Fate: Bonds Beyond Humanity

"WHAT HAPPENED? A MINUTE THERE WAS NO BARRIER! THE NEXT THERE IS A BARRIER! NOW IT IS GONE AND YOU ARE LIKE THIS!"

"Calm down already you silly goof…" Rias lets out a sigh. "Just give me a minute to recover a bit then I will call for Akeno and we can go home. Huf. The report of this is going to be a pain, not even counting that the former Second Owner let a stray live here for almost a decade at least."

"You just need to recover a bit?" Shirou asked. "You were bitten by rats!"

"Yes and I wanted to forget that! Believe it or not, devils can take a lot of damage and most diseases won't affect me, just let me rest a bit and once I can move I will call for help… that can take a few minutes… an hour at most." He didn't know anything about devil physiology but if she was bleeding then Shirou was worried.

"You know what. I think I still have something on me." He tried to call his mana but his body was too sluggish, the magus needed to dig a bit deeper. "Uff… I am the bone of my sword."

Rias and her familiar shivered, the words had power beneath them but it was unlike anything she heard before. On the magus' hands something started to form and Rias could tell that it was not just projection.

It was a scalpel, the kind that would be used for a surgery. Small, simple and just a piece of steal- no, her instincts could tell that it was more. Maybe not anything grand but still it was something… different.

"What is that? And what were those words?" Rias stared at the scalpel while Shirou did something she found insane. He stabbed his own leg. "Are you nuts?" But then she saw it.

"Some of his wounds are healing!" Batchan voiced her thoughts.

It was not a great change or a fast healing, it was slow and the pace wasn't anything to brag about but still… it was better than the devils had by a good margin.

"This is tracing my own brand of projection. I can create anything that I have the blueprint memorized. And this," he raises the tool for her to see, "EM."

"E… M?" Both devil and familiar tilt their heads.

"Short for Emergency Medic." He moves closer to her and points the blade at her leg. "May I?"

"Hum." She nods and he stabs her leg. Difference in how he did it for himself, he starts to pour a lot of mana on the blade and her wounds start to heal faster than his. "Hey! Stop!" She takes his hand off. "Are you mad using that much mana?"

"Your wounds? Are they all gone?" That snapped Rias out of her anger.

"Oh! They are… that is amazing but," there was no doubt in her mind, his condition got worse, "you healed me almost completely but now you are almost dead."

"Almost?"

"Yes, I can still feel my muscles hurting and I didn't recover any of the blood I lost." She then picks the small item. "Still that is amazing." In the next second she stabs Shirou with it, hard.

"Auch!"

"Now listen here SHI-ROU-KUN!" The woman was mad. "While the concern is appreciated, don't you dare to risk your health for me like that, okay?" For the first time it dawned on him that she was truly a devil.

"Yes ma'am."

"Good. By the way, how are your wounds?" It was then he noted that Rias had sent her own mana to help him. When she took out the blade it was obvious that she was tired as hell but looked at the object in her hands with wonder. "This is fascinating. You said you had the blueprints right? Did you make this?"

As expected since Rias didn't hesitate pumping mana to close all the wounds he took. "Yes, first I forged the original. It is in my workshop together with the others."

"There is more?" Rias' voice was from a person that was pleasantly surprised. "That is amazing! You must be a really talented magus!" He made EM disappear

"Nah." Shirou denied immediately. "It was just something to fix my own shortcomings. Afterall I can't use conventional magecraft." He then checks his pockets. "Where is the pamphlet?"

"I have no idea… Do you think it got destroyed?" They both look at the whole.

"Do you have another?"

"Not today. I admit I expected trouble so I didn't bother bringing more than that one to give to the magus in case the clue paid off." Rias gets up and Shirou turns around, fishing for something from his pocket.

It was his phone, the screen was cracked in half and it was not working. "Do you have a phone on you… my got destroyed."

"Yes, that is common in fights. I did say I brought nothing else right?" With some effort Rias started to make her way out but she stopped, feeling some pain.

"Here." Shirou steps to her side and places an arm over his shoulder. "Let me help."

"What? Want to carry the princess after the victory?" Rias was teasing him but he could barely see anymore. He didn't have enough mana to keep his eyes enhanced.

"More like you just need some help."

"Boss… Should I go call for the others?" Batchan asked. Shirou almost admitted he forgot the small thing was there.

"Yes please. Bring them to the door of the cave. If someone is already in the clubhouse, have them here immediately."

"Roger!" The little thing flew away.

"Clubhouse?"

"Yes. We devils go to school too you know?" Rias was smiling but she noticed that Shirou couldn't see that. "Do you want to be one?"

"One what?" He didn't understand.

"A devil." It looked like a simple question, it was anything but. "You have talent and a lot of skills, the only thing holding you back is your human body. If you become a devil, using magic will be second nature to you."