brother's retry (the beginning after the end)

preparing for the trip

It's been a few days now. I haven't seen Shirou, I haven't been to my room, I haven't been to any class he might've been to. Erik is keeping me up to date on everything involving him. He shows up to class but doesn't do anything besides stare at the board.

Since it was Saturday I was free today and just planned on doing nothing but training. I was improving steadily with my wind magic, I could actually use it to boost myself around without over expending mana. I was actually practicing that whenI heard the door open.

Glancing down I heard Lev say something about hurrying up or make it quick. I don't know, I was at the top of the room by then. Letting myself fall I quickly made a cushion of wind below me to slow my fall.

Looking up I could see Shirou, his now empty eyes glanced at me before looking away. Lev had left already as he walked up. "Shirou..."

He stared at the ground as he got close. He muttered something I couldn't make out.

"What? I couldn't hear you."

"Train me..." it was quiet but I could make it out this time. I stared at him for a moment.

"Are you sure you want me, someone who almost killed you to train you?" I stepped back knowing he had every right to try to kill me now.

"Yes... you're the only person I've ever seen with these and I can't control mine. I need help." his voice was almost empty, yet I could hear a small amount of hope trickling through as he finally looked up at me.

"Fine. Do you know how to activate them?" I activated mine as they rolled down my arms and up my face.

He looked away "n-no."

Sighing I pinched the bridge of my nose. "So, the way I do it is I send mana down the same pathway that I feel them pass through. You're essentially about to try to assimilate without a beast will. Once you can fuse mana with your flesh and bone you should be able to activate them rather easily, might hurt like a bitch but it should be fine." He stared at me as if I was talking in Latin.

"Your circuits act like a beast will." I said with a deadpan expression. He gave a silent 'Ohh' as I shook my head. "I think..."

His face turned to an expression of 'seriously' before shaking it away. "Alright, let's get to work..." he shifted "what do I need to do."

"Sit down and get ready to manipulate mana into your body, I'll send my own mana into your body to help." I kneeled down behind where he sat and put my hand on his back. "Starting now." I pushed my own mana into his back and through his body.

After about ten minutes I decided to see if my circuits could help with this. Activating them the mana fled my body faster then I was prepared for, jerking away I was breathing heavy and shirou hunch forward.

"Wha-what was that!" he shouted as he clutched his sternum.

I layed back on the ground "sorry I thought my own circuits could speed up the process... I didn't think it would pour out that fast..."

"Maybe don't do that alright?" he glanced over as he took in a large gulp of air.

"Alright man, I think It might work for activating your circuits when we get to that step though."

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Over the next few weeks I was kept busy enough to not have time to visit my family. Disciplinary committee duties took up all of my remaining time not designated to school and training.

My training with the old lady, god, I got the shit beat out of me for calling her that... anyway, it had progressed nicely. She had essentially told me I was using wind in a way my body disagreed with, I didn't know that could be a thing. Over the weeks I had tinkered around and learned that my 'body' wanted the wind to act as an amplifier and tether for my spells, exactly like my sword style. In reality I started thinking it was just subconscious thoughts influencing my magic.