I have no excuses for why this is obscenely late. All I can say is that I finally have time to write again so I'm back baby!

Chapter 3: What Type of Hero Altria-chan?

She awoke as soon as her alarm rang; a quick transition from sleep to activity. She had blinked her eyes a few times, brushing away her morning drowsiness to the recesses of her mind. Altria gazed at her alarm clock that stood on her study table in the corner of her room. Its red lines indicated the time of day, promptly stating with glory that it was 5:30 in the morning.

An ungodly hour for some, but for Altria she thought this was still rather late and was actually considering pushing it back another half hour.

She removed herself from the blankets that covered her and stood. She put both arms into the air and stretched, she felt her small nine year old muscles relax and start warming up at the movement. She let her arms fall to her sides as she gazed around the room.

It was a plain room. In the left corner of the room was a rustic wooden table she did homework on along with a cushion placed strategically beside it. To the table's side stood a small dresser with an appropriately sized mirror adorning it, next to the drawer was a dresser that her father had moved from the room next to hers.

Again, it was a plain room. She didn't have many possessions other than clothing (she didn't even really want the mirror or the many articles of children's wear that currently filled her dresser and drawer, but Fuji-nee was horrified by her lack of…femininity, that she gotten many garbs for her eight birthday). The only thing she owned that she had to decorate her room with was a gift her father had given her.

A sword.

Yes, an actual sword. As bad an idea it may sound to some to give a bladed weapon to a child, Kiritsugu had given her a sword. But not just any sword, it was a Mystic Code. A Mystic Code was an object that was imbued with magical properties. Kiritsugu had told her he gained ownership of this weapon after a job he had accepted, he just thought it was proper time to give it to someone who could actually use it.

And she had accepted the gift graciously. She had recently developed a talent for swordplay, first seen when Fuji-nee had decided she would teach her "little sister" the ways of kendo. The look on Taiga's face was priceless when she saw her little kouhai pick up techniques like a sponge soaking up water. It took her a while to get over the initial excitement, but Taiga realized that Altria wasn't really meant to practice kendo.

Kendo was based around the concept that the two practitioners would be using wooden blades meant to resemble katanas; because of this the shinai had the same curved form that was recognizable on all of the Japanese blades. But Altria didn't treat the shinai like a katana. Taiga noted that when Altria moved she treated the wooden shinai like a straight, dual sided blade. Like a European claymore in fact.

Taiga wasted no time using her father's Yakuza connections to get a fencing instructor to teach Altria the ways of the European sword.

Instructor was a loose term, as this man was just as involved in the "dark-world" as Raiga (it was mentioned in passing that they were good friends). The instructor was ex Italian- military and tales of him only taking a sword into active combat was passed down the yakuza rumor mill. Altria was quite excited to be taught by such a figure, but the novelty quickly wore off. The man acted and taught like a drill instructor, hard and furious. He spent five hours straight getting her footwork correct, yelling for correction at the slightest misstep. He never insulted her or gave any notion of being displeased; all he did was never compliment. Little did she know that the man had talked to Kiritsugu and tried to convince him that Altria should look into a career in fencing, she had the talent to rise far, and the instructor was even willing to introduce her to some circuits back in Europe.

Kiritsugu had given the man a small smile and respectfully declined. He wanted his daughter to live a normal life, or as close as he could get it to be for the time being. However the Magus Killer had a scheme working in his mind, thinking about the effective ways to incorporate this new skill Altria developed into combat scenarios. The clear cut answer was to give her a weapon.

And that was how Altria got her sword.

She walked towards the sheathed sword that was hanging vertically on the wall and carefully lifted it off the hinges it sat on. Her knees buckled slightly as she adjusted her stance to support her arms. The sword was heavy for a nine year old like her, but she was getting used to it, although with bodily Reinforcement like her father showed would allow her to wield it easily.

She pulled on the hilt of the blade and brought it out from the sheathe that covered it, the clear ringing of the metal sending a shiver up her spine. Altria sighed in awe as she was again captivated by the shining steel that seemed to glow with a ghostly light. It was a simple sword, double edged straight long sword that was nearly a meter and a half long, with a bronze pommel and guard with a steel blade that was nearly white. The hilt was covered in black leather that she herself wrapped the grip with. The fuller was rather shallow, but there were intricate markings that covered the length of the wide indentation.

Kiritsugu had said that the name of the Mystic Code was Calesvol, created by a famous Welsh blacksmith back during the Renaissance period. The magic it was imbued with was Runic, albeit a bit antiquated. Altria learned that the sword had strange movement based magic in it, inspired by Galileo's experiments. The point of the blade always moved faster than its base, but flooding the sword with prana enhanced this effect. The point would move exponentially faster than the base, giving it immense force at moments of contact.

As good as it sounded it was actually quite difficult to use properly. Altria had to continually measure her movements so that she did not over-swing or over-stab, in the midst of combat such mistakes would be the end of her as Kiritsugu explained. This was just the physical aspect of things. Controlling her prana flow was absolute; wasting energy on unnecessary movements would waste valuable energy that could have been put into the rune or into Reinforcement. Reinforcement itself was another can of worms that she was unsure how to approach. Altria wasn't well adept (yet) at running multiple magics in parallel. Keeping Reinforcement on the sword and herself active so that the blade wouldn't snap with the amount of energy it was being subjected to and allowing the blade to be held for extended periods at a time was next to impossible.

It went without saying that Altria was having a difficult time learning how to use Calesvol.

It frustrated her quite a bit, but the challenge posed its own enjoyment. The satisfaction of the small achievements she made in the process of mastering the art of wielding Calesvol was immensely gratifying. It also made her father smile, which in turn made all the effort worth it.

She would do anything to please her father and savior.

Clearing her head of thoughts Altria sheathed the blade and placed it back on its stand. Turning around she got to work folding away the futon and getting ready for the day. She changed into a set of sweat pants and loose sweater. She opened the door of her room and stepped in the wide hallway of the Emiya household. Putting on the sandals that awaited her and twisting her shoulder length hair into a simple bun, she smiled at the late spring sun as it sent down rays of brilliant light that warmed the hall. Pulling away the large window pane that serrated the yard from the house, Altria proceeded to walked across the lawn, the grass crunching soundly beneath her feet.

Her destination: the dojo that was situated in the far right corner of the property.
Mornings were the best time to practice after all.

She quietly opened the door to the dojo and strode across the hard-wood floor of the dojo. When Kiritsugu first brought Altria to the house, the dojo was in a state of major disrepair…until Taiga came along. She insisted that she needed the dojo to teach Altria the ways of kendo; subsequently bringing in contractors without the consent of Kiritsugu to overhaul the building into a fully functioning training house.

Altria gazed around the empty and decided that it was best to clean the floor lightly before she began. Grabbing a small mop and bucket from the corner nearest her she got to work. With adeptness she moved her arms (and the mop in turn) to wipe the floor in straight lines, feeling oddly satisfied with the work she was doing. It didn't take long to wipe the floor, and she found herself standing in the center of the dojo floor, her back straight and her feet spread slightly.

"First thing's first," she said to herself. She inhaled deeply and imagined a blade being extracted from a sheathe, the clear sound echoing throughout her mind as she sensed her magic circuits start to resonate. Heat flowed through her body as her od was accessed, the magic circuits transforming her life energy into prana. Warmth spreading from her chest to the outer reaches of her body, a pleasant feeling although there were spikes of pain. As soon as she "felt" her prana reach her toes and fingers she immediately started trying to turn off the circuits. Similar to how people slowly turn the knob to a raging faucet off gradually, she started to lower the amount of prana being made eventually stopping the stream in total. She exhaled lightly, opening her eyes that she had inadvertently closed during the process. She gazed around the dojo once and then got to work, turning on her circuits again.

Her mornings always started off with magic training. She would slowly turn on and then turn off her circuits twenty times repeatedly. Kiritsugu said to go as slowly as possible so that she would learn to have greater control over them. And she followed his words to the letter, always taking as much time as she could, slowly reaching maximum output, and then throttling it down to nil.

It took Altria nearly an hour to finish her circuit exercises. And right after she continued with flow exercises, pushing prana to certain parts of her body and training her "feel" ability; and ended every session with physical training. Taking a wooden shinai from the utility closet in one of the corners she began to practice her motions. Feet tapped lightly across the dojo floor as she move through her swings and stabs as her mentor had taught her. They weren't anything special, just basic movements that her instructor had taught her. His style of teaching placed sword skill secondary to footwork. He said that the key to the sword was mastering your feet, learning how to correctly move with a sword in hand would lead to the greatest success. Not that he neglected swordplay, he had told her that when she mastered the basic swings she can move onwards to more advanced maneuvers.

And so she repeated the basic swing and stab, alternating between the two until she was left sweaty and huffing for breath.

Deciding she was done for the time, Altria put away the shinai and proceeded to leisurely stroll to the house, eager to take a quick bath and ready herself for school. Just as she was about to step into the hall way through the windowed partition, Altria glanced backwards to gaze into the yard. Warm sunlight accompanied by blue skies that were accentuated by the chirping of small birds. A serene setting that caused her to momentarily forget her fatigue and smile at the peace.

"OHA~YO! ALTRIA-CHAN!"

Or rather the previous peace.

Altria let out a sigh as a loud and obnoxious voice permeated throughout the house followed by the loud slam of opening doors, no doubt bothering her Father's sleep.

"Good morning Fuji-nee, how are you this morning?"

With a bright smile that put the morning sun to shame Fujimura Taiga enter the house with the grace of a wrecking ball. She wore her common ensemble of a yellow top with green stripes with a similarly colored green apron on top of that.

"I'm just fantastic! Look I brought breakfast!"

All ill thoughts about how annoying Taiga was disappeared from Altria's head as her focused on the bag that Fujimura held out. Plastered on the side of the bag, as if teasing her eyes, was the name of a family restaurant that Altria visited frequently with Fuji-nee and Father.

"I see," said Altira quickly as her brain sputtered, unable to come up with an answer, her stomach overpowering her mind, "Let us eat after I bathe and wake up Father."

"No need for that," interrupted a new voice, "All that racket woke me up easily."

Altria turned around quickly to see her Father slump into the main hall. Altria clamped her mouth shut as she looked over her caretaker. The years had not treated Kiritsugu well. Sloppily wearing a sleeping robe that accentuated his leanness, he had lost much weight and was nearly all skin and bones. His appetite had decreased and he would sleep most of the day away. The man's hair had started graying prematurely and he looked more than his 34 years of age. Altria's heart pained whenever she saw him slowly limp to places.

"Morning!" Taiga greeted cheerily, flashing a quick white smile that Kiritsugu accepted with a grin.

"Good morning Father," Altria said, bowing her head slightly, "How are you this morning?"

It was obvious that he wasn't well, but Altria always asked.

Kiritsugu gave a small smile and rubbed his adopted daughters head, "I'm fine this morning. Now go and take a shower and come to eat quickly. Breakfast won't wait for you…Taiga won't either."

"Kiritsugu-san!" Taiga pouted indignantly, a slight blush coming to her face.

Altria nodded and went off; suffice to say that Taiga made breakfast memorable that day.

School was a curious affair for the young Altria.

She seemed to naturally emit a reliable and kind persona that attracted her fellow students of all ages and genders. The students always deferred to her when making serious decisions or simply wanted her opinions. She continually had opinions and to the young children was as close to a super hero as one could get.

"So Altria-chan what do you want to be when you grow up?" the teacher asked with a warm smile.

It was nearing the end of the school day and the teacher decided to gather up everyone and talk about their future plans and aspirations as all children as inquired at some point. There were the common doctors, engineers, teachers, policemen, and firemen as well as some idols and musicians. Everyone had an answer they wanted to share; it was a simple question they all must have thought about.

Altria's mind went blank as the question stumped her.

She was aware that everyone was waiting, and some surprised that Altria didn't answer straight away.

"I…wish to be like my father…" she said slowly, kneading her skirt with her unusually sweaty palms.

"And does your father do?" the teacher inquired further from pure curiosity.

"He is a Hero," Altria answered without thought.

"A hero? So you want to be a hero too?" the teacher probed, trying to get some sort of concrete answer.

"Yes."

Yes. That was what Altria's heart and mind agreed. She wanted to be a Hero, like her father. Embody the ideal of saving as much people as she could. She would be like her father and save others just like Kiritsugu saved her.

"What type of hero?"

…

What?

Altria was sure that wasn't a valid question. What hero was there other than a HERO hero? Her teacher seemed to register Altria's confusion as if the little girl couldn't choose.

"I mean Altria-chan, do you want to be a police officer? A fire fighter? Maybe a security guard?"

Altria's eyes widened. There were other types of heroes? It made sense…but now it threw the little one into a loop.

"I…don't know.."

The next few chapters are just going to be some final ironing of Altria pre Grail War. Not sure if I want to introduce Tohsaka. Sakura needs some character development as well so I'll have to include her. There will be one more chapter before we head into the main arc.