Blade Borne to Kill

Chapter 6: Insight

Chapter Six: Insight

Shirou sat in his workshop as he gave the object on the table an intense stare while rubbing his chin. He was twelve now.

He'd been at this for weeks, no matter how many times he'd used Structural Analysis on it, it never ceased to be fascinating to him.

The object in question was a beautiful golden scabbard decorated with blue enamel. It looked more like a treasure to show nobility and pompousness seeing as it was too big to fit Excalibur. Also, who makes a sheath from gold? Fairies apparently.

This was Avalon, the sheath of the legendary Excalibur.

"No matter how many time I examine it, I can't get over how disgustingly useful this thing is," Shirou said as he picked up the scabbard in his hands.

"Shirou, are you in there?" came Aoko's voice from the other side of the door.

"I'm here," Shirou said. "Come on in."

The sound of the door creaking was heard as Aoko came in.

"Shirou, what are you...working...on...now?" Aoko trailed off as she finally got a good look at the inside of his workshop.

"Shirou?" Aoko asked with a raised eyebrow as she looked around.

"Yeah?" Shirou asked back.

"Why does your workshop look like the inside of an M.C. Escher drawing?" the redhead asked.

The entire workshop had architecture that made no sense, the workshop itself resided in a black starry void with a blood-red moon in the sky. There were a lot of stairs, they zig-zagged everywhere, upside down, sideways, the ways they were aligned should be impossible, but in Shirou's workshop, impossible didn't exist. Some of the stairs led to doors and others just continued off into the void.

Shirou's right arm began to morph into a twisted mockery of its former self. Black blades jutted out of his arm in various places, and the skin on the rest of his arm had peeled off, revealing the red bleeding muscle underneath. His fingers had turned into jagged, segmented blades that he could still move like regular fingers.

Unlike outside Shirou's workshop, the area around his arm didn't glitch. His workshop had been separated from Gaia's influence.

Aoko wasn't phased by this in the slightest, ever since she'd learned the truth all those years ago.

"To put a long story short," Shirou said as he began poking Avalon with his mutated hand. "Uncle Zelretch decided now was a good time to teach me Kaleidoscope, and I got bored."

"That sounds like something you'd do," Aoko said blandly, she walked over to Shirou and ruffled his red and black hair, he'd grown it out to his upper back. "Is that Avalon?"

"No!" Shirou bellowed.

Aoko gave him a bland look.

"Okay, yeah it is." Shirou caved.

"And what are you doing with it?"

"Long story short, I'm basically hacking it."

"Oh, why?"

"Do you have any idea how disgustingly useful this thing is?" Shirou asked.

"No, but I bet you're going to explain it to me."

"This gold slab here gives you healing abilities that would make Wolverine proud. As long as your brain is intact it will heal any wound short of decapitation," Shirou explained. "You're borderline immortal as long as you have the damn thing on your person."