The voice of an old friend and enemy echoed some familiar words in my mind, and for a moment I felt myself back on the rock talking to that person once again, wondering how we got to that stage before arriving in this world. Hah~ I felt so old.
Well, since he was this determined, I might as well do the deed then.
...
I got up from my chair attracting everyone's attention, and I looked at Ise from my height. "I should warn you, if you really want to do this, we cannot stop the process until it is finished. So I will ask one last time, do your really wish to do this?"
"Do it." Ise looked at me resolutely. "I can take whatever you throw at me."
"Very well, then." I turned to Rias. "I would need to borrow one of your rooms, would that be fine?"
"Whatever you need, just name it." Rias replied back.
"Okay, I need an empty room with enough space for me to draw a magic circle roughly 3 to 6 feet in diameter, preferably some place that would not be too affected by your demonic energies." I then motioned to Asia with my thumb. "Best to have her on standby, because the procedure could get very volatile. And maybe something soft to lay him down after the procedure."
"Okay, anything else?"
"Oh yeah, one more thing." I let out a teasing smile. "I would need to borrow the kitchen."
"Hah?" I absolutely swear to Zelretch. Simultaneously, Rias, Akeno, Sona and Tsubaki blinked at the same time while making the most comical expression of confusion.
"I would need to borrow some of the stuff from the kitchen to make the medicine required to force open his circuits." I explained after letting out a good chuckle. "It's not like I have ready-made items to awaken a person's Magic Circuits. That would be very dangerous since anyone would try to do so without proper instructions."
"Fair enough, Kiba could you show Shirou the kitchen, we will set up the room as instructed." Kiba nodded and showed me the way to the kitchen, with me quietly thinking through about the procedures to do this.
Boy, was I in for it or what?
...
"Sorry to get you involved in this." Rias bowed her head in shame as she apologized to Sona and the rest of the Student Council.
"It is fine, we don't mind helping you out in this case." Tsubaki replied as she effortlessly carried a cabinet with one hand and made her way to the doorway. "If doing this helps Hyoudou get his magical abilities up and beat the crap out of Raiser, we can practically do this all day long."
"You needn't worry about this." Sona agreed with her Rook's words. "Besides, this would be an ideal opportunity to study Emiya's brand of magic up close, and also to get an idea of where he came from."
"Ah, so that's why." Rias let out a teasing smile at Sona before frowning. "So what do you think?" Rias asked her as they cleared out the items in the chosen room.
"Think what exactly?" Sona grunted as she placed the heavy vase on the floor away from the entrance.
"What do you think about the method he proposed for this session? Do you think it can work?" Rias turned to her with a slightly anxious expression. Sona could tell that Rias was torn between wanting her servant to get stronger but at the same time she did not want harm to come to him.
"Emiya-kun did warned you that the methods he would use have a small chance of success, and that it would largely depend on Ise to be able to take it." Sona replied back as she straightened her clothes. "And Hyoudou-kun was the one who requested him to perform the procedure, so you just have to place your faith in him."
"I know, but I just don't want to risk him getting hurt because of this stupid marriage!" Rias threw a minor tantrum as she laid down the pile of books on the table with a little more force than necessary, making it groan in protest. "Because of my issues, my dear Ise is getting himself into danger!"
"I am sure Emiya-kun would take the necessary precautions before subjecting Hyoudou-kun to this ritual." Reya replied as she pushed the chairs out of the room. "He seems capable considering his knowledge."
"I suppose." Rias nodded just as Shirou came around the corner with Kiba and Saji, talking to them about something to which they were nodding a few times, probably related to the ritual at hand.
She could only pray to the Maous that the procedure would work.
...
Well it seemed everyone wanted to stick around for the ritual.
I spent a few minutes in the kitchen measuring out the ingredients required for the ritual, aided by Asia and Meguri who went about collecting some of the stuff, while Reya was helping me with the measurements. For a while a few of the others were watching me mix the ingredients up, clearly confused by the type of items I was using, since much of it was technically used for cooking rather than medicine, and things got a bit weirder when I produced a knife to make a small cut on my finger and Ise's in order to get some blood to mix into the ingredients. This way his body would not reject the item and I can use my blood as an anchor to get to the root of the problem. I sent most of them back to Rias and the others to help them out, asking only Saji and Kiba to help in the ritual. After the process was done, I stowed the items into a plastic container and took them with me to where the ritual would take place.
"Well, we cleared the room as much as we could, is this big enough?" Rias asked the moment I entered the room.
"More than big, this is perfect." I nodded with slight approval of the amount of working space I have. Having spent time in my own makeshift workshop in this world, I felt a little claustrophobic due to the relatively small area I had to cramp myself in. This room reminded me of my old workshop back home, minus the clutter.
"So what should we do now?" Ise asked now dressed in a thin shirt for the session.
"First, we should prep you." I drew a symbol in the air to draw out the small kit I had in the dimensional pocket to find the item I needed. A moment of mischief got me thinking to unzip one of the bigger compartments to reveal several syringes.
"Let's see, how much do you weigh? Roughly 50 to 60 kilograms?" I held my chin before slowly drawing the biggest one for everyone to see, roughly the size of two thumbs. "Maye this much would be needed for your condition?"
"What the heck is that?! Some sort of weapon?!" Ise's eyes were bulging as he scampered away from me. "Don't you even think of poking that into me?! I have seen Pulp Fiction!"
"Emiya-kun, is that really necessary?" Sona asked with a tone of incredulity and a hint of amusement.
"Hmm… Good point." I held back a smirk as I put back the big syringe and took out a relatively normal sized one. "This will do." This time I held nothing back as I watched Ise heft a big of relief.
"You are evil." Rias raised an eyebrow at me.
"That was just penicillin." I could not help but smirk at the expression he gave me at my reply. Oh man, I was really infected by both Rin and Zelretch. Stowing that thought, I took out the container and removed the cover to reveal the contents.
"Black toffee?" Rias blinked at the innocent looking snacks I displayed.
"Not quite, rather these are 'Prana Tokens', each one carrying a small bit of Prana to help with the procedure. It also contains a drop of Ise's blood so that his body would not reject it during the process."
"And these are the same as the ones your friend used on you?" Tsubaki looked at the toffee with a disbelieving tone.
"Not exactly, at least Ise can swallow this and properly digest it under supervisions, rather than me having to swallow a small rock in a tight situation and still get cramps from it time to time." I grimaced as I clutched my stomach.
Honestly one would think that Rin's gem would pass out of my body safely after a few weeks, but no~ the bloody stone took a couple of years to pass out, during which I suffered a lot of cramps from it, not helped by Rin's laughter when she heard about it.
I made it a point to at least research the procedure and tried to make it more 'customer friendly' in terms of consuming the Prana Token if ever I needed to perform the procedure.
...
Hey guys I really need you to throw some power Stones ;)
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