Lyrical Sword

Chapter 11: Again?

With these thoughts occupying her mind, it didn't take long for Teana to reach her desired location: an elevator leading down to the underground training area she and Subaru attended daily to keep their skills sharp.

"Hm?" A loud clanging noise caught her attention from the other side, followed by another heavier impact that sounded much more powerful, similar to a loud thud. "Looks like Subaru came in earlier than usual—"

"—Careful! If you don't hold it properly, you'll cut yourself." A voice that most definitely did not belong to Subaru reached her ears, sounding similar to the boy she was thinking about earlier came from the other side. "I told you it would have been better for you to stay with Fate; at least she has a car and could have given you a tour of the city. Ah, careful there!"

"You don't need to treat me like a child… I won't get bored just from sitting around for a few hours.” Answered a second voice belonging to a young girl. “Also, I'm perfectly capable of holding such a weapon."

"But you ARE a kid."

"…"

“And I'm being serious, those blades aren't exactly normal, they can cut through steel by simply dropping them.”

“Are you sure they aren't devices from an ancient civilization?” she asked again. 

“Uh… the second part is technically not false, but no it's not a device. Then again, they are just copies rather than the real deal.” 

Never mind, the voice wasn't just familiar—it was most definitely Shirou! Unknowingly tiptoeing near the door frame, Teana peeked her head around to find him along with Lutecia standing near a field of dismembered wooden dummies, some of them having been completely destroyed into pieces. The boy was no longer wearing his Barrier Jacket but rather a black cuirass armor covering his chest that she hadn't seen before. And next to him, holding the black and white swords, was none other than Lutecia.

"They... are not real?" The little girl questioned, looking at the weapons, then back at the man behind her. "But I saw you use them against Zest. He went toe to toe with people holding very powerful weapons with that spear and managed to break them, yet he never left a scratch on these swords here." said the girl, giving Shirou a confused look as the next moment the black blade in her hand vanished right before her eyes. She looked back at her empty hand in shock as the sword reappeared within Shirou's hand along with a couple of other similar weapons around him.

"It would be even weirder if all of them were real, given it would mean that I had someone make me hundreds of copies of the same blade down to the smallest detail and store them within a space created by my Magecraft," Shirou explained, realizing fully the irony of the second part of his sentence, though he rather not bring up the matter of his Unlimited Blades Works. “It's simple Projection spellcasting, uh… kinda complicated to explain in detail but just know they're basically lesser copies.” 

Shirou imagined a certain golden king getting angry and calling him a mongrel all the way from the other side of reality if he were to hear their conversation.

"Wait, does that mean you can also copy Intelligent Devices!?" Lutecia asked with an expression of anticipation, looking at him with wonder and sparkly-filled eyes for a brief moment. The wonder on her face was so different from the stoic expression she normally had displayed, catching him off guard for a second. But unfortunately for both him and the girl, he had to shatter that expectation. 

"Sorry, those are things that I can't replicate."

It wasn't like these items were Divine Construct by any means. Those like Rubin were possible, nowhere near as complex or alien as some of the other devices he had seen. He even experimented with the device in his spare time, using reinforcement and alteration on his cloak, just to see what he could and could not do with this world's technology.