In the small courtyard of the Fushiguro family, Toji and Eichi stood facing each other. With nothing else to do, Eichi decided to spar with Toji, and the equally bored Toji agreed.
"Come on, kid, let me see if you've improved recently."
Toji waved a hand at Eichi.
It was not their first time sparring, so they both understood each other's level.
Although he had his close friend Suguru to practice close combat with, their relationship was good, and both were considerate of each other, so they did not hit too hard.
Later, Eichi remembered Toji, an early peak in close combat, and came to him for guidance.
Facts proved that Toji's strength was truly formidable, and he showed no mercy.
However, that was in the past. After a long period of sparring, it was no longer so easy for Toji to take Eichi down.
Seeing Toji let him go first, Eichi did not hold back. He accelerated with a run-up, then launched a flying kick at Toji's head.
Since he had the opportunity to attack first, he naturally needed a fierce offense to gain the upper hand. As the saying goes, prolonged defense is bound to lead to a mistake. If he could suppress the opponent with a first strike and force an opening, victory would be half complete.
Toji raised both arms, his right protecting his head and his left slightly lower to guard his chest, blocking all of Eichi's attack routes.
After blocking the kick, Toji moved with the force toward Eichi's side and rear.
Eichi turned his head, locking onto Toji to prevent a surprise attack from behind.
With both feet on the ground, Eichi originally intended to follow up with a spinning heavy punch, but seeing the curl of Toji's lips and his right hand already set to defend, he gave up the punch. He dropped his stance and kicked backward with force instead.
Slap.
Because his defensive stance was too high, Toji could not fully block the kick.
He glanced down at his struck abdomen, then shed his casual attitude and became serious.
The two separated again.
Eichi attacked, throwing a straight right at Toji's head. Toji slapped Eichi's forearm with his left hand, deflecting the punch.
Eichi's punches came one after another, and Toji swayed left and right, occasionally using his arm to block and his palm to parry, neutralizing the offense.
Seeing that he could not break through Toji's defense, Eichi shifted tactics and used his legs, which had greater power.
He threw a right punch, and Toji dodged sideways as Eichi had anticipated. Eichi followed the momentum and spun into a back kick.
Toji had been maintaining a distance that allowed him to both attack and defend, so the strike did not connect.
Eichi's continuous high kicks made Toji less composed, and he began to evade somewhat frantically.
The barrage also annoyed Toji.
"Kid, was that kick fun just now? It's my turn."
Seizing the opening, Toji grabbed Eichi's ankle, a cruel smile on his face.
His right hand flipped Eichi's ankle upward, and his right leg whipped toward Eichi's head.
Eichi's pupils contracted, and he threw his head back with all his strength to dodge.
The kick grazed his face, leaving a scratch.
After evading, Eichi jumped up, his free left foot snapping toward Toji.
Toji released Eichi's right foot and stepped back. Eichi braced a hand on the ground and reset his stance.
"That kick was vicious. If it had landed, I probably would have blacked out."
"But I didn't pull my kicks earlier either."
Wiping the scratch on his face, Eichi let a slight smile appear.
"Oh, you brat, are you starting to enjoy fighting too?"
This time, Toji initiated.
He lashed out with a whip kick, and Eichi slipped to the side.
Toji's whip kick was extremely powerful. The air itself cracked from the impact.
Unlike Eichi's continuous kicks, a powerful whip kick required a longer wind-up.
Eichi quickly found a chance to counter.
While dodging Toji's kick, he turned and snapped his left arm like a lash at Toji. The instant it was avoided, he flowed into a spinning heavy punch.
Toji blocked with crossed arms.
Seeing the attack fail, Eichi immediately pulled back his right hand and adjusted his posture.
In the next moment, Toji's offense came like a storm.
Their battle went on for a long time, stopping only when the growing commotion drew Minako's attention.
"Kid, you're improving quite fast," Toji said, still eager for more.
Although it was not a life-or-death struggle where he used all his strength, Toji had, for once, gotten serious.
"What, afraid I'll surpass you?"
"You? Go back and train for another 100 years."
After dusting themselves off, the two went inside.
After tidying up, Eichi said goodbye to Minako and left the house.
As he walked out, he could faintly hear Minako complaining to Toji.
"Eichi is still a child, Toji-kun, you should have gone easy on him. Why did you hit him so hard...?"
Toji scratched his head helplessly. That kid did not go easy either.
After returning home, Eichi went into the bathroom, changed, and took a refreshing shower.
Once everything was done, he began his Cursed Energy training for the day.
Whether it was Cursed Energy or other systems like magic, a solid foundation was incredibly important.
So Eichi trained every evening to solidify his fundamentals.
After finishing his Cursed Energy training, it was time for the recent main event, research into Heroic Spirits summoning.
"The progress lately has been quite good. At this rate, I should be able to summon a Heroic Spirit entity before high school."
Heroic Spirit Film and Television was advancing rapidly. On the anime front, the second Sakura route of fate/stay night was about to finish airing, and on the novel front, the revised fate/zero had already been released.
Eichi's main focus in fate/zero was Artoria. Compared to Nasu's depiction, the original Artoria was not mature enough, so Eichi made some adjustments to strengthen her.
In games, many copies of the fate/stay night game had sold, and its influence was significant. Riding its popularity, Fate/Extra also sold well.
Overall, Heroic Spirit Film and Television was progressing well.
He entered the basement prepared specifically for Heroic Spirit summoning.
He raised his right hand, and the Command Spell on the back of it emitted a crimson light. Cursed Energy poured into the Holy Grail, and a translucent figure slowly solidified before Eichi.
The person before him was petite, with golden shoulder-length hair tied up. She wore a blue dress, and over it, white armor. Because of the clever design, the armor and the dress appeared as one, forming a blue and white dress-armor.
Eichi increased his Cursed Energy output, and the girl's dull eyes gradually regained their proper brilliance.
A golden longsword appeared before the girl, and she naturally placed her hands upon it.
"3 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, success."
The summoning of the Spirit Base shadow was finally stable. The fusion of the second Chimera was also completed a few days ago, and now all that remained was...
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)