his arms. "You just picked up a tiny amount of mystery and now you have to learn how to use it. We'll have you fighting like a phantasmal beast in no time."
"Have you got any idea how this happened," Shirou happened. At Sumire's quizzical look he continued. "Look this is obviously a good thing as it made me stronger and I need the strength if I'm going to survive but what if something like this happens again. I've heard horror stories of some of the things that dead apostles turn into I don't want to worry about that."
"It's supremely unlikely to happen kid," Sumire exposited. "Firstly you had to flow magical energy into your cells and keep it there just sitting doing nothing for like, what two months. Then you are what I am now calling conceptually malleable, this is probably as a result of your magic as it were. In future you," at this she set Shirou down and glared at him, "are going to be monitoring your own record so you can prevent this type of drift. Thirdly you most likely were using Avalon like an idiot just healing and fixing with no regard. Your body must have had a party and thought it could do anything it wants." At this she through her arms up in the air. "I can't believe King Arthur ever lost with that cheating item. He must have been a total jabroni."
Shirou suddenly observed his father develop a coughing fit out of the corner of his eye.
Sumire's voice softened, "look we all drift away from what could be called strictly human as we age. It's a natural part of life, but you need to slow down before it kills you."
She smiled once again, "thankfully your big sister is here to beat the stupid out of your body Shirou." She waved her hands in a "come hither" gesture. "Now again."
xxxx end flashback xxxx
Sumire was true to her word and just after a week sparring with her he was able to walk normally. He still kept to himself keeping away from the crowds by necessity he didn't want his control to slip and to accidentally pulp somebodies hand. This had given him the appearance of an aloof individual and his constantly outstanding marks had given him a reputation of a school idol that quite frankly he neither wanted nor was particularly happy about. Hopefully next year when he entered high school his classmates would be more sensible and he could put this whole garbage behind him. Sumire said she would come around ten but she was almost consistently late.
Shirou got his jacket and stepped out into the chill autumn air. Sumire had promised that she would find him a suitable human that he could learn from. Quite frankly he was getting tired of getting his ass kicked by Sumire and being smugly informed that she was much weaker on land. While he was fast and strong, he lacked the fine motor control to outmanoeuvre her and he was well aware that going blow for blow with her would end up with his head going straight through the floor.
Hell the one time he had cheated and snuck in some water magecraft she had simply dodged, congratulated him on some fine water magic and hit him with her marble phantasm. After that she informed him that if he was going to break the rules he must be sure to take her out in the one hit.
Shirou walked down the streets of Fuyuki marvelling at the shades of yellow and red that the trees displayed. The streets were surprisingly empty for seven o' clock on a Saturday he only past a mom and her kids and a couple of salarymen. While normally he would be going to school he had not missed a day in a couple of months and he was already near the required attendance. His father was fine if he missed school as long as he kept up his grades and it furthered his magecraft. As a magician he was a possible target and he needed to continually improve lest he be killed. He anticipated missing a few days in the future tracking down Sumire's elusive human trainer.
Suddenly a flash of gold appeared in the corner of his eye. He grinned and then headed towards the man he just saw.
"Hey Gilgamesh, how are you doing." The man turned to look at him. He had gold hair, red eyes with regal features and stood a lot taller than he did. This was Gilgamesh and he was not a vampire.
Truth be told and he hated to remember it he and Gilgamesh had a very embarrassing first meeting. It was when he was much younger and he had the bad habit of not regulating his magic. He met Gilgamesh at the pool, that he later found out Gilgamesh owned and upon scanning was overcome by the power and beauty of his existence. He remembered loudly exclaiming how beautiful Gilgamesh was and the sound of his voice echoing in the pool area before he came to his senses and scarpered.
He refused to go back there for quite a few months until his embarrassment died down. Upon meeting Gilgamesh again he manned up and explained to Gilgamesh that he was sorry about blurting that out but he had a beautiful existence and that he was momentarily overcome.
To that Gilgamesh simply nodded and acknowledged him as a person who simply sees the world as it is. He then gave Shirou some advice that he followed to this day. He advised him not to overuse his sight or it will lead to nothing but isolation as he begins to set himself apart from humanity and begins to see humans as nothing but simple quantities. Something in the way Gilgamesh spoke caused Shirou to listen to his wisdom. Then Gilgamesh said to Shirou that when the time was right they would both attempt to kill each other. He then stated that when the time comes even he cannot tell who will win.
At that and noticing Shirou's reaction he stated that it is nowhere near the time as it would be a short fight as he is now. He had met up with Gilgamesh several times since then and each time Gilgamesh had instructed him to keep growing.
Gilgamesh stared at him looking him up and down silently evaluating him. "You have grown," he said finally. "But not by much," he said looking irritated. "I hope you are ready for the trial you will soon face, I will be most disappointed if you die and it isn't by my hand."
"You know something about what's going to happen Gilgamesh," Shirou asked apprehensively. While he was sure Gilgamesh wouldn't attack him he really didn't want to set Gilgamesh off and put him in one of his moods.
"Fool," Gilgamesh said but without any real heat. "There's nothing on earth I don't know, but I have zero interest in holding your hand through whatever endeavours you go on. Go ask that vampire what foolish quest she has for you. I have better things to do."
With that he turned and left leaving Shirou smiling sheepishly. He enjoyed talking to Gilgamesh. Once you got past the arrogance and the general poor disposition he could be very wise in his own way. In all honesty Gilgamesh always struck him as person who was severely depressed. He couldn't remember a single time that he ever saw him truly happy.
With a shrug of his shoulders he turned around and headed home. Gilgamesh while egotistical was very rarely wrong and that meant whatever Sumire had found was important.
He headed indoors noting that the bounded field had been tripped and that meant that Sumire was probably busy raiding the fridge.
He walked into the kitchen and there sure enough were the hindquarters of the resident underwater vampire rifling through the fridge.
"Hey," she said turning around. "Your fridge sucks, come on Shirou you're usually so good about this," she waggled her finger. "Couldn't you have made something for your big sister?"
"Too be honest I didn't expect you to arrive so early," Shirou said sheepishly. "It's not even nine and you said you would arrive at ten, arriving early is the most unSumire thing I've ever seen you do."
"I ran out of booze," she admitted shamelessly. "Where's Kiritsugu."
"Dad's meeting a magus to get some mystic code or something. You said you found my tutor?"
"I've found a "human","at this she lifted her hands putting her fingers in quotation marks, "who should be able to teach you." She lifted out a file that looked surprisingly professional for the drunken layabout standing before Shirou.
"Kouma Kishima." Shirou said as he idly flipped through the file. "Wait weren't the Kishima's mixed bloods?"
"Yeah this guy was apparently the perfect mixed-blood," Sumire said her voice sounding vaguely intrigued. "He's meant to be like a demon in human form."
"His last known location was in Misaki town living with the Tohno's," Sumire said.
"Great more mixed-bloods. Wait," Shirou paused. "Misaki town wasn't that where those vampiric killings were happening."
"Is this the thing Gilgamesh was warning me about," he thought.
"I don't know I don't watch the news." Sumire said. "Listen to me Shirou, while you're at Misaki town if you ever see a man with a black trenchcoat and white hair run." At Shirou's protest she continues, "I'm serious I've heard that monster is roaming around that area. I don't think I could defeat him and that means you certainly can't."
Sumire suddenly lightened up. "By the way where is our stripy friend, I haven't seen her in forever."
Shirou shivered at that. While initially Taiga and Sumire's meeting was disastrous due to the fact he went missing at the beach and ended up with a new bigger sister, they had quickly bonded to an absurd degree. Taiga and her "marine biologist" friend were often seen hanging around town and enjoying various activities.
"She's teaching remember. That's her job."
"Oh right, I was just thinking that you should say goodbye before you get going. Your train leaves in half-an-hour," she said handing him her ticket. "So long," she said as she immediately teleported out of the house.
Shirou frantically got to work and somehow managed to pack his bags in ten minutes and get to the station with five minutes to spare. As he was about to walk onto the train he suddenly saw the sourced of his current problems sitting on a bench on the train for once not clad in a bikini but short shorts and a crop top.
She silently gestured him forwards and whispered into his ear. "By the way I forgot to say this before." She smirked. "Remember when I said that possessing mystery makes a being able to change in various ways that don't hold true with the laws of physics." She smiled wider than ever. "Like how dragons' lungs infinitely generate prana. Well when I was examining your body earlier I found something out. Want to know what it was?" As Shirou nodded her smile split her face. "Well too bad this is for not preparing me breakfast."
She pushed Shirou forward into the train just as the doors closed. His last sight of her was her retreating backside.
"Well," Shirou thought, "I know what I'm going to be doing on this trip. Besides contemplate my dwindling humanity I mean."
At that he sat down as the train started on the long trip to Misaki.
Author Note. Another chapter down. I'm typing this while waiting for the 24 hour period to expire so that the newest chapter doesn't show up for only a brief few minutes. This was a short chapter as it basically just announces the start of Tsukihime arc. An arc that will follow canon to the letter with Shirou being only an impartial observer and nobody will die. NOT. Those kind of scenarios have my personal loathing and while I love Tsukihime I have no desire to reenact it. I won't say more so hopefully you'll wait and see.
Akasuna123 Sumire can explicitly use marble phantasm and teleport. She is an oddity amongst vampires so she fits in pretty well with the whole theme of the 27 dead apostle ancestors. More specifically the theme of having only the fact that they are not human in common. I mean seriously we have an alien a dog and a forest.
I haven't thought about giving him a weapon. He still uses the bracelet to gather water but the original function of the bracelet has been modified somewhat. You'll see in future.
CD123505 Sumire would have won. She is only ranked so lowly because of laziness. In the water she is almost unstoppable. Although if she finished him off herself she probably would have let him go as killing him would take too much effort. As for your second point he is unable to apply things such as "unlimited energy" as he currently has no concept of what unlimited energy is. He can apply concepts to make attacks have more power but he would have to perform the attack and then alter the concept and that currently takes too long for him to do in battle. As for skill and knowledge he does have the ability to alter himself as shown in this chapter but it is hard for him to do it consciously. To be more specific, he thinks of himself as [Shirou Inke]. That name overrides all other alterations. He could make himself stronger but it would quickly wear off as he returned to the strength [Shirou Inke] possesed. The reasons stated in this chapter as well as one other are the reasons his transformation this chapter could work.
Anyway I think the 24 hours is up. Please read and review