. The incarnation of a sword reincarnated as a sword in another world

A Fate/stay Night x I was a sword when I reincarnated in another world crossover

Chapter 3: Sharpen the Kitten's claws and fangs

As we went on into our quest to exit this forest I analyzed Fran… I obtained a skill that allowed to appraise people and things and saw she had Swordsmanship Lv 1…

I groaned, the skill was low as she was a young girl, however I notices a single repetitive flaw with said skill.

It was monotonous and telegraphic, my own skills where much better, I could probably have taken people with up to the skill level 5 on my own, then I would not going by using the knowledge of the infinity of blades stored within my world. That reminded me, it seems that the Artificial Phantasm was removed from myself, giving me the freedom to trace weapons, thankfully the knowledge conferred as well as the memories had not vanished at all, meaning I managed to keep the nigh infinite bladed repository that was my soul.

I began to teach Fran how to actually fight without the need of the skill or technique nonsense this world had, to keep with that was to invite ruin upon oneself, to evolve means to grow and change… to adapt.

I explained to her what we would do and she eagerly accepted.

Using Doppelganger I made a copy of my real body well as my sword body, I asked her to attack me with the intent to kill.

She used all of her strength to try to get a single hit, as she believed that due to not having a swordsmanship skill or technique on status would give her an edge.

I disabused her of that notion.

I used the same moves as Assassin [Fake] used with his second and gently deflected any and all attacks while delivering my own.

I instructed her to watch her footing, how to move her wrist with the sword to maximize the properties that it had.

I then begun to teach her how to "read" the battle flow, I hammered to her the core concepts of Archer's and mine ideology in battle. Honor is useless, do anything you can to stay afloat, use just enough to win, never overextend yourself, be realistic with the goals, make them manageable.

Of course while I understood this I also wanted to shelter her. She reminded me too much of Illyasviel, my older adoptive sister.

I had failed her in my ignorance, but my ignorance of our bond did not excuse me from what I've not done.

Fran, she is but a young girl… she is all alone in an unforgiving world.

She is my wielder… so I must do what I can as a sword and protect her.

Shirou obtained new title: Sis-con

"not funny" I thought to myself.

Still she took the lessons and when possible she tried what she learned on the many humanoid monsters she could find, while also making sure to strike at their magic core for me to absorb.

We took a couple of weeks, where I had to use earth magic to make a deep hole and use some if the rags we managed to procure to make a makeshift bed for her to rest, I cycled over the many skills I had obtained.

I had learned that Fran, while being a little girl, was as stubborn as one could be… so basically I was looking at what could be said to be a genderbend version of me as a kid, but with access to lethal powers right off the bat.

Needless to say, I had to do what Archer tried to do to me, albeit less harsh.

I trained her harder than I had been trained by Saber… wait… that was.

A memory that was not my own.

A path I forsook.

I see… I still have them… his memories.

The many ways he tried to end it, his contract.

3 paths…. Many branches.

She did not give up, little Fran was quite the fighter, she knew and understood the reality of this world.

We ended up taking a few weeks until we managed to exit this forest, her base abilities (when not wielding me) had gone up considerably. Also due to me teaching her the subtleties of weapons and how to use them in original ways, her repertoire considerably increased, she also understood enough about positioning and it's used, how one holds a sword also said a lot about the technique or from where it will come.

"Shirou-sensei…. Amazing" Fran said as she fell down in her back after her sparring session.

"I just know a bit more than you, once you grow, you will outstrip me… actually, you are at the most, 10 to 20 times stronger than me when I was your age" I said with all honesty.

"Exit near… almost out" Fran said as she began to see the outside.

The light blinded us momentarily and we found ourselves on a meadow of sorts… However, we had no clue about where to go from here.

"Do you know where a town is?" I ask.

"Never been here, no"

"Let's follow the trails, it must lead somewhere, look a cart trail and it looks somewhat fresh, let's see where this leads to" I said.

"Shirou-sensei smart"

It was thankful that we found clothes on the cart Fran was in, as her attire would be too eye catching on people who would have desire to enslave her again, it was too telling.

We went down the road for quite a while, as I required no sleep I stayed up as lookout. There was no need to as this place was rather quiet and whatever did came was rather easily dispatched.

We continued to spar as I begin to teach her about feints.

However, due to her personality no doubt, she had a hard time accepting this until she was shown exactly what I meant.

My style of swordsmanship (as well as Archer's) revolved around the principle of "if you know where the attack is coming from, you don't need to see it". It was similar to martial art's "Empty truth" principles, I left my guard down in certain places in order to heard attacks there, therefore I could block it, as I knew it would go there as I wanted it to be like so.

Fran was frowning from the floor "Sensei… cheater" she said with a pout.

My doppelganger smirked "maybe…. But I still won, in the end it is all for nothing if you lose, you have only yourself to blame for the result" I said to her.

She stayed on the floor and then went for the stab in the gut.

I deflected it as casually as usual.

"Not bad… but you gave your intention with your eyes, don't look at where you going to strike, look at the target as a whole" I instructed her as she collapsed for real this time.

~groooowl~

"It seems we should have a small break… I will prepare the food, you should get yourself cleaned" I said as the doppelganger vanished.

Fran went to a nearby river and washed herself…

I made a small thing, using the meat from a cow-like monster I decided to make steak, which I seasoned and places some vegetables to cook.

When Fran came she was sitting down in seiza, waiting for the food to be done, her tail swing left and right in anticipation.

Once I finished she took a bite and for a second I thought I saw her cat ears fly off her head. She then begun to consume everything in her dish with gusto.

The next day we continued our track when we found someone being attacked by a band of goblins.

She rushed in… no questions asked.

She's already gained the ability to run between the trees like the wind using Skills like a derivative magic of Reinforcement (legs) ↑ and such.

"There."

It seems that their plan was to ambush anyone passing through, because Goblins had hidden themselves in bushes on the side of the highway. There're 3 total. Fran erases her presence and goes around to the Goblin at the back of their formation. Without a sound, it's struck from behind.

Its body is cut down from behind, and it crumbles to the ground with a thud.

With no wasted movement she went to the next, without the use if sword arts or techniques, I taught her to think of them as crutches at worst, hindrance at best, simple attacks, used with ingenuity would always triumph, the monster where cut down one after the other without being the wiser.

By using the kinetic force from cutting the first one, she pivoted and smashed diagonal the second one and then the third one vertically, wasting no energy.

It ended before any of them could utter a sound.

She then placed the to of my blade against their magic stones for me to absorb, they were rather low quality, but something is better than nothing.

After erasing her presence once again, a surprise attack from behind is launched. Three bodies were cut down using the shortened movement of three consecutive thrusts using leg power and hip movements and well as of the wrist, against Goblins who had no armor there're no problems.

"I-I'm saved!" the owner of the cart exclaimed in joy, as the goblins were overpowering him.

"Noisy."

Fran, who suddenly appears her opponents, chops down the Goblins which raise cries of intimidation with her own.

The final Goblin turns heel in order to escape, but Fran throws me and deals a decisive blow. Thanks to the training I gave her on throwing weapons, its stomach is accurately penetrated. I intended to make adjustments mid-flight in secret if I went astray, but it wasn't necessary. She had the making of an Assassin class servant on that.

"T-thank you, young lady. You saved me." The man said.

"Nn."

"You're… Quite strong. Are you traveling alone?" he asked

"Nn?" Fran said in a confused tone.

"Well, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Fran is reticent, but it seems that the man misunderstood based off of her attitude. Well, I don't want to transfer our poor information, so I'm grateful for that. Mentally, I directed Fran to keep the misunderstanding as-is. It would cause less problems that way and kept the fact of what I was under wraps.

"If you'd like, would you like to hitch a ride on my carriage? I'm headed towards Aressa." The man offered.

The name of the town we were headed to seems to be Aressa. The man of gentle manners in front of us seems quite determined, however…

His aim seems to be obtaining an escort while simultaneously offsetting the favor we earned by fending off the Goblins.

"Since we are going that way, accept it, this also means you will need to protect him if any monsters come, don't worry this is a fair trade, just tell him to give you information instead" I said to her into her mind.

"Ok, Information in exchange. That's good enough as a fare."

"Hahahaha, interesting! I like it! Get on!"

"Nn."

"The name's Randell. You?" he introduced himself amicably.

"Fran." She said.

"Then, best regards on the journey, Lady Fran." He said with a smile.

I don't forget to strip off the horns of the Goblins before getting into the carriage. I then proceeded to immediately ask him a question. Through Fran, that is.

"Do Goblin horns sell?" Fran asked.

"Goblin horns huh〜, they do, but they're terribly cheap. As a catalyst for Magic, its quality is the worst." He said with his eyes closed and nodding, no doubt recalling information from his mind to see if he erred.

Is that so? I suppose stripping all of those off was just a waste of time, then. Randell continues, however.

"But even if that's the case, if you take it to the Adventurers Guild, you should be able to get a reward seeing as they're pegged to be exterminated upon discovery."

The description from Appraisal said the same thing, Thinking about it, that description is quite arbitrary…

The description clearly explained that Goblins were hostile to essentially everything, but in the first place, who wrote that description? God? If we assume that, then it would probably be God's side who destroyed the Evil God, so the description depicting "Evil" would be biased.

Looking at it from a Goblin's perspective, they might feel that justice is on their side, and Humans are evil.

Well, even if that's the case I'm not complaining or anything. I just killed a bunch of Goblins, after all. Because it was written that they were "Evil", I could simply do as I did, after all… having seen "All the Worlds Evil" first hand…

"This is strange tough, for Goblins to be here" Randell said.

"Why?" Fran asked

"Cause this is a road frequented by adventurers after all" he said.

According to him, adventurers had facilities that allowed them to collect data, jobs and sell their items, not unlike a fantasy novel. I bet my entire stock of swords in Unlimited Blade Works that Fran would sign up as soon as possible.

Randall said that he could fight against 2 goblins, but more than that, he was unable to do so. His status showed, he was twice as strong as Fran was when I first found her.

"For some reason, the Demonic Beasts have become are a bit more active than a month ago."

A month ago, huh. About the time I captured the place I called Area 5, then.

"Why?"

"Not sure. Well, it might have to have something to do with Maokami Plains , though."

"Maokami Plains?"

"You don't know? It's classified as a Rank A Haunt that's located to the East of here."

"Famous?"

"Of course. Although it's inferior to the sizes of another 10 Haunts, it's still Rank A."

"Haunts" seem to refer to areas under the control of Demonic Beasts, Dungeons included. The Ranks have a range of G ~ S, with A being second from the top.

It's not at the level of the 10 Haunts classified as Rank S, but Rank A is dangerous enough despite that.

In such a place, I hunted frequently. So, if you were to talk about the Bosses, they were universally recognized as Strong.

But that's not what concerned me. I try to ask a question through Fran.

"Why is it called Maokami Plains?"

In that Plain there were a few Demonic Beasts of the wolf type, but rather than one of them being an Area Boss, there was a feline instead. And so, I don't understand why it would be called Maokami Plains.

"Legend has it that long ago, a Demonic Beast of Rank S called a Fenrir passed away in those Plains. In the center of the Plain, the Magic Power of the Fenrir still seems to persist, so the Plains seem to have the interesting characteristic of having weaker Demonic Beasts the closer you get to the center." Randall explained.

So rather than some sort of barrier, it was actually the Magic Power of Fenrir? Moreover, it was a dead one? Without those boundaries I would have lived quite a harsh life, so I'd like to genuinely show my gratitude to that Fenrir.

Still, for what reason was I stuck in such a place? Was it by design? Was I reincarnated here, in that place to be found by someone?

"I had heard that there's some sort of altar in the center of the Plains, but I don't know of its origins. It seems that various people checked it, but it remained unclear."

"In the altar, was there a sword?" Fran asked, curious to know if Shirou was a legendary sword that was lost to the ages.

"A sword? Not that I know of." Randall honestly answered.

I sighed, I knew information about me was not going to come that easy, why should it? With my abysmal luck and all.

Randell didn't seem to have any more information regarding the Plains. How regrettable, however not unexpected.

"Maokami Plains is also surrounded by a special forest which has the special property of depleting Magic, too." He said as an afterthought.

I had quite the trouble with that already. I don't want to enter that place ever again.

"Thanks to that, the Demonic Beasts of Maokami Plains don't wander outside, but it's not like it doesn't have an impact on the outside either. You see, every few years there's a sort of territorial dispute in the Plains, and a battle between Large Demonic Beasts occurs." He said with a laugh.

I suppose that would be something like an alteration of generations for the Area Bosses?

"At that time, Demonic Beasts from the forest are sometimes scared off, and become quite aggressive. Being frightened by the signs of stronger Demonic Beasts, some appear around the highway. That's why, it's possible that the cause for the Goblins this time could have been another territorial dispute, see?" he reasoned.

That… Is definitely my fault. I hunted all of the Area bigshots, so the aftermath of the battle likely resulted in a turf war.

Randell was at a loss as to whether he would be able to retrace his path back to the highway, but in the end he seems to advance by force because he has to meet a deadline.

We continued our travel as I devices a training regime for Fran, since she was more of a brutalizing fighter that favored the initial overwhelming strike over tactics, I will have to correct her so she can fight against tricky opponents and those where power would not help, but rather be a hindrance. I would teach her to be flexible in her approach to combat.

I sighed as I knew I at my work cut out to me.

We continued to be tossed about in Randell's carriage for two hours.

"Oh, I can see Aressa!" Randall exclaimed.

Atop a hill, I saw what appeared to be walls. Although, even if I say that I saw them, it was still quite distant. It's a distance that seems like it'd take another two hours to reach. Reinforcing my eyes helped quite a bit.

Still, it's quite large. According to Randell, it seems to be the biggest town in this area, with a population of around 10,000. The only Adventurer's Guild in the area also seems to be in Aressa.

That reminds me, I forgot to ask about something important.

"How much is the entrance fee of the town?" Fran asked for me.

"Ah, it's 300 Gorudo." He answered honestly.

Crap, I don't have enough. What should we do? Goblin Horns seem to be too cheap if they're sold to anyone other than the Adventurer's Guild…

That being the case, I should also ask about the prices of other things as well. That way, I can calculate the necessary expenses, and plan for the future.

"How much per night at an inn? Cheap ones are OK."

"An inn, huh… The lowest rank inn would be about 200 Gorudo. Of course, rooms like that would come without meals." He said as he remembered the prices.

I also asked about prices of other things. The average meal is 50 Gorudo, a loaf of bread is 10 Gorudo, a cheap knife is 300 Gorudo, and using a bathhouse is 20 Gorudo per visit.

Those seem to be the rough values, at least. 1 Gorudo is about 10 yen, it seems.

As for money… The coin rankings are: Copper Coins → Large Copper Coins → Silver Coins → Large Silver Coins → Gold Coins → Large Gold Coins. It takes 10 coins of the same kind to go up a rank. Even though Randell's a merchant, it seems that he's never seen a Large Gold Coin.

"How much for Goblin Horns at the Guild?"

"One pair would be 20 Gorudo. Merchants would buy them for about 5 Gorudo per pair, though."

Cheap! Goblins are really cheap! If you didn't hunt 10 a day you'd be unable to pay the inn's charges. Wait, now that I think about it I have higher material, of course I have to be careful since it would rise suspicion should I bring out high tier monsters. Fran had, with my help, dismantled many of the monsters neatly as we had that skill up to level 6 or 7.

We arrived shortly after fighting another monster, a Black Beetle.

We arrived at the gates where a guard hailed us, he seemed to recognize Randell and greeted him.

"So, Randell, were you able to return safely?"

"While traveling, there were a number of times it became quite dangerous."

"Ahh. Who's the young lady?"

"I picked her up along the way. I'll be taking care of her Admission Procedures as well."

"Alright. Your luck must have been good for coming across Randell's carriage. Randell's quite strong, so having him around would be quite reassuring, right?" The guard said with a kind smile.

Towards the words of the middle-aged Gatekeeper, Randell smiles wryly. In actuality, it was Fran who protected and escorted Randell, after all.

However, because revealing that fact would have been unnecessarily conspicuous, we decided upon the scenario of Randell picking up and escorting a young girl along his trip.

"Alright, that'll be 300 Gorudo. Here's your temporary entrance certificate. It's valid for 3 days. Because re-entry costs money again once it wears off, be careful!" He explained.

Alongside that information, I had already learned that if one has an official identification as the town's inhabitant, or an Adventurer card, entering the town seems to be free. This would also motivate Fran to obtain a Guild Card.

"Welcome to the town of Aressa!" The guard greeted as he allowed us to pass.

Joining the Adventurer's Guild doesn't seem to have an age restriction. There is, however, an aptitude test that needs to be taken before the card is issued according to the guard.

"Well, I'll be heading back to the shop. I suppose Fran will be going to the Adventurer's Guild?" Randall asked.

"Unn." Fran replied.

"My store's along the West side of main street, so if you have time please pay me a visit." He said with a bow as he wanted ways.

Even as he left, he didn't say anything else. Even though it could only be seen as naïve, he let a young girl that was walking along the road alone accompany him without even knowing her circumstances. Even until the end, he didn't ask of anything but her name. He was a genuinely good natured person. I did not dislike people like him.

After we've collected some money, we should pay him a visit. A visit to the man who was our first companion on our journey.

"Lets visit him sometime soon, on the meantime, let's go" I said to Fran.

"Nn." She replied with a nod.

We walk over to the Adventurer's Guild through the road that Randell had taught us.

Hーmm. It's quite a beautiful town. It looks like a European-like town from the middle ages. It's got a good feeling of "fantasy" floating about. Kinda had a feeling that it was like on Saber's era.

Also, this is the first time since I've come to this world that I've seen so many Humans. That alone would be enough to raise my spirits. I was tired if seeing monsters and beasts. The only human I saw was that slave master… so it doesn't count.

Mixed among the crowd, I was able to see the figures of Adventurer-like people here and there, too.

After confirming a couple of their statuses, I find that there doesn't seem to be anyone that can match Fran. I'd like it if we can find someone with a close status so Fran could have a spar with someone with different skills, he might get used to me and that would be detrimental to her growth.

In addition: Fran's sheer number of Skills as well as the levels of said Skills are overwhelmingly higher than most. The highest Skill Level I saw was from a guy with Lv5 Sword Arts. I know the difference between that level and Lv7 well It's possible that if they utilized Skills or Status values, they might be able to win… Because I've fought on the Plain, I understand this fact. Or rather, the difference of Status makes little difference in the face of Skills. But it's jus because of this that I don't think Fran will have a problem fitting in with adventurers. Not to mention the practical skills I tight her about live combat and how I undermine the mentality if skills and techniques that used magical power.

I had to say, his place was quite a boon, there where so many weapons of varying degrees of powers and abilities, I quickly stored them into my inner world, it is a man's great shape to not eat the meal in front of him after all.

I noticed that most if not all of the swords had an attack power value that was significantly higher than me, however my unique ability to absorb the skills of monsters by their magic stone was unique to me, also something about magic conductivity… I did not quite understand what it was, maybe is how well I can permeate myself with magic? It seemed like that would be it, but it felt… incomplete.

It was then when little Fran walked to the counter and spoke to the lady who was manning the counter.

"request: register… please" Fran said as she stretched herself to be able to let the lady manning the counter see her.

Chapter end